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Mark Beaumont

Mark Beaumont is a freelance critic who writes album reviews, features and comment for The Independent, as well as music titles including NME

<p>Paul McCartney on stage in Manchester </p>
Reviews

Paul McCartney, the last great Sixties showman, is truly breathtaking

<p>‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ was a final showcase for one of the greatest soul voices of its generation and a cry of hope and defiance from the sharp end of American racism and segregation</p>
Features

Sam Cooke’s death left questions, but nothing can overshadow his music

<p>From straight-up bratty bangers to an elegiac return from a much-loved mop-haired goth rocker, 2024 had it all </p>
Features

The best albums of 2024, ranked

<p>Art Garfunkel (right) with his son, Art Garfunkel Jr</p>
Features

Art Garfunkel: ‘I’m in the mood to work with Paul Simon again’

<p>Quincy Jones was arguably the most successful producer of all time </p>
Features

Quincy Jones’s brilliance goes beyond his work with Michael Jackson

Reviews

Bob Dylan, folk-rock’s finest songwriter, seems to exist beyond music

Features

The Cure’s nine essential songs, from ‘Push’ to ‘Disintegration’

Features

Nirvana’s Unplugged show is hallowed now but it almost never happened

Features

Inside the turbulent journey to The Cure’s first album in 16 years

<p>Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner, Self Esteem and Coldplay’s Chris Martin in front of Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’, David Bowie’s ‘Low’, The Beatles’ ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band’ and The White Stripes’ ‘Elephant’ </p>
Features

The 25 most overrated albums, ranked

Features

The 20 most underrated albums ever

<p>Liam Payne died aged 31 after falling from a third-floor balcony of a hotel in Buenos Aires </p>
Features

Liam Payne drew the short straw in 1D – we’ll never know the real him

<p>Often referred to as ‘Lindsey’s folly’, the 1979 punk record was driven by Buckingham’s creative force – and his refusal to make a cash grab with ‘Rumours 2’</p>
Features

Fleetwood Mac on the wild story behind Tusk: ‘Everything got decadent’

Features

Fleetwood Mac on the wild story behind Tusk: ‘Everything got decadent’

<p>Often referred to as ‘Lindsey’s folly’, the 1979 punk record was driven by Buckingham’s creative force – and his refusal to make a cash grab with ‘Rumours 2’</p>
<p>Scott’s prowling onstage magnetism and impish menace slotted into AC/DC perfectly </p>
Features

AC/DC’s Bon Scott tore down the highway to hell with no brakes

Reviews

Chester Bennington would approve of Linkin Park’s ferocious new era

<p>Emily Armstrong is now taking some of Chester Bennington’s original parts on older songs on tour<em> </em></p>
Features

Linkin Park’s entire legacy is under threat

<p>Arcade Fire performing at Coachella Festival in 2005</p>
Features

‘There was blood on the piano’: The chaos of Arcade Fire’s Funeral

<p>Arcade Fire performing at Coachella Festival in 2005</p>
Features

‘There was blood on the piano’: The chaos of Arcade Fire’s Funeral

<p>Yannis Philippakis, frontman of Foals, one of the UK’s biggest rock bands </p>
Features

Foals’ Yannis Philippakis: ‘I am not tethered to the band’

<p>Manc motor mouths: Oasis (from left, Paul McGuigan, Noel Gallagher, Tony McCarroll, Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs and Liam Gallagher) commandeer a Jaguar XJ6 for a November 1993 shoot</p>
Features

‘Cabbaged beyond belief’: 30 years of Oasis’s Definitely Maybe

<p>Renee Rapp at Reading 2024</p>
Reviews

Technical issues abound at Reading Festival amid one giant rumour

Features

Why this is the perfect moment for an Oasis reunion

<p>Fred Again performs on the main stage during Saturday at Reading Festival 2024</p>
Reviews

Lana Del Rey and Fred Again battle stage sound clashes at Reading 2024

<p>The app has released its list of the biggest summer hits on the platform and it made for revealing reading </p>
Features

What TikTok’s songs of the summer tell us about our music habits

<p>Rapper Moglai­ Bap of Kneecap </p>
Reviews

Blink-182, Kneecap and The Prodigy bring back Reading Festival’s bite

<p>The Irish band releases their fourth album ‘Romance’ on 23 August </p>
Reviews

