Rob Hughes
199 articles
List of articles in the library by artist
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, November 2011
He's back. Stirring return to form from the lost boy of country... ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, July 2007
Boy Wonder Eases Up: Only His 9th LP In Seven Years ...
Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, January 2015
1978. Hippies and punks come together at an idyllic free festival near Rochdale: "It was a really transformative moment!" ...
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. ...
America: The Making of 'A Horse With No Name'
Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, December 2010
The early '70s anthem of Californian hippiedom — all the way from Staines, Surrey. "A Satanic drug song? All I'd had was a cup of ...
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 ...
The Band Of Blacky Ranchette: Still Lookin' Good To Me
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, December 2003
Fourth album in 20 years from Giant Sand's twisted country cousin ...
Beck: The Apollo Theatre, Manchester
Live Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, July 2003
Solitary refinement: Stunning one-man set as the eclectic troubadour of cool goes back to his folk-blues roots ...
Björk: Manchester International Festival
Live Review by Rob Hughes, The Word, September 2011
Björk's new live show: sci-fi, gothic soundtrack and head-scrambling visuals. Each song comes with an interactive app. ...
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. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, December 2007
How three Summer Of Love acid-heads became the heaviest band on the planet. ...
Bow Wow Wow: Annabella Lwin: What She Likes
Interview by Rob Hughes, The Word, April 2012
McLaren protégée, voice of Bow Wow Wow, Pitbull fan and romcom freak. Identifies with Marie Antoinette. ...
Bright Eyes: Letting Off The Happiness (Wichita) ***
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, June 2001
Prequel to last year's impressive Fevers And Mirrors from Omaha wunderkind ...
Bright Eyes: Lifted, Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground (Wichita)
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, October 2002
Nebraskan boy wonder bunkers down for apocalypse. ...
Retrospective by Rob Hughes, Uncut, February 2001
ROB HUGHES SALUTES THE BYRDS' GEM THE NOTORIOUS BYRD BROTHERS ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, June 2000
Fourth outing from prolific Giant Sand rhythm kings and assorted playmates ...
Interview by Rob Hughes, The Word, January 2012
Siren of art-house blues-rock, raised on Beefheart and modelled on Edith Piaf. Ashamed of her attraction to Glee. ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, April 2009
Freewheeling sixth from the loud Virginian. ...
The Cash Brothers: Matt & Phred's Jazz Club, Manchester
Live Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, February 2002
A SPARKLING jewel of one of Uncut's Unconditionally Guaranteed CD covermounts – along with star billing on the Loose 2 compendium – was The Cash ...
June Carter Cash: Wildwood Flower
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, January 2004
Life-affirming swansong from Carter Family matriarch ...
Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, April 2004
BY THE TIME he got to Woodstock in 1971, Robert Charles Guidry was a wanted man. ...
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 ...
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 ...
Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, November 2001
VOCALLY GYMNASTIC British tunesmith overcomes that difficult-second-album syndrome... ...
Ry Cooder: Cooder Been A Contender
Interview by Rob Hughes, Record Collector, April 2014
He had the option of becoming a major star and grabbing his couple of years of glory. Instead he took the long, slow, dusty road. ...
Gaz Coombes: The Things I Like
Interview by Rob Hughes, The Word, June 2012
Mutton-chopped Britpop anthem-penner, absurdist and Muppeteer. Sucker for slow, intense camera work. ...
Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, November 2001
THE FORMER BYRD RECENTLY TOURED EUROPE WITH CROSBY, PEVAR, RAYMOND – RAYMOND BEING HIS SON JAMES, WITH WHOM HE WAS REUNITED IN 1995 – TO ...
Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, March 2002
LONDON: DECEMBER, 1968. Moscow Road, Bayswater, just off the rowdy casbah din of Queensway with its hippie boutiques, bars, restaurants, buzzing crowds. There are three ...
David Bowie: Changing Man: David Bowie: MEN Arena, Manchester
Live Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, February 2004
So much to answer for… the Bard Of Bromley's back in fine forward-looking fettle with a scintillating combination of the old and the new ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, September 2011
Roll-'em-easy roots-rock from well-connected Californians ...
