Independent, The
Fairport Convention and Copredy
Report and Interview by Martin Aston, Independent, The, August 1989
IN 1979, AFTER Punk's arrival had squeezed out the last drop of resistance, Fairport Convention's farewell concert in their adopted Oxfordshire village of Cropredy was ...
Profile and Interview by Martin Aston, Independent, The, February 1990
IT WAS the poster claiming The KLF were to play live at a DJ convention in Amsterdam rather than – as they thought – just ...
By the Time I Got Back to Woodstock
Essay by Steve Turner, Independent, The, August 1990
TO SALLY GROSSMAN, the living room of her Bearsville home near Woodstock in New York State is nothing extraordinary. It has an old fireplace, some ...
John Lennon: Some Time in New York City: John Lennon’s Manhattan
Essay by Steve Turner, Independent, The, August 1990
"I should have been born in New York," John Lennon once said. "I should have been born in the Village. That’s where I belong. Everybody ...
Doors, The: Take out a Subscription to the Resurrection: Jim Morrison
Retrospective by Steve Turner, Independent, The, March 1991
PÈRE-LACHAISE CEMETERY is bizarre enough in itself – 100,000 sepulchres crowded into a busy Paris suburb and rolling down hillsides like an invading army from ...
Essay by Steve Turner, Independent, The, March 1991
Does the lady with the glasses and the grey-flecked hair in the electrical store on the corner of Hyndford Street in east Belfast remember Van ...
Led Zeppelin: Stairway to Heaven, Paved with Gold: Led Zeppelin’s Snowdonia
Essay by Steve Turner, Independent, The, April 1991
It was a marriage of electric bombast and Celtic mythology; of bone-shaking riffs and ethereal thoughts. Led Zeppelin’s riffs came from guitarist Jimmy Page via ...
Guide by Steve Turner, Independent, The, April 1991
Thousands of worshippers still flock to Memphis, birthplace of Elvis. They should bypass Graceland. Rock first rolled here. ...
U2: The Irishness on the Inside of Bono and U2
Essay by Steve Turner, Independent, The, April 1991
There is a shop off Dublin’s O’Connell Street called Bonavox Hearing Aids. It has a neat window display featuring bean-sized aids in velvet presentation boxes ...
David Bowie: The Great Escape of the Thin White Duke: David Bowie in Berlin
Essay by Steve Turner, Independent, The, May 1991
IN 1976 THE WORD was out that David Bowie was slumming it in Berlin. Rejecting the life of a rock and roll star, which was ...
Donald Fagen: Reeling In The Years
Interview by Rob Steen, Independent, The, November 1991
NOT BEFORE time, the man who did it again is doing it again. But, after nine years of soundtrack credits and precious little else, muffled ...
Bhundu Boys, The: The Bhundu Boys Take Up Whistle-Blowing
Interview by Len Brown, Independent, The, November 1991
David Mankaba, of Africa's best-known band, decided to tell the whole continent he was dying of AIDS. It was his challenge to ignorance and apathy, ...
Eagles, The, Glenn Frey: Glenn Frey: Life After The Eagles
Interview by Lloyd Bradley, Independent, The, July 1992
GLENN FREY's just-released Strange Weather has all the guitar interplay, sheer whimsy and wry lyrical content you'd expect from the man who helped to write ...
Profile and Interview by Rob Steen, Independent, The, 1993
MY WIFE KEPT REMINDING ME: "Whatever you do, don't mention you named our daughter after her." Too creepy. What about the dispassionate dignity of the ...
Live Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, May 1993
Leonard Cohen: Royal Albert Hall, London ...
Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, May 1993
ELEVEN years between albums is excessive, even by living-legend standards. For some pop performers, that's time enough to get discovered, be the next big thing, ...
Sonic Youth: Forever Young: Sonic Youth
Interview by Martin Aston, Independent, The, 1994
IN 1991, WHEN Geffen Records signed the New York quartet Sonic Youth, the label couldn't have envisaged the band delivering two accessible albums by its ...
Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent, The, August 1994
DON VAN VLIET lives in the small and beautifully named town of Trinidad in Northern California, up by the Oregon border, 135 ft from the ...
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Independent, The, 1995
IT'S RARE enough these days that you find two decent bands on the same bill, let alone four. So hats off to the New Musical ...
Black Crowes, The: Not Shaven But Raven: The Black Crowes at Newport Centre
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Independent, The, January 1995
WHEN THEY emerged in 1990, it was difficult not to hate the Black Crowes: they were too retro for their own damn good. Led by ...
Tanita Tikaram: Eleven Kinds of Loveliness
Interview by Nick Hornby, Independent, The, February 1995
TANITA TIKARAM IS 25 years old, and she already knows who she wants to perform on her tribute album. ...
Obituary by Chris Welch, Independent, The, June 1995
RORY GALLAGHER was the People's Guitarist. Unassuming, but tenacious, the Irish blues man devoted his life to touring and playing his beloved Fender Strat to ...
Beach Boys, The, Brian Wilson: 'Brian Wilson is a Genius': The Birth of a Cult
Essay by Barney Hoskyns, Independent, The, September 1995
ONE OF THE key moments in I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times, record producer Don Was’s black-and-white film about Brian Wilson of the Beach ...
Black Grape: Shaun Ryder, Pop Star
Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent, The, October 1995
Once the high priest of proletarian hedonism, Shaun Ryder has traded in the low-life for a leafy London suburb. It's been a good move. The ...
Stylistics, The: In Praise of the Falsetto
Essay by Barney Hoskyns, Independent, The, November 1995
The castrato may be dead, if temporarily exhumed in the film Farinelli, but men continue to sing like women. Barney Hoskyns reaches for the high ...
Ramones, The: Gabba Gabba Sniffle: The Ramones at Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Independent, The, February 1996
PUNK MAY not be dead, but the Ramones, it would seem, have finally bitten the dust – like the spaghetti western mercenaries to whom they ...
J.J. Cale: 25 Years From Tulsa: J.J. Cale
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Independent, The, April 1996
FIFTEEN MINUTES before J.J. Cale is due to take the famous stage of Manhattan’s Carnegie Hall, a wiry, hobo-ish figure can be seen wandering across ...
Blue Nile, The: Peace with Honour: The Blue Nile
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Independent, The, June 1996
WHEN PAUL Buchanan opens the new Blue Nile album with the question "Now that I’ve found peace at last/Tell me, Jesus, will it last?", his ...
The Gospel according to Anthony Heilbut
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Independent, The, June 1996
From Mahalia Jackson to Death in Venice might seem a long journey. But for Anthony Heilbut, the renowned gospel expert and author of a new ...
Report by Sheryl Garratt, Independent, The, July 1996
WE'RE IN THE atrium of a sleek, modern, five-star hotel that is actually in Moscow but could be almost anywhere in the world. In the ...
Profile by Ben Thompson, Independent, The, October 1996
THERE HAS ALWAYS been a place in pop for the driven outsider: the writer or performer spurred on by their own personal bob-a-job scout pack ...
Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Independent, The, February 1997
"I can't listen to Days of Open Hand without feeling like I'm getting hives. It was such a difficult album to make, I was doing ...
Wilco: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, April 1997
WILCO'S SINGER-SONGWRITER Jeff Tweedy was maimed by rock 'n' roll, tamed by rock 'n' roll, named by rock 'n' roll, according to the most wistful ...
Tricky: Hackney Empire/Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, April 1997
TRICKY'S MIND can't freeze long enough to be recorded. Since Maxinquaye's trip-hop trigger, he's been too edgy, too impatient, to stay in the studio honing ...
Profile by John McCready, Independent, The, May 1997
IT IS inevitable and happens to everyone. James Brown's new bag is now full of holes. David Bowie, a former ideas factory, is reduced to ...
Echo & The Bunnymen: Echo and the Bunnymen - live in Liverpool
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, May 1997
IT'S HARD to remember now how much Echo and the Bunnymen meant. Fourteen years ago, they were crowned Kings of Rock, each album was greeted ...
