Times, The
Who, The: The Who: Live At Leeds
Review by Richard Williams, Times, The, May 1970
THE IMPORTANCE of The Who lies not only in their excellence, but in the crucial attitude of their leader, Pete Townshend. ...
Review by Richard Williams, Times, The, June 1970
THAT DELANEY AND BONNIE have been instrumental in reshaping a considerable part of the ethos of modem pop music is indisputable. Eric Clapton, the charismatic ...
King Crimson: Reincarnation of King Crimson
Report by Richard Williams, Times, The, December 1970
IN THE PAST, pop music has taken it for granted that its groups would stay together; when a musician has left a band, or the ...
Review by Richard Williams, Times, The, December 1970
BESIDES BEING ONE of the seminal rock and roll bands, the Byrds also possess perhaps the music's oldest case-history. Of the group which came out ...
Profile by Richard Williams, Times, The, January 1971
THE CURRENT STATE of pop music allows its performers to make the most naked personal statements. Only an artist with considerable character, though, can keep ...
Rolling Stones, The: The Rolling Stones: Exile on Main Street
Review by Richard Williams, Times, The, May 1972
IN A VERY few days from now, the Rolling Stones begin their massive tour of America. And with the tour comes a new album, Exile ...
Ann Peebles: The Biba Rainbow Room, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, Times, The, October 1974
APPLAUSE IN this sybaritic cafeteria is always a little suspect, being related to how far the performer can corroborate the Biba audience's good opinion of ...
Live Review by Philip Norman, Times, The, October 1974
JOHNNY WINTER inspires one of Rock music's more curious secret societies. ...
Live Review by Philip Norman, Times, The, November 1974
THAT REAL music should issue from a band named Queen – featuring a singer named Freddy Mercury – is sufficiently intriguing. ...
Lou Reed: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, Times, The, March 1975
IN THE case of Lou Reed I must confess – why shouldn't I – a prejudice. ...
Live Review by Philip Norman, Times, The, June 1975
LINK WRAY was – I should say, is – an American guitarist who, somewhere around 1960, recorded an instrumental tune called 'Rumble'. ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: Bob Marley & The Wailers: Lyceum Ballroom, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, Times, The, July 1975
BOB MARLEY and the Wailers reached the Lyceum two nights ago, in some style. By early evening, long before they were due to appear, the ...
Elvis Presley: The King is Dead
Obituary by Philip Norman, Times, The, August 1977
ELVIS PRESLEY will be remembered as the first and the greatest exponent of Rock and Roll music, whose recordings of 'Blue Suede Shoes', 'Hound Dog' ...
Aswad, Linx: Linx and Aswad: Shades of Black
Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, Times, The, November 1981
THERE IS A special role in British life for young black pop musicians, involving a task more serious than could ever be demanded of their ...
Paul McCartney, Beatles, The: The Times Profile: Paul McCartney
Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, Times, The, January 1982
In the year of his 40th birthday Paul McCartney, the world's most successful pop musician, adjusts the record ...
Dire Straits: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Richard Williams, Times, The, July 1983
FEW ROCK GROUPS depend as heavily for success on an intimate engagement with the emotions of the listener as Dire Straits, so it is a ...
Everly Brothers, The: The Everly Brothers: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Richard Williams, Times, The, September 1983
You had to half-close your eyes, but then it all came back: 1958, The Perry Como Show, two boys with strange faces, perfectly greased quiffs ...
Smiths, The: The Smiths: Lyceum, London
Live Review by Max Bell, Times, The, February 1984
DESPITE THEIR PROSAIC NAME, the Smiths are very much the band of the moment. Six months ago this Mancunian four-piece were breaking out of the ...
Dire Straits: Graceful Strengths
Interview by Richard Williams, Times, The, April 1984
By most of the yardsticks of pop music in 1984, Dire Straits are so conventional as to be practically invisible. No exotic dancing, no men ...
Bob Dylan: On Common Ground: Bob Dylan live in Rome
Live Review by Richard Williams, Times, The, June 1984
Richard Williams gets a taste of Dylan as his tour makes its way towards Britain ...
Live Review by Richard Williams, Times, The, July 1984
PERHAPS ONE DAY Stevie Wonder will recognize that inviting a British audience to sing along with him does not evoke the kind of ready response ...
Sade: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Max Bell, Times, The, August 1984
SADE IS CURRENTLY the hottest new voice in town. Her Diamond Life album has been highly praised and her jazz diva's image, allied to a ...
