Surviving diamonds in a rough tradeSorry for being awkward, but all those soi-disant industry analysts who were firmly predicting the end of ye olde record shop…Fri Sept 08 2006 - 01:00
A lollapalooza for the new millenniumDuring the second World War, the United States military used a shibboleth - a word or phrase that can be used to distinguish …Fri Aug 25 2006 - 01:00
Comedy award nomination puts smile on face of Irish stand-upIrish comedian David O'Doherty has been nominated for the Eddy award, formerly the Perrier award, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival…Thu Aug 24 2006 - 01:00
Real life, or something like itABOUT six months ago, BBC's Newsnight pulled off a technological firstFri Aug 18 2006 - 01:00
Micky & the boys only a phone call awayIN THE first half of this year The Rolling Stones made close to $150 million from touring in the USFri Aug 11 2006 - 01:00
Mercury needs to stop filling quotasThe only act the judges at this year's Mercury Music Prize could agree on was Arctic MonkeysFri Jul 28 2006 - 01:00
Shakey's secrets of sapphic sisterhoodIN From the Closet to the Charts, Jon Savage compiles a series of hidden gay anthems from the 1960s and early '70sFri Jul 21 2006 - 01:00
Right here, right now. But not on MTVIT'S a familiar story: a politically engaged group who don't compromise with their lyrics are a major underground success but…Fri Jul 14 2006 - 01:00
Even drunk, they never could be replacedREVOLVER Remember Heathers , the black comedy with young Winona Ryder which sort of came and went back in 1989?Fri Jun 30 2006 - 01:00
Balls: No defending some musicIN the past, Fifa used to ring a record company about a week before the World Cup started and say something like: "Can you get…Fri Jun 16 2006 - 01:00
Darkness - the right to chooseYOU'LL see a list of best ever albums, a list of best ever gigs, a list of best ever songs with the word elephant in the title…Fri Jun 09 2006 - 01:00
The genteel sounds of summerWEEPING larches can elicit strange emotional responses from peopleFri May 19 2006 - 01:00
Remembering a great song and its writerLISTEN to Cattle and Cane. Listen to a wondrous evocation of childhood reminiscence and regretFri May 12 2006 - 01:00
The best words in the world - ever!AT MOST Bob Dylan shows, the last song is All Along The Watchtower, the last line of which is (Dylan repeats the first verse) "…Fri May 05 2006 - 01:00
Anything But United behind JimmyYOU know the score: you're in a punk band, you have a number of hits, you're supposed to be a "spokesperson" for the 1977 generation…Fri Apr 28 2006 - 01:00
Anything But United behind JimmyYOU know the score: you're in a punk band, you have a number of hits, you're supposed to be a "spokesperson" for the 1977 generation…Fri Apr 21 2006 - 01:00
What would Sigur Rós do with Beckett?Beckett biographer James Knowlson recalls how he visited the ailing playwright in ParisFri Apr 14 2006 - 01:00
BLUE MONDAY ON GOOD FRIDAYMary Magdalene singing Ever Fallen In Love With Someone You Shouldn't Have Fallen In Love With?; Jesus singing Love Will Tear…Fri Apr 07 2006 - 01:00
Fruit of a genius lives on incognitoTHE war on an abstract noun - terror - continues apace with news that a contemporary counterpart of the codebreaking centre Bletchley…Fri Mar 31 2006 - 01:00
Write the theme tune, sing the theme tuneIF you remember The White Horses maybe you shouldn't be reading this columnFri Mar 03 2006 - 00:00
The baby- boomers who won't grow upMiddle-agers have grown up in years, but not in behaviour, writes Brian BoydTue Feb 21 2006 - 00:00
There's no smoke without fireON the cover of the Arctic Monkeys' album is a photograph of a friend of the band's smoking a cigaretteFri Feb 17 2006 - 00:00
U2 rejoice at victory in all their Grammy categoriesBy winning a further five Grammy awards on Wednesday night at the most important music awards ceremony going, U2 have defied …Fri Feb 10 2006 - 00:00
