A Cornwall seafront hotel was destroyed today by a severe fire.
BBC 6 Music, 10th Birthday, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Monday 19 March 2012
Steve Lamacq wiped tears from his eyes before he walked on-stage and recalled the “emotional three months” when it seemed the radio station he works for would never reach its tenth birthday, which was celebrated tonight, as the BBC planned 6 Music’s death.
Britpop bands put a new twist on comebacks
Monday 27 February 2012
When it's about the music and not the money
Monday 27 February 2012
Bands like The Cranberries must beware of cashing in on nostalgia, says Elisa Bray
Shapely Ankle Preferred, By Francesca Beauman
Sunday 05 February 2012
History is just a series of dates
Madness, House of Fun Weekender, Butlin’s, Minehead (4/5)
Monday 28 November 2011
Step three of Madness' revival is staged in a holiday camp in an off-season Somerset resort town.
Jackie Leven
Saturday 19 November 2011
Further to your obituary of Jackie Leven (17 November), when I was writing a book about the British on holiday, and wanted to include a chapter on cruising, a mutual friend put me in touch with the singer-songwriter, who in his droll Scottish manner told me about his experience as the "entertainment" on a two-week cruise of the Norwegian fjords in 2002.
Caught in the Net: Super sisters' early promise holds true
Friday 18 November 2011
Colette and Hannah Thurlow, the London-based sisters behind 2:54, first appeared in this column in the summer of 2010 as an unsigned band touting an early demo of shoegaze/new wave-inflected gloomy guitar pop on Myspace (ind.pn/c08ayP).
Iraq Inquiry report delayed by secrecy row
Thursday 17 November 2011
The Iraq Inquiry has delayed its report by at least six months as it argues with the Government over the release of top-secret documents.
Album: Meshell Ndegeocello, Weather (Naive)
Sunday 13 November 2011
Producer Joe Henry writes a brilliant sleevenote arguing that great artists transcend genre.
Vinyl finds its groove with young music lovers
Sunday 13 November 2011
Sales are at a 10-year high, record players are back
Givers, XOYO, London
Friday 11 November 2011
Afro-pop folk band Givers don't have a slogan, but if they did it would be "It's nice to be nice". The singers, Taylor Guarisco and Tiffany Lamson perform with the emphatic smiles of drama school children in panto. Their music is uplifting; to watch them is like watching happy Muppets dancing around, on ecstasy. They're aggressively happy – they bounce, and wiggle and gyrate and smile a lot. They even use the break between songs to tell us how much they love London ("I love that you drive on the left here. I really do," says Lamson).
Album: Etta James, The Dreamer (Decca)
Friday 11 November 2011
Assailed by the double debilitations of leukemia and dementia, and requiring hospital care, Etta James has sensibly decided that The Dreamer will constitute the final chapter of her recording career.
Requiem for an art form: Why modern composers are fighting a losing battle
Friday 11 November 2011
War has always inspired great music, says Jessica Duchen, but since 9/11 classical has fallen behind pop in a world racked by conflict








