Good news for Brighton

This:

They're here. They're Queer. Get tickets for it.

Garbage have just announced plans to do a 20th birthday party for Queer...

Babes coming back

Look who's back...

Yep. Babes In Toyland, touring Europe for the first time in 18 years this Spring/Summer:
May
24 Bristol Trinity Centre
25 Southampton Engine Rooms
26 London O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire
27 Manchester Gorilla
28 Glasgow Oran Mor
29 Barcelona, Spain Primavera Sound Festival
June
3 Ravenna, Italy Beaches Brew festival

Placebo are going on a huge UK tour next year

That's really all there is to this story, apart from the observation that they're not small venues, but they're, shall we say "cosier" than the venues they played the last time they did a big UK tour:

25/02:Dublin Olympia
26/02:Belfast Waterfront Hall
28/02:Edinburgh Corn Exchange
1/03:Glasgow o2 Academy
3/03:Aberdeen Music Hall
4/03:Newcastle o2 Academy
6/03:Hull City Hall
7/03:Blackburn King George’s Hall
9/03:Leeds o2 Academy
10/03:Liverpool Guild Of Students
12/03:Manchester o2 Apollo
13/03:Sheffield o2 Academy
15/03:Norwich UEA
16/03:Leicester De Montfort Hall
18/03:Birmingham o2 Academy
19/03:Bristol Colston Hall
21/03:Bournemouth o2 Academy
22/03:Southend Cliffs Pavillion
24/03:London Hammersmith Apollo

Here's a lovely creative commons image of Brian Molko from 2007:

Image by Marinjo_zg under CC-BY licence.

Full Bible. No apocrypha.

Joining the 'playing an album in full to celebrate its 20th anniversary, thereby making you feel both giddily excited and incredibly ancient' gang: the Manics, doing The Holy Bible.

Does anyone have the energy for a Morrissey story?

The ongoing spat between Morrissey and Harvest Records has taken another shall-we-call-it-lurch-towards-the-edge, as Harvest Records have yanked World Peace Is None Of You Business off the digital market:

According to a source familiar with the situation, "Morrissey has not been dropped by [Harvest Records, a subsidiary of Capitol Music Group, itself a subsidiary of Universal Music Group] but out of deference to his request they have reluctantly removed his album from all services."

Billboard thinks this shouldn't be too frustrating to Mozzer fans:

Since its release the album has sold 25,000 units -- 15,000 CDs, 3,000 LPs and 8,000 digital downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan. With those kind of sales numbers for the physical formats, Billboard speculates that Harvest probably built about 50,000 physical units for the U.S. market. That means there is still plenty of World Peace stock left for Morrissey fans to track down, if they're so inclined.

Bless Billboard, convinced that people's response when discovering they can't download a record from iTunes or stream on Spotify is to pull on a coat, get out the car and drive to town to look for a CD. That's quite sweet.

With the record vanishing, now would be the perfect time to announce a European tour, right?

No, really; he has announced a European tour. Apparently including the O2 Arena. Good luck getting that venue meat-free, Morrissey.

Who theme team apparently don't exist in time and space

You can forgive the Evening Argus in Brighton being excited by a Radiophonic Workshop gig, but they might be a little over-excited:

The creators of the iconic Doctor Who soundtrack are to reform for a special one-off performance.

British electronic group Radiophonic Workshop will play at the University of Chichester on April 11.

And who wouldn't want to be there? Although Who might want to be there.

But regardless, they're "reforming" after a gap of, erm, ten days since their last date in Leeds.

But to be fair to the Argus, it does come a whole three weeks after the group last played in Sussex.

Morrissey, Cliff and Tom Bloody Jones: The Men Of A Certain Age tour

The news that Morrissey has announced dates with Tom Jones and Cliff Richard isn't really as surprising as people seem to think.

First, if we've learned anything from the last couple of years, it's that Morrissey's great strength is announcing gigs; he's less good at turning up to play them. On that basis, why not book extraordinary names? It's frankly more surprising that he's not publishing bills with Princess Grace, that main dude from The Lego Movie and Nostradamus.

Secondly, we all know how stung Morrissey is when people suggest he's a little bit racist. How better to prove your credentials as embracing everyone than by sharing the stage with Cliff Richard (born in India) and Tom Jones (who has orange skin)?

More generously, Mozzer has never hidden his affection for British culture of the early 60s and, if you put a piece of paper over both Jones' and Richard's cvs to cover off anything post-punk, you've got two titans. On that basis, the plan is no more unlikely than Morrissey's work with Sandie Shaw or his eulogy for Kenneth Williams.

