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The Sunday Times

Sunday Times, The

The Sunday Times is the sister paper of the The Times, and is the largest-selling British national "quality" Sunday newspaper.

217 articles

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Eric Clapton, Delaney & Bonnie, George Harrison: Eric Clapton: God is a Guitarist

Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1970

GEORGE HARRISON sat with a painfully thin fellow in a motorway restaurant, a graveyard of the digestion outside London. ...

Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, The Supremes: Motown: The Gold In Their Bodies

Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1970

CONSIDERED TOGETHER at a party in New York, Nina Simone, the highly political folk singer, and Diana Ross, principal exhibit of the Motown Record Corporation, ...

Champion Jack Dupree: Travelling North

Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1971

AROUND 1920, Champion Jack Dupree left the Coloured Waifs Home for Boys, New Orleans, and started walking. He had nobody. His father and mother were ...

James Brown: Mister Messiah

Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1971

JAMES BROWN will die on the stage one night, on the moving staircase of his own feet in front of a thirty-piece band; and then ...

Johnny Cash: Jailhouse, Jesus and H.G. Wells

Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1971

THE HEAVY carved front door into House of Cash, Johnny Cash's state mansion, in Madison, Tennessee, swung inward to reveal blinding sunshine and the awe-struck ...

Radio KBIM: Radio Fun in Roswell

Report by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1972

CLOSE TO Albuquerque, New Mexico, as we hung motionless on the streaming white trans-America road, the voice on the radio-dial faded and returned in yet ...

Hammie Nixon, Sleepy John Estes: Sleepy John Estes: Sleepy, Getting Sleepier

Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1972

THE ROAD stops at Sleepy John's house, at the top of a ploughed field, outside Brownsville, Tennessee, where the earth is thick and unyielding as ...

Chet Atkins, Ernest Tubb: The Cold, Cold Heart of Country Music

Report by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1972

FOR ALL that Country and Western hopes nothing will change, its heroes die horribly fast. ...

The Everly Brothers: Growing Apart

Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1972

PHIL IS THE fastidious one. Don was happy to stay at another motel with a northern draught sweeping its gallery and cows grazing round the ...

Frank Zappa, Hawkwind: The Foulk Brothers: Pop Promoting Blues

Report by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1972

"RONNIE..." RONALD Foulk's secretary broke into the conference. "Will you accept a transfer call from America?" ...

Frank Sinatra: Palladium, London

Live Review by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1974

THE EMERGENCE of Frank Sinatra from retirement has become as regular a ceremony as when Lloyd George or Churchill used to be wheeled out on ...

The Faces, Rod Stewart: Rod Stewart: The Familiar Face

Report by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1974

THROUGH THE colonnades they come, along freezing passage-ways. Girls look like ventriloquist-dolls, in black plush and rouge, puffing as dolls do on big cigarettes; boys ...

Suzi Quatro: The Girl in the Gang

Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1974

A SEPARATE dressing-room had been provided upstairs, but Suzi Quatro preferred to use the same one as her band. It was large, clean, grey and ...

Bill Haley: A Piece of Gold in my Pocket

Profile by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1976

CLOSE TO his 50th birthday, Bill Haley seems to be in excellent repair. ...

Chuck Berry: Rainbow Theatre, London

Live Review by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1976

IT IS MORE than 20 years since the world first laid startled eyes on a young man with a crouching gait and a skinny guitar ...

Fats Domino: Rockin' in Your Seat

Profile and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1976

FATS DOMINO is relaxing among his half-unpacked luggage, his glass-heeled shoes, his address-book, his diamonds and his Gideon Bible. ...

Ringo Starr: A Starr is Bored

Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1976

RINGO STARR was to be viewed ceremonially last week, in Paris. He and his courtiers were accommodated at the George V hotel, where Salade Belle ...

Dolly Parton: Dolly, Tammy and Carl: In The Wembley Wild West

Report by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, April 1976

THE GUNFIGHTER walks alone, staying close to the side of the street. His clothes are black and faintly luminous. His hat is tied insolently under ...

The Rolling Stones: Gathering No Moss

Profile and Interview by James Fox, The Sunday Times, 9 May 1976

IN GLASGOW tomorrow, the Rolling Stones begin the British section of their European tour, which ends with six concerts at Earl's Court – an unusual ...

Barry White: I'm in a Beautiful Mood

Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1977

BARRY WHITE is the singer who turned black Soul music into a product closer akin to soggy white blancmange. ...

The Beach Boys: Not All Fun, Fun, Fun

Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1977

WHEREVER BRIAN Wilson goes, his cousin Steve is never far away. ...

Bryan Ferry: Mask Behind A Mask

Profile by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, January 1977

BRYAN FERRY'S jeans are as outmoded in style as high fashion can contrive. He wears a blue shirt and black official tie, framed by a ...

Elton John, Cliff Richard: John Reid, Elton John's Manager: "Welder's Son Who Built A Pop Empire"

Profile and Interview by Ed Jones, The Sunday Times, 8 May 1977

WHILE ELTON John was wowing the pearl-strung punters at last Monday's concert in aid of the Queen's Jubilee Appeal at the Rainbow Theatre, London, John ...

Fleetwood Mac: Carrying the Albatross

Profile and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1978

FLEETWOOD MAC have returned to Britain, a decade after their song 'Albatross' set a new mood and mellow tone for the rock guitar. But that ...

Blondie: Debbie Harry: Rhapsody in Blonde

Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1980

IN A TALL, draughty brownstone house, off New York's Second Avenue, preparations are afoot to videotape a sequence for Blondie's new single record, 'Rapture'. The ...

The Beatles, John Lennon: John Lennon: I Was Never Lovable – I Was Just Lennon

Obituary by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, December 1980

ONE OF THE more persistent myths surrounding John Lennon claims that he was brought up in poverty by working-class Liverpool parents. ...

The Police: Sting and The Police: The Rhetoric of Stardom

Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1981

IT IS NOT Sting but his alter ego Gordon Sumner who opens the door of the smart Hampstead house, one hand restraining a large, black, ...