Fontaines DC leaves post-punk behind and roars off into new horizons

<p>The app has released its list of the biggest summer hits on the platform and it made for revealing reading </p>
Features

What TikTok’s songs of the summer tell us about our music habits

<p>Rapper Moglai­ Bap of Kneecap </p>
Reviews

Blink-182, Kneecap and The Prodigy bring back Reading Festival’s bite

<p>The Irish band releases their fourth album ‘Romance’ on 23 August </p>
Reviews

Fontaines DC leaves post-punk behind and roars off into new horizons

<p>Bloc party: ‘It was probably the only place in the world that was actually playing us back in them days,’ says Maiden bassist Steve Harris</p>
Features

Iron Maiden’s 1984 World Slavery tour behind the Iron Curtain

Features

Iron Maiden’s 1984 World Slavery tour behind the Iron Curtain

<p>Bloc party: ‘It was probably the only place in the world that was actually playing us back in them days,’ says Maiden bassist Steve Harris</p>
<p>Two young music fans hitch a lift home from Woodstock Music and Arts Fair, August 1969</p>
Features

Woodstock revisited: whatever happened to the hippie dream?

<p>There has been much speculation that Manson’s rejection by the music industry sparked his murderous plans</p>
Features

The dark musical legacy left by evil mass murderer Charles Manson

<p>86TVs’ Felix White: ‘You spent a lot of your early life, if you’ve lost someone really young, being emotionally reactionary to things'</p>
Features

86TVs’ Felix White: ‘The way The Maccabees ended was heartbreaking’

<p>Springsteen roars and gnashes and stomps and sweats every bit as hard as the runaway rebel rocker of ‘Born to Run’ ever did</p>
Reviews

Bruce Springsteen’s curfew-defying set bends Wembley to his will

<p>Springsteen roars and gnashes and stomps and sweats every bit as hard as the runaway rebel rocker of ‘Born to Run’ ever did</p>
Reviews

Bruce Springsteen’s curfew-defying set bends Wembley to his will

<p>Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan: ‘I was too wild and there were things going on that were just not good if I wanted to have a future as a musician’ </p>
Features

Deep Purple: ‘Everyone’s seen Spinal Tap, that’s pretty much it’

<p>Angus Young now resembles a man held back in year 4 for 60 years straight </p>
Reviews

You pray AC/DC’s lacklustre Wembley gig was just a sound-desk issue

<p>Coldplay’s Chris Martin performs on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury 2024</p>
Glastonbury Festival

Coldplay deliver the spectacle of a lifetime at Glastonbury 2024

<p>From left: Sophie Duker, Chief Raoni and Simon Pegg </p>
Glastonbury Festival

Simon Pegg and Greenpeace on Glastonbury’s climate activism

<p>PJ Harvey performs on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival 2024, Friday 28 June</p>
Glastonbury Festival

At Glasto, PJ Harvey casts herself as a provocative rock re-inventor

<p>Leading from the front: (clockwise, from top left) Paul McCartney, Beyoncé, Damon Albarn of Blur, and Stormzy, during their headline performances on the Pyramid Stage</p>
Glastonbury Festival

The 22 greatest Glastonbury performances ever

<p>The band’s hit song ‘Rock’n’roll Star’ made for a customarily dazzling opening – but things quickly went downhill</p>
Features

Was 2004 the worst Glastonbury ever? If you were an Oasis fan, yes

<p>Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, along with bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool, perform a sold-out show at Emirates Old Trafford on the opening night of The Saviors tour</p>
Reviews

In Manchester, Green Day hammers home their place in rock history

<p>Brazilian electropop group CSS: ‘We were so tired after shows, and we weren’t going to do drugs just to go to an afterparty’ </p>
Features

Indie sleaze icons CSS: ‘We’re reuniting for fun – not money’

<p>‘Youth has been expanded to the sixties onwards’ </p>
Lifestyle

Home in time for tea? Why I love clubbing in my fifties

<p>Former Camden resident and pop star Dua Lipa fronts the programme </p>
Features

