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The Herald Scotland
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
The 2001 album hailed as a 'dizzy, magical voyage of self-discovery'
THERE'S a nice scene in the 2000 film High Fidelity, in which John Cusack's engaging character, the owner of a Chicago record store, murmurs confidently to a colleague: 'I will now sell five copies of The Three EPs, by The Beta Band'. He then slides a disc into the CD player: the opening track, Dry the Rain, fills the store. Customer: 'Who is that?'. Cusack: 'The Beta Band'. Customer (nodding approvingly): 'It's good'. Cusack (sagely): 'I know'. Back then, The Beta Band — Steve Mason (vocals/guitars), John Maclean (samplers/percussion), Robin Jones (drums) and Richard Greentree (bass) — were in vogue, having been championed by the music press and finding favour with a large and enthusiastic fanbase and with such influential musicians as Noel Gallagher. In 2001 they were invited to support Radiohead on a US and Canada tour. They had three top 20 albums between 1999 and 2004 before going their separate ways, but recently announced a reunion tour. It gets underway in September. The band, who first came together in Fife and Edinburgh and fully blossomed in London, released a debut EP, Champion Versions, in July 1997, on a small indie label, Regal Recordings, a Parlophone imprint. It opened with Dry the Rain, which as of today has chalked up some 42 million hits on Spotify. As Mojo magazine's Jim Irvin would say of it, the EP 'made a refreshing change from standard indie fare, displaying an acute awareness of feel and dynamics lacking in most nascent bands'. Two other EPs followed in 1998: The Patty Patty Sound, in March, and Los Amigos Del Beta Bandidos, four months later. In October all three materialised on a CD, The Three EPs – the one referenced by Cusack in High Fidelity. 'What makes The Beta Band such a powerful proposition is their ability to pervert the traditional campfire ballad in myriad ways, without appearing contrived … or losing its kernel of warmth', Keith Cameron wrote approvingly in the NME. 'Collectively, these 12 songs leave you gasping, not only at the frenzied sense of enterprise but also the combustible emotional depths therein'. One New Zealand critic noted: 'When Beck made pop fizzy again, The Beta Band inhaled big time. In this collection … folk, hip-hop and the hazy psychedelic dub aesthetic of Primal Scream joyously elope in the whacked-out world of the avant-garde. Unconsciously addictive, this is an album whose halcyon overtones super-glue the listener to the speakers …' Interviewing the band at the time of its release, Mojo's Irvin brought up the common use of the descriptions ''stoned' and 'lo-fi', which had studded more than a few reviews of the original EPs. 'Drugs are just ridiculous', Mason responded. 'We're interested in making music so good that drugs become irrelevant. And all this 'lo-fi' nonsense is just a farce. When we're recording we're trying to get the best sound possible'. Read more Beta Band: 'You know, I find it offensive, the music business and most of the records being made in this country', he added. 'It makes me angry. Especially because people are taken in by it and led to believe that anything different is strange and weird and should be avoided. There's a horrible normality being fed to everyone'. Live, the quartet were an engrossing and unpredictable act. In September 1998, the Independent's Ben Thompson witnessed them at a gig in the capital and pronounced them – with not a little justification – as the most exciting new British band to emerge in the last year-and-a-half by a country mile. 'You know that magical feeling when the music sounds so strange it feels like a secret', he enthused, 'and you look onstage to the people who are making it and then offstage into the faces of the audience, and you realise that hundreds of people are getting the secret at the exact same time? That's what the atmosphere tends to be like when The Beta Band play live'. The 'strange, surging, pagan, deceptively simple music' was a shot in the arm of the 'prone form of the four-piece pop group', he added; the band filled entire evenings with a 'warped and wonderful hybrid of great music, terrible poetry, and alarming videos of strange rituals on Scottish hillsides'. Expectations surrounding the 1999 debut album, The Beta Band, were therefore high, but it turned out to be more unfocused, and perhaps unfinished, than anyone had foreseen. In an episode that came to be much-quoted, the band even dismissed the album out of hand. Mason informed NME: 'It's definitely the worst record we've ever made and it's probably one of the worst records that'll come out this year…But we can always do better. Next time. … It's got some terrible songs on it, our album. None of them are fully realised or fully even written. Half-written songs with jams in the middle'. The Radiohead tour in 2001 allowed The Beta Band to showcase material from their second album, Hot Shots II. 