Beck paid a warm tribute to Taylor Hawkins at an intimate London show last night, while delivering a masterclass, digging out deep cuts from his three-decade-long career. In the U.K. to watch the Taylor Hawkins tribute show at Wembley, Beck… Read More ›
Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks – Genesis to you and me – played their last ever concerts at The O2 Arena this weekend. I last saw Genesis play live in 1987, at Wembley Stadium on the Invisible Touch… Read More ›
With everyone having been stuck indoors for a year and a half, might WH Lung just be the band we need right now as we emerge, blinking, into civilisation once again…? Naming your band after a Chinese supermarket; Featuring a… Read More ›
Beatles fans received an early Christmas present last night as the two surviving Beatles, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, played together onstage for the first time since Ringo’s 2015 inauguration into the Rock n Roll Hall Of Fame, for the… Read More ›
It says much about the popularity of Pink Floyd that remaining solo members can tour to packed houses around the world decades after their commercial peak. While Roger Waters and David Gilmour have played Floyd’s best known songs from The… Read More ›
This week The Arctic Monkeys sold out four consecutive nights at the 20,000 capacity O2 Arena. They now move out of town to sold out shows in Birmingham, Sheffield, Dublin and Newcastle. Such is the clamour for all things Arctic… Read More ›
It was the climax of the Stone Free Festival at the O2 Arena, and the 20,000 seater was less than a third full. Perhaps a reflection of the bill which veered from Supertramp to Megadeth but stuck to a “classic… Read More ›
Arcade Fire have overcome many obstacles in their path over the years. Grabbing the attention of the world through their indie-released debut LP Funeral; delivering credible follow ups to one of the decade’s most critically acclaimed albums, and then dealing… Read More ›
Stuart Murdoch walked out intrepidly into the crowd last night during “Dear Catastrophe Waitress”. It’s a Belle and Sebastian crowd, so it’s a friendly, unthreatening and relaxed crowd, more likely to offer him a Tunnock’s Wafer than trouble. But then… Read More ›
In a week that saw the demise of the NME’s print edition after sixty-odd years, it is reassuring that some traditions remain. The country is still run by incompetents, it’s impossible to find a telecoms provider whose call centre isn’t… Read More ›
It has been quite a journey since Gaz Coombs began his rock career as the teenage lead singer of…. The Jennifers. Signed to Nude Records in 1991 – the contract signed by his mum as he was too young –… Read More ›
As the dystopian nightmare of 2017 fades, to be replaced with fresh, new dystopian horrors with a shiny “Made In 2018” badge on them, we find ourselves looking for a fresh start. And what better way to find a fresh… Read More ›
Seattle. Early 2000’s. Robin Pecknold meets Skyler Skjelset at school and they bond over a love of Mike Wilson, Bob Dylan and Neil Young. They form a band, and give it a quirky name that people will remember and could… Read More ›
Gentrification. “The process of renovating and improving something so that it conforms to middle-class taste”. Or “the process of making a person or activity more refined or polite”. Last night, the thankfully ungentrified Ty Segall and his ungentrified band played… Read More ›
Car Seat Headrest announced themselves with something of a flourish last year, surfacing seemingly fully formed with one of the albums of 2016. It turned out that band leader Will Toledo had already released (at the still tender age of… Read More ›
Every record tells a story 