Latest music features

playback

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

The Seattle grunge band performed on MTV Unplugged in a funereal setting of lit candles and white lilies. Mark Beaumont chronicles the troubled days leading up to the show, during which Kurt Cobain faced money-minded executives, a nervous fire marshal – and his inner demons

the countdown

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

<p>Babydaddy, Del Marquis and Jake Shears of the newly reformed Scissor Sisters</p>

interview

Scissor Sisters on their reunion tour: ‘We didn’t make sense anywhere but the UK’

in focus

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

Interviews

<p>‘We’re making intellectual and factual improvements, but when the old basic instinct kicks in? We get pulled back into the cave’ </p>

interview

Transvision Vamp’s Wendy James: ‘I was the leader and never a victim’

<p>Dexter Holland and Noodles are the only remaining members of the original band </p>

interview

Pop-punk’s The Offspring: ‘That Backstreet Boys joke wasn’t our best’

<p>‘Trump would drastically change the character of our country – it’s scary that it’s this close’ </p>

Interview

John Legend: ‘It was risky for Taylor Swift to speak about politics’

<p>Hannah Reid: ‘I used to tie myself up in knots over the art that I would make. Now I don’t’ </p>

Interview

London Grammar: ‘I worried motherhood would change me as an artist’

Music Box

Boston trio Tiny Habits perform ‘Wishes’ for Music Box session

The Mysterines perform ‘The Last Dance’ for Music Box

Rita Ora performs new single ‘Ask And You Shall Receive’

On Trend

New Sensations

<p>Jalen Ngonda: ‘Love is the most human thing to talk about'</p>

interview

Singer Jalen Ngonda: ‘I don’t want to write something I can’t feel’

<p>Fat Dog are the latest band to burst out of the south London post-punk scene</p>

interview

Fat Dog: ‘Fans have tattoos of us now. My mum said they’re not well’

Interview

Angie McMahon: ‘I was in the graveyard and realised, “Oh, I’m gay”’

Reviews

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

The longstanding gripe about Dylan’s tendency to deconstruct and rework his music until it’s virtually unrecognisable live is irrelevant tonight

The Cure’s first album in 16 years is proof no one does misery better

Live music

<p>Elton John joins Dua Lipa on stage at the Royal Albert Hall</p>

Dua Lipa’s strange Royal Albert Hall show shouldn’t work – but it does

<p>David Gilmour performs as part of his six-night residency at the Royal Albert Hall in London, October 2024</p>

David Gilmour’s Royal Albert Hall residency is momentous and moving

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

<p>Chappell Roan scored a UK No 1 last year with ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ </p>

Chappell Roan’s live show offers maximalist splendour fit for stadiums

Retrospectives

The bizarre history of the ‘final gig’, from Oasis to Pink Floyd

The hidden chapter of Joni Mitchell that shows her risk-taking side

<p>Eagles frontman Don Henley in 1985</p>

Features

How Don Henley bounced back from Eagles breakup to make a classic

<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’

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