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Ben Thompson

Ben Thompson

Ben Thompson began writing about music in 1985, when the divide between Live Aid and the Membranes upstairs at the Chalk Farm Enterprise seemed much starker than it does today. After a special Royal-Wedding-themed edition of his fanzine The Devil's Music (in conjunction with Droitwich's Smell My Woolly Mammoth) was rejected by the printers on the grounds that it didn't take the nuptials of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson seriously enough, he forsook guerilla publishing for the mainstream media. Having had his first live review – of Big Flame at a pub in Bedford – published in Sounds at the impressionable age of 18, he went on to write for (among others) NME, New Statesman and Society, The Wire, The Independent, The Face, Blah Blah Blah, Zig-Zag, Spin, Request, the TLS, Australian Vogue, The Journal of Oral History and the Saturday Telegraph Magazine. He was rock critic of the Independent on Sunday from 1991-94 and GQ's film critic from 1997-2000, and currently contributes regularly to the FT, the Sunday Telegraph, Mojo and The Guardian online.

Ben Thompson's two books of music writing – Seven Years of Plenty, Ways of Hearing – and his history of '90s comedy, Sunshine on Putty, have led him to be described as a British Richard Meltzer (The Wire), "That guy" (Bill "Smog" Callahan) and "[being] to comedy what Woody Allen's Zelig is to history" (The Glasgow Herald). Over the last five years he has also co-written best-selling memoirs with Vic Reeves (Me Moir), Russell Brand (My Booky Wook) and Phil Daniels (Class Actor). He is currently working on books with Dizzee Rascal and Mike Skinner. A downloadable archive of The London Ear – the weekly Resonance 104.4FM radio show he has written, produced and presented since 2004 – can be found at www.thelondonear.co.uk

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190 articles

List of articles in the library

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Motorhead: Corn Exchange, Cambridge

Live Review by Ben Thompson, New Musical Express, 27 October 1987

"IF WE moved in next door to you your lawn would die" Lemmy once proclaimed gleefully. To a 12-year-old HM fan like myself, Motorhead always ...

Krushed With The Reels Of Industry

Report and Interview by Ben Thompson, New Musical Express, 12 December 1987

As the East Midlands house of KRUSH arrests a nation with its jack-knife beat, BEN THOMPSON meets FON's latest sampling superstars. ...

Ice-T: Power To The Peebles

Interview by Ben Thompson, New Musical Express, 7 September 1991

The success of the visceral New Jack City has made Blaxploitation movies a thing of the past and debuting director MARIO VAN PEEBLES a hot ...

Nirvana: National Theatre, Kilburn

Live Review by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, November 1991

WHEN NIRVANA appeared at the Reading Festival earlier this summer, they were just one more obscure American underground rock trio with a good LP and ...

Nirvana at Reading

Live Review by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, August 1992

BY THE LAST day of the Reading Festival, the physical conditions have reverted to type. Soggy survivors cluster on little islands dotted between enormous mud ...

Nirvana: In Utero

Review by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, September 1993

ROCK AND ROLL can be cruel. One minute you are a professional misfit, happily living out a punk-rock life of misery and alienation in an ...

Tindersticks: Tindersticks

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, December 1993

BETWEEN NICK CAVE AND THE FALL maybe; or separating early Dexys from mid-peri-od Pogues; or even right back alongside Lee Hazlewood and Leonard Cohen – ...

Iris DeMent

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, 1994

THE VOICE of Iris DeMent is a remarkable instrument. There's a sob in it, a roll of the tongue, a fluting quality that speaks of ...

Aphex Twin: The Mozart of Techno

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, MOJO, January 1994

"Is this the sound of old languages breaking up? Or of new ones forming?" ...

James Booker: The Unsung Piano Genius with Star-spangled False Teeth

Profile by Ben Thompson, MOJO, January 1994

"IF ALL AMERICAN PIANO PLAYERS LINED UP IN A ROW, each knowing the other’s abilities and talents, all would take a step back to recognise ...

Pavement: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, March 1994

THERE WAS MUCH wailing and rending of hair throughout the land at the news that Pavement had parted ways with their crazed 40-something drummer Gary ...

Voodoo Queens: Voodod Queens: Chocolate Revenge

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, March 1994

UNREPENTANT BAD GIRLS with a taste for culinary and bibulous excess, the Voodoo Queens have cannily put their career back on track with a debut ...

Cypress Hill: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, April 1994

THERE'S A KID slumped at the top of the Brixton academy stairs, his head poised vomitatiously over a large plastic bin. All you can see ...

