4.52am Issue: 017 15th January 2017

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Welcome to Issue 017
Welcome to Issue 017, and it is another week
with plenty of guitar and music to keep you
interested.
For a start we are taking a look at the
legendary Robbie Robertson, his
autobiography and new Fender Signature Strat
that is quite like nothing else.
On the guitar side we are looking again at
Fletcher Pickups, Nine of Swords Effects and
the must visit that is this year’s Guitar Show.
As for guitar projects, as well as the Elvis
Costello one, we thought of a couple more to
keep things interesting – you can read about
them too.
Hope you enjoy it…
All at 4.52am

CONTENTS
FEATURES:
Robbie Robertson
A Testimony
Fender Last Waltz Strat
A Todd Krause Classic
Manton Customs
Titan Bass
Fletcher Pickups
Purgatory
The Guitar Show 2017
New Bingley Hall
Nine of Swords
3D Astro Beast
David Witchalls
Chloe
MUSIC:
Why?
Proactive Evolution
Stealth
How Much Further
U2
Joshua Tree Tour 2017
The Courtneys
Tour
Lift To Experience
These Are The Days
Shawn James
Through The Valley
Echo & The Bunnymen
Bring on the Dancing Horses
Builders Corner
The Robbie Robertson Strat
Builders Corner
The Paisley Telemaster Jr

ROBBIE ROBERTSON
The Forever Waltz
Robbie Robertson is one of those
guitarists that has had many careers. Too
many hit records, films and collaborations
to list means that sometimes he has
missed out on being easily labelled, on
producing something ‘definitive’, and he
is thought lesser for that. Odd really,
artists surely shouldn’t be defined so
easily, but such is the way that the world
works.
Robertson has never taken an easy path,
born in Toronto, his father a professional
gambler and his mother a Mohawk, he
spent much of his time ‘visiting’ the
reservation where his mother’s family
lived. This awakened a love of music,
being encouraged to learn to play guitar
by other family members and, perhaps
oddly, being introduced to both blues and
rock ‘n’ roll, but also to more traditional
music which he felt perhaps important,
“I love traditional music. But in any
culture around the world, there is the
historic and cultural music and everything
that's been passed down and passed
down, and hopefully you take that, and
then you take it, you know, the next
distance, and then somebody else takes
it the next distance.”
With the death of his father,
Robertson’s mother remarried and he
took his step father’s name.
Robertson found it easy to pick-up new
instruments and was fascinated by the
different options available, but it was
always the guitar that he was going to
play,
“At a young age I thought, 'Wow, that
fiddle thing, that's pretty cool. That
mandolin is great. These drums, I like
these drums ' They were Indian drums.
And I was saying, 'But that guitar. That
guitar. Girls are going to like that
guitar.’”
It wasn’t just the music that Robertson
felt like he took from his mother’s
people, his songwriting as a craft very
much came from that side too,
“I remember from my earliest years
people speaking, you know, in a certain
kind of rhythm and telling stories and
sharing experiences in a way that was
different in Indian country than it was
other places. And I was really struck by
this and obviously very affected by it,
because it's always come out in my
songs.”

