‘What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet’ – Juliet, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet I want you to close your eyes. Now, one at a time, I want you to ...

‘Are you deaf? You wanna hear some more?’ – ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution’, AC/DC (1980) Who plays bass for AC/DC? I’ll give you a minute. Then we’ll get to the question of who their vocalist is. There are bands ...

‘He said, “How many songs did you write?” I’d written zero; I’d lie and say ten. “You won’t be young forever. You should have written 15. It’s work.”‘ – ‘Work’, Lou Reed & John Cale In the later years of ...

‘Poetry doesn’t mean flowers and trees and bunnies and stuff’ – Mike IX Williams Punk is an approach, not a destination. It’s an ethos rather than a rulebook. But that’s an ideological debate that’s been present almost since its inception. ...

In the well-thumbed compendium of music interview clichés, there’s a particularly dog-eared page for the dictum ‘We make the music for ourselves – if anyone else likes it, that’s a bonus!’ Musicians are supposed to only care about the music ...

The streets throng with people outside Barbican’s bricked barricades. The day Suicide are holding their Punk Mass in London, not only is the Great City Race passing by but the London Underground’s enduring its first complete strike in 13 years. ...

“Always [she] explores relentlessly the eternal themes that obsess her: love, loss, madness, the nature of the father– daughter compact, and death – the Death Baby we carry with us from the moment of birth” Then US poet laureate Maxine ...

In 1929, stood silently on cinema screens, Louise Brooks was pure sex, in a black bob sharp enough to slit your throat. But the past is a different country, and it can be difficult getting a passport. We’re often given ...

Oh, Barbican, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Stepping inside the walls of the Barbican is to enter another time; a Ballardian built environment of concrete geometry and eerie silence. A future past. A Grade II ...

“It’s so easy to talk about a drag queen – but it’s so difficult to be one.” – Alexis Mateo (season 3) Jonathan Ross recently revealed that he’s bought the rights to develop, with Jodie Harsh, a UK version of ...