2012/09/29

Kisses for the weekend?


November 12th will see the release of 'Live Kisses' - a 13-song film, directed by Jonas Åkerlund, that captures the magic of an extraordinary evening in February of this year. In the intimate surroundings of Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, where Paul recorded much of his 'Kisses On The Bottom' album, he was reunited with the all-star musicians who joined him on the record to bring the songs to life for a once in a lifetime performance.

2012/09/26

White Noise, The New Gaz Coombes Video.


OCTOBER
17 - Newcastle, Academy 2 - TICKETS
18 - Glasgow, King Tuts - TICKETS
19 - Manchester, Cub Academy - TICKETS
20 - Leeds, Brudenell Social Club - TICKETS
21 - Birmingham, Academy 2 - TICKETS
24 - London, XOYO - TICKETS
25 - Nottingham, Rescue Rooms - TICKETS
26 - Brighton, The Haunt - TICKETS
27 - Oxford, Academy 2 - TICKETS
28 - Bristol, Fleece - TICKETS

2012/09/24

The final days of The Jam (thanx to Stef)


The Strange DVD in the Strange Museum. (1985)




Product Description:

Captured as part of the Live From London series, legendary bass player Bruce Foxton and his band entertain a sell-out crowd at the world famous Camden Palace, London in 1985. The ex-Stiff Little Fingers and The Jam man shows his pedigree both as a writer and performer with tracks including his UK Chart hits Freak and This Is The Way, as well as The Jam classic Smithers-Jones. Sleeve Notes (Extract): It will be as part of the supergroup The Jam that Bruce Foxton will be most associated, and rightly so. Not only did he provide backing vocals and prominent bass-lines for many of the band's biggest hits ( Going Underground , Town Called Malice and Down In The Tube Station At Midnight to name but a few), but he was also instrumental in fine tuning the sound of Paul Weller and hence The Jam. Born in Woking, Surrey, Foxton wrote numerous songs for The Jam, with Smithers-Jones generally agreed to be his best work but he also wrote the hit News Of The World . Foxton dived into group management when, though still part of The Jam, he co-managed the group The Vapours, with Paul Weller's father, John. Despite great success in the US with the hit single Turning Japanese the band spilt shortly after. Following the break-up of The Jam in 1982, Foxton embarked on a solo career scoring chart hits in 1983/84 with Freak , This Is The Way and It Makes Me Wonder and the release of his debut solo album Touch Sensitive ....... 1. Welcome To The Hero 2. Celebration Day 3. SOS My Imagination 4. This Is The Way 5. Two Lovers 6. Work 7. Majato 8. Passion Row 9. Watching The River Flow 10. Scared To Go Home 11. Play This Game To Win 12. Are You Ready To Talk 13. Freak 14. Smithers-Jones Artists: Bruce Foxton - vocals / bass, Pete Glenister - guitar, Stan Shaw - keyboards, Roddy Lorimer - trumpet, Steve Jones - drums Simon Clarke - saxophone, Bill Wainwright - guest bass, Ros Holness, Lindsey Danvers and Lacey Bond - backing vocals.

It's out Today!


2012/09/23

Bruce Foxton interview by Nick Churchill.

FUNNY old game, life. One minute you’re up, the next you’re down. One minute you’re in, the next you’re out. The trick is not to worry about it too much – certainly not the things you can’t change anyway.
That’s the gist of the half-hour chat I had with one of my boyhood idols – former Jam bassist Bruce Foxton – in the summer of 2010.
The first time I saw The Jam I wasn’t even a teenager and the sense of loss felt when the band’s front man and main songwriter Paul Weller split the band up on the eve of my 16th birthday in 1982 was palpable.
But none of us felt as angry or betrayed as Bruce and drummer Rick Buckler. Embittered by their former school friend’s decision, years of acrimony and at least one court case followed. In 2006, Weller and Foxton met at a Who concert, chatted and parted warmly. They further bonded when Weller got in touch with Bruce again after hearing his former bandmate’s wife Pat was ill with cancer. The two finally got together again to make music for the first time since The Jam’s last shows in December 1982 when Bruce contributed to sessions for Weller’s Wake Up the Nation album.
Pat died in April 2009, a couple of weeks before Paul’s dad John who had managed The Jam from the working men’s clubs of Woking to Wembley Arena. Foxton and Weller found themselves drawn closer still by the search for positives in the wake of such tragedy.
But for all the healing, that it also precipitated the end of Rick Buckler’s involvement in From The Jam, the band he and Bruce had put together in 2006 to play The Jam’s songs, only serves to prove the point at which we came in.

