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.
466 articles
List of articles in the library
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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! ...
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 ...
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? ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 21 March 1998
The OD couple ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, March 2000
POSSIBLE SWANSONG from crying-on-the-inside clown prince of Stadium Goth. ...
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 ...
Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, July 2000
Founding fathers of technopop come together in electro land ...
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, September 2000
THREE IS the magic number for Britrock alchemists ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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." ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
Paul McCartney: Wingspan (EMI)***
Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, July 2001
MACCA'S FIRST post-Fabs decade. ...
Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, July 2001
First six studio albums plus Tennant's extra ...
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? ...
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 ...
Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, April 2002
LAUGH ALONG to the post-rocking German boffins. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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... ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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! ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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. ...
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 25 October 2021
A dazzling feast for the senses, but ultimately a little formulaic ...
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 ...
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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