Nick Hasted
Nick Hasted has written for The Independent, the Guardian and Uncut. He is the author of The Dark Story of Eminem (Omnibus, 2003).
List of articles in the library by artist
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..." ...
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 ...
Arctic Monkeys: Wembley Arena, London ***
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, November 2009
Northern soul with a heavy heart ...
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, ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
Blur: This Is A High For A Refreshed Blur
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, May 2003
Blur: The Astoria, London ...
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, ...
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. ...
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 ...
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) ...
Centro-matic: Distance And Clime
Review and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, February 2002
PROLIFIC LO-FI Texans have tape recorders at the ready ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Elvis Costello: Mighty Like A Rose
Retrospective by Nick Hasted, Uncut, November 2002
SUMMER 1991, AND Elvis Costello's kingdom was about to crumble. In the world outside, it was the year of Screamadelica, Nevermind, Blue Lines and dance ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
De La Soul: Art Official Intelligence (Mosaic Thump)
Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, September 2000
NO ONE who saw the packed, mostly young, black crowd reveling in the house party atmosphere of De La Soul's last UK gig in 1997 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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', ...
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 ...
Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, November 2000
Strange DaysWaiting For The SunThe Soft ParadeMorrison HotelLa WomanEssential Rarities ...
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 ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, July 2012
Snow Patrol, Simon Le Bon and Ricky Gervais's beard strike a chord ...
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 ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, May 2001
'THE PROBLEM OF an artistic life that now moves forward like a shark is there's no time to think' ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Eminem: Can't Forget The Motor City: Detroit from Hitsville to 8 Mile
Book Excerpt by Nick Hasted, Omnibus Books, Summer 2003
The Dark Story of Eminem is the first book by Nick Hasted, whose work has previously appeared in The Independent, the Guardian and Uncut magazine. ...
Profile by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, June 2003
In the hood: Eminem is pulling out all the stops for his European tour ...
Eminem: Love, Hate And The Only Important Pop Star Left
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, February 2001
Eminem: Evening News Arena, Manchester ...
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 ...
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. ...
Faust: Nosferatu Soundtrack, Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, October 2000
Interludes With A Vampire ...
Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, May 2000
THE ALBUM cover's a telegraph pole, wires strung across the horizon. A shoe's been tied to one, drunkard's wit. The title? Sad, But Familiar. Welcome ...
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 ...
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, August 2009
Radiohead's modern jazz wrong-foots the crowd ...
Godspeed You Black Emperor!: Live at The Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, June 2000
"MISS CELINE Dion sings love songs while our cities burn". intones an awkward-looking man by way of greeting. "Kill her!" a woman in the crowd ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Hamell On Trial: Upstairs At The Garage, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, July 2001
"EVERYONE HERE'S very nice to me. Shutthefuckup when I'm talkin'!" The self-described "bald, sweaty fucker on stage", Ed Hamell, of Syracuse, New York, is dressed ...
Ed Harcourt: Borders, Oxford Street, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, June 2001
THE CROWD for One of Uncut's biggest Borders night so far are backing up from the DIY department into History. Some are still in line ...
Ed Harcourt: Live at The Borderline, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, August 2001
THE SINGER-SONGWRITERLY hush of bookshops doesn't, it turns out, bring out the best in Ed Harcourt's combative soul. His recent Borders acoustic show may have ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Robyn Hitchcock, Soft Boys, The: The Soft Boys: The Three Kings, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, May 2001
THE ONE-TIME freaks are out tonight, suited and booted for this biz-only reintroduction to Robyn Hitchcock's reconstituted Soft Boys, in the tucked-away, locked-up Clerkenwell pub ...
Hives, The: The Hives: The Return Of Your Old Favourites
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, June 2004
The Hives: Electric Ballroom London ...
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 ...
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 ...
Jesus & Mary Chain, The: The Jesus and Mary Chain: Crash And Burn
Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, August 2000
FEBRUARY 2000. Seventeen months after the corpse of The Jesus And Mary Chain finally stopped twitching. In the claustrophobic interior of London's 12-Bar Club, a ...
Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, October 2001
BACK TO basics, and partial return to form, on 28th studio album ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, May 2002
ON HIS SECOND LP, Home, Nashville-based Nebraskan Josh Rouse seemed to favour the brass-brushed country-soul sound of friend and fellow citizen Kurt Wagner. But new ...
Josh T. Pearson: Upstairs At The Spitz, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, December 2002
YOU CAN'T SEE his fearsome, feral face any more. It's covered by a beard so vast and wild at first you think Josh Pearson's become ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Lambchop: Union Chapel, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, December 2000
"THERE'S SO many of you!" Peering out uncertainly from under a peaked work-cap, what Lambchop's Kurt Wagner sees is his biggest British crowd to date, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
Mark Eitzel: Dingwalls, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, August 2000
It's not all doom and gloom ...
