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ROH asks young composers to blow their own trumpets
For most composers, having a work premiered in London's Royal Opera House is the apogee of an already successful career. But now, Covent Garden is offering 11- to 14-year-old composers the chance not only to have a piece commissioned by the House, ...
Corinne Bailey Rae | Pop review
Tabernacle, London It felt right that this barely advertised, but sold-out date was held in a former church. Much of Corinne Bailey Rae's forthcoming second album, The Sea, written since her husband's death by accidental overdose last year, has a ...
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Indie Music
Tortoise/Cluster | Pop review
London jazz festival Chicago's Tortoise might nominally be a "rock" band, but it comes as no surprise to see them closing this year's London jazz festival. When they emerged in the mid-1990s at the forefront of a movement unsatisfactorily dubbed ...
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Indie Music
Tortoise
Yusuf Islam | Folk review
NIA Birmingham When artists "find" themselves, it can pour water on their creative fire. This threatened to be the case in this anticipated concert, during which the former Cat Stevens presented highlights from his musical, Moonshadow. The story ...
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Indie Music
Digital technology and the arts: all the world's a screen
Once a novelty, giant film screens and web feeds are transforming our experience of live performance As the print media struggle with the impact of the digital age, what is the effect of technology on live performance? Are we finally entering a ...
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Indie Music
Dillon premieres | Classical review
Huddersfield contemporary music festival The Huddersfield festival launched James Dillon's career in the 1980s. The Scottish-born composer is now based in the US where he teaches, and keeping up with his new work has become increasingly ...
John Hilton obituary
My husband, John Hilton, who has died aged 67, was a keen choral singer, a member of the Liberal Democrat party, a foster parent, a Camra member, a bridge player and a walker. Two months after our marriage in 1965 John was ordained in Coventry ...
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Indie Music
Why Grouper is queen of the night
Liz Harris's spooky, nocturnal anthems are the product of a restless artistis spirit exploring new sonic dreamscapes I'll admit that I arrived late to the Grouper party. Liz Harris's Portland-based solo project has been going since 2006, ...
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Indie Music
Queen
Leonidas Kavakos searches for the source | Tom Service
Four concerts - starting tonight - will see the violinist searching from the eternal realm from whence great masterpieces come Many have tried, but few have succeeded: Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos attempts the impossible tomorrow night with ...
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Indie Music
New band of the day – No 675: Alex Gardner
This Scottish singer sounds simultaneously husky and smooth, suggesting the R&B; pop of fellow Caledonian crooner Marti Pellow Hometown: Edinburgh. The lineup: Alex Gardner (vocals, guitar). The background: Oh well, that's Olly Murs ...
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Indie Music
No 7: The White Stripes – Elephant
The stripped-back approach to rock'n'roll inspired many bands during the noughties, but none were a match for Jack and Meg The cricket bat on the cover, along with utterances about cups of tea and the Queen, announced that the White Stripes were ...
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Indie Music
HC Robbins Landon obituary
Distinguished musicologist known for his trailblazing work on Haydn and his books on Mozart Few musicologists achieve true celebrity outside their specialist field. But the name of HC Robbins Landon, who has died at the age of 83, was known by ...
It's time to let jazz fans record the show
The clampdown on cameraphones at the London jazz festival is stopping a vibrant and spontaneous art form from reaching a wider audience online The ushers certainly had their work cut out. During this year's 250-gig London jazz festival , the ...
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Indie Music
Songs that go ra-ra-ro-ga-ga and ba-da-ba-da-ba
A lyrical feast for you this week, with Lady Gaga, Paramore, and Flo-Rida and Akon serving up their meagre morsels. While Sting offers us a piece of his soul cake. Yuk! Lady Gaga – Bad Romance It seems the Gaga may need a bit of a break. She's ...
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Indie Music
Keith Urban
Brick
Paramore
Sting
Coldplay and A-ha side project announce debut album
If you were expecting Apparatjik to sound like Viva La Vida meets Take On Me, then you are going to be sorely disappointed The first audio samples have emerged from the debut album by Apparatjik, a side project uniting Coldplay bassist Guy ...
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Indie Music
Coldplay
a-ha
Albums of the decade No 8: Jay-Z - The Black Album
Few would disagree with Jay-Z's boast about being the 'best rapper alive' after hearing this gloriously epic album It was billed at the time as his swansong. During a playback at his Baseline Studios in New York, shortly before its release in ...
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Indie Music
Jay-Z
Keith Urban
Pass notes No 2,688: U2
U2 are set to top the bill at Glastonbury next year, so why isn't everyone excited? Age: 33 Appearance: Much-anticipated. I knew it! They've finally split up. Bono's going to lead a UN task force on world poverty, the Edge is setting up a ...