'We never liked the idea of supporting people', Mason told Rolling Stone, 'but I think playing with Radiohead is a really good opportunity for us. All these bands from Britain have been touted as this amazing new thing that was going to save rock & roll. But I think our band and Radiohead can justify, not the hype, but the excitement that's around us in America.' Hot Shots II is a consistently fine album, full of beguiling moments, from the opening tracks, Squares, and Al Sharp, onwards. Human Being samples Carole King's classic, It's Too Late. Gone is one of their enduringly poignant songs. There are layered vocals, and delicate sonic flourishes. It remains the high point of their career. The band were happy with it – certainly, much more so than with the debut album – and it showed. The album narrowly missed out on a top 10 placing in the UK charts. The New York Daily News summed it up thus: 'While the Scottish foursome's music has the dreamy quality of ambient music and the sexy dub bass of trip-hop, it's far more song-oriented, graced as it is by conventional tunes, hooks and choruses'. The Guardian's Alexis Petridis was another admirer, writing after an admittedly uncomfortable interview with the band (the quartet had a reputation, back then, as occasionally 'difficult' interviewees): 'By contrast to their debut, this year's follow-up, Hot Shots II, is fantastic. It boasts incisive songwriting, crisp production from R&B veteran C-Swing [Colin Emmanuel], and a thrilling attitude to sonic experimentation … They have finally produced an album they are proud of. They may well be among the best groups in the world. Yet despite all this, in Britain, Hot Shots II has sold no better than their debut'. Then there was this, from Rolling Stone magazine (which had found the debut album chaotic and unwieldy): "Hot Shots II does its best to return to the epic soundscapes of The Three E.P.'s; the long grooves and easy melodies are back, and the band's tendency toward the diffuse has been reined in. "The group's new self-control is evident on the gorgeous 'Gone', a minimalist ballad featuring only cooing vocals, lilting piano, and a quiet guitar and bass. 'Human Being' is an archetypal Beta Band number, tossing in horns, turntable scratches, harmonica, acoustic strumming and chant-like singing before devolving into a squealing guitar and organ rave-up. It's a heady, eclectic mix, and, like the best of the band's work, as satisfying as it is unique". NME also welcomed the Beta Band back into the fold: "Despite its gung-ho name, 'Hot Shots II' is a dizzy, magical voyage of self-discovery - concise where its predecessor was unfocused, immediate where the pop urge was once lacking. The album's original first single, 'Squares', is still trumped by I Monster's incandescent 'Daydream In Blue', but beyond that, this sounds practically peerless". Uncut magazine, for its part, was struck by the "monk-like close harmonies", which gave the impression of having been sculpted in three dimensions: "the way they soar, arc, cluster and braid is breathtaking". The album was sharply produced in a fully contemporary sense — ultra-glossy, big-sounding, with huge bottom end and tuff beats". The Beta Band would go on to release an equally acclaimed third (and final) studio album, Heroes to Zeros, in 2004, before breaking up. They embarked on a farewell tour that year, the last gig taking place at Edinburgh's Liquid Room on December 5. For all the critical acclaim that had come their way, actual commercial success had proved elusive. Read more On the Record: In a revealing interview with the Guardian's Dave Simpson that November, Mason revealed that the band had subsisted for years on 'McDonald's-type wages' and had their domestic phone lines cut off. 'I asked the accountant how much money was in the band account and he said 'Absolutely nothing',' Mason added. The debt to the record company stands at £1.2m. 'I always imagined we'd be as big as Radiohead,' he continued, 'but it hasn't happened. I still can't understand why'. Mason went on to enjoy a solo career; Maclean made his name as a film director (Slow West, a western starring Michael Fassbender, and 2025's acclaimed Tornado); Jones has worked on set design and costume for various films; Greentree turned his hand, successfully, to carpentry. Twenty one years after the band's demise, Beta fans — and there are many — are delighted that the quartet is re-uniting for a series of gigs in the UK, the US and Canada. 'Sold out' notices have gone up at venue after venue. The first two shows are at the Barrowland, on September 25 and 26. The Three EPs is being reissued on heavyweight double vinyl this summer, too.
