Monthly archives: May, 2014

Interviewing Two Legends – Dave Navarro and Courtney Love

CourtneyDanWeb
Recently I was lucky enough to catch up with the living legend that is Dave Navarro, former Red Hot Chilli Pepper, and most importantly, guitarist for Jane’s Addiction.

The latter are over here in August, and will be performing their debut studio album ‘Nothing’s Shocking’ in full. I asked Dave what the album meant to him 20 years on. In particular I was keen to ask how he felt about the title, as in 2014 rock music has definitely lost something of its ‘shock’ value.

Last week I also caught up with Courtney Love. I only had literally 5 minutes with her, but this was more than enough time for her to tell me all about how she ‘forgot’ about her feud with Lily Allen, nearly falling out with the ‘Boss’ and how she wants more straight guys at her gigs!

Gig-wise, having returned from Live At Leeds I immediately got excited about the forthcoming Camden Rocks festival – a similar setup (1 wristband gets you free entry to around 20 venues, all day) but with a much more Kerrang! friendly line-up! At the very least it will give me the opportunity to see Hacktivist live, who I missed about 5 times last year.

Tonight I’ll be catching Twin Atlantic down the road at, ahem, Dome in Tufnell Park as part of a super-intimate tour looking ahead to their new album ‘The Great Divide’ in August. Their new single ‘Heart and Soul’ is the current #1 on the Kerrang! Rock Chart, and it’s definitely a step up from the band lazily tipped to be ‘the next Biffy Clyro’.




Live at Leeds 2014 preview

Live at Lee

I haven’t been up to Leeds in a little while, so I’m looking forward to heading up this weekend for the annual ‘Live At Leeds’ festival. The clue is in the title really, it’s a live music festival, it’s in Leeds. A £25 wristband gets you in to 25 venues in the city which, between them, have just about every genre of music covered – from death metal to commercial pop.

With this in mind, even moreso than traditional ‘camping’ festivals it’s practically impossible to make any sort of plan but I’ll definitely be catching ‘the world’s best bar band’ The Hold Steady close proceedings at 10.30pm on Saturday, and praying Frank Turner’s recently announced ‘secret’ set (time and venue TBC) won’t clash. Hopefully it won’t – Frank himself is a huge Hold Steady fan and even has a tattoo of the band – no doubt I’ll see him down the front!

Time permitting I’m also hoping to catch Chloe Howl and Ella Eyre, Los Campesinos, Royal Blood, Sam Airey, The Fat White Family and Women’s Hour – purely because that’s arguably the best band name I’ve ever heard. Tickets are £25 and you can find out more information here – www.liveatleeds.com

Upon returning, no doubt I’ll largely be harping on about the new album Earthwalker from Australian hardcore/metal five-piece In Hearts Wake – I’m currently sworn to secrecy until Monday!

Until next time!