STEWART LEE VS THE MAN-WULF

John Mackay & Sally Homer, in association with Debi Allen/Curtis Brown present
STEWART LEE vs THE MAN-WULF
BRAND NEW SHOW
LEICESTER SQUARE THEATRE, LONDON

3^rd December 2024 – 17^th January 2025

AND UK TOURING THROUGHOUT 2025

In this brand-new show, Lee shares his stage with a tough-talking werewolf comedian from the dark forests of North America who hates humanity. The Man-Wulf lays down a ferocious comedy challenge to the culturally irrelevant and physically enfeebled Lee. Can the beast inside us all be silenced with the silver bullet of Lee’s unprecedentedly critically acclaimed style of stand-up?

Stewart Lee, (“the world’s greatest living stand-up comedian” The Times), is in danger of being left behind. He’s approaching sixty with debilitating health conditions, his TV profile has diminished, and his once BAFTA award winning style of stand-up seems obsolete in the face of a wave of callous Netflix-endorsed comedy of anger, monetising the denigration of minorities for millions of dollars. But can Lee unleash his inner Man-Wulf to position himself alongside comedy legends like Dave Chapelle, Ricky Gervais and Jordan Peterson at the forefront of side-splitting stadium-stuffing shit-posting?

Opening at Leicester Square Theatre in December 2024 the new show will tour to UK cities throughout 2025.

Leicester Sq Theatre, London 3^rd Dec 2024 – 17^th Jan 2025 7pm, except for 6pm and 8.30 pm Sat 4^th Jan. 0207 734 2222 www.leicestersquaretheatre.com

STEWART LEE vs THE MAN-WULF 2025 TOUR SCHEDULE

January 2025

Sunday 19th January 2025 – Mayflower Theatre, Southampton – TICKETS
Monday 20th January 2025 – Dorking Halls, Dorking – TICKETS
Tuesday 21st January 2025 – Dorking Halls, Dorking – TICKETS
Friday 24th January 2025 – Symphony Hall, Birmingham – TICKETS
Saturday 25th January 2025 – Symphony Hall, Birmingham – TICKETS
Sunday 26th January 2025 – Symphony Hall, Birmingham – TICKETS
Tuesday 28th January 2025 – Theatre Royal, York
Wednesday 29th January 2025 – Theatre Royal, York
Thursday 30th January 2025 – Theatre Royal, York
Friday 31st January 2025 – Theatre Royal, York

February 2025

Saturday 1st February 2025 – Theatre Royal, York
Monday 3rd February 2025 – Playhouse, Oxford – TICKETS
Tuesday 4th February 2025 – Playhouse, Oxford – TICKETS
Wednesday 5th February 2025 – Playhouse, Oxford – TICKETS
Thursday 6th February 2025 – Playhouse, Oxford – TICKETS
Friday 7th February 2025 – Playhouse, Oxford – TICKETS
Saturday 8th February 2025 – Playhouse, Oxford – TICKETS
Monday 10th February 2025 – The Marlowe, Canterbury
Thursday 13th February 2025 – De Montfort Hall, Leicester – TICKETS
Friday 14th February 2025 – De Montfort Hall, Leicester – TICKETS
Saturday 15th February 2025 – Wycombe Swan, High Wycombe – TICKETS
Sunday 16th February 2025 – Wycombe Swan, High Wycombe – TICKETS
Tuesday 18th February 2025 – The Lowry, Salford – TICKETS
Wednesday 19th February 2025 – The Lowry, Salford – TICKETS
Thursday 20th February 2025 – The Lowry, Salford – TICKETS
Friday 21st February 2025 – The Lowry, Salford – TICKETS
Saturday 22nd February 2025 – The Lowry, Salford – TICKETS

April 2025

Tuesday 1st April 2025 – Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield
Wednesday 2nd April 2025 – Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield
Thursday 3rd April 2025 – New Theatre, Peterborough – TICKETS
Friday 4th April 2025 – Palace Theatre, Southend – TICKETS
Saturday 5th April 2025 – Palace Theatre, Southend – TICKETS
Sunday 6th April 2025 – Palace Theatre, Southend – TICKETS
Tuesday 22nd April 2025 – Royal & Derngate, Northampton – TICKETS
Wednesday 23rd April 2025 – Royal & Derngate, Northampton – TICKETS
Monday 28th April 2025 – Playhouse, Nottingham – TICKETS
Tuesday 29th April 2025 – Playhouse, Nottingham – TICKETS
Wednesday 30th April 2025 – Playhouse, Nottingham – TICKETS

