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Vinyl heads from all over the world will share and discuss their record collections in the new book, Dust & Grooves Volume 2: Further Adventures in Record Collecting, set to arrive Oct. 15.

The new tome comes from photographer and publisher Eilon Paz, who released the first Dust & Grooves volume back in 2014. That book paired Paz’s photographic essays with in-depth interviews with individual collectors, artists, DJs, and producers.

Further Adventures in Record Collecting, as its title suggests, expands upon the original’s premise. Where the first volume focused largely on the collections themselves,...

A version of this response appeared on the Black Rock Coalition’s website.

When Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner made offensive comments in The New York Times about women and Black artists, the Black Rock Coalition, which has battled stereotypes and musical categorizations about what rock is “supposed to be” since 1985, felt obligated to speak out and condemn his misogynistic and racist statements. While we were among many organizations and individuals to call out Wenner, he also had a number of supporters, citing his contributions to popular culture and to the world of music journalism.

On Sunday, 1 October 2023, at 9:30 Am, Channel 4 presents “Sunday Brunch,” a talk show featuring notable guests and musical performances. In this upcoming episode, viewers can look forward to engaging discussions and live music.

Gareth Malone, a well-known figure, will be on the show to talk about his upcoming tour. Myleene Klass, famous for her work in entertainment, discusses her new series on Sky Arts. Additionally, the episode will feature Don Letts, Beverley Knight, and Steve Backshall as guests, providing insight into their respective endeavors.

To top it off, viewers can enjoy live music from Zak Abel, adding a musical element to the show’s entertainment lineup.

Tune in to Channel 4 at 9:30 Am on Sunday, 1 October 2023, for a relaxed morning chat with interesting guests and some musical delight on “Sunday Brunch.”

Release Date & Time: 9:30 Am Sunday 1 October 2023 on Channel 4

Sunday Brunch Cast – Main Cast...

Danny Kortchmar with Carole King in Denny Tedesco’s close-knit and illustrious Immediate Family states: “We got to meet and play with our heroes.” Photo: Denny Tedesco

Denny Tedesco’s close-knit and illustrious Immediate Family (a Doc NYC highlight which includes animation by Lewie Kloster and Noah Kloster), features on-camera in-person interviews with Stevie Nicks, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Don Henley, Jackson Browne, Carole King, Phil Collins, David Crosby, Lyle Lovett, Keith Richards, Steve Jordan, Peter Asher (of Peter and Gordon), Lou Adler, and Neil Young (on Zoom) on their seminal work with the masterful foursome of Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel, and Waddy Wachtel (featured in Morgan Neville’s Keith Richards: Under The Influence) on some of the biggest hits of the Seventies and Eighties. The impact of The Beatles looms large (as it did for Don Letts in Bill Badgley’s Rebel Dread) and a peak at Immediate Family,...

A new documentary, Rebel Dread, will examine the influence of Don Letts, the British filmmaker, and musician who captured some of the most significant footage of punk’s first wave and cofounded Big Audio Dynamite with the Clash’s Mick Jones.

“Punk rock’s a living thing,” Letts says in the film’s trailer. “It’s about turning problems into assets. And as a first-generation, British-born Black, that’s something I know a lot about.” The 30-second clip features footage of the Clash and England’s Black community in the Seventies.

A new video for Joe Strummer’s recently released “Fantasy” draws from the former Clash frontman’s vaults to create a revealing, personal portrait of the late artist.

The clip opens with Strummer speaking posthumously from a boombox around New York City: “People are out there doing bad things together; it’s because they’re being dehumanized,” he says. “It’s time to take the humanity back to the center of the ring.” The clip shows snippets of Strummer’s lyrics along with footage of him walking around, tipping saxophonists on beach boardwalks,...

Don Letts with music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman on Singers & Players War of Words (99-002 LP) and Adrian Sherwood’s label: “I mean all the early On-u stuff is absolutely essential.”

In There And Black Again: The Autobiography Of Don Letts (Omnibus Press) we learn the fate of a screenplay (“inspired by Linton Kwesi Johnson’s Five Nights of Bleeding”) bought by the adventurous producer Michael White (Gracie Otto’s The Last Impresario) and its connection to Franco Rosso’s Babylon, co-written with Martin Stellman, starring Brinsley Forde, and a soundtrack put together by Dennis Bovell (The Slits Cut producer). Martin Scorsese, The Punk Rock Movie, Robert De Niro, The King of Comedy, Jerry Lewis, and The Clash shows at Bonds also have a link to Don Letts.

