Guardian Music

​Fronted by Mark Sandman​,​ the group brought enigmatic, elegant rock to post-grunge America. As lost demos surface, those closest to Sandman remember a man who grabbed on to life’s joysIt’s early 1998, and at Fort Apache recording studio in Massachusetts, Mark Sandman, the suave frontman of Morphine, is nearing breaking point. Morphine’s four enigmatic and blackly humorous albums have won critical acclaim and, lately, unexpected commercial success considering their uncompromising creative visio

As John Lewis reports a 96% rise in searches for CD players, music fans share their reasons for ditching streamingCDs appear to be having a resurgence. John Lewis said searches for CD players are up 96% since July, while another report on trends in music and film this year found that CD sales are up 16%.With this in mind, we asked music fans why they favour discs over other formats, and if it is a new preference or a lifetime habit. Continue reading...

(Fiction)After frontperson Juliette Jackson lost half her hearing, she wrote sad songs and felt frustrated. So she pivoted, writing herself a happy ending. The results are joyfully convincingFrom the outside, it looks as if things have gone swimmingly for the Big Moon. Fronted by Juliette Jackson, a former waitress who dreamed big, they have been active for 12 years, a success in itself in these days, notching up four albums including this latest. They have enjoyed a Mercury nomination (for 2017

When 17-year-0ld Danny Donelly got a bank loan to open a record shop and sell dancefloor-filling electronic music, he little knew how he would help revolutionise his town and dance music at largeIn the early 1990s, the suburban town of Romford was known for three things. It was the home of the world’s best snooker player, Steve Davis. It was where people placed bets at Romford dog track, over a dinner of chicken in a basket. And for those in the know, it was where the UK’s best underground dance

With a sound inspired by the San Francisco tech boom, the hyperpop musician is entering the big leagues, and has a slot on Charli xcx’s tour. First she needs to get over her own shyness – not to mention a fear of love songsThe life of a rising pop star: One day, you’re performing your own song with Charli xcx, her dancers emulating your choreography, an arena’s worth of fans screaming along. The next, you’re on a surgery table, with a healthcare professional yanking four superfluous teeth out of

A new documentary follows the Chicagoan from child trumpet prodigy to Gabriel-singing icon and DIY maverick. ‘Not everybody wants to see musical genius’, he saysAt We Out Here festival in Dorset in August, thousands of people could be heard singing a trumpet melody as if it was a giant brass-band karaoke session. On stage was Peven Everett, performing a rendition of Gabriel, one of the most celebrated anthems in dance-music history. Co-created with producer Roy Davis Jr, the best-known version,

Brian Jones wrote to Charlie Watts in 1962 asking him to leave his R&B group and join his ‘far better’ band insteadA handwritten letter from Brian Jones to Charlie Watts in which he attempts to recruit the drummer to join the band that would soon become the Rolling Stones is being auctioned later this year.The 1962 letter, which comes directly from Watts’s sister and has remained in the family for more than six decades, will be revealed to the public for the first time. Continue reading...

The rapper lends the NFL a veneer of credibility but is unlikely to push back on the establishment figures who run the leagueOn Monday the NFL named Jay-Z as the headliner for this season’s Super Bowl half-time show. His company, Roc Nation, produces the show under a 2019 deal reportedly worth $5m a year, and the agreement was extended for another five years in 2024. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said his one request when the partnership began was that Jay-Z “take the stage himself one day“.Goo

After tiring of writing about herself, the British singer-songwriter asked the public to share stories to inspire her music – and they responded in their thousands‘This project has changed my whole thinking,” Thea Gilmore says of her new endeavour, The Echo Line. “What am I getting from it? All of humanity.” Disillusioned with the numbers-chasing music industry and wanting a break from her personal songwriting after releasing 22 folk-orientated albums since 1998, the 46-year-old is “putting peop

The musician and outspoken critic of the president is suing for $10m in reputational damages – six years after a settlement in which Trump agreed not to use the song againNeil Young is suing Donald Trump’s political action committee Trump 47 Committee Inc for $10m (£7.47m) over alleged copyright infringement of his song Rockin’ in the Free World after the US president used it as walk-up music in recent midterm election rallies.It is the second time that Young has filed against one of Trump’s org

