Guardian Music

Speaking at a Guardian Live event at Love Supreme festival, the band tell us about lessons with Tony Allen, mayhem in Lagos and why musicians should be ‘pillars of the community’At Sussex’s Love Supreme festival last weekend, Femi Koleoso and James Mollison of British jazz figureheads Ezra Collective joined me for a wide-ranging conversation on their artistry, the power of the dancefloor and hopes for the future of British music.With Koleoso noting that “dancefloors are dancefloors, whether it’s

Versatile Essex-born hitmaker known for Rhinestone Cowboy, It Only Takes a Minute and many more had been living with Alzheimer’s diseaseBrian Potter, one of the most versatile and successful British producers and songwriters of his generation, has died aged 87. He had been living with Alzheimer’s disease in recent years, his daughter told Billboard.Working with American songwriting partner Dennis Lambert, the Essex-born Potter was behind an astounding array of 1970s hits spanning pop, soul, soft

(Third Man)Following the superb No Name, White continues his fan service with stripped back songs and nasty, anarchic riffs – though it all ends up feeling a little sameyIt’s a strange thing to say about one of the most prolific artists of his – or any – generation, but: Jack White has been undergoing something of a career renaissance of late. After firmly establishing himself as one of the most beloved and defining figures of 21st-century rock with his early-00s blues duo the White Stripes, Whi

After hopping between country, disco and soft rock, Tyler found her groove with Jim Steinman-penned epics, shining through even the most overblown backing tracks• News: Bonnie Tyler, 80s pop legend known for Total Eclipse of the Heart and more, dies aged 75• From Swansea clubs to worldwide fame: Bonnie Tyler – a life in picturesBonnie Tyler had a peculiar career: two bursts of global success that seemed to have almost nothing to do with each other beyond the name that appeared on the records. He

Welsh singer and Eurovision entrant’s other hits included Footloose soundtrack smash Holding Out for a Hero• Alexis Petridis on Bonnie Tyler: She totally eclipsed her power-ballad peers, and created an astonishingly wide variety of pop• From Swansea clubs to worldwide fame: Bonnie Tyler – a life in picturesBonnie Tyler, the Welsh singer whose husky yet commanding voice made songs such as Total Eclipse of the Heart into 1980s classics, has died aged 75.A message on her Facebook page reads: “Bonni

She was a member of the influential rap collective, then the alt-R&B hitmakers – but struggled to find her own voice. Now, after realising she ‘didn’t like anybody else’s beats’, she’s made a solo album that is truly hersThere was a time when Sydney Bennett really wanted “something to show for all of my hard work”. The 34-year-old singer-rapper-producer-engineer was a member of Odd Future, the anarchic Los Angeles rap collective that also included Tyler, the Creator, Frank Ocean and Earl Sweatsh

Armed with a new album inspired by ‘dead English blokes’, the revered musician discusses writing nasty songs about his neighbours and how he’s finally made it in Nashville aged 73‘I owe a lot to a dead man’s cock.” So begins the first song, a propulsive piece of Lennonesque powerpop called I Am This Thing, on The Confuser, the latest album by the 73-year-old English gentleman survivor of the 60s/70s frontline, Robyn Hitchcock. The album has been recorded by a crack team of session guys in Nashvi

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, LondonFans and cynics are putty in the boyband’s hands as the lads lark their way through a catalogue of tracks that ricochet from hard rap to buttery popThe 2001 film Josie and the Pussycats is about America’s conflation of art and consumerism at the turn of the millennium. But it could just as easily be about the K-pop industrial complex, grinding out act after act to see what sticks (sometimes with a lack of care for the art or the artists). The film culminates with

British-born vocalist competed on The X Factor before joining the girl groups Paradiso Girls and G.R.L.Lauren Bennett, member of the girl group G.R.L. and featured artist on LMFAO’s global smash hit Party Rock Anthem, has died at the age of 36.“It is with great sadness that we share the passing of our beloved Lauren,” the group wrote on their Instagram page. “Our hearts are broken, and we cannot begin to express how much she meant to us.” A cause of death was not specified. Continue reading...