Music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman met Don Letts at The Roxy 45 years ago and was invited by Bernie Rhodes...

During the time she was married to Joe Strummer starting in 1995, Lucinda Tait would often hear her late husband at work in the kitchen of their house in Broomfield, in southwest England. “He had a typewriter, an old-fashioned one that would go ‘clack clack,'” Tait recalls. “When I went to sleep at night, I’d be upstairs and hear him tapping away at the kitchen table.”

Strummer’s wildly influential former band, the Clash, were long in the rear-view mirror by then, and Strummer had recently formed his latest combo,...

Although it’s often characterised as nihilistic and purely oppositional, the impact of the punk movement on culture, society and the way that ordinary people thought about the world might be seen as a renaissance of sorts. If so, there could be no more notable renaissance man than Don Letts. His achievements are so manifold that it’s difficult to sum them up under any more conventional label. He’s a filmmaker, musician, DJ, TV presenter, fashion icon, outspoken thinker. It is perhaps because of this variety that nobody has previously attempted to take on his story on film. Veteran music documentarian William E Badgley, best known for Here To Be Heard: The Story Of The Slits, crams an enormous amount into barely an hour and a half of film, creating one of the most satisfying viewing experiences of the year to date.

When the subject of a film has an executive producer credit,...

The festival drew to a close yesterday (March 13).

UK director Lizzie MacKenzie won the audience award at Glasgow Film Festival (Gff) for her documentary The Hermit Of Treig, as unveiled as part of the festival’s closing night (March 13).

The film made its world premiere at Gff, which ran from March 2-13 as a hybrid offering, with both in-person and select online screenings and industry events taking place.

Gala premieres were also screened in certain cinemas across the UK, for the first time in the festival’s 18-year history.

Five out of seven of the films nominated for the audience award were directed by women,...

Also out this weekend: ‘Ali & Ava’, ‘The Godfather Part II’.

Warner Bros’ The Batman will dominate the UK-Ireland box office this weekend, as the latest version of the caped crusader takes aim at records in the territory.

The Batman is releasing in 709 locations – a record for Warner Bros, topping the 677 of 2018’s Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald; and 671 of 2019’s Joker.

It also makes it the 10th-widest release of all time in the territory.

Matt Reeves’ film has a notable noiri-sh tone, as Robert Pattinson’s Batman must question his family’s involvement in the city’s hidden...

A key cultural evangelist, the raconteur talks through his creative career since recording the 1970s punk scene on his Super-8 camera

It’s an intense, 86-minute pleasure to be in the company of Don Letts: DJ, film-maker, musician, social commentator and thoroughly engaging raconteur. Every word that comes out of his mouth is a manifesto for humanity and creativity. “Punk rock’s a living thing,” he says, “something to look forward to, not look back on.”

Letts became part of the punk scene in late-70s London, befriending everyone from Malcolm McLaren to Bob Marley; he was DJing at the Roxy in Covent Garden, and with his pioneering choice of reggae records, Letts almost single-handedly made allies of punk and Jamaican music and struck a powerful cultural blow against racism. He also, with his Super-8 camera, shot vivid and intense footage of bands including the Sex Pistols and the...

Sony release “Uncharted” continued its reign atop the U.K. and Ireland box office for the third weekend in a row collecting £3.08 million ($4.1 million), according to numbers released by Comscore. The film now has a total of £18 million.

Universal’s animated sequel “Sing 2” continued in second position with £2.6 million after five weekends and now has a total of £29 million.

Warner Bros,’ “The Duke,” “Notting Hill” the director Roger Michell’s last fiction feature featuring thespians Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren, debuted in third place with £992,659.

Disney release, Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot film “Death on the Nile,” collected £764,438 in fourth position and has £6.4 million after three weekends.

Rounding off the top five was Entertainment Film Distributors’ “Dog,” starring Channing Tatum, also making his directing debut, with £650,853 and the film has now collected £2.1 million after two weekends.

In sixth place, Sony’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” raked in another £579,227 in...

