Simon Price
Simon Price, born in South Wales in 1967 and now based in Brighton (after a long spell in London and a much shorter one in Paris), is an award-winning British music critic. His three-decades-plus career includes nine years at Melody Maker magazine and twelve at the Independent On Sunday newspaper, during which time he was voted Live Reviews Writer Of The Year on three consecutive occasions at the Record Of The Day Awards. He currently contributes to publications including Q magazine, The Guardian, Metro and The Quietus.
His first book, Everything (A Book About Manic Street Preachers), published by Virgin in 1999, was named Book Of The Year by NME and Rock Book Of The Decade by The Guardian, and at one point held the title of the fastest-selling rock biography in UK history.
Price was the first journalist to interview Suede, the first British journalist to interview Rage Against The Machine, the first outside the specialist hip hop press to write about the Wu-Tang Clan, and he discovered The Darkness. Other significant interviewees include Courtney Love, Kylie Minogue, Nine Inch Nails, Duran Duran, Bjork, Snoop Dogg, Cher, Boy George, Smokey Robinson, John Cale, TLC, Stevie Nicks, Eddie Izzard, Siouxsie Sioux, Kings Of Leon, Adam Ant, Public Enemy, Dexys Midnight Runners, The Flaming Lips, Cameron Diaz, Marc Almond, Charlotte Church, Steve Strange, Salt & Pepa, Robert Plant, Chrissie Hynde and The Beastie Boys.
An experienced radio presenter, Price frequently appears on BBC radio and television stations (among others) as a pop expert. He is also a successful club promoter, running the monthly alternative 80s night Spellbound (and previously, for fifteen years, glam-punk-trash night Stay Beautiful), and has DJed for clients including AC/DC, Manic Street Preachers, Pet Shop Boys, Pharrell Williams, The Charlatans, London Fashion Week and the Reading Festival.
Onstage Q&A interviews are an increasingly common part of his repertoire, with stars including John Taylor, Martin Kemp, Gary Numan, Suede, Marc Almond and Viv Albertine, for clients including Waterstone's, the Brighton Festival, Universal Music and The Great Escape.
He identifies as an atheist, socialist, vegan, and 80s throwback. He's been through several fashion movements since first becoming a ska-obsessed Rude Boy at the age of 13, most of them involving make-up and extreme hairstyles, and nowadays considers himself a 'recovering goth'.
Simon currently lectures in Music Journalism at the BIMM Institute in Brighton. His personal website www.simonprice.dj includes an extensive archive of his work.
187 articles
List of articles in the library
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: Elysees Montmartre, Paris
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 17 December 1988
TONIGHT THE Angel saw the Ass, and still isn't convinced. ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 18 March 1989
SO THIS IS what we're supposed to be getting so angry about. Tonight is my first proper pop concert, and it's bizarre. They're screaming! At ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 24 June 1989
I DON'T know if I can get across to you just how depressing it is to be standing, sweating in a tiny Parisian jazz club ...
Primal Scream, The Telescopes: Powerhaus, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 26 August 1989
IS THAT my true love I see on stage, or am I watching New Faces? The time has come to add my thrup-tup-ha'pennorth to the ...
Peter Murphy: Town & Country Club, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 26 May 1990
IT'S WHEN I burst out laughing and everyone looks at me like I'm insane that I realise what a tragic, inopportune night this is. Just ...
The Young Gods: Mean Fiddler, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 8 September 1990
ARMAGEDDON HAS arrived. Eco-disaster and chemical apocalypse are upon us. The sky will fall on our heads. We're all going to die. And it's going ...
Bleach (UK): Bleach: Camden Palace, London/Flip Your Wig, Brighton/Jericho Tavern, Oxford
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 20 April 1991
MAN OVERBOARD! ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 4 May 1991
BRILLIANT, brilliant, f***ing brilliant!!! Ignore all those bands you read about in Sidelines: if you don't love AC/DC, you don't like Rock. They're that fundamental, ...
Morrissey: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 27 July 1991
THE LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT ...
EMF: Cornwall Coliseum, St Austell
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 7 September 1991
BELIEVABLE! ...
Manic Street Preachers: Drags to Riches
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 25 January 1992
Sacrilege! The Manics are re-releasing a single! SIMON PRICE watches the Welsh wastrels get all tarted up for a video and gives them grief over ...
Primal Scream: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 4 April 1992
BOBBY DAZZLER ...
Birdland: New Cross Venue, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 16 May 1992
LET ME tell you a story. The last time I saw Birdland, they filled the Brixton Academy (the support band were some bunch of nohopers ...