Wales Online
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
Welsh actor bags major Hollywood role in Batman blockbuster
Welsh actor bags major Hollywood role in Batman blockbuster An actor from Cardiff has been cast as the lead villain in the forthcoming DC Studios movie. Tom Rhys Harries from Cardiff, is about to get his big break after being cast in the blockbuster movie (Image: Jed Cullen/Dave Benett/Getty Ima ) A Welsh actor has landed a game-changing role after being cast as the lead in an upcoming DC Studios' blockbuster. Tom Rhys Harries, who is relatively unknown in America and is still relatively at the beginning of his career, will take on the role of Clayface, a Batman villain famed for his shape-shifting abilities. The 34-year-old actor who graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama originally began his career on the West End, and since then has appeared in various TV series for streaming platforms Netflix and Apple TV+. The casting concludes a search that was primarily focused on young, British actors. For the latest TV and showbiz gossip sign up to our newsletter . This represents a significant breakthrough for the 35 year old Welshman, who has accumulated screen credits through his work on screen and stage in the UK over the past 15 years. The actor made his West End stage debut in 2014 in Jez Butterworth's Mojo alongside big names like Merlin's Colin Morgan, Harry Potter's Rupert Grint and award winning actor Ben Whishaw. DC project heads James Gunn and Peter Safran went to great lengths in their quest for the perfect lead star before finally deciding on the Cardiffian. They also considered Sinners' antagonist Jack O'Connell, Tom Blyth from Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Leo Woodall (The White Lotus), and George MacKay, known for his role in the war film 1917. Article continues below Speak No Evil's director James Watkins will helm Clayface, which is rumoured to be a pared-down film with a budget around the $40 million mark. Renowned horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan penned the script for Clayface, which is slated for release in autumn 2026 and is expected to start filming later this year. No stranger to a DC movie, The Batman's director Matt Reeves will produce, alongside Lynn Harris and Gunn and Safran. Tom, who has starred in the Guy Ritchie action comedy, The Gentlemen, spoke to the clothing brand Barbour about "making it". He said: "From quite a young age, I felt like I had a point to prove, and then you get older and I think success and anybody's definition of success changes drastically. "I don't think you ever feel like 'I've made it', but as long as you're turning up and like doing your due diligence with your work and engaging with things that are exciting then that's it. That is the thing." Content cannot be displayed without consent Fans of the actor commented on the video, sharing their support. One person said: "Da iawn cariad." One fan even nodded to his new role, saying: "Maybe after Clayface he might feel that he have made it " Another added: "Welcome to the DCU, Clayface!" Article continues below
Perth Now
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
'I was born nervous': Ozzy Osbourne voices fears ahead of Black Sabbath farewell gig
Ozzy Osbourne was "born nervous". The Prince of Darkness will bring the curtain down on his legendary career with the Back To The Beginning show at Birmingham's Villa Park on July 5 – where he will reunite with his original Black Sabbath bandmates Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward – and confessed that he would be feeling anxious even if was just a "regular gig". Ozzy told Mojo magazine: "Even if it was a regular gig, I would be a nervous wreck. I was born nervous. "Right now, I'm feeling grateful and proud and I'm sure I'll be feeling dozens more emotions on the day of the show." The gig is particularly poignant for Ozzy as he grew up near Aston Villa's stadium and would often hang around the ground during matches. The 76-year-old singer said: "Aston made me who I am. Being born there taught me so many things about life. It gave me ambition. "I grew up close to Villa Park and when the Villa were playing home matches, me and my mates would go down to the ground and offer to mind people's cars while the match was on, for a shilling. "Eventually, we thought to offer to wash the cars for more money. The first car I washed was with a Brillo pad, so you can imagine the outcome. That was a clue that it was my time to move on to other things." The gig will mark the first time that Black Sabbath's original line-up will have played together for 20 years but Ozzy insists that it will be the definitive end for the Paranoid rockers. The heavy metal icon, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2019, said: "After this show, I'm going home, closing the door and will look back upon the great career I've had. But I'm done, done, done! You gotta know when to call it quits." Ozzy says that it is particularly special that Ward will be part of the performance after the drummer wasn't involved in the making of Black Sabbath's final EP The End, which was released back in 2016. He said: "It's very important that Bill is a part of this show. My career started with Bill, and I'd really like to finish with Bill by my side."
TimesLIVE
05-06-2025
- Automotive
- TimesLIVE
DJ Mgiftana returns with a bang: star-studded 'All Black Sunday Kos' set to light up Johannesburg
Despite facing challenges after a car crash in 2000 that affected his speech and mobility, DJ Mgiftana has continued to thrive in the music industry. He has performed in the Southern African Development Community region and is known for his dynamic sets and resilience. 'During the Durban July I'll host a vinyl session at Mojo's car wash and Perere marquee, but looking forward to my All Black because it'll pave the way for [my] upcoming EP.'
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Fleeing suspect released pitbull from kennel during foot pursuit in south Bakersfield: police
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Bakersfield police came to a home in the 3300 block of Margalo Court 8:35 p.m. Tuesday night for reports of someone violating a restraining order. Officers say they made contact with the suspect identified as 26-year-old Marion Delouth III, in front of the home, but he fled into the backyard and released a large pitbull from its kennel. Fearing for their safety, an officer shot the dog after they say it aggressively charged at them. The dog was wrapped in a white bed sheet and put in the back of pickup. Delouth was arrested and booked on charges of assaulting an officer. No one else was hurt. 4 people hospitalized after truck collides with school bus near Shafter Sergeant Eric Celedon with Bakersfield Police Department released a statement to 17 News saying, 'For clarification, discharging a firearm by an officer at a dog is not considered an 'officer-involved-shooting', as defined by law.' 17 News went to the home to speak with the dog owner who was still in tears from the incident. She told 17 News his name is Mojo, a three-year-old American Bulldog she got for her boys while they were still playing football. The boys moved out, and Mojo became her baby. The dog owners have demanded answers from police to know why a taser or mace wasn't used instead of a gun. Mojo's owners declined to go on camera because they said it won't change anything. At last report, Mojo was transported to a veterinarian hospital where he's undergoing treatment for his injuries. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