Where are the punks? Dua Lipa’s Camden docuseries misses the point

Features

Where are the punks? Dua Lipa’s Camden docuseries misses the point

<p>Former Camden resident and pop star Dua Lipa fronts the programme </p>
<p>Sid Vicious died aged 21 on 2 February 1979 in the New York apartment of aspiring actor Michelle Robinson </p>
Features

Freedom and dead by sunrise: Inside Sid Vicious’ harrowing last party

<p>The winner Nemo of Switzerland</p>
Eurovision

Eurovision 2024 unfolded under the darkest shadow in its history

<p>The pop group Abba congratulate each other in Brighton after winning the Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden with Waterloo (PA)</p>
Features

How Abba’s 12-points energy at Eurovision started a pop revolution

<p>Is the back catalogue of The Beatles really as infinite as a recent series of releases and projects suggests? </p>
Features

Is there any ‘lost’ classic rock still worth hearing?

<p>Is the back catalogue of The Beatles really as infinite as a recent series of releases and projects suggests? </p>
Features

Is there any ‘lost’ classic rock still worth hearing?

<p>‘The first thing [Yoko Ono] said to me was, ‘You remind me of my husband, he was a singer as well’,’ recalls Lias Saoudi </p>
Features

Fat White Family’s Lias Saoudi: ‘My night out lasted 17 years’

<p>Those early Nirvana shows were experienced by fans as deeply communal and endlessly relatable</p>
Features

Inside Nirvana’s final show: Kurt Cobain and a prophetic declaration

<p>‘All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade’ is easily The Libertines’ most ambitious and expansive record to date </p>
Reviews

Album reviews: The Libertines and The Black Keys

Reviews

Roger Daltrey bows out from Teenage Cancer Trust with a worthy goodbye

<p>MGMT rose to fame with their seminal 2007 debut album ‘Oracular Spectacular’ </p>
Features

MGMT are all grown up: ‘This sounds whack to say, but drugs are bad’

<p>Michael Jackson performs during his HIStory tour in 1996</p>
Features

How do you tell a story like Michael Jackson’s?

Reviews

Album reviews: Shakira, Waxahatchee, Adrianne Lenker, and Elbow

<p>Their generation: the two remaining band members saw off Roger Daltrey’s 24 years organising the yearly charity gigs with a bang only they could deliver </p>
Reviews

The Who remain the punchiest act of their vintage at Royal Albert Hall

<p>‘David Bowie’s dinner got dumped in with my drummer’s payments for his college’ </p>
Features

The Dandy Warhols on Portland, drugs, and David Bowie’s dine-and-dash

<p>Smiles all around: It was Raye’s night at the 2024 Brits </p>
Features

Raye’s indisputable triumph proves the old gods can be toppled

<p>Having parted ways with their label over ‘hypocrisy’ concerns in 2022, the Scottish four-piece release ‘Millennials’ on their own label, Happy Artists </p>
Features

The Snuts on Millennials, TikTok, and schoolmate Lewis Capaldi

Features

The Snuts on Millennials, TikTok, and schoolmate Lewis Capaldi

<p>Having parted ways with their label over ‘hypocrisy’ concerns in 2022, the Scottish four-piece release ‘Millennials’ on their own label, Happy Artists </p>
<p>The Smiths released their self-titled debut album on 20 February 1984 </p>
Features

Murderous lyrics and bare torsos: the story behind The Smiths debut

Reviews

Usher’s Super Bowl halftime show was a fun, half-memorable mess

<p>We have lift-off: (from left) Ringo Starr, John Lennon, George Harrison and Paul McCartney board their plane at Heathrow airport for their tour of America in 1964</p>
Features

Crazed girls, loose bladders, and JFK: How The Beatles broke America

<p>Miley Cyrus accepts her award from Mariah Carey </p>
Features

The Grammys were a celebration of women (and atoned for Harry Styles)

<p>Miley Cyrus accepts her award from Mariah Carey </p>
Features

The Grammys were a celebration of women (and atoned for Harry Styles)

<p>Phone-a Lisa: individuals refusing to experience the famous artwork unless it’s through their screens </p>
Culture

Going to an art gallery or to a gig? Prepare to meet the iMorons

<p>Stepping onto the storied stage of Brixton Academy is many bands’ first taste of tangible big-gig success</p>
Features

