MOJO December 2021

James McNair James has written for MOJO since 1996. He left London for the North East in 2015, and in no way misses the myriad cultural happenings and wealth of anchoring friendships he left behind, instead preferring clean air and sand between his toes. He writes about World Party from page 36. Alysse Gafkjen Alysse is an American portrait photographer whose work has served as the artwork for countless albums and promotional content for musicians of all genres. She photographed Sturgill Simpson on page 50. You can find more of her work at alyssegafkjen.com or follow her on Instagram @alyssegafkjen. Michael Jones Michael spent 10 years editing puzzle magazines, then 10 years writing about films for a TV guide. Music is just about the only other thing he knows, so now he compiles MOJO’s crossword…

THIS MONTH, WE’VE HANDED OWNERSHIP OF THE MOJO CD over to our friends in Idles. For the past few years, the Bristol quintet have earned a reputation as one of the most exciting punk bands in Britain, but their ambitious and enquiring music has always stretched further than hardcore genre confines – never more so than on their imminent fourth album, Crawler. Collected here, as Mark Bowen and Joe Talbot from Idles explain, “are some songs and artists amongst many that influenced the writing and recording process for Crawler. From the deep dark ‘60s pop of The Flamingos and The Rivingtons, to exploring violent sound in newer ways (Sophie and Suuns). Songs that taught us new elements we brought to our sound, in our vocal performances (Moses Sumney and Nick…

Brian Wilson THE BEACH BOY What music are you currently grooving to? Currently I’m listening to rock’n’roll. I’ve been wanting to make a rock’n’roll album for years and years. I have some ideas, so hopefully I’ll be able to do that one next. My favourite rock’n’roll band to listen to are The Rolling Stones. They are always my go-to rock’n’roll band. I love them so much. What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favourite album? I’d have to say Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Obviously, I love The Beatles and we have always had a mutual love and respect for each other. They say that it was birthed from hearing Pet Sounds… I don’t know… but I just love that album. What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you…

E-mail to: mojoreaders@bauermedia.co.uk THE BUSINESS OF BEING IN LED ZEPPELIN was not a job for shirkers. What the various romantics, hedonists, mystics and virtuosi in the band shared was an often ferocious work ethic, albeit one that Jimmy Page felt obliged to enforce from time to time. Remembering the draughty conditions of Headley Grange, where they began their fourth album in January 1971, Page does concede it was “a bit austere”. But “We were there,” he says, “to work.” As the years pass – and it’s been 50 since Led Zeppelin IV first astonished the world – the stories evolve, and different perspectives come to the fore. Building a rock monolith sturdy enough to withstand a half-century takes serious graft, but this month’s new interviews with Messrs Page, Plant and Jones also…

THE HOT NEWS AND BIZARRE STORIES FROM PLANET MOJO WHEN MOJO calls Kevin Rowland in late September he’s quarantining in a hotel in Thailand, listening to new mixes of 1982’s Number 1 album Too-Rye-Ay. He’s conferring with mixing engineer Pete Schwier and returned violinist/bandleader Helen O’Hara: the current song they’re working on? The transcendence-chasing Let’s Make This Precious. Is the new version, as the lyric demands, crying pure and true? “A lot more than it was,” says Rowland. The journey to Too-Rye-Ay As It Could Have Sounded, as with most things in Rowland’s mercurial career, has not been simple. While the original LP and its classic single Come On Eileen both topped the UK charts in summer 1982, he says he was prevented by his label from mixing it to his satisfaction.…

…BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD have recorded new album Ants From Up There at Chale Abbey Studios on the Isle Of Wight… KENDRICK LAMAR (right) dropped online hints that the follow-up to 2017’s DAMN. is imminent: “I continue to pursue my life’s calling. There’s beauty in completion.” In early September he registered new songs Driving Down The Darkness, Before The Hangman’s Noose, Pale Horse Apocalypse and more… NOEL GALLAGHER is recording the second side of his new High Flying Birds LP, having finished side one before the summer. He told the Life Goals football podcast that he keeps a cardboard cut out of Man City manager Pep Guardiola “in the studio overseeing the tactical analysis of the songs” …Klaxons leader and Abba’s new live band director JAMES RIGHTON has recorded a…