Perhaps slightly less generously, if you then take the piece of paper off the cvs, you have careers which start out astonishingly edgy - Tom doing first-person songs about murder and incarcerated criminals; Cliff being inspected by authorities to see if that nasty Elvis had somehow infected England - which somehow mutated into a conservative, mundane slop of game shows, Christmas songs and shirtless calendars and tours to a fanbase slowly moving from 'pickled in aspic' to 'preserved with embalming fluid'. Morrissey might recognise something there.

More interesting is whats in it for the two older singers. Jones, clearly, is eyeing up the next series of The Voice, given that this year it's proving an opportunity for him to have a quiet nap in a comfy seat; a date with Morrissey will top-up his list of names to drop.

Cliff, for his part, cheerfully announced that he was doing it because it's a larger audience than he could usually manage in the US:

Richard also said the chances of him playing to 15,000 people in New York were “pretty well nil” without the support of Morrissey, but stated he was determined to make his one-hour set the best he possibly could: “I’m just going to make it really difficult for Morrissey to follow me.”

The dates take place in June, which means we're expecting Morrissey to contract lassa fever sometime around the end of May.

Stop what you're doing and re-arrange your November

Low are playing a date in Liverpool Anglican cathedral on November 18th.

Eeep.

Morrissey returns to announcing tour dates

These days, Morrissey tends not to play shows, but he's great at announcing them. He's issued a statement alerting fans in South America to look forward to a series of cancellations due to ill health this summer:

Morrissey is scheduled to play shows in seven cities in Mexico in June, rounding-off at the National Auditorium in Mexico City. Morrissey will also appear on two national television shows. The dates in Mexico will be followed by concerts in Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Chile. Details will be announced shortly.

Recently, Morrissey was advised to take a break from arranging dates to cancel in the future to allow his body to heal, but as he said at the time: "it’s difficult for me because, it’s very engrained within me. I know it’s the best of life … when you issue a bunch of dates and when you suddenly feel ill and when you post the 'contact venue for details for refunds' announcement … There is nothing better. Can you think of anything?”

November spawned a monster surprise

Wichita Falls, Texas is a growing place, it's true, but it was still something of a surprise to discover that Morrissey is going to play the city.

To judge by the listings for the Wichita Falls multi-purpose centre, they can't quite believe he's coming, either:

Perhaps more surprising is that Morrissey is so happy to play a venue which makes so much of its income from gun and knife shows and, indeed, a few days earlier is hosting a pig sale. Still, I'm sure he'll make his tokenistic fuss about not serving hotdogs in the venue on the night.

Hundred Reasons split; Cable will attend

Hundred Reasons are calling it a day, but going out with something of a hurrah:

The farewell of Hundred Reasons; the return of Hell Is For Heroes. But surely the most exciting thing is Cable.

Cable!

Cable!

Cable!

Going Blank Again again

Good news: to mark the 20th anniversary of Going Blank Again, Mark Gardener is going to do some dates.

Less good news:

Now Gardener has booked shows in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles in June and will play three cities — Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne — in Australia this August, with additional shows expected in Japan and Germany, according to his website.

Depending on where you are, that's less good news, I suppose.

Like Maximo Park? In Newcastle? Reading this now?

Maximo Park are playing a short-notice gig at the Cluny tonight.

Twittergem: Dean Friedman

Very, very well played, sir:

#hmhb Half Man Half Biscuit: Guess whose bastard son's father just announced his UK Tour Dates? Huh? Go ahead, guess! deanfriedman.com

— Dean Friedman (@DeanFriedman) March 18, 2012

Dead Can Dance around Europe

I can think of at least one person who will be going "squeeeee" with delight - albeit in a dreamy sort of way - at the unveiling of Dead Can Dance European tour dates:

September 2012
19th - HCTAT, Istanbul, Turkey
21st - Earth Theatre, Thessaloniki, Greece
23rd - Lycabetus Theatre, Athens, Greece
25th - MCV, Utrecht, Holland
27th - Grand Rex, Paris, France
29th - Cirque Royal, Brussels, Belgium

October
1st - Alte Oper, Frankfurt, Germany
3rd - Tempodrom, Berlin, Germany
5th - CCH, Hamburg, Germany
7th - Philharmonie, Munich, Germany
8th - Philharmonie, Cologne, Germany
10th - KCP, Prague, Czech Republic
12th - Bkz Oktyabrsky, St. Petersburg, Russia
13th - Crocus City Hall, Moscow, Russia
15th - Sala Kongresowa, Warsaw, Poland
17th - Papp Laszlo Arena, Budapest, Hungary
19th - Teatro Degli Arcimboldi, Milan, Italy
20th - Batiment Des Forces Motrices, Geneva, Switzerland
22nd - Auditori, Barcelona, Spain
24th - Casa Da Musica, Porto, Portugal
26th - Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom
28th - Grand Canal Theatre, Dublin, Ireland

This sort of thing, but if you get tickets sooner you might be a smidge closer:

Michael Gira tour dates

What's nice about the PR shoot for Michael Gira's European tour is that it just has the dates and a photo.

