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Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper, published in London and distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. It is also published online.

336 articles

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Bonnie Raitt: Raitt's Progress

Interview by Mark Cooper, Daily Telegraph, 26 May 1990

Twenty years ago Bonnie Raitt was a cult success. The Eighties treated her badly but now, aged 40, she has become an overnight sensation. MARK ...

Robert Cray: Wedded Bliss Blues

Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Daily Telegraph, 15 September 1990

Mark Cooper asks, can contented men sing the blues? I do, says Robert Cray ...

Johnny Cash: Back in Black

Report and Interview by Mal Peachey, Daily Telegraph, 13 October 1990

FOR 35 YEARS, he has begun every performance with the line, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash", as if anyone needs telling. He greets people personally with ...

Kate & Anna McGarrigle: The McGarrigle Sisters: File Under…?

Profile and Interview by Mal Peachey, Daily Telegraph, 10 November 1990

Mal Peachey meets the multi-cultural and indefinable McGarrigle sisters. ...

Tony Bennett: Hi-De-Hi-Me To The Moon: Tony Bennett At Butlins

Report by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, 30 December 1990

IT WAS AN ADVERT in a tabloid that caught my eye. "Lose Your Heart To Tony Bennett... Butlin's Super Weekend Break." Mesmerised, I read on: ...

Joni Mitchell: Lookin' Good, Sister

Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 23 February 1991

THE HAIR still tumbles to the shoulders, sunshine blonde; the smile is as winsome as ever; the perfect bone-structure remains, well, perfect. ...

Richard Thompson: The Unsung Thompson

Interview by Mark Cooper, Daily Telegraph, 11 May 1991

Mark Cooper meets the folk hero who is now sharply observing home from abroad. ...

Kirsty MacColl: Kirsty In Control

Interview by Mark Cooper, Daily Telegraph, 22 June 1991

Mark Cooper watches as Kirsty MacColl reluctantly prepares to meet the world ...

Tori Amos: Stranger in a Strange Land

Report and Interview by Mark Cooper, Daily Telegraph, December 1991

THE LIGHT IS falling in Tori Amos's Kensington flat and she is packing for a Christmas visit to her parents back in the USA. Amos ...

Lyle Lovett: The Singer Who Argues With God

Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Daily Telegraph, 27 March 1992

Lyle Lovett's latest album gives a contemporary twist to the Old Testament, says Mark Cooper ...

Vince Gill: The Soul not the Stetson

Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Daily Telegraph, 23 May 1992

Mark Cooper warms to country singer Vince Gill's still, small voice of calm ...

Frank Zappa: The Double Life Of Frank Zappa,

Profile and Interview by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, 18 September 1992

SINCE CONTRACTING prostate cancer in 1989 Frank Zappa, now 51, has cancelled many public appearances and new projects. Tonight he re-emerges at the Frankfurt Music ...

Frank Zappa 1940-1993

Obituary by Charles Shaar Murray, Daily Telegraph, December 1993

A FEW YEARS AGO, Gail Zappa, wife and business partner of the late Frank Zappa, was shopping for groceries in Los Angeles when the cashier ...

Bo Diddley: Godfather Back On The Beat

Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Daily Telegraph, 11 May 1996

If guitar rhythms could be copyrighted, Bo Diddley would be a millionaire. As it is Mark Cooper finds him warily hitting the comeback trail again ...

Ray Coleman: The Man Behind the Maker

Obituary by Chris Charlesworth, Daily Telegraph, September 1996

RAY COLEMAN, who has died from cancer aged 59, played a leading role in the growth of the British music press in the Sixties and ...

Norma Waterson: Past Caring About a Career

Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Daily Telegraph, 7 September 1996

Folk music matriarch Norma Waterson shot into the limelight with her solo album. But, she tells Mark Cooper, she could give up performing tomorrow. ...

Sheryl Crow: Success is the sweetest revenge

Interview by Vivien Goldman, Daily Telegraph, 21 September 1996

When her first album came out, they said she was angry. But Sheryl Crow was laughing. Now, discovers Vivien Goldman, she's flying with the angels. ...

David Bowie: "I have done just about everything that it's possible to do"

Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 14 December 1996

THROUGHOUT THE '70s, David Bowie did not have fans. He had acolytes, disciples, obsessives; teens and twentysomethings who would buy every record, watch every move, ...

Tupac Shakur: Sprayers for a lost soul

Report by Vivien Goldman, Daily Telegraph, 14 December 1996

The murder of rap star Tupac Shakur in September has brought the simmering rivalry between two New York graffiti artists to a head. Vivien Goldman ...

Curtis Mayfield: Resurrection of Mayfield's soul

Interview by Vivien Goldman, Daily Telegraph, 25 January 1997

Vivien Goldman meets a legend of black music — back at last after his tragic accident ...

Shane MacGowan, The Pogues: Shane MacGowan: One More For The Road

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 29 November 1997

THERE ARE THOSE who believe that Shane MacGowan is among the most gifted and singular singer-songwriters to have emerged in British music in the past ...

Chess Set Still Sings The Blues: Marshall Chess and Chess Records

Interview by James Maycock, Daily Telegraph, 1998

JUST OVER 50 YEARS AGO, brothers Phil and Leonard Chess, two industrious Polish immigrants in Chicago, tentatively established what would become the most famous blues ...

Massive Attack: Looking for Identities: Massive Attack

Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, May 1998

A STATELY HARPSICHORD looms up out of a gently tapping drumbeat. A piano escorts an exquisite female voice through a bass guitar archway with the ...

Missy Elliott: Missy In Action: The Divine Ms. Elliott

Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, May 1999

MISSY "MISDEMEANOR" Elliott is an infamously snappy dresser, so when she emerges from a discreet recess in her LA hotel room wearing nothing more elaborate ...

Dr. John: The Doctor and the Duke: A Night with Mac Rebennack

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 17 July 1999

ON A WARM Saturday afternoon, in a studio just off 5th Avenue, in the downtown section of New York, Dr John is recording an album ...

Supergrass: Supergrass (Parlophone)

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Daily Telegraph, September 1999

WE HEAR AN awful lot about how Oxford is still the gateway to eminence in thrusting new young Britain, but what about Wheatley Park Comprehensive? ...

Eminem: His Name Is: Eminem

Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, October 1999

THE ATMOSPHERE of ersatz serenity that is supposed to prevail in newly-refurbished West End hotel lobbies was never going to withstand the arrival of Eminem. ...

Robert Johnson: Turning Points: Robert Johnson

Retrospective by Charles Shaar Murray, Daily Telegraph, November 1999

THE LEGEND OF Robert Johnson was a long time in the building, and it was forged by the fusion of his brilliance and his obscurity. ...

D'Angelo: Groove is in the heart

Interview by Vivien Goldman, Daily Telegraph, 22 January 2000

Five years since revolutionising soul music with his debut album, Brown Sugar, D'Angelo is back. Vivien Goldman meets the preacher's son with a taste for ...

Oasis: New Oasis, No Danger

Profile and Interview by Paul Lester, Daily Telegraph, 5 February 2000

"I'M NOT INTO CHAOS," says Noel Gallagher, who along with his brother Liam has always appeared to be one of the last true standard bearers ...

Kelis: The 'I Hate You So Much Right Now' Woman: Kelis

Report and Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, April 2000

STRIDING PURPOSEFULLY down one of the seamiest streets in Soho, 20-year-old Kelis (pronounced kuh-leece) Rogers is a day-glo Amazon. ...

Badly Drawn Boy

Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, May 2000

THERE WAS ONE gig that really caught the attention of the swarming hordes of A&R men at 1998's In The City convention in Manchester. The ...

Rickie Lee Jones: Life On The Edge

Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 26 August 2000

"EVERYBODY," Rickie Lee Jones sang on her 1997 album Ghostyhead, "starts out pure, starts out ridiculous, starts out beautiful..." And then? And then, says Jones ...

Dion: A Masterpiece? Was It?

Interview by Tom Cox, Daily Telegraph, 10 February 2001

IMAGINE IF YOU made the best record of your career, in collaboration with one of your heroes, and it was released only abroad, leaving such ...

Roxy Music: For your pleasure again

Report by Charles Shaar Murray, Daily Telegraph, 17 February 2001

The greatest band of the Seventies are reforming, and though Bryan Ferry now looks like a slick MP, Charles Shaar Murray is celebrating ...

Stephen Malkmus: Easy Street

Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 24 February 2001

In the high-voltage world of alternative rock, American singer Stephen Malkmus has always preferred a more relaxed path. ...

Bob Dylan: The Art of the Ageless Bob Dylan

Retrospective by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, April 2001

Bob Dylan is approaching his 60th birthday on a tide of adulation. Michael Gray, a long-time Dylan chronicler, considers his lasting appeal. ...

Cachaito: Buena Vista Bassman

Report and Interview by Mark Hudson, Daily Telegraph, June 2001

A TOUGH-LOOKING character in a back-to-front baseball cap slaps hard around a semi-circle of conga drums. An older man, small and self-contained, who could easily ...

David Axelrod: Swinging with The Ax: David Axelrod

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, June 2001

"LET ME straighten something out first," rasps living Los Angeles legend David Axelrod; crooking a bony finger at the heavy sunglasses he wears even though ...

The Incredible Bongo Band: The Strange Life Of The Incredible Bongo Band

Retrospective and Interview by James Maycock, Daily Telegraph, June 2001

THE TALE OF the Incredible Bongo Band is, aptly, an improbable one. With a highly eclectic cast that includes Bobby Kennedy’s assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, ...

