DAMON ALBARN and Graham Coxon are to team up with ’60s American duo The Silver Apples for their appearance at the Meltdown Festival at the London Royal Festival Hall on July 5.
Albarn and Coxon asked to play with The Silver Apples through Meltdown organiser John Peel when they heard the duo were appearing. The Silver Apples are keyboardist Simeon Coxe and drummer Daniel Taylor. They are visual artists who played on the New York arthouse scene in the late ’60s, releasing two albums before disappearing. Last year Coxe appeared at the Highbury Garage as Silver Apples. Commenting on the collaboration, Peel said: “We left it up to the people concerned to sort out what they wanted to do. I was quite pleased Blur didn’t feel like playing as Blur but that two of them were eager to do something with somebody else.”
Meanwhile, Spiritualized have revealed that they will be playing with a live loop of themselves during their appearance on July 1. Their show will be broadcast live by Radio 1 and beamed back into the Royal Festival Hall on a 90-second delay and the band will play along with it. “It could be terrible,” commented Peel. “The potential for disaster is almost limitless.”
Other acts appearing at this year’s Meltdown include The Jesus And Mary Chain playing with Suicide, Cornershop, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Half Man Half Biscuit and Add N To X.
There will also be a reggae evening plus label nights from Warp, Chemikal Underground and Creeping Bent. Although the eight nights of Meltdown (June 20, 21, 30, July 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) coincide with the football World Cup, organisers are installing screens to show the matches. If any games go into extra time they’ll delay the start of the performance. Tickets priced #8-15 are on sale now.