Ian Gittins
Ian Gittins began writing for Melody Maker in 1985, soon after leaving university, initially as their regional correspondent in Birmingham. After moving to London, he worked at MM in the halcyon late '80s/early '90s period that many regard as the paper's best ever years. In 1992 he took a detour away from music when a love affair led him to Novosibirsk, Siberia, from where he contributed articles to Moscow Times, The Daily Telegraph and The New York Times.
He returned to London, and Melody Maker, in 1993 and also wrote for The Independent, Time Out and MTV before being deputy editor of a classy but sadly short-lived arts and lifestyle magazine, Ikon.
After a severely misguided spell editing a south-east Asia music industry trade magazine, he became senior music editor at Virgin Books, where he commissioned and edited major biographies of David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Blur, Manic Street Preachers, The Charlatans, Bush and Creation Records, and survived a week in the company of Ike Turner.
He returned to freelancing in 2000, and now writes features and reviews for The Guardian as well as contributing to a host of national and international magazines and websites. He is the co-author with Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe of the New York Times bestseller The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star (MTV Books, 2007) and also penned Top of the Pops: Mishaps, Miming and Music (BBC Books, 2007), an official yet profoundly flippant history of the long-running TV music show.
277 articles
List of articles in the library
Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 20 September 1986
HOW DO YOU handle the restrictions of being a straight rock band? You avoid perpetrating the obvious, divert energies down peculiar and radical directions, deviate ...
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 25 October 1986
"THE THING is, you can always get upset about things which you are physically incapable of doing anything about. So if you think about yourself, ...
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 23 May 1987
SWING OUT SISTER have made an album of pretty pop trifles. Ian Gittins asks if this is enough. ...
Happy Mondays — Funk Disc Location
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 28 November 1987
UNTAMED AND UNRELENTING, Happy Mondays have still managed to carve out splinters of ordered funk from their fractured pop chaos. Ian Gittins struggles through a ...
My Bloody Valentine: The Excellence of Ecstasy
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 30 January 1988
WHERE SHALL WE BEGIN? "When we first started we had this image thing, right, all Sixties haircuts and really setting out to do the pop ...
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 20 February 1988
IT'S BEEN 12 MONTHS SINCE STUMP LAST RIDDLED THE WORLD WITH RIDICULE, AND THIS WEEK HERALDS THE RETURN OF THE BARED TORSO AND THEIR OFF-THE-BEAM ...
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 26 March 1988
"BOBBY Maggot was a big attorney/Through the courtroom down to hell he'd journey/Baldheaded piece of garbage that he was/He'll defend you if your money's honest/Do ...
The Jesus & Mary Chain: Jesus & Mary Chain: Barrowlands Ballroom, Glasgow
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 7 May 1988
APOCALYPSE NOW! ...
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 7 May 1988
GETTING INTO A LATHER OVER THEIR LAGER (OR IS IT VICE VERSA?), THE SHAMEN ARE SETTING NEW STANDARDS IN PSYCHEDELIA. IAN GITTINS SCRATCHED THEIR IRRITATION. ...
The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Electric Ballroom, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 28 May 1988
AS SIMON Reynolds said last time they tripped over here, The Red Hot Chili Peppers are totally WRONG. This alone makes them great. The mix ...
Sinead O'Connor: Dominion Theatre, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 11 June 1988
PRIVATE CONFLICTS ...
Throbbing Gristle: Astoria Theatre, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 11 June 1988
NEVER GO back. So why is he doing this, the inspired maniac? Just to show there's still air in his lungs? Chris & Cosey are ...
Cindy Lee Berryhill, Living Colour: Living Colour, Cindy Lee Berryhill: The Marquee, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 16 July 1988
LUST FOR LIFE ...
Salt 'N' Pepa: Sat 'N' Pepa: The Showstoppers
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 5 November 1988
'To Know Us Is To Love Us' claim Salt 'n' Pepa, one of rap's most unlikely success stories, whose A Salt With A Deadly Pepa ...
Fishbone: Town & Country Club, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 14 January 1989
SCALING HEIGHTS ...
Big Country: Talk About The Passion
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 21 January 1989
Big Country are on tour again, playing to more people in bigger places, taking Peace In Our Time to the masses. Ian Gittins catches up ...
The Shamen: In Gorbachev We Trust (Demon)
Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 4 February 1989
THE SHAMEN may indeed, as Steve Sutherland said, be a band whose time has come. For over three years now they've been drilling away, obsessed ...
Nasty Rox, Inc., Pop Will Eat Itself: Pop Will Eat Itself/Nasty Rox Inc: Town & Country Club, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 11 February 1989
NASTY ROX INC look like slobs but have a beat which cuts it. Their rock/hip hop amalgam makes all the right moves, yet never manages ...
Happy Mondays, Kit: University of London Union, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 18 February 1989
LAUGHING MAD ...
The Darling Buds: Confetti Junction
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 18 February 1989
Saturday11:20 IT'S SATURDAY MORNING kiddie time, and The Darling Buds are shining out of the telly. After Bruno Brookes and the Red Arrows display team, ...
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 25 February 1989
AFTER SUPPORTING IGGY POP AND SPENDING ALMOST A YEAR ON THE ROAD, THE GREBO GURUS TELL IAN GITTINS HOW A DIRTY, SCRUFFY BUNCH OF ROCK'N'ROLLERS ...
Gaye Bykers On Acid: Stewed To The Gills (Virgin)
Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 25 February 1989
STEWED TO The Gills is not a total pile of doggy-doo. This comes as a shock. You expect a mess, somehow, from the Bykers, with ...
Deacon Blue: The Reluctant Tourist
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 8 April 1989
AFTER THE SUCCESS OF THEIR DEBUT ALBUM, RAINTOWN, AND A STRING OF HIT SINGLES INCLUDING THE RECENT 'WAGES DAY', RICKY ROSS AND HIS BAND LOOK ...
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 15 April 1989
IAN GITTINS JOINS THE MANCHESTER REPROBATES ON THEIR TOUR OF IRELAND AND WITNESSES MAYHEM, MADNESS AND BAFFLING BRILLIANCE. ...
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 22 April 1989
IAN GITTINS JOINED L.A.'S GANGLAND WARRIORS ON THE ROAD IN THE UK AND FOUND THAT BEHIND THE RAUCOUS SOUND AND WRECKLESS ATTITUDE LIES A GROUP ...
The Wedding Present: From Russia With Love
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 22 April 1989
How have four normal people from Leeds become the most successful indie band of the late-eighties? Why have the trusty punksters just released an album ...
Simple Minds: Street Fighting Years (Virgin)
Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 6 May 1989
THE HIGHER GROUND ...
