Music
Bring back the album
Usually when my tweenage sons ask about relics from my 1990s adolescence – ‘What’s a landline?’ ‘What’s a phone book?’…
Nostalgia for the 1980s New Romantic scene
Robert Elms recalls the glory days of London’s Blitz Club, where the likes of John Galliano, Boy George and David Bowie danced in outlandish costumes to futuristic electronica
Childhood illnesses and instability left Patti Smith yearning for ‘sacred mysteries’
Bedridden for much of her youth, she found consolation in music, and a way ‘into fairyland’ through a treasured poetry anthology
Satanic verses: the origins of Roman Catholic black metal
In his youth in the early 2000s, Emil Lundin became obsessed with the idea of recording the world’s ‘most evil…
My debt to the teacher who introduced me to Wagner
We saw the world end in Berlin, again. Another Ring Cycle – hurrah! – in the beautiful Staatsoper theatre on…
Yoga is slow-motion pole-dancing for grannies
It’s hard work being rich. I gave up trying years ago. You must waste money on everything, even the basics,…
The vanished glamour of New York nightlife
Booze, coke, models, parties… Mark Ronson’s vivid account of DJing in the 1990s is a celebration of a lost world
What’s wrong with elitism?
There was a time when the serious business of concert-giving closed down for the summer. Artists were expected to take…
Nutrition is a bogus creed
Time to think about my diet. A test kit arrives from the NHS screening team who want to inspect a…
Kate Moss’s new Bowie podcast is far too safe
In January, it will be ten years since David Bowie died. I remember Bowie songs playing out of every London…
A tale of two Martins
Provence The canicule broke yesterday, heralding the end of high summer. Wild figs and mulberries litter the path, filling the…
In defence of Notting Hill Carnival
This isn’t going to be a piece celebrating the rich cultural tapestry of London’s Afro-Caribbean community, sombrely expressing the importance…
Medics make the worst patients
Provence Apart from three Covid years, the German rock cover band Five and the Red One (named, so they say,…
How the railways shaped modern culture
Cue track seven of Frank Sinatra’s 1957 album Only the Lonely and you can hear Ol’ Blue Eyes pretending to…
Pope Idol: Leo’s singing should be celebrated
‘But will anyone be interested?’ the vicar asked cautiously. It was a fair response to my latest madcap scheme. One…
How silence makes music
‘What!? But they won’t let you in!’ and ‘What!? But they’ll detain you at the border!’ and ‘What!? But they’re…
The mystical masterpiece from Stalag VIII-A
A meditation on Quartet for the End of Time, Oliver Messiaen’s great prison camp composition, should bring the strange, bird-fixated religious avant-gardist new admirers
The world reveres British music
I have just returned from the lovely Italian city of Rimini, where 300 local singers had gathered for a weekend…
What makes a good title?
Liszt’s compositions tend to have descriptive titles – ‘Wild Chase’; ‘Dreams of Love’ – whereas Chopin avoided titles. Thomas Wentworth…
I’m not the only football-obsessed composer
I was in Sweden a few weeks ago, where my music was presented in Stockholm in the most recent International…
The otherworldly artist who made his name at The Spectator
There is something otherworldly about Rory McEwen’s paintings of plants, leaves and fruit. They are indisputably beautiful, often breathtakingly so,…
‘Judgment is the price of being creative’: Rory Sutherland and Rick Rubin in conversation
Rick Rubin is a legendary American record producer who co-founded Def Jam records, which helped popularise hip hop. He has…
The Westminster Wag to watch
Surely charity is about helping others, not massaging your own ego? Ed Sheeran’s boycott of Band Aid is yet another example of…
Do you like the century you’re in?
Years ago Lord Patten of Barnes – Chris – was our guest for my Great Lives programme on BBC Radio…