Nirvana: Kurt Cobain: Too Good For This World

Obituary by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, April 1994

AT MIDNIGHT on Friday, after the violence in Rwanda and before the end of the IRA ceasefire, a vaguely disdainful Radio 5 newsreader announces the ...

Pulp: His'n'Hers

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, May 1994

FORGET EVERYTHING you know about what great music is – Bessie Smith, The Beatles, Neil Young, Al Green, all gone (not forever, just for 40 ...

Sonic Youth: Experimental Jet Set, Trash & No Star

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, June 1994

THIS IS SONIC Youth's tenth album in all, bootlegs excluded, and it finds them making a determined and ultimately successful effort not to settle into ...

Captain Beefheart: the Artist

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 21 August 1994

DON VAN VLIET lives in the small and beautifully named town of Trinidad in Northern California, up by the Oregon border, 135 ft from the ...

Massive Attack: Protection (Virgin)

Review by Ben Thompson, The Independent, September 1994

THEIR FIRST ALBUM, 1991's sumptuous Blue Lines, opened up a whole new imaginative world for British dance music, in the same way that De La ...

Neil Young: Out Of The Black

Essay by Ben Thompson, MOJO, September 1994

"Last night I dreamt I kissed Neil Young / If I was a boy I guess it would be fun." Sonic Youth, Creme Brulee, 1992. ...

Nirvana: Unplugged In New York

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, December 1994

IT SEEMS A PARTICULARILY VICIOUS IRONY:THAT A BAND THAT electricity seemed to flow through, a band who at their best could fling the weight of ...

Orbital: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, December 1994

THE WAY THAT ORBITAL wanted to make music, one of the Hartnoll brothers said last year in a rare theoretical moment, was like an idealised ...

The Black Crowes: Amorica

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, December 1994

FORBIDDEN PLEASURES ARE GETTING harder to find. What price true rebel music when disco, metal, mid-'70s pop and all the grizzled outlaws of yesteryear are ...

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, MOJO, December 1994

Combustible blues, not as in Delta 12-bar, but as in Beefheart, braggadocio and Mick Jagger’s dick. ...

Portishead: The Reluctant Debutante

Report and Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, 11 December 1994

IF YOU WERE the most compelling and enigmatic new group in Britain, playing your first proper gig in the sort of London club where Christine ...

Gorky's Zygotic Mynci

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, 1995

THE LEAP of faith required to enunciate the unappetising name of this mighty Pembrokeshire quintet – plain, pronounceable old Gorky's to their legion of devoted ...

Ozzy Osbourne: The Ozzmosis of Ozzy Osbourne

Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, 1995

IT IS THE Winter of 1980-1. Black Sabbath are playing at the Hammersmith Odeon, for the first time without Ozzy Osbourne – widely regarded as ...

The Stone Roses: Second Coming

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, February 1995

IF THE BYRDS HAD BEEN WELSH; IF Lenny Kravitz shopped at Kwik Save; if the Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin or Wishbone Ash or Eddie ...

Throwing Muses: University

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, February 1995

RETURNING TO COLLECTIVE ACTION after last year's earth-shaking individual effort Hips N Makers, Kristin Hersh sounds happy to have some back-up noise behind her again. ...

Teenage Fanclub: Grand Prix

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, June 1995

THE BUCKFAST BEATLES, THE Belshill Beach Byrds: whatever you want to call them, the Teenage Fanclub are back. And their new album (their sixth, if ...

Russell Simmons: The Emperor Of Rap

Interview by Ben Thompson, MOJO, July 1995

SO WHY DO THEY CALL RUSSELL Simmons 'Rush'? The Def Jam emperor loses little time in answering this question. ...

Ben Harper

Interview by Ben Thompson, MOJO, August 1995

"IT STARTS OFF WITH A BIG CHUNK OF WOOD," says Ben Harper. And it's not Nick Nolte's acting technique he's talking about, or the history ...

Neil Young: Mirror Ball

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, August 1995

It revolves slowly and with a dignified air of formality, and when light shines on it you get a strange dappled effect. That effect, for ...

Will Oldham: Palace Music: Viva Last Blues

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, September 1995

The albums of Palace eminence Will Oldham do not take long to listen to (this one lasts just over half an hour), but there is ...

Black Grape: Shaun Ryder, Pop Star

Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 1 October 1995

Once the high priest of proletarian hedonism, Shaun Ryder has traded in the low-life for a leafy London suburb. It's been a good move. The ...

