Come let us adore them
It’s not just who our pop heroes are that marks the passing of the generations; it’s how those heroes present…
Salve Regina
We’ll get on to the brilliance of Regina Spektor in a moment. But first a question: why are pop music…
Matters of life and death
Seven years ago, I asked Bruce Springsteen what he meant when he talked of the covenant between himself and his…
A tale of two fortunes
Here’s a mystery for you. Why were Spoon, one of the most dynamic, sharpest rock bands in the world, playing…
Amazing Grace
Some artists need flash bombs to make an impression on stage. Some need giant screens. Some need to run around…
Metal fatigue
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything worse than Mötley Crüe in Sheffield. Nothing more tuneless, empty, vapid and dismaying.…
Back to black
Michael Hann on the most enduring of pop subcultures
Irish ayes
I was listening the other week to a solo album by an ageing rock guitarist, once terrifically famous. It was…
Don’t believe the naysayers
A user’s guide to how pop music works in the 21st century. Step one: you see a great new band.…
Songs for a life
Elton John has now been retiring for nearly five years. The Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour began in Allentown, Pennsylvania,…
Side lines
Think of pop music as being like the parable of the sower. These days the seed falling on stony ground…
Sonic youth
Years ago, I asked Robert Plant what he felt about the world’s love of ‘Stairway to Heaven’. He said he…
The girls, the gays and the theys
The other week I saw a T-shirt bearing the caption ‘For the girls, the gays and the theys’. And if…
Going Metric
Why aren’t Metric stars? In their native Canada, several of their albums have gone platinum, but the rest of the…
Things fall apart
The great country singer George Jones was famed not just for his voice, but also for his drinking. Once, deprived…
Absolute Rodness
Reader, I let you down. But I did so for the right reason: for love. On a night when all…
Prepare for lift-off
The first time I saw Franz Ferdinand was at the sadly lost Astoria, just after the release of their first…
Blasts from the past
Oh, nostalgia – so much better than it used to be! You’d never have guessed pop music was once the…
Fallen idols
The definition of ‘pop star’ in the Collins English Dictionary is unambiguous: ‘A famous singer or musician who performs pop…
Spark of genius
Lindsey Buckingham, at 72, still has cheekbones that cast shadows. He has the upright shock of hair, too, though now…
Force of nature
Few forms of music have colonised the world like metal and hip-hop. Wherever you go you will find these two…
Sorted for Es and wizz
Let me introduce you to the two poles in pop and rock. One is marked by authenticity, musicianship, a certain…
Woodstock this wasn’t
One learns the strangest things at festivals. That, for instance, this summer has been a bit of a blackcurrant disaster…
What a way to go
The greatest pleasure of writing about pop music – even more than the free tickets and records, nice as they…
