Pop
Bands on the run
Twitter was awash with mockery last week, after Adam Levine, the singer of the American group Maroon 5, was interviewed…
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…
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…
Potted herring and Lester Piggott
Q: ‘How would you define transcendence?’ A: ‘Well, how would you define it?’ I interviewed Van Morrison last year. (I’m…
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…
The Peter Cook of pop
In 1992 Prince released a single called ‘My Name Is Prince’. On first hearing it seemed appropriately regal. Cocky, even.…
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…
A son-et-lumière spectacular: The Chemical Brothers at the O2 Arena reviewed
How does one account for the phenomenon that is the Chemical Brothers, a quarter of a century on from their…
Rap that feels like a sociology lecture: Loyle Carner at Alexandra Palace reviewed
A few years ago, I asked the young American soul singer Leon Bridges — a latter-day Sam Cooke, with the…
Range and power – and amazingly she sang all her songs: Christina Aguilera at Wembley reviewed
In every respect bar its austere pews, the Union Chapel is one of the best venues in London: beautiful and…
Fascinating and compelling: Bruce Hornsby at Shepherd’s Bush Empire reviewed
In the unlikely event that Bruce Hornsby and Morten Harket, A-ha’s singer, ended up featuring in the Daily Mail for,…
The open-hearted loveliness of Hot Chip
Squeeze and Hot Chip are both great British pop groups. But they never defined a scene. Their ambitions extended further…
![Slowthai at the Brixton Academy. [Photo: Visionhaus]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Pop_1.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
Something great
Those who cherish the notion that the current prime minister really is ‘electoral Viagra’ should have paid a visit to…
At their best the Psychedelic Furs are fantastic
It’s amazing what the movies can do. In 1986, the John Hughes teen flick Pretty in Pink — the one…