The Beta Band

Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, July 2001

ON ENCOUNTERING a would-be interviewer who'd just been robbed of all his pound coins by a renegade parking meter, the Beta Band of a couple ...

N.E.R.D.: The Search Is Over: N*E*R*D

Report and Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, August 2001

THEIR NAMES MIGHT not be familiar, but you'll know Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo by the sounds they make. As multi-million selling production team the ...

Elvis Presley: The King and I: A Visit to Graceland

Report by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, 15 August 2001

KREATURE COMFORTS – "the Lowlife Guide to Memphis" – claims that Memphis can offer visitors "the best or worst of vacations: you could hit a ...

So Solid Crew: They Do Know: So Solid Crew

Report and Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, October 2001

SIFTING THROUGH a pile of So Solid Crew fanmail might be a disturbing experience for anyone worried about the state of the nation's spelling, but ...

Sigur Rós: Cool Band from a Cool Place

Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 10 2002

THE MUSIC OF Iceland has a presence on the world stage that far outstrips its influence as a country, a phenomenon of which the country's ...

Lambchop's New Flavour

Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 7 February 2002

Kurt Wagner, songwriter and former floor-layer, has stripped down the sound of his 13-strong band for their latest and finest album. He tells Ben Thompson ...

Cornershop: Back In Business: Cornershop

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 9 February 2002

Four years after a tribute to Bollywood chanteuse Asha Bhosle gave them 1998's most unlikely number one single, Ben Thompson welcomes the return of Cornershop. ...

Clinic: Class of 2002

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 23 February 2002

THERE'S a special sense of occasion that only a face-to-face meeting with a band who wear surgical masks on stage can generate. Surely Clinic's cheeks ...

Miriam Makeba

Profile and Interview by Mark Hudson, Daily Telegraph, March 2002

BEFORE MIRIAM Makeba's first venture outside South Africa in 1959, her mother, a sangoma or traditional medium, was warned by one of her familiar spirits ...

Kylie Minogue, The Strokes: NME Awards: Where's the aggro?

Comment by Tom Cox, Daily Telegraph, 2 March 2002

This week's NME Awards celebrated the same corporate values as the Brits, says Tom Cox ...

Alanis Morissette: Under Rug Swept

Review by Tom Cox, Daily Telegraph, 2 March 2002

RUMOURS HAVE been circulating that the latest album from Alanis Morissette is a more "musical" and "refined" effort than its two predecessors. The truth of ...

Wilco: Taking Control in a Crisis

Report and Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 28 March 2002

ROCK AND ROLL is not the first place you would look for a new form of patriotism. Yet Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the latest album by ...

Bob Dylan: On the trail of the Bobcat: Bob Dylan

Live Review by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, 13 April 2002

THE OMENS are bad from the start. Take the Stockholm subway to Globen, the stop for the arena, and you alight in a postmodern estate, ...

DJ Shadow: King of the Vinyl Junkies

Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 6 June 2002

DJ Shadow revolutionised hip hop with his first album and toured the world with Radiohead, but he is still regarded as a record-collecting nerd, he ...

System of a Down: Messiahs of metal

Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 11 July 2002

System of a Down look set to be the first band to break out of the hard-rocking nu-metal ghetto, says Ben Thompson ...

MC Romeo, So Solid Crew: MC Romeo: Alpha Romeo

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, August 2002

IN THE TOP floor of the London bus that is taking me to interview fast-talking UK garage heartthrob MC Romeo, an effervescent group of black ...

Elvis Presley: He Made Old Men's Blues Sound Young: Remembering Elvis

Comment by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, 10 August 2002

WE REMEMBER his ignominious end, and the cavalcade of white Cadillacs driving through Memphis for his funeral 25 years ago this month, but mostly the ...

Elvis Presley: Memphis Still Sings The Blues

Report by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, 10 August 2002

MEMPHIS IS ONLY technically in Tennessee. In psychic reality, it's the capital of Mississippi. Everyone who lives there knows it. What this 50 per cent ...

The Beatles: Miles: John, Paul, George and… Barry

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 16 October 2002

IN 1965, A YOUNG bookseller named Barry Miles decided to throw a birthday party in his London flat for his friend, the beat poet Allen ...

Louis Prima: An Entertainer In His Prime: The Great Louis Prima

Retrospective by James Maycock, Daily Telegraph, 16 December 2002

2003 note: I interviewed his saxophonist and arranger, Sam Butera, for an article that was published in the month of what would have seen Louis ...

James Brown: The Making Of James Brown Live At The Apollo

Retrospective by James Maycock, Daily Telegraph, February 2003

"ARE YOU READY for Star Time?" exclaimed MC Lucas "Fats" Gonder from the stage of Harlem’s Apollo on 24th October, 1962. The eager crowd ...

Metallica: Taming the Beast

Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 12 June 2003

THE US ARMY'S Psychological Operations Company recently revealed that it has been playing Metallica's 'Enter Sandman' repeatedly to Iraqi prisoners as a pre-interrogation routine. In ...

Daniel Johnston: An Outsider's Songs of Pain and Longing: Daniel Johnston

Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 3 July 2003

LOCKED ON his own in an Xfm recording booth, Daniel Johnston casually flips through the weathered ring binder that holds his songbook and begins to ...

Damon Dash: Dash it, says Posh Damon

Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 9 August 2003

Dash — a man who wears a new pair of shoes every day — has given Victoria Beckham a hip-hop makeover. Chris Campion met him ...

Lisa Maffia: First Lady

Review by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 9 August 2003

LISA MAFFIA'S former fiancé — So Solid Crew co-founder Jason "G-Man" Phillips — was recently sentenced to four years in prison for firearms offences. In ...

Bon Jovi, Cher, KISS: Kiss and Cher: the minder reveals all

Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 3 September 2003

For 30 years, Michael Francis has been a bodyguard and fixer to some of rocks least controllable artists. He tells Mick Brown what it takes ...

Dick Gaughan: An interview

Interview by Mark Hudson, Daily Telegraph, 11 September 2003

What makes a protest singer really angry? Well, being labelled a protest singer, for one thing. Folk star Dick Gaughan talks to Mark Hudson ...

Robert Wyatt: Triumph Of A Late Bloomer: Robert Wyatt

Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 2 October 2003

CONTRARY TO THE impression given by the list of cool, metropolitan mates who play on his latest album - Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, Paul Weller, ...

Dazed and Confused: The ultimate hang-out movie

Retrospective by Tom Cox, Daily Telegraph, 2004

Richard Linklater's 1993 high-school hit Dazed and Confused is available on Netflix from today. In this feature, originally published in 2004, Tom Cox explains why ...

Candi Staton: Candi Staton (Capitol)

Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 10 January 2004

ONCE UPON a time, before Beyoncé Knowles was conceived and Whitney Houston ordered up her first re-mix, R&B divas were valued for their grit rather ...

David Byrne: How the Talking Head learnt to Sing from the Heart

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 28 February 2004

David Byrne, former leader of the Talking Heads and a man whose life's work has been wrapped in irony and knowingness, has made an album ...

Eddie Palmieri: The Man Who Stirred Up Salsa

Interview by Mark Hudson, Daily Telegraph, 25 March 2004

Eddie Palmieri, maverick genius and opening act in next month's Latin music festival at the South Bank, tells Mark Hudson why salsa is more than ...

Vincent Gallo: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, April 2004

OPINION IS polarised around the work of actor-musician Vincent Gallo, whose art is inseperable from his ego. His film Brown Bunny was given a drubbing ...

Digital Magic Makes A Musician Of Me

Comment by Tom Cox, Daily Telegraph, 4 May 2004

I THINK IT'S SAFE to say I'm never going to learn to play a musical instrument properly now. The realisation first came to me about ...

Nick Drake: Brighter Very Much Later: Nick Drake

Retrospective by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 20 May 2004

POSTHUMOUS ACCLAIM is not uncommon in rock - "death sells" and all that - but the clamour surrounding the English singer-songwriter Nick Drake gets more ...

Sufjan Stevens: The 50 States of Rock: Sufjan Stevens

Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 8 June 2004

THERE HAVE BEEN MANY extra-curricular activities traditionally associated with the life of the travelling rock'n'roller. Teaching knitting to the blind is not one of them. ...

Prince of Paradox

Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 12 June 2004

Though he has become a Jehovah's Witness, Prince's stage act remains sexually charged. Having bitterly spurned the record industry giants, he now has a deal ...

Morrissey: Meltdown Festival at Royal Festival Hall, London 

Live Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 14 June 2004

WITH MORRISSEY booking the acts on this year's programme – as well as performing three shows himself, including this, the opening night – the Meltdown ...

Windsor 1974: The Forgotten Festival – I Was There

Memoir by Mark Hudson, Daily Telegraph, 28 June 2004

A world away from today's money-spinning Glastonbury, the Windsor Free Festival of 1974 was illegal, drug-happy and absurdly idealistic, recalls Mark Hudson ...

Craig Armstrong: Why I turned Tom Cruise down

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 29 July 2004

He's worked with Madonna, U2 and Massive Attack, as well as scoring the blockbuster movies Moulin Rouge and Love Actually. Craig Armstrong, the hardest-working man ...

Björk: "This Time It's Intuition Only – No Brain, Please"

Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 14 August 2004

Icelandic singer Björk has made a compelling new album that contains not a single musical instrument and is named after the Latin for 'marrow'. Robert ...

Gretchen Wilson: "I'm a redneck and proud of it"

Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 21 August 2004

A new, raw country music is sweeping the US, and no-nonsense singer Gretchen Wilson is its star. Adam Sweeting met her. ...

