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Stephen Dalton

Stephen Dalton

Stephen Dalton began his so-called career as a self-styled writer on the New Musical Express at the dawn of the 1990s. During his absurdly long tenure on the paper he survived acid house, Madchester, grunge, Britpop, electroclash, New Grave, New Rave, and at least four 1980s synth-pop revivals. Since the late 1990s he has also been a regular contributor to The Times, Uncut, Scotland on Sunday and various other publications. In 2008, he began writing about music and film for The National, a new English-language broadsheet based in Abu Dhabi. Over the years he has met some of the most charmless egomaniacs and demanding divas in the music business - most of them working in the NME editorial office. He has also interviewed countless personal heroes including David Bowie, Debbie Harry, John Peel, Mick Jagger, Chuck D, JG Ballard, Jarvis Cocker, Neil Young, Radiohead, Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk. He has never had a proper job and, frankly, it’s too late now.

472 articles

List of articles in the library

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Cardiacs: The Cardiacs: Town and Country Club, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 10 December 1988

THIS THING IS out of control. A twiddly organ introduction induces mass hysteria amongst the huge Cardiacs cult following, a bizarre range of pigtailed princesses ...

The Wolfhounds: Drummonds, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 11 February 1989

BJÖRK E SMITH! The manic mongrel fronting the Wolfhounds resembles the offspring of some furtive Fall/Sugarcubes coupling, as he squeaks and stomps through jagged jumping-jack-flash ...

Voice Of The Beehive: Marquee, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 11 February 1989

PRIVATE PARTY, gargantuan guest list, a friendly farewell full of in-jokes for in-people. On the eve of their US tour, the Beehives bid bye-bye to ...

Throwing Muses: Portsmouth Polytechnic

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 18 February 1989

BIG PAPA GIRL ROCKERS ...

Hue and Cry: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 27 May 1989

YOU HAVE to admire Pat Kane for at least attempting to combine rhetoric with rhythm, message with melody. I am sure Hue And Cry succeed ...

Bon Jovi, Europe, Vixen, Wolfsbane: Small really is beautiful: Bon Jovi, Europe, Vixen: Milton Keynes Bowl; Wolfsbane: Marquee, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 2 September 1989

BON JOVI's backstage booze fountain runs dry halfway through the evening. A metaphor for their coming performance? An omen for the career of Noo Joisey's ...

Criminal Element Orchestra: Locked Up (Epic LP/Cassette/CD)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 6 January 1990

ARTHUR BAKER is generally credited with having several parts of his anatomy in touch with the living pulse of modern dance music. If this is ...

Coldcut, The Fall: Coldcut: Ring The Noise

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 20 January 1990

• And they said it wouldn't last! In the pop marriage of the'80s, COLDCUT producers Jonathan Moore and Matt Black invited Mark E Smith to ...

DJ Chuck Chillout & Kool Chip, MC Hammer: MC Hammer: Let's Get It Started (Capitol); DJ Chuck Chillout & Kool Chip: Masters Of The Rhythm (Phonogram)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 27 January 1990

THE FIRST general rule of hip-hop is that most albums contain a couple of killer club cuts and a dozen cardboard fillers. Just to be ...

The Fatima Mansions: Fatima Mansions: Mean Fiddler, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 3 February 1990

PULPIT UP!!! ...

Ice-T, Donald D, Everlast, Spinmasters: Top Rank, Brighton

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 3 February 1990

IS CHIPPING Sodbury in the house? How about Hastings? Is the Crawley posse chilling out tonight? Everybody make some goddam N-O-l-S-E... ER, please? ...

Camper Van Beethoven: Electric Ballroom, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 24 March 1990

SWOOPING IN from a nostalgic and sun-nourished California that never even existed, Camper Van Beethoven touch down in London with mature and majestic grace. In ...

The Darling Buds: Older Bud Wiser

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 2 June 1990

Gone are the days when peroxides-in-Pampers Ramones soundalikes cut the Coleman's in Groovyland, so THE DARLING BUDS have come back from a long manager-dumping lay ...

Betty Boo: Betty The Devil You Know

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 16 June 1990

She-rapper BETTY BOO is kickin' ass and wreaking revenge with her killer single 'Doin' The Do'. STEPHEN DALTON suffers Boomania ...

Coldcut: Some Like It Cold (Big Life LP/Cassette/CD)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 16 June 1990

RUNNING HOT 'N' COLD ...

Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E.: Boo-Yaa Tribe: Town & Country Club, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 23 June 1990

EVEN IF they don't realise it, the Boo-Yaas are a big joke. But it's a funky, larger-than-life laugh-attack with a killer punchline, and that's the ...

Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir, Filip Kutev Ensemble: Various Bulgarians: Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares — Volume 3 (Fontana LP/Cassette/CD)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 22 September 1990

MARCEL CELLIER first began assembling his library of haunting folk recordings after visiting Bulgaria in 1950. Shrewdly, the Swiss businessman seems to have retained copyright ...

Adamski: Dr Adamski's Musical Pharmacy

Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, November 1990

THE IMPISH PETER PAN of dance-pop, Adam Tinley is like that toddler in the Fisher Price ad feeling his way around the knobs and switches ...

The Shamen: En-Tact (One Little Indian)

Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, November 1990

THE PHUTURE is now. The Shamen once riffed and jangled in anoraks, got into splintered hip-hop iconoclasm for the magnificent In Gorbachev We Trust album ...

Professor Griff, Public Enemy: Material World: Professor Griff

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 3 November 1990

REAL NAME Richard Griffin ...

The La's: 20 Questions: The La’s

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 24 November 1990

Thought of anything nice to say about your album yet? ...

The Fatima Mansions: Jesus Christ is alive and well and living in North London

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Sounds, 8 December 1990

Or at least FATIMA MANSIONS' Cathal Coughlan thinks he is. But is it really Jesus Christ who is running a grocery store in Crouch End ...

Vanilla Ice: To The Extreme (SBK LP/Cassette/CD)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 12 January 1991

MENTION VANILLA Ice to most "serious" music fans, especially elitist connoisseurs of rap, and their reply will most likely be brief and unprintable. Have they ...

Throwing Muses: Serious Shrinking!

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 2 February 1991

Having gone 'kooky' at 14, KRISTIN HERSH now has command of the voices in her head and channels the demonic energy into making unnerving yet ...

Cowboy Junkies: Whites Off Earth Now!!

Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, April 1991

PICTURE THE SCENE in 1986. The Junkies are lurking in their garage with a two-track machine and single microphone, ready for a jam session. But ...

Jesus Jones: Ego Freak Out

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, April 1991

NOT YOUR AVERAGE ROCK'N'ROLLER – THAT'S MIKE EDWARDS, PRIME PROPHET OF JESUS JONES, WHO SHUNS SEX'N'DRUGS AND READS MACHIAVELLI ON TOUR. STEPHEN DALTON SOAKED UP ...

Morrissey: Kill Uncle

Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, April 1991

"I DON'T WANT to be judged any more... I would rather be just blindly loved". Alas, those days are long gone, and Morrissey knows better ...

Spacemen 3, Spiritualized: Spaceman 3: Two Into Three Won't Go

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, April 1991

...OR, WE TWO WERE THREE. THE SPACEMEN THREE, THAT IS. PETER AND JASON, TO BE PRECISE. BUT WHILE THIS PAIR OF SPACE CADETS WERE ONCE ...

The Beautiful South: Sneaking Beauties

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, May 1991

PAUL HEATON GLOWERS like Mister Punch's suicidally depressed uncle with a killer migraine and inflamed piles. He is not a happy man. ...

EMF: Schubert Dip (Parlophone/All formats)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 4 May 1991

NO DIPPY HICKS! ...

The Wendys: Where Gleneagles Dare

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 4 May 1991

KEEN GOLFERS and new sound of young Scotland, The Wendys have got post-Mondays pop down to a tee. Stephen Dalton putts the questions to the ...

Steve Hillage, The Orb: The Orb: Fridge, Brixton, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 25 May 1991

AN ORB tour is already a pretty Zen concept without letting veteran hippy guitarist Steve Hillage out on a one-off day pass from Hillage Village. ...

The Fall: Mark E Smith: Not Falling, Soaring

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, June 1991

MARK E SMITH'S REPUTATION precedes him like massed stormtroopers on the horizon. Fourteen years on, the Fall frontman still sets everyone on edge, either in ...

Seal: Seal (ZTT)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 25 June 1991

SEAL CLUBBING seemed an attractive option to many last year after the leather-clad lothario ascended our charts atop a naggingly crap Adamski riff and steadfastly ...

Curve: Flexible Friend

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, July 1991

Zitty, teenaged and fresh from a garage they are not; as for being indie, ask Dave Stewart. Stephen Dalton sees what it takes to lurve ...

Salt-N-Pepa: Salt 'N' Pepa: My Condiments To The Chef

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 27 July 1991

The most successful female rap group ever, SALT 'N' PEPA have come a long way since the cartoon innuendo of 'Push It'. Now they're busy ...

The Mock Turtles: Heroes On A Hard Sell

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, August 1991

MUTANT NINJA? NO WAY, DUDE. These turtles dig artistic respect more than pizza. And though main-man Coogan was once a computer boffin. there's no scope ...

Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine: From Cardboard City To Celebrity Central

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, September 1991

A Top 20 Single in Britain, feted in the USA and Japan...Suddenly Carter are hot. But it's been a long, hard haul for this duo ...

Teenage Fanclub: I Was a Teenage Fannie

Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, November 1991

Has rock'n'roll gone soft? Live they sound like the outbreak of World War III, but off-stage Glasgow grungers Teenage Fanclub discuss new-world realpolitik and go ...

The Shamen: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 2 November 1991

SYNERGY IS dead, long live Progeny. Kicked into a different dimension by the untimely demise of bassist Will Sinnott, The Shamen's travelling rave-show finds itself ...

James: Standing Room Only

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, December 1991

It's taken eight years for Manchester pop princes James to become a BIG DEAL. But before the stadia of the world are rocked, there's that ...

My Bloody Valentine: The Sound Of Violence

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, February 1992

My Bloody Valentine inspire purple journalistic prose and surreal interpretation. But live, they just enjoy inflicting pain. Reading covers its ears while Stephen Dalton shoegazes ...

The Wedding Present: Single Sell Organism

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 1 February 1992

IN THE finest novel ever written by an Englishman, Keith Waterhouse's Billy Liar, our adolescent hero fantasises about leaving a thinly-disguised Leeds for London's bohemian ...

The High Llamas: Apricots (Plastic Records/LP/CD)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 8 February 1992

SEAN O'HAGAN and his fellow Llamas must be sick of references to their past life in Microdisney by now, but this latest mini-album undoubtedly invites ...

Massive Attack: Herb Crawlers

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 15 February 1992

When MASSIVE ATTACK released their debut LP last year, it was hailed as a masterful collage of rap, soul and reggae with a cinematic feel. ...

N-Joi: I'm To Essexy for the Charts

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 29 February 1992

Burn all your bootlegs, your boxed sets and Live At The Budokan deletions, and embrace Live In Manchester — a Techno record by N-JOI with ...

Blur, Diesel Park West, Jesus Jones: Diesel Park West/Blur/Jesus Jones: From The Soup Kitchen To The Stars

Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, March 1992

Food Records' charity knees-up included tasty appetisers of Diesel Park West, an entrée of Blur and the piece de resistance, Jesus Jones. Stephen Dalton tucked ...

Orbital: Fission Blips

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 7 March 1992

IT'S GRIM down south. Suicidally so on the remote escarpment of lunar terrain where the Dungeness nuclear reactor hums its menacing mantra out across beaches ...

The Sugarcubes: Nordic By Nature

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 28 March 1992

Hamsters of the gods, inventors of hip hop, Phil Collins fans extraordinaire… life's still too good for reality on the planet of The Sugarcubes. Stephen ...

Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine: At Home With Carter

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, April 1992

Carter can't seem to stay out of the headlines – but they're valiantly resisting the pressures of fame. Stephen Dalton toured Fruitbat's new house. ...

The Beastie Boys: Check Your Head (Capitol/All formats)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 18 April 1992

MOW BETTER BLUES ...

