Metro
Metro is a free newspaper published in tabloid format in the United Kingdom. It is distributed from Monday to Friday on many public-transport services in selected urban centres across the United Kingdom. The paper was launched in London in 1999, but is now also distributed in other major UK locations
65 articles
List of articles in the library
Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Metro, 7 April 2005
IT'S BEEN A long time coming, but finally things are moving for the feisty Fulham-born singer and rapper Estelle. Fast. So fast, in fact, that ...
Report and Interview by John Lewis, Metro, April 2007
IT COMES AS something of a surprise to discover that Nigel Kennedy, the punky enfant terrible of British classical music, has just turned 50. That ...
Interview by John Lewis, Metro, June 2007
Eddie Argos and Jasper Future from Art Brut talk about poetry, heavy metal, the Travelling Wilburys, tribute bands and their unusual relationship with hip hop. ...
Preview by John Lewis, Metro, June 2007
IT'S 1973. Your name's Lou Reed and you've just released a classic album called Transformer, featuring a huge international hit single 'Walk On The Wild ...
Rashied Ali Quintet: Pizza on the Park
Review and Interview by John Lewis, Metro, July 2007
IT'S EXACTLY 40 years since the legendary saxophonist John Coltrane died, enough time for the cult surrounding him to take upon religious proportions. ...
Interview by John Lewis, Metro, 6 July 2007
ORNETTE COLEMAN's visits to London tend to be rather special events. Over the past four decades, the legendary saxophonist has been joined on stage by ...
Interview by John Lewis, Metro, September 2007
"I QUITE LIKE the fact that, as I get older, my audience seems to get younger," laughs Caetano Veloso. The Brazilian megastar has played London ...
RZA, Wu-Tang Clan: Wu-Tang Clan: Putting the record straight
Interview by John Lewis, Metro, 10 December 2007
The hunger has returned: Wu-Tang Clan, with group leader RZA are back and ready to rule the hip hop world again with new album 8 ...
Stan Tracey: Make A Date: Stan Tracey
Retrospective and Interview by John Lewis, Metro, January 2008
"DOES ANYONE here realise how good this guy is?" remarked the legendary saxophonist Sonny Rollins during a lengthy session at Ronnie Scott's nightclub in the ...
Ice Cube: Make A Date: Ice Cube
Interview by John Lewis, Metro, June 2008
THERE WAS ONCE a time when Ice Cube was actually considered a threat to civic order. Police would bust NWA shows. Op-ed columns in U.S. ...
The Mighty Boosh: One mighty impressive line-up
Preview by John Lewis, Metro, 24 June 2008
The Mighty Boosh get their very own festival ...
The Roots: How I Got Over (Mercury/Def Jam)
Review by John Lewis, Metro, 27 June 2010
PHILADELPHIA'S ROOTS aren't really like any other hip hop acts. They're a proper live band, for starters (you might have seen them guesting as the ...
The Klaxons: Klaxons: "We've never been ashamed of the fact we are a pop band"
Report and Interview by John Lewis, Metro, 15 August 2010
South London nu-rave champions the Klaxons tell Metro the truth about their psychedelic project and the follow-up to their Mercury Prize-winning album. ...
The Gaslamp Killer: A bright spark hits the decks
Interview by John Lewis, Metro, 18 October 2010
Kooky DJ the Gaslamp Killer, known for his psychedelic sounds, talks to Metro about his experimental style, which includes work by Italian composers and dirty ...
The Human League: Make A Date: Phil Oakey and the Human League
Interview by John Lewis, Metro, November 2010
NEARLY THIRTY years ago, as the Human League were about to become the biggest band on earth, we had a recession, a Tory government enacting ...
Cassandra Wilson: Cassanda Wilson: Breathing new life into sound
Profile and Interview by John Lewis, Metro, 22 November 2010
Jazz great Cassandra Wilson tells Metro how British history has left its mark on the genre and how she has followed its ley lines. ...
Arctic Monkeys: Alex Turner: "Tupac's 'California Love' is my karaoke tune of choice"
Profile and Interview by John Lewis, Metro, 6 June 2011
Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner talks to Metro about how living in the US made the band's new album Suck It and See sound more ...
Jill Scott: "My new album was almost completely improvised in the studio"
Report and Interview by John Lewis, Metro, 26 June 2011
Jill Scott talks to Metro about playing Precious Ramotswe in The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency and how she improvised her latest album, The Light of ...
Review by John Lewis, Metro, 11 September 2011
SINGER/SONGWRITER Ed Sheeran is a 20-year-old Prince Harry lookalike from Suffolk who somehow straddles the worlds of folksy MOR and hip hop. ...
Kid Koala: "I always wanted to work on The Muppet Show"
Profile and Interview by John Lewis, Metro, 16 September 2011
Musician, cartoonist, graphic novelist, DJ, primary school teacher… Metro meets the many sides of Canadian polymath Kid Koala. ...