Bruce Springsteen: A responsible rocker

Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, The Sunday Times, 31 May 1981

Bob Dylan arrives in Britain next month hoping to repeat his triumphant series of concerts of three years ago. Many observers feel that his timing ...

Bob Dylan: Earl's Court, London

Live Review by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, June 1981

HE WOULD not be Bob Dylan if he did not make us constantly fear the worst. ...

John Lennon, Yoko Ono: Yoko Ono: Life Without John

Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, June 1981

IT IS FIVE months since the shots were fired. The Dakota Building shares in that relief which Spring fleetingly gives to New York. Beside the ...

The Rolling Stones: What Makes the Stones Keep Rolling

Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, Fall 1981

THE JOHN F. Kennedy Stadium, Philadelphia, is a bleak circle of red-tinted stone, with colonnades and sub-Gothic arch-ways recalling some nineteenth century British colonial fort. ...

Ry Cooder: All-American Music Man: Ry Cooder

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, The Sunday Times, May 1982

IT WAS THE MEXICANS that did it. The violent hue of his shirt notwithstanding, the tall, taciturn figure in the centre of the stage looked ...

Marianne Faithfull: My Credit is Good

Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1983

WHEN MARIANNE Faithfull goes out nowadays, it is usually to the Chelsea Arts Club. The whitewashed house in Old Church Street, a cross between country ...

Joni Mitchell: The Public Life of a Private Property

Profile and Interview by Michael Watts, The Sunday Times, 17 April 1983

One of the few pop singers for whom the term "artist" isn't just gross exaggeration, Joni Mitchell ends a British tour at Wembley next weekend. ...

Berry Gordy: The Man in the Middle

Interview by Mick Brown, The Sunday Times, 1984

Surrounded by the stars he created – Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Diana Ross – stands Berry Gordy, the man who 25 years ago founded ...

Van Halen: The Secret of Van Halen’s Excess

Interview by Mick Brown, The Sunday Times, 1984

IT IS another perfect day in paradise, and David Lee Roth has decided to go for a drive down Hollywood Boulevard. ...

The Smiths: Deliberately

Interview by Jon Savage, The Sunday Times, 8 January 1984

THESE ARE EXCITING times for the Smiths. A top 20 record with only their second single, ‘This Charming Man’; a non-stop stream of interviews that ...

Ray Davies: Sadness and A Kind Of Fame

Interview by Johnny Black, The Sunday Times, 18 March 1984

RAY DAVIES has always been a rough diamond. The famous gap-toothed smile is still there, he mumbles through his polysyllables and, bit by bit, he ...

Bob Dylan: "Jesus, Who's Got Time to Keep Up with the Times?"

Interview by Mick Brown, The Sunday Times, 1 July 1984

This week Bob Dylan comes to Britain. The folksinger-cum-folk hero of the 1960s has not always had a good reception here. In 1965 purists attacked ...

Michael Jackson: Inside the Jackson Dream Machine

Essay by Mick Brown, The Sunday Times, 5 August 1984

IN THE Helmsley Palace Hotel, New York – an establishment whose style is best described as neo-Liberace – the lobby was filling up with Michael ...

Bob Geldof: The Rat And The Band Aid "Saint"

Report and Interview by Mick Brown, The Sunday Times, 23 December 1984

BOB GELDOF has been transformed from fading Boomtown Rat to charity superstar behind Christmas’s biggest pop hit, helping Ethiopian famine victims. Mick Brown reports. ...

Pete Townshend: A Musician’s Rocky Road To Bloomsbury

Interview by Mick Brown, The Sunday Times, 1985

THERE IS about Pete Townshend nowadays a sense of balance which is hard to equate with the Pete Townshend the pop music audience came to ...

Bob Dylan: Times A-Changin’ for a Prophet Who Just Wants to Play

Profile by Steve Turner, The Sunday Times, 17 August 1986

When Bob Dylan takes to the stage today at the National Film Theatre in London to face the press, he is unlikely to repeat the ...

Jackson Browne: Heartache Out, Protest In: Jackson Browne

Report and Interview by Steve Turner, The Sunday Times, 5 October 1986

"Doesn’t he look young!" gasped a woman behind me as Jackson Browne strolled on stage to kick off his six-date London run which ends tonight. ...

Terence Trent D'Arby: Terence Trent D’Arby

Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, The Sunday Times, 1987

WHEN Terence Trent D’Arby’s very first single was released four months ago, it became difficult to open a magazine or turn on the television without ...

Prince’s Crown Starts to Slip: Love Sexy

Review by David Toop, The Sunday Times, 22 May 1988

It is difficult these days to find a pop musician who enjoys general critical euphoria, but for the past few years Prince has escaped the ...

David Lindley, Ry Cooder: Ry Cooder & David Lindley: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 15 July 1990

A backroom Stone slides into town ...

Joni Mitchell: A Joni Mitchell Interview

Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 9 September 1990

"WHAT DO I THINK of the new Joni Mitchells?" Joni Mitchell grins, sucks appreciatively on another cigarette and thinks hard, as she often does, before ...

Prince: The Little Prince Grows Up

Report by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 24 August 1991

A MILE OR so down Highway 5 from the Paisley Park studio complex, where Prince and his band New Power Generation are currently rehearsing the ...

Garth Brooks: A Life In The Day Of Garth Brooks

Interview by Simon Witter, The Sunday Times, 1992

Original version of piece for The Sunday Times Magazine ...

The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy: Loudmouths: The Disposable Heroes Of HipHopRisy

Interview by Simon Witter, The Sunday Times, 1992

It grew out of raw anger. Can rap turn politically correct? ...

Little Village, Ry Cooder: Ry Cooder: At Home In The Village

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 16 February 1992

Robert Sandall talks to Ry Cooder about the band that has given his guitar-playing a new sense of pleasure and purpose ...

U2: Flying High With a Jet Set

Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 31 May 1992

HAVING, BY his own account, spent most of the 1980s "trying to dodge being a rock star," Bono aka Paul Hewson, the singer and most ...

