Will Hodgkinson

London

Rock and Pop Critic at The Times

The Times rock & pop critic, author of Street Level Superstar, In Perfect Harmony, The House Is Full Of Yogis, Guitar Man, Song Man, The Ballad Of Britain

Articles

Little Simz: Lotus review - lose the personal gripes and it’s brilliant

3 days ago | thetimes.com | Will Hodgkinson

If you thought being lauded as the best British female rapper of her generation, winning the 2022 Mercury Prize, curating this year’s Meltdown festival and generally being a massive success in all ways had brought Little Simz happiness … well, you can be forgiven for being wrong. “Why do you lie? Why did you steal?” she raps in menacing tones on Thief, the opening track on her new album, Lotus. “I really feel sorry for your wife,” she continues.
My wild life with Siouxsie Sioux

4 days ago | thetimes.com | Will Hodgkinson

It was one of the most romantic scenarios in rock. Siouxsie Sioux and Peter “Budgie” Clarke, the darkly glamorous singer and the flaxen-haired drummer of Siouxsie and the Banshees, living together in gothic wedded bliss in an 18th-century home in France. You could almost taste the Châteauneuf-du-Pape, feel the fine layer of dust gracing the Victor Hugo novels and see the black cats darting across the parquet floor.
'I thought I'd end up being a dentist'

1 week ago | thetimes.com | Will Hodgkinson
‘War criminals Israel and Maersk, you can’t hide!’ in Boston

2 weeks ago | iacenter.org | Will Hodgkinson |West Asia

By Will Hodgkinson May 22, 2025BostonThe Boston Coalition For Palestine (BCFP) commemorated Nakba Day on May 15 with daylong Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) actions that targeted the Israeli consulate and the global transportation company Maersk. The actions marked the 77th anniversary of the 1948 catastrophe, when Zionist settler militias razed 400 villages, killed over 15,000 Palestinians and drove at least 750,000 others off their lands.
Kneecap at Wide Awake review

2 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Will Hodgkinson
‘War criminals Israel and Maersk, you can’t hide!’ in Boston

2 weeks ago | workers.org | Will Hodgkinson

BostonThe Boston Coalition For Palestine (BCFP) commemorated Nakba Day on May 15 with daylong Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) actions that targeted the Israeli consulate and the global transportation company Maersk. The actions marked the 77th anniversary of the 1948 catastrophe, when Zionist settler militias razed 400 villages, killed over 15,000 Palestinians and drove at least 750,000 others off their lands.
an unpretentious, honest and frequently funny comeback

2 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Will Hodgkinson

If at the Britpop Comprehensive class of 1995 Oasis were the hard nuts, then Blur were the snarky sixth-formers, Supergrass were the naughty kids and Elastica were the scary girls smoking behind the bike shed. Meanwhile, Pulp were the misfits. Though Jarvis Cocker and his gang were too style-conscious to be dismissed as nerds, you do feel they might have spent a lot of time in the art room or the chess club, before running home as fast as they could for fear of being beaten up by the local thugs.
Stereolab: Instant Holograms on Metal Film review

2 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Will Hodgkinson
'We can't understand why other brother acts have so much trouble'

2 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Will Hodgkinson
Peter Doherty: Felt Better Alive review

3 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Will Hodgkinson

Two decades of wild living, often played out for the fascination of the tabloids, have done their work on 46-year-old Pete (now Peter) Doherty. The co-leader of the Libertines, the band that for much of the Noughties found the missing link between the Clash and Chas & Dave, revealed earlier this year that if he doesn't do something about his rich diet, excessive boozing and cigarette habit, his toes will have to be amputated.