Music (UK) Sandbox Percussion / Astrid review – virtuosos bring the fun of the fairgroundThe Guardian - Rian EvansThe vibe for this year’s Vale of Glamorgan festival – celebrating its 50th anniversary – has been celebratory and upbeat, with Sandbox Percussion reinforcing the feelgood factor in their exuberant St Hall
Music (UK) Alan Bell obituaryThe Guardian - Derek SchofieldMy friend Alan Bell, who has died aged 84, was a folk singer, songwriter, festival organiser and activist, but earned his living as a sales manager in the wine trade. His best-known song, Bread and Fishes,
Natalie Portman Natalie Portman criticises 'creepy' Moby over 'disturbing' account of friendshipThe Guardian - Ben Beaumont-ThomasNatalie Portman has criticised Moby for a “very disturbing” account of their friendship in his new memoir Then It Fell Apart, comments which he has since contested. In the book, the musician, now 53, the
Leonard Cohen 'You're too much in my heart': Leonard Cohen letters to muse set for auctionThe Guardian - Mark SeacombeIt was one of the great love stories of the “flower power” era of the 1960s. And when Leonard Cohen met Marianne Ihlen it led to the flowering of the talent of one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th
Music (UK) Donnerstag aus Licht review – ambitious Stockhausen staging realigns cosmic orderThe Guardian - Erica Jeal‘That is the meaning of Donnerstag aus Licht.” The translation came up on the screen four hours into this performance, not long after a tap-dancing trombonist had been vanquished in a duel. What – had
Rita Ora Rita Ora review – pop's tenacious phoenix rises out of the doldrumsThe Guardian - Sophie WilliamsIn the era of the gig economy and zero-hours contracts, the whirlwind nature of the side hustle is such that, for the business savvy, one’s day job must be intermittently put aside. Even the Kosovo-born
Play buttonMusic (UK) Wheatus: how we made Teenage DirtbagThe Guardian - Interviews by Henry Yates‘A lot of bullies were homophobic, so I wanted to irritate them by putting on a female voice’ The internet wasn't really a thing yet. We put the song up on something called Billboard Talent Net – within
Play buttonMusic (UK) Pacific Ocean coup: how Ronald Reagan helped bury a Beach Boy at seaThe Guardian - Patrick FlanaryMinutes after sunset on 4 January 1984, the body of Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson entered the Pacific Ocean from the deck of a US Coast Guard ship. For civilians, burials at sea happen only with approval
Play buttonOpinion (UK) Born lippy: how I helped Underworld write a socialist bangerThe Guardian - Aditya ChakraborttyWhy did I go 'Lager lager lager lager'? Because I lost my place on the page Three weeks before last Christmas, a shaggy jumble of an email flopped into my inbox. “Odd request,” it began. “Feel free to
Nipsey Hussle Nipsey Hussle: grand jury indicts man in fatal shooting of rapperThe Guardian - Associated PressA grand jury has indicted a 29-year-old man in the fatal shooting of the rapper Nipsey Hussle in Los Angeles. Eric Ronald Holder Jr was indicted on one count of murder, two counts each of attempted murder
Opinion (UK) How Subbuteo’s inventor bent it round the wallThe Guardian - LettersSorry Nigel Healey (Letters, 21 May) but Sir Cliff Richard is rightly that. He changed it legally in 1980. Rod Warrington Chester • On Monday we had the good fortune to enter the east wing of the National
Music (UK) Stockhausen: the composer who makes Wagner look anaemicThe Guardian - Kate MollesonHe declared that God gave birth to him on the star Sirius, and that he was musically educated up there in the galaxy Sink into Donnerstag and you'll hear wondrous orchestral kaleidoscopics, vocal elasticity,
Music (UK) Andrea Chénier, ROH review – a singers' evening that won't start a revolutionThe Guardian - Martin KettleAndrea Chénier is saturated in the French revolution. The story of the liberal poet who sympathises with the oppressed but who is executed in the Terror is loosely based on a real one, and Giordano’s is
Michael Bublé Michael Bublé review – moving, hard-won hits from cheeky croonerThe Guardian - Dave SimpsonWith his car salesman’s suit, easy patter and Rat Pack-era covers, you’d expect to find Michael Bublé entertaining guests at a wedding or aboard a cruise ship. However, here he is, 10 albums under his
Music (UK) Sound Unbound review – inclusive and joyous classical music festivalThe Guardian - Imogen TildenIt felt apt that the Barbican Centre’s Curve gallery’s current exhibition is AI: More Than Human: this was a festival I wished I could have cloned myself and experienced the weekend a second and a third
