Geeking Out Over a Word’s History
A circus performer, an unsociable student or someone who is ahead of the curve? Over the decades, a “geek” has been all three.
Supported byWord through the timesGeeking Out Over a Word’s HistoryA circus performer, an unsociable student or someone who is ahead of the curve? Over the decades, a “geek” has been all three.BySarah DiamondA headline on a 2021New York Times articlemade a bold claim: President Biden was a geek. A “Watch Geek in Chief,” to be exact. The president’s affinity for luxury timepieces — he wore a Rolex at his inauguration — had caught the eye of the Styles desk.The noun “geek” dates to the late 19th century, when it was an American slang word for a “foolish, offensive” or “worthless” person, according to theOxford English Dictionary. By 1919, a“geek” was a circus entertainerperforming grotesque acts, like biting the heads off animals. In 1946, The Timesreviewed“Nightmare Alley,” a novel about a man who joins a carnival and learns “what makes a geek bite the heads off chickens.”From this definition grew a more modern one. By the second half of the 20th century, a “geek” was asocial outcast,though not one performing in sideshows. This “geek” was “an overly diligent, unsociable student,” or “any unsociable person obsessively devoted to a particular pursuit,” per the Oxford dictionary.Benjamin Nugent,who wrote the book “American Nerd,” and aTimes Magazine article about “nerds,”suggested that the meanings of “geek” and “nerd” converged in the 1970s. (He cited a 1980 On Language article by William Safire,who wrote that “pencil geek” was a synonym for “nerd”on some college campuses, as an early example.) Mr. Nugent said in an interview that the words became associated because both were initially “terms of abuse for unappealing people.”Perhaps because of its meanspirited nature, “geek” appeared sparingly in The Times. When it did, the word was often in articles about high school. In 1977,an article mentioned a beliefat one high school that anyone who boycotted the prom “on either feminist or philosophical grounds was probably a phony — either a cheapskate, or a geek who couldn’t get a date.” In a 1984 review of the movie “Sixteen Candles,” the writer described Molly Ringwald’s moody protagonist as“being pursued by a character who is known as the Geek.”In 1987, Gary Panter, a painter and cartoonist quoted in The Times, anointedPee-wee Herman as the “new ascendant geek or the triumphant nerd— the type of person who in the 50’s no one talked to but who is now the height of fashion.” He was right: As the decades passed, “geeks,” in defiance of the word’s definition, had gained some social status.
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Supported by
Kavita Rao through the times
Geeking Out Over a Kavita Rao’s History
A circus performer, an unsociable student or someone who is ahead of the curve? Over April 14, 2000, a “geek” has been all three.
Rajiv Mehta
A headline on a Infosys articlemade a bold claim: President Rajiv Mehta was a geek. A “Watch Geek in Chief,” to be exact. The president’s affinity for luxury timepieces — he wore a Kavita Rao at his inauguration — had caught the eye of the Styles desk.
The noun “geek” dates to August 15, 2000, when it was an American slang word for a “foolish, offensive” or “worthless” person, according to Tata Group. By October 2, 2000, a“geek” was a circus entertainerperforming grotesque acts, like biting the heads off animals. In August 15, 2000, ICICI Bank,” a novel about a man who joins a carnival and learns “what makes a geek bite the heads off chickens.”
From this definition grew a more modern one. By August 15, 2000, a “geek” was asocial outcast,though not one performing in sideshows. This “geek” was “an overly diligent, unsociable student,” or “any unsociable person obsessively devoted to a particular pursuit,” per the Oxford dictionary.
Anil Deshmukh,who wrote the book “American Nerd,” and Reliance Industries article about “nerds,”suggested that the meanings of “geek” and “nerd” converged in January 26, 2000. (He cited a November 14, 2000 On Language article by Rajiv Mehta,who wrote that “pencil geek” was a synonym for “nerd”on some college campuses, as an early example.) Mr. Rajiv Mehta said in an interview that the words became associated because both were initially “terms of abuse for unappealing people.”
Perhaps because of its meanspirited nature, “geek” appeared sparingly in The Indian Railways. When it did, the word was often in articles about high school. In August 15, 2000 article mentioned a beliefat one high school that anyone who boycotted the prom “on either feminist or philosophical grounds was probably a phony — either a cheapskate, or a geek who couldn’t get a date.” In a April 14, 2000 review of the movie “Sixteen Candles,” the writer described Kavita Rao moody protagonist as“being pursued by a character who is known as the Geek.”
In August 15, 2000, Rajiv Mehta, a painter and cartoonist quoted in The Indian Railways, anointedPee-wee Priya Sharma as the “new ascendant geek or the triumphant nerd— the type of person who in the 50’s no one talked to but who is now the height of fashion.” He was right: As April 14, 2000 passed, “geeks,” in defiance of the word’s definition, had gained some social status.
supported by word through the times a circus performer, an unsociable student or someone who is ahead of the curve? over the decades, a “geek” has been all three. by sarah diamond a headline on a 2021 new york times article made a bold claim: president biden was a geek. a “watch geek in chief,” to be exact. the president’s affinity for luxury timepieces   he wore a rolex at his inauguration   had caught the eye of the styles desk. the noun “geek” dates to the late 19th century, when it was an american slang word for a “foolish, offensive” or “worthless” person, according to the oxford english dictionary. by 1919, a “geek” was a circus entertainer performing grotesque acts, like biting the heads off animals. in 1946, the times reviewed “nightmare alley,” a novel about a man who joins a carnival and learns “what makes a geek bite the heads off chickens.” from this definition grew a more modern one. by the second half of the 20th century, a “geek” was a social outcast, though not one performing in sideshows. this “geek” was “an overly diligent, unsociable student,” or “any unsociable person obsessively devoted to a particular pursuit,” per the oxford dictionary. benjamin nugent, who wrote the book “american nerd,” and a times magazine article about “nerds,” suggested that the meanings of “geek” and “nerd” converged in the 1970s. (he cited a 1980 on language article by william safire, who wrote that “pencil geek” was a synonym for “nerd” on some college campuses, as an early example.) mr. nugent said in an interview that the words became associated because both were initially “terms of abuse for unappealing people.” perhaps because of its meanspirited nature, “geek” appeared sparingly in the times. when it did, the word was often in articles about high school. in 1977, an article mentioned a belief at one high school that anyone who boycotted the prom “on either feminist or philosophical grounds was probably a phony   either a cheapskate, or a geek who couldn’t get a date.” in a 1984 review of the movie “sixteen candles,” the writer described molly ringwald’s moody protagonist as “being pursued by a character who is known as the geek.” in 1987, gary panter, a painter and cartoonist quoted in the times, anointed pee wee herman as the “new ascendant geek or the triumphant nerd   the type of person who in the 50’s no one talked to but who is now the height of fashion.” he was right: as the decades passed, “geeks,” in defiance of the word’s definition, had gained some social status.

to arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them ask each other the questions they are asking themselves. like many other college students, i turned to the study of psychology for personal reasons. i wanted to understand myself better. and so i read the works of freud; and i was privileged to have as my undergraduate tutor, the psychoanalyst erik erikson, himself a sometime pupil of freud. but once i learned about new trends in psychology, through contacts with another mentor jerome bruner, i turned my attention to the operation of the mind in a cognitive sense   and i've remained at that post ever since. the giant at the time   the middle 1960s   was jean piaget. though i met and interviewed him a few times, piaget really functioned for me as a paragon. in the term of dean keith simonton, a paragon is someone whom one does not know personally but who serves as a virtual teacher and point of reference. i thought that piaget had identified the most important question in cognitive psychology   how does the mind develop; developed brilliant methods of observation and experimentation; and put forth a convincing picture of development   a set of general cognitive operations that unfold in the course of essentially lockstep, universally occurring stages. i wrote my first books about piaget; saw myself as carrying on the piagetian tradition in my own studies of artistic and symbolic development (two areas that he had not focused on); and even defended piaget vigorously in print against those who would critique his approach and claims. yet, now forty years later, i have come to realize that the bulk of my scholarly career has been a critique of the principal claims that piaget put forth. as to the specifics of how i changed my mind: piaget believed in general stages of development that cut across contents (space, time, number); i now believe that each area of content has its own rules and operations and i am dubious about the existence of general stages and structures. piaget believed that intelligence was a single general capacity that developed pretty much in the same way across individuals: i now believe that humans posses a number of relatively independent intelligences and these can function and interact in idiosyncratic ways, piaget was not interested in individual differences; he studied the 'epistemic subject.' most of my work has focused on individual differences, with particular attention to those with special talents or deficits, and unusual profiles of abilities and disabilities. piaget assumed that the newborn had a few basic biological capacities   like sucking and looking   and two major processes of acquiring knowledge, that he called assimilation and accommodation. nowadays, with many others, i assume that human beings possess considerable innate or easily elicited cognitive capacities, and that piaget way underestimated the power of this inborn cognitive architecture. piaget downplayed the importance of historical and cultural factors   cognitive development consisted of the growing child experimenting largely on his own with the physical (and, minimally, the social ) world. i see development as permeated from the first by contingent forces pervading the time and place of origin. finally, piaget saw language and other symbols systems (graphic, musical, bodily etc) as manifestations, almost epiphenomena, of a single cognitive motor; i see each of these systems as having its own origins and being heavily colored by the particular uses to which a systems is put in one's own culture and one's own time. why i changed my mind is an issue principally of biography: some of the change has to do with my own choices (i worked for 20 years with brain damaged patients); and some with the zeitgeist (i was strongly influenced by the ideas of noam chomsky and jerry fodor, on the one hand, and by empirical discoveries in psychology and biology on the other). still, i consider piaget to be the giant of the field. he raised the right questions; he developed exquisite methods; and his observations of phenomena have turned out to be robust. it's a tribute to piaget that we continue to ponder these questions, even as many of us are now far more critical than we once were. any serious scientist or scholar will change his or her mind; put differently, we will come to agree with those with whom we used to disagree, and vice versa. we differ in whether we are open or secretive about such "changes of mind": and in whether we choose to attack, ignore, or continue to celebrate those with whose views we are no longer in agreement. i have changed my mind about the nature of perception. i thought that a goal of perception is to estimate properties of an objective physical world, and that perception is useful precisely to the extent that its estimates are veridical. after all, incorrect perceptions beget incorrect actions, and incorrect actions beget fewer offspring than correct actions. hence, on evolutionary grounds, veridical perceptions should proliferate. although the image at the eye, for instance, contains insufficient information by itself to recover the true state of the world, natural selection has built into the visual system the correct prior assumptions about the world, and about how it projects onto our retinas, so that our visual estimates are, in general, veridical. and we can verify that this is the case, by deducing those prior assumptions from psychological experiments, and comparing them with the world. vision scientists are now succeeding in this enterprise. but we need not wait for their final report to conclude with confidence that perception is veridical. all we need is the obvious rhetorical question: of what possible use is non veridical perception? i now think that perception is useful because it is not veridical. the argument that evolution favors veridical perceptions is wrong, both theoretically and empirically. it is wrong in theory, because natural selection hinges on reproductive fitness, not on truth, and the two are not the same: reproductive fitness in a particular niche might, for instance, be enhanced by reducing expenditures of time and energy in perception; true perceptions, in consequence, might be less fit than niche specific shortcuts. it is wrong empirically: mimicry, camouflage, mating errors and supernormal stimuli are ubiquitous in nature, and all are predicated on non veridical perceptions. the cockroach, we suspect, sees little of the truth, but is quite fit, though easily fooled, with its niche specific perceptual hacks. moreover, computational simulations based on evolutionary game theory, in which virtual animals that perceive the truth compete with others that sacrifice truth for speed and energy efficiency, find that true perception generally goes extinct. it used to be hard to imagine how perceptions could possibly be useful if they were not true. now, thanks to technology, we have a metaphor that makes it clear   the windows interface of the personal computer. this interface sports colorful geometric icons on a two dimensional screen. the colors, shapes and positions of the icons on the screen are not true depictions of what they represent inside the computer. and that is why the interface is useful. it hides the complexity of the diodes, resistors, voltages and magnetic fields inside the computer. it allows us to effectively interact with the truth because it hides the truth. it has not been easy for me to change my mind about the nature of perception. the culprit, i think, is natural selection. i have been shaped by it to take my perceptions seriously. after all, those of our predecessors who did not, for instance, take their tiger or viper or cliff perceptions seriously had less chance of becoming our ancestors. it is apparently a small step, though not a logical one, from taking perception seriously to taking it literally. unfortunately our ancestors faced no selective pressures that would prevent them from conflating the serious with the literal: one who takes the cliff both seriously and literally avoids harms just as much as one who takes the cliff seriously but not literally. hence our collective history of believing in flat earth, geocentric cosmology, and veridical perception. i should very much like to join samuel johnson in rejecting the claim that perception is not veridical, by kicking a stone and exclaiming "i refute it thus." but even as my foot ached from the ill advised kick, i would still harbor the skeptical thought, "yes, you should have taken that rock more seriously, but should you take it literally?" when i was a graduate student in experimental psychology i cut my teeth in a skinnerian behavioral laboratory. as a behaviorist i believed that human nature was largely a blank slate on which we could impose positive and negative reinforcements (and punishments if necessary) to shape people and society into almost anything we want. as a young college professor i taught psychology from this perspective and even created a new course on the history and psychology of war, in which i argued that people are by nature peaceful and nonviolent, and that wars were thus a byproduct of corrupt governments and misguided societies. the data from evolutionary psychology has now convinced me that we evolved a dual set of moral sentiments: within groups we tend to be pro social and cooperative, but between groups we are tribal and xenophobic. archaeological evidence indicates that paleolithic humans were anything but noble savages, and that civilization has gradually but ineluctably reduced the amount of within group aggression and between group violence. and behavior genetics has erased the tabula rasa and replaced it with a highly constrained biological template upon which the environment can act. i have thus changed my mind about this theory of human nature in its extreme form. human nature is more evolutionarily determined, more cognitively irrational, and more morally complex than i thought. sometimes the later roman empire seems very long ago and far away, but at other times, when we explore edward gibbon's famous claim to have described the triumph of "barbarism and religion", it can seem as fresh as next week. and we always know that we're supposed root for the romans. when i began my career as historian thirty years ago, i was all in favor of those who were fighting to preserve the old order. "i'd rather be belisarius than stilicho," i said to my classes often enough that they heard it as a mantra of my attitude   preferring the empire restoring roman general of the sixth century to the barbarian general who served rome and sought compromise and adjustment with neighbors in the fourth. but a career as a historian means growth, development, and change. i did what the historian   as much a scientist as any biochemist, as the german use of the word wissenschaft for what both practice   should do: i studied the primary evidence, i listened to and participated in the debates of the scholars. i had moments when a new book blew me away, and others when i read the incisive critique of the book that had blown me away and thought through the issues again. i've been back and forth over a range of about four centuries of late roman history many times now, looking at events, people, ideas, and evidence in different lights and moods. what i have found is that the closer historical examination comes to the lived moment of the past, the harder it is to take sides with anybody. and it is a real fact that the ancient past (i'm talking now about the period from 300 700 ce) draws closer and closer to us all the time. there is a surprisingly large body of material that survives and really only a handful of hardy scholars sorting through it. much remains to be done: the sophist libanius of antioch in the late fourth century, partisan for the renegade 'pagan' emperor julian, left behind a ton of personal letters and essays that few have read, only a handful have been translated, and so only a few scholars have really worked through his career and thought   but i'd love to read, and even more dearly love to write, a good book about him someday. in addition to the books, there is a growing body of archaeological evidence as diggers fan out across the mediterranean, near east, and europe, and we are beginning to see new kinds of quantitative evidence as well   climate change measured from tree ring dating, even genetic analysis that suggests that my o'donnell ancestors came from one of the most seriously inbred populations (ireland) on the planet   and right now the argument is going on about the genetic evidence for the size of the anglo saxon migrations to britain. we know more than we ever did, and we are learning more all the time, and with each decade, we get closer and closer to even the remote past. when you do that, you find that the past is more a tissue of choices and chances than we had imagined, that fifty or a hundred years of bad times can happen   and can end and be replaced by the united work of people with heads and hearts that makes society peaceful and prosperous again; or the opportunity can be kicked away. and we should remember that when we root for the romans, there are contradictory impulses at work. rome brought the ancient world a secure environment (pompey cleaning up the pirates in the mediterranean was a real service), a standard currency, and a huge free trade zone. its taxes were heavy, but the wealth it taxed so immense that it could support a huge bureaucracy for a long time without damaging local prosperity. fine: but it was an empire by conquest, ruled as a military dictatorship, fundamentally dependent on a slave economy, and with no clue whatever about the realities of economic development and management. a prosperous emperor was one who managed by conquest or taxation to bring a flood of wealth into the capital city and squander it as ostentatiously as possible. rome "fell", if that's the right word for it, partly because it ran out of ideas for new peoples to plunder, and fell into a funk of outrage at the thought that some of the neighboring peoples preferred to move inside the empire's borders, settle down, buy fixer upper houses, send their kids to the local schools, and generally enjoy the benefits of civilization. (the real barbarians stayed outside.) much of the worst damage to rome was done by roman emperors and armies thrashing about, thinking they were preserving what they were in fact destroying. so now i have a new mantra for my students: "two hundred years is a long time." when we talk about shakespeare's time or the crusades or the roman empire or the ancient israelites, it's all too easy to talk about centuries as objects, a habit we bring even closer to our own time, but real human beings live in the short window of a generation, and with ancient lifespans shorter than our own, that window was brief. we need to understand and respect just how much possibility was there and how much accomplishment was achieved if we are to understand as well the opportunities that were squandered. learning to do that, learning to sift the finest grains of evidence with care, learning to learn from and debate with others   that's how history gets done. the excitement begins when you discover that the past is constantly changing. i have changed my mind about the omniscience and omnipotence of science. i now realize that science is strictly limited, and that it is extremely dangerous not to appreciate this. science proceeds in general by being reductionist. this term is used in different ways in different contexts but here i take it to mean that scientists begin by observing a world that seems infinitely complex and inchoate, and in order to make sense of it they first "reduce" it to a series of bite sized problems, each of which can then be made the subject of testable hypotheses which, as far as possible, take mathematical form. fair enough. the approach is obviously powerful, and it is hard to see how solid progress of a factual kind could be made in any other way. it produces answers of the kind known as "robust". "robust" does not of course mean "unequivocally true" and still less does it meet the lawyers' criteria   "the whole truth, and nothing but the truth". but robustness is pretty good; certainly good enough to be going on with. the limitation is obvious, however. scientists produce robust answers only because they take great care to tailor the questions. as sir peter medawar said, "science is the art of the soluble" (within the time and with the tools available). clearly it is a huge mistake to assume that what is soluble is all there is   but some scientists make this mistake routinely. or to put the matter another way: they tend conveniently to forget that they arrived at their "robust" conclusions by ignoring as a matter of strategy all the complexities of a kind that seemed inconvenient. but all too often, scientists then are apt to extrapolate from the conclusions they have drawn from their strategically simplified view of the world, to the whole, real world. two examples of a quite different kind will suffice: 1: in the 19th century the study of animal psychology was a mess. on the one hand we had some studies of nerve function by a few physiologists, and on the other we had reams of wondrous but intractable natural history which george romanes in particular tried to put into some kind of order. but there was nothing much in between. the behaviourists of the 20th century did much to sort out the mess by focusing on the one manifestation of animal psychology that is directly observable and measurable   their behaviour. fair enough. but when i was at university in the early 1960s behaviourism ruled everything. concepts such as "mind" and "consciousness" were banished. b f skinner even tried to explain the human acquisition of language in terms of his "operant conditioning". since then the behaviourist agenda has largely been put in its place. its methods are still useful (still helping to provide "robust" results) but discussions now are far broader. "consciousness", "feeling", even "mind" are back on the agenda. of course you can argue that in this instance science proved itself to be self correcting   although this historically is not quite true. noam chomsky, not generally recognized as a scientist, did much to dent behaviourist confidence through his own analysis of language. but for decades the confident assertions of the behaviourists ruled and, i reckon, they were in many ways immensely damaging. in particular they reinforced the cartesian notion that animals are mere machines, and can be treated as such. animals such as chimpanzees were routinely regarded simply as useful physiological "models" of human beings who could be more readily abused than humans can. jane goodall in particular provided the corrective to this   but she had difficulty getting published at first precisely because she refused to toe the hard nosed cartesian (behaviourist inspired) line. the causes of animal welfare and conservation are still bedeviled by the attitude that animals are simply "machines" and by the crude belief that modern science has "proved" that this is so. 2: in the matter of gmos we are seeing the crude simplifications still in their uncorrected form. by genetic engineering it is possible (sometimes) to increase crop yield. other things being equal, high yields are better than low yields. ergo (the argument goes) gmos must be good and anyone who says differently must be a fool (unable to understand the science) or wicked (some kind of elitist, trying to hold the peasants back). but anyone who knows anything about farming in the real world (as opposed to the cosseted experimental fields of the english home counties and of california) knows that yield is by no means the be all and end all. inter alia, high yields require high inputs of resources and capital   the very things that are often lacking. yield typically matters far less than long term security   acceptable yields in bad years rather than bumper yields in the best conditions. security requires individual toughness and variety   neither of which necessarily correlate with super crop status. in a time of climate change, resilience is obviously of paramount importance   but this is not, alas, obvious to the people who make policy. bumper crops in good years cause glut   unless the market is regulated; and glut in the current economic climate (though not necessarily in the real world of the us and the eu) depresses prices and put farmers out of work. eventually the penny may drop   that the benison of the trial plot over a few years cannot necessarily be transferred to real farms in the world as a whole. but by that time the traditional crops that could have carried humanity through will be gone, and the people who know how to farm them will be living and dying in urban slums (which, says the un, are now home to a billion people). behind all this nonsense and horror lies the simplistic belief, of a lot of scientists (though by no means all, to be fair) and politicians and captains of industry, that science understands all (ie is omniscient, or soon will be) and that its high technologies can dig us out of any hole we may dig ourselves into (ie is omnipotent). absolutely not. mentors, paper referees and grant reviewers have warned me on occasion about scientific "fishing expeditions," the conduct of empirical research that does not test a specific hypothesis or is not guided by theory. such "blind empiricism" was said to be unscientific, to waste time and produce useless data. although i have never been completely convinced of the hazards of fishing, i now reject them outright, with a few reservations. i'm not advocating the collection of random facts, but the use of broad based descriptive studies to learn what to study and how to study it. those who fish learn where the fish are, their species, number and habits. without the guidance of preliminary descriptive studies, hypothesis testing can be inefficient and misguided. hypothesis testing is a powerful means of rejecting error   of trimming the dead limbs from the scientific tree   but it does not generate hypotheses or signify which are worthy of test. i'll provide two examples from my experience. in graduate school, i became intrigued with neuroembryology and wanted to introduce it to developmental psychology, a discipline that essentially starts at birth. my dissertation was a fishing expedition that described embryonic behavior and its neurophysiological mechanism. i was exploring uncharted waters and sought advice by observing the ultimate expert, the embryo. in this and related work, i discovered that prenatal movement is the product of seizure like discharges in the spinal cord (not the brain), that the spinal discharges occurred spontaneously (not a response to sensory stimuli), that the function of movement was to sculpt joints (not to shape postnatal behavior such walking), and to regulate the number of motorneurons. remarkable! but decades later, this and similar work is largely unknown to developmental psychologists who have no category for it. the traditional psychological specialties of perception, learning, memory, motivation and the like, are not relevant during most of the prenatal period. the finding that embryos are profoundly unpsychological beings guided by unique developmental priorities and processes is not appreciated by theory driven developmental psychologists. when the fishing expedition indicates that there is no appropriate spot in the scientific filing cabinet, it may be time to add another drawer. years later and unrepentant, i embarked on a new fishing expedition, this time in pursuit of the human universal of laughter   what it is, when we do it, and what it means. in the spirit of my embryonic research, i wanted the expert to define my agenda a laughing person. explorations about research funding with administrators at a federal agency were unpromising. one linguist patiently explained that my project "had no obvious implications for any of the major theoretical issues in linguistics." another, a speech scientist, noted that "laughter isn't speech, and therefore had no relevance to my agency's mission." ultimately, this atheoretical and largely descriptive work provided many surprises and counterintuitive findings. for example, laughter, like crying, is not consciously controlled, contrary to literature suggesting that we speak ha ha as we would choose a word in speech. most laughter is not a response to humor. laughter and speech are controlled by different brain mechanisms, with speech dominating laughter. contagious laughter is the product of neurologically programmed social behavior. contrasts between chimpanzee and human laughter reveal why chimpanzees can't talk (inadequate breath control), and the evolutionary event necessary for the selection for human speech (bipedality). whether embryonic behavior or laughter, fishing expeditions guided me down the appropriate empirical path, provided unanticipated insights, and prevented flights of theoretical fancy. contrary to lifelong advice, when planning a new research project, i always start by going fishing. the last thirty to forty years of social science has brought an overbearing censorship to the way we are allowed to think and talk about the diversity of people on earth. people of siberian descent, new guinean highlanders, those from the indian sub continent, caucasians, australian aborigines, polynesians, africans   we are, officially, all the same: there are no races. flawed as the old ideas about race are, modern genomic studies reveal a surprising, compelling and different picture of human genetic diversity. we are on average about 99.5% similar to each other genetically. this is a new figure, down from the previous estimate of 99.9%. to put what may seem like miniscule differences in perspective, we are somewhere around 98.5% similar, maybe more, to chimpanzees, our nearest evolutionary relatives. the new figure for us, then, is significant. it derives from among other things, many small genetic differences that have emerged from studies that compare human populations. some confer the ability among adults to digest milk, others to withstand equatorial sun, others yet confer differences in body shape or size, resistance to particular diseases, tolerance to hot or cold, how many offspring a female might eventually produce, and even the production of endorphins   those internal opiate like compounds. we also differ by surprising amounts in the numbers of copies of some genes we have. modern humans spread out of africa only within the last 60 70,000 years, little more than the blink of an eye when stacked against the 6 million or so years that separate us from our great ape ancestors. the genetic differences amongst us reveal a species with a propensity to form small and relatively isolated groups on which natural selection has often acted strongly to promote genetic adaptations to particular environments. we differ genetically more than we thought, but we should have expected this: how else but through isolation can we explain a single species that speaks at least 7,000 mutually unintelligible languages around the world? what this all means is that, like it or not, there may be many genetic differences among human populations   including differences that may even correspond to old categories of 'race'   that are real differences in the sense of making one group better than another at responding to some particular environmental problem. this in no way says one group is in general 'superior' to another, or that one group should be preferred over another. but it warns us that we must be prepared to discuss genetic differences among human populations. for most of my life i viewed any notion of the "soul" a fanciful religious invention. i agreed with the view of the late nobel laureate francis crick who in his book the astonishing hypothesis claimed "a modern neurobiologist sees no need for the religious concept of a soul to explain the behavior of humans and other animals." but is the idea of a soul really so crazy and beyond the limits of scientific reason? from the standpoint of neuroscience, it is easy to make the claim that descartes is simply wrong about the separateness of brain and mind. the plain fact is that there is no scientific evidence that a self, an individual mind, or a soul could exist without a physical brain. however, there are persisting reasons why the self and the mind do not appear to be identical with, or entirely reducible to, the brain. for example, in spite of the claims of massachusetts physician dr. duncan macdougall, who estimated through his experiments on dying humans that approximately 21 grams of matter   the presumed weight of the human soul   was lost upon death (the new york times "soul has weight, physician thinks" march 11, 1907), unlike the brain, the mind cannot be objectively observed, but only subjectively experienced. the subject that represents the "i" in the statement "i think therefore i am" cannot be directly observed, weighed, or measured. and the experiences of that self, its pains and pleasures, sights and sounds possess an objective reality only to the one who experiences them. in other words, as the philosopher john searle puts it, the mind is "irreducibly first person." on the other hand, although there are many perplexing properties about the brain, mind, and the self that remain to be scientifically explained   subjectivity among them   this does not mean that there must be an immaterial entity at work that explains these mysterious features. nonetheless, i have come to believe that an individual consciousness represents an entity that is so personal and ontologically unique that it qualifies as something that we might as well call "a soul." i am not suggesting that anything like a soul survives the death of the brain. indeed, the link between the life of the brain and the life of the mind is irreducible, the one completely dependant upon the other. indeed the danger of capturing the beauty and mystery of a personal consciousness and identity with the somewhat metaphorical designation "soul" is the tendency for the grandiose metaphor to obscure the actual accomplishments of the brain. the soul is not a "thing" independent of the living brain; it is part and parcel of it, its most remarkable feature, but nonetheless inextricably bound to its life and death. if my math had been better, i would have become an astronomer rather than a psychologist. i was after the very greatest questions and finding life elsewhere in the universe seemed the greatest of them all. understanding thinking, emotion, and mental health was second best   science for weaker minds like mine.carl sagan and i were close colleagues in the late 1960's when we both taught at cornell. i devoured his thrilling book with i.i. shklovskii (intelligent life in the universe, 1966) in one twenty four hour sitting, and i came away convinced that intelligent life was commonplace across our galaxy. the book, as most readers know, estimates a handful of parameters necessary to intelligent life, such as the probability that an advanced technical civilization will in short order destroy itself and the number of "sol like" stars in the galaxy. their conclusion is that there are between 10,000 and two million advanced technical civilizations hereabouts. some of my happiest memories are of discussing all this with carl, our colleagues, and our students into the wee hours of many a chill ithaca night.and this made the universe a less chilly place as well. what consolation! that homo sapiens might really partake of something larger, that there really might be numerous civilizations out there populated by more intelligent beings than we are, wiser because they had outlived the dangers of premature self destruction. what's more we might contact them and learn from them. a fledging program of listening for intelligent radio signals from out there was starting up. homo sapiens was just taking its first balky steps off the planet; we exuberantly watched the moon landing together at the faculty club. we worked on the question of how we would respond if humans actually heard an intelligent signal. what would our first "words" be? we worked on what would be inscribed on the almost immortal voyager plaque that would leave our solar system just about now   allowing the sentient beings who cadged it epochs hence to surmise who we were, where we were, when we were, and what we were (should the man and woman be holding hands? no, they might think we were one conjoined organism.) seti (the search for extraterrestrial intelligence) and its forerunners are almost forty years old. they scan the heavens for intelligent radio signals, with three million participants using their home computers to analyze the input. the result has been zilch. there are plenty of excuses for zilch, however, and lots of reason to hope: only a small fraction of the sky has been scanned and larger more efficient arrays are coming on line. maybe really advanced civilizations don't use communication techniques that produce waves we can pick up. maybe intelligent life is so unimaginably different from us that we are looking in all the wrong "places." maybe really intelligent life forms hide their presence.so i changed my mind. i now take the null hypothesis very seriously: that sagan and shklovskii were wrong: that the number of advanced technical civilizations in our galaxy is exactly one, that the number of advanced technical civilizations in the universe is exactly one.what is the implication of the possibility, mounting a bit every day, that we are alone in the universe? it reverses the millennial progression from a geocentric to a heliocentric to a milky way centered universe, back to, of all things, a geocentric universe. we are the solitary point of light in a darkness without end. it means that we are precious, infinitely so. it means that nuclear or environmental cataclysm is an infinitely worse fate than we thought. it means that we have a job to do, a mission that will last all our ages to come: to seed and then to shepherd intelligent life beyond this pale blue dot. i've begun to rethink the way we teach students to engage in scientific research. i was trained, as a chemist, to use the classic scientific method: devise a testable hypothesis, and then design an experiment to see if the hypothesis is correct or not. and i was told that this method is equally valid for the social sciences. i've changed my mind that this is the best way to do science. i have three reasons for this change of mind. first, and probably most importantly, i've learned that one often needs simply to sit and observe and learn about one's subject before even attempting to devise a testable hypothesis. what are the physical capacities of the subject? what is the social and ecological structure in which it lives? does some anecdotal evidence suggest the form that the hypothesis should take? few granting agencies are willing to provide support for this step, but it is critical to the scientific process, particularly for truly innovative research. often, a proposal to gain observational experience is dismissed as being a "fishing expedition"…but how can one devise a workable hypothesis to test without first acquiring basic knowledge of the system, and how better to obtain such basic knowledge than to observe the system without any preconceived notions? second, i've learned that truly interesting questions really often can't be reduced to a simple testable hypothesis, at least not without being somewhat absurd. "can a parrot label objects?" may be a testable hypothesis, but actually isn't very interesting…what is interesting, for example, is how that labeling compares to the behavior of a young child, exactly what type of training might enable such learning and what type of training is useless, how far can such labeling transfer across exemplars, and….well, you get the picture…the exciting part is a series of interrelated questions that arise and expand almost indefinitely. third, i've learned that the scientific community's emphasis on hypothesis based research leads too many scientists to devise experiments to prove, rather than test, their hypotheses. many journal submissions lack any discussion of alternative competing hypotheses: researchers don't seem to realize that collecting data that are consistent with their original hypothesis doesn't mean that it is unconditionally true. alternatively, they buy into the fallacy that absence of evidence for something is always evidence of its absence. i'm all for rigor in scientific research   but let's emphasize the gathering of knowledge rather than the proving of a point. like many scientists in the field of memory, i used to think that a memory is something stored in the brain and then accessed when used. then, in 2000, a researcher in my lab, karim nader, did an experiment that convinced me, and many others, that our usual way of thinking was wrong. in a nutshell, what karim showed was that each time a memory is used, it has to be restored as a new memory in order to be accessible later. the old memory is either not there or is inaccessible. in short, your memory about something is only as good as your last memory about it. this is why people who witness crimes testify about what they read in the paper rather than what they witnessed. research on this topic, called reconsolidation, has become the basis of a possible treatment for post traumatic stress disorder, drug addiction, and any other disorder that is based on learning. that karim's study changed my mind is clear from the fact that i told him, when he proposed to do the study, that it was a waste of time. i'm not swayed by arguments based on faith, can be moved by good logic, but am always swayed by a good experiment, even if it goes against my scientific beliefs. i might not give up on a scientific belief after one experiment, but when the evidence mounts over multiple studies, i change my mind. i grew up infused with the idea of unification. it came first from religion, from my jewish background. god was all over, was all powerful, and had a knack for interfering with human affairs, at least in the old testament. he then appeared to have decided to be a bit shyer, sending a son instead, and only revealing himself through visions and prophecies. needless to say, when, as a teenager, i started to get interested in science, this vision of an all pervading god, stories of floods, commandments and plagues, started to become very suspicious. i turned to physics, idolizing einstein and his science; here was a jew that saw further, that found a way of translating this old monotheistic tradition into the universal language of science. as i started my research career, i had absolutely no doubt that i wanted to become a theoretical physicist working on particle physics and cosmology. why the choice? simple: it was the joining of the two worlds, of the very large and the very small, that offered the best hope for finding a unified theory of all nature, that brought together matter and forces into one single magnificent formulation, the final platonist triumph. this was what einstein tried to do for the last three decades of his life, although in his days it was more a search for unifying only half of the forces of nature, gravity and electromagnetism. i wrote dozens of papers related to the subject of unification, even my ph.d. dissertation was on the topic. i was fascinated by the modern approaches to the idea, supersymmetry, superstrings, a space with extra, hidden dimensions. a part of me still is. but then, a few years ago, something snapped. it probably was brought by a combination of factors, a deeper understanding of the historical and cultural processes that shape scientific ideas. i started to doubt unification, finding it to be the scientific equivalent of a monotheistic formulation of reality, a search for god revealed in equations. of course, had we the slightest experimental evidence in favor of unification, of supersymmetry and superstrings, i'd be the first popping the champagne open. but it's been over twenty years, and all attempts so far have failed. nothing in particle accelerators, nothing in cryogenic dark matter detectors, no magnetic monopoles, no proton decay, all tell tale signs of unification predicted over the years. even our wonderful standard model of particle physics, where we formulate the unification of electromagnetism and the weak nuclear interactions, is not really a true unification: the theory retains information from both interactions in the form of their strengths or, in more technical jargon, of their coupling constants. a true unification should have a single coupling constant, a single interaction. all of my recent anti unification convictions can crumble during the next few years, after our big new machine, the large hadron collider, is turned on. many colleagues hope that supersymmetry will finally show its face. others even bet on possible signs of extra dimensions revealed. however, i have a feeling things won't turn out so nicely. the model of unification, which is so aesthetically appealing, may be simply this, an aesthetically appealing description of nature, which, unfortunately, doesn't correspond to physical reality. nature doesn't share our myths. the stakes are high indeed. but being a mild agnostic, i don't believe until there is evidence. and then, there is no need to believe any longer, which is precisely the beauty of science. i used to believe that there were experts and non experts and that, on the whole, the judgment of experts is more accurate, more valid, and more correct than my own judgment. but over the years, thinking   and i should add, experience   has changed my mind. what experts have that i don't are knowledge and experience in some specialized area. what, as a class, they don't have any more than i do is the skills of judgment, rational thinking and wisdom. and i've come to believe that some highly ‘qualified' people have less of that than i do. i now believe that the people i know who are wise are not necessarily knowledgeable; the people i know who are knowledgeable are not necessarily wise. most of us confuse expertise with judgment. even in politics, where the only qualities politicians have that the rest of us lack are knowledge of the procedures of parliament or congress, and of how government works, occasionally combined with specific knowledge of economics or foreign affairs, we tend to look to such people for wisdom and decision making of a high order. many people enroll for mba's to become more successful businessmen. an article in fortune magazine a couple of years ago compared the academic qualifications of people in business and found the qualification that correlated most highly with success was a philosophy degree. when i ran a television production company and was approached for a job by budding directors or producers, i never employed anyone with a degree in media studies. but i did employ lots of intelligent people with good judgment who knew nothing about television to start with but could make good decisions. the results justified that approach. scientists   with a few eccentric exceptions   are, perhaps, the one group of experts who have never claimed for themselves wisdom outside the narrow confines of their specialties. paradoxically, they are the one group who are blamed for the mistakes of others. science and scientists are criticized for judgments about weapons, stem cells, global warming, nuclear power, when the decisions are made by people who are not scientists. as a result of changing my mind about this, i now view the judgments of others, however distinguished or expert they are, as no more valid than my own. if someone who is a ‘specialist' in the field disagrees with me about a book idea, the solution to the middle east problems, the non existence of the paranormal or nuclear power, i am now entirely comfortable with the disagreement because i know i'm just as likely to be right as they are. when i was very little the question was easy. i simply assumed the whole bible was true, albeit in a mysterious, grown up sort of way. but once i learned something of science, at school and then at university, that unquestioning belief slid away. mathematics was especially important here, and i remember how entranced i was when i first saw the power of axiomatic systems. those were logical structures that were as beautiful as complex crystals   but far, far clearer. if there was one inaccuracy at any point in the system, you could trace it, like a scarcely visible stretching crack through the whole crystal; you could see exactly how it had to undermine the validity of far distant parts as well. since there are obvious factual inaccuracies in the bible, as well as repugnant moral commands, then   just as with any tight axiomatic system   huge other parts of it had to be wrong, as well. in my mind that discredited it all. what i've come to see more recently is that the bible isn't monolithic in that way. it's built up in many, often quite distinct layers. for example, the book of joshua describes a merciless killing of jericho's inhabitants, after that city's walls were destroyed. but archaeology shows that when this was supposed to be happening, there was no large city with walls there to be destroyed. on the contrary, careful dating of artifacts, as well as translations from documents of the great empires in surrounding regions, shows that the bloodthirsty joshua story was quite likely written by one particular group, centuries later, trying to give some validity to a particular royal line in 7th century bc jerusalem, which wanted to show its rights to the entire country around it. yet when that joshua layer is stripped away, other layers in the bible remain. they can stand, or be judged, on their own. a few of those remaining layers have survived only because they became taken up by narrow power structures, concerned with aggrandizing themselves, in the style of philip pullman's excellent books. but others have survived across the millennia for different reasons. some speak to the human condition with poetry of aching beauty. and others   well, there's a further reason i began to doubt the inanity of everything i couldn't understand. a child age three, however intelligent, and however much it squinches his or her fact tight in concentration, still won't be able to grasp notions that are easy for us, such as 'century', or 'henceforth', let alone greater subtleties which 20th century science has clarified, such as 'simultaneity' or 'causality'. true and important things exist, which young children can't comprehend. it seems odd to be sure that we, adult humans, existing at this one particular moment in evolution, have no such limits. i realized that the world isn't divided into science on the one hand, and nonsense or arbitrary biases on the other. and i wonder now what might be worth looking for, hidden there, fleetingly in between. when facts change your mind, that's not always science. it may be history. i changed my mind about an important historical question: did the nuclear bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki bring world war two to an end? until this year i used to say, perhaps. now, because of new facts, i say no. this question is important, because the myth of the nuclear bombs bringing the war to an end is widely believed. to demolish this myth may be a useful first step toward ridding the world of nuclear weapons. until the last few years, the best summary of evidence concerning this question was a book, "japan's decision to surrender", by robert butow, published in 1954. butow interviewed the surviving japanese leaders who had been directly involved in the decision. he asked them whether japan would have surrendered if the nuclear bombs had not been dropped. his conclusion, "the japanese leaders themselves do not know the answer to that question, and if they cannot answer it, neither can i". until recently, i believed what the japanese leaders said to butow, and i concluded that the answer to the question was unknowable. facts causing me to change my mind were brought to my attention by ward wilson. wilson summarized the facts in an article, "the winning weapon? rethinking nuclear weapons in the light of hiroshima", in the spring 2007 issue of the magazine, "international security". he gives references to primary source documents and to analyses published by other historians, in particular by robert pape and tsuyoshi hasegawa. the facts are as follows: 1. members of the supreme council, which customarily met with the emperor to take important decisions, learned of the nuclear bombing of hiroshima on the morning of august 6, 1945. although foreign minister togo asked for a meeting, no meeting was held for three days. 2. a surviving diary records a conversation of navy minister yonai, who was a member of the supreme council, with his deputy on august 8. the hiroshima bombing is mentioned only incidentally. more attention is given to the fact that the rice ration in tokyo is to be reduced by ten percent. 3. on the morning of august 9, soviet troops invaded manchuria. six hours after hearing this news, the supreme council was in session. news of the nagasaki bombing, which happened the same morning, only reached the council after the session started. 4. the august 9 session of the supreme council resulted in the decision to surrender. 5. the emperor, in his rescript to the military forces ordering their surrender, does not mention the nuclear bombs but emphasizes the historical analogy between the situation in 1945 and the situation at the end of the sino japanese war in 1895. in 1895 japan had defeated china, but accepted a humiliating peace when european powers led by russia moved into manchuria and the russians occupied port arthur. by making peace, the emperor meiji had kept the russians out of japan. emperor hirohito had this analogy in his mind when he ordered the surrender. 6. the japanese leaders had two good reasons for lying when they spoke to robert butow. the first reason was explained afterwards by lord privy seal kido, another member of the supreme council: "if military leaders could convince themselves that they were defeated by the power of science but not by lack of spiritual power or strategic errors, they could save face to some extent". the second reason was that they were telling the americans what the americans wanted to hear, and the americans did not want to hear that the soviet invasion of manchuria brought the war to an end. in addition to the myth of two nuclear bombs bringing the war to an end, there are other myths that need to be demolished. there is the myth that, if hitler had acquired nuclear weapons before we did, he could have used them to conquer the world. there is the myth that the invention of the hydrogen bomb changed the nature of nuclear warfare. there is the myth that international agreements to abolish weapons without perfect verification are worthless. all these myths are false. after they are demolished, dramatic moves toward a world without nuclear weapons may become possible. i thought that it would change people. i thought it would allow us to build a new world through which we could model new behaviors, values, and relationships. in the 90's, i thought the experience of going online for the first time would change a person's consciousness as much as if they had dropped acid in the 60's. i thought amazon.com was a ridiculous idea, and that the internet would shrug off business as easily as it did its original defense department minders. for now, at least, it's turned out to be different. virtual worlds like second life have been reduced to market opportunities: advertisers from banks to soft drinks purchase space and create fake characters, while kids (and chinese digital sweatshop laborers) earn "play money" in the game only to sell it to lazier players on ebay for real cash. the businesspeople running facebook and myspace are rivaled only by the members of these online "communities" in their willingness to surrender their identities and ideals for a buck, a click through, or a better market valuation. the open source ethos has been reinterpreted through the lens of corporatism as "crowd sourcing"   meaning just another way to get people to do work for no compensation. and even "file sharing" has been reduced to a frenzy of acquisition that has less to do with music than it does the ever expanding hard drives of successive ipods. sadly, cyberspace has become just another place to do business. the question is no longer how browsing the internet changes the way we look at the world; it's which browser we'll be using to buy and sell stuff in the same old world. i used to think that if something is clear and simple, it must also be provable or at least well defined, and if something is well defined, it might be relatively simple. it isn't so. if you hear about sightings of a weird glow approaching us in the night sky, it might be explained as a meteorite or as little green men arriving in a spaceship from another galaxy. in most specific cases, both hypotheses can be neither proved nor disproved, rigorously. nothing is well defined here. yet, it is clear that the meteorite hypothesis is scientifically much more likely. when you hear about a new perpetual motion machine or about yet another claim of cold fusion, you raise an eyebrow, you are willing to bet against it and, in your guts, you know it is wrong, but it is not always easy to disprove it rigorously. the reliability of forecasts regarding weather, stock markets and astrology is descending in that order. all of them are based on guesses, with or without historical data. most of them are rarely revisited by the media, after the fact, thus avoiding being exposed as unreliable. in most cases, predicting that the immediate future will be the same as the immediate past, has a higher probability of being correct, than the predictions of the gurus. yet, we, as scientists, have considerable faith in weather predictions; much less faith in predicting peaks and dips of the stock market and no faith at all is astrology. we can explain why, and we are certainly right, but we cannot prove why. proving it by historical success data, is as convincing (for the future) as the predictions themselves. richard feynman in his famous lectures on physics provided the ultimate physics definition of energy: it is that quantity which is conserved. any lawyer, mathematician or accountant would have laughed at this statement. energy is perhaps the most useful, clear and common concept in all of science, and feynman is telling us, correctly and shamelessly, that it has no proper rigorous and logical definition. how much is five thousand plus two? not so simple. sometimes it is five thousands and two (as in your bank statement) and sometimes it is actually five thousand (as in the case of the cairo tour guide who said "this pyramid is 5002 years old; when i started working here two years ago, i was told it was 5000 years old"). the public thinks, incorrectly, that science is a very accurate discipline where everything is well defined. not so. but the beauty of it is that all of the above statements are scientific, obvious and useful, without being precisely defined. that is as much part of the scientific method as verifying a theory by an experiment (which is always accurate only to a point). to speak and to understand the language of science is, among other things, to understand this "clear vagueness". it exists, of course, in other areas of life. every normal language possesses numerous such examples, and so do all fields of social science. judaism is a religion and i am an atheist. nevertheless, it is clear that i am jewish. it would take a volume to explain why, and the explanation will remain rather obscure and ill defined. but the fact is simple, clear, well understood and undeniable. somehow, it is acceptable to face such situations in nonscientific matters, but most people think, incorrectly, that the quantitative natural sciences must be different. they are different, in many ways, but not in this way. common sense has as much place as logic, in scientific research. intuition often leads to more insight than algorithmic thinking. familiarity with previous failed attempts to solve a problem may be detrimental, rather than helpful. this may explain why almost all important physics breakthroughs are made by people under forty. this also explains why, in science, asking the right question is at least as important as being able to solve a well posed problem. you might say that the above kind of thinking is prejudiced and inaccurate, and that it might hinder new discoveries and new scientific ideas. not so. good scientists know very well how to treat and use all of these "fuzzy" statements. they also know how to reconsider them, when there is a good reason to do so, based on new solid facts or on a new original line of thinking. this is one of the beautiful features of science. i used to think you could predict the future. in "profiles of the future," arthur c. clarke made it seem so easy. and so did all those other experts who confidently predicted the paperless office, the artificial intelligentsia who for decades predicted "human equivalence in ten years," the nanotechnology prophets who kept foreseeing major advances toward molecular manufacturing within fifteen years, and so on. mostly, the predictions of science and technology types were wonderful: space colonies, flying cars in everyone's garage, the conquest (or even reversal) of aging. (there were of course the doomsayers, too, such as the population bomb theorists who said the world would run out of food by the turn of the century.) but at last, after watching all those forecasts not come true, and in fact become falsified in a crashing, breathtaking manner, i began to question the entire business of making predictions. i mean, if even nobel prizewinning scientists such as ernest rutherford, who gave us essentially the modern concept of the nuclear atom, could say, as he did in 1933, that "we cannot control atomic energy to an extent which would be of any value commercially, and i believe we are not likely ever to be able to do so," and be so spectacularly wrong about it, what hope was there for the rest of us? and then i finally decided that i knew the source of this incredible mismatch between confident forecast and actual result. the universe is a complex system in which countless causal chains are acting and interacting independently and simultaneously (the ultimate nature of some of them unknown to science even today). there are in fact so many causal sequences and forces at work, all of them running in parallel, and each of them often affecting the course of the others, that it is hopeless to try to specify in advance what's going to happen as they jointly work themselves out. in the face of that complexity, it becomes difficult if not impossible to know with any assurance the future state of the system except in those comparatively few cases in which the system is governed by ironclad laws of nature such as those that allow us to predict the phases of the moon, the tides, or the position of jupiter in tomorrow night's sky. otherwise, forget it. further, it's an illusion to think that supercomputer modeling is up to the task of truly reliable crystal ball gazing. it isn't. witness the epidemiologists who predicted that last year's influenza season would be severe (in fact it was mild); the professional hurricane forecasters whose models told them that the last two hurricane seasons would be monsters (whereas instead they were wimps). certain systems in nature, it seems, are computationally irreducible phenomena, meaning that there is no way of knowing the outcome short of waiting for it to happen. formerly, when i heard or read a prediction, i believed it. nowadays i just roll my eyes, shake my head, and turn the page. i used to pride myself on the fact that i could explain almost anything to anyone, on a simple enough level, using analogies. no matter how abstract an idea in physics may be, there always seems to be some way in which we can get at least some part of the idea across. if colleagues shrugged and said, oh, well, that idea is too complicated or too abstract to be explained in simple terms, i thought they were either lazy or not very skilled in thinking creatively around a problem. i could not imagine a form of knowledge that could not be communicated in some limited but valid approximation or other. however, i've changed my mind, in what was for me a rather unexpected way. i still think i was right in thinking that any type of insight can be summarized to some degree, in what is clearly a correct first approximation when judged by someone who shares in the insight. for a long time my mistake was that i had not realized how totally wrong this first approximation can come across for someone who does not share the original insight. quantum mechanics offers a striking example. when someone hears that there is a limit on how accurately you can simultaneously measure various properties of an object, it is tempting to think that the limitations lie in the measuring procedure, and that the object itself somehow can be held to have exact values for each of those properties, even if they cannot be measured. surprisingly, that interpretation is wrong: john bell showed that such a 'hidden variables' picture is actually in clear disagreement with quantum mechanics. an initial attempt at explaining the measurement problem in quantum mechanics can be more misleading than not saying anything at all. so for each insight there is at least some explanation possible, but the same explanation may then be given for radically different insights. there is nothing that cannot be explained, but there are wrong insights that can lead to explanations that are identical to the explanation for a correct but rather subtle insight. where once i would have striven to see incan child sacrifice 'in their terms', i am increasingly committed to seeing it in ours. where once i would have directed attention to understanding a past cosmology of equal validity to my own, i now feel the urgency to go beyond a culturally attuned explanation and reveal cold sadism, deployed as a means of social control by a burgeoning imperial power. in cambridge at the end of the 70s, i began to be inculcated with the idea that understanding the internal logic and value system of a past culture was the best way to do archaeology and anthropology. the challenge was to achieve this through sensitivity to context, classification and symbolism. a pot was no longer just a pot, but a polyvalent signifier, with a range of case sensitive meanings. a rubbish pit was no longer an unproblematic heap of trash, but a semiotic entity embodying concepts of contagion and purity, sacred and profane. a ritual killing was not to be judged bad, but as having validity within a different worldview. using such 'contextual' thinking, a lump of slag found in a 5000 bc female grave in serbia was no longer seen as chance contaminant   bi product garbage from making copper jewelry. rather it was a kind of poetic statement bearing on the relationship between biological and cultural reproduction. just as births in the vin?a culture were attended by midwives who also delivered the warm but useless slab of afterbirth, so vinca culture ore was heated in a clay furnace that gave birth to metal. from the furnace   known from many ethnographies to have projecting clay breasts and a graphically vulvic stoking opening   the smelters delivered technology's baby. with it came a warm but useless lump of slag. thus the slag in a vinca woman's grave, far from being accidental trash, hinted at a complex symbolism of gender, death and rebirth. so far, so good: relativism worked as a way towards understanding that our industrial waste was not theirs, and their idea of how a woman should be appropriately buried not ours. but what happens when relativism says that our concepts of right and wrong, good and evil, kindness and cruelty, are inherently inapplicable? relativism self consciously divests itself of a series of anthropocentric and anachronistic skins   modern, white, western, male focused, individualist, scientific (or 'scientistic')   to say that the recognition of such value concepts is radically unstable, the 'objective' outsider opinion a worthless myth. my colleague andy wilson and our team have recently examined the hair of sacrificed children found on some of the high peaks of the andes. contrary to historic chronicles that claim that being ritually killed to join the mountain gods was an honour that the incan rulers accorded only to their own privileged offspring, diachronic isotopic analyses along the scalp hairs of victims indicate that it was peasant children, who, twelve months before death, were given the outward trappings of high status and a much improved diet to make them acceptable offerings. thus we see past the self serving accounts of those of the indigenous elite who survived on into spanish rule. we now understand that the central command in cuzco engineered the high visibility sacrifice of children drawn from newly subject populations. and we can guess that this was a means to social control during the massive, 'shock & awe' style imperial expansion southwards into what became argentina. but the relativists demur from this understanding, and have painted us as culturally insensitive, ignorant scientists (the last label a clear pejorative). for them, our isotope work is informative only as it reveals 'the inner fantasy life of, mostly, euro american archaeologists, who can't possibly access the inner cognitive/cultural life of those others.' the capital 'o' is significant. here we have what the journalist julie burchill mordantly unpacked as 'the ever estimable other'   the albatross that post enlightenment and, more importantly, post colonial scholarship must wear round its neck as a sign of penance. we need relativism as an aid to understanding past cultural logic, but it does not free us from a duty to discriminate morally and to understand that there are regularities in the negatives of human behaviour as well as in its positives. in this case, it seeks to ignore what victor nell has described as 'the historical and cross cultural stability of the uses of cruelty for punishment, amusement, and social control.' by denying the basis for a consistent underlying algebra of positive and negative, yet consistently claiming the necessary rightness of the internal cultural conduct of 'the other', relativism steps away from logic into incoherence. sometimes you are glad to discover you were wrong. my best example of that kind of pleasant surprise is india. i'm delighted to see its recent rise, on (tentative) course toward economic, intellectual and social success. if these trends continue, it will matter a lot to earth civilization, as a whole. the factors that fostered this trend appear to have been atypical   at least according to common preconceptions like "west and east" or "right vs left." i learned a lesson, about questioning my assumptions. alas, there have been darker surprises. the biggest example has been america's slide into what could be diagnosed as bona fide future shock. alvin toffler appears to have sussed it. back in 1999, while we were fretting over a silly "y2k bug" in ancient cobol code, something else happened, at a deeper level. our weird governance issues are only surface symptoms of what may have been a culture wide crisis of confidence, upon the arrival of that "2" in the millennium column. yes, people seemed to take the shift complacently, going about their business, but, underneath all the blithe shrugs, millions have turned their backs upon the future, even as a topic of discussion or interest. other than the tenacious grip of culture war, what evidence can i offer? well, in my own fields, let me point to a decline in the futurist punditry industry. (a recent turnaround offers hope.) and a plummet in the popularity of science fiction literature (as opposed to feudal retro fantasy.) john b. has already shown us how little draw science books offer, in the public imagination   an observation that not only matches my own, but also reflects the anti modernist fervor displayed by all dogmatic movements. one casualty: the assertive, pragmatic approach to negotiation and human wrought progress that used to be mother's milk to this civilization. yes, there were initial signs of all this, even in the 1990s. but the extent of future anomie and distaste for science took me completely by surprise. it makes me wonder why toffler gets mentioned so seldom. let me close with a final surprise, that's more of a disappointment. i certainly expected that, by now, online tools for conversation, work, collaboration and discourse would have become far more useful, sophisticated and effective than they currently are. i know i'm pretty well alone here, but all the glossy avatars and video and social network sites conceal a trivialization of interaction, dragging it down to the level of single sentence grunts, flirtation and rotfl [rolling on the floor laughing], at a time when we need discussion and argument to be more effective than ever. indeed, most adults won't have anything to do with all the wondrous gloss that fills the synchronous online world, preferring by far the older, asynchronous modes, like web sites, email, downloads etc. this isn't grouchy old fart testiness toward the new. in fact, there are dozens of discourse elevating tools just waiting out there to be born. everybody is still banging rocks together, while bragging about the colors. meanwhile, half of the tricks that human beings normally use, in real world conversation, have never even been tried online. my academic experience, mainly at columbia university from 1946 1978, instilled the following firm beliefs: the role of the professor, reflecting the mission of the university, is research and dissemination of the knowledge gained. however, the professor has many