Songwriter, singer, campaigner and force of nature has died, aged 66, Mike Peters, The former lead singer of The Alarm, has died aged 66. He had been battling cancer for three decades.
In 2019, Peters was awarded an MBE for services to cancer care. Since his diagnosis, he released 10 albums as The Alarm MM++, one as the singer for Big Country, played countless gigs and led several awareness-and-fundraising treks across the world. Doctors first discovered his cancer back in 1996 after he felt “a lump in his collar-bone”. After a seemingly miraculous remission, the cancer returned in 2006. Since then, Peters has dedicated a large part of his life to chronicling his battle with cancer and raising awareness and money through the Love Hope Strength foundation.
Peters’ first band The Toilets were formed in Rhyl, Wales, at the height of the punk explosion in 1977. The Alarm followed in 1981. In 1983, their single “Sixty Eight Guns” made the UK top 20 and affirmed them – alongside peers like U2, Simple Minds and Big Country – as part of a new movement of post-punk bands.
The new breed had neither the aloofness of rock’s old guard nor the nihilism or cynicism of the punks. With albums like 1984’s “Declaration” and the following year’s “Strength”, The Alarm’s statements were bold and full of bravado. In 1999, he formed Coloursound with The Cult’s guitarist Billy Duffy. He helped pioneer fan-centric events by holding The Gathering, a annual weekend event in Wales, for Peters/Alarm fans. In 2000, promoter John Giddings signed him up to support Big Country on their final tour, and billed him as The Alarm 2000.
The following year, he formed Dead Men Walking a kind of ‘punk supergroup’, with Kirk Brandon (Spear of Destiny) and a revolving cast that included Pete Wylie (of the Mighty Wah!), Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols), Captain Sensible (the Damned) In the years between 2017-23, he released seven albums.
Personal matters and changes in musical fashions, brought the band to an end in 1991. Peters continued with a solo career, He was always a beacon of positivity, he was an inspiration to many – a force of nature who took the energy of punk and transformed its nihilism into something positive and inspirational.
The Prestatyn-born singer leaves behind his wife, Jules, 58, and two sons, Dylan, 20, and Evan, 18.
An eight-time GRAMMY winner, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, Buddy Guy (b. 1936) has long been counted among the greatest guitarists of all time. A key figure in the Chicago blues scene, whose work as a singer, songwriter and guitarist always straddled the line of blues and rock’n’roll, Guy has influenced multiple generations of musicians (Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Gary Clark Jr. and John Mayer, to name a few) during his seven-decade-long career.
After relocating to Chicago in the late ’50s, the self-taught, Louisiana-born artist found his footing in the industry, releasing a pair of solo albums, as well as a handful of projects with harmonica player Junior Wells in the ’60s. Those lucky enough to catch Guy in concert, however, were privy to the full breadth of his talents—from his awe-inspiring extended guitar solos to his soulful vocals. Vanguard Records recognized this and sought to capture the power of his electrifying performances with 1968’s “This Is Buddy Guy!”.
Recorded live at the New Orleans House—an intimate venue in Berkeley, CA—the album puts listeners in the front row, as Guy performs original compositions (including his languid “I Had a Dream Last Night” and the funky “24 Hours of the Day”) with well-chosen covers, such as Little Willie John’s “Fever” and Eddie Floyd’s “Knock on Wood.” Accompanied by a tight-knit band—including saxophonists A.C. Reed and Bobby Fields plus bassist Jack Meyers—Guy is truly at the peak of his prowess.
“Buddy Guy is the most dynamic and influential guitarist to have emerged from the Chicago blues scene, with gospel-shaded vocal chops to match his instrumental skills. He is at his focused best on “This Is Buddy Guy!,” writes Scott Billington. “Whether he is playing a simmering line behind his vocal, or spluttering out a solo with the frenzy of a machine gun, his formidable talents are always at the service of sublime passion.”
One of the most compelling artists of the past five years found herself fully formed in 2024. Nilüfer Yanya’s “My Method Actor” is all the promise of her previous two (highly laudable) full-length records realized with a new assurance. That may seem in contrast with the album’s themes of transition, but one has to be firm in their understanding of self to embrace such transformations — or “Mutations,” as Yanya sings on one standout track. Collaborating closely with producer Will Archer, her smoky vocals and intricate guitar work have never sounded so authentically method.
