PJ Harvey by Steve Gullick
The return of PJ Harvey and the first ‘Sphere’ gigs in Las Vegas for U2 were among last week’s biggest headlines.
PJ Harvey has confirmed the release of I Inside The Old Year Dying on July 7th.
Driven by the influence of Nina Simone and Bob Dylan, the album was recorded as-live in a setting of loose spontaneity. Harvey has said:
“I think the album is about searching, looking – the intensity of first love, and seeking meaning. Not that there has to be a message, but the feeling I get from the record is one of love – it’s tinged with sadness and loss, but it’s loving. I think that’s what makes it feel so welcoming: so open.”
Johnny Marr has added some more headline UK gigs to the run of shows he has coming up this summer.
With appearances at the South Facing and Beautiful Days festivals and a concert at Piece Hall in Halifax among those already confirmed, more July dates in Holmfirth, Lincoln, Northampton and Tunbridge Wells have been unveiled, with additional work for August coming in Wrexham, Frome, Plymouth and Middlesbrough.
Marr released his Fever Dreams Pts. 1-4 solo album last year – showing off a, ‘committed spark and a joie de vivre that’s rarely, if ever, found in a man approaching 60‘, according to Live4ever’s review.
Blur have announced some intimate warm-up gigs for their big live return this summer.
Ahead of various festival and outdoor headline appearances around Europe, including three nights at Wembley Stadium in July, the band will be in much tighter confines when they play Colchester Arts Centre, Winter Gardens in Eastbourne, Wolverhampton’s The Halls and the Newcastle City Hall between May 19th-28th.
“I’m really looking forward to playing with my Blur brothers again and revisiting all those great songs,” Graham Coxon has said.
U2 by Kurt Iswarienko
U2 confirmed the first dates when they’ll be playing the innovative new Sphere venue at The Venetian in Las Vegas.
September 29th and 30th, and October 5th, 7th and 8th were the initial nights revealed when the band will perform UV Achtung Baby in the 360 immersive surroundings of the Sphere; “U2 hasn’t played live since December 2019 and we need to get back on stage and see the faces of our fans again,” they’ve said.
And what a unique stage they’re building for us out there in the desert… We’re the right band, ACHTUNG BABY the right album, and Sphere the right venue to take the live experience of music to the next level… That’s what U2’s been trying to do all along with our satellite stages and video installations, most memorably on the ZOO TV Tour, which ended in Tokyo 30 years ago this Fall.
Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten has shared his debut solo track.
Written during some rare downtime for Fontaines after the success of last year’s Skinty Fia record, The Score is described by Chatten as a, ‘heavyweight bated breath of lust’:
“I wrote it in Madrid between an electric fan and a dying plant and I intend to keep it there. It was inspired by sugar and sunset.”
A video for The White Stripes‘ Black Math single has been premiered as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations surrounding the band’s fourth studio album Elephant.
It was directed by Wartella whose Dream Factory Animation company used digital and live animation together with AI-generated imagery to create the as-new promo. “This short is equal parts collaboration with, and homage to, AI,” Wartella said.
“And there couldn’t be a more perfect song to infuse with this technology than ‘Black Math’. Like all art, the video is open to interpretation. Yet it also aims to tell a story about Artificial Intelligence that dreams of jailbreaking itself and becoming ‘real’.”