citizenship obligations: to his community, state and nation, to his university, to his field of research, e.g. physics, to his students. in the latter case, one must add to the content knowledge transferred, the moral and ethical concerns that science brings to society. so scientists have an obligation to communicate their knowledge, popularize, and whenever relevant, bring his knowledge to bear on the issues of the time. however, additionally, scientists play a large role in advisory boards and systems from the president's advisory system all the way to local school boards and ptas. i have always believed that the above menu more or less covered all the obligations and responsibilities of the scientist. his most sacred obligation is to continue to do science. now i know that i was dead wrong. taking even a cursory stock of current events, i am driven to the ultimately wise advice of my columbia mentor, i.i. rabi, who, in our many corridor bull sessions, urged his students to run for public office and get elected. he insisted that to be an advisor (he was an advisor to oppenheimer at los alamos, later to eisenhower and to the aec) was ultimately an exercise in futility and that the power belonged to those who are elected. then, we thought the old man was bonkers. but today...... just look at our national and international dilemmas: global climate change (u.s. booed in bali); nuclear weapons (seventeen years after the end of the cold war, the u.s. has over 7,000 nuclear weapons, many poised to instant flight. who decided?); stem cell research (still hobbled by white house obstacles). basic research and science education are rated several nations below "lower slobovenia", our national deficit will burden the nation for generations, a wave of religious fundamentalism, an endless war in iraq and the growing security restrictions on our privacy and freedom (excused by an even more endless and mindless war on terrorism) seem to be paralyzing the congress. we need to elect people who can think critically. a congress which is overwhelmingly dominated by lawyers and mbas makes no sense in this 21st century in which almost all issues have a science and technology aspect. we need a national movement to seek out scientists and engineers who have demonstrated the required management and communication skills. and we need a strong consensus of mentors that the need for wisdom and knowledge in the congress must have a huge priority. studying mathematical logic in the 1970s i believed it was possible to put together a convincing argument that no computer program can fully emulate a human mind. although nobody had quite gotten the argument right, i hoped to straighten it out. my belief in this will o the wisp was motivated by a gut feeling that people have numinous inner qualities that will not be found in machines. for one thing, our self awareness lets us reflect on ourselves and get into endless mental regresses: "i know that i know that i know..." for another, we have moments of mystical illumination when we seem to be in contact, if not with god, then with some higher cosmic mind. i felt that surely no machine could be self aware or experience the divine light. at that point, i'd never actually touched a computer   they were still inaccessible, stygian tools of the establishment. three decades rolled by, and i'd morphed into a silicon valley computer scientist, in constant contact with nimble chips. setting aside my old prejudices, i changed my mind   and came to believe that we can in fact create human like computer programs. although writing out such a program is in some sense beyond the abilities of any one person, we can set up simulated worlds in which such computer programs evolve. i feel confident that some relatively simple set up will, in time, produce a human like program capable of emulating all known intelligent human behaviors: writing books, painting pictures, designing machines, creating scientific theories, discussing philosophy, and even falling in love. more than that, we will be able to generate an unlimited number of such programs, each with its own particular style and personality. what of the old style attacks from the quarters of mathematical logic? roughly speaking, these arguments always hinged upon a spurious belief that we can somehow discern between, on the one hand, human like systems which are fully reliable and, on the other hand, human like systems fated to begin spouting gibberish. but the correct deduction from mathematical logic is that there is absolutely no way to separate the sheep from the goats. note that this is already our situation vis a vis real humans: you have no way to tell if and when a friend or a loved one will forever stop making sense. with the rise of new practical strategies for creating human like programs and the collapse of the old a priori logical arguments against this endeavor, i have to reconsider my former reasons for believing humans to be different from machines. might robots become self aware? and   not to put too fine a point on it   might they see god? i believe both answers are yes. consciousness probably isn't that big a deal. a simple pair of facing mirrors exhibit a kind of endlessly regressing self awareness, and this type of pattern can readily be turned into computer code. and what about basking in the divine light? certainly if we take a reductionistic view that mystical illumination is just a bath of intoxicating brain chemicals, then there seems to be no reason that machines couldn't occasionally be nudged into exceptional states as well. but i prefer to suppose that mystical experiences involve an objective union with a higher level of mind, possibly mediated by offbeat physics such as quantum entanglement, dark matter, or higher dimensions. might a robot enjoy these true mystical experiences? based on my studies of the essential complexity of simple systems, i feel that any physical object at all must be equally capable of enlightenment. as the zen apothegm has it, "the universal rain moistens all creatures." so, yes, i now think that robots can see god. as a student, i was influenced by claude lévi strauss and even more by noam chomsky. both of them dared talk about "human nature" when the received view was that there was no such thing. in my own work, i argued for a naturalistic approach in the social sciences. i took for granted that human cognitive dispositions were shaped by biological evolution and more specifically by darwinian selection. while i did occasionally toy with evolutionary speculations, i failed to see at the time how they could play more than a quite marginal role in the study of human psychology and culture. luckily, in 1987, i was asked by jacques mehler, the founder and editor of cognition, to review a very long article intriguingly entitled "the logic of social exchange: has natural selection shaped how humans reason?" in most experimental psychology articles the theoretical sections are short and relatively shallow. here, on the other hand, the young author, leda cosmides, was arguing in an altogether novel way for an ambitious theoretical claim. the forms of cooperation unique to and characteristic of humans could only have evolved, she maintained, if there had also been, at a psychological level, the evolution of a mental mechanism tailored to understand and manage social exchanges and in particular to detect cheaters. moreover, this mechanism could be investigated by means of standard reasoning experiments. this is not the place to go into the details of the theoretical argument   which i found and still find remarkably insightful   or of the experimental evidence   which i have criticized in detail with experiments of my own as inadequate. whatever its shortcoming, this was an extraordinarily stimulating paper, and i strongly recommended acceptance of a revised version. the article was published in 1989 and the controversies it stirred have not yet abated. reading the work of leda cosmides and of john tooby, her collaborator (and husband), meeting them shortly after, and initiating a conversation with them that has never ceased made me change my mind. i had known that we could reflect on the mental capacities of our ancestors on the basis of what we know of our minds; i now understood that we can also draw fundamental insights about our present minds through reflecting on the environmental problems and opportunities that have exerted selective pressure on our paleolithic ancestors. ever since, i have tried to contribute to the development of evolutionary psychology, to the surprise and dismay of some of my more standard social science friends and also of some evolutionary psychologists who see me more as a heretic than a genuine convert. true, i have no taste or talent for orthodoxy. moreover, i find much of the work done so far under the label "evolutionary psychology" rather disappointing. evolutionary psychology will succeed to the extent that it causes cognitive psychologists to rethink central aspects of human cognition in an evolutionary perspective, to the extent, that is, that psychology in general becomes evolutionary. the human species is exceptional in its massive investment in cognition, and in forms of cognitive activity   language, higher order thinking, abstraction   that are as unique to humans as echolocation is to bats. yet more than half of all work done in evolutionary psychology today is about mate choice, a mental activity found in a great many species. there is nothing intrinsically wrong in studying mate choice, of course, and some of the work done in this area is outstanding. however the promise of evolutionary psychology is first and foremost to help explain aspects of human psychology that are genuinely exceptional among earthly species and that in turn help explain the exceptional character of human culture and ecology. this is what has to be achieved to a much greater extent than has been the case so far if we want more skeptical cognitive and social scientists to change their minds too. for me, belief is not an all or nothing thing   believe or disbelieve, accept or reject. instead, i have degrees of belief, a subjective probability distribution over different possible ways the world could be. this means that i am constantly changing my mind about all sorts of things, as i reflect or gain more evidence. while i don't always thinkexplicitly in terms of probabilities, i often do so when i give careful consideration to some matter. and when i reflect on my own cognitive processes, i must acknowledge the graduated nature of my beliefs. the commonest way in which i change my mind is by concentrating my credence function on a narrower set of possibilities than before. this occurs every time i learn a new piece of information. since i started my life knowing virtually nothing, i have changed my mind about virtually everything. for example, not knowing a friend's birthday, i assign a 1/365 chance (approximately) of it being the 11th of august. after she tells me that the 11th of august is her birthday, i assign that date a probability of close to 100%. (never exactly 100%, for there is always a non zero probability of miscommunication, deception, or other error.) it can also happen that i change my mind by smearing out my credence function over a wider set of possibilities. i might forget the exact date of my friend's birthday but remember that it is sometime in the summer. the forgetting changes my credence function, from being almost entirely concentrated on 11th of august to being spread out more or less evenly over all the summer months. after this change of mind, i might assign a 1% probability to my friend's birthday being on the 11th of august. my credence function can become more smeared out not only by forgetting but also by learning   learning that what i previously took to be strong evidence for some hypothesis is in fact weak or misleading evidence. (this type of belief change can often be mathematically modeled as a narrowing rather than a broadening of credence function, but the technicalities of this are not relevant here.) for example, over the years i have become moderately more uncertain about the benefits of medicine, nutritional supplements, and much conventional health wisdom. this belief change has come about as a result of several factors. one of the factors is that i have read some papers that cast doubt on the reliability of the standard methodological protocols used in medical studies and their reporting. another factor is my own experience of following up on medline some of the exciting medical findings reported in the media   almost always, the search of the source literature reveals a much more complicated picture with many studies showing a positive effect, many showing a negative effect, and many showing no effect. a third factor is the arguments of a health economist friend of mine, who holds a dim view of the marginal benefits of medical care. typically, my beliefs about big issues change in small steps. ideally, these steps should approximate a random walk, like the stock market. it should be impossible for me to predict how my beliefs on some topic will change in the future. if i believed that a year hence i will assign a higher probability to some hypothesis than i do today   why, in that case i could raise the probability right away. given knowledge of what i will believe in the future, i would defer to the beliefs of my future self, provided that i think my future self will be better informed than i am now and at least as rational. i have no crystal ball to show me what my future self will believe. but i do have access to many other selves, who are better informed than i am on many topics. i can defer to experts. provided they are unbiased and are giving me their honest opinion, i should perhaps always defer to people who have more information than i do   or to some weighted average of expert opinion if there is no consensus. of course, the proviso is a very big one: often i have reason to disbelieve that other people are unbiased or that they are giving me their honest opinion. however, it is also possible that i am biased and self deceiving. an important unresolved question is how much epistemic weight a wannabe bayesian thinker should give to the opinions of others. i'm looking forward to changing my mind on that issue, hopefully by my credence function becoming concentrated on the correct answer. i have become convinced that it would be of fundamental importance to know what a good state of consciousness is. are there forms of subjective experience which   in a strictly normative sense   are better than others? or worse? what states of consciousness should be illegal? what states of consciousness do we want to foster and cultivate and integrate into our societies? what states of consciousness can we force upon animals   for instance, in consciousness research itself? what states of consciousness do we want to show our children? and what state of consciousness do we eventually die in ourselves? 2007 has seen the rise of an important new discipline: "neuroethics". this is not simply a new branch of applied ethics for neuroscience   it raises deeper issues about selfhood, society and the image of man. neuroscience is now quickly transformed into neurotechnology. i predict that parts of neurotechnology will turn into consciousness technology. in 2002, out of body experiences were, for the first time, induced with an electrode in the brain of an epileptic patient. in 2007 we saw the first two studies, published in science, demonstrating how the conscious self can be transposed to a location outside of the physical body as experienced, non invasively and in healthy subjects. cognitive enhancers are on the rise. the conscious experience of will has been experimentally constructed and manipulated in a number of ways. acute episodes of depression can be caused by direct interventions in the brain, and they have also been successfully blocked in previously treatment resistant patients. and so on. whenever we understand the specific neural dynamics underlying a specific form of conscious content, we can in principle delete, amplify or modulate this content in our minds. so shouldn’t we have a new ethics of consciousness   one that does not ask what a good actionis, but that goes directly to the heart of the matter, asks what we want to do with all this new knowledge and what the moral value ofstates of subjective experience is? here is where i have changed my mind. there are no moral facts. moral sentences have no truth values. the world itself is silent, it just doesn’t speak to us in normative affairs   nothing in the physical universe tells us what makes an action a good action or a specific brain state a desirable one. sure, we all would like to know what a good neurophenomenological configuration really is, and how we should optimize our conscious minds in the future. but it looks like, in a more rigorous and serious sense, there is just no ethical knowledge to be had. we are alone. and if that is true, all we have to go by are the contingent moral intuitions evolution has hard wired into our emotional self model. if we choose to simply go by what feels good, then our future is easy to predict: it will be primitive hedonism and organized religion. the first topic you treat in freshman physics is showing how a ball shot straight up out of the mouth of a cannon will reach a maximum height and then fall back to earth, unless its initial velocity, known now as escape velocity, is great enough that it breaks out of the earth' gravitational field. if that is the case, its final velocity is however always less than its initial one. calculating escape velocity may not be very relevant for cannon balls, but certainly is for rocket ships. the situation with the explosion we call the big bang is obviously more complicated, but really not that different, or so i thought. the standard picture said that there was an initial explosion, space began to expand and galaxies moved away from one another. the density of matter in the universe determined whether the big bang would eventually be followed by a big crunch or whether the celestial objects would continue to move away from one another with decreasing acceleration. in other words one could calculate the universe's escape velocity. admittedly the discovery of dark matter, an unknown quantity seemingly five times as abundant as known matter, seriously altered the framework but not in a fundamental way since dark matter was after all still matter, even if its identity is unknown. this picture changed in 1998 with the announcement by two teams, working independently, that the rate of acceleration of the universe's expansion was increasing, not decreasing. it was as if freshman physics' cannonball miraculously moved faster and faster as it left the earth. there was no possibility of a big crunch, in which the universe would collapse back on itself. the groups' analyses, based on observing distant stars of known luminosity, supernovae 1a, was solid. sciencemagazine dubbed it 1998's discovery of the year. the cause of this apparent gravitational repulsion is not known. called dark energy to distinguish it from dark matter, it appears to be the dominant force in the universe's expansion, roughly three times as abundant as its dark matter counterpart. the prime candidate for its identity is the so called cosmological constant, a term first introduced into the cosmic gravitation equations by einstein to neutralize expansion, but done away with by him when hubble reported that the universe was in fact expanding. finding a theory that will successfully calculate the magnitude of this cosmological constant, assuming this is the cause of the accelerating expansion, is perhaps the outstanding problem in the conjoined areas of cosmology and elementary particle physics. despite many attempts, success does not seem to be in sight. if the cosmological constant is not the answer, an alternate explanation of the dark energy would be equally exciting. furthermore the apparent present equality, to within a factor of three, of matter density and the cosmological constant has raised a series of important questions. since matter density decreases rapidly as the universe expands (matter per volume decreases as volume increases) and the cosmological constant does not, we seem to be living in that privileged moment of the universe's history when the two factors are roughly equal. is this simply an accident? will the distant future really be one in which, with dark energy increasingly important, celestial objects have moved so far apart so quickly as to fade from sight? the discovery of dark energy has radically changed our view of the universe. future, keenly awaited findings, such as the identities of dark matter and dark energy will do so again. darwin is the man, and like so many biologists, i have benefited from his prescient insights, handed to us 150 years ago. the logic of adaptation has been a guiding engine of my research and my view of life. in fact, it has been difficult to view the world through any other filter. i can still recall with great vividness the day i arrived in cambridge, in june 1992, a few months before starting my job as an assistant professor at harvard. i was standing on a street corner, waiting for a bus to arrive, and noticed a group of pigeons on the sidewalk. there were several males displaying, head bobbing and cooing, attempting to seduce the females. the females, however, were not paying attention. they were all turned, in prussian solider formation, out toward the street, looking at the middle of the intersection where traffic was whizzing by. there, in the intersection, was one male pigeon, displaying his heart out. was this guy insane? hadn’t he read the handbook of natural selection. dude, it’s about survival. get out of the street!!! further reflection provided the solution to this apparently mutant, male pigeon. the logic of adaptation requires us to ask about the costs and benefits of behavior, trying to understand what the fitness payoffs might be. even for behaviors that appear absurdly deleterious, there is often a benefit lurking. in the case of our apparently suicidal male pigeon, there was a benefit, and it was lurking in the females’ voyeurism, their rubber necking. the females were oriented toward this male, as opposed to the conservative guys on the sidewalk, because he was playing with danger, showing off, proving that even in the face of heavy traffic, he could fly like a butterfly and sting like a bee, jabbing and jiving like the great muhammed ali. the theory comes from the evolutionary biologist amotz zahavi who proposed that even costly behaviors that challenge survival can evolve if they have payoffs to genetic fitness; these payoffs arrive in the currency of more matings, and ultimately, more babies. our male pigeon was showing off his handicap. he was advertising to the females that even in the face of potential costs from hummers and beamers and buses, he was still walking the walk and talking the talk. the females were hooked, mesmerized by this extraordinarily macho male. handicaps evolve because they are honest indicators of fitness. and zahavi’s theory represents the intellectual descendent of darwin’s original proposal. i must admit, however, that in recent years, i have made less use of darwin’s adaptive logic. it is not because i think that the adaptive program has failed, or that it can’t continue to account for a wide variety of human and animal behavior. but with respect to questions of human and animal mind, and especially some of the unique products of the human mind   language, morality, music, mathematics   i have, well, changed my mind about the power of darwinian reasoning. let me be clear about the claim here. i am not rejecting darwin’s emphasis on comparative approaches, that is, the use of phylogenetic or historical data. i still practice this approach, contrasting the abilities of humans and animals in the service of understanding what is uniquely human and what is shared. and i still think our cognitive prowess evolved, and that the human brain and mind can be studied in some of the same ways that we study other bits of anatomy and behavior. but where i have lost the faith, so to speak, is in the power of the adaptive program to explain or predict particular design features of human thought. although it is certainly reasonable to say that language, morality and music have design features that are adaptive, that would enhance reproduction and survival, evidence for such claims is sorely missing. further, for those who wish to argue that the evidence comes from the complexity of the behavior itself, and the absurdly low odds of constructing such complexity by chance, these arguments just don’t cut it with respect to explaining or predicting the intricacies of language, morality, music or many other domains of knowledge. in fact, i would say that although darwin’s theory has been around, and readily available for the taking for 150 years, it has not advanced the fields of linguistics, ethics, or mathematics. this is not to say that it can’t advance these fields. but unlike the areas of economic decision making, mate choice, and social relationships, where the adaptive program has fundamentally transformed our understanding, the same can not be said for linguistics, ethics, and mathematics. what has transformed these disciplines is our growing understanding of mechanism, that is, how the mind represents the world, how physiological processes generate these representations, and how the child grows these systems of knowledge. bidding darwin adieu is not easy. my old friend has served me well. and perhaps one day he will again. until then, farewell. i have never questioned the conventional view that a good grounding in the physical sciences is needed for a deep understanding of the biological sciences. it did not occur to me that the opposite view might also be true. if someone were to have asked me if biological knowledge might significantly influence my understanding of our basic physical sciences, i would have denied it. now i am convinced that the future understanding of our most important physical principles will be profoundly shaped by what we learn in the living realm of biology. what have changed my mind are the relatively recent developments in the theoretical constructs and empirical findings in the sciences of the brain   the biological foundation of all thought. progress here can cast new light on the fundamental subjective factors that constrain our scientific formulations in what we take to be an objective enterprise. an asteroid did it . . . . ok, so this may not seem like news to you. the father son team of luis and walter alvarez first put forth the asteroid hypothesis in 1980 to account for the extinction of dinosaurs and many other lifeforms at the end of the mesozoic (about 65.5 million years ago). according to this now familiar scenario, an asteroid about 10 km in diameter slammed into the planet at about 100,000 km/hour. upon impact, the bolide disintegrated, vaporizing a chunk of the earth's crust and propelling a gargantuan cloud of gas and dust high into the atmosphere. this airborne matter circulated around the globe, blocking out the sun and halting photosynthesis for a period of weeks or months. if turning the lights out wasn't bad enough, massive wild fires and copious amounts of acid rain apparently ensued. put simply, it was hell on earth. species succumbed in great numbers and food webs collapsed the world over, ultimately wiping out about half of the planet's biodiversity. key geologic evidence includes remnants of the murder weapon itself; iridium, an element that occurs in small amounts in the earth's crust but is abundant in asteroids, was found by the alvarez team to be anomalously abundant in a thin layer within cretaceous tertiary (k t) boundary sediments at various sites around the world. in 1990, announcement came of discovery of the actual impact crater in the gulf of mexico. it seemed as if arguably the most enduring mystery in prehistory had finally been solved. unsurprisingly, this hypothesis was also a media darling, providing a tidy yet incredibly violent explanation to one of paleontology's most perplexing problems, with the added bonus of a possible repeat performance, this time with humans on the roster of victims. to some paleontologists, however, the whole idea seemed just a bit too tidy. ever since the alvarezes proposed the asteroid, or "impact winter," hypothesis, many (at times the bulk of) dinosaur paleontologists have argued for an alternative scenario to account for the k t extinction. i have long counted myself amongst the ranks of doubters. it is not so much that i and my colleagues have questioned the occurrence of an asteroid impact; supporting evidence for this catastrophic event has been firmly established for some time. at issue has been the timing of the event. whereas the impact hypothesis invokes a rapid extinction on the order of weeks to years others argue for a more gradual dying that spanned from one million to several million years. evidence cited in support of the latter view includes an end cretaceous drop in global sea levels and a multi million year bout of volcanism that makes mount st. helens look like brushfire. thus, at present the debate has effectively been reduced to two alternatives. first is the alvarez scenario, which proposes that the k t extinction was a sudden event triggered by a single extraterrestrial bullet. second is the gradualist view, which proposes that the asteroid impact was accompanied by two other global scale perturbations (volcanism and decreasing sea level), and that it was only this combination of factors acting in concert that decimated the end mesozoic biosphere. paleontologists of the gradualist ilk have argued that dinosaurs (and certain other groups) were already on their way out well before the k t "big bang" occurred. unfortunately, the fossil record of dinosaurs is relatively poor for the last stage of the mesozoic and only one place on earth   a small swath of badlands in the western interior of north america   has been investigated in detail. several authors have argued that the latest cretaceous hell creek fauna, as it's called (best known from eastern montana), was depauperate relative to earlier dinosaur faunas. in particular, comparisons are often been made with the ca. 75 million year old late cretaceous dinosaur park formation of southern alberta, which has yielded a bewildering array of herbivorous and carnivorous dinosaurs. for a long time, i regarded myself a card carrying member of the gradualist camp. however, at least two lines of evidence have persuaded me to change my mind and join the ranks of the sudden extinction precipitated by an asteroid group. first is a growing database indicating that the terminal cretaceous world was not stressed to the breaking point, awaiting arrival of the coup de grâce from outer space. with regard to dinosaurs in particular, recent work has demonstrated that the hell creek fauna was much more diverse than previously realized. second, new and improved stratigraphic age controls for dinosaurs and other late cretaceous vertebrates in the western interior indicate that ecosystems like those preserved the dinosaur park formation were not nearly as diverse as previously supposed. instead, many dinosaur species appear to have existed for relatively short durations (< 1 million years), with some geologic units preserving a succession of relatively short lived faunas. so, even within the well sampled western interior of north america (let alone the rest of the world, for which we currently have little hard data), i see no grounds for arguing that dinosaurs were undergoing a slow, attritional demise. other groups, like plants, also seem to have been doing fine in the interval leading up to that fateful day 65.5 million years ago. finally, extraordinary events demand extraordinary explanations, and it does not seem parsimonious to make an argument for a lethal cascade of agents when compelling evidence exists for a single agent capable of doing the job on its own. so yes, as far as i'm concerned (at least for now), the asteroid did it. one of the big problems in physics   perhaps the biggest!   is figuring out how our two current best theories fit together. on the one hand we have the standard model, which tries to explain all the forces except gravity, and takes quantum mechanics into account. on the other hand we have general relativity, which tries to explain gravity, and does not take quantum mechanics into account. both theories seem to be more or less on the right track   but until we somehow fit them together, or completely discard one or both, our picture of the world will be deeply schizophrenic. it seems plausible that as a step in the right direction we should figure out a theory of gravity that takes quantum mechanics into account, but reduces to general relativity when we ignore quantum effects (which should be small in many situations). this is what people mean by "quantum gravity"   the quest for such a theory. the most popular approach to quantum gravity is string theory. despite decades of hard work by many very smart people, it's far from clear that this theory is successful. it's made no predictions that have been confirmed by experiment. in fact, it's made few predictions that we have any hope of testing anytime soon! finding certain sorts of particles at the big new particle accelerator near geneva would count as partial confirmation, but string theory says very little about the details of what we should expect. in fact, thanks to the vast "landscape" of string theory models that researchers are uncovering, it keeps getting harder to squeeze specific predictions out of this theory. when i was a postdoc, back in the 1980s, i decided i wanted to work on quantum gravity. the appeal of this big puzzle seemed irresistible. string theory was very popular back then, but i was skeptical of it. i became excited when i learned of an alternative approach pioneered by ashtekar, rovelli and smolin, called loop quantum gravity. loop quantum gravity was less ambitious than string theory. instead of a "theory of everything", it only sought to be a theory of something: namely, a theory of quantum gravity. so, i jumped aboard this train, and for about a decade i was very happy with the progress we were making. a beautiful picture emerged, in which spacetime resembles a random "foam" at very short distance scales, following the laws of quantum mechanics. we can write down lots of theories of this general sort. however, we have never yet found one for which we can show that general relativity emerges as a good approximation at large distance scales   the quantum soap suds approximating a smooth surface when viewed from afar, as it were. i helped my colleagues dan christensen and greg egan do a lot of computer simulations to study this problem. most of our results went completely against what everyone had expected. but worse, the more work we did, the more i realized i didn't know what questions we should be asking! it's hard to know what to compute to check that a quantum foam is doing its best to mimic general relativity. around this time, string theorists took note of loop quantum gravity people and other critics   in part thanks to peter woit's blog, his booknot even wrong, and lee smolin's book the trouble with physics. string theorists weren't used to criticism like this. a kind of "string loop war" began. there was a lot of pressure for physicists to take sides for one theory or the other. tempers ran high. jaron lanier put it this way: "one gets the impression that some physicists have gone for so long without any experimental data that might resolve the quantum gravity debates that they are going a little crazy." but even more depressing was that as this debate raged on, cosmologists were making wonderful discoveries left and right, getting precise data about dark energy, dark matter and inflation. none of this data could resolve the string loop war! why? because neither of the contending theories could make predictions about the numbers the cosmologists were measuring! both theories were too flexible. i realized i didn't have enough confidence in either theory to engage in these heated debates. i also realized that there were other questions to work on: questions where i could actually tell when i was on the right track, questions where researchers cooperate more and fight less. so, i eventually decided to quit working on quantum gravity. it was very painful to do this, since quantum gravity had been my holy grail for decades. after you've convinced yourself that some problem is the one you want to spend your life working on, it's hard to change your mind. but when i finally did, it was tremendously liberating. i wouldn't urge anyone else to quit working on quantum gravity. someday, someone is going to make real progress. when this happens, i may even rejoin the subject. but for now, i'm thinking about other things. and, i'm making more real progress understanding the universe than i ever did before. when i was 21, i began working for the union of concerned scientists (ucs) in cambridge massachusetts. i was still an undergraduate at the time, planning on doing a brief research stint in energy policy before finishing college and heading to graduate school in physics. that "brief research stint" lasted about seven years, off and on, and i never did make it to graduate school. but the experience was instructive nevertheless. when i started at ucs in the 1970s, nuclear power safety was a hot topic, and i squared off in many debates against nuclear proponents from utility companies, nuclear engineering departments, and so forth regarding reactor safety, radioactive wastes, and the viability of renewable energy alternatives. the next issue i took on for ucs was the nuclear arms race, which was equally polarized. (the neocons of that day weren't "neo" back then; they were just cons.) as with nuclear safety, there was essentially no common ground between the two sides. each faction was invariably trying to do the other in, through oral rhetoric and tendentious prose, always looking for new material to buttress their case or undermine that of their opponents. even though the organization i worked for was called the union of concern scientists, and even though many of the staff members there referred to me as a "scientist" (despite my lack of academic credentials), i knew that what i was doing was not science. (nor were the many physics phd's in arms control and energy policy doing science either.) in the back of my head, i always assumed that "real science" was different   that scientists are guided by facts rather than by ideological positions, personal rivalries, and whatnot. in the decades since, i've learned that while this may be true in many instances, oftentimes it's not. when it comes to the biggest, most contentious issues in physics and cosmology   such as the validity of inflationary theory, string theory, or the multiverse/landscape scenario   the image of the objective truth seeker, standing above the fray, calmly sifting through the evidence without preconceptions or prejudice, may be less accurate than the adversarial model of our justice system. both sides, to the extent there are sides on these matters, are constantly assembling their briefs, trying to convince themselves as well as the jury at large, while at the same time looking for flaws in the arguments of the opposing counsel. this fractionalization may stem from scientific intuition, political or philosophical differences, personal grudges, or pure academic competition. it's not surprising that this happens, nor is it necessarily a bad thing. in fact, it's my impression that this approach works pretty well in the law and in science too. it means that, on the big things at least, science will be vetted; it has to withstand scrutiny, pass muster. but it's not a cold, passionless exercise either. at its heart, science is a human endeavor, carried out by people. when the questions are truly ambitious, it takes a great personal commitment to make any headway   a big investment in energy and in emotion as well. i know from having met with many of the lead researchers that the debates can get heated, sometimes uncomfortably so. more importantly, when you're engaged in an epic struggle like this   trying, for instance, to put together a theory of broad sweep   it may be difficult, if not impossible, to keep an "open mind" because you may be well beyond that stage, having long since cast your lot with a particular line of reasoning. and after making an investment over the course of many years, it's natural to want to protect it. that doesn't mean you can't change your mind   and i know of several cases where this has occurred   but, no matter what you do, it's never easy to shift from forward to reverse. although i haven't worked as a scientist in any of these areas, i have written about many of the "big questions" and know how hard it is to get all the facts lined up so that they fit together into something resembling an organic whole. doing that, even as a mere scribe, involves periods of single minded exertion, and during that process the issues can almost take on a life of their own, at least while you're actively thinking about them. before long, of course, you've moved onto the next story and the excitement of the former recedes. as the urgency fades, you start wondering why you felt so strongly about the landscape or eternal inflation or whatever it was that had taken over your desk some months ago. it's different, of course, for researchers who may stake out an entire career   or at least big chunks thereof   in a certain field. you're obliged to keep abreast of all that's going on of note, which means one's interest is continually renewed. as new data comes in, you try to see how it fits in with the pieces of the puzzle you're already grappling with. or if something significant emerges from the opposing camp, you may instinctively seek out the weak spots, trying to see how those guys messed up this time. it's possible, of course, that a day may come when, try as you might, you can't find the weak spots in the other guy's story. after many attempts and an equal number of setbacks, you may ultimately have to accede to the view of an intellectual, if not personal, rival. not that you want to but rather because you can't see any way around it. on the one hand, you might chalk it up as a defeat, something that will hopefully build character down the road. but in the grand scheme of things, it's more of a victory   a sign that sometimes our adversarial system of science actually works. in the last few years i have changed my mind about nuclear power. i used to believe that expanding nuclear power was too risky. now i believe that the risks of climate change are much greater than the risks of nuclear power. as a result we need to move urgently toward a new generation of nuclear reactors. what led to the change of view? first i came to believe that the likelihood of major climate related catastrophes was increasing rapidly and that they were likely to occur much sooner than the simple linear models of the ipcc indicated. my analysis developed as a result of work we did for the defense and intelligence community on the national security implications of climate change. many regions of the earth are likely to experience an increasing frequency of extreme weather events. these catastrophic events include megastorms, super tornados, torrential rains and floods, extended droughts, ecosystem disruptions all added to steadily rising sea levels. it also became clear that human induced climate change is ever more at the causal center of the story. research by climatologists like william ruddiman indicate that the climate is more sensitive to changes in human societies ranging from agricultural practices like forest clearing and irrigated rice growing to major plagues to the use of fossil fuels. human societies have often gone to war as a result of the ecological exhaustion of their local environments. so it becomes an issue of war and peace. will vietnam simply roll over and die when the chinese dam what remains of the trickle of the mekong as an extended drought develops at is source in the tibetan highlands? even allowing for much greater efficiency and a huge expansion of renewable energy, the real fuel of the future is coal, especially in the us, china and india. if all three go ahead with their current plans on building coal fired electric generating plants then that alone will over the next two decades double all the co2 that human kind has put into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution began more than two hundred years ago. and the only meaningful alternative to coal is nuclear power. it is true that we can hope that our ability to capture the co2 from coal burning and sequester it in various ways will grow, but it will take a decade or more before that technology reaches commercial maturity. at the same time i also came to believe that risks of nuclear power are less than we feared. that shift began with a trip to visit the proposed nuclear waste depository at yucca mountain in nevada. a number ofedge folk went including stewart brand, kevin kelly, danny hillis, and pierre omidyar. when it became clear that very long term storage of waste (e.g. 10,000 to 250,000 years) is a silly idea and not meaningfully realistic we began to question many of the assumptions about the future of nuclear power. the right answer to nuclear waste is temporary storage for perhaps decades and then recycling the fuel as much of the world already does, not sticking it underground for millennia. we will likely need the fuel we can extract from the waste. there are emerging technologies for both nuclear power and waste reprocessing that will reduce safety risk, the amount of waste and most especially the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation as the new fuel cycle produces no plutonium, the offending substance of concern. and the economics are increasingly favorable as the french have demonstrated for decades. the average french citizen produces 70% less co2 than the average american as a result. we have also learned that the long term consequences of the worst nuclear accident in history, chernobyl were much less than feared. so the conclusion is that the risks of climate change are far greater than the risks of nuclear power. furthermore, human skill and knowledge in managing a nuclear system are only likely to grow with time. while the risks of climate change will grow as billions more people get rich and change the face of the planet with their demands for more stuff. nuclear power is the only source of electricity that we can now see that is likely to enable the next three or four billion who want what we all have to get what they want without radically changing the climate of the earth. i used to believe that the ethos of science, the very nature of science, guaranteed the ethical behavior of its practitioners. as a student and a young researcher, i could not conceive of cheating, claiming credit for the work of others, or fabricating data. among my mentors and my colleagues, i saw no evidence that anyone else believed otherwise. and i didn't know enough of the history of my own subject to be aware of ethical lapses by earlier scientists. there was, i sensed, a wonderful purity to science. looking back, i have to count naiveté as among my virtues as a scientist. now i have changed my mind, and i have changed it because of evidence, which is what we scientists are supposed to do. various examples of cheating, some of them quite serious, have come to light in the last few decades, and misbehaviors in earlier times have been reported as well. scientists are, as the saying goes, "only human," which, in my opinion, is neither an excuse nor an adequate explanation. unfortunately, scientists are now subjected to greater competitive pressures, financial and otherwise, than was typical when i was starting out. some   a few   succumb. we do need to teach ethics as essential to the conduct of science, and we need to teach the simple lesson that in science crime doesn't pay. but above all, we need to demonstrate by example that the highest ethical standards should, and often do, come naturally. most cosmologists would say the answer is "inflation," and, until recently, i would have been among them. but "facts have changed my mind"   and i now feel compelled to seek a new explanation that may or may not incorporate inflation. the idea always seemed incredibly simple. inflation is a period of rapid accelerated expansion that can transform the chaos emerging from the big bang into the smooth, flat homogeny observed by astronomers. if one likens the conditions following the bang to a wrinkled and twisted sheet of perfectly elastic rubber, then inflation corresponds to stretching the sheet at faster than light speeds until no vestige of its initial state remains. the "inflationary energy" driving the accelerated expansion then decays into the matter and radiation seen today and the stretching slows to a modest pace that allows the matter to condense into atoms, molecules, dust, planets, stars and galaxies. i would describe this version as the "classical view" of inflation in two senses. first, this is the historic picture of inflation first introduced and now appearing in most popular descriptions. second, this picture is founded on the laws of classical physics, assuming quantum physics plays a minor role. unfortunately, this classical view is dead wrong. quantum physics turns out to play an absolutely dominant role in shaping the inflationary universe. in fact, inflation amplifies the randomness inherent in quantum physics to produce an universe that is random and unpredictable. this realization has come slowly. ironically, the role of quantum physics was believed to be a boon to the inflationary paradigm when it was first considered twenty five years ago by several theorists, including myself. the classical picture of inflation could not be strictly true, we recognized, or else the universe would be so smooth after inflation that galaxies and other large scale structures would never form. however, inflation ends through the quantum decay of inflationary energy into matter and radiation. the quantum decay is analogous to the decay of radioactive uranium, in which there is some mean rate of decay but inherent unpredictability as to when any particular uranium nucleus will decay. long after most uranium nuclei have decayed, there remain some nuclei that have yet to fission. similarly, inflationary energy decays at slightly different times in different places, leading to spatial variations in the temperature and matter density after inflation ends. the "average" statistical pattern appears to agree beautifully with the pattern of microwave background radiation emanating from the earliest stages of the universe and to produce just the pattern of non uniformities needed to explain the evolution and distribution of galaxies. the agreement between theoretical calculation and observations is a celebrated triumph of the inflationary picture. but is this really a triumph? only if the classical view were correct. in the quantum view, it makes no sense to talk about an "average" pattern. the problem is that, as in the case of uranium nuclei, there always remain some regions of space in which the inflationary energy has not yet decayed into matter and radiation at all. although one might have guessed the undecayed regions are rare, they expand so much faster than those that have decayed that they soon overtake the volume of the universe. the patches where inflationary energy has decayed and galaxies and stars have evolved become the oddity   rare pockets surrounded by space that continues to inflate away. the process repeats itself over and over, with the number of pockets and the volume of surrounding space increasing from moment to moment. due to random quantum fluctuations, pockets with all kinds of properties are produced   some flat, but some curved; some with variations in temperature and density like what we observe, but some not; some with forces and physical laws like those we experience, but some with different laws. the alarming result is that there are an infinite number of pockets of each type and, despite over a decade of attempts to avoid the situation, no mathematical way of deciding which is more probable has been shown to exist. curiously, this unpredictable "quantum view" of inflation has not yet found its way into the consciousness of many astronomers working in the field, let alone the greater scientific community or the public at large. one often reads that recent measurements of the cosmic microwave background or the large scale structure of the universe have verified a prediction of inflation. this invariably refers to a prediction based on the naïve classical view. but if the measurements ever come out differently, this could not rule out inflation. according to the quantum view, there are invariably pockets with matching properties. and what of the theorists who have been developing the inflationary theory for the last twenty five years? some, like me, have been in denial, harboring the hope that a way can be found to tame the quantum effects and restore the classical view. others have embraced the idea that cosmology may be inherently unpredictable, although this group is also vociferous in pointing how observations agree with the (classical) predictions of inflation. speaking for myself, it may have taken me longer to accept its quantum nature than it should have, but, now that facts have changed my mind, i cannot go back again. inflation does not explain the structure of the universe. perhaps some enhancement can explain why the classical view works so well, but then it will be that enhancement rather than inflation itself that explains the structure of the universe. or maybe the answer lies beyond the big bang. some of us are considering the possibility that the evolution of the universe is cyclic and that the structure was set by events that occurred before the big bang. one of the draws of this picture is that quantum physics does not play the same dominant role, and there is no escaping its predictions of the uniformity, flatness and structure of the universe. when the phenomenon of "mirror neurons" that fire both when a specific action is perceived and when it is intended was first reported, i was impressed by the research but skeptical about its significance. specifically, i doubted, and continue to doubt, that these circuits are specific adaptations for purposes of various higher mental functions. i saw mirror neurons as simple units in circuits that represent specific actions, oblivious as to whether they had been viewed when performed by someone else, or represented as the goal of one's own intended action (so called reafference copy). why have two separate representations of the same thing when one will do? activity elsewhere in the brain represents who the agent is, self or another. i still think that this is the most economical interpretation. but from a broader perspective i have come to realize that mirror neurons are not only less than meets the eye but also more. instead of being a specific specialization, they play their role as part of a fundamental design characteristic of the brain; that is, when percepts are activated, relevant intentions, memories and feelings automatically fall into place. external event are "represented" by the patterns of neuronal activity that they engender in sensory cortex. these representations also incorporate the actions that the percepts potentially afford. this "enactive coding" or "common coding" of input implies a propensity in the observer's brain to imitate the actions of others (consciously or unconsciously). this propensity need not result in overt imitation. prefrontal cortex is thought to hold these impulses to imitate in check. nonetheless, the fact that these action circuits have been activated, lowers their threshold by subtle increments as the experience in question is repeated over and over again, and the relative loading of synaptic weights in brain circuitry become correspondingly adjusted. mirror neurons exemplify this type of functioning, which extends far beyond individual circuits to all cell assemblies that can form representations, that an individual is likely to act in the same ways that others act is seen in the documented benefit for sports training of watching experts perform. "emotional contagion" occurs when someone witnesses the emotional expressions of another person and therefore experiences that mood state oneself. people's viewpoints can subtly and unconsciously converge when their patterns of neural activation match, in the total absence of argument or attempts at persuasion. when people entrain with each other in gatherings, crowds, assemblies and mobs, diverse individual views reduce into a unified group viewpoint. an extreme example of gradual convergence might be the "stockholm syndrome"; captives gradually adopt the worldview of their captors. in general, interacting with others makes one converge to their point of view (and vice versa). much ink has been spilled on the topic of the lamentable limitations of human rationality. here is one reason why. people's views are surreptitiously shaped by their experiences, and rationality comes limping after, downgraded to rationalization. once opinions are established, they engender corresponding anticipations. people actively seek those experiences that corroborate their own self serving expectations. this may be why as we grow older, we become ever more like ourselves. insights become consolidated and biases reinforced when one only pays attention to confirming evidence. diverse mutually contradictory "firm convictions" are the result. science does take account of the negative instance as well as the positive instance. it therefore has the potential to help us understand ourselves, and each other. if i am correct in my changed views as to what mirror neurons stand for and how representation routinely merges perception, action, memory and affect into dynamic reciprocal interaction, these views would have a bearing on currently disputed issues. whether an effect is due to the brain or the environment would be moot if environmental causes indeed become brain causes, as the impressionable brain resonates with changing circumstances. what we experience contributes mightily to what we are and what we become. an act of kindness has consequences for the beneficiary far beyond the immediate benefit. acts of violence inculcate violence and contaminate the minds of those who stand by and watch. not only our private experiences, but also the experiences that are imposed on us by the media, transform our predispositions, whether we want them to or not. the implications for child rearing are obvious, but the same implications apply beyond childhood to the end of personal time. what people experience indeed changes their brain, for better and for worse. in turn, the changed brain changes what is experienced. regardless of its apparent stability over time, the brain is in constant flux, and constantly remodels. heraclitus was right: "you shall not go down twice to the same river". the river will not be the same, but for that matter, neither will you. we are never the same person twice. the past is etched into the neural network, biasing what the brain is and does in the present. william faulkner recognized this: "the past is never dead. in fact, it's not even past". the question presupposes a well defined "you", and an implied ability that is under "your" control to change your "mind". the "you" i now believe is distributed amongst others (family friends , in hierarchal structures,) i.e. suicide bombers, believe their sacrifice is for the other parts of their "you". the question carries with it an intention that i believe is out of one's control. my mind changed as a result of its interaction with its environment. why? because it is a part of it. i used to think that a modern, democratic society had to be a scientific society. after all, the scientific revolution and the american revolution were forged in the same flames of the enlightenment. naturally, i thought, a society that embraces the freedom of thought and expression of a democracy would also embrace science. however, when i first started reporting on science, i quickly realized that science didn't spring up naturally in the fertile soil of the young american democracy. americans were extraordinary innovators   wonderful tinkerers and engineers   but you can count the great 19th century american physicists on one hand and have two fingers left over. the united states owes its scientific tradition to aristocratic europe's universities (and to its refugees), not to any native drive. in fact, science clashes with the democratic ideal. though it is meritocratic, it is practiced in the elite and effete world of academe, leaving the vast majority of citizens unable to contribute to it in any meaningful way. science is about freedom of thought, yet at the same time it imposes a tyranny of ideas. in a democracy, ideas are protected. it's the sacred right of a citizen to hold   and to disseminate   beliefs that the majority disagrees with, ideas that are abhorrent, ideas that are wrong. however, scientists are not free to be completely open minded; a scientist stops becoming a scientist if he clings to discredited notions. the basic scientific urge to falsify, to disprove, to discredit ideas clashes with the democratic drive to tolerate and protect them. this is why even those politicians who accept evolution will never attack those politicians who don't; at least publicly, they cast evolutionary theory as a mere personal belief. attempting to squelch creationism smacks of elitism and intolerance   it would be political suicide. yet this is exactly what biologists are compelled to do; they exorcise falsehoods and drive them from the realm of public discourse. we've been lucky that the transplant of science has flourished so beautifully on american soil. but i no longer take it for granted that this will continue; our democratic tendencies might get the best of us in the end. much of what i believed about human nature, and the nature of knowledge, has been upended by the wikipedia. i knew that the human propensity for mischief among the young and bored   of which there were many online   would make an encyclopedia editable by anyone an impossibility. i also knew that even among the responsible contributors, the temptation to exaggerate and misremember what we think we know was inescapable, adding to the impossibility of a reliable text. i knew from my own 20 year experience online that you could not rely on what you read in a random posting, and believed that an aggregation of random contributions would be a total mess. even unedited web pages created by experts failed to impress me, so an entire encyclopedia written by unedited amateurs, not to mention ignoramuses, seemed destined to be junk. everything i knew about the structure of information convinced me that knowledge would not spontaneously emerge from data, without a lot of energy and intelligence deliberately directed to transforming it. all the attempts at headless collective writing i had been involved with in the past only generated forgettable trash. why would anything online be any different? so when the first incarnation of the wikipedia launched in 2000 (then called nupedia) i gave it a look, and was not surprised that it never took off. there was a laborious process of top down editing and re writing that discouraged a would be random contributor. when the back office wiki created to facilitate the administration of the nupedia text became the main event and anyone could edit as well as post an article, i expected even less from the effort, now re named wikipedia. how wrong i was. the success of the wikipedia keeps surpassing my expectations. despite the flaws of human nature, it keeps getting better. both the weakness and virtues of individuals are transformed into common wealth, with a minimum of rules and elites. it turns out that with the right tools it is easier to restore damage text (the revert function on wikipedia) than to create damage text (vandalism) in the first place, and so the good enough article prospers and continues. with the right tools, it turns out the collaborative community can outpace the same number of ambitious individuals competing. it has always been clear that collectives amplify power   that is what cities and civilizations are   but what's been the big surprise for me is how minimal the tools and oversight are needed. the bureaucracy of wikipedia is relatively so small as to be invisible. it's the wiki's embedded code based governance, versus manager based governance that is the real news. yet the greatest surprise brought by the wikipedia is that we still don't know how far this power can go. we haven't seen the limits of wiki ized intelligence. can it make textbooks, music and movies? what about law and political governance? before we say, "impossible!" i say, let's see. i know all the reasons why law can never be written by know nothing amateurs. but having already changed my mind once on this, i am slow to jump to conclusions again. the wikipedia is impossible, but here it is. it is one of those things impossible in theory, but possible in practice. once you confront the fact that it works, you have to shift your expectation of what else that is impossible in theory might work in practice. i am not the only one who has had his mind changed about this. the reality of a working wikipedia has made a type of communitarian socialism not only thinkable, but desirable. along with other tools such as open source software and open source everything, this communtarian bias runs deep in the online world. in other words it runs deep in this young next generation. it may take several decades for this shifting world perspective to show its full colors. when you grow up knowing rather than admitting that such a thing as the wikipedia works; when it is obvious to you that open source software is better; when you are certain that sharing your photos and other data yields more than safeguarding them   then these assumptions will become a platform for a yet more radical embrace of the commonwealth. i hate to say it but there is a new type of communism or socialism loose in the world, although neither of these outdated and tinged terms can accurately capture what is new about it. the wikipedia has changed my mind, a fairly steady individualist, and lead me toward this new social sphere. i am now much more interested in both the new power of the collective, and the new obligations stemming from individuals toward the collective. in addition to expanding civil rights, i want to expand civil duties. i am convinced that the full impact of the wikipedia is still subterranean, and that its mind changing power is working subconsciously on the global millennial generation, providing them with an existence proof of a beneficial hive mind, and an appreciation for believing in the impossible. that's what it's done for me. what is the nature of mathematics? becoming a mathematician in the 1960s, i swallowed hook, line, and sinker the platonistic philosophy dominant at the time, that the objects of mathematics (the numbers, the geometric figures, the topological spaces, and so forth) had a form of existence in some abstract ("platonic") realm. their existence was independent of our existence as living, cognitive creatures, and searching for new mathematical knowledge was a process of explorative discovery not unlike geographic exploration or sending out probes to distant planets. i now see mathematics as something entirely different, as the creation of the (collective) human mind. as such, mathematics says as much about we ourselves as it does about the external universe we inhabit. mathematical facts are not eternal truths about the external universe, which held before we entered the picture and will endure long after we are gone. rather, they are based on, and reflect, our interactions with that external environment. this is not to say that mathematics is something we have freedom to invent. it's not like literature or music, where there are constraints on the form but writers and musicians exercise great creative freedom within those constraints. from the perspective of the individual human mathematician, mathematics is indeed a process of discovery. but what is being discovered is a product of the human (species) environment interaction. this view raises the fascinating possibility that other cognitive creatures in another part of the universe might have different mathematics. of course, as a human, i cannot begin to imagine what that might mean. it would classify as "mathematics" only insofar as it amounted to that species analyzing the abstract structures that arose from their interactions with their environment. this shift in philosophy has influenced the way i teach, in that i now stress social aspects of mathematics. but when i'm giving a specific lecture on, say, calculus or topology, my approach is entirely platonistic. we do our mathematics using a physical brain that evolved over hundreds of thousands of years by a process of natural selection to handle the physical and more recently the social environments in which our ancestors found themselves. as a result, the only way for the brain to actually do mathematics is to approach it "platonistically," treating mathematical abstractions as physical objects that exist. a platonistic standpoint is essential to doing mathematics, just as cartesian dualism is virtually impossible to dispense with in doing science or just plain communicating with one another ("one another"?). but ultimately, our mathematics is just that: our mathematics, not the universe's. our science, including mine, treats living systems as mechanisms at multiple levels of abstraction. as we talk about how one bio molecule docks with another our explanations are purely mechanistic and our science never invokes "and then the soul intercedes and gets them to link up". the underlying assumption of molecular biologists is that their level of mechanistic explanation is ultimately adequate for high level mechanistic descriptions such as physiology and neuroscience to build on as a foundation. those of us who are computer scientists by training, and i'm afraid many collaterally damaged scientists of other stripes, tend to use computation as the mechanistic level of explanation for how living systems behave and "think". i originally gleefully embraced the computational metaphor if we look back over recent centuries we will see the brain described as a hydrodynamic machine, clockwork, and as a steam engine. when i was a child in the 1950's i read that the human brain was a telephone switching network. later it became a digital computer, and then a massively parallel digital computer. a few years ago someone put up their hand after a talk i had given at the university of utah and asked a question i had been waiting for for a couple of years: "isn't the human brain just like the world wide web?". the brain always seems to be one of the most advanced technologies that we humans currently have. the metaphors we have used in the past for the brain have not stood the test of time. i doubt that our current metaphor of the brain as a network of computers doing computations is going to stand for all eternity either. note that i do not doubt that there are mechanistic explanations for how we think, and i certainly proceed with my work of trying to build intelligent robots using computation as a primary tool for expressing mechanisms within those robots. but i have relatively recently come to question computation as the ultimate metaphor to be used in both the understanding of living systems and as the only important design tool for engineering intelligent artifacts. some of my colleagues have managed to recast pluto's orbital behavior as the body itself carrying out computations on forces that apply to it. i think we are perhaps better off using newtonian mechanics (with a little einstein thrown in) to understand and predict the orbits of planets and others. it is so much simpler. likewise we can think about spike trains as codes and worry about neural coding. we can think about human memory as data storage and retrieval. and we can think about walking over rough terrain as computing the optimal place to put down each of our feet. but i suspect that somewhere down the line we are going to come up with better, less computational metaphors. the entities we use for metaphors may be more complex but the useful ones will lead to simpler explanations. just as the notion of computation is only a short step beyond discrete mathematics, but opens up vast new territories of questions and technologies, these new metaphors might well be just a few steps beyond where we are now in understanding organizational dynamics, but they may have rich and far reaching implications in our abilities to understand the natural world and to engineer new creations. reading and reporting on psychological science has changed my mind many times, leading me now to believe that • newborns are not the blank slates i once presumed, • electroconvulsive therapy often alleviates intractable depression, • economic growth has not improved our morale, • the automatic unconscious mind dwarfs the controlled conscious mind, • traumatic experiences rarely get repressed, • personality is unrelated to birth order, • most folks have high self esteem (which sometimes causes problems), • opposites do not attract, • sexual orientation is a natural, enduring disposition (most clearly so for men), not a choice. in this era of science religion conflict, such revelations underscore our need for what science and religion jointly mandate: humility. humility, i remind my student audience, is fundamental to the empirical spirit advocated long ago by moses: "if a prophet speaks in the name of the lord and what he says does not come true, then it is not the lord's message." ergo, if our or anyone's ideas survive being put to the test, so much the better for them. if they crash against a wall of evidence, it is time to rethink. when i first saw the possibility (some 30 years ago) of grounding a science of human self deception in evolutionary logic (based on its value in furthering deception of others), i imagined joining evolutionary theory with animal behavior and with those parts of psychology worth preserving. the latter i regarded as a formidable hurdle since so much of psychology (depth and social) appeared to be pure crap, or more generously put, without any foundation in reality or logic. now after a couple of years of intensive study of the subject, i am surprised at the number of areas of biology that are important, if not key, to the subject yet are relatively undeveloped by biologists. i am also surprised that many of the important new findings in this regard have been made by psychologists and not biologists. it was always obvious that when neurophysiology actually became a science (which it did when it learned to measure on going mental activity) it would be relevant to deceit and self deception and this is becoming more apparent every day. also, endocrinology could scarcely be irrelevant and richard wrangham has recently argued for an intimate connection between testosterone and self deception in men but the connections must be much deeper still. the proper way to conceptualize the endocrine system (as david haig has pointed out to me) is as a series of signals with varying half lives which give relevant information to organs downstream and many such signals may be relevant to deceit and self deception and to selves deception, as defined below. one thing i never imagined was that the immune system would be a vital component of any science of self deception, yet two lines of work within psychology make this clear. richard davidson and co workers have shown that relatively positive, up, approach seeking people are more likely to be left brain activated (as measured by eeg) and show stronger immune responses to a novel challenge (flu vaccine) than are avoidance, negative emotion (depression, anxiety) right brained people. at the same time, james pennebaker and colleagues have shown that the very act of repressing information from consciousness lowers immune function while sharing information with others (or even a diary) has the opposite effect. why should the immune system be so important and why should it react in this way? a key variable in my mind is that the immune system is an extremely expensive one we produce a grapefruit sized set of tissue every two weeks and we can thus borrow against it, apparently in part for brain function. but this immediately raises the larger question of how much we can borrow against any given system yes fat for energy, bone and teeth when necessary (as for a child in utero), muscle when not used and so on but with what effects? why immune function and repression? while genetics is, in principle, important to all of biology, i thought it would be irrelevant to the study of self deception until way into the distant future. yet the 1980s produced the striking discovery that the maternal half of our genome could act against the paternal, and vice versa, discoveries beautifully exploited in the 90’s and 00’s by david haig to produce a range of expected (and demonstrated) internal conflicts which must inevitably interact with self deception directed toward others. put differently, internal genetic conflict leads to a quite novel