The House Of Love: Town & Country Club, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 23 May 1992

RAFTERS GROAN as House Of Love devotees stack themselves floor to ceiling for this live Radio XFM broadcast, sucking most of London's most unlikely demographic ...

The Levellers: An Honest Crust

Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, June 1992

The Levellers have a reputation for being anarcho-veggie activists, thanks to folksy songs about travellers and police oppression. Yet their Crass-for-the-'90s image is not strictly ...

Guns N' Roses, Metallica: Metallica: High on Iron Scion

Report by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 24 October 1992

The streamlined, black-clad resistance fighters of METALLICA are poised for a surgical strike on Guns N' Roses' hard rock throne. STEPHEN DALTON discovers the truth ...

Flowered Up, Right Said Fred: Flowered Up: Sex Pistils

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 31 October 1992

  YOU HEAR all these outrageous rumours about Flowered Up. About lavish parties which degenerate into Roman orgies where whole mansions get trashed while Kylie and ...

Labelled With Love

Report by Stephen Dalton, Vox, December 1992

Everyone from Prince to Frank Sinatra has done it, but what compels pop stars to become music biz moguls with their own record labels? Untameable ...

Spiral Tribe: You Can't Beat The System!

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 9 January 1993

Back to the future! SPIRAL TRIBE set out on the road to Stonehenge two years ago and never came back, lost in a world of ...

The Wedding Present: Hit Parade II

Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, February 1993

IT WAS A BRILLIANT CONCEPT — and it worked. One single per month in 1992, breaking records and mocking the industry machine, as they clanged ...

Senseless Things — Sense And Sensibility

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, April 1993

BEST KNOWN FOR RAUCOUS POP NUGGETS such as 'Too Much Kissing', young guns Senseless Things have toughened up, toting a beefed-up sound and an uncompromising ...

The Fall: The Infotainment Scan

Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, May 1993

FALLWATCHERS might have expected serious new directions after the band's recent severance from Polydor, but their Permanent debut finds human word-processor Mark E Smith digging ...

Blur, David Bowie, Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine, The Clash, Gallon Drunk, The Jam, The Kinks, Madness, Pet Shop Boys, The Pogues, The Rolling Stones, The Sex Pistols, The Small Faces, Suede, The The, The Who: London: Ditty Old Town

Overview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 22 May 1993

From The Kinks to Carter, Bowie to Blur, the Small Faces to Suede, British pop groups have eulogised, mythologised, criticised, glamorised, immortalised, romanticised and agonised ...

Björk

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, June 1993

With Icelandic indie stadium-fillers The Sugarcubes on seemingly permanent hold, singer Bjork Gudmundsdottir launches her solo career this month with a single, ‘Human Behaviour’. She ...

Bob Mould, Sugar: Ground Sugar

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, June 1993

After the candy-coated calm of Sugar’s Copper Blue comes the breeding, howling storm of Beaster. And the man at the helm, Bob Mould, ain’t about ...

Revolution Rock

Essay by Stephen Dalton, Vox, June 1993

Ever since Woody Guthrie scratched "This Guitar Kills Fascists" on his six-string, musicians have exploited rock's confrontational possibilities, from anti-racism to sexual revolution, in a ...

U2: Animal Lightweight: U2: Zooropa (Island)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 3 July 1993

SO THE intergalactic rock megastar reclines on his Virtual Reality waterbed at the Hotel Zooropa with multiple TV screens blasting 24-hour infotainment from every wall. ...

Funkdoobiest: Which Doobie U B? (Epic/All formats)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 24 July 1993

CARTOONS ALL over the sleeve. Distorted snapshots and stupid-fresh pseudonyms for the band: Tribal Funkster, Son Doobie and Tomahawk Funk. Goofball LA trio Funkdoobiest seem ...

Babes In Toyland: Rock And Roll Babes

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, August 1993

Deposit your 'feminist rock' preconceptions at the door, pigeonhole fans. Babes In Toyland were playing raucous licks long before the Riot Grrrls left finishing school... ...

Manic Street Preachers: Dead End Street?

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, August 1993

The revolution will not be… stretched to a second album, they once proclaimed. However, their initial dreams of world domination unrealized, what the Manic Street ...

The Breeders: Credit to the Gestation

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 7 August 1993

Attention Pixies fans! You've muddled through the, erm, muddled Frank Black album, but now here is the true heir to the Pixie throne, the real ...

U2: Welcome to Empty-V: U2's Zoo(ropa TV)

Comment by Stephen Dalton, Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 21 August 1993

Is Zoo(ropa/TV) a subversive, ironic multi-media bombardment and situationist statement or a two-hour post-modernist Pot Noodle advert made by politically naive, culturally unaware squares with ...

Curve: Cuckoo

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 11 September 1993

GOSH, DIDN'T we all lose sleep worrying whether Curve were the genuine indie article when they arrived with an almighty belch called 'Ten Little Girls' ...

One Dove: Morning Dove White (Boys Own/London/All formats)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 11 September 1993

BEAKY REALISTIC ...

Pet Shop Boys: Very (Parlophone)

Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, November 1993

A BANG, a crash, a highbrow cultural reference – and the best Pet Shop Boys album yet drops in for cream tea and scurrilous gossip. ...

Kate Bush: Shake Your Booties: Kate Bush: The Red Shoes (EMI)

Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, November 1993

THINK OF THE most unlikely pop collaborators you can imagine. Now double them. Forget it, because Ms Bush got there before you: Lenny Henry, Prince, ...

Buffalo Tom — Buffalo Stampede

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, December 1993

AS GRUNGE BECOMES the kind of monster the genre once rallied against, Buffalo Tom's old-fashioned ideals keep them on a back-breaking tour of America's Badlands. ...

Urge Overkill: Jesus Urge Superstar; Americruiser (both Touch & Go/All formats)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 22 January 1994

IF YOU were wondering what Chicago's strutting cockerels of flame-grilled dude-rock were doing before last year's acclaimed Saturation opus, the answer is in these two ...

Garth Brooks: In Pieces (Liberty/All formats)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 5 February 1994

A GENUINE multi-platinum crossover phenomenon in the US, Brooks has yet to make any serious mark over here. Raised on Kiss and Queen, the 31-year-old ...

Pulp: Riverside, Newcastle

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 7 May 1994

GESTURE GIGOLO ...

The Beastie Boys: Beastie Boys: Ill Communication (Capitol/Grand Royal EFP222 9)

Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, July 1994

BEARING A blatant allusion to their monstrous 1986 debut Licensed To Ill and a clutch of guitar-mayhem tracks recorded back in their native NYC, the ...

Beck, Body Count, Dead Kennedys, The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, Guns N' Roses, Madonna, N.W.A, Iggy Pop, Prince, The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Essential Guide To "Explicit" Albums

Guide by Stephen Dalton, Vox, August 1994

Back in 1985, one seemingly harmless song led a woman to take unprecedented action against the American recording industry. Thanks to her moral crusade, albums ...

Portishead: Dummy (Go Beat/All formats)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 13 August 1994

POOR PORTISHEAD. The town, I mean, not the slo-mo sound sculptors who have made this innocuous seaside hideaway sound so relentlessly tragic. For this is, ...

M People: Bizarre Fruit (DeConstruction)

Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, January 1995

Excess baggage ...

Moby... Dickhead?

Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, March 1995

Intelligent Techno god or the world's next fascist dictator? Moby likes to piss people off, and he's very good at it... ...

Gorky's Zygotic Mynci: Cardiff University

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, April 1995

THIS YEAR, amazingly, Wales just might become the world capital of cool. And look who's making it happen: Welsh pop's most unlikely candidates for crossover ...

Pulp: Anson Rooms, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 6 May 1995

THERE'S A new spring in Pulp's stride. Maybe it's the afterglow of romping to victory in the Sound City pop quiz earlier today, but Jarvis ...

Babes In Toyland: Garage, Glasgow

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 27 May 1995

THEY MAY be down, but the Babes come out fighting. Battling lukewarm reviews for their patchy new album and general indifference to grungular yank yowling, ...

Portishead: Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 3 June 1995

TORCH ME I'M SLICK ...

The Chemical Brothers: Apothecary Now: The Chemical Brothers : Exit Planet Dust (Junior Boys Own)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 24 June 1995

THINK OF THE truly great, era-defining albums of the last 18 months. Definitely Maybe would be in there. Ill Communication and Dummy, too. ...

Teenage Fanclub: Grand Prix (Creation CRE173)

Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, July 1995

Top Gear! ...

The Chemical Brothers, DJ Shadow, Dreadzone, Earthling, Massive Attack, Portishead, Renegade Soundwave, Tricky, Andrew Weatherall, The Wild Bunch: Trip Hop: Where The Beats Have No Name

Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, July 1995

Trip-hop is now part of pop's international language — but the pioneers of Britain's most successful musical export in years refuse to admit it exists... ...

Laurie Anderson: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 8 July 1995

PATRON SAINT of art zombies everywhere, Laurie Anderson's come a long way from playing her violin while standing on blocks of ice on street corners ...

Bon Jovi: These Days (Mercury 5282482)

Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, August 1995

RETURNING FROM their minor flirtation with funky modernity and relatively short hair on Keep The Faith, Jon and the boys swing back into classic Jovi ...

Black Grape: It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah! (Radioactive)

Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, September 1995

YOU KNOW the story. Just over two years ago, it all went pear-shaped for Shaun Ryder. Smack addiction, bitter infighting and musical stagnation finished off ...

Sleeper: Anson Rooms, Bristol University,Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 21 October 1995

THE KIPS ARE ALRIGHT ...

Money Mark: Mark's Keyboard Repair (Mo'Wax)

Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, November 1995

Boys To Man ...

The Wedding Present: Mini (Cooking Vinyl/LP/CD)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 20 January 1996

ON RADIO recently, David Gedge claimed that the most hurtful press comment he'd ever read about himself was that he had hairy ears. Well, Dave's ...

Goldie: Saturnz Return (London/All formats)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 24 January 1996

RiNGS LEADER ...

The Mike Flowers Pops: Anson Rooms, Bristol University

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 24 February 1996

TOUPEE AWAY! ...

Black Grape: Monster Bunch!: Black Grape: Empress Ballroom, Blackpool

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 13 April 1996

BLOODY HELL. Seven years since The Stone Roses played a legendary show in this very building, and seven days after they split, it's like Madchester ...

Cypress Hill: Kentish Town Forum, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 4 May 1996

INANE IN THE BRAIN ...

Sleeper: PC in our Time

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 11 May 1996

So what does it take to provoke SLEEPER'S LOUISE WENER into spouting those liberal-baiting, feminist-hating statements of old? What about old fave, political correctness? Oasis? ...

Moby: Water Rats, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 27 July 1996

THE POCKET-SIZED Henry Rollins must be insane. He's clearly gone stark raving crucifix-tattoo-on-the- back-of-his-neck bonkers. ...

Kenickie: It's Great When You're Straight 'A'... Yeah!

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 7 September 1996

They're impossibly young, they're most definitely 'free', they are KENICKIE and they've got A-levels coming out of their ears! And their lo-fi three-girl-one-boy punkoid action ...

808 State, Björk, Underworld: Björk, Underworld, 808 State: Irvine Beach '96, Irvine Beach Park, Scotland

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 14 September 1996

BEACHED WAILS ...

Sheryl Crow: Carrion up the Charts

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 5 October 1996

SHERYL CROW doesn't torture small furry animals with big eyes or sponsor international terrorism. In fact, she's a smart and charming lady. OK, so she ...

Aphex Twin: Teddy or Not

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 9 November 1996

Techno's eccentric ginger prince APHEX TWIN likes to make noises that upset people. Incredible, then, that he's sold tons of records and made a wad ...

Spice Girls: What's The Piquancy…?: Spice Girls: Spice (Virgin)

Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, December 1996

THEY'RE NOT MANUFACTURED! They're not the female Take That! They drink, swear, shag and write their own songs! They believe in "girl power" and use ...

Billy Mackenzie: Beyond The Sun

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 1997

BILLY MACKENZIE was narcissism made flesh, the Devil's grin on his dimpled face and the best white pop voice of the last 20 years gushing ...