The Shamen: The Pleasure Principle
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 3 June 1989
FOLLOWING THE SUCCESS OFTHEIR LAST ALBUM, IN GORBACHEV WE TRUST, THE EXPLOSIVE PSYCHEDELIC EXPLORERS HOPE TO EXPAND THEIR HORIZONS WITH THEIR NEW MINI-LP, PHORWARD. IAN ...
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 17 June 1989
TOURING THE COUNTRY, TEARING 'EM APART, BIRDLAND ARE FULFILLING THE POTENTIAL MM NOTICED IN THEM EARLIER THIS YEAR. IAN GITTINS JOINS THE YEAR'S MOST HYPERACTIVE TOUR AND ...
Edie Brickell: Bohemian Rhapsodies
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 17 June 1989
SINCE THE RELEASE OF THEIR DEBUT ALBUM SHOOTING RUBBER BANDS AT THE STARS LAST YEAR, EDIE AND HER BAND HAVE SHOT TO FAME IN THE ...
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 17 June 1989
IS THEIR NEW ALBUM 'DIAL M FOR MOTHERF***ER' THE LAST WORD IN ROCK, A MOVE TOWARDS THE MAINSTREAM OR A SICK JOKE? IAN GITTINS SPEAKS ...
Soul II Soul: Songs In The Key Of Life
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 16 December 1989
WITH A STRING OF SUCCESSFUL SINGLES AND A STUNNING DEBUT ALBUM, SOUL II SOUL HAVE SPEARHEADED THE DANCE REVIVAL OF THE LATE-EIGHTIES AND LOOK LIKE ...
The Fall: Funfair For The Common Man
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 3 March 1990
IN A CHEAP INDIAN RESTAURANT IN LONDON'S BRICK LANE Mark Smith's eyes begin to glint. His bony figure leans forward and stiffens. From deep in ...
Lenny Kravitz: All You Need Is Love
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 19 May 1990
Lenny Kravitz is well on his way to becoming an international rock superstar. But is he really anything more than a hippy throwback with a ...
Metallica: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 2 June 1990
METAL FATIGUE ...
Pussy Galore: Kittens of Distinction
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 2 June 1990
THEIR NEW ALBUM, HISTORIA DE LA MUSICA ROCK, CONTAINS SONGS LIKE THE QUAINTLY-NAMED 'ERIC CLAPTON MUST DIE' AND PROVES THAT PUSSY GALORE ARE STILL THE ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 23 June 1990
WEIGHT WATCHING ...
New Kids On The Block: Step By Step (CBS)
Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 30 June 1990
WHAT IS SO odious about New Kids On The Block? Why are they so uniquely dislikeable? Is it the disturbingly cynical way they blunted rap's ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 14 July 1990
HOW TOUGH is Johnette Napolitano? Maybe here's a clue. Bloodletting, as Mat Smith noted, is an intensely personal LP, cruelly close to her, but for ...
The Waterboys: That Sinking Feeling: The Waterboys: Room To Roam (Ensign)
Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 15 September 1990
OH DEAR. Let's establish this from the start. This is not The Waterboys' record we've been waiting for. This is not the way we wanted ...
Slayer: I Talked With A Zombie
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 29 September 1990
As Britain trembles with anticipation of the "Clash Of The Titans" tour, Ian Gittins meets the metal monsters and hears tales of death, despair and ...
The Pixies Facing The Fire Squad
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 3 November 1990
The pixies are the best band on the planet. Discuss. ...
Tanita Tikaram: Say Halo Wave Goodbye
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 9 February 1991
AS EVERY HAIRDRESSER worth their shears will tell you, a radical change of hairstyle usually heralds an equally radical shift of persona. Tanita Tikaram's new ...
Adrian Sherwood, On-U Sound System: On-U Sound: Circus Attractions
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 13 April 1991
This week, the On-U Sound takes its show on the road with 36 acts and five hours of murderous rhythm every night. IAN GITTINS joined ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 11 May 1991
GOD OF THE HAMMERS ...
All About Eve: Camden Underworld, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 7 September 1991
EVE ANGELICAL ...
Babes In Toyland: The Astoria, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 11 January 1992
IF WE'RE TO have anger in rock, then let it boil like this. Babes In Toyland's fury is intimidating. They were never more than a ...
Ian McCulloch: Africa Centre, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 8 February 1992
SO MAC'S BACK. Again. ...
Bomb The Bass, Brand New Heavies: Waterfront, Norwich
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 16 May 1992
THE FIRST live appearance by Bomb The Bass since the Gulf War temporarily rendered theirs the least diplomatic and commercially astute moniker extant is delayed ...
Michael Brook: Zoo Aquarium, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 13 June 1992
MICHAEL BROOK is a Canadian music theorist with an impressive list of past collaborators. He's worked with Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, U2 and Sinead O'Connor, ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 13 June 1992
THEY'RE ALL elbows and angst, are Radiohead. They want to gouge their mark so deep into us yet don't truly know How To Do It. ...
Radiohead, Strangelove, Superstar: Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 15 May 1993
BAD RECEPTION ...
Moose, Stereolab: Stereolab, Moose: Conway Hall, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 29 May 1993
TONIGHT'S A Nicaraguan Solidarity Benefit and the vibe is definitively mid-Eighties. I haven't stood beneath a poster of Che Guevara while eating falafel out of ...
D:Ream: The Area, Paisley; Tunnel Club, Glasgow
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 4 September 1993
D:REAM HAVE released two singles to date. Both have penetrated, if you'll pardon my French, high into the Top 20. It seems Britain's club kids ...
Jamiroquai: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 11 December 1993
THE CAT IN THE HAT ...
The Verve: Verve: Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 8 January 1994
VERVE ARE stoned immaculate. Yeah, we have to talk drugs here. It's stupid not to; as stupid as people who've never taken E chucking in ...
Afghan Whigs, Kim Salmon and the Surrealists: Astoria, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 22 January 1994
IN THE week that Melody Maker celebrates the seductive nature of the dance beast, Kim Salmon And The Surrealists remind me exactly why rock is ...
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 22 January 1994
It's fitting that club champions D:REAM stand proudly at the top of the singles chart in the week that Melody Maker celebrates the power and ...
The Fall, Inspiral Carpets: Insprial Carpets and Mark E. Smith: Manchester United
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 26 February 1994
Inspiral Carpets team-up with Mark E. Smith! For a one-off collaboration called I Want You! Psychedelic optimism meets psychedelic miserabilism! ...
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 5 March 1994
M PEOPLE are the darlings of hip clubbers and pop kids alike, recent Brits winners, and THE crossover band from club culture who can simply ...
Shed Seven: Taking The Peseta? Shed Seven: Change Giver (Polydor 5236152/4/1 11 tks/47 mins/FP)
Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 3 September 1994
So, are Shed Seven just four loud-mouthed lads with a terminal Mozzer fixation, a bunch of chancers from York hellbent on giving Oasis a run ...
