Independent on Sunday
The Independent on Sunday is the Sunday edition of The Independent.
98 articles
List of articles in the library
Paul Simon: Melancholy beat of a backpacking magpie
Report and Interview by Mark Cooper, Independent on Sunday, 1990
Mark Cooper on Paul Simon's latest borrowings and his lucrative flair for domesticating the alien ...
Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead: Dead But Unburied Dreams of the Sixties
Profile by Mark Cooper, Independent on Sunday, 14 October 1990
After 18 years of making magic music, the Grateful Dead – who return to Britain this week – still remain true to their legendary spontaneity. ...
Nirvana: National Theatre, Kilburn
Live Review by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, November 1991
WHEN NIRVANA appeared at the Reading Festival earlier this summer, they were just one more obscure American underground rock trio with a good LP and ...
Live Review by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, August 1992
BY THE LAST day of the Reading Festival, the physical conditions have reverted to type. Soggy survivors cluster on little islands dotted between enormous mud ...
Jerry Wexler: Crossing The Divide
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Independent on Sunday, 30 May 1993
GET JERRY WEXLER started on the big bands of the Thirties and Forties and you'll never hear the back of it. Most ageing music moguls ...
Review by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, September 1993
ROCK AND ROLL can be cruel. One minute you are a professional misfit, happily living out a punk-rock life of misery and alienation in an ...
Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, 1994
THE VOICE of Iris DeMent is a remarkable instrument. There's a sob in it, a roll of the tongue, a fluting quality that speaks of ...
James Carr, Dan Penn: Cheatin' Meeting of Minds: 'The Dark End of the Street'
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Independent on Sunday, 9 January 1994
"THIS IS probably one of the greatest songs that's ever come out of black American music," announces Ricky Ross over the piano intro to Deacon ...
Nirvana: Kurt Cobain: Too Good For This World
Obituary by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, April 1994
AT MIDNIGHT on Friday, after the violence in Rwanda and before the end of the IRA ceasefire, a vaguely disdainful Radio 5 newsreader announces the ...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty — an interview
Interview by Richard Williams, Independent on Sunday, 13 November 1994
HE REMEMBERS the day Elvis Presley came to town: the day his life was saved by rock'n'roll. He was 11 years old. ...
Portishead: The Reluctant Debutante
Report and Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, 11 December 1994
IF YOU WERE the most compelling and enigmatic new group in Britain, playing your first proper gig in the sort of London club where Christine ...
Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, 1995
THE LEAP of faith required to enunciate the unappetising name of this mighty Pembrokeshire quintet plain, pronounceable old Gorky's to their legion of devoted ...
Ozzy Osbourne: The Ozzmosis of Ozzy Osbourne
Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, 1995
IT IS THE Winter of 1980-1. Black Sabbath are playing at the Hammersmith Odeon, for the first time without Ozzy Osbourne widely regarded as ...
Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, 10 December 1995
Given that Lemmy of Motorhead's father was a priest, it makes a crazy kind of sense that Mick Hucknall's dad should have been a barber ...
George Michael: Dance again, George
Profile by Andy Beckett, Independent on Sunday, 7 January 1996
He's back and he's seven-minute serious. Andy Beckett on pop's sharpest risk-taker ...
John Cale, Patti Smith: John Cale and Patti Smith: How We Met
Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Independent on Sunday, 25 August 1996
JOHN CALE, 55, rock musician and composer, was born in South Wales, moved to New York in the early 1960s and became a founder member ...
Nirvana: From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah (Geffen)
Review by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, October 1996
FOR ALL THOSE who will overturn the tables like Jesus in the temple if they hear Nirvana Unplugged in another vegetarian restaurant, From the Muddy ...
Mark Owen: The Artist Formerly Known as the Pretty One
Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, 1 December 1996
Once just a gorgeous torso, now a hit songwriter. Ben Thompson meets Mark Owen. ...