May 2025

Thursday 1st May 2025 – Playhouse, Nottingham – TICKETS
Tuesday 6th May 2025 – Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool – TICKETS
Wednesday 7th May 2025 – Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool – TICKETS
Thursday 8th May 2025 – Playhouse, Leeds – TICKETS
Friday 9th May 2025 – Playhouse, Leeds – TICKETS
Saturday 10th May 2025 – Playhouse, Leeds – TICKETS
Monday 12th May 2025 – Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton – TICKETS
Tuesday 13th May 2025 – Orchard Theatre, Dartford – TICKETS
Wednesday 14th May 2025 – Orchard Theatre, Dartford – TICKETS
Thursday 15th May 2025 – King’s Theatre, Portsmouth

MANY MORE DATES TO BE ADDED

2) WORK IN PROG DATES NEW SHOW

Small club dates of these seem to sell in a few hours as the venues announce them to their lists but I will be doing some half hrs of new material at various festivals and bigger gigs between now and Dec, and a small venue London run.

Sunday 16^th June – 30 mins at Bristol Comedy Garden w Lou Sanders, Louise Young, Jamali Maddix and Felicity Ward https://www.bristolcomedygarden.co.uk/sunday-late

Sunday 28^th July – I will be doing 30 mins very early somewhere at Latitude Festival

Saturday 17^th August – I will be doing 30 mins somewhere at Green Man Festival

Sunday 1^st Sept – I will be doing 30 mins early at End Of The Road Festival

Sunday 8^th Sept – 30 mins at Laughterarma Castlefield Bowl with Lou Sanders, Louise Young, Rob Auton and Felicity Ward https://dice.fm/event/yo2r8r-laughterama-stewart-lee-lou-sanders-more-8th-sep-castlefield-bowl-manchester-tickets

End of Nov I will be doing various new material shows at the Museum of Comedy in London. https://www.museumofcomedy.com/whats-on/

3) SNOWFLAKE TORNADO / BASIC LEE

Stewart’s 2019-2022 touring show Snowflake/Tornado, which was originally broadcast as a BBC Special in Autumn 2023 is now available to buy or rent “on demand” from www.mediagarageproductions.com

BASIC LEE has been filmed and looks brilliant and will be on Sky Arts/Now TV soon. We were very lucky with a sharp and funny audience that really drove the recordings.

4) KING ROCKER

King Rocker, the Nightingales rockumentary I made with Michael Cumming, is now available to stream globally.

“One of my all-time favourite rock docs” MARK KERMODE, BBC
“It’s warm, it’s funny, it’s fascinating” Radcliffe and Maconie, BBC6 Music
“The film is ace, the band is ace, Rob is a remarkable man” Marc Riley, BBC6 Music
“A beautiful and fucking hilarious and moving film” Shaun Keavney, BBC6 Music

To celebrate 3 years since the acclaimed film King Rocker premiered on Sky Arts and Robin Ince noticed that “the whole country is watching King Rocker” we will be making the film available internationally on that exact same day. From February 6th everyone, anywhere, will be able to watch. Comedian Stewart Lee and director Michael Cumming (Brass Eye, Toast Of London) investigate a missing piece of punk history. Robert Lloyd, best known for fronting cult Birmingham band’s The Prefects and The Nightingales, has survived under the radar survived under the radar for over four decades. But how, if at all, does Robert want to be remembered? The anti-rockumentary ‘King Rocker’ weaves the story of Birmingham’s undervalued underdog autodidact into that of the city’s forgotten public sculpture of King Kong, eschewing the celebrity interview and archive-raid approach for a free-associating bricolage of Indian food, bewildered chefs, vegetable gardening, prescription medicines, pop stardom and pop art. Featuring Frank Skinner, Nigel Slater, Robin Askwith, Samira Ahmed, John Peel, Gina Birch, Marc Riley, Danny Fields, John Taylor, Paul Morley, Fuzzbox, Kevin Eldon, Nish Kumar, Bridget Christie, Andrew O’Neill, Seann Walsh, Paul Putner, Steve Beresford, and more. ‘King Rocker’ is now available to pre-order. From February 6th you can stream and download globally.