Neneh Cherry: A Life In The Day Of . . . Neneh Cherry

Interview by Simon Witter, The Sunday Times, 20 September 1992

Born of a West African father and a Swedish mother, Neneh Cherry, 28, takes her name from the American jazz trumpeter Don Cherry, whom her ...

Station Rose: Neurodisco

Report and Interview by Simon Witter, The Sunday Times, September 1993

SEVEN STORIES above Frankfurt, in the city's most expensive shopping centre – the Japanese styled glass colossus Zeilgalerie – Europe's most unusual monthly club is, ...

Sheryl Crow

Interview by Simon Witter, The Sunday Times, November 1993

WHEN HER STUNNING DEBUT album Tuesday Night Music Club was released, critics rushed to compare Missouri-born Sheryl Crow to everyone from Rickie Lee Jones to ...

Tony Toni Toné: Sons of Soul

Report and Interview by Simon Witter, The Sunday Times, December 1993

SAN FRANCISCO'S Oakland area has a history of producing great, energetic groups - from Sly & The Family Stone and The Pointer Sisters to Hammer ...

Tori Amos: The Keys to Success

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 16 January 1994

Tori Amos, the piano's Nigel Kennedy with a prettier face, has swapped America and her classical training for Britain and its pop. ROBERT SANDALL meets ...

Garth Brooks

Profile and Interview by Robin Eggar, The Sunday Times, 23 January 1994

"SHHH." THE admonition echoes around the room, stalling conversation in mid-drawl, beer in mid-swallow. The ensuing hush is equal parts reverence and show-me. ...

De La Soul

Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Sunday Times, July 1996

IN 1989, DE LA Soul's debut album Three Feet High And Rising was hailed by New York's Village Voice as "the Sergeant Pepper of hip ...

Captain Beefheart: Clear Spot

Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 9 February 1997

WHILE NOBODY questions his status as one of rock's great originals, Captain Beefheart's madcap variations on the blues are an acquired taste. Armed with a ...

Mark Hollis: Composing Himself

Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, The Sunday Times, 25 January 1998

ANDREW SMITH meets the former Talk Talk singer whose haunting new album marks the next stage in an intriguing musical odyssey.  ...

Spice Girls: Gone But Not Forgotten

Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 21 June 1998

POOR GAZZA. Or should that be typical Gazza? Looking for a holiday destination as far from the World Cup as possible, he chooses the Ritz-Carlton ...

Mick Jagger, The Rolling Stones: Mick Jagger: The Old Man and The Sex

Profile by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1999

For years he's been renowned as a serial-philandering, penny-wise dinosaur of rock – still implicated in paternity suits for divorce settlements in his mid-50s. But ...

Rod Stewart: Rod Forsaken

Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 2000

DECEMBER 1973. It's the time of the Middle East oil crisis; the miners' strike that they got away with; the national three-day working week; constant ...

Bob Marley & the Wailers: Bob Marley and Dennis Morris: Marley's Ghost

Profile and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 2001

ONE DAY in the troubled winter of 1973, a 16-year-old wannabe photographer named Dennis Morris played truant from school in Hackney, east London, and took ...

The Sex Pistols: Sex Pistols: History Is Punk

Retrospective and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 2001

More than 20 years after they committed high treason during the Queen's silver jubilee, the Sex Pistols are still the kings of rock rebellion. As ...

The Rolling Stones in Exile

Retrospective by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 2001

THE TWO pre-eminent British bands of the gaudy 1960s marked the grey dawn of the 1970s in very different ways. ...

The Rolling Stones: The Crowning of King Mick

Retrospective by Chris Salewicz, The Sunday Times, 27 October 2002

It is hard to believe that Mick Jagger was once just another Rolling Stone. How did he become an idol? Chris Salewicz, his biographer, tells ...

Blur, Oasis, Pulp: Britpop: And The Beat Goes Off

Retrospective by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 17 February 2003

Britpop recalled the halcyon days of the Beatles and the Stones – but the party didn't last ...

Nick Hornby: 31 Songs

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 23 February 2003

WE SEEM TO BE in for a heavily-annotated favourites list, rather like the ones that the narrator in Hornby's novel High Fidelity fills his life ...

Ry Cooder: Rock'n'Roll Outlaw

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 17 August 2003

TO MOST VISITORS and residents, Santa Monica is Los Angeles-on-sea, a breezy, oceanside reprieve from the bad air, nose-to-tail buildings and car-choked "boulevards" that sprawl ...

The Rolling Stones: Alive and Kicking

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 17 August 2003

According To The Rolling Stones edited by Dora Loewenstein, Philip Dodd and Charlie Watts (Weidenfeld £30 pp359) ...

David Bowie: The star looks very different today

Report by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 31 August 2003

David Bowie, widely considered the most influential pop icon ever, was once written off by his record label, reveals Robert Sandall. ...

Randy Newman: He Shoots From The Lip

Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, September 2003

Randy Newman’s barbed-wire lyrics and arch social commentary are bang on today – and his new album proves it, says Robert Sandall ...

George Harrison: Jolly George – The Unsung Story

Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 12 October 2003

In a rare interview, George Harrison's widow Olivia tells Robert Sandall of his hidden circle of friends and fun, and that attack. ...

Liz Phair's slick new sound has shocked her fans

Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 26 October 2003

IMAGINE PJ HARVEY recording with Pete Waterman, or Bjork co-writing songs with one of Simon Fuller's stable of top pop tunesmiths. Weird, and not in ...

Sting: Broken Music

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 16 November 2003

AROUND THE TIME he won his scholarship to Newcastle grammar school, Sting – or Gordon Sumner as he was then known – witnessed his mother ...

Lou Reed: Walk On The Mild Side

Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 9 Fall 2003

These days, he's more addicted to herbal tea than drink and drugs. So how, at 60, has Lou Reed remained on of the most enigmatic ...

Sarah McLachlan: Her Own Woman

Interview by Robin Eggar, The Sunday Times, 11 January 2004

IN LA, EVERYONE knows her name. Indeed, for many American women, Sarah McLachlan is an icon. In London, however, she is usually confused with Craig, ...

