Bad weather hampers Ashton Court Festival
The second day of this year's Ashton Court Festival has been cancelled today (July 15) following bad weather.
Organisers pulled the event in Bristol after an overnight downpour of heavy rainfall.
A statement on the festival's official site added: "The festival site is unsafe for the public due to the treacherous ground conditions, which have made it impossible to guarantee emergency services on-site.
"After taking advice from health and safety officials, emergency services and licensing authorities at a meeting this morning, the organisers took the difficult decision to cut short the event."
The Good, The Bad & The Queen, Enter Shikari and Horace Andy were all set to play today after performances from The Fall, Gravenhurst and Mad Professor yesterday (July 14). |
NASA reveal details of working with MIA, Tom Waits
American producer/DJ Squeak E Clean (aka Sam Spiegel) has recruited a dream team of artists including Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Red Hot Chili Peppers' John Fruscinate, MIA, CSS's Lovefoxxx, Tom Waits and David Byrne for his latest project, NASA (North America South America).
Speaking exclusively to NME.COM, Spiegel revealed what is was like working with these musicians and the unique circumstances that brought them together during the four years he and co-collaborator DJ Zegon (aka Ze Gonzales) have been working on the album.
"One really fun thing about thing about the record is I got to go travel around and go to a lot of really cool places and different people's studios," Spiegel told NME.COM.
"It seems that almost everyone I've asked to be on the record has been really down for music just for inspiration, it's not about cash or anything. It was like, 'Oh cool, I like this music, I wanna be involved.'"
Spiegel said that working with MIA was a lucky accident that occurred when Spank Rock's Naeem Juwan came into the studio to lay down vocals on a NASA track.
"I played them the track and they were feeling it, and before I knew it, (MIA's) Maya (Arulpragasam) was in front of the mic saying, 'Gimme a track. I wanna try a chorus.' And I was like, 'Fuck, that's awesome,'" said Spiegel.
Spiegel said he had to hunt down Waits in his northern California studio in "fucking farm country in the middle of nowhere," but it was worth it.
"He got so fucking into it," Spiegel said of Waits. "I've never seen someone pour their soul into a performance as much as he did. His pinkie toe was going into that performance."
Spiegel also said that when funk legend George Clinton came to Spiegel's home studio in Hollywood, he came with a full entourage and did "some crazy shit" in the vocal booth.
Spiegel funded the entire project himself through his commercial scoring business, without the aid of a record label.
He's also working on a mini-documentary about the making of NASA, as well as animated shorts for each song with storylines co-written by his famous director brother, Spike Jonze ('Being John Malkovich', 'Adaptation').
The hunt is on for a record label to release the as-yet untitled album, which Spiegel said he hopes to put out later this year. |
Peter, Bjorn and John invite guests on stage in New York
Peter, Bjorn and John, Fujiya & Miyagi and Au Revoir Simone played a sold-out show at Webster Hall in New York City last night (May 1).
The show was the latest in a long line of sold-out shows played by the Swedish trio since the release of their album 'Writer's Block'.
While the band's debut downtown Manhattan gig in January featured the Concrete's Victoria Bergsman on guest vocals, last night's performance of 'Young Folks' saw an appearance by Heather D'Angelo of opening act Au Revoir Simone. D'Angelo had performed Bergsman's part the previous night in Washington DC. The band also invited Dirty On Purpose drummer Doug Marvin onstage to play bongos on the track.
All three acts will continue the tour tonight, with a second show at Webster Hall.
The dates are:
New York, NY Webster Hall (May 2)
Philadelphia, PA Theatre of Living Arts (3)
Boston, MA Paradise (4)
Montreal, QC Theatre National (5)
Wexner Center, Columbus, Ohio (7)
Chicago, IL Empty Bottle (8)
Minneapolis, MN First Avenue (9) |