Film trailer URL: https://youtu.be/Zy-ZeKkgXas

Stream URL: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/kingrockerfilm

5) ITALIAN WESTERNS

I did this pilot of a thing that never happened 4 years ago and Egghead Ince has seen fit to put it out there. It’s just us talking about films for 2 hours.

An Uncanny Hour Special in Three Parts: Italian Westerns (Pt I) with Stewart Lee and Robin Ince https://www.patreon.com/posts/101751159

6) STOP THE TORIES

Carol Vorderman wants us all to work together to stop the Tories, and here’s how https://stopthetories.vote

7) THE FALL – SLATES LIVE

I have done sleeve notes for this superb live album

https://bellaunion.bandcamp.com/album/slates-live

8) STEWART LEE INTRODUCES THE GARAGE PUNK GREATS

LEXINGTON, PENTONVILLE RD, LONDON JULY 1^ST-3^RD
DOORS 7.30

At 8.30 each night sharp, Stewart Lee (“world’s greatest living stand-up comedian” – The Times) offers 30-45 unfinished minutes of work-in-progress material from his forthcoming show Stewart Lee vs The Man-Wulf before bringing on a headline set from one his favourite Garage Punk Greats at 9.30

Monday 1^st July. The Primevals. Now entering their fifth decade, and a dozen albums down, Glasgow’s gutterbilly veterans lay widescreen Americana and free jazz flavoured freak-outs over a durable garage punk template. Immortal and imperious at last, now The Primevals really are what they once merely dreamed of being. https://www.theprimevals.com

Tuesday 2^nd July. The Shadracks. Garage punk’s not dead. This youthful trio from English garage punk’s traditional Kentish spawning ground combine a reverence for the form with a disrespect for its application that fuse into an action-painted explosion of Instant Art ™. https://damagedgoods.co.uk/bands/the-shadracks/

Wednesday 3^rd July. The Fallen Leaves. Sucked up from the sticky carpet strands of Subway Sect, these sharp-operating masters of Corby-creased mod-punk are the sound of a splattered psychedelic Sixties canvas slashed into shape by a ’76 stanley knife. The Who’s A Quick One While He’s Away is pushed down a punk rock escalator by the Hatton Garden Guitar Gang, tambourines in hand. https://www.musicglue.com/the-fallen-leaves/

https://www.thelexington.co.uk/events.php

9) BILLY CHILDISH AT ROUGH TRADE EAST JULY 4TH

Ted Kessler has written a book about Billy Childish, To Ease My Troubled Mind, and he interviewed me for the introduction. We will both be in conversation w Billy and the estimable Laura Barton at Rough Trade East, London at 7pm.

https://dice.fm/event/38nyg-billy-childish-in-conversation-with-ted-kessler-laura-barton-book-signing-4th-jul-rough-trade-east-london-tickets?lng=en

10) BRIGHTON PSYCH FEST 30^TH AUG

Brighton Psych Fest asked me to host and program a stage, which is reckless of them as the last thing I curated, the 2016 Prestatyn All Tomorrow’s Parties, went bust. And no, I didn’t get paid either. Nonetheless, here’s a mind-melting day out of acid-hued action from five of my favourite acts, with minimal onstage interruptions from me. I’ve tried to skew the selection towards Brighton and Hastings talent because sometimes we don’t always acknowledge the geniuses on our own doorsteps.

The Bevis Frond

Nick Saloman’s enduring underground legends enter their thirty-eighth year utterly undimmed, surging inland from the seafronts of the South Coast with paisley power-pop anthems Teenage Fanclub would’ve clobbered them for, short sharp shocks of Wipers-influenced melodic hardcore, and vast electrical storms of duelling guitars that sound like the ‘70s Miles Davis band battling The Quicksilver Messenger Service. The Bevis Frond are a silver thread running through my life. Please play High In A Flat.

The Physics House Band

Like punk never happened, the Brighton trio offers ugly-beautiful instrumental progressive rock that aging King Crimson fans think no-one can play anymore, leavened with a pastoral psychedelic seasoning, a Mondrian mathematical complexity, and a sly sense of its own audacious absurdity.

Alison Cotton

Formerly a folk rocker with The Left Outsides, the Sunderland multi-instrumentalist currently essays vast John Cale-coloured string-drones with incantatory overtones, wrenching ritual music for our ruined land from the overbowed strings of her viola and the breathy bellows of the harmonium. A Nico for now.