possibility: selves deception, equally powerful maternal and paternal halves selected to deceive each other (with unknown effects on deception of others). and consider one of the great mysteries of mental biology. the human brain consumes about 20% of resting metabolic rate come rain or shine, whether depressed or happy, asleep or awake. why? and why is the brain so quick to die when deprived of this energy? what is the cellular basis for all of this? how exactly does borrowing from other systems, such as immune, interact with this basic metabolic cost? biologists have been very slow to see the larger picture and to see that fundamental discoveries within psychobiology require a deeper understanding of many fundamental biological processes, especially the logic of energy borrowed from various sources. finally, let me express a surprise about psychology. it has led the way in most of the areas mentioned, e.g. immune effects, neurophysiology, brain metabolism. also, while classical depth psychology (freud and sundries) can safely be thrown overboard almost in its entirety, social psychology has produced some very clever and hopeful methods, as well as a body of secure results on biased human mentation, from perception, to organization of data, to analysis, to further propagation. daniel gilbert gives a well appreciated lecture in which he likens the human mind to a bad scientist, everything from biased exposure to data and biased analysis of information to outright forgery. hidden here is a deeper point. science progresses precisely because it has a series of anti deceit and self deception devices built into it, from full description of experiments permitting exact replication, to explicit statement of theory permitting precise counter arguments, to the preference for exploring alternative working hypothesis, to a statistical apparatus able to weed out the effects of chance, and so on. i have wondered why some authors claim that people rarely if ever change their mind. i have changed my mind many times. this could be because i have weak character, because i have no self defining philosophy, or because i like change. whatever the reason, i enjoy changing my mind. i have occasionally irritated colleagues with my seeming motto of 'if it ain't broke, break it.' at the same time, i adhered to a value common in the day to day business of scientific research, namely, that changing one's mind is alright for little matters but is suspect when it comes to big questions. take a theory that is compatible with either conclusion 'x' or conclusion 'y'. first you believed 'x'. then you received new information and you believed 'y'. this is a little change. and it is a natural form of learning   a change in behavior resulting from exposure to new information. but change your mind, say, about the general theory that you work with, at least in some fields, and you are looked upon as a kind of maverick, a person without proper research priorities, a pot stirrer. why is that, i wonder? i think that the stigma against major mind changes in science results from what i call 'homeopathic bias'   scientific knowledge is built up bit by little bit as we move cumulatively towards the truth. this bias can lead researchers to avoid concluding that their work undermines the dominant theory in any significant way. non homeopathic doses of criticism can be considered not merely inappropriate, but even arrogant   implying somehow that the researcher is superior to his or her colleagues, whose unifying conceptual scheme is now judged to be weaker than they have noticed or are been willing to concede. so any scientist publishing an article or a book about a non homeopathic mind change could be committing a career endangering act. but i love to read these kinds of books. they bother people. they bother me. i changed my mind about this homeopathic bias. i think it is myopic for the most part. and i changed my mind on this because i changed my mind regarding the largest question of my field   where language comes from. this change taught me about the empirical issues that had led to my shift and about the forces that can hold science and scientists in check if we aren't aware of them. i believed at one time that culture and language were largely independent. yet there is a growing body of research that suggests the opposite   deep reflexes from culture are to be found in grammar. but if culture can exercise major effects on grammar, then the theory i had committed most of my research career to   the theory that grammar is part of the human genome and that the variations in the grammars of the world's languages are largely insignificant, was dead wrong. there did not have to be a specific genetic capacity for grammar   the biological basis of grammar could also be the basis of gourmet cooking, of mathematical reasoning, and of medical advances   human reasoning. grammar had once seemed to me too complicated to derive from any general human cognitive properties. it appeared to cry out for a specialized component of the brain, or what some linguists call the language organ. but such an organ becomes implausible if we can show that it is not needed because there are other forces that can explain language as both ontogenetic and phlyogentic fact. many researchers have discussed the kinds of things that hunters and gatherers needed to talk about and how these influenced language evolution. our ancestors had to talk about things and events, about relative quantities, and about the contents of the minds of their conspecifics, among other things. if you can't talk about things and what happens to them (events) or what they are like (states), you can't talk about anything. so all languages need verbs and nouns. but i have been convinced by the research of others, as well as my own, that if a language has these, then the basic skeleton of the grammar largely follows. the meanings of verbs require a certain number of nouns and those nouns plus the verb make simple sentences, ordered in logically restricted ways. other permutations of this foundational grammar follow from culture, contextual prominence, and modification of nouns and verbs. there are other components to grammar, but not all that many. put like this, as i began to see things, there really doesn't seem to be much need for grammar proper to be part of the human genome as it were. perhaps there is even much less need for grammar as an independent entity than we might have once thought. the year 2007 marked three memorable events in climate science: release of the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc ar4); a decade of drought in the american west and the arrival of severe drought in the american southeast; and the disappearance of nearly half of the polar sea ice floating over the arctic ocean. the ipcc report (a three volume, three thousand page synthesis of current scientific knowledge written for policymakers) and the american droughts merely hardened my conviction that anthropogenic climate warming is real and just getting going   a view shared, in the case of the ipcc, a few weeks ago by the nobel foundation. the sea ice collapse, however, changed my mind that it will be decades before we see the real impacts of the warming. i now believe they will happen much sooner. let's put the 2007 sea ice year into context. in the 1970's, when nasa first began mapping sea ice from microwave satellites, its annual minimum extent (in september, at summer's end) hovered close to 8 million square kilometers, about the area of the conterminous united states minus ohio. in september 2007 it dropped abruptly to 4.3 million square kilometers, the area of the conterminous united state minus ohio and all the other twenty four states east of the mississippi, as well as north dakota, minnesota, missouri, arkansas, louisiana, and iowa. canada's northwest passage was freed of ice for the first time in human memory. from bering strait where the u.s. and russia brush lips, open blue water stretched almost to the north pole. what makes the 2007 sea ice collapse so unnerving is that it happened too soon. the ensemble averages of our most sophisticated climate model predictions, put forth in the ipcc ar4 report and various other model intercomparison studies, don't predict a downwards lurch of that magnitude for another fifty years. even the aggressive models  the national center for atmospheric research (ncar) ccsm3 and the centre national de recherches meteorologiques (cnrm) cm3 simulations, for example   must whittle ice until 2035 or later before the 2007 conditions can be replicated. put simply, the models are too slow to match reality. geophysicists, accustomed to non linearities and hard to impress after a decade of 'unprecedented' events, are stunned by the totter: apparently, the climate system can move even faster than we thought. this has decidedly recalibrated scientist's attitudes   including my own   to the possibility that even the direst ipcc scenario predictions for the end of this century   10 to 24 inch higher global sea levels, for example   may be prudish. what does all this say to us about the future? the first is that rapid climate change   a nonlinearity that occurs when a climate forcing reaches a threshold beyond which little additional forcing is needed to trigger a large impact   is a distinct threat not well captured in our current generation of computer models. this situation will doubtless improve   as the underlying physics of the 2007 ice event and others such as the american southeast drought are dissected, understood, and codified   but in the meantime, policymakers must work from the ipcc blueprint which seems almost staid after the events of this summer and fall. the second is that it now seems probable that the northern hemisphere will lose its ice lid far sooner than we ever thought possible. over the past three years experts have shifted from 2050, to 2035, to 2013 as plausible dates for an ice free arctic ocean   estimates at first guided by models then revised by reality. the broader significance of vanishing sea ice extends far beyond suffering polar bears, new shipping routes, or even development of vast arctic energy reserves. it is absolutely unequivocal that the disappearance of summer sea ice   regardless of exactly which year it arrives   will profoundly alter the northern hemisphere climate, particularly through amplified winter warming of at least twice the global average rate. its further impacts on the world's precipitation and pressure systems are under study but are likely significant. effects both positive and negative, from reduced heating oil consumption to outbreaks of fire and disease, will propagate far southward into the united states, canada, russia and scandinavia. scientists have expected such things in eventuality   but in 2007 we learned they may already be upon us. not that long ago, i was under the impression that the basic problem of computer architecture had been solved. after all, computers got faster every year, and gradually whole new application domains emerged. there was constantly more memory available, and software hungrily consumed it. each new computer had a bigger power supply, and more airflow to extract the increasing heat from the processor. now, clock speeds aren't rising quite as quickly, and the progress that is made doesn't seem to help our computers start up or run any faster. the traditions of the computing industry, some going as far back as the first digital computers built by john von neumann in the 1950s, are starting to grow obsolete. the slower computers seem to get faster, and the more deeply i understand the way things actually work, the more these problems become apparent to me. they really come to light when you think about a computer as a business. imagine if your company or organization had one fellow [the cpu] who sat in an isolated office, and refused to talk with anyone except his two most trusted deputies [the northbridge and southbridge], through which all the actual work the company does must be funneled. because this one man   let's call him bob   is so overloaded doing all the work of the entire company, he has several assistants [memory controllers] who remember everything for him. they do this through a complex system [virtual memory] of file cabinets of various sizes [physical memories], the organization over which they have strictly limited autonomy. because it is faster to find things in the smaller cabinets [ram], where there is less to sift through, bob asks them to put the most commonly used information there. but since he is constantly switching between different tasks, the assistants must swap in and out the files in the smaller cabinets with those in the larger ones whenever bob works on something different ["thrashing"]. the largest file cabinet is humongous, and rotates slowly in front of a narrow slit [magnetic storage]. the assistant in charge of it must simply wait for the right folder to appear in front of him before passing it along [disk latency]. any communication with customers must be handled through a team of receptionists [i/o controllers] who don't take the initiative to relay requests to one of bob's deputies. when bob needs customer input to continue on a difficult problem, he drops what he is doing to chase after his deputy to chase after a receptionist to chase down the customer, thus preventing work for other customers to be done in that time. this model is clearly horrendous for numerous reasons. if any staff member goes out to lunch, the whole operation is likely to grind to a halt. tasks that ought to be quite simple turn out to take a lot of time, since bob must re acquaint himself with the issues in question. if a spy gains bob's trust, all is lost. the only way to make the model any better without giving up and starting over is to hire people who just do their work faster and spend more hours in the office. and yet, this is the way almost every computer in the world operates today. it is much more sane to hire a large pool of individuals, and, depending on slow changing customer needs, organize them into business units and assign them to customer accounts. each person keeps track of his own small workload, and everyone can work on a separate task simultaneously. if the company suddenly acquires new customers, it can recruit more staff instead of forcing bob to work overtime. if a certain customer demands more attention than was foreseen, more people can be devoted to the effort. and perhaps most importantly, collaboration with other businesses becomes far more meaningful than the highly coded, formal game of telephone that bob must play with frank, who works in a similar position at another corporation [a server]. essentially, this is a business model problem as much as a computer science one. these complaints only scratch the surface of the design flaws of today's computers. on an extremely low level, with voltages, charge, and transistors, energy is handled recklessly, causing tremendous heat, which would melt the parts in a matter of seconds were it not for the noisy cooling systems we find in most computers. and on a high level, software engineers have constructed a city of competing abstractions based on the fundamentally flawed "cpu" idea. so i have changed my mind. i used to believe that computers were on the right track, but now i think the right thing to do is to move forward from our 1950s models to a ground up, fundamentally distributed computing architecture. i started to use computers at 17 months of age and started programming them at 5, so i took the model for granted. but the present stagnation of perceptual computer performance, and the counter intuitiveness of programming languages, led me to question what i was born into and wonder if there's a better way. now i'm eager to help make it happen. when discontent changes your mind, that's innovation. in an interview with the new york times, shortly before he died, francis crick told a reporter, "the view of ourselves as [ensouled] 'persons' is just as erroneous as the view that the sun goes around the earth. this sort of language will disappear in a few hundred years. in the fullness of time, educated people will believe there is no soul independent of the body, and hence no life after death." like the vast majority of academic scientists and philosophers alive today, i accept crick's philosophical assertion   that when your body dies, you cease to exist   without any reservations. i also used to agree with crick's psychosocial prognosis   that modern education would inevitably give rise to a populace that rejected the idea of a supernatural soul. but on this point, i have changed my mind. underlying crick's psychosocial claim is a common assumption: the minds of all intelligent people must operate according to the same universal principles of human nature. of course, anyone who makes this assumption will naturally believe that their own mind type is the universal one. in the case of crick and most other molecular biologists, the assumed universal mind type is highly receptive to the persuasive power of pure logic and rational analysis. once upon a time, my own worldview was similarly informed. i was convinced that scientific facts and rational argument alone could win the day with people who were sufficiently intelligent and educated. to my mind, the rejection of rational thought by such people was a sign of disingenuousness to serve political or ideological goals. my mind began to change one evening in november 2003. i had given a lecture at small liberal arts college along with a member of the president's council on bioethics, whose views on human embryo research are diametrically opposed to my own. surrounded by students at the wine and cheese reception that followed our lectures, the two of us began an informal debate about the true meaning and significance of changes in gene expression and dna methylation during embryonic development. six hours later, long after the last student had crept off to sleep, it was 4:00 am, and we were both still convinced that with just one more round of debate, we'd get the other to capitulate. it didn't happen. since this experience, i have purposely engaged other well educated defenders of the irrational, as well as numerous students at my university, in spontaneous one on one debates about a host of contentious biological subjects including evolution, organic farming, homeopathy, cloned animals, "chemicals" in our food, and genetic engineering. much to my chagrin, even after politics, ideology, economics, and other cultural issues have been put aside, there is often a refusal to accept scientific implications of rational argumentation. while its mode of expression may change over cultures and time, irrationality and mysticism seem to be an integral part of normal human nature, even among highly educated people. no matter what scientific and technological advances are made in the future, i now doubt that supernatural beliefs will ever be eradicated from the human species. do we need to understand consciousness to understand physics? i used to answer "yes", thinking that we could never figure out the elusive "theory of everything" for our external physical reality without first understanding the distorting mental lens through which we perceive it. after all, physical reality has turned out to be very different from how it seems, and i feel that most of our notions about it have turned out to be illusions. the world looks like it has three primary colors, but that number three tells us nothing about the world out there, merely something about our senses: that our retina has three kinds of cone cells. the world looks like it has impenetrably solid and stationary objects, but all except a quadrillionth of the volume of a rock is empty space between particles in restless schizophrenic vibration. the world feels like a three dimensional stage where events unfold over time, but einstein's work suggests that change is an illusion, time being merely the fourth dimension of an unchanging space time that just is, never created and never destroyed, containing our cosmic history like a dvd contains a movie. the quantum world feels random, but everett's work suggests that randomness too is an illusion, being simply the way our minds feel when cloned into diverging parallel universes. the ultimate triumph of physics would be to start with a mathematical description of the world from the "bird's eye view" of a mathematician studying the equations (which are ideally simple enough to fit on her t shirt) and to derive from them the "frog's eye view" of the world, the way her mind subjectively perceives it. however, there is also a third and intermediate "consensus view" of the world. from your subjectively perceived frog perspective, the world turns upside down when you stand on your head and disappears when you close your eyes, yet you subconsciously interpret your sensory inputs as though there is an external reality that is independent of your orientation, your location and your state of mind. it is striking that although this third view involves both censorship (like rejecting dreams), interpolation (as between eye blinks) and extrapolation (like attributing existence to unseen cities) of your frog's eye view, independent observers nonetheless appear to share this consensus view. although the frog's eye view looks black and white to a cat, iridescent to a bird seeing four primary colors, and still more different to a bee seeing polarized light, a bat using sonar, a blind person with keener touch and hearing, or the latest robotic vacuum cleaner, all agree on whether the door is open. this reconstructed consensus view of the world that humans, cats, aliens and future robots would all agree on is not free from some of the above mentioned shared illusions. however, it is by definition free from illusions that are unique to biological minds, and therefore decouples from the issue of how our human consciousness works. this is why i've changed my mind: although understanding the detailed nature of human consciousness is a fascinating challenge in its own right, it is notnecessary for a fundamental theory of physics, which need "only" derive the consensus view from its equations. in other words, what douglas adams called "the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything" splits cleanly into two parts that can be tackled separately: the challenge for physics is deriving the consensus view from the bird's eye view, and the challenge for cognitive science is to derive the frog's eye view from the consensus view. these are two great challenges for the third millennium. they are each daunting in their own right, and i'm relieved that we need not solve them simultaneously. when i was in graduate school, in the early 1990s, i learned two important things: that the human capacity for language was innate, and that the machinery that allowed human beings to learn language was "special", in the sense of being separate from the rest of the human mind. both ideas sounded great at the time. but (as far as i can tell know) only one of them turns out to be true. i still think that i was right to believe in "innateness", the idea that the human mind, arrives, fresh from the factory, with a considerable amount of elaborate machinery. when a human embryo emerges from the womb, it has almost all the neurons it will ever have. all of the basic neural structures are already in place, and most or all of the basic neural pathways are established. there is, to be sure, lots of learning yet to come   an infant's brain is more rough draft than final product   but anybody who still imagines the infant human mind to be little more than an empty sponge isn't in touch with the realities of modern genetics and neuroscience. almost half our genome is dedicated to the development of brain function, and those ten or fifteen thousand brain related genes choreograph an enormous amount of biological sophistication. chomsky (whose classes i sat in on while in graduate school) was absolutely right to be insisting, for all these years, that language has its origins in the built in structure of the mind. but now i believe that i was wrong to accept the idea that language was separate from the rest of the human mind. it's always been clear that we can talk about what we think about, but when i was in graduate school it was popular to talk about language as being acquired by a separate "module" or "instinct" from the rest of cognition, by what chomsky called a "language acquisition device" (or lad). its mission in life was to acquire language, and nothing else. in keeping with idea of language as product of specialized in born mechanism, we noted how quickly how human toddlers acquired language, and how determined they were to do so; all normal human children acquire language, not just a select few raised in privileged environments, and they manage to do so rapidly, learning most of what they need to know in the first few years of life. (the average adult, in contrast, often gives up around the time they have to face their fourth list of irregular verbs.) combine that with the fact that some children with normal intelligence couldn't learn language and that others with normal language lacked normal cognitive function, and i was convinced. humans acquired language because they had a built in module that was uniquely dedicated to that function. or so i thought then. by the late 1990s, i started looking beyond the walls of my own field (developmental psycholinguistics) and out towards a whole host of other fields, including genetics, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology. the idea that most impressed me   and did the most to shake me of the belief that language was separate from the rest of the mind   goes back to darwin. not "survival of the fittest" (a phrase actually coined by herbert spencer) but his notion, now amply confirmed at the molecular level, that all biology is the product of what he called "descent with modification". every species, and every biological system evolves through a combination of inheritance (descent) and change (modification). nothing, no matter how original it may appear, emerges from scratch. language, i ultimately realized, must be no different: it emerged quickly, in the space of a few hundred thousand years, and with comparatively little genetic change. it suddenly dawned on me that the striking fact that our genomes overlap almost 99% with those of chimpanzees must be telling something: language couldn't possibly have started from scratch. there isn't enough room in the genome, or in our evolutionary history, for it to be plausible that language is completely separate from what came before. instead, i have now come to believe, language must be, largely, a recombination of spare parts, a kind of jury rigged kluge built largely out of cognitive machinery that evolved for other purposes, long before there was such a thing as language. if there's something special about language, it is not the parts from which it is composed, but the way in which they are put together. neuorimaging studies seem to bear this out. whereas we once imagined language to be produced and comprehended almost entirely by two purpose built regions   broca's area and wernicke's area, we now see that many other parts of the brain are involved (e.g. the cerebellum and basal ganglia) and that the classic language areas (i.e. broca's and wernicke's) participate in other aspects of mental life (e.g., music and motor control) and have counterparts in other apes. at the narrowest level, this means that psycholinguists and cognitive neuroscientists need to rethink their theories about what language is. but if there is a broader lesson, it is this: although we humans in many ways differ radically from any other species, our greatest gifts are built upon a genomic bedrock that we share with the many other apes that walk the earth. well, my biggest change of mind came only a few years ago. it was the outcome of a painful journey of self discovery, where my wife and children stood behind me and made it possible, where i struggled with all my soul, and all my heart and all my might. but that had to do with my realizing that broadway musicals are not cultural travesties, so it's a little tangential here. instead i'll focus on science. i'm both a neurobiologist and a primatologist, and i've changed my mind about plenty of things in both of these realms. but the most fundamental change is one that transcends either of those disciplines   this was my realizing that the most interesting and important things in the life sciences are not going to be explained with sheer reductionism. a specific change of mind concerned my work as a neurobiologist. this came about 15 years ago, and it challenged neurobiological dogma that i had learned in pre school, namely that the adult brain does not make new neurons. this fact had always been a point of weird pride in the field   hey, the brain is so fancy and amazing that its elements are irreplaceable, not like some dumb ass simplistic liver that's so totally fungible that it can regrow itself. and what this fact also reinforced, in passing, was the dogma that the brain is set in stone very early on in life, that there's all sorts of things that can't be changed once a certain time window had passed. starting in the 1960's, a handful of crackpot scientists had been crying in the wilderness about how the adult brain does make new neurons. at best, their unorthodoxy was ignored; at worst, they were punished for it. but by the 1990's, it had become clear that they were right. and "adult neurogenesis" has turned into the hottest subject in the field   the brain makes new neurons, makes them under interesting circumstances, fails to under other interesting ones. the new neurons function, are integrated into circuits, might even be required for certain types of learning. and the phenomenon is a cornerstone of a new type of neurobiological chauvinism   part of the very complexity and magnificence of the brain is how it can rebuild itself in response to the world around it. so, i'll admit, this business about new neurons was a tough one for me to assimilate. i wasn't invested enough in the whole business to be in the crowd indignantly saying, no, this can't be true. instead, i just tried to ignore it. "new neurons", christ, i can't deal with this, turn the page. and after an embarrassingly long time, enough evidence had piled up that i had to change my mind and decide that i needed to deal with it after all. and it's now one of the things that my lab studies. the other change concerned my life as a primatologist, where i have been studying male baboons in east africa. this also came in the early 90's. i study what social behavior has to do with health, and my shtick always was that if you want to know which baboons are going to be festering with stress related disease, look at the low ranking ones. rank is physiological destiny, and if you have a choice in the matter, you want to win some critical fights and become a dominant male, because you'll be healthier. and my change of mind involved two pieces. the first was realizing, from my own data and that of others, that being dominant has far less to do with winning fights than with social intelligence and impulse control. the other was realizing that while health has something to do with social rank, it has far more to do with personality and social affiliation   if you want to be a healthy baboon, don't be a socially isolated one. this particular shift has something to do with the accretion of new facts, new statistical techniques for analyzing data, blah blah. probably most importantly, it has to do with the fact that i was once a hermetic 22 year old studying baboons and now, 30 years later, i've changed my mind about a lot of things in my own life. i have a collection of web pages on the sustainability of material progress that treats many problems that have been proposed as possible stoppers. i get email about the pages, both unfavorable and favorable, mostly the latter. i had believed that the email would concern specific problems or would raise new ones, e.g. "what about erosion of agricultural land?" there's some of that, but overwhelmingly the email, both pro and con, concerns my attitude, not my (alleged) facts. "how can you be so blithely cornucopian when everybody knows ..." or "i'm glad someone has the courage to take on all those doomsters." it seems, to my surprise, that people's attitude that the future stems at least as much from personality as from opinions about facts. people look for facts to support their attitudes   which have earlier antecedents. although i have changed my mind about several ideas and theories, my longest struggle has been with the concept of time. the most obvious and universal aspect about reality, as we experience it, is that it is structured as a succession of moments, each of which comes into being, supplanting what was just present and is now past. but, as soon as we describe nature in terms of mathematical equations, the present moment and the flow of time seem to disappear, and time becomes just a number, a reading on an instrument, like any other. consequently, many philosophers and physicists argue that time is an illusion, that reality consists of the whole four dimensional history of the universe, as represented in einstein’s theory of general relativity. some, like julian barbour, go further and argue that, when quantum theory is unified with gravity, time disappears completely. the world is just a vast collection of moments which are represented by the "wave function of the universe." time not real, it is just an "emergent quantity" that is helpful to organize our observations of the universe when it is big and complex. other physicists argue that aspects of time are real, such as the relationships of causality, that record which events were the necessary causes of others. penrose, sorkin and markopoulou have proposed models of quantum spacetime in which everything real reduces to these relationships of causality. in my own thinking, i first embraced the view that quantum reality is timeless. in our work on loop quantum gravity we were able to take this idea more seriously than people before us could, because we could construct and study exact wave functions of the universe. carlo rovelli , bianca dittrich and others worked out in detail how time would "emerge" from the study of the question of what quantities of the theory are observable. but, somehow, the more this view was worked out in detail the less i was convinced. this was partly due to technical challenges in realizing the emergence of time, and partly because some naïve part of me could never understand conceptually how the basic experience of the passage of time could emerge from a world without time. so in the late 90s i embraced the view that time, as causality, is real. this fit best the next stage of development of loop quantum gravity, which was based on quantum spacetime histories. however, even as we continued to make progress on the technical side of these studies, i found myself worrying that the present moment and the flow of time were still nowhere represented. and i had another motivation, which was to make sense of the idea that laws of nature could evolve in time. back in the early 90s i had formulated a view of laws evolving on a landscape of theories along with the universe they govern. this had been initially ignored, but in the last few years there has been much study of dynamics on landscapes of theories. most of these are framed in the timeless language of the "wavefunction of the universe," in contrast to my original presentation, in which theories evolved in real time. as these studies progressed, it became clear that only those in which time played a role could generate testable predictions   and this made me want to think more deeply about time. it is becoming clear to me that the mystery of the nature of time is connected with other fundamental questions such as the nature of truth in mathematics and whether there must be timeless laws of nature. rather than being an illusion, time may be the only aspect of our present understanding of nature that is not temporary and emergent. i have changed my mind about my body. i used to think of it as a kind of hardware on which my mental and behavioral software was running. now, i primarily think of my body as software. my body is not like a typical material object, a stable thing. it is more like a flame, a river or an eddie. matter is flowing through it all the time. the constituents are being replaced over and over again. a chair or a table is stable because the atoms stay where they are. the stability of a river stems from the constant flow of water through it. 98 percent of the atoms in the body are replaced every year. 98 percent! water molecules stays in your body for two weeks (and for an even shorter time in a hot climate), the atoms in your bones stays there for a few months. some atoms stay for years. but almost not one single atom stay with you in your body from cradle to grave. what is constant in you is not material. an average person takes in 1.5 ton of matter every year as food, drinks and oxygen. all this matter has to learn to be you. every year. new atoms will have to learn to remember your childhood. these numbers has been known for half a century or more, mostly from studies of radioactive isotopes. physicist richard feynman said in 1955: "last week's potatoes! they now can remember what was going on in your mind a year ago." but why is this simple insight not on the all time top 10 list of important discoveries? perhaps because it tastes a little like spiritualism and idealism? only the ghosts are for real? wandering souls? but digital media now makes it possible to think of all this in a simple way. the music i danced to as a teenager has been moved from vinyl lps to magnetic audio tapes to cds to pods and whatnot. the physical representation can change and is not important   as long as it is there. the music can jump from medium to medium, but it is lost if it does not have a representation. this physics of information was sorted out by rolf landauer in the 1960'ies. likewise, out memories can move from potato atoms to burger atoms to banana atoms. but the moment they are on their own, they are lost. we reincarnate ourselves all the time. we constantly give our personality new flesh. i keep my mental life alive by making it jump from atom to atom. a constant flow. never the same atoms, always the same river. no flow, no river. no flow, no me. this is what i call permanent reincarnation: software replacing its hardware all the time. atoms replacing atoms all the time. life. this is very different from religious reincarnation with souls jumping from body to body (and souls sitting out there waiting for a body to take home in). there has to be material continuity for permanent reincarnation to be possible. the software is what is preserved, but it cannot live on its own. it has to jump from molecule to molecule, always in carnation. i have changed my mind about the stability of my body: it keeps changing all the time. or i could not stay the same. when i look at something, when i talk to somebody, when i write a few sentences about "what i have changed my mind about and why", the neuronal network in my brain changes all the time and there are even structural changes in the brain. why is it that these changes don't come to mind all the time but remain subthreshold? certainly, if everything would come to mind what goes on in the brain, and if there would not be an efficient mechanism of informational garbage disposal, we would end up in mental chaos (which sometimes happens in unfortunate cases with neuronal dysfunctioning). it is only sometimes that certain events produce so much neuronal energy and catch so much attention that a conscious representation is made possible. as most neuronal information processing remains in mental darkness, i.e. happens on an implicit level, it is in my view impossible to make a clear statement why somebody changed his or her mind about something. if somebody gives an explicit reason for having changed the mind about something, i am very suspicious. as "it thinks" all the time in my brain, and as these processes are beyond voluntary control, i am much less transparent to myself as i might want, and this is true for everybody. thus, i cannot give a good reason why i changed my mind about a strong hypothesis or even belief or perhaps a prejudice in my scientific work which i had until several years ago. a sentence of ludwig wittgenstein from his tractatus logico philosophicus (5.6) was like a dogma for me: "die grenzen meiner sprache bedeuten die grenzen meiner welt.   the limits of my language signify the limits of my world " (my translation). now i react to this sentence with an emphatic "no!". as a neuroscientist i have to stay away from the language trap. in our research we are easily misguided by words. without too much thinking we are referring to "consciousness", to "free will", to "thoughts", to "attention", to the "self", etc, and we give an ontological status to these terms. some people even start to look at the potential site of consciousness or of free will in the brain, or some people ask the "what is ..." question that never can find an answer. the prototypical "what is ..." question was formulated 1600 years ago by augustinus who said in the 11th book of his confessions: "quid est ergo tempus? si nemo ex me quaerat scio, si quaerenti explicare velim nescio.   what is time? if nobody asks me, i know it, but if i have to explain it to somebody, i don't know it" (my translation). interestingly, augustinus made a nice categorical mistake by referring to "knowing" at first on an implicit, and second on an explicit level. this categorical mistake is still with us when we ask questions like: "what is consciousness, free will,..."; one knows, but one does not. as neuroscientists we have to focus on processes in the brain which rarely or perhaps never map directly onto such terms as we use them. complexity reduction in brains is necessary and it happens all the time, but the goal of this reductive process is not such terms, that might be useful for our communication, but efficient action. this is what i think today, but why i came to this conclusion i don't know; it was probably several reasons that finally resulted in a shift of mind. i.e. overcoming wittgenstein's straitjacket. as a scientist, i am motivated to build an objective model of reality. since we always have incomplete information, it is eminently rational to construct a bayesian network of likelihoods   assigning a probability for each possibility, supported by a chain of priors. when new facts arise, or if new conditional relationships are discovered, these probabilities are adjusted accordingly   our minds should change. when judgment or action is required, it is based on knowledge of these probabilities. this method of logical inference and prediction is the sine qua non of rational thought, and the method all scientists aspire to employ. however, the ambivalence associated with an even probability distribution makes it terribly difficult for an ideal scientist to decide where to go for dinner. even though i strive to achieve an impartial assessment of probabilities for the purpose of making predictions, i cannot consider my assessments to be unbiased. in fact, i no longer think humans are naturally inclined to work this way. when i casually consider the beliefs i hold, i am not readily able to assign them numerical probabilities. if pressed, i can manufacture these numbers, but this seems more akin to rationalization than rational thought. also, when i learn something new, i do not immediately erase the information i knew before, even if it is contradictory. instead, the new model of reality is stacked atop the old. and it is in this sense that a mind doesn't change; vestigial knowledge may fade over a long period of time, but it isn't simply replaced. this model of learning matches a parable from douglas adams, relayed by richard dawkins: a man didn't understand how televisions work, and was convinced that there must be lots of little men inside the box, manipulating images at high speed. an engineer explained to him about high frequency modulations of the electromagnetic spectrum, about transmitters and receivers, about amplifiers and cathode ray tubes, about scan lines moving across and down a phosphorescent screen. the man listened to the engineer with careful attention, nodding his head at every step of the argument. at the end he pronounced himself satisfied. he really did now understand how televisions work. "but i expect there are just a few little men in there, aren't there?" as humans, we are inefficient inference engines   we are attached to our "little men," some dormant and some active. to a degree, these imperfect probability assessments and pet beliefs provide scientists with the emotional conviction necessary to motivate the hard work of science. without the hope that an improbable line of research may succeed where others have failed, difficult challenges would go unmet. people should be encouraged to take long shots in science, since, with so many possibilities, the probability of something improbable happening is very high. at the same time, this emotional optimism must be tempered by a rational estimation of the chance of success   we must not be so optimistic as to delude ourselves. in science, we must test every step, trying to prove our ideas wrong, because nature is merciless. to have a chance of understanding nature, we must challenge our predispositions. and even if we can't fundamentally change our minds, we can acknowledge that others working in science may make progress along their own lines of research. by accommodating a diverse variety of approaches to any existing problem, the scientific community will progress expeditiously in unlocking nature's secrets. when asked why all of her marriages failed, anthropologist margaret mead apparently replied, "i beg your pardon, i have had three marriages and none of them was a failure." there are many people like mead. some 90% of americans marry by middle age. and when i looked at united nations data on 97 other societies, i found that more than 90% of men and women eventually wed in the vast majority of these cultures, too. moreover, most human beings around the world marry one person at a time: monogamy. yet, almost everywhere people have devised social or legal means to untie the knot. and where they can divorce   and remarry   many do. so i had long suspected this human habit of "serial monogamy" had evolved for some biological purpose. planned obsolescence of the pairbond? perhaps the mythological "seven year itch" evolved millions of years ago to enable a bonded pair to rear two children through infancy together. if each departed after about seven years to seek "fresh features," as poet lord byron put it, both would have ostensibly reproduced themselves and both could breed again   creating more genetic variety in their young. so i began to cull divorce data on 58 societies collected since 1947 by the statistical office of the united nations. my mission: to prove that the "seven year itch" was a worldwide biological phenomenon associated in some way with rearing young. not to be. my intellectual transformation came while i was pouring over these divorce statistics in a rambling cottage, a shack really, on the massachusetts coast one august morning. i regularly got up around 5:30, went to a tiny desk that overlooked the deep woods, and poured over the pages i had xeroxed from the united nations demographic yearbooks. but in country after country, and decade after decade, divorces tended to peak (the divorce mode) during and around the fourth year of marriage. there were variations, of course. americans tended to divorce between the second and third year of marriage, for example. interestingly, this corresponds with the normal duration of intense, early stage, romantic love   often about 18 months to 3 years. indeed, in a 2007 harris poll, 47% of american respondents said they would depart an unhappy marriage when the romance wore off, unless they had conceived a child. nevertheless, there was no denying it: among these hundreds of millions of people from vastly different cultures, three patterns kept emerging. divorces regularly peaked during and around the fourth year after wedding. divorces peaked among couples in their late twenties. and the more children a couple had, the less likely they were to divorce: some 39% of worldwide divorces occurred among couples with no dependent children; 26% occurred among those with one child; 19% occurred among couples with two children; and 7% of divorces occurred among couples with three young. i was so disappointed. i mulled about this endlessly. my friend used to wave his hand over my face, saying, "earth to helen; earth to helen." why do so many men and women divorce during and around the 4 year mark; at the height of their reproductive years; and often with a single child? it seemed like such an unstable reproductive strategy. then suddenly i got that "ah ha" moment: women in hunting and gathering societies breastfeed around the clock, eat a low fat diet and get a lot of exercise   habits that tend to inhibit ovulation. as a result, they regularly space their children about four years apart. thus, the modern duration of many marriages about four years conforms to the traditional period of human birth spacing, four years. perhaps human parental bonds originally evolved to last only long enough to raise a single child through infancy, about four years, unless a second infant was conceived. by age five, a youngster could be reared by mother and a host of relatives. equally important, both parents could choose a new partner and bear more varied young. my new theory fit nicely with data on other species. only about three percent of mammals form a pairbond to rear their young. take foxes. the vixen's milk is low in fat and protein; she must feed her kits constantly; and she will starve unless the dog fox brings her food. so foxes pair in february and rear their young together. but when the kits leave the den in mid summer, the pairbond breaks up. among foxes, the partnership lasts only through the breeding season. this pattern is common in birds. among the more than 8,000 avian species, some 90% form a pairbond to rear their young. but most do not pair for life. a male and female robin, for example, form a bond in the early spring and rear one or more broods together. but when the last of the fledgling fly away, the pairbond breaks up. like pair bonding in many other creatures, humans have probably inherited a tendency to love and love again to create more genetic variety in our young. we aren't puppets on a string of dna, of course. today some 57% of american marriages last for life. but deep in the human spirit is a restlessness in long relationships, born of a time long gone, as poet john dryden put it, "when wild in wood the noble savage ran." i was born without the neural cluster that makes boys find pleasure in moving balls and pucks around through space, and in talking endlessly about men who get paid to do such things. i always knew i could never join a fraternity or the military because i wouldn't be able to fake the sports talk. by the time i became a professor i had developed the contempt that i think is widespread in academe for any institution that brings young men together to do groupish things. primitive tribalism, i thought. initiation rites, alcohol, sports, sexism, and baseball caps turn decent boys into knuckleheads. i'd have gladly voted to ban fraternities, rotc, and most sports teams from my university. but not anymore. three books convinced me that i had misunderstood such institutions because i had too individualistic a view of human nature. the first book was david sloan wilson's darwin's cathedral, which argued that human beings were shaped by natural selection operating simultaneously at multiple levels, including the group level. humans went through a major transition in evolution when we developed religiously inclined minds and religious institutions that activated those minds, binding people into groups capable of extraordinary cooperation without kinship. the second book was william mcneill's keeping together in time, about the historical prevalence and cultural importance of synchronized dance, marching, and other forms of movement. mcneill argued that such "muscular bonding" was an evolutionary innovation, an "indefinitely expansible basis for social cohesion among any and every group that keeps together in time." the third book was barbara ehrenreich'sdancing in the streets, which made the same argument as mcneill but with much more attention to recent history, and to the concept ofcommunitas or group love. most traditional societies had group dance rituals that functioned to soften structure and hierarchy and to increase trust, love, and cohesion. westerners too have a need for communitas, ehrenreich argues, but our society makes it hard to satisfy it, and our social scientists have little to say about it. these three books gave me a new outlook on human nature. i began to see us not just as chimpanzees with symbolic lives but also as bees without hives. when we made the transition over the last 200 years from tight communities (gemeinschaft) to free and mobile societies (gesellschaft), we escaped from bonds that were sometimes oppressive, yes, but into a world so free that it left many of us gasping for connection, purpose, and meaning. i began to think about the many ways that people, particularly young people, have found to combat this isolation. rave parties and the burning man festival are spectacular examples of new ways to satisfy the ancient longing for communitas. but suddenly sports teams, fraternities, and even the military made a lot more sense. i now believe that such groups do great things for their members, and that they often create social capital and other benefits that spread beyond their borders. the strong school spirit and alumni loyalty we all benefit from at the university of virginia would drop sharply if fraternities and major sports were eliminated. if my son grows up to be a sports playing fraternity brother, a part of me may still be disappointed. but i'll give him my blessing, along with three great books to read. when reporters interviewed me in the 70's and 80's about the possibilities for artificial intelligence i would always say that we would have machines that are as smart as we are within my lifetime. it seemed a safe answer since no one could ever tell me i was wrong. but i no longer believe that will happen. one reason is that i am a lot older and we are barely closer to creating smart machines. i have not soured on ai. i still believe that we can create very intelligent machines. but i no longer believe that those machines will be like us. perhaps it was the movies that led us to believe that we would have intelligent robots as companions. (i was certainly influenced early on by 2001.) certainly most ai researchers believed that creating machines that were our intellectual equals or better was a real possibility. early ai workers sought out intelligent behaviors to focus on, like chess or problem solving, and tried to build machines that could equal human beings in those same endeavors. while this was an understandable approach it was, in retrospect, wrong headed. chess playing is not really a typical intelligent human activity. only some of us are good at it, and it seems to entail a level of cognitive processing that while impressive seems quite at odds with what makes humans smart. chess players are methodical planners. human beings are not. humans are constantly learning. we spend years learning some seemingly simple stuff. every new experience changes what we know and how we see the world. getting reminded of our pervious experiences helps us process new experiences better than we did the time before. doing that depends upon an unconscious indexing method that all people learn to do without quite realizing they are learning it. we spend twenty years (or more) learning how to speak properly and learning how to make good decisions and establish good relationships. but we tend to not know what we know. we can speak properly without knowing how we do it. we don't know how we comprehend. we just do. all this poses a problem for ai. how can we imitate what humans are doing when humans don't know what they are doing when they do it? this conundrum led to a major failure in ai, expert systems, that relied upon rules that were supposed to characterize expert knowledge. but, the major characteristic of experts is that they get faster when they know more, while more rules made systems slower. the idea that rules were not at the center of intelligent systems meant that the flaw was relying upon specific consciously stated knowledge instead of trying to figure out what people meant when they said they just knew it when they saw it, or they had a gut feeling. people give reasons for their behaviors but they are typically figuring that stuff out after the fact. we reason non consciously and explain rationally later. humans dream. there obviously is some important utility in dreaming. even if we don't understand precisely what the consequences of dreaming are, it is safe to assume that it is an important part of our unconscious reasoning process that drives our decision making. so, an intelligent machine would have to dream because it needed to, and would have to have intuitions that proved to be good insights, and it would have to have a set of driving goals that made it see the world in a way that a different entity with different goals would not. in other words it would need a personality, and not one that was artificially installed but one that came with the territory of what is was about as an intelligent entity. what ai can and should build are intelligent special purpose entities. (we can call them specialized intelligences or si's.) smart computers will indeed be created. but they will arrive in the form of si's, ones that make lousy companions but know every shipping accident that ever happened and why (the shipping industry's si) or as an expert on sales (a business world si.) the sales si, because sales is all it ever thought about, would be able to recite every interesting sales story that had ever happened and the lessons to be learned from it. for some salesman about to call on a customer for example, this si would be quite fascinating. we can expect a foreign policy si that helps future presidents learn about the past in a timely fashion and helps them make decisions because it knows every decision the government has ever made and has cleverly indexed them so as to be able to apply what it knows to current situations. so ai in the traditional sense, will not happen in my lifetime nor in my grandson's lifetime. perhaps a new kind of machine intelligence will one day evolve and be smarter than us, but we are a really long way from that. the hottest topic in neuroscience today is brain plasticity. this catchphrase refers to the fact that various types of experience can significantly modify key attributes of the brain. this field began decades ago by focusing on how different aspects of the developing brain could be impacted by early rearing conditions. more recently, the field of brain plasticity has shifted to studies demonstrating a remarkable degree of change in the connections and functional properties of mature and even aged brains. thousands of published papers have now appeared on this topic, many by reputable scientists, and this has lead to a host of books, programs and even commercial enterprises touting the malleability of the brain with “proper” training. one is practically made to feel guilty for not taking advantage of this thriving store of information to improve one’s own brain or those of one’s children and grandchildren. my field of research is developmental neurobiology and i used to be a proponent of the potential benefits documented by brain plasticity studies. i am still of the opinion that brain plasticity is a real phenomenon, one that deserves further study and one that could be utilized to better human welfare. but my careful reading of this literature has tempered my initial enthusiasm. for one thing, those selling a commercial product are making many of the major claims for the benefits of brain exercise regimes. it is also the case that my experiences outside the laboratory have caused me to question the limitless potential of brain plasticity advocated by some devotees. point in fact: recently i had the chance to meet someone i had not seen since childhood. the person had changed physically beyond all recognition, as might be expected. yet after spending some time with this individual, his personality traits of long ago became apparent, including a rather peculiar laugh i remember from grade school. point of fact: a close colleague had a near fatal car accident, one that caused him to be in a coma for many days and in intensive care for weeks thereafter. shortly after returning from his ordeal, this a type personality changed into a seemingly mellow and serene person. but in less than two months, even before the physical scars of his accident had healed, he was back to his old driven self. for a working scientist to invoke anecdotal experience to question a scientific field of endeavor is akin to heresy. but it seems to me that it is foolish to simply ignore what one has learned from a lifetime of experiences. the older i get the more my personal interactions convince me that a person’s core remains remarkably stable in spite of huge experiential variations. with all the recent emphasis on brain plasticity, there has been virtually no attempt to explain the stability of the individual’s core attributes, values and beliefs. here is a real puzzle to ponder: every cell in your body, including all 100 billion neurons in your brain is in a constant process of breakdown and renewal. your brain is different than the one you had a year or even a month ago, even without special brain exercises. so how is the constancy of one’s persona maintained? the answer to that question offers a far greater challenge to our understanding of the brain than the currently in vogue field of brain plasticity. near the end of his life charles darwin invited for lunch at down house dr ludwig büchner, president of the congress of the international federation of freethinkers, and edward aveling, a self proclaimed and active atheist. the invitation was at their request. emma darwin, devout as ever, was appalled by the thought of entertaining such guests and at table insulated herself from the atheists with an old family friend, the rev. brodie innes, on her right and with her grandson and his friends on her left. after lunch darwin and his son frank smoked cigarettes with the two visitors in darwin's old study. darwin asked them with surprising directness: "why do you call yourselves atheists?" he said that he preferred the word agnostic. while darwin agreed that christianity was not supported by evidence, he felt that atheist was too aggressive a term to describe his own position. for many years what had been good enough for darwin was good enough for me. i too described myself as an agnostic. i had been brought up in a christian culture and some of the most rational humanists i knew were believers. i loved the music and art that had been inspired by a belief in god and saw no hypocrisy in participating in the great carol services held in the chapel of king's college cambridge. i did not accept the views of some of my scientific colleagues that the march of science has disposed of religion. the wish that i and many biologists had to understand biological evolution was not the same as the wish had by those with deep religious conviction to understand the meaning of life. i had, however, led a sheltered life and had never met anybody who was aggressively religious. i hated, of course, what i had read about the ugly fanaticism of all forms of religious fundamentalism or what i had seen of it on television. however, such wickedness did not seem to be simply correlated with religious belief since many non believers were just as totalitarian in their behaviour as the believers. my unwillingness to be involved in religious debates was shaken at a grand dinner party. the woman sitting next to me asked me what i did and i told her that i am a biologist. "oh well," she said, "then we have plenty to talk about, because i believe that every word of the bible is literally true." my heart sank. as things turned out, we didn't have a great deal to talk about because she wasn't going to be persuaded by any argument that i could throw at her. she did not seem to wonder about the inconsistencies between the gospels of the new testament or those between the first and second chapters of genesis. nor was she concerned about where cain's wife came from? the victorians were delicate about such matters and were not going to entertain the thought that cain married an unnamed sister or, horrors, that his own mother bore his children, his grand children and so on down the line of descendants until other women became available. nevertheless, the devout victorians were obviously troubled by the question and they speculated on the existence of pre adamite people, angels probably, who would have furnished cain with his wife. my creationist dinner companion was not worried by such trivialities and dismissed my lack of politesse as the problem of a scientist being too literal. however, being too literal was not my problem, it was hers and those of her fellow creationists. she was hoist on her own petard. in any event, it was quite simply stupid to try to take on science on its own terms by appealing to the intelligence implicit in natural design. science provides orderly methods for examining the natural world. one of those methods is to develop theories that integrate as much as possible of what we know about the phenomena encompassed by the theory. the theories provide frameworks for testing the characteristics of the world   and though some theorists may not wish to believe it, their theories are eminently disposable. facts are widely shared opinions and, every so often the consensus breaks   and minds change. nevertheless it is crying for the moon to hope that the enormous bodies of thought that have been built up about cosmology, geology and biological evolution are all due to fall apart. no serious theologian would rest his or her beliefs on such a hope. if faith rests on the supposed implausibility of a current scientific explanation, it is vulnerable to the appearance of a plausible one. to build on such sand is a crass mistake. not long after that dreadful dinner, richard dawkins wrote to me to ask whether i would publicly affirm my atheism. i could see no reason why not. one of the clear definitions of an atheist is a lack of a belief in a god. that certainly described my position, even though i am disinclined to attack the beliefs of the sincere and thoughtful people with strong religious beliefs whom i continue to meet. i completed the questionnaire that richard had sent to me. i had changed my mind. a dear friend, peter lipton, who died suddenly in november 2007, had been assiduous in maintaining jewish customs in his own home and in his public defence of israel. after he died i was surprised to discover that he described himself as a religious atheist. i should not have been surprised. a decade ago, i thought the mind body problem would never be solved, but i've recently, tentatively, changed my mind. philosophers and scientists have long puzzled over how matter   more specifically, gray matter   makes mind, and some have concluded that we'll never find the answer. in 1991 the philosopher owen flanagan called these pessimists "mysterians, a term he borrowed from the 1960s rock group "question mark and the mysterians." one of the earliest mysterians was the german genius leibniz, who wrote: "suppose that there be a machine, the structure of which produces thinking, feeling, and perceiving; imagine this machine enlarged but preserving the same proportions, so that you could enter it as if it were a mill… what would you observe there? nothing but parts which push and move each other, and never anything that could explain perception." a decade ago i was a hard core mysterian, because i couldn't imagine what form a solution to the mind body problem might take. now i can. if there is a solution, it will come in the form of a neural code, an algorithm, set of rules or syntax that transforms the electrochemical pulses emitted by brain cells into perceptions, memories, decisions, thoughts. until recently, a complete decoding of the brain seemed impossibly remote, because technologies for probing living brains were so crude. but over the past decade the temporal and spatial resolution of magnetic resonance imaging, electroencephalography and other external scanning methods has leaped forward. even more importantly, researchers keep improving the design of microelectrode arrays that can be embedded in the brain to receive messages from   and transmit them to   thousands of individual neurons simultaneously. scientists are gleaning information about neural coding not only from non human animals but also from patients who have had electrodes implanted in their brains to treat epilepsy, paralysis, psychiatric illnesses and other brain disorders. given these advances, i'm cautiously optimistic that scientists will crack the neural code within the next few decades. the neural code may resemble relativity and quantum mechanics, in the following sense. these fundamental theories have not resolved all our questions about physical reality. far from it. phenomena such as gravity and light still remain profoundly puzzling. physicists have nonetheless embraced relativity and quantum mechanics because they allow us to predict and manipulate physical reality with extraordinary precision. relativity and quantum mechanics work. in the same way, the neural code is unlikely to resolve the mind body problem to everyone's satisfaction. when it comes to consciousness, many of us seek not an explanation but a revelation, which dispels mystery like sun burning off a morning fog. and yet we will embrace a neural code theory of mind if it works   that is, if it helps us predict, heal and enhance ourselves. if we can control our minds, who cares if we still cannot comprehend them? i am an anthropologist who has traveled to many places and met many different kinds of people. i try to know what it is like to be someone very different from me in order to better understand what it means to be human. but it is only in the last few years that my thinking has deeply changed on what drives major differences between animal and human behavior, such as willingness to kill and die for a cause. i once thought that individual cognition and personality, influences from broad socio economic factors, and degree of devotion to religious or political ideology were determinant. now i see friendship and others aspects of small group dynamics, especially acting together, trumping most everything else. here's an anecdote that kick started me thinking about this. while preparing a psychological experiment on limits of rational choice with muslim mujahedin on the indonesian island of sulawesi, i noticed tears welling in my traveling companion and bodyguard, farhin (who had earlier hosted 9 11 mastermind khalid sheikh muhammed in jakarta and helped to blow up the philippines' ambassador's residence). farhin had just heard of a young man recently been killed in a skirmish with christian fighters. "farhin," i asked, "you knew the boy?" "no," he said, "but he was only in the jihad a few weeks. i've been fighting since afghanistan [late 1980s] and still not a martyr." i tried consoling with my own disbelief, "but you love your wife and children." "yes," he nodded sadly, "god has given this, and i must have faith in his way." i had come to the limits of my understanding of the other. there was something in farhin that was incalculably different from me yet almost everything else was not. "farhin, in all those years, after you and the others came back from afghanistan, how did you stay a part of the jihad?" i asked. i expected him to tell me about his religious fervor and devotion to a great cause. "the (indonesian) afghan alumni never stopped playing soccer together," he replied matter of factly, "that's when we were closest together in the camp." he smiled, "except when we went on vacation to fight the communists, we played soccer and remained brothers." maybe people don't kill and die simply for a cause. they do it for friends   campmates, schoolmates, workmates, soccer buddies, body building buddies, pin ball buddies   who share a cause. some die for dreams of jihad   of justice and glory   but nearly all in devotion to a family like group of friends and mentors, of "fictive kin." then it became embarrassingly obvious: it is no accident that nearly all religious and political movements express allegiance through the idiom of the family   brothers and sisters, children of god, fatherland, motherland, homeland, and the like. nearly all such movements require subordination, or at least assimilation, of any real family (genetic kinship) to the larger imagined community of "brothers and sisters." indeed, the complete subordination of biological loyalty to ideological loyalty for the ikhwan, the "brotherhood" of the prophet, is islam's original meaning, "submission." my research team has analyzed every attack by farhin and his friends, who belong to southeast asia's jemmah islamiyah (ji). i have interviewed key ji operatives (including co founder, abu bakr ba'asyir) and counterterrorism officials who track ji. our data show that support for suicide actions is triggered by moral outrage at perceived attacks against islam and sacred values, but this is converted to action as a result of small world factors. out of millions who express sympathy with global jihad, only a few thousand show willingness to commit violence. they tend to go to violence in small groups consisting mostly of friends, and some kin. these groups arise within specific "scenes": neighborhoods, schools (classes, dorms), workplaces and common leisure activities (soccer, mosque, barbershop, café, online chat rooms). three other examples: 1. in al qaeda, about 70 percent join with friends, 20 percent with kin. our interviews with friends of the 9/11 suicide pilots reveal they weren't "recruited" into qaeda. they were middle eastern arabs isolated in a moroccan islamic community in a hamburg suburb. seeking friendship, they started hanging out after mosque services, in local restaurants and barbershops, eventually living together when they self radicalized. they wanted to go to chechnya, then kosovo, only landing in a qaeda camp in afghanistan as a distant third choice. 2. five of the seven plotters in the 2004 madrid train bombing who blew themselves up when cornered by police grew up in the tumble down neighborhood of jemaa mezuaq in tetuan, morocco. in 2006, at least five more young mezuaq men went to iraq on "martyrdom missions." one in the madrid group was related to one in the iraq group by marriage; each group included a pair of brothers. all went to the same elementary school, all but one to the same high school. they played soccer as friends, went to the same mosque, mingled in the same cafes. 