Culture Club: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Max Bell, Times, The, December 1984
OF ALL THE SUPERGROUPS currently vying for public attention Culture Club and their lead singer Boy George seem the most vulnerable. The title of their ...
Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Relax, It's Only A Rock Group: Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Profile and Interview by Max Bell, Times, The, February 1985
CARL GUSTAV JUNG, in one of his lighter moments, once wrote: "Liverpool is the pool of life". A year after Jung's death his words were ...
Prince: Around The World In A Day
Review by Max Bell, Times, The, June 1985
PRINCE, THE CURRENT court jester of American hippy soul, once wrote a song called 'Ronnie, Talk To Russia', a good message number that indicated this ...
Bruce Springsteen: Perfect Mastery Of The Beat
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, June 1985
Bruce Springsteen: Slane Castle, Dublin ...
Bruce Springsteen: A Promise Fulfilled — But What Next?
Live Review by Richard Williams, Times, The, July 1985
Bruce Springsteen: Wembley Stadium, London ...
Judie Tzuke at the Hammersmith Odeon
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, October 1985
DESPITE HER GREATEST CLAIM to fame still being her one British hit single in 1979,'Stay With Me 'till Dawn', Judie Tzuke has released seven albums ...
Joni Mitchell: The Travailer's Tale
Review and Interview by Mick Brown, Times, The, November 1985
At 41, Joni Mitchell remains to all appearances, very much the idealistic woman who embodied an era of pop music at its most wistfully self-absorbed ...
Bob Dylan, Sandy Denny: Bob Dylan: Biograph; Sandy Denny: Who Knows Where The Time Goes
Review by Richard Williams, Times, The, December 1985
NOTHING AS simple as a "greatest hits" collection from the Bob Dylan of 1985, of course. ...
Michael McDonald: LA's hi-tech soul singer: Michael McDonald
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Times, The, 1987
The preview in Thursday's Independent said it all: "Placid white soul-funker, conservative stuff even by Los Angeles standards." You could not hope to find a ...
Prince, Michael Jackson: Match of the Fey: Prince and Michael Jackson
Essay by Barney Hoskyns, Times, The, July 1988
PRINCE BEGGED an interviewer seven years ago: "Just don’t compare me to Michael Jackson." Few could then have guessed there would ever be a need ...
Luther Vandross: What A World For The Lonely Kind: Luther Vandross
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Times, The, March 1989
LUTHER VANDROSS is the pre-eminent mainstream soul performer of the 1980s. As a singer, songwriter and producer he is – with the possible exception of ...
Cure, The: The Curious Case Of The Cure
Interview by Johnny Black, Times, The, April 1989
IF ANY ROCK millionaire other than Robert Smith claimed not to know the chart position of his latest single, it would be impossible to believe. ...
Bobby 'Blue' Bland: Malaco: Soul’s Retirement Home
Report and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Times, The, July 1989
"BLUES SINGERS don't retire", said the late Howlin' Wolf, and Bobby "Blue" Bland might well agree with him. After thirty seven years virtually nonstop on ...
Etta James: Mama tells us all about it
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Times, The, July 1989
WHEN ETTA JAMES was a 17-year old glamour puss with drug-store-peroxide blonde hair and a lewd rock 'n' roll hit called 'Roll With Me Henry' ...
David Byrne: A Composer of Pleasure
Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Times, The, December 1989
What do you think you are best at? David Byrne, neat in a blue button-down collar shirt and college athlete’s haircut, looks nervously into the ...
Eric Clapton: Eric Suits Himself: Clapton At Birmingham NEC Arena
Live Review by Michael Gray, Times, The, 1990
ERIC CLAPTON IS a complex man – or, expressed in the terms his image encourages, he's an odd bloke, old Eric. ...
Report by Michael Gray, Times, The, May 1990
IT HAS TAKEN the music industry five years to transform the rock-stars-for-charity mega-event from Bob Geldof's coherent effort to ameliorate a real tragedy to this ...
Anita Baker: Live at Wembley Arena
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Times, The, June 1990
ANITA BAKER remains a remarkable phenomenon: an intimate, improvisatory jazz-soul songstress who gigs in vast, impersonal hangars such as Wembley Arena. She should be appearing ...
Robert Plant: Zeppelin Man Takes the High Road to Nirvana
Interview by Steve Turner, Times, The, June 1990
This month’s tour by Robert Plant, which reaches England tonight, has been his first European jaunt since his days with Led Zeppelin, the band which ...
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Times, The, July 1990
VOGUE once said of Frank Sinatra that "the Voice is leading cool modems back to emotion". Looking around at the well- heeled sentimentalists and legend-seekers ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Times, The, July 1990
WHEN QUINCY JONES gathered together his USA For Africa superstars to record 'We are the World' five years ago, he pinned a sign outside the ...