Gillian Welch: As Real And As Raw As It Gets
Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Independent, The, June 1997
Mark Cooper samples Gillian Welch's alternative bluegrass ...
Radiohead: First Impression: OK Computer
Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, June 1997
EXPERTLY SURFING THE WAVE of pre-millennial tension, OK Computer offers a dozen snapshots of contemporary unease that combine to form a larger picture of The ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: Yoko Ono: Starting Over
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, June 1997
YOKO ONO was a lightning rod for the Sixties' most vicious currents. John Lennon was a man she'd barely heard of, a man she fell ...
John Cale: Remembrance Of Things Past
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, June 1997
WHEN THE VELVET Underground split, John Cale flew the coop most effectively. While his partner Lou Reed (who evicted Cale from the band in 1968) ...
Fun Lovin' Criminals: Gangstas of Cheese
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, July 1997
10CC'S 'I'M NOT in Love' seems unlikely material for three New York rappers. But the Fun Lovin' Criminals' cartoon pastiches – mixing Scorsese with Scooby ...
Profile and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Independent, The, July 1997
THE LAND AROUND here looks like nothing much at all, which is why it can be made to look like almost anything you like. ...
Comment by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, October 1997
WHEN BOB DYLAN hovered briefly between life and death last summer, his heart seemingly about to give in, his condition reported in headlines round the ...
Bob Dylan: Enter Good-Time Bob
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, October 1997
Bob Dylan: Bournemouth ...
Chess Records: The Original Blues Brothers
Interview by James Maycock, Independent, The, November 1997
"WOW, YOU guys are really getting it on!" exclaimed Chuck Berry, observing the Rolling Stones cut 'Down The Road Apiece', a track he'd recorded himself ...
Charlie Mingus: Charles Mingus: A Musical Misfit In Black And White
Retrospective by James Maycock, Independent, The, November 1997
A traumatic childhood and a dramatic life characterised the career of the bassist Charles Mingus. James Maycock looks at a documentary on a 'phenomenal musician ...
CTI Records: Coffee Table Jazz For The 1970's
Retrospective by James Maycock, Independent, The, December 1997
CREED TAYLOR was extremely shrewd at marketing jazz to those who were nervous of the genre, particularly after the discordant shreaks & squeaks made by ...
Lullaby for the Working Class: Lullabies From Wide Open Skies
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, December 1997
Nebraska's Lullaby for the Working Class's unusual country-influenced music comes complete with religious imagery, Tolstoy, and the loneliness of their home state. Nick Hasted met ...
Jaco Pastorius, Weather Report: Jaco Pastorius
Retrospective by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, 1998
AS JOHN LENNON proclaimed in the 1970 Rolling Stone interview which effectively announced his final break with the Beatles, "Genius is pain". What he neglected ...
Richard Thompson: Waterfront Hall, Belfast
Live Review by Colin Harper, Independent, The, January 1998
BELFAST'S WATERFRONT Hall embodies all the characteristics of a provincial Barbican – a kind of clinical, beige Gormenghast of a place where corridors lead to ...
Stone Roses, The, Ian Brown: You're Ian Brown... Do Something!
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, January 1998
The singer of the Stone Roses did not die with the group: his single is in the Top 5, and an album is on the ...
Yes: Live At Manchester Apollo
Live Review by John McCready, Independent, The, February 1998
LIKE ALICE Cooper, who I saw late last year playing the same game, it's interesting to note that former forces of the 1970s are bowing ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: Celebrating Bob Marley at Studio One
Retrospective by James Maycock, Independent, The, February 1998
On the 35th anniversary of Studio One ...
Terry Callier: Look At Me Now: The Return Of Terry Callier
Profile and Interview by James Maycock, Independent, The, February 1998
DEFINING THE "soul" part of soul music is a tricky issue – it's one of the bigger questions. The music's intangible qualities are often the ...
Wishbone Ash: Empire Music Hall, Belfast
Live Review by Colin Harper, Independent, The, February 1998
THERE WAS A TIME, as schoolboys of certain vintage will doubtless recall, when knowing the line-up details of the more venerable British rock bands really ...
Wishbone Ash: Empire Music Hall, Belfast
Live Review by Colin Harper, Independent, The, February 1998
THERE WAS A TIME, as schoolboys of certain vintage will doubtless recall, when knowing the line-up details of the more venerable British rock bands really ...
Miles Davis: The Miles Davis Quintet 1965-1968: The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings
Retrospective by James Maycock, Independent, The, March 1998
"YOU GET THE RIGHT GUYS to play the right things at the right time and you got a motherfucker!" recalled Miles Davis in his inimitable ...
Mick Jagger: The Battle Of Grosvenor Square
Retrospective by James Maycock, Independent, The, March 1998
Author's note: I interviewed Barry Miles for this look at the political side of London’s counterculture, with references to The Rolling Stones’ ‘Street Fighting Man’ ...
Chet Baker: 10th Anniversary Of Chet Baker’s Death
Retrospective by James Maycock, Independent, The, May 1998
"WHAT’S YOUR favourite type of high?" inquires Bruce Weber towards the end of his film Let’s Get Lost. Chet Baker’s answer is unsettling. ...
Princes And Peasants Of Medieval Pop
Overview by Nick Coleman, Independent, The, May 1998
Musicians have long been fascinated by the Middle Ages. Perhaps it's down to the tight trousers and catamites. ...
Kenickie: These Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, May 1998
KENICKIE ARE SLUMPED in the shadow of a hundred teen idols. From the wall of their rehearsal room cafe, signed photos of former sensations, from ...
Skatalites, The: This Dance Music Is Dangerous To Your Heath: The Skatalites & The Birth Of Ska
Retrospective by James Maycock, Independent, The, July 1998
WITH THE passing of time, a tragic event sometimes reveals a comic nuance. One night in 1964, the Skatalites were performing at Club Calypso in ...
Young Turk Who Got The Blues: Ahmet Ertegun & The 50th Anniversary Of Atlantic
Profile and Interview by James Maycock, Independent, The, July 1998
IN HUNDREDS of photographs, Ahmet Ertegun appears anonymously beside the famous. The celebrity might be a gaunt Phil Spector, Mick Jagger grinning widely or a ...
David Bowie: A Rock 'n' Roll Suicide: A live art event by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard: ICA London
Report by Nick Coleman, Independent, The, July 1998
"OF ALL THE SHOWS on this tour, this particular show will remain with us the longest. Not only is it the last show of the ...
Metro & The Birth Of The British Sound System
Profile and Interview by James Maycock, Independent, The, August 1998
"AMPLIFICATION AND records – if you have those 2 items, then you can go somewhere," states the man called Metro. Born with the slightly less ...
Profile by Barney Hoskyns, Independent, The, August 1998
I’LL CONFESS I’m shocked that Michael Jackson has reached the ripe old age of 40. More shocked, indeed, than by the fact that Keith Richards ...
B.B. King: The Day B.B. King Went to Jail
Retrospective by James Maycock, Independent, The, September 1998
ON A SUBLIME autumn day in 1970, B.B. King performed for 2,117 prisoners in Cook County Jail. Against the sound of B.B. King's musicians ...
Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, September 1998
NAMED AFTER Greil Marcus's evocative description of The Band's early albums, this latest offering from Mercury Rev is, by some distance, the best pop record ...
Pop Group, The, Mark Stewart: The Pop Group: The Politics of Dancing
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, October 1998
THE POP GROUP'S life was brief and fierce. Begun in 1978, collapsing in 1980, the Bristol teenagers' insertion of black funk, free jazz, dub and ...
Interview by Colin Harper, Independent, The, October 1998
CIRCA 1984, and during one of those latterday sojourns in the course of the once Old and Grey Whistle Test's sleepy history when it found ...
Sly & Robbie: Sly ‘n’ Robbie on Drum ‘n’ Bass
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, 1999
Drum ‘n’ bass: it’s the foundation of popular music, the engine which drives rock, pop, soul, funk, jazz, reggae and anything else you care to ...
