55 m. ago ‘If all I cared about was a career, I’d make listenable music’: Joost Klein on Eurovision, scandal and having the last laugh

The wild child ‘gabber pop’ rapper was booted off last year’s song contest. But his song Europapa eclipsed the winner’s – and he’s about to tour the world in his gigantic shoulder padsJoost Klein is arguably the first artist to triumph at the Eurovision song contest without actually performing in the final. In May last year, the 27-year-old Dutch wild child “gabber pop” rapper was disqualified from the world’s largest live music event just hours before he was due to perform Europapa to 170 million TV viewers around the globe.This song – a chaotic but catchy ode to the father he lost as a teenager, and to the free movement of people ethos his father instilled in him – was touted as a favourite. But instead of gearing up for his big moment, Klein spent seven hours that day sitting in his changing room in a reflex-blue, Ursula-von-der-Leyen-meets-Vivienne-Westwood suit with gigantic shoulder pads, fearing he was about to be arrested – on live TV – over a “backstage incident” after the ...

Politics

3 d. ago Lady Gaga: Every song ranked, from Born This Way to Abracadabra

As modern music’s most entertaining chameleon embraces pop chaos once again on her new album ‘Mayhem’, Adam White has ranked every song she’s ever released (but not the ones she did with Tony Bennett because, with all due respect, no one has time for that)

Politics

4 d. ago UK city pub fined over £20k for blasting out ‘loud pop music with a heavy bass'

An East London pub has been fined after noise complaints from a local, claiming there was 'loud pop music with a heavy bass' - council warnings were continuously ignored

Economics

4 d. ago Ed Sheeran's secret is out! Star plays his new album during secret gig at his favourite London pub

For months there has been speculation over when Ed Sheeran would release his next album.

Politics

4 d. ago Ed Sheeran's secret is out! Star  plays his new album during secret gig at his favourite London pub

For months there has been speculation over when Ed Sheeran would release his next album.

Politics

4 d. ago Can’t Get You Out of My Head: King Charles reveals love of Kylie’s music

Monarch shares soundtrack to his life, including disco, reggae and Afrobeats, to celebrate Commonwealth DayKylie has a legion of fans around the globe, but it might come as a surprise to many that the king is one of those who can’t get her out of his head.The princess of pop, alongside Bob Marley and Grace Jones, are among the music artists beloved of Charles, it was revealed on Friday as part of Commonwealth Day celebrations, which falls on Monday. Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago Three brothers admit guilt over fatal west London pub brawl mid

Mark Barrs was fatally stabbed during a fight outside The Old Hat pub in Ealing

Events

7 d. ago London pub fined £20k by council for playing 'pop music with loud bass'

The Dockers’ Inn in Wapping was taken to court after a local complained about noise

Economics

7 d. ago ‘Together in creativity for peace!’ Sain, the indie label pushing Welsh music forward for 56 years

It’s gone from a cowshed to a cultural institution. As its 3,000-album archive gets digitised, different generations explain how Sain deepened Welsh identityOne of the oldest indie labels in Britain sits down a muddy lane on an old RAF site, less than a mile from the sea, half an hour from the mountains of Eryri. Founded in 1969, Sain – meaning sound in Welsh, pronounced (in English) like “sign” – is an unusual label, host to a remarkable treasure trove of music. And now it is on a drive to explore its past, present and future.It has recently launched a new anthology series, Stafell Sbâr Sain (Sain’s Spare Room), which gets up-and-coming Welsh musicians to record in its vintage analogue studio. Tyrchu Sain (Digging Sain) is a new album by Don Leisure (AKA producer Aly Jamal) which remixes the label’s 56-year-old catalogue into mesmerising new shapes. Meanwhile the label’s archive of Welsh-language music – more than 3,000 albums of pop, psych, prog, punk, funk, folk, opera, choral mu...

Events

7 d. ago Anitta writes song and cheers for samba school celebrating her Afro

Superstar Anitta has won over pop music fans in Brazil and abroad, even more so since she added English and Spanish singing to her seductive dancing and bold lyrics

Culture

9 d. ago Murder probe launched as man dies in Wetherspoons 'disturbance'

A 63-year-old man was killed outside a Wetherspoons pub in south-east London on Saturday night.