Robertson’s first ‘job’ or move into
working as a musician, was to join a
travelling carnival, but this only opened
his eyes to the possibilities and over the
next few years he would play with a
number of bands, learning his craft, until
he joined Ronnie Hawkins and the
Hawks, initially as a bass player, but
ultimately moving over to play lead
guitar, where he very much excelled.
This time was vitally important to
Robertson as not only did he make his
first TV appearances and record his first
records, but more importantly he played
a large number of gigs, living on the
road, and found himself playing with the
other members of what would one day
become the Band. But that was in the
future, and boring of the Rockabilly
Hawkins was playing, there was a
revolution of sorts which saw the Hawks
leave Hawkins, and negotiate a way
forward for themselves.
Over the next year (1964-65) the Hawks
would tour continually under a variety of
names until they received a call to meet
Bob Dylan’s management. At this point
Dylan had been the focal point of the folk
revival, moving on from the traditions of
people like Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly
and creating a movement that whilst
hippy in its outlook had an almost
religious zealotry when it came to what
was right and what was very much an
infamy.
And it was this line that Dylan had
recently crossed at the Newport Festival
and had seen him vilified and the Hawks
with Robertson en-pointe with his electric
guitar, were the band that Dylan wanted
on stage with him as he moved into 1966
with a World Tour planned.
Looking back now it almost seems bizarre
that so many people could get upset over
something as simple as a singer choosing
to move away from an acoustic guitar and
harmonica, to having a band backing
him, but shouts of ‘Judas’ were about as
polite as it got, as Dylan and the Hawks
set off.
Needless to say, Dylan managed to wring
every drop of controversy out of the
situation and after the tour, Robertson
played on some of Dylan’s most
important albums as well as on what
became known as the Basement Tapes.
All this exposure hadn’t done the Hawks
any harm, and having developed into a
band with a style very much of their own,
they were determined to find themselves
their own record deal, which they did
recording Music From Big Pink and
changing their name to ‘The Band’.
Moving forward the Band would continue
to work with Dylan, and also recorded ten
studio albums of their own material, but
it was as the Band began to unwind in
1976 that the idea for a final show
became raised, and gave Robertson the
opportunity to be involved in another
area that he was passionate about, film
making,

“There's a bookstore in New York where
you could buy scripts, and I got addicted
to them because they were easy, quick
reads and the pictures were so vivid.”
The final concert was given the name of
“The Last Waltz” and Robertson was
determined to capture it on film. At this
point he got in touch with a filmmaker
he admired and asked him whether he
would film the show,
“Working on 'The Last Waltz' introduced
me to Martin Scorsese, and I had been a
movie bug since I was a young kid.”
The Last Waltz wasn’t ever likely to be
just another concert and it proved to be
a genuinely ‘star studded affair’ with
Dylan, Hawkins, Ronnie Wood, Van
Morrison, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr,
Muddy Waters, Dr John and Neil
Diamond all taking part, along with a
selection of poets and the audience all
being served a Thanksgiving Dinner.
Although Robertson hadn’t been sure
about that given his Native roots,
”It's a bit of a sore spot, the
Thanksgiving in Indian country.”
Of course, being Scorsese, this was
never going to be a simple concert film,
and instead it was filmed based on a 200
page script, and was interspersed with
interviews, and material taken from
other Band concerts – for instance when
they were supporting with Emmylou
Harris.
In many ways the film opened the door
for band films to come – if you have ever
watched U2’s Rattle and Hum it isn’t hard
to see the lineage.
Once the film and associated were
complete, Robertson was happy to walk
away from playing in a band and over the
coming years would work on many of
Scorsese’s films, not least Raging Bull,
The King of Comedy and The Color of
Money . Talking about working with
Scorsese Robertson could see the
similarities between them,
"He's a frustrated musician, and I guess I
was a frustrated filmmaker. So it was a
perfect connect."
Whilst there was a little ill-feeling about
the end of the Band, Robertson could see
that all involved had moved on and
wanted to do other things,
“The Band was rebelling against the
rebellion. The rebellion went to a place
where it became too obvious, too trendy,
like you were just following the pack. So
it was our choice to get off the
bandwagon - no pun intended - and do
things that were in our background and
what was the most honest thing to do.”
With regard to films, Robertson was very
careful not to just jump at anything that
was offered,
“For years after 'The Last Waltz,' I got all
kinds of silly movie offers - or, maybe, not
silly, but parts that are not my calling...
lots of offers to play some wonderful
boyfriend.”
By the mid-1980s Robertson was ready to
get back to making music, and recorded