Gang Starr: Daily Operation (Cooltempo)
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 16 May 1992
FURTHER AND further out we go... ...
Suede: Camden Underworld, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 13 June 1992
PRETENTIOUS? CHAMOIS? ...
Prince and the New Power Generation: Sporthalle, Hamburg
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 20 June 1992
Prince and the New Power Generation arrive in Britain this week to play a record stint of Earl's Court. SIMON PRICE taught the great man ...
Spinal Tap: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 18 July 1992
THE VERTEBRATE ROCK'N'ROLL SWINDLE ...
Suede: What's a Nice Band Like You Doing in a Field Like This?
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 29 August 1992
Since we scooped the lot and put SUEDE on the cover of MM back in April, the world has started falling at their feet. SIMON ...
Pop Will Eat Itself: The Looks Or The Lifestyle (RCA)
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 5 September 1992
POPPIE CROCK ...
Leatherface, Therapy?: Therapy?, Leatherface: The Grand, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 3 October 1992
BALM BEFORE THE STORM ...
Marc Almond: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 10 October 1992
NIGHT IN SHINING AMOUR ...
The Shamen: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 17 October 1992
CHAS N'RAVE ...
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 7 November 1992
Lawrence (no surname) spent the Eighties in "art underground" band, Felt. Now he's back in DENIM, with a record crammed full of Seventies pop hooks ...
Ministry: Live at the End of the World!
Report and Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 14 November 1992
The Lollapalooza tour and the Psalm 69 album have turned MINISTRY into industrial metal superstars, the only band of their kind big enough to play ...
The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy: Town & Country Club, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 28 November 1992
CHANNEL ZERO. Middle-class family with airbrushed children steps out of a Volvo. Mother takes one look at me and shouts "You need Jesus!" Torn between ...
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 5 December 1992
Failed ice-cream man Luke Haines of the Auteurs wants to rescue you from mindless grunge, and sees his heart-stopping new single, 'Showgirl', as a mini-screenplay. ...
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 20 February 1993
THEY SAY we're repressed, us Brits, don't they? So the cliché goes — brilliantly personified by the encounter between Basil and Mme Peignoir in the ...
Bikini Kill, Huggy Bear: Huggy Bear/Bikini Kill: Our Troubled Youth/Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! (Catcall)
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 6 March 1993
REBEL GRRRLS ...
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 1 May 1993
ST BERNARD TO THE RESCUE ...
Saint Etienne: Saint No Mountain High Enough
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 1 May 1993
Who do SAINT ETIENNE think they are? One minute they're just the weekly music press' favourite pop group, the next they're working with Kylie and ...
The Verve: Verve: Manchester University
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 29 May 1993
TUNE IN, TURN ON, WIGAN OUT ...
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 17 July 1993
...but what's it all about? SIMON PRICE listens as COURTNEY LOVE fills him in on the (w)Hole picture. ...
Report by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 16 October 1993
SIMON PRICE endures the full horrors off 24-hour MTV. Could YOU handle it? ...
Cocteau Twins: Four-Calendar Cafe (Fontana)
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 23 October 1993
FRASER JOLLY GOOD MELLOW ...
The Boo Radleys: Learning To Walk
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 11 December 1993
AT THE HEIGHT of The Scene That Celebrated Itself, The Boo Radleys — The Doo Badleys, as they were chucklingly known down The Syndrome — ...
Boy George: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 15 January 1994
"IT'S NICE to be appreciated on your own manor," croaks George, choked up at the waves of love crashing over him, "cos there was a ...
Alice In Chains: Jar Of Flies/Sap (Columbia).
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 22 January 1994
DAY OF THE SHACKLE ...
Blur: Park Psychosis — Blur: Parklife (Food /EMI F00D10)
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 23 April 1994
Strike a light, guvnah. For thair fird al-bum, BLUR, the bin lids' faverits, 'ave gorn awl Lahn-dun on us, and no mistake. SIMON PRICE gave ...
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 14 May 1994
2 UNLIMITED, the Amsterdamsters who introduced the word 'technotechnotechnotechno!' into the language, are — no contest — the biggest pop group in Europe. SIMON PRICE ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 14 May 1994
SPRING BONK HOLIDAY ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 2 July 1994
HOUSE OF HOROWITZ ...
Gene: The Paradise Club, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 13 August 1994
CHROMOSOME IS WHERE THE ART IS ...
Prince: Come (Warner Brothers 9362-45700-2/10tks/49mins/FP)
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 13 August 1994
There's no getting round it. Prince's new album is, explicitly, all about eating pussy. Beavis & Butt-Head would explode. SIMON PRICE needed a good hosing ...