Celeste Bell on her film with Paul Sng, Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché: “What we set out to do is address universal themes that we can all relate to, whether you’re a fan of X-Ray Spex, Poly Styrene, punk music or even interested in music at all …” Photo: BBC Arena

Celeste Bell and Paul Sng’s Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché (BIFA Best Independent Documentary and Discovery Award winner), co-written with Zoë Howe, with Poly voiced by Ruth Negga (Rebecca Hall’s Passing and Oscar nominated for Jeff Nichols’ Loving) features some of the most creative talent of the late Seventies, early Eighties London, including X-Ray Spex members Paul Dean and Lora Logic; Neneh Cherry, Don Letts, Pauline Black, Vivien Goldman, Ana Da Silva, Gina Birch, Thurston Moore, Youth, and Vivienne Westwood sharing their remembrances of Poly Styrene off-camera, while we see brilliantly chosen and socially...

It will be in cinemas and available to stream on May 13 2022.

UK production and distribution company Bohemia Media has picked up Venice 2020 title Listen for UK and Ireland distribution in cinemas and on Bohemia Media’s new streaming platform, Bohemia Euphoria.

The first feature from actress-turned-director Ana Rocha de Sousa, Listen is a UK-Portugal co-production drama that premiered in Venice’s Orizzonti section in 2020, winning five awards at the festival. It tells the story of a Portuguese family living in the outskirts of London, grappling to keep the family together after the social services try to separate them. Love Actually’s Lucia Moniz stars.

For a young teenager steeped in grunge, Britpop, and the Beatles, the discovery of 1970s UK punk rock was tantamount to a swift slap in the face—and a glorious one, at that. And one of the crucial pieces of pre-internet background information was England’s Dreaming, Jon Savage’s indispensable study of the era. The book is full of memorable figures—none more so than Poly Styrene. She is only a minor player in Savage’s text, but few resonate more. The author explains that “Poly was a star, with her dayglo clothes, multi-racial background, teeth braces, and surreal songs which wittily commented on that very process of consumption and packaging that she was at once celebrating and transcending.”

All of these elements and many others are represented in the long-in-the-works documentary Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché, which makes its Canadian premiere at Hot Docs 2021. The timing is apropos.

Nadean Rawlins is participating in the Lab with a project called ‘Traytown’.

Nadean Rawlins is the first Jamaican producer to participate in the Rotterdam Lab as the Jamaican industry aims to establish international partnerships and create a sustainable film sector.

She took part in the Lab with her project Traytown. “It is a very character-driven, female-led film,” says the award-winning actress, theatre producer and talent manager. “It shows a strong female lead in a male-dominated world.”

A short film version of Traytown, scripted by Letay Williams, premiered at the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival last September. Rawlins co-directed the film as...

When George Floyd was killed by police in May, Sinéad O’Connor knew she wanted to do something to honor him. She felt she only had her voice at her disposal, but decided the best track for these times had already been written: Mahalia Jackson’s “Trouble of the World.”

“I was very moved that when George Floyd died he was calling for his mother and, as a result, there sprang up a movement of other mothers around America; they were in the streets with placards saying, ‘When George Floyd called for his mama,...

Looking back at some of the strangest cameos in film and TV history, we were struck by how many of them were by musicians. It makes sense. After all, musicians are already out of place among actors on a TV or film set. What they bring to the table is different from what actors bring, in terms of star quality, charisma, self-expression and established personae. If you’re familiar with both the musician’s work and the characters in a movie or TV show (and the actors who play them...

Reggae and punk icon Don Letts reminisces about the emergence of Jamaican music in the U.K. in a clip from the documentary Rudeboy: The Story of Trojan Records. Following a year on the film festival circuit, the film is now available on digital streaming services.

“Black and white kids were united through their love of music and style; invariably, a lot of that music was the Trojan stuff,” Letts said of the famed Jamaican label that boasted artists like Jimmy Cliff, the Upsetters, the Maytals, Desmond Dekker and more.

There can’t be many pairs of hands as safe as Don Letts’s when it comes to music knowledge. A cultural polymath who has been front-and-centre of the music scene for over 40 years – as a musician, DJ, radio presenter, Grammy Award-winning music video and film director. Letts was one of the key figures in the introduction of reggae to the punk movement, working particularly closely with The Clash.

He’s returned to reggae, celebrating his first love with a series of podcasts for Turtle Bay, and in his latest Reggae45 podcast, he has zeroed in on reggae’s place in Jamaican cinema. “With this episode Don takes the term soundtrack from a literal point of view, delving deep into the world of film and how the sound has a parallel connection with the story on the screen.”

The Citizen Kane of Jamaican cinema is Perry Henzell’s 1972 crime thriller...

