Guardian, The
Jimi Hendrix: Electric Ladyland (Polydor)
Review by Geoffrey Cannon, Guardian, The, November 1968
THERE ARE 19 naked ladies on the cover of Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland (Polydor 613 008/9). Pictured inside, Jimi has a flicker of the lip-licking ...
Bob Dylan, Band, The: Bob Dylan, The Band: Isle of Wight Festival
Live Review by Geoffrey Cannon, Guardian, The, September 1969
The gospel according to Dylan ...
Rolling Stones, The: The Rolling Stones: Jumping Jack Jagger
Comment by Geoffrey Cannon, Guardian, The, October 1969
THE WIDENING gap between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones has been labelled as the contrast between aesthetics and politics. The difference between the two ...
Live Review by Geoffrey Cannon, Guardian, The, April 1970
I WAS ON that New York trip last weekend, too. My brief was to listen to the music. I have to report that as soon ...
Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead: Hollywood Festival, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire
Live Review by Geoffrey Cannon, Guardian, The, May 1970
Disgracing The Grateful Dead ...
The Isle of Wight Festival: Three Shades Of Wight
Overview by Geoffrey Cannon, Guardian, The, September 1970
APART FROM the music, what went on at the Isle of Wight last weekend? Here are the most popular theories. ...
Janis Joplin: An Appreciation by Geoffrey Cannon
Memoir by Geoffrey Cannon, Guardian, The, October 1970
AN EVENING at the Royal Garden Hotel in April, 18 months ago. I was meeting Janis Joplin. I fished around for a while, trying to ...
Sex Pistols, The: Sex Pistols: The Anarchic Rock of the Young and Doleful
Profile by Steve Turner, Guardian, The, December 1976
And then there was punk. Tonight the Sex Pistols, focal point of the newly dubbed punk generation, take off on their first concert tour of ...
Tom Waits: He's a Coppola Swell: Tom Waits
Interview by Mick Brown, Guardian, The, March 1981
THE FIRST TIME Tom Waits visited London, in 1976, he earned the dubious distinction of being thrown out of the club were he had been ...
Billy Bragg: Captain’s Cabin, London
Live Review by Mary Harron, Guardian, The, 1983
PLACING, a heavy burden on a small but genuine talent, Billy Bragg has been hailed as the next big thing. ...
Ray Charles, Fats Domino: Thorns In Velvet: Fats Domino and Ray Charles at the Capital Jazz Festival
Live Review by Mick Brown, Guardian, The, 1984
AMONG the collection of venerable antiques paraded for this year’s Capital Jazz Festival – couldn’t the organisers find anybody of note under the age of ...
Neville Brothers, The: The Neville Brothers: Live At The Shaw Theatre, London
Live Review by Mick Brown, Guardian, The, 1984
THE NEVILLE Brothers are an institution whose time would seem to have come. Four brothers from New Orleans, their contribution to Crescent City music over ...
Live Review by Mick Brown, Guardian, The, 1984
ONE HAS ALWAYS suspected that Eric Clapton's worst enemy was his own reputation. Few people live with – much less live up to – the ...
Essay by Mick Brown, Guardian, The, 1984
Atlantic and other classic R&B issues are at last being reprinted — in Britain. Mick Brown reports ...
Obituary by Mick Brown, Guardian, The, April 1984
MARVIN GAYE, who was so shockingly killed in Los Angeles on Sunday, one day before his 45th birthday, was not only a consummate soul music ...
Joan Baez: The Folk Heroine Mellows With Age
Interview by Mary Harron, Guardian, The, June 1984
In 1959 Joan Baez walked out on stage at the Newport Folk Festival and touched off a wave of adulation that was to reach almost ...
Live Review by Mary Harron, Guardian, The, July 1984
ALL SUMMER, Christians have been performing in football stadiums; first we had Luis Palau, then Billy Graham, and now Bob Dylan. But as it turned ...
Michael McDonald: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Guardian, The, 1985
THIS SHOW proved one thing and proved it triumphantly: you can be a paunchy, greying white Californian with a supremely uncool-looking band and still have ...
Suzanne Vega: Live At The LSE, London.
Live Review by Mick Brown, Guardian, The, 1985
Chess metaphors, the myth of Odysseus and the woman he left behind, being a "small blue thing", and, possibly if you listen hard enough, love ...
Notes That Are Music To His Ears: Clive Davis
Interview by Mick Brown, Guardian, The, 1985
What do Barry Manilow, Donovan, Janis Joplin, and Springsteen have in common? They owe a lot of their success to Arista Records’ boss Clive Davis. ...
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, September 1985
The old Crosby, Stills and Nash hippie has taken on a new redneck colouration with firm roots in country music. Adam Sweeting looks back from ...
Bobby Womack: Testament of a preacher man
Interview by Mick Brown, Guardian, The, October 1985
FOR ANYBODY remotely interested in black music, past and present; in the continuity between the halcyon days of rhythm and blues and church music and ...
Rough Trade Records: Rough At The Top
Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Guardian, The, February 1987
In the record industry big doesn’t always mean best, and the independent Rough Trade have beaten the big boys in fostering new talent and ideas. ...
Randy Newman: The Star And Snipes
Interview by Mark Cooper, Guardian, The, May 1987
Mark Cooper talks to Randy Newman, standard bearer against the smug and prejudiced ...
Beastie Boys, The: The Beastie Boys: Burden of the Beasties
Report and Interview by Jack Barron, Guardian, The, May 1987
WHEN THE Beastie Boys step on stage in Brixton tonight at the start of their British tour everyone – the media, authorities, and fans alike ...
Slayer, Run DMC, Public Enemy, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, The: Def Jam: Don't Knock The Rock – Rap It
Report by Mark Cooper, Guardian, The, June 1987
Mark Cooper on how Def Jam crossed over punk with rap, white with black, and stayed cool with both sides ...
R.E.M., 10,000 Maniacs: REM and 10,000 Maniacs: Rulers Of The Campus
Interview by Mark Cooper, Guardian, The, September 1987
College rock is alive and gigging in the US. MARK COOPER hears why from Michael Stipe of REM and Natalie Merchant of 10,000 Maniacs ...
Pink Floyd, Roger Waters: Roger Waters: Out of Troubled Waters
Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Guardian, The, November 1987
Roger Waters now finds himself in competition with his one-time colleagues in Pink Floyd – he doesn't like it but there are compensations. Mark Cooper ...
Brian Wilson, Beach Boys, The: Brian Wilson: Good and Bad Vibrations
Interview by Jeremy Gluck, Guardian, The, 1988
Beach Boy Brian Wilson owes his survival to his doctor and a regime of psychotherapy, diet and exercise, he told Jeremy Gluck ...
Profile and Interview by Mat Snow, Guardian, The, February 1988
WE LIVE IN THE days of the flood, says Leonard Cohen. "Most of my psychic landmarks have evaporated. I'm reluctant to apply the psychic realm ...
Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Guardian, The, May 1988
Ry Cooder is on the road again. He talks to Mark Cooper ...
Martin Carthy: A Passage to England
Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Guardian, The, December 1988
Martin Carthy believes in the power of performance, not purity. Mark Cooper meets the folkie who refuses to play safe. ...
Live Review by Len Brown, Guardian, The, December 1988
WITH A soft Charles Hawtrey-style "hullo" and a shower of flowers. Steven Patrick Morrissey returns to the stage. It's two years since his uniquely English ...
Luther Vandross: The Soul Survivor
Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Guardian, The, March 1989
Mark Cooper on the awesome presence that is Luther Vandross ...
10,000 Maniacs: A Lioness's Share of Woe
Interview by Mark Cooper, Guardian, The, May 1989
Natalie Merchant is fighting the world's battles in her songs. Mark Cooper finds out why. ...
Bobby Brown: Bobby Bites The Bullet
Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Guardian, The, June 1989
Mark Cooper meets the young American soul star everybody's gunning for ...
Carole King: Stepping Out Of The Shadows
Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Guardian, The, July 1989
Carole King is coming out from behind her piano because she wants to rock. Mark Cooper reports ...
Hüsker Dü, Bob Mould: Bob Mould: Out of the Warehouse
Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Guardian, The, July 1989
DESPITE THE flood of veterans currently patching up ancient quarrels for one last sack of ancient dollars, divorce rather than reconciliation remains the common fate ...
Neville Brothers, The: The Neville Brothers: At Last The Legend Lives
Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Guardian, The, October 1989
The Neville Brothers, long held in awe by fellow musicians, are finally selling records. Mark Cooper on the London-bound band. ...
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, October 1989
THE WOMAN pouring tea in a hotel near EMI records has a wide, warm smile and speaks with such endearing openness that you wonder if ...
Rickie Lee Jones: Keeping Her Cool
Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Guardian, The, October 1989
Shot to stardom 10 years ago, Rickie Lee Jones has fought her way back – no less cool but much more confident. Mark Cooper reports ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Guardian, The, March 1991
AS ANY OF the fans who have helped to sell out her shows in London and Glasgow this weekend will know, Rickie Lee Jones likes ...
Essay by Charles Shaar Murray, Guardian, The, July 1991
FASHIONS IN FOLK devils, like all other fashions, are subject both to painless expiry and to unexpected and possibly incongruous resurrections. ...
Profile by Sean O'Hagan, Guardian, The, November 1991
All but canonised in Ireland, U2's lead singer preaches redemption through rock 'n' roll. But now he's learning to write about girls. Sean O'Hagan profiles ...
Sonic Youth: Here Come The Noise Terrorists: Sonic Youth
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, July 1992
THUNDEROUS mantra-grooves and jagged fanfares of atonal brass boom across the parched grass of New York's Central Park, though it could equally well be Monterey ...
Tom Waits: A Mellower Prince Of Melancholy
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, September 1992
HE MIGHT STILL dress as though he staggers around sniffing under dustbin lids, but now the self styled Oddball Kid refuses to play his old ...
Nina Simone: Diva Of The Dives
Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Guardian, The, November 1992
APPROACHING 60, Nina Simone, Princess Noir with the famed attitude, has got used to putting punters in their place. A one-time classical musician she should ...
Pet Shop Boys: MTV Launches in Russia - and the PSBs Cut the Ribbon!
Report and Interview by Dave Rimmer, Guardian, The, June 1993
2002 NOTE: This piece about the launching of MTV Russia was published by the Guardian in London, by Tip magazine in Berlin, and by the ...
Pulp: Metropolitan University, Leeds
Live Review by Simon Warner, Guardian, The, April 1994
IN A MORE just world it would now be time to set aside the macho posturings of the rock burn-out and the dead-ends of the ...
Live Review by Simon Warner, Guardian, The, November 1994
IS THIS the age of the neurotic self-obsessive? Sold out signs at Beck's debut UK gig suggest that his curious blend of twitchy unease and ...
PJ Harvey: Queen of the Night: P.J. Harvey
Profile by Lucy O'Brien, Guardian, The, June 1995
SHE’S TAKING America by storm. She’s very fashionable at the moment. She’s hipper than hip. That’s what Paul McGuinness says; he’s the manager of U2 ...