Review by John Lewis, Metro, 30 September 2011
Feist's direct, simple and appealingly childlike melodies shine throughout latest album. ...
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds: Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
Review by John Lewis, Metro, 14 October 2011
IT MUST HAVE been a relief for Noel Gallagher when Oasis finally split up. Finally, the bestselling British songwriter of the past quarter century was ...
Sharon Jones: Make A Date: Sharon Jones
Report and Interview by John Lewis, Metro, 1 March 2012
Sharon Jones of the Dap Kings is enjoying the life of the late-flowering soul diva. ...
Rumer: Boys Don't Cry (Atlantic)
Review by John Lewis, Metro, May 2012
SOME PEOPLE believe that pop music is about rebellion, about kicking over statues and sticking two fingers up to the oldies. They will not like ...
Sigur Ros: Valtari (Parlophone)
Review by John Lewis, Metro, May 2012
WHEN LEAD singer Jónsi Birgisson apologised that Sigur Rós's recent albums had been "too joyous, too festive", he must have momentarily convinced himself that he ...
Interview by John Lewis, Metro, July 2012
Paul Weller has a long relationship with the 100 Club – not just as a performer but as a teenage punter. ...
Muse's Matt Bellamy: "It's only now I feel comfortable singing about love"
Profile and Interview by John Lewis, Metro, 21 September 2012
Muse frontman Matt Bellamy talks about the band's new album The 2nd Law, singing about love and relationships and how his beliefs about 9/11 have ...
Foals' Yannis Philippakis: Getting on his highbrow horse
Interview by John Lewis, Metro, 14 December 2012
There's a lot going on in the mind of Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis – Metro finds out more. ...
Review by John Lewis, Metro, 11 January 2013
EVERYTHING EVERYTHING follow up their 2010 Mercury nominated debut Man Alive with Arc – and the results are both pleasingly complex and maddeningly simple. ...
Review by John Lewis, Metro, 1 February 2013
THE TENTH ALBUM from Eels shows that, while they may have fallen out of the limelight, their music is as sharp as ever. ...
Frightened Rabbit: "We were never cold enough to be art school"
Profile and Interview by John Lewis, Metro, 7 February 2013
Frightened Rabbit's Scott Hutchison talks about swearing, not being an art school band and their new album Pedestrian Verse. ...
Iggy Pop, The Stooges: Iggy and the Stooges: Ready To Die
Review by John Lewis, Metro, 26 April 2013
ONE MIGHT mock Iggy Pop for advertising car insurance, but the truth is that being a rock legend doesn't come with a guaranteed stipend: his ...
Review by John Lewis, Metro, 31 May 2013
IF SURREY DJ outfit Disclosure illustrate anything, it's the endlessly cyclical nature of dance music. ...
Report and Interview by John Lewis, Metro, 7 June 2013
Hip hop heads often get misty-eyed about the 'golden age' of hip hop. But when was it? The formative years of Grandmaster Flash and Sugarhill ...
Lil' Kim: The hip hop star is a little big woman in a man's world
Interview by John Lewis, Metro, 11 July 2013
"I'M A GIRLY GIRL," says Lil Kim. "I'm strong but I'm very timid. Very dainty." This, of course, is the same Lil Kim who wrote ...
Wild Beasts: Masculinity is so unnatural
Profile and Interview by John Lewis, Metro, 21 February 2014
"MACHISMO IS basically a drag act," says Wild Beasts' frontman Tom Fleming. "There's a gross swagger that usually accompanies masculinity, and that's something that's learned ...
Kate Bush's Before The Dawn: Eventim Apollo, London
Live Review by John Lewis, Metro, 28 August 2014
IT WAS A comeback that had been hyped up for months. ...
Comment by John Lewis, Metro, 7 October 2015
How to write a great Bond theme, and why Sam Smith hasn’t managed it. ...
Kamasi Washington: Heaven and Earth (Young Turks)
Review by John Lewis, Metro, 18 June 2018
THROUGH HIS links with Kendrick Lamar and other hip hop and R&B artists, tenor saxophonist Kamasi Washington has moved from niche L.A. jazz musician into ...
Review by Simon Price, Metro, 28 August 2018
IT WASN'T ALWAYS easy to discern the purpose of Anna Calvi. A spare PJ Harvey in case we lost the real one down the back ...
Review by David Bennun, Metro, 28 August 2018
DISCLOSURE: I had forgotten the Kooks existed. When the Brighton indie quartet first surfaced some 12 years ago, I described them as an "amiably ordinary ...
Electric Light Orchestra: The Electric Light Orchestra will leave you all aglow
Comment by David Bennun, Metro, 18 September 2018
I HAVE LOVED Electric Light Orchestra, as almost nobody calls them, since I first heard them as a youngster in the 1980s, after their golden ...
The 1975: A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships
Review by David Bennun, Metro, 27 November 2018
SOMETIMES YOU hear a record that feels like comfort in a diffuse and dissonant age, a warm, reassuring record that harks back to former certainties, ...