The son of Jamaican immigrants, the musician and film-maker was energised by punk and the Notting Hill carnival in the 70s. But the Windrush scandal has left him deeply concerned about Britain’s future

In the mid-70s, when Don Letts was a young man being frequently trailed through the streets by police, he would stop his car, jump up on the roof and stand, arms outstretched, Jesus-like. He leaps up in the garden of his London home, replicating the pose. “I’d go: ‘Why are you guys crucifying me?’ And I’d start taking my clothes off,” he says. “You know why I did that? To get people to start looking. The minute you’ve got an audience, the cops don’t know what to do.” The “sus law” – police powers to stop and search anyone considered to be suspicious – was in full effect and this was the most extreme of Letts’ tactics.

Exclusive: UK sales outfit boards doc about all-women punk band and Australian adventure movie.

UK sales outfit Moviehouse has added two films to its slate ahead of the Efm in Berlin.

Currently in post-production and readying for an autumn 2017 completion is documentary Here To Be Heard: The Story of the Slits,about the world’s first all-female punk band formed in 1976 London.

Contemporaries of The Clash and The Sex Pistols, the film tells the story of the Slits and the lives of the women involved, from the bands inception to its end in 2010 with the death of lead vocalist Ari Up.

The film Includes interviews with Slits band member Viv Albertine, The Sex Pistols’ Paul Cook, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, Don Letts, Dennis Bovell, Adrian Sherwood and previously unseen footage and recordings of the band.

Moviehouse Entertainment’s Mark Vennis is producing with director-producer William Badgley.

Also new to the slate is recently completed Australian title Rough Stuff...

Martin Scorsese turns 70 on Friday, and the man has never been busier. In the midst of a multitude of projects, he's currently shooting his next feature, "The Wolf Of Wall Street," but of course, he took some time out recently to talk about David Lean's masterpiece, "Lawrence Of Arabia," as it arrives in a brand new 4-disc set today (get that Christmas shopping done early, folks). But before we jump into that, let's rewind the clock slightly. It's hard to believe, but it's been thirty years since Scorsese dropped "The King Of Comedy," a movie that still remains a bit underrated in his canon. And we have to admit, either we missed it or just didn't know, but The Clash cameoed ever so briefly in the film. Look closely and you'll see Mick Jones, Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon (plus associates like manager Kosmo Vinyl, singers Ellen Foley and Pearl Harbour,...

A few weeks ago, BAMcinématek teased us with the announcement of 11 films from their 2012 program. Now, BAMcinématek has announced the complete main slate for the fourth annual BAMcinemaFest (June 20 — July 1, 2012). The 12-day festival presents premieres of emerging voices in American independent cinema. With 20 New York premieres and one North American premiere, the young festival includes films culled from Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Berlin, Rotterdam, Slamdance, and SXSW. Opening Night: Sleepwalk With Me (Mike Birbiglia) Mike Birbiglia’s adaptation of his hit off-Broadway one-man show. Co-written and produced by Ira Glass, who has featured Birbiglia on This American Life, this hilarious and poignant autobiographical exploration stars Birbiglia as a bartender at a Park Slope comedy club who moves in with his long-term girlfriend (Lauren Ambrose). On top of his struggles with his relationship and his stand-up career, Birbiglia also battles an extreme form of sleepwalking where he acts out his dreams—even...

The BAMcinematek has announced the complete main lineup for the fourth annual BAMcinemaFest. The festival culls some of the best films from festivals including Sundance, Toronto, Slamdance and SXSW. Among the mix of the 22 films being screened is Mike Birbiglia's adaptation of his one-man play "Sleepwalk With Me," which will be the opening night film; a special spotlight screeing of the Sundance Grand Jury winner "Beasts of the Southern Wild"; and "Rock 'n' Roll Exposed: The Photography of Bob Gruen," Don Letts' documentary about the legendary rock-and-roll photographer, will close out the festival. The festival runs from June 20-July 1. See below for the complete lineup of films screening: "Sleepwalk With Me," dir. Mike Birbiglia (Opening Night film) "Beasts of the Southern Wild," dir. Benh Zeitlin (Spotlight screening) "Rock ‘n’ Roll Exposed: The Photography...