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 14 January 1995
1995 is set to be SLEEPER's year. The latest leading lights in the ongoing resurgence of Britpop brightened up last year with a string of ...
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 25 March 1995
MOBY's epically eclectic new album, Everything Is Wrong, is more than just a dance album — it's a dance album which wants to Change The ...
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 25 March 1995
THE ORB, the first band since Pink Floyd to transfer ambient noodling and stunning visuals from clubs to stadia, return this week with a new ...
Spring Heel Jack: Versions (Trade 2, 7tks/48 mins)
Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 14 September 1996
VERSIONS Comprises Spring Heel Jack's crafty reworkings of the mechanical masterpieces which made up their godlike recent 68 Million Shades... album. It marks the point ...
Faithless: Faith, Hope And Clarity
Profile and Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 3 May 1997
FAITHLESS are successfully grafting poetry, intelligence and stoner philosophy onto their floor-filling euphoric dance. Dare you follow? * ...
David McAlmont: What The Butler Didn't See!
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 2 August 1997
Victimised as a child, DAVID McALMONT took years before realising he could sing. Then when he met his musical match, former Suede guru, Bernard Butler, ...
No Doubt, Symposium: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 4 October 1997
A DEAD CERTAINTY ...
Marilyn Manson: Mechanical Animals (NOTHING) ****
Review by Ian Gittins, Q, November 1998
Return of the Thin White Berk. ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Q, December 1998
New album which isn't the new album, but which still has a certain genius. ...
Beck: The Town Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Q, March 1999
He's released an odd new album. Oddly, he's only going to play it once. ...
Cast: Magic Hour (Polydor S47176-2) **
Review by Ian Gittins, Q, June 1999
They aim. They shoot. They miss. Bugger. ...
The Chemical Brothers: Quantum Leaping — The Chemical Brothers: Surrender (Virgin XDUSTCD4)
Review by Ian Gittins, Q, July 1999
It may not have been broken, but they've certainly fixed it. ...
Q-Tip: Quality Control: Q-Tip: Amplified (Arista) ****
Review by Ian Gittins, Q, February 2000
No slacking then from implausibly busy NY rapper. ...
Magazine: Magazine... (Where The Power Is)/…Magazine (Maybe It's Right To Be Nervous Now)
Review by Ian Gittins, Q, October 2000
IF PUNK ROCK was anti-pretension, somebody forgot to tell Magazine's Howard Devoto. ...
Morcheeba: Barrowland, Glasgow
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Q, December 2000
Moving On Up: bumper sales crop turns sleepy trip-hoppers into the new M People. No! ...
David Byrne: "Therapy is like a lobotomy. Who wants to have all their edges shaved off?"
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 27 April 2001
HE'S ACCEPTED NOW, at last, that he'll always be known for one thing: the Big Suit. In 1984, David Byrne, the voice of New York ...
Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 20 July 2001
A year ago, after a rumoured nervous breakdown, a rift within the band and a cancelled tour, the music press had consigned Cerys Matthews and ...
Interview by Ian Gittins, Q, August 2001
He was discovered at 14 by Puff Daddy, wants to move like Fred Astaire, sing like Michael Jackson and talk like the Fonz. He sold ...
Alicia Keys: "I love Chopin… He's my dawg": Alicia Keys
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 2 November 2001
Stevie loves her, Oprah's after her and Prince is always on the phone. As Alicia Keys prepares to storm the UK charts, Ian Gittins meets ...
Slipknot: Meet'n'Greet in Glasgow: Slipknot
Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, February 2002
IT'S VALENTINE'S SAY afternoon in Glasgow and a strange kind of love is afoot. Outside the city’s Virgin Megastore, a tearful 13-year-old boy is gasping ...
Ozzy Osbourne: Meet the Osbournes
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, June 2002
YOU KNOW THAT embarrassing scenario where you go round to visit a married couple and they end up having an unholy ruck in front of ...
Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, June 2002
TWO YEARS AGO, Paul Oakenfold was getting profoundly bored. The original post-acid house superstar DJ, known to friends and relatives as Oakey and to the ...
Profile and Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, October 2002
THE WESTIN RIO MAR hotel in Puerto Rico is a textbook playground of the rich and famous. Way beyond merely luxurious, the baroque décor is ...
Queens Of The Stone Age: Monarchs of Rock: Queens of the Stone Age
Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, October 2002
"I’VE BEEN CHASING my tail trying to have a good time on this tour," grumbles Josh Homme, the towering 6’ 4" frontman of Queens Of ...
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, May 2003
THE WORDS ARE TALL, luridly colourful and carefully stitched onto a bed sheet, and the sentiment is unambiguous. As Busted guitarist Matt Jays eyes alight ...
Radiohead: The Story Of Tchocky
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, Q, Summer 2003
ON FEBRUARY 27, 2002, Radiohead designer Stanley Donwood mounted the stage at the Staples Center, Los Angeles, to receive a Grammy for "Best Recording Package" ...
Elton John: How Sir Elton Recovered His Cool
Comment by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 2004
WHEN THE VERY first psychedelic rock star, William Blake, declared that the fool who persists in his folly shall become wise, he hit on a ...
Robbie Williams: Q Icons: Robbie Williams
Profile by Ian Gittins, Q, 2004
EVERY BRITISH comprehensive school class has its in-house clown. Tirelessly hyperactive and compulsively subversive, he (and it always is a he) leaves at 16 in ...
Soft Cell: The Tainted Life of Soft Cell
Retrospective and Interview by Ian Gittins, Q, 2004
IN 1973 A 16-YEAR-OLD Marc Almond travelled from his hometown of Southport to Liverpool to see David Bowie on his Aladdin Sane tour. Having suffered ...
Supergrass: Watching the 'Grass grow
Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 24 April 2004
A decade in the music business hasn't hurt Supergrass. In fact, they're quite happy with their status as Britain's fifth favourite band, finds Ian Gittins. ...
Pere Ubu, Spiritualized: Spiritualized/Pere Ubu: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 4 August 2004
THIRTY YEARS INTO their career, Cleveland art-punks Pere Ubu remain engaging mavericks. ...
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, May 2005
I HAVE JUST SPENT two weeks on the road with Mötley Crüe. Our sweep through Canada and the US Midwest took in Edmonton, Des Moines, ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 9 July 2005
HIS MUSIC MAY bear scant resemblance to Ian's, but Baxter Dury seems to have inherited his father's grooming regime. Tousled, dog-eared and sporting a few ...
The Bravery: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 1 December 2005
ABSURDLY SKINNY New York electro-poppers the Bravery have polarised music fans from the outset. For every acolyte lauding their self-titled debut album earlier this year, ...