John Hiatt: Bottom Line, New York
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Times, The, August 1990
A SKINNY troubadour with a throaty, abrasive growl of a voice, John Hiatt slides in to the American rock dream somewhere between Ry Cooder at ...
Burt Bacharach: Back to the Brilliance of Bacharach
Profile by Barney Hoskyns, Times, The, August 1990
Anyone who has a heart, including a new generation of British youngsters, is still falling for the magical Sixties music of Burt Bacharach, says Barney ...
Pixies, The: The Pixies: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Times, The, October 1990
WATCHING THE Pixies in a rock venue as mainstream as the Hammersmith Odeon seemed wrong, and they were as surprised to be there as anyone ...
Laurie Anderson: Rebel from Decade of Greed
Interview by Steve Turner, Times, The, November 1990
Laurie Anderson’s first big work since United States, the two-part, eight-hour show she took on the road in 1983, is Empty Places. Shorter (ninety minutes ...
dBs, The, Peter Holsapple, Chris Stamey: A Crafty Couple: Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Times, The, 1991
AN INEVITABLE side effect of any domestic pop explosion in Britain is that the best American rock should be overlooked by radio stations and the ...
Eric Clapton: Blues God Without An Axe To Grind
Profile by Barney Hoskyns, Times, The, February 1991
WHEN THAT crazed blues fanatic scrawled the words "CLAPTON IS GOD" on a London wall in 1966, he ushered in the cult of the guitar ...
Joni Mitchell: Conversation with a Wandering Dreamer
Review and Interview by David Sinclair, Times, The, February 1991
WITHIN 60 SECONDS of setting eyes on me, Joni Mitchell has started telling me about her dreams. I am spared details, but she insists that ...
Ronnie Spector: Exorcising Phil's Spectre: Ronnie's Return
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Times, The, February 1991
THE SNOWBOUND metropolis of London holds many memories for Ronnie Spector. When she was riding high in the mid-'60s with The Ronettes, that vampy girl ...
Rolling Stones, The: Rolling into Discord with a Single Song
Interview by Steve Turner, Times, The, February 1991
With the release next month of the song ‘High Wire’, The Rolling Stones will become the first big rock act to refer directly to the ...
INXS at Wembley Stadium: All the aces but little heart
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, July 1991
QUITE BY coincidence INXS mount their London summer spectacular on the sixth anniversary of the Live Aid concert at this same venue, In so far ...
Band, The, Robbie Robertson: Robbing America for a storyline thread
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Times, The, October 1991
ROBBIE ROBERTSON should be used to jetlag. He spent 16 years on the road as a member of The Band and knows only too well ...
Madonna: The Billion Dollar Lady's New Deal
Comment by Barney Hoskyns, Times, The, November 1991
THE NEWS THAT Madonna has just clinched a deal making her the highest-paid performer in the history of the pop industry only confirms what we ...
Live Review by Adrian Deevoy, Times, The, September 1993
IF THE success of a concert can be gauged by the number of moist and flailing bodies flung ceilingwards during the performance, then Radiohead's only ...
Lemonheads, The: The Lemonheads: Come On Feel The Lemonheads (Atlantic)
Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, October 1993
IT SEEMS A quaint idea now, but there was a time when being a "serious" rock band didn't necessarily mean carting a ton of attitude ...
Morrissey: This Charming Mandroid
Interview by David Sinclair, Times, The, February 1995
I FIRST MET MORRISSEY in 1984. I was a researcher on the BBC television show Eight Days a Week and he was on the programme's ...
Interview by David Sinclair, Times, The, July 1996
THE MAN WITH the most celebrated identity crisis in pop is installed on the 48th floor of a Manhattan hotel. The lift goes up so ...
Aerosmith: Anatomy of a Rock Biography
Interview by Simon Witter, Times, The, 1997
While the rich and famous broker deals to keep their lives private, rock hellraisers Aerosmith decided that if there’s cash to be made from dirt, ...
Kylie Minogue: Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, July 1998
SHE MAY HAVE spent most of the Nineties pursuing different musical directions with mixed results, but Kylie Minogue can still sell out three nights at ...
Lauryn Hill, Fugees, The: Miss Education: Lauryn Hill
Interview by Simon Witter, Times, The, June 1999
With five Grammies on her mantelpiece, two children and a charity to her name, singer Lauryn Hill has achieved an awful lot at the tender ...