Daft Punk: Ready, Study, Go!: Daft Punk: Homework (Virgin)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 18 January 1997

AS A RULE, the better a country's cuisine, the worse its pop music. Hence the illustrious rock'n'roll lineage of Great Britain, land of lardy stodge ...

David Bowie: Drum 'N' Bass Oddity

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 1 February 1997

Forget the '80s. Forget Let's Dance and Tin Machine. Forget the mullets. 'Cos DAVID BOWIE'S discovered jungle and he's back with a vengeance. STEPHEN DALTON ...

No Doubt: Ska Defaced

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 15 February 1997

• What's with America, eh? First they make Bush megastars, then they take our beloved ska, add saccharine to it and sell it back to ...

The Orb: Orblivion (Island)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 22 February 1997

AFTER FIVE years of squandered promise, wrong turnings, bitter splits and experimental muck-spreading, how much can we honestly expect from Alex Paterson? Five years in ...

Pizzicato Five: Caught In A Von Trapp! Pizzicato Five

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, March 1997

PIZZICATO FIVE look like the coolest band on Earth, a stylish visual remix of every trash cultural icon from the past four decades. They are ...

Republica: The Spice Girl

Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 1 March 1997

AMERICA SNEEZES, the saying goes, and Britain catches a cold. Well wrap up warm and get the Night Nurse in, because America has got the ...

Reef: Bristol University, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 8 March 1997

THRUST NEVER SLEEPS ...

Eternal: Before The Rain (EMI/CD/Tape)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 15 March 1997

IN THEIR Louise days, Eternal looked set to be the Spice Girls in negative, thanks to their upbeat pop-soul tunes and post-fem sauce-bomb image. The ...

Pet Shop Boys, Suede: Neil Tennant, Brett Anderson and Vic Reeves: Twentieth Century Blues

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, April 1997

WHAT A SIMPLY spiffing party. The glint of expensive a jewellery, the waft of exotic perfume, the tinkle of erudite conversation "More cocaine, vicar? Help ...

Bentley Rhythm Ace: Bentley Rhythm Ace (Skint/LP/CD)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 10 May 1997

WILD IN THE BLACK COUNTRY ...

Mansun: Attack of the Japanese Lantern!

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 10 May 1997

OK, so top pop fashion monkeys MANSUN may not have exactly been bombarded by lanterns while touring Japan and environs, but they were: Besieged by ...

Warren G: Kentish Town Forum, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 17 May 1997

SNOOZE IN DA HOUSE! ...

Spiritualized: Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, June 1997

SPIRITUALIZED albums, like the Hale-Bopp comet, swoop in from the heavens at highly irregular intervals. Their opiated drones and over-reaching pretensions are usually greeted with ...

Tupac Shakur: Hour Of The Gun: The Wasted Life And Brutal Death Of Tupac Shakur

Profile by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, July 1997

EVEN BY THE BRUTAL STANDARDS OF thug life, his was a particularly merciless encounter. It took less than two minutes for Mike Tyson to pummel ...

Monaco: Music For Pleasure

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, July 1997

IN THE absence of any definite New Order activity for the foreseeable future, Peter Hook's latest project shamelessly recreates his pop past without even bothering ...

Wu-Tang Clan: Wu-Tang Forever

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, July 1997

THEY LIVE in a house, a very big house, in the country. But considering that much of their energy, vision and ground-breaking ferocity derives from ...

Coolio: My Soul (Tommy Boy)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 30 August 1997

THE MAN christened Artis Ivey is back with his third opus, having conquered the pop cosmos with 'Gangsta's Paradise' two years ago. He's still got ...

Radiohead: The Dour & The Glory

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, September 1997

You join us in Belgium where RADIOHEAD are currently entertaining a rather large festival crowd. So let's slip away with frontman THOM YORKE as he ...

Morrissey: This Bloke Isn't Funny Anymore: Morrissey: Maladjusted (Island)

Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, September 1997

ANOTHER YEAR, another Morrissey album. His ninth, incredibly, though you'd be hard-pressed to name the whole lot, never mind recommend them. Which, in itself, is ...

Stereolab: Dots And Loops (Duophonic)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 20 September 1997

STEREOLAB ARE running dogs of bourgeois revisionism who, come the revolution, will be hunted down and shot like the lowly vermin they are. ...

Roni Size and Reprazent: Victoria Park, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 27 September 1997

SIZE MATTERS! ...

Roni Size and Reprazent: Pet Projects Win Prizes

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 18 October 1997

RONI SIZE and REPRAZENT's Mercury Prize-winning brand of soulful drum'n'bass has made them the most successful junglist crossover act yet... NME finds out why. Breakbeats ...

Morrissey: Battersea Power Station, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 3 January 1998

OLD POWER VENERATION ...

Aphex Twin, Death In Vegas, Goldie, The Prodigy: Big Brother Is Watching Your Video!

Report by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 31 January 1998

Seen that Prodigy video yet? What about the promo for Aphex Twin's 'Come To Daddy' single or Death In Vegas' 'Dirt'? Nah? Well, why not? ...

Ian Brown: Unfinished Monkey Business

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, February 1998

Urbane Gorilla: The Stone Rose, back from the dead ...

Propellerheads: Chelsea Bridge Studios, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 14 February 1998

FUSSY LOGIC ...

CappaDonna: The Pillage (Razor Sharp/Epic/All formats)

Comment by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 21 March 1998

THE 'DON IS the raspy-throated Wu-Tang junior partner who provided most of the standout raps on the Clan's disappointing second group album last year. This ...

Groove Armada: Northern Star (Tummy Touch/CD/LP)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 21 March 1998

JUST ONE of the trade names of Tom Findlay and Andy Cato, London club promoters and jazz-funk veterans, Groove Armada's debut album is an oddly ...

Suicide: Garage, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 21 March 1998

The OD couple ...

Pulp: Talkin' Lewd

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 28 March 1998

...But it's not just rude things JARVIS COCKER and PULP are talking about. They're also chatting about the new album, losing a band member, losing ...

The Jesus & Mary Chain: Water Rat, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 28 March 1998

THREE YEARS AWAY from the fray, denied the Mercury Prize, shunted off their major label deal and back in the bosom of Creation, can the ...

Madonna: Ray Of Light

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, April 1998

La Ciccone's latest embarks on a course of 'techno' therapy ...

Garbage: Version 2.0 (Mushroom)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 9 May 1998

IN OUR post-Prodigy, post-Marilyn Manson times, it feels almost churlish to criticise Garbage's impeccably tailored cybergoth rocktronica. So maybe they are the Disco Tin Machine ...

The Jesus & Mary Chain: Welcome to the Resurrection

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, June 1998

The most fearsomely iconoclastic anti-rock band since The Sex Pistols are back with a blistering new album. Stephen Dalton meets THE JESUS ANF MARY CHAIN ...

Embrace: The Good Will Out

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, July 1998

Belated, soul-stirring debut from justifiably hyped Yorkshiremen ...

Kylie Minogue: Shepherds Bush Empire, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 31 July 1998

SHE MAY HAVE spent most of the Nineties pursuing different musical directions with mixed results, but Kylie Minogue can still sell out three nights at ...

Pulp: Jarvis Cocker

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, August 1998

The Pulp frontman takes a stairlift to heaven as he reflects on post-coital guilt and post-Britpop blues ...

PJ Harvey: Homecoming Queenie: PJ Harvey: Arts Centre, Bridport

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 15 August 1998

PERCHED ON A rocky coast in deepest Dorset, sleepy Bridport is Polly Harvey's home turf. Approaching this outpost of rural Britain on humid summer nights, ...

The Monkees: Daydream Believer Film

Film/DVD/TV Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, September 1998

Stephen Dalton profiles Daydream Believers, a new documentary tracing the lives of Hollywood wannabes who flunked the audition to join the most famous manufactured pop ...

PJ Harvey: A Desire for Life

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 3 October 1998

Welcome to Pollyworld, a world in which David Beckham, South Park and The Big Breakfast don't exist, but fun, relationships with Nick Cave and therapy ...

Stereophonics: ­Stereophonics: Cwmaman Overboard

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 10 October 1998

Since shifting 300,000 albums, Stereophonics have been schmoozing in London's trendy Met Bar and hanging with Kevin Spacey and Robbie Williams. So, kids, have the ...

Fatboy Slim: You've Come A Long Way, Baby (Skint)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 17 October 1998

A FEW SHORT years ago, Quentin 'Norman' Cook was staring poverty, divorce and imminent nervous breakdown in the face. Despite a string of inspired chart-pop ...

Placebo: Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 17 October 1998

FLACCID HOUSE ...

Glam Rock: Scary Monsters, Super Freaks #1

Special Feature by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, November 1998

THE FREAKS ARE OUT IN FORCE TONIGHT. Squeezed into lurid outfits, hair dyed every artificial hue imaginable, braying and squealing and jostling for position. ...

Natalie Imbruglia: Civic Hall, Wolverhampton

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 21 November 1998

WHOLESOME LOTTA LOVE ...

Nine Inch Nails: An Interview with Trent Reznor

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 1999

THE PRINCE of pain has a severe case of the sniffles. Imprisoned in a swanky London hotel, Trent Reznor has been laid low by a ...

The Prodigy: Prodigy: Chat Of The Landowners

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 1 January 1999

In the second of this two-parter with PRODIGY'S LIAM HOWLETT, NME has a word, Hello!-stylee, about his new country home, his pal Keith and his ...

Pete Waterman: The Puppetmasterplan

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 9 January 1999

Pete Waterman: scourge of the majors, champion of the people and the most wonderful man in Britain? Or just the tosser who brought us Jason ...

Beck, Goldie, Ian Brown, Kylie Minogue, PJ Harvey, Pulp, R.E.M.: Pete Waterman: Style Counsel

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 16 January 1999

Last week, Pete Waterman the Brian Clough of pop, stoutly defended his new teenpop cadets Steps and his revitalised label PWL. Here Doctor Waterman offers ...

Robert Wyatt: EPs

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 20 February 1999

ROBERT WYATT has been a ghostly presence in progressive British pop for the last 30 years. ...

The Beautiful South

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, March 1999

BLASTING INTO Munich airport for 24 hours on the road with the Beautiful South, the band’s publicist offers some sage advice: "Just don’t try to ...

Ol' Dirty Bastard, Wu-Tang Clan: Ol' Dirty Bastard: America's Most Wanted

Report by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 10 April 1999

Ol' Dirty Bastard's rap sheet pisses on Mark Morrison's. But are the cops really out to get him? Are gangstas gunning for him? Or is ...

Cornelius: Beck to the Future

Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, June 1999

CORNELIUS is a pick 'n' mix match retro-futurist whizz-kid. Stephen Dalton meets the boy they're calling the Japanese Beck ...

Basement Jaxx: First Cuts: Today's New Names, Tomorrow's Big Stars... Basement Jaxx

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, June 1999

Hedonistic, house-based groovers with attitude ...

Chuck D

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 24 July 1999

Once he was undisputed heavyweight champion of the rap universe, booming apocalyptic conspiracy theories from some of the most earth-shattering hip-hop albums of the last ...

Melanie C: Mel C: C99 Go!

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 21 August 1999

She looks a bit like Iggy, she's been hanging around the Viper Room of late and now Mel C is stepping out of Spiceworld to ...

Puff Daddy: Bentley Rhythm Not So Ace: Puff Daddy: Forever (Arista)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 28 August 1999

HIS DAD was a hustler, his mother a model, he went to private school and he drives a Bentley convertible. If he were British, Sean ...

Madness: Naughty Boys In Nasty Schools

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Later, September 1999

NAUGHTY BOYS IN NASTY SCHOOLS ...

Faithless: Dig the New Creed

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 25 September 1999

From Euro-disco trance nutters to Mercury-friendly rock'n'soul pluralists finally getting the respect they deserve — you've heard the word, now come worship in the house ...

Beck: "Postmodern Irony Is Like A Bad Smell In The Bathroom"

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 16 October 1999

Has he who smelt it dealt it? Beck answers some burning questions. ...

Muse: Showbiz Kids

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 16 October 1999

Oh, the angst! The pain! Searching for truth in a meaningless world… Such is life in Teignmouth. Just ask Muse, three lads who've escaped small-town ...

