Celebrating 40 years – and counting – of Bristol’s singular poetic rock institution, The Blue Aeroplanes

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

There’s more than a whiff of swing in the air–and on the airwaves. Will Hosie explores the resurrection of one of music’s most gentlemanly genres

30 JACKIE MITTOO Reggae Magic SOUL JAZZ ...

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

Lees, Holroyd, Wolstenholme and Pritchard; you might think it sounds like a legal firm in, say, Oldham, Lancashire. And you’d be right about the Oldham part. John Lees (guitar), Les Holroyd (bass), St