Speaking about “Method Actor” Nilüfer describes how the concept for the song came together: “I was researching method acting – and from what I read, it’s based on finding this one memory in your life, a life-altering, life-changing memory. The reason why some people find method acting traumatic and maybe not safe mentally, is because you’re always going back to that moment. It can be good or bad but you’re always feeding off the energy, something that’s defined you – and that’s what helps you become the character. It’s a bit like being a musician. When you’re performing, you’re still trying to invoke the energy and emotion of when you first wrote it, in that moment. It definitely feels like you’re having to recreate or step into that headspace.”
While writing “My Method Actor” Nilüfer retreated into the studio with her creative partner, Wilma Archer (Sudan Archives/MF DOOM/Celeste). She had toured her second album, “Painless”, for a year and entered a period of transition, between albums, between record companies, between homes. “My Method Actor” deals a lot with the idea of movement from one part of life and into another.
“This is the most intense album, in that respect,” Yanya says. “Because it’s only been us two. We didn’t let anyone else into the bubble.”
“My Method Actor”was released 13th September via Ninja Tune
“Hi my name is Ezra Furman this is the press release for my new record.
“Goodbye Small Head” is the name of this record. Twelve songs, twelve variations on the experience of completely losing control, whether by weakness, illness, mysticism, BDSM, drugs, heartbreak or just living in a sick society with one’s eyes open. These songs are vivid with overwhelm. They’re not about someone going off the rails, they are inside that person’s heart. The songwriting here is a revision to William Wordsworth’s famous proclamation that “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity.” I can agree with that, except for the tranquillity part. This poetry, my poetry, arrived in the midst of the storm. It was written as I teetered toward the edge. (I did the edits once I was safe again.)
The band and I had had a run of records that were very communal, very first person plural. We, us, ours. I was trying to exist in and create a shared space with my audience, make anthems for taking care of one another in dark times. But there does come a time when a woman is left alone in a room to unravel. And you need music for those times too.
“GSH” also reflects a band reaching a new peak of our powers. If I were a music journalist, I would call this an orchestral emo prog-rock record sprinkled with samples. Thank goodness I’m not a music journalist! I think of this music as cinematic and intense. A friend of mine said it sounded like “the coolest movie soundtrack of 1997,” and I’m quite pleased with that description. We’ve incorporated a small string section into eight of the twelve tracks, and are using samples for the first time—nothing you’d recognize, just some uncredited singing that Sam found online, chopped into beautifully evocative bits. Other than that, this record features something that’s become nearly an anachronism: a band that’s been playing real instruments together for over a decade, intuitively in touch with each other as musicians. Four players in a room together who know exactly how to respond to one another.
We recorded in Chicago with Brian Deck producing; a return to both my city of origin and my producer of origin, since Deck produced my first rock’n’roll records many years ago (“Banging Down the Doors” (2007) and “Inside the Human Body” (2008) by Ezra Furman & the Harpoons). In some way I think I was trying to return to a much younger mindset, when all the intensity and fear and emotion of life was less mediated by adult coping mechanisms. When it was all brand new with no filter.
Though I wrote parts of it earlier, I think the making of this album really began on the morning of April 11th 2023, when I woke suddenly ill, limped into the bathroom and lost consciousness. At the hospital they gave me all the tests and told me that actually, I wasn’t sick, and I could go home now. (Thanks, fellas!) I stayed in bed for months, exhausted and in pain, no doctor offering any convincing explanation or cure.
After a while I began haemorrhaging songs. Many of these songs arrived unexpectedly and left my body violently. All of them seemed to be steeped in the helpless transcendence of being suddenly overcome, undone. Lush album opener “Grand Mal,” named after the outdated term for a major seizure, and its following companion “Sudden Storm” were written in one hypomanic sitting after talking to an epileptic friend about the mystical quality of certain epileptic seizures. “Jump Out” is a panicked rocker for realizing you are going to have to leap from a moving vehicle because the driver has no intention of letting you out.
“Power of the Moon” is an existentialist wrestling match with whoever’s in charge of the universe, and “Submission” is the combination of dread and relief felt when you realize the long-suffering “good guys” have no chance against 21st-century forces of evil. And that’s just Side A.