Simply Red: Mick Hucknall

Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, 10 December 1995

Given that Lemmy of Motorhead's father was a priest, it makes a crazy kind of sense that Mick Hucknall's dad should have been a barber ...

Pet Shop Boys: An Attitude Thing

Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 20 April 1996

THERE IS NO MORE embarrassing chapter in the big book of Pop Interview Ritual than the one in which you're forced to listen to music ...

George Clinton

Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 8 June 1996

GEORGE CLINTON has learnt some things in five decades of music-making, and one of them is how to make an entrance. As the Clinton party ...

Super Furry Animals

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, MOJO, August 1996

BT: Listening to your debut album Fuzzy Logic, there seems to be a hint of British '60s psychedelic legends Dantalion's Chariot about it. ...

New Edition

Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 3 August 1996

Older, wiser and even smoother, Eighties teen sensations New Edition are back together. But this isn't just a nostalgia trip ...

Sebadoh

Interview by Ben Thompson, MOJO, September 1996

THE BEST INTRODUCTION TO Sebadoh comes in the form of an 11 minute cut-and-paste manifesto, tacked – without the benefit of a title – onto ...

Horace Andy, Massive Attack: Horace Andy: Put It All Down To His Quaver

Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 26 September 1996

Horace Andy has fathered 16 children. He's also had a long career in reggae. ...

Nirvana: From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah (Geffen)

Review by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, October 1996

FOR ALL THOSE who will overturn the tables like Jesus in the temple if they hear Nirvana Unplugged in another vegetarian restaurant, From the Muddy ...

Rheinallt H. Rowlands

Profile by Ben Thompson, The Independent, October 1996

THERE HAS ALWAYS been a place in pop for the driven outsider: the writer or performer spurred on by their own personal bob-a-job scout pack ...

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: Now I Got Worry (Mute)

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, October 1996

• Spencer et al recently backed Holly Springs bluesman R.L. Burnside on his superb A Ass Pocket Of Whiskey — a Hooker'N'Heat for the '90s. • ...

Baby Bird: The Fledgling Has Landed

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 12 October 1996

A one-man bedroom band is suddenly topping the charts. Ben Thompson meets Baby Bird ...

Mark Owen: The Artist Formerly Known as the Pretty One

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, 1 December 1996

Once just a gorgeous torso, now a hit songwriter. Ben Thompson meets Mark Owen. ...

Robert Wyatt: Shleep

Review and Interview by Ben Thompson, MOJO, 1997

Soft Machine and Matching Mole legend makes triumphant return. Sterling work from all-star supporting cast Paul Weller, Brian Eno, Evan Parker, Annie Whitehead and Phil ...

PJ Harvey, John Parish: John Parish and Polly Jean Harvey: The Fleece & Firkin, Bristol

Live Review by Ben Thompson, Spin, January 1997

POLLY JEAN Harvey first met John Parish ten years ago, when he was the neighborhood performance-art lecturer in her hometown of Yeovil. She went on ...

Bill Callahan, Smog: Bill Callahan: Communication chord

Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 11 May 1997

Bill Callahan spares nobody in his songs — himself least of all. Ben Thompson talks to the American who chooses to go by the name ...

Gorky's Zygotic Mynci: Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!

Interview by Ben Thompson, The Face, June 1997

Gorky's Zygotic Mynci (gaw'kes zy'gotik mung'ki), n. pl. (1) Young art-rockers from Wales. (2) Makers of four albums of well-wrought psychedelic pop. (3) Also called: ...

Arab Strap: The Garage, Islington, London

Live Review by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 19 June 1997

"Best band to be named after an instrument of sado-masochistic gratification" ...

Björk

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, MOJO, November 1997

THE RICKETY HAMMERSMITH RESIDENCE WHICH houses TFI Friday’s dressing rooms is an alarming place to find yourself, and not just because there’s a chance of ...

Lambchop: Thriller

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, November 1997

Fourth album in three years from Kurt Wagner's Nashville swingers is a pithy eight tracks in duration, including an instrumental title number and three compositions ...

Jarvis Cocker, Pulp: Pulp: Sorted for Pipe and Slippers

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, Telegraph Magazine, 8 November 1997

At the age of seven, Jarvis Cocker realised he was not immortal. Now the Pied Piper of his generation has decided the end is nigh. ...

4 Hero

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Seven Years Of Plenty, 1998

IT’S A humid, late-summer day in 1997. In a ramshackle northwest London recording studio, a soft breeze kisses the skin: not some cooling breath of ...