Scritti Politti: Return Of An Eighties Enigma
Profile and Interview by David Sinclair, Times, The, July 1999
AS DISAPPEARING TRICKS go, the strange case of Green Gartside is not quite up there with those of Richey Edwards or blues hero Peter Green, ...
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, April 2000
SPRAWLED ACROSS the lunar desert floor in the sun-baked heart of Southern Calfornia, Palm Springs is the last stop before paradise for rich, wrinkled Americans. ...
Britney Spears: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, October 2000
ROBBIE WILLIAMS may believe he has no competition. But the day after he began his latest tour, the American superstar Britney Spears arrived to play ...
Alabama 3: The Brixton Connection
Interview by Simon Witter, Times, The, January 2001
The theme tune for the hip gangster drama The Sopranos is set to shoot into the UK charts this month and catapult the band behind ...
Serge Gainsbourg, Jane Birkin: Jane Birkin: A Legend In Her Own T'aime
Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, February 2001
IN 1969, JANE BIRKIN shocked the world. Now her heavy breathing is back. ...
Interview by Angus Batey, Times, The, April 2002
IT'S JUST another rainy night in April, and the Green Mill, a bar on Chicago's north side, is hosting its regular Monday resident. Opening with ...
Asha Bhosle: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Pete Paphides, Times, The, October 2002
POP STARS who complain about their workload might care to ponder the achievements of Asha Bhosle. Since she first stepped into a studio, aged ten, ...
Daft Punk: French Pop: A Long Way From Françoise Hardy To Daft Punk
Overview by Pete Paphides, Times, The, February 2003
IT IS no surprise that France has only just got around to its own equivalent of Top Of The Pops. In a country where philosophy ...
Profile and Interview by Robin Eggar, Times, The, March 2003
THERE IS something reassuringly dissolute about Johnny Hallyday. He may be 59, but he inhabits one of those undernourished frames, all angles and sharp edges, ...
India.Arie: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by Pete Paphides, Times, The, March 2003
WHERE India.Arie is concerned, the journey to enlightenment will stop at nothing – not even hair. Shorn of her customary dreadlocks since her last British ...
Neil Young: Still a Young Man's Game
Interview by David Sinclair, Times, The, May 2003
HE CALLED one of his albums Rust Never Sleeps. But does Neil Young ever sleep? In the 12 months since he last played in Britain, ...
White Stripes, The: White Stripes Or Shite Hype?
Comment by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, August 2003
NEXT WEEK the White Stripes release their latest single, a highly distinctive reading of the Burt Bacharach standard 'I Just Don't Know What To Do ...
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, September 2003
JUST HOURS after winning an impressive trio of MOBO awards at the Royal Albert Hall, gangsta rap superstar 50 Cent played his biggest UK show ...
Elbow: Queen Margaret Union, Glasgow
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, October 2003
THERE WAS an air of resignation when the fire alarm went off at the Queen Margaret Union in Glasgow on Thursday night and the splendidly ...
David Bowie: All The Old Dude Had, He's Still Got
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, November 2003
David Bowie: MEN Arena, Manchester ...
Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, The: The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players
Interview by Stevie Chick, Times, The, March 2004
"STOOSH OVER, DADDY!""I am stooshing! I'm stooshed over as far as I can... I don't have any more room to stoosh!" ...
Franz Ferdinand: Franz Ferdinand
Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, March 2004
AH, THE FIRST HYPE OF SPRING. In media watering holes from Camden to Sauchiehall Street, the tastemakers began sniffing the wind as long ago as ...
Gram Parsons: In His Hour Of Darkness: Gram Theft Auto and the Road Mangler Deluxe
Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Times, The, March 2004
IT IS THE midsummer of 1973. Two men stand together amidst a throng of mourners at the graveside of Clarence White, former Byrd and the ...
Bebel Gilberto: Joao And Bebel Gilberto
Profile and Interview by James Maycock, Times, The, June 2004
IT WAS IN THE summer of ‘64, 40 years ago this month, that Joao Gilberto’s ‘A Girl From Ipanema’ was released. A huge global ...
Sparks: Talkin' About My Generator
Interview by Bob Stanley, Times, The, June 2004
SPARKS PUT the fear of God into preteens with their debut Top of the Pops appearance. As pretty boy Russell Mael flashed his baby blues ...
Bryan Ferry: Kenwood House, London
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, July 2004
THE ATMOSPHERE was more Glyndebourne than Glastonbury when Bryan Ferry brought his impeccably groomed lounge-soul floorshow to the leafy grounds of Kenwood House on Saturday ...