Melissa Etheridge: One of the Boys
Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Guardian, The, November 1995
As a woman, Melissa Etheridge’s success in the major league of American rock is remarkable, as an out lesbian it’s unique. Lucy O’Brien meets a ...
Lou Reed: Life After The Leather Jacket
Interview by Ian Penman, Guardian, The, February 1996
MY ORIGINAL IDEA vis a vis this whole Lou interview situ and how to break his notoriously Siberian icepack reticence was to kick things off ...
Everything But The Girl: Walking Wounded (Virgin)****
Review by Sheryl Garratt, Guardian, The, May 1996
ONCE KNOWN by cynics as Everything But A Laugh, Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn spent much of the Eighties exploring the lonely outer fringes of ...
Spice Girls, The: The Spice Girls: Girls Just Wanna Be Loaded
Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, July 1996
LAST WEEK, the world was as it should have been. Gary Barlow was number one, the summer's foreign novelty hit, 'Macarena', was panting just behind ...
Drugs In Rock Culture: Don’t Try This At Home
Essay by Ian Penman, Guardian, The, August 1996
TAKING DRUGS CHANGES things. It changes your blood stream and brain waves and bank balance; your heart rate and slang of choice and the circumference ...
Townes Van Zandt: Keeping Quiet For The Sake Of A Song: Townes Van Zandt 1944-1997
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, January 1997
OTHER MUSICIANS revered Texan song writer Townes Van Zandt who has died of a heart attack aged 52, but he made real efforts, helped by ...
Elvis Presley: 25% Of The King: Col. Tom Parker
Obituary by Michael Gray, Guardian, The, January 1997
COLONEL TOM PARKER, the flamboyant tent-show hustler who was Elvis Presley's Svengalian manager, has died in Las Vegas at the age of almost 90. He ...
Sinead O'Connor: An Inconvenient Woman: Sinead O’Connor
Profile and Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Guardian, The, April 1997
Sinead O’Connor bothers people. American audiences were outraged when she shunned their national anthem, the pop establishment was vindictive when she refused a Brit, and ...
David Bowie: Hanover Grand, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, June 1997
Bowie wants to meet his public so he plays a small London club – heaven or what? Some fans paid 100 pounds for a ticket. ...
Dave Godin and Deep Soul Treasures
Profile and Interview by Jon Savage, Guardian, The, September 1997
IN POP'S millenial time travel, the compilation has become an art form in itself: a highly practical method of mapping a history that is still ...
Drop The Dread, Honky: Why White Artists Wanna Be Black
Essay by James Maycock, Guardian, The, October 1997
IN 1959, JOHN Howard Griffin, a white journalist, dyed his skin black and travelled through the southern states of America. He found the experience ...
Obituary by Michael Gray, Guardian, The, December 1997
ROBERT PALMER, THE distinguished American music journalist and blues expert, has died in New York aged 52. ...
Frank Sinatra: Nelson Algren's The Man With The Golden Arm
Retrospective by James Maycock, Guardian, The, 1998
How Nelson Algren's acclaimed novel was made into Hollywood's first film about heroin. ...
Essay by James Maycock, Guardian, The, January 1998
How & Why Black Rappers Exploit Racial Stereotypes (With references to historical precedents through 20th century) ...
Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, May 1998
'Only Happy When It Rains', 'Queer', 'Subhuman'. And those are just the titles of Garbage's harrowing songs. Caroline Sullivan on a band with a troubled ...
Glastonbury: Pop Feast Kicked Off By Football
Report by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, June 1998
Caroline Sullivan sorts fab from drab ...
Kylie Minogue: Little Miss Boomerang
Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Guardian, The, August 1998
Kylie Minogue has probably had more brickbats than bouquets since she quit soap stardom to become a pop singer. But, with a new record in ...
Rock’n’Role: Are Singers The New Feminist Icons?
Overview by Lucy O'Brien, Guardian, The, December 1998
IN THE US, they call it the Third Wave – a new feminism for a new generation. It is fuelled by popular culture in general ...
Miles Davis, Billie Holiday: Billie 4 Miles: A Kind Of Blue Love
Essay by James Maycock, Guardian, The, February 1999
MILES DAVIS CONFESSED twice in his candid autobiography he fancied Billie Holiday. "She had such a sensuous mouth," he remarked, "I thought she was ...
Tom Waits: Mule Variations (Epitaph)
Review by Tom Cox, Guardian, The, April 1999
I'D HATE TO be the neighbourhood psycho on Tom Waits's street. You'd never quite feel safe, terrorised by those all-seeing, scarecrow eyes, observing your every ...
Pretenders, The, Chrissie Hynde: Chrissie Hynde: The Great Pretender
Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Guardian, The, April 1999
CHRISSIE HYNDE, wild woman of rock, sits in a private members' club in London's Portman Square in a finely tailored pinstripe suit. Despite the elegance ...
Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, Sugarhill Gang, The: Good Boys Of Rap
Review by Tom Cox, Guardian, The, April 1999
Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five And Melle Mel: 'Adventures On The Wheels Of Steel' (Sequel)The Sugarhill Gang: Rapper's Delights (Sequel)Various Artists: Sugarhill Club Classics ...
Ralph McTell: Streets of Melton Mowbray: Ralph McTell
Report and Interview by Andy Farquarson, Guardian, The, May 1999
MELTON MOWBRAY isn't the most obvious place to search for heroes, treasure and sentimental stories. But all three are here tonight somewhere. ...
Aretha Franklin: Jerry Wexler: Aretha And Me
Interview by Tom Cox, Guardian, The, August 1999
JERRY WEXLER, co-founder of Atlantic Records and in-house producer, was picking himself up off the floor of Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama when he received ...
Elastica: Six Track EP (Deceptive) *
Review by Tom Cox, Guardian, The, August 1999
FOR ALL THE TREMORS, speculation and mystique you might generate by disappearing off the face of the earth after a classic debut album, there's always ...
Comment by Tom Cox, Guardian, The, September 1999
HERE'S A JOKE. Last night, I met an alien outside a pub in north London. We got chatting about hobbies and stuff, and he ended ...
Nitin Sawhney : The Outsider: Nitin Sawhney
Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, Guardian, The, September 1999
Nitin Sawhney says he feels like a stranger in England, where he was born, and in India, the land of his parents. The tension has ...
Clash, The, Joe Strummer: Joe Strummer: Definitely Not Admitting Defeat Yet
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, September 1999
"I THINK GOOD manners will come back. In America, kids saw punk rock as a licence to be as rude as possible. I didn't like ...
Funkapolitan: Bish, Bash, Posh: Class and British Pop
Essay by Barney Hoskyns, Guardian, The, October 1999
As Tony Blair calls for a classless society, he might be surprised to learn that the world of pop music is riddled with toffs. Self-confessed ...
Incredible String Band, The: An Incredible String Reunion: An Interview with Robin Williamson
Interview by Andy Farquarson, Guardian, The, October 1999
To those of the Rizla generation who spent the summer of 1967 rolling joints on its album sleeves, the Incredible String Band occupies near-mythic status. ...
Jimmy Webb: Pizza on the Park, London ***
Live Review by Keith Cameron, Guardian, The, October 1999
WHEN THE Boo Radleys wrote a song called 'Jimmy Webb is God' they presumably weren't gripped by a vision of the Lord playing a gig ...
Crosby Stills Nash and Young: Crosby Stills Nash & Young: "Deja Vu Again"
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, October 1999
THERE'S NO MISTAKING the portly middle-aged man with the walrus moustache beached on a sofa at the Dorchester hotel, plucking the chords of Neil Young's ...
Chuck Prophet: Underworld, London ****
Live Review by Keith Cameron, Guardian, The, November 1999
IN 1989 CHUCK Prophet was the snake-hipped, guitar-slinging foil to Dan Stuart's punch-drunk sheriff in American rock'n'rollers Green On Red. ...
Review by Tom Cox, Guardian, The, November 1999
THE MOST DEFINITIVE summation of The Isley Brothers' career so far begins not with a song but a real, live shriek. ...
Henry Rollins: LSE Old Theatre, London ****
Live Review by Keith Cameron, Guardian, The, November 1999
SOMEWHERE UP there, reclining on a celestial tobacco cloud, Bill Hicks must cast a rueful eye towards the one-man stand-up multi-gym that is Henry Rollins. ...
Pete Townshend, Who, The: Pete Townshend: Peter Rabbits
Interview by Tom Cox, Guardian, The, December 1999
I'M LAUGHING, BUT Pete Townshend is frightening me. "Yes!!!!!" he shouts, and bangs hard on the table in his Richmond studio, for the second time ...
Almost Famous: 1973 and all that
Essay by Charles Shaar Murray, Guardian, The, 2000
1973 AS A rock and roll annus mirabilis? Six thousand miles away from the old Rolling Stone office in San Francisco, it felt more like ...
Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans: Bobby Sheen
Obituary by Richard Williams, Guardian, The, 2000
WHENEVER HE MADE records under his own name, Bobby Sheen, who has died aged 57, was out of luck. But as Bob B Soxx, the ...
Steely Dan: Librarians on Acid
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Guardian, The, January 2000
STEELY DAN have always split people down the middle. On one side sit major dudes like William Gibson, who delight in the apparent disjunction between ...
Oasis: Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (Big Brother) **
Review by Tom Cox, Guardian, The, February 2000
FOR HAS-BEENS APPARENT, Oasis still possess remarkable powers of intimidation, but in the build-up to Standing on the Shoulder of Giants they've cunningly switched tactics. ...
Smashing Pumpkins: Machina/Machines of God (Hut) *
Review by Tom Cox, Guardian, The, February 2000
FOR THE DIZZY hippy posing as disaffected slacker, Smashing Pumpkins were the perfect band to help you dream your way through the grunge era. ...
Cypress Hill: Astoria, London ****
Live Review by Keith Cameron, Guardian, The, March 2000
THE ONGOING debate about the decriminalisation of cannabis seems redundant when a substantial proportion of the 1,800 people shoehorned into the Astoria have voted with ...
Julian Cope: Royal Festival Hall, London ****
Live Review by Tom Cox, Guardian, The, April 2000
IT HAS BEEN a long time since Julian Cope could be described merely as a singing psychedelic mystic eco-warrior. ...
Radiohead: No Surprises: Radiohead And Their Kind
Report by Barney Hoskyns, Guardian, The, April 2000
After the success of OK Computer, Radiohead's next album is one of the most eagerly awaited records ever. Perhaps, says BARNEY HOSKYNS, that's why copycat ...
Matthew Sweet: In Reverse (Zomba)
Review and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Guardian, The, May 2000
MATTHEW SWEET began the '90s with the much-feted Girlfriend, an album of angular, bittersweet power pop markedly different from the meaty rage of Nirvana and ...
Live Review by Keith Cameron, Guardian, The, June 2000
A shuffle in the dark: Cat Power leaves Keith Cameron ill at ease ...