Norah Jones: Cover story: Norah Jones

Interview by Robin Eggar, The Sunday Times, 1 February 2004

Norah Jones thinks her new album is much better than her debut. Will her 18m fans agree, asks Robin Eggar. ...

Walter Yetnikoff with David Ritz: Howling at the Moon (Little, Brown)

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 22 February 2004

DURING WALTER Yetnikoff's reign as president of CBS Records (later Sony Music), the music industry generated unprecedented profits, and commensurately large corporate egos. ...

Katy Rose

Profile and Interview by Robin Eggar, The Sunday Times, 21 March 2004

Don't expect "goofy love songs" from Katy Rose: this 17-year-old Californian is proud to show her dark side. ...

Jools Holland, Tom Jones: Tom Jones: Boyo's Got The Blues

Interview by Robin Eggar, The Sunday Times, 19 September 2004

THE MUSIC WORLD is definitely out of kilter. Rod Stewart has become a crooner and Tom Jones is singing rock'n'roll. At an age when most ...

Lhasa de Sela , Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Kid Koala: Montreal, mon amour

Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 24 October 2004

Why is Canada's second city No. 1 for so many musicians? ...

John Peel: When Robert Sandall met John Peel

Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 31 October 2004

Last words of middle England's accidental hero. ...

Billie Holiday: Julia Blackburn: With Billie (Cape)

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 27 March 2005

BILLIE HOLIDAY famously led a chaotic, dissolute life that has attracted biographers like rubberneckers to a car crash. ...

James Blunt: Marching To A New Beat

Interview by Robin Eggar, The Sunday Times, 24 April 2005

GENETICALLY, JAMES Blunt is much too posh to rock. Public school (Harrow), a top university (Bristol), Sandhurst and a commission in the Household Cavalry is ...

Geri Halliwell: Outer Spice

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 8 May 2005

Since Geri Halliwell launched her solo career she's drifted in and out of our orbit. Now she's having another shot at re-entry. She's a woman ...

Van Der Graaf Generator: In Prog They Trust

Retrospective and Interview by Robin Eggar, The Sunday Times, 29 May 2005

Van Der Graaf Generator are back – albeit after an excessive pause. Never mind the length, feel the quality, says ROBIN EGGAR. ...

David Pajo: Pajo: Pajo

Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 19 June 2005

A SAINTLY IF elusive figure on the indie scene, Pajo has used a number of aliases – Papa M and Aerial M among them – ...

Peter Shapiro: Turn the Beat Around

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 17 July 2005

GIVEN ITS frivolous image and naff rituals – fright wigs and flares, revolving glitterballs and girls dancing around their handbags – a serious book about ...

Sigur Ros: The Icemen Cometh

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 28 August 2005

SIGUR ROS aren't big on putting what they do into words: this, after all, is the band who called their most recent album ( ), ...

Neil Young: Rebel without a pause

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 30 October 2005

Neil Young famously wrote that it was "better to burn out than to fade away". Now, approaching his 60th birthday and confronted by his own ...

Santana: Carlos Santana: Many hippie returns

Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 6 November 2005

He played at Woodstock while out of his brain on LSD. But at 58, Carlos Santana isn't just a 1960s relic: stars like Beyoncé and ...

Sam Cooke: Peter Guralnick: Dream Boogie – The Triumph of Sam Cooke (Little, Brown)

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 1 January 2006

SAM COOKE WAS the first black American pop superstar. By 1962, the year of his biggest British hit, 'Twistin' the Night Away', he was the ...

Nick Drake: Trevor Dann: Darker Than The Deepest Sea – The Search for Nick Drake (Portrait)

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 5 February 2006

THIS BOOK IS surprisingly topical, and not just because of the deepening spell cast by Nick Drake, the English singer-songwriter, 31 years after his death. ...

Nancy Sinatra: Her Boots Are Walkin' On Back

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 12 March 2006

Ol' Blue Eyes' daughter, Nancy Sinatra, is mixing with the cool crowd now, says Robert Sandall ...

John Robb: Punk Rock – An Oral History (Ebury Press)

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 19 March 2006

WHAT IS THERE still to say, really, about the British punk rock movement? As this year marks the 30th anniversary of its uproarious debut in ...

The Beatles: Bob Spitz: The Beatles – The Biography (Aurum Press)

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 7 May 2006

WITH ITS BIBLICAL length and its epigraph from that underused pop pundit, Plato — "When the mode of the music changes, the walls of the ...

Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, Jimi Hendrix: Joe Boyd: White Bicycles – Making Music in the 1960s (Serpent's Tail)

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 14 May 2006

THIS PROTEIN-PACKED memoir entwines a number of stories that reach well beyond the subtitle's modest brief. At one level it's a boy's own adventure. Joe ...

Anohni (Antony & the Johnsons), Scritti Politti, Patti Smith: Latitude: Henham Park, Suffolk

Live Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 17 July 2006

FESTIVALS HAVE a way of sorting out the truly great from the merely watchable, and so it proved at the weekend's Latitude event. ...

CSS: Cansei de Ser Sexy: Stealth 2, Nottingham

Live Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 10 September 2006

WATCHING THE Brazilian band Cansei de Ser Sexy in action in Europe for the first time last week was oddly nostalgic. ...

Juliette Lewis and the Licks: Juliette Lewis & the Licks: Astoria, London

Live Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 8 October 2006

IT'S HARD NOT to admire a woman who abandoned a thriving career as a Hollywood actress to front a rock band, and who has stuck ...

The Smiths: Going for a song: 'This Charming Man'

Memoir by Andrew Smith, The Sunday Times, 5 November 2006

Andrew Smith on 'This Charming Man' by the Smiths ...

Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel: Going for a song: Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush's 'Don't Give Up'

Retrospective by Tom Cox, The Sunday Times, 19 November 2006

I'D HAD WAITING jobs before, and could deal with the £2.56 hourly wage, the slave-driving supervisor who wouldn't stop talking about his masturbation habits, and ...