Oasis: live at Earls Court, London (27th September 1997)
Live Review by Will Self, Independent on Sunday, October 1997
IT WAS an emotional night for me – as it was for so many others. The minute that Liam Gallagher reached the centre of the ...
Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane: Haight-Ashbury
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Independent on Sunday, December 1997
The times they have a-changed, but not without a certain irony. Or a certain continuity, come to that. ...
Marianne Faithfull: An Interview
Interview by Will Self, Independent on Sunday, 1999
THERE'S NOTHING much crasser in life than being told by someone, shortly after you've met them: "You really remind me of so-and-so..." It's bad enough ...
Crass: Shibboleth: My Revolting Life by Penny Rimbaud aka J.J. Ratter (AK Press £6.95)
Book Review by Nick Hasted, Independent on Sunday, 21 March 1999
Incoherent, angry, incompetent and Crass ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 8 July 2001
FOR £85, OF course, you'd expect her to lap-dance for you privately. Outrage might be what we've come to expect from Madonna, but this isn't ...
Lambchop, Tahiti 80: Lambchop: Somerset House, London/Tahiti 80: The Spitz, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 14 July 2001
THE OPEN-AIR Georgian quadrant of Somerset House may be an unusually elegant setting for a gig, but it has its drawbacks when the main attraction ...
The Human League: Don't you want them? Maybe
Profile and Interview by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 15 July 2001
Sheffield synth-pop trio the Human League haven't always had it easy, but they've never given up. Simon Price met them as they prepare to stage ...
New Order: Olympia Theatre, Liverpool
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 22 July 2001
"IT'S LIKE WE'VE never been away," says New Order's Bernard Sumner, and they haven't, really. ...
Super Furry Animals: The Super Furry Animals: When Paul McCartney played the celery
Report and Interview by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 22 July 2001
The Super Furry Animals' new album features some big-name guests, says Simon Price. Including an ex-Beatle on vegetables. ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 19 August 2001
BONO DOESN'T know what to do. Midway through 'Sunday Bloody Sunday', that most troublesome of U2 songs, someone – someone wearing a Celtic shirt – ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 26 August 2001
WITH BOBBY DIGITAL in such belligerent mood, you'd think Kelis might keep her head down. After all, 'Got Ya Money', her duet with the RZA's ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 26 August 2001
MACY GRAY WAS a diva from the moment she picked up a mic. And fittingly, if frustratingly, she keeps her crowd waiting two hours, with ...
RZA: The RZA: Subterania, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 26 August 2001
AT SUBTERANIA, a man in a scruffy striped shirt, steel-rimmed specs and a battered fishing hat slouches onstage, half boho/half hobo, swigging a bottle of ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 8 September 2001
THERE'S AN apocryphal story that the Monkees – the original manufactured, made-for-TV pop group – were auditioned by being sent into a room containing only ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 25 November 2001
THERE ARE TWO classic symptoms of nervousness. One is to dry up and fall silent. The other is precisely the opposite: to gabble like Kathy ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 25 November 2001
IT'S POSSIBLY THE single most obvious thing you can say about Ryan Adams, and it's a joke that's been made countless times already, but you'd ...
The Hives: Modesty is a virtue... but not in a band
Profile and Interview by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 27 January 2002
IF YOU'VE BEEN to the cinema recently, you may have choked on your popcorn while being confronted with the sight of Kylie Minogue riding a ...
Andrew WK: Blame it on the piano lessons
Profile and Interview by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 3 February 2002
Shock-monger, corporate puppet or talented musician? Simon Price cuts through the hype and asks: Will the real Andrew WK please stand up? ...
Mary J. Blige, Chilly Gonzales: Mary J. Blige: Wembley Arena, London/Gonzales Scala, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 27 April 2002
SOMETHING VERY bad happened to Mary J. Blige once, right here, in London. She won't tell us what it is, but alludes to it cryptically, ...