Gil Scott-Heron: Chasing The Heron
Report and Interview by James Maycock, Times, The, July 2004
"I'M ADDICTED to creating," mutters a grizzled, slightly stoned Gil Scott-Heron. "I use other things from time to time." It's late afternoon on Friday 3rd ...
Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, August 2004
THE LAST time Jah Wobble got into a public punch-up was half a decade ago, squaring up to a street gang on his East End ...
Goldie Lookin' Chain, Basement Jaxx: Basement Jaxx/Goldie Lookin' Chain: Bristol Canons Marsh
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, August 2004
AFTER A SLUGGISH start, the finale of Bristol's Grolsh Summer Set shows felt like a largely triumphant affair on Wednesday. Local acts featured on the ...
Madonna : Manchester Evening News Arena
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, August 2004
PARTS OF MANCHESTER almost ground to a halt this weekend as the European wing of Madonna’s Reinvention Tour opened with two nights at the city’s ...
Nick Cave: "I Wasn't Sid Vicious": Nick Cave
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, September 2004
FOR A HIGH-MINDED musical elder statesman like Nick Cave, cultural credibility comes in many forms. The 47-year-old Australian export has hosted London's Meltdown festival, been ...
Pet Shop Boys: The Pet Shop Boys: Pop-aganda
Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, September 2004
Potemkin and the sound of a Pet Shop Boy ...
Tom Waits: Well Worth the Waits
Report and Interview by David Sinclair, Times, The, October 2004
NEXT MONTH Tom Waits will make his first British concert appearance for 17 years. And if the word filtering back from Vancouver and Seattle, where ...
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Hastings Pier
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, November 2004
MANY ROCK STARS would recoil at the notion of playing an end-of the-pier ballroom in a shabby South Coast retirement town, but Nick Cave appeared ...
Darkness, The: The Darkness: SECC, Glasgow
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, December 2004
IN POP, last year's underdog can so easily become this year's one-trick pony. The Darkness ended 2003 as the former rank outsiders who triumphed over ...
Chemical Brothers, The: Dancing To The Death: The New Club Culture
Report and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Times, The, January 2005
CLUB CULTURE is over so no music coming out of the dance arena can be interesting. It's not usually put so bluntly but I've read ...
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, February 2005
A GRAND theatrical spectacle to rival any West End show, the industrial rock carnival that is Rammstein thundered into Brixton on Thursday to kick off ...
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, February 2005
AS IF TAKING their cue from their friends, The Libertines, Razorlight have spent much of 2005 rocked by public tantrums and rumours of imminent disintegration. ...
Black Eyed Peas: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, February 2005
CAN IT ONLY be 18 months since the Black Eyed Peas were jostling each other for space on the tiny stage of the 400-capacity Jazz ...
KT Tunstall, Dido: Dido et al: Music to Watch Girls Buy
Overview by Pete Paphides, Times, The, March 2005
Our correspondent casts a weather eye over the fleet of female singer-songwriters floating their sonic pedalos in the wake of Dido's mighty MOR steamship ...
Einstürzende Neubauten: Einsturzende Neubauten: The Forum, London
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, April 2005
WHAT HAPPENS when enfants terribles of avant-garde industrial noise grow into comfortable middle age? In the case of Einsturzende Neubauten, the former godfathers of Berlin's ...
Report by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, May 2005
YOU DO not need to travel too far from the Hard Rock Hotel to find the tacky glamour that earned Las Vegas its reputation as ...
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, June 2005
FEW BANDS in pop history are quite as mysterious, elusive and maddeningly eccentric as Kraftwerk. But few remain as enduringly influential either. In 2005, even ...
Saint Etienne: Lives Of The Saints (And Their Kids)
Interview by Pete Paphides, Times, The, June 2005
Saint Etienne have produced a concept album and a set of children's songs. But they aren't Yes ...
Dinosaur Jr: The Forum, London
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, June 2005
IT MAY tell us something about the sorry state of contemporary rock, but at least one semi-legendary cult band from the 1980s seems to reform ...
Comment by Pete Paphides, Times, The, June 2005
Songs about conflict and warfare are guaranteed to destroy a musician's credibility ...
U2: City of Manchester Stadium
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, June 2005
STILL THRILLING huge audiences more than 25 years into their career, U2 become ever more impressive in their longevity, integrity, capacity for reinvention and willingness ...
Rutles.The: The Rutles: Rock Café 2000, Stourbridge
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, June 2005
A COMEDY sketch that grew into an cult, the Rutles may be a joke that delivered its punchline almost three decades ago, but 200 or ...