Jerry Lee Lewis: Last Wild Man Of Rock 'N Roll Standing

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 4 February 2007

The six wives, the shootings, the arrests, the addictions – Jerry Lee Lewis was the original wild man of rock'n'roll. And at 71, he still ...

Joss Stone: The Undoctored Ms Stone, I Presume: Joss Stone

Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 4 February 2007

MEETING JOSS STONE in the Electric Lady recording suite in downtown Manhattan feels curiously appropriate. Set up in 1968 by Jimi Hendrix, who named his ...

Joni Mitchell: The Renaissance Woman

Interview by Robin Eggar, The Sunday Times, 11 February 2007

At last the times have caught up with Joni Mitchell – musician, artist and now inspiration for a ballet ...

Marc Bolan, David Bowie: Tony Visconti: Bowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy — The Autobiography (Harper Collins)

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 18 February 2007

IT CAN'T have been easy choosing the alliterative lineup for the sub-title of this rock'n'roll memoir. After Phil Spector, Tony Visconti is probably the most ...

Phil Spector: Mick Brown: Tearing Down the Wall of Sound/Mark Ribowsky: He's A Rebel

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 1 April 2007

Mick Brown reminds us of Spector's greatness as a music man, in what would otherwise be an unremittingly grim story. ...

Patti Smith

Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 8 April 2007

Nearly 30 years ago, Patti Smith turned her back on rock'n'roll. The woman they called the female Bob Dylan quit, choosing obscurity and her family ...

Mika

Profile and Interview by Robin Eggar, The Sunday Times, 27 May 2007

MIKA MAKES Marmite pop music. Back in January, when 'Grace Kelly' first leapt out of the radio, people rushed to instant judgment. Indifference was not ...

Editors in Control

Profile and Interview by Robin Eggar, The Sunday Times, 24 June 2007

THE TITLE OF the new Editors single, 'Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors', sums up the band's view of life. "The irony of someone having treatment ...

Lou Reed: Berlin live at Forest National, Brussels

Live Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 24 June 2007

THE BRUSSELS equivalent of Wembley Arena was nearly full for what had been billed as a "European premiere": Lou Reed performing his 1973 album Berlin ...

Newton Faulkner: Finger-Pickin' Good

Report and Interview by Robin Eggar, The Sunday Times, 22 July 2007

His astonishing virtuoso technique makes Newton Faulkner the cream of the guitar-pop crop. ...

Spreading The Word

Report by Robin Eggar, The Sunday Times, 29 July 2007

Library gigs, recycled sleeves, free CDs – our correspondent finds novel ways to get your music to the masses ...

Prince: O2 Arena, London

Live Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 12 August 2007

The former Dome plays host to Prince: a fitting venue to reflect on past glories. ...

Doc Pomus: Alex Halberstadt: Lonely Avenue – The Unlikely Life and Times of Doc Pomus (Cape)

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 19 August 2007

On the face of it, pop treated Pomus abysmally. A harder look at how and why would have given a lively biography a bit more ...

Paul Weller

Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, September 2007

RECOGNISING HIM is not a problem. As he strides purposefully across the concourse of Waterloo station it's easy to figure why Paul Weller is referred ...

Richard Cook, 1957 2007

Obituary by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 2 September 2007

IF WRITING ABOUT music is like dancing about architecture, then Richard Cook, who died of cancer last week at 49, was the Norman Foster of ...

Kanye West: Graduation

Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 9 September 2007

THE MEDIA joust in America pitting Kanye West against 50 Cent – both releasing albums on the same day – is reminiscent of the 1995 ...

The Police: National Indoor Arena, Birmingham

Live Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 9 September 2007

THE LAST TIME the Police played Birmingham, Sting told the audience at the city's National Indoor Arena last week, was in 1983, "when I had ...

KT Tunstall: Wilton's Music Hall, London

Live Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 23 September 2007

ON THE DAY that her second album, Drastic Fantastic, went on sale, KT Tunstall played a semi-secret pre-tour warm-up gig at Wilton's, in east London. ...

PJ Harvey steps into the light

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 23 September 2007

PJ Harvey's previous albums have embraced the dark side of life, but White Chalk's upbeat originality wipes the slate clean. ...

Harry Connick Jr: When Harry met Katrina

Profile and Interview by Robin Eggar, The Sunday Times, 30 September 2007

Harry Connick Jr wasn't one to write about personal grief – until the hurricane hit his beloved New Orleans ...

Jools Holland: Barefaced Lies and Boogie Woogie Boasts (Michael Joseph)

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 7 October 2007

FOR JOOLS Holland, autobiography is a rigorously selective business. ...

Eric Clapton: The Autobiography (Century)

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 14 October 2007

IT IS HARD to believe that the first book to spill the beans on Eric Clapton should arrive more than 40 years after the graffitied ...

José Gonzalez: Union Chapel, London

Live Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 28 October 2007

THERE ARE several misconceptions about José González floating around, most of which he emphatically corrected at Tuesday night's show in Islington. ...

Sia: A woman on the verge

Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 30 December 2007

Sia has endured failure and heartache, but the Australian singer's luck is starting to turn ...

k.d. lang: The Second Coming of k.d. lang

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 13 January 2008

When she came out 15 years ago, she became the poster girl of lesbian chic. Even Madonna courted her. Then the spotlight dimmed — until ...

Beach House: Devotion

Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 24 February 2008

DREAM POP doesn't come much dreamier than this. For their second outing, the Baltimore-based duo of Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand have concocted an even ...

Bonzo Dog Band, Flight of the Conchords, Freddie & The Dreamers: Flight of the Conchords, the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and other pop comedy acts

Overview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 25 May 2008

It's business time for pop comedy again – but why now? ...

Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons: The Ballad of Emmylou Harris

Retrospective and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 1 June 2008

At 61, Emmylou Harris is still the drop-dead-gorgeous queen of country rock. But behind closed doors the singer has sad secrets to reveal. ...

Lou Reed: Waiting for the Man

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 8 June 2008

Lou Reed's live version of Berlin, now a film, is hailed as his masterpiece. So, is he any easier to interview? Not really... ...

