Punk

In praise of goths – the most enduring of pop subcultures

27 May 2023 9:00 am

Michael Hann on the most enduring of pop subcultures

Too neat but it has hooks aplenty: Avril Lavigne's Love Sux reviewed

5 March 2022 9:00 am

Grade: B Yay, life just gets better and better. World War Three and now this. More petulant popcorn pre-school punk…

One of the most exciting hours I’ve spent in ages: Turnstile at O2 Forum Kentish Town

12 February 2022 9:00 am

Even leaving aside its origins as prison slang, punk has always meant different things on either side of the Atlantic.…

A glimpse of lost London – before the yuppie invasion

28 August 2021 9:00 am

In a 1923 book called Echo de Paris, the writer Laurence Houseman attempted to conjure up in a very slim,…

A redemption song, conventionally sung: Sky's Tina reviewed

1 May 2021 9:00 am

It has never been easy for women in the music industry. Once upon a time the evidence was largely anecdotal.…

'We knew there was greatness in these songs': Steve Diggle of the Buzzcocks interviewed

16 January 2021 9:00 am

Graeme Thomson talks to Steve Diggle, front man of Buzzcocks, about orgasms, boredom and Pete Shelley

'You can't have opinions any more': Rick Wakeman interviewed

19 December 2020 9:00 am

Rod Liddle talks to Rick Wakeman about lockdown, the Sex Pistols, and how you can’t have opinions any more

Dysfunctional music for dysfunctional people: The Public Image is Rotten reviewed

4 July 2020 9:00 am

A star is born, but instead of emerging into the world beaming for the cameras, he spits and snarls and…

Did everyone in punk sell out?

11 January 2020 9:00 am

For many people of a certain age (full disclosure: mine), punk has been a weirdly persistent presence. These days, we…

The open-hearted loveliness of Hot Chip

9 November 2019 9:00 am

Squeeze and Hot Chip are both great British pop groups. But they never defined a scene. Their ambitions extended further…

Enveloping and gorgeous: Cate Le Bon reviewed

22 June 2019 9:00 am

The last time Bikini Kill played in London was in a room that now serves as the restaurant of a…

Addled, horrible, uproarious brilliance: Sebastian Murphy of Viagra Boys

Deeply unpleasant and thrilling: Viagra Boys make Primal Scream look antiseptic

1 June 2019 9:00 am

May was a cruel month for those middle-aged liberals who treasure their old alternative rock heroes. There was Morrissey, appearing…

One angry mother: Nicole Kidman as Queen Boadicea in How to Talk to Girls at Parties

Convoluted, woeful mishmash with no central story: How to Talk to Girls at Parties reviewed

12 May 2018 9:00 am

How to Talk to Girls at Parties is set in the 1970s and has punk as the backdrop and an…

Viv Albertine, left, at Alexandra Palace, 1980; and right, today

Viv Albertine of the Slits on anger, honesty and being an arsey feminist

14 April 2018 9:00 am

Viv Albertine, by her own admission, hurls stuff at misbehaving audiences. Specifically, when the rage descends, any nearby full cup…

Beauty and the beast

30 September 2017 9:00 am

I was going to start with a little moan. About the shouty marketing, the digital diarrhoea, the sycophantic drivel, which,…

LCD Soundsystem: American Dream

23 September 2017 9:00 am

Grade: B+ Number one. Everywhere, just about. You have to say that the man has a certain sureness of touch.…

A genuine oddity

22 July 2017 9:00 am

The most compelling pop singers in music right now — at least in the branch where pop singers still play…

Doing it for themselves: the first issue of the first punk fanzine ‘Sniffin’ Glue’

Nothing sacrilegious about this British Library Punk show, says Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols

28 May 2016 9:00 am

There have been many punk exhibitions over the years so I can’t help but chuckle at the ‘experts’ who are…

Anarchy in the EU: the Sex Pistols’ drummer on why Brexit isn’t punk

12 March 2016 9:00 am

Paul Cook, the Sex Pistols’ drummer, on fame, notoriety and why Brexit wouldn’t be punk

Jazz soloist Charlie Parker with his saxophone c. 1946

From ragtime to the X Factor: the epic story of popular music

22 August 2015 9:00 am

As pop music drifts away from many people’s lives, so its literature grows ever more serious and weighty, as though…

A singer’s joys and woes: like her heroine Dusty Springfield, Tracey Thorn has trouble coming to terms with her beautiful voice

16 May 2015 9:00 am

Look up Tracey Thorn’s live performances with Everything But The Girl or Massive Attack on You Tube and you’ll find…