Safety comes first – but Brixton Academy must reopen for London’s sake

Features

The 30 best albums of 2023, from Olivia Rodrigo to Lana Del Rey

<p>The measure of our dreams: MacGowan by posters for 1986’s ‘Poguetry in Motion’ EP </p>
Features

The 10 best songs by The Pogues, ranked

Reviews

The lost Beatles song conjures a band in their psychedelic prime

<p>Think for yourself: the book documents Harrison’s creative struggles during his Beatles career </p>
Features

How George Harrison refused to be kept down by Lennon and McCartney

<p>The Rolling Stones release their first new album of new material in 18 years </p>
Reviews

The Rolling Stones outdo musicians half their ages on Hackney Diamonds

<p>How we are: the reunited Bombay Bicycle Club have vowed not to take themselves as seriously as the intense teenagers of 2009</p>
Features

Bombay Bicycle Club: ‘People were still calling us landfill indie’

<p>Noel Gallagher, Louis Tomlinson and Peter Doherty are throwing their weight behind Andrew Cushin </p>
Features

Louis Tomlinson and Pete Doherty agree Andrew Cushin is the real deal

<p>Frontman Brandon Flowers first recorded the song’s vocals inside a closet </p>
Features

How ‘Mr Brightside’ became one of our most enduring rock songs

<p>James Blake releases sixth album ‘Playing Robots into Heaven’ </p>
Reviews

James Blake reverts to factory settings on his inspired new album

<p>Dressed in bright baseball garb, Billie Eilish performs at this year’s Reading Festival </p>
Reviews

Billie Eilish closes Reading Festival in sublime but subdued fashion

<p>The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers performs at this year’s Reading Festival </p>
Reviews

The Killers deliver one of the great Reading Festival headline sets

<p>Dark-hearted delight as Wet Leg enjoy every minute of their rocketing rise and get more adorable by the gig</p>
Reviews

Foals bring the Friday fever at day one of Reading Festival 2023

<p>The wicker man catches light in a barrage of fireworks on the final day of Green Man festival 2023 </p>
Reviews

Green Man festival remains an honourable bastion of fine sounds

<p>Festival organiser Emily Eavis wearing a Greenpeace ‘Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow’ T-shirt at Glastonbury 2023</p>
Lifestyle

Art and activism join forces for Glastonbury’s campaign for the future

<p>Dark-hearted delight as Wet Leg enjoy every minute of their rocketing rise and get more adorable by the gig</p>
Reviews

Foals bring the Friday fever at day one of Reading Festival 2023

<p>The wicker man catches light in a barrage of fireworks on the final day of Green Man festival 2023 </p>
Reviews

Green Man festival remains an honourable bastion of fine sounds

<p>Festival organiser Emily Eavis wearing a Greenpeace ‘Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow’ T-shirt at Glastonbury 2023</p>
Lifestyle

Art and activism join forces for Glastonbury’s campaign for the future

<p>Axl Rose and Slash of Guns N’ Roses perform on the Pyramid Stage </p>
Reviews

Guns N’ Roses: frontrunners for the worst Glasto headliners ever

Reviews

Cat Stevens embodies a folk Nile Rodgers in legendary Glastonbury set

<p>Here for healing: Mark Beaumont at the Healing Field at Glastonbury 2023</p>
Lifestyle

What I learnt from a day at the Glastonbury Healing Field

<p>Lewis Capaldi performing at Glastonbury</p>
Reviews

Lewis Capaldi’s Glastonbury set was an emotion-charged singalong

<p>The spiritual core of Glastonbury – as seen in this picture from the 1971 festival – has become truly archaic</p>
Culture

Glastonbury has abandoned its hippie roots, and it needs them back

<p>Under the stage name Tina Turner, she would become one of the most successful, celebrated and thunderous voices in R&B, soul, funk and pop music</p>
Culture

How Tina Turner’s elemental voice spanned many eras

Eurovision

Poe himself couldn’t have scripted a better Eurovision final

<p>Yeah Yeah Yeahs in concert at the Metro, Chicago o 23 November 2003</p>
Features

Karen O and rubber bones: Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Fever to Tell at 20

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