Live Review by Pete Paphides, Times, The, July 2005
THESE DAYS, the Zeitgeist might prefer to be seen on the town with the likes of Coldplay – but for a band shadowed by past ...
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, September 2005
BACKSTAGE AT V Festival, the queen mother of punk rock shelters from the punishing sun. With her dirty-blonde hair and boho-bag-lady chic, Kim Gordon cuts ...
Sonic Youth, Kim Gordon: Punk's Queen Mother: Kim Gordon
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, September 2005
BACKSTAGE AT V Festival, the queen mother of punk rock shelters from the punishing sun. With her dirty-blonde hair and boho-bag-lady chic, Kim Gordon cuts ...
Comment by Sheryl Garratt, Times, The, September 2005
IT IS EASY TO forget how grey and grim Britain seemed in the late 1980s. The Tories had been in power for ever; young men ...
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, November 2005
IN 2005, there are few cooler pop names to drop than a-ha. Coldplay and Travis are not just avowed fans but sometime collaborators with the ...
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, January 2006
ROSANNE CASH has already been to church by the time we meet for breakfast. As dawn broke on this wintry Parisian morning, the singer-songwriter slipped ...
Morrissey at The Lowry, Salford
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, April 2006
THE SENSE OF feverish anticipation that Morrissey still generates before each live performance, record release and even interview is a remarkable testament to the cult ...
Bob Dylan: International Arena, Cardiff
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, June 2006
THE CULT OF Bob Dylan stands at its highest point for decades, bolstered by the singer's highly regarded US radio show and superb memoir Chronicles. ...
Beastie Boys, The: Beastie Boys: On Film
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, June 2006
THE WAY Beastie Boys rapper turned movie director Adam 'MCA' Yauch tells it, the idea to film the band's sold-out homecoming gig at Madison Square ...
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, June 2006
THE SUN DECK of Norman Cook's seafront Brighton home juts out over a stony stretch of supposedly private beach. But it is not that private, ...
Shirley Bassey: Cardiff International Arena
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, June 2006
SHE MAY BE OLDER than John Prescott and camper than Liberace, but Dame Shirley Bassey's sold-out homecoming show in Cardiff on Tuesday was greeted with ...
Beastie Boys, The: Awesome Welles: The Beastie Boys' Home Movie
Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, June 2006
THE WAY Beastie Boys rapper turned movie director Adam 'MCA' Yauch tells it, the idea to film the band's sold-out homecoming gig at Madison Square ...
Muse: Black Holes and Revelations
Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, June 2006
COMPARED TO the mighty cosmic thunder of Muse, the undernourished hipsters of the current Britrock scene sound like puny little insects. Matt Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme ...
Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, July 2006
MORE THAN THREE YEARS after his death, the Man In Black is still enjoying the kind of final-act career resurgence that artists half his age ...
Interview by Jim Irvin, Times, The, July 2006
YOU HEAR A rolling figure on electric piano, a melody recalling Fleetwood Mac's 'Rhiannon' and the 'Theme From MASH', a chugging groove reminiscent of 'Don't ...
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, July 2006
IN KEEPING with his reputation as Britrock's reigning maestro of overblown melodrama, Matt Bellamy lives in a grand old villa overlooking Lake Como in northern ...
Bob Dylan: Modern Times (Columbia) ***
Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, August 2006
ARRIVING IN THE afterglow of Martin Scorsese's laudatory No Direction Home, Dylan's first album in five years carries the burden of great expectations. But behind ...
R.E.M.: Michael Stipe: An Interview
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, September 2006
THE ROOF TERRACE alone in Michael Stipe's ultra-deluxe Knightsbridge hotel suite is bigger than most luxury flats. Boasting its own sauna and dining hall, the ...
Adam & The Ants: Stand And Deliver by Adam Ant (Sidgwick & Jackson)
Book Review by Bob Stanley, Times, The, September 2006
STUART GODDARD attempted suicide, aged 21, in 1975. He woke up in Friern Barnet hospital and discharged himself. When he got home to his wife ...
Retrospective by Bob Stanley, Times, The, October 2006
THE EIGHTIES HAVE – like the stack-heeled Seventies before them – been repackaged and filed away as an era of Duran Duran, Dynasty and mobile ...
Marillion: How To Thrive On A Fish-Free Diet
Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, April 2007
THERE ARE no goblins guarding the gates to Marillion's secret lair in the rolling depths of Middle England. No cackling old crones casting spells on ...
Blondie, Debbie Harry: Debbie Harry: Never Fade Away
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, April 2007
BEFORE Madonna, before Courtney Love and Shirley Manson, before Karen O and Beth Ditto, there was Debbie Harry. ...