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Mull Historical Society: The Scala, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, May 2002
THERE ARE blow-up sheep hanging from the ceiling, choirboys waiting in the wings and a brass section on stage, all auxiliary members of the rebel ...
Review and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, December 2001
COLIN MACINTYRE on his messages from the edge of the world. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, December 2002
SEPTEMBER 11, 2002, and the battle lines are being drawn across Seattle. Flick the channels on your TV and you'll hear America speaking in one ...
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 ...
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 ...
Kelly Joe Phelps: Beat The Devil
Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, February 2002
KELLY JOE Phelps is on stage at the Knitting Factory in New York City, one month after the World Trade Center's destruction, in front of ...
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 ...
Kelly Joe Phelps: Live in London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, April 2000
KELLY JOE Phelps' slide guitar seemed to spring into independent life at the multiple climaxes of 1997's breakthrough LP, Roll Away The Stone, to ripple ...
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 ...
Report and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, June 2002
HEART-WRENCHING bedroom symphonies from Dublin. ...
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 ...
Cat Power, Lift To Experience: Cat Power/Lift To Experience: The Garage, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, November 2001
IT STARTS WITH guitars screaming, and ends in a whisper. The sadistic social experiment of putting Lift To Experience's apocalyptic Texan assault second on the ...
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, ...
Public Enemy: Fightin' The Hype
Interview by Nick Hasted, Deadline, 1991
A WEEK AGO the Brixton Academy, jammed to its shadowy rafters, waited to listen to Public Enemy. ...
Public Image Ltd, O2 Academy, Birmingham****
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, December 2009
Difficult, honest and angry, Lydon pushes at the limits ...
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 ...
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, ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G.: Gangsta Scrap: Nick Broomfield’s Biggie And Tupac
Film/DVD Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, May 2002
Suge Knight: the new Al Capone? Exposing the truth behind the Rap Wars ...
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 ...
Songdog: Live at Borders, Oxford Street, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, November 2001
SONGDOG'S LYNDON Morgans is unusually nervous before he starts to sing in the neutral atmosphere of this Uncut-sponsored gig. He knows most of the crowd ...
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 ...
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 ...
Specials, The: The Specials 2009. But Where's Jerry?
Report and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, April 2009
SLIGHTLY DOWNWIND of Pentonville Prison in a north London photographer's studio, six Specials are posing for their first pictures since 1981. ...
Spoon: Britt Daniel: The Borderline, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, March 2002
Spoon's Girls Can Tell was near to being last year's best album. It compressed new wave melodies and twitching post-punk rhythms into songs of pristine ...
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, February 2002
SPIKY, POST-punk-inspired indie pop from Texas. ...
Spoon: Kill The Moonlight (12XU) ****
Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, October 2002
FAST FOLLOW-UP to Texans' 2001 post-punk pop classic Girls Can Tell ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Television: Live at Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, June 2001
IT WAS the Sixties that divided London and New York punk: just traces to be kicked over, fathers to be killed, went the official line ...
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, ...
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. ...
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 ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, October 2010
Still tripping on the ghosts of the past ...
Max Tundra, Tele:funken: Tele:funken: A Collection Of Ice Cream Vans Vol 2
Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, July 2000
LIKE LABELMATE Max Tundra's debut last month, Tele:funken, aka Tom Fenn, here attempts electronica disconnected from the dancefloor, skipping round the looped conservatism of current ...
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 ...
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 ...
Review and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, April 2001
SPRAWLED IN the baroque bohemianism of their singer-songwriter Diggory Kenrick's west London local, Venus Ray seem a lifetime away from the 18 days of madness ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, November 2000
They say that everything will turn out right/It never seems that way, this time of night ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, August 2000
THE GREATEST night of Warren Zevon's performing life was in the hometown of the boxer, Buster Douglas, after Douglas had become the first man to ...
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' ...
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, September 2001
EIGHTIES SYNTH-POP revisited with soul and style. ...
Zoot Woman: Living In A Magazine (Wall Of Sound)****
Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, June 2001
PRISTINE ROBO-pop from Madonna's favourite retro-futurist. ...
back to LIBRARY
Best Databases: RBP is Runner-up in Best Niche category
Video: Johnny Marr talks about Rock's Backpages
download eBooks and audio interviews
RBP on Spotify: The Absolute Best o' Burt
RBP Album Club, June 13th: Miki Berenyi and Lucy O'Brien celebrate a Blondie classic
Essential Listening: Mick Gold meets Patti Smith in '76
Essential Reading: RBP's awesome Ozzy anthology
Essential Reading: Nina Antonia introduces her new poetry collection
RBP Album Club, July 11th: Nick Hornby and Nick Coleman celebrate Southside Johnny's debut