Report by Ben Thompson, Independent, The, 1999
A SHARP, PISTOL-LIKE report from an overloading monitor causes the already pained-looking sound engineer to wince into his levels meter. Godspeed You Black Emperor! have ...
Profile by Barney Hoskyns, Independent, The, February 1999
“Observe how a queen do...”('Final Hour') ...
Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band: The Mountain
Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, February 1999
THE LATE '90s have been something of a golden period for Steve Earle: this is his fourth album in as many years, and they've all ...
Johnny Clarke: Busy Doing Nothing: Johnny Clarke, the Reggae Idler
Retrospective and Interview by James Maycock, Independent, The, March 1999
THE COMPETITIVE MUSICAL CLIMATE was so intense in mid-'70s Kingston, that Jamaica's capital city was given the soubriquet "Third World Nashville". Hundreds of aspiring ...
Echo & The Bunnymen: Echo and The Bunnymen at Mayfair, Newcastle
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, April 1999
THE NEW Echo & The Bunnymen album is a brave move forward, a disavowal of the band's grand past for simple statements of ageing and ...
Elvis Costello at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, April 1999
THERE'S BEEN loose talk lately that Elvis Costello is becoming an irrelevance. The only one of his Nineties albums to gain pop acceptance was an ...
Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent, The, May 1999
WILCO MAINSTAYS Jeff Tweedy (twinkly, weatherbeaten) and Jay Bennett (burly, dreadlocked) are savouring a momentary pause between engagements. A beleagured two-man colony of battered denim ...
Tom Waits: Variations on Tom Waits
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Independent, The, May 1999
FEW OF the patrons of the China Light diner in Santa Rosa look up when Tom Waits shuffles through the door. Attired in coarse indigo ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Independent, The, June 1999
"Thirty years upon the stage/ I hear the people say, ‘Why won’t he go away?’" ...
Rolling Stones, The: The Rolling Stones and black American culture
Essay by James Maycock, Independent, The, June 1999
A bitchy look at how the Rolling Stones’ career is excessively/artfully indebted to black American culture. ...
Retrospective by James Maycock, Independent, The, July 1999
IN PARIS, A COUPLE of weeks before his death on 15th March, 1959, Lester Young spoke about his friend, Billie Holiday. "She’s still my ...
Van Dyke Parks: The Greatest Collaborator
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, July 1999
VAN DYKE PARKS knows people who know. He always has. He has the CV of Woody Allen's Zelig, is in the corner of the picture ...
Profile by Barney Hoskyns, Independent, The, August 1999
"WHY DO people always have a go at Belgium?" ...
Grateful Dead: Kesey Rides Again
Report by Gavin Martin, Independent, The, August 1999
THE MAGIC BUS pulls up at the Peace Monument late on Friday afternoon, bringing a blaze of colour and a blast of noise to the ...
Walkabouts, The: The Walkabouts: The Band That Came Back From The Edge Of The World
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, September 1999
THE WALKABOUTS MET and got the hell out of Seattle before the music industry had even heard of the place. Fifteen years on, having survived ...
Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham: Penn & Oldham: Good Ol' Boys In The Hood
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, November 1999
DAN PENN'S writing credits read like a soul jukebox. Often working with his friend Spooner Oldham, Penn was behind many of the defining songs from ...
Nina Simone: The Music and Politics of Nina Simone
Retrospective by James Maycock, Independent, The, November 1999
This was published to coincide with the release of the compilation Stand Up And Be Counted; Soul, Funk And Jazz From A Revolutionary Era, Vol.1 ...
Bill Drummond, KLF, The: Bill Drummond: 45
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, 2000
"POP MUSIC," writes Bill Drummond, "has become like a cancer that has spread through my whole body and is now affecting my brain." Having been ...
Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music: Glam’s Great Melancholic: Bryan Ferry
Profile by Barney Hoskyns, Independent, The, 2000
BY HIS OWN slightly shamefaced admission, the first thought that raced through Bryan Ferry’s mind as he came within a hair’s breadth of plunging to ...
Jimmy Smith’s Hammond Organ Revolution
Retrospective and Interview by James Maycock, Independent, The, January 2000
BEFORE JIMMY SMITH revolutionized the archaic Hammond organ, the lethargic sound this bulky, brown instrument emitted was frequently described, like an ailing patient, as "wheezing." ...
Last Night A DJ Saved My Life: Tale Of Turntable Wizards Misses Several Beats
Book Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, January 2000
Last Night A DJ Saved My Life: the history of the disc jockey by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton (Headline) ...
Santana: Jack of All Trades: Carlos Santana
Interview by Andy Gill, Independent, The, January 2000
AROUND THIS TIME every year, the American music industry holds its collective breath as the Grammy awards nominations are announced, eager to see which of ...
Will Oldham, Smog: Heading For The Ditch: Smog and Will Oldham
Report and Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent, The, February 2000
IT'S ONLY THE first week in February and already spring's sonic daffodils are poking through the boy-band mulch. Those who feared they would live their ...
Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, February 2000
ONE OF the problems of being a critically-lauded cult success with scant resources is that fans' well-meaning allowances can lead to low expectations, particularly regarding ...
Warren Zevon: Pictures From Life's Other Side
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, February 2000
'Death doesn't scare me. I have the impression that life is the lobby and death is the apartment – maybe it's OK' ...
Steely Dan: Countdown To Ecstasy
Review and Interview by Andy Gill, Independent, The, February 2000
When Steely Dan vocalist Donald Fagen released his second solo album, Kamakiriad, in 1993, fans marvelled at the inordinate length of time it had taken ...
Unlikely Fruits of Apartheid: South African Sounds in the Post-War Era
Report by Andy Farquarson, Independent, The, March 2000
THE SEGREGATION OF music played a significant role in supporting South Africa's post-war National Party policy of "separate development". This little-known facet of apartheid has ...
David Byrne: The King of Afropea: David Byrne
Interview by Andy Farquarson, Independent, The, June 2000
"Isn't this where the Profumo thing started?" someone asks. We're soaking up the seedy mock-opulence of The Eve Club on Regent Street and, for the ...
Bert Jansch: The Dazzling Bert Jansch
Report and Interview by Colin Harper, Independent, The, June 2000
"MY INTEREST IN ALBUMS usually wanes around this point," says Bert Jansch, 57 this year and, for all the outward appearance of a man who ...
Cypress Hill: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, June 2000
CYPRESS HILL'S 1993 breakthrough Black Sunday straddled every hip-hop fault line. Racially, Italian-American rapper B-Real joined Latinos DJ Muggs and Sen-Dog in a traditionally black-American ...
Book Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, July 2000
I'm a Man: Sex, Gods And Rock'n'roll by Ruth Padel (Faber & Faber, £12.99, 409pp) ...
Mark Eitzel: Dingwalls, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, August 2000
It's not all doom and gloom ...
Underworld: And Then There Were Two: Underworld
Report and Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent, The, August 2000
I SAW KARL HYDE get on a train with his baby daughter once, at Liverpool Street station. On the face of it, this was not ...
Robbie Williams: The Unlikely Lad: Robbie Williams
Profile by Barney Hoskyns, Independent, The, September 2000
THE FIRST TIME I saw Robbie Williams in the flesh was backstage at an Oasis show at Earl’s Court in 1995. At that point the ...
Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent, The, September 2000
"WHEN YOU'RE YOUNG", explains 29-year old North London electro-soul auteur Leila Arab, "you get into these strange emotional states - either of over the top ...
Jackie Leven, Andy White and Michael Weston King: Purcell Room, South Bank Centre, London
Live Review by Gavin Martin, Independent, The, September 2000
THE THREE performers sit together on stage, taking the lead in strict rotation; it isn't long before their individual strengths and weaknesses become apparent. ...
Faust: Nosferatu Soundtrack, Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, October 2000
Interludes With A Vampire ...