Eliza Skelton

Like a cross between Steve Nicks and a Stygian witch that can see into your soul, this long-term low-key local legend finally goes solo, and delivers an immersive and smoothly cinematic epic acid-folk music of widescreen grandeur, wyrd enough to thrill weirdoes, yet classy enough to subversively snaffle the casual consumer.

Secluded Bronte

People who hate my stand-up often deny it even constitutes ‘comedy’. Doubtless many would wonder if the work of the veteran improvisatory trio Secluded Bronte should be considered ‘music’. Instruments may be involved, perhaps furniture, maybe even words, or all three in a chance collision of calculated heterogenity. All that is certain – time will pass, and something will happen.

Start your day in a right state. https://brightonpsychfest.com

11) STEVE WYNN TRADES HALL, WALTHAMSTOW, SUNDAY SEPT 22^ND AT 2PM

I will be interviewing the Dream Syndicate front man and solo artists Steve Wynn about his book I Wouldn”t Say It If It Wasn’t True, and Steve will do a solo set.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/steve-wynn-live-and-in-conversation-with-stewart-lee-tickets-911261998167

12) I ARROGANTLY RECOMMEND SOME HAPPENINGS

ITHELL COLQUHOUN – ELEMENTAL, BEN HUNTER GALLERY, – 31^st May to July 26^th A London commercial gallery showcases the work of the surrealist, whose reprinted travel books I wrote intro’s for. https://www.benhunter.gallery/exhibitions-all/

JONNY & THE BAPTISTS – THE HAPPINESS INDEX Filthy communist musical comedy from the much more talented than strictly necessary Simon & Garfunkel of sinngalongasocialism JUNE 13th-14th Bath Rondo, 15^th Cambridge Performing Arts, 16^th Colchester Arts, 17^th Exeter Phoenix

ELIZA CARTHY The first lady of folk and reigning Queen of The Faeries in full flight JUNE 19^th Gateshead Glasshouse

EX-EASTER ISLAND HEAD You must see this group. They are minimalist noise art but come on like entertainment. Absolutely captivating, classy, beautiful and sublime. No-one could fail to think this was amazing and brilliant. JUNE 7^th Brighton Hope, 8^th Cambridge Storey’s Field

THE LOVELY EGGS Art-punk duo JUNE 1^st M’cr New Century

KATIE SPENCER A 60s/70s style folk singer I just found out about. June 6^th Sheffield Lantern, 7^th Cley Marshes Visitor Centre, 8^th Otley Music Festival.

FLAT & THE CURVES – GIRLS’ NIGHT OUT TOUR. The prosecco hen night from hell housed in a surprisingly savage musical comedy form by these witty, obscene, often clownishly grotesque, and also unnecessarily musically gifted, four best girlfriends you never had. I love Flat & The Curves and I don’t know why! The Nolans of Filth! JUNE 4^th Kings Lynn Corn Exchange, 5^th Maidstone Hazlitt, 6^th Rickmansworth Watersmeet, 7^th Wellingborough Castle Theatre, 8^th Coventry Albany, 9^th Hereford, 10^th East Grinstead Chequer Mead, 12^th Harpended Eric Morecambe Centre, 13^th Mansfield Palace, 14^th Stockport Plaza, 15^th Rotherham Civic, 16^th Leeds City Varieties, 18^th Middleton Arena, 20^th Redditch Palace, 21^st Bishop’s Stortford South Mill Arts, 22^nd Bury St Edmunds Theatre Royal, 23^rd Newport Riverfront, 26^th St Helen’s Theatre Royal, 29^th Lowestoft Marina JULY 3^rd Aberdeen Tivoli, 4^th Dundee Gardyne, 5^th Dunfemlin Alhambra, 6^th Livingston Howden Park, 10^th South Shields Custom House, 11^th Lancaster Grand, 14^th Camberley Theatre, 16^th Taunton Brewhouse, 18^th Winchester Theatre RoyaL, 19^TH Tewkesbury Roses, 20^th Stevenage Gordon Craig, 21^st Tamworth Assembly Rooms

