live music
The rise of psychedelia
On YouTube – and I urge you to look it up – there is a magnificent piece of footage from…
No band should play Ally Pally
The last time Gillian Welch and David Rawlings played in London it was a different world: the world of David…
Fionn Regan has gone method Worzel Gummidge
Watching the Mercury Music Prize on television last week, I remembered that Fionn Regan’s debut album, The End Of History,…
In defence of Mick Hucknall
Before Simply Red came on stage at the Greenwich peninsula’s enormodome, the screens showed a clip of a very young…
Like Gabor Mate set to club beats: Lady Gaga, at the O2, reviewed
Lady Gaga’s show was to begin at 7.30 prompt, we were told. No opening act. And at 7.30 something did…
The problem with Chappell Roan
There is a downside to being fast-tracked into the position of this season’s newest pop sensation, and it became more…
‘Modern pop makes me want to kill myself’: Neil Hannon interviewed
Search for a successor to Tom Lehrer, and you’ll be hard pressed to find any decent candidates. One of the …
Ultimately hard to resist: Elbow reviewed
Our relationships with bands are often very like our relationships with people. Some are pure and lasting love. Some start…
The rise of cringe
No one wrote programme notes quite like the English experimentalist John White. ‘This music is top-quality trash,’ proclaims his 1993…
The terrifying charisma of Liam Gallagher
You’d have thought Wembley Stadium was a sportswear convention, so ubiquitous were the three stripes down people’s arms from all…
Magnificent: Stevie Wonder at BST Hyde Park reviewed
The highs of Stevie Wonder’s Hyde Park show were magnificently high. The vast band were fully clicked into that syncopated,…
The political climate at Glastonbury was not especially febrile
Everyone who wasn’t at Glastonbury this year knows exactly what it was like: a seething mass of hatred and rabid…
Jarvis Cocker still has the voice – and the moves
For bands of a certain vintage, the art of keeping the show on the road involves a tightly choreographed dance…
The charm of Robbie Williams
What could it possibly feel like to be a sportsperson who gets the yips? To wake up one morning and…
Anyone irritated by Springsteen’s speeches hasn’t been paying attention
No one who went to see Bruce Springsteen’s Broadway residency a few years back came away disappointed because they knew…
We’ve underestimated Francis Rossi
I have a friend who insists that had Status Quo hailed from Düsseldorf rather than Catford, they would nowadays be…
I think I’ve found the new Van Morrison
Young male singers won the right to be sensitive in 1963, when The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan was released. And in…
Divorce are the best young British band I’ve seen in an age
Can we talk business for a moment? When reviewers like me go to big arenas, we get the best seats…
Metal for people who don’t understand metal: The Darkness at Wembley reviewed
Midway through their thoroughly entertaining show at Wembley Arena, the Darkness played a song from a decade ago called ‘Barbarian’,…
Shades of Berlin Bowie and Ian Curtis: Hamish Hawk, at Usher Hall, reviewed
I am a regular attendee at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh’s most ornate and venerable concert venue. On more than one…
Lauren Mayberry is terrific – but it’s not music for middle-aged men
There are nights when one realises quite how much effort the business end of showbusiness must be. On a bitterly…
Kneecap are basic but thrilling
It was Irish week in London, with one group from the north and one from the south. Guinness was sold…
What a remarkably bad electric guitar player Bob Dylan is
Finally, a taste of the authentic Bob Dylan live experience. On the two previous occasions that I’ve seen Dylan, in…
Perfectly imperfect: Evan Dando, at Islington Assembly Hall, reviewed
‘Can I have a photo with you, please?’ It’s the most embarrassing question you can ask of someone you’re interviewing.…
Terrifically good value: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds reviewed
A few years ago, I received an early morning phone call from Nick Cave’s former PR, berating me for not…