Richard Ashcroft: Alone With Everybody (Hut) **
Review by Tom Cox, Guardian, The, June 2000
KINDRED TO THE hippie but more English, less articulate, less political, more self-serving and better at fighting, the dippie is a breed of musician that ...
Eliza Carthy, Kate Rusby, Kathryn Williams: Sandals Out, Piercing In: The New Folk Sirens
Overview by Lucy O'Brien, Guardian, The, August 2000
LIVERPUDLIAN ARTIST Kathryn Williams is among the nominees for this year’s Mercury music prize – and hotly tipped to win. Last year Kate Rusby was ...
Live Review by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, September 2000
THERE WERE THREE groups who vividly chronicled life in post-Woodstock America. The Band sought refuge from the psychedelic intensity of the period in the country's ...
Bob Dylan: Vicar St, Dublin *****
Live Review by Sean O'Hagan, Guardian, The, September 2000
THE 800 TICKETS for this suddenly announced "intimate" show supposedly sold out in 15 seconds. For the select multitude, then, this was a night of ...
Magazine: Maybe It's Right to Be Nervous Now (Virgin, 3CDs) ****
Review by Keith Cameron, Guardian, The, September 2000
FOLLOWING AN initial period of liberation, punk, like all revolutionary forces, soon substituted new orthodoxies for those it had blown apart. ...
Radiohead: Victoria Park, London ****
Live Review by Keith Cameron, Guardian, The, September 2000
FOR DARLINGS of an allegedly slack generation, you can't deny Radiohead have high standards. This is the band who recently took 373 days to record ...
Bill Frisell: Let your fingers do the talking
Interview by Richard Williams, Guardian, The, 2001
Jazz guitarist Bill Frisell has worked with everyone from Chet Baker to Marianne Faithful. So why start taking lessons now? Richard Williams met him ...
Rickie Lee Jones at the Jazz Cafe
Live Review by Ian Penman, Guardian, The, February 2001
RICKIE LEE JONES is something of an anomaly. Her latest album, It's Like This, has just been nominated for a Grammy – but how many ...
Laura Nyro: Songs in the Key of Life: Laura Nyro's Angel in the Dark
Review by Richard Williams, Guardian, The, April 2001
THIS ALBUM IS incomplete, but so was Laura Nyro's life. It is the project on which she was working when she died of ovarian cancer ...
Shane MacGowan and Simon Napier-Bell: The Sound And The Fury
Book Review by Ian Penman, Guardian, The, April 2001
Black Vinyl, White Powder, Simon Napier-Bell (390pp, Ebury Press £16.99)A Drink With Shane MacGowan, Victoria Mary Clarke and Shane MacGowan (360pp, Sidgwick & Jackson £15.99) ...
Outkast: Partners in Rhyme: OutKast
Profile and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, May 2001
One of them is a blonde-wigged, teetotal vegetarian who reads Pushkin. The other breeds pitbulls in his spare time. Together they have been called the ...
Rufus Wainwright: "My Parents the Folk Heroes"
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Guardian, The, June 2001
THE WITTIEST REQUEST from the crowd at Rufus Wainwright's New York show last week was for ‘Rufus is a Tit Man’, a song written aeons ...
Travis: Songs in the Key of Life: Travis
Interview by Keith Cameron, Guardian, The, June 2001
IF THERE IS ONE thing you can be completely sure of, it is this: at some point today, a U.K. radio station will play a ...
Slaves to the Rhythm: Is Napster Dying?
Report by Edward Helmore, Guardian, The, July 2001
After leading the digital music revolution, Edward Helmore says former fans won't flock back to Napster when it relaunches this summer ...
Human League, The: Human Remains: The Human League
Retrospective and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, July 2001
Two decades after their synthpop assault on the charts, the Human League are back. ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Guardian, The, August 2001
ON MAY 28, 1998, Jonathan Donahue and Sean "Grasshopper" of Mercury Rev sat rather dejectedly in a diner in Woodstock, New York, and talked about ...
War Within War: Black Americans And The Vietnam Conflict
Retrospective by James Maycock, Guardian, The, September 2001
The Vietnam war saw countless numbers of America's young men – both black and white – thrown into combat. They were there to fight the ...
Aphex Twin: Tank Boy: Aphex Twin
Profile and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, October 2001
From Limp Bizkit to Madonna, everyone wants to work with the Aphex Twin. But those high-paying jobs aren’t important, he tells Paul Lester. He’d only ...
Alicia Keys: "I love Chopin… He's my dawg": Alicia Keys
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, November 2001
Stevie loves her, Oprah's after her and Prince is always on the phone. As Alicia Keys prepares to storm the UK charts, Ian Gittins meets ...
George Harrison, Beatles, The: George Harrison 1943-2001
Obituary by Chris Welch, Guardian, The, December 2001
George Harrison, singer, guitarist, composer and filmproducer: born Liverpool 25 February 1943; MBE 1965; married1966 Pattie Boyd (marriage dissolved 1977), 1978 OliviaArias (one son); died ...
Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five: Grandmaster Flash
Interview by Frank Broughton, Guardian, The, January 2002
A RECENT SURVEY suggests that up to 62% of the world's population is now a famous DJ. In hotspots like Shoreditch, it's easier to find ...
Slipknot: Meet'n'Greet in Glasgow: Slipknot
Interview by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, February 2002
IT'S VALENTINE'S SAY afternoon in Glasgow and a strange kind of love is afoot. Outside the city’s Virgin Megastore, a tearful 13-year-old boy is gasping ...
Ike Turner: Ronnie Scott's, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, February 2002
IF YOU didn't know Ike Turner was 70 before this show, you certainly did within minutes of his swaggering entrance. ...
Buzzcocks, The: Part-time Punks: The Buzzcocks
Retrospective and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, March 2002
The Buzzcocks were one of punk's most influential bands. Now, 25 years on, Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto are recording together again. Paul Lester meets ...
Zero 7: The Teaboys Done Good: Zero 7
Profile and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, March 2002
Paul Lester meets Zero 7, the recording studio flunkies turned clubbers' favourites. ...
Lester Bangs: Pills And Thrills
Retrospective by Nick Kent, Guardian, The, April 2002
ALTHOUGH HIS NAME is already starting to be listed among the ranks of the elite late 20th-century literary trailblazers, Lester Bangs – the fragile-hearted, drunken ...
Elvis Presley, Otis Blackwell: Otis Blackwell 1932 - 2002
Obituary by Tony Russell, Guardian, The, May 2002
Prolific writer behind some of Elvis’s greatest hits ...
Queen: Mercury Rising: We Will Rock You
Comment by Pete Paphides, Guardian, The, May 2002
A new West End musical, We Will Rock You, plunders Queen's back catalogue for tunes. But, says Peter Paphides, it misses the chance to tell ...
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, May 2002
"IF YOU LOOK right through the centre of the Pyramid stage," says Michael Eavis, waving at the steel framework that squats surreally in the middle ...
Arthur Lee, Love: Hard Times: Arthur Lee
Report and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, May 2002
Arthur Lee was once bigger than Hendrix or Jim Morrison. Back on the road after six years in jail, Love's frontman talks to Paul Lester. ...
Ozzy Osbourne: Meet the Osbournes
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, June 2002
YOU KNOW THAT embarrassing scenario where you go round to visit a married couple and they end up having an unholy ruck in front of ...
Interview by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, June 2002
TWO YEARS AGO, Paul Oakenfold was getting profoundly bored. The original post-acid house superstar DJ, known to friends and relatives as ‘Oakey’ and to the ...
Interview by Pete Paphides, Guardian, The, June 2002
People were often a bit sneery about Abba, born of Eurovision, duded out in satin and feathers, quintessentially pop. Only years after the group broke ...
Television: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, June 2002
IT WAS SOMETHING of a coup to recruit Television for David Bowie's Meltdown festival. The glacial new-wavers made rock history with their 1977 debut album, ...
Obituary by Chris Charlesworth, Guardian, The, July 2002
IN HIS POLKA-DOT bow tie, cream chinos and white buckskin shoes, Timothy White, who has died aged 50, cut a stylish figure in a profession ...
Isaac Hayes: A Black Woodstock: Wattstax
Retrospective and Interview by James Maycock, Guardian, The, July 2002
Intro: This is about 1000 words longer than the version published by The Guardian. There’s much more on the concert, more quotations and more on ...
Spandau Ballet: Wild Boy: Gary Kemp
Retrospective and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, August 2002
Spandau Ballet did more than provide a soundtrack for XR3i-driving Essex casuals in the 1980s. At least that's what Gary Kemp, the band's creative force, ...
Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, September 2002
Beck's new album, written after a nasty split with his fiancee, is so forlorn that the music press is afraid for his health. But, he ...
Cathy Dennis, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark: Songwriters: Musical Chairs
Special Feature by Pete Paphides, Guardian, The, September 2002
Today's pop stars, say their critics, aren't half as talented as their predecessors because they have little or nothing to do with writing their songs. ...
Beenie Man: Beenie There, Done That
Interview by Lulu Le Vay, Guardian, The, September 2002
One of the biggest stars of Jamaican dancehall, Beenie Man's outgrowing the reggae charts and going global. Lulu Le Vay meets him as he gets ...
Queens Of The Stone Age: Monarchs of Rock: Queens of the Stone Age
Interview by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, October 2002
"I’VE BEEN CHASING my tail trying to have a good time on this tour," grumbles Josh Homme, the towering 6’ 4" frontman of Queens Of ...
Profile and Interview by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, October 2002
THE WESTIN RIO MAR hotel in Puerto Rico is a textbook playground of the rich and famous. Way beyond merely luxurious, the baroque décor is ...
hear'say: Hear'Say, Gone Tomorrow
Comment by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, October 2002
In it for the fame, the manufactured popstars didn't have so much as a slogan to fall back on when the going got tough. Caroline ...
Norah Jones at Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, October 2002
At 23, Norah Jones is both old beyond her years and curiously insecure in front of an audience, even such a plainly partisan one as ...
Profile by Pete Paphides, Guardian, The, October 2002
They raced from zero to inner-city heroes in one summer, then stalled in scandal. But don't write off So Solid – there's a serious business ...
Ginsberg's Flannel And Other Stories
Book Review by Ian Penman, Guardian, The, October 2002
In the Sixties, Barry Miles, 322pp, Jonathan Cape, £17.99 ...
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, October 2002
Caroline Sullivan is left breathless by Tom Jones's hip-hop makeover ...
Björk: “In England they think I'm one of the Teletubbies”: Björk
Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, October 2002
Björk looks back on two decades of music, fame and scrapping with the media. ...
Jeff Buckley: Keeper of the Flame
Report and Interview by Mark Paytress, Guardian, The, October 2002
IT IS FIVE YEARS since Jeff Buckley took his final, mid-evening stroll into the Wolf River, a sleepy tourist spot on the outskirts of Memphis, ...
Rhythm Kings: The Musicians of Motown
Essay by Richard Williams, Guardian, The, November 2002
So many things made the Motown sound special – the singers, the songs, even the food. But what about the musicians? ...
