Nick Hasted
Nick Hasted has written for The Independent, the Guardian and Uncut. He is the author of The Dark Story of Eminem (Omnibus, 2003) and continues to write for The Independent and Uncut, as well as Classic Rock, Jazzwise and The Arts Desk.
290 articles
List of articles in the library
Live Review by Nick Hasted, New Musical Express, 27 January 1990
IF THE Who were Prince's band at the apocalypse, they would make this noise. It's an almost psychedelic, thumping mash. The drummer is driven by ...
Public Enemy: Fightin' The Hype
Interview by Nick Hasted, Deadline, 1991
A WEEK AGO the Brixton Academy, jammed to its shadowy rafters, waited to listen to Public Enemy. ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 12 November 1996
THE TINDERSTICKS' image is set in stone. Their debut double-album three years ago was full of songs of desperate love, back-alley violence and occasional masturbation. ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 18 February 1997
THE RELATIONSHIP of Denim's Lawrence to the music industry was sado-masochistic from the start. In the Eighties, he put out an album a year with ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 7 March 1997
THE WORLD outside this venue thought De La Soul was dead. Ever since their follow-up to the 1989's landmark 3 Feet High and Rising announced ...
Wilco: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, April 1997
WILCO'S SINGER-SONGWRITER Jeff Tweedy was maimed by rock 'n' roll, tamed by rock 'n' roll, named by rock 'n' roll, according to the most wistful ...
Tricky: Hackney Empire/Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 25 April 1997
TRICKY'S MIND can't freeze long enough to be recorded. Since Maxinquaye's trip-hop trigger, he's been too edgy, too impatient, to stay in the studio honing ...
Echo & The Bunnymen: Echo and the Bunnymen - live in Liverpool
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 23 May 1997
IT'S HARD to remember now how much Echo and the Bunnymen meant. Fourteen years ago, they were crowned Kings of Rock, each album was greeted ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: Yoko Ono: Starting Over
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 24 June 1997
YOKO ONO was a lightning rod for the Sixties' most vicious currents. John Lennon was a man she'd barely heard of, a man she fell ...
John Cale: Remembrance Of Things Past
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 28 June 1997
WHEN THE VELVET Underground split, John Cale flew the coop most effectively. While his partner Lou Reed (who evicted Cale from the band in 1968) ...
Fun Lovin' Criminals: Gangstas of Cheese
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 11 July 1997
10CC'S 'I'M NOT in Love' seems unlikely material for three New York rappers. But the Fun Lovin' Criminals' cartoon pastiches – mixing Scorsese with Scooby ...
Comment by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 3 October 1997
WHEN BOB DYLAN hovered briefly between life and death last summer, his heart seemingly about to give in, his condition reported in headlines round the ...
Bob Dylan: Enter Good-Time Bob
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 3 October 1997
Bob Dylan: Bournemouth ...
Charlatans, The (UK): The Charlatans: Docklands Arena, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 9 December 1997
Tellin' stories... over again ...
Lullaby for the Working Class: Lullabies From Wide Open Skies
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 19 December 1997
Nebraska's Lullaby for the Working Class's unusual country-influenced music comes complete with religious imagery, Tolstoy, and the loneliness of their home state. Nick Hasted met ...
The High Llamas: Cecil Sharp House, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 22 December 1997
WITHIN EARSHOT of London Zoo's lions, inside the splendour of the English Folk Song Society's walls, Sean O'Hagan is trying to raise a ghost. A ...
Ian Brown, The Stone Roses: You're Ian Brown... Do Something!
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 26 January 1998
The singer of the Stone Roses did not die with the group: his single is in the Top 5, and an album is on the ...
George Clinton and his P-Funk All-Stars: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 28 January 1998
Groove doesn't go deep enough ...
Suicide: Garage, Highbury, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 9 March 1998
LEAVING THE house shrieking with manic glee at the sound of a band being booed off stage 20 years ago for 23 minutes straight, walking ...
Smashing Pumpkins: Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 26 May 1998
WHEN THE last great American rock-'n'-roll band left alive hit the stage, it's like Britpop never happened. ...
Kenickie: These Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 28 May 1998
KENICKIE ARE SLUMPED in the shadow of a hundred teen idols. From the wall of their rehearsal room cafe, signed photos of former sensations, from ...
Cypress Hill: The Astoria, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 16 September 1998
Beat generation ...
The Pop Group, Mark Stewart: The Pop Group: The Politics of Dancing
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 29 October 1998
THE POP GROUP'S life was brief and fierce. Begun in 1978, collapsing in 1980, the Bristol teenagers' insertion of black funk, free jazz, dub and ...
Atari Teenage Riot: The Garage, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 6 November 1998
The revolution has been postponed ...
Crass: Shibboleth: My Revolting Life by Penny Rimbaud aka J.J. Ratter (AK Press £6.95)
Book Review by Nick Hasted, Independent on Sunday, 21 March 1999
Incoherent, angry, incompetent and Crass ...
Wilco: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 1 April 1999
SUMMERTEETH, THE THIRD instalment in Wilco's quest to distil the early 1970s moment when American rock's explosive prime was replaced by pretty pop melodies is ...
Echo & The Bunnymen: Echo and The Bunnymen at Mayfair, Newcastle
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 16 April 1999
THE NEW Echo & The Bunnymen album is a brave move forward, a disavowal of the band's grand past for simple statements of ageing and ...
Elvis Costello at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 19 April 1999
THERE'S BEEN loose talk lately that Elvis Costello is becoming an irrelevance. The only one of his Nineties albums to gain pop acceptance was an ...
Willard Grant Conspiracy: Songs of Suffocation and Hard-Won Hope
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, June 1999
IT'S AN embarrassment of riches, a shotgun marriage of two underselling headliners that works an instant alchemy. On a bill that began at an ungodly ...
Van Dyke Parks: The Greatest Collaborator
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, July 1999
VAN DYKE PARKS knows people who know. He always has. He has the CV of Woody Allen's Zelig, is in the corner of the picture ...
The Walkabouts: The Band That Came Back From The Edge Of The World
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 24 September 1999
THE WALKABOUTS MET and got the hell out of Seattle before the music industry had even heard of the place. Fifteen years on, having survived ...
Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham: Penn & Oldham: Good Ol' Boys In The Hood
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, November 1999
DAN PENN'S writing credits read like a soul jukebox. Often working with his friend Spooner Oldham, Penn was behind many of the defining songs from ...
Death In Vegas: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 9 November 1999
Return to primal instincts ...
Warren Zevon: Pictures From Life's Other Side
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 4 February 2000
'Death doesn't scare me. I have the impression that life is the lobby and death is the apartment – maybe it's OK' ...
Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, March 2000
Knife In The Water: Plays One Sound and Others Midnight Choir: Amsterdam Stranded Sunshine Club: Home Jonny Kaplan: California Heart Neal Casal: Anytime Tomorrow Lou ...