Delines, The : The Delines: Imperial
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, 11 January 2019
It's been a long way back for Amy Boone. In March 2016, the singer was hit by a car as she walked through a parking ...
Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, April 2002
'PASTORAL' ENGLISHMEN become the toast of Tennessee. ...
Depeche Mode: Vince Clarke and Martin Gore: Silent Mode
Report and Interview by Rob Hughes, The Word, May 2012
Vince Clarke and Martin Gore were out of touch for 30 years, then made a record by email, only speaking to discuss the title. Weird ...
The Dream Syndicate: Unsung Heroes: The Dream Syndicate
Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, September 2010
Bad medicine! The dark lords of the Paisley Underground revisited. ...
Drive-By Truckers: Gangstabilly, Pizza Deliverance
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, March 2005
Early, essential albums from Alabama-bred rockers. A BURGEONING REPUTATION as the most vital Southern band since Skynyrd and the paint still drying on blistering sixth LP ...
The Duke & The King: Long Live The Duke & The King (Loose/Silva Oak) ****
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, October 2010
Dashing country-soul from Felice Brother's lively ensemble ...
The Duke & The King: Nothing Gold Can Stay
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, August 2009
DRUMMER AND SOMETIME SINGER Simone Felice always seemed the least predictable of The Felice Brothers. It was Simone, for instance you'd most likely find dangling ...
Justin Townes Earle: Ripped Genes
Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, The Word, August 2011
Steve Earle is your dad. You're sent to a boot camp for teenage delinquents. But watch what happened next for Justin Townes Earle... ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, June 2009
All-covers homage to his mentor, Townes Van Zandt Steve Earle's apprenticeship with Texan legend Townes Van Zandt was never remotely conventional. An inveterate boozer, Van Zandt ...
Steve Earle: Washington Square Serenade
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, October 2007
LIKE TOM RUSSELL AND DAVE ALVIN, Earle is a songwriter who sharpens with age. Jerusalem (2002) and The Revolution Starts... Now (2004) found him politically ...
Duane Eddy: "All Pilots Are Musicians"
Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, The Word, July 2011
Downhome philosopher, barrier-busting King Of Twang noise-bringer — Duane Eddy strums the semi-acoustic soundbox of sagacity. ...
Review and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, December 2009
YOU COULD NEVER ACCUSE Mark Eitzel of having an inflated sense of self. He recently claimed to have no idea how to write a song, ...
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. ...
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 ...
Frank Fairfield: Frank Fairfield
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, January 2010
FRANK FAIRFIELD certainly looks the part: stiff back, suit, Brylcreem'd hair, banjo cradled high on his chest like some weapon of murderous intent. LA residents ...
Frank Fairfield: Out On The Open West
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, August 2011
FRANK FAIRFIELD looks and sounds like a transplant from another age. All starched collars and hair oil, he plays vintage hillbilly folk on similarly vintage ...
Felice Brothers: The Felice Brothers: Celebration, Florida
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, June 2011
FOR ALL THE Felice Brothers' recent acclaim, they're sometimes accused of being too derivative. Detractors ignore the verve and originality of their piquant story songs ...
Felice Brothers: The Felice Brothers: The Felice Brothers
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, May 2008
Killer second from rural New York siblings ...
The Flaming Lips: Manchester Academy
Live Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, March 2003
PANDAS, ALIENS, GORILLAS, GIANT RABBITS and Jetsonesque robots. Enormous spinning glitterballs spewing kaleidoscopic prisms. Silver confetti, fluorescent strobes, glove puppets and vistas of Teletubbies. At ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, January 2012
Ravishing set of unheard demos from fabled US country-soul brother THE STORY OF Jim Ford is steeped in Southern myth. Revered by good buddies Bobby Womack ...
Frankie Goes To Hollywood: Frankie Says Pop Revolution
Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, Record Collector, January 2014
It's easy to forget how big an explosion Frankie Goes To Hollywood caused in the '80s. Rob Hughes peers through the cracked windows of the ...