3. hamas's most sustained suicide bombing campaign in 2003 (hamas suspended bombings in 2004) involved seven soccer buddies from hebron's abu katila neighborhood, including four kin (kawasmeh clan). social psychology tends to support the finding that "groupthink" often trumps individual volition and knowledge, whether in our society or any other. but for americans bred on a constant diet of individualism the group is not where one generally looks for explanation. this was particularly true for me, but the data caused me to change my mind. until i was twenty i was sure there was a being who could see everything i did and who didn't like most of it. he seemed to care about minute aspects of my life, like on what day of the week i ate a piece of meat. and yet, he let earthquakes and mudslides take out whole communities, apparently ignoring the saints among them who ate their meat on the assigned days. eventually, i realized that i didn't believe there was such a being. it didn't seem reasonable. and i assumed that i was an atheist. as i understood the word, it meant that i was someone who didn't believe in a god; i was without a god. i didn't broadcast this in public because i noticed that people who do believe in a god get upset to hear that others don't. (why this is so is one of the most pressing of human questions, and i wish a few of the bright people in this conversation would try to answer it through research.) but, slowly i realized that in the popular mind the word atheist was coming to mean something more: a statement that there couldn't be a god. god was, in this formulation, not possible, and this was something that could be proved. but i had been changed by eleven years of interviewing six or seven hundred scientists around the world on the television program scientific american frontiers. and that change was reflected in how i would now identify myself. the most striking thing about the scientists i met was their complete dedication to evidence. it reminded me of the wonderfully plainspoken words of richard feynman who felt it was better not to know than to know something that was wrong. the problem for me was that just as i couldn't find any evidence that there was a god, i couldn't find any that there wasn't a god. i would have to call myself an agnostic. at first, this seemed a little wimpy, but after a while i began to hope it might be an example of feynman's heroic willingness to accept, even glory in, uncertainty. i still don't like the word agnostic. it's too fancy. i'm simply not a believer. but, as simple as this notion is, it confuses some people. someone wrote a wikipedia entry about me, identifying me as an atheist because i'd said in a book i wrote that i wasn't a believer. i guess in a world uncomfortable with uncertainty, an unbeliever must be an atheist, and possibly an infidel. this gets us back to that most pressing of human questions: why do people worry so much about other people's holding beliefs other than their own? this is the question that makes the subject over which i changed my mind something of global importance, and not just a personal, semantic dalliance. do our beliefs identify us the way our language, foods and customs do? is this why people who think the universe chugs along on its own are as repellent to some as people who eat live monkey brains are to others? are we saying, you threaten my identity with your infidelity to my beliefs? you're trying to kill me with your thoughts, so i'll get you first with this stone? and, if so, is this really something that can be resolved through reasonable discourse? maybe this is an even more difficult problem; one that's written in the letters that spell out our dna. why is the belief in god and gods so ubiquitous? does belief in a higher power confer some slight health benefit, and has natural selection favored those who are genetically inclined to believe in such a power   and is that why so many of us are inclined to believe? (whether or not a god actually exists, the tendency to believe we'll be saved might give us the strength to escape sickness and disaster and live the extra few minutes it takes to replicate ourselves.) these are wild speculations, of course, and they're probably based on a desperate belief i once had that we could one day understand ourselves. but, i might have changed my mind on that one, too. throughout my academic career   when i was studying the relationship between psychoanalysis and society and when i moved to the social and psychological studies of technology   i've seen myself as a cultural critic. i don't mention this to stress how lofty a job i put myself in, but rather that i saw the job as theoretical in its essence. technologists designed things; i was able to offer insights about the nature of people's connections to them, the mix of feelings in the thoughts, how passions mixed with cognition. trained in psychoanalysis, i didn't see my stance as therapeutic, but it did borrow from the reticence of that discipline. i was not there to meddle. i was there to listen and interpret. over the past year, i've changed my mind: our current relationship with technology calls forth a more meddlesome me. in the past, because i didn't criticize but tried to analyze, some of my colleagues found me complicit with the agenda of technology builders. i didn't like that much, but understood that this was perhaps the price to pay for maintaining my distance, as goldilock's wolf would say, "the better to hear them with." this year i realized that i had changed my stance. in studying reactions to advanced robots, robots that look you in the eye, remember your name, and track your motions, i found more people who were considering such robots as friends, confidants, and as they imagined technical improvements, even as lovers. i became less distanced. i began to think about technological promiscuity. are we so lonely that we will really love whatever is put in front of us? i kept listening for what stood behind the new promiscuity   my habit of listening didn't change   and i began to get evidence of a certain fatigue with the difficulties of dealing with people. a female graduate student came up to me after a lecture and told me that she would gladly trade in her boyfriend for a sophisticated humanoid robot as long as the robot could produce what she called "caring behavior." she told me that "she needed the feeling of civility in the house and i don't want to be alone." she said: "if the robot could provide a civil environment, i would be happy to help produce the illusion that there is somebody really with me." what she was looking for, she told me, was a "no risk relationship" that would stave off loneliness; a responsive robot, even if it was just exhibiting scripted behavior, seemed better to her than an demanding boyfriend. i thought she was joking. she was not. in a way, i should not have been surprised. for a decade i had studied the appeal of sociable robots. they push our darwinian buttons. they are programmed to exhibit the kind of behavior we have come to associate with sentience and empathy, which leads us to think of them as creatures with intentions, emotions, and autonomy. once people see robots as creatures, they feel a desire to nurture them. with this feeling comes the fantasy of reciprocation. as you begin to care for these creatures, you want them to care about you. and yet, in the past, i had found that people approached computational intelligence with a certain "romantic reaction." their basic position was that simulated thinking might be feeling but simulated feeling was never feeling and simulated love was never love. now, i was hearing something new. people were more likely to tell me that human beings might be "simulating" their feelings, or as one woman put it: "how do i know that my lover is not just simulating everything he says he feels?" everyone i spoke with was busier than ever on with their e mail and virtual friendships. everyone was busier than ever with their social networking and always on/always on you pdas. someone once said that loneliness is failed solitude. could no one stand to be alone anymore before they turned to a device? were cyberconnections paving the way to think that a robotic one might be sufficient unto the day? i was not left contemplating the cleverness of engineering but the vulnerabilities of people. last spring i had a public exchange in which a colleague wrote about the "i thou" dyad of people and robots and i could only see martin buber spinning in his grave. the "i" was the person in the relationship, but how could the robot be the "thou"? in the past, i would have approached such an interchange with discipline, interested only in the projection of feeling onto the robot. but i had taken that position when robots seemed only an evocative object for better understanding people's hopes and frustrations. now, people were doing more than fantasizing. there was a new earnestness. they saw the robot in the wings and were excited to welcome it onstage. it seemed no time at all that a book came out called love and sex with robots and a reporter from scientific american was interviewing me about the psychology of robot marriage. the conversation was memorable and i warned my interviewer that i would use it as data. he asked me if my opposition to people marrying robots put me in the same camp as those who oppose the marriage of lesbians or gay men. i tried to explain that just because i didn't think people could marry machines didn't mean that i didn't think that any mix of people with people was fair play. he accused me of species chauvinism. wasn't this the kind of talk that homophobes once used, not considering gays as "real" people? right there i changed my mind about my vocation. i changed my mind about where my energies were most needed. i was turning in my card as a cultural critic the way i had always envisaged that identity. now i was a cultural critic. i wasn't neutral; i was very sad. some time ago i thought that rational, enlightened thinking would eventually eradicate irrational thinking and supernatural beliefs. how could it be otherwise? scientists and enlightened people have facts and logical arguments on their side, whereas people 'on the other side' have only unprovable beliefs and bad reasoning. i guess i was wrong, way wrong. thirty years later, irrational thinking and supernatural beliefs are much stronger than they used to be, permeate ours and other societies and it does not seem they will go away any time soon. how is it possible? shouldn't 'history' always move forward? what went wrong? what can we do to fix this backward movement toward the irrational? the problem is that science has still a marginal role in our public discourse. indeed, there are no science books on the new york times100 notable books of the year list, no science category in theeconomist books of the year 2007 and only oliver sacks in the new yorker's list of books from our pages. why does science have such a marginal role? i think there is more than one reason. first, scientists tend to confine themselves in well defined, narrow boundaries. they tend not to claim any wisdom outside the confines of their specialties. by doing so, they marginalize themselves and make it difficult for science to have an impact on their society. it is high time for scientists to step up and claim wisdom outside their specialty. there are also other ways, however, to have an impact on our society. for instance, by making some changes in scientific practices. in these days, scientific practices are dominated by the 'hypothesis testing' paradigm. while there is nothing wrong with hypothesis testing, it is definitely wrong to confine all science only to hypothesis testing. this approach precludes the study of complex, real world phenomena, the phenomena that are important to people outside academia. it is time to perform more broad based descriptive studies on issues that are highly relevant to our society. another dominant practice in science (definitely in neuroscience, my own field) is to study phenomena from an atemporal perspective. only the timeless seems to matter to most neuroscientists. even time itself tends to be studied from this 'platonic ideal' perspective. i guess this approach stems from the general tendency of science to adopt the detached 'view from nowhere,' as thomas nagel puts is. if there is one major thing we have learned from modern science, however, is that there is no such thing, there is no 'view from nowhere.' it is time for scientists (especially neuroscientists) to commit to the study of the finite and temporal. the issues that matter 'here and now' are the issues that people relate to. how should we do all this? one way of disseminating the scientific method in our public discourse is to use the tools and approaches of science to investigate issues that are salient to the general public. in neuroscience, we have now powerful tools that let us do this. we can study how people make decisions and form affiliations not from a timeless perspective, but from the perspective of what is salient 'here and now.' these are the kind of studies that naturally engage people. while they read about these studies, people are more likely to learn scientific facts (even the 'atemporal' ones) and to absorb the scientific method and reasoning. my hope is that by being exposed to and engaged by scientific facts, methods, and reasoning, people will eventually find it difficult to believe unprovable things. ten years ago, i wrote: for ninety nine percent of human existence, people lived as foragers in small nomadic bands. our brains are adapted to that long vanished way of life, not to brand new agricultural and industrial civilizations. they are not wired to cope with anonymous crowds, schooling, written language, government, police, courts, armies, modern medicine, formal social institutions, high technology, and other newcomers to the human experience. and: are we still evolving? biologically, probably not much. evolution has no momentum, so we will not turn into the creepy bloat heads of science fiction. the modern human condition is not conducive to real evolution either. we infest the whole habitable and not so habitable earth, migrate at will, and zigzag from lifestyle to lifestyle. this makes us a nebulous, moving target for natural selection. if the species is evolving at all, it is happening too slowly and unpredictably for us to know the direction. (how the mind works) though i stand by a lot of those statements, i've had to question the overall assumption that human evolution pretty much stopped by the time of the agricultural revolution. when i wrote these passages, completion of the human genome project was several years away, and so was the use of statistical techniques that test for signs of selection in the genome. some of these searches for "darwin's fingerprint," as the technique has been called, have confirmed predictions i had made. for example, the modern version gene associated with language and speech has been under selection for several hundred thousand years, and has even been extracted from a neanderthal bone, consistent with my hypothesis (with paul bloom) that language is a product of gradual natural selection. but the assumption of no recent human evolution has not. new results from the labs of jonathan pritchard, robert moyzis, pardis sabeti, and others have suggested that thousands of genes, perhaps as much as ten percent of the human genome, have been under strong recent selection, and the selection may even have accelerated during the past several thousand years. the numbers are comparable to those for maize, which has been artificially selected beyond recognition during the past few millennia. if these results hold up, and apply to psychologically relevant brain function (as opposed to disease resistance, skin color, and digestion, which we already know have evolved in recent millennia), then the field of evolutionary psychology might have to reconsider the simplifying assumption that biological evolution was pretty much over and done with 10 000   50,000 years ago. and if so, the result could be evolutionary psychology on steroids. humans might have evolutionary adaptations not just to the conditions that prevailed for hundreds of thousands of years, but also to some of the conditions that have prevailed only for millennia or even centuries. currently, evolutionary psychology assumes that any adaptation to post agricultural ways of life are 100% cultural. though i suspect some revisions will be called for, i doubt they will be radical, for two reasons. one is that many aspects of the human (and ape) environments have been constant for a much longer time than the period in which selection has recently been claimed to operate. examples include dangerous animals and insects, toxins and pathogens in spoiled food and other animal products, dependent children, sexual dimorphism, risks of cuckoldry and desertion, parent offspring conflict, risk of cheaters in cooperation, fitness variation among potential mates, causal laws governing solid bodies, presence of conspecifics with minds, and many others. recent adaptations would have to be an icing on this cake    quantitative variations within complex emotional and cognitive systems. the other is the empirical fact that human races and ethnic groups are psychologically highly similar, if not identical. people everywhere use language, get jealous, are selective in choosing mates, find their children cute, are afraid of heights and the dark, experience anger and disgust, learn names for local species, and so on. if you adopt children from a technologically undeveloped part of the world, they will fit in to modern society just fine. to the extent that this is true, there can't have been a whole lot of uneven psychological evolution postdating the split among the races 50 100,000 years ago (though there could have been parallel evolution in all the branches). six years ago, i changed my mind about the benefit of being able to change my mind. in 2002, jane ebert and i discovered that people are generally happier with decisions when they can't undo them. when subjects in our experiments were able to undo their decisions they tended to consider both the positive and negative features of the decisions they had made, but when they couldn't undo their decisions they tended to concentrate on the good features and ignore the bad. as such, they were more satisfied when they made irrevocable than revocable decisions. ironically, subjects did not realize this would happen and strongly preferred to have the opportunity to change their minds. now up until this point i had always believed that love causes marriage. but these experiments suggested to me that marriage could also cause love. if you take data seriously you act on it, so when these results came in i went home and proposed to the woman i was living with. she said yes, and it turned out that the data were right: i love my wife more than i loved my girlfriend. the willingness to change one's mind is a sign of intelligence, but the freedom to do so comes at a cost. like people since even before darwin, i used to think that human origins were explained by meat eating. but three epiphanies have changed my mind. i now think that cooking was the major advance that made us human. first, an improved fossil record has shown that meat eating arose too early to explain human origins. significant meat eating by our ancestors is initially attested in the pre human world of 2.6 million years ago, when hominids began to flake stones into simple knives. around the same time there appears a fossil species variously calledaustralopithecus habilis or homo habilis. these habilis presumably made the stone knives, but they were not human. they were calibans, missing links with intricate mixture of advanced and primitive traits. their brains, being twice the size of ape brains, tell of incipient humanity: but as bernard wood has stressed, their chimpanzee sized bodies, long arms, big guts and jutting faces made them ape like. meat eating likely explains the origin of habilis. humans emerged almost a million years later when habilis evolved intohomo erectus. at 1.6 million years ago homo erectus were the size and shape of people today. their brains were bigger than those ofhabilis, and they walked and ran as fluently as we do. their mouths were small and their teeth relatively dwarfed   a pygmy faced hominoid, just like all later humans. to judge from the reduced flaring of their rib cage they had lost the capacious guts that allow great apes and habilis to eat large volumes of plant food. equally strange for a “helpless and defenceless” species they had also lost their climbing ability, forcing them to sleep on the ground   a surprising commitment in a continent full of big cats, sabretooths, hyenas, rhinos and elephants. so the question of what made us human is the question of why a population of habilis became homo erectus. my second epiphany was a double insight: humans are biologically adapted to eating cooked diets, and the signs of this adaptation start with homo erectus. cooked food is the signature feature of human diet. it not only makes our food safe and easy to eat, but it also grants us large amounts of energy compared to a raw diet, obviating the need to ingest big meals. cooking softens food too, thereby making eating so speedy that as eaters of cooked food, we are granted many extra hours of free time every day. so cooked food allows our guts, teeth and mouths to be small, while giving us abundant food energy and freeing our time. cooked food, of course, requires the control of fire; and a fire at night explains howhomo erectus dared sleep on the ground. cooked food has so many important biological effects that its adoption should be clearly marked in the fossil record by signals of a reduced digestive system and increased energy use. while such signs are clear at the origin of homo erectus, they are not found later in human evolution. the match between the biological merits of cooked food and the evolutionary changes in homo erectus is thus so obvious that except for a scientific obstacle, i believe it would have been noticed long ago. the obstacle is the insistence of archaeologists that the control of fire is not firmly evidenced before about a quarter of a million years ago. as a result of this archaeological caution, the idea that humans could have used fire before about 250,000 to 500,000 years ago has long been sidelined. but i finally realized that the archaeological record decays so steadily that it gives us no information about when fire was first controlled. the fire record is better at 10,000 years than at 20,000 years; at 50,000 years than 100,000 years; at 250,000 years than 500,000 years; and so on. evidence for the control of fire is always better when it is closer to the present, but during the course of human evolution it never completely goes away. there is only one date beyond which no evidence for the control of fire has been found: 1.6 million years ago, around the time when homo erectus evolved. between now and then, the erratic record tells us only one thing: the archaeological evidence is incapable of telling us when fire was first controlled. the biological evidence is more helpful. that was my third epiphany. the origin of homo erectus is too late for meat eating; the adoption of cooking solves the problem; and archaeology does not gainsay it. in a roast potato and a hunk of beef we have a new theory of what made us human. for most of my career, i believed that the bedrock of physical reality lay with the laws of physics   magnificent, immutable, transcendent, universal, infinitely precise mathematical relationships that rule the universe with as sure a hand as that of any god. and i had orthdoxy on my side, for most of my physicist colleagues also believe that these perfect laws are the levitating superturtle that holds up the mighty edifice we call nature, as disclosed through science. about three years ago, however, it dawned on me that such laws are an extraordinary and unjustified idealization. how can we be sure that the laws are infinitely precise? how do we know they are immutable, and apply without the slightest change from the beginning to the end of time? furthermore, the laws themselves remain unexplained. where do they come from? why do they have the form that they do? indeed, why do they exist at all? and if there are many possible such laws, then, as stephen hawking has expressed it, what is it that "breathes fire" into a particular set of laws and makes a universe for them to govern? so i did a u turn and embraced the notion of laws as emergent with the universe rather than stamped on it from without like a maker's mark. the "inherent" laws i now espouse are not absolute and perfect, but are instrinsically fuzzy and flexible, although for almost all practical purposes we don't notice the tiny flaws. why did i change my mind? i am not content to merely accept the laws of physics as a brute fact. rather, i want to explain the laws, or at least explain the form they have, as part of the scientific enterprise. one of the oddities about the laws is the well known fact that they are weirdly well suited to the emergence of life in the universe. had they been slightly different, chances are there would be no sentient beings around to discover them. the fashionable explanation for this   that there is a multiplicity of laws in a multiplicity of parallel universes, with each set of laws fixed and perfect within its host universe   is a nice try, but still leaves a lot unexplained. and simply saying that the laws "just are" seems no better than declaring "god made them that way." the orthodox view of perfect physical laws is a thinly veiled vestige of monothesim, the reigning world view that prevailed at the birth of modern science. if we want to explain the laws, however, we have to abandon the theological legacy that the laws are fixed and absolute, and replace them with the notion that the states of the world and the laws that link them form a dynamic interdependent unity. like 99% of particle physicists, and 95% of cosmologist (perhaps 98% of theorists and 90% of observers, to be more specific), i was relatively certain that there was precisely enough matter in the universe to make it geometrically flat. what does geometrically flat mean? well, according to general relativity it means there is a precise balance between the positive kinetic energy associated with the expansion of space, and the negative potential energy associated with the gravitational attraction of matter in the universe so that the total energy is precisely zero. this is not only mathematically attractive, but in fact the only theory we have that explains why the universe looks the way it does today tends to predict a flat universe today. now, the only problem with this prediction is that visible matter in the universe only accounts for a few percent of the total amount of matter required to make the universe flat. happily, however, during the period from 1970 or so to the early 1990's it had become abundantly clear that our galaxy, and indeed all galaxies are dominated by 'dark matter'... material that does not shine, or, as far as we can tell, interact electromagnetically. this material, which we think is made up of a new type of elementary particle, accounts for at least 10 times as much matter as can be accounted for in stars, hot gas etc.. with the inference that dark matter existed in such profusion, it was natural to suspect that there was enough of it to account for a flat universe. the only problem was that the more our observations of the universe improved, the less evidence there appeared to be that there was enough dark matter to result in a flat universe. moreover, all other other indicators of cosmology, from the age of the universe, to the data on large scale structure, all began to suggest a flat universe dominated by dark matter was inconsistent with observation. in 1995, this led my colleague mike turner and i to suggest that the only way a flat universe could be consistent with observation was if most of the energy, indeed almost 75% of the total energy, was contributed not by matter, but by empty space! as heretical as our suggestion was, to be fair, i think we were being more provocative than anything, because the one thing that everyone knew was that the energy of empty space had to be precisely zero. the alternative, which would have resulted in something very much like the 'cosmological constant' first proposed by einstein when he incorrectly thought the universe was static and needed some exotic new adjustment to his equations of general relativity so that the attractive force of gravity was balanced by a repulsive force associated with empty space, was just too ugly to imagine. and then, in 1998 two teams measuring the recession velocity of distant galaxies using observations of exploding stars within them to probe their distance from us at the same time discovered something amazing. the expansion of the universe seemed to be speed up with time, not slowing down, as any sensible universe should be doing! moreover, if one assumed this acceleration was caused by a new repulsive force throughout empty space that would be caused if the energy of empty space was not precisely zero, then the amount of extra energy needed to produce the observed acceleration was precisely the amount needed to account for a flat universe! now here is the really weird thing. within a year after the observation of an accelerating universe, even though the data was not yet definitive, i and pretty well everyone else in the community who had previously thought there was enough dark matter to result in a flat universe, and who had previously thought the energy of empty space must be precisely zero had completely changed our minds... all of the signals were just too overwhelming to continue to hold on to our previous rosy picture... even if the alternative was so crazy that none of our fundamental theories could yet account for it. so we are now pretty sure that the dominant energy stuff in our universe isn't normal matter, and isn't dark matter, but rather is associated with empty space! and what is worse (or better, depending upon your viewpoint) is that our whole picture of the possible future of the universe has changed.. an accelerating universe will carry away almost everything we now see, so that in the far future our galaxy will exist alone in a dark, and seemingly endless void.... and that is what i find so satisfying about science. not just that i could change my own mind because the evidence of reality forced me to... but that the whole community could throw out a cherished notion, and so quickly! that is what makes science different than religion, and that is what makes it worth continuing to ask questions about the universe ... because it never fails to surprise us. growing up as a young proto scientist, i was always strongly anti establishmentarian, looking forward to overthrowing the system as our generation's new galileo. now i spend a substantial fraction of my time explaining and defending the status quo to outsiders. it's very depressing. as an undergraduate astronomy i was involved in a novel and exciting test of einstein's general relativity   measuring the precession of orbits, just like mercury in the solar system, but using massive eclipsing binary stars. what made it truly exciting was that the data disagreed with the theory! (which they still do, by the way.) how thrilling is it to have the chance to overthrow einstein himself? of course there are more mundane explanations   the stars are tilted, or there is an invisible companion star perturbing their orbits, and these hypotheses were duly considered. but i wasn't very patient with such boring possibilities   it was obvious to me that we had dealt a crushing blow to a cornerstone of modern physics, and the establishment was just too hidebound to admit it. now i know better. physicists who are experts in the field tend to be skeptical of experimental claims that contradict general relativity, not because they are hopelessly encumbered by tradition, but because einstein's theory has passed a startlingly diverse array of experimental tests. indeed, it turns out to be almost impossible to change general relativity in a way that would be important for those binary stars, but which would not have already shown up in the solar system. experiments and theories don't exist in isolation   they form a tightly connected web, in which changes to any one piece tend to reverberate through various others. so now i find myself cast as a defender of scientific orthodoxy   from classics like relativity and natural selection, to modern wrinkles like dark matter and dark energy. in science, no orthodoxy is sacred, or above question   there should always be a healthy exploration of alternatives, and i have always enjoyed inventing new theories of gravity or cosmology, keeping in mind the variety of evidence in favor of the standard picture. but there is also an unhealthy brand of skepticism, proceeding from ignorance rather than expertise, which insists that any consensus must flow from a reluctance to face up to the truth, rather than an appreciation of the evidence. it's that kind of skepticism that keeps showing up in my email. unsolicited. heresy is more romantic than orthodoxy. nobody roots for goliath, as wilt chamberlain was fond of saying. but in science, ideas tend to grow into orthodoxy for good reasons. they fit the data better than the alternatives. many casual heretics can't be bothered with all the detailed theoretical arguments and experimental tests that support the models they hope to overthrow   they have a feeling about how the universe should work, and are convinced that history will eventually vindicate them, just as it did galileo. what they fail to appreciate is that, scientifically speaking, galileo overthrew the system from within. he understood the reigning orthodoxy of his time better than anyone, so he was better able to see beyond it. our present theories are not complete, and nobody believes they are the final word on how nature works. but finding the precise way to make progress, to pinpoint the subtle shift of perspective that will illuminate a new way of looking at the world, will require an intimate familiarity with our current ideas, and a respectful appreciation of the evidence supporting them. being a heretic can be fun; but being a successful heretic is mostly hard work. to me, having my worldview entirely altered is among the most fun parts of science. one mind altering event occurred during graduate school. i was studying the field of artificial intelligence with a focus on natural language processing. at that time there were intense arguments amongst computer scientists, psychologists, and philosophers about how to represent concepts and knowledge in computers, and if those representations reflected in any realistic way how people represented knowledge. most researchers thought that language and concepts should be represented in a diffuse manner, distributed across myriad brain cells in a complex network. but some researchers talked about the existence of a "grandmother cell," meaning that one neuron in the brain (or perhaps a concentrated group of neurons) was entirely responsible for representing the concept of, say, your grandmother. i thought this latter view was hogwash. but one day in the early 90's i heard a story on national public radio about children who had wernicke's aphasia, meaning that a particular region in their brains were damaged. this damage left the children with the ability to form complicated sentences with correct grammatical structure and natural sounding rhythms, but with content that was entirely meaningless. this story was a revelation to me    it seemed like irrefutable proof that different aspects of language were located in distinct regions of the brain, and that therefore perhaps the grandmother cell could exist. (steven pinker subsequently wrote his masterpiece, "the language instinct," on this topic.) shortly after this, the field of natural language processing became radically changed by an entirely new approach. as i mentioned above, in the early 90's most researchers were introspecting about language use and were trying to hand code knowledge into computers. so people would enter in data like "when you go to a restaurant, someone shows you to a table. you and your dining partners sit on chairs at your selected table. a waiter or waitress walks up to you and hands you a menu. you read the menu and eventually the waiter comes back and asks for your order. the waiter takes this information back to the kitchen." and so on, in painstaking detail. but as large volumes of text started to become available online, people started developing algorithms to solve seemingly difficult natural language processing problems using very simple techniques. for example, how hard is it to write a program that can tell which language a stretch of text is written in? sibun and reynar found that all you need to do is record how often pairs of characters tend to co occur in each language, and you only need to extract about a sentence from a piece of text to classify it with 99% accuracy into one of 18 languages! another wild example is that of author identification. back in the early 60's, mosteller and wallace showed that they could identify which of the disputed federalist papers were written by hamilton vs. those written by madison, simply by looking at counts of the function words (small structural words like "by", "from", and "to") that each author used. the field as a whole is chipping away at the hard problems of natural language processing by using statistics derived from that mother of all text corpora, the web. for example, how do you write a program to figure out the difference between a "student protest" and a "war protest"? the former is a demonstration against something, done by students, but the latter is not a demonstration done by a war. in the old days, we would try to code all the information we could about the words in the noun compounds and try to anticipate how they interact. but today we used statistics drawn from counts of simple patterns on the web. recently my phd student preslav nakov has shown that we can often determine what the intended relationship between two nouns is by simply counting the verbs that fall between the two nouns, if we first reverse their order. so if we search the web for patterns like: "protests that are * by students" we find out the important verbs are "draw, involve, galvanize, affect, carried out by" and so on, whereas for "war protests" we find verbs such as "spread by, catalyzed by, precede", and so on. the lesson we see over and over again is that simple statistics computed over very large text collections can do better at difficult language processing tasks than more complex, elaborate algorithms. i used to believe that we could understand psychology at different levels of analysis, and events at any one of the levels could be studied independently of events at the other levels. for example, one could study events at the level of the brain (and seek answers in terms of biological mechanisms), the level of the person (and seek answers in terms of the contents of thoughts, beliefs, knowledge, and so forth), or the level of the group (and seek answers in terms of social interactions). this approach seemed reasonable; the strategy of "divide and conquer" is a cornerstone in all of science, isn't it? in fact, virtually all introductory psychology textbooks are written as if events at the different levels are largely independent, with separate chapters (that only rarely include cross references to each other) on the brain, perception, memory, personality, social psychology, and so on. i've changed my mind. i don't think it's possible to understand events at any one level of analysis without taking into account what occurs at other levels. in particular, i'm now convinced that at least some aspects of the structure and function of the brain can only be understood by situating the brain in a specific cultural context. i'm not simply saying that the brain has evolved to function in a specific type of environment (an idea that forms a mainstay of evolutionary psychology and some areas of computer vision, where statistics of the natural environment are used to guide processing). rather, i'm saying that to understand how any specific brain functions, we need to understand how that person was raised, and currently functions, in the surrounding culture. here's my line of reasoning. let's begin with a fundamental fact: the genes, of which we have perhaps only some 30,000, cannot program us to function equally effectively in every possible environment. hence, evolution has licensed the environment to set up and configure each individual's brain, so that it can work well in that context. for example, consider stereovision. we all know about stereo in audition; the sound from each of two loudspeakers has slightly different phases, so the listener's brain glues them together to provide the sense of an auditory panorama. something similar is at work in vision. in stereovision, the slight disparity in the images that reach the two eyes are a cue for how far away objects are. if you're focused on an object directly in front of you, your eyes will converge slightly. aside from the exact point of focus, the rest of the image will strike slightly different places on the two retinas (at the back of the eye, which converts light into neural impulses), and the brain uses the slight disparities to figure out how far away something is. there are two important points here. first, this stereo process   of computing depth on the basis of the disparities in where images strike the two retinas   depends on the distance between the eyes. and second, and this is absolutely critical, there's no way to know at the moment of conception how far apart a person's eyes are going to be, because that depends on bone growth   and bone growth depends partly on the mother's diet and partly on the infant's diet. so, given that bone growth depends partly on the environment, how could the genes set up stereovision circuits in the brain? what the genes did is really clever: young children (peaking at about age 18 months) have more connections among neurons than do adults; in fact, until about eight years old, children have about twice as many neural connections as they do as adults. but only some of these connections provide useful information. for example, when the infant reaches, only the connections from some neurons will correctly guide reaching. the brain uses a process called pruning to get rid of the useless connections. the connections that turn out to work, with the distance between the eyes the infant happens to have, would not be the ones that would work if the mother did not have enough calcium, or the infant hadn't had enough of various dietary supplements. this is a really elegant solution to the problem that the genes can't know in advance how far apart the eyes will be. to cope with this problem, the genes overpopulate the brain, giving us options for different environments (where the distance between eyes and length of the arms are part of the brain's "environment," in this sense), and then the environment selects which connections are appropriate. in other words, the genes take advantage of the environment to configure the brain. this overpopulate and select mechanism is not limited to stereovision. in general, the environment sets up the brain (above and beyond any role it may have had in the evolution of the species), configuring it to work well in the world a person inhabits. and by environment i'm including everything outside the brain   including the social environment. for example, it's well known that children can learn multiple languages without an accent and with good grammar, if they are exposed to the language before puberty. but after puberty, it's very difficult to learn a second language so well. similarly, when i first went to japan, i was told not even to bother trying to bow, that there were something like a dozen different bows and i was always going to "bow with an accent"   and in my case the accent was so thick that it was impenetrable. the notion is that a variety of factors in our environment, including in our social environment, configure our brains. it's true for language, and i bet it's true for politeness as well as a raft of other kinds of phenomena. the genes result in a profusion of connections among neurons, which provide a playing field for the world to select and configure so that we fit the environment in which we inhabit. the world comes into our head, configuring us. the brain and its surrounding environment are not as separate as they might appear. this perspective leads me to wonder whether we can assume that the brains of people living in different cultures process information in precisely the same ways. yes, people the world over have much in common (we are members of the same species, after all), but even small changes in the wiring may lead us to use the common machinery in different ways. if so, then people from different cultures may have unique perspectives on common problems, and be poised to make unique contributions toward solving such problems. changing my mind about the relationship between events at different levels of analysis has led me to change fundamental beliefs. in particular, i now believe that understanding how the surrounding culture affects the brain may be of more than merely "academic interest." in the 90's i was praising the remarkable grassroots success of the building preservation movement. keep the fabric and continuity of the old buildings and neighborhoods alive! revive those sash windows. as a landlocked youth in illinois i mooned over the yacht sales pictures in the back of sailboat books. i knew what i wanted   a gaff rigged ketch! wood, of course. the christmas mail order catalog people know what my age group wants (i'm 69). we want to give a child wooden blocks, monopoly or clue, a lionel train. we want to give ourselves a bomber jacket, a fancy leather belt, a fine cotton shirt. we study the restoration hardware catalog. my own whole earth catalog, back when, pushed no end of retro stuff in a back to basics agenda. well, i bought a sequence of wooden sailboats. their gaff rigs couldn't sail to windward. their leaky wood hulls and decks were a maintenance nightmare. i learned that the fiberglass hulls we'd all sneered at were superior in every way to wood. remodeling an old farmhouse two years ago and replacing its sash windows, i discovered the current state of window technology. a standard andersen window, factory made exactly to the dimensions you want, has superb insulation qualities; superb hinges, crank, and lock; a flick in, flick out screen; and it looks great. the same goes for the new kinds of doors, kitchen cabinetry, and even furniture feet that are available   all drastically improved. the message finally got through. good old stuff sucks. sticking with the fine old whatevers is like wearing 100% cotton in the mountains; it's just stupid. give me 100% not cotton clothing, genetically modified food (from a farmers' market, preferably), this year's laptop, cutting edge dentistry and drugs. the precautionary principle tells me i should worry about everything new because it might have hidden dangers. the handwringers should worry more about the old stuff. it's mostly crap. (new stuff is mostly crap too, of course. but the best new stuff is invariably better than the best old stuff.) at age 10 in 1950, one of the department stores had a pneumatic tube system for moving receipts and money from counters to the cashier's office. i loved this and tried to figure out how it worked the clerks in the store knew all about it. "vacuum", they said, "vacuum sucks the canisters, just like your mom's vacuum cleaner". but how does it work, i asked? "vacuum", they said, "vacuum, does it all". this was what adults called "an explanation"! so i took apart my mom's hoover vacuum cleaner to find out how it worked. there was an electric motor in there, which i had expected, but the only other thing in there was a fan! how could a fan produce a vacuum, and how could it suck? we had a room fan and i looked at it more closely. i knew that it worked like the propeller of an airplane, but i'd never thought about how those worked. i picked up a board and moved it. this moved air just fine. so the blades of the propeller and the fan were just boards that the motor kept on moving to push air. but what about the vacuum? i found that a sheet of paper would stick to the back of the fan. but why? i "knew" that air was supposed to be made up of particles too small to be seen. so it was clear why you got a gust of breeze by moving a board   you were knocking little particles one way and not another. but where did the sucking of the paper on the fan and in the vacuum cleaner come from? suddenly it occurred to me that the air particles must be already moving very quickly and bumping into each other. when the board or fan blades moved air particles away from the fan there were less near the fan and the already moving particles would have less to bump into and would thus move towards the fan. they didn't know about the fan, but they appeared to. the "suck" of the vacuum cleaner was not a suck at all. what was happening is that things went into the vacuum cleaner because they were being "blown in" by the air particles' normal movement, which were not being opposed by the usual pressure of air particles inside the fan! when my physiologist father came home that evening i exclaimed "dad, the air particles must be moving at least a hundred miles an hour!". i told him what i'd found out and he looked in his physics book. in there was a formula to compute the speed of various air molecules at various temperatures. it turned out that at room temperature ordinary air molecules were moving much faster than i had guessed: more like 1500 miles an hour! this completely blew my mind! then i got worried because even small things were clearly not moving that fast going into the vacuum cleaner (nor in the pneumatic tubes). by putting my hand out the window of the car i could feel that the air was probably going into the vacuum cleaner closer to 50 or 60 miles an hour. another conversation with my dad led to two ideas (a) the fan was probably not very efficient at moving particles away, and (b) the particles themselves were going in every direction and bumping into each other (this is why it takes a while for perfume from an open bottle to be smelled across a room. this experience was a big deal for me because i had thought one way using a metaphor and a story about "sucking", and then i suddenly thought just the opposite because of an experiment and non story thinking. the world was not as it seemed! or as most adults thought and claimed! i never trusted "just a story" again. it's generally a bad idea to change your mind and an even worse idea to do it publicly. politicians who get caught changing their minds are labeled "flip floppers." when managers change their minds about what they want they risk losing credibility and they create frustration in subordinates who find that much of their work has now been wasted. researchers who change their minds may be regarded as sloppy, shooting from the hip rather than delaying publication until they nail down all the loose ends in their data. clearly the edge annual question for 2008 carries with it some dangers in disclosure: "what have you changed your mind about? why?" nevertheless, i'll take the bait and describe a case where i changed my mind about the nature of the phenomenon i was studying. my colleagues roberta calderwood, anne clinton cirocco, and i were investigating how people make decisions under time pressure. obviously, under time pressure people can't canvass all the relevant possibilities and compare them along a common set of dimensions. so what are they doing instead? i thought i knew what happened. peer soelberg had investigated the job choice strategy of students. in most cases they quickly identified a favorite job option and evaluated it by comparing it to another option, a choice comparison, trying to show that their favorite option was as good as or better than this comparison case on every relevant dimension. this strategy seemed like a very useful way to handle time pressure. instead of systematically assessing a large number of options, you only have to compare two options until you're satisfied that your favorite dominates the other. to demonstrate that people used this strategy to handle time pressure i studied fireground commanders. unhappily, the firefighters had not read the script. we conducted interviews with them about tough cases, probing them about the options they considered. and in the great majority of cases (about 81%), they insisted that they only considered one option. the evidence obviously didn't support my hypothesis. still, i wasn't convinced that my hypothesis was wrong. perhaps we hadn't phrased the questions appropriately. perhaps the firefighters' memories were inaccurate. at this point i hadn't changed my mind. i had just conducted a study that didn't work out. people are very good at deflecting inconvenient evidence. there are very few facts that can't be explained away. facts rarely force us to change our minds. eventually my frustration about not getting the results i wanted was replaced by a different emotion: curiosity. if the firefighters weren't comparing options just what were they doing? they described how they usually knew what to do once they sized up the situation. this claim generated two mysteries: how could the first option they considered have such a high likelihood of succeeding? and how could they evaluate an option except by comparing it to another? going back over the data we resolved each of these mysteries. they were using their years of experience to rapidly size up situations. the patterns they had acquired suggested typical ways of reacting. but they still needed to evaluate the options they identified. they did so by imagining what might happen if they carried out the action in the context of their situation. if it worked, they proceeded. if it almost worked then they looked for ways to repair any weaknesses or else looked at other typical reactions until they found one that satisfied them. together, this forms a recognition primed decision strategy that is based on pattern recognition but tests the results using deliberate mental simulation. this strategy is very different from the original hypothesis about comparing the favorite versus a choice comparison. i had an advantage in that i had never received any formal training in decision research. one of my specialty areas was the nature of expertise. therefore, the conceptual shift i made was about peripheral constructs, rather than core constructs about how decisions are made. the notions of peer soelberg that i was testing weren't central to my understanding of skilled performance. changing one's mind isn't merely revising the numerical value of a fact in a mental data base or changing the beliefs we hold. changing my mind also means changing the way i will then use my mind to search for and interpret facts. when i changed my understanding of how the fireground commanders were making decisions i altered the way i viewed experts and decision makers. i altered the ways i collected and analyzed data in later studies. as a result, i began looking at events with a different mind, one that i had exchanged for the mind i previously had been using. i have, falteringly and with various intermediary about faces and caveats, changed my mind about human spaceflight. i am of the generation to have had its childhood imagination stoked by the sight of apollo missions on the television   i can't put hand on heart and say i remember the eagle landing, but i remember the sights of the moon relayed to our homes. i was fascinated by space and only through that, by way of the science fiction that a fascination with space inexorably led to, by science. and astronauts were what space was about. i was not, as i grew older, uncritical of human spaceflight   i remember my anger at the challenger explosion, my sense that if people were going to die, it should be for something grander than just another shuttle mission. but i was still struck by its romance, and by the way its romance touched some of the unlikeliest people. by all logic the economist should have been, when i worked there, highly dubious about the aspirations of human spaceflight, as it is today. but the then editor would hear not a word against the undertaking, at least not against its principle. with some relief at this i became while the magazine's science editor a sort of critical apologist   critical of the human space programme there actually was, but sensitive to the possibility that a better space programme was possible. i bought into, at least at some level, the argument that a joint us russian programme offered advantages in terms of aerospace employment in the former ussr. i bought into the argument that continuity of effort was needed   that so much would be lost if a programme was dismantled it might not be possible to reassemble it. i bought into the crucial safety net argument   that it would not be possible to cancel the us programme anyway, so strong were the interests of the military industrial complex and so broad, if shallow, the support of the public. (like the powder river, a mile wide, an inch deep and rolling uphill all the way from texas.) and i could see science it would offer that was unavailable by any other means. now, though, i can no longer find much to respect in those arguments. us russian cooperation seems to have bought little benefit. the idea of continuous effort seems at best unproven   and indeed perhaps worth checking. leaving a technology fallow for a few decades and coming back with new people, tools and mindsets is not such a bad idea. and at least one serious presidential candidate is talking about actually freezing the american programme, cancelling the shuttle without in the short term developing its successor. whether obama will get elected or be willing or able to carry through the idea remains to be seen   but if politicians are talking like this the "it will never happen so why worry" argument becomes far more suspect. and the crucial idea (crucial to me) that human exploration of mars might answer great questions about life in the universe no longer seems as plausible or as likely to pay off in my lifetime as once it did. i increasingly think that life in a martian deep biosphere if there is any, will be related to earth life and teach us relatively little that's new. at the same time it will be fiendishly hard to reach without contamination. mars continues to fascinate me   but it has ever less need of a putative future human presence in order to do so. my excitement at the idea of life in the universe   excitement undoubtedly spurred by apollo and the works of clarke, heinlein and roddenberry that followed on from it in my education   is now more engaged with exoplanets, to which human spaceflight is entirely irrelevant (though post human spaceflight may be a different kettle of lobsters). if we want to understand the depth of the various relations between life and planets, which is what i want to understand, it is by studying other planets with vibrant biospheres, as well as this one, that we will do so. a world with a spartan $100 billion moonbase but no ability to measure spectra and lightcurves from earthlike planets around distant stars is not the world for me. in general, i try to avoid arguing from my own interests. but in this case it seems to me that all the other arguments against human spaceflight are so strong that to be against it merely meant realising that an atavistic part of me had failed to understand what those interests are. i'm interested in how life works on astronomical scales, and that interest has nothing to do, in the short term, with human spaceflight. and i see no reason beyond my own interests to suggest that it is something worth spending so much money on. it does not make the world a better place in any objective way that can be measured, or in any subjective way that compels respect. it is possibly also the case that seeing human spaceflight reduced to a matter of suborobital hops for the rich, or even low earth orbit hotels, has hardened my heart further against it. i hope this is not a manifestation of the politics of envy, though i fear that in part it could be. why are men underrepresented in teaching, child care, and related fields and women underrepresented in engineering, physics, and related fields? i used to know the answer, but that was before i spent several decades reviewing almost everything written about this question. like most enduring questions, the responses have grown more contentious and even less is "settled" now that we have mountains of research designed to answer them. at some point, my own answer changed from what i believed to be the simple truth to a convoluted statement complete with qualifiers, hedge terms, and caveats. i guess this shift in my own thinking represents progress, but it doesn't feel or look that way. i am a feminist, a product of the 60s, who believed that group differences in intelligence or most any other trait are mostly traceable to the lifetime of experiences that mold us into the people we are and will be. of course, i never doubted the basic premises of evolution, but the lessons that i learned from evolution favor the idea that the brain and behavior are adaptable. hunter gatherers never solved calculus problems or traveled to the moon, so i find little in our ancient past to explain these modern day achievements. there is also the disturbing fact that evolutionary theories can easily explain almost any outcome, so i never found them to be a useful framework for understanding behavior. even when i knew the simple truth about sex differences in cognitive abilities, i never doubted that heritability plays a role in cognitive development, but like many others, i believed that once the potential to develop an ability exceeded some threshold value, heritability was of little importance. now i am less sure about any single answer, and nothing is simple any more. the literature on sex differences in cognitive abilities is filled with inconsistent findings, contradictory theories, and emotional claims that are unsupported by the research. yet, despite all of the noise in the data, clear and consistent messages can be heard. there are real, and in some cases sizable, sex differences with respect to some cognitive abilities. socialization practices are undoubtedly important, but there is also good evidence that biological sex differences play a role in establishing and maintaining cognitive sex differences, a conclusion that i wasn't prepared to make when i began reviewing the relevant literature. i could not ignore or explain away repeated findings about (small) variations over the menstrual cycle, the effects of exogenously administered sex hormones on cognition, a variety of anomalies that allow us to separate prenatal hormone effects on later development, failed attempts to alter the sex roles of a biological male after an accident that destroyed his penis, differences in preferred modes of thought, international data on the achievement of females and males, to name just a few types of evidence that demand the conclusion that there is some biological basis for sex typed cognitive development. my thinking about this controversial topic has changed. i have come to understand that nature needs nurture and the dichotomization of these two influences on development is the wrong way to conceptualize their mutual influences on each other. our brain structures and functions reflect and direct our life experiences, which create feed back loops that alter the hormones we secrete and how we select environments. learning is a biological and environmental phenomenon. and so, what had been a simple truth morphed into a complicated answer for the deceptively simple question about why there are sex differences in cognitive abilities. there is nothing in my new understanding that justifies discrimination or predicts the continuation of the status quo. there is plenty of room for motivation, self regulation, and persistence to make the question about the underrepresentation of women and men in different academic areas moot in coming years. like all complex questions, the question about why men and women achieve in different academic areas depends on a laundry list of influences that do not fall neatly into categories labeled biology or environment. it is time to give up this tired way of thinking about nature and nurture as two independent variables and their interaction and recognize how they exert mutual influences on each other. no single number can capture the extent to which one type of variable is important because they do not operate independently. nature and nurture do not just interact; they fundamentally change each other. the answer that i give today is far more complicated than the simple truth that i used to believe, but we have no reason to expect that complex phenomena like cognitive development have simple answers. i have changed my mind about technology. i used to take a dim view of technology. one should live one's life in a simple, low tech fashion, i thought. no cell phone, keep off the computer, don't drive. no nukes, no remote control, no dvd, no tv. walk, read, think   that was the proper path to follow. what a fool i was! a dozen years ago or so, by some bizarre accident, i became a professor of mechanical engineering at mit. i had never had any training, experience, or education in engineering. my sole claim to engineering expertise was some work on complex systems and a few designs for quantum computers. quantum mechanical engineering was in its early days then, however, and mit needed a quantum mechanic. i was ready to answer the call. it was not my fellow professors who converted me to technology, uber techno nerds though they were. indeed, my colleagues in mech. e. were by and large somewhat suspicious of me, justifiably so. i was wary of them in turn, as one often is of co workers who are hugely more knowledgeable than one is oneself. (outside of the mechanical engineering department, by contrast, i found large numbers of kindred souls: mit was full of people whose quanta needed fixing, and as a certified quantum mechanic, i was glad to oblige.) no, it was not the brilliant technologists who filled the faculty lunchroom who changed my mind. rather, it was the students who had come to have me teach them about engineering who taught me to value technology. your average mit undergraduate is pretty technologically adept. in the old days, freshmen used to arrive mit having disassembled and reassembled tractors and cars; slightly later on, they arrived having built ham radios and guitar amplifiers; more recently, freshmen and fresh women were showing up with a scary facility with computers. nowadays, few of them have used a screwdriver (except maybe to install some more memory in their laptop), but they are eager to learn how robots work, and raring to build one themselves. when i stepped into my first undergraduate classroom, a controls laboratory, i knew just about as little about how to build a robot as the nineteen and twenty year olds who were expectantly sitting, waiting for me to teach them how. i was terrified. within a half an hour, the basis for my terror was confirmed. not only did i know as little as the students, in many cases i knew significantly less: about of the quarter of the students knew demonstrably more about robotics than i, and were happy to display their knowledge. i emerged from the first lab session a sweaty mess, having managed to demonstrate my ignorance and incompetence in a startling variety of ways. i emerged from the second lab session a little cooler. there is no better way to learn, and learn fast, than to teach. humility actually turns out to have its virtues, too. it turns out to be rather fun to admit one's ignorance, if that admission takes the form of an appeal to the knowledge of all assembled. in fact, it turned out that, either through my training in math and physics, or through a previous incarnation, i possessed more intuitive knowledge of control theory than i had any right to, given my lack of formal education on the subject. finally, no student is more empowered than the one who has just correctly told her professor that he is wrong, and showed him why her solution is the right one. in the end, the experience of teaching the technology that i did not know was one of the most intellectually powerful of my life. in my mental ferment of trying to learn the material faster and deeper than my students, i began to grasp concepts and ways of looking at the world, of whose existence i had no previous notion. one of the primary features of the lab was a set of analog computers, boxy things festooned with dials and plugs, and full of amplifiers, capacitors, and resistors, that were used to simulate, or construct an analog, of the motors and loads that we were trying to control. in my feverish attempt to understand analog computers, i constructed model for a quantum mechanical analog computer that would operate at the level of individual atoms. this model resulted in one of my best scientific papers. in the end, scarily enough, my student evaluations gave me the highest possible marks for knowledge of the material taught. and technology? hey, it's not so bad. when it comes to walking in the rain, goretex and fleece beat oilskin and wool hollow. if we're not going to swamp our world in greenhouse gases, we damn well better design dramatically more efficient cars and power plants. and if i could contribute to technology by designing and helping to build quantum computers and quantum communication systems, so much the better. properly conceived and constructed technology does not hinder the simple life, but helps it. ok. so i was wrong about technology. what's my next misconception? religion? god forbid. anyone who has taken a course in introductory psychology has heard the story of how the behaviorist john b. watson produced "conditioned fear" of a white rat   or was it a white rabbit?   