GLASVEGAS NEW DRUMMER JONNA LÖFGREN - "I DIDN'T KNOW WHO THEY WERE"

GLASVEGAS have toured with U2, Kings of Leon and supported Oasis.

Three years ago they were winning universal critical acclaim for their debut album but over in Sweden, young drummer Jonna Löfgren, had never heard of them.
In fact she nearly missed the lecture that changed her life and catapulted her into one of Scotland’s most talked about bands of the last decade.




It may have been a joke, no-one really knows but when Rab Allan (guitarist and frontman James’ cousin), said he wanted a female Swedish drummer to replace original drummer Caroline McKay, Sony listened.

“I’m glad they took it seriously, otherwise I wouldn’t be here,” 23-year-old Jonna says.
She still not clear about Rab’s motives: “He likes Sweden, he likes Swedish girls and he likes girls. I think he just said it one day, I don’t know if he was really serious. When they tell me, they don’t know if he’s serious or not.”

Glasvegas play HMV Forum in Kentish Town on May 10. Expect to hear tracks from album Euphoric /// Heartbreak \\\ released last week.

Jonna has been in the band for just five months.
She was studying at music college in Sweden and had just signed a contract to drum for a musical production of Snow White for the next six months when everything changed.

She said: “We had a guest teacher for a day (at college) and I just had a fight with my ex-boyfriend. I didn’t want to go but we ended up going to the lecture. I think it was meant to be.”
She got talking to the speaker who mentioned Sony was looking for a Swedish female drummer.

So Jonna sent demos to Sony and Glasvegas’ management but it was a DVD recording of her drumming over the track Geraldine that clinched it.
“I was playing the song standing up like how they play it. I think that video was the thing that got them to like me. I think they felt my drumming was good enough so I didn’t have to audition for them.”

Jonna was invited to meet the band in London.
She said: “I was really nervous. I had a whisky on the plane down. Before I went I looked on Youtube for interviews with them speaking because I wanted to practice the accent, it’s so difficult. It didn’t work because I couldn’t understand them at all. Now it’s different because I’ve been hanging out with them so much. I really enjoy the accent.”

Jonna confesses she didn’t quite understand the enormity of being chosen to play for Glasvegas.
She said: “When I got the first phone call I didn’t know who they were. (The caller) was telling me on the phone how big this was. My hands started shaking when he was telling me. When I hung up the phone I Googled them. There was so much to read about them, how they’ve been touring with U2 and Kings of Leon, I was like Oh my God.”

Jonna showed early ambitions to be a drummer. At three she was banging pots and pans around in the kitchen, at six, she was telling her father just how much she wanted to be like a drummer on TV and at seven she got her first drum kit.

She said: “My dad said he was going to take me to buy some winter shoes and I was so happy because I have three siblings and he was only going to take me. I was like “yeah I’m going to get winter shoes”. So we went to this city and then it turned out we didn’t go to the shoe store. We went down to a basement and this guy opened the door and it was a drum kit. My dad asked me "Do you want this?" and I was like "Oh yes", I was so happy. So my first drum kit is my winter shoes.”

ARCHIVE MOMENT - THE RASCALS, I'll Give you Sympathy

THIS song is just one reason why Miles Kane, who supports The Courteeners at Camden's HMV Forum, is so fantastic.
The Rascals are truly cheeky scamps - I can vouch for that, I've got the interview tape with anecdotes of foiled customs searches following a trip to Amsterdam - to prove it.
But they had a stroke of creative genius, stemming from Kane.
They managed to give what could have been straightforward northern rock just a tiny glow of psychedelic guitars and muted 60s beats and I loved them for it.
Live, they strayed down untraceable guitar solo paths and sounded all the more attractive for it.
Then Miles excelled himself when he went and teamed up with bessie mate Alex Turner (are they still) to create The Last Shadow Puppets - will we ever see them again?
And now Miles is doing his solo thing, supporting The Courteeners and I hear teaming up with Noel Gallagher.
I'm positively overdosing on all this luscious northern talent.
More please.
But in the meantime, remember The Rascals.

LADY GAGA WHO? MIDLIFE CRISIS ME? TIM ROBBINS AND THE ROGUES GALLERY BAND TAKE OVER NORTH LONDON

NOTE: I was lucky enough to interview actor Tim Robbins this weekend - here is the first of two stories to come from this. The second is below.

IT'S 5am in an airport lounge in Hawaii and actor Tim Robbins is speaking quietly into his mobile phone trying desperately not to be “that guy”.
The wedding he was at ended a couple of hours ago and Robbins just laughs when I ask if he’s merry.
“I’ll never tell,” he says heartily.

Robbins and The Rogues Gallery Band play Islington’s Union Chapel on Wednesday and the chapel fits the one criteria the Hollywood actor/director/singer requested of all venues on this tour.
“I wanted to make sure they weren't too big and that they didn't have bars actually inside the room I was playing in,” he said. “I'm all for bars but it gets noisy and the songs I'm playing are a little more intimate than that... to make sure that we have a shot at telling the stories.”
The band name should give a hint at what Robbins’ music is all about, a bit folksy, described as “rousing, raggle-taggle gypsy Americana and story telling songs”.