Today the full lineup for BAMCinemafest has been unveiled, including the opening and closing night films. (The initial slate of titles was announced just over a month ago.) The fest will be bookended by comedian Mike Birbiglia’s Sundance charmer Sleepwalk with Me and Rock ‘n’ Roll Exposed: The Photography of Bob Gruen, the latest doc from British musician and filmmaker Don Letts (Dancehall Queen).

The Spotlight screening is Benh Zeitlin’s Sundance Grand Prize winner Beasts of the Southern Wild, and other highlights out of the newly announced titles include the Ross brothers’ Tchoupitoulas, Cory McAbee’s Crazy and Thief and Tim Sutton’s Pavilion (all of which I’m very excited to catch up with.)

Speaking about the 2012 lineup, BAMcinématek’s program director Florence Almozini said, “I’m really excited about the fourth edition of BAMcinemaFest as it may be our best yet. I think we’re refining...

From Kingston to Lewisham, here are five other must-see reggae movies

The Harder They Come (Dir. Perry Henzell, Jamaica, 1972)

Jamaica's first feature, and the one against which others are measured. The plot – poor country boy seeks fortune in city – is archetypal, but Henzell cleverly turns our admiration for hero Ivan (Jimmy Cliff in incendiary form) into revulsion, as the film shifts through melodrama, comedy and musical into tragedy. Immortal movie moments – "You think the hero can be dead before the last reel?" scoffs Ivan at one point – and a stunning soundtrack led by Cliff's title song make this a five-star classic.

Rockers (Dir. Ted Bafaloukos, Jamaica, 1979)

A "Dreadsploitation" flick that's now a vibrant time capsule of reggae's halcyon days. Drummer Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace plays a hapless muso caught up in Kingston's music wars. The plot's paper thin, but there's a gallery of great cameo appearances – Jacob Miller and Gregory Isaacs...

Glade has published the full lineup for the 2012 festival. New acts added to the bill include rave legends SL2, drum & bass star Dillinja and Glade regulars Ceephax Acid Crew. Other previously-confirmed acts include Sven Väth, Andy C, Vitalic, Rusko, Tricka Technology, Dub Pistols, Don Letts, Dr Alex Paterson, Oliver Huntemann, Stanton Warriors, System 7 and more. Stages at this year's festival include the Overkill Arena, (more)...

Stephan Bodzin and Oliver Huntemann have been added to the lineup of this year's Glade Festival. As well as the exclusive UK performances from the Plantage 13 pair, other new acts added to the bill include Stanton Warriors, System 7 (Live), The Correspondents (Live) and Lewah. Last month, the festival announced Sven Väth, Andy C and Vitalic as its Glade Stage headliners. The electronic music event returns to Houghton Hall in Norfolk this year from June 14 to 17. Other acts lined up include Rusko, Tricka Technology, Dub Pistols, Don Letts (more)...

Sound On Sight will once again be covering the SXSW Film Festival this year, making it our second time attending. 130 feature films will screen at the Austin, Texas fest taking place March 9-17, including 65 World Premieres, 17 North American Premieres and 10 U.S. Premieres. As previously announced, Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon’s The Cabin in the Woods will have the honours of opening the festival, and now they have released the full list of films – and it’s looking pretty amazing. Enjoy!

Narrative Feature Competition

This year’s 8 films were selected from 1,112 submissions. Each film is a World Premiere. Films screening in Narrative Feature Competition are:

Booster

Director/Screenwriter: Matt Ruskin

When Simon’s brother is arrested for armed robbery, he is asked to commit a string of similar crimes in an attempt to get his brother acquitted.

Cast: Nico Stone, Adam DuPaul, Seymour Cassel, Kristin Dougherty, Brian McGrail (World Premiere)

Eden

Director: Megan Griffiths,...

Iggy Pop and Debbie Harry, shot by Bob Gruen in 1977

Rock 'N' Roll Exposed: The Photography of Bob Gruen

screens as part of 24 Beats per Second

SXSW Film has just announced its features lineup for the 2012 edition, running March 9 through 17. We already knew that the Opening Night Film would be Drew Goddard's The Cabin in the Woods. For its Closing Night Film, the festival will host the world premiere of of Emmett Malloy’s documentary Big Easy Express (more below). The lineup, with descriptions from the festival:

Narrative Feature Competition

Booster

Director/Screenwriter: Matt Ruskin. When Simon’s brother is arrested for armed robbery, he is asked to commit a string of similar crimes in an attempt to get his brother acquitted. Cast: Nico Stone, Adam DuPaul, Seymour Cassel, Kristin Dougherty, Brian McGrail. (World Premiere)

Eden

Director: Megan Griffiths, Screenwriters: Richard B. Phillips, Megan Griffiths, Story by: Richard B. Phillips & Chong Kim.

