Features

Laura Davis: Exit Festival 2011: No nunchucks allowed.

Wednesday, 13 July 2011

Walking up the cobbled path towards the entrance of the annual 4-day music mash-up at Novi Sad, I noticed the sign showing the various items prohibited from the festival: No bottles, drugs, unlicensed ...

Not Fade Away: Rolling Stones photos found after 40 years

Tuesday, 12 July 2011

Previously unpublished images from a 1970 studio photo shoot by Peter Webb are going on show after being lost in an attic for 40 years. Matilda Battersby talks to the photographer.

Rufus Wainwright: Wild nights at the opera

Tuesday, 12 July 2011

Rufus Wainwright's five-concert residency at the Royal Opera House is the longest ever for a soloist. He's worth it, he tells Victoria-Anne Bull

Duke of Uke: Why is one of London's quaintest ukulele shops facing closure?

Saturday, 9 July 2011

I'm not sure if Richard Curtis himself could improve upon the styling of Duke of Uke, the little ukulele shop in Spitalfields. A quaint London street, an old-fashioned store front, a shop piled up with instruments, music stands and a large black and white photograph of George Formby over the counter.

The Word On... Black up, Shabazz Palaces

Friday, 8 July 2011

"Shabazz Palaces sound like no one else and that is where the beauty lies. They'll be compared to a fleet of other 'avant' hip-hop artists, but the comparisons will be ultimately flawed, 'Black Up' is gloriously refreshing. The only complaint I feel one can level against it is that it's just too short at 36 minutes." state.ie

The Barometer: Gross Magic; Lykke Li; Mabel Love; Stoosh ft. Suave Debonair; Drive; Nicolas Jaar; Seams; Lapalux; Disclosure

Friday, 8 July 2011

What's hot on our playlist

The 12 Proms you can't afford to miss

Friday, 8 July 2011

Jessica Duchen welcomes the festival and selects her highlights.

Paul Heaton debuts 'longest pop song ever'

Friday, 8 July 2011

At this year's Manchester International Festival, sometime Beautiful South and Housemartins singer Paul Heaton debuts what's being billed as the longest pop song ever. "The 8th" promises to be so much more than that, though. It's a theatrical performance, an ensemble concert and a suite of interconnected narratives and themes. Or "one song, eight different melodies," as Heaton has it.

Sonisphere: Rocking all over Europe

Friday, 8 July 2011

Seven countries in 10 days. "Exhausting" sums up following the world's only touring music festival, Sonisphere. So far I've travelled with it from Turkey, up through Eastern Europe, into Croatia and Slovenia, Italy and Switzerland. I've clocked up 5,000km on the car, passed through four countries in one day and slept in a Swiss barn. I am on first name terms with border guards and a reluctant expert on Euro motorway cuisine.

When Goldie went to Buckingham Palace

Friday, 8 July 2011

TV personality, painter, drum'n'bass star Goldie can seemingly do anything – even meet the Queen. He talks to Andy Brassell on the eve of his latest release.

Caught in the Net: Belgian brothers back in the mix

Friday, 8 July 2011

Almost nine years ago the Belgian brothers David and Stephen Dewaele, using the monikers Soulwax and 2ManyDJs, helped bring the then nascent craze for "mash ups" to wider attention with their As Heard on Radio Soulwax Vol 2 mix album.

When actors play musicians

Friday, 8 July 2011

Gillian Orr: Gossip Girl's Penn Badgley as Jeff Buckley? Fans won't be happy.

My Fantasy Band: E, Eels

Friday, 8 July 2011

Keyboards - Sly Stone There is nobody like him. You have to check out old YouTube clips of him. It doesn't matter if he's playing organ or acoustic piano, it's all totally unique. Our bass player jammed with him quite recently and he's most definitely still got it.

Cornbury Festival, The Great Tew Park, Oxfordshire (Rated 4/ 5 )

Tuesday, 5 July 2011

Now in its eighth year, the Cornbury Festival, held this year at a new Oxfordshire location, has grown in stature and is as magnificent from above – I went up in a helicopter with a daredevil photographer – as on the ground. It's also fast becoming part of "the season", alongside the Derby, Wimbledon and the Henley Regatta, with Caffè Nero and Pimm's not quite on tap but plentiful in the plush VIP area and beyond.

Festival season: Why not try a smaller stage?

Monday, 4 July 2011

With music festivals now a major part of the summer calendar, the acts booked are on an increasingly international scale.

The ten best headphones

Monday, 4 July 2011

Whether you want to appreciate the subtle basslines of your home stereo or keep booming city life at bay, we’ve got perfect over-ear options for the job.

Errol Anderson: Slept On: Is Moombahton the next genre to invade the nation’s dance floors?

Monday, 4 July 2011

When Dave Nada slowed down some of his dembow based riddims back in 2007, little did he know that his creation would develop into one of the multiple offshoots burgeoning under the ‘bass’ umbrella tit ...

Captain America: Why everyone wants to be on Cee Lo Green's team

Sunday, 3 July 2011

Craig McLean: In a Star waggons trailer parked on Warner Brothers' Los Angeles studio complex, as Christina Aguilera preens next door, Cee Lo Green and I are studying his entirely naked and not-insubstantial stomach. Specifically, we are looking at some of the singer's myriad tattoos.

Ghost Town: The song that defined an era turns 30

Sunday, 3 July 2011

The Specials' biggest hit was eerily prophetic about inner-city malaise in Thatcherite Britain in 1981.

Beyond Britpop: Whatever happened to the class of '95?

Saturday, 2 July 2011

What happened to the musicians who defined the Nineties?

‘Bars For Change’ – Bridging the gap between politics and music?

Friday, 1 July 2011

Last Friday evening, the second trailer for the ‘Bars For Change’ project was released.

Why the best rock docs bend the truth

Friday, 1 July 2011

The new Kings of Leon documentary is both strange and true. But, says Simon Hardeman, the best rock movies, from The Beatles to Bob Dylan, often play fast and loose with the facts

The Barometer: Two Door Cinema Club; Wild Flag; Two Wounded Birds; Vivian Girls; Pallers; Alt-J; Murphy Jax; Wilco; J Dilla

Friday, 1 July 2011

What's hot on our playlist

The Diary: Peter Zumthor; Marcus Foster; Pleasance theatre; Nick McCarthy; Edinburgh Fringe

Friday, 1 July 2011

Alice Gold - The gold at the end of a rainbow

Friday, 1 July 2011

The death of her mother and the collapse of a major-label deal sent Alice Gold on a journey, both literally and metaphorically, the singer-songwriter tells Gillian Orr