Coldplay Moon Music review: Could this be perfect pop? Life&Style Every now and then I find myself considering the fine margins between major and minor success. I remember, for instance, a gig I attended at the turn of the millennium at the Nottingham Arena performed by the band Travis. In those days, like their rivals Coldplay, they could easily fill a stadium of 10,000 people. [...]
Strange dreams: Lessons from the life of Paul Simon An essay on what I have absorbed over a lifetime listening to Paul Simon What do you need to make a musical career? I’d say it comes down to one thing: a talent for immediacy. If you don’t have it, the chances are you’ll lose out to someone who does. I remember when I first [...]
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ new song Wild God is a song of planetary importance music With the release of Wild Gods, Nick Cave is surpassing even Dylan and Cohen, entering some new circle of higher life all his own.
Harbour Hotel Sidmouth: The perfect weekend escape February 16, 2024 Sidmouth, where the Harbour Hotel is based, is an excellent location from which to explore the Jurassic Coast
Amy Winehouse would have been 40 this year – a star remembered December 12, 2023 Amy Winehouse would have been 40 this year, and in her prime – there is still a market for our morbid fascination with her unhappy fate.
Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke INTERVIEW: ‘I’m incapable of creating anything without a narrative’ December 12, 2023 Christopher Jackson speaks to Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke and the artist behind the band's iconic album covers Stanley Donwood as they launch their new collaborative art exhibition
“The future might belong to India”: In conversation with Ebookers founder Dinesh Dhamija on the UK’s future ties with India July 5, 2023 Chris Jackson speaks to Dinesh Dhamija about the UK's sometimes complicated relationship with India - and where a trade deal might emerge from
WOW!house at the Design Centre Chelsea Harbour review July 3, 2023 Sometimes your job as a writer is to critique, or nitpick – or at least to recommend improvements. At other times – and this should be done with a sigh after much internal questioning – it is to upbraid. Very rarely, your only duty is to praise and recommend – to add footfall and eyeballs [...]
Bob Dylan documentary Shadow Kingdom is a portrait of rare genius June 12, 2023 Geniuses never do what we want them to: if they did, they’d be just like us. There’s recompense for the dismay we sometimes feel at the trajectory of our heroes. After the initial confusion comes comprehension, forgiveness, and awe – followed by amnesia about the traversal of that progression. Soon you forget why you ever [...]
Blur – The Narcissist: A deep-dive into the genesis of (another) hit May 30, 2023 There is a moment in the Beatles’ catalogue of which I’m particularly fond. It comes on the album Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band when Paul McCartney, ever the panting optimist, sings: “It’s getting better all the time.” Lennon improvises back: “It couldn’t get much worse.” The essentially dual spirit of the Beatles is encapsulated in that [...]