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 17 September 1994
So In Search Of Manny was the sassiest, coolest record called 'Jackson' since Off The Wall. But, you're gagging to know, can Luscious Jackson do ...
Wu-Tang Clan: The Forum, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 17 September 1994
KARATE KICKS ...
Suede: "Nothing Can Stop Us Now"
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 24 September 1994
When Bernard Butler left SUEDE, many assumed it was all over. Far from it. On the eve of the release of the long-awaited Dog Man ...
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 12 November 1994
HOMIE-CIDAL MANY ACTS A new Snoop Doggy Dogg record? Yes and no and a whole lot more. Murder Was The Case is an extremely violent 18-minute ...
Jewell, The Lady of Rage, Nate Dogg, Tha Dogg Pound: Murder Dre Wrote
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 26 November 1994
DR DRE's G-normously successful DEATH ROW label is being hailed as a Motown for the Nineties. SIMON PRICE meets eargasm addict THE LADY OF RAGE, ...
Snoop (Doggy) Dogg: Snoop Doggy Dogg: Watch Out, Beagle's About
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 26 November 1994
SIMON PRICE meets SNOOP DOGGY DOGG, the Most Famous Rapper On Earth, whose murder trial comes up in three months, and asks him about Life ...
R. Kelly: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 11 February 1995
VIBE DA JOINT ...
The Beastie Boys: Super Fly Guys
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 4 March 1995
The Beastie Boys made MM's Album of the Year in 1986. That was pretty cool. And for about 12 months their unique brand of juvenile ...
Luscious Jackson: The Jackson Four
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 11 March 1995
LUSCIOUS JACKSON are four luscious (Janet) Jackson-goes-hip hop Noo Yawk fly girlz whose scratchy white rap has been described as The Breeders-play-The Sugarhill Gang. SIMON ...
Prince: 0(+>: Glam Slam At The Astoria/The Emporium, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 15 April 1995
OOH! AAH! 0(+>! ...
Pavement: Wow! That's What I Call Music...
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 15 April 1995
PAVEMENT are the Lords of Lo-Fi, the Sultans of Slacker. They hate Smashing Pumpkins and their songs are unlistenable chunks of abstract strangeness. Basically, they're ...
TLC: Natural Burn Jillers — TLC: CrazySexyCool (LaFace)
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 13 May 1995
TLC are three Scary Betties if ever we saw 'em. Arsonists, sexual predators and New Jill Swing superstars whose CrazySexyCool is Swingbeat Record Of The ...
Wu-Tang Clan: Fear of a Black-Belt Planet
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 12 August 1995
In the last two weeks. Method Man and Gravediggaz have divebombed into the British charts. At last, Staten Island's utterly insane-in-the-membrane WU-TANG CLAN — Horrorcore ...
Blur: The Floral Hall, Eastbourne
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 30 September 1995
ESCAPE TO VICTORY ...
The Boo Radleys: Look Back In Languor
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 30 September 1995
THIS IS THE FOURTH FEATURE on The Boo Radleys of '95, but they're worth it — especially with their brand new single, 'From The Bench ...
Menswear: 'We're Bringing Back the Generation Gap'
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 14 October 1995
Oh, how they laughed when MM plucked MENSWE@R out of obscurity and put them on the cover in February. The laughter stopped when the Swe@r ...
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 11 November 1995
Controversial New Jill megastars TLC are one of the biggest bands on the planet right now... and they're bankrupt. It's a long story, but SIMON ...
Tha Dogg Pound: Dogg Food (Death Row 17 tks/72 mins)
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 2 December 1995
TO CRITICISE G-funk for being lazy is a bit like dissing water for being wet, but the latest product to stagger blinking from the Death ...
The Cardigans: Swedish of the Day
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 2 December 1995
If you like St Etienne, Stereolab and Dubstar, you'll love THE CARDIGANS, Sweden's leading sugar-pop weirdos. SIMON PRICE hails their happysad music. ...
GZA, Method Man: Method Man, GZA: Def Jam 10th Anniversary Party, Equinox, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 16 December 1995
DEF AND BLINDING ...
Denim: Jean Genius — Denim: Denim On Ice (Echo)
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 24 February 1996
Lawrence, the man with a bizarre fabric fetish, is back, and he's railing against the kind of fantastically trivial stuff no one else has given ...
The Fugees: Fugees: The Score (Ruff House, 7tks/78mins)
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 2 March 1996
THE SPECIALIST rap press is giving mad love to Fugees at the moment. ...
