Tune in to Bruce Dickinson’s Friday rock show on BBC Radio 6 on March 12 (9pm til midnight) to hear an entertaining interview with Nazareth founder members Pete Agnew and Dan McCafferty.

The veteran rockers recorded the show on February 15, before their gig at the Relentless Garage in Highbury (a fantastic show, blown amp notwithstanding!); the London leg of their extremely well-received UK ’Still Loud n Proud’ tour.

28th April 2010 – B1 Maximum Hall, Moscow, Russia

1st May 2010 – Estrella Levante SOS 4.8, Murcia, Spain

8th May 2010 – Milan Palasharp

11th May 2010 – Berlin (Huxley’s Neue Welt)

12th May 2010 – Dortmund Westfalenhalle

14th May 2010 – Zenith De Paris

15th May 2010 – Amsterdam, Heineken Music Hall

12th June 2010 – Caribana Festival, Switzerland

9th July 2010 – The Marquee, Cork

23rd July - York Racecourse

24th July - Margate (Sound Island Festival)

29th July - Epsom Racecourse

30th July – 1st August 2010 – Camp Bestival, Dorset

6th August - Newmarket Racecourse

21/22 August - V Festival

Check the official Madness website for full details including where to buy tickets from and the USM site to see all the Madness digital and CD releases.

There are few British musicians who were better known and respected both at home and abroad than Sir John Dankworth, who has passed away at the age of 82 following a truly astonishing career that spanned the best part of seven decades and during which he did his utmost to bring jazz and classical music together, with great success.

In the autumn of 2007, both he and his wife of over 50 years, the singer Cleo Laine, celebrated their 80th birthdays with a critically acclaimed box set - I Hear Music - on Salvo and a concert at The Barbican, during which Sir John was a constant presence on stage, either playing his saxophone or vigorously directing the extraordinary musical ensemble that had come together in their honour.

One of Britain’s major jazz (and soundtrack) composers, arrangers and musicians, Dankworth always worked at the top end of the spectrum in both the music that he wrote and with whom he chose to perform; a list that includes everyone from Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald to Craig David! His active musical career, which included many concerts and recordings with his wife, showed few signs of abating in the last years of his life as he remained a major presence on the British jazz scene.

He made his first recordings (on clarinet) in the early 1940s and was a key player in the emergence of “the new jazz” (greatly influenced by the work of Charlie “Bird” Parker) in the UK after the war, forming his own ensemble, The Johnny Dankworth Seven in late 1949.

Cleo Laine became the band’s main singer in 1951. With discs like The Very Thought of You, from March 1952, and Easy Living the following year, Cleo Laine and the Johnny Dankworth Seven made a real mark on the British music scene. They worked at venues that ranged from provincial jazz clubs in the back rooms of pubs to the Royal Festival Hall. But from early in the 1950s Cleo also began to make records in her own right, usually with beautifully crafted arrangements by John.

They were married in 1958, around the same time as John diversified into scoring movies and TV shows. Among his best known credits are the theme tune for the TV show Tomorrow’s World and the classic 60s movies Modesty Blaise and Darling.

During the following decade their desire to bring jazz to a wider audience led them to found the Wavendon Allmusic Plan at the Allmusic Centre (Allmusic being John’s term for what would become popularly known as world music) at their home just outside Milton Keynes; a venue that hosted thousands of musical events over the ensuing years.

In 2006 John (who had been honoured with a CBE in 1974) became the first jazz musician to be knighted. He is survived by Cleo and their children Alec and Jacqui.

Saturday February 27th - King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow

Click here to check out all USM’s Undertones releases. 

Scotland’s greatest rock exports, the hardest working band in the land, Nazareth, start their UK tour this weekend. Pete Agnew, Dan McCafferty, Jimmy Murrison and Lee Agnew kick things off in Lincolnshire at Butlins Rock Weekend, Skegness, finishing in Glenrothes, near their hometown of Dunfermline, three weeks later. Catch them if you can!

The full schedule is as follows:

31.01.2010 - Rock Weekend, Butlins Skegness
01.02.2010 - Gasworks, Bradford
02.02.2010 - Volunteer Halls, Galashiels
04.02.2010 - Robin2, Bilston
05.02.2010 - Plinston Civic Hall, Letchworth
06.02.2010 - M Club, Crewe
07.02.2010 - Birdwell Club, Barnsley
09.02.2010 - O2 Academy, Liverpool
11.02.2010 - Musician, Leicester
12.02.2010 - The Assembly, Leamington Spa
13.02.2010 - Concorde 2, Brighton
15.02.2010 - Relentless Garage, London
16.02.2010 - The Tunnels, Bristol
18.02.2010 - Civic Hall, Whitehaven
19.02.2010 - O2 Academy, Glasgow
20.02.2010 - O2 Academy, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
21.02.2010 - Rothes Hall, Glenrothes

See the Nazareth home page for details

Founded by Trevor Horn, Jill Sinclair and Paul Morley in 1983, ZTT (Zang Tuum Tumb) enjoyed 45 UK Top 40 hits (fifteen of them Top 10) and produced well regarded and highly successful albums by the likes The Art of Noise, Propaganda, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and 808 State.
Under a new deal Salvo will be following up its acclaimed ZTT box set with reissues of all of the label’s classic albums as remastered deluxe editions with rare and previously unreleased bonus tracks, new liner notes and photos. First out of the block are two seminal dance albums from 808 State - 90 and ex:el and the long lost second album by The Buggles, which was essentially a Trevor Horn solo album.
With new "electro"-inspired artists like La Roux and Lady GaGa riding high in the charts there has never been a better time to look back at some of the pioneers of electronic dance music. Watch out for more ZTT releases throughout the year.

In the mean time you can view our 808 State trailer here:

26th October 2009 sees the release of a very special edition of Madness’s ’One Step Beyond...’. Digitally remastered with bonus tracks, nutty videos, a fantastic John Peel Session and liner notes by ’Trainspotting’ author Irvine Welsh, this 2CD collection will coincide with Madness’s 30th anniversary and marks the beginning of USM’s Madness reissue campaign, celebrating one of Britain’s all-time favourite bands.

Click here for more info

MADNESS are the ultimate British singles band, holding the record for British single sales in the 1980s when over 6 million Madness singles were bought by the British public. Total Madness features 23 classic Madness tracks including 20 top 20 hits and all the accompanying videos on one fantastic value CD+DVD set.