Pavement: Across the Cracks: Pavement

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, 'Seven Years of Plenty' (Gollancz), 1998

PAVEMENT HEAVEN, steps 1-7: ...

Pulp: Inside Jarvis: A Reluctant Stardom

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Seven Years of Plenty, 1998

Autumn 1993 ...

Origin of the Spices: From Riot Grrrl to Girl Power

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Seven Years of Plenty (Victor Gollancz) , 1998

The riot grrrl/girl power liaison: from a whisper to a screen near you ...

Future Sound of London, Orbital, Ultramarine, Underworld: Our Electric Friends: Humanising the Highway, from ‘Autobahn’ to Orbital

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, 'Seven Years of Plenty', 1998

DRIVING ON THE M25 in a rusty Mini. Early evening, thick drizzle. Only one windscreen wiper works because someone has snapped the end off the ...

Arab Strap: Strapping Youth: Arab Strap

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Seven Years of Plenty, 1998

IN THE MIDDLE of 1996, dynamic Falkirk duo Aidan Moffatt and Malcolm Middleton were inspired by the first big weekend of their summer to write ...

Aphex Twin: The Aphex Twin

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Seven Years of Plenty , 1998

MIDI CIRCUS at Brixton Academy in 1992. Three men dressed in Creature From the Black Lagoon outfits are trying to eat each other, and a ...

Smog: The Man Behind the Smog

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Ways of Hearing, 1998

BILL CALLAHAN HAS BEEN releasing strange and disturbing records as Smog – both on his own and with various accomplices, most notably erstwhile soulmate Cynthia ...

The Prodigy

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Seven Years of Plenty, 1998

LIAM HOWLETT - soft-spoken mastermind behind The Prodigy's globe-subjugating juggernaut of organised chaos - is a very busy man. If you want some idea of ...

Tricky: The Tricky Kid

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, 'Ways of Hearing' (Gollancz), 1998

HOTEL ROOMS ARE notoriously impervious to the characters of the people who stay in them: close proximity to a wicker basketful of complimentary toiletries has ...

Will Oldham: Viva Will Oldham: The Permutations of Palace

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, 'Seven Years of Plenty', 1998

THE VARIOUS mutations of the Palace name are a cover for the extraordinary career of Louisville's Will Oldham. The opposite of the businessman who opens ...

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 ...

The Beta Band: Things can only get Beta

Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 18 September 1998

Where the four-piece pop group goes to die, there lurks the Beta Band. ...

Blur, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Massive Attack, Super Furry Animals, Tricky: This Must Be The Place: Newport, Bristol, Walthamstow, Colchester: Everybody's Talking About... The True Significance Of Location

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, 'Seven Years of Plenty' (Gollancz), October 1998

"A recent article in the New York Times proclaimed Newport as The New Seattle..." Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 13 December, 1996 ...

Lisa Germano: Happy to be Centre Stage, at Long Last

Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 15 October 1998

Big stars? Glum rockers? Don't let the buggers grind you down. Lisa Germano didn't. ...

Badly Drawn Boy: Portrait of an Artist in the Making

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 22 October 1998

Badly Drawn Boy is challenging pop's establishment. He's that hard, is Damon. ...

Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Godspeed You Black Emperor!: The Garage, London

Live Review by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 27 November 1998

The sound of Hank Marvin, plunging into deep space ...

Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Godspeed You Black Emperor!

Report by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 1999

A SHARP, PISTOL-LIKE report from an overloading monitor causes the already pained-looking sound engineer to wince into his levels meter. Godspeed You Black Emperor! have ...

Mercury Rev: 5 For '99: Mercury Rev

Interview by Ben Thompson, MOJO, January 1999

HOW MANY BANDS ARE THERE who have made their best records after losing their lead singer? Whoever said "Marillion", go and sit in the corner, ...

Music: Like islands in the stream

Report by Ben Thompson, The Independent, January 1999

So the future's wearing a scary Celine Dion mask, is it? Not necessarily. Pop is alive and well and kicking rock's behind. ...

Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Will Oldham, Smog: Bonnie "Prince" Billy & Smog: The Country Frontlash

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 12 February 1999

Bill Callahan and Will Oldham are acclaimed pioneers of alternative country, yet the former is inspired by the Wu-Tang Clan and the latter does heavy ...

Mogwai: Come On, Feel The Noise

Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 19 March 1999

Mogwai play loud. (And very quiet.) And they have a few sordid myths they'd like to dispel. ...

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 ...

Wilco's Winning Ways

Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, May 1999

WILCO MAINSTAYS Jeff Tweedy (twinkly, weatherbeaten) and Jay Bennett (burly, dreadlocked) are savouring a momentary pause between engagements. A beleagured two-man colony of battered denim ...