With Sundance 2012 Film Festival over, the next big one on the horizon is South by Southwest, which we’ll be heavily covering. The biggest chunk of the line-up has been announced today, which has some great premieres including 21 Jump Street, Tiff and Sundance hit The Raid, Will Ferrell‘s Casa de mi Padre, the documentary Girl Model (which we liked at Tiff), as well as the next from Broken Lizard, The Babymakers. There are many other promising titles included and you can see them all below. Check back for our coverage for the fest, kicking off March 9th.

Narrative Feature Competition

This year’s 8 films were selected from 1,112 submissions. Each film is a World Premiere. Films screening in Narrative Feature Competition are:

Booster

Director/Screenwriter: Matt Ruskin

When Simon’s brother is arrested for armed robbery, he is asked to commit a string of similar crimes in an attempt to get his brother acquitted.

Attendees of South by Southwest 2012 are in for a treat. 130 feature films will screen at the Austin, Texas festival taking place March 9-17. Among them are 65 World Premieres, 17 North American Premieres and 10 U.S. Premieres. The organization already announced [1] Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon's The Cabin in the Woods would open the festival (the movie is phenomenal [2]) and today the majority of the remaining line up has been revealed. One of the highlights is the unbelievably smart and hilarious 21 Jump Street, directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller. Both of those are World Premieres. Other highlights include The Hunter, Killer Joe, The Babymakers, frankie goes boom, God Bless America, The Imposter, The Raid, Bernie and Casa de mi Padre just to name a few. After the jump, read descriptions of all the films that have been announced so far. Before I copy and paste the rest of the list, a few minor notes.

From Tori Amos's dad chaperoning her at her first paid gig, to Don Letts DJing with only one deck, a host of stars recall the formative moments that kicked off their careers

The first time I was paid to play live Tori Amos

I'd been kicked out of the Peabody conservatory in Baltimore at the age of 11 and lost my scholarship because I wasn't Peabody stock any more. I had real issues that they weren't teaching contemporary composers. They said the Beatles would be gone and dead within 30 years, and no one would care. It was 1974, I was 11, and it was good to be right! My minister father was really distraught. He had these dreams of me being a concert pianist and then going into religious music. I just looked and him and said: "Dad, this music is just not moving me." He said: "Well, if you're going to go into that world,...

Encounters Short Film Festival, Bristol

The cinematic Trojan horse returns, smuggling short film-makers into the big league, even more so now it's a qualifying festival for the Oscars and Baftas. Admittedly, some of this year's entries hardly need a leg-up. Pitch Black Heist, for example, stars Michael Fassbender, while animation Bertie Crisp features the voices of Tamsin Greig and Kathy Burke. Notable first-timers this year include the Jesus And Mary Chain's Douglas Hart (Long Distance Information, starring Peter Mullan) and Matthew "Garth Marenghi" Holness (A Gun For George), but with 180 new live-action and animated films, there are plenty of new names to be made for sure.

Watershed & Arnolfini, Wed to 20 Nov

Soundtrack Film Festival, Cardiff

As the title suggests, music and cinema come together here, and not always in predictable ways. Ok, so Guillemots are playing an improvised score to Fw Murnau's 1926 silent classic Faust but how will Ivory Tower,...

Suggs has said that the Madness-curated House of Fun Weekender will feature a mix of old and new influences on the band. The band headline the event at Butlins Minehead, which takes place on November 25 to November 27. Also on the bill are Beardyman, Paul Heaton, The Whip, Jerry Dammers, Rob Da Bank, Andrew Weatherall, Don Letts and others. Suggs told Digital Spy: "We've just got a lot of bands and DJs and films that have inspired us or hopefully will inspire us in the future. A mixture of old and new." Asked which artists he had picked personally, he added: "I was very keen on Beardyman, The Cuban Brothers, who I think are great, the Gentleman's Dub Club and also Jerry Dammers and his orchestra are doing a little bit, which is great." Watch Madness play 'My Girl' live at Madstock below: He added: "More and more (more...

When asked what memory stands out above all others during his decade-long tenure as the film programmer for the North by Northeast Music Festival and Conference (Nxne), Ambrose Roche can't settle on a single winner.