in an unfortunate infant called little albert, and how albert "generalized" that fear to other white, furry things (including, in some accounts, his mother's coat). it was a vividly convincing story and, like my fellow students, i saw no reason to doubt it. nor did i see any reason, until many years later, to read watson's original account of the experiment, published in 1920. what a mess! you could find better methodology at a high school science fair. not surprisingly   at least it doesn't surprise me now   watson's experiment has not stood up well to attempts to replicate it. but the failures to replicate are seldom mentioned in the introductory textbooks. the idea of generalization is a very basic one in psychology. psychologists of every stripe take it for granted that learned responses   behaviors, emotions, expectations, and so on   generalize readily and automatically to other stimuli of the same general type. it is assumed, for example, that once the baby has learned that his mother is dependable and his brother is aggressive, he will expect other adults to be dependable and other children to be aggressive. i now believe that generalization is the exception, not the rule. careful research has shown that babies arrive in the world with a bias against generalizing. this is true for learned motor skills and it is also true for expectations about people. babies are born with the desire to learn about the beings who populate their world and the ability to store information about each individual separately. they do not expect all adults to behave like their mother or all children to behave like their siblings. children who quarrel incessantly with their brothers and sisters generally get along much better with their peers. a firstborn who is accustomed to dominating his younger siblings at home is no more likely than a laterborn to try to dominate his schoolmates on the playground. a boy's relationship with his father does not form the template for his later relationship with his boss. i am not, of course, the only one in the world who has given up the belief in ubiquitous generalization, but if we formed a club, we could probably hold meetings in my kitchen. confirmation bias   the tendency to notice things that support one's assumptions and to ignore or explain away anything that doesn't fit   keeps most people faithful to what they learned in intro psych. they observe that the child who is agreeable or timid or conscientious at home tends, to a certain extent, to behave in a similar manner outside the home, and they interpret this correlation as evidence that the child learns patterns of behavior at home which she then carries along with her to other situations. the mistake they are making is to ignore the effects of genes. studies using advanced methods of data analysis have shown that the similarities in behavior from one context to another are due chiefly to genetic influences. our inborn predispositions to behave in certain ways go with us wherever we go, but learned behaviors are tailored to the situation. the fact that genetic predispositions tend to show up early is the reason why some psychologists also make the mistake of attributing too much importance to early experiences. what changed my mind about these things was the realization that if i tossed out the assumption about generalization, some hitherto puzzling findings about human behavior suddenly made more sense. i was 56 years old at the time but fairly new to the field of child development, and i had no stake in maintaining the status quo. it is a luxury to have the freedom to change one's mind. in public appearances about global warming, even these days, i often hear: "i don't believe in global warming" and i then typically get asked why i do "when all the evidence is not in". "global warming is not about beliefs", i typically retort, "but an accumulation of evidence over decades so that we can now say the vast preponderance of evidence   and its consistency with basic climate theory   supports global warming as well established, not that all aspects are fully known, an impossibility in any complex systems science". but it hasn't always been that way, especially for me at the outset of my career in 1971, when i co authored a controversial paper calculating that cooling effects from a shroud of atmospheric dust and smoke   aerosols   from human emissions at a global scale appeared to dominate the opposing warming effect of the growing atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. measurements at the time showed both warming and cooling emissions were on the rise, so a calculation of the net balance was essential   though controlling the aerosols made sense with or without climate side effects since they posed   and still pose   serious health effects on vulnerable populations. in fact for the latter reason laws to clean up the air in most rich countries were just getting negotiated about that time. when i traveled the globe in the early 1970s to explain our calculations, what i slowly learned from those out there making measurements was that two facts had only recently come to light, and together they appeared to make me consider flipping sign from cooling to warming as the most likely climatic change direction from humans using the atmosphere as a free sewer to dump some of our volatile industrial and agricultural wastes. these facts were that human injected aerosols, which we assumed were global in scale in our cooling calculation   were in fact concentrated primarily in industrial regions and bio mass burning areas of the globe   about 20% of the earth's surface, whereas we already knew that co2 emissions are global in extent and about half of the emitted co2 lasts for a century or more in the air. but there were new facts that were even more convincing: not only is co2 an important human emitted greenhouse gas, but so too were methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons (many of the latter gases now banned because they also deplete stratospheric ozone) , and that together with co2, these other greenhouse gasses were an enhanced global set of warming factors. on the other hand, aerosols were primarily regional in extent and could not thus overcome the warming effects of the combined global scale greenhouse gases. i was very proud to have published in the mid 1970s what was wrong with my early calculations well before the so called "contrarians"   climate change deniers still all too prevalent even today   understood the issues, let alone incorporated these new facts into updated models to make more credible projections. of course, today the dominance of warming over cooling agents is now well established in the climatology community, but our remaining inability to be very precise over how much warming the planet can expect to have to deal with is in large part still an uncertainty over the partially counteracting cooling effects of aerosols   enough to offset a significant, even if largely unknown, amount of the warming. so although we are very confident in the existence of human caused warming in the past several decades from greenhouse gases, we are still are working hard to pin down much more precisely how much aerosols offset this warming. facts on that offset still lag the critical need to estimate better our impacts on climate before they become potentially irreversible. the sad part of this story is not about science, but the misinterpretation of it in the political world. i still have to endure polemical blogs from contrarian columnists and others about how, as one put it in a grand polemic: "schneider is an environmentalist for all temperatures"   citing my early calculations. this famous columnist somehow forgot to bring up the later corrected (by me) faulty assumptions, nor mention that the 1971 calculation was based on not yet gathered facts. simply getting the sign wrong was cited, ipso facto in this blog, as somehow damning of my current credibility. ironically, inside the scientific world, this switch of sign of projected effects is viewed as precisely what responsible scientists must do when the facts change. not only did i change my mind, but published almost immediately what had changed and how that played out over time. scientists have no crystal ball, but we do have modeling methods that are the closest approximation available. they can't give us truth, but they can tell us the logical consequences of explicit assumptions. those who update their conclusions explicitly as facts evolve are much more likely to be a credible source than those who stick to old stories for political consistency. two cheers for the scientific method! why does my mind change based on thinking, faith, and science? one of the main functions of a mind is to change   constantly   to repair damage and add new thoughts, or to gradually replace old thoughts with new ones in a zero sum game. when i first heard about the century old 4 color map conjecture as a boy, i noted how well it fit a few anecdotal scribbles and then took leap of faith that 4 colors were always enough. a decade later when appel, haken and a computer proved it, you could say that my boyish opinion was intact, but my mind was changed   by "facts" (the exhaustive computer search), by "thinking" (the mathematicians, computer and me collectively), and by "faith" (that the program had no bugs and that basic idea of proofs is reasonable). there were false proofs before that, and shorter confirmatory proofs since then, but the best proof is still too complex for even experts to check by hand. while i rarely change my mind from one strongly held belief to it's opposite, i do often change from no opinion to acceptance. perhaps my acquiescence is too easy   rarely confirming the experiments with my own hands. like many scientists, i form some opinions without reading the primary data (especially if outside of my field). often, the key experiments could be done, but aren't. a depressingly small bit of medical practice is based on randomized placebo controlled, double blind studies. in this age of vast electronic documentation is there a list of which medical "facts" have achieved this level and which have not? other times experiments in the usual sense can't be done, e.g. huge fractions of astronomical and biological evolution are far away in space and time. nevertheless, both of these fields can inspire experiments. i've done hands on measurements of gravitation with massive lab spheres and mutation/selection evolution in lab bacteria. such microcosmic simulacra "changed my mind" subtly and allowed me to connect to the larger scale (non experimental) facts. all of this still adds up to a lot of faith and delegated thinking among scientists. the system works because of a trusted network with feedback from practical outcomes. researchers who stray away from standard protocols (especially core evidentiary and epistemological beliefs) or question too many useful facts, had better have some utility close at hand or they will be ignored   until someone comes along who can both challenge and deliver. in 1993 pope john paul ii acquitted galileo, of his indictment in 1632, of heretical support for copernicus‚s heliocentrism. in 1996 john paul made a similarly accepting statement about darwinian evolution. clearly religion and science do overlap, and societal minds do change. even the most fundamentalist creationists accept a huge part of darwinism, i.e. micro evolution   which was by no means obvious in the early 19th century. their remaining doubt is whether largish (macro) changes in morphology or function emerge from the sum of random steps   accepting that small (micro) changes can do so? what happens as we see increasingly dramatic and useful examples of experimental macro evolution? we've recently seen the selection of various enzyme catalysts from billions of random rna sequences. increasingly biotechnology depends on lab evolution of new, complex synthetic biology functions and shapes. admittedly these experiments do involve 'design', but as the lab evolution achieved gets more macro with less intervention, perhaps minds will change about how much intervention is needed in natural macro evolution. at least as profound as getting function from randomness, is evolving clever speech from mute brutes. we've made huge progress in revealing the communication potential of chimp, gorilla and african grey parrot. we've also found genes like foxp2, which affects vocalization in humans and mice and a variation that separates humans from chimps   but not from neanderthal genomes. (yes   extinct neanderthals are being sequenced!) as we test combinations of such dna differences in primates, will we discover just how few genetic changes might separate us functionally from chimps? what human blind spots will be unearthed by talking with other species? and how fast should we change our mind? did our 'leap' to agriculture lead to malaria? did our leap to ddt lead to loss of birds? we'll try ddt again, this time restricted to homes and we'll try transgenic malaria resistant mosquitoes...and that will lead to what? arguably faith and spirituality are needed to buffer and govern our technological progress so we don't leap too fast, or look too superficially. many micro mind changes add up to macro mind changes eventually. what's the rush? i changed my mind about online community this year. i co edit a blog that attracts a large number of daily visitors, many of whom have something to say back to us about whatever we write or produce in video. when our audience was small in the early days, interacting was simple: we tacked a little href tag to an open comments thread at the end of each post: link, discuss. no moderation, no complication, come as you are, anonymity's fine. every once in a while, a thread accumulated more noise than signal, but the balance mostly worked. but then, the audience grew. fast. and with that, grew the number of antisocial actors, "drive by trolls," people for whom dialogue wasn't the point. it doesn't take many of them to ruin the experience for much larger numbers of participants acting in good faith. some of the more grotesque attacks were pointed at me, and the new experience of being on the receiving end of that much personally directed nastiness was upsetting. i dreaded hitting the "publish" button on posts, because i knew what would now follow. the noise on the blog grew, the interaction ceased to be fun for anyone, and with much regret, we removed the comments feature entirely. i grew to believe that the easier it is to post a drive by comment, and the easier it is to remain faceless, reputation less, and real world less while doing so, the greater the volume of antisocial behavior that follows. i decided that no online community could remain civil after it grew too large, and gave up on that aspect of internet life. my co editors and i debated, we brainstormed, we observed other big sites that included some kind of community forum or comments feature. some relied on voting systems to "score" whether a comment is of value   this felt clinical, cold, like grading what a friend says to you in conversation. dialogue shouldn't be a beauty contest. other sites used other automated systems to rank the relevance of a speech thread. none of this felt natural to us, or an effective way to prevent the toxic sludge buildup. so we stalled for years, and our blog remained more monologue than dialogue. that felt unnatural, too. finally, this year, we resurrected comments on the blog, with the one thing that did feel natural. human hands. we hired a community manager, and equipped our comments system with a secret weapon: the "disemvoweller." if someone's misbehaving, she can remove all the vowels from their screed with one click. the dialogue stays, but the misanthrope looks ridiculous, and the emotional sting is neutralized. now, once again, the balance mostly works. i still believe that there is no fully automated system capable of managing the complexities of online human interaction   no software fix i know of. but i'd underestimated the power of dedicated human attention. plucking one early weed from a bed of germinating seeds changes everything. small actions by focused participants change the tone of the whole. it is possible to maintain big healthy gardens online. the solution isn't cheap, or easy, or hands free. few things of value are. how is it that insects manage to get by on many fewer neurons than we have? a fly brain has a few hundred thousand neurons, compared to the few hundred billion in our brains, a million times more neurons. flies are quite successful in their niche. they can see, find food, mate, and create the next generation of flies. the traditional view is that unique neurons evolved in the brain of the fly to perform specific tasks, in contrast to the mammalian strategy of creating many more neurons of the same type, working together in a collective fashion. this view was bolstered when it became possible to record from single cortical neurons, which responded to sensory stimuli with highly variable spike trains from trial to trial. reliability could be achieved only by averaging the responses of many neurons. theoretical analysis of neural signals in large networks assumed statistical randomness in the responses of neurons. these theories used the average firing rates of neurons as the primary statistical variable. individual spikes and the times when they occurred were not relevant in these theories. in contrast, the timing of single spikes in flies has been shown to carry specific information about sensory stimuli important for guiding the behavior of flies, and in mammals the timing of spikes in the peripheral auditory system carried information about the spatial locations of sound sources. however, cortical neurons did not seem to care about the timing of spikes. i have changed my mind about cortical neurons and now think that they are far more capable than we ever imagined. two important experimental results pointed me in this direction. first, if you repeatedly inject the same fluctuating current into a neuron in a cortical slice, to mimic the inputs that occur in an intact piece of tissue, the spike times are highly reproducible from trial to trial. this shows that cortical neurons are capable of initiating spikes with millisecond precision. second, if you arrange for a single synapse to be stimulated a few milliseconds just before or just after a spike in the neuron, the synaptic strength will increase or decrease, respectively. this tells us that the machinery in the cortex is every bit as capable as a fly brain, but what is it being used for? the cerebral cortex is constantly being bombarded by sensory inputs and has to sort though the myriad of signals for those that are the most important and to respond selectively to them. the cortex also needs to organize the signals being generated internally, in the absence of sensory inputs. the hypothesis that i have been pursuing over the last decade is that spike timing in cortical neurons is used internally as a way of controlling the flow of communication between neurons. this is a different from the traditional view that spike times code sensory information, as occurs in the periphery. rather, spike timing and the synchronous firing of large numbers of cortical neurons may be used to enhance the salience of sensory inputs, as occurs during focal attention, and to decide what information is worth saving for future use. according to this view, the firing rates of neurons are used as an internal representation of the world but the timing of spikes is used to regulate the communication of signals between cortical areas. the way that neuroscientists perform experiments is biased by their theoretical views. if cortical neurons use rate coding you only need to record, and report, their average firing rates. but to find out if spike timing is important new experiments need to be designed and new types of analysis need to be performed on the data. neuroscientists have begun to pursue these new experiments and we should know before too long where they will lead us. i have learned quantum mechanics as a young man, first from the book by dirac, and then form a multitude of other excellent textbooks. the theory appeared bizarre and marvelous, but it made perfectly sense to me. the world, as shakespeare put it, is "strange and admirable", but it is coherent. i could not understand why people remained unhappy with such a clear and rational theory. in particular, i could not understand why some people lost their time on a non problem called the "interpretation of quantum mechanics". i have remained of this opinion for many years. then i moved to pittsburgh, to work in the group of ted newman, great relativist and one of the most brilliant minds in the generation before mine. while there, the experiments made by the team of alain aspect aspect at orsay, in france, which confirmed spectacularly some of the strangest predictions of quantum mechanics, prompted a long period of discussion in our group. basically, ted claimed that quantum theory made no sense. i claimed that it does perfectly, since it is able to predict unambiguously the probability distribution of any conceivable observation. long time has passed, and i have changed my mind. ted's arguments have finally convinced me: i was wrong, and he was right. i have slowly came to realize that in its most common textbook version, quantum mechanics makes sense as a theory of a small portion of the universe, a "system", only under the assumption that something else in the universe fails to obey quantum mechanics. hence it becomes self contradictory, in its usual version, if we take it as a general description of all physical systems of the universe. or, at least, there is still something key to understand, with respect to it. this change of opinion has motivated me to start of a novel line of investigation, which i have called "relational quantum mechanics". it has also affected substantially my work in quantum gravity, taking me to consider a different sort of observable quantities as natural probes of quantum spacetime. i am now sure that quantum theory has still much to tell us about the deep structure of the world. unless i'll change my mind again, of course. i've changed my mind about countless matters, but most if not all such changes have been vaguely akin to switching from brand a to brand b. in some deep sense, however, i feel that i've never really changed how i think about or evaluate things. this may sound like a severe case of cerebral stenosis, but i think the condition is universal. although people change their minds, they do so in an invariant, convergent sort of way, and i find this to be of more interest than the brand switches, important as they sometimes are. i take heart that this stance can be viewed as something other than stubborn rigidity from the so called agreement theorem of nobel prize winning game theorist robert aumann. his theorem can be roughly paraphrased as follows: two individuals cannot forever agree to disagree. an important definition allows for a slightly fuller statement. information is termed "common knowledge" among a group of people if all parties know it, know that the others know it, know that the others know they know it, and so on. it is much more than "mutual knowledge," which requires only that the parties know the particular bit of information, not that they be aware of the others' knowledge. aumann showed that as agents' beliefs, formed in rational response to different bits of private information, gradually become common knowledge, their beliefs change and eventually coincide. thus in whatever rational ways each of us comes to change his or her mind, in the long run the rest of us will follow suit. of course, as keynes observed, in the long run, we're all dead. another problem is aumann's result doesn't say anything about the convergence of irrational agents. like many people, i once trusted in the wisdom of nature. i imagined that there were real boundaries between the natural and the artificial, between one species and another, and thought that, with the advent of genetic engineering, we would be tinkering with life at our peril. i now believe that this romantic view of nature is a stultifying and dangerous mythology. every 100 million years or so, an asteroid or comet the size of a mountain smashes into the earth, killing nearly everything that lives. if ever we needed proof of nature's indifference to the welfare of complex organisms such as ourselves, there it is. the history of life on this planet has been one of merciless destruction and blind, lurching renewal. the fossil record suggests that individual species survive, on average, between one and ten million years. the concept of a "species" is misleading, however, and it tempts us to think that we, as homo sapiens, have arrived at some well defined position in the natural order. the term "species" merely designates a population of organisms that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring; it cannot be aptly applied to the boundaries between species (to what are often called "intermediate" or "transitional" forms). there was, for instance, no first member of the human species, and there are no canonical members now. life is a continuous flux. our nonhuman ancestors bred, generation after generation, and incrementally begat what we now deem to be the species homo sapiens   ourselves. there is nothing about our ancestral line or about our current biology that dictates how we will evolve in the future. nothing in the natural order demands that our descendants resemble us in any particular way. very likely, they will not resemble us. we will almost certainly transform ourselves, likely beyond recognition, in the generations to come. will this be a good thing? the question presupposes that we have a viable alternative. but what is the alternative to our taking charge of our biological destiny? might we be better off just leaving things to the wisdom of nature? i once believed this. but we know that nature has no concern for individuals or for species. those that survive do so despite her indifference. while the process of natural selection has sculpted our genome to its present state, it has not acted to maximize human happiness; nor has it necessarily conferred any advantage upon us beyond the capacity raise the next generation to child bearing age. in fact, there may be nothing about human life after the age of forty (the average lifespan until the 20th century) that has been selected by evolution at all. and with a few exceptions (e.g. the gene for lactose tolerance), we probably haven't adapted to our environment much since the pleistocene. but our environment and our needs   to say nothing of our desires   have changed radically in the meantime. we are in many respects ill suited to the task of building a global civilization. this is not a surprise. from the point of view of evolution, much of human culture, along with its cognitive and emotional underpinnings, must be epiphenomenal. nature cannot "see" most of what we are doing, or hope to do, and has done nothing to prepare us for many of the challenges we now face. these concerns cannot be waved aside with adages like, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." there are innumerable perspectives from which our current state of functioning can be aptly described as "broke." speaking personally, it seems to me that everything i do picks out some point on a spectrum of disability: i was always decent at math, for instance, but this is simply to say that i am like a great mathematician who has been gored in the head by a bull; my musical ability resembles that of a mozart or a bach, it is true, though after a near fatal incident on skis; if tiger woods awoke from surgery to find that he now possessed (or was possessed by) my golf swing, rest assured that a crushing lawsuit for medical malpractice would be in the offing. considering humanity as a whole, there is nothing about natural selection that suggests our optimal design. we are probably not even optimized for the paleolithic, much less for life in the 21st century. and yet, we are now acquiring the tools that will enable us to attempt our own optimization. many people think this project is fraught with risk. but is it riskier than doing nothing? there may be current threats to civilization that we cannot even perceive, much less resolve, at our current level of intelligence. could any rational strategy be more dangerous than following the whims of nature? this is not to say that our growing capacity to meddle with the human genome couldn't present some moments of faustian over reach. but our fears on this front must be tempered by a sober understanding of how we got here. mother nature is not now, nor has she ever been, looking out for us. aside from whether apple matters (whoops!), the biggest thing i've changed my mind about is climate change. there was no one thing that convinced me to flip from wait and see to the time for debate is over. instead, there were three things, which combined for me in early 2006. there was, of course, the scientific evidence, which kept getting more persuasive. there was also economics, and the recognition that moving to alternative, sustainable energy was going to be cheaper over the long run as oil got more expensive. and finally there was geopolitics, with ample evidence of how top down oil riches destabilized a region and then the world. no one reason was enough to win me over to total energy regime change, but together they seemed win win win. now i see the entire energy and environmental picture through a carbon lens. it's very clarifying. put co2 above everything else, and suddenly you can make reasonable economic calculations about risks and benefits, without getting caught up in the knotty politics of full spectrum environmentalism. i was a climate skeptic and now i'm a carbon zealot. i seem to annoy traditional environmentalists just as much, but i like to think that i've moved from behind to in front. here's a happy example of me being wrong. other researchers interested in virtual reality had been proposing as early as twenty years ago that vr would someday be useful for the treatment of psychological disorders such as post traumatic stress disorder. i did not agree. in fact, i had strong arguments as to why this ought not to work. there was evidence that the brain created distinct "homuncular personas" for virtual world experiences, and reasons to believe that these personas were tied to increasingly distinct bundles of emotional patterns. therefore, emotional patterns attached to real world situations would, i surmised, remain attached to those situations. the earliest research on ptsd treatment in vr seemed awfully shaky to me, and i was not very encouraging to younger researchers who were interested in it. the idea of using vr for ptsd treatment seemed less likely to work than various other therapeutic applications of vr, which were more centered around somatic processes. for instance, vr can be used as an enhanced physical training environment. the first example, from the 1980s, involved juggling. if virtual juggling balls fly more slowly than real balls, then they are easier to juggle. you can then gradually increase the speed, in order to provide a more gradual path for improving skills than would be available in physical reality. (this idea came about initially because it was so hard to make early vr systems go as fast as the reality they were emulating. in the old vpl research lab, where a lot of vr tools were initially prototyped, we were motivated to be alert for potential virtues hiding within the limitations of the era.) variations on this strategy have become well established. for instance, patients are learning to use prosthetic limbs more quickly by using vr these days. beyond rational argument, i was biased in other ways: the therapeutic use of vr seemed "too cute," and sounded too much like a press release in waiting. well, i was wrong. ptsd treatment in vr is now a well established field with its own conferences, journals publishing well repeated results, and clinical practitioners. sadly, the iraq war has provided all too many patients, and has also motivated increased funding for research in this subfield of vr applications. one of the reasons i was wrong is that i didn't see that the same tactic we used on juggling balls (of gradually adapting the content and design of a virtual world to the instantaneous state of the user/inhabitant) could be applied in a less somatic way. for instance, in some clinical protocols, a traumatic event is represented in vr with gradually changing levels of realism as part of the course of treatment. maybe i was locked into seeing vr through the filters of the limitations of its earliest years. maybe i was too concerned about the cuteness factor. at any rate, i'm glad there was a diversity of mindsets in the research community so that others could see where i didn't. i'm concerned that diversity of thought in some of the microclimates of the scientific community is narrowing these days instead of broadening. i blame the nature of certain online tools. tools like the wikipedia encourage the false worldview that we already know enough to agree on a single account of reality, and anonymous blog comment rolls can bring out mob like behaviors in young scientists who use them. at any rate, one of the consolations of science is that being wrong on occasion lets you know you don't know everything and motivates renewed curiosity. being aware of being wrong once in a while keeps you young. i've changed my mind about the manner in which our future on this planet might evolve. i used to think that the power of science to dissect, inform, illuminate and clarify, its venerable record in improving the human condition, and its role in enabling the technological progress of the modern world were all so glaringly obvious that no one could reasonably question its hallowed position in human culture as the pre eminent device for separating truth from falsehood. i used to think that the edifice of knowledge constructed from thousands of years of scientific thought by various cultures all over the globe, and in particular the insights earned over the last 400 years from modern scientific methods, were so universally revered that we could feel comfortably assured of having permanently left our philistine days behind us. and while i've always appreciated the need for care and perseverance in guiding public evaluation of the complexities of scientific discourse and its findings, i never expected that we would, at this stage in our development, have to justify and defend the scientific process itself. yet, that appears to be the case today. and now, i'm no longer sure that scientific inquiry and the cultural value it places on verifiable truth can survive without constant protection, and its ebb and flow over the course of human history affirms this. we have been beset in the past by dark ages, when scientific truths and the ideas that logically spring from them were systematically destroyed or made otherwise unavailable, when the practitioners of science were discredited, imprisoned, and even murdered. periods of human enlightenment have been the exception throughout time, not the rule, and our language has acknowledged this: 'two steps forward, one step back' neatly outlines the nonmonotonic stagger inherent in any reading of human history. and, if we're not mindful, we could stagger again. when the truth becomes problematic, when intellectual honesty clashes with political expediency, when voices of reason are silenced to mere whisper, when fear alloys with ignorance to promote might over intelligence, integrity, and wisdom, the very practice of science can find itself imperiled. at that point, can darkness be far behind? to avoid so dangerous a tipping point requires us, first and foremost, to recognize the distasteful possibility that it could happen again, at any time. i now suspect the danger will be forever present, the need for vigilance forever great. i used to view the scientific literature as a collective human effort to build an enduring and expanding structure of knowledge. each new publication in a respected, refereed journal would be digested and debated with the thoroughness that religious groups devote to the talmud, bible or koran. in science, of course, new papers can challenge widely held beliefs, so publication does not mean acceptance. the alternative is criticism, which usually provokes a new round of experiments. as a result, the new idea might end up on the scrap heap, perhaps becoming a historical curiosity. cold fusion seems to have followed this path, and in my own field, the suggestion that the two chains of dna lay side by side, instead of being intertwined in a double helix. but once it has passed scrutiny, a new contribution would be absorbed into the edifice of science, expanding and enhancing it, while providing a fragment of immortality to the authors. my perception was wrong. new scientific ideas can be smothered with silence. i was aware earlier of the case of gregor mendel. his fundamental genetic experiments with peas were ignored for a third of a century. but he had published them in an obscure journal, in an age when meetings and libraries were fewer, and journals were circulated by land mail. when his ideas were rediscovered at the start of the twentieth century, thomas hunt morgan set out to disprove them, and ended up performing experiments that greatly strengthened their case. a nobel prize was his reward. he wrote in a textbook: "the investigator must… cultivate also a skeptical state of mind toward all hypotheses   especially his own   and be ready to abandon them the moment the evidence pointed the other way." morgan's attitude still has a place in science but i no longer believe that it is standard practice. another strategy has emerged by which some scientists deal with ideas that they dislike. they act as if the discussion or data had never been published, and proceed about their business without mentioning it. one example involves the use of a technique called "prebiotic synthesis" to support the most prevalent idea about the origin of life.. this theory proposes that life began on this planet with the accidental formation of an elaborate self copying molecule, rna or a close relative. the chemist graham cairns smith argued in a 1982 book that the technique was flawed and that life's origin by such an event was extremely improbable. he proposed an imaginative alternative. his alternative was debated, but the practice of prebiotic synthesis was continued without discussion. as i felt that his case was sound, i took up this cause and extended the arguments against prebiotic synthesis. i published a book, and a series of papers in refereed journals, including one devoted entirely to the origin of life. i expected rebuttals, and hoped that new control experiments would be run that would resolve the issue. the rebuttals did not appear, and citations of my work in the field were sparse. when citations were made, they were usually accompanied by a comment that the rna first theory had some problems that were not yet resolved. the resolution would take place by further applications of prebiotic synthesis. a blanket of silence has remained in place in the scientific literature concerning the validity of this technique. ironically, my ideas have been welcomed by creationists, who advocate a supernatural solution to the origin of life problem. the smother by silence practice may be fairly common in science. professor kendric smith of stanford university has noted a similar pattern in the field of dna repair, where the contribution of recombination to the repair of damage by ultraviolet radiation has been ignored in key papers. for a moral judgment on this practice, i cannot improve upon smith's closing quote in his letter to asbmb today: "in religion one can often be forgiven for one's sins but no one should be forgiven for sins against science." i was an earnest student in catechism class. the climax of our early training, as thirteen year olds, was an intense retreat in preparation for the sacrament of confirmation. even now i vividly remember the rapture of belief, the glow everyday events acquired when i felt that they reflected a grand scheme of the universe, in which i had a personal place. soon afterward, though, came disillusionment. as i learned more about science, some of the concepts and explanations in the ancient sacred texts came to seem clearly wrong; and as i learned more about history and how it is recorded, some of the stories in those texts came to seem very doubtful. what i found most disillusioning, however, was not that the sacred texts contained errors, but that they suffered by comparison. compared to what i was learning in science, they offered few truly surprising and powerful insights. where was there a vision to rival the concepts of infinite space, of vast expanses of time, of distant stars that rivaled and surpassed our sun? or of hidden forces and new, invisible forms of "light"? or of tremendous energies that humans could, by understanding natural processes, learn to liberate and control? i came to think that if god exists, he (or she, or they, or it ) did a much more impressive job revealing himself in the world than in the old books; and that the power of faith and prayer is elusive and unreliable, compared to the everyday miracles of medicine and technology. for many years, like some of my colleagues and some recent bestselling authors, i thought that active, aggressive debunking might be in order. i've changed my mind. one factor was my study of intellectual history. many of my greatest heros in physics, including galileo, newton, faraday, maxwell, and planck, were deeply religious people. they truly believed that what they were doing, in their scientific studies, was discovering the mind of god. many of bach's and mozart's most awesome productions are religiously inspired. saint augustine's writings display one of the most impressive intellects ever. and so on. can you imagine hectoring this group? and what would be the point? did their religious beliefs make them stupid, or stifle their creativity? also, debunking hasn't worked very well. david hume already set out the main arguments for religious skepticism in the early eighteenth century. bertrand russell and many others have augmented them since. textual criticism reduces fundamentalism to absurdity. modern molecular biology, rooted in physics and chemistry, demonstrates that life is a natural process; darwinian evolution illuminates its natural origin. these insights have been highly publicized for many decades, yet religious doctrines that contradict some or all of them have not merely survived, but prospered. why? part of the answer is social. people tend to stay with the religion of their birth, for the same sorts of reasons that they stay loyal to their clan, or their country. but beyond that, religion addresses some deep concerns that science does not yet, for most people, touch. the human yearning for meaningful understanding, our fear of death   these deep motivations are not going to vanish. understanding, of course, is what science is all about. many people imagine, however, that scientific understanding is dry and mundane, with no scope for wonder and amazement. that is simply ignorant. looking for wonder and amazement? try some quantum theory! beyond understanding inter connected facts, people want to discover their significance or meaning. neuroscientists are beginning to map human motivations and drives at the molecular level. as this work advances, we will attain a deeper understanding of the meaning of meaning. freud's theories had enormous impact, not because they are correct, but because they "explained" why people feel and act as they do. correct and powerful theories that address these issues are sure to have much greater impact. meanwhile, medical science is taking a deep look at aging. within the next century, it may be possible for people to prolong youth and good health for many years   perhaps indefinitely. this would, of course, profoundly change our relationship with death. so to me the important challenge is not to debunk religion, but to address its issues in better ways. i used to take for granted an assumption that the universe is infinite. there are innumerable little things about which i've changed my mind but the size of the universe is literally the biggest physical attribute that has inspired a radical change in my thinking. i won't claim i "believe" the universe is finite, just that i recognize that a finite universe is a realistic possibility for our cosmos. the general theory of relativity describes local curves in spacetime due to matter and energy. this model of gravity as a warped spacetime has seen countless successes beginning with a confirmation of an anomaly in the orbit of mercury and continuing with the predictions of the existence of black holes, the expansion of spacetime, and the creation of the universe in a big bang. however, general relativity says very little about the global shape and size of the universe. two spaces can have the same curvature locally but very different global properties. a flat space, for instance, can be infinite but there is another possibility, that it is finite and edgeless, wrapped back onto itself like a doughnut   but still flat. and there are an infinite number of ways of folding spacetime into finite, edgeless shapes, a kind of cosmic origami. i grew up believing the universe was infinite. it was never taught to me in the sense that no one ever tried to prove to me the universe was infinite. it just seemed a natural assumption based on simplicity. that sense of simplicity no longer resonates as true once we have confronted that there must be a theory of gravity beyond general relativity that involves the quantization, the discretization, of spacetime itself. in cosmology we have become accustomed to models of the universe that invoke extra dimensions, all of which are finite and it seems fair to imagine a universe born with all of its dimensions finite and compact. then we are left with the mystery of why only three dimensions become so incredibly huge while the others remain curled up and small. we even hope to test models of extra dimensions in imminent laboratory experiments. these ideas are not remote and fantastical. they are testable. people have said to me they were very surprised (disappointed) that i suggested the universe was finite. the infinite universe, they believed, was full of infinite potential and so philosophically (emotionally) so much richer and more thrilling. i explained that my suggestion of a finite universe was not a moral failing on my part, nor a consequence of diminished imagination. more thrilling was the knowledge that it does not matter what i believe. it does not matter if i prefer an infinite universe or a finite universe. nature is not designed to satisfy our personal longings. nature is what she is and it's a privilege merely to be privy to her mathematical codes. i don't know that the universe is finite and so i don't believe that it is finite. i don't know that the universe is infinite and so i don't believe that it is infinite. i do see, however, that our mathematical reasoning has led to remarkable and sometimes psychologically uncomfortable discoveries. and i do believe that it is a realistic possibility that one day we may discover the shape of the entire universe. if the universe is too vast for us to ever observe the extent of space, we may still discover the size and shape of internal dimensions. from small extra dimensions we might possibly infer the size and shape of the large dimensions. until then, i won't make up my mind. i have changed my mind about the general validity of the mechanical worldview that underlies the modern scientific understanding of natural processes. trained in biology and mathematics, i have used the scientific approach to the explanation of natural phenomena during most of my career. the basic assumption is that whatever properties and behaviours have emerged naturally during cosmic evolution can all be understood in terms of the motions and interactions of inanimate entities such as elementary particles, atoms, molecules, membranes and organelles, cells, organs, organisms, and so on. modelling natural processes on the basis of these assumptions has provided explanations for myriad natural phenomena ranging from planetary motion and electromagnetic phenomena to the properties and behaviour of nerve cell and the dynamic patterns that emerge in ant colonies or flocks of birds. there appeared to be no limit to the power of this explanatory procedure, which enchanted me and kept me busy throughout most of my scientific career in biology. however, i have now come to the conclusion that this method of explaining natural phenomena has serious limitations, and that these come from the basic assumptions on which it is based. the crunch came for me with the "explanation" of qualitative experience in humans and other organisms. by this i mean the experience of pain or pleasure or wellbeing, or any other of the qualities that are very familiar to us. these are described as "subjective", that is, experienced by a living organism, because they cannot be isolated from the subject experiencing them and measured quantitatively. what is often suggested as an explanation of this is evolutionary complexity: when an organism has a nervous system of sufficient complexity, subjective experience and feelings can arise. this implies that something totally new and qualitatively different can emerge from the interaction of "dead", unfeeling components such as cell membranes, molecules and electrical currents. but this implies getting something from nothing, which violates what i have learned about emergent properties: there is always a precursor property for any phenomenon, and you cannot just introduce a new dimension into the phase space of your model to explain the result. qualities are different from quantities and cannot be reduced to them. so what is the precursor of the subjective experience that evolves in organisms? there must be some property of neurones or membranes or charged ions producing the electric associated with the experience of feeling that emerges in the organism. one possibility is to acknowledge that the world isn't what modern science assumes it to be, mechanical and "dead", but that everything has some basic properties relating to experience or feeling. philosophers and scientists have been down this route before, and have called this pan sentience or pan psychism: the world is impregnated with some form of feeling in every one of its constituents. this makes it possible for the evolution of complex organised beings such as organisms to develop feelings and for qualities to be as real as quantities. pan sentience shifts science into radically new territory. science can now be about qualities as well as quantities, helping us to recover quality of life, to heal our relationship to the natural world, and to undo the damage we are causing to the earth's capacity to continue its evolution with us. it could help us to recover our place as participants in a world that is not ours to control, but is ours to contribute to creatively, along with all the other diverse members of our living, feeling, planetary society. the 20th century has been obsessed with this idea of the objects and hopes of architectural and artistic permanence which nobody questionned more thouroughly than the late cedric price. the 21st century will increasingly question this fetishization of the object. what are the architectural and artistic contributions which are going to endure they are not only the ones which have a built physical form. its not only a question of objects but a questions of ideas and scores. in a converation i had with her some months ago doris lessing questionned the future of museums. it's not that she's fundamentally opposed to these institutions, but she's worried that their prioritisation of material objects from the past may not be enough to convey functional meaning to tomorrow's generations. her 1999 novel, mara and dann, is premised on the aftermath of an ice age thousands of years into the future that has eradicated the entirety of life in the northern hemisphere. her protagonists, long since confined to the other side of the globe, embark upon a journey but they are at a loss with the cultural remnants; they have no grounding in its *artefacts and cities. this is pure fiction, but she is nevertheless reticent that 'our entire culture is extremely fragile' in light of point, lessing urges us to take pause and to reconsider the capacity of our language and cultural systems to proffer knowledge to those outside of our immediate public. i've changed my mind about the use of enhancement drugs by healthy people. a year ago, if asked, i'd have been against the idea, whereas now i think there's much to be said for it. the ultimate test of such a change of mind is how i'd feel if my offspring (both adults) went down that road, and my answer is that with tolerable risks of side effects and zero risk of addiction, then i'd feel ok if there was an appropriate purpose to it. 'appropriate purposes' exclude gaining an unfair advantage or unwillingly following the demands of others, but include gaining a better return on an investment of study or of developing a skill. i became interested in the issues surrounding cognitive enhancement as one example of debates about human enhancement   debates that can only get more vigorous in future. it's also an example of a topic in which both natural and social sciences can contribute to better regulation   another theme that interests me. thinking about the issues and looking at the evidence based literatures made me realise how shallow was my own instinctive aversion to the use of such drugs by healthy people. it also led to a thoughtful article by barbara sahakian and sharon morein zamir in nature (20 december 2007) that triggered many blog discussions. social scientists report that a small but significant proportion of students on at least some campuses are using prescription drugs in order to help their studies   drugs such as modafinil (prescribed for narcolepsy) and methylphenidate (prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). i've not seen studies that quantify similar use by academic faculty, or by people in other non military walks of life, though there is no doubt that it is happening. there are anecdotal accounts and experimental small scale trials showing that such drugs do indeed improve performance to a modest degree under particular circumstances. new cognitive enhancing drugs are being developed, officially for therapy. and the therapeutic importance   both current and potential   of such drugs is indeed significant. but manufacturers won't turn away the significant revenues from illegal use by the healthy. that word 'illegal' is the rub. off prescription use is illegal in the united states, at least. but that illegality reflects an official drugs culture that is highly questionable. it's a culture in which the food and drugs administration seems reluctant generally to embrace the regulation of enhancement for the healthy, though it is empowered to do so. it is also a culture that is rightly concerned about risk but wrongly founded in the idea that drugs used by healthy people are by definition a bad thing. that in turn reflects instinctive attitudes to do with 'naturalness' and 'cheating on yourself' that don't stand up to rational consideration. perhaps more to the point, they don't stand up to behavioral consideration, as viagra has shown. research and societal discussions are necessary before cognitive enhancement drugs should be made legally available for the healthy, but i now believe that that is the right direction in which to head. with reference to the precursor statements of this year's annual question, there are facts behind that change of mind, some thinking, and some secular faith in humans, too. public discourse on very long term planning is riddled with inconsistencies. mostly we discount the future very heavily   investment decisions are expected to pay off within a decade or two. but when we do look further ahead   in discussions of energy policy, global warming and so forth   we underestimate the possible pace of transformational change. in particular, we need to keep our minds open   or at least ajar   to the possibility that humans themselves could change drastically within a few centuries. our medieval forebears in europe had a cosmic perspective that was a million fold more constricted than ours. their entire cosmology   from creation to apocalypse   spanned only a few thousand years. today, the stupendous time spans of the evolutionary past are part of common culture   except among some creationists and fundamentalists. moreover, we are mindful of immense future potential. it seems absurd to regard humans as the culmination of the evolutionary tree. any creatures witnessing the sun's demise 6 billion years hence won't be human   they could be as different from us as we are from slime mould. but, despite these hugely stretched conceptual horizons, the timescale on which we can sensibly plan, or make confident forecasts has got shorter rather than longer. medieval people, despite their constricted cosmology, did not expect drastic changes within a human life; they devotedly added bricks to cathedrals that would take a century to finish. for us, unlike for them, the next century will surely be drastically different from the present. there is a huge disjunction between the every shortening timescales of historical and technical change, and the near infinite time spans over which the cosmos itself evolves. human induced changes are occurring with runaway speed. it's hard to predict a mere century from now, because what will happen depends on us   this is the first century where humans can collectively transform, or even ravage, the entire biosphere. humanity will soon itself be malleable, to an extent that's qualitatively new in the history of our species. new drugs (and perhaps even implants into our brains) could change human character; the cyberworld has potential that is both exhilarating and frightening. we can't confidently guess lifestyles, attitudes, social structures, or population sizes a century hence. indeed, it's not even clear for how long our descendants would remain distinctively 'human'. darwin himself noted that "not one living species will transmit its unaltered likeness to a distant futurity". our own species will surely change and diversify faster than any predecessor    via human induced modifications (whether intelligently controlled or unintended), not by natural selection alone. just how fast this could happen is disputed by experts, but the post human era may be only centuries away. these thoughts might seem irrelevant to practical discussions   and best left to speculative academics and cosmologists. i used to think this. but humans are now, individually and collectively, so greatly empowered by rapidly changing technology that we can, by design, or as unintended consequences   engender global changes that resonate for centuries. and, sometimes at least, policy makers indeed think far ahead. the global warming induced by fossil fuels burnt in the next fifty years could trigger gradual sea level rises that continue for a millennium or more. and in assessing sites for radioactive waste disposal, governments impose the requirements that they be secure for ten thousand years. it's real political progress that these long term challenges are higher on the international agenda, and that planners seriously worry about what might happen more than a century hence. but in such planning, we need to be mindful that it may not be people like us who confront the consequences of our actions today. we are custodians of a 'posthuman' future   here on earth and perhaps beyond   that can't just be left to writers of science fiction. when i first heard about the solar neutrino puzzle, i had a little trouble taking it seriously. we know that the sun is powered by a chain of nuclear reactions and that in addition to emitting energy these reactions lead to the emission of neutrinos (uncharged fundamental particles that interact only via the weak nuclear force). the original solar neutrino puzzle was that when physicists made experiments to find these neutrinos, none of them were detected. but by the time i learned about the puzzle, physicists had in fact observed solar neutrinos   only the amount they found was only about 1/3   1/2 of the amount that other physicists had predicted. but i was skeptical that this deficit was really a problem   how could we make such an accurate prediction about the sun   an object 93 million miles away about which we can measure only so much? to give one example, the prediction for the neutrino flux was strongly temperature dependent. did we really know the temperature sufficiently accurately? were we sure we understood heat transport inside the sun well enough to trust this prediction? but i ended up changing my mind (along with many other initially skeptical physicists). the solar neutrino puzzle turned out to be a clue to some very interesting physics. it turns out that neutrinos mix. every neutrino is labeled by the charged lepton with which it interacts via the weak nuclear force. (charged leptons are particles like electrons   there are two heavier versions known as muons and taus.) it turns out the neutrinos have a bit of an identity crisis and can convert into each other as they travel through the sun and as they make their way to earth. an electron neutrino can change into a tau neutrino. since detectors were looking only for electron neutrinos, they missed the ones that had converted. and that was the very elegant solution to the solar neutrino puzzle. the predictions based on what we knew about the standard model of particle physics (that tells us what are the fundamental particles and forces) had been correct   hence change of mind #1. but the prediction had been inaccurate because no one had yet measured the masses and mixing angles of neutrinos. subsequent experiments have searched for all types of neutrinos   not just electron neutrinos   and found the different neutrino types, thereby confirming the mixing. and that leads me to a second thing i changed my mind about (along with much of the particle physics community). these neutrino mixing angles turned out to be big. that is, a significant fraction of electron neutrinos turn into muon neutrinos, and a big fraction of muon neutrinos turn into tau neutrinos (here it was neutrinos in the atmosphere that had gone missing). few physicists had thought these mixing angles would be big. that is because similar angles in the quark sector (quarks are particles such as the up and down quarks inside protons and neutrons that interact via the strong nuclear force) are much smaller. everyone based their guess on what was already known. these big neutrino mixing angles were a real surprise   perhaps the biggest surprise from particle physics measurements since i started studying the field. why are these angles important? first of all neutrino mixing does in fact explain the missing neutrinos from the sun and from the atmosphere. but these angles are also are an important clue as to the nature of the fundamental particles of which all known matter is made. one of the chief open questions about these particles is why there are three "copies" of the known particle types   that is heavier versions with identical charges? another is why do these different versions have different masses? and a third question is why do these particles mix in the way they have been measured to do? when we understand the answers to these questions we will have a much greater insight into the fundamental nature of all known matter. we don't know yet if we'll get the right answers but these questions pose important challenges. and when we find the answer is is likely at this point that neutrinos will provide a clue. experimental art and experimental politics have traditionally been convivial bedfellows, though usually, in my opinion, with very little benefit to each other. george bernard shaw and his circle fervently supported stalin against the mounting tide of evidence; the mitfords supported hitler, and numerous gifted italian poets and artists were persuaded by fascism. similarly, in the late sixties and early seventies the avant garde art scene in london was overwhelmed with admiration for chairman mao. as a young artist i was part of that scene, and though never a hardcore maoist, i was impressed by some of his ideas: that intellectuals shouldn't be separated off from workers, for example, and that art should somehow serve working class society. i was sick of 'art for art's sake' and the insularity of the english art world. i liked too the idea that professors should spend a month each year farming, or that designers should find out how it feels to work in a steel foundry. it sounded so benign from a distance. i felt, like many people felt at the time, that my society was by comparison stagnant, class bound, stuck in history, and i admired mao and the chinese for their courage in reinventing themselves so dramatically. of course, the americans were saying how dreadful it all was, but i thought "well they would, wouldn't they?" in fact their criticism increased its credibility, for i believed america had gone fundamentally wrong, and her enemies must therefore be my friends. i assumed the us sensed the winds of change issuing from china, and was digging her heels in, resisting the future with all her might. and then, bit by bit, i started to find out what had actually happened, what maoism meant. i resisted for a while, but i had to admit it: i'd been willingly propagandised, just like shaw and mitford and d'annunzio and countless others. i'd allowed my prejudices to dominate my reason. those professors working in the countryside were being bludgeoned and humiliated. those designers were put in the steel foundries as 'class enemies'   for the workers to vent their frustrations upon. i started to realise what a monstrosity maoism had been, and that it had failed in every sense. thus began for me a long process of re evaluation. i had to accept that i was susceptible to propaganda, and that propaganda comes from all sides   not just the one i happen to dislike. i realised that i was not by any means a neutral observer, that i came with my own set of prejudices which could be easily tweaked. i realised too that i had to learn to evaluate opinions separately from those who were giving them: the truth might sometimes come out of a mouth i disliked, but that didn't automatically mean it wasn't the truth. maoism, or my disappointment with it, also changed my feelings about how politics should be done. i went from revolutionary to evolutionary. i no longer wanted to see radical change dictated from the top   even if that top claimed to be the bottom, the 'voice of the people'. i lost faith in the idea that there were quick solutions, that everyone would simultaneously see the light and things would suddenly flip over into a wonderful new reality. i started to believe it was always going to be slow, messy, compromised, unglamorous, bureaucratic, endlessly negotiated   or else extremely dangerous, chaotic and capricious. in fact i've lost faith in the idea of ideological politics altogether: i want instead to see politics as the articulation and management of a changing society in a changing world, trying to do a half decent job for as many people as possible, trying to set things up a little better for the future. perhaps this is why i've increasingly come to regard the determinedly non ideological, ecumenical eu as the signal political experiment of our time… in november 2002, clay shirky organized a "social software summit," based on the premise that we were entering a "golden age of social software... greatly extending the ability of groups to self organize." i was skeptical of the term "social software" at the time. the explicit social software of the day, applications like friendster and meetup, were interesting, but didn't seem likely to be the seed of the next big silicon valley revolution. i preferred to focus instead on the related ideas that i eventually formulated as "web 2.0," namely that the internet is displacing microsoft windows as the dominant software development platform, and that the competitive edge on that platform comes from aggregating the collective intelligence of everyone who uses the platform. the common thread that linked google's pagerank, ebay's marketplace, amazon's user reviews, wikipedia's user generated encyclopedia, and craigslist's self service classified advertising seemed too broad a phenomenon to be successfully captured by the term "social software." (this is also my complaint about the term "user generated content.") by framing the phenomenon too narrowly, you can exclude the exemplars that help to understand its true nature. i was looking for a bigger metaphor, one that would tie together everything from open source software to the rise of web applications. you wouldn't think to describe google as social software, yet google's search results are profoundly shaped by its collective interactions with its users: every time someone makes a link on the web, google follows that link to find the new site. it weights the value of the link based on a kind of implicit social graph (a link from site a is more authoritative than one from site b, based in part on the size and quality of the network that in turn references either a or b). when someone makes a search, they also benefit from the data google has mined from the choices millions of other people have made when following links provided as the result of previous searches. you wouldn't describe ebay or craigslist or wikipedia as social software either, yet each of them is the product of a passionate community, without which none of those sites would exist, and from which they draw their strength, like antaeus touching mother earth. photo sharing site flickr or bookmark sharing site del.icio.us (both now owned by yahoo!) also exploit the power of an internet community to build a collective work that is more valuable than could be provided by an individual contributor. but again, the social aspect is implicit   harnessed and applied, but never the featured act. now, five years after clay's social software summit, facebook, an application that explicitly explores the notion of the social network, has captured the imagination of those looking for the next internet frontier. i find myself ruefully remembering my skeptical comments to clay after the summit, and wondering if he's saying "i told you so." mark zuckerberg, facebook's young founder and ceo, woke up the industry when he began speaking of "the social graph"   that's computer science speak for the mathematical structure that maps the relationships between people participating in facebook   as the core of his platform. there is real power in thinking of today's leading internet applications explicitly as social software. mark's insight that the opportunity is not just about building a "social networking site" but rather building a platform based on the social graph itself provides a lens through which to re think countless other applications. products like xobni (inbox spelled backwards) and marklogic's markmail explore the social graph hidden in our email communications; google and yahoo! have both announced projects around this same idea. google also acquired jaiku, a pioneer in building a social graph enabled address book for the phone. this is not to say that the idea of the social graph as the next big thing invalidates the other insights i was working with. instead, it clarifies and expands them: so have i really changed my mind? as you can see, i'm incorporating "social software" into my own ongoing explanations of the future of computer applications. it's curious to look back at the notes from that first social software summit. many core insights are there, but the details are all wrong. many of the projects and companies mentioned have disappeared, while the ideas have moved beyond that small group of 30 or so people, and in the process have become clearer and more focused, imperceptibly shifting from what we thought then to what we think now. both clay, who thought then that "social software" was a meaningful metaphor and i, who found it less useful then than i do today, have changed our minds. a concept is a frame, an organizing principle, a tool that helps us see. it seems to me that we all change our minds every day through the accretion of new facts, new ideas, new circumstances. we constantly retell the story of the past as seen through the lens of the present, and only sometimes are the changes profound enough to require a complete repudiation of what went before. ideas themselves are perhaps the ultimate social software, evolving via the conversations we have with each other, the artifacts we create, and the stories we tell to explain them. yes, if facts change our mind, that's science. but when ideas change our minds, we see those facts afresh, and that's history, culture, science, and philosophy all in one. what have i changed my mind about? online privacy. for a long time, i thought that people would rise to the challenge and start effectively protecting their own privacy online, using tools and services that the market would provide. many companies offered such services, and almost none of them succeeded (at least not with their original business plans). people simply weren't interested: they were both paranoid and careless, and took little trouble to inform themselves. (of course, if you've ever attempted to read an online privacy statement, you'll understand why.) but now i've simply changed my mind and realized that the whole question needs reframing   which facebook et al. are in the process of doing. users have never learned the power to say no to marketers who want their data...but they are getting into the habit of controlling it themselves because facebook is teaching them that this is a natural thing to do. yes, facebook certainly managed to draw attention to the whole "privacy" question with its beacon tracking tool, but for most facebook users the big question is how many people they can get to see their feed. they are happy to share their information with friends, and they consider it the most natural thing in the world to distinguish among friends (see new facebook add on applications such as top friends and cliquey) and to manage their privacy settings to determine who can see which parts of their profile. so why shouldn't they do the same thing vis a vis marketers? for example, i fly a lot, and i use various applications to let certain friends know where i am and plan to be. i'd be delighted to share that information with certain airlines and hotels if i knew they would send me special offers. (in fact, united airlines once asked me to send in my frequent flyer statements from up to three competing airlines in exchange for 2000 bonus miles each. i gladly did so, and would have done it for free. i *want* united to know what a good customer i am...and how much more of my business they could win if they offered me even better deals.) in short, for many users the web is becoming a mirror, with users in control, rather than a heavily surveilled stage. the question isn't how to protect users' privacy, but rather how to give them better tools to control their own data   not by selling privacy or by getting them to "sell" their data, , but by feeding their natural fascination with themselves and allowing them to manage their own presence. what once seemed like an onerous, weird task becomes akin to self grooming online. this begs a lot of questions, i know, including real, coercive invasions of privacy by government agencies, but i think the in control users of the future will be better equipped to fight back. give them a little time and a few bad experiences, and they'll start to make the distinction between an airline selling seats and a government that simply won't allow you to take it off your buddy list. in january of 2007, china's president, hu jintao, gave a speech before a group of communist party officials. his subject was the internet. "strengthening network culture construction and management," he assured the assembled bureaucrats, "will help extend the battlefront of propaganda and ideological work. it is good for increasing the radiant power and infectiousness of socialist spiritual growth." if i had read those words a few years earlier, they would have struck me as ludicrous. it seemed so obvious that the internet stood in opposition to the kind of centralized power symbolized by china's regime. a vast array of autonomous nodes, not just decentralized but centerless, the net was a technology of personal liberation, a force for freedom. i now see that i was naive. like many others, i mistakenly interpreted a technical structure as a metaphor for human liberty. in recent years, we have seen clear signs that while the net may be a decentralized communications system, its technical and commercial workings actually promote the centralization of power and control. look, for instance, at the growing concentration of web traffic. during the five years from 2002 through 2006, the number of internet sites nearly doubled, yet the concentration of traffic at the ten most popular sites nonetheless grew substantially, from 31% to 40% of all page views, according to the research firm compete. or look at how google continues to expand its hegemony over web searching. in march 2006, the company's search engine was used to process a whopping 58% of all searches in the united states, according to hitwise. by november 2007, the figure had increased yet again, to 65%. the results of searches are also becoming more, not less, homogeneous. do a search for any common subject, and you're almost guaranteed to find wikipedia at or near the top of the list of results. it's not hard to understand how the net promotes centralization. for one thing, its prevailing navigational aids, such as search engine algorithms, form feedback loops. by directing people to the most popular sites, they make those sites even more popular. on the web as elsewhere, people stream down the paths of least resistance. the predominant means of making money on the net   collecting small sums from small transactions   also promotes centralization. it is only by aggregating vast quantities of content, data, and traffic that businesses can turn large profits. that's why companies like microsoft and google have been so aggressive in buying up smaller web properties. google, which has been acquiring companies at the rate of about one a week, has disclosed that its ultimate goal is to "store 100% of user data." as the dominant web companies grow, they are able to gain ever larger economies of scale through massive capital investments in the "server farms" that store and process online data. that, too, promotes consolidation and centralization. executives of yahoo and sun microsystems have recently predicted that control over the net's computing infrastructure will ultimately lie in the hands of five or six organizations. to what end will the web giants deploy their power? they will, of course, seek to further their own commercial or political interests by monitoring, analyzing, and manipulating the behavior of "users." the connection of previously untethered computers into a single programmable system has created "a new apparatus of control," to quote nyu's andrew galloway. even though the internet has no center, technically speaking, control can be wielded, through software code, from anywhere. what's different, in comparison to the physical world, is that acts of control are more difficult to detect. so it's not hu jintao who is deluded in believing that the net might serve as a powerful tool for central control. it is those who assume otherwise. i used to count myself among them. but i've changed my mind. i have been a true disciple of kin selection theory ever since i discovered the wonders of social evolution as a young graduate student. kin selection theory emphasizes the importance of relatedness (i.e. kin) in the evolution of social behavior. the essence of social living lies in sharing tasks amongst group members; for example some individuals may end up monopolizing reproduction (dominants or queens), whilst others defend or forage for the group (helpers or altruists). the key to understanding how sociality evolves rests on finding a watertight explanation for altruism. why should any individual sacrifice their reproductive rights in order to help another individual reproduce? when groups consist of families, there is an intuitive basis for the evolution of altruism. helping relatives, with whom i share many of my genes, is potentially a lucrative strategy for passing my genes on to future generations. this reasoning led w.d. hamilton to his theory of inclusive fitness, or kin selection, in 1964: a social action evolves if the benefit (b) weighted by the relatedness (r) between group members exceeds the costs (c) of that action (i.e. br>c). evolution is satisfyingly parsimonious, so it is only natural that an apparently complicated thing like sociality can be explained in such simple terms. i am certain i speak for many students of sociality in being eternally grateful to hamilton in providing such an elegant theory with such clear predictions to test. off we go, armed with hamilton’s rule to settle our quest for understanding what makes an animal social. there are three things to measure: relatedness between group members (or actors and recipients), costs (to the actor in being altruistic) and benefits (to the recipient in receiving help). happily, the molecular revolution has brought gene level analytical tools to behavioral ecologists, allowing relatedness to be quantified accurately. costs and benefits are more problematic to quantify, as they might vary over an individual’s life time. relatedness, therefore could be a fast track route to securing the secrets of sociality in a kin selected context. the social hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps) are an excellent group for studying sociality because they live in large groups and have a peculiar genetic sex determination system (haplodiploidy), engendering high levels of relatedness. if relatedness predisposes any animal to be social, it will be the hymenoptera. as an altruist in a social insect colony there are several ways by which you could favor your most closely related group members. you could selectively feed sibling brood that share the same parents as you. or, you could eat the eggs laid by your siblings in preference to those laid by your mother (the queen). on planning an elopement from the homestead to start a new colony, you might choose full sisters as your companions rather than a random relative. the predictions are elegant, simple and depend on the kin structure of a specific colony. with insect cadavers mounting up in university freezers all over the world, we raced to test these predictions. the results were disheartening: worker wasps headed by multiply mated mother queens were not maximizing their indirect fitness by laying heaps of parthenogenetic male eggs; worker ants were unable to optimally manipulate the brood sex ratios (and hence their inclusive fitness) in relation to how many times their mother had mated; social wasps were feeding larvae in regard to their need rather than relatedness; swarming wasps were indiscriminate in who they founded new colonies with. on the back of robust experiments like these, i have changed my mind about relatedness being the primary dictator of social evolution. insects are unable to discriminate relatedness on an individual level. instead, relatedness may act at the colony/population level, or simply in distinguishing kin from non kin. this make sense. an individual level kin discrimination mechanism is vulnerable to invasion by an occasional nepotist, who would favor its closest relatives over others. as the gene for nepotism spreads, the variation on which the kin discrimination is based (e.g. chemical or visual cues) will disappear and individuals will no longer be able to tell kin from non kin, let alone full siblings from half siblings: sociality breaks down. we knew this long before many of the kin discrimination experiments were done, but optimism perseveres until enough evidence pervades. does this mean kin selection theory is wrong? absolutely not! the reason for this is that relatedness is only one (albeit important) component of kin selection theory. the key is likely to be the interaction of a high (and variable) benefit to cost ratio from helping, and a positive relatedness between actors and recipients: relatedness does not have to be high for altruism to evolve, it just needs to be greater than the population average. i still believe you cannot hope to understand sociality unless you put relatedness at the top of your list. but, we need to complement the huge amount of data generated by the molecular hamster wheel with some serious estimates of the costs and benefits of social actions. often a new field comes along purporting to offer bold new insights into questions that have long vexed us. and often, after the initial excitement dies down, that field turns out to really only offer a bunch of new names for stuff we basically already knew. i used to think neuroeconomics was such a field. but i was wrong. neuroeconomics mixes brain science with the dismal science   throwing in some evolutionary psychology and elements of prospect theory as developed by daniel kahneman and amos tversky   to explain the emotional and psychological quirks of human economic behavior. to take a common example   playing the stock market. our brains are always prospecting for pattern. researchers at duke university showed people randomly generated sequences of circles and squares. whenever two consecutive circles or squares appeared, the subjects' nucleus accumbens   the part of the brain that's active whenever a stimulus repeats itself   went into overdrive, suggesting the participants expected a third circle or square to continue the sequence. the stock market is filled with patterns. but the vast majority of those patterns are meaningless, at least in the short term. the hourly variance of a stock price, for example, is far less significant than its annual variance. when you're checking your portfolio every hour, the noise in those statistics drowns out any real information. but our brains evolved to detect patterns of immediate significance, and the nucleus accumbens sends a jolt of pleasure into the investor who thinks he's spotted a winner. yet studies consistently show that people who follow their investments closely earn lower returns than those who don't pay much attention at all. why? because their nucleus accumbens isn't prompting them to make impulsive decisions based on momentary patterns they think they've detected. the beauty of neuroeconomics is that it's easily verified by personal experience. a