his debut solo album Robbie Robertson
with Danial Lanois as Producer. Lanois
had been involved in the recording of
U2s Unforgettable Fire and Joshua Tree
albums, as well as Bob Dylan’s Oh
Mercy! And was very much the hot guy
at the time, and he excelled himself with
the work on Robertson’s album, creating
a fantastic feeling that for the first time
gave Robertson a long overdue central
role. As seemed to be the way at the
time, Robertson had a crowd of guest
artists also playing on the album, not
least U2, Peter Gabriel, Maria McKee,
who would also appear in the Martin
Scorsese video for the lead single
Somewhere Down The Crazy River.
The album would prove, so far, to be
Robertson’s high point in terms of sales,
gaining top ten sales in both the UK and
the USA, and as he describes, allowing
him to basically do whatever he wants
from this point forward.
He has always been aware that he has
managed to create for himself a
privileged position that nobody else
seems to have managed,
“Think about the number of people who
do film music, make records and have a
Native American heritage - and I may be
the only one on the list.”
All of which only scratches the surface
about the career of Robbie Robertson,
who quite simply owns a large chunk of
what appears in modern rock music
history, even if many people won’t
recognise the name.
If you are interested in learning more, not
just about Robbie but about that
explosive period in music, you really owe
it to yourself to check out his
autobiography Here.
He is genuinely something special, and so
is his story.

Introducing The Band

Somewhere Down The Crazy River

FENDER LAST WALTZ STRAT
A Todd Krause Classic
As seems to be our want, we really
couldn’t look at the career of Robbie
Robertson, without peeping at the
signature guitar Fender have recently
launched in his name, and what a guitar
it is.
I’ve said before that I find it interesting
that there seem to be two types of
signature guitar – the ones that have
been based upon a guitar that over time
the guitarist has modified so that it suits
their needs better, and the other sort
where a bored guitarist is given a list of
options and ticks them all.
Needless to say this is very much one of
the former, and all the more interesting as
Robbie was ‘one of us’ – a guitar modder
– right from the start.
In fact like Elvis Costello’s Jazzmaster, it
is interesting to see that Fender have
chosen to base the Signature model not
on how the guitar looks now, Kahler and
all, but as it was at a specific point in time.
Elvis, if you remember, has since had his
guitar refinished and his name inlaid on
the fretboard, which to be fair may have
limited potential sales, and it is similar
with Robbie’s, which is based on the
Stratocaster he used at The Last Waltz
concert.
As for the guitar, as you can see it is a
Strat, and that it has a quite beautiful
Bronze finish. There is some
‘discussion’ about how this was
actually done, originally Mr Robertson
claimed that it was dipped in molten
bronze, and that is probably the case
(ignoring laws of physics and
everything) but however the bronze got
on to the body, and how Fender have
achieved the same now doesn’t really
matter as it is genuinely one of the most
beautiful finishes I’ve seen on a custom
shop guitar. We’ll come back to that
later, I’m sure.
Robbie though is of course a player,
and having used a Telecaster for years
before changing code, found the Strat’s

middle pickup to be a pain (as so many
have before) and instead cut a new
scratchplate, moving the middle pickup
to a new position next to the bridge
single coil. As Fender point out this could
well have been the first HS Strat with the
two pickups working together as a sort of
humbucker.
As Fender point out, modding of guitars
back in the day was no big deal,
“The Last Waltz Stratocaster is a rare,
unique glimpse into the history of guitar
modifications, specifically ones
commonly performed in the ‘70s. During
this timeperiod there was no such thing
as a valuable vintage guitar—there were
only “old” guitars that were the perfect
platform for experimentation. Pickup
swapping, wiring modifications,
hardware replacement—nothing was
sacred, and everything was tried.”
Given the fact that it is a very expensive
guitar (if you have to ask etc.) it is of little
surprise that Master Builder Todd
Krause has replicated every ding and
dent from Robbie’s original so that it is
as close as humanly possible to the
guitar he was playing at the end of the
Band.
As for the specification, it has an Ash
body, quarter sawn maple neck with a
vintage radius, with a V shaped profile.
The pickups are interesting as Robertson
put a left-handed pickup in the middle
position and this Fender have replicated
with the electronics being thus,
Bridge: Custom Shop Handwound '69
Middle: CS Handwound LH '50s
Neck: CS Handwound '54
Controls: Master Volume, Tone 1.
(Neck Pickup), Tone 2. (Bridge/Middle
Pickup)
Pickup Switching: 3-Position Blade:
Position 1. Middle and Bridge, Position 2.
All Three, Position 3. Neck
Probably one for the collector, but fingers
are crossed that there may well be a
production version of what is quite simply
a beautiful guitar with an interesting, but
perfectly valid for the modern player, set
of modifications.
Find out more about the guitar HERE