So what went on Bruce?



2012/09/21

Shameful Self Promo, our second LP. I'm the bass player on it...


Available Worldwide! Contact me: yann.viseur@sfr.fr
12 Euros including P&P

The first one (Interlude, 2007) was a live recording; Three days in the studio and you take the best takes. This one has been recorded during several months, with work, rework, despair and hope... Enjoy the Mixcloud or just buy it to have something very special in your cd deck! The Lament was an attempt to show how a french guy, with the french accent could be lost in big corporations of today...

Philippe Collette, Ac and Elect guitars.
Jacques Devos, Keys.
Enzo Urli: Drums
Jean Paul Varlet: Voice(s)
Yann Viseur: Bass

Sealed, cristal box, 8 pages booklet... Translation on demand! 

Long Black Veil, Richard Hawley...


This session was recorded in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, on September 21, 2005. Richard Hawley plays the song Long Black Veil, a cover of a song by Johnny Cash. 

2012/09/20

Bruce Foxton new LP, RefleX of course.



Bruce of The Jam has been working on this album for some time now and its a joy that its finally here led by the stunning lead off single, Number Six

AN UNEXPECTED reconciliation with former Jam bandmate Paul Weller has led to a creative rebirth for Bruce Foxton. From The Jam are longer just a vehicle for performing the old Jam classics, Bruce, singer/guitarist Russell Hastings and former Big Country/Cult drummer Mark Brzezicki are now playing originals too.

Bruce told me: "The new album was completed at Paul Weller's studio and Ray Davies is on one song and Steve Cropper will be on another. He's one of my musical heroes, so to have a legend like him on the album is amazing. Funnily enough there is a Motown feel to some of the songs, but the one he's due to play on is the most un-Motown of the lot."Paul Weller himself is also on the album – a move which definitely wouldn't have happened anytime in the last 30 years until now.
Bruce explained: "Paul heard through a mutual friend that my wife Pat had been diagnosed with cancer. While she was having treatment in Israel, Paul rang to wish her well. Sod's law, I was down in the hotel bar and missed the call, but when I got back, she said, 'you'll never guess who called'."

Sadly Pat, who Bruce had been with for more than 30 years, later died but he is delighted she got to hear Paul and Bruce's musical reconciliation on the song Fast Car/Slow Traffic on Weller's last album. "I was devastated when she died and completely lost interest in the music, but I knew Pat would want me to carry on and since then the songs have been flowing."



Weller Yokohama 2004 full set (Thanx to Carlos!)

Noel Gallagher DVD and "Bonus" CD


Taken from 'Faster Than The Speed Of Magic', the exclusive CD of demos included in the special edition and Blu Ray formats of 'International Magic Live At The O2' DVD!

2012/09/15

Éloge des Batteurs (For the Drummers)


Méconnus, incultes, poilus même, les batteurs sont, malgré leur image de barbares, aussi indispensables au rock que ce prétentieux de guitariste soliste ou ce flambeur de chanteur maquillé. Pour contrer les préjugés et la condescendance habituelle qui affectent ces marteleurs, chantons ensemble une ode aux batteurs.
Le batteur, dans un groupe, c’est le type interchangeable qui tape, au fond là-bas. On le voit à peine. On ne connaît pas son nom. On louera inévitablement sa régularité - même si un batteur irrégulier ça n’existe pas - et, s’il tape fort, sa puissance. Rarement plus. Son art paraît souvent plus proche de la performance physique que de la musique. Dans l’imaginaire collectif, au mieux, il est une sorte de métronome qui, parfois, fait le spectacle. Au pire, un bourrin tout juste civilisé, incapable de lire la musique, suant et bestial. Pourtant, il semblerait que les batteurs aient une âme.
Sur scène
Soir de concert. La chaleur écrasante des projecteurs sur le crâne. Caché par les cymbales scintillantes, le batteur galère : il n’a que quelques secondes pour resserrer le pied de ce tom qui s’éloigne dès qu’on tape dessus. Pour une fois, les bavardages du chanteur l’arrangent. Enfin, la chanson va commencer. La préférée des fans, tant attendue. Immanquablement, la plus ennuyeuse à jouer pour lui. Elle plaît parce qu’elle est simple. Pas la place pour autre chose qu’une rythmique basique. Le guitariste, lui, y place son solo. Facile : le batteur est derrière lui, garant de l’ordre et du tempo. L’autre peut faire ce qu’il veut avec sa six-cordes, son parachute rythmique est en place. Le chanteur s’égosille, le public hurle sa joie et se met à taper dans les mains en rythme. “La ferme !”, pense l’homme aux baguettes. Les milliers de mains ralentissent, accélèrent, se décalent… Un beau bordel pour garder la pulsation. Heureusement les gens se fatiguent, et le batteur retourne à sa rythmique. La suite ici...