Events

9 d. ago Wetherspoons Lewisham murder probe as man dies in 'disturbance' outside The Watch House

A man, aged 63, was killed following an attack outside The Watch House, a Wetherspoons pub, in Lewisham, south-east London, on Saturday night with a murder investigation launched

Events

9 d. ago Charli xcx, Jade and Ezra Collective’s Brit awards cap a vintage year for adventurous pop | Alexis Petridis

Playing music that is as smart as it is successful, Brit winners made articulate calls for artist development – while host Jack Whitehall was brilliantly riskyThe Brits has long been in the business of underlining success; upsets and shock wins aren’t really the point. If they seemed moderately more exciting in 2025 than in years past, that’s partly because Jack Whitehall is a better, riskier, funnier host than anyone else offered the job in recent years – he mocked Stormzy for his promotion of McDonald’s, made a joke about amyl nitrate and called Coldplay “the musical missionary position” – and because 2024 was a vintage year for mainstream pop, dominated by music that was characterful and hugely successful.If Charli xcx – and producer AG Cook – hadn’t been lavishly rewarded for her agenda-setting album Brat, you would have wondered what had gone wrong: likewise Chappell Roan, whose ardent emotion both in and out of the recording studio makes her one of pop’s most cheering recent d...

Events

1 week ago Myles Smith interview: the Brits Rising Star award winner on his new superstardom

Myles Smith had the biggest song of last year with Stargazing, and with a new album and tour, and a Brits Rising Star award, we caught up with him to ask how sudden success feels

Events

1 week ago This London Bridge pub with spectacular views of the River Thames has reopened after a major refurb

This London Bridge pub with spectacular views of the River Thames has reopened after a major refurb  Time Out London

Politics

1 week ago Gracie Abrams, the year’s biggest pop star: ‘Trump has only been in office a month, and everybody is more at risk’

After dodging toxic fans, ‘nepo baby’ jibes and her own projectile vomit, the 25-year-old has just spent eight weeks at UK No 1. She explains why she’s now writing about our dark, uncertain futureOn a video call from a hotel room in Hamburg, Gracie Abrams is expounding on the virtues of decoupling yourself from social media and living a life offline. “You can literally do so much when you’re not scrolling!” she enthuses. “You can retain more information; everything gets lighter. You have a greater capacity to be more present, to be there for the people in your life, to read a book that’s going to inspire your next album, or go on a hike and breathe air instead of sitting in a dark room on fucking Instagram. I’m doing lots of, like, tactile stuff, staying off social media,” she adds. “Needlepoint and shit like that. I’m just trying to make things to have some tangible evidence of having lived this year.”Of course, this is nothing the world hasn’t heard before: we’re well used to bein...

Politics

1 week ago This London pub bucks tradition and offers New Orleans fare, including gumbo and jambalaya

This London pub bucks tradition and offers New Orleans fare, including gumbo and jambalaya  NOLA.com

Politics

1 week ago Men who drank Guinness in pub minutes after stabbing man to death found guilty of murder

David Walcott and Rammon Mali ordered pints after brutally killing Rijkaard Siafa in Croydon

Events

1 week ago 2025 dubbed 'Year of Concerts' with performances from Sabrina Carpenter, Dua Lipa and Rihanna

Rihanna's rumoured Glastonbury appearance and other scheduled performances from major pop stars has left music fans believing that this year will be the year of great concerts

Politics

2 w. ago ‘It makes you feel like the hero of your own quest’: the dark, delightful magic of the dungeon synth scene

Amid dinosaurs, swords and leather armour, we visit the UK’s first festival for dungeon synth – a fast-growing black metal spinoff dedicated to fantasy and escapeA flurry of inflatable caveman clubs have erupted into the air, a crowd of ecstatic metallers swinging them merrily as they watch a hooded dinosaur peering over a synthesiser. The masked musician, Diplodocus, has transformed this crowded pub in soggy south London into a mystical underworld, one entrancing chord at a time.This is Albion Dungeon fest, a sellout, weekend-long event, and the first of its kind in the UK. Emerging in the 90s as an offshoot of black metal, dungeon synth replaced guitars with keyboards to make it less moshing, more magic. Its mystical sound has aesthetics to match, channelling the atmosphere of JRR Tolkien books, the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons and a darkly quaint reimagining of the medieval era. Continue reading...

Politics