Robert Wyatt and Annie Whitehead: Songs In The Key Of Louth
Report and Interview by Nick Coleman, Independent, The, October 2000
The trombonist Annie Whitehead has arranged a suite of Robert Wyatt's tunes, spanning 25 years of his off-beat career. Nick Coleman talks to them in ...
U2: All That You Can't Leave Behind
Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, October 2000
HAVING SPENT the majority of the past decade searching for ways to rejuvenate the jaded stadium-rock formula — as much for their own benefit as ...
British Sea Power: Naval Gazing For Beginners: British Sea Power
Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent, The, November 2000
DESPITE ITS GRANDIOSE name, North London indie refuge The Monarch is the sort of venue which often struggles for mythological significance. Yet when British Sea ...
Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent, The, November 2000
"AND THE LIGHT it burns your skin," Low's Alan Sparhawk intones tenderly, his voice flickering like a candle by a sash window, "In a language ...
Elvis Presley: Presley/Clinton: Bill Has Left The Building
Book Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, November 2000
Double Trouble: Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley in the land of no alternatives by Greil Marcus (Faber & Faber, £9.99, 248pp) ...
Roy Harper: Errigle Inn, Belfast
Live Review by Colin Harper, Independent, The, November 2000
RELEASING HIS THIRTY-SIXTH ALBUM, and still best-known to the world at large as a bloke who once sang on a Pink Floyd record ('Have A ...
Eminem: Hip Hop’s Trailer-Trash Wunderkind
Profile by Barney Hoskyns, Independent, The, December 2000
FIRST CAME Elvis – America’s worst nightmare, the white-trash negro. Then came Mick Jagger and Marilyn Manson, Johnny Rotten and Kurt Cobain, Tupac Shakur and ...
Magnetic Fields, The: The Magnetic Fields: Lyric Theatre, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, January 2001
Pop avalanche from a New York bar ...
Kevin Coyne: Exile on Hauptstrasse
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, January 2001
IN 1985, KEVIN COYNE walked out of his Clapham flat, saying goodbye to his wife and two children, on his way to a short tour ...
Marilyn Manson: NEC, Birmingham
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, January 2001
THE FEARFUL naivety of the American mainstream that hates him has made Marilyn Manson the multi-million selling man he is today. ...
Eminem: Love, Hate And The Only Important Pop Star Left
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, February 2001
Eminem: Evening News Arena, Manchester ...
Purple Prose From The Many Voices Of The Blues
Book Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, February 2001
David Dalton: Been Here And Gone: A Memoir Of The Blues (Methuen, 386pp; £10.99) ...
Elvis Presley: The Once And Future King
Film/DVD Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, March 2001
WE ALL KNOW the way it was in the Seventies, Elvis Presley's last eight years on earth. He spent them as a bloated, drug-glazed fraud, ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, April 2001
KEVIN COYNE has been balancing on the border of sanity for more than 30 years now. Adolescent jobs as a psychiatric nurse, arts therapist and ...
Music: The Key To Getting Rich, High And Laid
Book Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, April 2001
Black Vinyl White Powder by Simon Napier-Bell (Ebury Press, £16.99) ...
Sparklehorse: Borderline, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, April 2001
FIVE YEARS ago, just before the release of his band Sparklehorse's first album, Mark Linkous collapsed in his hotel room from an excess of Valium ...
Essay by Ben Thompson, Independent, The, May 2001
IN HENRY JAMES' 1873 short story ‘The Madonna of the Future’, the American protagonist visits the city of Florence, where he encounters a strange and ...
Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent, The, May 2001
A DISEMBODIED VOICE with a slight hint of helium in it intoning the words "I taught myself to survive a four storey fall wearing a ...
Elbow: Asleep in the Back (V2)
Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, May 2001
WHAT'S IN a name? The Bury-based indie combo Elbow found out a year or two ago when, after Universal's swallowing of their label, Island, they ...
Turin Brakes and the New Acoustica
Essay by Ben Thompson, Independent, The, June 2001
IN 1971, LESTER BANGS wrote an article for the American magazine Who Put The Bomp (reprinted in the Serpent's Tail anthology Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor ...
Tales From The Funky Side Of Town: “Soul” and “Funk”, Then and Now
Essay by James Maycock, Independent, The, June 2001
"YOU'D BE SURPRISED how time can change the meaning of a word," rasped black comedian, Redd Foxx, during a performance at Harlem's Apollo Theatre in ...
Björk: Björk: The Last Great Pop Star
Interview by Nick Coleman, Independent, The, August 2001
She thumps reporters, wears funny clothes and thinks she was born in the wrong century. Now she's made an album about her kitchen. Nick Coleman ...
Pulp: Jarvis Cocker: Sorted For Trees and Weeds
Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent, The, October 2001
AMID THE RUMPLED grandeur of West London's Cobden Club, the familiar angular figure of Jarvis Cocker stands out like a sore index finger. His ...
Phil Ochs: Bringing It All Back Home
Comment by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, November 2001
"WHILE THE Movement died a natural death, the music died by hanging," Esquire's headline said when the protest singer Phil Ochs committed suicide in 1976. ...
Paul McCartney: Normally, He's A Pacifist
Interview by Gavin Martin, Independent, The, November 2001
SIR PAUL had been up in the city to promote his Driving Rain album and 'Freedom' single, a song which has prompted some to suggest ...
Jonathan King: Is Jonathan King A Monster, Or Is He Being Monstered?
Comment by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, November 2001
PUBLIC MONSTER NUMBER ONE: the space in the media landscape currently occupied by Jonathan King effectively renders him the missing link between Osama bin Laden ...
Mick Farren: Devout Deviant Takes A Trip Down Memory Lane
Book Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, December 2001
Mick Farren: Give the Anarchist a Cigarette ...
Jim O'Rourke: Catching Jim O'Rourke's Drift
Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent, The, January 2002
THE CARDIGAN-clad figure of Jim O' Rourke looks up from his Holiday Inn coffee. "I'm a nightmare," he warns, pointing with a smile to a ...
Kelly Joe Phelps: Blackheath Halls, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, January 2002
THIS PLUSH municipal concert hall in the well-heeled south London neighbourhood of Blackheath may seem a strange destination for the blues. But it's not as ...
Streets, The: UK Rap: The word on The Streets
Interview by Gavin Martin, Independent, The, March 2002
WHEN MIKE SKINNER, aka The Streets, the 22-year-old lyrical king of British rap, discovers I live within the sound of Bow Bells, he's immediately curious. ...
Obituary by Chris Welch, Independent, The, March 2002
Roy Hollingworth, journalist, singer, guitarist and composer: born Derby 12 April 1949; married 1999 Anthea Yeomans; died Kingston upon Thames, Surrey 9 March 2002. ...
Rock Bottom: The Music Industry In Trouble
Comment by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, April 2002
WHEN ROLLING STONES manager Andrew Loog Oldham founded his own company, Immediate Records, in the 1960s, the paper sleeve of each and every single bore ...
Mary J. Blige: Mary J Blige: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Gavin Martin, Independent, The, April 2002
IT WAS FOOLISH to think that the first lady of hip hop soul would abide by the title of her latest, and greatest-selling, album, No ...
David Bowie: Ziggy Played Guitar (But Never Took His Eyes Off The Business)
Profile by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, June 2002
"TIME," AS DAVID BOWIE once sang. "is waiting in the wings." As far as Bowie himself, who turned 55 last January, is concerned, time seems ...
David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust, now a man of wealth and taste
Essay by Barney Hoskyns, Independent, The, June 2002
IT IS NO COINCIDENCE that June 2002 is turning out to be David Bowie month. This time 30 years ago, trading under the plastic-fantastic moniker ...
B.B. King: A Monarch on Merseyside: BB King
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Independent, The, July 2002
"MY BAND tells me I’ve earned the right to siddown if I wanna," says the vast man with the twinkly eyes. "I wanna." ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, August 2002
IT'S A SWELTERING Sunday night in London's West End, and inside this venue, a West Indian community meeting is in progress. ...
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, August 2002
IN 1971, WHEN he was 18, Tom Ovans dropped into an underground America, and never came back. Born into a working-class community just outside of ...
