Aluna Francis worries that people think her full name is Aluna George, and her musical partner George Reid is frequently mistaken for her part-time session player, but as a pairing with no space between their names, AlunaGeorge are making it work as the most exciting new act in electropop. If bands are families, the male-female…
He may be Fresh but he’s not exactly new. DJ Fresh’s sudden chart and radio ubiquity comes after a 15 year career as an underground drum and bass don. The 35-year-old producer from Maidenhead, real name Dan Stein, is proof that the ever changing world of dance is actually the best place to carve a…
Jake Bugg is a small lad with big expectations heaped on his shoulders. At just 18, in child-size jeans, he’s the heir apparent in the royal lineage of working-class hero rock ’n’ roll that stretches down from Paul Weller through The Stone Roses to Oasis and Arctic Monkeys. He’s recently been anointed as crown prince…
Installed by bookies as 4-6 favourites to win the Mercury Prize weeks before the shortlist is even announced, Alt-J are rising at a rate beyond their control. At a time when the charts seem allergic to guitars, Radio 1 has embraced them on its A-list — there haven’t been many bands this hot since Arctic…
Have you finished sticking sequins to your feather headdress yet? It’s Carnival again, with a million people taking to the streets of Notting Hill over two days of the bank holiday to blow whistles, eat jerk chicken and shake some serious booty. We’re all familiar with the steel bands and outrageously colourful floats that will…
Normal service has resumed in London, which means football, patchy weather and, most promisingly, the return of the annual iTunes Festival to Camden’s Roundhouse. A look at the list of stars involved in next month’s 30 days of free concerts is a vivid indication of the power of Apple — for a long time now…
As speculation mounts about the content of the Olympic closing ceremony, it’s an open secret that Ray Davies will be there on Sunday playing Waterloo Sunset, the dreamlike tale of Terry and Julie’s romance in which London has never sounded more beautiful. Our interview is delayed because he’s in rehearsals, although his schedule says he’s…
Danny Boyle’s Olympic opening ceremony this evening is expected to depict many things that make Britain what it is, from rolling hills and rainclouds to NHS nurses and cricket. There’s also a particular emphasis on one thing that makes Britain great and at which we are consistent world-beaters: music. Never before has there been such…
On August 6, Jamaica will have more to celebrate than Usain Bolt’s presumed victory in the Olympic 100m final the night before. It’s the 50th anniversary of Jamaican independence from the British, and partying alongside the rest of the nation will be one man whose music career has lasted almost as long: Frederick “Toots” Hibbert,…
There’s a line in one of Conor Maynard’s songs, Animal, that goes: “I know I’m getting close from the trail of broken hearts.” I was hoping I wouldn’t need the map in my pocket to find the TV studio where I’m meeting Britain’s answer to Justin Bieber, a Brighton 19-year-old who looks 13 and whose…