The first cut is the deepest”

How punk attitude and minimalist soul grooves took the smoothest operator from London’s club scene to global success

After four Top 5 albums, Dire Straits were doing well but were hardly a household name. That all changed when they made Brothers In Arms . Mark Knopfler, John Illsley and Guy Fletcher take us back.

SIXTY YEARS AGO, THE BEATLES OPENED UP THE DOOR TO A BRAVE NEW WORLD. ANIMATED BY WEED AND ACID, THEY FOUND THE INTROSPECTIVE SONGS OF HELPI, THE KNOCK ABOUT MOVIE THAT WAS ALSO A SKEWED, STONED SATIRE ON BEATLEMANIA. AND YET, AMID FRESH MADHESS AND MBES, THE ESSENCE OF 196S WAS ALSO A RETURN TO THE BAND'S ORIGINAL SOURCE, THE REVENGE OF THE BEATNIK BEATLES...

Close harmonies, smooth grooves, infighting and ‘the bag’: making an album on stage

BEHIND AN UNMARKED door in a nondescript West London street, you’ll find the recording studio of the world’s most reluctant rock god. Do this job long enough and you’ll learn to spot the artists who p

To celebrate the imminent arrival of Tracks II: The Lost Albums , Uncut takes a revelatory trip inside the archives of BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN . There, we piece together the stories behind an unexpected and expansive alternate discography not even the most devout Bruce fans could have imagined – from garage sessions and solo experiments to film soundtracks, pared-down dustbowl dramas, Vegas swing and more. “If you want to understand how Springsteen works creatively, he’s never shown you more of his cards than he does here,” one collaborator confides to Peter Watts