Arthur Lee, Love: Arthur Lee: Summer of Love
Retrospective and Interview by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 26 May 2002
He discovered the Doors, nurtured Jimi Hendrix and fronted legendary '60s band Love. Now, after six years in prison, Lee is back on the road ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees: Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 13 July 2002
IN 1975, POP'S womankind was still meekly 'Loving You' (it's easy, cos you're beautiful) and 'Standing By Your Man' (and showing the world you love ...
Culture Club, Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 14 July 2002
WHEN THE FAT lady sings at the start of a show, you know something's seriously wrong. So it proves with Culture Club, the band for ...
Profile and Interview by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 28 July 2002
YOU MAY NOT know the name. But if you've ever screamed "I hate you so much right now!" along with Kelis, told Ol' Dirty Bastard ...
David Bowie, Suicide: Suicide: Trash, London/David Bowie: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, October 2002
ALAN VEGA WEARS a beret, like Saddam Hussein, Frank Spencer, and the French. He wears sunglasses on a rope, like Dame Edna. He wears leather ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 1 December 2002
Terry's all gold – even though his name is now Buddhist Jesus II ...
Marc Almond, Soft Cell: Marc Almond: That's enough erotic cabaret!
Report and Interview by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 2 February 2003
Soft Cell's Marc Almond is intending to grow old gracefully, says Simon Price. Then again... ...
The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Red Hot Chili Peppers: SECC, Glasgow
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 9 March 2003
"YOU'RE THE SEXIEST man on earth!!!" Anthony Kiedis probably can't hear the shriek of Scots approval from 50 yards' distance, but I sure as hell ...
Avril Lavigne: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 30 March 2003
THE THINGS YOU hear on trains. There I was, upgraded to Weekend First a couple of years ago (eight quid, but it was a long ...
Blur, Justin Timberlake: Justin Timberlake: NEC Arena, Birmingham; Blur: Astoria, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 17 May 2003
Non-threatening boys: come and get 'em ...
James Brown: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 19 July 2003
THE LOVED CHILD, they say, has many names. Make what you will of the fact that most of James Brown's epithets – The World's Greatest ...
The Rolling Stones: Mick Jagger: Sympathy for the Old Devil
Comment by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent on Sunday, 27 July 2003
"YOU'RE A FUNNY little fella," the gangster played by James Fox tells the reclusive rock star played by Mick Jagger in Donald Cammell and Nicolas ...
Martina Topley-Bird: Scala, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 2 August 2003
WHEN MARTINA Topley-Bird made her first fateful encounter with Tricky, she was a mere schoolgirl, and went on to become his muse and partner-in-rhyme over ...
ZZ Top: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 3 August 2003
IT WAS A STROKE of genius, when you think about it. Call it the Clive Dunn Factor, if you will. When Billy Gibbons and Dusty ...
The Darkness: No, really, we're serious...
Profile and Interview by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 30 August 2003
"I WANT YOU all to repeat after me..." Justin Hawkins, bare-chested and squinting into in the scorching midsummer sun, has 120,000 people in the palm ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 4 October 2003
"NOW, IF YOU work in a record store, or you have a degree in Musicology," spits Lux Interior with an exaggerated sneer, "you might file ...
The Isley Brothers, Ronald Isley: The Isley Brothers: Carling Apollo, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 4 October 2003
REGULAR READERS may recall my feature of a fortnight ago, wherein I detailed the nefarious activities of America's Clear Channel group, and added: "Britain does ...
Morrissey: Mark Simpson: Saint Morrissey
Book Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 16 November 2003
Former World's Biggest Smiths Fan Simon Price checks his credentials against a passionately provocative analysis of Morrissey's art. ...
Fleetwood Mac: The Point, Dublin
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 23 November 2003
"IT'S BEEN a sometimes difficult, and always a strange trip," Lindsey Buckingham tells the people of Dublin in a rehearsed line which was surely scripted ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 21 December 2003
PANTOMIME SEASON is upon us, and rock'n'roll's most compelling Punch and Judy show is in town. If the crowd packed into the Forum tonight aren't ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 1 February 2004
"YOUR NEIGHBOURS WERE screaming 'I don't have a key for downstairs'/ So I punched all the buzzers, hoping you wouldn't be there..." ...