Elvis Costello and the Imposters: The Delivery Man

Review by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 20 September 2004

RECORDED AT Sweet Tea Studios in Oxford, Mississippi, with guest appearances by Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams, The Delivery Man initially looks like a bold ...

The Beach Boys, Van Dyke Parks, Brian Wilson: SMiLE: How We Created Pop's Lost Legend

Retrospective and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 23 September 2004

For decades, Beach Boy Brian Wilson's unreleased album SMiLE has been shrouded in myth. Now, at last, the songs can be heard on a CD ...

Femi Kuti, Fela Kuti, Seun Kuti: Fela Kuti: A Difficult Fela To Follow

Report and Interview by Mark Hudson, Daily Telegraph, 2 October 2004

As the Barbican celebrates the life and music of Fela Kuti, Mark Hudson travels to Lagos to meet his sons Femi and Seun, bitter rivals ...

Rail Good Lesson in the Blues

Report by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, 24 October 2004

Michael Gray follows the trail of some great American musicians who moved from the rural South in the early 1900s. ...

Meat Loaf: Is Meat Loaf Just A Great Big Ham?

Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 30 October 2004

INSIDE THE garage of Meat Loaf's California home there is a photograph of him lying comatose on stage surrounded by paramedics, part of a framed ...

Buggles: Trevor Horn: Vast Cities Of Sound

Profile by Paul Morley, Daily Telegraph, 10 November 2004

Trevor Horn, one of pop music's great ministers of sound, celebrates 25 years of recording wizardry this week. And it all started with The Buggles, ...

Snoop (Doggy) Dogg: Snoop Dogg: The Dogg's Still Hot

Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 2 December 2004

HIGH IN THE Hollywood Hills, at a barbecue held to celebrate the release of his latest album, Snoop Dogg is deep in conference with his ...

Beat That!

Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 11 December 2004

What happens when veteran soul drummers and top hip-hop DJs improvise together? Chris Campion reports. ...

Woody Allen's New Orleans Jazz Band: Hammersmith Apollo, London

Live Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 21 December 2004

ON THE FACE of it, Woody Allen and old New Orleans-style jazz have slightly less in common than chalk and cheese. Knowing Allen, he has ...

Gang of Four: The Gang's All Here – Again

Retrospective and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 13 January 2005

LIKE THE VELVET Underground a decade before them, Gang of Four were one of those bands who never had a proper hit but who created ...

Kasabian

Report and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, March 2005

THERE ARE many ways to reach a rock band's heart. Sex and drugs are the most tried and tested, but I've never found either very ...

Michael Bublé: Why I gave up drugs and womanising

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 24 March 2005

Michael Bublé's rise to worldwide fame has been swift. But, as his second album is released, "the new Sinatra" tells Robert Sandall how he has ...

Einstürzende Neubauten: Postbahnhof, Berlin

Live Review by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 1 April 2005

THIS YEAR Einstürzende Neubauten, the German godfathers of Industrial Rock, celebrate a quarter century of existence. One suspects that the irony of this is not ...

Joanna Newsom: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Live Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 5 April 2005

STRIDING PURPOSEFULLY past her Celtic harp and adjacent grand piano, Joanna Newsom opened her concert in typically forthright fashion. You either love her vocal mannerism ...

Adam & The Ants: Adam Ant: Adam And The Fall

Interview by Paul Lester, Daily Telegraph, 9 April 2005

STUART GODDARD is one of the most gifted – and most troubled – pop stars this country has ever produced. ...

Paolo Conte: The Italian way to swing

Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 5 May 2005

DESPITE THE FACT that he has sold out a week of shows in a plush theatre in central Milan where rival attractions such as Crosby ...

Camille: Le Fil (Virgin)

Review by Mark Hudson, Daily Telegraph, 7 May 2005

THE SUCCESS OF French dance acts such as Air has depended on a nationality-transcending electro-cool. ...

Kathryn Williams: Over Fly Over

Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 7 May 2005

KATHRYN WILLIAMS is one of those artists for whom a Mercury nomination – for her 2000 debut Little Black Numbers – brought a level of ...

The National: Alligator

Review by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 7 May 2005

AFTER A COUPLE of well-received but not exactly life-changing albums, this bookish Brooklyn-based quintet have achieved a kind of breakthrough with their third full-length release. ...

Van Morrison: Magic Time

Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 21 May 2005

AS 36TH ALBUMS go, Van Morrison's latest is a laid-back marvel. ...

Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins: Beyond The Nightmares: Billy Corgan

Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 4 June 2005

THE YOUNGER ONES recognise him and stop to say hello, but heaven knows what the older visitors make of Billy Corgan as we wander around ...

Ry Cooder: Ode to a lost shangri-la

Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 11 June 2005

After the Buena Vista phenomenon, Ry Cooder has made an album about his home town of LA. He talks to Robert Sandall. ...

Brian Eno: The Quiet Man Of Pop Rocks Out

Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 16 June 2005

Brian Eno, pioneer of gentle, ambient music, tells Robert Sandall why living in the country has made him want to get noisy. ...

Pink Floyd reunion proves that pigs can fly

Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 30 June 2005

ROGER WATERS, whose first phone call to Dave Gilmour in over 20 years sealed the Live8 deal, has said nothing. Gilmour has muttered off-the-record that ...

Luther Vandross: The Sadness Behind the Soul

Obituary by Jeff Lorez, Daily Telegraph, 7 July 2005

Although the mainstream world moved on from his polished, romantic approach, an army of fans stayed loyal to the sweet, melancholy songs of the late, ...

Eric Clapton: From Sex and Drugs to Domestic Bliss

Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 20 August 2005

IT'S DAY FOUR of Eric Clapton's week off from paternal duties, and the born-again family man doesn't know what to do with himself. On Monday ...

Field Music, The Futureheads, Maximo Park: Maximo Park, The Futureheads, Field Music: How the North East was won

Report and Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 22 August 2005

Their accent may be regional but their success is global. Ben Thompson meets three new bands from pop music's latest hotspot ...

Richard Thompson: Lyric, Hammersmith, London

Live Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 29 August 2005

ALTHOUGH ONLY one of them was named on the ticket, there were two beard-y Thompsons on stage at the Lyric Hammersmith. ...

Earth Wind and Fire: Earth, Wind and Fire: Relighting the Fire

Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 15 September 2005

MAYBE IT'S AN effect of the baking late-August heat, but the concert scene in Houston, Texas has gone all topsy-turvy. ...

Bon Jovi: Jon Bon Jovi Has a Nice Day

Interview by Precious Williams, Daily Telegraph, 16 September 2005

GONE is the once fearsome mane of highlighted hair and without it Jon Bon Jovi is almost unrecognizable. Strolling into Beverly Hills' Four Seasons ...

Bon Jovi, Jon Bon Jovi: Jon Bon Jovi: "I feel I've found my niche"

Interview by Precious Williams, Daily Telegraph, 16 September 2005

Jon Bon Jovi expected nothing less than to be a rock star. But, he tells Precious Williams, he's never counted celebrity for the sake of ...

Jimi Hendrix: Live at Woodstock

Film/DVD/TV Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 22 September 2005

FOR ONCE, "legendary" really is the word. The performance by Jimi Hendrix and his band that closed Woodstock in 1969 has been cited as one ...

John Lennon: The John Lennon I knew

Memoir by Maureen Cleave, Daily Telegraph, 5 October 2005

The man who changed the course of pop music would have been 65 this week. Maureen Cleave, who knew the Beatles at the height of ...

Laura Veirs: The DIY Queen of Quirk

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 6 October 2005

Laura Veirs is bringing her irresistibly oddball folk-rock to Europe. And, Robert Sandall finds, she's doing it the hard way. ...

Kate Bush: Aerial

Review by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 6 November 2005

Ben Thompson reviews an album of two halves ...

Jamie Lidell: King's Cross Scala, London

Live Review by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 13 November 2005

JAMIE LIDELL'S live show at the King's Cross Scala offers a number of delightfully incongruous spectacles. Looming large among them is the sight of a ...

The White Stripes: Hammersmith Apollo, London

Live Review by Paul Morley, Daily Telegraph, 13 November 2005

Paul Morley watches The White Stripes at the Hammersmith Apollo and is blown away by their impeccably skewed greatness ...

Sandy Denny: Taken Too Early

Retrospective by Mark Hudson, Daily Telegraph, 24 November 2005

Mark Hudson reveals the tragic tale of the British Joni Mitchell; Sandy Denny ...

Rachid Taha: Raucous rocking in the casbah

Live Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 29 November 2005

SIGHTINGS OF BRIAN Eno playing music in public in Britain have been rare enough these past 30 years, and as for jigging excitedly around the ...

Tony Christie: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 7 December 2005

ON THE FACE of it, the '70s power crooner Tony Christie is presently enjoying a second coming. ...

Robert Fripp: "If you love music, become a plumber"

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 8 December 2005

CRADLING A NICE cup of tea in the kitchen of his home on the River Avon in Worcestershire, Robert Fripp looks more like a kindly ...

Boney M get back in the ring

Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 19 January 2006

Can a musical based on the group's cheesy '70s pop really attract new fans? Robert Sandall meets the men who believe it can. ...

Steve Marriott: The Mod That Time Forgot

Retrospective by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 16 February 2006

Steve Marriott kick-started a uniquely British style of rock. Robert Sandall remembers an unsung hero. ...

Donald Fagen: The Cat Will See You Now

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 2 March 2006

First there was The Nightfly. Then Kamakiriad. And now, a mere 24 years on, the trilogy is complete. Robert Sandall meets Steely Dan's Donald Fagen ...

