Pop music

The greatest British pop singer who never made a hit single

31 August 2024 9:00 am

The musician known as Lawrence has spent four decades chasing fame, and the quest itself has made him a superstar – albeit at street level

Abba’s genius was never to write a happy love song

25 May 2024 9:00 am

Benny and Björn may have composed some of the catchiest tunes ever, but even their bounciest melodies are ballasted with melancholy

Nothing satisfies Madonna for very long

16 December 2023 9:00 am

Her ‘rebel’ life, as told by Mary Gabriel, has been a frenzied churn of friends, lovers, mentors and collaborators, vital to her for a year or two and then discarded

The Prefab Four

17 June 2023 9:00 am

Monkeying around on TV vastly increased the group’s sales and popularity but prevented them from ever being taken seriously, says Tom Kemper

The problems of being a Bee Gee

10 June 2023 9:00 am

Calling themselves the Bee Gees spelt trouble from the start for the very disparate Gibb brothers, says Craig Brown

James Bond and the Beatles at war for Britain’s soul

17 September 2022 9:00 am

‘Better use your sense,’ advised Bob Dylan: ‘take what you have gathered from coincidence.’ John Higgs is a master of…

Old rockers with a Peter Pan syndrome

28 May 2022 9:00 am

What do the following individuals have in common: a political activist from Suffolk; a chartered psychologist from Oxfordshire, who enjoys…

How we laughed: the golden days of Bananarama

19 December 2020 9:00 am

Saying you don’t like Bananarama is like saying you don’t like summer or Marilyn Monroe — a sure sign of…

One of the more disturbing films I’ve seen: Arena’s The Changin’ Times of Ike White reviewed

23 May 2020 9:00 am

Arena: The Changin’ Times of Ike White (Monday) had an extraordinary story to tell — but one that, halfway through…

David Bowie: the boy who never gave up

11 January 2020 9:00 am

A few years ago Will Brooker spent 12 months pretending to be David Bowie. For several weeks he dressed up…

The other half of Wham!

21 December 2019 9:00 am

Have you heard the story about the time that Andrew Ridgeley, the 1980s heart-throb, refused to answer the door to…

Doors drummer John Densmore and Police percussionist Stewart Copeland. Photo: BBC / Somethin’ Else Sound Directions Ltd / Nico Wasserman

According to BBC4, what was one of the ‘most important inventions in modern music’?

12 January 2019 9:00 am

Here’s a tricky quiz question for you. What word completes this sentence from a BBC4 documentary on Friday: ‘The world…

Ignore Lily Allen’s sub-adolescent politics – her new album is brilliant

7 July 2018 9:00 am

Grade: B+ Here we go again, then, I thought — another gobbet of self-referential, breast-beating respec’ me bro sputum against…

Big hitter: Pete Waterman

Pete Waterman on hits, HS2 and gay clubbing

16 December 2017 9:00 am

One of the members of the government’s HS2 Growth Taskforce is remembering the first time he went to a gay…

Amazing Grace

28 October 2017 9:00 am

In the first scene of this distinctly odd documentary, Grace Jones meets a group of fans, who squeal with delight…

From desolation to euphoria and back again: Nick Cave at the O2

Mourning glory

7 October 2017 9:00 am

On the face of it, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds aren’t exactly a natural fit with the O2. Cave’s…

Northern rock

16 September 2017 9:00 am

A fortnight ago, the debut album by a young British guitar band entered the chart at No. 6. You might…

The National: Sleep Well Beast

9 September 2017 9:00 am

Grade: A– There are plenty of websites where fans try to discern, without any success, what in the name of…

The listening project

9 September 2017 9:00 am

As Classic FM celebrated its quarter-century on Wednesday with not a recording but a live broadcast of a concert from…

Arcade Fire: Everything Now

26 August 2017 9:00 am

Grade: D+ Well, this is truly awful. Perhaps the worst album by a major band since Mardi Gras by Creedence…

Scabrous and sarcastic: singer-songwriter Randy Newman

His dark materials

5 August 2017 9:00 am

Randy Newman is already struggling to keep up with himself. His dazzling new album, Dark Matter, was written before the…

Scabrous and sarcastic: singer-songwriter Randy Newman

His dark materials

3 August 2017 1:00 pm

Randy Newman is already struggling to keep up with himself. His dazzling new album, Dark Matter, was written before the…

Manchester isn’t oppressed, Andy Burnham – it’s wildly overrated

28 May 2016 9:00 am

Manchester isn’t downtrodden, whatever Andy Burnham says. Quite the opposite, in fact

Might Eurovision determine the outcome of the EU referendum?

14 May 2016 9:00 am

You might not think that the Eurovision Song Contest (screened live from Stockholm tonight) could have any connection with how…

The Heckler: love your music, Macca, just not sure about you

7 May 2016 9:00 am

It’s slightly galling, after years of sticking up for Paul McCartney, to read a new biography of the bloke and…