The price is rightAT THEIR annual bunfight at the Midem conference in Cannes, reps from the music industry are training their sights on Apple's…Fri Feb 03 2006 - 00:00
Hyperreality bites big on televisionTHE fabtastic cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard coined the term "hyper- ality" to refer to a world that is more "real" than …Fri Jan 27 2006 - 00:00
Astroturfing all the way to No 1LUIS García Meza Tejada is currently serving a very long prison sentence for some pretty hardcore human rights violationsFri Jan 20 2006 - 00:00
Here's a site for sore eyes - and earsWHEN Jan Wenner founded Rolling Stone magazine in San Francisco in 1967, its self-serving tag line was: "we're not just about…Fri Jan 06 2006 - 00:00
Lightning strikes again for Leo at the discoI could tell you about all the thrusting young tyros for next year: the electro-organ grinder duo from Arbroath, the 15-year-…Fri Dec 30 2005 - 00:00
Lightning strikes again for Leo at the discoI could tell you about all the thrusting young tyros for next year: the electro-organ grinder duo from Arbroath, the 15-year-…Fri Dec 23 2005 - 00:00
Been there, done that, bought the T-shirtIF YOU take the main motorway out of Stockholm heading north, you'll soon see a big white building on your left-hand sideFri Dec 02 2005 - 00:00
Bush telegraph creates a soundwaveIF you don't have Kate Bush's Aerial album to hand, you better go and get a copyFri Nov 18 2005 - 00:00
Shadowy figure on a Holy missionTHE Holy Moly website is the necessary alternative to Heat magazineFri Oct 28 2005 - 01:00
Tonight will be fine for maestro of melancholiaHOMER, he who wrote The Iliad and The Odyssey, is an interesting chappieFri Sept 23 2005 - 01:00
Confessions of a veteran bassmanGuy Pratt is hosting a one-hour show on the function and meaning of the bass guitar at the Edinburgh Fringe.Fri Sept 09 2005 - 01:00
Rolling in moneyIT COMES as a surprise that it comes as a surprise to some people that the Rolling Stones can still cut it as a live actFri Sept 02 2005 - 01:00
New face of Catholic tastesYou sort of prefer it when the Catholic Church does its "if you listen to a Rolling Stones record you will go to hell" thingFri Aug 26 2005 - 01:00
Rights revolution putting the artist first'THE behaviour in the recording industry has been consistently evil. This is my reaction to itFri Aug 19 2005 - 01:00
Eyes without a faceThe advertisement campaign for Michael Jackson's Essential greatest hits album is a thing of wonderFri Aug 12 2005 - 01:00
CD of the WeekAlways an interesting proposition, the duo of Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory produce state-of-the-art electronic music for…Fri Aug 12 2005 - 01:00
It's like picking up Mercury with a forkKAISER Chiefs may well be the first bookies' favourite for the Mercury Music Prize to actually win the awardFri Jul 29 2005 - 01:00
Pete and dud - the Live Aid/Live 8 losersIT'S a great pub-quiz question and no one ever gets it right: Only one of the artists playing at the original Live Aid show in…Fri Jul 22 2005 - 01:00
Spectacle proves more measured 20 years down the roadThe music: It was almost 20 years ago today that Bob Geldof first got his bands to playMon Jul 04 2005 - 01:00
Toast - don't pop till you get enoughToast is the new Crazy Frog. We'll explainFri Jul 01 2005 - 01:00
Croke Park cuts deep for The BladesIT'S A mighty long way from the Baggot Inn to Croke ParkFri Jun 24 2005 - 01:00
iPod freedom menaced by rotten AppleIn 1991, U2's record company sued a small US band called Negativland for using an unlicensed sample of the song I Still Haven…Fri Jun 17 2005 - 01:00
Rock riffs and rock rift: Making up is hard to doIT'S axiomatic: for every one rock reunion that works, there are four that don'tFri Jun 10 2005 - 01:00