His debut eponymously titled album, out September 27, will be the 51-year-old actor's first.
But don’t be fooled into trying to match the lyrics to Robbins’ real life.
“The stories are about all kinds of different things, people I've run into on the road who've told me their stories, things I've read in newspapers, moments in time in my own life...I was down in New Orleans in June and I wrote a lyric about an experience I had down there...What was the experience? Oh I don't know, no comment.”

And this is Robbins' attitude if you try to get close to his personal reality.
He warns: “If you're listening to an album and you're thinking about the personal life of a person you should probably check into an institution. People that are obsessed with other people's personal life who they don’t know, it's kind of a little silly and a waste of time. I believe that as well with people you do know. Mind your own business.
“It's a real good idea to try not to get into people's personal business because it's trouble. It's true. In personal business of friend of yours if you start laying your opinions on their personal situation can only lead to bad things. Sure you can be an open hearted compassionate person and be a sounding board if a friend's in trouble but to then pry and to needle someone. You know it’s not good.”

That's not to say he doesn't pull on real-life experiences in his writing – just be warned, his songs were written well-before his much-publicised break-up with actress Susan Sarandon, a fact he wants to stress.
He said: “I would like to set the record straight. If you heard Desert Island Discs I was clearly making a joke – the “midlife crisis” thing.”

Robbins has been affronted by UK Press taking his joke and suggesting he wrote the album after the break-up. So much so that he has asked if this interview is being taped for accuracy.
He said: “For them to write a story about how I did the album as a response to recent events and then have a psychiatrist write a side article about what men go through in a midlife crisis is and compare my situation to someone who's institutionalised and on and on...it was like really? Is it that important to make some story up where there is no story. All these songs were written way before any recent events in my personal life and have to do with many, many different things and about zero to do with a midlife crisis.”


(An old clip - can't find any recent ones).

So what is he singing about then?
“When I'm inspired by something or someone, whether it's inspiration from frustration and anger or from being touched by something. 

“I've written completely sober. I've written a few late night in hotel rooms. A lot of the album is from hotel rooms. I hate hotel rooms. When I'm on the road I try to remain open to experience. It's the only way I can be away from home. You know you have to treat it as a blessing. We find ourselves in circumstances we wouldn't normally be in and oftentimes that leads to conversations or a character that is intriguing. So you go home and you write.”

So the few insights I can gather about Robbins' life away from work include his love of riding his bicycle, and working in his garden “no skydiving for me”.
His confession that Abba is his guilty pleasure: “Abba can get in my skin sometimes. I can forget myself sometimes with Abba. All of a sudden you start tapping your foot.”
His admiration for Nina Simone's Sinnerman: “It just rocks. It's just got such a great groove on it and she's just amazing. They way she performs and interprets songs is just genius.”
His thirst for learning about new music from his children: “They've introduced me to Arcade Fire, Fleet Foxes, LCD Soundsystem, I'll stop there. I just absolutely love the new Arcade Fire album.”
His choice of funeral music: “I would like a second line. It's a New Orleans tradition. The first line is the brass band that plays on the way to the cemetery and the second line is the one that plays on the way back. The first one is super slow and the second line is a kind of celebration, it’s very uplifting, danceworthy.”
And his dislike of the outside world intruding on his home life: “You know what boring very liberating thing you can do is to get rid of your answering machine. That was really a great liberation for me. So I'm trying to apply that to the cellphone and voicemail. When you get home you should be home so I try to get any business done before I get home but I’m not perfect.”

It seems like he has succeeded on this last task as when I ask what he thinks of tabloid staple Lady Gaga, he replies genuinely: “Who?
Honestly I don’t listen to hit music, I don’t listen to radio stations, I don’t have a television either so she’s kind of not landed on my lap and so I don’t have an opinion either way.”
• Tim Robbins and the Rogues Gallery Band play the Union Chapel (Sept 30) and HMV Forum, along with Paolo Nutini for the Q Awards Show (Oct 22).

OSCAR-WINNER TIM ROBBINS: U.S. MEDIA IS "DUPING" AMERICANS INTO BELIEVING IN THE RIGHT WING TEA-PARTY MOVEMENT

HOLLYWOOD superstar Tim Robbins has told how the US media is “duping” his fellow Americans into believing the right-wing Tea Party movement is good for them.
In a telephone interview from a Hawaii airport lounge this week, the actor and director – who plays Islington's Union Chapel on Thursday and Kentish Town's Forum in October along with his Rogues Gallery Band – launched into an attack on the “unrelenting propaganda we hear in the US media”.

Mr Robbins, famous for roles in such films as The Shawshank Redemption and Mystic River, said: “It created an entire movement out of a couple of rich people. They call it the Tea Party movement but from the very start it's a very well-funded right-wing extremist group.