Brian Wilson: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 22 February 2004
"YOU GUYS IN the audience have better cameras and recording gear than the people doing it officially," jokes Jeffrey Foskett, Brian Wilson's corpulent and genial ...
Keane: University of London Union, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 14 March 2004
WHEN BBC NEWS Online ran their "Sound Of 2004" survey of music biz insiders at the turn of the year, the winners – one place ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 21 March 2004
Automata for the people ...
The Who: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 3 April 2004
A SHAMED MUSICAL hero brought low before our very eyes, his humiliation beamed directly into our living rooms on the television screen. Not an edifying ...
Prince: Return of the prodigal
Retrospective by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 17 April 2004
Prince enjoyed a purple reign during the 1980s, but messy wranglings with record companies led to bizarre personal behaviour, and the 1990s were spent in ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 5 September 2004
And the name of the world's worst band is... ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 9 January 2005
I'd rather be funky than a junkie ...
Dr. Feelgood, Wilko Johnson: Wilko Johnson: Rhythm Doctor
Interview by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, 30 January 2005
Flood and drugs and R&B – the life and works of Wilko Johnson have been fast and turbulent. But the Essex Assassin is still rocking ...
Babyshambles: Pete Doherty And The New Decadence
Comment by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent on Sunday, 6 February 2005
PERHAPS MARC ALMOND put it best: "To me a star is someone who has something extra, and something missing at the same time – ...
Interview by Gavin Martin, Independent on Sunday, 27 February 2005
ON A RAINY FRIDAY afternoon Solomon Burke is holding court in the living room of his San Fernando Valley home. The man who has claimed ...
Bob Dylan: Greil Marcus: Like a Rolling Stone
Book Review by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, June 2005
POP MUSIC turned out not to be quite as disposable as was first thought. Not only is it still going, in modulated, increasingly moribund form, ...
Kate Bush: Return of the Recluse
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Independent on Sunday, 2 October 2005
PLENTY HAS HAPPENED in the twelve years since Kate Bush last released an album. Tory sleaze has morphed into New Labour; mobile phones and iPods ...
Book Review by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, 13 November 2005
DOES NARCISSISM have a sound? If it does, it is surely a dulcet, soft, melodic, tender sound. The music – for narcissism is nothing if ...
Depeche Mode: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 9 April 2006
THE LAST DEPECHE Mode gig I attended, right here at Wembley in October 2001 when they were promoting the dreary (and criminally mis-named) Exciter album, ...
Book Review by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, May 2006
IN 1980 – following the triumphant release of the London Calling album and during the recording of what would become Sandinista! – the Clash had ...
Keith Richards: How to be Keef: A User's Guide
Guide by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, 9 July 2006
WHAT GOES through the mind of a rock colossus as he falls from a coconut tree? Depends on your rock colossus, of course. So let's ...
John Martyn: The Barbican, London
Live Review by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, 17 September 2006
"Burble burble burble... President Bush... flffle mffle wffle... 'kin 'ell... urgle wurgle gurgle... I'm trouble too! Heheheheheh..." ...
Gong, Steve Hillage: Steve Hillage: Woggle Head
Profile and Interview by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, 14 January 2007
Steve Hillage was a prime groover on the Canterbury psychedelic scene of the Seventies and still makes far-out trance music today. So why do people ...
Profile and Interview by James Medd, Independent on Sunday, 18 February 2007
They came out of nowhere (well, Southend) and then suddenly they were everywhere. Now, with a full-length album to back up their formidable haircuts, James ...
Linda Thompson, Richard and Linda Thompson: Linda Thompson
Interview by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, 2 September 2007
Linda and Richard Thompson's marriage was fiery – so much so that Nick Hornby began a script about the legendary folk rockers. Here, on the ...
