When britain rocked

At the end of July, thousands of fans gathered for Ozzy Osbourne’s funeral procession in Birmingham. Some of them shouted “Ozzy forever!” The hard rock singer died 22 July 2025 at the age of 76.1 Afte

The Veteran Car Club of Great Britain calls it The Hare chases the Snail, and as an example of pure English nonconformity (and charm), I can’t imagine anything more representative in the world of old-

A few years ago, Charlie Burchill and Jim Kerr were interviewed for a BBC documentary about music’s messiest break-ups. Which may seem like an odd booking, given the pair’s famously adamantine bond. B

“I hope you don’t f***ing drop me. The way they’re carrying me, you’d think I’d died of f***ing lead poisoning.” Funerals are never an easy experience, and can be made considerably harder when the dec

When ska-pop contenders The Beat ended in July ’83, bassist David Steele and guitarist Andy Cox were cut adrift. Then they found frontman Roland Gift, lifted a name from a Natalie Wood movie and re-emerged as FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS . 1985 UK hit Johnny Come Home was followed by international mega-smash She Drives Me Crazy in 1989. “We didn’t think it would go that mad,” recall the band of multi-million sales, Hollywood A-list fans and ‘bendy legs’ dancing. “We didn’t know how to manage the energy that we’d created.”

ROB BRYDON on his rhinestone-encrusted tour around southern America