New music
The Lady: A Homage to Sandy Denny, Brighton DomeTuesday, 22 May 2012
The proto version of this tribute show took place at Queen Elizabeth Hall in 2008 on the eve of the 30th anniversary of Sandy Denny’s death. This tour coincides with the release of a new box-set and draws on Thea Gilmore’s courageous recent settings... Read more... |
Robin Gibb, 1949–2012Monday, 21 May 2012
The death of Robin Gibb was announced last night. He had been diagnosed with cancer following surgery for a blocked intestine in 2010, when it was discovered that he had cancer of the colon. This April, it was announced he had contracted pneumonia.... Read more... |
Interview: 10 Questions for Russell WatsonMonday, 21 May 2012
A Salford lad who used to work as a bolt-cutter by day and sing in working men's clubs at night, Russell Watson started out in showbiz by singing popular hits by Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond or Simon & Garfunkel alongside a few belters from... Read more... |
CD: Sigur Rós - ValtariMonday, 21 May 2012
The use of Sigur Rós’s aural drama for the soundtracks of Life on Earth, Vanilla Sky and its subsequent sound bed ubiquity has meant their music has become divorced from who they are. The enthralling Valtari emphasises that these four Icelanders are... Read more... |
Jay-Z & Kanye West Watch The Throne, O2 ArenaSunday, 20 May 2012
One image remains stuck from Watch the Throne's second of five sold-out nights in London; it’s a song-long vision of Kanye West and Jay-Z – aka J Hova or just Hov – sat side by side for Hov’s “Hard Knock Life”. Hov’s words fell out of his mouth... Read more... |
CD: The Cult - Choice of WeaponSunday, 20 May 2012
The end had long been nigh for The Cult, when it first came in 1995. It wasn’t just the booze and the arrival of grunge. It was as much that smart-arse Brit Pop was never going to have much truck with a man who called himself Wolf Child and wrote... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Paul and Linda McCartney, Willy DeVille, Eric PrydzSunday, 20 May 2012
Paul and Linda McCartney: Ram (Deluxe Edition)Jasper ReesThe project to reissue the big moments in Paul McCartney’s solo career continues. McCartney and Band on the Run have already had the deluxe treatment. Now it’s the turn of 1971's Ram, the one... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Musician Gary NumanSaturday, 19 May 2012
Gary Numan (born Gary Webb, 1958) was born in Hammersmith and raised in the western outskirts of London, the son of a bus driver. By the latter half of the Seventies he was fronting punk band Tubeway Army but his fortunes changed dramatically when... Read more... |
Jóhann Jóhannsson, Hauschka, Dustin O'Halloran, BarbicanSaturday, 19 May 2012
“Post-classical” the FatCat label call it, and well they might. All three of the acts who played at the Barbican last night in one way or another used the instrumentation of the classical concert hall but in a way that was completely dislodged from... Read more... |
Jimmy Cliff, indigO2Saturday, 19 May 2012
Often it can seem the sheer struggle of early reggae gets lost in all that happy, spliff-smoking Rastafarianism of Bob Marley's Legend. For one-time label-mate Jimmy Cliff, however, there was never any sense of “every little thing's going to be... Read more... |
CD: Guillemots - Hello Land!Saturday, 19 May 2012
It's hard to remember sometimes, as you hum along to the singalong refrains and soaring choruses of their relative hits such as "Trains to Brazil" or "Get Over It", that Guillemots have never been a pop band. Rather, the four-piece have always... Read more... |
Donna Summer 1948-2012Thursday, 17 May 2012
Being pigeonholed as "disco" became the kiss of death for many of the genre's lesser lights, but a select handful were able to transcend its limitations. Chic and the Bee Gees managed it, and so did Donna Summer, disco's so-called "First Lady of... Read more... |