Kelly Joe Phelps: Live in London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, April 2000
KELLY JOE Phelps' slide guitar seemed to spring into independent life at the multiple climaxes of 1997's breakthrough LP, Roll Away The Stone, to ripple ...
Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, May 2000
THE ALBUM cover's a telegraph pole, wires strung across the horizon. A shoe's been tied to one, drunkard's wit. The title? Sad, But Familiar. Welcome ...
Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Godspeed You Black Emperor!: Live at The Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, June 2000
"MISS CELINE Dion sings love songs while our cities burn". intones an awkward-looking man by way of greeting. "Kill her!" a woman in the crowd ...
Cypress Hill: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 23 June 2000
CYPRESS HILL'S 1993 breakthrough Black Sunday straddled every hip-hop fault line. Racially, Italian-American rapper B-Real joined Latinos DJ Muggs and Sen-Dog in a traditionally black-American ...
Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, July 2000
Patchily thrilling sixth effort from grunge vets ...
Max Tundra, Tele:funken: Tele:funken: A Collection Of Ice Cream Vans Vol 2
Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, July 2000
LIKE LABELMATE Max Tundra's debut last month, Tele:funken, aka Tom Fenn, here attempts electronica disconnected from the dancefloor, skipping round the looped conservatism of current ...
The Jesus & Mary Chain: The Jesus and Mary Chain: Crash And Burn
Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, August 2000
FEBRUARY 2000. Seventeen months after the corpse of The Jesus And Mary Chain finally stopped twitching. In the claustrophobic interior of London's 12-Bar Club, a ...
Report and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, August 2000
Fiercely-independent young singer-songwriter looks to past for inspiration. ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, August 2000
THE GREATEST night of Warren Zevon's performing life was in the hometown of the boxer, Buster Douglas, after Douglas had become the first man to ...
Mark Eitzel: Dingwalls, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 14 August 2000
It's not all doom and gloom ...
De La Soul: Art Official Intelligence (Mosaic Thump)
Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, September 2000
NO ONE who saw the packed, mostly young, black crowd reveling in the house party atmosphere of De La Soul's last UK gig in 1997 ...
Faust: Nosferatu Soundtrack, Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, October 2000
Interludes With A Vampire ...
The Doors: The Lizard King's life's work digitally remastered and packaged as vinyl replicas
Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, November 2000
Strange DaysWaiting For The SunThe Soft ParadeMorrison HotelLa WomanEssential Rarities ...
Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, November 2000
They say that everything will turn out right/It never seems that way, this time of night ...
Lambchop: Union Chapel, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, December 2000
"THERE'S SO many of you!" Peering out uncertainly from under a peaked work-cap, what Lambchop's Kurt Wagner sees is his biggest British crowd to date, ...
The Magnetic Fields: Lyric Theatre, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 18 January 2001
Pop avalanche from a New York bar ...
Kevin Coyne: Exile on Hauptstrasse
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 19 January 2001
IN 1985, KEVIN COYNE walked out of his Clapham flat, saying goodbye to his wife and two children, on his way to a short tour ...
Marilyn Manson: NEC, Birmingham
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 23 January 2001
THE FEARFUL naivety of the American mainstream that hates him has made Marilyn Manson the multi-million selling man he is today. ...
Eminem: Love, Hate And The Only Important Pop Star Left
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 9 February 2001
Eminem: Evening News Arena, Manchester ...
Elvis Presley: The Once And Future King
Film/DVD/TV Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, March 2001
WE ALL KNOW the way it was in the Seventies, Elvis Presley's last eight years on earth. He spent them as a bloated, drug-glazed fraud, ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, April 2001
KEVIN COYNE has been balancing on the border of sanity for more than 30 years now. Adolescent jobs as a psychiatric nurse, arts therapist and ...
Review and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, April 2001
SPRAWLED IN the baroque bohemianism of their singer-songwriter Diggory Kenrick's west London local, Venus Ray seem a lifetime away from the 18 days of madness ...
Sparklehorse: Borderline, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 10 April 2001
FIVE YEARS ago, just before the release of his band Sparklehorse's first album, Mark Linkous collapsed in his hotel room from an excess of Valium ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, May 2001
'THE PROBLEM OF an artistic life that now moves forward like a shark is there's no time to think' ...
Robyn Hitchcock, The Soft Boys: The Soft Boys: The Three Kings, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, May 2001
THE ONE-TIME freaks are out tonight, suited and booted for this biz-only reintroduction to Robyn Hitchcock's reconstituted Soft Boys, in the tucked-away, locked-up Clerkenwell pub ...
Ed Harcourt: Borders, Oxford Street, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, June 2001
THE CROWD for One of Uncut's biggest Borders night so far are backing up from the DIY department into History. Some are still in line ...
Television: Live at Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, June 2001
IT WAS the Sixties that divided London and New York punk: just traces to be kicked over, fathers to be killed, went the official line ...
Zoot Woman: Living In A Magazine (Wall Of Sound)****
Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, June 2001
PRISTINE ROBO-pop from Madonna's favourite retro-futurist. ...
Hamell On Trial: Upstairs At The Garage, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, July 2001
"EVERYONE HERE'S very nice to me. Shutthefuckup when I'm talkin'!" The self-described "bald, sweaty fucker on stage", Ed Hamell, of Syracuse, New York, is dressed ...
Ed Harcourt: Live at The Borderline, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, August 2001
THE SINGER-SONGWRITERLY hush of bookshops doesn't, it turns out, bring out the best in Ed Harcourt's combative soul. His recent Borders acoustic show may have ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, September 2001
IT'S ALWAYS been easy to hate Radiohead, and I always have. There have been undeniable sparks of beauty on every album ('High And Dry' to ...
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, September 2001
EIGHTIES SYNTH-POP revisited with soul and style. ...
Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, October 2001
BACK TO basics, and partial return to form, on 28th studio album ...
Cat Power, Lift To Experience: Cat Power/Lift To Experience: The Garage, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, November 2001
IT STARTS WITH guitars screaming, and ends in a whisper. The sadistic social experiment of putting Lift To Experience's apocalyptic Texan assault second on the ...
Songdog: Live at Borders, Oxford Street, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, November 2001
SONGDOG'S LYNDON Morgans is unusually nervous before he starts to sing in the neutral atmosphere of this Uncut-sponsored gig. He knows most of the crowd ...
Bonnie "Prince" Billy: Bonnie 'Prince' Billy: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 6 November 2001
THE MAN ON stage with the bulging barfly beard and ruffled scraps of remaining hair may not look much like royalty. But Bonnie "Prince" Billy, ...
Phil Ochs: Bringing It All Back Home
Comment by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 9 November 2001
"WHILE THE Movement died a natural death, the music died by hanging," Esquire's headline said when the protest singer Phil Ochs committed suicide in 1976. ...
Review and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, December 2001
COLIN MACINTYRE on his messages from the edge of the world. ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, December 2001
SMOG'S BILL CALLAHAN remains an enigma not, it seems, because he won't say anything, but because he can't. ...
The Pogues: Academy, Manchester
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 17 December 2001
NO ONE THOUGHT this would happen again. When Shane MacGowan split from the Pogues in 1991, because of growing drunken unreliability, the idea that he'd ...