David Hemmings’ never-released concert film from Bowie’s 1978 world tour will be presented in a multimedia show that aims to ‘create the illusion’ that he is present on stageAlmost 50 years after its original run, David Bowie’s 1978 Isolar II tour will return to arenas in 2027, billed as Stage, thanks to Moonage Daydream director Brett Morgen’s painstaking remaster of never-before-seen footage.Bowie originally commissioned David Hemmings, the Blow-Up star turned director, to film two shows centr

3Arena, DublinSeveral unannounced guests feature on the first European date of the rapper’s sold-out benefit tour, including video messages from Mark Ruffalo and Cynthia Nixon“We’d like to thank Ed Sheeran for organising this concert,” offers a member of Kneecap, one of several unannounced guests who have turned up for the first European date of Macklemore’s Free Palestine tour. It’s a characteristically two-fisted approach to the matter in hand from a band who have seldom shied away from contro

‘A year after we broke up, we heard that two bands had started touring the US as the Zombies. One group said they were the originals but with a new singer – because I’d been killed in a car crash’Our first single, She’s Not There, was one of the first songs I wrote, when I was 18. It remained our only hit in the UK by the time we recorded our second album, Odessey and Oracle, in 1967 – this was only three years later but it felt like a lifetime. We’d recently signed to CBS and had been given £1,

R&B singer sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment suspended for 12 months over incident in Mayfair in 2023The R&B singer Chris Brown has been given a suspended sentence after striking a man twice in the head with a tequila bottle in a central London club.Brown, 37, admitted affray earlier this year after attacking a former friend with a “heavy” tequila bottle on the dancefloor at the Tape private members’ club in Mayfair in February 2023. Continue reading...

From Wichita Lineman to MacArthur Park, he penned masterpieces. As Jimmy Webb resurrects his unheard numbers, he recalls writing for Dolly, Frank and Glen – and the night Richard Harris stripped off and disappeared‘Flat for 50 miles,” recalls Jimmy Webb, remembering the desolate stretch of Oklahoma that inspired his classic song, Wichita Lineman. “Nothing out there except endless railroad tracks and telephone poles. Then suddenly there’s a guy at the top of one of the poles. He’s got his phone,

The singer-songwriter on her unconventional education, her brother Daniel, and her quest to write a classic like Purple RainBorn in London in 1981, Natasha Bedingfield is a singer and songwriter. Her 2004 debut album, Unwritten, sold more than 2.3m copies and featured the No 1 single These Words. She has released three further albums, scoring UK Top 10 hits and success in the US with Pocketful of Sunshine. Nearly two decades after it was released, her single Unwritten became a viral TikTok hit i

The comedian unashamedly loves the Spice Girls’ Wannabe and cries to Boyz II Men, but which novelty song changed her life?The first song I fell in love with My mother would sing and dance and cook and clean in the kitchen, as many 80s moms did, to divas like Madonna and Paula Abdul. Material Girl made me think: “This is who I want to be.”The first single I bought I bought three records at the same time – Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette, a Sheryl Crow single and Waterfalls by TLC –

Fender criticises stadium pricing, calling it ‘bollocks’ and says it ‘won’t be happening’ on his tourSam Fender has responded to criticism by fans about ticket prices for his 2027 stadium tour by promising he would lower the cost, telling followers on Instagram: “They’re getting changed.”The 32-year-old musician announced his Proper Massive stadium tour earlier this week. Continue reading...

Founding member of Planxty, Lunny went on to play for bands such as Moving Hearts, the Bothy Band and CoolfinThe Irish traditional musician Dónal Lunny has died at the age of 79 from cancer.Lunny rose to prominence in the trio Rakes of Kildare alongside his brother Frank and Christy Moore. He went on to play in bands such as Planxty, Moving Hearts, the Bothy Band and Coolfin among others and toured the world. Continue reading...

Filtering alt influences and eskibeats through a distinctly Black British point of view, the Ipswich rapper’s scorched-earth rage sounds like a lot of funFrom Ipswich, UK Recommended if you like Linkin Park, Kano, Bob Vylan Up next New single Dumb Bruddah released via SharpTone Records on 30 October“Laaa!” growls Native James on his 2025 track Fallen, stretching a wicked fried scream over more traditionally poppy “la-la-la” chants like a hair-raising metal frontman. Because, well, that’s w