Featured Buzz
Boy George and rapper Wale to sing live in Royal Ballet's upcoming premiereMonday, 12 March 2012
Boy George will be in a live line-up of singer-performers for the latest Royal Ballet premiere by Wayne McGregor. Mark Ronson's cycle of nine love songs, orchestrated by Rufus Wainwright, will be performed by the former Culture Club New-Romantic (he... Read more... |
theASHtray: Blood Car, organ donation, and the pop song carbon footprintSaturday, 10 March 2012
Put your hand up, please, if you’ve seen the multi-award-winning movie Blood Car. No? Fair enough. It was ostensibly released about two weeks ago – “in selected cinemas” – but you can be forgiven for not having tripped over any posters.Blood Car is... Read more... |
A Spoonful of Sugar: Robert Sherman, 1925-2012Tuesday, 06 March 2012
Robert Sherman, who has died at the age of 86, was three years older than his brother Richard, and much quieter. Indeed, on the two occasions I interviewed the songwriting brothers – once in person, the other time on the phone from California – his... Read more... |
Interview & Video Exclusive: The Magnetic NorthTuesday, 06 March 2012
John Charles Gunn’s Orkney: The Magnetic North was published in 1932 as a guide to the islands and their history. Now, along with a dream, it’s inspired The Magnetic North’s album Orkney: Symphony Of The Magnetic North. With former Verve member... Read more... |
He Was More Than a Monkee: Davy Jones, 1948–2012Wednesday, 29 February 2012
The death of Davy Jones is a surprise. A horrible surprise. Less than a year ago he was on stage at the Royal Albert Hall in the reunited Monkees, full of life, hogging the stage, hamming it up and celebrating the wonderful songs of America’s... Read more... |
Black Cab Sessions: music TV catches up with the net?Wednesday, 29 February 2012
Tonight on Channel 4, a new music series begins with a fantastic premise. A group of music obsessives drive around the USA in a London black cab, finding interesting musicians and recording them performing and talking in the back of the cab. Sounds... Read more... |
FW Murnau's Faust, Royal Festival HallTuesday, 28 February 2012
Silent movies are currently the rage of Tinseltown, so what better moment to brush up on one of the treasures of the pre-talkie era? Top movie-ologists now contend that FW Murnau's 1926 film of Faust is a neglected all-time great ("one of the most... Read more... |
theartsdesk video exclusive: BlacksmifTuesday, 28 February 2012
Londoner Yemi Olagbaiye is the model of a new generation musician for whom the dissolution of genre categories means not homogenisation but an opportunity for greater individuality. Olagbaiye grew up playing guitar music, then moved on to drum'n'... Read more... |
Your complete guide to which awards have (some) credibilitySunday, 26 February 2012
First it's Golden Globes, then Oscars, or it's Grammys, then Brits - you can hardly go by a Sunday this time of year without another set of awards. But which ones count? Who are the judges?The experts on theartsdesk (judges, some of them -... Read more... |
Powerless Structures, Fig. 101, Fourth PlinthThursday, 23 February 2012
Superficially it's the very picture of innocence. A boy clings to his wooden steed, one hand clutching the neck, the other flying free. Few Fourth Plinth commissions will be more easily co-opted for official public duty. Hope, youth, the exultation... Read more... |
Sport and classical music: they should hang out moreWednesday, 22 February 2012
Classical music and sport: should they spend more time together? The idea was posited more than 20 years ago that football and opera made for ideal bedfellows, so long as the football was being played in Italy and the operatic aria was Nessun Dorma... Read more... |
The BRIT Awards: The Brand leading the BlandWednesday, 22 February 2012
It's awards season for the music industry, and no amount of complaining, ignoring or pointedly watching BBC Four in protest is going to stop the BRIT Awards from ordering in a few thousand servings of homemade tomato chutney and crostini to be laid... Read more... |