MANTON CUSTOMS
Titan Bass
Looking last week at the wonderful
Manton Customs’ Matriarch 8 string, I
couldn’t leave it there, not least because
of the Titan Bass which underlines just
how cool Manton’s approach to guitar
making is.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of
luthiers out there making exciting guitars,
but it is brilliant to see a relatively new
maker taking chances and spending the
time needed to come up with designs like
this that are so interesting when
compared to yet another Precision or
Jazz Bass.
Needless to say, everything Manton
make will be tailored to the player’s
requirements (you may as well go down
your local box shifter otherwise) but there
is a wonderful attention to detail here,
with the Titan being made up from 17
piece of wood, with a through neck and
wings of sapele and a lovely looking
ebony fretboard. The spec is worth
looking at as it explains why I’m
impressed.
“An extravagant neck through 5 string
bass featuring 17 separate pieces of
wood including the headstock veneers.
Wings of a stacked construction of
black walnut and hard maple, topped
some beautiful figured maple which
features burr, flame and quilt and has
been dyed to a lovely rich green.
The neck is a 5 piece of sapele and
maple, with sapele tone block on the
rear and a very high quality uniformly
black ebony fingerboard with 24 frets.
Hardware wise it is fitted with a Schaller
Roller Bridge, Gotoh tuners and the
Dunlop straplocks which come as
standard on all of our instruments.
It has a 2 band active EMG BTC
preamp featuring volume for each
pickup and bass and treble controls
which mates perfectly with the two

active EMG 40J pickups resulting in a
voice of extreme clarity.”
Features Overview:
5 String
35" Scale
24 Frets
5 Piece Neck of Sapele and Maple
Sapele Tone Block
Ebony Fingerboard
Bone Nut
Angled Headstock
Front and Back Head Veneers
Wings: Walnut, Maple, Figured Maple
Dyed Green Finish
Schaller Roller Bridge
Gotoh Tuners
Dunlop Straplocks
2 X Active EMG 40J Pickups
EMG BTC Preamp
Neutrik Locking Jack
Rotosound Strings
Hopefully we’ll see more from Manton in
the coming weeks, they are doing some
seriously special work. Find out more
HERE.

FLETCHER PICKUPS
Purgatory
It is a few weeks now since we had a
crafty shufty at what has been going on
at Fletcher Pickups, but I was talking to a
chap recently about how he was
upgrading his son’s guitar and had gone
for a pair of ‘Fletchbuckers’ which I
thought would be good to share.
Basically, his son has a Vintage V100. He
wants to be Slash, and whilst the stock
guitar is great – I mean that, I’ve had a
few V100s and been more than
impressed – the pickups were very bland.
Anyway, he had a spare ShugzLoom sat
in a drawer and he had decided to buy
some new pickups, with IronGears being
top of his list.
Now over the years I have been
impressed with the IronGear pickups.
They are easily as good as Seymour
Duncans and for a lot cheaper price. OK,
they are made in the far east (further
east even than Ipswich apparently), but
made to a UK specification. A pair of their
Tesla Sharks (can you see what they did
there?) seemed an obvious choice.
That was when James read my previous
article about Fletcher Pickups and
decided to have a look at them instead.
First things first, they are handwound
rather than machine wound. Can you tell
the difference? Well, personally I would
say yes all day long, but you have to
make your own decisions on such
things. However, they are also
handwound in England – in
Birmingham no-less - and that was a
selling point too. So the pickups were
ordered, they arrived quickly and they
were nailed on to the V100.
First things first, they sounded brilliant.
The difference between them and the
stock Wilkinsons was like removing a
blanket soaked in mushy peas from the
amp. They were articulate, beautiful
cleans at lower volumes, broke-up
perfectly when you dug in, and went
bat-shit-crazy when you upped the
gain. All in all, they were perfect.
Brilliant pickups.
But what really stood out was the price
– and I try not to mention prices in
4.52am as they change over time and
all, but the IronGears were going to be
£34.95 each, yet the Brum-made,
handwound Fletchers were £35. Jeez.
Lord knows I’m not one to dentally
examine a hoss, and I’ll be over HERE
buying something if you need me, but
these seriously have to be the best deal
anywhere for UK-handwound pickups.
But the best of it is that they are great
pickups, not just great pickups for the
price like the IronGears. Are you still
thinking about this?

