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…
The real deal
One of the biggest talking points in pop these past couple of years has been how successful old musicians have…
Imperial measures
At the turn of this century, looking back on the late 1980s when the Pet Shop Boys could do no…
Oops! He did it again
Every so often, Jason Pierce drifts into focus. It happened at the end of the 1980s, when his then group…
The perfect pop star
Dua Lipa’s second album, Future Nostalgia, was released at the least promising moment possible: 27 March 2020, the day after…
The essential Wellerness
You don’t need to be a historian of pop to realise that having been part of a huge manufactured group…
Family entertainer
Stormzy occupies a curious place in British pop culture right now. He’s the darling of liberals for all his good…
Her dark materials
It took a moment to realise Keeley Forsyth was there. There were already three musicians, faint figures on a dark…
Playing hooky
One of the curiosities of modern pop’s landscape is that no one knows any longer how to measure success. An…
Hardcore thrills
Even leaving aside its origins as prison slang, punk has always meant different things on either side of the Atlantic.…
A great leap forward
The single thing you don’t want when you are beginning a run of four shows in a prestige venue, with…
The singing is the star
When I were a lad — back when you could buy the entire back catalogue of the Fall for thruppence…
Soul searching
No musician ever went bust overestimating the public desire to hear classic soul. Slapping on a Motown backbeat has revived…
Running on full and empty
The bigger the next big thing, the smaller the room you want them playing in. You want the people who…
Morrissey remastered
Many of us who grew up loving the Smiths have rather shelved that affection in recent years. Many of us,…
About more than just the music
The single most boring and pointless thing that is ever said about rock and pop — and it always comes…
Hot metal and methadrine
They may no longer get many teenagers at their shows spending all their money on merchandise, then throwing up on…
