The bluebells in the 21st century

WE WERE THE first band of our generation that started to grow up,” Billy Corgan says, reflecting on the making of the Smashing Pumpkins’ 1995 grand opus, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. “The b

SEPTEMBER 2025 TAKE 342

In 1974, Mike Oldfield defied the critics and hit the top of the UK charts with Hergest Ridge, the ambitious follow-up to his unexpectedly successful debut Tubular Bells . To coincide with the release of the 50th-anniversary edition, the musician, his siblings and collaborators recount the story of an album created by an overwhelmed 21-year-old taking refuge near the Welsh borders.

The newly reconfigured band throw open the doors on an expansive sixth album. By Victoria Segal. Illustration by Quinton Winter.

Saint Etienne can’t remember exactly when – or indeed why – they decided that their new album would be their last. “We must have felt it was in the air,” says Bob Stanley, who founded the modernist da

Strawbs lodestar and constant Dave Cousins left us on July 13.