U2: In the Name of Love

Retrospective by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, December 1999

Twenty years ago next month, four teenagers from Dublin played their first British date in a north London pub, in front of less than a ...

Muse

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, January 2000

West Country trio reach for the skies ...

Cabaret Voltaire

Retrospective and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, February 2000

THE CROWD ARE ALREADY PRETTY fired up when the steamingly drunk weirdo trapped in flashing fairy lights tosses his guitar into the audience. This is ...

Norman Cook

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, February 2000

IN 1999, THE former Housemartin's career went supemova, earning him millions from his FATBOY SLIM records, remixes and DJ sets. Following the death of big ...

The Cure: Bloodflowers

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, March 2000

POSSIBLE SWANSONG from crying-on-the-inside clown prince of Stadium Goth. ...

Shelby Lynne

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, April 2000

SPRAWLED ACROSS the lunar desert floor in the sun-baked heart of Southern Calfornia, Palm Springs is the last stop before paradise for rich, wrinkled Americans. ...

Smashing Pumpkins: Machina/The Machines Of God

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, April 2000

MONOLITHIC GOTH-metal comeback from crisis-hit Mr Happy of alternative rock. ...

Andrew Loog Oldham, The Rolling Stones: Andrew Loog Oldham

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, June 2000

As manager of The Rolling Stones for most of the Sixties, ANDREW LOOG OLDHAM became almost as famous as the band themselves. Modelling himself on ...

Moby: The Story So Far/Ambient/Early Underground/ Rare: The Collected B-Sides 1989 — 1993

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, July 2000

Feted techno munchkin's prolific past catches up with him ...

Cabaret Voltaire, Depeche Mode, Fad Gadget, Giorgio Moroder, Japan, Kraftwerk, Soft Cell, Suicide: Various Artists: Dawn Of Electronica

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, July 2000

Founding fathers of technopop come together in electro land ...

Joy Division: Ian Curtis

Profile by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, August 2000

IAN CURTIS has amassed more disciples since his death 20 years ago than he ever attracted as singer with Manchester post-punk legends Joy Division. ...

The Carpenters: Karen Carpenter

Retrospective by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, August 2000

KAREN CARPENTER possesses such iconic value now — feminist totem, camp death-cult, Prozac Nation suffragette — it is increasingly difficult to assess her unique musical ...

Tupac Shakur

Retrospective by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, August 2000

TUPAC AMARU SHAKUR seemed to consider himself immortal, and there are certainly many who still refuse to believe the 25-year-old rapper died after a Las ...

Eminem: America's Most Wanted

Special Feature by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 12 August 2000

Y2K has been something of an annus horribilis for Eminem (discounting the ten million album sales, that is). Faced with a lawsuit from his mum, ...

Mansun: Little Kix

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, September 2000

THREE IS the magic number for Britrock alchemists ...

Tim Westwood: Westwood Yo!

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 9 September 2000

Word up homie, knowwhatI'msayin'? Tim Westwood may talk like a herbert, but his contribution to hip-hop is unsurpassed on this side of the Atlanic. Now ...

Monaco: Papillon

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, October 2000

BELATED SOPHOMORE opus from Wallace And Gromit of Manc disco-rock. ...

Paul Weller, The Style Council: The Style Council

Retrospective by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, October 2000

WELLER'S cappuccino-drinking years ...

Eminem, Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, Xzibit: Eminem Takes The Bizkit!

Report by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 28 October 2000

What happens when America's two biggest antiheroes share the same stage? Join NME at Anger Management, the climactic enormodome showdown between Eminem and Limp Bizkit. ...

Rage Against the Machine: Zac De La Rocha: "Every song I've ever written is a love song!"

Report by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 11 November 2000

…but now that Zack De La Rocha has penned his last for legendary polemic rockers Rage Against The Machine, will anyone fill the hole in ...

Chilly Gonzales: The Entertainist

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, December 2000

Sleazy post-party grooves from original prankster ...

Radiohead and Whose Army

Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, 2001

THE TOWERING inferno is visible from miles away. Thom Yorke drives towards the horizon, the acrid stench of toxic smoke filling his car. He cranks ...

OutKast

Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 6 January 2001

They claim to be outsiders, but psychedelic southern playas Big Boi and Dre are already two million LPs ahead of the rap competition. ...

Massive Attack: 24-Hour Arty People

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 13 January 2001

Two years and one near implosion later, Massive Attack are back; their new material is ready and everything's as it should be. But what's with ...

Cameron Crowe: Bringing It All Back Home

Profile by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, February 2001

"If people have a problem with Almost Famous, what they're saying is they have a problem with my life." ...

Grandaddy: Bristol University

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 5 February 2001

EMERGING from the California hinterlands four years ago, Grandaddy embody a diversion from prevailing trends in America's so-called alternative rock community. Not for songwriter Jason ...

Jane Birkin, Serge Gainsbourg: Jane Birkin: A Legend In Her Own T'aime

Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 12 February 2001

In 1969, Jane Birkin shocked the world. Now her heavy breathing is back. ...

Ladytron: 604

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, March 2001

BACK TO the future with enigmatic pop androids. ...

Daft Punk: Romocops: Daft Punk: Discovery (Virgin)

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 10 March 2001

FOUR YEARS after Homework redefined dance music, turned handbag house into High Art and landed every disco chancer in Paris a record deal, can Thomas ...

Depeche Mode

Retrospective and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, May 2001

DAVE GAHAN can't breathe. He can also hear nothing. Which is a little odd because there are 30,000 Depeche Mode fans just yards away, screaming ...

Tupac Shakur: 2Pac: Until The End Of Time; Various Artists: Death Row Records — Greatest Hits

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, June 2001

Flawed flashbacks to a turbulent chapter in hip hop history ...

To Rococo Rot

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, June 2001

Soothing German trio ...

Paul McCartney: Wingspan (EMI)***

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, July 2001

MACCA'S FIRST post-Fabs decade. ...

Pet Shop Boys: Reissues

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, July 2001

First six studio albums plus Tennant's extra ...

N.E.R.D.: N*E*R*D: In Search Of...

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 18 August 2001

AS THE NEPTUNES, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo are the only serious rivals to fellow Virginia Beach native Timbaland's studio dominance over the smart end ...

Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Tupac Shakur, Snoop (Doggy) Dogg: Suge Knight: Knight's Tale

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 15 September 2001

INCARCERATION, CORRUPT LA COPS, FEUDS WITH DRE AND SNOOP, DEATH ROW RECORDS, GOD AND POLITICS: THE GODFATHER OF GANGSTA RAP SUGE KNIGHT IS OUT OF ...

Depeche Mode: Waldbühne, Berlin

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 22 September 2001

STILL GAHAN STRONG ...

Radiohead: I Might Be Wrong — Live Recordings (Parlophone) ***

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, December 2001

JAZZWANK ROADSHOW goes nuclear. ...

Soft Cell: Non-Stop Electronic Cabaret

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, December 2001

BEHIND THE perky peroxide quiff and gym-toned body, Marc Almond is shitting himself. Almost two decades have passed since he last performed under the Soft ...

The Cure: The Cure Greatest Hits (Mercury) ****

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, December 2001

GALORE UPDATED: more jam-smeared love muffin, vicar? ...

Madonna: GHV2

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, January 2002

Second decade of hits and myths from La Ciccone — but no 'American Pie' ...

Cornelius: Point (Matador)****

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, February 2002

ECLECTO-POP renaissance ape goes forward to the past on second worldwide release ...

Factory Records and 24 Hour Party People

Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, April 2002

THEY SAID IT could never happen again. But here we are, trapped in a recurring dream. A chilly Friday night in a cavernous warehouse in ...

The Notwist

Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, April 2002

LAUGH ALONG to the post-rocking German boffins. ...

The Police

Retrospective and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, April 2002

YOUR NAME IS Sting. You are the planet's biggest rock star. But lately you don't like what you see in the mirror. You seem to ...

Damon Albarn, Afel Bocoum, Toumani Diabaté & Friends: Mali Music (Honest Jon's)

Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 13 April 2002

YOU HAVE to admire his nerve, if nothing else. In between existing musical commitments to Blur and Gorillaz, Damon Albarn is going global with his ...

Primal Scream: Evil Heat

Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 3 August 2002

SCREAM'S MULTI-WARHEAD DISCO-PUNK LOVE MISSILE OF A SEVENTH ALBUM ...

Radiohead: Subterranean Homesick Aliens

Overview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 3 August 2002

How five bookish Middle Englanders became the world's most vital band ...

Roddy Frame: Surf (Redemption)****

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, September 2002

UNPLUGGED SOLO outing from Glaswegian Peter Pan. ...

Soft Cell: Cruelty Without Beauty (Cooking Vinyl) ****

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, October 2002

ORIGINAL CHEMICAL brothers make timely comeback ...

Wyclef Jean, Tom Jones: Tom Jones: Soul mates

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 2 November 2002

What do you get if you cross hip-hop superstar Wyclef Jean with the voice from the Valleys? The most soulful record of Tom Jones's career, ...

Tenacious D: D-linquent, d-generate and d-praved!

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 16 November 2002

Leaders of the satanic rock revolution, cult spunk guzzlers Tenacious D have already lured Dave Grohl, Weezer and Tool into their sleaze-sodden underworld where orgies ...

The Music, The Vines: Highly Involved! The Vines/The Music: Newport Music Hall, Coloumbus/Bogart's, Cincinnati

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 21 December 2002

IN THE concrete catacombs beneath Bogart's, a barn-like venue in the northern suburbs of Cincinnati, a home-made rock'n'roll ornament takes pride of place on the ...

Röyksopp: Bristol Academy

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 21 December 2002

NINE MONTHS AGO, the Norwegian electronic duo Röyksopp were the cultish darlings of the style press, their debut album Melody AM hailed as an esoteric ...

New Order: Retro

Review and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, January 2003

Four CDs of Mancunian magic from New Order's back pages, including cherry-picked album tracks, B-sides, rarities, remixes and live performances ...

Public Enemy: Revolverlution

Review and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, January 2003

Eighth album from rap renegades is a 21-track jumble of new tracks, live performances and fan remixes. ...

Eminem: The Most Hotly Anticipated Movie Of The Year!

Report by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 18 January 2003

…but is it any good? NME gives you the ultimate lowdown on Eminem's forthcoming blockbuster 8 Mile ...

Asian Dub Foundation: Foundation Course

Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, unpublished, February 2003

JOHN PANDIT is hopping mad. We were supposed to be discussing the latest album by Pandit's multi-cultural protest-pop collective Asian Dub Foundation, but our interview ...

Massive Attack Take A Stand

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Scotsman, February 2003

3D talks to Stephen Dalton about war, melancholia and the duo's new 100th Window. ...

Mike Oldfield: Tubular Bells 2003

Review and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, July 2003

Deathless proto-ambient dinosaur that punk could not kill returns for 21st-century remake. ...

Radiohead: Hail To The Thief

Review and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, July 2003

Ungainly gothic masterpiece marks partial return to classic rock. ...

Kraftwerk: Return of the Robots of Rock

Comment by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 4 July 2003

Kraftwerk are about to release their first album in a decade — probably. Stephen Dalton examines the mythical status of the men from Düsseldorf.  ...

The White Stripes: White Stripes Or Shite Hype?

Comment by Stephen Dalton, The Times, August 2003

NEXT WEEK the White Stripes release their latest single, a highly distinctive reading of the Burt Bacharach standard 'I Just Don't Know What To Do ...

50 Cent: Wembley Arena

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, September 2003

JUST HOURS after winning an impressive trio of MOBO awards at the Royal Albert Hall, gangsta rap superstar 50 Cent played his biggest UK show ...

Brian Wilson Presents Smile: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 21 February 2004

HE MAY HAVE taken more drugs than anyone else in the 1960s, but Brian Wilson is still a handsome man. At his best, grooving away ...

Radiohead: Hail to the 'Head

Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Age, April 2004

EVERY GENERATION produces a band that fiercely divides critical and public opinion, and nobody has carried that torch higher in the 21st century than Radiohead. ...