Willie Nelson: Graeme Thomson: Willie Nelson – The Outlaw

Book Review by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 9 March 2006

MANY RECORDING artists have flirted with cowboy-chic, from the Eagles with their "gunfighter" album Desperado to Jon Bon Jovi preposterously claiming to be "Wanted Dead ...

Roots Manuva: Britain's deepest rap star

Profile and Interview by Angus Batey, Daily Telegraph, 9 March 2006

ROOTS MANUVA, king of British hip hop, tells Angus Batey about his new album, his "moronic" sense of humour — and why he pretended he ...

Hank Williams III: It's country but not as we know it

Report and Interview by Angus Batey, Daily Telegraph, 16 March 2006

"GARY JUMPED INTO a metal beam and that messed him up a little bit," shrugs Williams of his mohawk-sporting bassist, whose head injury on the ...

David Bowie, Morrissey: Tony Visconti: Bolan, Bowie, Morrissey And Me

Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 23 March 2006

"WHAT A LOT of people don't realise about Morrissey," says the producer of his new album, Tony Visconti, "is that he has a sense of ...

The Knife: A Curious Exoticism

Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 13 April 2006

YOU MIGHT NOT have heard of the Swedish brother-sister duo the Knife, but there's a fair chance you've heard their music. ...

Bob Dylan: Dylan's deadpan debut as a DJ

Report by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 4 May 2006

Robert Sandall reports on Bob Dylan's first turn at the decks spinning his favourite tunes. ...

The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rick Rubin: Rick Rubin: The Man Who Made The Chilis Hot

Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 4 May 2006

As the Red Hot Chili Peppers release a monumental new album, their producer Rick Rubin tells Robert Sandall how he tamed one of pop's most ...

Elvis Presley: Rediscovering the joy in the sad story of Elvis

Retrospective by Philip Norman, Daily Telegraph, 13 May 2006

NO POP ICON ever came to a sadder or less regal end than the once gorgeous, gaudy "King" of rock 'n' roll, Elvis Presley. When ...

David Gilmour: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 31 May 2006

"LIKE SLEEPING with your ex-wife" was how David Gilmour dismissively described Pink Floyd's reunion for Live 8. Given that Gilmour has since insisted that his ...

Scritti Politti: Green Gartside

Interview by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 8 June 2006

Scritti Politti's Green Gartside has returned with a new album buzzing with ideas and pop hooks, writes Adam Sweeting ...

The Dixie Chicks: Dixie Chicks: How The Chicks Survived Their Scrap With Bush

Interview by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 15 June 2006

Adam Sweeting assesses how the Dixie Chicks have weathered a political storm ...

Current 93: Waiting for the Apocalypse in a Hastings back garden

Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 16 June 2006

Chris Campion meets David Tibet of the industrial folk band Current 93. ...

Ronnie Scott's says goodbye to sticky carpets, hello to decent food and air conditioning

Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 24 June 2006

The legendary Soho jazz club has had a long overdue revamp. Robert Sandall reports. ...

Cerys Matthews: Ballad of the born-again pop star

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 22 July 2006

Things got so bad for Cerys Matthews in the '90s that she broke down on stage. But a new life in rural Nashville has revitalised ...

Inara George: I just had to follow in Dad's footsteps

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 27 July 2006

Inara George talks to Robert Sandall about forging a career in the shadow of her late father, Lowell, leader of legendary rockers Little Feat. ...

Sufjan Stevens: Liturgical sounds for restaurant place-mats

Interview by Craig McLean, Daily Telegraph, 29 July 2006

Sufjan Stevens makes dazzling celestial music from the minutiae of everyday life. Craig McLean meets him. ...

Editors: We don't want to win the Mercury

Interview by Paul Lester, Daily Telegraph, 17 August 2006

Editors are poised to take over from Coldplay as the new masters of navel-gazing stadium rock. As they return to UK stages, they tell Paul ...

Young Knives: Everyone likes a village fête

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 19 August 2006

The Young Knives dress like farmers and celebrate rural life. Ben Thompson welcomes the sound of agrarian post-punk  ...

Kool Keith: Welcome to the weird world of Kool Keith, rap's kookiest star

Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 31 August 2006

CALL HIM Black Elvis, Dr Dooom, Mr Gerbik or just plain Matthew. Kool Keith (real name Keith Thornton) responds to all of them. ...

John Martyn: There's mystery in the air as John Martyn revives a classic

Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 7 September 2006

FOR AN ALBUM that had no noticeable commercial impact here when it first appeared in February 1973, John Martyn's Solid Air has enjoyed a remarkable ...

The Fratellis: Fratellis: Costello Music

Review by Craig McLean, Daily Telegraph, 9 September 2006

WHATEVER YOU DO, don't mention the Libertines. ...

Lupe Fiasco: Food and Liquor

Review by Angus Batey, Daily Telegraph, 23 September 2006

FROM ARRESTED Development to the Streets, hip-hop history is littered with rappers who wowed critics and had pop hits but left the cognoscenti cold. ...

Lloyd Cole: Singing for Grown-Ups in 3D

Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 7 October 2006

WHEN LLOYD COLE says that a lot of the things he enjoys "don't sit very well with youth culture", you can see his point. Today's ...

Allen Toussaint: The Jazz Café, London

Live Review by Simon Witter, Daily Telegraph, 9 November 2006

THOUGH HE IS the greatest living exponent of the extraordinary New Orleans piano tradition that produced Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, Huey Smith, James Booker, Dr ...

Tony Joe White: Audience With The Other Elvis

Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 30 December 2006

Tony Joe White, writer of 'Polk Salad Annie' and 'Rainy Night in Georgia', talks to Chris Campion about his mythic songs and his Louisiana childhood ...

Everything But The Girl, Tracey Thorn: Tracey Thorn: Everything and More

Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 24 February 2007

Tracey Thorn is the voice of Everything But The Girl, one of pop's most enduring partnerships. Seven years after retreating from music to raise her ...

Elvis Costello, Robert Wyatt: The lasting legacy of 'Shipbuilding'

Retrospective by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 5 April 2007

During the Falklands war, Elvis Costello wrote a passionate elegy for a lost way of life that still resonates today, says Robert Sandall. ...

CocoRosie: Dinner with pop's strangest sisters

Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 7 April 2007

Off-the-wall indie band CocoRosie spend the evening with Chris Campion. ...

Lou Reed: Iron Glove, Velvet Fist

Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 26 May 2007

The legendarily cantankerous Lou Reed's definition of abject misery is being interviewed by an English journalist. But get him on the right subject and he ...

The Beatles, Stereophonics: It was 40 years ago today: Remaking Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 31 May 2007

The Beatles' monumental album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is being re-recorded by some of the biggest names in pop. Robert Sandall reports. ...

How I Took On The New York Dolls

Memoir by Mark Hudson, Daily Telegraph, 2 June 2007

As a new exhibition marks the 30th anniversary of punk, Mark Hudson, lead singer in a college band, recalls the once-in-a-lifetime feeling of the summer ...

Paul McCartney: Electric Ballroom, London

Live Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 8 June 2007

IT WAS SUPPOSED to be a "secret" gig; but the cat was out of the bag – and all over the internet and the papers ...

The White Stripes: Detroit Spinners

Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 9 June 2007

SON HOUSE WAS one of the greatest of all blues singers. Born on a Mississippi cotton plantation in 1902, he died 86 years later – ...

Pharoahe Monch: Hip-hop gets its sense of humour back

Profile and Interview by Angus Batey, Daily Telegraph, 16 June 2007

PHAROAHE MONCH'S sales record is modest, but his music makes up in resonance and impact what it may lack in commercial clout.   ...

The Police: Back on the Beat

Interview by Chris Salewicz, Daily Telegraph, 14 July 2007

When the Police split up 23 years ago, they were the world's biggest band... and possibly its most competitive. As they embark on a £100 ...

Beverley Knight, Candi Staton: In Praise of Gospel Music

Report and Interview by Angus Batey, Daily Telegraph, 23 July 2007

IN THE BOWELS of the BBC's Maida Vale studios, a spirit is stirring. Spread around the large room, a band, choir and two singers are ...

Blind Willie McTell: Michael Gray: Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes: In Search of Blind Willie McTell (Bloomsbury)

Book Review by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 17 August 2007

AS MICHAEL Gray makes clear from the outset, Blind Willie McTell confounds every popular stereotype of the southern blues man. McTell was no "roaring primitive, ...

Alison Hinds: Notting Hill Carnival: Alison Hinds ready to reign at Carnival

Report and Interview by Angus Batey, Daily Telegraph, 23 August 2007

'Roll It Gal' by Alison Hinds will be the song that rules this weekend's Notting Hill Carnival. Angus Batey meets the Barbadian star. ...

Harry Connick Jr: Renewing New Orleans

Report and Interview by Angus Batey, Daily Telegraph, 30 September 2007

Hurricane Katrina almost killed the New Orleans music scene. Now many of its players are coming back – to a musicians' village in the heart ...

Radiohead: In Rainbows

Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 9 October 2007

NOT SINCE 1998 when Oasis delivered Be Here Now, their feverishly anticipated sequel to What's The Story (Morning Glory), has a rock album generated as ...

The Eagles: Indigo2, London

Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 1 November 2007

THE EAGLES became the ultimate '70s super-band, and their habitat was super-bowls and stadiums. Thus the opportunity to see them in the comparatively miniscule Indigo2 ...

Carbon/Silicon: Rock of ages

Profile and Interview by Chris Salewicz, Daily Telegraph, 3 November 2007

NOW IN THEIR FIFTIES, Mick Jones and Tony James have joined forces and formed the band Carbon/Silicon. Chris Salewicz meets the punk-rock legends. ...

