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3 weeks ago | 
thetimes.com | Richard Morrison |Will Hodgkinson |Lisa Verrico |Jonathan Dean
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1 month ago | 
thetimes.com | Lisa Verrico
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1 month ago | 
thetimes.com | Lisa Verrico
Teddy Swims arrived on stage at Glasgow's OVO Hydro through a trapdoor on a raised walkway, to a mighty fanfare. Flames shot skywards, strobes seared our retinas and a five-piece band blared squally rock. The bald, bearded, heavily tattooed man-mountain singer is, in every sense, the world's biggest new soul star. Since his single Lose Control took off in 2023 - it was one of last year's biggest sellers, going triple platinum in Britain - the Georgia-born 32-year-old has been inescapable.
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Jan 20, 2025 | 
thetimes.com | Lisa Verrico
At Milan's magnificent Teatro Dal Verme, some of the audience sit in stunned silence, hypnotised by Ludovico Einaudi's immersive, piano-led classical-pop. Others are on their feet, filming or whooping their delight when the pace picks up or the strings and percussion join in. There are signs around the theatre prohibiting filming, but no one intervenes. By the encore, two hours in, the balconies are almost standing only.
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Jan 20, 2025 | 
thetimes.com | Lisa Verrico
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Dec 2, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Lisa Verrico
In Glasgow, Paul Heaton kicked off Christmas early. The modest, anorak-clad musician didn’t require so much as a tree or tinsel — although there was an explosion of gold streamers in the encore — to pour festive spirit into a packed Hydro. Amid the joyous singalongs it was easy to forget that, a decade ago, the hits had dried up for Heaton. After 30 years of chart success with the Housemartins and the Beautiful South, the singer found himself playing pubs — twice. He toured between them on a bike.
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Nov 24, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Lisa Verrico
What a year it’s been for Idles. The curiously titled Tangk, the British punks’ fifth album, not only topped the charts here, but caused the band’s profile to soar in the US, thanks in part to an explosive appearance on The Tonight Show. This month came three Grammy award nominations, including for best rock album, pitting the Bristol quintet against veterans the Rolling Stones, Pearl Jam and Green Day.
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Nov 10, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Lisa Verrico
★★★★★Fat Dog have been dubbed the wildest band in Britain, but their pogoing, air-punching, mosh pit-forming fans should take some of the acclaim. Formed during lockdown by the charismatic frontman and sole songwriter Joe Love, the south Londoners started out playing seated, socially distanced gigs before officially releasing any music. Thanks to YouTube, however, their early audiences were already word-perfect in their chaotic, stream-of-consciousness songs.
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Nov 1, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Lisa Verrico
Ice Spice is the hottest young rapper in the world right now, yet her hair is arguably more famous than her music. When the Bronx-born 24-year-old first set TikTok alight in 2022, it was her cute, orphan Annie-like, cropped ginger curls that set her apart more than her snappy, drill-meets-pop songs. Thanks in part to an endorsement from Drake, within months Ice Spice was everywhere, from the front row of fashion shows to Taylor Swift’s side at the Super Bowl.
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Oct 31, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Lisa Verrico
Mention Tom Meighan to music fans and the reaction is likely to be extreme. Some believe that the former frontman of British rock behemoths Kasabian shouldn’t be allowed to make music, never mind perform it in public. Others insist that the singer has been too harshly treated, not least by the band he formed with friends at college in Leicester in the late 1990s. Meighan has only himself to blame for his downfall.