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 ...
Liam Gallagher: O2 Ritz, Manchester
Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 31 May 2017
Manchester's most irascible son makes an emotional return. ...
Review by Rob Hughes, The Word, September 2011
Three of the planet's most diffident, messy and murky indie bands throw open the doors and let the pop stream in. ...
Howe Gelb: Confluence (Loose)***
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, June 2001
TWENTY YEARS in, the Giant Sand guru's songwriting torrent courses stronger than ever. ...
Giant Sand: Blurry Blue Mountain
Review and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, December 2010
25 years on, Howe Gelb's band are still a vital force. ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, October 2008
Deconstructionist country-blues from Arizona hero ...
Grandaddy: Manchester University
Live Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, April 2001
STRANGE TALES of exploding androids, lost loves, graveyards for household gadgets, crashed spaceships, sunken dreams and cock-and-bull tourist authorities. Welcome to the bevelled woodchuckery of ...
Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, October 2002
ROB HUGHES ON THE DARK AMERICAN GEM THAT WAS GREEN ON RED'S THIRD LP ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, April 2008
GREG DULLI AND MARK LANEGAN share much common ground. After troubled teenhood, each passed through Seattle's emergent Sub Pop label at the turn of the ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, May 2010
The return of the Hag... in imperious form ...
Interview by Rob Hughes, unpublished, 1999
OCTOBER 1999. On the release of early-years compilation Down In The Valley - and four months prior to fourth studio album, In The Air - ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, October 2001
CALL IT WHAT you will – proto-country, Southern Gothic, backwoods noir, Americana, cow-punk, insurgent twang, murderous balladry, Appalachian folk. Whichever way you slice it, The ...
Interview by Rob Hughes, The Word, September 2011
"Unwanted Alien" — the stamp on Roy Harper's passport in 1962. It's been the story of his life: troubled outsider tries to break in. ...
Roy Harper: Songs Of Love And Loss: Volumes 1 & 2
Review by Rob Hughes, The Word, July 2011
Like Marmite and modern jazz, Roy Harper tends to polarise opinion. The man allergic to authority gets a digital reboot. ...
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 ...
Richard Hawley: Richard Hawley
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, July 2001
Former Pulp guitarist makes dynamic debut with mini-album of spectral ballads ...
Review and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, February 2003
SINCE COMING IN from the cold, Richard Hawley has enjoyed the kind of critical, if not commercial, success previously denied him as guitarist with ill-starred ...
Lee Hazlewood: The Lee Hazlewood Interview
Interview by Rob Hughes, Get Rhythm, July 2002
IT'S BEEN A hellish few days for Lee Hazlewood. Three days into a four-day promo frenzy of our nation's fair capital, and everyone after a ...
Judy Henske, Jerry Yester: Judy Henske & Jerry Yester: Farewell Aldebaran (Radioactive)
Review and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, January 2006
AMONG THE ODDITIES released on Frank Zappa's Straight label at the end of the '60s, none was more exotic than the one conceived by a ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, April 2010
Nashville-based veteran rips through the gears. ...
Patterson Hood: Heat Lightning Rumbles In The Distance
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, October 2012
Drive-By Trucker lifts the lid on his crisis years. Seems like Patterson Hood's been dusting down old memories of late. His last solo LP, 2009's Murdering ...
Patterson Hood: Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs)
Review and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, August 2009
APRIL 1994 was clearly a crucial time in Patterson Hood's life. He'd just moved to a strange new town (Athens, Georgia) in the aftermath of ...
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 ...
The Innocence Mission: Befriended
Review and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, December 2003
Unheralded Pennsylvanian trio conjure up more quiet magic ...
Iron & Wine: Iron And Wine: Around The Well
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, July 2009
ON THE SECOND DISC of this sumptuous collection of oddities is a cover of New Order's 'Love Vigilantes', in which a soldier returns home to ...