Van Morrison: The Prophet Speaks
Review by Stevie Chick, Metro, 4 December 2018
NOVEMBER MARKED the 50th anniversary of Van Morrison's masterpiece, Astral Weeks, but for the longest time, the artist formerly known as Van The Man might ...
Van Morrison: The Prophet Speaks (Caroline International)
Review by Stevie Chick, Metro, 4 December 2018
NOVEMBER MARKED the 50th anniversary of Van Morrison's masterpiece, Astral Weeks, but for the longest time, the artist formerly known as Van The Man might ...
Chaka Khan: Hello Happiness (Diary/Island)
Review by David Bennun, Metro, 10 February 2019
Ch-arge of energy from Chaka bursting with life and joy ...
Lewis Capaldi: Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent
Review by David Bennun, Metro, 15 May 2019
IF EVER A record's title amounted to that "Come on, then!" gesture from a pub squabble, Lewis Capaldi's is surely it. Still early into a ...
Mark Ronson: Late Night Feelings (Columbia)
Review by David Bennun, Metro, June 2019
Mood music: Ronson keeps it subtle ...
Hollywood Vampires: Rise (earMUSIC)
Review by Simon Price, Metro, 18 June 2019
THE ORIGINAL Hollywood Vampires were a Transatlantic showbiz drinking cabal formed by Alice Cooper in the 1970s, a Hellfire Club for the Sunset Strip set. ...
Hot Chip: A Bath Full Of Ecstasy
Review by David Bennun, Metro, 18 June 2019
ALMOST A decade ago it wouldn't have been a stretch to call Hot Chip Britain's best pop band. They produced wonderful, warm-hearted electro floor-fillers with ...
Sharon Van Etten: Cambridge Junction
Live Review by David Bennun, Metro, 3 July 2019
SHARON VAN ETTEN has changed. She seems no longer consumed by the rage and pain she has had good reason to feel, and has channelled ...
Ed Sheeran: No. 6 Collaborations (Atlantic)
Review by Caroline Sullivan, Metro, 15 July 2019
OTHERWISE known as Pop's Insanely Successful Mr Average, Ed Sheeran rouses many people to eye-rolling disbelief: four albums in, how can Ginger Ordinaire still be ...
Review by David Bennun, Metro, 26 August 2019
IT'S TAYLOR Swift's world; the rest of us just live in it. That, at least, is the impression conveyed by any given Taylor Swift album. ...
Review by David Bennun, Metro, 27 August 2019
"TRANS" IS QUITE the motif for indie cult hero Ezra Furman. ...
Liam Gallagher: Why Me? Why Not.
Review by David Bennun, Metro, 18 September 2019
IN HINDSIGHT, Liam Gallagher had one thing going for him two years ago when he released his first solo album, As You Were, to a ...
Lizzo: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by David Bennun, Metro, 8 November 2019
ALL BIG ACTS start small – but the difference between the Lizzo who played a hole in Brighton's seafront wall five years ago, and the ...
Skepta: O2 Academy, Birmingham
Live Review by Neil Kulkarni, Metro, 28 November 2019
"BIRMINGHAM, I need your energy," hollered grime veteran Skepta from the stage as the hungry crowd moshed in a rampaging circle. ...
Review by David Bennun, Metro, 12 February 2020
SOME RECORDS slip by so easily you hardly notice. You hit play and moments later they're done. In the case of the third album from ...
Grimes: Miss Anthropocene (4AD)
Review by David Bennun, Metro, 25 February 2020
WHAT DO YOU do when you become not only a star but a style? When a host of other artists keep remaking (pretty well, too) ...
The Chicks: Gaslighter (Columbia)
Review by David Bennun, Metro, July 2020
THE CHICKS formerly known as Dixie haven't released a new studio album in 14 years, which makes Gaslighter a pretty big deal. ...
The Pretenders: Hate For Sale (BMG)
Review by David Bennun, Metro, 14 July 2020
CRIKEY. If you didn't know it was 2020 — if there were any way not to know it's 2020 — then the new Pretenders album ...
Annie: Dark Hearts (Annie Melody)
Review by David Bennun, Metro, 22 October 2020
HEY ANNIE – well, look at you. ...
Junglepussy: JP4 (Secretly Canadian)
Review by David Bennun, Metro, 22 October 2020
HOW MUCH fun is Shayna McHayle, more felicitously known as Junglepussy? More fun than a boxful of puppies with sharp little teeth and a bone ...
Review by David Bennun, Metro, 15 December 2020
AT LEAST THIS suspended animation has been good for something, then. All those artists who have been denied the road and excused the promotional treadmill ...
Django Django: Glowing In The Dark (Because Music)
Review by David Bennun, Metro, February 2021
TIME WAS WHEN art schools were the engine of British pop culture. That's long gone but you still get flickers from the embers. One of ...
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