Kelly Joe Phelps: Blackheath Halls, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, January 2002
THIS PLUSH municipal concert hall in the well-heeled south London neighbourhood of Blackheath may seem a strange destination for the blues. But it's not as ...
Centro-matic: Distance And Clime
Review and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, February 2002
PROLIFIC LO-FI Texans have tape recorders at the ready ...
Kelly Joe Phelps: Beat The Devil
Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, February 2002
KELLY JOE Phelps is on stage at the Knitting Factory in New York City, one month after the World Trade Center's destruction, in front of ...
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, February 2002
SPIKY, POST-punk-inspired indie pop from Texas. ...
Spoon: Britt Daniel: The Borderline, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, March 2002
Spoon's Girls Can Tell was near to being last year's best album. It compressed new wave melodies and twitching post-punk rhythms into songs of pristine ...
The Notorious B.I.G., Tupac Shakur: Gangsta Scrap: Nick Broomfield’s Biggie And Tupac
Film/DVD/TV Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, May 2002
Suge Knight: the new Al Capone? Exposing the truth behind the Rap Wars ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, May 2002
ON HIS SECOND LP, Home, Nashville-based Nebraskan Josh Rouse seemed to favour the brass-brushed country-soul sound of friend and fellow citizen Kurt Wagner. But new ...
Mull Historical Society: The Scala, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, May 2002
THERE ARE blow-up sheep hanging from the ceiling, choirboys waiting in the wings and a brass section on stage, all auxiliary members of the rebel ...
Report and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, June 2002
HEART-WRENCHING bedroom symphonies from Dublin. ...
Hank Dogs: The Ivy House, Nunhead
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, July 2002
TEN YEARS THEY'VE done this, and few are any the wiser. Even when Nick Drake's legendary producer Joe Boyd declared Hank Dogs the first British ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 1 August 2002
IT'S A SWELTERING Sunday night in London's West End, and inside this venue, a West Indian community meeting is in progress. ...
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 22 August 2002
IN 1971, WHEN he was 18, Tom Ovans dropped into an underground America, and never came back. Born into a working-class community just outside of ...
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, September 2002
PITTSBURGH, 1989: WEREWOLF IN THE MALL "I'd read things I didn't know I'd done/It sounded like a lot of fun..." (Warren Zevon, 'Trouble Waiting to Happen') ...
Spoon: Kill The Moonlight (12XU) ****
Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, October 2002
FAST FOLLOW-UP to Texans' 2001 post-punk pop classic Girls Can Tell ...
Solomon Burke: Barbican, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 11 October 2002
IT'S BEEN 28 YEARS since the self-styled king of rock'n'soul last graced a British stage, at which rate this could be a farewell performance, too. ...
Elvis Costello: Mighty Like A Rose
Retrospective by Nick Hasted, Uncut, November 2002
SUMMER 1991, AND Elvis Costello's kingdom was about to crumble. In the world outside, it was the year of Screamadelica, Nevermind, Blue Lines and dance ...
Josh T. Pearson: Upstairs At The Spitz, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, December 2002
YOU CAN'T SEE his fearsome, feral face any more. It's covered by a beard so vast and wild at first you think Josh Pearson's become ...
Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, December 2002
Grunge survivors PEARL JAM are back with a brave new album that dares to question the political hypocrises of America's post-9/11 moral posturing ...
Solomon Burke: Solomon In All His Glory
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 20 December 2002
The greatest male soul singers are Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye and Solomon Burke. But, unlike the others, Burke is very much alive, as ...
Review and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, January 2003
Dark, worldly-wise solo return from Van der Graaf Generator man ...
Eminem: Taking Over Tinseltown
Report and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, February 2003
Is EMINEM the hip hop James Dean? ...
Josh T. Pearson: Josh Pearson: Upstairs At The Spitz, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, February 2003
The real fired-up deal — Lift To Experience frontman's acoustic solo debut ...
Josh T. Pearson: Upstairs At The Spitz, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, February 2003
The real fired-up deal — Lift To Experience frontman's acoustic solo debut ...
Richard Thompson: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 17 March 2003
WHITE, MIDDLE-AGED English men dominate a crowd who have packed this venue to bursting for a man barely known outside their tribe. ...
MC5 members and friends: 100 Club, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 21 March 2003
FORGED IN DETROIT in 1965, the MC5 played rock'n'roll in an America where motorbike police charged their fans, and ferment and trouble trailed the band ...
Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, April 2003
Darkly uplifting second album from Scottish pop visionary ...
Vic Chesnutt: Dark Side of The Tune
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 4 April 2003
IN 1983, VIC CHESNUTT, an obscure country misfit, was 18, drunk again, and crashing his car in America's southern state of Georgia. When he woke ...
The White Stripes: Civic Hall, Wolverhampton
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 11 April 2003
THE WHITE STRIPES find out the day before this first show of their tour that Elephant, the startling beast of a record that they made ...
The White Stripes: The Special Relationship
Profile by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 11 April 2003
THE PERFECT BLUEPRINT for a band devised by Jack and Meg White in Detroit obscurity six years ago has put them at rock's pinnacle today. ...
MC5: Motor Boys Motor: 100 Club, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, May 2003
What's left of the MC5 kick out those jams again with help (and hindrance) from Dave Vanian, Ian Astbury and a razor-sharp Lemmy ...
Beck: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 1 May 2003
BECK HAS thrown Bob Dylan's career into reverse. He has arrived at a venue famous for being scandalised by Bob going electric to unplug his ...
Blur: This Is A High For A Refreshed Blur
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 12 May 2003
Blur: The Astoria, London ...
Macy Gray: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 26 May 2003
MACY GRAY'S RECORDS rarely seem to match up to her image: the flaky, funky, erratic, but traditional soul sister. This was the kind of entertainer ...
Comment by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 6 June 2003
IN 2000, RADIOHEAD'S Kid A was delivered to journalists like Holy Writ, handed out individually to the chosen few in a candle-lit chamber. It's 2003, ...
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Forum, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 12 June 2003
THE HEADY MIX of hype and talent bubbling around the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, from New York, on this one-off return to London should have made ...
Kelly Joe Phelps at the Jazz Café, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 13 June 2003
KELLY JOE PHELPS has been punching through the boundaries of who he is supposed to be with every album. I first knew him as the ...
Willard Grant Conspiracy: Come Together
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 13 June 2003
The Willard Grant Conspiracy has gone underground. The only way you can hear the new album by one of America's best bands in their home ...
Profile by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 20 June 2003
In the hood: Eminem is pulling out all the stops for his European tour ...
Queens of the Stone Age: Civic Hall, Wolverhampton
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 23 June 2003
I CAN HEAR THE screech of two low jets from the bar. Nick Oliveri and Josh Homme, of Queens of the Stone Age, learnt to ...
R.E.M. at Brixton Academy, London
Report by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 26 June 2003
SEEING A BAND OF REM's stature at a medium-sized venue such as Brixton Academy is undeniably some sort of occasion. The suspicion nags, though, that ...
