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Pop diva Lady Gaga cancels Indonesia show after threats

Sun, 27 May 2012 07:28:12 GMT

Pop diva Lady Gaga has cancelled her show in Indonesia amid threats from hardline Muslims.

Eurovision just doesn't get The Hump

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

So, even enlisting the help of a singer who has sold more than 150 million records wasn't enough. Not even Engelbert Humperdinck, not even The Hump, could do it for us. Europe once again looked the other way last night as the United Kingdom's soul searching quest for a Eurovision Song Contest winner threatened to go on and on and on. Humperdinck, with the song "Love Will Set You Free", mustered just 12 points at the Crystal Hall in Baku – a solitary chip from Belgium, two from Latvia, four thrown our way from Ireland and a welcome five from Estonia.

Album: Various artists, Studio One Sound (Soul Jazz)

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Soul Jazz continues its unending commitment to the recesses of CS Dodd's back catalogue.

Album: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Here (Rough Trade)

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

The onrush of summer couldn't be more serendipitous for the messiancially-styled Alexander Ebert and his hippyish West Coast brethren.

Album: Joey Ramone, Ya Know? (BMG)

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Did "punk" offer a more loveable figure to posterity than Joey?

Album: 2:54, 2:54 (Polydor/Fiction)

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

You couldn't move for bands like 2:54 in the early 1990s.

Album: Rumer, Boys Don't Cry (Atlantic)

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

The second album seems a little soon for Rumer to be pulling the covers over her head.

Album: Scissor Sisters, Magic Hour (Polydor)

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Scissor Sisters burst on to the scene as the biggest, best queer-straight disco party on earth, an all-inclusive gathering of a global Rainbow Nation.

Guns N' Roses, Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle Sharon Van Etten, Komedia, Brighton

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

You can get away with almost anything in pop – that's kind of the point – but contempt for your fans is a cardinal sin. Asked for a reason for the insanely late hour at which Axl Rose and his "Guns N' Roses" (now featuring only long-serving keyboardist Dizzy Reed from the glory years) deign to take the stage, his PR people replied simply: "No statement I'm afraid."

Hell-raising: A how-to guide with Anaïs Mitchell

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

'My mother gave a mighty shout, opened her legs and let me out." So begins the title track of Anaïs Mitchell's latest album, Young Man in America. Her name's pronounced An-AY-is, and, well spotted: she may be American but she's not a young man.

It's not easy being Professor Green: The rapper, the heiress and a drama made in Chelsea...

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

High times for the former drug dealer known as Professor Green. So why has he begun our interview with a level stare, a rub of his tattooed knuckles and a declaration that, "I'm a very angry man at the moment"?

Where are our Eurovision heroes now?

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

The idea that kitsch and absurd costumes can unify a continent for a few hours got its annual outing last night. The Eurovision Song Contest's setting was the £85m Crystal Hall concert venue in Baku, Azerbaijan, a country more familiar to Amnesty International than the music press.

Album: Paloma Faith, Fall to Grace (RCA)

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Produced by Nellee Hooper and Jake Gosling, and co-written by Faith with some familiar names, this a big pop album full of big poppy hooks.

Album: Regina Spektor, What We Saw from the Cheap Seats (Sire)

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Though traditionally and lazily lumped in with other "kooky" female singer-songwriters (Amos, Bush, Newsom), the truth is that the Russian-born, New York-based Spektor has more in common with Rufus Wainwright.

Tim Walker: Blame the music, not Graham Norton

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

A couple of years ago, against my better judgement, I agreed to attend my first "Eurovision party". It was to be my last. Some people dress up in silly outfits every year to watch this transcontinental turd-polishing show; we just had a few funny-coloured drinks and a buffet dinner. That was bad enough. If you're a Eurovision virgin considering a deflowerment, let me dissuade you. Eurovision, like so much of 21st century pop culture, is supposed to be consumed ironically. An episode of TOWIE requires just 30 minutes of ironi-watching. Eurovision takes more than three hours. That's twice as long as a football match.

Album: Scissor Sisters, Magic Hour (Polydor)

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

There's no surprises here – the usual Scissor Sisters mélange of sex, drug and disco tropes recycled over the usual hustling grooves, one eyebrow ironically raised throughout like a sonic emoticon.

Festival of the week: Bath International Music Festival, various venues, Bath

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Signing off after seven years as Bath MusicFest's Artistic Director, the once-dreadlocked pianist-composer-conductor Joanna MacGregor is enlivening the obligatory nods at the Olympics and her Maj's interminable reign with restorative doses of magic and circus.

Album: Public Image Ltd, This Is PiL (PIL Official)

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

It's hard not to feel slightly disappointed by PiL's first new studio album in two decades.

Pop gig of the week: Big Star Third, Barbican, London EC2

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Defiance against the odds is the spirit of this tribute to US cult heroes Big Star's ill-starred 1974 third album, Third/ Sister Lovers.

Album: Paloma Faith, Fall to Grace (RCA)

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Leaving behind the retro stylings of her debut, Paloma Faith has hooked up with producer Nellee Hooper to develop her undeniable talents in more modern directions.

Caught in the Net: Seeing is believing for a soulful comeback

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Soul-tinged US alt-rockers The Afghan Whigs recently reunited and last week produced their first song in over five years.

It's time for Britpop's Bright Young Things to take centre stage

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

There was a point last spring, watching the third night of Suede's three-night run at Brixton Academy, when I said "that's enough". The problem wasn't the gig; it was fantastic, as indeed the Pulp and Blur comebacks were. It's more that reliving the music of my youth in a near-perfect battle re-enactment was starting to give me a hollow feeling.

The Playlist: Frank Ocean / Teengirl Fantasy / Yeasayer / Donna Summer / Florence & The Machine / The Bee Gees / Oh No ft. MF Doom

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Frank Ocean - 'Summer Remains'

Album: Rumer, Boys Don't Cry (Atlantic)

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Covers albums are often taken as indications of creative stasis, a drying of the well, so to release one as the follow-up to your debut album is a very risky strategy indeed.

Ladyhawke: Asperger's and the anxious pop sensation

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Pip Brown, better known as Ladyhawke, is still buzzing from her gig four nights ago. It was the culmination of a comeback tour which saw the New Zealander's first UK performances in two years, and the London show had sold out in five minutes. "It was mind-blowing," she enthuses over a pint at an east London pub near where she lives, producing a picture of the ecstatic crowd, arms aloft, on her iPhone. "I had to take a picture on stage because I couldn't believe it."