EXETER COMEDY FESTIVAL June 7^th-8^th. The brilliant Will Adamsdale has assembled a Great Western weekend of the following to turns, all of whom I have seen and are great. Mike Wozniak, Josie Long, Bec Hill, John Hegley, Spencer Jones, Jordan Brookes, Will Adamsdale, Simon Munnery, Ben Moor Joanna Neary, & Gavin Osborn. And the following who I don’t know – Louise Leigh, Kev Mudd, Amy Mason, Stevie Martin, Ed Tripp, Louis Burgess, Corpsing, Lulu Poppelwell, Ed Gaughan, Alex Kitson, Burt Williamson, Amy Matthews, Mary O’Connell, Lucy Pearman, Charlotte Evans, Comedy Club 4 Kids, Joe Mayo and Merry Martin, THE MIGHTY KIDS BEATBOX COMEDY GAMESHOW & Spork presents ‘Worst Poet Wins’. With the Edinburgh Fringe increasingly financially fucked the door is open for other cool festivals to become a vital staging post for all kindsa comedy. G0 ADADMSKIDALE!!!! https://www.exetercomedyfestival.com

BEN MOOR/JO NEARY MASSIVE The sometime art/comedy co-workers have solo and duo shows on.

7th June 2024 – THE LITTLE MINT @ THE METHODIST, Exeter. BEN MOOR: Pronoun Trouble: Miscellaneous Subjects That Crossed My Mind While Listening To A Lecture About Chuck Jones’s Hunting Trilogy (1951-53) (Which Was, Nevertheless, Really Good)

7th June 2024 – THE LITTLE MINT @ THE METHODIST, Exeter. JOANNA NEARY Wasp In A Cardigan

8TH JUNE 2024 – School Room@The Methodist, Exeter. Ben Moor and Joanna Neary BookTalkBookTalkBook

9th June 2024 – Hen & Chickens Theatre Bar, London N1 2NA. Ben Moor and Joanna Neary BookTalkBookTalkBook – Plus Works-In-Progress

FALLEN LEAVES The Gentlemen Adventurers of sharp-dressed mod-punk JUNE 8^th London Dublin Castle, JULY 20^th Kingston Fighting Cocks, SEPT 14^th London Dublin Castle, NOV 2^nd London Hope & Anchor

RAIN PARADE LA’s ‘80s psychedelic revivalists revived JUNE 14^th Bristol Strange Brew, 15^th Leeds Brudenell, 16^th M’;cr Night & Day, 18^th Nottingham Metronome, 19^th London 229

PATTI SMITH QUARTET June 25^th Brighton Dome, 27^th-28^th Dublin Vicar St, JULY 21^st London Somerset House

DETROIT COBRAS Garage punk party time JULY ^2nd Bristol Lost Horizon, 3^RD M’cr Rebellion, 4^th Glasgow Oran Mor, 5^th Leeds Brudenell, 6^th London Camden Forge

THE SADIES Surf-twanged country-Canadiana JULY 3^rd Oxford Bullingdon, 4^th Leeds Brudenell, 5^th Eaton Farm Park Woodbridge, 6^th London 100 Club

IDLER FESTIVAL Egghead art-wank events. Fenton House, Hampstead, London. July 5^th – 7^th. ZADIE SMITH . ROWAN WILLIAMS · TIM KEY. DOMINIC WEST · DJ PAULETTE · NINA STIBBE. ARTHUR SMITH · OLIVIA LAING · CHARLIE HIGSON. ROSIE HOLT · SALENA GODDEN · BEN MOOR. REBECCA & MICHAEL FRAYN · CALEB AZUMAH NELSON. GUY STANDING · LUCY COOKE · CHRIS LINTOTT . ANIEFIOK EKPOUDOM · MARK VERNON · CLARE POLLARD . GEORGIA MANN · GAVIN PRETOR-PINNEY · HENRY ELIOT . VIRGINIA IRONSIDE · CATHERINE FITZGERALD . GUY HAYWARD · LOUISA YOUNG · MIXMASTER MORRIS. SUNDRA LAWRENCE · RUTH IVO · ROWAN PELLING.ALISON COTTON · MURRAY LACHLAN YOUNG.LOUISE WINTER · ROBERT ROWLAND SMITH. DIVYANAND CAIRD · NATALIE WILDGOOSE. HARRY MOUNT & JOHN DAVIE · DIANA DE CABARRUS.ROB ORCHARD · LUCIA STUART · OLI BROADBENT.ELLA BERTHOUD · RACHEL KELLY · EMILY RHODES. https://www.idler.co.uk/festival/

DANIEL KITSON – COLLABORATOR. The world’s greatest living stand-up’s new show. JULY 7th and 8th – Bolton Octagon – On sale Now (with code Kitson2024). KISTON says, “You can still Buy or Rent Tree (a good film or a good play i did with good Tim Key in the solid past) by clicking HERE.”

