Few rock bands survive to be 40 years old. Shonen Knife’s achievement is all the more remarkable since there haven’t been many all-female rock bands from Japan that have converted their fascination with junk food, beautiful animals, and the Ramones into a global career. Let’s Knife, released in the UK by Creation Records immediately after […]

After their Guardian photoshoot, Let’s Eat Grandma appear at a café, dressed as a couple of pop stars. They are both tall – around 5ft 9in – and dressed in luxurious jewel tones with impeccable eyeliner, but the similarity stops there. Jenny Hollingworth has the thick red curls of a young Kate Bush, while Rosa […]

Even though it’s just the first song of the night, half of the audience is howling like dogs. Of course, delirious excitement is the proper reaction to Self Esteem’s maximalist pop. A few hundred people are jammed into what may be the last of Sheffield-bred singer-songwriter Rebecca Lucy Taylor’s numerous jaunts throughout Britain’s small venues, […]

Dave Gahan, frontman of Depeche Mode, continues our new series in which Guardian readers ask stars of cinema and music questions. His newest album with the duet Soulsavers is released next month. Depeche Mode has carved out its own darkly lighted corner of British music for over 40 years, managing to be campy, gothic, joyful, […]

Oli Sykes yells, “I haven’t seen a mosh pit in 18 fucking months, so you better make it good.” Bring Me the Horizon’s latest UK stadium tour has begun, and the band’s vocalist seems to be overjoyed to be back in the heart of things. The Sheffield quintet’s concert in Hull tonight, the first of […]

Here let’s explain why drummers have a bad reputation in our culture and why it’s not true! As someone who has always loved to play drums and was a regular in his school orchestra, I have always had the reputation of being a horrible drummer because most of my “serious” girlfriend’s parents have decided I […]