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 16 March 1996
Imagine Pulp, doomed to make obscure concept LPs about Seventies glam rock for all eternity. That's DENIM. Funnily enough, Denim are on the road with ...
Black Grape, The Boo Radleys: Better Red Than Dead
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 11 May 1996
This week's FA Cup Final between Liverpool and Manchester United isn't a matter of life and death. It's much more important than that. SIMON PRICE ...
Ice-T: Gangsta's Parad-Ice — Ice-T: Ice-T VI: Return of the Real (Virgin 21 tks/74 mins)
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 25 May 1996
We like ICE-T, rap's renaissance man. He doesn't give a shit ...
Super Furry Animals: LA2, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 15 June 1996
KILLER WALES! ...
The Divine Comedy: Up the Dante — The Divine Comedy: Casanova (Setanta)
Review and Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 13 July 1996
Did the world misunderstand THE DIVINE COMEDY'S last LP? Now it's been reissued, and it's time to think again ...
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 20 July 1996
'Firestarter' has made THE PRODIGY the nation's favourite alternative alternative band: Chris Evans doesn't play them, they refuse to do Top Of The Pops, and ...
The Prodigy: Torhout Rock, Bruges
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 20 July 1996
I DON'T WANNA reiterate the usual boring Belgium jokes — I've had better times in Bruxelles than I've ever had in, say, Paris, but the ...
My Life Story: Jake's Progress
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 10 August 1996
More Pulp than Pulp, more divine than The Divine Comedy, the 12 members of MY LIFE STORY now bring you '12 Reasons Why'. Glory beckons. ...
Smog: Sorely Mist — Smog: The Doctor Came At Dawn (Domino 10 tks/39 mins)
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 14 September 1996
Misery is no fun. SMOG know it. And express it perfectly ...
Suede: Virgin Megastore, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 14 September 1996
UP FOR IT ...
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 21 September 1996
DREAD PRESIDENT Clean techno crusty JOSH WINK is a star now. Why? ...
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 28 September 1996
CHUCK D is back with a new solo album and a new mission — to destroy gangsta rap. The Maker listens in ...
Tricky: Pre-Millennium Tension (Island, 10 tks/42 mins)
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 9 November 1996
2000 A SPACED ODYSSEY ...
Manic Street Preachers: "Everything Must Go!"
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 21 December 1996
'...Apart from the Super Furries album, and the Suede and Boos ones. Oh, and ours wasn't bad...' Since THE MANICS won MM's Album Of The ...
Kenickie: To Hell With Teen Spirit
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 11 January 1997
KENICKIE may be young, they may use guitars, they may be supernaturally exuberant. But they are not, repeat NOT, a teen punk band. With their ...
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 18 January 1997
Last year's resurrection of SUEDE was almost as impressive a Lazarus job as the Manics' — a Number One album, two hit singles, and the ...
Ben Folds Five: It's Hip to be Square
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 8 March 1997
No guitars. Stevie Wonder cover versions. Three boys steeped in musicals. What are BEN FOLDS FIVE like? ...
Hanson: The Kids Are All Bright!
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 14 June 1997
Their single is catchier than a cold sore and it's everywhere this summer. America's teen-tastic HANSON leapt straight outta nowhere into the Number One spot ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 4 October 1997
TICK. TOCK. The giant clock behind Noel, who is 29 years old, and Liam, who is 24, runs steadily backwards. There's always been a big ...
Louise: Woman In Me (EMI 16tks/69 mins)
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 18 October 1997
NOW KIDS, when you say "Sexiest Lass In The World" ...do you mean "Most Symmetrical"? Or "Most Unblemished"? Or "Most Likely To Wear A Pencil ...
Kylie Minogue: A Redesign for Life!
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 8 November 1997
She used to be in Neighbours, then came the pop career then Nick Cave then the bloody Manics! Now KYLIE is Indiekylie and she's cooler ...
Hanson: Snowbored! Hanson: Snowed In (Mercury 11 tks/42 mins)
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 22 November 1997
So, is HANSON'S second album — devoted to the spirit off Christmas — a cracker... or a whopping great turkey? ...
Salt-N-Pepa: Condiment-al as Anything
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 13 December 1997
And you thought Girl Power was a new thang? Oh no, SALT-N-PEPA invented it a decade ago. The Maker catches up with the trio in ...
Tricky: Angels With Dirty Faces
Review by Simon Price, Select, June 1998
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE. Exposing music biz hypocrisy or biting the hand that feeds him? Tricky turns virus in the industry apparatus. ...