There are some people who don't need overselling:

04-Apr IRE Dublin Button Factory
05-Apr UK Belfast Black Box
06-Apr UK Glasgow St Andrew's Church in the Square
07-Apr UK London Cafe Otto
09-Apr F Paris Le Point Ephémère
10-Apr NL Amsterdam Paradiso Upstairs
11-Apr B Kortrijk De Kreun
12-Apr NL Tilburg Roadburn Festival - Midi Theater
14-Apr DK Copenhagen, Loppen
15-Apr DK Aalborg Studenterhuset
17-Apr N Oslo John Dee Club inside Rockafeller
18-Apr N Stravanger Cementen
19-Apr S Stockholm Debaser Slussen
21-Apr FIN Helsinki Korjaamo Culture Factory
22-Apr D Berlin Roter Saloon inside Volksbuhne
23-Apr A Vienna Chelsea Club
25-Apr CH Lausanne Le Bourg
26-Apr CH Düdingen Café Bad Bonn
27-Apr I Ravenna Bronson Club
28-Apr I Florence Sala Vanni
29-Apr I Rome Chiesa evangelica metodista
01-May CH Zurich Exil

This sort of thing, live:

Babyshambles miss point a little

It's either wishful thinking or desperation which has led to the announcement of a 2012 gig by Pete Doherty vanity horse Babyshambles without, erm, Pete Doherty. It's like the James Last Orchestra booking dates while James Last is unavailable.

It's Charlie Browns in Luton on February 3rd. Presumably they hope Luton won't notice.

Coughlan & Haines are coming together

There's going to be North Sea Scrolls dates in Ireland. This explains more:

The North Sea Scrolls have long been a bone of contention amongst historians, theologians and people shouting at bins in car parks. The Scrolls are believed, in certain quarters, to record a parallel, semi-hidden history of these islands. Now, a triumvirate of unlikely questers has at last pinned down the full story of these legendary documents. They are; Luke Haines, who has recorded as The Auteurs,
Baader Meinhof, Black Box Recorder and solo; Cathal Coughlan, who has recorded as Microdisney, Fatima Mansions, Bubonique and solo; Andrew Mueller, journalist and author.

This dauntless trio are now ready to share the terrible knowledge they have disinterred. In song. The parchments reached the hands of messrs Haines, Coughlan and Mueller by means which need not trouble us, and have been meticulously distilled and tactfully rewritten into fourteen new songs by Mr Haines and Mr Coughlan, to be performed on guitar and piano, and accompanied by the cello stylings of Audrey Riley. The songs will be linked by explanatory footnotes read by Mr Mueller.

The truths contained in the scrolls are at once profoundly disturbing and peculiarly reassuring. Certainly, they answer many long-pressing questions. How did a Dublin criminal overlord become an imperial
viceroy? Is England really just two counties – Northshire and Southshire? Could it be that the guttering violence of Northern Ireland is caused by terrorist tribute acts from Australia? Who is Tony Allen? How did Tim Hardin end up commanding a nationalist militia in Cornwall? Can it be true that Morris Men, far from the prancing buffoons of popular repute, are murderous vigilantes – a Cotswoldian thugee cult? Was Chris Evans really burnt at the stake? If not, why not? Is Jim Corr actually right about everything?

The places to be are:

Friday 2nd December, Triskel Christchurch, Cork
Saturday 3rd December, The Sugar Club, Dublin

Why would you be anywhere else?

Americana UK is ten

Ten years of any music website is worth celebrating; especially so when it's a brilliant and essential one like Americana UK.

And, blimey, they know how to celebrate: There's an event at the CUC in Liverpool on November 12th:

We have curated a truly splendid line-up for what promises to be a very special celebration:
Richmond Fontaine (Willy Vlautin and Dan Eccles acoustic set)
Richard Buckner
Mark Eitzel (American Music Club)
Danny & the Champions of the World
Plus other UK based americana acts including Redlands Palamino Co,Quiet Loner, Case Hardin, the Toy Hearts, Jason McNiff, the Lucky Strikes, Gerard Starkie, Southbound Attic Band, Ratty Little Fingers - and a few surprises as well.

That's surprises as well. Tickets are on sale now. Go get 'em.