Music
A gigantic field of feeling
I was never into the blues that much. I listened to a bit of Roy Buchanan and Rory Gallagher but…
Bad songs for a good cause
Twice during the Eurovision Song Contest our television lost the signal and the set went blank – once, mercifully, during…
Ed Sheeran is right about British courts
As they say in the music business, where there’s a hit, there’s a writ. It is something that no one…
Bono’s ‘poem’ was an insult to the craft of verse
‘Poet’, said Robert Frost, ‘is a praise-word’. So it is. That explains in part the unabashed delight with which Colm…
Rapper’s delight
The most disappointing pop performance I’ve ever seen – and in the course of my 15-odd years as a music…
The whine of the Ancient Mariner
I was a bit irritated by all the millennials saying the Superbowl half-time show made them feel old. The 15-minute…
True devotion
The 20th century was an amazing time for Russian pianists, and the worse things got, politically and militarily, the more…
Stones notebook
I’ve lived in Chelsea for the past 35 years. Since 2002, I’ve photographed everything I find interesting here — churches,…
Musician’s notebook
My mother died earlier this year aged 85. She left me her old pianola. These were popular in the 1920s…
Did the music industry enable R. Kelly?
As Harvey Weinstein was to film, so Robert ‘R.’ Kelly has been to the music industry. An energetic and profligate…
Snap, crackle, shriek…
So it finally happened: I experienced my first vocal setting of the word ‘Covid’. An encounter that was, inevitably, more…
Looking for enchantment
Most social occasions now seem to kick off with a wasted hour or two. The time is spent discussing Covid:…
A true bohemian
It is well established that artists are not always the nicest people. On the surface, the life of the model,…
The X Factor made all the right people cross
On hearing that the X Factor is no more after our 17 years together, I reflected on what a journey…
Still the Fab Five
In my second year at secondary school we were all deeply envious of a girl named Judi Taylor because, obviously,…
Ladies first
On the way home from This Is The Kit’s show at a socially distanced Barbican, I listened to Avalon by…
Title deeds
The best thing on the radio last week was, without question, Kind Hearts and Coronets. You may have missed it…
A blast from the past
Halfway through what must count as one of the more esoteric quests, Jennifer Lucy Allan finds herself on a hill…
Letters
The Union in peril Sir: Fraser Nelson (‘The great pretender’, 15 May) writes that it has never been easier to…
‘I’m not interested in moral purity’
Michael Hann talks to St Vincent about Sheena Easton, Stalin and performing in five-inch heels
Inside stories
Prison-based podcast Banged Up, now in its second series, is far more uplifting — and less soapy — than its…
Loony tunes
The unstoppable rise of ‘background’ music
It’s cool to spool
May the gods of Hiss and Compression bless Lou Ottens. As head of new product development at Phillips, the Dutch…
Barack and the Boss
Barack Obama wants the world to know how much he loves singing. In his new podcast, which takes the form…
‘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