Pavement: Blimey! It's Pavement

Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 13 May 1999

They're the masters of American underground rock. Blur kneel at their lo-fi altar. So why is Pavement's new album a homage to cricket and darts? ...

Company Flow, Mos Def: Rawkus Records: The young rap rebels

Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 28 May 1999

Rupert Murdoch funds underground hip-hop? As Rawkus Records know, it's strange but true. ...

Pavement: Terror Twilight

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, July 1999

TERROR TWILIGHT'S penultimate track is a five and a half minute epic called 'The Hexx'. It begins with Stephen Malkmus taunting one of the swallows ...

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. ...

Smog, Will Oldham: Heading For The Ditch: Smog and Will Oldham

Report and Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, February 2000

IT'S ONLY THE first week in February and already spring's sonic daffodils are poking through the boy-band mulch. Those who feared they would live their ...

Susumu Yokota: Ambient Confessions of a Japanese Technohead

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 1 March 2000

THE IDEA OF an ambient recording that stops you in your tracks might seem to be a contradiction in terms, but Susumu Yokota's Image 1983-1998 ...

Broadcast: The Noise Made By People

Review and Interview by Ben Thompson, MOJO, April 2000

"PRAM WANNABES", "indie milksops", "poor man's Stereolab"... these are just some of the cruel insults heaped upon Broadcast's head when they first poked it above ...

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. ...

Brothers In Sound: The (Much) Beta Band

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 3 April 2000

You could put it down to the fact that they're in the throes of an identity crisis, but, Hanson haircuts aside, Brothers in Sound are ...

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 ...

Craig David: It Started With A Boink: Craig David

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, ES, August 2000

EARLIER THIS year – around the time his first solo single made its chart debut at number one – Craig David appeared on the The ...

Underworld: And Then There Were Two: Underworld

Report and Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 25 August 2000

I SAW KARL HYDE get on a train with his baby daughter once, at Liverpool Street station. On the face of it, this was not ...

Björk

Interview by Ben Thompson, ES, September 2000

THE VIEW FROM the roof garden of Björk's penthouse suite at New York's elegant Soho Grand hotel is almost too much to take in at ...

Leila

Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, September 2000

"WHEN YOU'RE YOUNG", explains 29-year old North London electro-soul auteur Leila Arab, "you get into these strange emotional states - either of over the top ...

Daphne and Celeste

Report and Interview by Ben Thompson, ES, November 2000

ELVIS HAD The Ed Sullivan Show, The Sex Pistols had the Silver Jubilee boat trip. But for acid-tongued trans-Atlantic playground pop sensations Daphne and Celeste, ...

Jill Scott Identifies Herself

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, Telegraph Magazine, November 2000

THE SOUND OF DISTANT laughter echoes up the corridor. As it comes closer - suffusing the chilly corporate air of Sony's West Soho HQ with ...

(British) Sea Power: Naval Gazing For Beginners: British Sea Power

Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, November 2000

DESPITE ITS GRANDIOSE name, North London indie refuge The Monarch is the sort of venue which often struggles for mythological significance. Yet when British Sea ...

So Solid Crew: So Solid: The Crew's All Here

Report and Interview by Ben Thompson, ES, November 2000

WITH MEMBERSHIP currently standing at twenty plus, Battersea's upsurgent underground garage crew So Solid seem to be trying to overwhelm the opposition by sheer weight ...

Low: The Lowdown on Low

Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, November 2000

"AND THE LIGHT it burns your skin," Low's Alan Sparhawk intones tenderly, his voice flickering like a candle by a sash window, "In a language ...

Robert Wyatt: A-Shleep at the Wheel: Robert Wyatt

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, 'Ways of Hearing', 2001

ROBERT WYATT lives on an isolated estuary in the misty North-East of England, where he sometimes likes to sit in quiet contemplation with his wife ...

Brian Eno: An Uncle, A Celebrity, A Masturbator

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, 'Ways of Hearing' , 2001

ON THE BACK cover of A Year with Swollen Appendices, Brian Eno's diary of 1995, he supplies a handy guide to some of the things ...

Mercury Rev on the Other Side

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, 'Ways of Hearing', 2001

NOT SINCE Joy Division turned into New Order has a band coped as well as Mercury Rev with losing its lead singer. But given that ...

Mogwai: Metal Ear

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Ways Of Hearing, 2001

"They had brought this music with them when they were born, these bandmen, in their hearts and their muscles, their blood and their bones".Jay Allison ...

