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In the shameless league, Tim Harrington, singer and qualified exhibitionist with offbeat art-punk ambassadors Les Savy Fav, is poised to take the title from fashion calamity Jodie Marsh. His dry-humping of an amp is one of the less-shocking points of a headlining set.
The New Yorkers are on the NME Shockwaves tour because of last year’s […]

Just as you don’t attend a fashion show to hear what the models are strutting to down the catwalk, you don’t go to a gig to critique the act’s threads. All the same, European superstar Manu Chao and his band should have held a final “how do we look?” survey of some honest, well-tailored friends […]

It’s easy to wonder what the hell Prince has been doing for the past decade.
Up until about 1994, he was firmly on the pop directors’ board. The occasional eccentric behaviour only confirmed his god-like status. But then he turned from a squiggle to a slave and started churning out albums every week with schoolboy titles […]

Walking into the back room of the Bull And Gate, you can’t help thinking that smoking in public places was a good thing, the nostrils being somewhat more accustomed to the stench of putrid, stale fag smoke than the stink of putrid, stale sweat.
Attention is immediately distracted from pub odours by the guys on stage. […]

During her set, an obviously bemused Martha Wainwright declares that V Festival is “very different to Glastonbury, very corporate”. She doesn’t elaborate on whether this is a good thing or not, but she’s not known for looking on the bright side, so we shouldn’t take it as a glowing review.
She’s right. To some degree. There’s […]

Ask anyone at the first ever Field Day if they are enjoying themselves and you’ll get the impression that London’s new one-day psychedelic fete is doing anything but live up to its name. A diverse and at times exciting line-up is overshadowed by the prevailing view of endless queues.
Organisers need to take some maths classes before […]

As they stroll through the crowd, rubbing shoulders with the audience, you mightn’t notice who they were as they approach the front of the pub. But the applause gives it away. Turin Brakes have arrived – crammed in to the front of Camden’s Lock Tavern, with about 80 eager spectators vying for the best spot.
Opening […]

Grade I listed and grandly rounding on to Kensington Gardens like a comparatively modern-day Colosseum, the Royal Albert Hall will host performances of Swan Lake and tributes to Elgar and Beethoven in the coming weeks. Its typical clientele possibly arrive with copies of The Telegraph under their arms and foldaway binoculars tucked into their suit […]

If size does matter, Beth Ditto, brash supersized frontwoman with American punk trio The Gossip, has not been informed.
We may be merely 300-odd fans lining up between A and P in the rock and pop section of a London record store, but Ditto puts in no less energy than if there were 70,000 of us […]

Showcases for new bands can often be an uninspiring way to spend a few hours, but you might make an exception for Traumattack, the Bull & Gate in Kentish Town’s monthly event. As the friend who invited me along explained, “you can never tell what it’ll be like”.
This evening, loud and thrashy Bath act Venus […]