The Fat Angel Sings

As his Land of Hope and Dreams Tour began at the Co-op Live in Manchester England, today, Bruce Springsteen shared a political message that he had undoubtedly been thinking about for months. (This was his first show with the E Street Band since November.)

Bruce Springsteen had some harsh words for the American president  during his 2025 tour launch in Manchester, England.

After taking the stage and welcoming fans, he introduced the show’s opening song, “Land of Hope and Dreams,” by saying: “The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock ‘n roll, in dangerous times. In my home — the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years — is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent …”

This next word or phrase was inaudible because the crowd was cheering so loudly. Springsteen – who has never been shy about offering his political views – received thunderous applause for his opening remarks.

Springsteen continued, “Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American spirit to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism, and let freedom ring!”

Later in the set, Springsteen again took the opportunity to rage against the Trump administration. “There’s some very weird, strange, and dangerous shit going on out there,” the rocker said prior to performing “My City of Ruins.” “In America, they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now. In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. This is happening now.”

“And in my country, they are taking sadistic pleasure in the pain that they inflict on loyal American workers,” Springsteen continued. “They are rolling back historic civil rights legislation that led to a more just and moral society. They are abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom.”

The show also included the live debut of “Rainmaker,” a song about a con man from Springsteen’s 2020 “Letter to You” album. He dedicated the song, which includes lines such as “Rainmaker says white’s black and black’s white/Says night’s day and day’s night,” to “our dear leader.”

In this song, Springsteen also changed the line, “they don’t care or understand what it really takes for the sky to open up the land,” to “they don’t care or understand how easy it is to let freedom slip through your hands.”

Springsteen’s Manchester performance featured an array of tunes from throughout his iconic career. There were timeless hits – like “Born to Run,” “Darkness of the Edge of Town” and “Thunder Road”

The Boss closed the night with his cover of Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom,” performed for the first time since 1988.

“Land of Hope and Dreams”
“Death to My Hometown”
“Lonesome Day”
“My Love Will Not Let You Down”
“Rainmaker”
“Darkness on the Edge of Town”
“The Promised Land”
“Hungry Heart”
“My Hometown”
“Youngstown”
“Murder Incorporated”
“Long Walk Home”
“House of a Thousand Guitars”
“My City of Ruins”
“Letter to You”

Because The Night
Human Touch
Wrecking Ball
The Rising
Badlands
Thunder Road
Born In The USA
Born to Run
Bobby Jean
Dancing in the Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Chimes Of Freedom

Unearthed for the first time in 40 years, here is the Full concert featuring The Style Council live at Goldiggers, Chippenham, filmed for the BBC’s Sight & Sound In Concert on 5th March 1984. The setlist includes the pre-show ‘warm up’ song and two encore tunes as well as the full version of “Hanging On To A Memory“, none of which were broadcast by the BBC at the time.

The bootleg arrived from Rough Trade. Always disappointing that they dont spend any time on the sleeve or the photos used (1983 & 1986) for a 1984 gig. No idea how many were pressed but for now no one in the UK is selling it anymore …. To officially release something from the BBC is eye watering and i’m sure Universal have been keeping tabs on the popularity of this.

 It is listed as a limited edition release on red vinyl via the Outsider record label, with pre-orders just going live on the Rough Trade website. The setlist is down as the tracks played for the show, along with the pre-show ‘warm up’ song and two encore tunes.

Setlist : 01 My Ever Changing Moods (pre show ‘warm up’) 02 Meeting Over Yonder 03 My Ever Changing Moods 04 Speak Like A Child 05 The Whole Point Of No Return 06 Le Depart 07 Paris Match 08 Party Chambers 09 Money Go Round 10 Headstart For Happiness 11 Hanging Onto A Memory 12 Dropping Bombs On The Whitehouse (Encore) 13 Long Hot Summer (Encore)

New Jersey-based Indie-rock pioneers, the Feelies, are releasing their eighth album, “Rewind”, A nine track collection of studio recorded covers from throughout the band’s history. “Rewind”, is being released by Bar/None Records on June 20th on 12” LP vinyl, CD, digital download, and streaming services. The first single released is “Dancing Barefoot”/”Barstool Blues.

While the Feelies have put out six albums of original songs over the years they are well known for slipping into cover songs especially in their long extended encores. “Rewind” compiles some of their favourite songs from The Beatles, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, The Doors and more

releases June 20th, 2025

Farm Aid’s annual festival is a an all-day celebration of music and family farmers featuring a unique line up of artists and genres, along with family farm-identified, local and organic foods as part of our HOMEGROWN Concessions

Everyone cheer, the day splits are here! we’ve been very busy, working round the clock behind the scenes, putting the finishing touches on this lovely line-up and perfecting our official programme to get it sent off to print! So, we’re very pleased to finally release these into the wild and I’m sure you are too, thanks for bearing with us!