Death Cab for Cutie: Astoria, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 3 March 2006
AFTER A NEAR-DECADE loitering on the college rock margins, Seattle four-piece Death Cab for Cutie saw an appearance on US teen soap The OC power ...
New York Dolls: The New York Dolls: 'Before Us, There Was Nothing'
Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 14 July 2006
Punk pioneers the New York Dolls imploded in a haze of heroin three decades ago. Now they're back and this time, finds Ian Gittins, ...
Roberta Flack: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 21 July 2006
SHE'S WELL INTO her 68th year but Roberta Flack remains a strikingly prepossessing figure. A riot of comedic quips and acerbic asides beneath a leonine ...
Report by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 16 September 2006
What do Pete Doherty, Justin Hawkins and Keane's Tom Chaplin have in common? All have been in rehab recently, some for the first time. But ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 6 October 2006
STING'S LATEST artistic venture, despite being pregnant with pratfall potential, is a remarkable triumph. ...
Katie Melua: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 5 December 2006
"JEFF BUCKLEY USED TO SING THIS SONG," says an earnest KatieMelua, crouched over her acoustic guitar. "It's called 'Lilac Wine'." As she begins to croon ...
David Bowie: Bowie In America 1972/73
Retrospective by Ian Gittins, MOJO, January 2007
MORE THAN 30 years after the event, Ziggy Stardust remains one of the most inventive and flamboyant productions in rock history. Yet when Bowie took ...
Retrospective by Ian Gittins, MOJO, January 2007
BY THE END of recording Station To Station in Los Angeles in 1975, David Bowie was in meltdown. Strung-out, paranoid and at war with his ...
How To Beat The Difficult Second Album Syndrome
Comment by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 26 January 2007
SOPHOMORE SLUMP Or Comeback Of The Year? asked Fall Out Boy in a brilliantly prescient track on their 2005 album From Under the Cork Tree, ...
Madeleine Peyroux: 'It's OK To Be Dark'
Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 24 April 2007
Madeleine Peyroux made it big with intense reworkings of other people's tunes. Isn't it time she struck out alone? ...
William Orbit: 'People Will See My Heart And Soul'
Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 23 May 2007
POP MUSIC has been good to William Orbit. Two decades at the top of his game as one of dance music's leading producers and remixers ...
Al Green: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 30 June 2007
AL GREEN IS the last of the American southern soul giants of the 1960s and 70s, a survivor where Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and Sam ...
The Go! Team: Elektrowerkz, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 9 July 2007
"IT'S GREAT TO BE BACK IN LONDON," says Ninja, the Go! Team's pocket dynamo frontwoman. "We've just been playing in China, so it's nice to ...
Ani DiFranco: Bush Hall, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 8 October 2007
ANI DIFRANCO MAY HAVE EMERGED in the grunge era but she is no slacker. Rejecting all major label blandishments, the politicised US singer-songwriter has self-released ...
Mötley Crüe: Ban this Sixx filth!
Report by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 27 October 2007
Thought Mötley Crüe's biog The Dirt was the ultimate rock read? Pah! Ian Gittins helped bassist Nikki Sixx write his gruesome journals. Those of a ...
Patrick Wolf: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 22 December 2007
SOMEHOW, WHILE NOBODY WAS LOOKING, Patrick Wolf has become a singular pop star. In his dreams, this gangly 24-year-old is a dazzling, chart-friendly hybrid of ...
Carbon/Silicon: Inn on the Green, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 14 January 2008
IT IS HUGELY IRONIC that Mick Jones was fired from the Clash for "betraying the spirit of punk" as, three decades on, he has stayed ...
Crystal Castles: Astoria 2, London ***
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 18 February 2008
TORONTO DUO Crystal Castles appear intent on being the most cryptic band imaginable. Eschewing interviews and declining to divulge their ages, producer/keyboardist Ethan Kath and ...
Jane Birkin: Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 3 March 2008
A CAREER as a muse comes with no promise of great longevity, yet 17 years to the weekend after the death of her infamous artistic ...
Kristin Hersh: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 28 March 2008
KRISTIN HERSH HAD A TRAUMATIC 1980S. She formed a band, US indie-rock icons Throwing Muses, when she was just 14, and thereafter had to deal ...
Was (Not Was): Islington Academy, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 1 May 2008
IT'S CLOSE ON 20 years since Was (Not Was) last played in the UK, and Don Was is feeling nostalgic. "Is anybody here old enough ...
Report by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 12 May 2008
Madonna demands 25 cases of Kabbalah water backstage at her gigs, not to mention 12 dozen boxes of strawberries and Yorkshire tea. But what absurd ...
Profile and Interview by Ian Gittins, The National (UAE), 23 May 2008
JASON PIERCE is the great unsung hero of British rock music. As the singer, songwriter and philosophical pulse of his epic rock band, Spiritualized, he ...
Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 24 May 2008
Jason Pierce of Spiritualized gives Ian Gittins his perfect pop prescription ...
Dirty Pretty Things: Astoria, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 31 May 2008
EVER SINCE THE Libertines split in 2004, Carl Barât has been regarded as the more responsible of their two co-vocalists. ...
Kimya Dawson: Union Chapel, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 17 September 2008
KIMYA DAWSON has always traded in the infantile, and never more than now. The former Moldy Peaches singer, whose solo material tends towards the coy ...
The Streets: Everything Is Borrowed
Review by Ian Gittins, The Quietus, 18 September 2008
MIKE SKINNER'S artistic forte has always been his quicksilver, meticulous eye for detail. He has chronicled his life like a roguish, Ecstasy-generation Pepys. ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 22 October 2008
JENNY LEWIS IS A MISTRESS OF REINVENTION. Originally a child actor, with a string of bit-part roles in Roseanne, Baywatch and The Golden Girls, she ...
The Killers: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 5 November 2008
THE KILLERS have sold 12m albums worldwide yet still find themselves at a crossroads. ...
Franz Ferdinand: Heaven, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 22 January 2009
FRANZ FERDINAND are back, but their advance publicity has been distinctly misleading. ...
The Gaslight Anthem: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 10 February 2009
THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM are doomed to be forever compared with Bruce Springsteen. Similarly hailing from New Jersey, this raw four-piece play muscular, taut rock'n'roll songs ...
Single Vision: Fierce Panda Records
Retrospective and Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 20 February 2009
THE NEW WAVE OF NEW WAVE was never really much cop. It was an early 1990s music press-concocted punk revival scene based around a handful ...
Diamanda Galás: "My performance is catharsis"
Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 10 April 2009
Death, disease, loss and exile — Diamanda Galás covers it all. Ian Gittins meets an extraordinary singer who is still fighting injustice ...
Spinal Tap: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 1 July 2009
NO MATTER how witty they may be, few satires or novelty songs repay repeated listening. So how come a packed Wembley is rocking to the ...
