Fran Robertson

articles by Fran Robertson

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We are bowled over! We knew that theartsdesk.com had plenty of supporters out there – we’ve always had a loyal readership of arts…
We might simply call it a dilemma, but Hollywood screenwriters call it a “crisis decision”, or maybe sometimes a “swivel”. It’s when there’…
Such is the USA administration’s overwhelming saturation of the news cycle that, even with the comforting presence of an ocean between, it’…
Thrash metal’s “big four”, the ones who originally set the genre rolling, are, famously, Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax. These are…
An opening sequence set in the Andalusian city of Ronda, with its spectacular bridge across the El Tajo gorge, seems to be setting us up…
The term “post-punk” is much overused to describe music, not least by we music writers. It usually covers anything with punk’s outsider…
Early 2026 was always going to trump late 2025 in one respect: total clarity in a much-anticipated concert performance of Janáček's teeming…
There’s a slight “Sympathy For the Devil” tone to the opening seconds of “Pendulum Swing”, the first track on the US country adjacent…
To the great Weill interpreters she summoned at the start of her First person for theartsdesk, from Cathy Berberian to Tom Waits, can now…
Lawlessness and lack of accountability seem, tragically, on the verge of becoming a new American norm, so what better time to re-consider…