Kraftwerk: OK Computer

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, April 2004

KRAFTWERK's impact on electronic rock is incalculable, from Bowie's Low to Radiohead's Kid A. In this rare interview, mainman Ralf Hütter reveals all about this ...

Marvin Gaye: Motown Junkie

Retrospective by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, May 2004

Marvin Gaye was the first superstar of soul. He was also a tortured narcissus in thrall to sexual and narcotic cravings. And then, on April ...

Bryan Ferry: Kenwood House, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, July 2004

THE ATMOSPHERE was more Glyndebourne than Glastonbury when Bryan Ferry brought his impeccably groomed lounge-soul floorshow to the leafy grounds of Kenwood House on Saturday ...

Basement Jaxx, Goldie Lookin' Chain: Basement Jaxx/Goldie Lookin' Chain: Bristol Canons Marsh

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, August 2004

AFTER A SLUGGISH start, the finale of Bristol's Grolsh Summer Set shows felt like a largely triumphant affair on Wednesday. Local acts featured on the ...

Jah Wobble

Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, August 2004

THE LAST time Jah Wobble got into a public punch-up was half a decade ago, squaring up to a street gang on his East End ...

Madonna : Manchester Evening News Arena

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, August 2004

PARTS OF MANCHESTER almost ground to a halt this weekend as the European wing of Madonna’s Reinvention Tour opened with two nights at the city’s ...

Nick Cave: "I Wasn't Sid Vicious": Nick Cave

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, September 2004

FOR A HIGH-MINDED musical elder statesman like Nick Cave, cultural credibility comes in many forms. The 47-year-old Australian export has hosted London's Meltdown festival, been ...

Pet Shop Boys: The Pet Shop Boys: Pop-aganda

Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 3 September 2004

Potemkin and the sound of a Pet Shop Boy ...

Elvis Costello & The Imposters: The Delivery Man (Mercury)***

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, November 2004

EMERGING FROM AN uneven middle period of marital discord, free-range experimentation and ill-advised beards, the artist formerly known as Declan MacManus appears to have upped ...

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Hastings Pier

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, November 2004

MANY ROCK STARS would recoil at the notion of playing an end-of the-pier ballroom in a shabby South Coast retirement town, but Nick Cave appeared ...

U2 and the Making of Achtung Baby

Retrospective and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, November 2004

TOYKO, LATE 1993, somewhere in the fast-forward blur of the dying 20th century. As the biggest, loudest, most expensive and technically ambitious rock tour in ...

John Peel RIP

Obituary by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, December 2004

LONG BEFORE we met, John Peel felt like a good friend. For those millions of us who spent our adolescence glued to his late-night radio ...

The Darkness: SECC, Glasgow

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, December 2004

IN POP, last year's underdog can so easily become this year's one-trick pony. The Darkness ended 2003 as the former rank outsiders who triumphed over ...

Rammstein: Brixton Academy

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, February 2005

A GRAND theatrical spectacle to rival any West End show, the industrial rock carnival that is Rammstein thundered into Brixton on Thursday to kick off ...

Razorlight: Manchester Apollo

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, February 2005

AS IF TAKING their cue from their friends, The Libertines, Razorlight have spent much of 2005 rocked by public tantrums and rumours of imminent disintegration. ...

The Chemical Brothers: Chemical Brothers: Apollo, Manchester

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 14 March 2005

FOR MUCH of the past decade, the Chemical Brothers seemed indestructible. They topped the charts, broke audience records at Glastonbury, and even won a Grammy ...

Daft Punk: Human After All

Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 19 March 2005

THE THIRD album from Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manual de Homem Christo, the self-styled cyborg rulers of Parisian disco-pop, was initially trailed as a harder and ...

Beck, Guero and Scientology

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Scotland on Sunday, 26 March 2005

ON THE SURFACE, nothing is wrong with Beck Hansen. No wires protrude from his dirty-blond moptop. No glazed expressions, no shifty answers, no sense of ...

Einsturzende Neubauten: The Forum, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, April 2005

WHAT HAPPENS when enfants terribles of avant-garde industrial noise grow into comfortable middle age? In the case of Einsturzende Neubauten, the former godfathers of Berlin's ...

Moby In Vegas

Report by Stephen Dalton, The Times, May 2005

YOU DO not need to travel too far from the Hard Rock Hotel to find the tacky glamour that earned Las Vegas its reputation as ...

Kraftwerk

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, June 2005

FEW BANDS in pop history are quite as mysterious, elusive and maddeningly eccentric as Kraftwerk. But few remain as enduringly influential either. In 2005, even ...

Dinosaur Jr: The Forum, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 10 June 2005

IT MAY tell us something about the sorry state of contemporary rock, but at least one semi-legendary cult band from the 1980s seems to reform ...

U2: City of Manchester Stadium

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 16 June 2005

STILL THRILLING huge audiences more than 25 years into their career, U2 become ever more impressive in their longevity, integrity, capacity for reinvention and willingness ...

Rutles.The: The Rutles: Rock Café 2000, Stourbridge

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 18 June 2005

A COMEDY sketch that grew into an cult, the Rutles may be a joke that delivered its punchline almost three decades ago, but 200 or ...

Snoop (Doggy) Dogg: Snoop Dogg: Cardiff International Arena

Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 6 July 2005

HE MAY have caused a minor rumpus with his expletive-laden lyrics at Live 8, but the dapper rapper Snoop Dogg was in unruffled mood on ...

Kurt Cobain: Suicide Blond

Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, August 2005

Gus Van Sant befriended Kurt Cobain during his rise to global stardom. Now the director has made a film based on the grunge superstar's harrowing ...

Sonic Youth: Kim Gordon

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, September 2005

BACKSTAGE AT V Festival, the queen mother of punk rock shelters from the punishing sun. With her dirty-blonde hair and boho-bag-lady chic, Kim Gordon cuts ...

Kim Gordon, Sonic Youth: Punk's Queen Mother: Kim Gordon

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, September 2005

BACKSTAGE AT V Festival, the queen mother of punk rock shelters from the punishing sun. With her dirty-blonde hair and boho-bag-lady chic, Kim Gordon cuts ...

a-ha

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, November 2005

IN 2005, there are few cooler pop names to drop than a-ha. Coldplay and Travis are not just avowed fans but sometime collaborators with the ...

Rosanne Cash's Cadillac

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, January 2006

ROSANNE CASH has already been to church by the time we meet for breakfast. As dawn broke on this wintry Parisian morning, the singer-songwriter slipped ...

Coldcut: Cargo, EC2

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 23 January 2006

LONG BEFORE Basement Jaxx or Fatboy Slim, Matt Black and Jonathan More were Britain's original kings of big beats. ...

Morrissey: The Lowry, Salford

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, April 2006

THE SENSE OF feverish anticipation that Morrissey still generates before each live performance, record release and even interview is a remarkable testament to the cult ...

Erasure: Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 18 April 2006

WITH BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN dominating the recent Academy Awards, 2006 is shaping up to be a vintage year for camp cowboys. ...

Primal Scream, The Stone Roses: Primal Scream: An interview with Mani

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, May 2006

LEGENDARY HEDONIST and bassman Gary 'Mani' Mounfield talks about Primal Scream, Roses reunion rumours and the "Mexican stand-off" between his former bandmates... ...

Ian Brown: Q&A with Ian Brown

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, May 2006

MARCH 2006, and King Monkey is swinging from the ceiling of his record label offices, grinning as he tapes over the smoke alarm for an ...

The Streets: Colston Hall, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 8 May 2006

FAME, ACCLAIM and sudden wealth can be terrible burdens for a young pop star. Such is the overriding theme of The Hardest Way to Make ...

Cortney Tidwell: ICA, SW1

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 16 May 2006

CROUCHED BEHIND an acoustic guitar on a pocket-sized stage, Cortney Tidwell struggled to be heard above the chatter of the late-night drinkers who crowded her ...

The Beastie Boys: Awesome Welles: The Beastie Boys' Home Movie

Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, June 2006

THE WAY Beastie Boys rapper turned movie director Adam "MCA" Yauch tells it, the idea to film the band's sold-out homecoming gig at Madison Square ...

Bob Dylan: International Arena, Cardiff

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, June 2006

THE CULT OF Bob Dylan stands at its highest point for decades, bolstered by the singer's highly regarded US radio show and superb memoir Chronicles. ...

Fatboy Slim

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, June 2006

THE SUN DECK of Norman Cook's seafront Brighton home juts out over a stony stretch of supposedly private beach. But it is not that private, ...

Muse: Black Holes and Revelations

Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, June 2006

COMPARED TO the mighty cosmic thunder of Muse, the undernourished hipsters of the current Britrock scene sound like puny little insects. Matt Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme ...

Shirley Bassey: Cardiff International Arena

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, June 2006

SHE MAY BE OLDER than John Prescott and camper than Liberace, but Dame Shirley Bassey's sold-out homecoming show in Cardiff on Tuesday was greeted with ...

The Stone Roses: The Resurrection of the Stone Roses: Ian's Story

Retrospective and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, June 2006

MARCH 2006, and King Monkey is swinging from the ceiling of his record label offices, grinning as he tapes over the smoke alarm for an ...

The Futureheads: Manchester Academy

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 7 June 2006

PACKING OUT the Manchester date of their latest British tour, the Futureheads played with just enough wit and grit to defy the formulaic mannerisms that ...

Johnny Cash: American V

Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, July 2006

MORE THAN THREE YEARS after his death, the Man In Black is still enjoying the kind of final-act career resurgence that artists half his age ...

Kanye West: Late Orchestration (Mercury/Def Jam) ***

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, July 2006

Superstar rapper reinvents his sound at intimate London show ...

Peaches: Impeach My Bush

Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 7 July 2006

MIX THE rudest bits of Madonna, Goldfrapp, Pink, Lil’ Kim and Princess Superstar and — arguably — you get Peaches. ...

The Neptunes, N.E.R.D., Pharrell Williams: Pharrell Williams: Sorry, laydeez, he's booked

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 21 July 2006

Music is my one true love, says blingtastic baron of beats, Pharrell Williams ...

Muse: Ready For Blast Off

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 29 July 2006

IN KEEPING with his reputation as Britrock's reigning maestro of overblown melodrama, Matt Bellamy lives in a grand old villa overlooking Lake Como in northern ...

Kanda Bongo Man, Konono No. 1: Womad: Rivermead, Reading

Report by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 1 August 2006

THE MOST relaxed and family-friendly festival of the summer season, Womad again transformed a quiet corner of the Thames Valley into a bustling global village ...

Fun-Da-Mental: Angry in the UK: Fun-da-mental

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 4 August 2006

Fun-Da-Mental's new album gives voice to Muslim rage, says its creator Aki Nawaz ...

Audio Bullys: Electric Gardens festival: Mount Ephraim, Kent

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 9 August 2006

IT MAY BE a reaction to the vacuum left by the dormant Glastonbury, but there has been an unprecedented explosion in small-scale boutique festivals this ...

Akala: Exploding on to the scene

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 18 August 2006

Mobo nominee MC Akala is more than just Ms Dynamite's little brother. ...

Bob Dylan: Modern Times (Columbia) ***

Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 26 August 2006

ARRIVING IN THE afterglow of Martin Scorsese's laudatory No Direction Home, Dylan's first album in five years carries the burden of great expectations. But behind ...

R.E.M.: Michael Stipe: An Interview

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, September 2006

THE ROOF TERRACE alone in Michael Stipe's ultra-deluxe Knightsbridge hotel suite is bigger than most luxury flats. Boasting its own sauna and dining hall, the ...

Missy Elliott: NIA, Birmingham

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 6 October 2006

IT IS an inspiring testament to the broad church of pop that a comically eccentric, musically adventurous, downright surreal figure such as Missy Elliott can ...

Snow Patrol: NIA Birmingham

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 30 November 2006

THIS IS a big week for Snow Patrol. On Sunday their fourth album, Eyes Open, was certified as the bestselling UK release of 2006, with ...

Tenacious D: MEN Arena, Manchester

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 15 December 2006

NO ORDINARY BAND could have made their Manchester debut by packing the city's largest rock venue. But Tenacious D pulled off this impressive feat, thanks ...