Florence and the Machine: Academy, Birmingham ****
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 21 September 2009
FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE'S musical ascent has been remarkably precipitous. ...
Dizzee Rascal: Dizzee Heights or The Year Of The Rascal
Interview by Ian Gittins, Wonderland, November 2009
"I wake up, every day is a daydream/Everything in my life ain't what it seems..."– 'Bonkers', Dizzee Rascal ...
Florence and The Machine: Mental Machine Music
Interview by Ian Gittins, Wonderland, November 2009
POP SHOULD ALWAYS be poetic, not prosaic. ...
Interview by Ian Gittins, Man About Town, Spring 2009
THE QUIET Primrose Hill pub is tucked away down a discreet side street, and that is just the way Jamie Hince likes it. It looks ...
Marina and the Diamonds: Dingwalls, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 27 January 2010
AS 2009 DAWNED, the critical consensus held that female-fronted art-pop would dominate the year's musical landscape. This prediction proved remarkably prescient, with Florence and the ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 28 February 2010
WHEN Air first appeared with their 1998 debut album, Moon Safari, the French duo seemed to define the musical zeitgeist. ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 1 March 2010
ELLIE GOULDING tripped into the public consciousness two weeks ago, as she stood knock-kneed and tongue-tied between Fearne Cotton, Geri Halliwell and Courtney Love at ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 7 April 2010
THE 21-YEAR-OLD south London grime MC and rapper Tinie Tempah spent two weeks at No. 1 last month with his abrasive single 'Pass Out', and ...
Paolo Nutini: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 11 April 2010
PAOLO NUTINI has quietly become a commercial A-lister. His second album, Sunny Side Up, made the Paisley singer-songwriter the bestselling British male artist of last ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 23 May 2010
WITH THE BLANCHED, haunting Hospice, New York trio the Antlers made one of the most devastating albums of last year. Written by 23-year-old singer and ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, June 2010
CHRISTINA AGUILERA'S first album in four years finds the former golden girl of US pop re-emerging into a musical world where Lady GaGa has set ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, June 2010
Smiley Virus bumps along on autopilot ...
Rage Against the Machine: Finsbury Park, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 7 June 2010
LAST CHRISTMAS a Facebook campaign powered Californian rap-metal veterans Rage Against the Machine to the top of the singles chart, pipping The X Factor victor ...
Grizzly Bear: Hyde Park, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 29 June 2010
NOW IN ITS SECOND YEAR, the Serpentine Sessions festival is the absolute obverse of Glastonbury's sprawling eclecticism. With audience numbers capped firmly at 3,000, this ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, August 2010
What Katy did next — world domination! ...
Interview by Ian Gittins, Wonderland, September 2010
THE SINGER ON BALANCING MUSIC, MOTHERHOOD, CLUBBING AND COOKING ...
Caitlin Rose: Slaughtered Lamb, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 5 September 2010
"THERE SURE ARE A LOT OF YOU HERE TONIGHT," observes Caitlin Rose, gazing out at the packed cellar-bar of this London folk club. There's a ...
Hurts: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 10 October 2010
WITH GEORGE OSBORNE channelling the economic policies of Geoffrey Howe, Manchester duo Hurts appear equally enamoured of the ways of the early 1980s. Their fixation ...
Kanye West : My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, November 2010
AFTER THE disappointing reviews and sales of his autotune-laden 2008 album 808s & Heartbreak, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a magnificent return to form ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, November 2010
THE LEVELS OF anticipation surrounding Nicki Minaj's debut album have been so delirious that you almost expect Pink Friday not to be delivered by digital ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 16 November 2010
IF DIE Antwoord are a joke, they're a painfully acute one. This over-the-top South African rap-rave trio, comprising rappers Ninja and Yolandi Visser and a ...
Plan B: 'Strickland Banks may be soul, but it's still real life': Plan B
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 16 December 2010
THE INTERNATIONAL lingua franca of Christmas TV is fromage and France's leading commercial channel, TF1, is no exception. Having arrived in Paris on a lunchtime ...
Ke$ha: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London ****
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 17 December 2010
IT'S EASY TO dismiss Ke$ha as a Primark take on Lady Gaga, but such an appraisal disregards the fact that 23-year-old Kesha Sebert this year ...
N.E.R.D., Pharrell Williams: Pharrell Williams: Neptune Rising
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, Man About Town, Winter 2010
PHARRELL Vs THE FASHIONISTAS ...
Drake: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 10 January 2011
DRAKE was one of 2010's more singular success stories. ...
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 3 February 2011
Cardiacs singer Tim Smith suffered a heart attack and a paralysing stroke two years ago, and musicians are now flocking to cover his strange, unique ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 15 February 2011
IT'S THE DAY before Conor Oberst's 31st birthday but a spontaneous audience rendition of 'Happy Birthday' has left the Nebraska singer-songwriter grimacing. "Well, it's one ...
Foo Fighters, CeeLo Green: Foo Fighters/Cee Lo Green: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 27 February 2011
ONE-OFF shows throw up some bizarre juxtapositions, and at this NME-sponsored Big Gig, CeeLo Green was painfully aware he was not the support act that ...
Chase and Status: Chase & Status: Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 13 March 2011
IN THE LATE 1980S, Wimbledon FC became known as the least aesthetic but most effective of football teams. Eschewing all nuance or subtlety, they played ...
Kylie Minogue: Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 27 March 2011
KYLIE MINOGUE's Aphrodite – Les Folies tour, which arrived in Britain with two dates in Cardiff last weekend before taking up a five-night residency at ...
Interview by Ian Gittins, Man About Town, April 2011
IT'S NIGH ON IMPOSSIBLE to imagine being a member of the biggest, most iconic rock band of your generation then having it snatched away from ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 26 April 2011
THE SUPPOSEDLY marginal, insular London grime scene keeps throwing up mainstream pop stars. In the wake of Dizzee Rascal and Tinie Tempah, 20-year-old Tottenham rapper ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 9 June 2011
NAMED AFTER A ROXY MUSIC SONG and enthusiastically endorsed by Brian Eno, Ladytron's art-rock credentials are impeccable. However, 12 years into their career, and with ...
Toto: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 28 June 2011
LAST YEAR saw veteran American soft-rockers Journey enjoy an Indian summer with their 1980 hit 'Don't Stop Believin''. A full three decades after its initial ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 30 June 2011
IT SHOULD COME AS NO SURPRISE that OK Go shows are studiedly eccentric affairs. The US band's emergence in 2006 was fuelled not by their music but by ...