Wanda Jackson: Hard-Headed Woman
Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Record Collector, February 2007
WANDA JACKSON was the original Riot Grrrl. In the late '50s, she shook, rattled and roared next to Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and boyfriend ...
Wanda Jackson: You Know I'm So Good!
Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, April 2010
Elvis Presley, Jack White, Amy Winehouse... and the return of Wanda Jackson, first lady of rock'n'roll. ...
The Jayhawks: Music From The North Country – The Jayhawks Anthology
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, September 2009
Roots-rockers' double-disc retrospective, with excellent extras ...
Daniel Johnston: Use Your Delusion: Daniel Johnston: Fear Yourself (Sketchbook) ****
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, April 2003
Twenty-first album from America's startlingly original lord of lo-fi ...
Rickie Lee Jones: Sermon On Exposition Boulevard
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, March 2007
Startling Return Of L.A.'s Duchess Of Coolsville. ...
Rickie Lee Jones: The Devil You Know
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, November 2012
LITTLE OVER A MINUTE into her funereal version of 'St James Infirmary', Rickie Lee Jones lets out a sudden cry of anguish. Such is the ...
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 ...
Judy Henske & Jerry Yester: Farewell Aldebaran
Review by Rob Hughes, Prog, 18 August 2016
At last! Unheralded '60s classic gets a proper reissue. ...
Kim Fowley: Welcome To The Weird World of Kim Fowley
Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, March 2005
"I can kill people, cheat, seduce, amuse and abuse. When they drop a bomb, I'll get a hard-on, go out into the street and I'll ...
Kings Of Leon: Because Of The Times (Columbia) ****
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, May 2007
SWAMPY RETURN OF THE "SOUTHERN STROKES" ...
Alison Krauss + Union Station: Live
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, February 2003
Stunning two-CD document of last summer's Louisville, Kentucky shows ...
Alison Krauss And Union Station: Paper Airplane
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, May 2011
ALISON KRAUSS' STOCK has never been higher. Forget the sales figures, soundtracks and groaning sack of Grammys — 26 to date, the highest for a ...
Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, May 2006
KRIS KRISTOFFERSON is tough to nail. Uncut first catches him, fleetingly, en route to the airport at his home in Maui. ...
Kris Kristofferson looks back on his early years
Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, Record Collector, September 2010
THERE WERE two crucial moments in Kris Kristofferson's early career. The first came on the night of 8 April 1970, in a converted old church ...
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. ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, November 2008
Best in nearly a decade from newly-trimmed Nashville collective. ...
Ray LaMontagne: Til The Sun Turns Black (14th Floor) ***
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, February 2007
New Hampshire star's long-awaited second sneaks into UK shops ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, December 2008
Reissued early stuff from Kentucky-born folkstress. ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, February 2008
UNLESS YOU'RE A REGULAR at New York's anti-folk dives or a particularly avid student of engineering credits on records by Ryan Adams or Philip Glass, ...
Mark Lanegan, Screaming Trees: Mark Lanegan: Shadow Play
Interview by Rob Hughes, Record Collector, February 2014
Over a series of solo albums, work with Screaming Trees and Queens Of The Stone Age, among others, Mark Lanegan has proved his worth as ...
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 ...
Arthur Lee, Love: Arthur Lee: We Have Ways Of Making You Talk
Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, August 2001
ONCE DESCRIBED by fellow band-member Brian MacLean as 'the baddest guy on the West Side of LA, the Cassius Clay of the streets' – Arthur ...
Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, January 2002
BIZARRE BUT brilliant New York "anti-folk" singer. ...
The Lilac Time: Compendium — The Fontana Trinity (Universal/Fontana)*****
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, September 2001
FORTY-FOUR-TRACK twofer cherry-picked from first three albums – includes B-sides and rarities. ...
Charlie Louvin: The Battles Rage On
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, January 2011
Old stager returns to his post for military-decorated album ...
Annabella Lwin: What She Likes
Interview by Rob Hughes, The Word, April 2012
McLaren protegee, voice of Bow Wow Wow, Pitbull fan and romcom freak. Identifies with Marie Antoinette. ...