"That's a tough one. Either playing the 'beaver' game with [British filmmaker and musician] Don Letts or stiffing [The Police drummer] Stewart Copeland and his manager on cab fare after ushering them out of the Royal Cinema after the screening of his film."

On the cusp of the film festival's 10-year anniversary, finishing touches are still being put on the final lineup, which includes world and Canadian premieres, work from the likes of Lou Reed, outre artist and Quentin Tarantino vanguard Jx Williams and music docs about Montreal's punk scene (Mtl Punk: The First Wave), NYC's subway performers (Below New York), revered '80s alt rock pioneers The Replacements (Color Me Obsessed) and recently departed garage rocker Jay Reatard (Better Than Something: Jay Reatard...

Mick Jones has suggested that Big Audio Dynamite may write some new material together. The guitarist joins all founding members - Don Letts, Greg Roberts, Leo 'E-Zee-Kill' Williams and Dan Donovan - to play a series of live shows in the UK and Us later this year. Jones told BBC 6 Music: "The old songs have matured with age and there's a possibility that we might be able to do some new stuff. Who knows. We're going to try and recreate some of the old feelings and look for some new ones." Talking about the band's comeback he added: "I've never done the reformation thing before, ever, so this is going to be a first for me as well (more)...

Big Audio Dynamite have announced a reunion tour. Mick Jones's post-Clash band will play a full UK tour in March and April before performing at California's Coachella Arts and Music Festival on April 16. Jones is joined by the all the founding members of the 'E=MC2' group, including Don Letts, Greg Roberts, Leo 'E-Zee-Kill' Williams and Dan Donovan. B.A.D. were formed in 1984 after Jones was fired from The Clash. They experienced several lineup changes and also released records as Big Audio Dynamite (more)...

In the mid-1970s, a revolution was ignited on the streets of New York and London. Almost overnight, punk shattered the status quo and continued to impact all future generations of youth culture. On January 11, 2010, Shout! Factory will release the long out-of-print documentary Punk: Attitude. Directed by Don Letts, the film and its extensive bonus features, chronicle the origin of punk music and...

The life of late The Clash frontman Joe Strummer is to be immortalized in a new movie. Bosses at British production company Film4 have announced plans to turn the punk legend's story into a big screen biopic called Joe Publich.

The film will be written by Paul Viragh, the brains behind recent Ian Dury movie "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll", according to International Screen Daily. Strummer's life has previously been recounted in two movie documentaries - Julien Temple's 2007 film "Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten" and Don Letts' "Strummerville.

Strummer died suddenly on December 22, 2002 in his home at Broomfield in Somerset, the victim of an undiagnosed congenital heart defect. He and the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in January 2003.

If you're unable to make it to the Notting Hill Carnival this year, here's a clip from Don Letts' new film to show you what you're missing. Tracing the history of the event, this reveals the carnival's origins and its original intentions. No need to fret – there's no sign of a politician in a baseball cap anywhere to be seen in this snippet, but it does show some of the splendid gear the street performers wear.

The DJ and film-maker talks about his family

My dad's baptismal name was St Leger Letts – the name of a horse race, which tells you a lot about Jamaicans. He was part of the Windrush generation and a DJ under the name of Duke Letts, with Superstonic Sound [sic]. It was rocksteady and bluebeat, and people with Bibles under their arms. He did it after church on Sunday – it was a focal point when people could get together and discuss the problems of being strangers in a strange land.

My father's generation – you have to take your hat off to them. They came over with their hopes and dreams and knuckled down and put up with all the crap they were given – more for their kids' sake than their own.

As children, we had no reference points. We wanted to be like our white friends, we were this new hybrid: first-generation,...

Directors: Greg Olliver & Wes Orshoski Featuring: Lemmy Kilmister, Motörhead, Ozzy Osbourne, Dave Grohl, Slash, Duff McKagan, Metallica, Stray Cats, Mick Jones, Alice Cooper, Steve Vai, Billy Bob Thornton, Triple H, The Damned, Henry Rollins, Nikki Sixx One of the top 3 films of my SxSw experience (the others being Kick-Ass and Cyrus), Lemmy may even stand out as my favorite film of the festival. Any film that features Motörhead’s Lemmy in full WWII regalia driving and firing off the gun of a tank is a sure-fire bet to be worth watching; and as rock documentaries go, Lemmy is one that can not be missed. Following the long, and meandering career of Lemmy Kilmister, Lemmy takes the viewer on an awesomely detailed and interesting private tour of the rock star’s current eccentric life, both at home in his Los Angeles apartment (or his second home, the Rainbow) and on the road with Motörhead.