Jeff Beck: Who wants to be a guitar hero?
Profile and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, September 2002
WHEN FRANK ZAPPA'S son Dweezil showed up in London recently toting – or touting – the Fender Stratocaster torched by Jimi Hendrix at the 1968 ...
Solomon Burke: Barbican, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, October 2002
IT'S BEEN 28 YEARS since the self-styled king of rock'n'soul last graced a British stage, at which rate this could be a farewell performance, too. ...
Country Joe & The Fish: Country Joe McDonald: No Ordinary Joe
Interview by Robert Sandall, Independent, The, December 2002
THERE'S LITTLE ABOUT the small, stocky frame of the 60-year-old Country Joe McDonald that would lead one to pinpoint him as a firebrand political activist ...
Solomon Burke: Solomon In All His Glory
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, December 2002
The greatest male soul singers are Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye and Solomon Burke. But, unlike the others, Burke is very much alive, as ...
Adam Faith: The Singer and Showman
Obituary by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, March 2003
LIKE MOST OF his 1950s contemporaries, Terry Nelhams from Acton, West London, received his first taste of the joys of music-making as a member of ...
Richard Thompson: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, March 2003
WHITE, MIDDLE-AGED English men dominate a crowd who have packed this venue to bursting for a man barely known outside their tribe. ...
MC5 members and friends: 100 Club, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, March 2003
FORGED IN DETROIT in 1965, the MC5 played rock'n'roll in an America where motorbike police charged their fans, and ferment and trouble trailed the band ...
Vic Chesnutt: Dark Side of The Tune
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, April 2003
IN 1983, VIC CHESNUTT, an obscure country misfit, was 18, drunk again, and crashing his car in America's southern state of Georgia. When he woke ...
White Stripes, The: The White Stripes: Civic Hall, Wolverhampton
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, April 2003
THE WHITE STRIPES find out the day before this first show of their tour that Elephant, the startling beast of a record that they made ...
White Stripes, The: The White Stripes: The Special Relationship
Profile by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, April 2003
THE PERFECT BLUEPRINT for a band devised by Jack and Meg White in Detroit obscurity six years ago has put them at rock's pinnacle today. ...
Solomon Burke, Van Morrison: Van Morrison/Solomon Burke: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Gavin Martin, Independent, The, April 2003
THE POTENTIAL that the double bill offered for a soulman super summit was certainly enticing – Solomon Burke, the veteran preacherman from Philadelphia, and George ...
Beck: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, May 2003
BECK HAS thrown Bob Dylan's career into reverse. He has arrived at a venue famous for being scandalised by Bob going electric to unplug his ...
Beck: Royal Albert Hall, London, ***
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, May 2003
BECK HAS THROWN Bob Dylan's career into reverse. He has arrived at a venue famous for being scandalised by Bob going electric to unplug his ...
Lucinda Williams: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Gavin Martin, Independent, The, May 2003
Southern Rebel returns to London Stage with the confidence her songs deserve ...
Blur: This Is A High For A Refreshed Blur
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, May 2003
Blur: The Astoria, London ...
Macy Gray: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, May 2003
MACY GRAY'S RECORDS rarely seem to match up to her image: the flaky, funky, erratic, but traditional soul sister. This was the kind of entertainer ...
Steely Dan: A Droll Double Act
Interview by Gavin Martin, Independent, The, June 2003
IT IS LATE AFTERNOON before Walter Becker and Don Fagen greet their first interviewer of the day. The two men, who first fronted a band ...
Comment by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, June 2003
IN 2000, RADIOHEAD'S Kid A was delivered to journalists like Holy Writ, handed out individually to the chosen few in a candle-lit chamber. It's 2003, ...
Radiohead: Hail To The Thief (Parlophone)
Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, June 2003
THOSE RADIOHEAD fans hankering after the band's more mainstream indie-rock style will be heartened by the first sound they hear on Hail To The Thief, ...
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The: Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Forum, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, June 2003
THE HEADY MIX of hype and talent bubbling around the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, from New York, on this one-off return to London should have made ...
Kelly Joe Phelps at the Jazz Café, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, June 2003
KELLY JOE PHELPS has been punching through the boundaries of who he is supposed to be with every album. I first knew him as the ...
Willard Grant Conspiracy: Come Together
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, June 2003
The Willard Grant Conspiracy has gone underground. The only way you can hear the new album by one of America's best bands in their home ...
Profile by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, June 2003
In the hood: Eminem is pulling out all the stops for his European tour ...
Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, June 2003
HIS FIRST ALBUM in six years finds Steve Winwood striking out in the direction of Latin America, using a core unit of jazz guitarist Jose ...
Queens Of The Stone Age: Queens of the Stone Age: Civic Hall, Wolverhampton
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, June 2003
I CAN HEAR THE screech of two low jets from the bar. Nick Oliveri and Josh Homme, of Queens of the Stone Age, learnt to ...
Live Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, June 2003
HE'S THE LEADING pop icon of his generation, the undisputed Elvis of his era, and for many of the 65,000 fans who attend his concert, ...
R.E.M. at Brixton Academy, London
Report by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, June 2003
SEEING A BAND OF REM's stature at a medium-sized venue such as Brixton Academy is undeniably some sort of occasion. The suspicion nags, though, that ...
Essay by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, July 2003
IT USED to be said of performers like country legend Jimmie Rodgers and Delta bluesman Skip James that they had "that high lonesome sound". No ...
Dizzee Rascal: Bringing It All Back Home
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, August 2003
THE FIRST TIME you hear Boy in da Corner, it's a jolt. The debut album of 18-year-old Dizzee Rascal has just been nominated for the ...
Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, August 2003
NEIL YOUNG is probably the most overindulged talent in rock: overindulged by his record company, who let him put out whatever old rubbish he has ...
Rolling Stones, The: The Rolling Stones: Ol' Rubber Lips Isn't Telling...
Book Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, August 2003
According to The Rolling Stones (Weidenfeld and Nicholson)The Rolling Stones' history is wild and controversial, full of sex, drugs, bust-ups, scandal and death. Disappointing, then, ...
Stooges, The, Iggy Pop: The Stooges Deliver A Real Cool Time
Live Review by Edward Helmore, Independent, The, August 2003
The Stooges, Jones Beach Theatre, New York ...
Jimmy Cliff: Hail Reggae's Lost King
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, September 2003
MANY PEOPLE THINK Bob Marley stole his crown. But it was Jimmy Cliff who gave reggae to the world, when he starred in and wrote ...
Robert Wyatt: Cuckoo In The Nest
Interview by Andy Gill, Independent, The, September 2003
Idiosyncratic and eccentric, Robert Wyatt's unique musical style is consistently lauded by both critics and musicians. Andy Gill talks to him ahead of the release ...
Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, September 2003
Warren Zevon's final, valedictory album provides ultimate proof that those of us who believed him to be one of the greatest songwriters of his generation ...
David Bowie: Reality (ISO/Columbia)
Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, September 2003
LIKE BOB DYLAN, David Bowie seems to have been re-invigorated by a lengthy period with a stable band: Reality appears with almost indecent haste a ...
Dixie Chicks, The: Dixie Chicks: Apollo, Manchester
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, September 2003
DISSENT STILL finds its focus in pop, more than any other art form. But there can have been few less likely standard-bearers for this radical ...
Blondie: Debbie Harry: In A Lonely Place
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, September 2003
IN THEIR POMP, Blondie were a one-band production line of beautiful, brash singles, each subtly hand-finished to find another angle on their signature, streamlined sound. ...
Lester Bangs: Joy And Rage Of A Dishevelled Rock Critic
Book Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, September 2003
Mainlines, Blood Feasts And Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader Lester Bangs; ed. John Morthland (Serpent's Tail; £9.99) ...
Starsailor: Apollo, Manchester
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, September 2003
THE MUSIC PRESS has bitterly dismissed Starsailor's second album, Silence Is Easy. Once the band were seen as saviours, but it's now as if they ...