Justin Townes Earle: Boogaloo, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 29 July 2011
JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE has some serious musical heritage to live up to. The 29-year-old singer-songwriter is not only the son of multi-Grammy-winning US country singer, ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 12 September 2011
HAVING SEEN his debut single, the haunting picture of a teenage drug-addict prostitute that was 'The A Team', hit number three earlier this year, Sheeran ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 19 September 2011
KASABIAN HAVE loudly proclaimed their fourth studio album to be a classic. This is no surprise: they always do. ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 16 December 2011
RIZZLE KICKS'S MUSIC is not a place to search for hidden depths. The Brighton duo of Jordan "Rizzle" Stephens and Harley "Sylvester" Alexander-Sule went top ...
The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: Brian Wilson: The Strife Of Brian
Profile and Interview by Ian Gittins, Man About Town, Spring 2011
IN THE 1991 Steve Martin movie L.A. Story, which dates from the days when he was still spasmodically funny, Martin played Harris K. Telemacher, a ...
Interview by Ian Gittins, Man About Town, Spring 2011
WHAT DOES the face of Los Angeles music look like? Back in the day, when Guns N' Roses and Mötley Crüe stalked the earth (which, ...
Ani DiFranco: Union Chapel, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 11 January 2012
MARRIAGE AND MOTHERHOOD have impacted on Ani DiFranco's productivity. Having released 18 albums in as many years, the prodigiously driven and prolific US singer-songwriter has ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 15 January 2012
IT'S 2AM on Sunday morning in this club night, but Plaid are here to move minds, not feet. ...
Enter Shikari: Borderline, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 17 January 2012
IT'S HARD TO IMAGINE a less appealing musical template than sixth-form politics and bludgeoning metal riffs welded to cack-handed Skrillex-style electronic beats. It is therefore ...
Emeli Sandé: Our Version of Events
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 13 February 2012
SHE IS SET to be one of the pop faces of 2012 but Emeli Sandé is not yet the finished article. This doesn't mean she ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 15 February 2012
POP STARS become producers, but producers rarely become pop stars. Mark Ronson, for one, has unintentionally demonstrated the pitfalls awaiting studio wizards who step from ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 28 February 2012
THE WORD OF MOUTH about Django Django is growing deafening. As the London-via-Edinburgh quartet head towards the end of their first UK tour, the venue ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, March 2012
THIRTY YEARS INTO her career yet still at the apex of the pop world, Madonna is a victim of her own success in that she ...
Florence and the Machine: MTV Unplugged
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 10 April 2012
WHEN YOU REMOVE the noise and bluster from Florence + The Machine songs, what is actually left? ...
Bow Wow Wow: Islington Academy, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 1 May 2012
THE SEX PISTOLS were not Malcolm McLaren's only situationist prank. After the demise of the Pistols, McLaren managed an early incarnation of Adam & the Ants; he then ...
Jay Z, Kanye West: Jay-Z and Kanye West: O2 Arena, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 20 May 2012
JAY-Z AND Kanye West are hip-hop's current two main players, and they are pathologically keen to celebrate the fact. ...
Beach House: Village Underground, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 27 May 2012
THE EARLY 1990S SHOEGAZE SCENE is not widely regarded as British music's finest moment. Peopled by bands such as Lush and Slowdive — who crafted ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, June 2012
This time around, Justin Bieber wants us to know that he is all grown up. He is a man. ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 4 June 2012
WHEN THE HIVES broke through here in 2002 with their top 10 compilation album Your New Favourite Band, they appeared exciting and irresistible. ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 4 July 2012
MATTHEW WARD is set to bid farewell to his cult status. After a decade spent forging a solo career in the cosy backwater of the ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 31 July 2012
PLAN B'S THIRD album, Ill Manors, went straight into the album chart at No. 1 this week, despite being a spectacular musical contrast to the ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, September 2012
A FULL QUARTER of a century into their career, the Californian pop-punks should really be churning out tired, formulaic albums or, more likely, contemplating splitting. ...
Ultravox: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 28 September 2012
REFORMED BANDS almost always find it nigh-on impossible to recapture the musical glories they routinely summoned up in their pomp. Ultravox may be a unique ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, October 2012
IT'S VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE to believe that Taylor Swift is still only 22. ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 8 October 2012
ELLIE GOULDING has been letting it be known that this follow-up to her three-million-selling debut album, Lights, is a far darker and more troubled record, ...
Dead Can Dance: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 28 October 2012
IN THE LATE 1980S, effusive music journalists were in the habit of eulogising spectacularly ornate or baroque pieces of arthouse music — particularly on the 4AD ...
Robbie Williams: Take The Crown
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 5 November 2012
"I THINK everything about Robbie Williams is fantastic," Morrissey once declared, "except the voice and the songs." ...
Bon Iver: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 9 November 2012
IT STARTED IN a log cabin and it has led to Wembley. When little-known singer-songwriter Justin Vernon retreated to his father's Wisconsin woodland hideaway late ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 3 December 2012
ELBOW HAVE BEEN describing this end-of-year arena tour as their "farewell party", and the reason for their sabbatical is a curious one. Frontman Guy Garvey ...
ABC: Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 19 December 2012
ABC WERE ALWAYS a band with a manifesto. Three decades ago, the Sheffield group emerged equally in thrall to the debonair allure of Bryan Ferry ...
Caravan: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 10 January 2013
PUNK'S SCORCHED-EARTH policy towards the past has brought many a musical career to a premature halt. It's no coincidence that veteran progressive rockers Caravan originally ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 14 January 2013
NEW YORK rapper A$AP Rocky's debut has been a long time in the making. Originally scheduled for release last September, it was then mysteriously delayed ...
Aimee Mann: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 29 January 2013
"WOW, THERE ARE people in here all of the way to the back!" marvels Aimee Mann two songs in, shielding her eyes to gaze deep ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 14 March 2013
IT'S FAIR TO say John Grant takes the art of the confessional singer-songwriter to a whole new plane. Despite obviously being painfully thin-skinned, this quixotic ...
Peace interview: Are they the saviours of indie?
Interview by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 19 March 2013
Is indie rock poised for a comeback? For two years or so now, the charts have been dominated by tinny, Autotune-heavy rave-pop and sensitive acoustic ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 25 March 2013
THE STROKES WILL never remotely equal the zeitgeist-straddling stature of their emergence around the millennium, when the five attitudinal New Yorkers were hailed as the ...
Daft Punk: Random Access Memories
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, May 2013
DAFT PUNK'S FORTE has always been their sleek, glistening futurism, the sense of mischievous glee they take in the very textures of electronic sound. ...
The National: Trouble Will Find Me
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 20 May 2013
IN THE EARLY '90s, Britain's hippest TV show was an imported American drama series named thirtysomething. The series told the stories of a group of ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 3 June 2013
CLUBLAND HAS been polarised between two dispiriting extremes for close on a decade now. If the DJ isn't playing twitchy, edgy, introspective grime or dubstep, ...