Jefferson Airplane: High Priestess: Grace Slick and ‘White Rabbit’
Retrospective and Interview by Mark Paytress, Guardian, The, November 2002
White Rabbit has just come out top in a poll to find the finest drug song ever. Mark Paytress discovers that its writer/singer Grace Slick ...
Report by Pete Paphides, Guardian, The, November 2002
For adolescents, it was a thrill – the first music they owned. Singles survive in the CD age as bootlegs and indie specials. Their covers ...
Report by Nick Kent, Guardian, The, January 2003
With Guns N' Roses, he was one of the biggest – and baddest – rockers on the planet. Now his new album is a decade ...
Libertines, The: 'We Believe In Melody, Hearts And Minds': The Libertines
Profile and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, January 2003
PETE DOHERTY and Carl Barat – joint singers, guitarists, songwriters and ideologues of east London-based quartet the Libertines – are having an argument about an ...
Essay by David Stubbs, Guardian, The, January 2003
THE NEWS THAT the Vines have been sent back to Australia, following a bout of Ricky Gervais/Grant Bovey-style pat-a-cakes onstage between singer Craig Nicholls and ...
Obituary by Richard Williams, Guardian, The, January 2003
Richard Williams mourns "probably the first woman to write about pop music as though it really mattered". Below, some examples of what made Valentine such ...
Review by Richard Williams, Guardian, The, January 2003
IF ANYONE IS still wondering, more than a quarter of a century later, what Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music was all about, they need look ...
Comment by Andrew Mueller, Guardian, The, January 2003
A FEW WEEKS ago, a nationwide leap in gun crime was lent grim focus by the murder of two young women at a party in ...
Asian Dub Foundation: Rappers With A Cause: Asian Dub Foundation
Report and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, January 2003
They helped secure the release of the warehouse worker Satpal Ram from prison. Now they're tackling domestic violence, asylum, the war on terror and the ...
Courtney Love, Bay City Rollers, The: Courtney Love: Love Will Tear Us Apart
Comment by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, February 2003
I WISH I'D saved the emails. There were eight, spanning December 1999 to April 2002, all written in unpunctuated lower-case. ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, February 2003
BILLY CORGAN has been dreaming of Christina Aguilera, pop's best undressed woman. She was staying at the same London hotel as Corgan's new band, Zwan, ...
Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Guardian, The, February 2003
THERE'S NOTHING about the outside of Adrian Sherwood's home in north London to explain why the likes of Sinead O'Connor, Sly and Robbie, Primal Scream ...
Film/DVD Review by David Stubbs, Guardian, The, March 2003
THERE ARE MANY reasons to see Live Forever, the new documentary about the 1990s Britpop years. Mostly they involve Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn being ...
Report and Interview by Pete Paphides, Guardian, The, March 2003
To some, the Here And Now Tour is a has-beens cabaret, to others it's a harmless trip down memory lane. Peter Paphides reports from the ...
White Stripes, The: The White Stripes: The Sweetheart Deal
Interview by Keith Cameron, Guardian, The, March 2003
"SPERAMUS MELIORA; resurget cineribus" – the motto of the city of Detroit translates as "We hope for better things; it will rise from the ashes". ...
Fleetwood Mac: Excess Baggage: Fleetwood Mac
Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, April 2003
Mental illness, drug abuse, affairs, breakups - it's a miracle that Fleetwood Mac are still alive. But here they are with a Rumours-era lineup, and ...
Review and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, April 2003
Backstage at L'Espace Clacquesin, a former brewery 20 minutes from the centre of Paris, Blur are relaxing. The band has just performed for 200 invited ...
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, May 2003
THE WORDS ARE TALL, luridly colourful and carefully stitched onto a bed sheet, and the sentiment is unambiguous. As Busted guitarist Matt Jay’s eyes alight ...
Macy Gray: Shepherds Bush Empire, London ***
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, May 2003
HER RECORD COMPANY had spent the day warning everybody that she would be on stage at 9pm, not 9.15pm as advertised, but in the end ...
Neil Young: "Will I be deported?"
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, May 2003
IT IS DIFFICULT to find supportive things to say about George Bush unless your construction company is rebuilding Iraq, but it would be a droll ...
The American Song-Poem Anthology: Music By The Metre
Review by David Stubbs, Guardian, The, June 2003
SO YOU THINK it's only since the rise of manufactured pop, with its endless boy and girl bands, each a more faded and insipid photocopy ...
Terry Hall: Fun Boy Free: Terry Hall
Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, July 2003
TERRY HALL asks if we can delay the first question until he's had a cigarette. He's not a big small talker, so there's an awkward ...
Essay by David Stubbs, Guardian, The, August 2003
ON JULY 3, the House Of Lords failed to block government moves to introduce a new law requiring pubs, clubs and cafes to apply for ...
Rapture, The: The Rapture: A New York State Of Mind
Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, September 2003
Out of time, ahead of fashion – the Rapture are the real sound of New York. If they can make it there, says Caroline Sullivan, ...
She Bop II: Rock Chicks Fight Back
Comment by Lucy O'Brien, Guardian, The, September 2003
Lucy O'Brien reflects on her monumental history of the music business ...
Report by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, September 2003
Juggling a baby and a career is difficult enough for anyone – but how do you manage it when you're a pop star? Caroline Sullivan ...
Thrills, The: Filesharing etc.: Money Pit
Comment by Pete Paphides, Guardian, The, October 2003
Who are the victims of music filesharing? Peter Paphides reveals the real band of thieves ...
Chic, Tony Thompson: Tony Thompson
Obituary by Daryl Easlea, Guardian, The, November 2003
TONY THOMPSON, WHO has died of cancer aged 48, was among the finest of all pop/rock drummers. Although his name is frequently absent from the ...
Kylie Minogue: The Butt Stops Here
Comment by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, November 2003
So she's 35, but does that really mean Kylie should cover up, asks Caroline Sullivan ...
Ryan Adams: I've been jumping off bridges
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Guardian, The, November 2003
The one good thing about projectile vomiting is that at least your T-shirt stays clean. Ryan Adams's frat-house top is a spotless scarlet, its brightness ...
Thrills, The: Weirdo Magnets: The Thrills
Report and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, November 2003
IT IS A COLD but sunny Saturday lunchtime in Capitol Hill, a boho district of Seattle full of cafes and shops with names like Natural ...
Bob Dylan: Why I Love Bob Dylan
Comment by Martin Colyer, Guardian, The, November 2003
LAST SATURDAY IT was forty years ago that JFK was assassinated. Yet by November 1963, Bob Dylan had already been performing in Greenwich Village for ...
Comment by Andrew Mueller, Guardian, The, November 2003
ACCORDING TO A body of instrument suppliers called the Music Industries Association, in the last 12 months the British people bought no less than 700,000 ...
Elton John: How Sir Elton Recovered His Cool
Comment by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, 2004
WHEN THE VERY first psychedelic rock star, William Blake, declared that the fool who persists in his folly shall become wise, he hit on a ...
Scissor Sisters: Fun with Filth: Scissor Sisters
Report and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, January 2004
They come from New York's shock art scene and they write songs about drugs, drag queens and cruising. Paul Lester meets clubland's hottest new act, ...
N*E*R*D, Pharrell Williams: The Hit Man: Pharrell Williams
Profile and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, February 2004
He co-produced nearly 20% of tracks currently being played on British radio. But he is also a star in his own right - as a ...
Comment by Andrew Mueller, Guardian, The, February 2004
YOU MAY HAVE heard this yarn – it's one of those things people email each other, that they might share a chuckle at the foibles ...
My Bloody Valentine: I Lost It: Kevin Shields Speaks
Profile and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, March 2004
In his first interview for 12 years, My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields talks to Paul Lester about his madness, making Alan McGee cry - and ...
Morrissey: "Somebody Has To Be Me": Morrissey
Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, April 2004
NOW 44, STEVEN Patrick Morrissey is, to quote one of his songs, a handsome devil. ...
Essay by Nick Kent, Guardian, The, April 2004
THEY ASKED ME to write this piece about "self-destruction and its place in rock" and that immediately set me to thinking: what do they mean ...
Earl Okin: The Unluckiest Man In Pop
Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, May 2004
After 35 years in the business, Earl Okin is about to release his first album. He tells Caroline Sullivan why it's taken him so long ...
Comment by Andrew Mueller, Guardian, The, July 2004
THERE IS NO PERSON more deluded than he or she who has a song programmed into their mobile phone. ...
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings: Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, August 2004
"WE LOVE PLAYING HERE," Gillian Welch told us more than once, and since she and her musical soulmate David Rawlings were on for more than ...
Beenie Man: Tatchell v Beenie Man: Arrest This Development
Comment by Andrew Mueller, Guardian, The, September 2004
LET'S HOPE THAT no friends of the Jamaican dancehall artist Beenie Man have recently reminded him that the only thing worse than being talked about ...
Girls Aloud: How I Became a Girl Aloud
Report by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, September 2004
Caroline Sullivan spends a week in the shoes — the very painful shoes — of the UK's number one girl band ...
Manic Street Preachers: Not So Manic Now: Manic Street Preachers
Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, October 2004
TOP OF THE POPS audience members are nothing if not versatile. Five minutes ago, on the last Friday evening in September, they were directing their ...
Dave Godin: Champion of Black Music who coined the term "Northern Soul"
Obituary by Richard Williams, Guardian, The, October 2004
WHEN THE MUSICIANS and singers of the first Motown Revue – the Miracles, the Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, "Little" Stevie Wonder and Earl Van ...
French Rock'n'roll: What – No Accordion?
Interview by David McKenna, Guardian, The, October 2004
CALL A COMPILATION Le Nouveau Rock'n'roll Français and, even now, you risk sparking associations with the figure most people take to represent the old French ...
Essay by David Stubbs, Guardian, The, October 2004
THE ONE AND Only, a hardback celebration of one-hit wonders by Tom Bromley, is a touch too self-satisfied a stocking filler, inviting us, not for ...
Alison Krauss and Union Station: Lonely Runs Both Ways
Review by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, November 2004
THIS IS KRAUSS'S first studio album for three years, though in the meantime she's delivered a bestselling live album, won three Grammy awards, and made ...
Xmas LPs: Worst Christmas On Record
Essay by David Stubbs, Guardian, The, December 2004
THE CHRISTMAS SINGLE is a thing of thudding familiarity - brace yourself again for Jona Lewie to make his annual re-emergence, bludgeoning you like a ...
Dimebag Darrell, Pantera: Just a Good Ol' Boy: Dimebag Darrell
Obituary by Edward Helmore, Guardian, The, December 2004
Former Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell was murdered on stage by a lone gunman last week. Edward Helmore celebrates the life of the influential and charismatic ...
Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, January 2005
Hanson want to be taken seriously as an alt-rock band. But will anyone forgive their teeny-bop past? By Caroline Sullivan ...
Live Review by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, January 2005
PLUSH'S LIAM HAYES isn't a man who does things easily. He released his first single in 1994, his first woozy LP in 1998, and didn't ...
