ALSO WORKING

…COURTNEY BARNETT (below) and KURT VILE release an album later this year. “It started out as, Maybe we’ll do a split 7-inch together,” says Vile. “No major goal to make it a full length, but it came together that way ’cos the vibe was so strong” …we’re delighted to relay the news that now Chas Hodges has completed his cancer treatment, CHAS & DAVE will return to the studio for their first

album since 2013… Dave Wakeling’s version of THE BEAT are finishing new album Here We Go Love, featuring a guest spot from The Specials’ Roddy Radiation. They’ll tour the UK in September … SLEAFORD MODS have begun work on a new album. “We started demoing again in February,” reveals voice Jason Williamson. “They weren’t great but they’ve given us a pointer. The lyrics have been

becoming more interesting and funnier.” Headds that t h ey ’ re st i cking to their stripped, head-on sound. “Reviews were saying, ‘They need to do something else’, and I started to listen, like an idiot. Andrew [Fearn, producer] looked at me like he wanted to head butt me. We don’t need it, people are still waking up to us” …BELLY are working on the

follow-up to 1995’s King, “with our old friend P aulQ. Kolderie working the knobs and faders.” Expect it in 2018 … the third solo JACK WHITE (left) album was confirmed last month by online images of the Third Man Records honcho and his musicians outside studios in Los Angeles and New York City. Jack’s last release, in April, was Battle Cry, a theme for the Warstic baseball bat company he co-owns…