Ellie Rowsell of Wolf Alice
I vividly remember my friends circulating a mysterious song on YouTube by a band called Temples in 2012. I was so excited for a new band to emerge and now I’m excited to see where they go next. We played with them a couple of times and circulated the same festivals when we were starting off, so it’s a nostalgic kind of excitement to see them this spring. I’m also hugely curious about where they are going to take their songwriting and their trademark production. They can write killer melodies, so they could take the same route as Tame Impala and become more pop. If their new single is anything to go by, I’m looking forward to album number two.
Peter Hook of New Order
I’m looking forward to seeing what the 1975 do next. I’ve known Matt Healy since he was 12, because he’s from near me. I know his mother, Denise Welch, and the 1975 won the Wilmslow High School talent competition the year before I judged it. It was interesting watching him grow up because every time I was at a do where his mum was he’d be there and come over to talk. He’s a massive Joy Division fan. My daughter put the first 1975 album on my iPod without telling me who it was, and I got quite into it. Then I saw them recently at the Manchester arena, in front of 20,000 people, and they’ve improved so much. Their songs are quite radical because they don’t have breaks or changes, just grooves. At the arena, I was struck by how much their music reminded me of Brian Eno’s soundscapes – he’s made some of my favourite records – but with guitar and vocals. Afterwards I asked Matt: “Have you been listening to Eno, by any chance?” He said: “All the fuckin’ time, Hooky.”
Little Simz
I’m really excited about Welcome to Wonderland: The Experience, an event I am curating in February that is a part of the annual Roundhouse Rising festival. I’m super stoked for this show because I’ve been involved with the festival for the last three years, but I’ve played the small room. Now I I am playing on the main stage, and to host it for the first time is incredible. I also get to bring out artists I love and appreciate and respect. The first person that we’ve announced is Mick Jenkins, who I believe will do great things in the future. Everything he stands for I relate to – I think it’s what’s needed right now, especially in hip-hop. I want the show to be for the people rather than be simply a major label putting a festival together. As well as music, we’re going to have exhibitions, with artists such as McKay Felt, who illustrated the album cover for Stillness in Wonderland and more. We want to make it feel communal.
Clem Burke of Blondie
I am really looking forward to the new release by Crystal Fairy, a new group comprised of the Melvins’ Buzz Osborne and Dale Crover along with Teri Gender Bender of Le Butcherettes and Omar Rodríguez-López from At the Drive In. All the musicians in Crystal Fairy are iconoclasts, so I can only imagine the innovation to come from this collaboration. I am also looking forward to the release of The Colossus of Destiny: A Melvins Tale film. The Melvins defied all the rules about how to survive in the wicked world of the music business, and I expect the film to show a band that doesn’t take itself too seriously – and is all the better for it. I’m also interested in hearing the new record by Fat White Family. I’ve seen them live several times, and I think their mix of Frank Zappa/Captain Beefheart-meets-Velvet Underground/Modern Lovers is very interesting indeed. I also hear that a new Flamin’ Groovies is record on the way. The Groovies’ Shake Some Action is a powerpop classic, and with three of the original members, including Cyril Jordan, involved in this new record I expect great things.
Karl Hyde of Underworld
I was first turned on to Efterklang by John Peel. Rick [Smith] and I sat in for him on his Radio 1 show while he was on holiday in autumn 2004. When we asked if there was anything he wanted us to play in his absence, he pointed us in the direction of their first album, Tripper. Tragically, John – who’d been our mentor since we were kids – never came home and music lost arguably its greatest friend. In the weeks that followed, I decided I had to go and find Efterklang to let them know that John had requested we play them. We struck up a friendship and are now collaborating on a score for a multiscreen art installation I’ve created. Efterklang defy definitions of what a band can be, sometimes performing as a three piece, sometimes with a choir and orchestra, packing out small clubs or concert halls. Casper Clausen is one of the most naturally gifted singers I’ve ever heard – a magnetic presence on any size of stage. The last time I saw them was a hometown gig in Sønderborg in 2014. The encore consisted of the band leading a parade out of the hall to perform a second concert with their parents in the foyer. Their next London show, in March, is their take on an opera. Called Leaves and based on the story of an underground cult, it was conceived as a fully immersive performance staged in a cold war bunker under an abandoned hospital in Copenhagen. It’s been reworked to fit the main room of the Barbican. I can’t wait.
Shirley Collins
It’s the prospect of working with English morris dancers in 2017 that excites me. As with any art form, it can be good or bad. Done poorly, it’s feeble, but it’s thrilling when danced well. There’s not a better sight than the Brighton Morris Men, sticks raised, surging forward, manly and a bit threatening. These dancers care, there is athleticism in their high leaps, grace in their turns, and beauty in the waving of their handkerchiefs. Yes – really! And the music is so English – wonderful tunes and harmonies. They are appearing on my forthcoming Lodestar shows, along with the youthful women’s side, Boss Morris, formed by Alex Merry. I am proud to support this challenging side of light, graceful dancers, so appealing in their contemporary costumes. They dance the morris properly, bringing a breath of fresh air and fun to it while retaining an age-old mystery with their prowling animal figures. And like Brighton Morris Men, they understand how properly paced the dancing should be. Shake off your prejudices and allow yourselves to find pleasure and delight in honest, good-natured morris dancing. If it was good enough for the English composer George Butterworth …
Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods
I’m not really big on getting excited about new releases. Saying that, I met Baxter Dury the other week and he asked me to do a verse on a tune he’s worked on, which will hopefully be included on his new album. I was really influenced by some of his stuff on his album Floor Show, particularly Cocaine Man, so it was a great honour to have been asked. The stuff he played me that he’d been working on was really good, brutal in places. I’m looking forward to hearing it as a complete album.
Nelly Furtado
I am excited to see the Toronto urban music scene continue to take over the world stage in 2017. I have lived in this city for 20 years, and have always thought our urban music scene was a well-kept secret. But in the last couple of years all of that has changed, and I could not be more proud to have played a role in it, from when I first started banging out trip-hop songs on Queen Street under the name Nelstar in the mid-90s [to now]. It is satisfying, when you stay in a city because you believe in its creative prowess and versatility, to witness its maturity, and to meet a new generation of artists carrying on that legacy. My favourite Toronto artists right now are River Tiber, Charlotte Day Wilson and Mustafa the Poet. They are all going to do big things in 2017.