David Sylvian: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, September 2003
JAPAN DISSOLVED with barely a murmur, just as 'Ghosts' brought the band overdue success in 1982. The strain of their avant-garde glam-pop suddenly being in ...
Dexy's Midnight Runners, Kevin Rowland: Kevin Rowland: Return of the Soul Rebel
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, October 2003
IN A REHEARSAL room in south London, Kevin Rowland steps from behind a pillar and stalks to the front of Dexys Midnight Runners. He is ...
Darkness, The: The Darkness: The Astoria, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, November 2003
I HAD WATCHED THE DARKNESS phenomenon from a distance, in dismay. Despite the sheer unexpectedness of their vault from clubs to stadiums, every glance at ...
David Bowie: MEN Arena, Manchester
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, November 2003
DAVID BOWIE spent much of the '90s in a state of shivering insecurity. The creative brinkmanship that let him shed identities and styles with matchless ...
Frank Zappa: The Mother Of All Reinventions
Comment by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, November 2003
IF CIGARETTES AND COFFEE are available in the afterlife, the shade of Frank Zappa is probably allowing himself a wry smile from beneath his formidable ...
Ryan Adams at the Forum, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, November 2003
"I'M GONNA PLAY all night," Ryan Adams promises the crowd. "You think I'm joking? I've got a 5am plane, man..." ...
Strokes, The: The Strokes: Braehall Arena, Glasgow
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, December 2003
ALL THE DISAPPOINTED assaults on the Strokes have been based on the thought that they should be about more than music. The tired shrug of ...
Echo & The Bunnymen: Royal Court, Liverpool
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, December 2003
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS on, and every Liverpudlian hipster of a certain age is here to pay their respects. With their debut album, Crocodiles, Echo & The ...
Michael Jackson: Thrills Before The Spills
Comment by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, December 2003
IT'S THAT PHOTO, the official police mugshot taken when Michael Jackson finally turned himself in to answer charges of child molestation, which looks so scary. ...
Richie Havens: Jazz Café, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, January 2004
RICHIE HAVENS'S LIFE hinged on Woodstock. His three-hour opening set at the festival, climaxing with 'Freedom', his anthemic improvisation on the spiritual 'Motherless Child', linked ...
Rickie Lee Jones: The Devil in Miss Jones
Profile and Interview by Andy Gill, Independent, The, January 2004
Rickie Lee Jones has always had her demons - and now she's living in the America of George Bush and Jeffrey Dahmer. ...
Norah Jones: And Now For My Next Trick: Norah Jones and the Difficult Second Album Syndrome
Comment by Andy Gill, Independent, The, February 2004
BY THIS TIME next week, Norah Jones will probably be nestling atop the album charts with Feels like Home, the follow-up to her multi-platinum, Grammy-grabbing ...
Lambchop: Kurt Wagner: The quiet American
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, February 2004
LAMBCHOP are America's leading underground band, secret kings of a scene too modest to be named. They have turned their backs on the bombastic MTV ...
Randy Newman: Overdue Renaissance Of A Whimsical Prophet
Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Independent, The, February 2004
Randy Newman: Barbican, London ...
Jamelia: Some Kind Of Superstar
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, February 2004
WHEN JAMELIA disappeared four years ago, it seemed her coronation as Britain's R&B queen might be postponed for ever. Four hit singles, including the Top ...
Bob Dylan's Blood On The Tracks: A Critic's Obsession
Essay by Andy Gill, Independent, The, March 2004
TODAY, IN MINNEAPOLIS, a group of musicians will assemble at the Pantages Theater to perform Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks in its entirety. ...
Kraftwerk: Triumph Of The Machines
Comment by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, March 2004
KRAFTWERK'S MOST recent record, the long-waited Tour de France Soundtracks – their first album of new material since 1986's Electric Café, and a variation on ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, March 2004
THE SECOND ACT OF Patti Smith's great career has been catalysed by death. The loss of her mother inspired the forthcoming Trampin', her fourth album ...
Will Oldham: Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Prince of Perversity
Profile and Interview by Andy Gill, Independent, The, March 2004
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, the artist formerly known as Will Oldham, is perhaps the most uniquely gifted songwriter of his generation. And, as Andy Gill discovers, ...
Charlatans, The (UK): The Charlatans: Academy, Islington, London ***
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, May 2004
FEW BRITISH BANDS can tear the roof off a venue as ruthlessly as The Charlatans. It's one of the reasons for the enduring affection in ...
Streets, The: The Streets: Apollo, Manchester
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, May 2004
THE DEBUT ALBUM by Mike Skinner, a.k.a. The Streets, (Original Pirate Material) was a touching, thoughtful ode to all the aspects of modern Britain its ...
American Music Club: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London ***
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, May 2004
AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB was always a select establishment. Appealing to connoisseurs of the darkest underground rock, the San Francisco group's principal attraction was always Mark ...
Pixies, The: The Pixies: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, June 2004
EXACTLY HOW much this, the first UK night of the Pixies' reunion tour, means to the crowd is shown when they walk on stage to ...
Hives, The: The Hives: The Return Of Your Old Favourites
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, June 2004
The Hives: Electric Ballroom London ...
Taj Mahal: A Living Edifice To The Blues
Live Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, June 2004
Taj Mahal/Tinariwen, Barbican, London **** ...
Ray Charles: 'As Frank Sinatra Said, He Was The Only True Genius In Our Business'
Obituary by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, June 2004
FOR ALL PRACTICAL purposes, Ray Charles invented modern soul music. By fusing the sensual and secular preoccupations of the blues and the galvanic fervour of ...
Red Hot Chili Peppers, The: Red Hot Chili Peppers: American Spice
Profile and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Independent, The, June 2004
Anthony Kiedis's house, an expanse of glass and whiteness, is right on top of the Hollywood Hills. Walk down the steps into the vast, white, ...
Van Der Graaf Generator, Peter Hammill: Peter Hammill: Heart Attack Music
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, June 2004
When Peter Hammill collapsed in the street with a sudden heart attack last year, it didn't make the papers. The one-time singer of the group ...
Phil Manzanera: Dance Away The Heartache
Interview by Andy Gill, Independent, The, July 2004
SEVERAL FLOORS UP a converted warehouse block in a tiny mews in north-west London, Phil Manzanera lounges in the pristine calm of his home studio. ...
Long Ryders, The: The Long Ryders: Lock 17, London
Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Independent, The, July 2004
THE LONG RYDERS enter to a tape of the theme tune from The Magnificent Seven, and begin their set with a cover of the Byrds' ...
Massive Attack: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, July 2004
MASSIVE ATTACK have been shaken almost to pieces in recent times. First, one of their central trio – Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles – left for good, ...
Simon & Garfunkel: Simon and Garfunkel: MEN Arena, Manchester
Live Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, July 2004
AS YOU'D EXPECT, the greying audience for Simon and Garfunkel's first UK show in 30 years is similar to that which regularly turns out for ...
Crosby Stills and Nash: Crosby, Stills & Nash, Fleet Pavilion, Boston, USA
Live Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, July 2004
THE FLEET PAVILION is a sleek, tented outdoor auditorium overlooking Boston harbour. Like the Millennium Dome, but useful. And actually functioning as a venue. And ...
Todd Rundgren, Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, July 2004
SINCE his mid-Seventies heyday, Todd Rundgren has always been preaching to the converted, so his religious-themed show is at least appropriate, though unlikely to extend ...
Finn Brothers: The Finn Brothers: Fellowship of the Finns
Interview by Gavin Martin, Independent, The, August 2004
THE FINN BROTHERS are back for a short visit to London, the city where their fitful professional career began in earnest, 27 years ago. At ...
Futureheads, The: The Futureheads: The Garage, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, August 2004
IN THE SHADOWY darkness of London's indie mecca The Garage, four young men from the North in tightly rolled shirt-sleeves are playing clipped guitar music ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, September 2004
JAH WOBBLE THUDDED into the public consciousness in a flurry of violence. He reportedly pulled a knife on NME's Nick Kent while Sid Vicious chain-whipped ...