Motorhead: Lemmy: The Oldest Rocker In Town
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, June 2007
THE SUN hammers down on the French Riviera like a vengeful Old Testament god. With temperatures topping 90 degrees, the beach at Nice is heaving ...
Grinderman: The Forum, London ****
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, June 2007
NICK CAVE turns 50 this year. As far back as a decade ago, he protested that rock and roll is no job for a middle-aged ...
Alison Krauss, Robert Plant: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss: Raising Sand
Review by Pete Paphides, Times, The, October 2007
OUT OF THE BLUE, Jo Bartlett, the co-organiser of the small folk festival, Green Man, received a phone call one day from someone purporting to ...
Amy Winehouse: Why Amy Winehouse is On The Rocks
Essay by Nick Kent, Times, The, January 2008
As troubled singer Amy Winehouse is filmed smoking crack cocaine, our writer, a veteran of the 1970s music and drug culture, explains why we view ...
Pegi Young Follows Husband Neil Into The Spotlight
Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, March 2008
ONSTAGE IN Berlin, Pegi Young makes a monumental high-tech concert hall feel like a dusty back porch in some sleepy truck-stop town. Opening for her ...
Foo Fighters: Manchester City Stadium
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, June 2008
FOURTEEN YEARS and six albums since the demise of Nirvana, Dave Grohl continues to smooth down the spiky edges of his former band's indie-metal sound. ...
Neil Diamond: Hampden Park, Glasgow
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, June 2008
AFTER A MONTH of freakishly dry weather over Scotland, the heavens opened on Thursday just in time to soak more than 30,000 fans gathered at ...
Leonard Cohen: Opera House, Manchester
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, June 2008
MORE THAN 15 YEARS have passed since Leonard Cohen last graced a British stage, but the 73-year-old poet-turned-crooner was on suave form at the start ...
Madonna: Millennium Stadium, Cardiff ***
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, August 2008
HOURS BEFORE Madonna launched her Sticky & Sweet world tour in Cardiff on Saturday, the phenomenal pulling power of history's biggest ever female pop star ...
George Michael: Earls Court, London ***
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, August 2008
THE FIRST of George Michael's two sold-out London mega-shows on Sunday was big on bling but low on spark. ...
Antony & the Johnsons: Antony and the Johnsons
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, October 2008
ONSTAGE AT Harlem's fabled Apollo Theatre, Antony Hegarty cuts an imposing figure. Swept along by a 20-piece orchestra, New York City's reigning demi-monde diva sobs ...
Tony Christie: Cadogan Hall, London
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, November 2008
THIS HAS BEEN a vintage year for triumphant comebacks by veteran singers, from Leonard Cohen to Neil Diamond. Now Tony Christie, who turned 65 in ...
Kings of Leon: Brighton Centre, Brighton
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, December 2008
CALEB FOLLOWILL was in an expansive mood as Kings of Leon began their biggest British tour yet. "This has been one of the best years ...
Hold Steady, The: The Hold Steady: Carling Academy, Oxford
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, December 2008
ON THE FACE OF IT, the Hold Steady are upholders of a classic rock tradition. A five-man, New York group who craft their songs out ...
Prodigy, The: The Prodigy: Glasgow Academy
Live Review by Pete Paphides, Times, The, December 2008
IN 1996, WHEN Keith Flint – the face that soonest springs to mind when people think of the Prodigy – shovelled on the kohl and ...
Report and Interview by Pete Paphides, Times, The, December 2008
SIX YEARS AFTER they last played together, 13 since their epic chart duel with Oasis and almost three decades after the band's dominant figures met ...
Frankmusik, Keane: Keane/Frankmusik: MEN Arena, Manchester
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, February 2009
KEANE HAVE SPENT much of their decade-long career as critical whipping boys, derided for their public school poshness and sweet, soppy, wholesome power ballads. Even ...
David Byrne: Colston Hall, Bristol
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, March 2009
LIKE SOME KIND OF vaguely sinister religious cult, David Byrne and his band kicked off their latest British tour dressed in pristine white from head ...
Comment by Pete Paphides, Times, The, March 2009
IT TAKES SOME doing to instigate a backlash from your fans without actually releasing a record. Yet this month, by revealing that their record company, ...
Dusty Springfield: The Legacy of Dusty Springfield
Retrospective by Bob Stanley, Times, The, April 2009
The greatest girl singer of the Sixties would be 70 this month, but her legacy is evergreen ...