‘In the early days, we hopped on every bandwagon going – punk, ska, mod, everything. Fantastic Day was always there, just in different styles. The original was more Talking Heads. I preferred that’If I’d been sitting down when I wrote Fantastic Day, it would have been a different song, but I was standing up in front of a chocolate-brown wall with the names of all my favourite punk bands scribbled on it. I was envisioning the future. It was 1978, and my family had moved across London to a place c

The England and Arsenal player grew up with Enrique Iglesias on repeat, and knows the Bridget Jones soundtrack by heart. But what football song gives her goosebumps?The first song I fell in love withI used to have a cassette player with these fuzzy foam headphones, and only two cassettes: Hero by Enrique Iglesias and How Do I Live by LeAnn Rimes. I would play them over and over.The first single I downloadedMichaela Strachan by Scouting for Girls. I thought it was fascinating that they’d written

(Polydor)Continuing the rejuvenated sound of 2023’s Hackney Diamonds, there’s touching vulnerability from Keith Richards while Jagger confronts war and autocracyMick Jagger recently launched the Rolling Stones’s 25th album declaring, “The thing about this record is, the Stones are a rock band that also has the capacity to do ballads, country music or dance music. So we don’t get stuck in one kind of style.” The same could be said of numerous bands, but what the singer was probably driving at was

The Irish fiddler brings pop exuberance to traditional songs that range from disco to haunting a cappella with a fearless sense of genre fluidityFrom Carlow, IrelandRecommended if you like The Mary Wallopers, Chappell Roan, AnohniUp next SlutTrad EP out now, UK and Ireland tour starts in OctoberAt a recent London show, SexyTadhg – real name Tadhg Griffin – appeared in a glittering pink corset, channelling high-camp cabaret. And then, they started playing the fiddle. Continue reading...

O2 Academy, GlasgowIn her first UK headline show in 16 years, Jett has a terrific knack for a cover version, though she’s a touch nonchalant – and there’s a real misstep‘I’m not a very good storyteller,” shrugs Joan Jett, sporting black leather and trademark poker face. If you’ve come expecting something as sappy as sentimental anecdotes at this anniversary tour celebrating 45 years of her career-defining albums Bad Reputation and I Love Rock’n’Roll, you’d better jog on.The Rock and Roll Hall of

(Fixed Abode x Unsound)The festival-formed quartet conjures an album of glacial sound design and elegiac grandeur, though it can get too moody for its own goodPolish producer 2K88 makes dark, glitching tracks that honour his country’s rap history and UK bass music. So when Poland’s Unsound festival asked him to team up with a group of British musicians, it made sense that he was drawn to Lauren Duffus, Rainy Miller and Bianca Scout, all of whom craft murky, genre-agnostic sounds best suited to a

(Capitol)Amid signs of greatness, the already hugely popular British singer fails to live up to her potential, lacking vocal agility and lyrical subtletyWe live in a post Die With a Smile world. Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ 2024 megahit has nearly 4bn streams on Spotify alone: the people crave traditionalist AM radio ballads. Enter Sienna Spiro, a young soul singer whose ultra-traditionalist sound is backed up by posh pedigree: her father, Glenn Spiro, is a famed Hatton Garden jeweller; her mother,

With a punkish, antifascist take on the trad jazz sound of Duke Ellington, this noisy outfit are epic in every way. But how on earth do they make a living?Fergus Quill picks me up from Leeds station in his Nissan Micra – 152,000 miles on the clock, double bass expertly slotted between seats – and drives me to meet his band.I’m expecting a handful of people, but for the next half an hour, members of Ferg’s Imaginary Big Band just keep arriving, until the tables outside Headingley’s Hyde Park Book

As she tours the UK, we pick the best of an artist who defined the ‘sad banger’ – but also radiates joy and strength from her perfect pop songsRobyn has written and recorded more striking and melodically rich songs than this, but the opening track of Body Talk Part 1 might be this famously unbiddable pop star’s mission statement: an appealingly minimal bit of house music that dismisses a list of eye-rolling complaints aimed at everything from the music industry to uncomfortable shoes by repeatin

Millennium Square, LeedsAs they tee up a long-awaited third album, the deep south band are variously slick and raw as they ruminate on overcoming tough times‘Long time, no see,” declares Brittany Howard, stepping on stage to a rapturous welcome, as Alabama Shakes return from a hiatus. It’s been 10 years since the multiple Grammy-winning blues-soul-rock outfit from the deep south last played in the UK and 11 since their most recent album – though a third is being teed up for later in the year.If

Anfield Stadium, Liverpool Adding eye-popping spectacle to this anniversary reprise of The Black Parade is fun, but what really stands out is the tremendous songcraftMy Chemical Romance take the stage to the strains of the Carpenters’ Yesterday Once More, its syrupy but heart-rending tones offering a reminder that MCR’s current tour is essentially about nostalgia: it celebrates the 20th anniversary of the release of the emo figureheads’ third album The Black Parade. An hour-long concept piece ab