BLUE AEROPLANES 27th July, London Lafayette. Lone one-off from poet Gerard Langley’s televisionary performance art post-punks, generations of Bristol beatniks in full flight.

ART W SEANN WALSH The TV comedian tackles Yasmina Reza’s much misunderstood masterpiece. Lighthouse Poole (29-31 Aug), Theatre Royal Bath (3-7 Sept), Norwich Theatre Royal (10-14 Sept), Mercury Theatre Colchester (17-21 Sept), Malvern Theatres (24-28 Sept), Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne (30 Sept-5 Oct), Nottingham Theatre Royal (7-12 Oct), Belgrade Theatre, Coventry (15-19 Oct) and Sheffield Lyceum Theatre (22-26 Oct).

MELT BANANA Japanese art rock geniuses return. SEP 1^st Grimsby Docks Academy, 10^th Carlisle Brickyard, 11^th Edinburgh Mash House, 12^th Glasgow Stereo, 17^th Ipswich Baths, 24^th Cardiff Globe. A must!!!

LLOYD COLE Solo tour by the godfather of arch introspective indie SEPT 4^th Limerick Lime Tree, 6^th Ballycotton Sea Church, 8^th Bexhill on Sea De La Ware Pavillion, 9^th Exeter Corn Exchange, 10^th Bath Komedia, 13^th Guildford G Live, 14^th Bury St Edmonds Apex, 16^th B’ham Town Hall, 18^th Shrewsbury Severn, 19^th Lytham St Anne’s Lowther Pavillion, 21^st Hamilton Town House, 22^nd Greenock Beacon, 24^th Whitley Bay Playhouse, 25^th Ilkley King’s Hall, 26^th Sheffield City Hall

CAROL VORDERMAN The Pepper Potts of pinko politics uses maths and memory to hold the world to account. SEPT 13^th M’cr Home, 14^th Chester Storyhouse, 15^th Bristol Old Vic, 17^th Oxford Playhouse, 20^th Guildford G Live, 21^st London QEH, 24^th B’ham Town Hall, 25^th Cardiff New, 27^th Newcastle Tyne Theatre, 28^th Doncaster Cast, 30^th Buxton Opera House https://www.carolvordermanlive.com

MARK RADCLIFFE AND MARC RILEY LIVE SEPT 26^th Shepherd’s Bush Empire London NOV 3^rd Shrewsbury Severn, 5^th Crewe Lyceum, 10^th Warrington Parr Hall.

MUDHONEY Grunge godheads still growling, SEPT 27^th Brighton Concorde 1, 28^th M’cr New Century, 29^th Glasgow St Luke’s, OCT 1^st Bristol Academy, 2^nd London Electric Ballroom

LONG RYDERS Another final chance to see the resurrected and now seemingly immortal Alt Country Punk pioneers – like the Clash gone Nashville – The Long Ryders. OCTOBER 10^th Glasgow Oran Mor, 11^th Birkenhead Future Yard, 13^th M’cr Band On The Wall, 14^th Nottingham Metronom2, 16^th London 229, 18^th St Leonards Piper

ALFIE BROWN Brilliant pure stand-up – Edinburgh Fringe & Touring https://www.alfiebrowncomedian.com/

TIRZAH GARWOOD: Beyond Ravilious, Dulwich Picture Gallery London, 19 November 2024–26 May 2025. The first major exhibition devoted to the artist and designer Tirzah Garwood (1908–1951) since 1952. Best known until now as the wife of Eric Ravilious and as the author of the autobiography Long Live Great Bardfield, Garwood excelled as a fine artist and printmaker. Her diverse and enchanting works are gems of the mid-20th century.