Review and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, July 2003
How New York's hippie hoppers ushered in the philosophical D.A.I.S.Y. Age. And then pronounced themselves Dead. ...
Dizzee Rascal: Bringing It All Back Home
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 1 August 2003
THE FIRST TIME you hear Boy in da Corner, it's a jolt. The debut album of 18-year-old Dizzee Rascal has just been nominated for the ...
Jimmy Cliff: Hail Reggae's Lost King
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 5 September 2003
MANY PEOPLE THINK Bob Marley stole his crown. But it was Jimmy Cliff who gave reggae to the world, when he starred in and wrote ...
The Dixie Chicks: Dixie Chicks: Apollo, Manchester
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 17 September 2003
DISSENT STILL finds its focus in pop, more than any other art form. But there can have been few less likely standard-bearers for this radical ...
Blondie: Debbie Harry: In A Lonely Place
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 19 September 2003
IN THEIR POMP, Blondie were a one-band production line of beautiful, brash singles, each subtly hand-finished to find another angle on their signature, streamlined sound. ...
Starsailor: Apollo, Manchester
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 29 September 2003
THE MUSIC PRESS has bitterly dismissed Starsailor's second album, Silence Is Easy. Once the band were seen as saviours, but it's now as if they ...
David Sylvian: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 30 September 2003
JAPAN DISSOLVED with barely a murmur, just as 'Ghosts' brought the band overdue success in 1982. The strain of their avant-garde glam-pop suddenly being in ...
Patti Smith: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, October 2003
IT ALL STARTS so politely, you could never guess the raw shock that's coming. When Patti Smith saunters on like a collision between the 17th ...
Review and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, October 2003
Fifth album from prolific, acerbic British singer-songwriter ...
Dexys Midnight Runners, Kevin Rowland: Kevin Rowland: Return of the Soul Rebel
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 17 October 2003
IN A REHEARSAL room in south London, Kevin Rowland steps from behind a pillar and stalks to the front of Dexys Midnight Runners. He is ...
The Darkness: The Astoria, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 13 November 2003
I HAD WATCHED THE DARKNESS phenomenon from a distance, in dismay. Despite the sheer unexpectedness of their vault from clubs to stadiums, every glance at ...
David Bowie: MEN Arena, Manchester
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 19 November 2003
DAVID BOWIE spent much of the '90s in a state of shivering insecurity. The creative brinkmanship that let him shed identities and styles with matchless ...
Ryan Adams at the Forum, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 28 November 2003
"I'M GONNA PLAY all night," Ryan Adams promises the crowd. "You think I'm joking? I've got a 5am plane, man..." ...
The Strokes: Braehall Arena, Glasgow
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 3 December 2003
ALL THE DISAPPOINTED assaults on the Strokes have been based on the thought that they should be about more than music. The tired shrug of ...
Echo & The Bunnymen: Royal Court, Liverpool
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 4 December 2003
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS on, and every Liverpudlian hipster of a certain age is here to pay their respects. With their debut album, Crocodiles, Echo & The ...
Eminem: Can't Forget The Motor City: Detroit from Hitsville to 8 Mile
Book Excerpt by Nick Hasted, Omnibus Books, Summer 2003
The Dark Story of Eminem is the first book by Nick Hasted, whose work has previously appeared in The Independent, the Guardian and Uncut magazine. ...
Bonnie "Prince" Billy: Cecil Sharp House, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, January 2004
PHOTOS OF MORRIS dancers adorn this home of the English Folk Dance & Song Society, and the atmosphere is pin-drop reverent as the Prince's legions ...
Richie Havens: Jazz Café, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 15 January 2004
RICHIE HAVENS'S LIFE hinged on Woodstock. His three-hour opening set at the festival, climaxing with 'Freedom', his anthemic improvisation on the spiritual 'Motherless Child', linked ...
Lambchop: Kurt Wagner: The quiet American
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 6 February 2004
LAMBCHOP are America's leading underground band, secret kings of a scene too modest to be named. They have turned their backs on the bombastic MTV ...
Jamelia: Some Kind Of Superstar
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 20 February 2004
WHEN JAMELIA disappeared four years ago, it seemed her coronation as Britain's R&B queen might be postponed for ever. Four hit singles, including the Top ...
John Cale: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, March 2004
RESCUED FROM his latest career cul-de-sac by an EMI Radiohead associate with clout and taste, Cale's unlikely major label comeback has attracted a relatively sparse ...
Kraftwerk: Triumph Of The Machines
Comment by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 12 March 2004
KRAFTWERK'S MOST recent record, the long-waited Tour de France Soundtracks – their first album of new material since 1986's Electric Café, and a variation on ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 19 March 2004
THE SECOND ACT OF Patti Smith's great career has been catalysed by death. The loss of her mother inspired the forthcoming Trampin', her fourth album ...
The White Stripes: The Thin Red Line: The White Stripes: Alexandra Palace, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, April 2004
Rock'n'roll's leading dysfunctional couple play their biggest UK shows yet ...
Charlatans, The (UK): The Charlatans: Academy, Islington, London ***
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 7 May 2004
FEW BRITISH BANDS can tear the roof off a venue as ruthlessly as The Charlatans. It's one of the reasons for the enduring affection in ...
The Streets: Apollo, Manchester
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 18 May 2004
THE DEBUT ALBUM by Mike Skinner, a.k.a. The Streets, (Original Pirate Material) was a touching, thoughtful ode to all the aspects of modern Britain its ...
American Music Club: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London ***
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 28 May 2004
AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB was always a select establishment. Appealing to connoisseurs of the darkest underground rock, the San Francisco group's principal attraction was always Mark ...
The Pixies: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 3 June 2004
EXACTLY HOW much this, the first UK night of the Pixies' reunion tour, means to the crowd is shown when they walk on stage to ...
The Hives: The Return Of Your Old Favourites
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 8 June 2004
The Hives: Electric Ballroom London ...
Peter Hammill, Van Der Graaf Generator: Peter Hammill: Heart Attack Music
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 27 June 2004
WHEN PETER HAMMILL collapsed in the street with a sudden heart attack last year, it didn't make the papers. The one-time singer of the group ...
Massive Attack: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 12 July 2004
MASSIVE ATTACK have been shaken almost to pieces in recent times. First, one of their central trio – Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles – left for good, ...
The Futureheads: The Garage, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 31 August 2004
IN THE SHADOWY darkness of London's indie mecca The Garage, four young men from the North in tightly rolled shirt-sleeves are playing clipped guitar music ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 16 September 2004
JAH WOBBLE THUDDED into the public consciousness in a flurry of violence. He reportedly pulled a knife on NME's Nick Kent while Sid Vicious chain-whipped ...
Ray Davies at Bloomsbury Theatre, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 1 October 2004
"It's been a very difficult year for everybody," Ray Davies admits, the nearest he gets to acknowledging his being shot in the leg by muggers ...