Queens Of The Stone Age: …Like Clockwork
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 3 June 2013
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE occasionally get called a metal band. This is rather like calling Picasso a house painter. The veteran Californian band may ...
The National: Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 27 June 2013
"WE PLAYED THE Barfly a few years ago," reminisces the National's singer Matt Berninger, making affectionate reference to the long-standing, archetypal indie sweatbox just down ...
Jay Z: Jay-Z: Magna Carta Holy Grail
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, July 2013
WHAT DO YOU do when you are a multi-millionaire businessman who hangs out with the Obamas but still wants to be a gangsta? ...
Robin Thicke: Blurred Lines ***
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, July 2013
It's difficult not to view Robin Thicke as definitive proof of the age-old adage that sex sells. ...
Iggy Azalea: "I haven't got daddy issues!"
Interview by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 10 July 2013
IN 2004, A 14-year-old Australian white girl named Amethyst Kelly heard Tupac Shakur for the first time. Blown away by his poetic intensity, she resolved ...
Robin Thicke: Who is Robin Thicke?
Comment by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 25 July 2013
WHATEVER YOUR thoughts on its icky sexist video of gyrating, semi-naked models, it is impossible to deny that the lascivious R&B throb of Robin Thicke's ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, September 2013
Arctic Monkeys now routinely operate at such a rarefied pitch that it is easy to take their excellence for granted. ...
Kings Of Leon: Mechanical Bull
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, September 2013
THREE YEARS AGO, things were looking distinctly bleak for the arena-filling Nashville rockers. Following a sub-par fifth album, Come Around Sundown, that singer Caleb Followill ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 23 September 2013
HIS LAST ALBUM, Take Care, was a multi-platinum-selling number one around the globe, but if anything this has plunged hip hop's most angst-ridden player into ...
Miley Cyrus: Bangerz Track-By-Track Review
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, October 2013
PROVOCATIVE. That seems to be the word we are contractually obliged to use in relation to Miley Cyrus nowadays. Her provocative new musical direction. Provocative ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 2 October 2013
London's dance-music doyenne unveils a euphoric new set that sounds exactly the way a great night out clubbing can feel. ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 7 October 2013
BRITNEY, JUSTIN T, XTINA… Miley Cyrus is not the first former Disney starlet to chafe at her anodyne past and yearn to show us her ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 21 October 2013
KATY PERRY, the frivolous, hard-partying pop starlet, has an unfortunate Achilles heel – she wants to be taken seriously. ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, November 2013
IT IS JAKE BUGG'S misfortune to be recording in a cynical, over-mediated age. ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 4 November 2013
Rappers are arguably more vulnerable than any other artists to difficult second album syndrome. ...
Celine Dion: "I am having my wild moment!"
Interview by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 8 November 2013
YOU DON'T GET to be the most successful female singer in history, selling more than 200 million albums, without looking after your voice. Thirty minutes ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 18 November 2013
WHEN DEV HYNES emerged almost a decade ago as one-third of slapstick punk deconstructionists Test Icicles, there was little reason to suspect he was an ...
Robbie Williams: Swings Both Ways
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 18 November 2013
WHAT IS THE point of Robbie Williams in 2013? It is a question worth asking, as Robbie nowadays finds himself in a career mid-life crisis. ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 2 December 2013
RARE IS THE A-list artist today who doesn't launch their new album by breathlessly proclaiming it their most honest, intimate, confessional magnum opus to date. ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 13 January 2014
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN albums are often statements, whether 2002's The Rising's heartfelt response to 9/11, or 2012's Wrecking Ball's vitriolic condemnation of the fat-cat bankers behind ...
Foals: Alexandra Palace, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 16 February 2014
The once-spindly art-rockers have made a full transformation to a thrillingly spontaneous pop group capable of reigning over arenas. ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 24 February 2014
A MAVERICK musical magpie, Beck has over his 20-year career veered off into nu-folk, Mississippi blues, hip-hop, country, funk and electro-hued pop noir. He never ...
Beck's back: A new album from pop's coolest chameleon
Profile and Interview by Ian Gittins, Daily Telegraph, 1 March 2014
The singer-songwriter Beck talks about his new album, Morning Phase, the latest turn on a zig-zag career. ...
Paloma Faith: A Perfect Contradiction
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 10 March 2014
THE BIG-LUNGED Hackney soul siren is tremendous fun, a deeply entertaining live performer and raconteur, and her burlesque-inspired raids on the dressing-up box frequently yield ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 21 April 2014
AZALEA IS certainly one of the most singular pop success stories of recent years. ...
Lily Allen: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 28 April 2014
FIVE YEARS AGO Lily Allen retreated to the Cotswolds to get married and to start a family, and proclaimed that she was retiring from music. ...
Beverley Martyn: Bush Hall, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 30 April 2014
BEVERLEY MARTYN has quite the folk backstory. A teenage paramour of Bert Jansch, who taught her to play guitar, she recorded and toured America with ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, May 2014
HEARING GHOST STORIES, it is unclear whether you are listening to a new pop album or intruding on devastating personal grief. ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 5 May 2014
HAVING ANNOUNCED her "retirement" when she retreated to the countryside to start a family five years ago, Lily Allen affects to be nervous of her ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 5 May 2014
ON HER TWO previous albums, Youth Novels and Wounded Rhymes, Li perfected a strain of forensically intense Scandi-pop that majored in brooding atmospherics, glacial synths ...
tUnE-yArDs: Village Underground, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 14 May 2014
Merrill Garbus orchestrates a joyous performance that is simultaneously metropolitan and tribal ...
Slowdive: Village Underground, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 22 May 2014
IT'S DIFFICULT TO recollect a more maligned musical movement than the early '90s shoegaze scene. ...
Coldplay: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 2 July 2014
A GREAT BREAK-UP album can be a thing of wonder. From Bob Dylan's red-raw Blood on the Tracks to Marvin Gaye's self-lacerating Here, My Dear ...
Jungle, Pharrell Williams: Pharrell Williams/Jungle: Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 11 September 2014
He looks dapper, and he opens the show with a brilliant blast of robot funk, but the R&B pioneer is a bit too reserved on ...
Lauryn Hill: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 21 September 2014
The one-time leading light of 90s R&B ditched neo-soul subtleties in favour of ear-splitting hip-hop on the first date of her short UK tour ...
Tanya Donnelly, Throwing Muses: Throwing Muses/Tanya Donelly: Islington Assembly Hall, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 26 September 2014
Donelly was in strident, declamatory form alongside stepsister Kristin Hersh and the rest of her former alt-rock cohorts. ...
Vashti Bunyan: St Pancras Old Church, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 9 October 2014
BUNYAN REMAINS a bashful presence live, her forte a strain of bucolic dream-folk in which nothing much happens, very prettily. ...