Interview by Simon Price, Uncut, May 1999
Smog's Bill Callahan is to Nineties USA what Morrissey was to Eighties Britain: the undisputed bard of smalltown melancholia. Simon Price meets the pea-souperman. ...
Manic Street Preachers: Our Manics in Havana
Report and Interview by Simon Price, The Guardian, 2 March 2001
Wales's fab three have just become the first major western rock act ever to play in Cuba. Simon Price went with them ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 8 July 2001
FOR £85, OF course, you'd expect her to lap-dance for you privately. Outrage might be what we've come to expect from Madonna, but this isn't ...
Lambchop, Tahiti 80: Lambchop: Somerset House, London/Tahiti 80: The Spitz, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 14 July 2001
THE OPEN-AIR Georgian quadrant of Somerset House may be an unusually elegant setting for a gig, but it has its drawbacks when the main attraction ...
The Human League: Don't you want them? Maybe
Profile and Interview by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 15 July 2001
Sheffield synth-pop trio the Human League haven't always had it easy, but they've never given up. Simon Price met them as they prepare to stage ...
New Order: Olympia Theatre, Liverpool
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 22 July 2001
"IT'S LIKE WE'VE never been away," says New Order's Bernard Sumner, and they haven't, really. ...
Super Furry Animals: The Super Furry Animals: When Paul McCartney played the celery
Report and Interview by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 22 July 2001
The Super Furry Animals' new album features some big-name guests, says Simon Price. Including an ex-Beatle on vegetables. ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 19 August 2001
BONO DOESN'T know what to do. Midway through 'Sunday Bloody Sunday', that most troublesome of U2 songs, someone – someone wearing a Celtic shirt – ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 26 August 2001
WITH BOBBY DIGITAL in such belligerent mood, you'd think Kelis might keep her head down. After all, 'Got Ya Money', her duet with the RZA's ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 26 August 2001
MACY GRAY WAS a diva from the moment she picked up a mic. And fittingly, if frustratingly, she keeps her crowd waiting two hours, with ...
RZA: The RZA: Subterania, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 26 August 2001
AT SUBTERANIA, a man in a scruffy striped shirt, steel-rimmed specs and a battered fishing hat slouches onstage, half boho/half hobo, swigging a bottle of ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 8 September 2001
THERE'S AN apocryphal story that the Monkees – the original manufactured, made-for-TV pop group – were auditioned by being sent into a room containing only ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 25 November 2001
THERE ARE TWO classic symptoms of nervousness. One is to dry up and fall silent. The other is precisely the opposite: to gabble like Kathy ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 25 November 2001
IT'S POSSIBLY THE single most obvious thing you can say about Ryan Adams, and it's a joke that's been made countless times already, but you'd ...
The Hives: Modesty is a virtue... but not in a band
Profile and Interview by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 27 January 2002
IF YOU'VE BEEN to the cinema recently, you may have choked on your popcorn while being confronted with the sight of Kylie Minogue riding a ...
Andrew WK: Blame it on the piano lessons
Profile and Interview by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 3 February 2002
Shock-monger, corporate puppet or talented musician? Simon Price cuts through the hype and asks: Will the real Andrew WK please stand up? ...
Dexys Midnight Runners, Kevin Rowland: Kevin Rowland: A dark knight of the soul
Interview by Simon Price, The Independent, 5 April 2002
When his solo album bombed in 1999, Kevin Rowland considered retiring. Now he's back on tour and plugging a re-release of Dexy's Midnight Runners' greatest ...
Mary J. Blige, Chilly Gonzales: Mary J. Blige: Wembley Arena, London/Gonzales Scala, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 27 April 2002
SOMETHING VERY bad happened to Mary J. Blige once, right here, in London. She won't tell us what it is, but alludes to it cryptically, ...
Arthur Lee, Love: Arthur Lee: Summer of Love
Retrospective and Interview by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 26 May 2002
He discovered the Doors, nurtured Jimi Hendrix and fronted legendary '60s band Love. Now, after six years in prison, Lee is back on the road ...
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 2 June 2002
"DO YOU BELIEVE in the power of rock'n'roll?" Goldblade's John Robb does, and by the time he's asked us for the twentieth time, we do ...
Le Tigre: King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 2 June 2002
LONG AGO, IN ANOTHER LIFE, I got into a spot of bother after beginning a review of Bikini Kill/Huggy Bear's shared album with the semi-humourously ...
The Breeders: Academy, Birmingham
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 2 June 2002
TWINS, THEY SAY, ARE TELEPATHIC. When my mother gave birth to me in Cardiff, her same-age sister felt the pain halfway around the world in ...