Leonard Cohen: Manchester Opera House

Live Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 22 June 2008

ARRIVING ON the stage at the Manchester Opera House for his first British dates in 15 years, Leonard Cohen immediately apologised for "putting some of ...

Neil Young's anti-war documentary

Report and Interview by Tim Cooper, The Sunday Times, 29 June 2008

The singer has fire in his belly — with a film about his antiwar tour — but his passion is a hybrid car he thinks ...

Amy Winehouse: Can Amy Winehouse be saved?

Report by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 27 July 2008

Her phenomenal talent has been eclipsed by her terrifying ability to self-destruct. Can anything save Amy from herself? ...

Hawkwind: Down Time: Hawkwind

Guide by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 27 July 2008

ONE OF BRITISH rock's most enduring hippie institutions, Hawkwind formed in 1969 and staked their claim as heroes of the counterculture by playing a free ...

Nightmares in Wax: Nightmares On Wax: Thought So...

Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 24 August 2008

FOR HIS SIXTH album, N.O.W.'s prime mover and sample-meister, George Evelyn, decamped to the new family home in Ibiza, invited over his band in their ...

Metronomy: Nights Out

Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 7 September 2008

METRONOMY ARE A TRIO from Totnes, now resident in Brighton, whose second album looks set to win them a serious reputation as indie mavericks.  ...

Bob Dylan: Suze Rotolo: A Freewheelin' Time – A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties (Aurum Press)

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 7 September 2008

SUSAN, OR SUZE, Rotolo was Bob Dylan's first serious girlfriend, and unlike many other characters from his pre-iconic phase she has, up until now, revealed ...

Massive Attack: Song of the year: 1991 – Massive Attack's 'Unfinished Sympathy'

Retrospective by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 12 October 2008

IT WAS CLEAR by the end of the 1980s that dance music was here to stay. Following the "rave" explosion of 1987, clubs all over ...

Van Morrison, Lou Reed, Brian Wilson, The Zombies: Recycling Albums

Report by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 26 October 2008

Van Morrison's revival of Astral Weeks is the latest example of yesterday's cult LPs being turned into today's sell-out concerts. ...

Damon Albarn: From Pop to Opera

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 2 November 2008

He's indifferent to money and drugs. He hates the celebrity circus. And he famously said no to Tony Blair — but yes to getting drunk ...

Blur, Gorillaz: Damon Albarn: From Pop to Opera

Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 2 November 2008

He's indifferent to money and drugs. He hates the celebrity circus. And he famously said no to Tony Blair – but yes to getting drunk ...

Jarvis Cocker: Sheffield Academy

Live Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 30 November 2008

THE IDEA OF Jarvis Cocker headlining a five-date UK tour to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his current label, the indie kings Rough Trade, made ...

The Auteurs, Black Box Recorder, Luke Haines: Luke Haines: Bad Vibes – Britpop and My Part in Its Downfall (Heinemann)

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 4 January 2009

ROCK HISTORY, like other sorts, tends to get told from the point of view of victors rather than losers. By popular acclaim, the big winners ...

Lily Allen: Talented, Troubled and Wallowing in Her Father's Footsteps

Profile by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 25 January 2009

WHATEVER AMOROUS tale they really told, the ostensibly loved-up paparazzi shots that flashed around the world in early January telegraphed the fact that Lily Allen ...

The Only Ones: Academy 2, Sheffield

Live Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 1 February 2009

IN THEIR ON AND (mainly) off 33-year existence, the Only Ones have never paid much heed to career management, and the Sheffield leg of their ...

The Only Ones: Academy 2, Sheffield

Live Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 1 February 2009

IN THEIR on and (mainly) off 33-year existence, the Only Ones have never paid much heed to career management, and the Sheffield leg of their ...

Staff Benda Bilili: Music from diversity

Profile and Interview by Rob Fitzpatrick, The Sunday Times, 22 February 2009

The band is formed of homeless paraplegics and polio victims from Kinshasa, Congo, and travel in customised wheelchairs ...

Fatboy Slim, Paul Oakenfold: Superstar DJs: Here We Go! by Dom Phillips

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 1 March 2009

They're mostly gone now, but back in the 1990s Britain's superjocks could coin thousands for a single night. A lucid history charts their excesses ...

MC5: Memoirs of rock mentor John Sinclair

Profile and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, The Sunday Times, 29 March 2009

Poet, activist, entrepreneur, critic, journalist, manager of MC5 and kingpin of US punk scene still performing and writing. ...

Madonna: Why Madonna's Still A Material Girl

Profile by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 5 April 2009

Turning 50 and divorcing Guy Ritchie doesn’t seem to have dented Madonna’s fortune – or her bankability. Robert Sandall investigates the business of being a ...

New York Dolls Release Fourth Studio Album

Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 26 April 2009

Only David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain remain from 1970s line-up for mix of classic rock and roll and reggae-style 'Trash' ...

Whitney Houston, Jennifer Lopez, George Michael, The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Amy Winehouse: All rock stars have a price, even Mick Jagger

Report by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 28 June 2009

The biggest names in music have been enjoying a nice little earner – getting paid millions to perform for the super-rich. ...

Maybe Father Really Does Know Best

Comment by Rob Fitzpatrick, The Sunday Times, 2 August 2009

Children forming bands with their parents is wrong — so why does it work so well, asks Rob Fitzpatrick ...

Beyoncé, Jay-Z: Beyoncé and Jay-Z: America's other first couple

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 9 August 2009

Beyoncé and Jay-Z are black America’s second most famous couple: young, rich and with a direct line to the White House. ...

Mott the Hoople: All the Old Dudes

Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 9 August 2009

They just weren’t cool, so 35 years on why has Ian Hunter's band managed to sell-out three nights at Hammersmith Apollo? ...

Gemma Ray: Lights Out Zoltar!

Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 6 September 2009

GEMMA RAY sounds like a character from an imaginary 1950s sci-fi flick – possibly titled Lights out Zoltar! – and the songs on her second ...