Is it dark? Yeah! Is it also wonder-struck, laced with psychedelic beauty, triumphant in its wounded way? Yeah again. And by the end of it, the whole thing flames out in a burst of good old-fashioned rock and roll, a desperate cover of underappreciated genius Alex Walton’s bottomlessly yearning “I Need the Angel.”
The title, “Goodbye Small Head” is a lyric from the 1999 Sleater-Kinney single “Get Up,” a phrase breathlessly, almost ecstatically intoned by Corin Tucker as she contemplates death and the dissolution of the self. There’s something about that dissolution that is both horrible and absolutely gorgeous. We fear losing ourselves and we want it more than anything. That’s where this record lives. That’s what this kind of music offers us: a look over the edge into the frightening and beautiful realm that lies beyond ordinary life. Have a look with me, won’t you?”
The Beths have signed to Anti- Records, and, with that announcement comes plenty more news. The New Zealand indie-rockers are heading out on a lengthy tour of North America and Europe, and they’ve shared a video for the new song “Metal.” It’s the first new music the Beths have released since the expanded edition of their 2022 album, “Expert in a Dying Field“.
In a statement, singer-guitarist Elizabeth Stokes said “Metal” is about living in a human body and her personal “health journey” as of late: “For parts of the last few years, I kind of felt like my body was a vehicle that had carried me pretty well thus far but was breaking down, something I had little to no control over. All of the steps in the Rube Goldberg machine of life are so unlikely, and yet here we are in it. I have a hunger and a curiosity for learning about the world around me, and for learning about myself. And despite all the ways that my body feels like a broken machine, I still marvel at the complexity of such a machine.”
She continued: “I can hold that knowledge in one hand, and yet with the other hand I can point to my reflection and just be like ‘you are shit.’ Or ‘ugly.’ Or ‘worthless.’ I can reliably respond to any suggestion that I might be able to achieve any small thing with ‘no.’ And these are variations of the ‘short word’ referenced in the song.”
The Beths are: Elizabeth Stokes, Jonathan Pearce, Benjamin Sinclair, Tristan Deck
The Beths’ tour begins in Dublin, Ireland, on September 18. From there, they’ll perform across Europe and the United Kingdom before heading to North America to perform in dozens of cities in the United States and Canada. Opening select concerts are Phoebe Rings, Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie, Squirrel Flower, and Illuminati Hotties.
Cinema Music Group and Killphonic Records have released the new Neil Young tribute album “Heart of Gold: The Songs of Neil Young, Vol. 1”. Featured on the 14-track compilation is Fiona Apple’s cover of Young’s 1972song “Heart of Gold.” from his album “Harvest“.
Apple co-produced her “Heart of Gold” cover with Dave Palmer. The track features Palmer on piano, Reggie Hamilton on bass, and Joey Waronker on drums.
Proceeds from the compilation featuring many different artists “Heart of Gold: The Songs of Neil Young, Vol. 1” will benefit the Bridge School, the Hillsborough, California, organization that Neil Young’s late ex-wife, Pegi Young co-founded to aid children with physical and speech impairments. A second volume of Heart of Gold: The Songs of Neil Young is also forthcoming.
Performing in front of a crowd is fun, but there’s not much to celebrate about the loneliness that creeps up during the lulls of being on tour. Sunflower Bean debuted their new single “Nothing Romantic,” which captures those feelings of dread after being away from the stage and on your own.
Sunflower Bean have shared their new single ‘Nothing Romantic’, taken from their upcoming fourth album ‘Mortal Primetime’.
“‘Nothing Romantic’ is about rejecting the myth of the tortured artist—realizing that the joys of creativity don’t have to come from the lows of misery,” the band explain. “The video mirrors this journey, capturing our lives as touring musicians in between nightmarish performances. From green rooms to lost highways, we travel from town to town, feeling alive only in the escape of our show. There’s tension between the connection and solitude; on stage, we’re together, sharing our music with others but later isolation and the price of our sacrifices creep in.”
The band — comprising vocalist Julia Cumming, guitarist Nick Kivlen, and drummer Olive Faber — said in a statement. The Sophia Feuer and Tyler Macri-directed video captures the band walking away from some masked villains that haunt and attack the trio during the performances.