The Moldy Peaches: Moldy Peaches: Roadhouse, Manchester
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 23 June 2002
Get yer rocks off, kiddywinks ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees: Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 13 July 2002
IN 1975, POP'S womankind was still meekly 'Loving You' (it's easy, cos you're beautiful) and 'Standing By Your Man' (and showing the world you love ...
Culture Club, Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 14 July 2002
WHEN THE FAT lady sings at the start of a show, you know something's seriously wrong. So it proves with Culture Club, the band for ...
Profile and Interview by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 28 July 2002
YOU MAY NOT know the name. But if you've ever screamed "I hate you so much right now!" along with Kelis, told Ol' Dirty Bastard ...
David Bowie, Suicide: Suicide: Trash, London/David Bowie: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, October 2002
ALAN VEGA WEARS a beret, like Saddam Hussein, Frank Spencer, and the French. He wears sunglasses on a rope, like Dame Edna. He wears leather ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 1 December 2002
Terry's all gold – even though his name is now Buddhist Jesus II ...
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 15 December 2002
I KNOW IT'S only rock'n'roll, but it's better than a game of squash. ...
Marc Almond, Soft Cell: Marc Almond: That's enough erotic cabaret!
Report and Interview by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 2 February 2003
Soft Cell's Marc Almond is intending to grow old gracefully, says Simon Price. Then again... ...
The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Red Hot Chili Peppers: SECC, Glasgow
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 9 March 2003
"YOU'RE THE SEXIEST man on earth!!!" Anthony Kiedis probably can't hear the shriek of Scots approval from 50 yards' distance, but I sure as hell ...
Avril Lavigne: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 30 March 2003
THE THINGS YOU hear on trains. There I was, upgraded to Weekend First a couple of years ago (eight quid, but it was a long ...
Blur, Justin Timberlake: Justin Timberlake: NEC Arena, Birmingham; Blur: Astoria, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 17 May 2003
Non-threatening boys: come and get 'em ...
Har Mar Superstar: Beats working
Interview by Simon Price, The Guardian, 21 June 2003
Life's just one long party for doughy exhibitionist Har Mar Superstar, as he heads to Ibiza for a weekly residency at Manumission. Simon Price helps ...
James Brown: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 19 July 2003
THE LOVED CHILD, they say, has many names. Make what you will of the fact that most of James Brown's epithets – The World's Greatest ...
Martina Topley-Bird: Scala, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 2 August 2003
WHEN MARTINA Topley-Bird made her first fateful encounter with Tricky, she was a mere schoolgirl, and went on to become his muse and partner-in-rhyme over ...
ZZ Top: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 3 August 2003
IT WAS A STROKE of genius, when you think about it. Call it the Clive Dunn Factor, if you will. When Billy Gibbons and Dusty ...
The Darkness: No, really, we're serious...
Profile and Interview by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 30 August 2003
"I WANT YOU all to repeat after me..." Justin Hawkins, bare-chested and squinting into in the scorching midsummer sun, has 120,000 people in the palm ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 4 October 2003
"NOW, IF YOU work in a record store, or you have a degree in Musicology," spits Lux Interior with an exaggerated sneer, "you might file ...
The Isley Brothers, Ronald Isley: The Isley Brothers: Carling Apollo, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 4 October 2003
REGULAR READERS may recall my feature of a fortnight ago, wherein I detailed the nefarious activities of America's Clear Channel group, and added: "Britain does ...
Morrissey: Mark Simpson: Saint Morrissey
Book Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 16 November 2003
Former World's Biggest Smiths Fan Simon Price checks his credentials against a passionately provocative analysis of Morrissey's art. ...
Fleetwood Mac: The Point, Dublin
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 23 November 2003
"IT'S BEEN a sometimes difficult, and always a strange trip," Lindsey Buckingham tells the people of Dublin in a rehearsed line which was surely scripted ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 21 December 2003
PANTOMIME SEASON is upon us, and rock'n'roll's most compelling Punch and Judy show is in town. If the crowd packed into the Forum tonight aren't ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 1 February 2004
"YOUR NEIGHBOURS WERE screaming 'I don't have a key for downstairs'/ So I punched all the buzzers, hoping you wouldn't be there..." ...
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 15 February 2004
A TRIP TO the sea air, to see Air. And Air, like air itself, are great to have around you, but nothing much to look ...
Boyfriends, The (UK): The Boyfriends: Dublin Castle, London
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 15 February 2004
THERE'S A STRONG case to be made that camp only has any mileage when used by heterosexuals. Martin Wallace, singer with rising unsigned London band ...