Low: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, February 2005
FOR THE DEVOTED fan, watching Low rock out must be like watching Bob Dylan switch on the amplifiers at the Manchester Free Trade Hall. ...
Hunter S Thompson: Rock of Rages
Comment by Andrew Mueller, Guardian, The, February 2005
FOLLOWING HUNTER S THOMPSON'S suicide, many obituarists, looking for a representative snippet of the Doctor's bug-eyed vitriol, served up the following trenchant assessment of the ...
Beatles, The: Abbey Road: Where Magic Was Made
Profile by Paul Trynka, Guardian, The, March 2005
Paul Trynka looks back at the relationship between the biggest band of all time and the studio that helped them create their sound ...
Report by Andrew Mueller, Guardian, The, March 2005
IT'S NOT THE sort of job that often gets advertised. Michael Hutchence, notwithstanding his bizarre death, aged 37, in 1997, generally looked like he was ...
Nas: Hip-Hop Violence: Pop Goes The Weasel
Report by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, March 2005
FOR THE RECORD: guns don't go bang but pop, a noise a lot like a jumbo bottle of champagne being opened. As this was a ...
Laura Nyro: Lady Lightning: Laura Nyro
Retrospective by Richard Williams, Guardian, The, April 2005
"EXPERIENCED A catastrophe so profound that its effects would never quite fade" (Laura Nyro) ...
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, May 2005
I HAVE JUST SPENT two weeks on the road with Mötley Crüe. Our sweep through Canada and the US Midwest took in Edmonton, Des Moines, ...
Roisin Murphy, Moloko: Roisin Murphy: Her Time Is Now
Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, May 2005
When Moloko split up, Roisin Murphy found herself without a band, a plan or a partner. She tells Caroline Sullivan how half an hour of ...
The Tube: Sound Of The Underground
Essay by David Stubbs, Guardian, The, May 2005
THE RELEASE OF the first series of The Tube on DVD is a chance to give kudos to a groundbreaking programme that naively but bravely ...
Live8: Just Another Gig – With Added Feelgood Factor
Comment by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, June 2005
NEARLY EVERY A-lister worth the name is doing their bit, making Live8 the first truly all-star charity show since Live Aid. Madonna! U2! Coldplay! You ...
Chip Taylor: Lock 17, London ****
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, July 2005
EVEN BEFORE he met Carrie Rodriguez, Chip Taylor's life had the authentic ring of fiction about it. ...
Kanye West: Natural Born Show-off: Kanye West
Report and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, August 2005
PRESS PLAYBACKS tend to be uncomfortable affairs. A record label, eager to unveil its latest prestige release but terrified of a stray copy leaking on ...
Arctic Monkeys: Fast and Furious: Arctic Monkeys
Report and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, September 2005
IT'S A RADIANT late September day outside a recording studio in rural Lincolnshire. Summer is still clinging on by its fingertips, a lawnmower purrs in ...
Essay by David Stubbs, Guardian, The, October 2005
"FUCK THE GHETTO! Look to space!" That, according to Wayne Kramer of MC5, in a nutshell was the message of Sun Ra, as conveyed over ...
Profile by David Stubbs, Guardian, The, November 2005
YOU'D IMAGINE THE minimal and portentous name 4AD, with its arcane, spiritual overtones (4AD is the year many historians believe Christ was actually born), to ...
Comment by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, November 2005
When You Can't Really Function You're So Full Of Fear, A Digital Downloader Is Something To Be ...
Essay by David Stubbs, Guardian, The, November 2005
IN SPRING 1981, in an act akin to James Brown relocating to Hull, a 42-year-old cash-strapped Marvin Gaye took the Southampton ferry to the Belgian ...
Arctic Monkeys: Whatever They Say They Are, That's What They Are
Report by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, January 2006
EARLIER THIS week, the Times dealt the Arctic Monkeys the backhanded compliment of labelling them "spotty poets". It's the "poets" that concerns us here. ...
Comment by Andrew Mueller, Guardian, The, January 2006
WALK THE LINE, James Mangold's cinematic telling of the early life of Johnny Cash, takes its title from one of its subject's best-known songs. ...
Comment by Nick Kent, Guardian, The, April 2006
THROUGHOUT MY CAREER as a music journalist, I've often found myself sharing the same orbit as some of the more maladjusted talents of the late ...
Futureheads, The: Grump Up The Volume
Interview by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, May 2006
The Futureheads have grown up and discovered how to write "classic tunes". But don't expect any airs and graces, says Jude Rogers ...
Scritti Politti: Hearts and Flowers: Scritti Politti
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Guardian, The, May 2006
It's seven years since Green from Scritti Politti released an album – time spent boozing away in self-doubt. So what brought him back to his ...
Matthew Herbert: Fuelled By Outrage
Interview by David Stubbs, Guardian, The, May 2006
"CHECK THESE OUT," says Matthew Herbert aka Dr Rockit, Radio Boy, modern-day big-band leader, seductive deep-house purveyor, moments after answering the door to his studio-cum-pad ...
Dixie Chicks, The: Dixie Chicks: 'We Had A Song At No 1. The Next Day It Was At No 70'
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, June 2006
NATALIE MAINES has a little cluster of black teardrops tattooed on her lower leg, trickling from her ankle down to her foot. Dixie Chicks' poised ...
Don't Mention The War – Unless You're Over 50
Comment by Andrew Purcell, Guardian, The, June 2006
NEIL YOUNG'S latest album, Living With War, was supposed to be more than a collection of protest songs. To optimistic critics of the occupation of ...
Essay by Michel Faber, Guardian, The, July 2006
GLEAMING METAL DOORS slide open noiselessly at the touch of a button, and I step into the secret subterranean studio of Brian Eno. The atmosphere ...
Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd: Syd Barrett: Shine On You Crazy Diamond
Obituary by Nick Kent, Guardian, The, July 2006
Syd Barrett, the most famous recluse in rock, is dead. It would be easy to mourn the founder of Pink Floyd as a casualty of ...
Pet Shop Boys: Jewel in the Crown: Pet Shop Boys
Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, July 2006
ON A BALMY summer's evening, the grounds of the Tower of London shudder to the art-disco thunder of the Pet Shop Boys' 1988 hit 'Left ...
New York Dolls: The New York Dolls: 'Before Us, There Was Nothing'
Interview by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, July 2006
Punk pioneers the New York Dolls imploded in a haze of heroin three decades ago. Now they're back – and this time, finds Ian Gittins, ...
The Costa del Sol: Elvis Has Left The Cantina
Report by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, July 2006
ELVIS PRESLEY is having a grand time. He is cuddling up to tipsy girls and giving them individual verses of 'Return to Sender' as they ...
Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, July 2006
For Peaches, the famously X-rated rapper, the personal has just got political. Caroline Sullivan hears about her beef with Bush ...
Michael Franti: "The troops thought: this guy's got balls"
Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, July 2006
IT'S ALL VERY well to sing anti-war songs in California — but in Baghdad? To American soldiers? Michael Franti tells Dorian Lynskey why he took ...
Arthur Lee, Love: Arthur Lee 1945-2006
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, August 2006
Flower-power myth maker who captured the dark side of the summer of love ...
Timbaland: "I'm up here. Everyone else is down there."
Profile and Interview by Angus Batey, Guardian, The, August 2006
TIM "TIMBALAND" Mosley, the most in-demand music producer in the world, is tired. But the task of staying awake is made easier because, right now, ...
Lemonheads, The, Evan Dando: Evan Dando: 'I Can't Completely Let Go Of Drugs – And I Don't Want To'
Interview by Mat Snow, Guardian, The, August 2006
He was the golden boy of grunge, and then he threw it all away. Evan Dando tells Mat Snow why he wants to make a ...
Ice Cube: Respectability? It Can Wait
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, August 2006
He went from gangsta notoriety to Hollywood stardom. Now Ice Cube has returned to the studio – to show today's rappers where they've gone wrong. ...
Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, September 2006
THE THREE GIRLS on the south London station platform couldn't have been more than 13, and as they waited for the train, they were singing, ...
Patti Smith: The Lady's For Returning
Interview by Mark Paytress, Guardian, The, September 2006
PATTI SMITH knows a thing or two about rock'n'roll heroes. Emerging in a blaze of controversy with her epochal 1975 debut album, Horses, she wrapped ...
Amy Winehouse: Bloomsbury Ballroom, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, September 2006
WHILE AMY Winehouse has been off making the follow-up to her 2003 Mercury-nominated debut album, Frank, her role as the new kid on the block ...
Report by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, September 2006
What do Pete Doherty, Justin Hawkins and Keane's Tom Chaplin have in common? All have been in rehab recently, some for the first time. But ...
Interview by Mark Paytress, Guardian, The, October 2006
WHEN PSYCHIC TV's Genesis P-Orridge walks out on stage at the Astoria this evening, on a rare visit to London, those who've followed the career ...
Ghostface Killah: Coronet, London ***
Live Review by Angus Batey, Guardian, The, October 2006
"IF YOU listen to my lyrics, you'll know I'm a soul baby," confesses Dennis Coles midway through a typically eccentric set. "And you've got to ...
Killers, The: Saints of Sin City: The Killers
Interview by Nick Kent, Guardian, The, October 2006
OVER THE COURSE of 50 years, we have borne witness to the on-going development of popular music, and many diverse faiths and cultures from all ...
Interview by Andrew Purcell, Guardian, The, December 2006
IT'S TEN O'CLOCK on a muggy Florida morning and Dion is ready to talk. He'll talk all day, about his lifelong love of the blues, ...
Nas: Why The Grammys Have Ditched Rap
Comment by Edward Helmore, Guardian, The, December 2006
RAP MUSIC, and the commotion, fur and bling that often accompanies its biggest stars, will be noticeably absent from the Grammy awards in Los Angeles ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, Richard Williams, Guardian, The, December 2006
A mogul who nurtured the careers of stars such as Ray Charles, Led Zeppelin, Aretha Franklin and Dusty Springfield ...
How To Beat The Difficult Second Album Syndrome
Comment by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, January 2007
SOPHOMORE SLUMP Or Comeback Of The Year? asked Fall Out Boy in a brilliantly prescient track on their 2005 album From Under the Cork Tree, ...
David Byrne: Imelda – The Nightclub Years
Interview by Andrew Purcell, Guardian, The, January 2007
DAVID BYRNE KEEPS a small black diary on his bookcase, with 'DB – Idears' written on the spine in gold ink. Without rifling through its ...
Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen: Bruce Blew My Cover: Pete Seeger
Report and Interview by Edward Helmore, Guardian, The, February 2007
ON THE FIRST Friday of the month, in fine weather and sometimes foul, you will find Pete Seeger, the folk-singing legend and pioneering environmentalist, in ...
Bloc Party: A Weekend in the City
Review by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, February 2007
BLOC PARTY'S second album begins like an episode of Panorama, full of frowning portent and ambition to say something about The State of Britain Today. ...