Bruce Springsteen: Odyssey Arena, Belfast

Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 17 December 2007

JUST AFTER everybody has published their list of the best gigs of 2007, along comes Bruce Springsteen to confound the pundits. ...

New York Noise: Anarchy in the USA

Book Review by Simon Witter, Daily Telegraph, 22 December 2007

PERUSING THE WEALTH of multi-disciplinary artistic talent beaming out of the 400 black and white images in New York Noise (Soul Jazz Publishing), it's hard ...

Joe Jackson: "Actually, I quite like landmines"

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 5 January 2008

Joe Jackson, songwriter and contrarian, talks to Robert Sandall about smoking, Berlin, and his new album. ...

Bill Wyman: "I can't live off the Stones royalties"

Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 10 January 2008

BILL WYMAN IS sitting in a booth at the back of his Sticky Fingers restaurant cuddling a beautiful young girl called Matilda. ...

EMI: A Giant at War with itself

Report by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 17 January 2008

As EMI faces painful restructuring, Robert Sandall, a former employee, recalls the confusion and rivalries that once bedevilled the company. ...

Sheryl Crow: Why Sheryl Crow is starting over

Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 26 January 2008

Battling cancer and adopting a child led Sheryl Crow to reassess what is important in life. No longer concerned with what people think, she has ...

Baby Dee: The Torch-Singing Tree Surgeon Branches Out

Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 2 February 2008

"SOMETIMES I WORRY that I've become addicted to upheaval," says Baby Dee, torch singer, native of Cleveland, Ohio, and former harpist for Mercury Prize-winner Antony ...

Michael Jackson: Thriller 25th Anniversary Edition

Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 9 February 2008

WHAT A TOPSY-TURVY career Michael Jackson has had. ...

Salif Keita: "I prefer Céline Dion these days"

Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 16 February 2008

Singer Salif Keita tells Robert Sandall about his new UK tour – and why he's weary of rock. ...

The B-52s: B-52s: The Love Shack Shakes Again

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 3 April 2008

It's 30 years since the hairdos and harmonies of the B-52s propelled them to stardom. With their new album, as Robert Sandall discovers, the party ...

Martha Wainwright: "I like old guys cos they like me!"

Interview by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 10 May 2008

Singer Martha Wainwright tells Adam Sweeting about the soap opera of her family life ...

Roger Waters: O2 Arena, London

Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 20 May 2008

Roger Waters continues to infuse his work with almost diabolical intensity, writes Adam Sweeting  ...

Donna Summer: Too hot to handle

Retrospective and Interview by Craig McLean, Daily Telegraph, 13 June 2008

A devout Christian, Donna Summer was an unlikely queen of disco, particularly one who wore her crown with such raunchy abandon. Now a 59-year-old grandmother, ...

John Mayer: Famous Girlfriend Blues

Interview by Angus Batey, Daily Telegraph, 20 June 2008

John Mayer would prefer to talk about his guitar-playing, but what everyone really wants to know is how he's treating his woman, Jennifer Aniston. "I've ...

Tricky: Return Of The Bristol Rover

Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 21 June 2008

After exploding on to the trip-hop scene with Massive Attack and as a solo artist, Tricky decamped to America to go through what some see ...

Seth Lakeman: To The Sea!

Profile and Interview by Colin Irwin, Daily Telegraph, 3 July 2008

The Penlee lifeboat disaster inspired Seth Lakeman's raw new CD. Colin Irwin went to a Cornish beach to see him play it. ...

Sharleen Spiteri: Hit Single

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 3 July 2008

Texas' Sharleen Spiteri has gone solo. This time it is personal, she tells Sheryl Garratt. ...

Leila: Postcards from the planet Leila

Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 5 July 2008

Leila Arab fled Iran in 1979 and is now one of the most distinctive forces in pop. Ben Thompson met her. ...

Walter Becker, Steely Dan: Walter Becker: Steely Dan man sees the light

Interview by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 17 July 2008

WALTER BECKER talks to Adam Sweeting about his adventurous new solo album and the rollicking return of the band that made him. ...

Bill Drummond: Pop's prankster heads for destruction

Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 19 August 2008

WITH BILL Drummond now, you feel, it's very much a case of "cometh the time, cometh the man". ...

The Chemical Brothers: Chemical Brothers: Talking about new album Brotherhood

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 23 August 2008

They started out playing the back rooms of pubs, and now fill stadiums around the world. But despite being Britain's biggest dance act, the Chemical ...

Glasvegas: Glasvegas

Review by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 6 September 2008

ROUGHLY ONCE every seven years, a band that former Creation Records boss Alan McGee tips for the top actually gets there. ...

Kings of Leon: Only By The Night (RCA)

Review by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 17 September 2008

WITH THE White Stripes facing an uncertain future, and The Strokes fragmenting into underwhelming solo careers, Kings of Leon are the sole survivors of America's ...

Keane: Perfect Symmetry

Review by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 11 October 2008

KEANE'S THIRD album arrives two years after its predecessor Under the Iron Sea, and in the wake of baby-faced vocalist Tom Chaplin's battle with drugs ...

The Move: Anthology 1966-72

Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 23 October 2008

IT'S A MYSTERY how the Move have missed out on the fame and reputation enjoyed by contemporaries such as the Kinks, the Who and the ...

Dido: Queen of the Road

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 29 October 2008

Dido is Britain's most successful female artist ever, yet is releasing only her third album since her 1999 breakthrough. She tells Sheryl Garratt about the ...

Damon Albarn, Jarvis Cocker, Scott Walker: Tilting and Drifting: The Songs of Scott Walker at the Barbican, London

Live Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 14 November 2008

IN LINE WITH his progress from '60s teen heartthrob to reclusive disciple of the avant garde, Scott Walker has long since given up performing in ...

Inara George, Van Dyke Parks: Inara George and Van Dyke Parks: Harmony born of legend

Interview by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 20 November 2008

The new album by Lowell George's daughter Inara shimmers with arrangements by Van Dyke Parks — one of her late father's best friends. They talk ...

Will Young: From Now On

Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 28 November 2008

Since winning Pop Idol in 2002, Will Young has had huge commercial success, yet depression and self-doubt have dogged his achievements. Now with his critically ...

Buddy Holly: Why Buddy Holly will never fade away

Retrospective by Philip Norman, Daily Telegraph, 30 January 2009

ON A BASIS OF simply counting heads, rock music surpasses even film as the 20th century's most influential art form. By that reckoning, there is ...

DAF: 02 Academy, London

Live Review by Simon Witter, Daily Telegraph, 1 April 2009

IN A YEAR in which it would be almost easier to count the bands not reforming, and in which a startling percentage of pop newcomers ...

The Specials: 02 Academy, Birmingham

Live Review by Simon Witter, Daily Telegraph, 27 April 2009

FROM AGING ROCKERS who won’t let it be to '80s ravers going to pilled-up, Facebook-coordinated reunions, everybody these days is raging against the dying of ...

Lenny Kravitz

Interview by Chris Heath, Daily Telegraph, 16 June 2009

No one nailed the rock idol act like Lenny Kravitz. Love god, guitar hero, wild thing, he lived the life — multiple women, homes and ...

Kraftwerk at the Manchester International Festival

Report and Interview by Simon Witter, Daily Telegraph, 19 June 2009

The unlikely rock star Ralf Hütter talks about cycling and the Kraftwerk concert at Manchester. ...

Lily Allen: Somerset House, London ***

Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 13 July 2009

The queen of MySpace and Twitter struggles to make herself heard in the real world. ...

Sound of the World: Otro Mundo: An Interview with Charlie Gillett

Report and Interview by Mark Hudson, Daily Telegraph, 15 July 2009

"WHEN I PLAY a new album," says Charlie Gillett, "I want to be surprised, to be completely captivated by the music – the way we ...

Alison Krauss: An Interview

Interview by Paul Sexton, Daily Telegraph, 22 July 2009

ALISON KRAUSS IS wandering through a meadow, elegantly, if incongruously, attired in a black ballgown, her fingers languorously brushing the tall grass as she sings ...

Yoko Ono: Still Walking On Thin Ice

Retrospective and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 17 September 2009

After 40 years of being unfairly accused of breaking up the Beatles and harshly mocked for her avant garde art and pop music, Yoko Ono ...

Alicia Keys

Interview by Angus Batey, Daily Telegraph, 22 December 2009

SHE WRITES all her own songs, can play them live and has never been seen emerging from a club looking the worse for wear. Alicia ...

Gil Scott-Heron: An Interview

Interview by Rob Fitzpatrick, Daily Telegraph, 17 February 2010

NOTE: This is the original "director's cut" version of the piece that ran in the Daily Telegraph. ...

The Special AKA, The Specials: Jerry Dammers: Booted Out of the Band I Founded

Report and Interview by Chris Salewicz, Daily Telegraph, 3 March 2010

Jerry Dammers talks about his exotic new project – and why he wasn't part of the Specials' reunion. ...

Frank Zappa, Tom Waits: Frank Zappa's Manager: A Smile On His Lips, And A Pistol Under The Bar

Obituary by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 19 March 2010

Mick Brown pays tribute to Herb Cohen, who managed Frank Zappa while maintaining an enthusiasm for music, cheese, confectionery and armaments. ...

Courtney Love: Damage Limitation

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 1 April 2010

Courtney Love has declared her image ripe for rebranding, and with her drug addiction under control and her band reinvigorated, she is heading in the ...

Black Country Communion: Return of the Rock-and-Roll Supergroup

Report and Interview by David Sinclair, Daily Telegraph, 29 September 2010

THE ROCK SUPERGROUP is back. Once a byword for hype and hubris, the idea of renowned musicians getting together to form instantly famous new groups ...