The Distillers: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 15 February 2004
AT THE NME Awards show, a quote is projected onto the large screens from the lead singer of the Distillers: "Boys don't like it when ...
Brian Wilson: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 22 February 2004
"YOU GUYS IN the audience have better cameras and recording gear than the people doing it officially," jokes Jeffrey Foskett, Brian Wilson's corpulent and genial ...
Keane: University of London Union, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 14 March 2004
WHEN BBC NEWS Online ran their "Sound Of 2004" survey of music biz insiders at the turn of the year, the winners – one place ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 21 March 2004
Automata for the people ...
The Who: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 3 April 2004
A SHAMED MUSICAL hero brought low before our very eyes, his humiliation beamed directly into our living rooms on the television screen. Not an edifying ...
Prince: Return of the prodigal
Retrospective by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 17 April 2004
Prince enjoyed a purple reign during the 1980s, but messy wranglings with record companies led to bizarre personal behaviour, and the 1990s were spent in ...
Eric Clapton, Dogs Die In Hot Cars: Eric Clapton: Royal Abert Hall, London
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 9 May 2004
WOKE UP this morning, got those "I'm going to see Eric Clapton" blues. Said I woke up this morning, and… OK, let's be honest. For ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 5 September 2004
And the name of the world's worst band is... ...
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 10 October 2004
The Ice Queen thaws. We melt ...
The Datsuns, Velvet Revolver: Velvet Revolver/The Datsuns at Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 16 January 2005
Look carefully... this man used to be a punk poodle ...
The Dears: Electric Ballroom, London
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 6 February 2005
"WE ARE The Dears, from Montreal, Canada," says Murray Lightburn, by way of coy, unnecessary introduction. "We're a long way from home. We'd like to ...
Goldie Lookin' Chain: Goldie Lookin Chain
Interview by Simon Price, The Independent, 3 April 2005
One minute they were an unknown posse from Gwent, the next they were music industry darlings. Are Goldie Lookin Chain — the "Welsh Wu-Tang Clan" ...
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 12 June 2005
THE ICA CINEMA SCREEN shows a monochrome montage of vintage audio machinery — reel-to-reel tapes, amplifier dials — distorted, twisted, chopped up and re-cut. Then ...
Ladytron: Rise Of The Machines
Interview by Simon Price, The Independent, 28 August 2005
Ladytron are a little bit Kraftwerk, a little bit Roxy and very, very now. So should the doe-eyed boys of angst rock be worried about ...
The Darkness: The gathering Darkness
Interview by Simon Price, The Independent, 13 November 2005
What a year it's been for Lowestoft's campest band of brothers. They've lost a bass player, found a new one (it took, ooh, seconds) and ...
Depeche Mode: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 9 April 2006
THE LAST DEPECHE Mode gig I attended, right here at Wembley in October 2001 when they were promoting the dreary (and criminally mis-named) Exciter album, ...
Placebo: Empress Ballroom, Blackpool
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 9 April 2006
"I WAS CONFUSED by the birds and the bees", the Lilliputian, Luxembourgeois leader of Placebo sings, beneath the gilded plaster of Paris of the 110-year-old ...
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 24 December 2006
The nursery school of rock ...
Lady Sovereign, Mika: Mika: Berkeley Square, London; Lady Sovereign: Scala, London
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 11 February 2007
OUTSIDE THE GIANT TENT erected in Berkeley Square, the trees are illuminated pink and officers of the Metropolitan Police are holding back scores of fruity ...
Yoko Ono: Yes, I'm A Witch (Parlophone)
Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 18 February 2007
THERE ARE THOSE — and, if you've seen her shrieking performance in The Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus, you couldn't blame them — who ...
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Crystal Castles: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 11 May 2008
The intensity never lets up for the Bad Seed who glides from dark menace to the sublime ...
Florence and the Machine: Academy, Birmingham
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 8 February 2009
Too many toffs on this magic roundabout ...
Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 7 June 2009
SMALL, BUT PERFECTLY FORMED. That's the cliché which flashes into mind, neon-bright, when you listen to Hands, with its blank, mystery-starved one-word titles and the ...
Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 12 July 2009
FUNNY, ISN'T IT, how a shift in emphasis can completely alter meaning. Place it on the first word, and Vincent Frank's album title sounds like ...
Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 16 August 2009
A VETERAN at the age of 22, already on his second album (2007's Star in the Hood won him a Best Newcomer nomination at that ...
Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 3 January 2010
Believe the hype: it's the New Order for the new decade ...
