Stellar street

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

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.

‘We are interrupting this news bulletin to go straight to the European Athletics Championships in Belgrade where the final of the 5,000 metres is in its last stages.” With these words, I – and the res

Brixton Academy is one of London’s great live music venues. This 5,000-capacity space is both intimate and grand – its sloping floor ensuring all standing spectators can see the action on the vast sta

Forty years ago this September, Kate Bush released Hounds Of Love . Her fifth studio record reinstated her position as one of the most innovative and creative artists of all time and yielded the (future) chart-topper Running Up That Hill . But its creation wasn’t always smooth. Here’s the story behind one of Bush’s best-loved albums.

1975 was JONI MITCHELL ’ s roller-coaster year: 12 months of romance and heartbreak, adventure and retreat, cocaine and Rolling Thunder. And in the middle of it, The Hissing Of Summer Lawns , her doubling-down on jazz rhythms, exotic melodies and songwriting-as-literature, with (for now, at least) a simpatico crew in tow. “It was just a good vibe,” they tell GRAYSON HAVER CURRIN . “And Joni was at the centre of it, at the peak of her powers.”