The New Cue #476 March 20: Welly, Anoushka Shanka, Durand Jones & the Indications, Joseph Futak, Matt Berry, Spill Tab, Miki Berenyi Trio, Soft Play

"Music can be FUN."

Hi hey hello,

It’s Ted and Niall here, your old pals from The New Cue, delivering their 475^th edition of the world’s greatest music newsletter (am assuming this to be true: I’ve never read another music newsletter – or at least I’ve never made it to the end of one).

475 editions. Twenty-five more until we reach 500 and become paper billionaires. Until then, we toil in relative poverty. You can help ease that misery for a brief moment by subscribing to our newsletter for a mere £5 a month. It’ll also allow you to read the rest of this edition. Perhaps in the not-too-distant future, when we stick a paywall in some of our must-have Monday Life & Times editions, it’ll let you read those too.

On with today’s missive, which includes Britain’s hottest new band (leader) Welly uncorking an amusing Release Valve, plus loads of musical fruit. Have this playlist on us.

And here it is for the Apple Music crew. Thanks for reading, subscribing and living your lives with careless abandon, you absolute ledges. We love you.

Ted and Niall

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Release Valve: Welly

Welly is the frontman of a Brighton-based band also called Welly, whose sparky, charismatic debut album Big In The Suburbs is out today. It’s a record that sounds like a formative version of The Fall (with a southern, more twee Mark E Smith) trying to play early Blur and Pulp songs, but there’s something about the lyrics and delivery that could only be made in suburban South-Eastly England. It’s definitely unique! We asked Welly to celebrate with a Release Valve and this is what he sent us…

The first record I loved was…Either Shine by Take That, or the theme tune to Thomas the Tank Engine.

The last record I loved was…As I write this, I'm listening to a Jacques Dutronc compilation. I picked up a load of sixties French Pop CDs from Paris when we filmed the 'France' video. I've been really into French-speaking pop this last year; when you remove the known language (I got a C in GCSE French), you have to focus more on the emotions and phonetics. Which as a writer is probably quite important. Especially if you want a worldwide smash hit. That'd be brilliant.

The greatest gig I ever saw was…Sports Team at the Joiners, 2019. Music can be FUN. We'd spent too long watching dull, miserable post-punk.

The greatest gig I ever played was…MOTH Club, in December last year. It's cliche, but people were singing every word, every guitar line, even to the songs we haven't released yet. We'd just finished a gruelling 30 date tour of suburbia, sometimes playing to less people than are in the band. Felt like a hero's welcome. And I got to put on my full Network Rail Hi-Vis for the last tune.

We don’t have footage of that, so have some live at Reading Festival action instead.

My favourite group when I was 13 was…The Stone Roses! Until I saw them at T in the Park in 2016 and realised Pete Townsend was right. 'I hope I die, before I get old...'

The story of my new album goes like this: 'Big in the Suburbs' is a tour with me, for the weekend, around my hometown. It looks a lot like everywhere else, but this one is mine. I fall into that semi-regular early-twenties spiral of 'what-are we-doing' that our parents never seemed to have. You have to have your life figured out so early now. This is a weekend-long meditation on the meaning of growing up.

I couldn’t have made the album without…Irn Bru and Tennents. We recorded it in Scotland, and spent more on these things than we did on the petrol that got us there.

The song on it everyone should listen to is…'It's Not Like This In France'. Half Anti-Brexit, Half Flag-Shagger's anthem, all pop gold.

The song I wish I’d written is…The good answer would be 'My Way' or 'White Christmas', because I could probably purchase the moon by now. But truthfully, 'Up the Junction' by Squeeze. My only desert island disc. This whole album is 14 attempts at Up The Junction. And yet, not one lyric quite as good as 'I never thought it would happen//with me and the girl from Clapham'.

The film everyone should see is…Brief Encounter, Noel Coward giving the British the ability to turn kitchen-sink dramas into Greek-level epics.

The book that changed my life is… The Go-Between, LP Hartley. That confusing, slightly excusable, cunning juvenile consternation is plastered all over 'Big in the Suburbs'.

The person who is making my favourite music in the world right now is…Niko B. One of the very few artists in the UK that actually seems to give a toss about appealing to real people and real experiences.

The one thing that would improve music is…CDs coming back. If artists want to make more money from music, we need to bridge the gap between no money from streaming, and the fans being reluctant to spend over thirty quid on a vinyl. CDs give you that intimate, tangible experience, for around a tenner. I think music is worth that..

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Recommender

Ted Kessler

I write this rested upon the spring equinox, the warmth of the day flooding through an open window. Lads, we’ve done it. We’ve come through winter. Yes, there’ll be plenty more cold and miserable days before winter returns in six months, but I don’t think I’ll be writing with a blanket across my legs and shoulders again before then. To celebrate, listen to this new EP from fabled composer and sitarist Anoushka Shankar. It's the sound and epitome of spring, as underlined by its title: Chapter III: We Return To Light. WE RETURN TO LIGHT! Play it now.