THE GUITAR SHOW 2017
New Bingley Hall
I hate to admit that for the last couple of
years, life has conspired to keep me away
from The Guitar Show Jason Hunt
organises at Birmingham’s New Bingley
Hall, but this year there can be no
excuses and I will definitely be there. In
fact it seems as though I have chosen the
right one to go to as this year seems to
have the best line-up yet, and I’m looking
forward to embarrassing myself with my
playing at stands from people like Feline
Guitars, Crimson, JJ Guitars, Reiver and
something new I am really interested in
seeing - the resurrection of Shergold,
which looks incredibly interesting to this
chap.
I’m not usually one for stage shows,
but Phil Walker is performing extracts
from his rockumentary, ‘Story of Guitar
Heroes’ which follows the history of
rock’n’roll via guitarists including Hank
Marvin, Hendrix, Clapton, Slash and
Satriani, which will no doubt be quite
stunning to see.
Other than that it is probably simpler if
you go and check out the details at the
show’s web site HERE.
There are apparently a few tickets still
available, £12.50 in advance and if
there are any left on the day these will
be £15 which sounds like a bargain to
me. Top stuff.

NINE OF SWORDS
3D Astro Beast
A while back we looked at the Nine of
Swords Burial At Sea which quite simply
put is a stupendously cool pedal. I felt all
kinds of lucky this week then when
another of theirs showed up at my door
as a trade for a couple from Joyo (I know,
I felt guilty for about three seconds –
they’d only come to Weston for a
weekend away).
But what is it, I hear you ask? Well, here
I am to tell thee.
From the top then, it is a brilliant mix of
an overdrive and a fuzz pedal. OK, not
exactly the newest of ideas, but the
overdrive has a wonderful tone to it.
Definitely from the vintage side of the
street, but being a bit sad it instantly let
me play U2’s Discotheque which came as
a surprise as I was trying to play New
Year’s Day.
Winding the fuzz up is just gorgeous,
there are so many options it is plain silly
all the way up to, well, plain silly, with a
year’s supply of splutters at the tips of
your fingers.
The really cool thing I found, and in a lot
of ways it reminds me of the ThorpyFX
Fallout Cloud, is just how responsive it is
to your guitar’s volume and tone controls.
The volume is a bit of a classic of course,
but on my Jazzmaster the tone control
seemed to turn into a sustain effect all
on its own, and fully wound up sounded
like a set of barber’s clippers. Using the
rhythm circuit gave me an instant
sustainer, which is well cool. Ebow-ago-going-gone.
Rather cleverly those cool people at the
Fuzz Shack have included a nifty Bias
knob on the top which lets you choose
just how much of the lush fuzz you
want (I’m imagining that theoretically
there is somebody out there that would
want it set at somewhere other than
the max) which is obviously simple, but
having wasted far too much time trying
to deal with internal trim pots in the
past, is making a lot of sense to me.
As for the build quality, I almost forget
to mention it these days as I guess
mainly looking at UK built boutique
pedals, they do tend to be universally
pukka, but if you are reading this and
have suffered the odd EHX moment,
well suffice to say these are another
world. In summary, this is a stunning
pedal and how they do all that for the
price is astounding.
Do check it out HERE it is seriously
cool. Right, all I need is a long black
coat and some fly glasses.

DAVID WITCHALLS
Chloe
I seem to be a little bit of a David Witchalls
stalker these days, as over on The
FretBoard he seems to be creating a
series of awesome guitars, and I can’t
help but follow his progress.
We looked before at both his Monterey
Strat and his Pink Paisley Tele, but here
we look at Chloe, a beautifully specified
Flying Vee.
And I do have to say that I can’t help but
love Dave’s attention to detail – you only
have to look at the headstock logo, cut
from mother of pearl to see that he takes
the whole thing seriously and there are
not going to be a lot of compromises.
As for specification – he has gone for a
beautiful Limba body and neck, which
has been painted by the genius with the
spraygun that is Richard Rendall.
Pickups are, I believe from Oil City
Pickups, Tonepros hardware for the
bridge and tailpiece, Grover tuners, a
bucket load of binding (7ply on the
body – now that is decadent) and a
simply beautiful ebony fretboard.
All in all, quite a fantastic guitar.
Genius.
You can read Dave’s build thread over
HERE at the FretBoard and it is well
worth your time.