Madonna: For the first time, her friends and lovers speak out
Retrospective by Lucy O'Brien, Independent on Sunday, 2 September 2007
How did a destitute dance student become the princess of pop? ...
Led Zeppelin: Why We Should Dig The 'Rock Dinosaurs' All Over Again
Guide by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, 2 December 2007
They were the biggest band of the 1970s and they're about to reform ...
Book Review by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, 3 February 2008
In the summer of 1971, Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg holed up in a villa on the Riviera with the other members of the Rolling ...
Marvin Gaye's Here, My Dear: Deal Me Out
Retrospective by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, 17 February 2008
At the age of 39, Marvin Gaye's marriage hit the rocks, and he was forced into the studio to pay the divorce fees. Reissued 30 ...
David Bowie: Thomas Jerome Seabrook: Bowie in Berlin – A New Career in a New Town (Jawbone)
Book Review by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, 2 March 2008
ONE OF THE great privileges of being an adolescent rock fan in the '70s was the travelling you got to do. ...
Kieran Hebden: Close-Up: Kieran Hebden
Profile and Interview by John Lewis, Independent on Sunday, 13 July 2008
IF ONE WERE to draw a Venn diagram illustrating London's myriad music scenes – with circles depicting, say, rock, folk, jazz and techno – then ...
Zoe Rahman: Close-up: Zoe Rahman
Profile by John Lewis, Independent on Sunday, 14 September 2008
After blowing away the pop world, the pianist is turning to Bollywood. ...
Florence and the Machine: Academy, Birmingham
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 8 February 2009
Too many toffs on this magic roundabout ...
Booker T. Jones: Booker T Jones: The King Of Stax Picks Up His Axe
Interview by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, 26 April 2009
With his band the MGs, Booker T was the resident genius at one of America's great soul labels. Now, with a bit of help from ...
Retrospective by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, 3 January 2010
As a new film reminds us, he was a polio survivor from the suburbs and not much of a musician. ...
The Who: Long Live Rock: The Who
Comment by Barney Hoskyns, Independent on Sunday, 2 February 2010
ARGUABLY THE MOST famous line The Who's Pete Townshend ever wrote was "Hope I die before I get old" on 1965's angry young anthem 'My ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 11 April 2010
TWIN ROSES IN her tousled hair, and barely wider than a flower stem herself, Alison Shaw is unchanged and unchanging, as Cranes make one of ...
Paolo Nutini: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 11 April 2010
HE'S VAIN, sings reggae like Sting and has terrible posture. But just try telling that to the ladies... ...
Al Green, Ozzy Osbourne: Ozzy Osbourne: Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone/Al Green: The O2, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 4 July 2010
Faint shades of Sabbath in Ozzy's addled brain — Considering all he's been through, Osbourne makes a decent job of resurrecting the old hits ...
Profile and Interview by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, 29 August 2010
Gered Mankowitz wasn't yet 21 when his pictures captured London's groovers at their hippest. As the portraitist prepares to put his Hendrix archive on show, ...
Sandy Denny: The Queen of Fairport
Retrospective by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, 6 May 2012
LESS THAN A decade ago a retrospective CD box-set came out. A Boxful of Treasures documented the life and career of the English singer-songwriter Sandy ...
Comment by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 20 January 2013
IN THE WEEK that HMV goes into administration, and much is made of the endurance of smaller indie outlets (not to mention the corporate chain's ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 20 January 2013
Little Sister Solange Is Doing It For Herself Solange suggests there is more than one musical genius in the Knowles family ...
John Grant: 'This Addictive Personality Permeates My Entire Being'
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent on Sunday, 24 March 2013
After fighting drug problems, John Grant declared on stage that he was HIV-positive. Nick Hasted meets a very candid indie star ...
Nick Drake, John Martyn: Solid Air: John Martyn and Nick Drake
Report and Interview by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, 10 November 2013
JOHN MARTYN and Nick Drake have just tipped up backstage at an Oxford College Commemorative Ball. It is 1973. The older, newly-successful man, Martyn, is ...
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