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2008
Does
the world need another indie band?
Across Britain Identikit groups of
tight-trousered, floppy-haired boys with guitars take to the stage, to
thrash out a homogenous jangle. Critics have dubbed their sound 'indie
landfill'. Is it the death knell of a once-vibrant underground scene?
Bill
Drummond
He founded one of the 80s'
most anarchic bands, and famously burnt £1m in cash. But Bill
Drummond's latest scheme is truly ground-breaking, as his diaries
reveal...
Tunnel
vision
100 artists dig deep
to create their own versions of the iconic London Underground logo
Daniel
Kitson
Master-storyteller wows audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe
with his new show, 66a Church road – A Lament, Made of
Memories And Kept In Suitcases
Leonard
Cohen: his wit, warmth and wisdom
Leonard
Cohen: Hallelujah!
Leonard
Cohen is one of the most charismatic voices of our age - and wrote one
of its greatest songs. As financial hardship forces his return to the
stage, Neil McCormick celebrates a remarkable song and a remarkable man
Leonard
Cohen: Live
The
fans topped up Leonard Cohen's pension fund and were repaid with an
evening of pure gold
Leonard
Cohen live
Opera
House, Manchester
Leonard
Cohen
Out
of the monastery and back on the road
Leonard
Cohen
The
high priest of minimalism
Leonard
Cohen
His
first show in Britain in 15 years is immaculate
Leonard
Cohen live
Manchester
Opera House - the Sunday Times review
Juan
Muñoz: The suspension of certainty
In
Juan Muñoz's strange, enigmatic sculptures, nothing is quite as it
first seems...
Why
is the Imperial War Museum celebrating James Bond?
So
now it’s James Bond and cold-war lite. When did intellect head for the
exit?
Duchamp,
Man Ray, Picabia, Tate Modern, London
Duchamp
eclipses his fellow Dadaists – and yet, when all's said and done, this
show revolves around a urinal
Duchamp,
Man Ray & Picabia at Tate Modern
They
drank, caroused and flounced about in drag - then they took art by the
scruff of the neck and changed it for ever
Laurie
Anderson
The
renowned performance artist’s new show, Homeland, raises ideas
Laurie
Anderson at the Barbican
Martin
Amis - The Second Plane: September 2001-2007 (book review)
Martin
Amis: The Second Plane
More
Reviews
Damien
Hirst
Does
Hirst's auction at Sotheby's mean the end of the gallery?
Tom
Waits live
Edinburgh
Playhouse - the Sunday Times review
2007
Quiet,
please
Britain
is already one of the noisiest countries in the world. And every time
you think it couldn't get worse, another racket - ear-splitting train
horns, antisocial neighbours, inane 'public service' announcements -
proves you wrong.
My
mum went to the Tate and all I got was a pair of Andy Warhol oven gloves
Our
museums and galleries are busier than ever but is anyone actually
looking at the art? Paul Arendt on the rise and rise of the gallery shop
Thoroughly
modern Millais
He
might have created the schmaltz of Bubbles, but he was, in fact, an
artist of considerable innovation and power
Louise
Bourgeois
Her
works of many-breasted beasts, lairs and primal lumps spread confusion,
but Louise Bourgeois's uninhibited creativity is as impressive as it is
rare
Yoko
Ono
After
decades on the fringes of rock, Yoko Ono has been embraced by the
mainstream.
Tate
Modern: Cracked!
Tate
Modern's dramatic new installation - a great gash in the floor of the
Turbine Hall - has already delighted both critics and the public. But
the question everyone's asking is: how on earth did it get there?
Mercury
Music Prize
How
can you possibly choose just one winner from 233 albums? Mercury prize
panellist Jude Rogers lifts the lid on the judging for the music
industry's most prestigious award
Charlotte
Gainsbourg
After
years as a famous daughter, a new, assertive Charlotte Gainsbourg is
hunting down cutting-edge directors and singing once again.
Think
of England
From
gardening, carnivals and dog shows to more eccentric pursuits such as
bottle kicking or body painting, Blake Morrison reflects on what our
photographic heritage reveals about our changing national character
Tate
Britain's 'How We Are' is the gallery's largest-ever photography
exhibition
Covering
more than 150 years, the show's 500-plus pictures by more than 100
photographers provide an extraordinarily rich portrait of British life.