The Killers: MEN Arena, Manchester

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 20 February 2007

BRINGING A dash of Las Vegas flash to the future home of Britain's first supercasino, the Killers crowned last week's Brit Awards win for best ...

Metallica: The Making of 'Enter Sandman'

Retrospective and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, March 2007

The Black Album's anti-lullaby proved a massive hit for the leaner, meaner Metallica, helping them become the biggest metal band on the planet ...

Marillion: How To Thrive On A Fish-Free Diet

Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 21 April 2007

THERE ARE no goblins guarding the gates to Marillion's secret lair in the rolling depths of Middle England. No cackling old crones casting spells on ...

Blondie, Debbie Harry: Debbie Harry: Never Fade Away

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 28 April 2007

BEFORE Madonna, before Courtney Love and Shirley Manson, before Karen O and Beth Ditto, there was Debbie Harry. ...

Debbie Harry: Q&A: Debbie Harry

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Classic Rock, 7 May 2007

The Blondie frontwoman and figurehead reflects on personal survival, the 1970s New York scene at CBGB and how the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ...

Carbon/Silicon: "It's Not About The Past, It's About The Future"

Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, June 2007

First Paul Simonon resurfaces. Now Mick Jones joins up with Generation X's Tony James in Carbon/Silicon. Welcome back! ...

Joe Strummer

Retrospective and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, June 2007

JOE STRUMMER was a fascinating bunch of guys. The former Clash frontman was both romantic idealist and career opportunist, anarchist rebel and proud patriot, hippie ...

Motorhead: Lemmy: The Oldest Rocker In Town

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 9 June 2007

THE SUN hammers down on the French Riviera like a vengeful Old Testament god. With temperatures topping 90 degrees, the beach at Nice is heaving ...

Grinderman: The Forum, London ****

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 22 June 2007

NICK CAVE turns 50 this year. As far back as a decade ago, he protested that rock and roll is no job for a middle-aged ...

New Young Pony Club: Fantastic Playroom

Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 7 July 2007

REMEMBER HOW REFRESHING all those indie-rock boy-bands sounded when they first rediscovered the slanted angles and spiky rhythms of postpunk four or five years ago? ...

Kanye West: Corn Exchange, Edinburgh

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 20 August 2007

HE MAY be a royally approved rapper after his appearance at the Diana memorial concert, but Kanye West recently took issue with Princes William and ...

Ian Brown: The World is Yours

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, October 2007

A DECADE INTO his post-Stone Roses career, Ian Brown has recruited a heavyweight coalition of the willing for his fifth studio album. ...

Underworld: the Guildhall, Southampton

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 12 October 2007

THERE WERE MORE grey-haired Disco Dads than fresh-faced Nu Ravers in evidence when Underworld began their first British tour in five years. Karl Hyde and ...

Beirut: The Flying Club Cup

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, November 2007

Globetrotting Folk-Pop Prodigy Gets Gloriously Lost In Translation. Again... ...

Amy Winehouse: NIA, Birmingham

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 15 November 2007

EVEN BY HER normal soap-opera standards, this last fortnight has been unusually turbulent for Amy Winehouse. ...

Neil Young: 'The Time When Music Could Change The World Has Passed'

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Scotland on Sunday, 24 February 2008

As Neil Young prepares to open his UK tour with a rare gig in Scotland, he tells Stephen Dalton why this time war, hatred and ...

Camille

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, March 2008

ON THE EVE of Nicolas Sarkozy's state visit to Britain, another French export is already launching her latest cross-channel charm offensive in London. ...

Portishead: The Curse of Portishead Lifts

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Scotland on Sunday, March 2008

IN DECEMBER last year, three black-clad ghosts from the pop past clambered onstage at an off-season holiday camp in an icy, wind-whipped corner of Somerset. ...

Pegi Young Follows Husband Neil Into The Spotlight

Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 8 March 2008

ONSTAGE IN Berlin, Pegi Young makes a monumental high-tech concert hall feel like a dusty back porch in some sleepy truck-stop town. Opening for her ...

Bauhaus

Retrospective and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, April 2008

They came from Northampton, in a hearse. They posed as bats, "improved" 'Ziggy Stardust', and battled malevolent energies within their own band. As another comeback ...

Gnarls Barkley: The Odd Couple

Review and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, May 2008

BRIAN "DANGER MOUSE" Burton and Thomas "Cee-Lo" Callaway have been promiscuous collaborators since the history-making download chart-topper 'Crazy' earned them overnight stardom two years back. ...

Neil Young: Deja Viewed: Neil Young on CSNY and Living with War

Interview by Stephen Dalton, unpublished, June 2008

NEIL YOUNG IS in mischievous mood this morning. Sinking into his plush hotel armchair, the veteran Canadian rocker keeps his distance behind mirror shades and ...

Foo Fighters: Manchester City Stadium

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, June 2008

FOURTEEN YEARS and six albums since the demise of Nirvana, Dave Grohl continues to smooth down the spiky edges of his former band's indie-metal sound. ...

Leonard Cohen: Opera House, Manchester

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, June 2008

MORE THAN 15 YEARS have passed since Leonard Cohen last graced a British stage, but the 73-year-old poet-turned-crooner was on suave form at the start ...

Neil Diamond: Hampden Park, Glasgow

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, June 2008

AFTER A MONTH of freakishly dry weather over Scotland, the heavens opened on Thursday just in time to soak more than 30,000 fans gathered at ...

Metallica: Magnetic Metallica

Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The National, July 2008

THERE IS a certain grim irony to the news, announced last week, that Metallica’s latest album Death Magnetic will be released in September in a ...

Tricky

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Venue , July 2008

HOME, THE saying goes, is a place you grow up wanting to leave and grow old wanting to return to. The most restless, prolific, exotic, ...

Madonna: Millennium Stadium, Cardiff ***

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 25 August 2008

HOURS BEFORE Madonna launched her Sticky & Sweet world tour in Cardiff on Saturday, the phenomenal pulling power of history's biggest ever female pop star ...

George Michael: Earls Court, London ***

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 26 August 2008

THE FIRST of George Michael's two sold-out London mega-shows on Sunday was big on bling but low on spark. ...

R.E.M.: International Arena, Cardiff ***

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 27 August 2008

MICHAEL STIPE and his fellow Athenians were on punchy, persuasive form in Cardiff on Monday. In between rowdy tracks from the latest R.E.M. album, Accelerate, ...

Anohni (Antony & the Johnsons): Antony and the Johnsons

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, October 2008

ONSTAGE AT Harlem's fabled Apollo Theatre, Antony Hegarty cuts an imposing figure. Swept along by a 20-piece orchestra, New York City's reigning demi-monde diva sobs ...

Metallica: Death Magnetic

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, October 2008

Troubled Dark Knights of metal return to form. ...

New Order: Off the Hook – The Peter Hook Interview

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Scotland on Sunday, 5 October 2008

Since his acrimonious split with New Order, Peter Hook has seldom been happier. Ahead of his memoir about the legendary Hacienda club, the pirate captain ...

Tony Christie: Cadogan Hall, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, November 2008

THIS HAS BEEN a vintage year for triumphant comebacks by veteran singers, from Leonard Cohen to Neil Diamond. Now Tony Christie, who turned 65 in ...

New Order: The Making Of 'Blue Monday'

Retrospective and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, December 2008

A stone classic, for sure, but the best-selling 12" of all time was a bastard to play live and lost money on first release. "We ...

Frankmusik, Keane: Keane/Frankmusik: MEN Arena, Manchester

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, February 2009

KEANE HAVE SPENT much of their decade-long career as critical whipping boys, derided for their public school poshness and sweet, soppy, wholesome power ballads. Even ...

U2: No Line On The Horizon

Review by Stephen Dalton, The National, February 2009

THE LAUNCH OF a U2 album always feels bigger than a mere musical event and inevitably stirs up fierce critical friction. ...

U2: How I Learned To Love U2 (Almost)

Comment by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 14 February 2009

LIKE MOST right-thinking people, I grew up hating U2. ...

David Byrne: Colston Hall, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, March 2009

LIKE SOME KIND OF vaguely sinister religious cult, David Byrne and his band kicked off their latest British tour dressed in pristine white from head ...

Depeche Mode

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The National, April 2009

IF THERE was a manual that rock bands could follow to guarantee long-term success, Depeche Mode would probably fail every test. During three decades together ...

Funeral Music

Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, April 2009

CHOOSING THE soundtrack for your own funeral is every modern music fan's dilemma. How much simpler things used to be when religious and classical pieces ...

Robert Plant, Justin Adams & Juldeh Camara

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The National, April 2009

A LIGHT BREEZE of mellifluous music wafts from behind the half-open door of a long, low, bunker-like building nestled deep in the English countryside. Inside ...

The Specials: O2 Academy, Newcastle****

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 24 April 2009

THE PAST three decades seemed to fall away when the Specials began their comeback tour with this explosive and exciting performance in Newcastle upon Tyne. ...

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Hyde Park, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, June 2009

AS HE HEADLINED the Hard Rock Calling weekend in London last night, the pressure was on Bruce Springsteen to match his triumphant Glastonbury debut on ...

Anvil, Faith No More, Mötley Crüe: Download: Donington Park

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, June 2009

IF HEAVY METAL is the working man's opera, to paraphrase Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson, then Download is its Glyndebourne. ...

The Eagles: NIA, Birmingham

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, July 2009

THE BABY BOOMER rockers of the 1960s and 1970s will clearly never die — they just become more popular and more profitable every year. ...

Woodstock's 40th Anniversary: An Interview with Michael Wadleigh

Retrospective and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The National, July 2009

FORTY SUMMERS AGO, a small group of young, long-haired American hippie capitalists were finalising plans to stage an ambitious outdoor music and arts festival in ...

Alice In Chains: Scala, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, August 2009

CONTEMPORARIES OF Nirvana and Pearl Jam during the Seattle grunge boom of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Alice In Chains returned from a long ...

Arctic Monkeys: Humbug (Domino)

Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, August 2009

MATURITY IS THE poisoned chalice that all rock bands must sup from eventually. Arctic Monkeys sounded strikingly sharp and vital on their 2006 debut, Whatever ...

Pearl Jam: Shepherds Bush Empire

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, August 2009

ONE OF THE LAST surviving bands from the Seattle grunge goldrush that revitalised American rock two decades ago, Pearl Jam played a rare London club ...

U2: Wembley Stadium

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, August 2009

WRITING ABOUT pop music, as some wag once famously remarked, is like dancing about architecture. Maybe so, but U2 spent more than two hours dancing ...

David Byrne: Speaking in Tongues

Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 1 August 2009

THE SUN HAS just melted into the distant purple mountains on a sweltering Italian night when David Byrne starts speaking in tongues, throwing his arms ...

Jay Z: Jay-Z: The Blueprint 3

Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, September 2009

IN 2001, SHAWN "Jay-Z" Carter released The Blueprint, a critical and commercial smash which set a standard the Brooklyn-born rap mogul has struggled to match ...

Kanye West

Profile by Stephen Dalton, The National, September 2009

WHEN PRESIDENT OBAMA branded rapper Kanye West a "jackass" for his one-man stage invasion at the MTV Video Music Awards in New York last Sunday, ...

The Stone Roses at 20

Retrospective and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The National, September 2009

TWENTY YEARS AGO, the Stone Roses felt like an unstoppable force of nature. These four baggy-trousered young moptops from Manchester were adored all over Britain, ...

Coldplay, Jay Z: Coldplay/Jay-Z: Lancashire Cricket Ground, Manchester

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 14 September 2009

THEY MAY BE one of the most successful bands in the world, but Coldplay still really, really want us to love them. ...

Kraftwerk: The Elusive Kings of Digital Pop

Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 25 September 2009

AFTER FOUR DECADES spent standing guard over one of the most secretive and enigmatic bands on the planet, it seems that Ralf Hütter is loosening ...

Roni Size and Reprazent, Speech Debelle : Speech Debelle/Roni Size & Reprazent: Colston Hall, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 28 September 2009

Speech Debelles's challenge is to translate the pleasures of her terrific album into something that works on a big stage ...

Kraftwerk: Album By Album

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, October 2009

HE MIGHT have spent most of the past two decades cocooned in the Kubrickian perfectionism of his secret Kling Klang studio in Düsseldorf, but Kraftwerk's ...

