The Zutons, on tour
"Hard work" might not be the first words that come to mind when you think of Amy Winehouse but, if for no one else, the singer has worked hard for the Zutons. With Amy's version of their single Valerie still playing constantly on daytime radio, the already mysteriously successful Liverpudlians have long since outperformed contemporaries like the Coral, and now seem focused on still bigger things. How else to explain their new album, You Can Do Anything? Produced by big gun George Drakoulias (Black Crowes, Primal Scream, etc), the album boasts a big sound, even if the lead-off single, Always Right Behind You, didn't quite punch its weight. All of which may not ultimately matter a great deal. Having generally benefited from strangely good fortune, this series of gigs - of course, in UK forests - will surely reap them some odd rewards.
· Bedgbury Pinetum & Forest, Cranbrook, Sun 8; Delamere Forest, Northwich, Fri 13
Isle Of Wight Festival, Newport
Back in the day, Hendrix and Dylan both played it. Recently the Rolling Stones have played it. This year, the Isle Of Wight Festival seems less about the legacy of the counterculture, and more about year zero: though Kaiser Chiefs and the Police may be uncontroversial headliners, Saturday brings the Sex Pistols, and with it, surely the antithesis of the whole festival experience. In a year where the biggest festival controversy seems to have centred around who's not playing, the Isle Of Wight seems to have got a decent mixture of talent: old warhorses - Iggy & the Stooges - young bucks like the Enemy, and popular fare for the supermarket shopper (Kooks, Hoosiers, Wombats, Scouting For Girls).
· Seaclose Park, Isle Of Wight, Fri 13 to Jun 15
Fleet Foxes, on tour
Right now an American musician is not only measured by the size of his talent, but also by the length of his beard. So it once was with My Morning Jacket, so it has become with the great Band Of Horses, and so it is in this case with Fleet Foxes, the Seattle band who join Bon Iver at the forefront of the new wave of rootsy native rock. In this crowded market, the band have, nonetheless, found something of an opportunity. With My Morning Jacket having largely abandoned their eerie, Neil Young-style rock for excursions into the territory once walked by Tone Loc and Robert Palmer, Fleet Foxes have found themselves free to write country rock madrigals without too much competition. It might sound like faint praise, but really it's not. It's an exciting starting point and it'll be great to see how far they go.
· Audio, Brighton, Mon 9; Louisiana, Bristol, Tue 10; ULU, WC1, Wed 11; Bodega, Nottingham, Thu 12