Willy Mason: A Breath Of Fresh Air
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 12 November 2004
IF YOU'RE FEELING bad about America after last week's election, Willy Mason is one reason to change your mind. The 19-year-old New Englander has already ...
Bob Dylan: Shelter from the Storm: The Inside Story of Bob Dylan's Blood On The Tracks
Retrospective by Nick Hasted, Uncut, January 2005
FEBRUARY 13, 1977. Bob and Sara Dylan are screaming themselves hoarse. Sara has just walked down to breakfast in their Malibu mansion to find Bob ...
Dr. John: Dr John: Barbican, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 14 January 2005
DR JOHN'S LONG journey to this concert hall has been faltering and nearly fatal. Born Mac Rebennack in New Orleans, he is as steeped in ...
Elliott Smith: Roman Candle, Elliott Smith, Either/Or
Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, March 2005
First three from masterful songwriter who committed suicide in 2003. ...
Laura Veirs: The Triumphs And Travails Of Orphan Mae
Review and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, March 2005
First UK release of Veirs' second album, in wake of hugely acclaimed Carbon Glacier. ...
Van Der Graaf Generator: Present
Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, May 2005
ALTHOUGH CUSTOMARILY associated with prog, Van der Graaf Generator were always a world away from the ridiculous likes of Yes and Jethro Tull. ...
Van Der Graaf Generator: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 10 May 2005
WHEN THE FOUR core members of this almost-forgotten prog-rock band start a gig for the first time in 29 years, a joyous roar bounces round ...
Dizzee Rascal: Electric Ballroom, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 26 May 2005
DIZZEE RASCAL saunters on stage sporting the infectious grin of a boy who feels that every day is Christmas. Though he starts with 'Sittin' Here', ...
Destiny's Child: Earl's Court, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 3 June 2005
FOR THE "INDEPENDENT WOMEN" of one of their biggest hits, Destiny's Child have a tendency to do what they are told. The middleclass work ethic ...
The White Stripes: The New Generation
Comment by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 24 June 2005
JACK WHITE WILL never have the blues badly enough. Though The White Stripes' new album, Get Behind Me Satan, suggests the legendary bluesman Robert Johnson's ...
Curtis Mayfield: Soul Brother No. 1
Retrospective by Nick Hasted, Uncut, August 2005
Ghetto-funk pioneer, civil rights activist, blaxploitation soundtrack master — the late Curits Mayfield is one of the all-time soul greats ...
Richard Hell: Punk's Founding Father, Richard Hell
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 19 August 2005
RICHARD HELL was punk's John the Baptist. In one year, 1974, he found the movement its home (CBGB's), created its style (ripped and spiked), indicated ...
Blur, Oasis: The summer of Britpop
Retrospective by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 19 August 2005
Exactly a decade ago the British pop revival reached its zenith when Blur and Oasis battled it out for the number one spot. Nick Hasted ...
Iggy Pop, The Stooges: Iggy Pop And The Stooges: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 1 September 2005
SEEING THE STOOGES' name on the one-time Hammersmith Odeon's marquee, 30 years after they split, feels like an eerie warp in time. When the band ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 9 September 2005
ELBOW HAVE BEEN brushed by fame almost accidentally; first, when their debut album, 2000's Asleep at the Back, was Mercury nominated, then when the singer, ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 1 December 2005
THE STROKES WERE always an unlikely bet for rock'n'roll's great hope. They have never stood for anything in particular, or said anything worthwhile. Their sound ...
Bat For Lashes: The Spitz, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 14 September 2006
NATASHA KHAN discovered her own musical world when a black horse appeared to her in a dream two years ago and led her away into ...
Scissor Sisters: The Scissor Sisters: Trafalgar Square, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 18 September 2006
THE FACT THAT New York's Scissor Sisters can fill Trafalgar Square and still, relatively speaking, not get arrested back home should be a matter of ...
Joan As Policewoman: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 23 October 2006
JOAN WASSER places a mug of steaming tea on the piano as she wanders onstage — a casual kick-off to this South Bank foyer space's ...
How An NME Cassette Launched Indie Music
Retrospective by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 27 October 2006
C86, the unassuming mail-order cassette compiled by NME, through which the indie sound and scene first coalesced, will have its 20th anniversary celebrated tonight with ...
Overview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 25 January 2007
Dreamgirls is the latest in a long line of pop movies that fails to do its subject justice. So will Hollywood ever make a decent ...
The Special AKA, The Specials: Jerry Dammers: A Ghost From The Past
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 20 April 2007
THE MAN WHO created 2-Tone, Coventry's own Motown, and wrote Britain's most perfect fusing of politics and pop, the single 'Ghost Town' by his great ...
Doll By Doll: The Stars that Fame Forgot: Doll by Doll
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, June 2007
Too dangerous for punk! The mad, bad story of Jackie Leven's Celtic Soul rebels. ...
The Specials: The Making of 'Ghost Town'
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, October 2007
Spring 1981: the Coventry boys' eerily funky hymn to their home city nailed the spirit of the times, and remains the best piece of political ...
Ray Davies, The Kinks: Ray Davies: Album By Album
Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, November 2007
"MY SONGWRITING has been my ally through life," Ray Davies muses, "because I ain't got much else." As the creative force behind the Kinks, Davies ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 27 November 2007
THIS LATEST ACOUSTIC BILL in aid of Mencap has an easy, diverse charm. The headliners Snow Patrol play their part, but they are far from ...
The New Pornographers: The band reveal their collective wisdom
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 14 December 2007
"IN VANCOUVER, they're called 'fuck bands'," muses The New Pornographers' self-effacing leader Carl Newman, of his acclaimed seven-piece collective. "Bands for 'what the fuck?' The ...
Arcade Fire: The Unforgettable Fire
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, January 2008
Uncut has said for two years that the Arcade Fire are one of the best bands in the world. But how are they coping with ...
The Kills: Soho Revue Bar, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 17 January 2008
ALISON MOSSHART is leaning over the lip of this small sometime-strip club's stage, like a comic-book character forcing her way out of the frame. Her ...
The Waterboys: The Making Of 'The Whole Of The Moon'
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, July 2008
"Big Music", a massive hit, and the anthem the band are still arguing about. ...
Blondie: The Making Of 'Heart Of Glass'
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, August 2008
A reggae song? By a "cult folk band"? Debbie Harry, Chris Stein and taskmaster/producer Mike Chapman relive the disco-punk boot camp that built a gleaming, ...
Allen Toussaint: Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 7 August 2008
ALLEN TOUSSAINT talks of his sporadic, unbought solo work and the royalties from the hits he's created for others with equal affection. ...
Jenny Lewis: My Private Traumas
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 26 September 2008
A former child star from a broken home, Jenny Lewis is the voice of Rilo Kiley who had a cult hit with the Watson Twins. ...
Public Image Ltd: PiL: The Making Of 'Public Image'
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, October 2008
With old scores to settle, John Lydon kicked off his post-Pistols career with an explosive first single. "Some say it's dub, but we all loved ...