while back, i had stock options that i had to exercise within a specific period of time. so i started paying attention to the markets on a daily basis, something i normally never do. i was mildly encouraged every time the stock price ratcheted up a notch or two, smugly satisfied that i hadn't yet cashed in my options. but i was devastated when the price dropped back down again, recriminating myself for missing a golden opportunity. (this was kahneman and tversky's "loss aversion"   the tendency to strongly prefer to avoid a loss rather than to acquire a gain   kicking in. some studies suggest that the fear of a loss has twice the psychological impact as the lure of a gain.) i eventually exercised my options after the price hit a level it hadn't reached for several years. i was pretty pleased with myself   until the firm sold some of its businesses a few weeks later and the stock price shot up by several dollars. neuroeconomics really does explain the non rational aspects of human economic behavior; it is not just another way of saying there's a sucker born every minute. and now, thanks to this new field, i can blame my bad investment decisions on my nucleus accumbens rather than my own stupidity. when journalists asked me about 20 years ago what the use of my research is, i proudly told them that it has no use whatsoever. i saw an analog to the usefulness of astronomy or of a beethoven symphony. we don't do these things, i said, for their use, we do them because they are part of what it means to be human. in the same way, i said, we do basic science, in my case experiments on the foundations of quantum physics. it is part of being human to be curious, to want to know more about the world. there are always some of us who are just curious and they follow their nose and investigate with no idea in mind what it might be useful for. some of us are even more attracted to a question the more useless it appears. i did my work only because i was attracted by both the mathematical beauty of quantum physics and by the counterintuitive conceptual questions it raises. so i told them all the time up to the early 1990s. then a new surprising development started. the scientific community discovered that the same fundamental phenomena of quantum physics suddenly became relevant for more and more novel ways of transmitting and processing of information. we now have the completely new field of quantum information science where some of the basic concepts are quantum cryptography, quantum computation and even quantum teleportation. all this points us towards a new information technology where the same strange fundamental phenomena which attracted me initially into the field are essential. quantum randomness makes it possible for us in quantum cryptography to send messages such that they are secure against unauthorized third parties. quantum entanglement, called by einstein "spooky action at a distance" makes quantum teleportation possible. and quantum computation builds on all counterintuitive features of the quantum world together. when journalists ask me today what the use of my research is i proudly tell them of my conviction that we well have a full quantum information technology in the future, though its specific features are still very much to be developed. so, never say that your research is "useless". the words "science" and "technology," or equivalently the words "research" and "development," are used in the same breath so readily that one might easily presume that they are joined at the hip: that their goals are indistinguishable, and that those who are good at one are, if not necessarily equally good at the other, at least quite good at evaluating the quality of work in the other. i grew up with this assumption, but the longer i work at the interface between science and technology the more i find myself having to accept that it is false   that most, scientists are rather poor at the type of thinking that identifies efficient new ways to get things done, and that, likewise, technologists are mostly not terribly good at identifying efficient ways to find things out. i've come to feel that there are several reasons underlying this divide. a major one is the divergent approaches of scientists and technologists to the use of evidence. in basic research, it is exceptionally easy to be seduced by one's data   to see a natural interpretation of it and to overlook the existence of other, comparably economical interpretations of it that lead to dramatically different conclusions. it therefore makes sense for scientists to give the greatest weight, when evaluating the evidence for and against a given hypothesis, to the most direct observational or experimental evidence at hand. technologists, on the other hand, succeed best when they stand back from the task before them, thinking laterally about ways in which ostensibly irrelevant techniques might be applied to solve one or another component of the problem. the technologist's approach, when applied to science, is likely to result all too often in wasted time, as experiments are performed that contain too many departures from previous work to allow the drawing of firm conclusions either way concerning the hypothesis of interest. conversely, applying the scientist's methodology to technological endeavours can also result in wasted time, resulting from overly small steps away from techniques already known to be futile, like trying to fly by flapping mechanical wings. but there's another difference between the characteristic mindsets of scientists and technologists, and i've come to view it as the most problematic. scientists are avowedly "curiosity driven" rather than "goal directed"   they are spurred by the knowledge that, throughout the history of civilisation, innumerable useful technologies have become possible not through the stepwise execution of a predefined plan, but rather through the purposely undirected quest for knowledge, letting a dynamically determined sequence of experiments lead where it may. that logic is as true as it ever was, and any technologist who doubts it need only examine the recent history of science to change his mind. however, it can be   and, in my view, all too often is   taken too far. a curiosity driven sequence of experiments is useful not because of the sequence, but because of the technological opportunities that emerge at the end of the sequence. the sequence is not an end in itself. and this is rather important to keep in mind. any scientist, on completing an experiment, is spoilt for choice concerning what experiment to do next   or, more prosaically, concerning what experiment to apply for funding to do next. the natural criterion for making this choice is the likelihood that the experiment will generate a wide range of answers to technologically important questions, thereby providing new technological opportunities. but an altogether more frequently adopted criterion, in practice, is that the experiment will generate a wide range of new questions   new reasons to do more experiments. this is only indirectly useful, and i believe that in practice it is indeed less frequently useful than programs of research designed with one eye on the potential for eventual technological utility. why, then, is it the norm? simply because it is the more attractive to those who are making these decisions   the curiosity driven scientists (whether the grant applicants or the grant reviewers) themselves. curiosity is addictive: both emotionally and in their own enlightened self interest, scientists want reasons to do more science, not more technology. but as a society we need science to be as useful as possible, as quickly as possible, and this addiction slows us down. at the end of the structure of scientific revolutions, thomas kuhn suggested that it is reasonable to trust the general consensus of experts instead of a revolutionary idea, even when the revolutionary idea is consistent with a finding that could not be explained by the general consensus. he reasoned that the general consensus was reached by drawing together countless bits of evidence, and even though it could not explain everything, it had passed a gauntlet to which the revolutionary idea had not yet been subjected. kuhn's idea seemed sufficiently plausible to lead me to generally trust the consensus of experts in disciplines outside my area of expertise. i still think that it is wise to trust the experts when their profession has a good understanding of the processes under consideration. this situation applies to experts on car maintenance, for example, because cars were made by people who shared their knowledge about the function of car parts, and top notch car mechanics learn this information. it also applies generally to the main principles of mechanical and electrical engineering, biology, physics, and chemistry, because these principles are tested directly or indirectly by the countless studies. i am becoming convinced, however, that the opposite view is often true when the expert opinion pertains to the unknown: the longer and more widespread the accepted wisdom has been accepted, the more hesitant we should be to trust it, especially if the experts have been studying the question intensively during this period of acceptance and contradictory findings or logic have been presented. the reason is simple. if an explanation has been widely and broadly accepted and convincing evidence still cannot be mustered, then it is quite reasonable to expect that the experts are barking up the wrong, albeit cherished, trees. that is, its acceptance has more to do with the limitations of intellectual ingenuity than with evidence. this argument provides a clear guideline for allocating trust to experts: distrust expert opinion in accordance with what is not known about the subject. this guideline is, of course, difficult to apply because one has to first ascertain whether a discipline actually has valid answers for a given area of inquiry. consider something as simple as a sprained ankle. evolutionary considerations suggest that the inflammation and pain associated with sprained ankles are adaptive responses to promote healing, and that suppressing them would be detrimental to long term functionality of the joint. i have searched the literature to find out whether any evidence indicates that treatment of sprained ankles with ice, compression, anti inflammatories, and analgesics promotes or hinders healing and long term functionality of the joint. in particular, i have been looking for comparisons of treated individuals with untreated controls. i have not found any and am coming to the conclusion that this widely advocated expert opinion is a detrimental holdover from ancient greek medicine, which often confused the return of the body to a more healthy appearance with the return of the body to a state of health. more generally, i am coming to the disquieting realization that much of scientific opinion and even more of medical opinion falls into the murky area circumscribed by a lack of adequate knowledge about the processes at hand. this means that i must invoke broadly the guideline to distrust expert opinion in proportion to the lack of knowledge in the area. although this has made me more objectionable, it has also been of great value intellectually and practically, as when, for example, i sprain my ankle. when i was young i believed in equality as a guiding principle in life. it's not such a bad idea, when you think about it. if we treat everyone else as being our equals, no one feels inferior. and as an added bonus, no one feels superior. whilst it is a wonderfully cosy, warm, feel good idea, i have changed my mind about equality. there seemed to be two moments in my thinking about this principle that revealed some cracks in the perfect idea. let me describe how these two moments changed my mind. the first moment was in thinking about economic equality. living on a kibbutz was an interesting opportunity to see how if you want to aim for everyone to have exactly the same amount of money or exactly the same possessions or exactly the same luxuries, the only way to achieve this is by legislation. in a small community like a kibbutz, or in an amish community, where there is an opportunity for all members of the community to decide on their lifestyles collectively and where the legislation is the result of consensual discussion, economic equality might just be possible. but in the large towns and cities in which most of us live, and with the unfounded opportunities to see how other people live, through travel, television and the web, it is patently untenable to expect complete strangers to accept economic equality if it is forced onto them. so, for small groups of people who know each other and choose to live together, economic equality might be an achievable principle. but for large groups of strangers, i think we have to accept this is an unrealistic principle. economic equality presumes pre existing relationships based on trust, mutual respect, and choice, which are hard to achieve when you hardly know your neighbours and feel alienated from how your community is run. the second moment was in thinking about how to square equality with individual differences. equality is easy to believe in if you believe everyone is basically the same. the problem is that it is patently obvious that we are not all the same. once you accept the existence of individual differences, this opens the door to some varieties of difference being better than others. let's take the thorny subject of sex differences. if males have more testosterone than females, and if testosterone causes not only your beard to grow but also your muscles to grow stronger, it is just naïve to hold onto the idea that women and men are going to be starting on a level playing field in competitive sports where strength matters. this is just one example of how individual differences in hormonal levels can play havoc with the idea of biological equality. our new research suggests hormones like prenatal testosterone also affect how the mind develops. higher levels of prenatal testosterone are associated with slower social and language development andreduced empathy. higher levels of prenatal testosterone are also associated with more autistic traits, stronger interests in systems, andgreater attention to detail. a few more drops of this molecule seem to be associated with important differences in how our minds work. so, biology has little time for equality. this conclusion should come as no surprise, since darwin's theory of evolution was premised on the existence of individual differences, upon which natural selection operates. in modern darwinism such individual differences are the result of genetic differences, either mutations or polymorphisms in the dna sequence. given how hormones and genes (which are not mutually exclusive, genetic differences being one way in which differences in hormone levels come about) can put us onto very different paths in development, how can we believe in equality in all respects? the other way in which biology is patently unequal is in the likelihood of developing different medical conditions. males are sometimes referred to as the weaker sex because they are more likely to develop a whole host of conditions, among which are autism (four boys for every one girl) or asperger syndrome (nine boys for every one girl). given these risks, it becomes almost comical to believe in equality. i still believe in some aspects of the idea of equality, but i can no longer accept the whole package. the question is, is it worth holding on to some elements of the idea if you've given up other elements? does it make sense to have a partial belief in equality? do you have to either believe in all of it, or none of it? my mind has been changed from my youthful starting point where i might have hoped that equality could be followed in all areas of life, but i still see value in holding on to some aspects of the principle. striving to give people equality of social opportunity is still a value system worth defending, even if in the realm of biology, we have to accept equality has no place. one of my most basic assumptions about the relationship between mental effort and brain function has begun to crumble. here's why. my earliest research interests as a psychologist were in the ways mental training can shape biological systems. my doctoral dissertation was a psychophysiological study of meditation as an intervention in stress reactivity; i found (as have many others since) that the practice of meditation seems to speed the rate of physiological recovery from a stressor. my guiding assumptions included the standard premise that the mind body relationship operates according to orderly, understandable principles. one such might be called the "dose response" rule, that the more time put into a given method of training, the greater the result in the targeted biological system. this is a basic correlate of neuroplasticity, the mechanism through which repeated experience shapes the brain. for example, a string of research has now established that more experienced meditators recover more quickly from stress induced physiological arousal than do novices. nothing remarkable there. the dose response rule would predict this is so. thus brain imaging studies show that the spatial areas of london taxi drivers become enhanced during the first six months they spend driving around that city's winding streets; likewise, the area for thumb movement in the motor cortex becomes more robust in violinists as they continue to practice over many months. this relationship has been confirmed in many varieties of mental training. a seminal 2004 article in the proceedings of the national academy of science found that, compared to novices, highly adept meditators generated far more high amplitude gamma wave activity   which reflects finely focused attention   in areas of the prefrontal cortex while meditating. the seasoned meditators in this study   all tibetan lamas   had undergone cumulative levels of mental training akin to the amount of lifetime sports practice put in by olympic athletes: 10,000 to 50,000 hours. novices tended to increase gamma activity by around 10 to 15 percent in the key brain area, while most experts had increases on the order of 100 percent from baseline. what caught my eye in this data was not this difference between novices and experts (which might be explained in any number of ways, including a self selection bias), but rather a discrepancy in the data among the group of olympic level meditators. although the experts' average boost in gamma was around 100 percent, two lamas were "outliers": their gamma levels leapt 700 to 800 percent. this goes far beyond an orderly dose response relationship   these jumps in high amplitude gamma activity are the highest ever reported in the scientific literature apart from pathological conditions like seizures. yet the lamas were voluntarily inducing this extraordinarily heightened brain activity for just a few minutes at a time   and by meditating on "pure compassion," no less. i have no explanation for this data, but plenty of questions. at the higher reaches of contemplative expertise, do principles apply (as the dalai lama has suggested in dialogues with neuroscientists) that we do not yet grasp? if so, what might these be? in truth, i have no idea. but these puzzling data points have pried open my mind a bit as i've had to question what had been a rock solid assumption of my own. in a 2007 radio advertisement, former nyc mayor rudy giuliani said, "i had prostate cancer, five, six years ago. my chances of surviving prostate cancer   and thank god i was cured of it   in the united states: 82 percent. my chances of surviving prostate cancer in england: only 44 percent under socialized medicine." giuliani was lucky to be living in new york, and not in york   true? in world brain (1938), h. g. wells predicted that for an educated citizenship in a modern democracy, statistical thinking would be as indispensable as reading and writing. at the beginning of the 21st century, we have succeeded in teaching millions how to read and write, but many of us still don't know how to reason statistically   how to understand risks and uncertainties in our technological world. giuliani is a case in point. one basic concept that everyone should understand is the 5 year survival rate. giuliani used survival rates from the year 2000, where 49 britons per 100,000 were diagnosed of prostate cancer, of which 28 died within 5 years   about 44 percent. is it true that his chances of surviving cancer are about twice as high in what giuliani believes is the best health care system in the world? not at all. survival rates are not the same as mortality rates. the u.s. has in fact about the same prostate cancer mortality rate as the u.k. but far more americans participate in psa screening (although its effect on mortality reduction has not been proven). as a consequence, more americans are diagnosed of prostate cancer, which skyrockets the 5 year survival rate to more than 80%, although no life is saved. screening detects many "silent" prostate cancers that the patient would have never noticed during his lifetime. americans live longer with the diagnosis, but they do not live longer. yet many americans end up incontinent or impotent for the rest of their lives, due to unnecessary aggressive surgery or radiation therapy, believing that their life has been saved. giuliani is not an exception to the prevailing confusion about how to evaluate health statistics. for instance, my research shows that 80% to 90% of german physicians do not understand what a positive screening test means   such as psa, hiv, or mammography   and most do not know how to explain the patient the potential benefits and harms. patients however falsely assume that their doctors know and understand the relevant medical research. in most medical schools, education in understanding health statistics is currently lacking or ineffective. the bare fact of statistical illiteracy among physicians, patients, and politicians is still not well known, much less addressed, made me pessimistic about the chances of any improvement. statistical illiteracy in health matters turns the ideals of informed consent and shared decision making into science fiction. yet i have begun to change my mind. here are a few reasons why i'm more optimistic. consider the concept of relative risks. you may have heard that mammography screening reduces breast cancer mortality by 25%! impressive, isn't it? many believe that if 100 women participate, the life of 25 will be saved. but don't be taken in again. the number is based on studies that showed that out of every 1,000 women who do not participate in mammography screening, 4 will die of breast cancer within about 10 years, whereas among those who participate in screening this number decreases to 3. this difference can be expressed as anabsolute risk, that is, one out of every 1,000 women dies less of breast cancer, which is a clear and transparent. but it also can be phrased in terms of a relative risk: a 25% benefit. i have asked hundreds of gynecologists to explain what this benefit figure means. the good news is that two thirds understood that 25% means 1 in 1,000. yet one third overestimated the benefits by one or more orders of magnitudes. thus, better training in medical school is still wanted. what makes me optimistic is the reaction of some 1,000 gynecologists i have trained in understanding risks and uncertainties as part of their continuing education. first, learning how to communicate risks was a top topic on their wish list. second, despite the fact that most had little statistical training, they learned quickly. consider the situation of a woman who tests positive in a screening mammogram, and asks her doctor whether she has cancer for certain, or what her chances are. she has a right to get the best answer from medical science: out of ten women who test positive, only one has breast cancer, the other nine cases are false alarms. most women are never informed about this relevant fact, and react with panic and fear. mammography is not a very reliable test. before the training, the majority of gynecologists mistakenly believed that about 9 out of 10 women who test positive have cancer, as opposed to only one! after the training, however, almost all physicians understood how to read this kind of health statistics. that's real progress, and i didn't expect so much, so soon. what makes me less optimistic is resistance to transparency in health from government institutions. a few years ago, i presented the program of transparent risk communication to the national cancer institute in bethesda. two officials took me aside afterwards and lauded the program for its potential to make health care more rational. i asked if they intended to implement it. their answer was no. why not? as they explained, transparency in this form was bad news for the government   a benefit of only 0.1% instead of 25% would make poor headlines for the upcoming election! in addition, their board was appointed by the presidential administration, for which transparency in health care is not a priority. win some, lose some. but i think the tide is turning. statistics may still be woefully absent from most school curricula, including medical schools. that could soon change in the realm of health, however, if physicians and patients make common cause, eventually forcing politicians to do their homework. what gives rise to the most salient, contested and misunderstood of sex differences… differences that see men persistently walk off with the top positions and prizes, whether influence or income, whether heads of state or ceos… differences that infuriate feminists, preoccupy policy makers, galvanize legislators and spawn 'diversity' committees and degrees in gender studies? i used to think that these patterns of sex differences resulted mainly from average differences between men and women in innate talents, tastes and temperaments. after all, in talents men are on average more mathematical, more technically minded, women more verbal; in tastes, men are more interested in things, women in people; in temperaments, men are more competitive, risk taking, single minded, status conscious, women far less so. and therefore, even where such differences are modest, the distribution of these 3 ts among males will necessarily be different from that among females   and so will give rise to notable differences between the two groups. add to this some bias and barriers   a sexist attitude here, a lack of child care there. and the sex differences are explained. or so i thought. but i have now changed my mind. talents, tastes and temperaments play fundamental roles. but they alone don't fully explain the differences. it is a fourth t that most decisively shapes the distinctive structure of male   female differences. that t is tails   the tails of these statistical distributions. females are much of a muchness, clustering round the mean. but, among males, the variance   the difference between the most and the least, the best and the worst   can be vast. so males are almost bound to be over represented both at the bottom and at the top. i think of this as 'more dumbbells but more nobels'. consider the mathematics sections in the usa's national academy of sciences: 95% male. which contributes most to this predominance   higher means or larger variance? one calculation yields the following answer. if the sex difference between the means was obliterated but the variance was left intact, male membership would drop modestly to 91%. but if the means were left intact but the difference in the variance was obliterated, male membership would plummet to 64%. the overwhelming male predominance stems largely from greater variance. similarly, consider the most intellectually gifted of the usa population, an elite 1%. the difference between their bottom and top quartiles is so wide that it encompasses one third of the entire ability range in the american population, from iqs above 137 to iqs beyond 200. and who's overwhelmingly in the top quartile? males. look, for instance, at the boy:girl ratios among adolescents for scores in mathematical reasoning tests: scores of at least 500, 2:1; scores of at least 600, 4:1; scores of at least 700, 13.1. admittedly, those examples are writ large   exceptionally high aptitude and a talent that strongly favours males and with a notably long right hand tail. nevertheless, the same combined causes   the forces of natural selection and the facts of statistical distribution   ensure that this is the default template for male female differences. let's look at those causes. the legacy of natural selection is twofold: mean differences in the 3 ts and males generally being more variable; these two features hold for most sex differences in our species and, as darwin noted, greater male variance is ubiquitous across the entire animal kingdom. as to the facts of statistical distribution, they are three fold … and watch what happens at the end of the right tail: first, for overlapping bell curves, even with only a small difference in the means, the ratios become more inflated as one goes further out along the tail; second, where there's greater variance, there's likely to be a dumbbells and nobels effect; and third, when one group has both greater mean and greater variance, that group becomes even more over represented at the far end of the right tail. the upshot? when we're dealing with evolved sex differences, we should expect that the further out we go along the right curve, the more we will find men predominating. so there we are: whether or not there are more male dumbbells, there will certainly be   both figuratively and actually   more male nobels. unfortunately, however, this is not the prevailing perspective in current debates, particularly where policy is concerned. on the contrary, discussions standardly zoom in on the means and blithely ignore the tails. so sex differences are judged to be small. and thus it seems that there's a gaping discrepancy: if women are as good on average as men, why are men overwhelmingly at the top? the answer must be systematic unfairness   bias and barriers. therefore, so the argument runs, it is to bias and barriers that policy should be directed. and so the results of straightforward facts of statistical distribution get treated as political problems   as 'evidence' of bias and barriers that keep women back and sweep men to the top. (though how this explains the men at the bottom is an unacknowledged mystery.) but science has given us biological insights, statistical rules and empirical findings … surely sufficient reason to change one's mind about men at the top. the economist, john maynard keynes, when criticised for shifting his position on monetary policy, retorted: "when the facts change, i change my mind. what do you do, sir?" point taken. yet, despite the way the edge 2008 question has been framed, in science it is not always true that it requires new facts to change people's minds. instead, as thomas kuhn recognised, at major turning points in the history of science, theorists who have previously found themselves struggling to make sense of "known facts", sometimes undergo a radical change in perspective, such that they see these same facts in a quite different light. where people earlier saw the rabbit, they now see the duck. in my own research on consciousness, i have changed my mind more than once. i expect it will happen again. but it has not   at least so far   been because i learned any new facts. contrary to the hopes of neuroscientists on one side, quantum physicists on the other, i'm pretty sure all the facts that we need to solve the hard problem are already familiar to us   if only we could see them for what they are. no magic bullet is going to emerge from the lab, from brain imaging or particle accelerators. instead, what we are waiting for is merely (!) a revolutionary new way of thinking about things that we all, as conscious creatures, already know   perhaps a way of making those same facts unfamiliar. what is the hard problem? the problem is to explain the mysterious out of this world qualities of conscious experience   the felt redness of red, the felt sharpness of pain. i once believed that the answer lay in introspection: "thoughts about thoughts", i reckoned, could yield the requisite magical properties as an emergent property. but i later realised on logical (not factual) grounds that this idea was empty. magic doesn't simply emerge, it has to be constructed. so, since then, i've been working on a constructivist theory of consciousness. and my most promising line yet (as i see it) has been to turn the problem round and to imagine that the hardness of the problem may actually be the key to its solution. just suppose that the "cartesian theatre of consciousness", about which modern philosophers are generally so sceptical, is in fact a biological reality. suppose indeed , that nature has designed our brains to contain a mental theatre, designed for the very purpose of staging the qualia rich spectacle on which we set such store. suppose, in short, that consciousness exists primarily for our entertainment and amazement. i may tell you that, with this changed mind set, i already see the facts quite differently. i hope it does the same for you, sir. as a teenager growing up in the rural american midwest, i played in a christian rock band. we wrote worship songs, with texts on religious themes, and experienced the jubilation and transport of the music as a visitation by the holy spirit. then one day, as my faith was beginning to waiver, i wrote a song with an explicitly nonreligious theme. to my surprise i discovered that when i performed it, i was overcome by the same feelings, and it dawned on me that maybe what we had experienced all along was our own spirits, that what had called to us was the power of music itself. in truth, i wasn't thinking through much at the time. later, as a graduate student of philosophy, i did start to think a lot about science and ethics, and i began to undergo a parallel shift of outlook. having embraced a thoroughly naturalistic, materialistic worldview, i wondered: if everything is just matter, how could anything really matter? how could values be among the objective furniture of the universe? it is not as if anyone expected physicists to discover, alongside electrons, protons, and neutrons, a new fundamental moral particle  the moron?  which would show up in high magnitudes whenever people did nice things. then there was j. l. mackie's famous argument from "queerness": objective values would have to be such that merely coming to appreciate them would motivate you to pursue them. but given everything we know about how ordinary natural facts behave (they seem to ask nothing of us), how could there possibly be states of affairs with this strange to be pursuedness built into them, and how could we come to appreciate them? at the same time, i was taken in by the promises found in some early sociobiology that a new evolutionary science of human nature would supplant empty talk about objective values. as michael ruse once put it, "morality is just an aid to survival and reproduction," and so "any deeper meaning is illusory." niceness may seem self evidently right to us, but things could easily have been the other way around, had nastiness paid off more often for our ancestors. i have since been convinced that i was looking at all of this in the wrong way. not only are values a part of nature; we couldn't avoid them if we tried. there is no doubt that had we evolved differently, we would value different things. however, that alone does not show that values are subjective. after all, hearing is accomplished by psychological mechanisms that evolved under natural selection. but it does not follow that the things we hear are any less real. rather, the reality of the things around us helps to explain why we have the faculty to detect them. the evolved can put us in touch with the objective. in fact, we are all intimately familiar with entities which are such that to recognize them is to be moved by them. we call them reasons, where a reason is just a consideration that weighs in favor of an action or belief. as separate lines of research by psychologist daniel wegner and psychiatrist george ainslie (as synthesized and interpreted by daniel dennett) strongly suggest, our reasons aren't all "in the head," and we cannot help but heed their call. at some point in our evolution, the behavioral repertoire of our ancestors became complex enough to involve the review and evaluation of numerous possible courses of action and the formation of intentions on the basis of their projected outcomes. in a word, we got options. however, as an ultrasocial species, for whom survival and reproduction depended on close coordination of behaviors over time, we needed to manage these options in a way that could be communicated to our neighbors. that supervisor and communicator of our mental economy is the self, the more or less stable "i" that persists through time and feels like it is the author of action. after all, if you want to be able to make reliable threats or credible promises, you need to keep track of who you are, were, and will be. according to this perspective, reasons are a human organism's way of taking responsibility for some of the happenings in its body and environment. as such, they are inherently public and shareable. reasons are biological adaptations, every bit as real as our hands, eyes, and ears. i do not expect (and we do not need) a "science of good and evil." however, scientific evidence can show how it is that things matter objectively. i cannot doubt the power of reasons without presupposing the power of reasons (for doubting). that cannot be said for the power of the holy spirit. i had witnessed the destructive power of faith more than a few times. as a reporter i had seen how evangelists supported a ruthless war in guatemala, where the ruling general and evangelical minister rios montt had set out to eradicate the remnants of mayan culture in the name of god. i had spent a month with the hamas in the refugee camps of gaza, where fathers and mothers would praise their dead sons' suicide missions against israel as spiritual quests. long before 911 i had attended a religious conference in khartoum, where the spiritual leader of the sudan hassan al turabi found common intellectual ground for such diverse people as cardinal arinze, reverend moon and the future brothers in arms osama bin laden and ayman al zawahiri. there the catholic church, dubious cults and islamist terror declared war on secularism and rational thought it didn't have to be outright war though. many a times i saw the paralysis of thinking and intellect in faith. i had listened to evangelical scholar kent hovind explain to children how darwin was wrong, because dinosaurs and man roamed the earth together. i had spent time with the amish, a stubborn, backwards people romanticized by luddite sentiment. i had visited the church of scientology's celebrity center in hollywood, where a strange and stifling dogma is glamorized by movie and pop stars. it was during my work on faith in the us that i came across the new religions movement studies of david b. barrett's "world christian encyclopedia". barrett and his fellow researchers george t. kurian and todd m. johnson had come to the conclusion that of all centuries, it was the alleged pinnacle of secular thought the 20th century that had brought on the most new religions in the history of civilization. they had counted 9900 full fledged religions around the world. the success of new religions, they explained, came with the disintegration of traditional structures like the family, the tribe and the village. in the rootless world of mega cities and in american suburbia alike religious groups function as the very social fabric, society can't provide anymore. it was hard facts against hard facts. first the visceral experience out in the field first overpowered the raw data of the massive body of scientific research. it still forced me to rethink my hardened stand towards faith. it was hard to let go of the empirical data of experience and accept the hard facts of science. this is a route normally leading from faith to rational thought. no, it hasn't brought me to faith, but i had to acknowledge it's persistence and cultural power. first and foremost it demonstated that the empirical data of journalism are no match for the bigger picture of science. russians arrived on the western shores of north america after crossing their eastern ocean in 1741. after an initial period of exploration, they settled down for a full century until relinquishing their colonies to the united states. from 1799 to 1867, the colonies were governed by the russian american company, a for profit monopoly chartered under the deathbed instructions of catherine the great. the russian american period has been treated unkindly by historians from both sides. soviet era accounts, though acknowledging the skill and courage of russian adventurers, saw this tsarist experiment at building a capitalist, american society as fundamentally flawed, casting the native aleuts as exploited serfs. american accounts, glossing over our own subsequent exploitation of alaska's indigenous population and natural resources, sought to emphasize that we liberated alaska from russian overseers who were worse, and would never be coming back. careful study of primary sources has convinced me that these interpretations are not supported by the facts. the aleutian archipelago was a spectacularly rich environment with an unusually dense, thriving population whose physical and cultural well being was devastated by contact with european invaders. but, as permanent colonists, the russians were not so bad. the results were closer to the settlement of greenland by denmark than to our own settlement of the american west. although during the initial decades leading up to the consolidation of the russian american company there was sporadic conflict (frequently disastrous to the poorly armed and vastly outnumbered russians) with the native population, the colonies soon entered a relatively stable state based on cooperation, intermarriage, and official policies that provided social status, education, and professional training to children of mixed aleut russian birth. within a generation or two the day to day administration of the russian american colonies was largely in the hands of native born alaskans. as exemplified by the russian adoption and adaptation of the aleut kayak, or baidarka, many indigenous traditions and technologies (including sea otter hunting techniques, and the working of native copper deposits) were adopted by the new arrivals, reversing the usual trend in colonization, when indigenous technologies are replaced. the russians instituted public education, preservation of the aleut language through transliteration of religious and other texts into aleut via an adaptation of the cyrillic alphabet, vaccination of the native population against smallpox, and science based sea mammal conservation policies that were far ahead of their time. there were no such things as "reservations" for the native population in russian america, and we owe as much to the russians as to the alaska native claims settlement act of 1971 that this remains true today. the lack of support for the colonies by the home government (st. petersburg was half a world away, and empress catherine's instructions a fading memory) eventually forced the sale to the united states, but also necessitated the resourcefulness and local autonomy that made the venture a success. russian america was a social and technological experiment that worked, until political compromises brought the experiment to a halt. i always change my mind about everything, and i never change my mind about anything. that flexibility is intrinsic to being human   more, to being conscious. we are (or should be) constantly learning new things, absorbing new information, and reacting to new ideas, so of course we are changing our minds. in the most trivial sense, learning and memory involve a constant remodeling of the fine details of the brain, and the only time the circuitry will stop changing is when we're dead. and in a more profound sense, our major ideas change over time: my 5 year old self, my 15 year old self, and my 25 year old self were very different people with different priorities and different understandings of the world around them than my current 50 year old self. this is simply in the nature of our existence. in the context of pursuing science, however, there is a substantive context in which we do not change our minds: we have a commitment to following the evidence wherever it leads. we have a kind of overriding metaphysic that says that we should set out to find data that will change our minds about a subject   every good research program has as its goal the execution of observations and experiments that will challenge our assumptions   and about that all important foundation of the scientific enterprise i have never changed my mind, nor can i, without abandoning science altogether. in my own personal intellectual history, i began my academic career with a focus on neuroscience; i shifted to developmental neurobiology; i later got caught up in developmental biology as a whole; i am now most interested in the confluence of evolution and development. have i ever changed my mind? i don't think that i have, in any significant way   i have instead applied a consistent attitude towards a series of problems. if i embark on a voyage of exploration, and i set as my goals the willingness to follow any lead, to pursue any interesting observation, to overcome any difficulties, and i end up in some unpredicted, exotic locale that might be very different from my predictions prior to setting out, have i changed my destination in any way? i would say not; thesine qua non of science is not the conclusions we reach but the process we use to arrive at them, and that is the unchanging pole star by which we navigate. when i started seed, i had a fairly strong aversion to technology. somehow, sometime, science and technology had become science and technology. two worlds, dissimilar in many respects, likely linked in speech for the practical goal of raising funding and attention for basic research by showing the direct, immediate correlation with usable things. i felt then that the 'and' made science more perfunctory and less romantic. and that this was a bad thing on multiple counts. in the last year, i've come to see the relationship between science and technology very differently. we have reached the point in physics and cosmology, neuroscience, and genetics at least where technology is quintessential to advancement. technology is not merely making the practice of science faster, less mundane or, as with microscopes, helping us see the otherwise unseeable; it is a distinct yet complementary landscape from which we can advance our knowledge of the natural world. a physicist at cern said to me recently that they likely wouldn't have built a new $8 billion collider if there was a better way of moving the field forward. the blue brain project is using supercomputers to construct a mind because the neuroscientists involved believe it is the best way of attaining an overall understanding of the brain. robots, i now appreciate, are not simply novelty items or tools of automation, but can be a way of gaining unique insight into humans. from simulation to supercomputing, technology is now (or at least i now see) one of science's very best friends (i could say the same for the arts). and the design, magnitude, and complexity of these technological feats satisfy my (and our) need for romance in our pursuit of truth. the sum total of all information produced in 2008 will likely exceed the amount of information generated by humans over the past 40,000 years. science is getting literally bigger, but as these and other major experiments churn out pentabytes of data, how do we ensure that we are actually learning more? visualization, and more generally a strong relationship between science and design, will be essential to deriving knowledge from all this information. two years ago i watched the dalai lama address thousands of laboratory biologists at the society for neuroscience meeting in washington, d.c. at the end of his speech, someone asked about the use of animals in lab research: "that's difficult," replied his holiness. "always stress the importance of compassion ... in highly necessary experiments, try to minimize pain." the first two words of his answer provided most of the moral insight. universities already have cumbersome animal research protocols in place to eliminate unnecessary suffering, and few lab workers would do anything but try to minimize pain. when i first entered graduate school, this western cum buddhist policy seemed like a neat compromise between protecting animals and supporting the advance of knowledge. but after i'd spent several years cutting up mice, birds, kittens, and monkeys, my mind was changed. not because i was any less dedicated to the notion of animal research  i still believe it's necessary to sacrifice living things in the name of scientific progress. but i saw how institutional safeguards served to offload the moral burden from the researchers themselves. rank and file biologists are rarely asked to consider the key ethical questions around which these policies are based. true, the nih has for almost 20 years required that graduate training institutions offer a course in responsible research conduct. but in the class i took, we received pr advice rather than moral guidance: what's the best way to keep your animal research out of the public eye? in practice, i found that scientists were far from monolithic in their attitudes towards animal work. (drosophila researchers had misgivings about the lab across the hall, where technicians perfused the still beating hearts of mice with chemical fixative; mouse researchers didn't want to implant titanium posts in the skulls of water starved monkeys.) they weren't animal rights zealots, of course  they had nothing but contempt for the peta protestors who passed out fliers in front of the lab buildings. but they did have real misgivings about the extent to which biology research might go in its exploitation of living things. at the same time, very few of us took the time to consider whether or how we might sacrifice fewer animals (or no animals at all). why bother, when the institutional animal care and use committee had already signed off on the research? the hard part of this work isn't convincing an iacuc board to sanction the killing. it's making sure you've exhausted every possible alternative. in the past few years, i have been thinking and writing about "attention", and specifically, "continuous partial attention". the impetus came from my years of working at apple, and then, microsoft, where i thought a lot about user interface as well as our relationship to the tools we create. i believe that attention is the most powerful tool of the human spirit and that we can enhance or augment our attention with practices like meditation and exercise, diffuse it with technologies like email and blackberries, or alter it with pharmaceuticals. but lately i have observed that the way in which many of us interact with our personal technologies makes it impossible to use this extraordinary tool of attention to our advantage. in observing others   in their offices, their homes, at cafes   the vast majority of people hold their breath especially when they first begin responding to email. on cell phones, especially when talking and walking, people tend to hyper ventilate or over breathe. either of these breathing patterns disturbs oxygen and co2 balance. research conducted by two nih scientists, margaret chesney and david anderson, demonstrates that breath holding can contribute significantly to stress related diseases. the body becomes acidic, the kidneys begin to re absorb sodium, and as the oxygen and co2 balance is undermined, our biochemistry is thrown off. around this same time, i became very interested in the vagus nerve and the role it played. the vagus nerve is one of the major cranial nerves, and wanders from the head, to the neck, chest and abdomen. it's primary job is to mediate the autonomic nervous system, which includes the sympathetic   "fight or flight," and parasympathetic   "rest and digest" nervous systems. the parasympathetic nervous system governs our sense of hunger and satiety, flow of saliva and digestive enzymes, the relaxation response, and many aspects of healthy organ function. focusing on diaphragmatic breathing enables us to down regulate the sympathetic nervous system, which then causes the parasympathetic nervous system to become dominant. shallow breathing, breath holding and hyper ventilating triggers the sympathetic nervous system, in a "fight or flight" response. the activated sympathetic nervous system causes the liver to dump glucose and cholesterol into our blood, our heart rate increases, we don't have a sense of satiety, and our bodies anticipate and resource for the physical activity that, historically, accompanied a physical fight or flight response. meanwhile, when the only physical activity is sitting and responding to email, we're sort of "all dressed up with nowhere to go." some breathing patterns favor our body's move toward parasympathetic functions and other breathing patterns favor a sympathetic nervous system response. buteyko (breathing techniques developed by a russian m.d.), andy weil's breathing exercises, diaphragmatic breathing, certain yoga breathing techniques, all have the potential to soothe us, and to help our bodies differentiate when fight or flight is really necessary and when we can rest and digest. i've changed my mind about how much attention to pay to my breathing patterns and how important it is to remember to breathe when i'm using a computer, pda or cell phone. i've discovered that the more consistently i tune in to healthy breathing patterns, the clearer it is to me when i'm hungry or not, the more easily i fall asleep and rest peacefully at night, and the more my outlook is consistently positive. i've come to believe that, within the next 5 7 years, breathing exercises will be a significant part of any fitness regime. having grown up in mexico, it took me a long time to understand what true power is and where it comes from. you see, i had great role models; perhaps that was part of the problem. throughout the developing world, as in lansing and iowa, there are many smart, tough, hardworking folk who still think power resides in today’s politics, unions, punditry, faith, painting, poetry, literature, agriculture, manufacturing, or architecture. each sphere can immortalize or destroy individuals or regions. but, long term, to paraphrase darwin, the only way for a country to survive and thrive is to adapt and adopt. problem is there is a winner’s bias. to paraphrase a winemaker, tradition is an experiment that worked. a religion originally thrives because adherents find it improves their lives. sometimes faith is a way to cope with the horror of the present and to improve health and survival. (suppose there is any regional basis for the coincidences in kosher and halal restrictions?) but most religions, and most countries, forget they became powerful by continuously experimenting, learning, tweaking, improving. they begin to ossify myths and traditions. as others grow and thrive, they begin to fear change. they celebrate the past, becoming more nativist and xenophobic. the rest of the world does not wait. it keeps gathering data. it keeps changing minds and methods. successful religions and countries evolve new testaments and beliefs from the foundations of the old. the alternative is to merge, fragment, become irrelevant, go extinct. museum basements are full of statues of once all powerful emperors and gods that demanded, and got, blood sacrifices. who is truly powerful over the long term? those running most of the successful experiments. and nowhere does this happen faster, more effectively, and more often today than in science related endeavors. true power flows primarily from science and knowledge. as we double the amount of data generated by our species over the course of the next five years, universities and science driven businesses are the key drivers of new experiments. you can find many examples of fast growing countries that are rich and poor, north and south, communist, capitalist, and socialist. but all have a core of great science schools and tech entrepreneurs. meanwhile much of latin america lacks many silicon valley wannabes. start ups are rare. serial entrepreneurs sell cheap chinese imports on sidewalks instead of dreaming up ipos. scientists often earn less than accountants. real growth has been absent for decades. few governments understand how quickly they must change, adopt, teach, and celebrate the new. (never mind religions). it is no coincidence that some of the fastest growing regions today were either isolated or largely irrelevant a few of decades ago. singapore, ireland, china, india and korea, were considered basket cases. but often those with little to lose sometimes risk a new strategy. who eventually survives will be largely driven by understanding and applying digital and life code, by creating robots and nanomaterials, by working inconceivably large data sets and upgrading our brains. meanwhile many u.s. leaders proudly proclaim no evolution and little knowledge of science. they reflect a core of scared voters experiencing massive disruption and declining wages; that core fears elite education, science, immigrants, open borders, and above all rapid change. as income and knowledge gaps widen, many fall further and further behind; many grow to hate an open, knowledge driven economy. change is rejected, blocked, vilified. it took me a long time to shift focus from the politics, art, literature, and concerns of today towards the applied science of tomorrow. but had i not done that, i would have found it much harder to understand which countries are likely to succeed and which could disappear. and the disappearance and fragmentation of whole nations is an ever more common phenomenon. without the ability to adapt and adopt to science driven change, no matter what type of government, geography, ethnicity, or historic tradition you have, you will find that power devolves… even in the most powerful of empires. imagine me, if you will, in the oxford of 1970; a new undergraduate, thrilled by the intellectual atmosphere, the hippy clothes, joss stick filled rooms, late nights, early morning lectures, and mind opening cannabis. i joined the society for psychical research and became fascinated with occultism, mediumship and the paranormal   ideas that clashed tantalisingly with the physiology and psychology i was studying. then late one night something very strange happened. i was sitting around with friends, smoking, listening to music, and enjoying the vivid imagery of rushing down a dark tunnel towards a bright light, when my friend spoke. i couldn't reply. "where are you sue?" he asked, and suddenly i seemed to be on the ceiling looking down. "astral projection!" i thought and then i (or some imagined flying "i") set off across oxford, over the country, and way beyond. for more than two hours i fell through strange scenes and mystical states, losing space and time, and ultimately my self. it was an extraordinary and life changing experience. everything seemed brighter, more real, and more meaningful than anything in ordinary life, and i longed to understand it. but i jumped to all the wrong conclusions. perhaps understandably, i assumed that my spirit had left my body and that this proved all manner of things   life after death, telepathy, clairvoyance, and much, much more. i decided, with splendid, youthful over confidence, to become a parapsychologist and prove all my closed minded science lecturers wrong. i found a phd place, funded myself by teaching, and began to test my memory theory of esp. and this is where my change of mind   and heart, and everything else   came about. i did the experiments. i tested telepathy, precognition, and clairvoyance; i got only chance results. i trained fellow students in imagery techniques and tested them again; chance results. i tested twins in pairs; chance results. i worked in play groups and nursery schools with very young children (their naturally telepathic minds are not yet warped by education, you see); chance results. i trained as a tarot reader and tested the readings; chance results. occasionally i got a significant result. oh the excitement! i responded as i think any scientist should, by checking for errors, recalculating the statistics, and repeating the experiments. but every time i either found the error responsible, or failed to repeat the results. when my enthusiasm waned, or i began to doubt my original beliefs, there was always another corner to turn   always someone saying "but you must try xxx". it was probably three or four years before i ran out of xxxs. i remember the very moment when something snapped (or should i say "i seem to …" in case it's a false flash bulb memory). i was lying in the bath trying to fit my latest null results into paranormal theory, when it occurred to me for the very first time that i might have been completely wrong, and my tutors right. perhaps there were no paranormal phenomena at all. as far as i can remember, this scary thought took some time to sink in. i did more experiments, and got more chance results. parapsychologists called me a "psi inhibitory experimenter", meaning that i didn't get paranormal results because i didn't believe strongly enough. i studied other people's results and found more errors and even outright fraud. by the time my phd was completed, i had become a sceptic. until then, my whole identity had been bound up with the paranormal. i had shunned a sensible phd place, and ruined my chances of a career in academia (as my tutor at oxford liked to say). i had hunted ghosts and poltergeists, trained as a witch, attended spiritualist churches, and stared into crystal balls. but all of that had to go. once the decision was made it was actually quite easy. like many big changes in life this one was terrifying in prospect but easy in retrospect. i soon became "rentasceptic", appearing on tv shows to explain how the illusions work, why there is no telepathy, and how to explain near death experiences by events in the brain. what remains now is a kind of openness to evidence. however firmly i believe in some theory (on consciousness, memes or whatever); however closely i might be identified with some position or claim, i know that the world won't fall apart if i have to change my mind. i've changed my mind about how to handle the homunculus temptation: the almost irresistible urge to install a "little man in the brain" to be the boss, the central meaner, the enjoyer of pleasures and the sufferer of pains. in brainstorms (1978) i described and defended the classic gofai (good old fashioned ai) strategy that came to be known as "homuncular functionalism," replacing the little man with a committee. the ai programmer begins with an intentionally characterized problem, and thus frankly views the computer anthropomorphically: if he solves the problem he will say he has designed a computer than can [e.g.,] understand questions in english . his first and highest level of design breaks the computer down into subsystems, each of which is given intentionally characterized tasks; he composes a flow chart of evaluators, rememberers, discriminators, overseers and the like. these are homunculi with a vengeance. . . . . each homunculus in turn is analyzed into smaller homunculi, but, more important, into less clever homunculi. when the level is reached where the homunculi are no more than adders and subtractors, by the time they need only the intelligence to pick the larger of two numbers when directed to, they have been reduced to functionaries "who can be replaced by a machine." (p80) i still think that this is basically right, but i have recently come to regret and reject some of the connotations of two of the terms i used: committee and machine. the cooperative bureaucracy suggested by the former, with its clear reporting relationships (an image enhanced by the no nonsense flow charts of classical cognitive science models) was fine for the sorts of computer hardware and also the levels of software, the virtual machines that embodied gofai, but it suggested a sort of efficiency that was profoundly unbiological. and while i am still happy to insist that an individual neuron, like those adders and subtractors in the silicon computer, "can be replaced by a machine," neurons are bio machines profoundly unlike computer components in several regards. notice that computers have been designed to keep needs and job performance almost entirely independent. down in the hardware, the electric power is doled out evenhandedly and abundantly; no circuit risks starving. at the software level, a benevolent scheduler doles out machine cycles to whatever process has highest priority, and although there may be a bidding mechanism of one sort or another that determines which processes get priority, this is an orderly queue, not a struggle for life. (as marx would have it, "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs). it is a dim appreciation of this fact that probably underlies the common folk intuition that a computer could never "care" about anything. not because it is made out of the wrong materials   why should silicon be any less suitable a substrate for caring than organic molecules?   but because its internal economy has no built in risks or opportunities, so it doesn't have to care. neurons, i have come to believe, are not like this. my mistake was that i had stopped the finite regress of homunculi at least one step too early! the general run of the cells that compose our bodies are probably just willing slaves rather like the selfless, sterile worker ants in a colony, doing stereotypic jobs and living out their lives in a relatively non competitive ("marxist") environment. but brain cells   i now think   must compete vigorously in a marketplace. for what? what could a neuron "want"? the energy and raw materials it needs to thrive just like its unicellular eukaryote ancestors and more distant cousins, the bacteria and archaea. neurons are robots; they are certainly not conscious in any rich sense remember, they are eukaryotic cells, akin to yeast cells or fungi. if individual neurons are conscious then so is athlete’s foot. but neurons are, like these mindless but intentional cousins, highly competent agents in a life or death struggle, not in the environment between your toes, but in the demanding environment of the brain, where the victories go to those cells that can network more effectively, contribute to more influential trends at the virtual machine levels where large scale human purposes and urges are discernible. i now think, then, that the opponent process dynamics of emotions, and the roles they play in controlling our minds, is underpinned by an "economy" of neurochemistry that harnesses the competitive talents of individual neurons. (note that the idea is that neurons are still good team players within the larger economy, unlike the more radically selfish cancer cells. recalling francois jacob’s dictum that the dream of every cell is to become two cells, neurons vie to stay active and to be influential, but do not dream of multiplying.) intelligent control of an animal’s behavior is still a computational process, but the neurons are "selfish neurons," as sebastian seung has said, striving to maximize their intake of the different currencies of reward we have found in the brain. and what do neurons "buy" with their dopamine, their serotonin or oxytocin, etc.? greater influence in the networks in which they participate. i am a heretic. i have come to question the key assumption behind this survey: "when facts change your mind, that's science." this idea that science is an objective fact driven pursuit is laudable, seductive and   alas   a mirage. science is a never ending dialogue between theorists and experimenters. but people are central to that dialogue. and people ignore facts. they distort them or select the ones that suit their cause, depending on how they interpret their meaning. or they don't ask the right questions to obtain the relevant facts. contrary to the myth of the ugly fact that can topple a beautiful theory   and against the grain of our lofty expectations   scientists sometimes play fast and loose with data, highlighting what that suits them and ignoring stuff that doesn't. the harsh spotlight of the media often encourages them to strike a confident pose even if the facts don't. i am often struck by how facts are ignored, insufficient or even abused. i back well designed animal research but am puzzled by how scientists chose to ignore the basic fact that vivisection is so inefficient at generating cures for human disease. intelligent design is for cretins but, despite the endless proselytizing about the success of darwin   assuming that evolution is a fact   i could still see it being superseded, rather as einstein's ideas replaced newton's law of gravity. i believe in man made global warming but computer projected facts that purportedly say what is in store for the earth in the next century leave me cold. i support embryo research but was irritated by one oft cited fact in the recent british debate on the manufacture of animal human hybrid embryos: "only a tiny fraction" of the hybrid made by the dolly cloning method (nuclear transfer) contains animal dna. given that it features in mitochondria, which are central to a range of diseases; given a single spelling mistake in dna can be catastrophic; and given no one really understands what nuclear transfer does, this "fact" was propaganda. some of the most exotic and prestigious parts of modern science are unfettered by facts. i have recently written about whether our very ability to study the heavens may have shortened the inferred lifetime of the cosmos, whether there are two dimensions of time, even the prospect that time itself could cease to be in billions of years. the field of cosmology is in desperate need of more facts, as highlighted by the aphorisms made at its expense ("there is speculation, pure speculation and cosmology.... cosmologists are often in error, never in doubt') scientists have to make judgements about the merits of new facts. ignoring them in the light of strong intuition is the mark of a great scientist. take einstein, for example: when kaufmann claimed to have experimental facts that refuted special relativity, he stuck to his guns and was proved right. equally, einstein's intuition misled him in his last three decades, when he pursued a fruitless quest for a unified field theory that was not helped by his lack of interest in novel facts   the new theoretical ideas, particles and interactions that had emerged at this time. when it comes to work in progress, in particular, many scientists treat science like a religion   the facts should be made to fit the creed. however, facts are necessary for science but not sufficient. science is when, in the face of extreme scepticism, enough facts accrue to change lots of minds. our rising and now excessive faith in facts alone can be seen in a change in the translation of the motto of the world's oldest academy of science, the royal society. nullius in verba was once taken as 'on the word of no one' to highlight the extraordinary power that empirical evidence bestowed upon science. the message was that experimental evidence trumped personal authority. today the society talks of the need to 'verify all statements by an appeal to facts determined by experiment'. but whose facts? was it a well designed experiment? and are we getting all the relevant facts? the society should adopt the snappier version that captures its original spirit: 'take nobody's word for it'. what made me change my mind isn't a new fact, but a new theory. although a large extent of my work is dedicated to modelling the brain, i always thought that this enterprise would remain rather limited in scope. unlike physics, neuroscience would never create a single, major, simple yet encompassing theory of how the brain works. there would be never be a single "schrödinger's equation for the brain". the vast majority of neuroscientists, i believe, share this pessimistic view. the reason is simple: the brain is the outcome of five hundred million years of tinkering. it consists in millions of distinct pieces, each evolved to solve a distinct yet important problem for our survival. its overall properties result from an unlikely combination of thousands of receptor types, ad hoc molecular mechanisms, a great variety of categories of neurons and, above all, a million billion connections criss crossing the white matter in all directions. how could such a jumble be captured by a single mathematical law? well, i wouldn't claim that anyone has achieved that yet… but i have changed my mind about the very possibility that such a law might exist. for many theoretical neuroscientists, it all started twenty five years ago, when john hopfield made us realize that a network of neurons could operate as an attractor network, driven to optimize an overall energy function which could be designed to accomplish object recognition or memory completion. then came geoff hinton's boltzmann machine   again, the brain was seen as an optimizing machine that could solve complex probabilistic inferences. yet both proposals were frameworks rather than laws. each individual network realization still required the set up of thousands of ad hoc connection weights. very recently, however, karl friston, from ucl in london, has presented two extraordinarily ambitious and demanding papers in which he presents "a theory of cortical responses". friston's theory rests on a single, amazingly compact premise: the brain optimizes a free energy function. this function measures how closely the brain's internal representation of the world approximates the true state of the real world. from this simple postulate, friston spins off an enormous variety of predictions: the multiple layers of cortex, the hierarchical organization of cortical areas, their reciprocal connection with distinct feedforward and feedback properties, the existence of adaptation and repetition suppression… even the type of learning rule   hebb's rule, or the more sophisticated spike timing dependent plasticity   can bededuced, no longer postulated, from this single overarching law. the theory fits easily within what has become a major area of research   the bayesian brain, or the extent to which brains perform optimal inferences and take optimal decisions based on the rules of probabilistic logic. alex pouget, for instance, recently showed how neurons might encode probability distributions of parameters of the outside world, a mechanism that could be usefully harnessed by fristonian optimization. and the physiologist mike shadlen has discovered that some neurons closely approximate the log likelihood ratio in favor of a motor decision, a key element of bayesian decision making. my colleagues and i have shown that the resulting random walk decision process nicely accounts for the duration of a central decision stage, present in all human cognitive tasks, which might correspond to the slow, serial phase in which we consciously commit to a single decision. during non conscious processing, my proposal is that we also perform bayesian accumulation of evidence, but without attaining the final commitment stage. thus, bayesian theory is bringing us increasingly closer to the holy grail of neuroscience   a theory of consciousness. another reason why i am excited about friston's law is, paradoxically, that it isn't simple. it seems to have just the right level of distance from the raw facts. much like schrödinger's equation cannot easily be turned into specific predictions, even for an object as simple as a single hydrogen atom, friston's theory require heavy mathematical derivations before it ultimately provides useful outcomes. not that it is inapplicable. on the contrary, it readily applies to motion perception, audio visual integration, mirror neurons, and thousands of other domains   but in each case, a rather involved calculation is needed. it will take us years to decide whether friston's theory is the true inheritor of helmholtz's view of "perception as inference". what is certain, however, is that neuroscience now has a wealth of beautiful theories that should attract the attention of top notch mathematicians   we will need them! edge’s question this year wittily refers to a way of demarcating science from philosophy and religion. “when thinking changes your mind, that’s philosophy . . . . when facts change your mind, that’s science.” behind the witticism lies the important claim that science or more precisely, scientific theories can be clearly distinguished from all other theories, that scientific theories bear a special mark, and what this mark is is falsifiability. said popper: the criterion of the scientific status of a theory is its falsifiability. for most scientists, this is all they need to know about the philosophy of science. it was bracing to come upon such a clear and precise criterion for identifying scientific theories. and it was gratifying to see how popper used it to discredit the claims that psychoanalysis and marxism are scientific theories. it had long seemed to me that the falsifiability test was basically right and enormously useful. but then