Kings of Leon, Hyde Park, London<br/>tUnE-yArDs, The Haunt, Brighton
Sunday 26 June 2011
Ready To Wear: Animals – you name it, they've knitted it
Monday 20 June 2011
Everyone loves an animal print.
Roxy Music, 02 Arena, London
Thursday 10 February 2011
Only quite late on in the evening, somewhere between Bryan Ferry's plaintive whistle in "Jealous Guy" and the longed-for intro to "Virginia Plain", is Roxy Music's O2 audience roused to something like excitement. It's clearly a huge relief to Ferry, but it's the band's own fault: with as elegantly innovative a back catalogue as Roxy's, this should have been a torrent of exuberant memories, but for substantial portions of the set the longueurs are alleviated only by the consistently exciting guitar work of Phil Manzanera, as the band leads us around some of the less sparkling corners of their history. It's like going through a photo album and finding several of the most important snapshots missing: where are "Ladytron", "Both Ends Burning", "Dance Away", "Pyjamarama"?
Stay the night: Hilton, The Hague
Sunday 16 January 2011
Mick Karn: Innovative bass-player with the esoteric early-Eighties band Japan
Saturday 08 January 2011
Synthesizers and drum machines might have dominated the music of the early Eighties, but the bass guitar also became prominent at the start of the decade that taste forgot.
Rhodri Marsden: Avatars are an intrinsic part of our online life
Wednesday 13 October 2010
Smoke Fairies: Folk heroines' long odyssey
Friday 20 August 2010
With support from Jack White and Bryan Ferry, Smoke Fairies are no ordinary folk-oriented outfit. Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies met as part of a school choir in rural Sussex, gaining further inspiration from their parents' Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young records and a desire to get the hell out of Chichester.
Devendra Banhart, Koko, London
Tuesday 06 July 2010
"Alternative-folk", "freak-folk", even "psych-folk" are expressions that have been used to describe the Texan-born singer Devendra Banhart and his band The Grogs. But at Koko, it became clear that the group, part of the New Weird America movement, has morphed into a very different beast from the quirky, folky hippies who produced Cripple Crow in 2005.
David Beckham set for Jonathan Ross' 'Friday Night With' swansong
Wednesday 30 June 2010
David Beckham and Hollywood star Jackie Chan will be the final guests as Jonathan Ross bows out from his BBC1 chat show, it was announced today.
Album: Various artists, Ethiopiques 24 (Buda)
Sunday 10 January 2010
The wealth of sublime music produced in Ethiopia in the 1970s (before a military junta stopped the party) seems to have no end.
My Fantasy band - Peter Hook, ex-New Order
Friday 20 November 2009
Vocals - Iggy Pop
As well as being a fantastic songwriter, he lives the rock 'n' roll dream... or nightmare! When I was in New Order we played with the Stooges and we were so terrified to talk to Iggy, we couldn't do it.
Party Of The Week: V&A reveals the fine art of a good party
Friday 17 July 2009
Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine turned up on Monday night to look at the wild and wacky designs of the V&A's latest exhibition, Telling Tales. She looked nearly as good as the fantastical Design Art itself, dressed in a gun-metal-grey-layered dress of silk and sequins, with an adder and scrollwork on the front of it, designed by Richard Sorger.
Paul Carrack, Ronnie Scott's, London
Thursday 09 April 2009
Superlative talents like Paul Carrack. He replaced Jools Holland in Squeeze twice, has had spells with Roxy Music, Nicks Lowe and Cave, played sessions with The Smiths, and written songs for the Eagles. You'll know his beret, grey beard and shades from his time as singer for Mike Rutherford's Genesis off-shoot Mike + the Mechanics. But it's as a reliable professional hand in better bands' later days that Carrack has become a minor part of British rock's fabric.