Duffy: Living The Dream

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 30 September 2010

Growing up in north Wales, Aimée Ann Duffy dreamt of being a singing star. When success came suddenly, it brought adulation, awards and a call ...

Brian Eno: 'Lady Gaga's Meat Dress? I Did It First'

Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 22 November 2010

Fashion disasters, electronic music, even the Lib-Con coalition...The super-producer and former Roxy Music wizard saw it all coming ...

Janet Jackson: 'I Eat To Fill The Void'

Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, Daily Telegraph, 22 November 2010

With an Oscar-tipped role in Tyler Perry's new film and a handsome young billionaire in her life, Janet Jackson is, finally, 'in a good place'. ...

Captain Beefheart: A Surreal Singer in Pursuit of an Audience

Comment by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 20 December 2010

DON VAN VLIET, aka Captain Beefheart, who died last Friday, could be a difficult man. His idiosyncratic recordings – a bizarre goulash of delta blues, ...

Pet Shop Boys on The Most Incredible Thing

Report and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 17 February 2011

The Pet Shop Boys have joined forces with Sadler's Wells on The Most Incredible Thing, a ballet based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. ...

The Vaccines are a shot in the arm of pop

Report by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 28 March 2011

THE OPENING slot on the NME Awards Tour has often been a gateway to great things, with Coldplay and Franz Ferdinand among those who have ...

Kate Bush: The Vanishing Siren

Retrospective and Interview by Graeme Thomson, Daily Telegraph, 12 May 2011

As one of pop's finest and most reclusive talents releases her first album in six years, Graeme Thomson explains her enduring appeal. ...

Pop Has Eaten Itself for the Very Last Time: Simon Cowell

Comment by David Quantick, Daily Telegraph, 3 June 2011

People will look back on Simon Cowell and his hideous creations and wonder how we fell for it, writes David Quantick. ...

Beyoncé Is Too Good For Glastonbury

Comment by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 17 June 2011

Glastonbury's complacent Pyramid Stage crowd just doesn't deserve the great Beyoncé ...

Sinéad O'Connor: Manchester International Festival

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 4 July 2011

YOU'D BE HARD pushed to recognise Sinéad O'Connor these days. Her publicity photos still show the willowy ingenue of her early '90s heyday, all Bambi ...

Rickie Lee Jones: Manchester International Festival

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 11 July 2011

RICKIE LEE JONES isn't someone readily given to nostalgia. In a career that's now into its fifth decade, she's rarely looked back, preferring instead to ...

Amadou & Mariam: New Century Hall, Manchester

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 19 July 2011

The music of Amadou & Mariam, the blind superstars, came in gloriously vivacious colour at the New Century Hall Manchester. ...

Bobby "Blue" Bland: Charles Farley: Soul of the Man – Bobby "Blue" Bland

Book Review by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 22 July 2011

I HAVE TWO REASONS to vividly remember the first occasion I saw Bobby "Blue" Bland perform in a Los Angeles nightclub 35 years ago. ...

George Harrison: Fabbest of the Four?

Retrospective by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 30 September 2011

Martin Scorsese's new documentary about George Harrison makes a case for him as the equal – or even the superior – of Lennon and McCartney, ...

Bob Dylan, Mark Knopfler: Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler: MEN arena, Manchester

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 11 October 2011

THERE WAS A KINETIC BUZZ to Bob Dylan's show, while it's clear Mark Knopfler is still capable of delivering a kick at their gig at ...

Noel Gallagher, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds: Noel Gallagher: A Grown-up Pop Star

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 15 October 2011

With the launch of his first solo album, Noel Gallagher reflects on life without Liam, turning down The X Factor and giving up the parties. ...

Laura Marling: Manchester Cathedral

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 25 October 2011

Laura Marling showed her uncommon poise and gift for bewitchment during her When The Bell Tolls gig at Manchester Cathedral. ...

'Summertime' Forever

Retrospective by James Maycock, Daily Telegraph, November 2011

IT'S EVERYWHERE. It's become part of the air we breathe. 'Summertime' certainly feels like it's been with us forever. One day this June, while making ...

George Gershwin: Searching for 'Summertime': Gershwin's masterpiece

Retrospective by James Maycock, Daily Telegraph, 19 November 2011

In some versions it's a tender lullaby, in others a siren song. Filmmaker James Maycock explores the bittersweet mysteries and colourful past of Gershwin's most ...

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings: O2 Apollo, Manchester

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 22 November 2011

"THIS IS A SONG of hope and optimism," announced David Rawlings, some dozen or so tunes into tonight's set. "They think you're joking," came the ...

The Black Keys: O2 Apollo, Manchester ****

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 7 February 2012

ONE OF THE great things about pop music is its happy habit of making heroes from the unlikeliest base material. ...

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds: M.E.N. Arena, Manchester

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 14 February 2012

This homecoming gig confirms that the elder Gallagher brother's star is shining brightly indeed. ...

Lambchop: Elegy for a friend and mentor, bathed in Sinatra strings

Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 23 February 2012

IF YOU'RE GOING TO TRY SOMETHING NEW, you might as well learn from the best. There aren't many records categorised by iTunes as indie rock ...

The Monkees: This Boy Band Never Monkeyed Around

Retrospective by Bob Stanley, Daily Telegraph, 1 March 2012

Fact and fantasy were intertwined in the Monkees, but we'll never see their like again ...

Joan Baez: Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 6 March 2012

BY THE TIME she got to Woodstock, Joan Baez was six months pregnant and her husband was in jail. It was August 1969 and the ...

Jonny Greenwood

Interview by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 17 March 2012

Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood tells Adam Sweeting about his new collaboration with his classical hero Krysztof Penderecki. ...

Civil Wars, the: The Civil Wars: Academy 2, Manchester

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 21 March 2012

THE SOARAWAY SUCCESS of The Civil Wars is little less than phenomenal. Barely three years after first meeting at a writing camp for a country ...

The Rolling Stones: True Adventures with the Rolling Stones: Stanley Booth

Retrospective and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 19 April 2012

Fifty years after the band was formed, Stanley Booth, who wrote a book about the infamous American tour of 1969, talks to Mick Brown. ...

New Order: Apollo, Manchester

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 27 April 2012

New Order, on terrific form at the Apollo in Manchester embarking on their first UK tour in six years, didn't seem to miss bassist Peter ...

Neneh Cherry: "I feel like I've woken up"

Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 6 June 2012

Singer Neneh Cherry, who releases her first album in 16 years later this month, feels like she has woken up from a weird sleep, she ...

The Stone Roses: Stone Roses: Heaton Park, Manchester

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 1 July 2012

Rob Hughes sees the reunited Stone Roses play a huge outdoor show at Heaton Park in Manchester. ...

Daryl Hall: The Net Widens For Hit-Maker Daryl Hall

Report and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 11 July 2012

The blonde half of Hall & Oates, Daryl Hall, is fast becoming quite the English gent, he tells Adam Sweeting .  ...

Morrissey: MEN Arena, Manchester

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 30 July 2012

Morrissey the solo artist, playing a homecoming show at MEN Arena in Manchester, again struggles in the shadow of The Smiths, writes Rob Hughes. ...

World Party: Karl Wallinger: The Song that Saved My Bacon

Report and Interview by Graeme Thomson, Daily Telegraph, 15 August 2012

IN 1997 WORLD PARTY released a song called 'She's the One'. A simple, affecting piano ballad written by Karl Wallinger "in ten minutes and recorded ...

Robert Plant: How I got my "big voice" out again

Report and Interview by Paul Sexton, Daily Telegraph, 22 August 2012

ROBERT PLANT stands on a small stage 4,500 miles from his birthplace, and yet he's never been so close to home. ...

Larry Graham, Prince, Sly & the Family Stone: Larry Graham: Soul Secrets of a Family Man

Interview by Paul Sexton, Daily Telegraph, 30 August 2012

The co-founder of funk pioneers Sly and the Family Stone Larry Graham tells Paul Sexton of stardom, survival, and his new group Graham Central Station. ...

Radiohead: MEN arena, Manchester

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 8 October 2012

"HELLO. MY name's Lady Gaga." Thom Yorke's introduction to Radiohead's first British audience in four years was happily and tellingly unpredictable. Saturday's sellout show in ...

Madness: Suggs on 30 years as music's most dysfunctional family

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 22 October 2012

How do seven men who can barely be in the same room together remain one of the most enduring groups British music has ever known? ...

The Rolling Stones: the greatest rock and roll band in the world? That's a bit rich

Comment by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 26 November 2012

Their latest shows prove the Rolling Stones can still work a crowd, but their music is of a time long gone ...

Kris Kristofferson: Troubadour writing on into the sunset

Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 4 December 2012

Country singer Kris Kristofferson reflects on a long and "lucky" career on his new album, Feeling Mortal. He talks to Rob Hughes about why. ...

Liza Minnelli: "Each song is a movie to me"

Interview by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 17 January 2013

Ahead of her show at the Royal Festival Hall, Liza Minnelli takes a break from rehearsals in New York to serenade Adam Sweeting. ...

Tim Hardin: Remembering the lost genius of his music

Retrospective by Graeme Thomson, Daily Telegraph, 18 January 2013

BOB DYLAN once called him "the greatest songwriter alive" and Joe Strummer regarded him as a "lost genius of music". Yet when Tim Hardin died ...

Jake Bugg: Bringing Back a Blue-Collar Perspective

Profile by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 1 February 2013

Can this 18-year-old from a Nottingham housing estate put some proletarian grit back into British guitar pop? ...