Hot Chip: One Life Stand (Parlophone)
Review by Simon Price, The Word, February 2010
THE NAME, of course, is one of pop's great double entendres. As well as carrying the sense of overloaded silicon circuitry, "Hot Chip" — like ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 11 April 2010
TWIN ROSES IN her tousled hair, and barely wider than a flower stem herself, Alison Shaw is unchanged and unchanging, as Cranes make one of ...
Paolo Nutini: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 11 April 2010
HE'S VAIN, sings reggae like Sting and has terrible posture. But just try telling that to the ladies... ...
Al Green, Ozzy Osbourne: Ozzy Osbourne: Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone/Al Green: The O2, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 4 July 2010
Faint shades of Sabbath in Ozzy's addled brain — Considering all he's been through, Osbourne makes a decent job of resurrecting the old hits ...
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 8 May 2011
Wondering who's going to emerge as the voice of 2011? Look no further than the Peckham Princess. ...
Unknown Mortal Orchestra: Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 17 July 2011
UMO IS the vehicle of Ruban Nielson, formerly of the Mint Chicks, and assisted here by Jake Portrait and Julien Ehrlich in pursuit of what ...
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 23 October 2011
"OK, JUST IMAGINE you're in a dark, sweaty nightclub and you're all on E". It's wishful thinking from Luke Jenner, lead singer with The Rapture, ...
Interview by Simon Price, The Stool Pigeon, 2 February 2012
"That coldness; that precision": Simon Price meets the man who invented the '80s ...
Spiritualized: Sweet Heart Sweet Light
Review by Simon Price, The Word, March 2012
His last creative fix was religion, now its sugar-coated psych-pop. Has "J Spaceman' finally found redemption? ...
Review by Simon Price, The Word, June 2012
The ongoing rivalry between two woozy West Coast bands is mystifying — particularly when one is peddling pure pastiche. ...
Kimya Dawson: The Haunt, Brighton
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 14 July 2012
JUNO, THE JASON REITMAN FILM from 2007 about teenage pregnancy, divided opinion. Some inferred a conservative pro-Life agenda, others a liberal, feminist message. One thing ...
Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 11 November 2012
THE THIRD CRYSTAL CASTLES ALBUM, which features a photo of a Yemeni child being cradled by his mother after a tear-gas attack, was recorded in ...
Comment by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 20 January 2013
IN THE WEEK that HMV goes into administration, and much is made of the endurance of smaller indie outlets (not to mention the corporate chain's ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 20 January 2013
Little Sister Solange Is Doing It For Herself Solange suggests there is more than one musical genius in the Knowles family ...
Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 10 August 2013
LIKE ONE OF Alan Partridge's chemically enhanced chickens, thinking "Why am I so massive?", White Lies were bred for bigness. Following a Number One debut ...
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 24 August 2013
Art-pop kings remind the world why they rank among this century's finest songwriters with a truly scintillating comeback gig. ...
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 31 August 2013
The Nine Inch Nails frontman is still furious after all these years. But, at 78, Leonard Cohen knows it's better to be a lover than ...
Live Review by Simon Price, New York Observer, 23 March 2014
Banks is on everyone's Next Big Thing list. This haunting show proves the American R&B star worthy of the hype ...
Afghan Whigs: The Afghan Whigs: Do To The Beast (Sub Pop)
Review by Simon Price, Q, May 2014
WOMEN OF a certain age and tastes still come over all peculiar at the mention of Greg Dulli's name. Certain men, too. Of all the ...
Chrissie Hynde: Talker Of The Town: Chrissie Hynde
Interview by Simon Price, The Quietus, 10 June 2014
Chrissie Hynde is releasing her first-ever solo album. But never mind that. Just let her talk. Because the legendary Pretenders leader can talk for London, ...
Marc Almond: Let's Talk About Death
Interview by Simon Price, The Independent, 17 February 2015
Simon Price talks to the enigmatic singer about Soho, Soft Cell and mortality. ...
Morris Day, The Time: Morris Day: Purple Rain rival who almost stole Prince's thunder
Profile by Simon Price, The Independent, 26 April 2016
On screen, the lead singer of The Time played a scene-stealing version of himself as the Purple One's nemesis. But off screen, their love-hate relationship ...
Review by Simon Price, Metro, 28 August 2018
IT WASN'T ALWAYS easy to discern the purpose of Anna Calvi. A spare PJ Harvey in case we lost the real one down the back ...
Hollywood Vampires: Rise (earMUSIC)
Review by Simon Price, Metro, 18 June 2019
THE ORIGINAL Hollywood Vampires were a Transatlantic showbiz drinking cabal formed by Alice Cooper in the 1970s, a Hellfire Club for the Sunset Strip set. ...
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