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Indie Music
U2
Research into song lyrics about sexual violence
Research into song lyrics about sexual violence reveals that they both support and empower women Back in 1962, the Crystals released a song called He Hit Me (And it Felt like a Kiss) . "If he didn't care for me," warbled one of the most ...
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Indie Music
Tori Amos
Florence and the Machine
U2 at Glastonbury: 'They will be incredible'
I think the thing that we at NME found most exciting is the fact that the Friday night Glastonbury headline slot is generally reserved for slightly smaller bands, or bands that have not yet proved themselves. So if U2 are headlining on Friday, ...
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Indie Music
U2
Will Haven
Glastonbury lands U2 after 26-year wait
• 'Nothing could be better,' says Glastonbury founder Eavis • 'This year everyone was in the mood,' says U2 manager When the U2 manager, Paul McGuinness, called the Glastonbury founder, Michael Eavis, last week, he did not have to use many words. ...
Mama Africa | World music review
Barbican, London Miriam Makeba was Africa's first and greatest international superstar, a diva as well known for her dramatic life and political role as for her thrilling, versatile voice. Of course, she deserved a tribute concert, but it was ...
Greer/Nathanson/Miller | Jazz review
London jazz festival Eighteen years after the death of Miles Davis, the dark prince of jazz still casts a long shadow. Yet, everyone can take something from his legacy and make it theirs. Bonnie Greer's contribution to the London jazz festival, ...
LSO/Harding | Classical
Barbican Hall, London The argument about whether Mahler's No 10 Symphony should be granted full equality with the other nine ought to be old hat now. The tenth is a score completed by others from the composer's detailed drafts. If Mahler had ...
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Indie Music
Lady Magnesia/Requiem | Classical review
Hope University/Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool The Soviet composer Mieczysław Weinberg was close to Shostakovich – they shared the same Moscow apartment block. But that proximity was not enough to save him from obscurity: the short opera Lady ...
God Help the Girl | Pop review
100 Club, London "Can you see the girls?" asks Stuart Murdoch, gesturing to the three doe-eyed beauties fluttering on stage. He is worried that we're not getting our money's worth. "Is that sexist? What's wrong with being sexy?" If there's one ...
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Indie Music
SebastiAn
Belle & Sebastian
Will Young | Pop review
Hammersmith Apollo, London Seven years after being crowned winner of Britain's first Pop Idol television show, Will Young is celebrating the release of a greatest hits album, starting with two shows five minutes from his front door. But his ...
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Indie Music
Will Haven
Pro-copyright groups lobby MPs for digital economy bill
Groups jointly representing publishing, music, writing and film are presenting to MPs the cases of individuals affected by piracy With the race now on to turn last week's digital economy bill into UK law, pro-copyright groups are working hard ...
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Indie Music
Bill Clinton
New band of the day – No 674: Rox
This south London singer's perky pop-soul tunes suggest that she may be an Amy, Adele or Duffy for 2010, but not without strong competition Hometown: Norbury, London. The lineup: Rox (vocals). The background: We keep thinking we've heard ...
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Indie Music
Sweden sees music sales soar after crackdown on filesharing
Music executives in the UK are looking to the home of Abba for signs their declining sales can be stemmed by new laws Thank you for the music. Or rather thank you for paying for the music, to borrow from Abba. Record labels are pointing to the ...
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Indie Music
'Nubian monkey' song and Arab racism | Nesrine Malik
The fairness of Lebanese singer Haifa Wehbe's skin makes her patronising lyric all the more problematic for black Egyptians Haifa Wehbe, a popular Lebanese pop singer, has always been a controversial figure. The queen of a relatively new breed of ...
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Indie Music
Elizabeth Söderström, the opera star who had it all | Martin Kettle
The Swedish soprano was not just a great singer and actor, but a remarkable woman The newspaper obituaries of opera singers, which are invariably written by anorak-coated music critics, too often take a standard and not very interesting form. ...
Albums of the decade No 9: Salif Keita – Moffou
West Africa produced many outstanding releases during the noughties, but the Malian singer's stark and haunting album was the most remarkable By normal industry standards, waiting until you're 53 to make the best album of your career is perhaps ...
Odds'n'ends (lost time is not found again) | Michael Tomasky
Here is a rather vicious attack on Rich Rod from a cbssports.com analyst. It seems that Michigan's worst back-to-back seasons in nearly 50 years are ... Lloyd Carr's fault! Here is a video of one of the more interesting trick plays you'll ...