R.E.M.: St James's Church, Piccadilly, London
Live Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, September 2004
R.E.M. ARE NO strangers to the "secret" show, having pioneered them back in the ‘80s, when they would appear at places such as the tiny ...
Duran Duran: The Old Romantics
Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, Independent, The, September 2004
IN A POP WORLD full of ageing Peter Pans with expensive habits to service, ex-wives to maintain and children to educate, attempted comebacks are common, ...
Ray Davies at Bloomsbury Theatre, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, October 2004
"It's been a very difficult year for everybody," Ray Davies admits, the nearest he gets to acknowledging his being shot in the leg by muggers ...
Willy Mason: A Breath Of Fresh Air
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, November 2004
IF YOU'RE FEELING bad about America after last week's election, Willy Mason is one reason to change your mind. The 19-year-old New Englander has already ...
Dr. John: Dr John: Barbican, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, January 2005
DR JOHN'S LONG journey to this concert hall has been faltering and nearly fatal. Born Mac Rebennack in New Orleans, he is as steeped in ...
Dorris Henderson: US Folk Singer Who Settled In London
Obituary by Colin Irwin, Independent, The, March 2005
DORRIS HENDERSON cut an unforgettable figure on the emergent British folk-music scene of the mid-1960s. ...
Willie Nelson: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Independent, The, April 2005
AT THIS LATE stage, attending a Willie Nelson concert is more a gesture of pilgrimage than anything else. Nelson, now 71, with a ponytail that ...
Van Der Graaf Generator: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, May 2005
WHEN THE FOUR core members of this almost-forgotten prog-rock band start a gig for the first time in 29 years, a joyous roar bounces round ...
Dizzee Rascal: Electric Ballroom, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, May 2005
DIZZEE RASCAL saunters on stage sporting the infectious grin of a boy who feels that every day is Christmas. Though he starts with 'Sittin' Here', ...
Destiny's Child: Earl's Court, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, June 2005
FOR THE "INDEPENDENT WOMEN" of one of their biggest hits, Destiny's Child have a tendency to do what they are told. The middleclass work ethic ...
Franz Ferdinand: Access All Areas
Report by Gavin Martin, Independent, The, June 2005
DURING THE RECORDING sessions for Franz Ferdinand's new album, the band have not just been making music. Between work on the eagerly anticipated follow-up to ...
White Stripes, The: The White Stripes: The New Generation
Comment by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, June 2005
JACK WHITE WILL never have the blues badly enough. Though The White Stripes' new album, Get Behind Me Satan, suggests the legendary bluesman Robert Johnson's ...
Richard Hell: Punk's Founding Father, Richard Hell
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, August 2005
RICHARD HELL was punk's John the Baptist. In one year, 1974, he found the movement its home (CBGB's), created its style (ripped and spiked), indicated ...
Stooges, The, Iggy Pop: Iggy Pop And The Stooges: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, September 2005
SEEING THE STOOGES' name on the one-time Hammersmith Odeon's marquee, 30 years after they split, feels like an eerie warp in time. When the band ...
Interview by Edward Helmore, Independent, The, September 2005
"WELCOME TO Fortress Blair," says Neil Young, offering his hand. ...
Kate Bush: Finally, Something For The Grown-Ups
Essay by Andy Gill, Independent, The, October 2005
EARLY NEXT MONTH, Kate Bush releases Aerial, her first new album since The Red Shoes back in November 1993. Even by the relaxed schedules adopted ...
Donald Fagen: Former Steely Dan Member On His New Album
Interview by Andy Gill, Independent, The, March 2006
IN THE BRUTAL world of American football, teams often employ what they call a "hurry-up offense", a series of plays they can run quickly when ...
Good The Bad and The Queen, The, Gorillaz: Gorillaz
Interview by Andrew Purcell, Independent, The, April 2006
THERE ARE GHOSTS at the Apollo. Bobby Byrd holds his master's cape, the amateur night regulars bawl, shimmy and shake, and Fats Gonder asks "are ...
Red Hot Chili Peppers, The: The Hottest Band in the World: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Profile by Andy Gill, Independent, The, May 2006
IN RECENT YEARS, mountain-man lookalike record producer Rick Rubin has been justly fêted for his career-revival work with Johnny Cash, which effectively recontextualised the Man ...
Interview by David Sinclair, Independent, The, July 2006
WHEN BLONDIE were admitted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, earlier this year, it seemed about time. After thirty million ...
Bat For Lashes: The Spitz, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, September 2006
NATASHA KHAN discovered her own musical world when a black horse appeared to her in a dream two years ago and led her away into ...
Scissor Sisters: The Scissor Sisters: Trafalgar Square, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, September 2006
THE FACT THAT New York's Scissor Sisters can fill Trafalgar Square and still, relatively speaking, not get arrested back home should be a matter of ...
Retrospective by Nick Coleman, Independent, The, September 2006
Thirty years after drugs killed Free's guitarist, the band are back in vogue. They just won't talk to each other. ...
Make my day: the best (and worst) lines in the history of film
Essay by Paul Wellings, Independent, The, October 2006
As in life, first impressions count in cinema. In Citizen Kane (1941), the opening word, Charles Foster Kane's dying utterance "Rosebud", holds the key (perhaps) ...
Obituary by James Maycock, Independent, The, December 2006
JAMES BROWN was one of the most extraordinary Afro-Americans of the 2nd half of the 20th century. A raw, emotional singer, electric performer and tough ...
Profile and Interview by Andrew Purcell, Independent, The, January 2007
TWO YEARS AGO, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah proved that popular music's rules have changed. The old logic of rise and fall still applies though, ...
Rufus Wainwright: A Year Of Living Judy Garland
Interview by Andrew Purcell, Independent, The, February 2007
THERE IS AN anecdote that Rufus Wainwright enjoys telling about his childhood fascination with Judy Garland. "I wanted to be Dorothy – on good days," ...
Special AKA, The, Specials, The: Jerry Dammers: A Ghost From The Past
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, April 2007
THE MAN WHO created 2-Tone, Coventry's own Motown, and wrote Britain's most perfect fusing of politics and pop, the single 'Ghost Town' by his great ...
Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, January 2008
THE ITUNES/MYSPACE revolution has speeded up the pop process to such an extent that a new act barely has time to draw breath before being ...
Fleet Foxes: On The Hunt For Meaning With Seattle Band Fleet Foxes
Interview by James McNair, Independent, The, June 2008
Nostalgic hippie ruralism and an aura of wilful mystery surround Fleet Foxes. James McNair tries to work out what makes them tick ...
Femi Kuti: Born Into The Struggle
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, October 2008
Femi Kuti has both Nigeria's music and its deadly political conflicts in his blood, he explains to Nick Hasted ...
Poly Styrene, X-Ray Spex: The Return of Punk's First Lady: Poly Styrene
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, November 2008
Thirty years after singing of bondage and toothpaste, via a stay at a psychiatric hospital and motherhood, Poly Styrene is back on stage, without X-Ray ...
Bon Iver: Victoria Apollo, London
Live Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, December 2008
"THIS IS AN extremely big deal for us," says Justin Vernon, standing beneath a giant pterodactyl. Vernon is the songwriter, lead singer and creative mainspring ...
View, The: Grown-Up and Mystical: The View
Report and Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, January 2009
THE HOUSE-TO-HOUSE search of his old haunts in Dundee has been completed, and here comes The View's singer Kyle Falconer. ...
Sigur Ros: Sigur Rós: Why We're Mesmerised By The Hypnotic Icelandic Band
Interview by Andy Gill, Independent, The, January 2009
EACH WEEK, along with the basic album and singles sales charts, there are myriad other charts published that track the diverse fortunes of the music ...
Magazine: 'These gigs are a cherry on a cake'
Report and Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, February 2009
THE ONE-TIME "most important man in pop" made a quietly triumphant comeback last week. Howard Devoto's Magazine, missing since 1981, were the most uncategorisable band ...