Music (UK) The month's best mixes: steely funk, Lisbon tarraxo and hardcore psychedeliaThe Guardian - Lauren MartinThrough his fortnightly Antikunst show on Amsterdam’s Red Light Radio, Dutch producer and DJ Job Sifre explores industrial, new wave and EBM alongside contemporary hard-edged techno and electro. He’s of
Whitney Houston Whitney Houston hologram tour, album and Broadway show plannedThe Guardian - Ben Beaumont-ThomasThe late Whitney Houston is set to tour as a hologram, according to the company behind the postponed Amy Winehouse hologram tour. In a statement, Base Hologram described the show as an “awe-inspiring theatrical
Play buttonMusic (UK) Shakespears Sister on reunion: ‘I’ve been trying to mop up grudges’The Guardian - Hanna HanraBreaking up is never easy, but letting your bandmate know that it’s over via a note read out by your publicist onstage at the Ivor Novello awards has to be one of the harshest methods in pop history. 1993,
Spice Girls Why the Spice Girls inviting Theresa May to their reunion show is not girl powerThe Guardian - Aimee CliffBack in the 90s, we had girl power. In 2019, according to Emma Bunton, we have “people power”. So she told The Sun earlier this year, when the Spice Girls announced their long-anticipated reunion tour:
Music (UK) Britten Sinfonia/Adès review – Barry's viola premiere has rowdy brass and a whistling soloistThe Guardian - Andrew ClementsOver the last three seasons, the Britten Sinfonia has been working its way through a cycle of Beethoven’s symphonies, with conductor Thomas Adès as their guide. It’s been a thrilling and sometimes revelatory
Jarvis Cocker Jarvis Cocker: ‘I’ve lived in my head for most of my life’The Guardian - Sophie HeawoodArt is about teaching you how to think in a creative way, how to look at the world and use it as raw material When I walk into the private room in a members’ club in Soho where I’m supposed to interview
Music (UK) The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish With Plants review – immersive world of salmon and soundThe Guardian - Sophie HarrisAs the UN, Nasa, Greta Thunberg, David Attenborough and Extinction Rebellion have so clearly articulated in recent months, the jig is up: if we don’t change our behaviour we can’t survive. Can art can
Play buttonMusic (UK) Sting & Shaggy review – pop-reggae odd couple are far from boombasticThe Guardian - Stevie ChickAs little sense as the union of Sting and Shaggy makes on paper, the facts and figures speak for themselves: last year’s album 44-876 scored the stars their first Top 10 action after a decade lost at along
Play buttonMusic (UK) Blue Note boss Don Was: 'Jazz can't become synonymous with pop again'The Guardian - Ammar KaliaOnly work with people you trust. If you don't respect an artist enough to lose an argument to them, you shouldn't be producing them I loved the record covers. I would ride a bus across town, going 45 just
Play buttonMaluma Maluma: 11:11 review – party tunes meet hunky smoulderingThe Guardian - Kitty EmpireUS pop has been travelling south to appropriate Latin heat since time immemorial. But since 2017’s Puerto Rican smash Despacito and particularly Justin Bieber’s remix, there’s no longer a meaningful divide
Music (UK) The Damnation of Faust review – seductive, beguiling and sinisterThe Guardian - Tim AshleyGlyndebourne opens its season and marks the 150th anniversary of Berlioz’s death with a new production of The Damnation of Faust, directed by Richard Jones and conducted by Robin Ticciati. Like many of
Music (UK) Jessie and Lennie Ware: ‘We don’t want to turn into the Kardashians’The Guardian - Tim AdamsJessie was always singing, always in the school shows, so I told her: Why don't you give music a go? Lennie Ware There is a poacher turned gamekeeper feel to interviewing Jessie and Lennie Ware over lunch.
Music (UK) Home listening: new releases from Melvyn Tan and Linus RothThe Guardian - Stephen Pritchard• Pianist Melvyn Tan raised a few eyebrows three years ago when, on disc, he turned his attention away from the classical to the Romantic period and began exploring Liszt. He continues that exploration
Music (UK) The week in classical: Phaedra; Dido; Hespèrion XXI – reviewThe Guardian - Fiona MaddocksIn theory we might try to ignore the circumstances surrounding a work’s creation. Sometimes, as in the case of Hans Werner Henze’s Phaedra, such high-mindedness is impossible. Between writing the opera’s