Siix famous Britons, from Beryl Bainbridge to Billy Bragg, select their
favourite images
Days
of our lives
Eating
breakfast, sitting at a desk, watching the evening forecast ... our
daily rituals reveal more than we think about our evolving social
history
Bjork's
Back!
After
two introspective LPs, Björk is ready to sing out at the world again
with her new album "Volta"
Bjork:
Still crazy after all these years
Björk
has a new album out and it's been hailed as 'a bit cuckoo' - will the
macho world of rock ever recognise her eccentric genius?
Germaine
Greer on surreal women
Surrealism's
women thought they were celebrating sexual emancipation. But were they
just fulfilling men's erotic fantasies?
Salvador
Dali
Jonathan
Jones travels to the coast of Spain to explore the landscape that
inspired Salvador Dalí, the greatest surrealist of them all.
How
Dalí lost his cutting edge
The
Surrealist artist's startling film work declined as soon as his
partnership with Luis Buñuel ended, says Richard Dorment
Germaine
Greer on libraries
"Flashy
libraries? I prefer to get my adventure out of the books not the
building”
On
mix-tapes & vinyl
In
the days before iTunes, when you wanted to impress a girl you lovingly
put together a compilation tape from your LPs. Now - thanks to the
wondrous choice of digital music - mix tapes and vinyl are dying out.
But is some of the mystery and meaning of music also disappearing?
The
Good, the Bad and the Queen – CD review
The
Good, the Bad & the Queen
Blur
sold millions and Gorillaz sold even more – it seems that Damon Albarn
can do no wrong. Will his new supergroup be touched by the same magic?
How
Hirst got his bite back
Review of Damien Hirst’s Re-Object
at the Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria
“It
doesn't need tuning - just play it”
Mark
E Smith eats musicians for breakfast. The irascible singer has got
through more than 40 in 30 years with his punk band the Fall.
The
legends of the Fall
Thinker,
drinker, fighter— Fall front-man, Mark E. Smith reaches 50. We salute
the last punk in town
Has
Jerry Seinfeld lost his sting?
Jerry Seinfeld made a fortune from comedy about the mundanity of
everyday life. Since quitting his revered sitcom nine years ago, his
life has been far from mundane. But what about his comedy?
Open
your ears…
Ivan Hewett on a campaign which emphasises
how important it is to give music your full attention
Remembering
Derek
Derek
Jarman, artist, film-maker and radical, died of Aids in 1994. When Tate
Modern recently screened his private Super 8s, our correspondent spoke
to friends and associates
Joanna
Newsom
Caught
up in visions of Joanna
- the ethereal singer and harpist comes firmly down to earth
Joanna
Newsom’s harp of gold
How
would Joanna Newsom's eccentric sound hold up against a full orchestral
backing?
Damon
Albarn has written an opera, in Mandarin
Will
Gorillaz to Monkey be a natural evolution or a China crisis?
Steven
Berkoff: The real East Enders
In
his latest play and in an exhibition of photographs, Berkoff revisits
his past in the vibrant melting-pot that was riverside London
Anjani:
Songs of love and Leonard Cohen
The
jazz singer Anjani is a success after decades of trying. She explains
how her famous boyfriend's songs helped
Philip
Glass: Leonard Cohen & me
What
happened when a classical music iconoclast encountered the king of
miserabilist pop? The composer Philip Glass reveals how his friendship
with the songwriter inspired a poetic new work
Amis
on Blair: Ten
years at number ten
The Downing Street door has nearly closed on Tony Blair.
Martin Amis has been shadowing the prime minister on his farewell tour...
Martin
Amis: Come on, bin Laden, make my day
At
a debate in London, Martin Amis posed as the Dirty Harry of the Western
liberal tradition, telling Islamic terrorists: ‘I want to be a
target.’