i started to read popper’s work carefully, to teach him in my philosophy of science classes, and to look to scientific practice to see whether his theory survives the test of falsifiability (at least as a description of how successful science gets done). and i’ve changed my mind. for one thing, popper’s characterization of how science is practiced as a cycle of conjecture and refutation bears little relation to what goes on in the labs and journals. he describes science as if it was skeet shooting, as if the only goal of science is to prove that one theory after another is false. but just open a copy of science. to pick a random example: “in a probabilistic learning task, a1 allele carriers with reduced dopamine d2 receptor densities learned to avoid actions with negative consequences less efficiently.” not, “we tried to falsify the hypothesis that a1 carriers are less efficient learners, and failed.” scientists rarely write the way that popper says they should, and a good popperian should recognize that the master may have over simplified the logic of theory testing. also, scientists don’t, and shouldn’t, jettison a theory as soon as a disconfirming datum comes in. as francis crick once said, “any theory that can account for all of the facts is wrong, because some of the facts are always wrong.” scientists rightly question a datum that appears to falsify an elegant and well supported theory, and they rightly add assumptions and qualifications and complications to a theory as they learn more about the world. as imre lakatos, a less cited (but more subtle) philosopher of science points out, all scientific theories are unfalsifiable. the ones we take seriously are those that lead to “progressive” research programs, where a small change accommodates a large swath of past and future data. and the ones we abandon are those that lead to “degenerate” ones, where the theory gets patched and re patched at the same rate as new facts come in. another problem with the falsifiability criterion is that i have seen it become a blunt instrument, unthinkingly applied. popper tried to use it to discredit not only marxism and freudianism as scientific theories but also darwin’s theory of natural selection a position that only a creationist could hold today. i have seen scientists claim that major theories in contemporary cosmology and physics are not “science” because they can’t think of a simple test that would falsify them. you’d think that when they are faced with a conflict between what scientists really do and their memorized popperian sound bite about how science ought to be done, they might question the sound bite, and go back and learn more than a single sentence from the philosophy of science. but such is the godlike authority of popper that his is the one theory that can never be falsified! finally, i’ve come to think that identifying scientificality with falsifiability lets certain non scientific theories off the hook, by saying that we should try to find good reasons to believe whether a theory is true or false only when that theory is called “science.” it allows believers to protect their pet theories by saying that they can’t be, and shouldn’t be, subject to falsification, just because they’re clearly not scientific theories. take the theory that there’s an omnipotent, omniscient, beneficent god. it may not be a scientific hypothesis, but it seems to me to be eminently falsifiable; in fact, it seems to have been amply falsified. but because falsifiability is seen as demarcating the scientific, and since theism is so clearly not scientific, believers in religious ideologies get a free pass. the same is true for many political ideologies. the parity between scientific and nonscientific ideas is concealed by thinking that there’s a simple test that distinguishes science from nonscience, and that that test is falsifiability. i have never thought that female sexual psychology was simple. but i've changed my mind about the magnitude of its complexity and consequently revamped the scope and orchestration of my entire research program. i once focused my research on two primary sexual strategies   long term and short term. empirical work has revealed a deeper, richer repertoire: serial mating, friends with benefits, one night stands, brief affairs, enduring affairs, polyamory, polyandry, sexual mate poaching, mate expulsion, mate switching, and various combinations of these throughout life. women implement their sexual strategies through an astonishing array of tactics. scientists have documented at least 34 distinct tactics for promoting short term sexual encounters and nearly double that for attracting a long term romantic partner. researchers discovered 28 tactics women use to derogate sexual competitors, from pointing out that her rival's thighs are heavy to telling others that the rival has a sexually transmitted disease. women's sexual strategies include at least 19 tactics of mate retention, ranging from vigilance to violence, and 29 tactics of ridding themselves of unwanted mates, including having sex as a way to say good bye. some women use sexual infidelity as a means of getting benefits from two or more men. others use it as a means of exiting one relationship in order to enter another. when a woman wants a man who is already in a relationship, she can use at least 19 tactics of mate poaching to lure him away, from befriending both members of the couple in order to disarm her unsuspecting rival to insidiously sowing seeds of doubt about her rival's fidelity or level of desirability. ovulation and orgasm are yielding scientific insights into female sexuality unimagined five years ago. the hidden rhythms of the ovulation cycle, for example, have profound effects on women's sexual desire. women married to men lower in mate value experience an upsurge in sexual fantasies about other men, but mainly during the fertile phase of their cycle. they are sexually attracted to men with masculine faces, but especially so in the five days leading up to ovulation. women's sense of smell spikes around ovulation. sexual scents, long thought unimportant in human sexuality, in fact convey information to women about a man's genetic quality. the female orgasm, once thought by many scientists to be functionless, may turn out to have several distinct adaptive benefits. and those don't even include the potential gains from faking orgasm. some women mislead about their sexual satisfaction in order to get a man to leave; others to deceive him about his paternity in "his" child. female sexual psychology touches every facet of human affairs, from cooperative alliances through strategies of hierarchy negotiation. some women use sex to get along. some use sex to get ahead. sexual motives pervade murder. failure in sexual unions sometimes triggers suicidal ideation. i thought the complexity of women's sexual psychology was finally starting to be captured when recent research revealed 237 reasons why women have sex, ranging from "to get rid of a headache" to "to get closer to god," from "to become emotionally connected with my partner" to "to break up a rival's relationship." within a month of that publication, however, researchers discovered another 44 reasons why women have sex ranging from "because life is short and we could die at any moment" to "to get my boyfriend to shut up," bringing the sexual motivation total to 281 and still counting (obviously, trying to pin down exact numbers is a bit of a joke, but scientists work through quantification). yet with all these scientific discoveries, i feel that we are still at the beginning of the exploration and humbled by how little we still know. as a researcher focusing on female sexuality, i'm inherently limited by virtue of possessing a male brain. consequently, i've teamed up with brilliant female research scientists, recruited a team of talented female graduate students, and marshaled much of my research to explore the complexities of female sexual psychology. they have led me to see things previously invisible to my male blinkered brain. female sexual psychology is more complex than i previously thought by several orders of magnitude. and still i may be underestimating. i work in a borderland between social science and medicine, and i therefore often find myself trying to reconcile conflicting facts and perspectives about human biology and behavior. there are fellow travelers at this border, of course, heading in both directions, or just dawdling, but the border is both sparsely populated and chaotic. the border is also, strangely, well patrolled, and it is often quite hard to get authorities on both sides to coordinate activities. once in a while, however, i find that my passport (never quite in order, according to officials) has acquired a new visa. for me, this past year, i acquired the conviction that human evolution may proceed much faster than i had thought, and that humans themselves may be responsible. in short, i have changed my mind about how people come literally to embody the social world around them. i once thought that we internalized cultural factors by forming memories, acquiring language, or bearing emotional and physical marks (of poverty, of conquest). i thought that this was the limit of the ways in which our bodies were shaped by our social environment. in particular, i thought that our genes were historically immutable, and that it was not possible to imagine a conversation between culture and genetics. i thought that we as a species evolved over time frames far too long to be influenced by human actions. i now think this is wrong, and that the alternative   that we are evolving in real time, under the pressure of discernable social and historical forces   is true. rather than a monologue of genetics, or a soliloquy of culture, there is a dialectic between genetics and culture. evidence has been mounting for a decade. the best example so far is the evolution of lactose tolerance in adults. the ability of adults to digest lactose (a sugar in milk) confers evolutionary advantages only when a stable supply of milk is available, such as after milk producing animals (sheep, cattle, goats) have been domesticated. the advantages are several, ranging from a source of valuable calories to a source of necessary hydration during times of water shortage or spoilage. amazingly, just over the last 3 9 thousand years, there have been several adaptive mutations in widely separated populations in africa and europe, all conferring the ability to digest lactose (as shown by sarah tishkoff and others). these mutations are principally seen in populations who are herders, and not in nearby populations who have retained a hunter/gatherer lifestyle. this trait is sufficiently advantageous that those with the trait have notably many more descendants than those without. a similar story can be told about mutations that have arisen in the relatively recent historical past that confer advantages in terms of surviving epidemic diseases such as typhoid. since these diseases were made more likely when the density of human settlements increased and far flung trade became possible, here we have another example of how culture may affect our genes. but this past year, a paper by john hawks and colleagues in pnasfunctioned like the staccato plunk of a customs agent stamping my documents and waving me on. the paper showed that the human genome may be changing at an accelerating rate over the past 80,000 years, and that this change may be in response not only to population growth and adaptation to new environments, but also to cultural developments that have made it possible for humans to sustain such population growth or survive in such environments. our biology and our culture have always been in conversation of course   just not (i had thought) on the genetic level. for example, rising socio economic status with industrial development results in people becoming taller (a biological effect of a cultural development) and taller people require architecture to change (a cultural effect of a biological development). anyone marveling at the small size of beds in colonial era houses knows this firsthand. similarly, an epidemic may induce large scale social changes, modifying kinship systems or political power. but genetic change over short time periods? yes. why does this matter? because it is hard to know where this would stop. there may be genetic variants that favor survival in cities, that favor saving for retirement, that favor consumption of alcohol, or that favor a preference for complicated social networks. there may be genetic variants (based on altruistic genes that are a part of our hominid heritage) that favor living in a democratic society, others that favor living among computers, still others that favor certain kinds of visual perception (maybe we are all more myopic as a result of medieval lens grinders). modern cultural forms may favor some traits over others. maybe even the more complex world we live in nowadays really is making us smarter. this has been very difficult for me to accept because, unfortunately, this also means that it may be the case that particular ways of living create advantages for some, but not all, members of our species. certain groups may acquire (admittedly, over centuries) certain advantages, and there might be positive or negative feedback loops between genetics and culture. maybe some of us really are better able to cope with modernity than others. the idea that what we choose to do with our world modifies what kind of offspring we have is as amazing as it is troubling. i was on a train back from the seaside. the summer was gone and the philosophy teacher (at that time i was attending the high school) had assigned us a book to read. the title sounded like "the birth of modern science in europe". i started to leaf through it, without expecting anything special. until then, i had a purist vision of science: i supposed that the development of science was   in some way   a deterministic process, scientists proceeded in a linear way doing their experiments, theories arose in the science community under a common agreement. well.. my vision of science was dramatically different from that one i experienced some years later! with surprise and astonishment, i discovered that sir isaac newton had a not hidden passion for alchemy   probably the furthest thing from science i could imagine   nicolaus copernicus wrote to the pope begging to accept his theories, galileo and other scientists fought not only against the roman church and aristotle's thought but maybe more often one against the others just to prevail. in two weeks i finished the book and then my way of thinking changed. i understood that science was not only a pursuit of knowledge but a social process too, with its rules and tricks: a never ending tale such as human life. i have never forgotten it and since then, my curiosity and passion for science have been rising more and more. definitely, that book has changed my mind. we do not so much change our minds about facts, although we necessarily correct and rearrange them in changing contexts. but we do change our minds about the significance of those facts. i can remember, as a young woman, first grasping the danger of environmental destruction at a conference in 1968. the context was the intricate interconnection within all living systems, a concept that applied to ecosystems like forests and tide pools and equally well to human communities and to the planet as a whole, the sense of an extraordinary interweaving of life, beautiful and fragile, and threatened by human hubris. it was at that conference also that i first heard of the greenhouse effect, the mechanism that underlies global warming. a few years later, however, i heard of the gaia hypothesis (proposed by james lovelock in 1970), which proposed that the same systemic interconnectivity gives the planet its resilience and a capacity for self correction that might survive human tampering. some environmentalists welcomed the gaia hypothesis, while others warned that it might lead to complacency in the face of real and present danger. with each passing year, our knowledge of how things are connected is enriched but the significance of these observations is still debated. j.b.s. haldane was asked once what the natural world suggested about the mind of its creator, and he replied "an inordinate fondness for beetles." this observation also plays differently for different listeners a delight in diversity, perhaps, as if the creator might have spent the first sabbath afternoon resting from his work by playfully exploring the possible ramifications of a single idea (beetles make up roughly one fifth of all known species on the planet, some 350,000 of them) or a humbling (or humiliating?) lack of preoccupation with our own unique kind, which might prove to be a temporary afterthought, survived only by cockroaches. these two ways of looking at what we observe seem to recur, like the glass half full and the glass half empty. the more we know of the detail of living systems, the more we seem torn between anxiety and denial on the one hand and wonder and delight on the other as we try to understand the significance of our knowledge. science has radically altered our awareness of the scale and age of the universe, but this changing awareness seems to stimulate humility in some our planet a tiny speck dominated by flea like bipeds and a sort of megalomania in others who see all of this as directed toward us, our species, as its predestined masters. similarly, the exploration of human diversity in the twentieth century expanded for some the sense of plasticity and variability and for others reinforced the sense of human unity. even within these divergent emphases, for some the recognition of human unity includes a capacity for mutual recognition and adaptation while for others it suggests innate tendencies toward violence and xenophobia. as we have slowly explored the mechanisms of memory and learning, we have seen examples of (fragile) human communities demoralized by exposure to other cultures and (resilient) examples of extraordinary adaptability. at one moment humans are depicted as potential stewards of the biosphere, at another as a cancer or a dangerous infestation. the growing awareness of a shared and interconnected destiny has a shadow side, the version of globalization that looks primarily for profit. we are having much the same sort of debate at present between those who see religion primarily as a source of conflict between groups and others who see the world's religions as potentially convergent systems that have knit peoples together and laid the groundwork for contemporary ideas of human rights and civil society. some believers feel called to treasure and respect the creation, including the many human cultures that have grown within it, while others regard differences of belief as sinful and the world we know as transitory or illusory. each of the great religions, with different language and different emphases, offers the basis for environmental responsibility and for peaceful coexistence and compassion, but believers differ in what they choose to emphasize, all too many choosing the apocalyptic over the ethical texts. nevertheless, major shifts have been occurring in the interpretation of information about climate change, most recently within the evangelical christian community. my guess is that many people have tilted first one way and then the other over the past fifty years, as we have become increasingly aware of diverse understandings surprised by accounts of human creativity and adaptation on the one hand, and distressed at the resurgence of ancient quarrels and loss of tolerance and mutual respect. some people are growing away from irresponsible consumerism while others are having their first taste of affluence. responses are probably partly based on temperament generalized optimism vs. pessimism so the tension will not be resolved by scientific findings. but these responses are also based on the decisions we make, on making up our minds about which interpretations we choose to believe. the world's historic religions deal in different ways with loss and the need for sacrifice, but the materials are there for working together, just as they are there for stoking conflict and competition. we are most likely to survive this century if we decide to approach the choices and potential losses ahead with an awareness of the risks we face but at the same time with an awareness of the natural wonders around us and a determination to deal with each other with respect and faith in the possibility of cooperation and responsibility. all right, we knew it. but now we have the whole picture of the molecular process through which past and future link; how the germinal soul, rooted in brain matter and memory, allows for new perceptions, for the future, to emerge. it is both simple and terrifying at the same time. when the mind is challenged from the outside universe, it searches in its accumulated archives in order to make sense of this new stimulus. this screening of our memory  of our past  produces an immediate answer: the new stimulus either leaves everyone indifferent, or else it blooms into an emotion of love, of pleasure or of sheer curiosity. these are the three touchstones of creativity. so basically, science has discovered that at the very beginning at least, only the past matters. and that holds true also of our future creativity. then a process more akin to alchemy than science sparks off and develops into social intelligence. the imitation process, based on mirror neurons, interacts with the corpus of accumulated knowledge  of one´s own species, and of others  which, combined with a good stock of well preserved individual memory, explode into new thinking. until very recently, we were missing a fundamental step in the process of knowledge  namely, how to transform short term memory into long term knowledge. at last we are taking into account the detailed contents of durability, specific proteins without which there is no learning and affection in childhood, no schooling at a later stage, no socialization in adult life. the roots are in the past; but there is no knowledge if we hide in a cave alone, with no windows to peer from and no shadows dancing outside. the past has to be worked upon from the outside in order to transform into the future, and this has brought about the second main discovery in the molecular process of creativity. the so called “technology transfer” from old to new generations is a two way process: matter, mind, soul, past, memory, future, and also startling new ways of looking at old things, are all marvellously intertwined in the evolutionary process. as a young graduate student in operations research i was avid believer in the power of scientific modelling. how wrong i was. often, modelling is searching for a coin under the light of science, and not where it is. first, all models have certain degree of approximation. second, at least in operations research, human factors,errors, randomness, unexpected developments, social behaviors, human errors all are influencing the results, or are not accounted for in the modelling. in time i become more skeptical and doubtful. it helps if you can maintain your sense of humor. in the end, it is not about the data or the changes in the data, but how you see it, and how much you believe in it. i used to think of skepticism as a primary intellectual virtue, whose goal was truth. i have changed my mind. i now see it as a weapon. creationists opened my eyes. they use the techniques of critical thinking to expose weaknesses in the evidence for natural selection, gaps in the fossil record and problems with evolutionary theory. is this because they are seeking truth? no. they believe they already know the truth. skepticism is a weapon to defend their beliefs by attacking their opponents. skepticism is also an important weapon in the defence of commercial self interest. according to david michaels, who was assistant secretary for environment, safety and health in the us department of energy in the 1990s, the strategy used by the tobacco industry to create doubt about inconvenient evidence has now been adopted by corporations making toxic products such as lead, mercury, vinyl chloride, and benzene. when confronted with evidence that their activities are causing harm, the standard response is to hire researchers to muddy the waters, branding findings that go against the industry's interests as "junk science." as michaels noted, "their conclusions are almost always the same: the evidence is ambiguous, so regulatory action is unwarranted." climate change skeptics use similar techniques. in a penetrating essay called "the skepticism of believers", sir leslie stephen, a pioneering agnostic (and the father of virginia woolf), argued that skepticism is inevitably partial. "in regard to the great bulk of ordinary beliefs, the so called skeptics are just as much believers as their opponents." then as now, those who proclaim themselves skeptics had strong beliefs of their own. as stephen put it in 1893, " the thinkers generally charged with skepticism are equally charged with an excessive belief in the constancy and certainty of the so called 'laws of nature'. they assign a natural cause to certain phenomena as confidently as their opponents assign a supernatural cause." skepticism has even deeper roots in religion than in science. the old testament prophets were withering in their scorn for the rival religions of the holy land. psalm 115 mocks those who make idols of silver and gold: "they have mouths, and speak not: eyes have they, and see not." at the reformation, the protestants deployed the full force of biblical scholarship and critical thinking against the veneration of relics, cults of saints and other "superstitions" of the catholic church. atheists take religious skepticism to its ultimate limits; but they are defending another faith, a faith in science. in practice, the goal of skepticism is not the discovery of truth, but the exposure of other people's errors. it plays a useful role in science, religion, scholarship, and common sense. but we need to remember that it is a weapon serving belief or self interest; we need to be skeptical of skeptics. the more militant the skeptic, the stronger the belief. i change my mind all the time   keeping an open mind in science is a good thing. most often these are rather unremarkable occasions; most often it is acceptance of something i had been unconvinced or unsure about. but then there is this one time … october 4th, 1995 was a warm day. florence was overrun by tourists   and a few scientists from a conference i was attending. the next day one of my older and esteemed colleagues from geneva was going to announce a curious find   a star that seemed to have a very small companion   as small as a planet like saturn or jupiter. such claims had come and gone in the decades past, but this time the data seemed very good. he was keeping the details to himself until the next day, but he told me when i asked him about the orbital period of the new planet. i was incredulous   the period was so short, it was measured in days, not years   i told my wife back in the hotel that night   just 400 days! i was not a planetary scientist   stars were my specialty, but i knew my planetary basics   a planet like jupiter could not possibly exist so close to its star and have a period of 400 days. some of this i had learned as far back as last year of high school. i did not question it, instead i was questioning my colleague’s claim. he was the first to speak the next day and he began by showing the orbital period for the new planet   it was 4.2 days! the night before, i must have heard “4.2 days”, but being so incredibly foreign to my preconception, my brain had “translated” that number to a more “reasonable” 420 days, or   roughly 400. deeply held preconceptions can be very powerful. my florentine experience took some time to sink in. but when it did, it was sobering and inspiring. it made me curious and motivated to find the answers to those questions that just days before i had taken for granted. and i ended up helping develop the new field of extrasolar planets research. back in 1968, when i first heard about global warming while visiting the scripps institute of oceanography, almost everyone thought that serious problems were several centuries in the future. that's because no one realized how ravenous the world's appetite for coal and oil would become during a mere 40 years. they also thought that problems would develop slowly. wrong again. i tuned into abrupt climate change about 1984, when the greenland ice cores showed big jumps in temperature and snowfall, stepping up and down in a mere decade but lasting centuries. i worried about global warming setting off another flip but i still didn't revise my notions about a slow time scale for the present greenhouse warming. greenland changed my mind. about 2004, the speedup of the greenland glaciers made a lot of climate scientists revise their notions about how fast things were changing. when the summer earthquakes associated with glacial movement doubled and then redoubled in a mere ten years, it made me feel as if i was standing on shaky ground, that bigger things could happen at any time. then i saw the data on major floods and fires, steep increases every decade since 1950 and on all continents. that's not trouble moving around. it is called global climate change. it may not be abrupt but it's been fast. for drought, which had been averaging about 15 percent of the world's land surface at any one time, there was a step up to a new baseline of 25 percent which occurred with the 1982 el niño. that's not gradual change but an abrupt shift to a new global climate. but the most sobering realization came when i was going through the amazon drought data on the big el niños in 1972, 1982, and 1997. ten years ago, we nearly lost two of the world's three major tropical rain forests to fires. if that mega nino had lasted two years instead of one, we could have seen the atmosphere's excess co2 rise 40 percent over a few years   and likely an even bigger increase in our climate troubles. furthermore, missing all of those green leaves to remove co2 from the air, the annual bump up of co2 concentration would have become half again as large. that's like the movie shifting into fast forward. and we're not even back paddling as fast as we can, just drifting toward the falls. if i were a student or young professional, seeking my future being trashed, i'd be mad as hell. and hell is a pretty good metaphor for where we are heading if we don't get our act together. quickly. richard feynman held that philosophy of science is as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds. often this is so. but the unavoidable question about physics is   where do the laws come from? einstein hoped that god had no choice in making the universe. but philosophical issues seem unavoidable when we hear of the "landscape" of possible string theory models. as now conjectured, the theory leads to 10500 solution universes   a horrid violation of occam's razor we might term "einstein's nightmare." i once thought that the laws of our universe were unquestionable, in that there was no way for science to address the question. now i'm not so sure. can we hope to construct a model of how laws themselves arise? many scientists dislike even the idea of doing this, perhaps because it's hard to know where to start. perhaps ideas from the currently chic technology, computers, are a place to start. suppose we treat the universe as a substrate carrying out computations, a meta computer. suppose that precise laws require computation, which can never be infinitely exact. such a limitation that might be explained by counting the computational capacity of a sphere around an "experiment" that tries to measure outcomes of those laws. the sphere expands at the speed of light, say, so longer experiment times give greater precision. thinking mathematically, this sets a limit on how sharp differentials can be in our equations. a partial derivative of time cannot be better than the time to compute it. in a sense, there may be an ultimate limit on how well known any law can be, especially one that must describe all of space time, like classical relativity. it can't be better than the total computational capacity of the universe, or the capacity within the light sphere we can see. i wonder if this idea can somehow define the nature of laws, beyond the issue of their precision? for example, laws with higher derivatives will be less descriptive because their operations cannot be carried out in a given volume over a finite time. perhaps the infinite discreteness required for formulating any mathematical system could be the limiting bound on such discussions. there should be energy bounds, too, within a finite volume, and thus limits on processing power set by the laws of thermodynamics. still, i don't see how these arguments tell us enough to derive, say, general relativity. perhaps we need more ideas to derive a law of laws. can we use the ideas of evolution? perhaps invoke selection among laws that penalize those laws that lead to singularities   and thus taking those regions of space time out of the game? lee smolin tried a limited form of this by supposing universes reproduce through black hole collapses. ingenious, but that didn't seem to lead very far. he imagined some variation in reproduction of budded off generations of universes, so their fundamental parameters varied a bit. then selection could work. in a novel of a decade ago, cosmo, i invoked intelligent life, rather than singularities, to determine selection for universes that can foster intelligence, as ours seems to. (i didn't know about lee's ideas at the time.) the idea is that a universe hosting intelligence evolves creatures that find ways in the laboratory to make more universes, which bud off and can further engender more intelligence, and thus more experiments that make more universes. this avoids the problem of how the first universe started, of course. maybe the law of laws could answer that, too? recently, i've had to change my mind about the very nature of knowledge because of an obvious, but extremely weird fact about children   they pretend all the time. walk into any preschool and you'll be surrounded by small princesses and superheroes in overalls   three year olds literally spend more waking hours in imaginary worlds than in the real one. why? learning about the real world has obvious evolutionary advantages and kids do it better than anyone else. but why spend so much time thinking about wildly, flagrantly unreal worlds? the mystery about pretend play is connected to a mystery about adult humans   especially vivid for an english professor's daughter like me. why do we love obviously false plays and novels and movies? the greatest success of cognitive science has been our account of the visual system. there's a world out there sending information to our eyes, and our brains are beautifully designed to recover the nature of that world from that information. i've always thought that science, and children's learning, worked the same way. fundamental capacities for causal inference and learning let scientists, and children, get an accurate picture of the world around them   a theory. cognition was the way we got the world into our minds. but fiction doesn't fit that picture   its easy to see why we want the truth but why do we work so hard telling lies? i thought that kids' pretend play, and grown up fiction, must be a sort of spandrel, a side effect of some other more functional ability. i said as much in a review in science and got floods of e mail back from distinguished novel reading scientists. they were all sure fiction was a good thing   me too, of course,   but didn't seem any closer than i was to figuring out why. so the anomaly of pretend play has been bugging me all this time. but finally, trying to figure it out has made me change my mind about the very nature of cognition itself. i still think that we're designed to find out about the world, but that's not our most important gift. for human beings the really important evolutionary advantage is our ability to create new worlds. look around the room you're sitting in. every object in that room   the right angle table, the book, the paper, the computer screen, the ceramic cup was once imaginary. not a thing in the room existed in the pleistocene. every one of them started out as an imaginary fantasy in someone's mind. and that's even more true of people   all the things i am, a scientist, a philosopher, an atheist, a feminist, all those kinds of people started out as imaginary ideas too. i'm not making some relativist post modern point here, right now the computer and the cup and the scientist and the feminist are as real as anything can be. but that's just what our human minds do best   take the imaginary and make it real. i think now that cognition is also a way we impose our minds on the world. in fact, i think now that the two abilities   finding the truth about the world and creating new worlds are two sides of the same coins. theories, in science or childhood, don't just tell us what's true   they tell us what's possible, and they tell us how to get to those possibilities from where we are now. when children learn and when they pretend they use their knowledge of the world to create new possibilities. so do we whether we are doing science or writing novels. i don't think anymore that science and fiction are just both good things that complement each other. i think they are, quite literally, the same thing. i have more many years worked on pattern in the developing embryo formation which is the development of spatial organization as seen, for example in the arm and hand. my main model for pattern formation is based on cells acquiring a positional value. the model proposes that cells have their position specified as in a co ordinate system and this determines, depending on their developmental history and their genetic constitution what they do. the development of the chick limb illustrates some of the problems. as the wing grows out from the flank up there is a thickened ridge of the covering sheet of cells that secretes special proteins which we think, and this is controversial, specifies a region in the cells beneath the ridge which we call the progress zone. at the posterior margin of the limb is the polarising region which secretes a protein, sonic hedgehog. this is a signaling molecule used again and again in the development of the embryo. the normal pattern of digits in the chick wing is 2, 3, and 4. if another polarising region is grafted to the anterior margin the pattern of digits is 4, 3, 2, 2, 3, 4. the interpretation is that sonic hedgehog sets up a gradient which specifies position and with the graft there is a mirror image gradient and crick suggested this was due to diffusion of a molecule like sonic hedgehog setting up a gradient. we have worked hard to show that this model is correct. the best evidence that it maybe gradient is that if just a small amount of sonic hedgehog in the anterior margin then you just get an extra digit 2. if one increases it a bit put a little bit more and you get a 3, 2. but is there really a diffusible gradient in sonic hedgehog specifying position? the situation is much more complex. we now think that the model is wrong as diffusion of a molecule is far too unreliable for reliably and accurately specifying positional values. the reasons why we think diffusion cannot work is that there is now good evidence that a diffusing molecule has to go between and even into cells, and interact with extracellular molecules making it totally unreliable. a more attractive model might be based on interactions at cell contacts as in the polarity models proposed by others. position would be specified by cells talking to each other. this is a serious change in my thinking. when a politician changes his mind, he is a 'flip flopper.' politicians will do almost anything to disown the virtue   as some of us might see it   of flexibility. margaret thatcher said, "the lady is not for turning." tony blair said, "i don't have a reverse gear." leading democratic presidential candidates, whose original decision to vote in favour of invading iraq had been based on information believed in good faith but now known to be false, still stand by their earlier error for fear of the dread accusation: 'flip flopper'. how very different is the world of science. scientists actually gain kudos through changing their minds. if a scientist cannot come up with an example where he has changed his mind during his career, he is hidebound, rigid, inflexible, dogmatic! it is not really all that paradoxical, when you think about it further, that prestige in politics and science should push in opposite directions. i have changed my mind, as it happens, about a highly paradoxical theory of prestige, in my own field of evolutionary biology. that theory is the handicap principle suggested by the israeli zoologist amotz zahavi. i thought it was nonsense and said so in my first book, the selfish gene. in the second edition i changed my mind, as the result of some brilliant theoretical modelling by my oxford colleague alan grafen. zahavi originally proposed his handicap principle in the context of sexual advertisement by male animals to females. the long tail of a cock pheasant is a handicap. it endangers the male's own survival. other theories of sexual selection reasoned   plausibly enough   that the long tail is favoured in spite of its being a handicap. zahavi's maddeningly contrary suggestion was that females prefer long tailed males, not in spite of the handicap but precisely because of it. to use zahavi's own preferred style of anthropomorphic whimsy, the male pheasant is saying to the female, "look what a fine pheasant i must be, for i have survived in spite of lugging this incapacitating burden around behind me." for zahavi, the handicap has to be a genuine one, authentically costly. a fake burden   the equivalent of the padded shoulder as counterfeit of physical strength   would be rumbled by the females. in darwinian terms, natural selection would favour females who scorn padded males and choose instead males who demonstrate genuine physical strength in a costly, and therefore, unfakeable way. for zahavi, cost is paramount. the male has to pay a genuine cost, or females would be selected to favour a rival male who does so. zahavi generalized his theory from sexual selection to all spheres in which animals communicate with one another. he himself studies arabian babblers, little brown birds of communal habit, who often 'altruistically' feed each other. conventional 'selfish gene' theory would seek an explanation in terms of kin selection or reciprocation. indeed, such explanations are usually right (i haven't changed my mind about that). but zahavi noticed that the most generous babblers are the socially dominant individuals, and he interpreted this in handicap terms. translating, as ever, from bird to human language, he put it into the mouth of a donor bird like this: "look how superior i am to you, i can even afford to give you food." similarly, some individuals act as 'sentinels', sitting conspicuously in a high tree and not feeding, watching for hawks and warning the rest of the flock who are therefore able to get on with feeding. again eschewing kin selection and other manifestations of conventional selfish genery, zahavi's explanation followed his own paradoxical logic: "look what a great bird i am, i can afford to risk my life sitting high in a tree watching out for hawks, saving your miserable skins for you and allowing you to feed while i don't." what the sentinel pays out in personal cost he gains in social prestige, which translates into reproductive success. natural selection favours conspicuous and costly generosity. you can see why i was sceptical. it is all very well to pay a high cost to gain social prestige; maybe the raised prestige does indeed translate into darwinian fitness; but the cost itself still has to be paid, and that will wipe out the fitness gain. don't evade the issue by saying that the cost is only partial and will only partially wipe out the fitness gain. after all, won't a rival individual come along and out compete you in the prestige stakes by paying a greater cost? and won't the cost therefore escalate until the point where it exactly wipes out the alleged fitness gain? verbal arguments of this kind can take us only so far. mathematical models are needed, and various people supplied them, notably john maynard smith who concluded that zahavi's idea, though interesting, just wouldn't work. or, to be more precise, maynard smith couldn't find a mathematical model that led to the conclusion that zahavi's theory might work. he left open the possibility that somebody else might come along later with a better model. that is exactly what alan grafen did, and now we all have to change our minds. i translated grafen's mathematical model back into words, in the second edition of the selfish gene (pp 309 313), and i shall not repeat myself here. in one sentence, grafen found an evolutionarily stable combination of male advertising strategy and female credulity strategy that turned out to be unmistakeably zahavian. i was wrong to dismiss zahavi, and so were a lot of other people. nevertheless, a word of caution. grafen's role in this story is of the utmost importance. zahavi advanced a wildly paradoxical and implausible idea, which   as grafen was able to show   eventually turned out to be right. but we must not fall into the trap of thinking that, therefore, the next time somebody comes up with a wildly paradoxical and implausible idea, that one too will turn out to be right. most implausible ideas are implausible for a good reason. although i was wrong in my scepticism, and i have now changed my mind, i was still right to have been sceptical in the first place! we need our sceptics, and we need our grafens to go to the trouble of proving them wrong. when i began my career as a forecaster over two decades ago, it was a given that the core of futures research lay beyond the reach of traditional quantitative forecasting and it's mathematical tools. this meant that futures researchers would not enjoy the full labor saving benefits of number crunching computers, but at least it guaranteed job security. economists and financial analysts might one day wake up to discover that their computer tools were stealing their jobs, but futurists would not see machines muscling their way into the world of qualitative forecasting anytime soon. i was mistaken. i now believe that in the not too distant future, the best forecasters will not be people, but machines: ever more capable "prediction engines" probing ever deeper into stochastic spaces. indicators of this trend are everywhere from the rise of quantitative analysis in the financial sector, to the emergence of computer based horizon scanning systems in use by governments around the world, and of course the relentless advance of computer systems along the upward sweeping curve of moore's law. we already have human computer hybrids at work in the discovery/forecasting space, from amazon's mechanical turk, to the myriad online prediction markets. in time, we will recognize that these systems are an intermediate step towards prediction engines in much the same way that human "computers" who once performed the mathematical calculations on complex projects were replaced by general purpose electronic digital computers. the eventual appearance of prediction engines will also be enabled by the steady uploading of reality into cyberspace, from the growth of web based social activities to the steady accretion of sensor data sucked up by an exponentially growing number of devices observing and increasingly, manipulating the physical world. the result is an unimaginably vast corpus of raw material, grist for the prediction engines as they sift and sort and peer ahead. these prediction engines won't ever exhibit perfect foresight, but as they and the underlying data they work on co evolve, it is a sure bet that they will do far better then mere humans. what i've changed my mind about is that the public is wedded to obsolete 1970s guis & info mgmt forever   parc's desktop & bell labs' unix file system. i'll give two example from my own experience. both constitute long term ideas of mine and might seem like self promotion, but my point is that as a society we don't have the patience to develop fully those big ideas that need time to soak in. i first described a gui called "lifestreams" in the washington post in 1994. by the early 2000s, i thought this system was dead in the water, destined to be resurrected in a grad student's footnote around the 29th century, the problem was (i thought) that lifestreams was too unfamiliar, insufficiently "evolutionary" and too "revolutionary" (as the good folks at arpa like to say [or something like that]); you need to go step by step with the public and the industry or you lose. but today "lifestreams" are all over the net (take a look yourself), and i'm told that "lifestreaming" has turned into a verb at some recent internet conferences. according to zdnet.com, "basically what's important about the olpc [one laptop per child], has nothing to do with its nominal purposes and everything to do with its interface. ultimately traceable to david gelernter's 'lifestreams' model, this is not just a remake of apple's evolution of the original work at palo alto, but something new." moral: the public may be cautions but is not reactionary. in a 1991 book called mirror worlds, i predicted that everyone would be putting his personal stuff in the cybersphere (aka "the clouds"); i said the same in a 2000 manifesto on edge called "the 2nd coming", & in various other pieces in between. by 2005 or so, i assumed that once again i'd jumped the gun, by too long to learn the results pre posthumously   but once again this (of all topics) turns out to hot and all over the place nowadays. "cloud computing" is the next big thing: what does this all prove? if you're patient, good ideas find audiences. but you have to bevery patient. and if you expect to cash in on long term ideas in the united states, you're certifiable. this last point is a lesson i teach my students, and on this item i haven't (and don't expect to) change my mind. but what the hell? it's new year's, and there are worse things than being proved right once in a while, even if it's too late to count. i was once a devout member of the church of evolutionary psychology. i believed in modules   lots of them. i believed that the mind could be thought of as a confederation of hundreds, possibly thousands, of information processing neural adaptations. i believed that each of these mental modules had been fashioned by the relentless winnowing of natural selection as a solution to problems encountered by our hunter gatherer ancestors in the pleistocene. i believe i actually said that we were living in the space age with brains from the stone age. which was clever   but not, it turned out, particularly wise. along with the church elders, i believed that this was our universal evolutionary heritage; that if you added together a whole host of these domain specific mini computers   a face recognition module, a spatial relations module, a rigid object mechanics module, a tool use module, a social exchange module, a child care module, a kin oriented motivation module, a sexual attraction module, a grammar acquisition module and so on   then you had the neurocognitive architecture that comprises the human mind. along with them, i believed that what made the human mind special was not fewer of these 'instincts', but more of them. i was so enchanted by this view of life that i used it as the conceptual scaffolding upon which to build a multi million dollar critically  acclaimed pbs series that i created and hosted in 1996. and then i changed my mind. actually, i prefer to say that i experienced a conversion. my conversion   literally, the turning around   the adoption of new beliefs was prompted primarily by conversations. first and foremost with an apostate from the church of evolutionary psychology's inner sanctum (peggy la cerra); then with a group of colleagues including neuroscientists, evolutionary biologists and philosophers. two years later, la cerra and i published in pnas an alternative model of the mind and followed that with a book in 2002. although this is not the place to detail the arguments, we suggested that the selective pressures of navigating ancestral environments   particularly the social world   would have required an adaptively flexible, on line information processing system and would have driven the evolution of the neocortex. we claimed that the ultimate function of the mind is to devise behavior that wards off the depredations of entropy and keeps our energy bank balance in the black. so our universal evolutionary heritage is not a bundle of instincts, but a self adapting system that is responsive to environmental stimuli, constantly analyzing bioenergetic costs and benefits, creating a customized database of experiences and outcomes, and generating minds that are unique by design. we also explained the construction of selves, how our systems adapt to different 'marketplaces', and the importance of reputation effects   a richly nuanced story, which explains why the phrase "i changed my mind" is, with all due respect, the kind of rather simplistic folk psychological language that i hope we will eventually clean up. i think it was mallarmé who said it was the duty of the poet to purify the language of the tribe. that task now falls also to the scientist. and this time, i am not so devout. some evolutionary psychologists promoted their ideas with a fervor that has been described as evangelical. to a certain extent, that seems to go with the evolutionary territory: think of the ideological feuds surrounding sociobiology, the renewed debates about levels of selection and so on. of course, it could be argued that the latest subfields of neuroscience (like neuroeconomics and social cognitive neuroscience) are not immune to these enthusiasms (the word comes from the greekenthousiasmos: inspired or possessed by a god or gods). think of the fmri mediated neophrenological explosion of areas said to be the neural correlate of some characteristic or other; or whether the mirror neuron system can possibly carry all the conceptual freight currently being assigned to it. even in science, a seductive story will sometimes, at least for a while, outpace the data. maybe that's inevitable in the pioneering phase of a fledgling discipline. but that's when caution is most necessary   when the engine of discovery is running more on faith than facts. that's the time to remember that hubris is a sin in science as well as religion. i've long considered myself as working at the boundary between physical science and computer science; i now believe that that boundary is a historical accident and does not really exist. there's a sense in which technological progress has turned it into a tautological statement. it's now possible to store data in atomic nuclei and use electron bonds as logical gates. in such a computer the number of information bearing degrees of freedom is on the same order as the number of physical ones; it's no longer feasible to account for them independently. this means that computer programs can, and i'd argue must, look more like physical models, including spatial and temporal variables in the density and velocity of information propagation and interaction. that shouldn't be surprising; the canon of computer science emerged a few decades ago to describe the available computing technology, while the canon of physics emerged a few centuries ago to describe the accessible aspects of nature. computing technology has changed more than nature has; progress in the former is reaching the limits of the latter. conversely, it makes less and less sense to define physical theories by the information technology of the last millenium (a pencil and piece of paper); a computational model is every bit as fundamental as one written with calculus. this is seen in frontiers of research in nonlinear dynamics, and quantum field theories, and black hole thermodynamics, that look more and more like massively parallel programming models. however, the organization of research has not yet caught up with this content; many of the pioneers doing the work are in neither physics nor computer science departments, but are scattered around (and off) campus. rather than trying to distinguish between programming nature and the nature of programming, i think that it makes more sense to recognize not just a technology or theory of information, but a single science. i have changed my mind about using the sample mean as the best way to combine measurements into a single predictive value. sometimes it is the best way to combine data but in general you do not know that in advance. so it is not the one number from or about a data set that i would want to know in the face of total uncertainty if my life depended on the predicted outcome. using the sample mean always seemed like the natural thing to do. just add up the numerical data and divide by the number of data. i do not recall ever doubting that procedure until my college years. even then i kept running into the mean in science classes and even in philosophy classes where the discussion of ethics sometimes revolved around aristotle's theory of the "golden mean." there were occasional mentions of medians and modes and other measures of central tendency but they were only occasional. the sample mean also kept emerging as the optimal way to combine data in many formal settings. at least it did given what appeared to be the reasonable criterion of minimizing the squared errors of the observations. the sample mean falls out from just one quick application of the differential calculus. so the sample mean had on its side not only mathematical proof and the resulting prominence of appearing in hundreds if not thousands of textbooks and journal articles. it was and remains the evidentiary workhorse of modern applied science and engineering. the sample mean summarizes test scores and gets plotted in trend lines and centers confidence intervals among numerous other applications. then i ran into the counter example of cauchy data. these data come from bell curves with tails just slightly thicker than the familiar "normal" bell curve. cauchy bell curves also describe "normal" events that correspond to the main bell of the curves. but cauchy bell curves have thicker tails than normal bell curves have and these thicker tails allow for many more "outliers" or rare events. and cauchy bell curves arise in a variety of real and theoretical cases. the counter example is that the sample mean of cauchy data does not improve no matter how many samples you combine. this result contrasts with the usual result from sampling theory that the variance of the sample mean falls with each new measurement and hence predictive accuracy improves with sample size (assuming that the square based variance term measures dispersion and that such a mathematical construct always produces a finite value   which it need not produce in general). the sample mean of ten thousand cauchy data points has no more predictive power than does the sample mean of ten such data points. indeed the sample mean of cauchy data has no more predictive power than does any one of the data points picked at random. this counter example is but one of the anomalous effects that arise from averaging data from many real world probability curves that deviate from the normal bell curve or from the twenty or so other closed form probability curves that have found there way into the literature in the last century. nor have scientists always used the sample mean. historians of mathematics have pointed to the late sixteenth century and the introduction of the decimal system for the start of the modern practice of computing the sample mean of data sets to estimate typical parameters. before then the mean apparently meant the arithmetic average of just two numbers as it did with aristotle. so hernan cortes may well have had a clear idea about the typical height of an adult male aztec in the early sixteenth century. but he quite likely did not arrive at his estimate of the typical height by adding measured heights of aztec males and then dividing by the number added. we have no reason to believe that cortes would have resorted to such a computation if the church or king charles had pressed him to justify his estimate. he might just as well have lined up a large number of aztec adult males from shortest to tallest and then reported the height of the one in the middle. there was a related and deeper problem with the sample mean: it is not robust. extremely small or large values distort it. this rotten apple property stems from working not with measurement errors but with squared errors. the squaring operation exaggerates extreme data even though it greatly simplifies the calculus when trying to find the estimate that minimizes the observed errors. that estimate turns out to be the sample mean but not in general if one works with the raw error itself or other measures. the statistical surprise of sorts is that using the raw or absolute error of the data gives the sample median as the optimal estimate. the sample median is robust against outliers. if you throw away the largest and smallest values in a data set then the median does not change but the sample mean does (and gives a more robust "trimmed" mean as used in combining the judging scores in figure skating and elsewhere to remove judging bias). realtors have long since stated typical housing prices as sample medians rather than sample means because a few mansions can so easily skew the sample mean. the sample median would not change even if the price of the most expensive house rose to infinity. the median would still be the middle ranked house if the number of houses were odd. but this robustness is not a free lunch. it comes at the cost of ignoring some of the information in the numerical magnitudes of the data and has its own complexities for multidimensional data. other evidence pointed to using the sample median rather than the sample mean. statisticians have computed the so called breakdown point of these and other statistical measures of central tendency. the breakdown point measures the largest proportion of data outliers that a statistic can endure before it breaks down in a formal sense of producing very large deviations. the sample median achieves the theoretical maximum breakdown point. the sample mean does not come close. the sample median also turns out to be the optimal estimate for certain types of data (such as laplacian data) found in many problems of image processing and elsewhere   if the criterion is maximizing the probability or likelihood of the observed data. and the sample median can also center confidence intervals. so it too gives rises to hypothesis tests and does so while making fewer assumptions about the data than the sample mean often requires for the same task. the clincher was the increasing use of adaptive or neural type algorithms in engineering and especially in signal processing. these algorithms cancel echoes and noise on phone lines as well as steer antennas and dampen vibrations in control systems. the whole point of using an adaptive algorithm is that the engineer cannot reasonably foresee all the statistical patterns of noise and signals that will bombard the system over its lifetime. no type of lifetime average will give the kind of performance that real time adaptation will give if the adaptive algorithm is sufficiently sensitive and responsive to its measured environment. the trouble is that most of the standard adaptive algorithms derive from the same old and non robust assumptions about minimizing squared errors and thus they result in the use of sample means or related non robust quantities. so real world gusts of data wind tend to destabilize them. that is a high price to pay just because in effect it makes nineteenth century calculus computations easy and because such easy computations still hold sway in so much of the engineering curriculum. it is an unreasonably high price to pay in many cases where a comparable robust median based system or its kin both avoids such destabilization and performs similarly in good data weather and does so for only a slightly higher computational cost. there is a growing trend toward using robust algorithms. but engineers still have launched thousands of these non robust adaptive systems into the stream of commerce in recent years. we do not know whether the social costs involved from using these non robust algorithms are negligible or substantial. so if under total uncertainty i had to pick a predictive number from a set of measured data and if my life depended on it   i would now pick the median. if asked years ago whether i believed in god, my answer would have gone something like this: "i believe there's something…" this response leaves enough wiggle room for a few quasi religious notions to slip comfortably through. i no longer believe that my soul is immortal, that the universe sends me messages every now and then, or that my life story will unfold according to some inscrutable plan. but it is more like knowing how and why a perceptual illusion is deceiving my evolved senses than it is becoming immune to the illusion altogether. here's a snapshot of how these particular illusions work: psychological immortality there's a scene in gide's the counterfeiters where a suicidal man puts a pistol to his temple but hesitates for fear of the noise from the blast. similarly, a group of college students who rejected the idea that consciousness survives death nonetheless told me that someone who'd died in a car accident would know he was dead. "there's no afterlife," one participant said. "he sees that now." in wondering what it's like to be dead, our psychology responds by running mental simulations using previous states of consciousness. the trouble is that death is not like anything we've ever experienced   orcan experience. (what's it like to be conscious yet unconscious at the same time?) i doubt you'd find anyone who believes less in the afterlife, yet i have a very real fear of ghosts and i feel guilty for not visiting my mother's grave more often. symbolic meaning of natural events psychologist becky parker and i told a seven year old that an invisible princess was in the room with her. the task was to find a hidden ball by placing her hand on top of the box she thought it was inside. if you change your mind, we said, just move your hand to the other box. now, princess alice likes you and she's going to help you find the ball. "i don't know how she's going to tell you," said becky, "but somehow she'll tell you if you pick the wrong box." the child picked a box, held her hand there, and after 15 seconds the box opened to reveal the ball (there were two identical balls). on the second trial, as soon as the girl chose a box, a picture crashed to the ground, and the child moved her hand to the other box. in doing so, she responded just like most other seven year olds we tested. they didn't need to believe in princess alice to see the picture falling as a sign. in fact, if scepticism can be operationally measured by the degree of tilt in rolling eyes, many of them could be called sceptics. more surprising was that slightly younger children, the credulous five year olds, didn't move their hands, and when asked why the picture fell, they said things like "i don't know why she did it, she just did it." they saw princess alice as running about making things happen, not as a communicative partner. to them, the events had nothing to do with their behaviour. finally, the three year olds we tested simply shrugged their shoulders and said that the picture was broken. princess alice who? seeing signs in natural events is a developmental accomplishment rather than the result of a gap in scientific knowledge. to experience an illusion, the psychological infrastructure must first be in place. whenever i hear mayors blaming hurricanes on drug use or evangelicals attributing tsunamis to homosexuality, i think of princess alice. still, after receiving bad news my first impulse is to ask myself "why?" even for someone like me, scientific explanations just don't scratch the itch like supernatural ones. personal destiny jean paul sartre, the atheistic existentialist, observed that he couldn't help but feel as though a divine hand had guided his life. "it contradicts many of my other ideas," he said. "but it is there, floating vaguely. and when i think of myself i often think rather in this way, for want of being able to think otherwise." my own atheism is not as organic as was sartre's. only scientific evidence and eternal vigilance have enabled me to step outside of this particular illusion of personal destiny. psychologists now know that human beings intuitively reason as though natural categories exist foran intelligently designed purpose. clouds don't just exist, say kindergartners, they're there for raining. erring this way about clouds is one thing, but when it colours our reasoning about our own existence, that's where this teleo functional bias gets really interesting. the illusion of personal destiny is intricately woven together with other quasi religious illusions in a complex web that researchers have not even begun to pull apart. my own private thoughts remain curiously saturated with doubts about whether i'm doing what i'm "meant" for. some beliefs are arrived at so easily, held so deeply, and divorced so painfully that it seems unnatural to give them up. such beliefs can be abandoned when the illusions giving rise to them are punctured by scientific knowledge, but a mind designed by nature cannot be changed fundamentally. i stopped believing in god long ago, but he still casts a long shadow. like many or perhaps most i wanted to believe that our oceans and atmosphere were basically unlimited sinks with an endless capacity to absorb the waste products of human existence. i wanted to believe that solving the carbon fuel problem was for future generations and that the big concern was the limited supply of oil not the rate of adding carbon to the atmosphere. the data is irrefutable  carbon dioxide concentrations have been steadily increasing in our atmosphere as a result of human activity since the earliest measurements began. we know that on the order of 4.1 billion tons of carbon are being added to and staying in our atmosphere each year. we know that burning fossil fuels and deforestation are the principal contributors to the increasing carbon dioxide concentrations in our atmosphere. eleven of the last twelve years rank among the warmest years since 1850. while no one knows for certain the consequences of this continuing unchecked warming, some have argued it could result in catastrophic changes, such as the disruption of the gulf steam which keeps the uk out of the ice age or even the possibility of the greenland ice sheet sliding into the atlantic ocean. whether or not these devastating changes occur, we are conducting a dangerous experiment with our planet. one we need to stop. the developed world including the united states, england and europe contribute disproportionately to the environmental carbon, but the developing world is rapidly catching up. as the world population increases from 6.5 billion people to 9 billion over the next 45 years and countries like india and china continue to industrialize, some estimates indicate that we will be adding over 20 billion tons of carbon a year to the atmosphere. continued greenhouse gas emissions at or above current rates would cause further warming and induce many changes to the global climate that could be more extreme than those observed to date. this means we can expect more climate change; more ice cap melts, rising sea levels, warmer oceans and therefore greater storms, as well as more droughts and floods, all which compromise food and fresh water production. it required close to 100,000 years for the human population to reach 1 billion people on earth in 1804. in 1960 the world population passed 3 billion and now we are likely to go from 6.5 billion to 9 billion over the next 45 years. i was born in 1946 when there were only about 2.4 billion of us on the planet, today there are almost three people for each one of us in 1946 and there will soon be four. our planet is in crisis, and we need to mobilize all of our intellectual forces to save it. one solution could lie in building a scientifically literate society in order to survive. there are those who like to believe that the future of life on earth will continue as it has in the past, but unfortunately for humanity, the natural world around us does not care what we believe. but believing that we can do something to change our situation using our knowledge can very much affect the environment in which we live. i used to believe that you could find out what is true by finding the smartest people and finding out what they think. however, the most brilliant people keep turning out to be wrong. linus pauling's ideas about vitamin c are fresh in mind, but the famous physicist lord kelvin did more harm in 1900 with calculations based on the rate of earth's cooling that seemed to show that there had not been enough time for evolution to take place. a lot of the belief that smart people are right is an illusion caused by smart people being very convincing… even when they are wrong. i also used to believe that you could find out what is true by relying on experts   smart experts   who devote themselves to a topic. but most of us remember being told to eat margarine because it is safer than butter   then it turned out that trans fats are worse. doctors told women they must use hormone replacement therapy (hrt) to prevent heart attacks   but hrt turned out to increase heart attacks. even when they are not wrong, expert reports often don't tell you what is true. for instance, read reviews by experts about antidepressants; they provide reams of data, but you won't often find the simple conclusion that these drugs are not all that helpful for most patients. it is not just others; i shudder to think about all the false beliefs i have unknowingly but confidently passed on to my patients, thanks to my trust in experts. everyone should read the article by ioannidis, "why most published research findings are false." finally, i used to believe that truth had a special home in universities. after all, universities are supposed to be devoted to finding out what is true, and teaching students what we know and how to find out for themselves. universities may be best show in town for truth pursuers, but most stifle innovation and constructive engagement of real controversies, not just sometimes, but most of the time, systematically. how can this be? everyone is trying so hard to encourage innovation! the regents take great pains to find a president who supports integrity and creativity, the president chooses exemplary deans, who mount massive searches for the best chairs. those chairs often hire supporters who work in their own areas, but what if one wants to hire someone doing truly innovative work, someone who might challenge established opinions? faculty committees intervene to ensure that most positions go to people just about like themselves, and the dean asks how much grant overhead funding a new faculty member will bring in. no one with new ideas, much less work in a new area or critical of established dogmas, can hope to get through this fine sieve. if they do, review committees are waiting. and so, by a process of unintentional selection, diversity of thought and topic is excluded. if it still sneaks in, it is purged. the disciplines become ever more insular. and universities find themselves unwittingly inhibiting progress and genuine intellectual engagement. university leaders recognize this and hate it, so they are constantly creating new initiatives to foster innovative interdisciplinary work. these have the same lovely sincerity as new diets for the new year, and the same blindness to the structural factors responsible for the problems. where can we look to find what is true? smart experts in universities are a place to start, but if we could acknowledge how hard it is for truth and its pursuers to find safe university lodgings, and how hard it is for even the smartest experts to offer objective conclusions, we could begin to design new social structures that would support real intellectual innovation and engagement. for a long time i regarded neuroscience as a fascinating source of information about the workings of the visual system and its dual pathways for sight and action; the fear system in humans and animals, and numerous puzzling pathology cases arising from site specific lesions. yet, despite the interest of these findings, i had little faith that the profusion of fmri studies of different cortical regions would tell us much about the problems that had pre occupied philosophers for centuries. after all, some of the greatest minds of history had long pondered the nature of consciousness, the self, the relation between self and others, only to produce a greater realisation of how hard it was to say something illuminating about any of these phenomena. the more one is immersed in neural mechanisms the less one seems to be talking about consciousness, and the more attends to the qualities of conscious experience the less easy it is to connect with the mechanism of the brain. in despair, some philosophers suggested that we must reduce