Jewel in the crown

In 1976, the revolutionary singer-songwriter LAURA NYRO returned from self-imposed exile. But her comeback confounded expectations, shifting away from the impassioned intimacies of her early albums to embrace more radical perspectives. Fifty years on, Nyro’s collaborators revisit her striking second act. “She was a hip American from the Bronx,” one friend and producer tells Rob Hughes. “But her soul was old.”

Inside the US singer-songwriter’s path from early DIY explorations to modern country-folk force

From the Sex Pistols to Sinatra, CHRISSIE HYNDE has spent 50 years moving between musical worlds. Now, as she releases a new album of diverse superstar duets, she confides in TOM DOYLE all about Debbie Harry, Kate Bush, Morrissey, forging Beatles signatures, having hysterics at a CSN gig, and how to deal with the most obsessive Pretenders fans... "Go fuck yourselves!"

Squeeze ’s songwriting duo are back in harness, toting a rock opera they wrote in the ’70s with an all-new album to come. Given their near-constant strife, it’s a miracle. But as they insist, “the thing that always brings us together is the songs…”

Black And Blue UMC/POLYDOR

London Shepherd’s Bush Empire