The
shock of the two Chapmans
Ever
since defacing their first Goya etching, Jake and Dinos Chapman have
been among the most original of artists. As a new work is unveiled,
Louise Jury pays tribute to a most singular duo
Please
do touch the works of art
From
toddlers' expressionism to giant slides at the Tate Modern: 'interactive
art' is turning galleries into mindless playgrounds.
Jeremy
Paxman: MacTaggert Memorial Lecture 2007
Joan
Bakewell: What is Kylie Minogue doing at the V&A?
Finding
Time
THE
FOUR HORSEMEN OF MY APOCALYPSE are called Efficiency, Convenience,
Profitability, and Security, and in their names, crimes against poetry,
pleasure, sociability, and the very largeness of the world are daily,
hourly, constantly carried out.
Phil
Spector: Off the wall
The
tortured genius behind some of pop's greatest hits is
about to stand
trial for the murder of an actress at his LA home. In this extract from
his definitive new biography of Spector, Mick Brown traces the origins
of his dreams and his demons
Rachel
Whiteread: Sculptures of people who aren't there
What
a shocker
Brian
Sewell on the Turner Prize
Virtual
Friendship and the New Narcissism
The
rise of online social networking
The
art of Leonard Cohen
It
looks like the darkness has finally lifted for miserable genius Leonard
Cohen – his new art show in Manchester sees a lighter side shine
through
2006
The web is 15 years old and in
that short time it has revolutionised the way we live...the Observer's Net
specialist tells the story of the 15 most influential websites to
date...
Griff Rhys Jones has made a television
programme about John Betjeman...
John
Betjeman
Tennis,
trains and toffs: on the trail of the bard of suburbia
Sixty Fabulous Festival Facts
Daniel Tammet
Daniel
Tammet has savant syndrome, a very rare type of Asperger's syndrome
(high-functioning autism)...
It's seven years
since Green from Scritti Politti released an album...
Lily
AllenMiranda Sawyer
meets pop's most precocious young star...
Just when you thought
Surrealism had nothing new to say, here comes a delightful poke at some of
its loftiest practitioners...
Undercover Surrealism
is a cabinet of curiosities that shows the art movement at its
darkest...
When it opened in
2001, Tate Modern jeered at 'isms' and refused to tell the story of modern
art...
It's all change at the world's most popular
gallery...
The comprehensive
re-hang of Tate Modern's permanent collections has - for the most part -
worked wonders...
More and more young people are choosing to
study philosophy at A-level and university...
Surrealist visionary Georges Bataille
challenged our perceptions and influenced generations of artists with his
journal Documents...
George
Bataille: Ragbag
of surreal wonders
A
magnificent new show celebrates the bizarre insights of critic Georges
Bataille
With essays on art,
abattoirs and body parts, the controversial periodical Documents was
conceived by Georges Bataille as an alternative to surrealism...
Prince is back with a
major tour and album. After a lost decade, a new generation of artists has
rediscovered him...
Thrilled by word of a
new album, Morrissey fan and celebrated author Douglas Coupland flies
halfway around the world to meet the singer in Rome...
As Paul Weller
prepares to receive a Lifetime Achievement Brit, John Harris salutes a
giant...
The artist known as Prince is back to his
dazzling best...
Bill Rammell, Higher Education Minister,
believes there is nothing wrong with students spurning the study of
philosophy...
Munira Mirza
challenges the modern consensus that the arts can transform society, and
asks if the emphasis on producing art for the public good is causing
long-term damage...
Sean O'Hagan talks to
Damien Hirst on the eve of his first show in Mexico...
Pigments of the imagination...
Is it just me, asks
Paul Morley, or are new bands such as the Arctic Monkeys more the heirs of
Stock, Aitken and Waterman than Cowell, Osbourne and
Walsh?
The
Welfare Show
Elmgreen and Dragset's bored security guards, abandoned babies and
dysfunctional hospitals reveal the emptiness at the core of modern life...
