UNCUT MARCH 2018 TAKE 250
W hat is the more insurrectionist gesture: a rock gig that turns to theatrical destruction, all aggressive posturing and smashed instruments? Or one where nobody in the band moves a great deal, but the sounds they create have an intensity and abandon that transcend our normal ideas of a live spectacle?
this is the question that must have been posed thousands of times by those lucky enough to have experienced My Bloody Valentine live. I first saw them in 1987, in an Oxford pub backroom, where they appeared to have only marginal control over the cacophony they unleashed. two years later, they were one of the most fêted bands in Britain, but the opening night of the Isn’t
Anything tour, at Oxford Poly, witnessed a band caving in on themselves. their music was so volatile, by design, that meltdown was always a possibility; they literally could not finish a single song. Still, if rock is often predicated on risk, unpredictability, a ruthless contrarian streak and a desire to test the parameters of what we know, then Kevin Shields and his resilient bandmates can only be understood as one of the most exciting and important bands of the past 30 years.
Exposure to the Valentines introduced me to a radical aesthetic, and to the boundless, giddy potential of noise – something we celebrate in this special issue of Uncut. Besides Michael Bonner’s definitive interview with MBV, we’ve come up with 49 more records that have harnessed sonic extremism in the service of great music, and tom Pinnock has compiled 15 of them for what is, I think, one of the best CDs we’ve ever given away with the mag. It’s a satisfying way for me to bow out, after nearly four years of editing
Uncut, the Ultimate Music Guide and various other special magazines in the family. I’ve been very privileged to serve such a knowledgeable, inexhaustibly passionate and open-minded group of readers. thank you for your support and indulgence, and apologies if I maybe went on about the Grateful Dead, hiss Golden Messenger and the Necks a little more than was necessary.
Please be every bit as kind to my successors: you’ll be in safe hands, I can assure you.