Kraftwerk: Is Kraftwerk still a functioning pop group?

Comment by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 6 February 2013

On the eve of Kraftwerk's eight sell-out concerts at Tate Modern, Ben Thompson tries to give comfort to the ticketless. ...

Kraftwerk: Autobahn at Tate Modern

Live Review by Paul Morley, Daily Telegraph, 7 February 2013

WHEN I SAW Kraftwerk 38 years ago, as much as they were about the future, I didn't think they would actually make it into the ...

Anaïs Mitchell: Interview

Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 5 March 2013

Anaïs Mitchell, dubbed "the Queen of modern folk", tells Rob Hughes why she's inspired by centuries-old British ballads. ...

Laura Mvula: Sing to the Moon

Review by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 30 April 2013

As she embarks on a UK tour, Birmingham's Laura Mvula seems intent on taking R&B vocals in an exploratory new direction, says Ben Thompson. ...

Burt Bacharach: What Was it All About?

Retrospective and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 1 June 2013

AT THE AGE OF 85, the man who has been described as the greatest songwriter of the 20th century cuts a surprisingly energetic and restive ...

Bonnie Raitt interview

Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 6 June 2013

SOMETIMES, JUST sometimes, the good ones win out. Ask Bonnie Raitt. In a career now into its fifth decade, and which once appeared to be ...

Cat Power: Swooning Songs and Psychotic Episodes

Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 25 June 2013

CHAN MARSHALL has things on her mind. Big things. We're in the games room of her London hotel — all dim-lit ambience and trophy antlers ...

Johnny Marr: "I've been in all my favourite bands"

Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 26 June 2013

Johnny Marr's five years in the Smiths have overshadowed his prolific output but the revered guitarist is finally stepping into the limelight. ...

Neneh Cherry, RocketNumberNine: Neneh Cherry and RocketNumberNine: Pavilion Theatre, Manchester

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 5 July 2013

NOT KNOWING what's coming can work both ways. In keeping with Manchester International Festival's remit of unveiling original and provocative new work, Neneh Cherry and ...

Bobby Womack: Soul Survivor

Report and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 17 July 2013

Revered soul singer Bobby Womack has weathered a life filled with tragedy and misfortune. Ahead of his performance at Latitude Festival, he talks to Mick ...

Roy Harper: Confessions of a Hippie Sage

Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 15 August 2013

Roy Harper has a glittering list of admirers, from Pink Floyd to Kate Bush. He tells Rob Hughes why it's taken 13 years to make ...

Björk: Still underestimated after all these years

Comment by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 3 September 2013

Ben Thompson salutes the maverick Icelander's cunning, as she prepares to play her most recent album, Biophilia, in London for the first time. ...

Arthur Alexander, Clarence Carter, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Candi Staton: Deep Soul: How Muscle Shoals became music's most unlikely hit factory

Retrospective and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, October 2013

IN JANUARY 1967, a young singer named Aretha Franklin arrived in the small Alabama town of Muscle Shoals, her career hanging in the balance. ...

Katharine Jenkins: Katherine Jenkins and the classical music stars who please our ears – and eyes

Report by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 21 January 2014

DRESSED IN something crimson and curve-enhancing by Stella McCartney, and teetering on Kurt Geiger heels, Katherine Jenkins has assured us that she's heading "back to ...

Beyoncé: Beyoncé

Review by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 20 February 2014

Don't be fooled by the endless perfume ads and narcissistic documentaries — with her upcoming tour dates, fortress Britain will fall once again to Beyoncé, ...

Beck's back: A new album from pop's coolest chameleon

Profile and Interview by Ian Gittins, Daily Telegraph, 1 March 2014

The singer-songwriter Beck talks about his new album, Morning Phase, the latest turn on a zig-zag career. ...

Tinie Tempah: The Most Stylish Man In Music

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 25 March 2014

From the outset, rapper Tinie Tempah was determined to stand out from the crowd. He talks to Sheryl Garratt about the evolution of his style ...

Viv Albertine, The Slits: The Creative Life of Viv Albertine

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 11 May 2014

She hung out with Sid Vicious, trashed hotel rooms and her album was blacklisted. So what's changed for the former punk Viv Albertine – apart ...

Hurray for the Riff Raff: Bard of the Big Easy

Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 31 May 2014

Alynda Lee Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff was living rough until New Orleans inspired her to sing. "I owe the city," she tells ...

Kasabian: Shepherd's Bush Empire

Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 19 June 2014

EVEN THOUGH the Empire can only squeeze in a couple of thousand punters, it was impossible not to imagine Kasabian's thundering anthems rolling out across ...

Coldplay: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 2 July 2014

THE ALBERT HALL was besieged by Coldplay fans desperately seeking a ticket for this week's pair of sold-out shows. ...

Is It All Over For The Album?

Comment by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 31 July 2014

Artists were the kings of vinyl. Now, everyone can create their own digital playlist – but Spotify will never be Pet Sounds. ...

Kate Bush: "They thought she was the stripper"

Retrospective by Graeme Thomson, Daily Telegraph, 9 August 2014

A year before 'Wuthering Heights' made her a star, Kate Bush cut her teeth performing in London's pubs. ...

Joe Bonamassa: He remembers opening for BB King in 1989

Memoir by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 26 September 2014

The guitarist recalls supporting the King of Blues at just twelve years old ...

Robert Fripp, King Crimson: Robert Fripp: "I'm a very difficult person to work with"

Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 31 October 2014

Guitarist Robert Fripp influenced David Bowie and Peter Gabriel, but it's only the latest revival of his band King Crimson that has brought out his ...

Kim Gordon, Sonic Youth: Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon (Faber & Faber)

Book Review by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 19 February 2015

Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon reflects on the break-up of her marriage and the loss of New York's netherworld ...

tUnE-yArDs: "Most rock shows are pretty boring"

Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 27 February 2015

BENEATH WILD PERFORMANCES and infectious tunes, Merrill Garbus's band tUnE-yArDs is tackling serious subjects. ...

Blondie, Debbie Harry: Debbie Harry on punk, refusing to retire and sex at 69

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 1 March 2015

Forty years after Blondie found fame on the New York scene, Debbie Harry is still waving the flag for women in the music business – ...

Percy Sledge, 1940-2015

Obituary by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 14 April 2015

Percy Sledge's 'When A Man Loves A Woman' transcended time and place, says Mick Brown. ...

Various Artists: The Complete Stax Soul Singles

Review by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 25 May 2015

These two collections are a delight, full of familiar pleasures and obscure nuggets from Stax's large catalogue of soul singles, says Mick Brown. ...

James Taylor: "A big part of my story is recovery from addiction"

Profile and Interview by Paul Sexton, Daily Telegraph, 20 June 2015

At the age of 67, James Taylor has made his 16th album, his first in 13 years. After spending his early career addicted to heroin, ...

Björk: Manchester International Festival

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 5 July 2015

Despite basing her show around heartbreak, Björk was clearly having fun, says Rob Hughes. ...

Is it over for the NME?

Comment by James Brown, Daily Telegraph, 8 July 2015

As the New Musical Express announces it is to go free, here former features editor James Brown writes how the lights went out at the ...

Natalie Prass: "I wrote weird arrangements in my attic and couldn't afford clothes"

Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 19 August 2015

NATALIE PRASS almost gave up music a while back. The Virginian's career had stalled in 2014 and she was stuck in Nashville, where she had ...

Kacey Musgraves: The New Rebel Queen of Nashville

Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 1 December 2015

THREE DAYS before I meet Kacey Musgraves, the American country singer appears at the Royal Variety Performance in London, sharing a bill with One Direction, ...

David Bowie: Why those who were teenagers in the '70s will feel the loss of David Bowie the most 

Comment by Kathryn Flett, Daily Telegraph, 11 January 2016

I AM MAKING toast for my 13-year-old when the 7.30am news comes on the radio. Oh! Oh no. David Bowie is dead. I hear the ...

Electric Light Orchestra: Manchester Arena

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 11 April 2016

ELO's superb Manchester gig leaves Rob Hughes hoping Jeff Lynne and co. are back for good this time round. ...

Bruce Springsteen: Etihad Stadium, Manchester

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 26 May 2016

IT TAKES A PERVERSE SENSE OF LOGIC to serenade a crowd with 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town' in May, but Bruce Springsteen isn't one ...

The Stone Roses: Etihad Stadium, Manchester

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 16 June 2016

THE APPETITE forthe Stone Roses seems to be insatiable, especially around Manchester. The fans came here in their droves for the first of a four-night ...

Brian Eno: "When he sang, David Bowie became a different person"

Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 23 July 2016

BRIAN ENO is Britain's favourite cultural polymath. He contributed a chime for a clock that will ring once every 10,000 years. He wrote a soundtrack ...

Morrissey in Manchester

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 21 August 2016

THESE ARE CURIOUS TIMES for Morrissey watchers. Last year's List Of The Lost was an excruciating attempt at a first novel, while his recent declaration ...

Rick Astley: Never gonna give him up: How Rick Astley returned from the wilderness

Interview by Paul Sexton, Daily Telegraph, 9 September 2016

OVER COFFEE in a smart London hotel, Rick Astley is explaining his antidote to middle age. "I still play in a band, with a couple of friends. We ...

Bette Midler: "I was the biggest coward in the world"

Interview by Paul Sexton, Daily Telegraph, 30 October 2016

The Grammy-winning singer and actress tells Paul Sexton about her accidental, taboo-busting journey from Hawaii to Hollywood. ...