Inky Fingers: Maggoty Lamb enjoys the latest hip-hop beef
From Hip Hop Weekly to the Source, urban music magazines offer a mixed approach to covering rap's inner conflicts What was I thinking? After two and a half years of striving to inspire a heated debate with an outmoded combination of impassioned ...
U2 to headline Glastonbury
Bono and co are slated to play the Pyramid stage's top slot for the festival's 40th anniversary U2 will headline next year's Glastonbury festival, it was confirmed today. Bono and co have been slated for the Pyramid stage's top spot on Friday 26 ...
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Indie Music
U2
Michael Jackson memorabilia fetches $2m
An auction of more than 80 pieces of Michael Jackson memorabilia, including his sparkly glove, took place at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York on 21 November.
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Indie Music
Michael Jackson
Robbie Williams to sell album rights to City investors?
The singer's management is reportedly preparing a plan to offer financial institutions a 50% stake in future releases Robbie Williams may soon replace record executives with stockbrokers, selling a 50% stake in album, tour and merchandise ...
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Indie Music
Robbie Williams
Noel Gallagher attacker pleads guilty to Oasis assault
A Canadian man claims that he was drunk when he shoved the former Oasis guitarist at a concert in Toronto in 2008 A Canadian man has admitted shoving Noel Gallagher at an Oasis concert in Toronto in September 2008, claiming he was drunk at the ...
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Indie Music
Oasis
Noel Gallagher
Liam Gallagher
No 10: Burial – Untrue
Observer Music Monthly starts the countdown to the 10 best albums of the decade with this melancholic masterclass from dubstep's dark knight In an era when musicians revealed their private lives to the public via MySpace and Twitter, when even ...
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Indie Music
Video: Introducing the 'fluid piano'
Mark Brown talks to Geoff Smith, whose reinvention of the piano allows players to alter the tuning of notes either before or during a performance Mark Brown David Levene Christian Bennett
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Indie Music
Fine-tuning: composer reinvents the piano
'Fluid' instrument allows pianists to alter sound before or while they play For a non-pianist, the idea of a microtonally fluid piano might seem either no big deal or baffling. But this weekend a composer will reveal the result of a 10-year ...
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Indie Music
Jimmy Smith
Pass notes No 2,687: Lady Gaga
The outrageous pop singer has been booked for the Royal Variety Performance Age: 23. Appearance: Topshop sales assistant trying to convince a credulous police officer she's an extraterrestrial being. It's a great look, and one adopted ...
Charlie Brooker: The life of Mariah Carey sounds terribly demanding
I can scarcely imagine the level of forelock-tugging servility Mariah Carey must have encountered during her lifetime Last week Mariah Carey turned on the Christmas lights at the Westfield shopping centre in Shepherds Bush, west London That might ...
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Indie Music
Mariah Carey
Elision/Barrett | Classical review
Bates Mill, Huddersfield Richard Barrett's Opening of the Mouth was given its UK premiere at Bates Mill by the Australian ensemble Elision. This 75-minute sequence of overlapping movements is built around a series of poems by Paul Celan, set for ...
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Indie Music
Hilliard Ensemble/Arditti Quartet | Classical review
St Paul's Hall, Huddersfield After a couple of years when Britain's leading new-music festival seemed to be losing its way in a welter of improvisation, installations and electro-acoustic environments, it's more like business as usual in ...
Northern Sinfonia/Zehetmair | Classical review
Sage, Gateshead Elliott Carter, who will be 101 next month, is the giant redwood of American composers; a force of nature who keeps acquiring annual rings and seems capable of going on forever. Carter has said that his harmonically restless, ...
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Indie Music
Sir John Dankworth & Dame Cleo Laine/London Jazz festival | Jazz review
Various venues Sonny Rollins won a standing ovation for the storm of sound he unleashed on the London Jazz festival a week ago. In the event's last days, Sir John Dankworth played just one tender tune on the alto saxophone, and the Royal ...
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Indie Music
The Tsarina's Slippers | Opera review
Royal Opera House, London Composers' attitudes to their own works are often curious. Tchaikovsky believed The Tsarina's Slippers (Cherevichki in Russian; more correctly "little boots" in English) was his finest opera. Posterity has questioned ...
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Indie Music
Tsarina
Catherine
Eve
Fans splash the cash for Michael Jackson memorabilia
Items belonging to King of Pop fetch prices far in excess of those predicted at New York auction The King of Pop, Michael Jackson, has turned out to be an auctioneers' dream celebrity as prices for Jackson memorabilia outstrip those for items ...
Lady Gaga: The Fame Monster | CD review
Every Christmas brings enhanced versions of previously successful albums, with a few new tracks bolted on. Unlike most of the other enhancees around – The Alesha Show: The Encore , for instance – Lady Gaga's contains eight new tracks, which ...
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