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 ›
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 ›
The Black Crowes are long gone. It has been three years since they split, ten years since their last album Warpaint and more than twenty years since their commercial peak when despite everyone else playing grunge or Britpop The Black… 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 ›
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 ›
A new album by Beck is something to be celebrated, and the man himself has been in London all week to promote the new LP “Colors”, an upbeat, shiny, modern pop record, a million miles removed from its predecessor, the… Read More ›
Their biggest ever show. 80,000 fans. It’s a far cry from their humble origins. Leaving school in 1979, Martin Gore worked as a bank clerk for Nat West in Fenchurch Street, saving the money he earned to buy a Yamaha… Read More ›
In the midst of Storm Doris last night, Band of Horses braved the wild winds of East London and The Troxy in support of their latest album “Why Are You OK”. Band of Horses are five albums in to their… Read More ›
There are two kinds of live artists: those who play the hits, and those who don’t. One of my favourite Neil Young stories is about the time Young played a set of completely new, unheard songs to an audience,… Read More ›
It was rather an unpopular choice of replacement, and there was much muttering about how things wouldn’t be the same. The longer you do a job, the harder you are to replace. But that’s enough about Top Gear. For a… Read More ›
Iggy Pop and Josh Homme at the Royal Albert Hall was a top-five-of-all-time kind of gig, and I’m struggling to think of the other four. The merger of Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme with Iggy Pop has produced… Read More ›
Every record tells a story 