Jake Bugg: Alexandra Palace, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 22 October 2014
JAKE BUGG'S ASCENT to fame may have been precipitous, but his idea of showmanship remains remarkably minimalist. ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 11 December 2014
The Edinburgh hip-hop trio weave disparate influences together to generate a jaw-droppingly synchronised anarchy ...
Chris Spedding: 100 Club, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 12 January 2015
CHRIS SPEDDING is a rare creature: both semi-legendary and utterly anonymous. One of the most prolific session musicians of all time, this virtuoso guitarist's 50-year ...
Steve Aoki: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 10 February 2015
EDM's poster boy indulges in bone-headed gimmicks that range from hurling cakes at the front row to crowd-surfing in a rubber boat. ...
The War on Drugs: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 3 March 2015
Adam Granduciel's fractured, soul-spilling songs move beyond ragged-glory Americana into rhythmic, sparky epics tonight. ...
Lianne La Havas: Wilton's Music Hall, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 20 May 2015
WILTON'S IS AN EXQUISITE THROWBACK, the oldest grand music hall in Britain, and Lianne La Havas knows all about curious venues. Just over a year ...
Earl Sweatshirt: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 4 June 2015
Disappointed by the lack of enthusiasm from the crowd, the tetchy 21-year-old is entirely true to the restless agitation of his music ...
Amanda Palmer: Union Chapel, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 11 June 2015
SHE HAS ALWAYS BEEN an open book, and now Amanda Palmer has written one. Tonight's gig is largely to promote The Art of Asking, the ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 30 June 2015
BLACK GRAPE hit No 1 with their debut album in 1995, yet never truly felt part of the Britpop circus. For obvious reasons, you were ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 26 October 2015
The cathartic nature of the band's 13th studio album, Songs of Innocence, is sensitively reflected in this tour, which melds the personal and the political. ...
Hudson Mohawke: Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 11 December 2015
With synths that screech like air brakes and crushing, abrasive beats, a night of Mohawke's musical maximalism is both exhilarating and wearying ...
Saint Etienne: Fairfield Halls, Croydon
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 13 December 2015
SAINT ETIENNE are frequently sublime, but they can also be ridiculous. It is surely beyond the ability even of Pete Wiggs and Bob Stanley to ...
Loyle Carner: Garage, London ★★★★☆
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 22 February 2016
Soul-Searching Hip-Hop With Charged Intensity The fresh-faced British rapper's unsentimental candour is coupled with a thrilling love for language and J Dilla-inspired beats ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 2 September 2016
Price is a country traditionalist who turns the hard-luck stories of her life into irresistibly vivid and vibrant music. ...
Michael Kiwanuka: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 12 October 2016
MICHAEL KIWANUKA is a mass of contradictions and all the better for it. He's a self-doubting soul man whose second album, Love & Hate, recently ...
Seasick Steve: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Observer, 16 October 2016
The artist may have been a session musician rather than a hobo, but only a harsh critic would deny that he has the blues. ...
Craig David: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 21 October 2016
The likable pop-soul veteran hasn't lost his sentimental side, but he reveals a slightly harder edge with stage-prowling antics and tongue-tying raps. ...
Craig David: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 21 October 2016
The likable pop-soul veteran hasn't lost his sentimental side, but he reveals a slightly harder edge with stage-prowling antics and tongue-tying raps. ...
Skepta: Alexandra Palace, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 4 December 2016
RECEIVED WISDOM has long held that grime, the attitudinal amalgam of garage, jungle, rap and electro that ripped out of east London's sink estates at ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 16 December 2016
Matt Healy lounge-lizards across the stage as his band charm the first of two sellout O2 crowds with sharp-edged, irresistible songs. ...
Busted: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 5 February 2017
Wall-to-wall screaming greets the trio's return, but 13 years on their infectiously exuberant punk-pop has been replaced by cloying, synth-heavy soft rock ...
Busted: Hammersmith Apollo, London — all grown up and not so much fun
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 5 February 2017
Wall-to-wall screaming greets the trio's return, but 13 years on their infectiously exuberant punk-pop has been replaced by cloying, synth-heavy soft rock. ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 2 May 2017
His rapping may be workmanlike, his music sentimental, and his wardrobe straight outta Oxfam, but Sheeran's phenomenal rise is justified: he's great live ...
Linkin Park, Stormzy: Linkin Park: O2, London — nu-metal escapees move beyond teen angst
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 4 July 2017
Pop-R&B smashes and an appearance from Stormzy underline just how far the band have come since the dark days of Limp Bizkit ...
Pond (Australia): Pond: Bethnal Green Working Men's Club, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 29 August 2017
IT IS POND'S FATE forever to be discussed in relation to Tame Impala, and it is hardly surprising. This band from Perth, Western Australia, began ...
Carla Bruni: Union Chapel, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 11 December 2017
Playing unusual covers of AC/DC, Depeche Mode and Willie Nelson alongside strong self-penned material, Bruni performs with poise and catwalk swagger. ...
Architects: Alexandra Palace, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 5 February 2018
EIGHTEEN MONTHS after their guitarist's death, the Brighton metal band turn a ferocious evening into a poignant homage Architects receive an ovation simply for walking on ...
James Bay: Electric Brixton, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 16 March 2018
JAMES BAY'S ASCENT to pop stardom has appeared effortless. Having scooped the Brits Critics' Choice award in 2015, the Hitchin-born singer-songwriter duly saw his debut ...
Frank Turner: Roundhouse, London — big-hearted anthems and love songs to America
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 14 May 2018
The provocative singer-songwriter balances the profane and the polite with a set that triggers a joyous mass sing-along ...
The The: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 6 June 2018
Performing for the first time in 16 years only days after his father’s death, 1980s indie hero Matt Johnson retains a gravel-voiced gravitas ...
Suede: Eventim Apollo, London — more stellar than ever in a tremendous primal celebration
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 14 October 2018
Brooding menace and quasi-paganism replace urban sleaze as a feral Brett Anderson gives it his all in a staggering performance ...
Snow Patrol: O2 Arena, London – drifting along in a clinical quest for love
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 27 January 2019
SNOW PATROL HAVE BEEN AWAY but absence has not dimmed their mass appeal. This first tour for seven years, in support of last year's moderately ...
Tricky: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 27 October 2019
After a year of tragedy, the spotlight-shy producer stays in the shadows during this erratic yet utterly mesmerising set. ...
Chuck Berry, Lulu, Ronnie Wood: Ronnie Wood: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 22 November 2019
Lulu and Imelda May bring powerhouse guest vocals but the Rolling Stone can't match up in this mediocre homage. ...
The Psychedelic Furs: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 6 April 2022
Frontman Richard Butler is now 65, but his nicotine rasp remains a thing of wonder and the band's pop smarts mean they have aged well ...
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