Orbital

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Ways Of Hearing, 2001

IT'S A GREY weekday lunchtime in glamorous East Anglia. Cambridge town centre is brought to a resentful standstill as a series of huge pantechnicons disgorge ...

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. ...

Stephen Malkmus: Stephen Malkmus

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, March 2001

Solo debut from ex-Pavement mainman and urbane resident of Portland, Oregon. Think Pavement, but with longer hair. ...

cLOUDDEAD

Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, May 2001

A DISEMBODIED VOICE with a slight hint of helium in it intoning the words "I taught myself to survive a four storey fall wearing a ...

Madonna the Missus

Essay by Ben Thompson, The Independent, May 2001

IN HENRY JAMES' 1873 short story ‘The Madonna of the Future’, the American protagonist visits the city of Florence, where he encounters a strange and ...

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 ...

Turin Brakes and the New Acoustica

Essay by Ben Thompson, The Independent, June 2001

IN 1971, LESTER BANGS wrote an article for the American magazine Who Put The Bomp (reprinted in the Serpent's Tail anthology Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor ...

Usher: Rise of the House of Usher

Report and Interview by Ben Thompson, Telegraph Magazine, July 2001

APPEARING ON Channel 4's Richard Blackwood Show during his last visit to Britain, clean-cut US R&B star Usher Raymond IV startled the crowd with the ...

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 ...

Pulp: Jarvis Cocker: Sorted For Trees and Weeds

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, October 2001

AMID THE RUMPLED grandeur of West London's Cobden Club, the familiar angular figure of Jarvis Cocker stands out like a sore index finger. His ...

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 ...

Lisa Lopes: Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes: Supernova (Arista)

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, November 2001

Long-awaited solo foray by erstwhile TLC pocket battleship. ...

Jim O'Rourke: Catching Jim O'Rourke's Drift

Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, January 2002

THE CARDIGAN-clad figure of Jim O' Rourke looks up from his Holiday Inn coffee. "I'm a nightmare," he warns, pointing with a smile to a ...

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 ...

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 ...

Maher Shalal Hash Baz: Mad in Japan

Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 12 April 2002

They're Japanese; their group's name is in Hebrew; their music defies definition. Ben Thompson meets the exotic Maher Shalal Hash Baz ...

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 ...

Double Figures: Ten Years Of The Domino Effect

Press Release by Ben Thompson, Domino Records, July 2003

CAPTAIN'S LOG, stardate 1993: John Major's village-cricket-and-warm-beer based moral crusade inspires a parallel "back-to-basics" drift in UK rock 'n' roll (with Justine Frischmann as its ...

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 ...

The Strokes: Room on Fire

Review by Ben Thompson, The Observer, 21 September 2003

THREE HOURS before I am left alone in a press-office antechamber with Britain's only copy of Room on Fire, something very important happens on the ...

Missy Elliott: This is Not a Test

Review by Ben Thompson, The Observer, 16 November 2003

WAY BACK IN 1997, when Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott launched her debut album Supa Dupa Fly with the touching dedication "To my mom... I would not ...

Dizzee Rascal: Boy In Da Corner

Review by Ben Thompson, The Observer, 2004

PRECOCIOUS BOW roughneck Dylan Mills knocked up his first single (scabrous teen pregnancy shocker 'I Luv You') in downtime from his school music class at ...

Lambchop: Aw C'mon/No You C'mon

Review by Ben Thompson, Observer Music Monthly, 1 February 2004

LIKE OUTKAST'S Speakerboxx/ The Love Below, the eighth album by Nashville's premier artisan country/ soul collective is a double-disc set designed to prompt endless speculation ...

Palace Music, Will Oldham: Will Oldham: Bonnie 'Prince' Billy Sings Greatest Palace Music (Domino)****

Review by Ben Thompson, The Observer, 22 February 2004

FIRST THINGS FIRST. The 15 songs that Louisville Kentucky singer-songwriter Will Oldham has chosen to reinterpret here (originally featured on three albums, an EP, a ...

N.E.R.D.: N*E*R*D: Fly or Die (Virgin)****

Review by Ben Thompson, Observer Music Monthly, 21 March 2004

IF ITS ILLUSTRIOUS predecessor – 2001's visionary soft-porn psychedelic soul masterpiece In Search of... – was anything to go by, the release of a new ...

The Streets: Dead Cert: The Streets

Interview by Ben Thompson, The Observer, 25 April 2004

'I LOVE THE NAME "The Streets",' muses 24 year-old Mike Skinner - at once the mercurial creative-director, canny CEO and flaky spokesmodel of that thriving ...

