Music
In praise of cheap box sets
This column does like a bargain. Indeed, it not only esteems and relishes a bargain, it has also worked long…
Four of the best albums to write books by
I have been writing a book this summer, in the usual mad tearing hurry. (Much as I admire those who…
Helen Vendler is full of condescending waffle (and not just when she’s attacking me)
Is it possible to tell a good poem from a bad one? To put the question another way: are there…
The Proms is taxpayers’ money well spent: it’s a national asset like fish and chips and the royal baby
Make no mistake: the Proms, whose 2015 season was launched last night, would not, could not, exist without the BBC,…
Ringo's no joke. He was a genius and the Beatles were lucky to have him
Ringo’s no joke, says James Woodall. He was a genius and the Beatles were lucky to have him
Michael Eavis has brought more joy to more people than almost any Englishman alive
I had meant to write a dispassionate account of this year’s Glastonbury, really I had. But I’m afraid my plans…
Steve Hilton's model for policy reform: Glastonbury (yes, really)
Glastonbury is a model for radical policy reform, says Steve Hilton
The real contest at Eurovision: worst lyric
Like a reluctantly remembered nightmare, last week’s Eurovision Song Contest already seems very distant. But, in the manner of the…
The Heckler: why does John Eliot Gardiner have to be so rude?
Sir John Eliot Gardiner is talented almost beyond measure. His Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists and stupidly named Orchestre Révolutionnaire…
Campaign songs and the singers who wish they weren’t
Out of tune The use of a song, ‘Love Natural’ by the Crystal Fighters, at the launch of the Labour…
Why Daniel Barenboim should be the next head of the Berlin Phil
Daniel Barenboim is back in town: the South Bank is mounting a ‘Barenboim Project 2015’ in which he’s playing the…
Plumber, taxi driver, mystic, musician — the many facets of Philip Glass
Philip Hensher infinitely prefers the words to the music of the maverick ‘minimalist’ composer
The golden age of pop has been replaced by the golden age of pop obituaries
The golden age of pop music may be long gone, but the golden age of pop musicians’ obituaries is definitely…
Even a perfect opera such as Don Giovanni improves with a good red
End of season is always bittersweet, the melting snows a bit like autumn leaves. But the days are longer and…
A censored hymn to motorway misery
Service record The government is to form a design panel to improve motorway services stations. These have not always charmed…
James Blunt’s sense of entitlement is so palpable you could wear it as a hat
Only a fool would mess with James Blunt. As his Twitter followers know, he has a sharp wit, and, as…
Maybe it’s a problem when all artists are like James Blunt. But it’s worse when Labour MPs are like Chris Bryant
What should we do with James Blunt? This is what I have been asking myself. And I am not looking…
The curious language of Christmas carols
I could never understand as a little girl why we sang: ‘Away in a manger, no crib for a bed.’…
Composer, conductor, author, pianist, lecturer — was there anything Leonard Bernstein couldn’t do?
On 17 May 1969 Leonard Bernstein ended his 12-year run as musical director of the New York Philharmonic with a…
Songs for the road: through his music and his classic car collection Neil Young hopes to escape his childhood traumas
Why do people talk about ‘experimenting’ with drugs when mostly they just mean that they’re doing them? Perhaps, as I…
Dear Mary: How can I stop my future son-in-law saying ‘must of’
Q. My future son-in-law has been successfully house-trained in the use of upper-middle-class English over the years that he has…
Peter Phillips is mugged by a gang of Praetorius-loving six-year-old girls in China
We have read about the remarkable opening up of China in recent years: how many people live there and how…
If the idea of disturbing kraut-punk sung by a troll appeals, you'll love The Fall
I had a fair idea of what I was in for when I went to see The Fall at Brixton’s…
How independence will impoverish Scottish culture
Daniel Jackson foresees an impoverished cultural landscape for an independentScotland, with artists forced to do Salmond’s bidding
Compiling my greatest hits (and my Twitter trolls')
Annie Nightingale 25 July 2015 9:00 am
Compilation schompilation. Having been in music for as long as I have you would think I had a good idea…