THE DAMNED Black Album/Strawberries line-up, with hard-wristed Holy Grail headhunter Rat Scabies back on drums. DEC 4^th Newcastle NX, 5^th Glasgow Barrowlands, 6^th M’c Academy, 8^th Leeds Academy, 9^th Nottingham Rock City, 10^th W’hampton Halls, 12^th Bristol Beacon, 13^th S’hampton Guuildhall, 14^th Eastbourne Winter Gardens, 16^th Cambs Corn X, 18^th London Roundhouse

13) IN OUR LAMENTATIONS 2024

Tony Oxley (Sheffield’s Sunny Murray, 1938)
John M Burns (His modesty blazed, 1939)
John Pilger (News terrier, 1939)
David Soul (The covered man, an inspiration 1943)
Annie Nightingale (Gateway drug, 1940)
Pitchfork (Signal to noise, 1996)
Mary Weiss (She led the pack, 1948)
Chris Karrer (Archangel’s Thunderbirdman, 1947)
Iasos (Greek space muso, 1947)
Phil Niblock (NY art noise, 1933)
Pluto Shervington (Ram Goat Liver Eater, 1950)
Tisa Farrow (Zombies ripped her flesh, 1951)
Norman Jewison (Rollerball Superstar, 1926)
Neil Kulkarni (Era-enhancing music critic, 1972)
Wayne Kramer (He kicked out the jams motherfucker, 1945)
Steve Brown (He left Avalon and taught the world to sing, 1954)
Christopher Priest (Dorset future-ist, 1943)
Aston “Family Man” Barrett (dub bass headcase, 1946)
Ian Lavender (Don’t tell him, Pike, 1946)
Damo Suzuki (Krautrock witness cuddled me & Noel Fielding, 1950)
John Rotheroe (Shire Book Seer, 1935)
Steve Wright (massive old-skool pro made it look easy, 1954)
Ewen Mackintosh (Office secondary superstar, 1973)
Alan Tomlinson (Jazz trombonist, dry northern wit, beatnik, 1947)
Jenni Nuttall (Chaucerian)
Richard Lewis (Worthwhile American comedian, 1947)
Nick Dimbleby (Sculptor of note, scholar, gentleman, comedy fan, 1946)
Edward Bond (Whitehouse-infuriator, 1934)
Karl Wallinger (Waterboys’ prime period pianist, 1957)
Eric Carmen (Raspberry sensation, 1949)
Wally Shoup (Hard-blowin’ hero, 1944)
The Wye Salmon (pollution-fucked fish)
Paul Brett (Crazy World guitarist, 1947)
Shane Baldwin (Vice Squad drummer and punk scribe, 1963)
John Sinclair (Beatnik, 1941)
Carl Andre (None more brick, 1935)
Graeme Naysmith (Pale Saint)
Marian Zazeela (Eternal Musician, 1940)
Shelley Ganz (Claimed, at last, 1959)
Steve Albini (Big blackhead, 1962)
Dennis Thompson (He also kicked out the jams motherfucker, 1948)
Gary Floyd (Double happy dick punk, 1953)
Roger Corman (King of the Bees, 1926)

14) STEVE ALBINI 2002

I found the death of Steve Albini unexpectedly distressing. All showbiz is essentially a branch of organized crime. Albini tried to navigate it ethically. Here’s an interview I did with him in March 2002 re All Tomorrow’s Parties, a festival I curated 14 years later before if went under.

Steve Albini / All Tomorrow’s Parties 2002

“I don’t accept that aspiring to mainstream success is natural,” says Steve Albini. “By the time I was 10, I realised it didn’t matter what people thought of me. I have to look at myself in the mirror when I shave in the morning. I’d rather not look at a coward or someone who was exploiting people.”

As the provocative frontman of the controversial noise band Big Black, Steve Albini was the conscience of the 1980s American underground scene, famous for not even taking calls from major record labels. From the late 1980s, his day job as the cut-price producer of important albums, including the Pixies’ Surfer Rosa, Nirvana’s In Utero, PJ Harvey’s Rid of Me and Low’s Secret Name, brought him a different kind of renown.

Next month, Albini’s current band, Shellac, will host the fourth All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, for which they have drawn up the programme. It’s an inspired pairing. All Tomorrow’s Parties, held at a Pontin’s holiday camp in Camber Sands, East Sussex, has defied received wisdom, proving that rock festivals need not be appalling. The three-day event offers indoor stages, working toilets, an absence of corporate sponsorship, chalet accommodation, and a nearby miniature-golf course (recommended by the British miniature-golf international Andy Miller). Albini’s lifelong commitment to defying the music industry makes him the festival’s perfect public face, and his stewardship promises a fascinating line-up.

Albini was a weak and miserable child, saved by 1970s punk. Michael Azerrad’s history of the American hardcore-punk scene, Our Band Could Be Your Life, includes a scene from Albini’s university days in Chicago that it’s hard to resist investing with significance. For his fine-art course, the campus’s most unpopular geek stood behind a Plexi-glas wall and insulted passers-by, who were invited to throwthings at him. A bowling pin prematurely shattered the screen and perhaps saved Albini and his onlookers from performance-art martyrdom.

