“Strike the match and light the fire/ whole word burns/ a funeral pyre,” sings Jeremy De Tolly on the lead single from The Dirty Skirts’ new album, ‘Lost In The Fall’. “It’s all gonna burn, it’s all gonna burn”.
Bit of a change then for the band best known for wanting to punch a hole in Saturday night (‘Homewrecker’) and describing dads who don’t dance (‘Daddy Don’t Disco’).
“It’s pretty crazy at the moment,” says The Script’s drummer, Glenn Power, with just a hint of understatement. In the past month he and bandmates Danny O’Donoghue and Mark Sheehan have been as far afield as Australia, The Philippines, the Netherlands, and the United States.
“I don’t want to go home,” admits a clearly elated Bono as U2’s Cape Town show draws to an end. The feeling — echoed by the capacity crowd — is completely understandable: it’s been a shared evening of rock ‘n roll showmanship, political soapboxing, and surprising intimacy.
For all the size of the show — six days to set up; 204 shipping crates of equipment; 32 000 fasteners for the video screen alone — it’s ultimately about the four men at the middle of the 360-degree stage. This spectacle has soul.
Kanye West is the Angelina Jolie of hip-hop — his personal life overpowers his career. But unlike the actress — who tries to ignore the whole Brad-Pitt-plus-six-kids thing by playing secret agent, assassin, or 1920s housewife — the rapper actively brings his public persona to work.
Clearly the creation of the man behind such tweets as “If baroque and mod had a car crash… what would that ambulance look like?” and “I love me”, ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ amounts to West jumping up and down on a table, shouting: “Yes, I’m a crazy douchebag. But I’ve got feelings too.”
Watershed frontman Craig Hinds takes a break from rehearsing for the band’s upcoming summer shows to talk road trips, getting nervous before shows, Jock of the Bushveld, and reimagining ‘Indigo Girl’.
The warning signs were there.
“We realised it doesn’t matter what the songs sound like — if it comes from us, it’s Linkin Park,” singer Chester Bennington told Rolling Stone back in August.
Then the winning entry in the remix-the-album’s-first-single competition sounded better than the original song.
In the video for his debut solo single, an increasingly battered Brandon Flowers is rescued time and again by an ass-kicking Charlize Theron. But his increasingly sheepish look every time she blasts through the door is even more telling.
It’s your first clue the 29-year-old singer has some issues with going it alone. Your second? His admission to feeling “a little bit naked” without the other members of the band he fronted to fame.
Simon Le Bon vividly remembers Duran Duran’s last visit to South Africa in 1993.
“We arrived on the day that Chris Hani was shot in his own driveway so it was quite dramatic and very sad,” he says on the line from London. “There was a lot going on. I remember there were big protests and marches all through the streets of Cape Town when we were down there.
“It’s nearly 20 bloody years ago?” laughs a surprised Nick Seymour when I remind him that Crowded House last visited South Africa in 1993.
“I haven’t been there since, so I’m expecting some changes,” reasons the affable bass player on the line from his home in Ireland. “Last time I was in Cape Town I did hook up with some of the locals and went surfing, so when I get back there I’m definitely going to want to get a wave or two. One of the things is being able to say you’ve surfed in South Africa when talking to South Africans here in Ireland or Australia. And one of the benefits of touring is being able to surf internationally.”
We Are Scientists – Keith Murray, Chris Cain, and lately Andy Burrows (ex-Razorlight) – are almost as well known for their quirkiness as their fun indie rock. With a strident new album, ‘Barbara’, out now, Keith calls from The Big Apple to talk about making people dance, soccer anthems, why they won’t be writing any breakup heartache ballads, ‘Dawson’s Creek’, and chasing women. Oh, and utter the immortal words: “It would be a real tease to let me talk to you and then not let me come.”
Nils van der Linden