Femi Kuti: Born Into The Struggle
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 10 October 2008
Femi Kuti has both Nigeria's music and its deadly political conflicts in his blood, he explains to Nick Hasted ...
Poly Styrene, X-Ray Spex: The Return of Punk's First Lady: Poly Styrene
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 21 November 2008
Thirty years after singing of bondage and toothpaste, via a stay at a psychiatric hospital and motherhood, Poly Styrene is back on stage, without X-Ray ...
The Kinks: The Making Of 'Waterloo Sunset'
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, January 2009
The timeless 1967 hit, regarded by many as the most beautiful pop song every written, was something so personal that Ray Davies didn't even want ...
The View: Grown-Up and Mystical: The View
Report and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 30 January 2009
THE HOUSE-TO-HOUSE search of his old haunts in Dundee has been completed, and here comes The View's singer Kyle Falconer. ...
Dr. Feelgood: The Dr. Feelgood factor
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 13 February 2009
They paved the way for punk, but have been forgotten by history. A new film revisits the strange world from which Dr. Feelgood came, writes ...
Magazine: "These gigs are a cherry on a cake"
Report and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 20 February 2009
THE ONE-TIME "most important man in pop" made a quietly triumphant comeback last week. Howard Devoto's Magazine, missing since 1981, were the most uncategorisable band ...
Baaba Maal: 'Say What You Believe is True'
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 27 February 2009
BAABA MAAL IS BACK in Britain next week. If he isn't yet as familiar a name here as his fellow Senegalese Youssou N'Dour, this is ...
Magazine: The Making of 'Shot By Both Sides'
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, March 2009
Powered by a razor-riff, nihilist lyrics, some classic-rock chops and an infamous showing on Top Of The Pops, this ferocious anthem was the closest thing ...
Sugarland, Taylor Swift: Taylor Swift, Sugarland et al: Far From The Old Country Music
Report and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 13 March 2009
Nashville is making yet another attempt to conquer the UK charts with artists who have crossed over so far they are virtually mainstream. Nick Hasted ...
PJ Harvey: Inside the Hidden Heart of PJ Harvey (and John Parish)
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 27 March 2009
POLLY JEAN HARVEY and John Parish are sitting across from each other in a quiet hotel with the comfort of 20 years' acquaintance. Harvey, of ...
The Specials 2009. But Where's Jerry?
Report and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, April 2009
SLIGHTLY DOWNWIND of Pentonville Prison in a north London photographer's studio, six Specials are posing for their first pictures since 1981. ...
Anohni (Antony & the Johnsons): Antony and the Johnsons: Civic Hall, Wolverhampton
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 2 April 2009
WHEN ANTONY and the Johnsons' I Am a Bird Now won this year's Mercury Prize, he brought a world of outsiders into the light. His ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 6 April 2009
MARK E. SMITH is hunched at the back of the stage in black leather jacket and wheelchair, looking like Salford's Davros. ...
Jackson Browne: Royal Albert Hall, London **
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 15 April 2009
THE GREY beard of experience Jackson Browne wore on the sleeve of his last album, Time the Conqueror, is gone. He looks the same lean, ...
Super Furry Animals: Still Light Years Ahead: Super Furry Animals
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 15 May 2009
"WYCHWOOD IS OUR first festival this year," Super Furry Animals' singer Gruff Rhys informs me. "We're committing to only playing outside from now on. Especially ...
The Horrors: How To Survive On The Outside
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 5 June 2009
Author's note: This is the full, unedited version of the piece that appeared in The Independent ...
Blur: From the life of Leisure to inside the Think Tank...
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, July 2009
As BLUR prepare for 2009's biggest comeback, Uncut goes behind the scenes of the sessions that produced their classic albums and reveals the conflicts that ...
The Cardigans, The Concretes, Fever Ray: Sweden: State-sponsored Rock Valhalla
Overview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 24 July 2009
IN POP MUSIC at least, Britain still imagines it rules the world. The Beatles, Kinks, Bowie and Blur are looked on as an unassailable heritage ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 28 July 2009
AT LONDON'S Wireless Festival last year, Morrissey was a hilarious showman in easy command of his powers, playing rollicking unreleased songs and Smiths favourites. That ...
Amadou & Mariam: Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 30 July 2009
THIS IS A STRIKINGLY, INHERENTLY VISUAL and rock-infused show, turning what you might expect from a duo once bluntly dubbed "the blind couple from Mali" ...
Tiësto: DJ Tiësto: Victoria Park, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 6 August 2009
DJ TIËSTO'S brand name and face are plastered either side of the stage. You may also see him modelling underwear on giant Times Square billboards, ...
Brendan Benson, The Raconteurs: Brendan Benson: Your Old, Unfamiliar Friend – Or So He Wishes
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 14 August 2009
Since the success of his acclaimed band The Raconteurs, Brendan Benson has earned plenty of public recognition – but he'd rather have his anonymity back, ...
Aphex Twin, Boards Of Canada, Grizzly Bear: 20 years of the Warp factor
Retrospective by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 28 August 2009
Sheffield's Warp Records celebrates its 20th anniversary in September. Nick Hasted looks back on the cutting-edge electronica/indie label that has produced acts as diverse as ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 31 August 2009
Radiohead's modern jazz wrong-foots the crowd ...
Oasis: Don't Look Back In Anger
Comment by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 4 September 2009
Noel Gallagher's decision to quit Oasis is years overdue, says Nick Hasted. The band were no longer relevant. And yet there is much to celebrate ...
Jamie T: 'I Love Living Out Of A Bag'
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 24 September 2009
The hip-hop poet is ready to take to the road after relishing some home comforts ...
Dr. Feelgood: Dr Feelgood: Oil City Rockers
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, October 2009
A fierce, gritty riposte to early-'7Os excess, Dr Feelgood weren't just trailblazers for punk but, fleetingly, the biggest band in England. With a new Julien ...
Grizzly Bear: Out of the Woods, Into the Light
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 6 November 2009
ED DROSTE is settling into the bar of his east London hotel with his Grizzly Bear bandmate Daniel Rossen, to attempt to explain their sky-rocket ...
Arctic Monkeys: Wembley Arena, London ***
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 19 November 2009
Northern soul with a heavy heart ...
Dinosaur Jr.: Dinosaur Jr: The making of 'Freak Scene'
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, December 2009
"We were just shitty." J Mascis and his bandmates recall the strained relations that led to their 1988 US breakthrough hit. ...
Public Image Ltd, O2 Academy, Birmingham****
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 16 December 2009
Difficult, honest and angry, Lydon pushes at the limits ...
The Special AKA: The Making Of 'Nelson Mandela'
Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, January 2010
"ALL I DID was write a song. People in South Africa gave up their lives..." Jerry Dammers & Co on 1984's earth-shaking political hit. ...
The Strokes: The Making of The Modern Age
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, March 2010
"Suddenly, there were boys with leather jackets carrying guitars": how New York's finest reclaimed the streets for rock music in 2000. ...