Liam Gallagher: O2 Ritz, Manchester

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 31 May 2017

Manchester's most irascible son makes an emotional return. ...

LCD Soundsystem: Manchester Warehouse Project

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 17 September 2017

THERE ARE PLENTY of us who'd given up on ever seeing LCD Soundsystem again. In April 2011, the New York ensemble bowed out with a ...

Joe Hagan: Sticky Fingers – The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine

Book Review by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 29 October 2017

This biography of Rolling Stone's  founder is a lurid and revelatory tale of drugs, sex — and power. ...

How Hip-Hop broke down the barriers

Retrospective by David Bennun, Daily Telegraph, 2018

The music style that began in the Bronx has branched out to become an international force and a Pulitzer Prize winner, says David Bennun ...

Rev. James Cleveland, Aretha Franklin: Amazing Grace: Inside the hellish struggle to release Aretha Franklin's heavenly concert movie

Retrospective and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 29 April 2019

IT MIGHT SEEM odd to suggest that the most enthralling film you are likely to see this year is not a thriller, a love story ...

Rammstein: Rock's most dangerous band: why Rammstein's incendiary retelling of history terrifies Germany

Report and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 1 July 2019

Playing with fire ...

Tool's Fear Inoculum is finally here: why did it take so long?

Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 30 August 2019

EARLIER THIS MONTH, Tool joined the modern world. After manning the virtual-picket line since 2001, the Californian cult rock quartet finally relented and allowed their ...

Billy Bragg interview: "I can't watch Question Time anymore — it's like the Coliseum"

Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 18 September 2019

ON THE SONG 'Old Clash Fan Fight Song', a bash-em-out deep cut from the Fight Songs album of 2011, Billy Bragg sings of "a mate ...

Wilco's Jeff Tweedy on clashing with Billy Bragg, being insulted by Diddy, and why bands don't need record labels

Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 14 October 2019

IN 2001, WILCO fired the first shot in a war against an industry that had done them wrong. When Reprise Records rejected their fourth album, ...

Sex Pistols, The Stranglers: The true punk confessions of Stuart Pearce

Retrospective and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 6 November 2019

ON THE MORNING of the 23rd of June 1996, Stuart Pearce was the most famous person in the country. The previous afternoon, England had beaten ...

Slayer: A requiem for Slayer: The poignant, pulverising end of "the band that terrorised the world"

Report by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 29 November 2019

AT 23:00 Pacific Coast Time on Saturday 30th November, the world of metal will enter a period of mourning. At this time, onstage at the ...

Tal Wilkenfeld: Queen of the Bass: Why Tal Wilkenfeld is every rock star's secret weapon

Profile and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 16 December 2019

Adored by Prince, Jeff Beck and the Who, thirtysomething jazz prodigy Tal Wilkenfeld is one of the most in-demand musicians in the world. And it's ...

Rush didn't chase fame, hits or groupies — yet there will never be a better rock band

Retrospective by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 14 January 2020

SUCH WAS the secret appeal of Rush that in the summer of 2008 the band's three members were invited onto American television for only the ...

Aerosmith: How Aerosmith are still rocking after 49 years: "We did drugs, drugs - and more drugs"

Retrospective and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 28 January 2020

IN THE AUTUMN of 1972, Aerosmith's Joey Kramer was walking in the group's adopted home-city of Boston. With work finished on the quintet's eponymous debut ...

Marc Almond: "The Royal Family are the one continuous thread that holds Britain together"

Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 13 February 2020

The non-stop Soft Cell singer on his confrontational past, Twitter troubles, and why he doesn't mind being part of "the establishment". ...

Extreme Noise Terror, The KLF: When the KLF and Extreme Noise Terror outgunned the Brits: what happened next?

Retrospective and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 18 February 2020

TONIGHT, THE 02 Arena in London will host the 40th edition of the BRIT Awards. Presented by Jack Whitehall and featuring appearances from Rod Stewart ...

Ice-T: "I don't hate cops – I hate racists"

Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 13 March 2020

ON SEPTEMBER 30th, 1992, Ice-T performed a concert with his metal band Body Count at the Jack Adams Stadium in San Diego. On a bill ...

Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel: "You still have us": how Peter Gabriel's 'Don’t Give Up' became a lifeline for the lonely

Retrospective by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 27 March 2020

IT IS ALMOST eight years since the video clip for 'Don't Give Up' first appeared on YouTube. Written and sung by Peter Gabriel, and featuring ...

AC/DC, The Band, James Brown, Kate Bush, Johnny Cash, Cheap Trick, Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, Peter Frampton, Aretha Franklin, Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob Marley & the Wailers, MC5, Metallica, Joni Mitchell, Motörhead, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, The Ramones, Simon & Garfunkel, Bruce Springsteen, Supertramp, Talking Heads, Thin Lizzy, U2, The Who, Wilco, Bill Withers: The 30 best live concert albums of all time

Guide by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 22 April 2020

LAST WEEK, A STORY appeared in the New York Times that predicted that live music would not return to the world's stages until the autumn ...

The Beastie Boys: "We became idiot caricatures": how the Beastie Boys grew up without becoming boring

Retrospective by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 24 April 2020

ONE OF MY favourite memories of a life spent loitering in the company of musicians is of the time the Beastie Boys danced for me. ...

The Scorpions: Can a power ballad change the world?

Retrospective and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 20 May 2020

A hit podcast investigates the theory that the German rockers' global smash was written by the CIA. But the truth is even more incredible. ...

Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel: Simon & Garfunkel and the battle of Central Park: Inside the concert that tore them apart

Retrospective by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 3 June 2020

IN THE SUMMER of 1981, Paul Simon received a call from the Long Island concert promoter Ron Delsener. The 44-year-old Tri-State impresario was speaking on ...

Paul Simon: How Graceland saved Paul Simon — and offended the anti-apartheid world

Retrospective by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 10 June 2020

Forged in South Africa, the 1986 masterpiece drew accusations of 'cultural appropriation', offence and theft. What were Simon's intentions? ...

Lamb of God: Metal's moral backbone: the uncompromising, righteous rise of Lamb Of God

Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 23 June 2020

AS A YOUNGER man, D. Randall Blythe conducted social experiments with bleach. As jocks in passing cars screamed insults, the singer with the metal band ...

Farewell to Kerrang!

Comment by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 8 July 2020

IN THE FIRST decade of the 21st Century, the British rock magazine Kerrang! ran a small weekly item called "Stimulants". Secreted away at the bottom ...

Public Enemy: Chuck D: "The presidency aged Obama – what will it do to Biden?"

Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 13 July 2020

The hip-hop pioneer talks about the ongoing protests in America, the forthcoming presidential election and how to face down the KKK. ...

Def Leppard: "We never wanted to smoke weed and stick two fingers up to The Man"

Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 21 July 2020

ON THE FIRST day of December 1987, Def Leppard arrived for a concert at the Tacoma Dome in Washington state. Embarked on the initial North ...

Frank Turner: Live rock returns, from a distance: inside Frank Turner's "government-endorsed" pilot concert

Review by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 29 July 2020

AT FOUR PM on Tuesday 28th July, the English singer Frank Turner leans over a table in a small room in South West London and ...

Peter Gabriel, Genesis: The shambolic Genesis reunion that saved Peter Gabriel from financial ruin

Retrospective by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 6 August 2020

Womad crippled Peter Gabriel, so his former bandmates offered to keep the bailiffs away. If only they could remember how to play together…  ...

Biffy Clyro: "We wanted to be the opposite of Oasis"

Profile and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 19 August 2020

IN THE AUTUMN of 2004, Biffy Clyro offered me a job as a roadie. It was an unpaid short-term position that consisted of just one ...

Van Morrison: Electric Ballroom, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 6 September 2020

It's a sheer joy to watch live music again – and this was a vintage show from the 75-year-old legend as he rummaged in his ...

Tommy Lee, Mötley Crüe: Tommy Lee: "Back then, there were no consequences – excess was a daily thing"

Retrospective and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 16 October 2020

IN THE SUMMER of 1987, Mötley Crüe embarked on a tour of the largest indoors venues in North America. Travelling aboard a private jet, the ...

James Taylor: "I took legal heroin – it's the safest way to be an addict"

Retrospective and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 7 December 2020

ON THE AFTERNOON of 7th December 1980, James Taylor was accosted by a stranger who knew his name. As the singer-songwriter battled his way home ...

Chumbawamba: How 'Tubthumping' shook the world

Retrospective by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 15 February 2021

IN 1997, OUT OF NOWHERE the English anarchist punk band Chumbawamba sold more than five million albums. In attaining triple-platinum status, in the United States ...

Laura Nyro: the Gothic genius who transformed Sixties pop — then quit

Retrospective by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 5 August 2021

The late songwriter, whose music is now being re-released, lent her tales of private agony to everyone from Barbra Streisand to Diana Ross. ...

Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Sid Vicious: Inside the Chelsea Hotel, New York's infamous house of pleasure and pain

Retrospective by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 18 August 2021

Bob Dylan has just been accused of a sexual assault there in 1965 - the latest in a long line of claims about the storied ...

Jackie Leven: "Strong on the outside, brittle on the inside": the life, death and genius of Jackie Leven

Retrospective by Graeme Thomson, Daily Telegraph, 15 September 2021

The troubled, genre-defying Scot told stories that no one else dared to. Who cares if they weren't all true? ...

The Beatles, Billy Preston: The blazing talent – and heartbreaking decline – of "fifth Beatle" Billy Preston

Retrospective by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 26 November 2021

The revered keyboardist saved Let It Be and put his fingerprints on countless rock classics. But he kept his true self hidden to the end. ...

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