Twenty years on, Albini’s status as a professional artist is still threatened by his status as a professional irritant. The 1980s probably wasn’t the ideal time for him to launch Big Black. In a world where the singer-as-seer notion blossomed, Albini’s attempts to write and perform in the personas of American archetypes gone sour perhaps seemed confusing. Over a relentless, pounding backing, Big Black gave voice to the bored arsonists of Kerosene, the redneck driver of The Power of Independent Trucking and the child-abusers of Jordan, Minnesota. Albini seemed genuinely surprised by the protests that greeted his next project, named after a genuine Japanese superhero, Rapeman.

“There’s no way it can be okay for Quentin Tarantino to make violent gangster movies, but not all right for someone to write songs with similar content,” Albini says with a tinge of world-weariness. “At least if people are arguing about my subject material, it means there’s some subject material there. I think I’m normal. I’m a regular guy. I can listen to a song that says Please Worship Satan, and to one that tells the fable of the devil going down to Georgia to play a fiddle. I think the average listener gets it. People who criticise the average listener, and put themselves on an intellectual plane above them, eventually betray themselves as the fools they are.”

Like all great satirists, Albini is motivated by righteous disgust, though to admit it would be too close to self-aggrandisement. Instead, he concludes: “You can sing about something revolting to reinforce the fact that you don’t like it. That seems to me to be a good and moral thing to do.”

Today, the outlet for Albini’s frustrations is Shellac, a trio playing a superevolved version of hardcore punk, with unparalleledsensitivity to the power of silence, space and structure. The band opened its last London show with an exquisitely interminable reading of the song Didn’t We Deserve a Look at You the Way You Really Are, defiant in its refusal to develop into any recognisable rock shape.

“You’re talking about the Long Slow Boring Song, yes?” he asks when I mention the gig. “People coming to see us probably know we’re likely to drag it out. We’re not trying to put people off. The experience of playing it is hypnotising. Improvisation is a facet of the band. We like indulging ourselves. The audience are invited to be part of the experiment.”

Moral anxieties inform even Albini’s day job as a producer. It’s a a title he’s uncomfortable with. His curious mixture of humility and dogmatism means that he prefers the term “recording engineer” and refuses to take any credit for the distinctive sonic aesthetic he has defined. “We’re not selective about who we work with,” says the man who was even persuaded to record Page and Plant, whom older readers will remember from Led Zeppelin. “There’s isn’t a signature sound to the records we’ve worked on. We see ourselves essentially as employees of the bands we record. If they’re happy with the project, it’s probably down to them.”

He is, however, happy to endorse the acts he’s booked for the Camber Sands art-rock jamboree, describing the bill as “a menu vouched for by people the public have a reason to trust”. Unlike most aspects of the current music scene, All Tomorrow’s Parties matches Albini’s high expectations. “We played ATP in 2000, and we were charmed by the concept. They asked us about curating it, and we’ve booked people we admire and respect.”

Shellac’s guests for the festival, this year running twice on two successive weekends, are a certain kind of music fan’s wish list, with sets from Blonde Redhead, the re-formed Breeders, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Low, Rachel’s, Shipping News, Smog, Zeni Geva and dozens more left-field innovators. The US art-rock pioneers Mission of Burma will be present, as will their British counterparts Wire and the Fall.

All Tomorrow’s Parties, and Shellac themselves, prove that it is possible to operate outside the normal channels and still be a success. When Nirvana finally pushed alter-native rock onto MTV in the early 1990s, they opened a sluicegate for sounds derived from the 1980s underground, but Albini maintained a polite distance. He’s not opposed to mass acceptance, it’s just that the compromises involved are not ones he’s prepared to make.

While Albini’s work has been championed by rock music’s equivalent of an intellectual elite, he is keen not to appear elitist. “I have an innate suspicion of the notion that regular people won’t get what we’re doing. I’m regular people, and I know there’s nothing about me or my aesthetic that makes me special,” he insists. “But pandering to a certain kind of mass sensibility shortens your options, which is not something you can do while remaining an artist.”

When rock musicians start describing themselves as “artists”, it’s usually time to consign them to idiot island. But after two decades of consistent nonconformity, Steve Albini has earnt the right to the epithet.