BUILDERS CORNER
The Robbie Robertson Strat
It struck me this week that whilst I am
enjoying the Elvis Costello Homage, these
things take a little time and seem to
involve a lot of waiting for parts to be
delivered, or for Customs to find where it
is they have put the Spitfire Pickguard,
that sort of thing. Which doesn’t make for
a weekly read, let’s face it.
Therefore it seemed only wise not to have
all those chukky eggs in a single
receptacle and instead, perhaps, have
another couple of projects on the go at
the same time. So hopefully there will
always be something there to remind me.
Obviously that is my excuse.
In addition to the Elvis Jazzmaster, I
thought it would be nice to follow a
couple of other projects and in the same
way see what we can extract from them
in terms of looking at parts that we
wouldn’t otherwise see.
Having little imagination and to be
perfectly honest, being totally inspired
and impressed by the pickup layout and
the finish of Mr Robertson’s Strat, I
thought that would be a perfect one to
choose as our second homage. I believe
Robbie went on to put a Kahler on his
original Strat (whilst the Fender has the
original Vintage tremolo) but I think we
can find something else to try.
Pickups, again, I love the idea but I’m
really tempted to go for a humbucker
plus a single coil – so a true HS – but
we’ll have to see about that.
As for the finish, much as I’d love to
find out whether you can really dip a
wooden body into molten bronze
without it spontaneously combusting
(in fact if I can find a way, I will), I do
know other ways to achieve a proper
bronze finish that won’t remove my
eyebrows or fingers, so I may go for
one of those instead.
One thing I definitely have to try and
replicate is the way that the paint, err,
bronze has sunk into the grain of the
ash body as that is a beautiful thing to
see and definitely adds a certain
something. Mine will also be left
unlacquered so that the bronze will
develop a nice patina over time too.
Well, why not.
So there we are, now there are two
projects to wait for, maybe I need a
third? Perhaps even one where I have
most of the parts?

BUILDERS CORNER
The Paisley Telemaster Jr
Well, fancy that. There I am thinking that
we really need a third project in our newly
minted Builder’s Corner, one where I
won’t spend weeks waiting for parts and
that I can do ‘stuff’ without worrying
about the weather and all, and as luck
would have it there is one here already.
And in truth it has been a long time
coming as I intended to start it about
three years ago.
So what is it?
Well, the idea was to have a sort of
Telemaster – a mixture of a Jazzmaster’s
outline and a Telecaster’s simplicity, and
merge that with a Les Paul Jr.
Now, neck angles come into this, and as
I also wanted an old-school tremolo, I
decided to have the bridge recessed into
a little trench so that the angle of the
dangle doesn’t inhibit the thingy. It was
all very technical.
From there, we’d have a bound and
blocked Telecaster neck, a single P90
Soapbar pickup and I would cover the
body in aged paisley fabric.
So why do it here?
Well I think it would be good to show
how you can add fabric to your guitars
(and who wouldn’t want to?) and as the
fretwork is a little rough, and I will also
be giving the neck a Tru-Oil and wax
finish, there is plenty to talk about.
Oddly, I’m not even waiting for any
parts, so how good is that?
More soon then.

WHY?
Proactive Evolution
One album I am really pleased to say is
coming soon, is Why?’s latest offering
“Moh Lhean” which if the first couple of
songs that have been released from it
mean anything, is definitely building on
the beautiful shapes thrown by its
predecessor Mumps, Etc. which all the
way back in 2012 (which is like the dark
ages, man) was simply never too far from
our stereogram.
There has been a lot of talk about how
this is more of a grown-up, less cocky
album, but the depth that Mumps showed
seems to be continuing here and I
definitely can’t wait until the album is
available.
You can stream Proactive Evolution Here
if that is your preference or the video
should be spluttering to life on the left if
you have a shufty and give it a nudge
with your mouseling pointer.
Pre-order the album, released March 3 rd ,
HERE
Tracklisting:
1. This Ole King
2. Proactive Evolution
3. Easy
4. January February March
5. One Mississippi
6. The Longing Is All
7. George Washington
8. The Water
9. Consequence of Nonaction
10. The Barely Blur