Extra additions include Gaye Bykers on Acid joining us in the Meadow and even more interesting talks and events programmed into Speakers’ Corner, including a Listening Party Tribute to the late, great, Mike Peters.

You’ll be able to get your hands on our set times during the festival weekend in our official festival programme, chock full of interesting info, maps and ideas of what to get up to over the weekend. Pick one up from our merch stall or satellite stalls around the site. We’ll also have our full range of official merch available in the on-site Rough Trade store, so be sure to stop by… but in the meantime, let’s hear your weekend plans!!

The latest issue of Record Collector, out Thursday, features an interview with the post Bowie archetype and all-round goth O.G., Peter Murphy. He’s not the only Peter this month: Peter Doherty talks at length to Simon Goddard while Rich Davenport profiles Peter Tosh. Elsewhere we meet the busiest man in pop, Steven Wilson, we hear the strange tale of Lotti Golden, and Jarvis Cocker, These New Puritans, Sparks, and Status Quo tell us about their respective new albums. In a flat field near you.

Tiny Engines is thrilled to welcome Washington, DC’s band Pretty Bitter to their growing roster. The label will release the band’s new album, “Pleaser“, in July. The first single/video “Thrill Eater” is out now. “Pleaser” follows the band’s 2022 debut album, “Hinges”.

DC DIY band Pretty Bitter share touring members with recent-vintage Band To Watch Ekko Astral, and they’ll play Ekko Astral’s upcoming Liberation Weekend fest. But Pretty Bitter aren’t an offshoot, and their style is its own thing. Pretty Bitter draw on classic emo melodies, and they’ve got a rich, layered sound that sometimes leads into folk or synthpop or both of those things at the same time. That’s what happens on “Thrill Eater,” the lead single from the band’s upcoming LP “Pleaser”.

Pretty Bitter recorded “Pleaser” with producers Evan Weiss and Simon Small. Lead single “Thrill Eater” is a bright, intense splatter of melody with keyboard and banjo all over it. 

Low’s Alan Sparhawk made the collaborative nature of his second solo LP clear by titling it “With Trampled by Turtles”. Sparhawk may be the more recognizable name outside of Duluth’s creative community, but the alt-country group are also long time pillars of the city’s music scene. It’s not hard to imagine the simplicity of ‘Stranger’, the album’s lead single, being refracted and slowed down to fit the distorted atmospherics of Low’s BJ Purton-produced records, but the song’s bluegrass arrangement pushes Sparhawk’s voice toward clear conviction.

The second single, “Not Broken”, from the upcoming collaborative album “With Trampled by Turtles” is out now on the official Alan Sparhawk YouTube channel. Featuring vocals by Hollis Sparhawk and video directed and edited by Alexa Viscius. Watch and subscribe to stay updated and catch new content as soon as it’s released.

“You gotta put up with stranger people than you know now/ You gotta go through some dangerouser things than you thought you’d have to,” he sings, still bending grammatical rules to emphasize his point. More innocent souls might settle with might have to; Sparhawk knows life’s uncertainty is non-negotiable.

From the album ‘With Trampled by Turtles’, out on Sub Pop Records on May 30th, 2025

There’s some albums you just want to keep buying. Dire Straits’ 1985 long-player “Brothers in Arms” is, for me, one of them. There’s just something about this record. It was played a great deal back in 1985,

Over the years I’ve bought various editions, the most exciting of which – until now – was probably the Super Audio CD from 2005, which had the album mixed in 5.1 Surround Sound. But there have also been Mobile Fidelity editions and the 2LP half-speed master from 2021.

Of course, the success of “Brothers In Arms” was helped considerably by the clever computer-animated video for “Money For Nothing,” a sardonic attack on MTV. But what kept the record selling was Mark Knopfler’s increased sense of pop song-craft… “Money for Nothing” had an indelible guitar riff, “Walk Of Life” is a catchy up-tempo boogie variation on “Sultans Of Swing,” and the melodies of the bluesy “So Far Away” and the down-tempo, Everly Brothers-style “Why Worry” were wistful and lovely. ​

With the above in mind, 40 years after the album first came out, it’s somewhat surreal to be involved in the 40th anniversary. Universal Music Recordings and Dire Straits have collaborated with SDE to bring you an exclusive blu-ray audio edition which features a Dolby Atmos Mix of “Brothers in Arms” by Guy Fletcher, who was of course ‘in’ Dire Straits and still works closely with Mark Knopfler to this day. The blu-ray also includes the old 5.1 mix, both stereo mixes (CD and vinyl versions) and most interestingly, for the first time, an instrumental version of the album, which is also in Atmos.

The deluxe LP and CD issues feature a full live show that the band performed in San Antonio as part of the band’s Live In 85′ Tour. 

The blu-ray is released next week, alongside 3CD and new vinyl editions  On May 16th, “Brothers In Arms” will be reissued on single LP vinyl, 5LP Deluxe, and 3CD Deluxe editions, plus a super deluxe Blu-Ray edition.