Shed Seven have cemented one of the biggest chart comebacks in British rock, scoring their second UK No 1 album of the year – over two decades on from their Britpop heyday. The band, who formed in York in 1990 and released their debut album in 1994, remain best known for hits such as Going […]

Ken Caillat, a producer known for sound engineering Fleetwood Mac, and Steven Stiefel, co-author of a memoir about the band, are suing the makers of the award-winning musical Stereophonic. The widely acclaimed show, which picked up five Tony awards this year, focuses on a fictional, mixed-gender British American band making an album in the 1970s […]

Every time I get in my car and plug my phone in, an interstitial from Rosalía’s 2022 album Motomami starts playing. “A de alfa, altura, alien,” she recites on Abcdefg. “B de bandida, C de coqueta” – I can’t turn it off fast enough. I love Rosalía but the Apple Music app defaults to the […]

Oasis have announced that their reunion tour will take them to the US, Canada and Mexico in August and September 2025. The band previously teased the news on billboards in New York, Toronto, Chicago and other cities. “Be careful what you wish for,” the advertisements said. They will play Toronto Rogers Stadium on 24 August, […]

Stuart Murdoch was born in 1968 and grew up in Ayr. In the late 80s, he fell ill with ME/chronic fatigue syndrome and was laid low for seven years. By 1995, he had regained sufficient energy to start the indie pop band Belle and Sebastian, which is still going strong today, 12 albums later. Murdoch […]

20. In Here the World Begins (2009) Originally a limited-edition sold on tour, and the band’s last release before singer Trish Keenan’s death in 2011, mini-album Mother Is the Milky Way was more about fragmentary sound collages than songs. But In Here the World Begins, which floats Keenan’s vocals over a murky, slowed-down tape loop, […]

As it draws to a close, the UK’s festival season is looking far thinner than it was at the outset. In August, the Association of Independent Festivals reported that 60 UK events had either been postponed, cancelled or shut down this year, citing rising costs – and that the total was expected to reach 100 […]

Next week sees the release of the self-titled final album by the British artist and producer Sophie, who died in 2021, aged 34, after an accidental fall. In the years prior to her death, Sophie had gone from underground darling to genuine alt-pop star, thanks to her ability to fuse, through generational talent and sheer […]

Tenor saxophonist Nubya Garcia is one of the top-line names to emerge from the past decade’s explosion of young London jazz talent. Her second solo album foregrounds Garcia’s deepening compositional and arranging skills, as well as bravura performances from some longtime associates – keys player Joe Armon-Jones (Ezra Collective) and drummer Sam Jones, for two […]

‘There are only three things happening in England,” Aretha Franklin announced to the world’s media during a visit to Britain in 1968. “The Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Terry Reid.” I mention this to Reid and the 74-year old musician laughs. “See, I was playing a club in London,” he says, “and, down front, a […]

Over the last few months, Chappell Roan has been through it. The breakout star of 2024 has shared stories of intrusive fan behaviour, being stalked and expressed her anxiety about her newfound level of fame. “I’ve pumped the brakes on anything to make me more known,” she said during a podcast interview in July. “It’s […]

The online tributes to Frankie Beverly in the wake of his death on Wednesday offered a fascinating study in contrasts. Black Americans wrote about his band Maze as a fact of life, invoking memories of family parties, summer barbecues and picnics to which they had inevitably provided the soundtrack: “Any time I heard Golden Time […]

A small-town street party on a Saturday night. On a stage outside the Tweed Regional Museum in Murwillumbah, a band is playing. They all seem to be related, as one cousin after another steps up to the mic. Suddenly a voice of extraordinary beauty rings out into the spring night. People stop and turn. Skin […]

The Brazilian musician Sérgio Mendes, who brought bossa nova to an international audience in the 1960s with his band Brasil ’66, has died aged 83 as a result of health challenges related to long-term Covid. In a statement, Mendes’s family said he “passed away peacefully” in his home town of Los Angeles. “His wife and […]

The Queen guitarist Brian May has revealed he recently had a minor stroke that left him unable to use his left arm. The band’s lead guitarist and astrophysicist announced he had experienced a “health hiccup” last week but reassured fanshe was recovering and able to play music again after being temporarily unable to control his […]

‘This is the warmest welcome we’ve ever had,” says Sprints singer Karla Chubb as the Dublin four-piece play End of the Road’s bursting and sweaty Big Top. It’s a feeling echoed throughout the weekend: Bill Ryder-Jones declares EOTR his favourite gig of the year as he plays a sun-drenched Garden stage in a set that […]