The new single is set to be featured on their upcoming album, “Mortal Primetime“, which arrives April 25th. They led the album with the single “Champagne Taste.” The upcoming album follows their EP “Shake”, which dropped in September.
“You get to decide what your prime is, and you fight for it,” Cumming said of the album. “This is ours, and that can’t be taken away by circumstance. We can’t take it away from each other. This moment, where we are now, is what we’ve always fought for.”
“Different Talking”, the sixth and, so far, best album by NYC indie-rock four-piece Frankie Cosmos, seems to exist across time and space, as we all kind of do. It’s a collection of fragments and memories, remembered places, and reinterpreted feelings that adds up to a lucent, humming whole: a sturdy, worldly indie-rock record about aging and the passage of time that nonetheless manages to feel sharply current. Frankie Cosmos’ lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter Greta Kline has long been heralded as one of contemporary indie music’s most deft and most necessary writers, but on “Different Talking“, her lyrics soften out slightly, the wry cynicism that defined recent records now giving way to an acknowledgment of the awesome, and necessary, fallibility of the human brain and heart.
To classify “Different Talking” as a return to form, or at least a return to the lush directness of earlier Frankie Cosmos records, would be rude but also wholly incorrect: as “Different Talking” makes clear, you can never return to the comfort and bravery of your early twenties, but that person always kind of lives inside you, no matter how much you change.
“Different Talking” is about finding that person, honouring them, and learning from them. “A lot of the album is about being grown up and figuring out how to know yourself – like, ‘What is moving on?’” says Kline. “How do we move on when we’re addicted to a cycle of haunting our own past? Writing songs is just the way through that.”
From the upcoming album ‘Different Talking’, out June 27th on Sub Pop Records.
2CD / Blu-Ray video release of this special concert staged at the Roundhouse in London on 21st January 2007 to celebrate the life and music of Traffic co-founder and acclaimed solo artist Jim Capaldi. Aside from his work with Steve Winwood and Chris Wood in Traffic, (a band inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004), Jim also worked with many other artists and was a successful solo performer in his own right.
A wonderful house band was joined by a stellar line-up of musicians to perform their favourite Traffic and Jim Capaldi songs including Steve Winwood, Paul Weller, Pete Townshend, Joe Walsh, Yusef / Cat Stevens, Gary Moore, Bill Wyman, Jon Lord, Dennis Locorriere, Simon Kirke and many others who performed to a full house.
Originally issued in 2007, this new Esoteric Recordings edition gathers together the concert recordings on two CDs and a multi-region Blu-ray video of the concert film, issued in this format for the first time, in a clam shell box set.
‘Dear Mr Fantasy – A Celebration for Jim Capaldi’ is the ultimate document of this wonderful night of music.
Pink Floyd have released their performance of “One Of These Days” from their 1972 Pompeii concert film, which arrives in cinemas in a fully restored format on April 24th. Retitled Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII, it’s been digitally remastered in 4K from the original 35mm footage. With enhanced audio by Steven Wilson, it’s described as the definitive version of the production.
“The film documents what Pink Floyd did before they became giants of the album charts on both sides of the Atlantic,” producers say. “Set in the hauntingly beautiful ruins of the ancient Roman Amphitheatre in Pompeii, Italy, this unique and immersive film captures Pink Floyd performing an intimate concert without an audience.
“It features the vital “Echoes”, “A Saucerful of Secrets” and “One Of These Days”. The breathtaking visuals of the amphitheatre, captured both day and night, amplify the magic of the performance. Additionally, the film includes rare behind-the-scenes footage of the band beginning work on “The Dark Side of the Moon” at Abbey Road Studios.”
Wilson comments: “Ever since my dad brainwashed me as a kid by playing “The Dark Side of the Moon” on repeat, Pink Floyd has been my favourite band. I first saw “Pompeii” from a grainy print at a local cinema. It made an incredible impression on me with its untethered and exploratory rock music made by four musicians that seemed to epitomise the notion of intellectual cool.
“It was an honour to remix the soundtrack to accompany Lana Topham’s incredible restoration of the film, which looks like it could have been filmed yesterday.”
The Fat Angel Sings 