Director: Don Letts “Joe Strummer? Never heard his music….don’t know much about him-but that’s not what Strummerville is all about...”. This sentence-uttered in one form or another by virtually every band featured in Don Letts’s Strummerville, arouses in me (as well as likely any music fan that would view this film) the utter disappointment that Strummerville is. In what was intended to be a post-mortem tribute to the great legacy of Clash frontman Joe Strummer, Strummerville instead acts as a meandering mess that only serves to demean the remarkable legacy left by one of the most important figures of modern popular music. Primarily consisting of interviews and live performances of young bands, Strummerville, tells the story of how/why the Strummerville Foundation was established in England by friends and family of Joe Strummer in the wake of his death. Spearheaded by Joe’s wife Lucinda, a few close family friends,...

As the SXSW Film, Music and Interactive festival gets closer, more and more announcements are coming out about what programming we can expect during the event. Friday, it was announced what film would cose the competition and in addition, more features and shorts were added to the program which already features over 100 films.

Here’s all the info about the new items from the official press release. As we told you previously, we’ve got a great team going to SXSW this year so be sure to check back often for more.

SXSW Film Festival Announces Closing Night Film,

Additional Features & Shorts For 2010 Event

The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival has announced Chris Morris’ pitch-black satire Four Lions as its Closing Night film, to play on Saturday, March 20 at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas. SXSW also released additional feature and short titles or the 2010 event, which...

SXSW Film has announced more titles for its 2010 program. Chris Morris' Four Lions will now close the festival. New features, shorts, and documentaries have also been added, including American Grindhouse, Cargo, Strummerville, This Movie is Broken, and Suck. The full list (courtesty of SXSW) is presented below. 

Headliners

 

Four Lions (United Kingdom)

Director: Chris Morris. Screenwriters: Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, Simon Blackwell and Chris Morris

Four Lions tells the story of a group of British jihadists who push their abstract dreams of glory to the breaking point. Cast: Riz Ahmed, Arsher Ali, Nigel Lindsay, Kayvan Novak, Adeel Akhtar

 Spotlight Premieres

 

American Grindhouse

Director: Elijah Drenner. Screenwriters: Calum Wadell and Elijah Drenner

This feature documentary chronicles the history of the American Exploitation Film. It digs deep into this often overlooked category of U.S. cinema and unearths the shameless and occasionally shocking origins of this popular entertainment. (World Premiere)

 

Cargo...

Austin, Texas – February 19, 2010 – The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival has announced Chris Morris’ pitch-black satire Four Lions as its Closing Night film, to play on Saturday, March 20 at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas. SXSW also released additional feature and short titles or the 2010 event, which will take place March 12 – March 20, 2010. The festival will open with the world premiere of Kick-Ass, directed by Matthew Vaughn and starring Aaron Johnson, Cholë Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Nicolas Cage. SXSW will also host more than 80 Film Conference panels, which will take place Friday, March 12 – Tuesday, March 16. Previously announced participants for the 2010 SXSW Film Conference include Michel Gondry (The Thorn in the Heart, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds), David Gordon Green (Eastbound & Down, Pineapple Express), Jeffery Tambor’s Acting Workshop, and Academy Award-winning Argentine composer, solo artist and producer Gustavo Santaolalla, among many others. For full panel descriptions and participants,...

Sundance favorite and World Cinema Grand Jury nominee Four Lions will close the 2010 SXSW Film Festival on Saturday, March 20. The UK film was co-written, directed, and stars Chris Morris.

Other “festival favorites” include Waking Sleeping Beauty, a behind-the-scenes documentary about Disney animation from 1984 to 1994 directed by Beauty and the Beast producer Don Hahn, and Tony, a Slamdance selection and psychological thriller about a serial killer.

Skateland, starring Ashley Green, is also getting another look from festival goers, as well as the raved-about short film from Spike Jonze titled I’m Here. Plus a Doors documentary narrated by Johnny Depp. I’ll be reviewing and covering as many of these films as I can.

Below is a full list of the additional titles screening at the film festival, which runs from March 12th through the 20th in Austin, Texas.

Headliners

Four Lions (United Kingdom)

Director: Chris Morris. Screenwriters: Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain,...