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. ...

Massive Attack: Blue Lines

Review by Ben Thompson, Observer Music Monthly, 20 June 2004

FROM THE METROPOLITAN angst of 'Safe from Harm' - "If you hurt what's mine, I'll sure as hell retaliate" - to the insistent shaken bottle-top ...

The Beastie Boys: Beastie Boys: To The 5 Boroughs

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, July 2004

THERE WAS NO mistaking the rush of pleasure induced by early radio plays of this album's first single. As the delirious turntable stabs of 'Check ...

Girls Aloud, Sugababes: Xenomania: Heart Of The Country, Home Of The Hits

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, The Observer, 18 July 2004

In rural Kent, the future of British pop is being shaped by Brian Higgins – a Phil Spector for the 21st century. Ben Thompson meets ...

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 ...

Dizzee Rascal: Lovable Rogue: Dizzee Rascal: Showtime (XL) *****

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, October 2004

Deft and ultimately devastating follow up to 2003's Mercury Prize-winning debut. ...

Kings of Leon: A-Ha Shake Heartbreak

Review by Ben Thompson, The Observer, 17 October 2004

AS WITH SO many of the best second albums - from Roxy Music's For Your Pleasure to Dizzee Rascal's Showtime - the first time you ...

Amp Fiddler: Jazz Café, London

Live Review by Ben Thompson, Sunday Telegraph, 9 January 2005

Party like it's 1975 ...

Lady Sovereign, M.I.A.: M.I.A. and Lady Sovereign: A Far Cry From North-West London

Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, Sunday Telegraph, 30 January 2005

Two of this year's most eagerly anticipated records come from young women with some striking similarities. Ben Thompson talks to M.I.A. and Lady Sovereign. ...

Queens of the Stone Age: Lullabies to Paralyze

Review by Ben Thompson, The Observer, 20 February 2005

CANNED HEAT without the weight problem, ZZ Top without the tacky '80s gloss, Nirvana if Nevermind hadn't grown so big it blocked the road to ...

Roll Deep: In at the Deep End

Review by Ben Thompson, The Observer, 24 April 2005

Dizzee's ex-grime crew discover pop. Ben Thompson is pleased ...

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. ...

The Magic Numbers: The Magic Numbers

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, July 2005

Two pairs of siblings. One great album. Ben Thompson salutes a melodic, soft-pop masterpiece. ...

Sigur Ros: Takk

Review by Ben Thompson, The Observer, 21 August 2005

A ROBE-FREE polyphonic spree, a depoliticised Godspeed! You Black Emperor, a less unforgivably insipid Talk Talk, Mogwai with the heavy metal taken out, the Cocteau ...

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 ...

Animal Collective: Feels (FatCat) ****

Review by Ben Thompson, The Observer, 16 October 2005

Ben Thompson admires the furry friends who refuse to operate in a confined area ...

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 ...

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  ...

Courtney Love: Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love

Book Review by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 12 November 2006

Make tea, get nose fixed ASAP ...

Damon Albarn, The Good, The Bad & The Queen: The Good, the Bad & the Queen: The Good, the Bad & the Queen

Review by Ben Thompson, The Guardian, 21 January 2007

Damon Albarn could have fallen flat on his face here. But this love letter to the capital might be his finest hour, writes Ben Thompson ...

The Good Bad & The Queen: The Good, the Bad & the Queen: The Good, the Bad & the Queen

Review by Ben Thompson, The Observer, 21 January 2007

WHAT IS IT ABOUT the clunky phrase "the good, the bad & the queen" that made Damon Albarn want to use it as both the ...

Kings of Leon: Because of the Times *****

Review by Ben Thompson, The Observer, 18 March 2007

It's not all their own work, but the lank-haired rockers' third set does more than merely ape their influences, raves Ben Thompson ...

Dizzee Rascal: Word Champion

Interview by Ben Thompson, The Observer, 22 April 2007

Dizzee Rascal is not proud of everything in his past, he tells Ben Thompson in a remarkably frank interview. But he's more than happy with ...

The Fall, Mouse On Mars, Von Südenfed: Von Südenfed: Tromatic Reflexxions

Review by Ben Thompson, The Guardian, 20 May 2007

THE NAME VON SÜDENFED suggests a German First World War flying ace who went on to build a global pharmaceutical dynasty around a popular headache remedy. ...

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 – ...