Big
Babies
Michael Bywater's four illustrations of how he thinks society has become
overly child-like, Big Babies, is both thought-provoking and amusing
Jeremy
Deller
Artist Jeremy Deller doesn't sell much work, and was embarrassed by the
Turner prize
Robert
Rauschenberg
Ignored by the establishment and derided by critics,
Rauschenberg may just be the most important American artist of the last
century, argues Robert Hughes
Scott
Walker
If only people appreciated his sense of humour, Scott
Walker tells Alexis Petridis, they might understand why he turned his
back on pop stardom for existential angst
Francis
Bacon
Ugly, obscene and terrifying - the grotesque figures in Bacon's
paintings disturbingly evoke the claustrophobia and voyeurism of Big
Brother...
Iain
Sinclair
Sinclair
describes the mysterious process of conveying the essence of a book by
its jacket as he joins judges to find new photographs for four Penguin
classics
Goth
has risen from the dead...
...and the 1980s pioneers are (naturally) not happy about it. By Dave
Simpson
Grayson
Perry
(The Guardian)
Steve
Reich
The murder of American journalist (and violinist) Daniel Pearl has
inspired composer Steve Reich to write the most political work of his
career.
Chapman
Brothers interview(The Guardian)
Chapman
Brothers art review (The Guardian)
Selina
Scott on TV
Former
golden
girl of primetime television launches a stinging attack on the medium
that made her & explains why she barely bothers to watch the box
these days
Not-So-New
Towns
Sixty years on, is it time to embrace Basildon,
Milton Keynes and co? Jonathan Glancey visits the land of housing
estates, roundabouts and concrete cows
MySpace
and the Fringe are great at creating a buzz...
...but
when it comes to art, the mob are rarely right
Velázquez
Velázquez started out as a street painter and
grew into a great philosopher-artist - as the National Gallery's new
blockbuster exhibition shows
Guillemots
From their outlandish outfits to their habit of using typewriters
on stage, Guillemots might be the oddest new band in Britain - even if
they refuse to admit it.
More
Guillemots...
Guillemots
Swimming
against the tide
Tribute
projects may be worthy, but do the young have to be so brazenly
respectful?
Jarvis
Cocker
Former front-man of Pulp emerges
from his Parisian exile to release a solo album
U2
Thirty
years on, Bono,
The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr tell the story of how the
world's biggest band began
Damon
Albarn: Pop Goes the Casbah
Damon
Albarn’s latest project: reviving threatened Algerian music
Beatles
The
release of a 'new' Beatles album has brought George Martin back into the
spotlight
Beatles
In
an extraordinary move, producer George Martin and his son Giles have
pulled apart the Beatles' finest songs and reconstructed them into one
astonishing album
Can
music make us happy?
It's a big question, but some people think
they have the answer.
Modern
Art: A load of old rot?
From
Antony Gormley's self-portrait in mouldy bread to the ageing condoms in
Tracey Emin's bed, much of modern art has a short shelf life. So what
should galleries and collectors do when it starts falling apart?
Chapman
Brothers: masters of modern horror
Their
vision is hellish and disturbing, but Jake and Dinos Chapman are among
our most original artists, says Richard Dorment
J.G.
Ballard Interview
Gilbert
& George
At home with art's oddest couple
Rodin
The
great sculptor's voracious sexual appetite is inseparable from his
thrillingly sensuous work, says Richard Dorment
Pet
Shop Boys at the Tower Of London
Frank
Sinatra: Singing from beyond the grave
He
made his first comeback in the 1950s - and then he kept coming back,
again and again. Now Sinatra is singing from beyond the grave in a new
West End show.
Stevo:
Still Some Bizzare after all these years
The
maverick who gave the world Soft Cell, Depeche Mode & The The, is
still going strong, oddly enough.
Music's
secret weapons
Everyone
has their special album: the one nobody else has heard of, the one to
bring out when you want to amaze people. 49 musicians, producers and
writers reveal their records to be reckoned with.
Martin
Amis: The age of horrorism
On
the eve of the fifth anniversary of 9/11, one of Britain's most
celebrated and original writers analyses - and abhors - the rise of
extreme Islamism.
Open
University: A fond farewell to 'Televarsity'
Tomorrow
the Open University will broadcast its very last television programme.
Students will now rely on DVDs and the internet.
Daniel
Kitson
Comedian turned storyteller captivates with his C-90 show at the
Edinburgh Fringe
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OpenHaus Communications