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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.

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.

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'

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."

Fantasy Band: Barry Hyde, The Futureheads

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Piano: Ludwig van Beethoven

The London 2012 Festival: The greatest show of a great year

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

You have to hand it to the London 2012 Festival team. When they call it "a once in a lifetime experience", I rather think they mean it. In an "age of austerity", this almighty splurge is not to be sniffed at. More than 25,000 performers and 12,000 events are involved, with every corner of the country, more or less, becoming part of it. Heaps of it is free at the point of use. And if the full programme is... well, a little confusing, perhaps it could scarcely be otherwise, given the sheer scale of the bonanza.

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.

The alternative festival survival guide

Wed, 23 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Get in (and go home) early

The top six child-friendly festivals

Wed, 23 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Underage Festival

How festival land turned green

Wed, 23 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

“We could have saved the Earth but we were too damned cheap,” wrote author Kurt Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse-Five.

View from the stage: Dominic O'Dair, guitarist in TOY

Wed, 23 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

How does it feel to be playing Field Day again?

The alternative festival countdown

Wed, 23 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Chagstock Festival

View from the stage: Pete Turner, bassist in Elbow

Wed, 23 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

How does it feel to be topping the bill at this year's Latitude?

Independent podcast - Will Todd

Mon, 21 May 2012 12:36:00 GMT

Composer/Pianist Will Todd has been playing the piano since he was three and composing since he was seven. In his own words: "If I had free choice about how I would spend my musical time I'd run a Jazz club in a cathedral with gigs on Friday and Saturday nights, vibrant eccumenical and cross faith worship on Sundays and big choral concerts as often as possible - featuring the best professionals alongside community and youth choirs."

Trending: Speakers corner the luxury market

Sun, 20 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

It buys a lot, £200,000. In Manchester it gets you a semi in the suburbs, or 50 acres of green and pleasant countryside outside them. By the water? You could always put it down it on a houseboat.

Joe Strummer: The angry young man who grew up

Sat, 19 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

How to remember Joe Strummer? It's a question being asked around the world, as the 10th anniversary of the singer's untimely death approaches. To his legion of devoted fans, the leader of the Clash was a rebel genius – the John Lennon of his generation, according to his front-page obituary in The Independent. His sloganeering lyrics, fuelled by anger, idealism and the call for justice and unity, empowered the social consciences of countless thousands. But the woman he knew as "Luce" remembers a very different character to the public image of punk's poet hurtling down the Westway of life.

Agenda: Hand-printed Bauhaus tights; Queen of Hearts; Cinemagram;

Sat, 19 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Fashion: Be haus proud

Sigur Ros - Takk that! Iceland's chilly minimalists blow back in

Fri, 18 May 2012 23:00:52 GMT

Sigur Ros vanished four years ago. In their absence the band who are, after Bjork, Iceland's biggest musical export, saw their atmospheric music, with singer Jonsi Birgisson's unearthly falsetto at the apex of every soaring chorus, remain an emotion-pumping fixture on British TV, from Planet Earth to The X Factor. Their last two studio albums, Takk (2005) and With a Buzz In Our Ears We Play Endlessly (2008), sold half a million each, honing the sort of prettily emotive formula which has served Coldplay so well.

The Word On... Damon Albarn, Dr Dee

Fri, 18 May 2012 23:00:48 GMT

Caught in the Net: Nigel Godrich just needs another band

Fri, 18 May 2012 23:00:15 GMT

Hear the name Nigel Godrich and you'll likely think of Radiohead.

The Playlist: Gold Panda / R. Kelly / Azealia Banks / Disclosure / Neneh Cherry & The Thing / Kitty Pride / Jeremiah Jae

Fri, 18 May 2012 23:00:11 GMT

Tim Walker: Gary and Harry and a tambourine

Fri, 18 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

XFactor judge Gary Barlow's commemorative Diamond Jubilee song was broadcast for the first time yesterday on the Radio 2 Breakfast Show. The song, "Sing", features indigenous Australian guitarist Gurrumul, drums by the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force Band, vocals from Gareth Malone's Military Wives – and Prince Harry on tambourine. The songwriter was asked whether Harry (who also appears in the video, dancing) demonstrated any innate musical talent. "No," he replied.

Graham Coxon: All a blur

Fri, 18 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

An unusually bright morning at Graham Coxon's house in Camden, north London, his girlfriend Essy lets me in and directs me upstairs to the attic room where Coxon is having his picture taken. I am followed by Frankie, the couple's hyperactive terrier, who spends much of the next hour trying to insert her nose in my sheepskin boots, despite the very visible obstruction that are my legs.