Music news

Billy Idol: ‘I stole the master tapes for Rebel Yell – and gave them to my heroin dealer’

16-05-2024 16:00 via theguardian.com

The Generation X punk turned arena rocker answers your questions on near-misses in Hollywood, his overlooked electronic period and how Marc Bolan helped launch his careerIs it true that you stole the master tapes to the Rebel Yell album during a spat with the record label? VerulamiumParkRanger
It was because of the cover. I was saying: “There’s a flaw in this picture, and if we blow this up it will get worse.” The record company started to say: “We’re leaving it. It

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Jimmy James obituary

16-05-2024 15:59 via theguardian.com

Soul and ska singer best known for his dynamic live performances with his band the Vagabonds in the 60s and 70sThe singer Jimmy James first arrived in London in 1964 as frontman of the Vagabonds, a Jamaican dance band booked to perform at West Indian clubs across Britain for six months. However, the band’s dynamic performances – they mixed ska and calypso with R&B and big band standards – quickly gained them a sizeable British fanbase, a residency at the Marquee Club in Soh

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Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft review – still the great outlier of American pop

16-05-2024 14:00 via theguardian.com

(Darkroom/Interscope Records)
On this deeply involving third album, Eilish once again breaks the rules for arena-filling artists: it’s subtle and understated, yet jars the listener with eerie show tunes and explosive noiseBillie Eilish’s third album opens with a track called Skinny. It features a hushed electric guitar figure supporting a lyric filled with very Billie Eilish topics: bitter recriminations about a failed relationship, body dysmorphia, depression and the pressures of fi

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Beth Gibbons: Lives Outgrown review – long-awaited solo debut is a gripping study of ageing and loss

16-05-2024 12:20 via theguardian.com

(Domino)
In the Portishead singer’s singular, astonishing soundworld, these songs sit in autumnal gloom but are occasionally dappled with warmth and lightNo one is ever going to accuse Beth Gibbons of over-exerting herself in the rapacious pursuit of fame: her solo debut arrives 22 years after her collaboration with Rustin Man, Out of Season, 16 years after the last Portishead album, Third, and 11 after it was first announced.In fairness, Lives Outgrown has a unique sound you suspect was o

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