Carly Simon: The Making of 'You're So Vain'
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, April 2010
Just who was this massive '73 hit about? Jagger? Beatty? Taylor? Or some guy named 'David'? "You're missing the point," Carly tells us... ...
Adam & The Ants: Adam And the Ants: The Making Of 'Kings Of The Wild Frontier'
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, May 2010
The 1980 manifesto, with two parts tribal drums, a pinch of twangy guitar, and plenty of punk attitude. "We had our sound!" ...
Bill Callahan, Smog: Bill Callahan: Album by Album
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, May 2010
"I'M SOMEWHERE between a gumshoe and a journalist," Callahan says. "A writer, not a symbol. I don't want to be a performer who gets applause ...
Keane: Tim Rice-Oxley: The chart-topping songwriter from somewhere only he knows
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 7 May 2010
In his first solo interview, the man behind Keane, the band once written off as "Coldplay-lite", tells Nick Hasted about being a small-town boy, his ...
MGMT: Inheritors of the Head-expanding Hippie Ethos
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 25 June 2010
FEW OF THE BANDS playing Glastonbury's 40th anniversary this weekend fit the consciousness-expanding ethic of the festival at its best as well as MGMT. They ...
The Stranglers: The Making of 'No More Heroes'
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, July 2010
The "punk" outcasts' abrasive '77 classic: "Totally on the button for now, and it always has been," says former frontman Hugh Cornwell. ...
Mystery Jets: From Songs of Innocence to Grown-up Experience
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 16 July 2010
THE MYTH OF MYSTERY JETS is easily told. Out on Eel Pie Island, off the coast of Twickenham in west London, bands from the Rolling ...
Pulp: The Making of 'Common People'
Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, August 2010
From three chords on a cheap Casio keyboard, via Glastonbury, to the huge summer anthem of 1995. It's the song that broke Jarvis and co! ...
Guns N' Roses: Reading Festival, Berkshire
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 28 August 2010
Axl flounders as Reading made to wait for its rock fix ...
James: The Making Of 'Sit Down'
Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, October 2010
It took a while to hit, but this Manc anthem of "madness and frailty" was inescapable in 1991. "It can still be an amazing, healing ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 26 October 2010
Still tripping on the ghosts of the past ...
The New Pornographers: Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 13 December 2010
THE SEVEN-PIECE VANCOUVER COLLECTIVE The New Pornographers somehow remain Canada's most underrated band. ...
Wire: The Making Of 'I Am The Fly'
Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, February 2011
1978's deathlessly spiteful singalong, from a quartet of art-punk outsiders "desperate to get on Tiswas"... ...
Band of Horses: Tales of Terror from the Blasted Backwoods
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 4 February 2011
IT WAS THE first day by the lake when Band of Horses' singer Ben Bridwell saw the curtain twitch. He was staying at the isolated, ...
Eminem: Slim Shady's Rap-Sheet Of Relapse And Recovery
Profile by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 1 April 2011
Eminem soared from drug-filled poverty to adulation and notoriety, and then collapsed into gilded, narcotic, seclusion. But, after his latest comeback, his biographer Nick Hasted ...
Coldplay, U2: Glastonbury: Coldplay and U2 almost spoil the party
Report by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 28 June 2011
The headliners split the crowds, but this year's Glastonbury showed that the '70s dream lives on at Worthy Farm. ...
Ida Maria: Notting Hill Arts Club, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 18 September 2011
IDA MARIA IS A 23-YEAR-OLD from the north of Norway who is known even in that ex-Viking country for wild behaviour. A cracked rib and ...
The New Pornographers: Koko, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 18 September 2011
ARCADE FIRE ANNOUNCED Canada's pop renaissance to the world this year, but Vancouver's New Pornographers helped begin it a full decade back. One of the ...
The Fratellis: Running with the Frat pack
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 22 September 2011
In little over a year, the Fratellis have had a Top 10 album and two hit singles. Nick Hasted joins the Glaswegian trio on tour, ...
Pete Doherty: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 4 October 2011
THIS LONDON gig was rescheduled after Pete Doherty's latest drug-related jail spell. He's on his best behaviour, looking puffy or perhaps just well-fed, starting on ...
Laura Marling: Westminster Methodist Central Hall, London ***
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 31 October 2011
A Dylanesque troubadour who's knocking on heaven's door ...
Tinie Tempah, O2 Arena, London ***
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 9 November 2011
I HEARD PEOPLE close to Tinie Tempah talk passionately about how his appeal and personal qualities were part of a Britain that went beyond race, ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 12 December 2011
THE KRAFTWERK allusions, the Brian Eno productions, the "experimental" new directions: the propaganda which comes with each new Coldplay album would make you think they ...
Whitney Houston: The diva who had — and lost — it all
Retrospective by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 13 February 2012
From her rise as a fresh-faced teen to her sudden death in an LA hotel room at 48, Nick Hasted charts the highs and lows ...
Stiff Little Fingers — The Making Of 'Alternative Ulster'
Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, March 2012
The sound of young Northern Ireland in '78 — a punk clarion call for peace in Belfast that led to death threats for the band. "THE ...
Report and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 19 May 2012
SIGUR ROS vanished four years ago. In their absence the band who are, after Bjork, Iceland's biggest musical export, saw their atmospheric music, with singer ...
Peter Hammill: And The Next Number Will Be... My Sixties
Comment by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 2 July 2012
Forget sex and drugs and youthful rebellion, rock's newest subject matter is the ageing process, says Nick Hasted ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 28 July 2012
Snow Patrol, Simon Le Bon and Ricky Gervais's beard strike a chord ...
Paul Weller: The Rapacity of the Record Revival
Report and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 11 August 2012
Music labels are trying to cash in on a resurgence in the popularity of vinyl, putting often-inflated price-tags on albums, says Nick Hasted. ...
Public Image Ltd: PiL: Forum, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 13 August 2012
NOW THAT JOHN Lydon, né Rotten, is no longer being targeted, feared and beaten in the street as a folk devil, it's possible to see ...
Martha Wainwright: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 3 December 2012
AMONG THE prodigal polymath musicians of the Wainwright-McGarrigle clan, Martha seems destined to come second to her brother Rufus. Among the prodigal polymath musicians of ...
Green Day's American Idiot: Hammersmith Apollo, London ***
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 5 December 2012
THE ROCK OPERA first grappled with by Pete Townshend and Ray Davies at the end of the 1960s, as rock's growing thematic seriousness and their ...
Bettye LaVette: Jazz Café, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 12 December 2012
"WE HAVE just finished the 8-year Who the Hell Is She? Tour," Bettye LaVette jokes, with a smile which could be the definition of rueful. ...
John Grant: 'This Addictive Personality Permeates My Entire Being'
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent on Sunday, 24 March 2013
After fighting drug problems, John Grant declared on stage that he was HIV-positive. Nick Hasted meets a very candid indie star ...
(British) Sea Power: British Sea Power: The Old Market, Hove
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 26 March 2013
IF ANY CURRENT band could soundtrack Spirit of '45, Ken Loach's new documentary on Britain's post-war spirit of utopian belonging, it's British Sea Power. ...