Baaba Maal: 'Say What You Believe is True'
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, February 2009
BAABA MAAL IS BACK in Britain next week. If he isn't yet as familiar a name here as his fellow Senegalese Youssou N'Dour, this is ...
PJ Harvey: Inside the Hidden Heart of PJ Harvey (and John Parish)
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, March 2009
POLLY JEAN HARVEY and John Parish are sitting across from each other in a quiet hotel with the comfort of 20 years' acquaintance. Harvey, of ...
Fall, The: The Fall: Koko, London ***
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, April 2009
MARK E. SMITH is hunched at the back of the stage in black leather jacket and wheelchair, looking like Salford's Davros. ...
Jackson Browne: Royal Albert Hall, London **
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, April 2009
THE GREY beard of experience Jackson Browne wore on the sleeve of his last album, Time the Conqueror, is gone. He looks the same lean, ...
Super Furry Animals: Still Light Years Ahead: Super Furry Animals
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, May 2009
"WYCHWOOD IS OUR first festival this year," Super Furry Animals' singer Gruff Rhys informs me. "We're committing to only playing outside from now on. Especially ...
Horrors, The: The Horrors: How To Survive On The Outside
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, June 2009
Author's note: This is the full, unedited version of the piece that appeared in The Independent ...
The Concretes, Cardigans, The, Fever Ray: Sweden: State-sponsored Rock Valhalla
Overview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, July 2009
IN POP MUSIC at least, Britain still imagines it rules the world. The Beatles, Kinks, Bowie and Blur are looked on as an unassailable heritage ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, July 2009
AT LONDON'S Wireless Festival last year, Morrissey was a hilarious showman in easy command of his powers, playing rollicking unreleased songs and Smiths favourites. That ...
Raconteurs, The, Brendan Benson: Brendan Benson: Your Old, Unfamiliar Friend – Or So He Wishes
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, August 2009
Since the success of his acclaimed band The Raconteurs, Brendan Benson has earned plenty of public recognition – but he'd rather have his anonymity back, ...
Grizzly Bear, Boards Of Canada, Aphex Twin: 20 years of the Warp factor
Retrospective by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, August 2009
Sheffield's Warp Records celebrates its 20th anniversary in September. Nick Hasted looks back on the cutting-edge electronica/indie label that has produced acts as diverse as ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, August 2009
Radiohead's modern jazz wrong-foots the crowd ...
Oasis: Don't Look Back In Anger
Comment by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, September 2009
Noel Gallagher's decision to quit Oasis is years overdue, says Nick Hasted. The band were no longer relevant. And yet there is much to celebrate ...
Radiohead: So Long to Jonny Guitar: Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood
Interview by Andy Gill, Independent, The, October 2009
THOM YORKE may be the driving force and most recognisable face of Radiohead, but for many fans it's the guitarist Jonny Greenwood, the thin, twitchy ...
Grizzly Bear: Out of the Woods, Into the Light
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, November 2009
ED DROSTE is settling into the bar of his east London hotel with his Grizzly Bear bandmate Daniel Rossen, to attempt to explain their sky-rocket ...
Arctic Monkeys: Wembley Arena, London ***
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, November 2009
Northern soul with a heavy heart ...
Public Image Ltd, O2 Academy, Birmingham****
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, December 2009
Difficult, honest and angry, Lydon pushes at the limits ...
Midlake: In Tune with the Times of Others
Interview by Andy Gill, Independent, The, February 2010
IN THE RUSSIAN visionary film-maker Andrei Tarkovsky's long, prismatic biopic of the great 15th-century icon painter Andrei Rublev, the monk Rublev strives to sustain the ...
Runaways, The, Kim Fowley: Sex sells: The Girl Band That Changed Pop Forever
Retrospective by Chris Salewicz, Independent, The, March 2010
IN EARLY OCTOBER 1976, the Runaways, an all-girl five-piece from Los Angeles, played a sell-out show at London's Roundhouse, their debut date in the UK. ...
Broken Social Scene: An Ever-Changing Canadian Collective of Rock'n'Roll Royalty
Retrospective and Interview by Edward Helmore, Independent, The, May 2010
IT'S CLOSE TO MIDNIGHT and Kevin Drew, co-founder of Broken Social Scene, is sleeping on the floor of a New York recording studio, headphones clamped ...
MGMT: Inheritors of the Head-expanding Hippie Ethos
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, June 2010
FEW OF THE BANDS playing Glastonbury's 40th anniversary this weekend fit the consciousness-expanding ethic of the festival at its best as well as MGMT. They ...
Mystery Jets: From Songs of Innocence to Grown-up Experience
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, July 2010
THE MYTH OF MYSTERY JETS is easily told. Out on Eel Pie Island, off the coast of Twickenham in west London, bands from the Rolling ...
Guns N' Roses: Reading Festival, Berkshire
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, August 2010
Axl flounders as Reading made to wait for its rock fix ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, October 2010
Still tripping on the ghosts of the past ...
John Grant: Success At Last For A Rock'n'roll Survivor
Interview by Andy Gill, Independent, The, January 2011
Dangerous sex, addiction and self-loathing – John Grant's turbulent life inspired one of the best albums of last year. Andy Gill meets him ...
Band of Horses: Tales of Terror from the Blasted Backwoods
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, February 2011
IT WAS THE first day by the lake when Band of Horses' singer Ben Bridwell saw the curtain twitch. He was staying at the isolated, ...
Adrian Sherwood: The Man Who Built Jamaica In The Midlands
Interview by Nick Coleman, Independent, The, February 2011
The founder of On-U Sound tells Nick Coleman that there is more to reggae than 'ooom-chicky...' ...
Elbow: Build a Rocket Boys! (Fiction) ****
Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, March 2011
IN THE THREE years since The Seldom Seen Kid hoisted the band into the first rank of arena-rock dependables, Elbow have had plenty of time ...
Eminem: Slim Shady's Rap-Sheet Of Relapse And Recovery
Profile by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, April 2011
Eminem soared from drug-filled poverty to adulation and notoriety, and then collapsed into gilded, narcotic, seclusion. But, after his latest comeback, his biographer Nick Hasted ...
Fleet Foxes: Helplessness Blues (Bella Union) *****
Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, April 2011
WITH HELPLESSNESS Blues, Fleet Foxes triumphantly deliver on the promise of their popular debut, the album that helped establish folk-rock once again as a formidable ...
Beyoncé, 4 (Columbia) ** (out of 5)
Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, June 2011
THERE COMES a certain point in mass pop culture when it ceases being primarily about the music and simply becomes a matter of numbers, whether ...
Charlotte Gainsbourg: Eternal Ingénue: Charlotte Gainsbourg on Her Latest Stylish Role
Interview by Bethan Cole, Independent, The, July 2011
The daughter of Anglo-French musical royalty, Charlotte Gainsbourg was destined to be a performer — and now she's in the hottest arthouse film of the ...
Pete Doherty: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, October 2011
THIS LONDON gig was rescheduled after Pete Doherty's latest drug-related jail spell. He's on his best behaviour, looking puffy or perhaps just well-fed, starting on ...
Björk: Bjork: Biophilia (One Little Indian) **
Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, October 2011
BJÖRK IS undoubtedly one of the more questing spirits working in music today; but with Biophilia, that quest seems to have led her too far ...
Tinie Tempah, O2 Arena, London ***
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, November 2011
I HEARD PEOPLE close to Tinie Tempah talk passionately about how his appeal and personal qualities were part of a Britain that went beyond race, ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, December 2011
THE KRAFTWERK allusions, the Brian Eno productions, the "experimental" new directions: the propaganda which comes with each new Coldplay album would make you think they ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, July 2012
Snow Patrol, Simon Le Bon and Ricky Gervais's beard strike a chord ...
Martha Wainwright: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, December 2012
AMONG THE prodigal polymath musicians of the Wainwright-McGarrigle clan, Martha seems destined to come second to her brother Rufus. Among the prodigal polymath musicians of ...
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