sat 27/07/2024

pop music

Music Reissues Weekly: Barry Ryan - The Albums 1969-1979

In April 1985, The Damned’s Dave Vanian was speaking with Janice Long on her BBC Radio 1 show. He said “Barry Ryan and Paul Ryan have been sadly forgotten. Everyone waxes lyrical about Scott Walker which is marvellous but this is absolutely superb....

Read more...

Album: The Raveonettes - Sing…

Indie rock duo the Raveonettes add an ethereal touch to 10 popular songs in their latest album, made up entirely of covers. Sing…, which features renditions of tracks by Gram Parsons, the Everly Brothers, the Cramps, Buddy Holly, and the Velvet...

Read more...

Glastonbury Festival 2024: A Sunlit Epic of Music, Madness, Chaos and Culture

SUNDAY 30th June 2024It’s late. But not really. Not by the standards of this place. Photographer Finetime and I are in Block9 in the South-East Corner. The so-called “naughty corner”. We take turns juggernauting quomble off a pinecone. Finetime’s...

Read more...

P!nk, Hampden Park, Glasgow review - a high-wire act with bravado and bombast

There was a point in this stadium spectacular when P!nk gave her fans two choices. They could either “make out with their partners or go queue for a beer” she suggested, prior to one of the first slow-paced numbers of the evening, but the latter...

Read more...

Taylor Swift, Wembley Stadium review - the Eras Tour lights up London

Unless you were around when The Beatles toured America in the mid-1960s, it’s doubtful you've heard anything like this. In 40 years of extensive gig-going, I have not. Taylor Swift has just performed “Champagne Problems” at the piano (pictured...

Read more...

Music Reissues Weekly: The Cryin’ Shames - Please Stay, Do The Strum! - Joe Meek's Girl Groups and Pop Chanteuses

Liverpool’s The Cryin’ Shames were responsible for two of mid-Sixties Britain’s most striking single’s tracks. The February 1966 top side “Please Stay” was so eerie, so wraithlike it came across as an attempt to channel the experience of making...

Read more...

Music Reissues Weekly: Margo Guryan - Words and Music

Late summer 1966. Jazz was Margo Guryan’s thing. She was not interested in pop music. This changed when she was played The Beach Boys’s “God Only Knows.” Amazed by what she heard, she tuned in to pop radio for the first time. Her head was further...

Read more...

Album: Moby - Always Centered at Night

US electronic perennial Moby has had a good run. He was a rave culture phenomenon from 1991 onwards. He blew that with a vegan punk album. He released Play at the decade’s end and sold millions. He then had decadent superstar years, a run of huge,...

Read more...

theartsdesk on Vinyl 84: Ibibio Sound Machine, Dave Clarke, Eliza Rose, Billy Idol, Bodega, Mui Zyu and more

VINYL OF THE MONTHAriel Sharratt & Matthias Kom Never Work (BB*Island) + Ella Ronen The Girl With No Skin (BB*Island)Two offbeat albums from the uncategorisable Hamburg label BB*Island. They are home to the literary indie outfit The Burning Hell...

Read more...

Girls Aloud, OVO Hydro, Glasgow review - pop queens return with poignant hit parade

There was a point in this pop revival jaunt where you could feel members of the crowd wince. Not for the performance, but because Nicola Roberts introduced a song by mentioning it was from “the Chemistry album, which came out 19 years ago”. You...

Read more...

Album: Charli XCX - Brat

Charli XCX has been making scrambled eggs of pop for a decade. She’s written songs for/with artists including, but far from limited to, Lady Gaga, Iggy Azalea, Giorgio Moroder, Selina Gomez, BTS, David Guetta, Ty Dolla $ign, Blondie, Gwen Stefani,...

Read more...

Music Reissues Weekly: The Beatles - Stowe School 1963

“We hope if you like it, you'll buy it,” says Paul McCartney. It’s 4 April 1963 and The Beatles are on stage and about to perform their third single “From Me to You.” It’s out in a week.To his left, John Lennon instantly responds to the entreaty. “...

Read more...
Subscribe to pop music