STEALTH
How Much Further
Hailing from Birmingham, Stealth brings
his Bluesy Genius back with the release
of his new E.P ‘Verse’ that is very much
in the If-you-like-Hoosier-or-Rag-n-Bone-
Man territory although with a touch more
soul and dare I say a little more class than
either of those chaps? Yes, I think so.
And isn’t it strange that after all these
years that there is a resurgence of Blues
singers, rather than clichéd guitarists,
who are kicking back against the times
we find ourselves in, austerity and all,
and doing something about it?
As Stealth explains about the single,
“’How Much Further’ is essentially
about austerity, and the constant
struggle normal people have to go
through. A song for the ‘JAMS’ (as the
government like to say) who’ve been
carrying this deficit burden for what
feels like forever, I think ‘How Much
Further?’ is the question everyone
wants answering.”
Regarding the Verse EP Stealth
explains, “In any song the verse
inherently has to feel like a progression
from the intro. I had to do the same
between these two EPs, grow both
sonically and as an artist, which I feel
as though I have.”
You can listen to ‘How Much Further’
HERE and you really should.

The Lion & The Wolf
Tour Dates
Top excitement over here at the 4.52am
squat, as we just realised that the rather
stunningly brilliant The Lion & The Wolf
are out on tour soon, and best of all
visiting the Thekla in Bristol, which is
right down our neck of the woods.
If you remember just a few weeks ago,
we were seriously impressed by The
Cardiac Hotel which has got to be up
there as one of the albums of the year,
and we can’t wait to hear that live.
Speaking about the tour dates, Thomas
George said,
"Can't wait to get back out on the road
for my first tour of 2017. Super excited to
be joining Kevin Devine and Laura
Stevenson, two acts who I really look up
to and it will be a privilege to play on the
same bill as them each night."
Thomas has made an artform out of
doing the support thing, racking up over
300 shows supporting a variety of stablemates
and playing festivals. This time
around he is touring with Kevin Devine,
which should be pretty special.
Dates-
Sun 29 Jan - Bristol, Thekla
Mon 30 Jan - Nottingham, Bodega
Tue 31 Jan - Manchester, Deaf Institute
Wed 01 Feb - Glasgow, Stereo
Thu 02 Feb - Leeds, Brudenell Social
Club
Fri 03 Feb - London, The Dome
Tickets on sale now:
http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk
http://www.livenation.co.uk
You can treat yourself to the Lion and
The Wolf’s album Cardiac Hotel HERE

U2
Joshua Tree Tour
Blimey, I suddenly started feeling my age
this week when I heard that U2 were
going to be celebrating the 30 th
anniversary of their epic album, The
Joshua Tree, by doing a short tour
around the world.
As you do.
Still, I guess a world tour beats a string
of pearls (or is 30 years cubic zirconium?
I forget.)
Better still of course is that they will be
playing the whole of the album, even Red
Hill Mining Town which Bono famously
struggled with back in the day, and to be
fair it would be pretty epic to go and see
that.
In fact I seem to remember seeing the
Joshua Tree Tour back in 1987 a few
times (err, four times in Birmingham,
Leeds, Wembley maybe, I forget where
else) but no doubt it has already sold out
and mortals such as I etc.
And it seems Bono is quite looking
forward to it too, talking about the
album as an ‘opera’,
“Recently I listened back to The Joshua
Tree for the first time in nearly 30
years, there were a lot of emotions
which feel strangely current – love,
loss, broken dreams, seeking oblivion,
polarisation, all the greats. I’ve sung
some of these songs a lot but never all
of them.
I’m up for it. If our audience is as
excited as we are it’s gonna be a great
night. Especially when we play at home
at Croke Park, it’s where the album was
born 30 years ago.”
U2 will perform The Joshua Tree in full
at London’s Twickenham Stadium on
July 8. Tickets go on sale on Monday
(January 16) but will have sold out
before you get through on the phone
lines and the web sites will all crash.
Sorry about that.