Pentangle: Britain's Grateful Dead
Profile and Interview by Nick Coleman, Guardian, The, March 2007
Folk pioneers Pentangle recently played together for the first time in 30 years. This is the perfect time for them to reform for good, says ...
William Orbit: 'People Will See My Heart And Soul'
Interview by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, May 2007
POP MUSIC has been good to William Orbit. Two decades at the top of his game as one of dance music's leading producers and remixers ...
Roky Erickson: The Man Who Went Too High: Roky Erickson
Retrospective and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, June 2007
THE MOST IMPROBABLE of rock comebacks began on the night of March 19, 2005 at an Austin, Texas restaurant called Threadgill's. Every year, the eatery ...
Interview by Andrew Purcell, Guardian, The, June 2007
"WHEN I FELT like I needed profanity, I used profanity," Swamp Dogg begins. And as he cheerfully swears his way through his 50 years in ...
LCD Soundsystem, John Cale: John Cale meets LCD Soundsystem
Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, June 2007
They are both stars of New York's music scene - pioneers of the coolest pop, separated by 30 years. James Murphy and John Cale get ...
Interview by Andrew Purcell, Guardian, The, June 2007
THIS AFTERNOON I will meet Ornette Coleman, the world's greatest living jazz musician. Coleman is an iconoclast's iconoclast, Lou Reed's hero, a saxophonist who plays ...
Al Green: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, June 2007
AL GREEN IS the last of the American southern soul giants of the 1960s and 70s, a survivor where Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and Sam ...
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, September 2007
Scissor Sister Ana Matronic idolises Siouxsie – so we brought the two together to discuss punks, parents and the male ego. By Caroline Sullivan ...
Erasure: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, September 2007
THE UK TOUR that ended with this Albert Hall show saw Erasure touch down in Preston and Grimsby – towns at the bottom of most ...
Kevin Ayers, Robert Wyatt: Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt
Retrospective and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Guardian, The, October 2007
"I COULD HARDLY recognise him at first," says Kevin Ayers. "But there, under that great beard, was Robert and he hadn't changed a bit." The ...
Mötley Crüe: Ban this Sixx filth!
Report by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, October 2007
Thought Mötley Crüe's biog The Dirt was the ultimate rock read? Pah! Ian Gittins helped bassist Nikki Sixx write his gruesome journals. Those of a ...
Super Furry Animals: Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, November 2007
THERE IS A theory tumbling around that the Super Furry Animals are the Welsh Beatles. ...
British Sea Power: Rock Needs To Get Back To Nature
Comment by Ben Myers, Guardian, The, November 2007
Cities have been done to death. More rock bands should take inspiration from countryside, mountains and rivers - like British Sea Power ...
George Pringle: The Social, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, November 2007
"JUST WAIT till my husband gets out of prison," sulks the skinny girl, poking a pinky into her mound of frothed hair. The audience titter ...
Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, November 2007
... and Lily, and Kate: there's a new star in town. Adele Adkins is only 19, but her voice has bewitched everyone from Jools Holland ...
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, December 2007
CANSEI DE Ser Sexy (as they initially were until they gave in to the English-speaking world's lack of enthusiasm for other tongues) have already grasped ...
Adele, Duffy, Laura Marling: Adele, Duffy et al: This Year's Vintage
Report by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, January 2008
Caroline Sullivan on 2008's big female voices ...
Goldfrapp: Manure Rather Than Manicure
Interview by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, January 2008
After past glam excesses, Goldfrapp are turning to nature for inspiration. Jude Rogers heads for their country retreat and hears why they are English eccentrics ...
Laura Marling: 'My songs are not pretty'
Interview by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, February 2008
IN A RECENT POSTING on a music website, one of Laura Marling's growing army of fans described her output as "pretty folk songs about boys". ...
Fleet Foxes: America's Next Great Band
Report by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, February 2008
HOMETOWN: Xachua'Bsh, Washington.THE LINEUP: Robin Pecknold, Nicholas Peterson, Skyler Skjelset, Christian Wargo, Casey Wescott. ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, February 2008
Rock drummer who graced the stage with Hendrix in his heyday ...
MGMT: Oracular Spectacular (Sony BMG)
Review by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, March 2008
THIS IS THE first great pop record of the year, a fizzing cherry-bomb that sparkles with energy, ideas and a huge love for music in ...
Terry Callier: The Jazz Cafe, London
Live Review by Angus Batey, Guardian, The, March 2008
ABOUT 40 MINUTES into this riveting performance, Terry Callier cuts to the chase. "We've talked about so much stuff now," he says with a shrug, ...
Black Keys, The: The Black Keys: Attack and Release
Review by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, March 2008
IN THE SHADOW cast by the mighty White Stripes, blues-rock often lumbers between despair and excess. ...
Roots, The: The Roots: It's Like A Jungle Sometimes...
Report and Interview by Angus Batey, Guardian, The, April 2008
They are a hip-hop purist's dream, constantly touring and constantly praised. But behind the scenes, the Roots have a fight on their hands. Angus Batey ...
Girls Aloud: Brighton Centre ****
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, May 2008
GIRLS ALOUD long ago ceased to be a guilty pleasure, and are now just a pleasure. It defies the laws of reality TV that they're ...
Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago
Review by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, May 2008
HEARTBREAK OFTEN buckles sad records, turning sentimental confessions into whiny navel-gazing exercises. So thank heaven for Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, who avoids this problem beautifully. ...
Rihanna: Sweetness and Steel: Rihanna
Profile and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, May 2008
ON A HOT spring day, inside a large, airy studio in the town of Castaic, California, a group of men and women are watching paint ...
Interview by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, May 2008
Jason Pierce of Spiritualized gives Ian Gittins his perfect pop prescription ...
Kiss: Overblown, Overpaid And Over Here
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, May 2008
For the headliners of Download heavy metal festival, there are millions to be made, fans to ogle (and sometimes sleep with), and platform boots to ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, June 2008
American pioneer of rock'n'roll who influenced the Beatles and the Rolling Stones ...
Essay by Andy Gill, Guardian, The, June 2008
Pompous, mawkish, and unbearably smug, Coldplay have conquered the charts with the sonic equivalent of wilted spinach, argues Andy Gill. And in the process, they've ...
Ne-Yo: 'Do I Have To Sell My Soul?'
Profile and Interview by Angus Batey, Guardian, The, July 2008
He's an R&B singer, and songwriter to the stars. But when the music stops, Ne-Yo vanishes from the spotlight. He tells Angus Batey why that's ...
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, July 2008
The biggest-selling artist in Britain this year? That would be Wales' Aimee Duffy, sales of whose Rockferry album passed the million mark a few weeks ...
Katy Perry: On Music: Katy Perry — Voice of No Angel
Comment by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, August 2008
IT'S BEEN quite a week for sex, music and me. Take last weekend. There I was at the Big Chill festival, hot-browed and clammy-palmed, watching ...
Keane: On Music: Keane – A Successful Turnaround
Comment by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, September 2008
Keane are no longer soundtrack material for middle-class tantrums. They now have the sound of a band turning their frowns upside down ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, September 2008
Keyboard player and founder member of Pink Floyd ...
Natalie Cole: The Unforgettable Ms Cole
Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Guardian, The, September 2008
Natalie Cole is the superstar's daughter who became a Black Panther, a cocaine addict – and a huge success in her own right. As she ...
Kaiser Chiefs: Off With Their Heads
Review by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, October 2008
THIS SUMMER, Mark Ronson brightly told us that Kaiser Chiefs' new album, their third in four years and the first on his watch, sounded like ...
Kaiser Chiefs: The Forum, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, October 2008
IN 2005, Kaiser Chiefs squeezed into a pop scene that was fixated on arch art-rockers. Today, the band are a neo-Britpop fixture, seemingly sent to ...
Temptations, The: The Temptations: The Band That Took Motown Higher
Retrospective and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, October 2008
FORTY YEARS ago this month, the Temptations released a single that would change the face of Motown. Martin Luther King Jr had been gunned down ...
Herbie Hancock: Herbie Rides Again
Interview by Andrew Purcell, Guardian, The, November 2008
He has enjoyed electro, pop and funk incarnations but, as Herbie Hancock tells Andrew Purcell, it's all about playing one right note ...
Hot Chip: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, November 2008
"WELCOME TO the Hot Chip show," shouts guitarist Al Doyle, as if priming the crowd for a Vegas cabaret act rather than five Londoners whose ...
Fleet Foxes: Why Is Our Radical Folk Heritage Ignored?
Comment by Luke Turner, Guardian, The, November 2008
Modern British music is so in thrall to Americana that our own treasure trove of radical traditional folk is in danger of being forgotten ...
Ryan Adams: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, November 2008
DESPITE WHAT Ryan Adams tells us tonight, it wasn't true that this was the first time he had ever played London "without being chemically challenged". ...
Live Music: Is This The End Of The Road?
Report by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, November 2008
Gigs have been shoring up the ailing music industry – but they're not as popular as they once were. Caroline Sullivan reports on growing anxiety ...
ABC, Heaven 17, Human League, The: ABC/Human League/Heaven 17: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, December 2008
THERE ARE QUEUES around the building for the Sheffield groups who brought electro-funk (Heaven 17), orchestral disco (ABC) and synth pop (the Human League) to ...
Lady GaGa, La Roux: Slaves To Synth
Report and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, December 2008
The male guitar band is dead. The future is electro, female, DIY – and very in your face. Caroline Sullivan talks to the solo acts ...
Florence and the Machine, Lady GaGa: On Music: Lady GaGa and Florence Welch
Comment by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, January 2009
Lady GaGa and Florence Welch have been hailed as the new queens of pop. But why pretend they're anything more than cheap imitations? ...
Review by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, January 2009
ON THEIR eponymous 2004 outing, Franz knew exactly what they wanted to do and they executed it to perfection. They conjured something fresh from Orange ...
Buddy Holly: The Angel with the Devil's Music: Buddy Holly
Retrospective by Richard Williams, Guardian, The, January 2009
Fifty years ago, Buddy Holly's life was sadly cut short. Richard Williams salutes the clean-cut 22-year-old who came to Britain and showed a whole generation ...
Jacques Brel: Jacques The Lad: Jacques Brel
Retrospective by Graeme Thomson, Guardian, The, February 2009
FIRST THINGS FIRST. Try to forget that Jacques Brel, the Belgian singer-songwriter, is indirectly responsible for Terry Jacks's 'Seasons in the Sun'. Forget also for ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, February 2009
Co-founder of the Cramps, exponents of trash culture and 'psychobilly' music ...
Ting Tings, The: The Day-Glo Duo: The Ting Tings
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, February 2009
"ALL I'VE BEEN thinking about," says Jules De Martino, the male half of the Ting Tings, seated in a swish Manchester restaurant, "is steak and ...
Single Vision: Fierce Panda Records
Retrospective and Interview by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, February 2009
THE NEW WAVE OF NEW WAVE was never really much cop. It was an early 1990s music press-concocted punk revival scene based around a handful ...
Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five: Grandmaster Flash: All Hands On Deck
Profile and Interview by Andrew Purcell, Guardian, The, February 2009
They thought he was mad, they spat him off stage, he hit the drugs... But Grandmaster Flash gave 'DJ' a whole new meaning. Andrew Purcell ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, March 2009
Alan Wendell Livingston, businessman, born 15 October 1917; died 13 March 2009 ...
Brian Eno, David Byrne: The Business is an Exciting Mess: Brian Eno and David Byrne
Interview by Edward Helmore, Guardian, The, March 2009
DAVID BYRNE IS sitting outside the ladies parlour, upstairs at the Tampa theatre, one of the most spectacular 1920s movie palaces in the US, in ...
Mastodon: Blood, Sweat and Beards: Mastodon
Interview by Stevie Chick, Guardian, The, March 2009
IN THE TWO DECADES and change since Metallica's landmark Master of Puppets album debuted, heavy metal has charted an ascendant course, from derided, marginalised and ...
All Bands on Deck: Pirate Radio and The Boat That Rocked
Report and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, March 2009
FOR A FEW WEEKS last spring, a corner of Shepperton Studios became the nerve centre of the fictional pirate station, Radio Rock. Mounted on a ...
Bay City Rollers, The: Tam Paton
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, April 2009
Bay City Rollers manager who was mired in scandal ...
Jeffrey Lewis: The Neurotic from New York: Jeffrey Lewis
Interview by Andrew Purcell, Guardian, The, April 2009
A FEW YEARS AGO, Jeffrey Lewis wrote a song called 'Sal's Pizza Has Sold Out To The Yuppie Scum', complaining about the rising cost of ...
Clean, The: Nuns at the Altar of Rock: Flying Nun Records
Retrospective and Interview by Martin Aston, Guardian, The, May 2009
"THERE'S SOMETHING about the antipodes that irritates Britain," reckons Martin Phillipps, on the phone from Dunedin on New Zealand's South Island. Almost 25 years ago, ...
Jackie DeShannon: Return Of The Starry-Eyed Girl
Interview by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, May 2009
IT'S LUNCHTIME at Claridge's, and a glamorous blonde in sparkling stilettos shimmers out of the lift. No one bats an eyelid, but then she starts ...
Profile and Interview by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, June 2009
Love songs to robots, cement-mixer music, trios with houses on their shoulders… No wonder Scandinavian artists get noticed. Jude Rogers kicks off our Scandipop special ...
Spinal Tap: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, July 2009
NO MATTER how witty they may be, few satires or novelty songs repay repeated listening. So how come a packed Wembley is rocking to the ...
Shakira: On Music: Shakira – The She Wolf Bites
Comment by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, July 2009
Shakira's howling alter ego is properly, wonderfully strange, going back to the old rules of pop star alternate personas ...
Sugababes: 'We Took Our Eye Off The Ball'
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, July 2009
After a brush with self-doubt, the Sugababes are back on form. Keisha Buchanan, Amelle Berrabah and Heidi Range talk about their new album, Get Sexy ...
ZE Records: 'It Was Like A Fairytale'
Retrospective and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, July 2009
The extraordinary story of the trail-blazing New York label that launched Was (Not Was), Kid Creole and Suicide ...
Retrospective and Interview by Colin Irwin, Guardian, The, July 2009
ALL GUSHING JET-black hair, radiant smiles and shining eyes, Buffy Sainte-Marie looks fabulous. "Do I? Why thank you..." ...
Obituary by Richard Williams, Guardian, The, August 2009
NOT LONG AFTER Ellie Greenwich, who has died at the age of 68, met her future husband and songwriting partner Jeff Barry at a Thanksgiving ...
xx, The: xx — A Teen Band With A Difference
Interview by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, August 2009
The minimalist four-piece band from a Notting Hill garage are equally awed by Pixies and Aaliyah ...
Ellie Greenwich: Remembering Songwriting Legend Ellie Greenwich
Retrospective by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, August 2009
SHE CHANGED the shape of 60s pop by writing some extraordinary songs, including 'Be My Baby' and 'Da Doo Ron Ron' ...
Review by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, August 2009
WHEN IS MUSIC too much? I'm not talking about the torrent of songs that surround us every day – I've argued how we should work ...
Huggy Bear, Bikini Kill: The 10 Myths of Riot Grrrl
Comment by Everett True, Guardian, The, September 2009
YOU READ a lot of stuff about Riot Grrrl, most of which isn't true. Things such as ... ...
La Roux: 'Of course Lady Gaga's not my thing'
Profile and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, September 2009
IT IS MORNING, and 21-year-old Elly Jackson – or La Roux, arguably the biggest new pop star of the year – is on the Eurostar ...
Spandau Ballet's Reunion: Once More With Girdles
Report and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, October 2009
With 10 top 10 hits, Spandau Ballet were the epitome of 80s pop. After much bitterness and a court case, the band are reunited again ...
Nick Drake: Robert Kirby, 1948-2009
Obituary by Colin Irwin, Guardian, The, October 2009
IN HIS FIRST YEAR as a music student at Cambridge University, Robert Kirby sought to join Footlights, the undergraduates' fabled arts and drama club. He ...
Comment by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, October 2009
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC is the neglected child of rock and pop — but it's the absence of a human presence that can make it so interesting. ...
Age of Chance's Bangers and Mash-ups
Retrospective and Interview by Angus Batey, Guardian, The, October 2009
Sampling, dance-rock, cross-genre cover versions ... Age of Chance did it all 20 years ago, but no one was listening. As their back catalogue goes ...
Depeche Mode, Ultravox, Gary Numan: One Nation Under a Moog: How Britain Went Synthpop
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Guardian, The, October 2009
As new BBC4 documentary Synth Britannia shows, the synthesizer first dehumanised then re-humanised British pop, fulfilled the DIY promise of punk, and changed how bands ...
Soft Cell, Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, Yazoo: Electro Pop: One Nation Under a Moog
Overview by Simon Reynolds, Guardian, The, October 2009
As new BBC4 documentary Synth Britannia shows, the synthesizer first dehumanised then re-humanised British pop, fulfilled the DIY promise of punk, and changed how bands ...
Dizzee Rascal: Roundhouse, London ****
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, October 2009
"DIZZEE RASCAL for prime minister, yeah?" As if to emphasise that he is more than just an east London grime MC these days, Rascal ended ...
Robbie Williams: Writing Off Robbie Williams Is Unfair And Premature
Comment by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, October 2009
Expectations of immediate success are threatening to strangle Robbie Williams's comeback at birth, even when his single is selling well and the new album is ...
Phoenix: By the Time They Get to… Phoenix
Interview by Andrew Purcell, Guardian, The, October 2009
GROWING UP IN Versailles, an affluent suburb of Paris, the four boys who would eventually form Phoenix bonded over their love of American pop culture. ...
Obituary by Jon Savage, Guardian, The, November 2009
Nightclub owner who acted as a catalyst for the LA punk scene ...
Bon Jovi: Alan McGee meets Jon Bon Jovi
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, November 2009
When Creation boss and Oasis mentor Alan McGee confessed his admiration for veteran rocker Jon Bon Jovi on a Guardian blog, we just had to ...
Ellie Goulding: First Sight: Ellie Goulding
Guide by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, November 2009
WHO IS SHE? The 21-year-old future of pop, if you believe the hype. Born in Hereford and brought up in rural Wales, she now makes ...
Journey: Why is Journey's 'Don't Stop Believin'' Back in the Charts?
Comment by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, November 2009
The 17th bestselling track in the country is the power ballad 'Don't Stop Believin'' from 1981. How did Journey get so popular? ...
John Mayer: 'You can't make music as a famous person'
Interview by Angus Batey, Guardian, The, November 2009
"I BASICALLY VISUALISED a record called Battle Studies as a way to sum up the last two years of my life: what I've learned and ...
Badly Drawn Boy, Goldfrapp, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The: Rock Stars Storm the Movie Soundtrack World
Overview by Graeme Thomson, Guardian, The, November 2009
From Goldfrapp to Badly Drawn Boy, from Karen O to Nick Cave, more and more big names are lining up to write music for films. ...
Review by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, November 2009
Rather than treating them like national treasures, let's hope musicians stretch their prejudices about what older artists can do ...
Profile and Interview by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, December 2009
In the last 10 years, The X Factor and its ilk have bucked record-buying trends and breathed new life into a dying industry. We talk ...
Essay by Bob Stanley, Guardian, The, December 2009
Can Bob Stanley listen to every No 1 song from the noughties and escape with his sanity intact? He recalls a musical decade that ranged ...
Simon Reynolds's Notes On The Noughties: Clearing Up The Indie Landfill
Comment by Simon Reynolds, Guardian, The, January 2010
At the start of the noughties, indie was seen as the rubbish dump of contemporary music. But by the end of the decade, it had ...
Vampire Weekend: 'They're Attacking A Version Of Us That Doesn't Exist'
Profile and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, January 2010
VAMPIRE WEEKEND are being mobbed in California. By teenage girls. In a skate park normally frequented by crystal meth addicts. What makes this so unexpected ...
So Solid Crew: 'What We're Doing Is Bigger Than Music'
Interview by Angus Batey, Guardian, The, January 2010
After a dramatic rise and a messy, destructive fall, So Solid are back. This time they intend to keep the tunes – and the money ...
Kate & Anna McGarrigle: Kate McGarrigle: obituary
Obituary by Tony Russell, Guardian, The, January 2010
Folk singer and songwriter at the heart of an innovative music-making family ...
Manchester's Music Scene Now Has Everything Everything
Overview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, January 2010
Never mind the Buzzcocks... or Stone Roses, or New Order: Manchester can stop trading on its former glories. Three new bands explain how they are ...
Midlake: 'I Wish I'd Heard Black Sabbath in High School'
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Guardian, The, January 2010
Texas rockers Midlake grew up playing jazz, but fell headlong into a love affair with vintage rock. Here they talk about their latest fixations, and ...
The Low Anthem: The Folk-Rockers Who Sing About Darwin
Profile and Interview by Stevie Chick, Guardian, The, February 2010
"I HOPE PEOPLE don't think we're just relics," says Ben Knox Miller, sincerely, dressed in a jacket fashioned from an old burlap flour sack, and ...
From Mod to Emo: Why Pop Tribes Are Still Making a Scene
Overview by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, February 2010
Like-minded music fans have been herding together for half a century — but are die-hard pop tribes now a thing of the past? Do today's ...
BBC 6 Music: The Beauties and the Beast
Comment by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, February 2010
Passion, intelligence and wonderful tunes — 6 Music has it all, and found many fans despite its tiny budget. So why on earth is it ...
Sparklehorse: Mark Linkous, 1962-2010
Obituary by Rob Hughes, Guardian, The, March 2010
THE AMERICAN singer-songwriter Mark Linkous, who has killed himself aged 47, worked with the Flaming Lips, Daniel Johnston and Danger Mouse, but is best known ...
