MOJO October 2021

Ian Harrison In this issue, MOJO’s News Editor attempts to fathom the devilish legend of Faust, talks to Jonny Trunk and XTC’s Colin Moulding, and digs the new album by The Bug. He can’t wait to get out and see some live music again, and draws comics in his spare time. Andrew Perry Andrew Perry’s first MOJO cover story was 1997’s emotional Nirvana oral history. His summit with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss this month was no less soul-stirring, and he particularly thanks the Zep legend for picking up the dinner tab. After ghost-writing for John Lydon and Tricky, his third assisted memoir lands in 2022. Shawn Brackbill Shawn is a photographer/director based in Brooklyn and Kansas City. A music lifer, he booked indie shows and tour managed before swapping…

Ian Harrison In this issue, MOJO’s News Editor attempts to fathom the devilish legend of Faust, talks to Jonny Trunk and XTC’s Colin Moulding, and digs the new album by The Bug. He can’t wait to get out and see some live music again, and draws comics in his spare time. Andrew Perry Andrew Perry’s first MOJO cover story was 1997’s emotional Nirvana oral history. His summit with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss this month was no less soul-stirring, and he particularly thanks the Zep legend for picking up the dinner tab. After ghost-writing for John Lydon and Tricky, his third assisted memoir lands in 2022. Shawn Brackbill Shawn is a photographer/director based in Brooklyn and Kansas City. A music lifer, he booked indie shows and tour managed before swapping truck stops for f-stops. His…

WHEN ROBERT PLANT AND ALISON KRAUSS CAME together to release Raising Sand in 2007, the album proved spectacularly effective at uniting disparate worlds. Hardened rock fans were introduced to a singer described by producer T Bone Burnett as “the Aretha Franklin of bluegrass”. Country aficionados discovered the rootsy nuances that had always lurked in the depths of Led Zeppelin’s Golden God. Raising Sand proved just as useful at drawing out the affinities between the varied musics Plant and Krauss loved: the laments of old Albion and weird rural America; the blues and R&B and multitudinous different manifestations of folk; the contemporary bands who tuned in to these haunting traditions. Now, as the duo reunite for a second set of diverse covers, Raise The Roof, we’ve commissioned them to pick a selection…

Toyah and Robert Fripp HIS AND HERS What music are you currently grooving to? Toyah: Pink Noise by Laura Mvula. I’ve been a massive fan since seeing Laura at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival about six years ago. Robert: Jón Leifs, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Peteris Vasks and Giya Kancheli as composers, and Hilary Hahn as player. What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favourite album? T: Roxy Music, For Your Pleasure. R: Wildfowers by Judy Collins. What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it? T: T.Rex, Electric Warrior, Vicarage Road Records, Kings Heath, Birmingham. It cost about 12s/6d. I still have it. R: My sister Patricia and me bought two 78s for our shared birthdays, April 1957, at Poole Music Stores, Wimborne: Elvis Presley’s Hound Dog and Tommy Steele’s Singing The Blues. Which musician, other than your-self,…

WHEN ROBERT PLANT AND ALISON KRAUSS CAME together to release Raising Sand in 2007, the album proved spectacularly effective at uniting disparate worlds. Hardened rock fans were introduced to a singer described by producer T Bone Burnett as “the Aretha Franklin of bluegrass”. Country aficionados discovered the rootsy nuances that had always lurked in the depths of Led Zeppelin’s Golden God. Raising Sand proved just as useful at drawing out the affinities between the varied musics Plant and Krauss loved: the laments of old Albion and weird rural America; the blues and R&B and multitudinous different manifestations of folk; the contemporary bands who tuned in to these haunting traditions. Now, as the duo reunite for a second set of diverse covers, Raise The Roof, we’ve commissioned them to pick a…

E-mail to: mojoreaders@bauermedia.co.uk UNLESS YOU SUPPORT WOLVERHAMPTON Wanderers, you might not feel you’ve much in common with Robert Plant, a rock icon from a time when we expected our heroes to be anything but relatable. But what’s immediately apparent from our interview with Plant this month is he’s very like a typical MOJO reader: insatiably curious about music; enthusiastic about sharing his latest discoveries; honest enough to understand that while he knows and loves a lot, there’s always something else worth hearing. MOJO joins Plant in the corner of a 15th century country pub, blasting North African electronica out of his phone. Later, he will talk candidly about how working with Alison Krauss revealed to him an enriching strain of American music that, in spite of his restless spirit of enquiry, he’d never…