Spandau Ballet: The return of Spandau Ballet

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 27 September 2009

The band behind 'Gold', 'True' and 'Chant No 1', Tony Hadley and the Kemp brothers put their differences aside for reunion. ...

Steve Goodman keeps on pioneering

Interview by Rob Fitzpatrick, The Sunday Times, 11 October 2009

NOTE: This is the original "director's cut" version of the piece that ran in The Sunday Times. ...

Louis Armstrong: Terry Teachout: Pops – The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong (JR Books)

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 22 November 2009

AS TERRY Teachout makes clear in this terrific biography, the world that Louis Armstrong inhabited was anything but wonderful. It was, for most of his ...

Biffy Clyro

Interview by Rob Fitzpatrick, The Sunday Times, 3 January 2010

NOTE: This is the original "director's cut" version of the piece that ran in The Sunday Times. ...

Julian Casablancas on the Strokes and going solo

Interview by Sophie Heawood, The Sunday Times, 18 January 2010

He's the privileged kid who with The Strokes shaped the future of, among others, Kings Of Leon and Arctic Monkeys. Now he's all alone ...

Massive Attack: The Return of Massive Attack

Profile and Interview by Will Self, The Sunday Times, 24 January 2010

SOMEWHERE BACK in the early 1990s, when Britain was dull in a different way, I first heard Massive Attack's Blue Lines. Then in my early ...

Peter Gabriel is back in the habit

Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 31 January 2010

Lately more a technology guru than a singer, he now has a new CD – Scratch My Back is a covers album with a difference. ...

Jeff Beck: Solo Voyager

Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, The Sunday Times, 7 February 2010

The guitarist has left many famous bandmates to pursue adventures in jazz and electro, but now rejoins with Eric Clapton. ...

Nick Kent, The Rolling Stones, The Sex Pistols: Nick Kent: Apathy for the Devil – A 1970s Memoir

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 21 February 2010

AS AN EYEWITNESS account of the dangerous excesses of the 1970s rock scene, Apathy for the Devil is in a compulsively readable class of its ...

Natalie Merchant is Lady Goo Goo

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 26 March 2010

Natalie Merchant sold her house in Hawaii to fund an album of nonsense verse involving 130 musicians. It's the most ambitious project of her career. ...

Keane: Somewhere only Keane knows

Interview by Rob Fitzpatrick, The Sunday Times, 23 April 2010

NOTE: This is the original "director's cut" version of the piece that ran in the Sunday Times. ...

Stevie Wonder: Mark Ribowsky: Signed, Sealed, and Delivered – The Soulful Journey of Stevie Wonder

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 2 May 2010

His charisma is beyond doubt but, as this valiant life reveals, Stevie Wonder is on a different wavelength from everybody else. ...

David and Goliath: a tale of two festival organisers

Interview by Tim Cooper, Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 16 May 2010

On one hand, veteran Vince Power, the man behind Reading and Leeds; on the other, the Webster-Joneses launching Deer Shed for the first time. ...

Jack Johnson: Reluctant Superstar

Interview by Rob Fitzpatrick, The Sunday Times, 23 May 2010

THERE'S A TRACK on the new Jack Johnson album with a chorus that reveals, "I can tell you anything but the truth…" an admission that ...

Van Morrison: Greil Marcus: Listening to Van Morrison

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 6 June 2010

An appreciation of the best bits of Van the Man's career wisely concentrates on the sublime music, not the grouch who made it. ...

The Chemical Brothers: Chemical Brothers: The sound of grown ups at play

Interview by Rob Fitzpatrick, The Sunday Times, 20 June 2010

NOTE: This is the original "director's cut" version of the piece that ran in The Sunday Times. ...

Robert Sandall, 1952 2010

Obituary by David Sinclair, The Sunday Times, 21 July 2010

David Sinclair, a friend of Robert Sandall's since the 1970s, remembers the life of the late, great Sunday Times music critic, who died on Tuesday. ...

Hurts: No gain without the pain

Interview by Rob Fitzpatrick, The Sunday Times, 5 September 2010

The Mancunian duo Hurts are taking on vacuous pop with heart-on-sleeve honesty. And sharp clobber ...

Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan: Barbican, London EC1

Live Review by Pete Paphides, The Sunday Times, 12 September 2010

IN THE FIVE YEARS since she started working with Mark Lanegan, Isobel Campbell has emitted a low hum of irritation that we should find their ...

I Am Arrows: 100 Club, London W1

Live Review by Pete Paphides, The Sunday Times, 26 September 2010

EVEN FOR A DRUMMER, Andy Burrows's timing really cannot be faulted. In 2009 he announced his departure from Razorlight just as their stock seemed to ...

Primal Scream: Carry on Screaming

Interview by Rob Fitzpatrick, The Sunday Times, 6 March 2011

Primal Scream’s classic Screamadelica album is 20 this year. They talk about the agonies, the ecstasy, and doing the school run to PiL ...

Anna Meredith: Classical with a twist

Interview by Rob Fitzpatrick, The Sunday Times, 4 November 2012

How did the composer Anna Meredith go from the Last Night of the Proms to walloping dubstep? ...

Lorde be praised

Interview by Rob Fitzpatrick, The Sunday Times, 27 October 2013

The 16-year-old Ella Yelich-O'Connor looks like the most remarkable songwriter of her generation ...

Raury: The ego has landed

Interview by Paul Lester, The Sunday Times, 1 March 2015

Touted by Lorde and Kanye West, Raury has the nerve to live up to his billing ...

Sing along with the common people

Report and Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 16 August 2015

As gritty, working-class performers get eclipsed by the posh brigade, major labels thirst for the next Oasis. ...

Carly Rae Jepsen: No ifs, buts or maybes

Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 13 September 2015

Move over, Taylor Swift — Carly Rae Jepsen has made a retro pop album of genius ...

Adele: Hello again, Adele

Report and Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 25 October 2015

Amid a blaze of publicity, the star delighted her fans with her latest single last week. And, says Lisa Verrico, she may prove to be ...