Shelby Lynne: Just A Little Lovin'
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, March 2008
Shelby does Dusty In Memphis... almost. ...
Loretta Lynn, Jack White: Loretta Lynn: Van Lear Rose
Review and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, June 2004
Awesome rebirth of original Country Queen, produced and arranged by the White Stripes' Jack White. ...
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Sultans Of Swamp
Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, May 2006
LORD KNOWS, Lynyrd Skynyrd had seen it coming. On the flight from Florida to South Carolina, the band's Convair 240 tour plane had begun spewing ...
Marah: If You Didn't Laugh, You'd Cry
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, December 2005
Rip-snorting return of Nick Hornby's beloved Philly kids. SINCE Kids In Philly (an Uncut Album Of The Month in December 2000), Marah have led a chequered ...
Mark Olson & The Creekdippers: Creekdippin' For The First Time
Review and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, January 2004
ASPIRING SONGSMITHS Mark Olson and Victoria Williams first met in 1984. When they hooked up again, a little over 10 years later, things were different. ...
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. ...
Johnny Marr on Boomslang and the Smiths
Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, April 2003
Hughes: The new album's been a long time in the making. Why the wait? ...
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. ...
Interview by Rob Hughes, The Word, October 2011
Head Bunnyman; admires The Doors' "sea shanties" the lyrics of Shania Twain, the poetry of John Betjeman and the voice of Alan Yentob ...
The Mekons: Mekon…And On…And On…
Report and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, September 2007
They wanted to be punk's slowest band. They ended up accidentally inventing alt.country and sticking around for 30 years. Raise your glasses, please, to the ...
Buddy and Julie Miller: Buddy & Julie Miller
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, June 2002
TEARS-IN-your-beer stuff from Nashville Mr and Mrs. ...
Miracle Legion: Promised You A Miracle
Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, January 2016
At last! Mark Mulcahy and Ray Neal plot the second coming of Miracle Legion. ...
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. ...
Moby Grape: Great albums that fell off the critical radar: Moby Grape
Retrospective by Rob Hughes, Uncut, December 2003
THERE'S UNLUCKY and then there's unlucky. In the case of '60s Bay Area five-piece Moby Grape, they were hounded by the hex from Hell. They ...
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. ...
Morrissey: A Quiff of Nostalgia: Morrissey: M.E.N. Arena, Manchester
Live Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, August 2004
The toast(ed teacake) of Tinseltown comes home. DVD to follow. ...
The Mountain Goats: We Shall All Be Healed
Review and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, March 2004
Latest album from Iowa-based erudite John Darnielle ...
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, ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, March 2003
First UK releases for currently hot band ...
The National: An Interview with Matt Berninger
Interview by Rob Hughes, The Word, June 2011
It's been a long, slow slog to the summit for The National — "You either plant your flag or you're forgotten" ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, June 2010
Legend revisits his roots, aided by Grammy-magnet T Bone Burnett It really is impossible to second-guess Willie Nelson. The recent past has seen some unlikely detours ...
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 ...
New Order: Move Festival, Old Trafford Cricket Ground, Manchester
Live Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, September 2002
SINCE SETTING aside old bones of contention four years ago, New Order's Indian summer has seemed one long, breathless, last-skitter-of-the-dice party. ...
New Order: Olympia Theatre, Liverpool
Live Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, October 2001
BY RIGHTS, they shouldn't be here at all. The acrimonious fallout from 1993's tempestuous Republic gouged a rift within New Order that seemed way beyond ...
Laura Nyro: Angel In The Dark (Rounder)****
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, July 2001
THE LAST recordings from the 'Bronx Bronte', covered by everyone from Sinatra to Streisand. A live album's imminent, too. ...
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 ...
Old 97's: The Grand Theatre (Volume One)
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, February 2011
Raw-blooded rock'n'twang from veteran Texan four-piece There was a time when Old 97's looked set to reap the same dividends as their peers Whiskeytown and Wilco. ...
Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, May 2004
Whether recording as Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Palace Brothers or just plain Palace, Will Oldham is one of the most enigmatic, brilliant songwriters in America ...
Jim O'Rourke: The Art Of Noise
Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, March 2002
HEAR AN EXPERIMENTAL, ELECTRONIC RECORD THESE DAYS AND CHANCES ARE IT WILL HAVE CHICAGOAN JIM O'ROURKE'S NAME ON IT. ROB HUGHES MEETS THE 21ST CENTURY ...
Doug Paisley: Constant Companion
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, December 2010
DOUG PAISLEY is a relative newcomer, but he and his music are both steeped in history. He spent 10 years in a duo that evolved ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, December 2001
CLASSIC WEST coast sounds direct from Vancouver. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, April 2008
BY THE TIME of his 1968 debut, Van Dyke Parks already had pedigree. Mississippi-born and Louisiana-raised, as a child actor he starred in 1956's The ...
Pavement, Preston School of Industry: Preston School of Industry: All This Sounds Gas (Domino)****
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, September 2001
PAVEMENT FOUNDER member emerges from dark side of the Malkmus to release solo project, whose name derives from San Francisco-area reform school ...
Pernice Brothers: The World Won't End
Review and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, August 2001
SUN-BAKED melancholy from Boston ...
Pernice Brothers: The World Won't End
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, July 2001
DESPITE THE previous year's flawless neo-country masterpiece Massachusetts, Joe Pernice quit the Scud Mountain Boys in 1997 in pursuit of new horizons and a craving ...
Larry Wallis, The Pink Fairies: Larry Wallis: I Thought You Were Dead
Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, June 2002
ONCE LABELLED "Hank Marvin on acid", Wallis was vocalist/guitarist in seminal UK space-rockers the Pink Fairies, penning 1973's classic Kings Of Oblivion. ...
The Pixies: Looking back on Doolittle and the making of a classic
Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, Classic Rock, May 2014
30 years after the Doolittle album took The Pixies from obscurity to alt.rock's top table, the band Kurt Cobain wanted to be in look back ...
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 ...
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 ...
Lisa Marie Presley: To Whom It May Concern (Capitol) **
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, September 2003
The most famous scion in rock history aims for a spot in the sun ...
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 ...
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 ...
Jon Rauhouse: Jon Rauhouse's Steel Guitar Rodeo
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, June 2004
A HIGHLY ABLE sideman to the likes of Neko Case, Calexico, The Waco Brothers, Sally Timms and Kelly Hogan, Tucson-based Rauhouse's prior form included seven ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, October 2002
IT'S EARLY 1987. Amid a fug of coke-induced paranoia, unruly punk misanthropists the Replacements have snuck back into the Minneapolis studio of Twin/Tone Records. Convinced ...
Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, May 2010
Thwarted! He could have been L.A.'s McCartney. Instead, he ended up "ashamed of being human". ...
Richmond Fontaine:The High Country
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, October 2011
Murderously good rural-noir from Willy Vlautin and co ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, January 2007
Delicate Mini-Album From Idaho Minstrel ...
Josh Ritter: So Runs The World Away
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, September 2010
THERE'S A FAIRLY PLAUSIBLE THEORY that an artist's entire career can be defined by their debut album, and that everything that follows is merely a ...
Josh Ritter: The Historical Conquests Of Josh Ritter
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, November 2007
EVIDENTLY WARY of the heavy-handed earnestness that blights many an acoustic singer-songwriter, Josh Ritter has lately been looking for ways to extend his range. Last ...
Interview by Rob Hughes, unpublished, Fall 2009
"DID I HAVE DREAMS of being a big star? Yeah, I had hopes of making it. We all do, but in music there are no ...
Guide by Rob Hughes, Uncut, April 2004
Power pop? Another bunch of Beatles nerds with '60s gear and no tunes, then? ...
Frank Sidebottom: Chris Sievey 1955-2010
Obituary by Rob Hughes, The Guardian, 22 June 2010
Musician, entertainer and alter ego of the cult comedy creation Frank Sidebottom. ...