2012/09/11

Andy Murray and Fred Perry, connections...



"If you look back, Fred Perry won his last major on September 10, and Andy Murray has won it on September 10." (Rusedski)...Even Lendl is smiling...

2012/09/06

Uncut: The Ultimate Music Guide.




Please excuse the wholly shameless plug, but I thought you might like to know that the next in our series of Ultimate Music Guides goes on sale tomorrow (September 6) and this one is dedicated to Paul Weller.
In the by now time-honoured tradition of the Ultimate Music Guides, we take a new look at everything Weller’s recorded, from The Jam through The Style Council and his solo albums. There’s also a ton of legendary interviews, going back to The Jam's first major NME feature in May 1977 and including the classic encounter between the young upstart Weller and a somewhat gnarly Pete Townshend, arranged by Melody Maker, in which the two mod icons squared up to each other nervously, a surprising gulf emerging between Weller and one of his musical heroes. TBC Here

2012/09/04

OC DC Get the Blessing...


Get the Blessing trumpeter Pete Judge says this new album finds the exuberant Portishead-powered quartet "less afraid to be itself than it used to be". With its thundering rock-bass grooves and scorching early Ornette Coleman/Don Cherry horn sound, "afraid" doesn't seem to be in their vocabulary, but this spirited set suggests Judge means they have more eclectic tastes than they've previously let on. With appearances from Portishead guitarist Adrian Utley (bassist Jim Barr and drummer Clive Deamer share Portishead duties with Get the Blessing) and singer Robert WyattTo Be Continued here.

2012/09/03

Thick as thieves, Personal situations with the Jam. Stuart Deabill and Bax in Full Flow Interview.

“The great thing about writing and compiling Thick As Thieves is meeting not only people who had a massive hand in The Jam story but also meeting the fans and like-minded souls with similar views and beliefs. Yann is one of those people who is a genuine, warm and engaging guy whose love of The Jam and Soul music is inspiring. Same with Mark Baxter. A lovely big hearted fella although from the wrong side of the river, he’s the right side of the passion and respect for all things Modernist “ (Stuart Deabill). We paid him a lot! 45 minutes full flow interview about...everything Weller!

Simon Cooper and Myself's interview. Around Saint Pancras, Tuesday 21 st August. 


2012/09/02

Night Trains to No More Heroes.


Night Trains- NEW 2012 Single! No More Heroes; a stomping Northern Soul re-interpretation of The Stranglers 70's New Wave classic.

2012/09/01

Weller, Stu, Bax...(And Jason Holmes' interview)

Weller was a teacher! 


Mark Baxter and Stuart Deabill interview, full show, Monday. Stay Tuned! 

Also check: 

Writer Mark Baxter talks to Jason Holmes about the inspiration behind his novel The Mumper, and the struggle he faced in bringing it to the big screen as Outside Bet, a new film starring Bob Hoskins and Jenny Agutter. South of the river, Saturday afternoon, Camberwell Church Street. We meet at Caravaggio. Mark Baxter is in a good mood, and with good reason. 'My whole family's from Camberwell,' he says after we've ordered. 'This place is in my blood.'  TBC HERE

Outside Bet is also noteworthy for its soundtrack. 'Paul Weller very kindly donated a song to the film. I sent him a copy of The Mumper and he loved it. I think the father-son story struck a chord with him. Paul asked if I needed some music, then told me he had a song for the film. He sent me No Need To Be Alone. It's a tune with a 1940s pub song feel to it. The producers loved it, and that's how it found its way onto the soundtrack. I'll be eternally grateful to Paul for that,' says Mark.