MOJO November 2019

Ian Harrison A willing victim of Sonic Attack, MOJO Associate Editor Ian was thrilled this issue to fall into an intergalactic wormhole and look back on Hawkwind’s 1973 magnum opus Space Ritual (see p50), in the company of esteemed crew members (here he is with the mighty Stacia). Kevin Westenberg Kevin is excited to be back shooting after a five-year hiatus. He's currently working to fund and create a retrospective photography book and, in conjunction with the book, is helping create a movie about a life photographing musicians and other distinct personalities for over 30 years. Corey Brickley Corey is an editorial and publishing illustrator. His work’s appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Playboy and, of course, MOJO (see p85). Lead animator for the documentary Wild, Wild Country, and an…

MINDWARPING COLLECTION DESIGNED TO BE PLAYED AT maximum volume,” announced MOJO in December 2007, introducing the first volume of our CD series, Heavy Nuggets. The aim was to present a snapshot of British rock at the start of the 1970s, as psychedelia evolved into something gnarlier; where belligerence triumphed over whimsy. “Heavy music for heavy times,” we promised and, over three subsequent editions, we delivered that in spades. Now, finally, we’ve come up with the perfect line-up for a fifth volume. The roots and guiding principles are the same: aural “assault and battery on the human anatomy”, as Hawkwind would have it. But this time, we’ve expanded the frontiers of time and space to include cosmic freakouts, uncanny proto-metal, primo stoner rock and other sonic disturbances from the past five decades. It’s…

Amy Taylor AMYL SNIFFIN’ BOOT-GIRL What music are you currently grooving to? I’m gonna promo a bunch of Aussie bands I like, ha ha! Pinch Points, Miniskirt, Nasho, Peter Bibby, Vertigo, Parsnip, C.O.F.F.I.N. Tkay Maidza is so sick too. Out of Aus, I’ve been frothing Skepta, Mr Traumatik and Peckerhead lately. JPEGMafia’s new song is banging too. And X-Ray Spex’s Germfree Adolescents is always a classic. What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favourite album? It’s hard to pick an all-time favourite because then I’d have to pick a favourite genre and I don’t wanna. Sleaford Mods? I just can’t choose. Invasion Of Privacy by Cardi B? What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it? My first one, I think it was by Notorious B.I.G. and I got it…

IN THE SPRING OF 2018, ROGER DALTREY and Pete Townshend spoke to MOJO around the release of Daltrey’s tenth solo album. Inevitably, the future of The Who was also up for discussion. Should a new Who album be forthcoming, Townshend had a radical plan: he and his singer would share the songwriting chores. “If there was tricky karma between us once,” the guitarist concluded, “it feels as though it’s been worked out.” Eighteen months later, the first Who album in 13 years is not quite what Townshend predicted. It is, in fact, a late masterpiece of “tricky karma”, in which the tensions between its two creators have been positively weaponised one more time. This month, we’ve been granted audiences with Townshend and Daltrey to uncover the story of WHO , and…

ON SEPTEMBER 2, 2019, Roger Waters gave a live performance in support of imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who was sentenced to 50 weeks in prison in May after almost seven years in London’s Ecuadori-Embassy. Waters, backed by his ex-guitarist and former n Corner frontman Andy Fairweather Low, played an stic version of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here outside the Home Office on Westminster’s Marsham Street. Prior to the performance, Waters declared, “This is my walk-on part in this war. It’s important to show some solidarity… Empathy is the most valuable thing any human being can possess.” Empathy was among the themes of Roger Waters’ 2017-18 tour documented in the forthcoming concert movie, Us + Them, due for worldwide cinema release on October 4 and 6. The Us + Them tour was…

“I can now sing at the full power of my abilities.”RUFUS WAINWRIGHT “I’VE WRITTEN two operas and I’d like to write one more,” says Rufus Wainwright, calling in from his holiday home in Montauk, Long Island. “I’ve also worked in musical theatre and song cycles. But my true profession is as a pop songwriter. I have to look in on that eventually, and go for it.” Since Wainwright’s last pop-centric album, 2012’s Out Of The Game, he’s released Prima Donna, a recording of the opera he premiered in 2009; 2016’s Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets; and staged his second opera, Hadrian. Moving from Toronto to Los Angeles – to live nearer his daughter Viva – provided the catalyst for change. “2018 was the 20th anniversary of my first [self-titled] album,…