Mainlining sunshine
One thing about a streamed festival is that the toilets are better than at the real thing. The other thing,…
Blasts from the past
One of the unforeseen consequences of the rise of streaming was a change in the very structure of the pop…
In league with the devil
The most headline-grabbing of these three pop docs was Framing Britney Spears, part of the New York Times Presents documentary…
Bands on the run
Twitter was awash with mockery last week, after Adam Levine, the singer of the American group Maroon 5, was interviewed…
‘I like upsetting people’
Michael Hann talks to the cult rock star Steven Wilson about why it’s harder to write a pop song than prog
Rock and awe
You very possibly know the music of the Glaswegian band Mogwai, even if you don’t think you do. You might…
When music was more than a click away
In Teenage Superstars, a long and slightly exhausting documentary about the Scottish indie scene of the 1980s and ’90s, there…
The KLF: Solid State Logik 1
Grade: A What a miracle the KLF were: an elaborate practical joke at the expense of the music industry, seemingly…
‘It was like a survivors’ circle’
Michael Hann talks to Corey Taylor, front man of ‘the most revolting band in the world’, about PTSD, Donald Trump and life after alcoholism
Ordinary but extraordinary
How hard must it be to make music that sounds like no one else? And how unrewarding, often, as well?…
Simply divine
Three shows in a week! Why, it was just like the first week of March. There was, however, little of…
Beauty and the beast
Michael Hann talks to Kevin Rowland about Dexys, insecurity and the cocaine years
Greatness and idiocy
Is the world ready for the return of live rock music? On the evidence of the first gig in London…
I’m missing moshpits
There was only so long anyone could put up with the live musical performances of the early days of lockdown:…
Dysfunctional music by dysfunctional people
A star is born, but instead of emerging into the world beaming for the cameras, he spits and snarls and…
Cheap thrills
Noël Coward was so right that his words have become a cliché: it is indeed extraordinary how potent cheap music…
Beasties and besties
The music of the Beastie Boys was entirely an expression of their personalities, a chance to delightedly splurge out on…
Hopping mad
The ghost of Samuel Beckett oversaw the Hip Hop Loves NY livestream last Thursday night. Time and time again its…
A kind of magic
You have to admire the spirit of the organisers of last weekend’s One World: Together at Home concert. To put…
The fascinating Ms Swift
There had been some question about whether Taylor Swift’s Netflix special would actually appear. Last year it seemed that the…
The great pretenders
The accepted line about Bryan Ferry is that his is one of the greatest reinventions in English pop culture: Peter…
Waking the dead
‘No matter what they take from me,’ sang Whitney Houston towards the end of a peculiar evening in Hammersmith, ‘they…
Material world
You might have thought Madonna was not a singer but a professional footballer judging by the talk before she took…
Purified scarification
Every development in heavy music is derided by mainstream critics. When Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin emerged in the late…
New faces
Come January, when the proper pop stars are all in the gym working off the pounds before they emerge, blinking……