Beyoncé: Becoming Beyoncé: The Untold Story by J Randy Taraborrelli

Book Review by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 1 November 2015

The real surprise in this exhaustive biography is not Beyoncé, but her driven dad. ...

Christine and the Queens, Jain: Christine and the Queens: A new French revolution

Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 10 July 2016

They are now the hottest name in pop. We talk to their leader about changing the industry. ...

Drake: Streaming is skewing the pop charts

Comment by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 7 August 2016

Drake's 'One Dance' was No 1 for 15 weeks. The charts are stalling and need a rethink ...

Robbie Williams: The Heavy Entertainment Show

Review by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 6 November 2016

ROBBIE WILLIAMS was devastated that his 11th solo album's lead single, the preposterous 'Party Like a Russian', flopped. ...

Shirley Collins: With a guitar and a lipstick

Review by Jude Rogers, The Sunday Times, 6 November 2016

The radical folk pioneer has cut a bold new album – her first for 38 years. ...

Beyoncé, Drake, Amanda Ghost, Solange, Taylor Swift: Where are the political pop stars?

Report and Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 11 December 2016

Selfie-obsessed stars are selling out to the power of branding. ...

Tony Bennett: Swinging with the stars

Interview by Robin Eggar, The Sunday Times, 18 December 2016

From Basie, Bill Evans and all that jazz to duets with Amy and Gaga, Tony Bennett has lived a life in song. Take a bow, ...

Wolf Alice: Choose Life in a Rock Doc

Profile and Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 8 January 2017

FOR A BAND currently soundtracking the T2 Trainspotting trailer and chosen by Michael Winterbottom as the subject of his latest rock documentary On the Road, ...

Loyle Carner: I believe in yesterday

Profile and Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 26 February 2017

Losing his stepdad made him the rapper he is today. ...

Loyle Carner: I believe in yesterday

Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 26 February 2017

Losing his stepdad made him the rapper he is today ...

Rita Ora: Baring her soul

Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 14 May 2017

After five years of modelling, acting, talent shows and even diplomacy, Rita Ora is back to her real day job. It's the music that matters, ...

Clean Bandit: Many Strings to their Bow

Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 11 June 2017

With a trail of monster hits and guests such as Elton John and Jess Glynne, the Bandits rule, says Lisa Verrico. ...

Lil Peep: Interview: Lil Peep

Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 6 August 2017

He doesn't have a record label, but he's huge on Instagram and gets mobbed "like Justin Bieber" in Russia. Lil Peep tells Lisa Verrico why ...

Niall Horan: Life after One Direction

Profile and Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 15 October 2017

THERE ARE GIRLS outside Niall ­Horan's hotel – the smartest in Stockholm, according to my cabbie – but not enough to trouble the traffic. Had ...

Paloma Faith: The Architect

Review by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 19 November 2017

DO PALOMA FAITH fans have a collective name? If not, they should adopt one Swiftie-ly. Palomarmy may be too much of a mouthful; Faithfuls would ...

The Breeders: All Nerve (4AD)

Review by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 18 February 2018

ALL NERVE is the first Breeders album in 25 years to feature the alt-rock band's so-called classic line-up — the quartet who in 1993 recorded ...

James Taylor: Going on tour with his old friend Paul Simon

Profile and Interview by Paul Sexton, The Sunday Times, 13 May 2018

Fifty years after he signed up with the Beatles, Taylor is returning to London. He's not stopping yet. ...

Madison Beer: Pop interview: Madison Beer on 'Home with You', five years after Justin Bieber declared her a star

Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 26 August 2018

The teenage singer is storming up the charts without the help of a record label. Is this the future? ...

The Wandering Hearts, Ward Thomas: Why country music is cool: the rise of Ward Thomas and the Wandering Hearts

Report and Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 4 November 2018

Inspired and nurtured by Nashville, British acts are putting well-crafted lyrics and storytelling back at the heart of pop. ...

Mark Knopfler

Profile and Interview by Paul Sexton, The Sunday Times, 11 November 2018

Aged 69, the guitarist isn't marking time. With a new album out this week and the musical Local Hero opening next year, the Straits man ...

Billie Holiday: Lady Sings the Blues

Book Review by Nick Hornby, The Sunday Times, 9 December 2018

Unsparing in its portrayal of addiction, divorce and racism, Billie Holiday's memoir is now a Penguin Modern Classic. ...

Billie Eilish: The teenage pop sensation who soundtracked 13 Reasons Why

Profile and Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 3 February 2019

LEARNER DRIVER Billie Eilish pulls up outside her house on the outskirts of L.A. in a scruffy station wagon. Her mum gets out of the ...

Billie Eilish: When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

Review by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 31 March 2019

HEAVENS, HOW teen pop stars have changed since Britney Spears tantalised dads in school uniform. The L.A.-born Billie Eilish wears what she wants, smiles as ...

Christina Aguilera: "I Look Back At That Younger Me And I Want To Tell Her Not All Men Are Like That"

Interview by Sophie Heawood, The Sunday Times, 13 October 2019

CHRISTINA AGUILERA was just 14 when she made her first record — a child in an industry where older men made all the decisions. Now ...

Celeste: Not Your Muse (Polydor)

Review by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 31 January 2021

ANOINTED BY the Brit awards as 2020’s rising star, Celeste hasn’t lived up to the hype. ...

Rag'n'Bone Man: Back from the brink

Profile and Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 7 February 2021

The singer tells Lisa Verrico why he went to Nashville to reinvent his bluesman image. ...

Why technology is making record companies richer

Comment by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 21 February 2021

It should give artists control, but the major labels are more powerful than ever. ...

The Go-Betweens, Tracey Thorn: Tracey Thorn's new book, My Rock 'n' Roll Friend, is settling scores for women

Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 28 March 2021

The pop star turned author on her memoir of the Go-Betweens drummer Lindy Morrison ...

Lewis Capaldi: "I didn't expect my life to be so sad"

Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 1 April 2023

In this soul-baring interview the superstar-next-door reveals why his fragile mental health may force him to quit. ...

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