This Charming Manchester (Manchester Music, Then and Now)

Overview by Stephen Dalton, The National, October 2009

From Joy Division and The Smiths, to the headliners at next month's Dubai Sound City, Happy Mondays and Doves, Manchester has long been Britain's self-styled ...

Tom Jones: Cardiff International Arena

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, October 2009

AT THE START of a three-night stint in his native Wales, Tom Jones began his latest British tour in swaggeringly confident mood. ...

Franz Ferdinand: Sheffield Academy, Sheffield

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 19 October 2009

FRANZ FERDINAND'S reputation as arty, stylish, witty and literate rockers precedes them, but it was wearing very thin in Sheffield last week. ...

Cluster, Tortoise: Tortoise / Cluster: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, November 2009

CURRENT DEFINITIONS of jazz are clearly somewhat flexible, judging by the avant-rock double bill that closed this year's London Jazz Festival on Sunday night. The ...

Julian Casablancas: Ritz, Manchester

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, December 2009

SURPRISINGLY TALL and strapping for a man who made size-zero indie-rock credible again this decade, Julian Casablancas shrugged and lolloped through an hour-long set in ...

Pet Shop Boys/Bad Lieutenant: NIA, Birmingham

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, December 2009

FIRST SEEN in Britain six months ago, the Pandemonium world tour feels even more dazzling second time around. Even though every pre-programmed note and choreographed ...

Public Image Ltd: Academy, Birmingham

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, December 2009

EVEN IN A YEAR overstuffed with middle-aged rockers milking cash-in comebacks, the return of Public Image Ltd feels like a genuine cultural event. ...

Regina Spektor: Academy, Birmingham

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, December 2009

IT APPEARS REGINA SPEKTOR has finally crossed over from word-of-mouth cult to left-field star, judging by her rapturous reception at a packed Birmingham show on ...

Joy Division: "Ian was a normal, happy guy. We didn't know he was approaching his breaking point…"

Retrospective and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, March 2010

Thirty years ago, Joy Division arrived in London. Their mission: to escape Manchester, have a laugh and make a classic second album. Now, Bernard Sumner, ...

Billy Bragg, Alex Chilton, Flying Lotus, Hole, Muse, The xx: South by Southwest: Where The Weird Get Going

Report by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 26 March 2010

The freaks were out in force in Austin, Texas, for the South by Southwest festival. Stephen Dalton revels in the music ...

Devo: The Return of Devo

Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, June 2010

FOUR DECADES SINCE Devo first donned their matching overalls and began their assault on the pop mainstream, America's original disco-rock Dadaists are back. ...

Richard Ashcroft

Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The National, July 2010

MUCH LIKE his music, a conversation with Richard Paul Ashcroft quickly expands into a freeform voyage to the outer limits of the astral perimeter. Back ...

The Faces: British Music Experience, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, August 2010

SO MUCH FELT wrong about the first official comeback show by 1970s Britrock veterans the Faces on Wednesday. Ominously held at the O2 Arena's new ...

Muse: Manchester LCCC

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, September 2010

NEARING THE END of an epic world tour which has transformed them into Britain 's biggest band, Muse brought their sense-swamping carnival of baroque 'n ...

Flying Lotus

Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The National, October 2010

ONE OF THE MOST exciting breakthrough artists of 2010, Flying Lotus has been hailed as the Jimi Hendrix of his generation. Besides his own genre-blurring ...

Flying Lotus: Koko, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, October 2010

CURRENTLY THE hottest rising star of electronic music on both sides of the Atlantic, Steven "Flying Lotus" Ellison played his biggest London show so far ...

Manic Street Preachers

Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Venue , October 2010

PRICKLY, POLEMICAL, poetic provocateurs in love with lofty ideals and lost causes, the Manic Street Preachers are one of Britrock's longest-running soap operas. ...

The Rise Of Dubstep

Overview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, October 2010

THE FIRST THING that hits you, quite literally, is the sledgehammer bass sound. Walk into any dubstep club and these gnarly, spine-twisting shudders almost knock ...

Tricky

Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The National, October 2010

THE GREAT LOST BOY of British music, Adrian "Tricky" Thaws has been on an exotic, erratic musical odyssey since he first added whispered raps and ...

Heaven 17: Penthouse and Pavement Revisited

Retrospective by Stephen Dalton, The Times, November 2010

"SHEFFIELD HAS ALWAYS had a bit of a maverick attitude," says Martyn Ware of evergreen electro-pop veterans Heaven 17. "It's the natural bolshiness of the ...

Motörhead: Colston Hall, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, November 2010

AS EMPIRES CRUMBLE, civilisations teeter and whole economies implode, only Motörhead remain comfortingly changeless in an ever-changing world. ...

Hot Chip, LCD Soundsystem: LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip: Alexandra Palace, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 12 November 2010

LIKE AN indie-rock version of the Special Relationship, the New York disco-punks LCD Soundsystem and their London electro-pop soulmates Hot Chip are on a joint ...

Deadmau5: O2 Academy, Bournemouth

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 9 December 2010

JOEL "DEADMAU5" ZIMMERMAN has turned facelessness into a brand, elevating his polished electro-trance anthems into a dazzling audio-visual spectacle that owes more to Kraftwerk or ...

Cee Lo Green: Academy, Manchester

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 29 March 2011

SHOWMANSHIP was top of the bill when Cee Lo Green brought his first full British solo tour to Manchester. Born Thomas DeCarlo Callaway, the super-sized ...

Laura Cantrell: St. Bonaventure's, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 4 May 2011

Moonlighting from her unlikely day job as a Wall Street consultant, the country-folk singer embarks on a low-key UK tour. ...

Damon Albarn: Dr Dee live, Manchester International Festival

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Quietus, 5 July 2011

Stephen Dalton at the Manchester International Festival finds Damon "the Martin Amis of Britpop" Albarn's musical about the life of Dr John Dee to be ...

The Ting Tings: King's College, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 23 November 2011

Ting Tings singer Katie White brings news from Nowheresville ...

Damon Albarn, Blur, Bobby Womack: Damon Albarn: "I'm Sort Of English Melancholy"

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Quietus, 27 March 2012

With an upcoming Blur show and a number of albums set for release in the coming months, Damon Albarn's 2012 looks set to be as ...

Pulp: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 1 April 2012

FOR ALL our faults, it says something great about this nation that Jarvis Cocker remains the best-loved survivor of the Britpop boom, a man so ...

The Futureheads: Colston Hall, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 5 April 2012

UNVEILING THEIR new unplugged direction at the start of a national tour, the Futureheads brought an agreeable blend of close harmonies, deadpan jokes and unlikely ...

Lana Del Rey: Jazz Cafe, London ****

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 12 April 2012

BEING pop's latest It Girl clearly has its downsides. ...

Frank Turner: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 15 April 2012

FRANK TURNER'S inexorable rise from folk-punk busker to Wembley headliner has been a triumph of hard-gigging slog and astute anti-marketing over musical originality. The 30-year-old ...

Keane

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 20 April 2012

A RAINY NIGHT in Zurich. These streets may be paved with Nazi gold, but tonight they are also alive with the sound of music. On ...

Rufus Wainwright: Lyceum Theatre, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 2 May 2012

PERFORMING ON A West End stage normally reserved for The Lion King, Rufus Wainwright turned his glitzy London album launch into an intimate, emotionally charged ...

Happy Mondays: Manchester Arena, Manchester **

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 8 May 2012

LIKE a musical version of a Civil War re-enactment society, the elder statesmen of Manchester's fabled 1980s rock scene are returning to relive their youthful ...

Elvis Costello: SECC Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 15 May 2012

LOOKING AND SOUNDING like Eric Morecambe's impish rock-star nephew, Elvis Costello revealed his hitherto untapped talents as a music-hall comedian at the debut British date ...

Pearl Jam: Manchester Arena

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 21 June 2012

PLAYING THE FIRST of two Manchester shows ahead of their Isle of Wight festival appearance this weekend, Pearl Jam once again pulled off the impressive ...

Damon Albarn: Africa Express: Ritz, Manchester

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 7 September 2012

DAMON ALBARN has had a busier Olympic summer than even Lord Coe, juggling multiple Games-linked projects including his Doctor Dee opera and Blur’s mammoth Hyde ...

Joe Strummer

Retrospective by Stephen Dalton, Classic Rock, October 2012

"When big money moves in, big money doesn't fuck around…" ...

Johnny Hallyday: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 17 October 2012

A MERE HALF century into his career, France's biggest rock star finally made his London live debut this week. After 110 million album sales, four ...

Lionel Richie: LG Arena, Birmingham

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 28 October 2012

BIRMINGHAM IS Lionel Richie's idea of a party town. We know this because the veteran crooner repeatedly stressed his fondness for Britain's second city during ...

Aerosmith: Ain't No Stopping Aerosmith

Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The National, 1 November 2012

FOUR DECADES AGO, no sane person would have put money on Aerosmith still being alive in 2012, never mind still touring the globe and filling ...

World Party: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 6 November 2012

AS COMEBACKS GO, playing the Albert Hall after more than a decade away makes quite a bold statement. Never mind that this iconic venue was ...

Soundgarden: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 11 November 2012

A HOT TICKET and a guaranteed sell-out, this rare intimate show by recently reformed Seattle veterans Soundgarden was essentially a launch party for the band's ...

The Noisettes: Koko, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 16 November 2012

THEIR COMMERCIAL fortunes may have dipped a little since their hit-packed 2009 album Wild Young Hearts, but Noisettes still put on a glamorous pop spectacle ...

Rosanne Cash: Union Chapel, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 3 December 2012

A HOST OF FACTORS, including brain surgery, have conspired to keep Rosanne Cash away from London for the last six years. Returning to a full ...

the xx: Civic Hall, Wolverhampton

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 14 December 2012

MODESTY, UNDERSTATEMENT and tasteful restraint have no place in pop music, an art form tailor-made for dysfunctional drama queens. Yet somehow the xx have backed ...

ABC: Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 20 December 2012

MARTIN FRY clearly has a hideous self-portrait lurking in some dusty attic, because the 54-year-old appeared spookily ageless at this glitzy London show. Still as ...

Cowboy Junkies: Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Glasgow

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 25 January 2013

ON ANY LIST of cool rock-star accessories, an old-fashioned tea trolley will rank somewhere near the bottom. But when Toronto's alt-country veterans Cowboy Junkies played ...

Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five: Grandmaster Flash: Dogstar, Brixton, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 29 January 2013

IT FEELS oddly incongruous to witness one of the legendary founding fathers of a billion-dollar musical genre playing to 300 people in a modest pub-style ...

Four Tet: Heaven, London WC2

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 5 March 2013

HALFWAY BETWEEN a cult figure and an underground superstar, Kieran Hebden has been forensically crafting haute-couture electronic music under his Four Tet alias for 15 ...

Peaches: IndigO2, London SE10

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 29 April 2013

The Berlin-based provocateur's orgy of hypersexualised party-pop is midway between a DJ set and soft-porn cabaret show ...

Wu-Tang Clan: Brixton Academy, London SW9

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 28 July 2013

In more than 25 years, I have never before witnessed an entire Brixton Academy audience bounce along in sweat-soaked unison ...

Savages: Forum, London NW5

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 8 November 2013

A MANIFESTO-LIKE poster hung from the doorway when Savages played their biggest London show to date. "Our goal is to discover better ways of living ...

Fuck Buttons: F*** Buttons: The Barbican, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 28 April 2014

FEW BANDS can combine punishing volume, discordant drones and blood-curdling screams quite so joyously as F*** Buttons. Andrew Hung and Benjamin Power, the main attraction ...

Lykke Li: Village Underground, EC2

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 13 May 2014

IN LYKKE LI's poetically gloomy world view, love is a dark rainbow of despair with a big pot of bitter disappointment at the end. At ...

Flying Lotus: Colston Hall, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 10 June 2014

"BRISTOL, IT'S been a while," beamed the electronic explorer Flying Lotus, aka Steven Ellison, as he welcomed an excitable young crowd to one of his ...