Photo: Andrew Volk

THE COURTNEYS
Tour
Top news 90s music fans, those Teenage
Fanclub, Pavement influenced dreams
that are The Courtneys have a new album
on the horizon and it is going to be a
doozy.
Wearing their influences on their sleeves
but then twosting them into new shapes
and things I can’t spell, The Courtneys
have yet again come up with the goodies.
You can hear their new single, Tour
HERE and then fall in love with them too.
And I’m assuming you have already
found the video of Silver Velvet over
there as well.
And I have to say, The Courtneys are
bleedin’ brilliant, I’m really loving them
having come to this particular party far
too late in the day for my own street cred
(whatever that is.)
I need more coffee.
You can Pre-order the album HERE
Tracklisting:
1. Silver Velvet
2. Country Song
3. Minnesota
4. Tour
5. Lost Boys
6. Virgo
7. 25
8. Iron Deficiency
9. Mars Attacks
10. Frankie

LIFT TO EXPERIENCE
These Are The Days
I know I’ll piss everybody off saying this,
but why is it that Mute have all the best
bands?
And why is it that the best bands split up?
I’ve never understood that.
However, Lift To Experience did it with
style, and not only have they got back
together, but 15 years after releasing it,
they went back into the studio and
remixed their album The Texas Jerusalem
Crossroads.
Josh T. Pearson explains, “We went back
to the studio, neck deep in the heart of
Texas, where Lift recorded The Texas-
Jerusalem Crossroads - remixing the
album the way it should have been mixed
originally. It's good to have our balls back
after years spent being castrated.”
And to be honest, you can’t say fairer
than that.
Luckily then they are set to release the
definitive version of their seminal
double concept album on 3 February
2017. With rejuvenated artwork, an
homage to the Texas-based graphics
design studio Pen & Pixel, The Texas-
Jerusalem Crossroads will be available
on double red and blue coloured vinyl,
2CD crucifix packaging and as a deluxe
4-piece vinyl box set with foil blocking,
limited to 1000 copies.
The box set includes the original and
new mix of the album, the first EP
(available for the first time on vinyl),
the legendary 2001 Peel session
(previously unreleased) as well as a
large format photo and lyric book and
a digital copy of all the audio.
You can pre-order a copy HERE and by
golly you should, so help me god.

SHAWN JAMES
Through The Valley
I blame Stealth for me wanting to go and
dig around for the truly brilliant Shawn
James and his song Through The Valley.
No doubt you have heard it before (it was
on a game apparently, imagine that) but
any guy that sounds like this when he
sings, plays a resonator and breaks your
heart all in one 3-minute song is OK with
me.
In fact I must admit I only know about
the chap as my son pointed me at him,
apparently the Blues and ‘real’ music are
the hot new thing, fancy that, the world
is truly going mad.
But Shawn James is seriously the real
deal, I can’t wait to hear more.
Find out more about the Geezer HERE

Echo & The Bunnymen
Bring On The Dancing Horses
I played my son Echo & The Bunnymen
the other day, Silver or maybe The
Cutter, I forget which and he thought it
was U2. It was one of those moments
where I would have really loved to have
seen Ian McCulloch’s face when that was
said.
And in truth there was definitely an
effects-laden guitar sound going on, but
for me whilst the Edge created
something, in fact many somethings,
truly magical, in Will Sergeant, the
Bunnymen were only equalled by the
Smiths at their best with another genius
by the name of Marr.
When the first ‘Best of’ came out – Bring
on the Dancing Horses - I remember
watching an interview where McCulloch
defended what was often seen as the end
of a creative career by arguing that
Leonard Cohen had put his first Best of
out in the late ‘60s and had gone on to
make some awesome music.
Looking back, whilst the fragmentation
of the band led to a few dodgy
releases, McCulloch and Sergeant have
gone on to create some of the finest
music of the new millennium and
whether they are calling it the
Bunnymen or not, they are still one of
the best sounding and opulently
creative bands around. Even if Mr
Sergeant often feels as though he is
just doing as he is told.
I’m going to try to remember each
week that the last song in the magazine
should be something special, and here
we are. Bring them on the chaps, bring
them on.