The Gaslight Anthem: The Troxy, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 1 April 2013
THERE'S A CRACKLE OF ELECTRICITY in the dark, lights spark on the stage, and a skull and crossbones banner dramatically unfurls behind The Gaslight Anthem ...
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 6 September 2013
After 15 years of glam-pop, the duo's new album sees them channelling the spirit of film noir. They tell Nick Hasted where the sequins went. ...
Vincent Gallo: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 11 September 2013
VINCENT GALLO is a born provocateur, naturally at war with the world. The writer/ director/star of Buffalo 66 is also a photographer, painter, model and ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 15 September 2013
KIERAN HEBDEN, aka Four Tet, is currently making some of the most accessibly innovative, strikingly beautiful electronic pop music in the world, from the comfort ...
U2: "Fifth member" of U2 Paul McGuinness to Walk On after 35 years
Report by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 15 November 2013
"WE'RE NOT GOING to let people rip us off, we want the money," Bono, the singer for the penniless and unknown band U2 proclaimed in ...
Review by Nick Hasted, Jazzwise, 23 January 2014
MANCHESTER's GoGo Penguin prove, among other things, what a rhythmic gift the drum 'n' bass dance scene, which began in the 1990s, has been to ...
St. Vincent: St Vincent on St Vincent (Caroline)
Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, February 2014
Annie Clark's explores our "digital reality" on fourth LP ...
Sex & Drugs & Herring rolls: Punk's Jewish Roots Revealed
Retrospective by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 26 February 2014
PUNK ROCK'S transatlantic fuse was lit when Malcolm McLaren saw Richard Hell in New York in 1975. McLaren, whose Jewish family background was in the ...
Delines, The , Richmond Fontaine: Willy Vlautin – an interview
Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, April 2014
A TIMELY CATCH-UP with Americana renaissance man, Willy Vlautin. Pending: a fourth novel, a first movie and a new band, too... ...
These New Puritans: Barbican, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 18 April 2014
WHEN A HAWK has to be trained to land with a thundering whoosh during your album, you are not as other bands. ...
The Stranglers: Why musicians play into their old age
Comment by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 23 April 2014
Nick Hasted looks at how they are driven by a burning desire to keep on entertaining fans despite risking ridicule. ...
The Ramones: "Tommy Ramone's rock'n'roll legacy should not be underestimated"
Comment by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 14 July 2014
TOMMY RAMONE'S contribution to rock'n'roll was as brief and as fundamentally potent as his band's songs. Three albums, released over 17 months, were the sum ...
Blue Note Records, "jazz's Motown, on celebrating 75 years in the limelight
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 15 August 2014
Blue Note remains more than the shell of a name that other formerly legendary labels – Virgin, Island, Motown and EMI – have been reduced ...
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 10 October 2014
THE SIGHT OF Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Steve Hackett lined up in a studio, albeit only to reminisce for a ...
Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan: Hanging on in "this dirty pop business"
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 5 December 2014
BILLY CORGAN is still big: all shaven-headed, 6ft 3in of him. It's rock music, he has decided, which got small, and he had better find ...
Whiplash has put drummers in their rightful place as music's irreplaceable root
Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 16 January 2015
Drummers are finally beginning to shake their tag as 'clueless thumpers' ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 6 May 2015
Even in jazz, sometimes the simplest pleasures are best ...
Kate Tempest: The Great Escape festival, Brighton
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 18 May 2015
Kate Tempest stands out proudly in midst of hustling between scattered venues ...
The Cribs: Wakefield brothers talk depression, rebirth and America
Report and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 29 May 2015
"I FOUND A GUY who was a fan of the band who ran a hotel in Ipswich," the Cribs' Ryan Jarman remembers of his living ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 26 July 2015
There's a ska light that never goes out: Cliff’s high-voltage charisma is undimmed at 67 ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 29 February 2016
Grateful music industry's remaining Force is with British singer ...
Stick in the Wheel: What's Cookin', Leytonstone Ex-Servicemen's Club, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, March 2016
From the London riots to 18th-century laments on English injustice, the critically acclaimed band bring folk back home. ...
Comment by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 29 April 2016
From Bob Dylan to Eminem, it's become natural to express intimate thoughts through songwriting for millions to hear ...
Beyoncé: Stadium of Light, Sunderland
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 28 June 2016
A disjointed barrage maybe, but she is still the master show-woman ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 7 July 2016
Burt Bacharach, GoGo Penguin and Esperanza Spalding are other highlights ...
Chuck Berry was not always a nice man, but his music stood the test of time
Comment by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 19 March 2017
He helped shake the world into looser, better ways, and explained the first real teenagers to themselves. ...
Electric Wizard: What happened when we went off the grid with Electric Wizard
Interview by Nick Hasted, Classic Rock, 5 January 2018
Classic Rock goes off the grid to track down Electric Wizard, who tell us about swapping doom for Detroit, geese attacks, utopian nightmares and the ...
The NME is dead. But its soul left its body long ago
Essay by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 9 March 2018
The former bastion of counterculture captured the spirit of punk and in its heyday was uncompromising. Nick Hasted remembers the good times, and charts how the magazine ...
Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 5 April 2018
THE SECOND EELS album, Electro-Shock Blues, defined Mark Everett's mode of beautiful, redemptive reactions to a growing list of personal tragedies, spinning him off the ...
Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 5 April 2018
Download this: 'Golden', 'Shelby '68', 'L.O.V.E.', 'Music's Too Sad Without You' ...
Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 19 April 2018
THIS LOST Burgess solo album was recorded in the dog days between Christmas and New Year in 2008, with an ad hoc indie supergroup including ...
Okkervil River: In the Rainbow Rain
Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 25 April 2018
WILL SHEFF'S LAST OKKERVIL RIVER ALBUM, Away, offered heart-piercingly direct emotion worthy of Jimmy Webb, as well as his familiar knotty baroqueness. Its lyrics also ...
New Order: Why New Order's football song 'World in Motion' was a game-changer
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 13 June 2018
In 1990, English football wasn't cool – and English football songs certainly weren't. New Order's shambolic, ecstasy-tinged World Cup hit was the first sign everything was about ...
Kamasi Washington: Heaven and Earth
Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 20 June 2018
THE CHAIN REACTION from Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly was explosive enough to blow a hole in America's musical ghettos. Hip hop's newly anointed ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 7 October 2019
KANO'S LYRICS often sound like a wake, mixing mournfulness and anger as they raise a toast to fallen friends on abandoned estates, victims of crushing ...
Review by Nick Hasted, The Arts Desk, 10 October 2019
Brutal times put Guy Garvey at bay. ...
The 1975: Notes on a Conditional Form
Review by Nick Hasted, The Arts Desk, 21 May 2020
The band's fourth album lunges for meaning with its monologue by Greta Thunberg and foresees social isolation. ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The iNews, 7 August 2020
The flinching star Mike Skinner still has something to say after lockdown ...
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