Music of the sphere

No one notices Bruce Springsteen. He makes no effort to hide—black T-shirt, blue jeans, Wayfarer sunglasses, honky-tonk cowboy boots—but for a few minutes, the most famous son of the Jersey Shore achi

Post-American Utopia, DAVID BYRNE is continuing to put a positive spin on the global omni-shambles. That includes engaging constructively with his Talking Heads legacy, but don't confuse it with looking backwards. "Even if something is going well and you know how to do this thing," he tells DAVID FRICKE , "I gotta leave it behind."

In April 1985, when Prince released his seventh album, Around The World In A Day, his star was already riding high. The rock-oriented Purple Rain – for many still his crowning artistic achievement – h

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

D uring the first half of the 80s, OMD were a regular presence in the upper reaches of the UK charts. Enola Gay, Souvenir, Joan Of Arc and Maid Of Orleans (The Waltz Joan Of Arc) made the Top 10, whil

The accessibility, affordability and portability of synthesizers in the late 70s had a profound effect on popular music, particularly in the UK, where the likes of Ultravox!, Gary Numan and OMD reshap