Eric Clapton, Guns N' Roses, Joy Division, Slash: Music books: the most debauched tales of rock'n'roll excess

Book Review by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 16 December 2007

HOW BETTER to salve the pangs of remorse induced by a season of over-indulgence than by voraciously consuming the reminiscences of those whose lifestyles make ...

Hot Chip: Made in the Dark ****

Review by Ben Thompson, The Observer, 20 January 2008

You might know them as pop nerds, but Ben Thompson just loves their power ballads ...

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 ...

50 Cent: Always The Lion In The Room

Interview by Ben Thompson, Financial Times, 8 February 2008

ON MEETING the rapper and business mogul 50 Cent, the first thing you notice is that he's a lot smaller than he looks onstage. In ...

Madonna: Hard Candy

Review by Ben Thompson, The Observer, 20 April 2008

Thanks to her henchmen, writes Ben Thompson, the shameless idol still has much to give ...

Damon Albarn, Franz Ferdinand, Sir Victor Uwaifo, Vampire Weekend: Afro-Indie: Across The Great Divide

Report and Interview by Ben Thompson, The Observer, 15 June 2008

Suddenly indie rockers are embracing African sounds. Could the long years of a cultural apartheid be coming to a close, asks Ben Thompson ...

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 ...

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. ...

The Bug: London Zoo

Review by Ben Thompson, The Guardian, 13 July 2008

ALL THE GREAT British writer/producers of the past two decades have found their own trademark equilibrium between guest vocals and backing tracks. ...

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 ...

Amadou & Mariam: Welcome to Mali

Review by Ben Thompson, The Observer, 9 November 2008

IF YOU HADN'T EVER HEARD A RECORD by this Malian husband and wife duo, but had only read of their initial meeting at Bamako's Institut ...

White Denim: Fits

Review by Ben Thompson, The Guardian, 14 June 2009

THE GENRE that was once called "college rock" is currently drifting in a distinctly post-graduate direction. But for those who find 2009's US indie vanguard ...

Chipmunk, Dizzee Rascal, N-Dubz, Taio Cruz, Tinchy Stryder: N-Dubz and The Second Coming of Brit Pop

Overview by Ben Thompson, Observer Music Monthly, 1 November 2009

It has been a long, rocky road for homegrown urban music in the UK, but this year N-Dubz and a close-knit group of stars have ...

Four Tet: There is Love in You (Domino)

Review by Ben Thompson, The Observer, 24 January 2010

Kieran Hebden's latest captures all that was special about dance music's mid-90s heyday ...

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 ...

Maggoty Lamb goes behind the barricades in Rock Writers' Class War

Comment by Ben Thompson, The Guardian, 23 February 2011

Journalists would have us believe it's public-school leavers v the salt of the earth in the battle of the charts. Is that really the case? ...

PJ Harvey: The Troxy, London

Live Review by Ben Thompson, Sunday Telegraph, 6 March 2011

ON THE LEFT of the Limehouse Troxy stage stands PJ Harvey – enrobed in one of her Belgian fashion confederate Ann Demeulemeester's trademark pristine, shroud-like ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Nicki Minaj: Hammersmith Apollo, London

Live Review by Ben Thompson, Seven, 29 June 2012

THERE ARE two contrasting sides to rapper Nicki Minaj's musical identity — both were fighting for attention at the Hammersmith Apollo. ...

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. ...

Atoms For Peace: Amok

Review and Interview by Ben Thompson, MOJO, March 2013

Thom Yorke's laptop-generated super-group turns out have a human heart. ...

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. ...

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. ...

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, ...

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 ...

Young Fathers: White Men Are Black Men Too

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, May 2015

A vivacious follow-up to 2014's Mercury-winning Dead heralds the Edinburgh trio's arrival as global citizens. ...

Mica Levi: Bold Tendencies, London

Live Review by Ben Thompson, The Guardian, 2 August 2015

IF ARTISTS ARE, as Grayson Perry has astutely noted, "the shock troops of gentrification", then musicians aren't too far behind them. Roosting on the art-installation-bedecked ...

Angel Haze: O2 ABC, Glasgow

Live Review by Ben Thompson, The Guardian, 16 January 2016

EYES FLASHING IN THE SHADOW of her pristine white baseball cap with its breaking black heart motif — the brim seems to have been extended ...

Wolf Alice: Folkestone Leas Cliff Hall

Live Review by Ben Thompson, The Guardian, 26 March 2016

A CROSSWORD COMPILER'S CLUE for the genre of Brit- and Grammy-nominated, north London quartet Wolf Alice might read as follows: "Compound musical form, first half ...

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