Bon Jovi Forever (Legendary Edition) ISLAND Jon Bon ...

Cassidy Paris: the wet leather look. IAN RITTER/PRESS ...

Welcome to the second of our special Review Of The Year joint interviews. Here, indie provocateur BAXTER DURY and Sleaford Mods’ splenetic frontman JASON WILLIAMSON turn their attentions to the landscape, musical or otherwise, of 2025. Stand by for a bleak, brash, honest and often humorous assessment of the year just gone. Their conclusions? “We’re just flogging this dead horse, aren’t we?” they tell Mark Beaumont

Brett Anderson and Mat Osman guide us through 30 years plus of catchy, dramatic alternative rock

ARCTANGENT FESTIVAL

It begins more like a sermon than a pop concert. Through billowing dry ice, at the back of the dimly lit stage, a line of barely visible figures emerge, dressed in black and white nun-like garb. Break