“The media treated it as if it's a serious political party and gave it undue attention so much so that ordinary people are being duped into this line of thinking which is good for billionaires but not good for them.”
The actor, who recently split from actress Susan Sarandon after 23 years together, added: “Once again we’re facing a ridiculous (mid-term) election and all this is fuelled by fear and hatred and distrust and so the right wing sends it right all over the media, you know how stupid people can get, but it's so shocking to me. It's always disappointed me but never surprising. It's clear in my mind and has been for 25 years and no-one seems to want to get to the root of the problem. Free Press has been corrupted.”
Mr Robbins, who went to Catholic school but describes himself as “lapsed” also took the opportunity to question organised religion in the wake of the pope's visit.
He said: “I’m not a Catholic now...I don’t follow any deified religious leader, whatever religion it is...Religion makes people do foolish things and usually the bastardisation of faith leads to terrible behaviour.”
He recalled his experiences as a schoolboy, saying: “I would be the one that would stand up if everyone was complaining in the schoolyard of excessive homework or unfair grading. I would be the one that would stand up for them. In Catholic school the nuns would then say “does anybody else feel this?” and most of the time my classmates would just throw you under the bus.”

SAN FRANCISCO LIFE, CARNIVAL WITH MAN LIKE ME, WIN TICKETS FOR BRANDON FLOWERS & TRICKY HITS KOKO

“IF YOU’RE going to San Francisco...,” you must be me! Sorry I can’t bring you any deeply thought-out Alistair Cooke type Letter From America – I’m more like Sesame Street’s Alistair Cookie.
So far all I’ve discovered musically in SF is, there are a lot of open-air jazz bands around and I hear Snoop Dogg played somewhere near on Sunday. Smoking is violently disapproved of here, the smell of cannabis is everywhere but so far the hippies have evaded me.

• One of the finest live bands around, Camden’s smile-inspiring Man Like Me, join an all-day cast of live music at The Old Queen’s Head, Essex Road, on Sunday (3pm-3am). King Charles, Josh Weller and
SixNationState complete the bill and it’s free before 8pm.
• Fans of The Killers might like to know frontman Brandon Flowers plays a special gig at Relentless Garage (Sept 8). The only catch is there are only 200 tickets and you have to pre-order his album from HMV through the venue’s website by Wednesday (Sept 1). Good luck.
• Ready for Carnival? What about the vital after-party? Reggae Roast is promising to throw the biggest Roots Reggae party in the capital at the Big Chill House (Aug 29) with BBQ and Carnival vibes through the night with Manasseh feat Charjan, Moodie & Exel, Ramon Judah, Louis Slipperz and Dub Hunter. Course that’s just till 3am, you’ve still got the rest of the night to play with.
• Tricky – responsible for one of my all time favourite albums, Maxinquaye – plays Koko (Sept 22) to promote album Mixed Race. Ever evolving, I don’t expect a return to the suffocating headiness of
Maxinquaye but it’s sure to be an unpredictable evening.

ROBERT PLANT'S BAND OF JOY ON THE PROWL IN KENTISH TOWN

LOOK at that lion's mane.
How could anyone resist catching a glimpse of the all-powerful one when he's lurking so close by?
Lay out the red carpet, bow your heads and soak up the glory – Robert Plant, big cat of rock, is coming to Camden and bringing his Band of Joy along for the ride.

Plant, the one with the lungs from Led Zeppelin, plays a rare live show at HMV Forum in Kentish Town on September 2.
The gig precedes the release of Plant’s hotly anticipated 10th solo album Band Of Joy, recorded in Tennessee and co-produced by Nashville legend Buddy Miller.

It is his first album since the six times Grammy winning Raising Sand in 2007.
So tickets are a little pricey, up to £50, but these occasions are rare and it’s always wise to catch a legend while they’ve retained their flowing locks.
Of course it won’t be the original Band of Joy line-up, which included the late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham.

Plant formed Band of Joy in 1967 with Bonham, later getting together with guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones to become The New Yardbirds, an early incarnation of Led Zeppelin – before they became great.
Years of explosive, guitar-driven, lung-busting, blues-rock followed as Led Zeppelin worked their way to becoming the biggest band in the world.

Guitarists across the world spent their waking hours trying to emulate Plant’s intricate riffs, to the point where Stairway to Heaven became a joke in the 1992 movie Wayne’s World – remember it being banned in
the guitar shop scene?
After the Led Zep era ended with Bonham’s death in 1980 neither Page nor Plant were ready to hang up their instruments and they went off to record with a wide range of artists, as well as performing as a duo and working on their own solo projects.

And then came Band of Joy.
Although rock is always present, Band of Joy seem to err on the folk side, reinterpreting old songs and not be solely focused on Plant as frontman.
He said: “I really wanted this record to be A Band of Joy – you hear voices all around my voice.”

And he’s got no qualms about any confusion caused by the resurrection of his old band name: “In the Band of Joy, when I was 17, I was playing everybody else’s stuff and moving it around, and it’s kind of…time to reinvoke that attitude and sentiment.”

Band of Joy is Darrell Scott (acoustic guitar, mandolin, octave mandolin, banjo, accordion, pedal steel and lap steel guitar), Byron House (bass), Marco Giovino (drums and percussion), and Buddy Miller (electric guitar, baritone, 6-string bass, mandoguitar).

Album Band of Joy is released on September 15.