Specials, The: The Specials: O2 Academy, Newcastle****
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, April 2009
THE PAST three decades seemed to fall away when the Specials began their comeback tour with this explosive and exciting performance in Newcastle upon Tyne. ...
The Dead Weather: Boston Arms, London
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, June 2009
EIGHT YEARS AFTER I first saw the White Stripes play in the back room of the Boston Arms pub in Tufnell Park, North London, Jack ...
Spinal Tap: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, July 2009
THE BIZARRE blurring of the lines between comedic fiction and showbusiness reality continued apace with the staging of Spinal Tap's "One Night Only World Tour" ...
Pearl Jam: Shepherds Bush Empire
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, August 2009
ONE OF THE LAST surviving bands from the Seattle grunge goldrush that revitalised American rock two decades ago, Pearl Jam played a rare London club ...
Alice In Chains: Scala, London
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, August 2009
CONTEMPORARIES OF Nirvana and Pearl Jam during the Seattle grunge boom of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Alice In Chains returned from a long ...
Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, September 2009
IN 2001, SHAWN "Jay-Z" Carter released The Blueprint, a critical and commercial smash which set a standard the Brooklyn-born rap mogul has struggled to match ...
Tom Jones: Cardiff International Arena
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, October 2009
AT THE START of a three-night stint in his native Wales, Tom Jones began his latest British tour in swaggeringly confident mood. ...
Profile and Interview by Paul Lester, Times, The, October 2009
Paul Lester remembers the two years when the band ruled the world ...
Tortoise, Cluster: Tortoise / Cluster: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, November 2009
CURRENT DEFINITIONS of jazz are clearly somewhat flexible, judging by the avant-rock double bill that closed this year's London Jazz Festival on Sunday night. The ...
Regina Spektor: Academy, Birmingham
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, December 2009
IT APPEARS REGINA SPEKTOR has finally crossed over from word-of-mouth cult to left-field star, judging by her rapturous reception at a packed Birmingham show on ...
Julian Casablancas: Ritz, Manchester
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, December 2009
SURPRISINGLY TALL and strapping for a man who made size-zero indie-rock credible again this decade, Julian Casablancas shrugged and lolloped through an hour-long set in ...
The Maccabees: The Maccabees May Yet Become Greats
Interview by Pete Paphides, Times, The, January 2010
The NME tour's latest headliners may be the next big thing, but they remain modest enough to doubt their No1 potential ...
Paolo Nutini: Paisley's Own Caped Crusader
Profile and Interview by Pete Paphides, Times, The, February 2010
SEVERAL MONTHS have elapsed since Paolo Nutini got the idea for his performance at the 2010 Brit Awards. If he remembers the moment well, that'll ...
Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, June 2010
FOUR DECADES SINCE Devo first donned their matching overalls and began their assault on the pop mainstream, America's original disco-rock Dadaists are back. ...
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, September 2010
NEARING THE END of an epic world tour which has transformed them into Britain 's biggest band, Muse brought their sense-swamping carnival of baroque 'n ...
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, October 2010
CURRENTLY THE hottest rising star of electronic music on both sides of the Atlantic, Steven "Flying Lotus" Ellison played his biggest London show so far ...
Overview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, October 2010
THE FIRST THING that hits you, quite literally, is the sledgehammer bass sound. Walk into any dubstep club and these gnarly, spine-twisting shudders almost knock ...
Heaven 17: Penthouse and Pavement Revisited
Retrospective by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, November 2010
"SHEFFIELD HAS ALWAYS had a bit of a maverick attitude," says Martyn Ware of evergreen electro-pop veterans Heaven 17. "It's the natural bolshiness of the ...
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Times, The, September 2012
RIPLEY... EPSOM... WALLINGTON. The names hardly resonate in the way that Clarksdale or Greenville or Natchez do. Yet in their way these Surrey towns are ...
Johnny Hallyday: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, October 2012
A MERE HALF century into his career, France's biggest rock star finally made his London live debut this week. After 110 million album sales, four ...
Rosanne Cash: Union Chapel, London
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, December 2012
A HOST OF FACTORS, including brain surgery, have conspired to keep Rosanne Cash away from London for the last six years. Returning to a full ...
xx, The: the xx: Civic Hall, Wolverhampton
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, December 2012
MODESTY, UNDERSTATEMENT and tasteful restraint have no place in pop music, an art form tailor-made for dysfunctional drama queens. Yet somehow the xx have backed ...
ABC: Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, December 2012
MARTIN FRY clearly has a hideous self-portrait lurking in some dusty attic, because the 54-year-old appeared spookily ageless at this glitzy London show. Still as ...
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