Sturgill Simpson: Metamodern Sounds in Country Music (Loose)
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, June 2014
Anyone for metaphysical prog country? Nashville songwriter heads for the stars ...
P. F. Sloan: The Stars That Fame Forgot: P. F. Sloan
Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, August 2006
"P.F. Sloan gave us arguably the first real 'protest rock'. It wasn't folk music anymore, it was ROCK AND ROLL protest music. 'Eve of Destruction' ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, May 2000
Ninth dry—lipped album from the Buster Keaton of sadcore ...
Songs: Ohia: The Magnolia Electric Co.
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, April 2003
Unheralded Chicago-based tunesmith comes of age ...
Sparklehorse: Mark Linkous, 1962-2010
Obituary by Rob Hughes, The Guardian, 9 March 2010
THE AMERICAN singer-songwriter Mark Linkous, who has killed himself aged 47, worked with the Flaming Lips, Daniel Johnston and Danger Mouse, but is best known ...
Sparklehorse: Mark Linkous: Singer-songwriter, Sparklehorse leader (1962-2010)
Obituary by Rob Hughes, Uncut, May 2010
OF ALL THE tributes that followed the tragic death of Mark Linkous, who shot himself through the heart in Knoxville, Tennessee, none was more concise ...
Skip Spence: Dark Star: The Tragic Genius Of Skip Spence
Retrospective by Rob Hughes, Classic Rock, 23 January 2015
Moby Grape co-founder Skip Spence wrote his album Oar in a psychiatric ward after threatening his bandmates with an axe. Fifteen years after his death, artists ...
Interview by Rob Hughes, Record Collector, March 2010
Stephen Stills looks back on a rollercoaster career that has seen him survive superstardom, booze, drugs and cancer to enjoy his current renaissance. ...
Stephen Stills: Just Roll Tape – April 26th 1968
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, September 2007
Post-Springfield, Pre-CSN Stills in Magisterial Solo Mood ...
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. ...
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 ...
Richard Swift: Dressed Up For The Letdown
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, March 2007
CONNOISSEURS OF grand American pop will love Richard Swift. Like the young Van Dyke Parks or Harry Nilsson, his baleful, piano-led cabaret sounds like an ...
Guide by Rob Hughes, The Word, February 2012
Folk luminary, former librarian, Anne Briggs acolyte and breadmaker. Well-versed in the history of war. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, April 2003
How TEENAGE FANCLUB became Kurt Cobain's favourite band, looked set to conquer the world, then decided they had better things to do… ...
Retrospective by Rob Hughes, Uncut, November 2001
Lightning strikes with Marquee Moon, Television opened the door to post-punk ...
Them Crooked Vultures: High Flyers
Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Classic Rock, March 2010
Most 40th birthday parties end with a sore head, regrettable dancing and uneaten cake. Dave Grohl's bash finished up with him, John Paul Jones and ...
13th Floor Elevators: The Psychedelic World Of The 13th Floor Elevators (Charly)****
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, May 2002
BOXED COMPENDIUM of acid-fried Texan mindbenders. Includes lives, outtakes and alternate cuts on three remastered CDs. ...
Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, June 2002
TRAGEDY AND comedy from homecoming queen of heartbreak. ...
Cortney Tidwell, Kurt Wagner: Kurt Wagner & Cortney Tidwell Present... Kort: Invariable Heartache
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, November 2010
The Kurt'n'Cortney of country do Nashville's back pages, beautifully. The revival of the boy-girl duet, more or less a forgotten strand of classic country, has been ...
Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, July 2001
AS FIRST gigs go, it was an almost surreal baptism. Happily for them, the Queen was impressed. "She came over and said hello. I just ...
Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, Record Collector, September 2007
FUNNY HOW things change. A little over a decade ago, Ike Turner was rock'n'roll's terminal pariah. Damned by 1993's What's Love Got To Do With ...
Uncle Tupelo: Are you ready for the alt. country?
Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, August 2004
UNCLE TUPELO only recorded three albums, but their legacy is extraordinary. Here we talk to original members Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy and Mike Heidorn about ...
Cherry Vanilla: Nymphomaniacs Anonymous
Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, March 2011
Whatever happened to the celebrity groupie? Legendary '70s party animal Cherry Vanilla has a few theories. ...
Review and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, March 2004
LESS THAN TEN YEARS AGO, Laura Veirs was struck on being a geologist. Then, exploring a remote desert corner of northwest China with a bunch ...
Review and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, January 2010
Peachy "comeback" from Portland nature-lover. ...
Interview by Rob Hughes, The Word, May 2012
Songwriting, film-scoring opera-pop dandy with formative Thomas Hardy habit. Puccini apologist and Family Guy fanatic. ...
Frank Zappa, Tom Waits: Herb Cohen: Combative label boss and manager of Frank Zappa and Tom Waits
Obituary by Rob Hughes, The Guardian, 1 April 2010
HERB COHEN, who has died aged 77 of complications from cancer, did not elicit much affection from the artists he managed, but he played a ...
Review and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, October 2017
CORY HANSON didn't hang about when he formed Wand with fellow art school chums Lee Landey and Evan Burrows in 2013. ...
M. Ward: M Ward: Transistor Radio
Review and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, March 2005
Fourth album from Portland dream-catcher follows up 2003's Transfiguration Of Vincent. MATT WARD FIRST CAME to critical (if not commercial) attention with 2001's End Of Amnesia. ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, October 2000
CHIPS OFF the old block deliver first album 'proper', produced by Smiths/Blur helmsman Stephen Street. ...
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 ...
Gillian Welch: A Kind Of Bluegrass
Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, September 2003
Don't be fooled by her old-time country music and rural folk imagery. Gillian Welch is no mountain girl… ...
Jim White: Drill A Hole In That Substrate And Tell Me What You See
Review and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, May 2004
A YANKEE-BLOODED outcast in the Bible-thumping enclave of his adopted Pensacola, White has unwittingly spent his entire life foraging on the wrong side of the ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, March 2012
JIM WHITE'S extraordinary first two records, 1997's Wrong- Eyed Jesus! and No Such Place (2001), were modern signifiers of a new kind of Southern gothic, ...
Jim White: Searching For The Wrong-Eyed Jesus ****
Film/DVD/TV Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, July 2004
SHOWING FOR A limited time at London's National Film Theatre prior to an airing on television this is film-maker Andrew Douglas' road trip through America's ...
Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, April 2001
ON HIS EXTRAORDINARY NEW ALBUM, NO SUCH PLACE, HE HAS CONTRIVED AN ASTONISHING MIX OF SPOOKILY DEMENTED COUNTRY, SKEWED ROCK AND HIP HOP THAT CHARTS ...
Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, October 2001
AUGUST, 1969: Upstate New York. All along America's Eastern seaboard upright citizens of this great nation are starting to slowly stir from deep and uneventful ...
Willard Grant Conspiracy: Pilgrim Road
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, June 2008
Opulent seventh from Robert Fisher's ever-evolving collective. ...
Willard Grant Conspiracy: Regard The End
Review and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, July 2003
Glorious fifth album proper from ever-shifting Bostonians reaches down through the years ...
Victoria Williams: Sings Some Ol' Songs
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, January 2003
Beguiling collection of sepia-tinged ephemera spanning 1993-2002 from L.A. songstress, sometime Creekdipper and full-time fairer half of Mark Olson ...
Interview by Rob Hughes, The Word, January 2012
Anyone else apart from Roy Wood ever been sued by a prime minister? ...
X: Los Angeles *****; Wild Gift ****; Under The Big Black Sun **** (Rhino/Warners)
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, December 2001
REMASTERED, EXPANDED reissues from the dark heart of California. ...
List of genre pieces
Report by Rob Hughes, Uncut, January 2021
WHILE IT'S been a highly challenging year for the music industry – particularly in terms of cancelled tours, venue closures and a disrupted retail market ...
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