Throwing Muses, Le Tigre, Joan Jett, Kristin Hersh: What Happened To Angry Female Music Stars?
Comment by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, March 2010
Are there any angry women left in rock and pop? Joan Jett, riot grrrl figurehead Kathleen Hanna and others talk about where it went wrong ...
Frank Zappa, Tom Waits: Herb Cohen: Combative label boss and manager of Frank Zappa and Tom Waits
Obituary by Rob Hughes, Guardian, The, April 2010
HERB COHEN, who has died aged 77 of complications from cancer, did not elicit much affection from the artists he managed, but he played a ...
National, The: The National: Gloomy … with a Hint of Sunshine
Report and Interview by Andrew Purcell, Guardian, The, April 2010
IT WAS PAST SIX in the morning, in the bar of Bono's hotel in Dublin. The members of the National and REM were seated around ...
LCD Soundsystem: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, April 2010
HAVING VOWED to disband LCD Soundsystem when he turned 40, James Murphy – who reached that milestone in February – is currently on his (presumably) ...
Joanna Newsom: 'Is It Time For A Glass Of Wine?'
Interview by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, May 2010
She models for Armani, enjoys a game of baseball and likes to stay out drinking cocktails. Jude Rogers meets Joanna Newsom, the outspoken singer making ...
Grizzly Bear: Freed From Captivity
Interview by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, May 2010
GRIZZLY BEAR are the cult indie group that suddenly got rather big. Jude Rogers talks to their frontmen ...
Rage Against the Machine: Finsbury Park, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, June 2010
LAST CHRISTMAS a Facebook campaign powered Californian rap-metal veterans Rage Against the Machine to the top of the singles chart, pipping The X Factor victor ...
Grizzly Bear: Hyde Park, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, June 2010
NOW IN ITS SECOND YEAR, the Serpentine Sessions festival is the absolute obverse of Glastonbury's sprawling eclecticism. With audience numbers capped firmly at 3,000, this ...
Black Keys, The: The Black Keys: 'It's ridiculous to say that we play the blues'
Report and Interview by Andrew Purcell, Guardian, The, July 2010
FOR EIGHT MONTHS NOW, since the end of a relationship, the Black Keys drummer Pat Carney has been living in New York's Lower East Side. ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, July 2010
Prolific Jamaican musician who was a pioneer of dancehall reggae ...
LCD Soundsystem, Pixies, The, Zombies, The: Why Your Favourite Band Should Split Up
Overview by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, August 2010
From the Pixies to the Zombies, Jude Rogers talks to the bands who chose to burn out, not fade away ...
Last Poets, The: After The Party: Music and the Black Panthers
Retrospective and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, September 2010
ONE DAY LAST DECEMBER, Umar Bin Hassan of the Last Poets attended a gathering in Chicago to commemorate local Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton, ...
Roots, The, John Legend: John Legend and the Roots: Hearts, Minds and Soul
Report and Interview by Angus Batey, Guardian, The, October 2010
John Legend and the Roots' album of '60s and '70s protest songs is no mere history lesson – it's an open letter to a divided ...
Interview by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, October 2010
Drugs, M.E. and despair sent the poor urchins of Britpop their separate ways in 2003. Now Suede have come roaring back to life. ...
Profile and Interview by Stevie Chick, Guardian, The, October 2010
IT'S THE CONTRASTS between Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, clearly visible from any seat in the Barbican tonight, that you notice first. Campbell, stage left, ...
Daft Punk's robots aren't the only ones rocking the multiplex
Report by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, December 2010
AT THE END of the trailer to forthcoming movie Somewhere, we are given just two pieces of information: 1) that the film was written and ...
Wyclef Jean: "Fans are calling me the new Dylan"
Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, December 2010
WHAT SCUPPERED Wyclef Jean's bid to be president of Haiti? Well, it wasn't modesty. On the eve of the election result, the rapper talks death ...
Plan B: 'Strickland Banks may be soul, but it's still real life': Plan B
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, December 2010
THE INTERNATIONAL lingua franca of Christmas TV is fromage and France's leading commercial channel, TF1, is no exception. Having arrived in Paris on a lunchtime ...
Ke$ha: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London ****
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, December 2010
IT'S EASY TO dismiss Ke$ha as a Primark take on Lady Gaga, but such an appraisal disregards the fact that 23-year-old Kesha Sebert this year ...
White Stripes, The: The White Stripes: Detroit's Rock Heroes Remembered
Retrospective by Stevie Chick, Guardian, The, February 2011
THERE WAS AN outpouring of grief this week when the White Stripes announced they were to split. Stevie Chick explains their magic while photographer Ewen ...
Arcade Fire: "It's a lot easier to get smaller"
Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, February 2011
WITH A No. 1 album on both sides of the Atlantic, Arcade Fire are on the verge of U2-scale stardom. But, ever the provocateurs, they ...
Talk Talk: How Talk Talk Spoke To Today's Artists
Retrospective by Ben Myers, Guardian, The, February 2011
IN HIS WEIGHTY 2010 TOME Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music, Rob Young charted a century's worth of musicians who helped define British folk. In ...
Justin Bieber: NIA, Birmingham
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, March 2011
JUSTIN BIEBER fans will tell you there are two only kinds of people in the world: "Beliebers" and the rest of us. For those who ...
Katy Perry: Hammersmith Apollo, London ****
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, March 2011
KATY PERRY is strutting across the stage, a giant spray of feathers fanning out from her tiny backside, and she's singing, "I wanna see your ...
Kyuss: Kings of the Stoner Age
Retrospective and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, March 2011
"I DIDN'T THINK THAT at 40 years of age I would still be talking about generator parties," Kyuss frontman John Garcia says with a puzzled ...
Black Eyed Peas, Taio Cruz: Never Mind The Balearics: The Ibiza-ification Of Pop
Comment by Simon Reynolds, Guardian, The, April 2011
From Black Eyed Peas to Taio Cruz, much recent pop looks to Ibiza for inspiration. And yet for all the hands-in-the-air moments, this music is ...
R Kelly: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, April 2011
IT HAS been more than a decade since R Kelly, the self-proclaimed King of R&B, last passed through London – time enough for his original ...
Steve Reich: Musicians, Composers and Artists pay tribute
Interview by Mike Barnes, Guardian, The, May 2011
STEVE REICH is a major influence on today's musicians, artists and film-makers. As the Barbican pays tribute, we ask some of them why – and ...
Wild Beasts: Sex-Obsessed and Scrupulously Polite
Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, May 2011
ON A BALMY APRIL MORNING in east London, Hayden Thorpe is remembering the night last September when Wild Beasts failed to win the Mercury Prize ...
White Denim: Between Indie Rock and a Hard Place
Profile and Interview by Stevie Chick, Guardian, The, May 2011
"WE'VE TALKED ABOUT starting another band and just writing really straightforward, boring pop songs," says White Denim bassist Steve Terebecki, sitting in a London bar. ...
Kaiser Chiefs... but Under Your Control
Profile and Interview by Pete Paphides, Guardian, The, June 2011
Burned by past leaks, Kaiser Chiefs release their new album today after exactly zero buildup – and it might well be the world's first bespoke ...
Arctic Monkeys Make The Fastest-selling Debut Ever
Report by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, June 2011
23 January 2006: Number 48 in our series of the 50 key events in the history of indie music ...
Minor Threat, Bad Brains: Ian Mackaye meets Bad Brains and invents hardcore
Retrospective by Stevie Chick, Guardian, The, June 2011
NO MERE THREE-CHORD punk dullards, Washington DC's Bad Brains had chops to spare. They'd started as jazz-fusion quintet Mind Power, worshipping at the altar of ...
Prince: "I'm a musician. And I am music"
Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, June 2011
RINGTONES ARE EVIL. Islamic countries are fun. The internet is like "a carjacking", where there are no boundaries. Prince on being pop's "loving tyrant" ...
Mowest, Mo' Problems: The Glorious Failure Of Motown's Californian Outpost
Profile by Graeme Thomson, Guardian, The, June 2011
IN 1971 MOTOWN set up a Californian arm, Mowest. As a new compilation shows, it put out some terrific music, but it was a commercial ...
Obituary by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, July 2011
Singer with a soul-steeped voice whose instantly successful Back to Black album reflected her tormented experience of love ...
Kurt Cobain, Nirvana: Ten Myths About Grunge, Nirvana and Kurt Cobain
Guide by Everett True, Guardian, The, August 2011
KURT COBAIN loved Abba, wasn't from Seattle and didn't invent grunge. Everett True, the man who pushed the singer's wheelchair on stage for his last ...
Tony Bennett: Palladium, London *****
Live Review by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, October 2011
THIS IS HOW to do it. At 85, Tony Bennett scampers on to the Palladium stage in a perfectly pressed suit, a folded red hankie ...
Florence and the Machine: Hackney Empire, London ****
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, October 2011
PARENTS WHO worry that their teenage daughters have few pop role models other than the intemperately sexual Rihannas of the world should be pleased that ...
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, November 2011
LANA DEL REY may become the most recognised stage name since fellow New Yorker Lady Gaga, but it's just as possible it will end up ...
Jill Scott: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, December 2011
"I HAD AN album out this year," Jill Scott informs a chokingly full Brixton Academy. The congratulatory bellows have hardly faded before she tartly adds: ...
Snow Patrol: The O2, London ***
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, February 2012
WHEN SNOW PATROL released Fallen Empires, the 2011 album that comprises a substantial part of this gig, singer Gary Lightbody revealed that the new record ...
Obituary by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, February 2012
Superstar singer credited as the first 'pop diva', whose compelling talent was lost to drug addiction ...
Lynyrd Skynyrd, Allman Brothers Band: Alabama Shakes: The Saga of Southern Rock
Comment by Barney Hoskyns, Guardian, The, April 2012
IT WAS ONLY a matter of time before BBC4 green-lit a Friday night documentary about the sub-genre Southern Rock. The subject is irresistible to connoisseurs ...
Alt-J: New Band of the Day: Alt-J
Report by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, May 2012
This Cambridge four-piece not only write clever music and boast more references than a jobs agency, they've also set tongues wagging with their rapturously received ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, Guardian, The, May 2012
FOR ALMOST 50 YEARS, Doc Watson, who has died aged 89, was the most illustrious name in traditional American folk music. A superb, original guitarist ...
Van Dyke Parks: Return of a Musical Maverick
Profile by Richard Williams, Guardian, The, June 2012
AS THE SMALL, white-haired, bespectacled man in a sleeveless cardigan took his seat a few rows from the front of the stalls in London's Royal ...
Live Review by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, June 2012
...
Skrillex, Deadmau5: EDM: How Rave Music Conquered America
Profile by Simon Reynolds, Guardian, The, August 2012
After 20 years, electronic dance music has made it big in the US. And big means big. With Las Vegas's Electric Daisy Carnival grossing $40m, ...
Live Review by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, November 2012
YOU WAIT YEARS for a Bobby Womack show, and two turn up at once. Unfortunately, that is not as good as it sounds. The 68-year-old ...
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