Peter Gabriel: Back To Front – Peter Gabriel Live In London

Film/DVD/TV Review by Stephen Dalton, loudersound.com, 16 July 2014

Leaden concert video. ...

Franz Ferdinand: Somerset House, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 18 July 2014

AS THE millennium dawned Franz Ferdinand were hailed as the saviours of British rock. Cheekbone-sharp and catwalk-cool, these angular Anglo-Scottish aesthetes were arty smarties who ...

Chilly Gonzales: Roundhouse, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 31 July 2014

BILLED AS a "masterclass" by a self-styled "musical genius", this unorthodox cabaret-style show by rapper, composer and piano virtuoso Chilly Gonzales wavered uneasily between motivational ...

Sleaford Mods: Hairy Dog, Derby

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 1 September 2014

A BRACING BREATH of foul air from the rumbling guts of the East Midlands music scene, Sleaford Mods have graduated from obscure cult act to ...

The Pharcyde: Fleece, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 3 September 2014

ONE OF several early 1990s hip-hop acts who seemed to confirm F Scott Fitzgerald's maxim that there are no second acts in American life, the ...

Lauryn Hill: O2 Academy Brixton

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 22 September 2014

READY OR NOT, here she comes, only an hour late. No one seemed surprised when Lauryn Hill kept us waiting long after her advertised arrival ...

Lenny Kravitz: Roundhouse, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 30 September 2014

LENNY KRAVITZ's iTunes Festival show, a packed and sweltering affair, was effectively the launch party for his new album Strut, which is big on raunchy ...

FKA Twigs: Studio, Brighton Dome

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 6 October 2014

THE RISING avant-pop diva FKA Twigs, the stage alias of Tahliah Debrett Barnett, has grabbed headlines for much of the past 18 months, not always ...

Chic, Nile Rodgers: Chic featuring Nile Rodgers: Roundhouse, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 25 March 2015

THE RETURN of Chic to public prominence has been one of the more uplifting comeback stories of recent years, particularly as Nile Rodgers, the band's ...

Dionne Warwick: SSE Arena, Wembley

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 5 October 2015

AFTER A half-century rollercoaster ride through the music industry, from multiple Grammy-winning stardom to her recent tax troubles and bankruptcy, Dionne Warwick can still command ...

Johnny Marr: Adrenalin Baby

Review by Stephen Dalton, loudersound.com, 30 October 2015

Punchy but pedestrian live album from former Smith. ...

Caravan Palace: O2 Academy, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 15 December 2015

Caravan Palace jived and jitterbugged through a sanitised 90-minute mix of sassy hot jazz and contemporary electronics ...

Jason Derulo: Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 26 January 2016

The Miami-born sex symbol produced a show that was more visual than musical feast, dynamic but devoid of depth ...

Steeleye Span: St. George's, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, loudersound.com, 27 January 2016

The masters of English folk rock keep moving forward ...

Lianne La Havas: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 16 March 2016

In her headline debut, the south London singer was at her best on numbers that featured just her voice and a guitar ...

Squeeze: The Likely Lads Of British Rock

Retrospective and Interview by Stephen Dalton, loudersound.com, 16 March 2016

From bittersweet songs about first love and wanking to lambasting the Prime Minister live on TV, Squeeze are the working-class band that cool cats still love. ...

Father John Misty: Roundhouse, NW1

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 20 May 2016

Despite some soft-rock padding, Misty’s signature brand of darkly funny lounge-singer archness came to the fore on slower numbers ...

Beyoncé: Stadium of Light, Sunderland

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 30 June 2016

Queen Bey ruled, switching from glamazon goddess to line-dancing Texan rodeo star, and streetwise hip-hop sexbot to devoted wife and mother ...

Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders: The Pretenders: Alone

Review by Stephen Dalton, Classic Rock, 17 October 2016

Chrissie Hynde reveals her rootsy Americana side with help from some Nashville friends ...

James Blake: O2 Academy, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 1 November 2016

JAMES BLAKE has had a bumper year, guesting on Beyoncé's Lemonade album and releasing his own sublime third long-player, The Colour in Anything. ...

Ronika

Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, February 2017

The Madonna of the Midlands' expresses herself ...

Run the Jewels: Run The Jewels 3

Review and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, March 2017

Alt-rap activists Killer Mike and El-P rage against the obscene on politically charged third album.  ...

Stormzy: O2 Academy, Leicester

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 5 April 2017

With just a laptop DJ as accompaniment, the south London grime star commanded the packed room like a whirling typhoon of kinetic energy ...

Sting: Eventim Apollo, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 11 April 2017

On the faux-raunchy rock numbers he simply lacked conviction: antiseptic, anodyne and asexual. The blond leading the bland. ...

John Grant's North Atlantic Flux festival, Hull

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 3 May 2017

The American singer-songwriter played a rapturously received selection of barbed ballads at his own boutique festival. ...

Bad Religion: O2 Academy, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 4 August 2017

BAD RELIGION are living proof of the old adage that punk rockers never die, they just turn into greying, balding, bespectacled Vince Cable lookalikes. ...

Bros: O2, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 21 August 2017

NOSTALGIA IS A powerful drug. One of the joys of witnessing former teen-pop idols re-form in middle age is the extra emotional depth, knowing hindsight ...

Salt-N-Pepa, Vanilla Ice: I Love the '90s: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 3 October 2017

It may have been a carnival of naff nostalgia, but thousands of middle-aged ravers came to party like it was 1995. ...

Mura Masa: O2 Academy, Bristol ★★★☆☆


Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 20 October 2017

A smorgasbord of musical styles from the young electro-pop producer made for a pleasant but ultimately forgettable show ...

Amanda Palmer: Union Chapel, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 21 November 2017

The mood at this show by the singer-songwriter was warm, communal and interactive, but the set was overstuffed with bloodless cover versions. ...

Adam Lambert, Queen: Queen and Adam Lambert: Echo Arena, Liverpool

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 30 November 2017

The real star is the high-tech production which distracts when formerly lithe, lusty hits show their creaky jointed age. ...

Hot Chip, Scritti Politti: Green Gartside and Alexis Taylor: West End Centre, Aldershot

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 12 December 2017

The blended vocal harmonies of the founder of Scritti Politti and the Hot Chip frontman made even the weaker songs shine. ...

Asian Dub Foundation play La Haine: Anson Rooms, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 31 January 2018

ADF erupted into fiery bursts of energy during the film's kinetic scenes of rowdy celebration, violent confrontation and police brutality. ...

Bryan Ferry: St David's Hall, Cardiff

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 11 April 2018

The post-Roxy solo material drifted into polished blandness at times, but there were standout beauties too. ...

James Blake, Kendrick Lamar: Kendrick Lamar plus James Blake: Genting Arena, Birmingham, Feb 9

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, May 2018

This dazzling, audacious arena show will be talked about for years to come, but the rapper at the centre of it all stays humble  ...

Plan B: Colston Hall, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 4 May 2018

He may have a new-found mellow maturity, but even his softer songs still had an off-putting edge of boorish, hectoring aggression ...

David Bowie, Iggy Pop: Velvet Goldmine: 20 years on, has the time come for Cool Britannia's Citizen Kane?

Retrospective by Stephen Dalton, BFI, 22 May 2018

In the Britpop era, few films came more wildly ambitious than Todd Haynes' kaleidoscopic glam-rock epic. Now Bowie is dead and Britain has turned a ...

Jon Hopkins: Singularity (Domino)

Review and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, June 2018

Versatile collaborator follows up Immunity with ambitious psychedelic epic.  ...

Natalie Merchant: Komedia, Bath

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 18 July 2018

The singer drew on her early work fronting the folk rockers 10,000 Maniacs and revealed an unexpected flair for improvised comedy. ...

Britney Spears: Preston Park, Brighton

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 6 August 2018

WHAT HAPPENS IN Vegas no longer stays in Vegas, as Britney Spears confirmed when her hugely successful, long-running Las Vegas residency show Piece of Me ...

Princess Nokia: O2 Forum, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 22 August 2018

PLAYING HER BIGGEST British headline show to date, Princess Nokia came across as a highly energetic, slightly chaotic, hot mess of molten superstar potential. ...

U2: How do U2 fill the O2? They send for Stufish

Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 15 October 2018

Stufish Entertainment Architects has made spectacular sets for the rock band, as well as Elton and Beyoncé. Stephen Dalton sees how ...

Bad Company, Led Zeppelin: Mark Blake: Bring It On Home – Peter Grant, Led Zeppelin and Beyond (Constable)

Book Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 20 October 2018

The manager of Led Zeppelin was a giant with giant appetites, says Stephen Dalton. ...

Roger Daltrey: Thanks a Lot Mr Kibblewhite – My Story

Book Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 10 November 2018

The recollections of the most sober member of the Who are distinctly hazy, Stephen Dalton finds. ...

Boy George, Culture Club: Boy George & Culture Club: Bournemouth International Centre

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 14 November 2018

The singer's soul-infused, reggae-inflected vocals have deepened and ripened in middle age, acquiring a jazzy sophistication. ...

Orbital: O2 Academy, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 18 December 2018

Few bands of this vintage could get away with so much new material, but their formula is so well-honed that they can carry an audience ...

Young Fathers: Albert Hall, Manchester

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 25 January 2019

As they proved in this pounding, whooping, sense-blitzing spectacle, the rap trio are fast becoming one of Britain's most exciting live bands ...

Hot Chip: Trinity Centre, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 8 April 2019

This London band are likeable crowd-pleasers live, but they need to step out of their cosy pyjama-clad comfort zone more often. ...

New Order: Harbourside Amphitheatre, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 22 July 2019

AFTER A VERY long wait, Bristol was rewarded with two legendary bands for the price of one when New Order played their first show in ...

Anderson .Paak: O2 Academy, Birmingham

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 26 August 2019

High levels of crowd-pleasing showmanship ...

Little Simz: Mama Roux’s, Birmingham

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 24 October 2019

LAUNCHING HER latest nationwide tour with a cosy sold-out show in Birmingham, Little Simz radiated easy confidence, musical dexterity and enormous charm. ...

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: Symphony Hall, Birmingham

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 6 November 2019

IN THESE uncertain times it feels oddly reassuring that Andy McCluskey remains the most cheerfully preposterous dancer in pop. As Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark ...

Sampa the Great: Rough Trade, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 19 November 2019

RADIATING THE kind of energy that could power a small city, the rising Afro-soul star Sampa the Great played to a rapturous crowd in Bristol. ...

Krept and Konan: Academy, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 27 January 2020

Krept and Konan played a lively set in Bristol that was global in scope ...

Max Raabe: Life is a postmodern cabaret for Germany's cult singer

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 10 February 2020

Max Raabe brings the music of 1920s Jazz Age Berlin to Britain next month. Stephen Dalton meets him ...

Midge Ure: Forum, Bath

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 17 February 2020

Behind the New Romantic mask, he remains an old romantic at heart ...

Sam Fender: Virgin Money Unity Arena, Newcastle — the return of live music, at a distance

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 14 August 2020

Sam Fender was the first to perform at the socially distanced Virgin Money Unity Arena music venue ...

Martha Wainwright: Union Chapel, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Evening Standard, 21 September 2021

The singer songwriter was on perky form in a set that hinged on songs that explored her recent divorce ...

Ellie Goulding: Eventim Apollo, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Evening Standard, 18 October 2021

The singer emerged after a long period away from performing with a crowd-pleasing show designed to thrill her fans. ...

Caribou: O2 Academy Brixton

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 25 October 2021

A dazzling feast for the senses, but ultimately a little formulaic ...

The Damned: Great Hall, Cardiff University

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 3 April 2023

These punk pensioners need to loosen up ...

SZA: O2 Arena

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Evening Standard, 19 June 2023

A MARATHON 30-song musical feast became a swashbuckling maritime adventure as SZA brought her SOS world tour to London for this, the second in an extended four-night ...

The 1975, Billie Eilish, Sam Fender, The Killers: Reading Festival: from Billie Eilish to Rina Sawayama, the kick-ass Barbies outshine the dull Kens

Review by Stephen Dalton, The Evening Standard, 28 August 2023

It still has its gender imbalance issues but the women on the bill this year were the ones not to miss. ...

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