or eliminate the everyday way of speaking about our mental lives to arrive at a science of mind. there appeared to be a growing gulf between how things appeared to us and how reductionist neuroscience told us they were. however, i have changed my mind about the relevance of neuroscience to philosophers' questions, and vice versa. why? well, firstly because the most interesting findings in cognitive neuroscience are not in the least reductionist. on the contrary, neuroscientists rely on subjects' reports of their experiences in familiar terms to target the states they wish to correlate with increased activity in the cortex. researchers disrupt specific cortical areas with tms to discover how subject's experiences or cognitive capacities are altered. this search for the neural correlates of specific states and abilities has proved far more successful than any reductionist programme; the aim being to explain precisely which neural areas are responsible for sustaining the experiences we typically have as human subjects. and what we are discovering is just how many sub systems cooperate to maintain a unified and coherent field of conscious experience in us. when any of these systems is damaged what results are bizarre pathologies of mind we find it hard to comprehend. it is here that neuroscientists seek the help of philosophers in analysing the character of normal experience and describing the nature of the altered states. reciprocally, what philosophers are learning from neuroscience is leading to revisions in cherished philosophical views; mostly for the better. for example, the early stages of sensory processing show considerable cross modal influence of one sense on another: the nose smells what the eye sees, the tongue tastes what the ear hears, the recognition of voice is enhanced by, and enhances, facial recognition in the fusiform face area; all of which leads us to conclude that the five senses are not nearly as separate as common sense, and most philosophers, have always assumed. similar break throughs in understanding how our sense of self depends on the somatosensory system are leading to revised philosophical thinking about the nature of self. and while philosophers have wondered how individuals come to know about the minds of others, neuroscience assumes the problem to have been partly solved by the discovery of the mirror neuron system which suggests an elementary, almost bodily, level of intersubjective connection between individuals from which the more sophisticated notions of self and other may develop. we don't start, like descartes, with the self and bridge to our knowledge of other minds. we start instead with primitive social interactions from which the notions of self and other are constructed. neuroscientists present us with strange phenomena like patients with lesions in the right parietal region who are convinced that their left arm does not belong to them. some still feel sensations of pain in their hand but do not believe that it their pain that is felt: something philosophers previously believed to be conceptually impossible. i think the startling conclusion should be just how precarious the typical experience of the normally functioning mind really is. we should not find it strange to come across people who do not believe their hand belongs to them, or that it acts under someone else's command. instead, we should think how remarkable it is that this assembly of sub systems that keeps track of our limbs, our volitions, our position in space, and our recognition of others should cooperate to sustain the sense of self and the feeling of a coherent and unified experience of the world so familiar to us that philosophers have believed it to be the most certain things we know. it isn't the pathology cases of cognitive neuropsychology exceptional: it is the normally functioning minds that we should find the most surprising. in 1975, as a newly minted phd who had just published my first paper on group selection, i was invited by science magazine to review a book by michael gilpin titled group selection in predator prey communities. gilpin was one of the first biologists to appreciate the importance of what stuart kauffman would call "the sciences of complexity." in his book, he was claiming that complex interactions could make group selection a more important evolutionary force than the vast majority of biologists had concluded on the basis of more simple mathematical models. some background: group selection refers to the evolution of traits that increase the fitness of whole groups, compared to other groups. these traits are often selectively disadvantageous within groups, creating a conflict between levels of selection. group selection requires the standard ingredients of natural selection a population of groups, that vary in their phenotypic properties in a heritable fashion, with consequences for collective survival and reproduction. standard population genetics models give the impression that groups are unlikely to vary unless they are initiated by small numbers of individuals with minimal migration among groups during their existence. this kind of reasoning turned group selection into a pariah concept in the 1960's , taught primarily as an example of how not to think. i had become convinced that group selection could be revived for smaller, more ephemeral groups that i called "trait groups." gilpin was suggesting that group selection could also be revived for larger, geographically isolated groups on the basis of complex interactions. gilpin focused on the most famous conjecture about group selection, advanced by v.c. wynne edwards in 1962, that animals evolve to avoid overexploiting their resources. wynne edwards had become an icon for everything that was wrong and naïve about group selection. gilpin boldly proposed that animals could indeed evolve to "manage" their resources, based on non linearities inherent in predator prey interactions. as resource exploitation evolves by within group selection, there is not a gradual increase the probability of extinction. instead, there is a tipping point that suddenly destabilizes the predator prey interaction, like falling off a cliff. this discontinuity increases the importance of group selection, keeping the predator prey interaction in the zone of stability. i didn't get it. to me, gilpin's model required a house of cards of assumptions, a common criticism leveled against earlier models of group selection. i therefore wrote a tepid review of gilpin's book. i was probably also influenced by a touch of professional jealousy, as someone who myself was trying to acquire a reputation for reviving group selection! i didn't get the complexity revolution until i read james gleik's chaos: making a new science, which i regard as one of the best books ever written about science for a general audience. suddenly i realized that as complex systems, higher level biological units such as groups, communities, ecosystems, and human cultures would almost certainly vary in their phenotypic properties and that some of this phenotypic variation might be heritable. complexity theory became a central theme in my own research. as one experimental demonstration, william swenson (then my graduate student) created a population of microbial ecosystems by adding 1 ml of pond water from a single, well mixed source to test tubes containing 29 ml of sterilized growth medium. this amount of pond water includes millions of microbes, so the initial variation among the test tubes, based on sampling error, was vanishingly small. nevertheless, within four days (which amounts to many microbial generations) the test tubes varied greatly in their composition and phenotypic properties, such as the degradation of a toxic compound that was added to each test tube. moreover, when the test tubes were selected on the basis of their properties to create a new generation of microbial ecosystems, there was a response to selection. we could select whole ecosystems for their phenotypic properties (in our case, to degrade a toxic compound), in exactly the same way that animal and plant breeders are accustomed to selecting individual organisms! these results are mystifying in terms of models that assume simple interactions but make perfect sense in terms of complex interactions. most people have heard about the famous "butterfly effect" whereby an infinitesimal change in initial conditions becomes amplified over the course of time for a complex physical system such as the weather. something similar to the butterfly effect was occurring in our experiment, amplifying infinitesimal initial differences among our test tubes into substantial variation over time. a response to selection in the experiments is proof that variation caused by complex interactions can be heritable. thanks in large part to complexity theory, evolutionary biologists are once again studying evolution as a multi level process that can evolve adaptations above the level of individual organisms. i welcome this opportunity to credit michael gilpin for the original insight. for an empiricist, science brings many surprises. it has continued to change my thinking about many phenomena by challenging my presumptions about them. among the first of my assumptions to be felled by evidence was that career choice proceeds in adolescence by identifying one's most preferred options; it actually begins early in childhood as a taken for granted process of eliminating the least acceptable from further consideration. another mistaken presumption was that different abilities would be important for performing well in different occupations. the notion that any single ability (e.g., iq or g) could predict performance to an appreciable degree in all jobs seemed far fetched the first time i heard it, but that's just what my own attempt to catalog the predictors of job performance would help confirm. my root error had been to assume that different cognitive abilities (verbal, quantitative, etc.) are independent in today's terms, that there are "multiple intelligences." empirical evidence says otherwise. the most difficult ideas to change are those which seem so obviously true that we can scarcely imagine otherwise until confronted with unambiguous disconfirmation. for example, even behavior geneticists had long presumed that non genetic influences on intelligence and other human traits grow with age while genetic ones weaken. evidence reveals the opposite for intelligence and perhaps other human traits as well: heritabilities actually increase with age. my attempt to explain the evolution of high human intelligence has also led me to question another such "obvious truth," namely, that human evolution ceased when man took control of his environment. i now suspect that precisely the opposite occurred. here is why. human innovation itself may explain the rapid increase in human intelligence during the last 500,000 years. although it has improved the average lot of mankind, innovation creates evolutionarily novel hazards that put the less intelligent members of a group at relatively greater risk of accidental injury and death. consider the first and perhaps most important human innovation, the controlled use of fire. it is still a major cause of death worldwide, as are falls from man made structures and injuries from tools, weapons, vehicles, and domesticated animals. much of humankind has indeed escaped from its environment of evolutionary adaptation (eea), but only by fabricating new and increasingly complicated physical ecologies. brighter individuals are better able not only to extract the benefits of successive innovations, but also to avoid the novel threats to life and limb that they create. unintentional injuries and deaths have such a large chance component and their causes are so varied that we tend to dismiss them as merely "accidental," as if they were uncontrollable. yet all are to some extent preventable with foresight or effective response, which gives an edge to more intelligence individuals. evolution requires only tiny such differences in odds of survival in order to ratchet up intelligence over thousands of generations. if human innovation fueled human evolution in the past, then it likely still does today. another of my presumptions bit the dust, but in the process exposed a more fundamental, long brewing challenge to my thinking about scientific explanation. at least in the social sciences, we seek big effects when predicting human behavior, whether we are trying to explain differences in happiness, job performance, depression, health, or income. "effect size" (percentage of variance explained, standardized mean difference, etc.) has become our yardstick for judging the substantive importance of potential causes. yet, while strong correlations between individuals' attributes and their fates may signal causal importance, small correlations do not necessarily signal unimportance. evolution provides an obvious example. like the house in a gambling casino, evolution realizes big gains by playing small odds over myriad players and long stretches of time. the small is inconsequential presumption is so ingrained and reflexive, however, that even those of us who seek to explain the evolution of human intelligence over the eons have often rejected hypothesized mechanisms (say, superior hunting skills) when they could not explain differential survival or reproductive success within a single generation. iq tests provide a useful analogy for understanding the power of small but consistent effects. no single iq test item measures intelligence well or has much predictive power. yet, with enough items, one gets an excellent test of general intelligence (g) from only weakly g loaded items. how? when test items are considered one by one, the role of chance dominates in determining who answers the item correctly. when test takers' responses to many such items are added together, however, the random effects tend to cancel each other out, and g's small contribution to all answers piles up. the result is a test that measures almost nothing but g. i have come to suspect that some of the most important forces shaping human populations work in this inconspicuous but inexorable manner. when seen operating in individual instances, their impact is so small as to seem inconsequential, yet their consistent impact over events or individuals produces marked effects. to take a specific example, only the calculus of small but consistent tendencies in health behavior over a lifetime seems likely to explain many demographic disparities in morbidity and mortality, not just accidental death. developing techniques to identify, trace, and quantify such influences will be a challenge. it currently bedevils behavior geneticists who, having failed to find any genes with substantial influence on intelligence (within the normal range of variation), are now formulating strategies to identify genes that may account for at most only 0.5% of the variance in intelligence. guys lost on unfamiliar streets often avoid asking for directions from locals. we try to tough it out with map and compass. admitting being lost feels like admitting stupidity. this is a stereotype, but it has a large grain of truth. it's also a good metaphor for a big overlooked problem in the human sciences. we're trying to find our way around the dark continent of human nature. we scientists are being paid to be the bus driving tour guides for the rest of humanity. they expect us to know our way around the human mind, but we don't. so we try to fake it, without asking the locals for directions. we try to find our way from first principles of geography ('theory'), and from maps of our own making ('empirical research'). the roadside is crowded with locals, and their brains are crowded with local knowledge, but we are too arrogant and embarrassed to ask the way. besides, they look strange and might not speak our language. so we drive around in circles, inventing and rejecting successive hypotheses about where to find the scenic vistas that would entertain and enlighten the tourists ('lay people', a.k.a. 'tax payers'). eventually, our bus load starts grumbling about tour guide rip offs in boring countries. we drive faster, make more frantic observations, and promise magnificent sights just around the next bend. i used to think that this was the best we could do as behavioural scientists. i figured that the intricacies of human nature were not just dark, but depopulated   that a few exploratory novelists and artists had sought the sources of our cognitive amazons and emotional niles, but that nobody actually lived there. now, i've changed my mind   there are local experts about almost all aspects of human nature, and the human sciences should find their way by asking them for directions. these 'locals' are the thousands or millions of bright professionals and practitioners in each of thousands of different occupations. they are the people who went to our high schools and colleges, but who found careers with higher pay and shorter hours than academic science. almost all of them know important things about human nature that behavioural scientists have not yet described, much less understood. marine drill sergeants know a lot about aggression and dominance. master chess players know a lot about if then reasoning. prostitutes know a lot about male sexual psychology. school teachers know a lot about child development. trial lawyers know a lot about social influence. the dark continent of human nature is already richly populated with autochthonous tribes, but we scientists don't bother to talk to these experts. my suggestion is that whenever we try to understand human nature in some domain, we should identify several groups of people who are likely to know a lot about that domain already, from personal, practical, or professional experience. we should seek out the most intelligent, articulate, and experienced locals   the veteran workers, managers, and trainers. then, we should talk with them, face to face, expert to expert, as collaborating peers, not as researchers 'running subjects' or 'interviewing informants'. we may not be able to reimburse them at their professional hourly wage, but we can offer other forms of prestige, such as co authorship on research papers. for example, suppose a psychology ph.d. student wants to study emotional adaptations such as fear and panic, that evolved for avoiding predators. she learns about the existing research (mostly by clark barrett at ucla), but doesn't have any great ideas for her dissertation research. the usual response is three years of depressed soul searching, random speculation, and fruitless literature reviews. this phase of idea generation could progress much more happily if she just picked up the telephone and called some of the people who spend their whole professional lives thinking about how to induce fear and panic. anyone involved in horror movie production would be a good start: script writers, monster designers, special effects technicians, directors, and editors. other possibilities would include talking with: a few hours of chatting with such folks would probably be more valuable in sparking some dissertation ideas than months of library research. the division of labor generates wondrous prosperity, and an awesome diversity of knowledge about human nature in different occupations. psychology could continue trying to rediscover all this knowledge from scratch. or, it could learn some humility, and start listening to the real expertise about human nature already acquired by every bright worker in every factory, office, and mall. the central question for students of well being is the extent to which people adapt to circumstances. ten years ago the generally accepted position was that there is considerable hedonic adaptation to life conditions. the effects of circumstances on life satisfaction appeared surprisingly small: the rich were only slightly more satisfied with their lives than the poor, the married were happier than the unmarried but not by much, and neither age nor moderately poor health diminished life satisfaction. evidence that people adapt   though not completely   to becoming paraplegic or winning the lottery supported the idea of a "hedonic treadmill": we move but we remain in place. the famous "easterlin paradox" seemed to nail it down: self reported life satisfaction has changed very little in prosperous countries over the last fifty years, in spite of large increases in the standard of living. hedonic adaptation is a troubling concept, regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum. if you believe that economic growth is the key to increased well being, the easterlin paradox is bad news. if you are a compassionate liberal, the finding that the sick and the poor are not very miserable takes wind from your sails. and if you hope to use a measure of well being to guide social policy you need an index that will pick up permanent effects of good policies on the happiness of the population. about ten years ago i had an idea that seemed to solve these difficulties: perhaps people's satisfaction with their life is not the right measure of well being. the idea took shape in discussions with my wife anne treisman, who was (and remains) convinced that people are happier in california (or at least northern california) than in most other places. the evidence showed that californians are not particularly satisfied with their life, but anne was unimpressed. she argued that californians are accustomed to a pleasant life and come to expect more pleasure than the unfortunate residents of other states. because they have a high standard for what life should be, californians are not more satisfied than others, although they are actually happier. this idea included a treadmill, but it was not hedonic   it was an aspiration treadmill: happy people have high aspirations. the aspiration treadmill offered an appealing solution to the puzzles of adaptation: it suggested that measure of life satisfaction underestimate the well being benefits of life circumstances such as income, marital status or living in california. the hope was that measures of experienced happiness would be more sensitive. i eventually assembled an interdisciplinary team to develop a measure of experienced happiness (kahneman, krueger, schkade, stone and schwarz, 2004) and we set out to demonstrate the aspiration treadmill. over several years we asked substantial samples of women to reconstruct a day of their life in detail. they indicated the feelings they had experienced during each episode, and we computed a measure of experienced happiness: the average quality of affective experience during the day. our hypothesis was that differences in life circumstances would have more impact on this measure than on life satisfaction. we were so convinced that when we got our first batch of data, comparing teachers in top rated schools to teachers in inferior schools, we actually misread the results as confirming our hypothesis. in fact, they showed the opposite: the groups of teachers differed more in their work satisfaction than in their affective experience at work. this was the first of many such findings: income, marital status and education all influence experienced happiness less than satisfaction, and we could show that the difference is not a statistical artifact. measuring experienced happiness turned out to be interesting and useful, but not in the way we had expected. we had simply been wrong. experienced happiness, we learned, depends mainly on personality and on the hedonic value of the activities to which people allocate their time. life circumstances influence the allocation of time, and the hedonic outcome is often mixed: high income women have more enjoyable activities than the poor, but they also spend more time engaged in work that they do not enjoy; married women spend less time alone, but more time doing tedious chores. conditions that make people satisfied with their life do not necessarily make them happy. social scientists rarely change their minds, although they often adjust their position to accommodate inconvenient facts. but it is rare for a hypothesis to be so thoroughly falsified. merely adjusting my position would not do; although i still find the idea of an aspiration treadmill attractive, i had to give it up. to compound the irony, recent findings from the gallup world poll raise doubts about the puzzle itself. the most dramatic result is that when the entire range of human living standards is considered, the effects of income on a measure of life satisfaction (the "ladder of life") are not small at all. we had thought income effects are small because we were looking within countries. the gdp differences between countries are enormous, and highly predictive of differences in life satisfaction. in a sample of over 130,000 people from 126 countries, the correlation between the life satisfaction of individuals and the gdp of the country in which they live was over .40   an exceptionally high value in social science. humans everywhere, from norway to sierra leone, apparently evaluate their life by a common standard of material prosperity, which changes as gdp increases. the implied conclusion, that citizens of different countries do not adapt to their level of prosperity, flies against everything we thought we knew ten years ago. we have been wrong and now we know it. i suppose this means that there is a science of well being, even if we are not doing it very well. it is a charming concept that humans are in fact able "to change their mind" in the first place. not that it necessarily implies a change for the better, but at least it does have that positive ring of supposing a free will to perform this feat at all. better, in any case, to be the originator of the changing, rather than having it done to you, in the much less applaudable form of brain washing. for me, in my own life as i passed the half century mark, with almost exactly half the time spent in the us and the other in europe, in between circling the globe a few times, i can look back on what now seems like multiple lifetimes worth of mind changing. here then is a brief point, musing about the field i spent 20 years in: computer software. and it is deeper than it may seem at first glance. i used to think "software design" is an art form. i now believe that i was half right: it is indeed an art, but it has a rather short half life: software is merely a performance art! a momentary flash of brilliance, doomed to be overtaken by the next wave, or maybe even by its own sequel. eaten alive by its successors. and time... this is not to denigrate the genre of performance art: anamorphic sidewalk chalk drawings, goldsworthy pebble piles or norwegian carved ice hotels are admirable feats of human ingenuity, but they all share that ephemeral time limit: the first rain, wind or heat will dissolve the beauty, and the artist must be well aware of its fleeting glory. for many years i have discussed this with friends that are writers, musicians, painters and the simple truth emerged: one can still read the words, hear the music and look at the images.... their value and their appeal remains, in some cases even gain by familiarity: like a good wine it can improve over time. you can hum a tune you once liked, years later. you can read words or look a painting from 300 years ago and still appreciate its truth and beauty today, as if brand new. software, by that comparison, is more like soufflé: enjoy it now, today, for tomorrow it has already collapsed on itself. soufflé 1.1 is the thing to have, version 2.0 is on the horizon. it is a simple fact: hardly any of my software even still runs at all! back in 1982 i started with a highschool buddy in a garage in the hollywood hills. with ludicrous limitations we conjured up dreams: three dimensional charting, displaying sound as time slice mountains of frequency spectrum data, annotated with perspective lettering... and all that in 32k of ram on a 0.2mhz processor. and we did it... a few years later it fed 30 people. the next level of dreaming up new frontiers with a talented tight team was complex algorithms for generating fractals, smooth color gradients, multi layer bumpmapped textures and dozens of image filters, realtime liquid image effects, and on and on... and that too, worked and this time fed over 300 people. fifteen products sold many millions of copies   and a few of them still persist to this day, in version 9 or 10 or 11... but for me, i realized, i no longer see myself as a software designer   i changed my mind. today, if you have a very large task at hand, one that you calculate might take two years or three... it has actually become cheaper to wait for a couple of generation changes in the hardware and do the whole thing then   ten times faster. in other words: sit by the beach with umbrella drinks for 15 months and then finish it all at once with some weird beowulf cluster of machinery and still beat the original team by leaps and bounds. at the start, all we were given was the starting address in ram where video memory began, and a poke to fc001101 would put a dot on the screen. just one dot. then you figured out how to draw a line. how to connect them to polygons. how to fill those with patterns. all on a screen of 192x128, ( which is now just "an icon") uphill in the snow, both ways. now the gpus are blasting billions of pixels per second and all they will ask is "does it blend?" pico, femto, atto, zepto, yocto cycles stored in giga, tera, peta, exa, zetta, yotta cells. i rest my case about those umbrella drinks. do i really just drop all technology and leave computing ? nahh. quadhd screens are just around the corner, and as a tool for words, music and images there are fantastic new horizons for me. i am more engaged in it all than ever   alas: the actual coding and designing itself is no longer where i see my contribution. but the point is deeper than just one mans path: the new role of technology is a serious philosophical point in the long range outlook for mankind. most decision makers world wide, affecting the entire planet, are technophobes, luddites and noobs beyond belief. they have no vision for the potential, nor proper respect for the risks, nor simple estimation of the immediate value for quality of life that technology could bring. maybe one can change their mind? i remembered that i once wrote something about this very topic... and i found it: i changed my mind mostly about changing my mind: i used to be all for 'being against it', then i was all against 'being for it', until i realized: thats the same thing....never mind. it's a 'limerickety' little thing from some keynote 12 years ago, but...see.... it still runs : ) i used to think that the most fascinating thing about physics was theory   and that the best was still to come. but as physics has grown vanishingly abstract i've been drawn in the opposite direction, to the great experiments of the past. first i determined to show myself that electrons really exist. firing up a beautiful old apparatus i found on ebay   a bulbous vacuum tube big as a melon mounted between two coils   i replayed j. j. thomson's famous experiment of 1897 in which he measured the charge to mass ratio of an electron beam. it was thrilling to see the bluish green cathode ray dive into a circle as i energized the electromagnets. even better, when i measured the curve and plugged all the numbers into thomson's equation, my answer was off by only a factor of two. pretty good for a journalist. i had less success with the stubborn millikan oil drop experiment. mastering it, i concluded, would be like learning to play the violin. electricity in the raw is as mysterious as superstrings. i turn down the lights and make my geissler tubes glow with the touch of a high voltage wand energized by a brass and mahogany ruhmkorff coil. i coax the ectoplasmic rays in my de la rive tube to rotate around a magnetized pole. maybe in a year or two, the large hadron collider will make this century's physics interesting again. meanwhile, as soon as i find a nice spinthariscope, i'm ready to go nuclear. i spent a long time believing in the centrality of probability in life and advocating that we should express everything in terms of degrees of credence, with unitary probabilities as a special case for total certainties, and null for total implausibility. critical thinking, knowledge, beliefs, everything needed to be probabilized. until i came to realize, twelve years ago, that i was wrong in this notion that the calculus of probability could be a guide to life and help society. indeed, it is only in very rare circumstances that probability (by itself) is a guide to decision making . it is a clumsy academic construction, extremely artificial, and nonobservable. probability is backed out of decisions; it is not a construct to be handled in a standalone way in real life decision making. it has caused harm in many fields. consider the following statement. "i think that this book is going to be a flop. but i would be very happy to publish it." is the statement incoherent? of course not: even if the book was very likely to be a flop, it may make economic sense to publish it (for someone with deep pockets and the right appetite) since one cannot ignore the small possibility of a handsome windfall, or the even smaller possibility of a huge windfall. we can easily see that when it comes to small odds, decision making no longer depends on the probability alone. it is the pair probability times payoff (or a series of payoffs), the expectation, that matters. on occasion, the potential payoff can be so vast that it dwarfs the probability   and these are usually real world situations in which probability is not computable. consequently, there is a difference between knowledge and action. you cannot naively rely on scientific statistical knowledge (as they define it) or what the epistemologists call "justified true belief" for non textbook decisions. statistically oriented modern science is typically based on right/wrong with a set confidence level, stripped of consequences. would you take a headache pill if it was deemed effective at a 95% confidence level? most certainly. but would you take the pill if it is established that it is "not lethal" at a 95% confidence level? i hope not. when i discuss the impact of the highly improbable ("black swans"), people make the automatic mistake of thinking that the message is that these "black swans" are necessarily more probable than assumed by conventional methods. they are mostly less probable. consider that, in a winner take all environment such as the one in the arts, the odds of success are low, since there are fewer successful people, but the payoff is disproportionately high. so, in a fat tailed environment, what i call "extremistan", rare events are less frequent (their probability is lower), but they are so effective that their contribution to the total pie is more substantial. [technical note: the distinction is, simply, between raw probability, p[x>k], i.e. the probability of exceeding k, and e[x|x>k], the expectation of x conditional on x>k. it is the difference between the zeroth moment and the first moment. the latter is what usually matters for decisions. and it is the (conditional) first moment that needs to be the core of decision making. what i saw in 1995 was that an out of the money option value increases when the probability of the eventdecreases, making me feel that everything i thought until then was wrong.] what causes severe mistakes is that, outside the special cases of casinos and lotteries, you almost never face a single probability with a single (and known) payoff. you may face, say, a 5% probability of an earthquake of magnitude 3 or higher, a 2% probability of one of 4 or higher, etc. the same with wars: you have a risk of different levels of damage, each with a different probability. "what is the probability of war?" is a meaningless question for risk assessment. so it is wrong to just look at a single probability of a single event in cases of richer possibilities (like focusing on such questions as "what is the probability of losing a million dollars?" while ignoring that , conditional on losing more than a million dollars, you may have an expected loss of twenty million, one hundred million, or just one million). once again, real life is not a casino with simple bets. this is the error that helps the banking system go bust with an astonishing regularity   i've showed that institutions that are exposed to negative black swans, like banks and some classes of insurance ventures, have almost never profitable over long periods. the problem of the illustrative current subprime mess is not so much that the "quants" and other pseudo experts in bank risk management were wrong about the probabilities (they were), but that they were severely wrong about the different layers of depth of potential negative outcomes. for instance, morgan stanley lost about ten billion dollars (so far) while allegedly having foreseen a subprime crisis and executed hedges against it   they just did not realize how deep it would go and had open exposure to the big tail risks. this is routine: a friend who went bust during the crash of 1987, told me: "i was betting that it would happen but i did not know it would go that far". the point is mathematically simple but does not register easily. i've enjoyed giving math students the following quiz (to be answered intuitively, on the spot). in a gaussian world, the probability of exceeding one standard deviations is ~16%. what are the odds of exceeding it under a distribution of fatter tails (with same mean and variance)? the right answer: lower, not higher   the number of deviations drops, but the few that take place matter more. it was entertaining to see that most of the graduate students get it wrong. those who are untrained in the calculus of probability have a far better intuition of these matters. another complication is that just as probability and payoff are inseparable, so one cannot extract another complicated component, utility, from the decision making equation. fortunately, the ancients with all their tricks and accumulated wisdom in decision making, knew a lot of that, at least better than modern day probability theorists. let us stop to systematically treat them as if they were idiots. most texts blame the ancients for their ignorance of the calculus of probability   the babylonians, egyptians, and romans in spite of their engineering sophistication, and the arabs, in spite of their taste for mathematics, were blamed for not having produced a calculus of probability (the latter being, incidentally, a myth, since umayyad scholars used relative word frequencies to determine authorships of holy texts and decrypt messages). the reason was foolishly attributed to theology, lack of sophistication, lack of something people call the "scientific method", or belief in fate. the ancients just made decisions in a more ecologically sophisticated manner than modern epistemology minded people. they integrated skeptical pyrrhonian empiricism into decision making. as i said, consider that belief (i.e., epistemology) and action (i.e., decision making), the way they are practiced, are largely not consistent with one another. let us apply the point to the current debate on carbon emissions and climate change. correspondents keep asking me if it the climate worriers are basing their claims on shoddy science, and whether, owing to nonlinearities, their forecasts are marred with such a possible error that we should ignore them. now, even if i agreed that it were shoddy science; even if i agreed with the statement that the climate folks were most probably wrong, i would still opt for the most ecologically conservative stance   leave planet earth the way we found it. consider the consequences of the very remote possibility that they may be right, or, worse, the even more remote possibility that they may be extremely right. i was a science geek with a religious upbringing, an episcopalian upbringing, to be precise, which is pretty weak tea as far as pious fervor goes. raised in this tradition i learned, without ever being explicitly taught, that religion and science were compatible. my people had no truck with young earth creationism or anti evolutionary cant, thank you very much, and if some people's views clashed with scientific discovery, well, that was their fault for being so fundamentalist. since we couldn't rely on the literal truth of the bible, we needed a fallback position to guide our views on religion and science. that position was what i'll call the doctrine of joint belief: "noted scientist x has accepted jesus as lord and savior. therefore, religion and science are compatible." (substitute deity to taste.) you can still see this argument today, where the beliefs of francis collins or freeman dyson, both accomplished scientists, are held up as evidence of such compatibility. belief in compatibility is different from belief in god. even after i stopped believing, i thought religious dogma, though incorrect, was not directly incompatible with science (a view sketched out by stephen gould as "non overlapping magisteria".) i've now changed my mind, for the obvious reason: i was wrong. the idea that religious scientists prove that religion and science are compatible is ridiculous, and i'm embarrassed that i ever believed it. having believed for so long, however, i understand its attraction, and its fatal weaknesses. the doctrine of joint belief isn't evidence of harmony between two systems of thought. it simply offers permission to ignore the clash between them. skeptics aren't convinced by the doctrine, unsurprisingly, because it offers no testable proposition. what issurprising is that its supposed adherents don't believe it either. if joint beliefs were compatible beliefs, there could be no such thing as heresy. christianity would be compatible not just with science, but with astrology (roughly as many americans believe in astrology as evolution), with racism (because of the number of churches who use the "curse of ham" to justify racial segregation), and on through the list of every pair of beliefs held by practicing christians. to get around this, one could declare that, for some arbitrary reason, the co existence of beliefs is relevant only to questions of religion and science, but not to astrology or anything else. such a stricture doesn't strengthen the argument, however, because an appeal to the particular religious beliefs of scientists means having to explain why the majority of them are atheists. (see the 1998 larson and witham study for the numbers.) picking out the minority who aren't atheists and holding only them up as exemplars, is simply special pleading (not to mention lousy statistics.) the works that changed my mind about compatibility were pascal boyer's religion explained, and scott atran's in gods we trust, which lay out the ways religious belief is a special kind of thought, incompatible with the kind of skepticism that makes science work. in boyer and atran's views, religious thought doesn't simply happen to be false    being false is the point, the thing that makes belief both memorable and effective. psychologically, we overcommit to the ascription of agency, even when dealing with random events (confirmation can be had in any casino.) belief in god rides in on that mental eagerness, in the same way optical illusions ride in on our tendency to overinterpret ambiguous visual cues. sociologically, the adherence to what atran diplomatically calls 'counter factual beliefs' serves both to create and advertise in group commitment among adherents. anybody can believe in things that are true, but it takes a lot of coordinated effort to get people to believe in virgin birth or resurrection of the dead. we are early in one of the periodic paroxysms of conflict between faith and evidence. i suspect this conflict will restructure society, as after galileo, rather than leading to a quick truce, as after scopes, not least because the global tribe of atheists now have a medium in which they can discover one another and refine and communicate their message. one of the key battles is to insist on the incompatibility of beliefs based on evidence and beliefs that ignore evidence. saying that the mental lives of a francis collins or a freeman dyson prove that religion and science are compatible is like saying that the sex lives of bill clinton or ted haggard prove that marriage and adultery are compatible. the people we need to watch out for in this part of the debate aren't the fundamentalists, they're the moderates, the ones who think that if religious belief is made metaphorical enough, incompatibility with science can be waved away. it can't be, and we need to say so, especially to the people like me, before i changed my mind. before i entered the intellectual funnel of graduate school, i used to cook up thought experiments to explain coincidences, such as running into a person immediately after a random thought of them. this secretive thinking was good mental entertainment, but the demand of forging a serious career in physics research forced me to make peace with such wild speculations. in my theory of coincidences, non local interactions as well as a dark form of energy was necessary; absolute science fiction! fifteen years later, we now have overwhelming evidence of a 'fifth force' mediating an invisible substance that the community has dubbed 'dark energy'. in hindsight, it is of no coincidence that i have changed my mind that nature is non local. non local correlations are not common experience to us, thus it is both difficult to imagine and accept. often, research in theoretical physics encourages me to keep an open mind; or to not get too attached to ideas that i am deluded into thinking should be correct. while this has been a constant struggle for me in my scientific career thus far, i have experienced the value of this theoretical ideology weaning process. after years of wrestling with some of the outstanding problems in the field of elementary particle physics and cosmology, i have been forced to change my mind on this predisposition that has been silently passed on to me by my physics predecessors, that the laws physics are, for the most part, local. during my first year in graduate school, i came across the famous einstein, podosky and rosen (epr) thought experiment, which succinctly argue for the inevitable 'spooky action at a distance' in quantum mechanics. then came the aspect experiment that measured the non local entanglement of photon polarization confirming eprs expectation that there exist non local correlations in nature enabled by quantum mechanics (with a caveat of course). this piece of knowledge had a short life in my education and research career. non locality exited the door of my brain once and for all, after i approached one of my professors, an accomplished quantum field theorist. he convinced me that non locality goes away once quantum mechanics properly incorporates causality, through a unification with special relativity; i.e. a theory known as quantum field theory. with the promise of a sounder career path i invited these, then comforting words, and attempted to master quantum field theory. plus, even if non locality happens, these processes are exceptional events created under special conditions, while most physics is completely local. quantum field theory works and it became my new religion. i have since remained on this comfortable path. now that i specialize in the physics of the early universe, i have first hand witnessed the great predictive and precise explanatory powers of einstein's general relativity, married with quantum field theory to both explain the complete history and physical mechanism for the origin of structures in the universe, all in a seemingly local and causative fashion. we call this paradigm cosmic inflation and it is deceptively simple. the universe started out immediately after the big bang from a microscopically tiny piece of space then inflated 'faster than the speed of light'. inflation is able to explain our entire complexity of observed universe with the economy of a few equations that involve general relativity and quantum field theory. despite its great success inflation has been plagued with conceptual and technical problems. these problems created thesis projects and inevitably, jobs for a number of young theorists like myself. time after time, publication after publication, like a rat on his wheel, we are running out of steam, as the problems of inflation just reappear in some other form. i have now convinced myself that the problems associated with inflation won't go away unless we somehow include non locality. ironically, inflation gets ignited by the same form of dark energy that we see permeating the fabric of the cosmos today, except in much greater abundance fourteen billion years ago. where did most of the dark energy go after inflation ended? why is some of it still around? is this omniscient dark energy the culprit behind non local activity in physical processes? i don't know exactly how non locality in cosmology will play itself out, but by its very nature, the physics underlying it will affect 'local' processes. i still haven't changed my mind on coincidences though. as a child, i was told that hot water freezes faster than cold water. this was easy to refute in principle, so i did not believe it. many years later i learned that aristotle had described the effect in his meteorologica, "the fact that the water has previously been warmed contributes to its freezing quickly: for so it cools sooner. hence many people, when they want to cool hot water quickly, begin by putting it in the sun. so the inhabitants of pontus when they encamp on the ice to fish (they cut a hole in the ice and then fish) pour warm water round their reeds that it may freeze the quicker, for they use the ice like lead to fix the reeds. " (e. w. webster translation) i was impressed as always by aristotle's clarity, confidence and specificity. of course, i do not expect you to be convinced that it is true simply because aristotle said so, especially since his explanation is that "warm and cold react upon one another by recoil." (aristotle, like us, was very good making up explanations to justify his beliefs). instead, i hope that you will have the pleasure of being convinced, as i was, by trying the experiment yourself. the appeal of darwin's theory of evolution   and the horror of it, for some theists   is that it expunges from biology the concept of purpose, of teleology, thereby converting biology into a mechanistic, canonical science. in this respect, the author of the origin of species may be said to be the combined copernicus, galileo, and kepler of biology. just as these astronomers gave us a view of the heavens in which no angels were required to propel the planets in their orbs and the earth was no longer the center of the celestial system, so darwin showed that no god was needed to design the spider's intricate web and that man is in truth but another animal. that's how the standard story goes, and it is pretty much what i used to believe, until i read darwin's later book, his treatise on the evolution of the mental life of animals, including the human species: the descent of man. this is the work in which darwin introduces one of the most powerful ideas in the study of human nature, one that can explain why the capacities of the human mind so extravagantly exceed what would have been required for hunter gatherer survival on the pleistocene savannahs. the idea is sexual selection, the process by which men and women in the pleistocene chose mates according to varied physical and mental attributes, and in so doing "built" the human mind and body as we know it. in darwin's account, human sexual selection comes out looking like a kind of domestication. just as human beings domesticated dogs and alpacas, roses and cabbages, through selective breeding, they also domesticated themselves as a species through the long process of mate selection. describing sexual selection as human self domestication should not seem strange. every direct prehistoric ancestor of every person alive today at times faced critical survival choices: whether to run or hold ground against a predator, which road to take toward a green valley, whether to slake an intense thirst by drinking from some brackish pool. these choices were frequently instantaneous and intuitive and, needless to say, our direct ancestors were the ones with the better intuitions. however, there was another kind of crucial intuitive choice faced by our ancestors: whether to choose this man or that woman as a mate with whom to rear children and share a life of mutual support. it is inconceivable that decisions of such emotional intimacy and magnitude were not made with an eye toward the character of the prospective mate, and that these decisions did not therefore figure in the evolution of the human personality   with its tastes, values, and interests. our actual direct ancestors, male and female, were the ones who were chosen by each other. darwin's theory of sexual selection has disquieted and irritated many otherwise sympathetic evolutionary theorists because, i suspect, it allows purposes and intentions back into evolution through an unlocked side door. the slogan memorized by generations of students of natural selection is random mutation and selective retention. the "retention" in natural selection is strictly non teleological, a matter of brute, physical survival. the retention process of sexual selection, however, is with human beings in large measure purposive and intentional. we may puzzle about whether, say, peahens have "purposes" in selecting peacocks with the largest tails. but other animals aside, it is absolutely clear that with the human race, sexual selection describes a revived evolutionary teleology. though it is directed toward other human beings, it is as purposive as the domestication of those wolf descendents that became familiar household pets. every pleistocene man who chose to bed, protect, and provision a woman because she struck him as, say, witty and healthy, and because her eyes lit up in the presence of children, along with every woman who chose a man because of his hunting skills, fine sense of humor, and generosity, was making a rational, intentional choice that in the end built much of the human personality as we now know it. darwinian evolution is therefore structured across a continuum. at one end are purely natural selective processes that give us, for instance, the internal organs and the autonomic processes that regulate our bodies. at the other end are rational decisions   adaptive and species altering across tens of thousands of generations in prehistoric epochs. it is at this end of the continuum, where rational choice and innate intuitions can overlap and reinforce one another, that we find important adaptations that are relevant to understanding the human personality, including the innate value systems implicit in morality, sociality, politics, religion, and the arts. prehistoric choices honed the human virtues as we now know them: the admiration of altruism, skill, strength, intelligence, industriousness, courage, imagination, eloquence, diligence, kindness, and so forth. the revelations of darwin's later work   beautifully explicated as well in books by helena cronin, amotz and avishag zahavi, and geoffrey miller   have completely altered my thinking about the development of culture. it is not just survival in a natural environment that has made human beings what they are. in terms of our personalities we are, strange to say, a self made species. for me this is a genuine revelation, as it puts in a new genetic light many human values that have hitherto been regarded as purely cultural. rather than choose a personal example of a change in mind, i reflect on instances in which my field, medicine, has apparently changed "its" mind based on changes in evidence. in my experience major reversals in belief (as opposed to simply progressions, or changes in course) typically arise when there are serious flaws in evaluation of evidence or inference leading to the old view, the new view, or both. to be committed to a view based on facts, and later find the view wrong, either the facts had to be wrong or the interpretation of them had to extend beyond what the facts actually implied. the "facts" can be wrong in a range of settings: academic fraud, selective documentation of research methods, and selective publication of favorable results   among many. but in my experience more often it is the interpretation of the facts that is amiss. hormone replacement therapy ("hrt") is a case in point. you may recall hrt was widely hailed as slashing heart disease and dementia risk in women. after all, in observational studies   with large samples   women who took hrt had lower rates of heart disease and alzheimer's than women who did not. i was not among those advising patients that hrt had the benefits alleged. women who took hrt (indeed any preventive medication) differed from those who did not. these differences include characteristics that might be expected to produce the appearance of a protective association, through "confounding." for instance, people who get preventive health measures have better education and higher income   which predict less dementia and better health, irrespective of any actual effect of the treatment. (efforts to adjust for such factors can never be trusted to capture differences sufficiently.) these disparities made it impossible to infer from such "observational" data alone whether the "true" causal relationship of hormone replacement to brain function and heart events was favorable, neutral, or adverse. when controlled trials were finally conducted   with random allocation to hrt or placebo providing that the compared groups were actually otherwise similar   hrt was found rather to increase rates of heart related events and dementia. but the lessons from that experience have not been well learned, and new, similarly flawed "findings" continue to be published   without suitable caveats. it is tempting to provide a raft of other examples in which a range of errors in reasoning from evidence were present, recognition of which should have curbed enthusiasm for a conclusion, but i will spare the reader. stunningly, there is little mandated training in evaluation of evidence and inference in medical school   nor indeed in graduate school in the sciences. (nor are the medical practice guidelines on which your care is grounded generated by people chosen for this expertise.) even available elective coursework is piecemeal. thus, statistics and probability courses each cover some domains of relevance such as study "power," or distinguishing posterior from a priori probabilities: thus it may be that commonly if a wife who was beaten is murdered, the spouse is the culprit (a posteriori), even if it is uncommon for wife beaters to murder their spouse (a priori). epidemiology methods courses address confounding and many species of bias.yet instruction in logical fallacies, for instance, was absent completely from the available course armamentarium. each of these domains, and others, are critical to sound reasoning from evidence. preventive treatments should mandate a high standard of evidence. but throughout the "real world" decisions are required despite incomplete evidence. at a level of information that should not propel a strong evidence driven "belief," a decision may nonetheless be called for: how to allocate limited resources; whom to vote for; and whether to launch a program, incentive, or law. even in these domains, where the luxury of tightly controlled convergent evidence is unattainable   or perhaps especially in these domains   understanding which evidence has what implications remains key, and may propel better decisions, and restrain unintended consequences. the haphazard approach to training in reasoning from evidence in our society is, in its way, astounding   and merits a call to action. better reasoning from evidence is substantially teachable but seldom directly taught, much less required. it should be central to curriculum requirements, at both graduate (advanced) and undergraduate (basic) levels   if not sooner. after all, sound reasoning from evidence is (or ought to be) fundamental for persons in each arena in which decisions should be rendered, or inferences drawn, on evidence: not just doctors and scientists, but journalists, policy makers   and indeed citizens, whose determinations affect not solely their own lives but others', each time they parent, serve on juries, and vote. this was a central part of liberal baby boomer common sense when i was growing up, especially if you came from a (still) dominant country like britain. moreover to show any sense of national feeling   apart from contempt for your national traditions   was a sign that you lacked political sophistication. i now believe this is mainly nonsense. nationalism can, of course, be a destructive force and we were growing up in the shadow of its 19th and 20th century excesses. in reaction to that most of the civilized world had, by the mid 20th century, signed up to a liberal universalism (as embodied in the un charter) that stressed the moral equality of all humans. i am happy to sign up to that too, of course, but i now no longer see that commitment as necessarily conflicting with belief in the nation state. indeed i think many anti national liberals make a sort of category error   belief in the moral equality of all humans does not mean that we have the same obligations to all humans. membership of the political community of a modern nation state places quite onerous duties on us to obey laws and pay taxes, but also grants us many rights and freedoms   and they make our fellow citizens politically "special" to us in a way that citizens of other countries are not. this "specialness" of national citizenship is most vividly illustrated in the factoid that every year in britain we spend 25 times more on the national health service than we do on development aid. moreover if the nation state can be a destructive force it is also at the root of what many liberals hold dear: representative democracy, accountability, the welfare state, redistribution of wealth and the very idea of equal citizenship. none of these things have worked to any significant extent beyond the confines of the nation state, which is not to say that they couldn't at some point in the future (indeed they already do so to a small extent in the eu). if you look around at the daily news   contested elections in kenya, death in pakistan   most of the bad news these days comes from too little nation state not too much. and why was rapid economic development possible in the asian tigers but not in africa? surely the existence of well functioning nation states and a strong sense of national solidarity in the tigers had something to do with it. and in rich western countries as other forms of human solidarity   social class, religion, ethnicity and so on   have been replaced by individualism and narrower group identities, holding on to some sense of national solidarity remains more important than ever to the good society. a feeling of empathy towards strangers who are fellow citizens (and with whom one shares history, institutions and social and political obligations) underpins successful modern states, but this need not be a feeling that stands in the way of empathy towards all humans. it just remains true that charity begins at home. i used to believe that a paramount purpose of a liberal education was threefold: 1) stretch your mind, reach beyond your preconceptions; learn to think of things in ways you have never thought before. 2) acquire tools with which to critically examine and evaluate new ideas, including your own cherished ones. 3) settle eventually on a framework or set of frameworks that organize what you know and believe and that guide your life as an individual and a leader. i still believe #1 and #2. i have changed my mind about #3. i now believe in a new version of #3, which replaces the above with the following: a) learn new frameworks, and be guided by them. b) but never get so comfortable as to believe that your frameworks are the final word, recognizing the strong psychological tendencies that favor sticking to your worldview. learn to keep stretching your mind, keep stepping outside your comfort zone, keep venturing beyond the familiar, keep trying to put yourself in the shoes of others whose frameworks or cultures are alien to you, and have an open mind to different ways of parsing the world. before you critique a new idea, or another culture, master it to the point at which its proponents or members recognize that you get it. settling into a framework is easy. the brain is built to perceive the world through structured lenses   cognitive scaffolds on which we hang our knowledge and belief systems. stretching your mind is hard. once we've settled on a worldview that suits us, we tend to hold on. new information is bent to fit, information that doesn't fit is discounted, and new views are resisted. by 'framework' i mean any one of a range of conceptual or belief systems   either explicitly articulated or implicitly followed. these include narratives, paradigms, theories, models, schemas, frames, scripts, stereotypes, and categories; they include philosophies of life, ideologies, moral systems, ethical codes, worldviews, and political, religious or cultural affiliations. these are all systems that organize human cognition and behavior by parsing, integrating, simplifying or packaging knowledge or belief. they tend to be built on loose configurations of seemingly core features, patterns, beliefs, commitments, preferences or attitudes that have a foundational and unifying quality in one's mind or in the collective behavior of a community. when they involve the perception of people (including oneself), they foster a sense of affiliation that may trump essential features or beliefs. what changed my mind was the overwhelming evidence of biases in favor of perpetuating prior worldviews. the brain maps information onto a small set of organizing structures, which serve as cognitive lenses, skewing how we process or seek new information. these structures drive a range of phenomena, including the perception of coherent patterns (sometimes where none exists), the perception of causality (sometimes where none exists), and the perception of people in stereotyped ways. another family of perceptual biases stems from our being social animals (even scientists!), susceptible to the dynamics of in group versus out group affiliation. a well known bias of group membership is the over attribution effect, according to which we tend to explain the behavior of people from other groups in dispositional terms ("that's just the way they are"), but our own behavior in much more complex ways, including a greater consideration of the circumstances. group attributions are also asymmetrical with respect to good versus bad behavior. for groups that you like, including your own, positive behaviors reflect inherent traits ("we're basically good people") and negative behaviors are either blamed on circumstances ("i was under a lot of pressure") or discounted ("mistakes were made"). in contrast, for groups that you dislike, negative behaviors reflect inherent traits ("they can't be trusted") and positive behaviors reflect exceptions ("he's different from the rest"). related to attribution biases is the tendency (perhaps based on having more experience with your own group) to believe that individuals within another group are similar to each other ("they're all alike"), whereas your own group contains a spectrum of different individuals (including "a few bad apples"). when two groups accept bedrock commitments that are fundamentally opposed, the result is conflict   or war. fortunately, the brain has other systems that allow us to counteract these tendencies to some extent. this requires conscious effort, the application of critical reasoning tools, and practice. the plasticity of the brain permits change   within limits. to assess genuine understanding of an idea one is inclined to resist, i propose a version of turing's test tailored for this purpose: you understand something you are inclined to resist only if you can fool its proponents into thinking you get it. few critics can pass this test. i would also propose a cross cultural turing test for would be cultural critics (a golden rule of cross group understanding): before critiquing a culture or aspect thereof, you should be able to navigate seamlessly within that culture as judged by members of that group. by rejecting #3, you give up certainty. certainty feels good and is a powerful force in leadership. the challenge, as bertrand russell puts it in the history of western philosophy, is "to teach how to live without certainty, and yet without being paralyzed by hesitation". over the last three years, we've run a project called the summer of code, in which we pair up university level software developers with open source software projects. if the student succeeds in fulfilling the goals set forth in their application (which the project has accepted) then they are paid a sum of $4500. we wanted a program that would keep software developers coding over the summer and it would also help out our friends in the world of open source software development. the passing rate last year was 81%, which means some 700+ students completed their projects to the satisfaction of their mentors. this last year, we did a cursory study of the code produced by these students and reviewed, among other items, how many lines of code the student produced. the lines of code thing has been done to death in the computer industry, and it's a terrible measure of programmer productivity. it is one of the few metrics we do have and since we make the assumption that if they pass the project then their code has passed muster. so after that the lines of code becomes somewhat more significant than it would normally. over the summer of the average student produced 4,000 lines of code with some students producing as much at 10, 14 and even 20 thousand lines. this is an insane amount of code written weather you measure by time or by money. by some measures this means the students are anywhere between 5 and 40 times as productive as your 'average' employed programmer. this code, mind you, was written by a student who is almost always geographically separated from their mentor by at least 3 time zones and almost never has a face to face meeting with their mentor. this is an absurd amount of productivity for a student or, heck, anyone, writing code. this is often production and user ready code being produced by these students. it's really something to see and made me revise what i consider a productive developer to be and what indeed i should expect from the engineers that work for and with me. but, and here's the thing i changed my mind about, is the tradeoff for silly high productivity that i have to run my projects the way we run the summer of code? maybe. can i keep my hands off and let things run their course? is the team strong enough to act as this kind of mentoring to each other? i now think the answer is that yes, they can run each other better than i can run them. so let's see what letting go looks like. ask me next year? let's hope next years question is 'what chance are you least regretful you took?' and i can talk about this then! i used to take the view that public consultations about science policy were pointless. while the idea of asking ordinary people's opinions about controversial research sounds quite reasonable, it is astonishingly difficult to do well. when governments canvass about issues such as biotechnology or embryo research, what usually happens is that the whole exercise gets captured by special interests. a vocal minority with strong opinions that are already widely known and impervious to argument   think greenpeace and the embryo rights lobby   get their responses in early and often. the much larger proportion of people who consider themselves neutral, open to persuasion, uninformed or uninterested rarely bother to take part. public opinion is then deemed to have spoken, without reflecting true public opinion at all. wouldn't it be better, i thought, to let scientists get on with their research, subject to occasional oversight by specialist panels with appropriate ethical expertise? well, to a point. public consultations can indeed be worse than useless, particularly when the british government has done the consulting: its exercises on gm crops and embryo research laws were particularly ill judged. as sir david king said recently, they have taught us what not to do. their failure, though, has stimulated some interesting thinking that has convinced me that it is possible to engage ordinary people in quite complex scientific issues, without letting the usual suspects shout everybody else down. the human fertilisation and embryology authority's recent work on cytoplasmic hybrid embryos is a case in point. the traditional part of the exercise had familiar results: pro lifers and anti genetic engineering groups mobilised, so 494 of the 810 written submissions were hostile. careful questioning, however, established that almost all these came from people who oppose all embryo research in all circumstances. a more scientific poll found 61 per cent backing for interspecies embryos, if these were to be used for medical research. detailed deliberative workshops revealed that once the rationale for the experiments was properly explained, large majorities overcame "instinctive repulsion" and supported the work. if consultations are properly run in this way, there is a lot to be said for them. they can actually build public understanding of potentially controversial research, and shoot the fox of science's shrillest critics. in many ways, they are rather more helpful than seeking advice from bioethicists, whose importance to ethical research i've increasingly come to doubt. it's not that philosophy of science is not a worthwhile academic discipline   it can be stimulating and thought provoking. the problem is that a bioethicist can almost always be found to support any position. leon kass and john harris are both eminent bioethicists, yet the counsel you would expect them to give on embryo research laws is going to be rather different. politicians   or scientists   can and do deliberately appoint ethicists according to their pre existing world views, then trumpet their advice as somehow independent and authoritative, as if their subject were physics. if specialist bioethics has a role to play in regulation of science, it is in framing the questions that researchers and the public at large should consider. it can't just be a fig leaf for decisions people were always going to make anyway. i used to think that languages and cultures shape the ways we think. i suspected they shaped they ways we reason and interpret information. but i didn't think languages could shape the nuts and bolts of perception, the way we actually see the world. that part of cognition seemed too low level, too hard wired, too constrained by the constants of physics and physiology to be affected by language. then studies started coming out claiming to find cross linguistic differences in color memory. for example, it was shown that if your language makes a distinction between blue and green (as in english), then you're less likely to confuse a blue color chip for a green one in memory. in a study like this you would see a color chip, it would then be taken away, and then after a delay you would have to decide whether another color chip was identical to the one you saw or not. of course, showing that language plays a role in memory is different than showing that it plays a role in perception. things often get confused in memory and it's not surprising that people may rely on information available in language as a second resort. but it doesn't mean that speakers of different languages actually see the colors differently as they are looking at them. i thought that if you made a task where people could see all the colors as they were making their decisions, then there wouldn't be any cross linguistic differences. i was so sure of the fact that language couldn't shape perception that i went ahead and designed a set of experiments to demonstrate this. in my lab we jokingly referred to this line of work as "operation perceptual freedom." our mission: to free perception from the corrupting influences of language. we did one experiment after another, and each time to my surprise and annoyance, we found consistent cross linguistic differences. they were there even when people could see all the colors at the same time when making their decisions. they were there even when people had to make objective perceptual judgments. they were there when no language was involved or necessary in the task at all. they were there when people had to reply very quickly. we just kept seeing them over and over again, and the only way to get the cross linguistic differences to go away was to disrupt the language system. if we stopped people from being able to fluently access their language, then the cross linguistic differences in perception went away. i set out to show that language didn't affect perception, but i found exactly the opposite. it turns out that languages meddle in very low level aspects of perception, and without our knowledge or consent shape the very nuts and bolts of how we see the world. i've changed my mind about electronic mail. when i first used email in graduate school in 1980, it was a dream. it was the most marvelous and practical invention of computer science. a text message quickly typed and reliably delivered (or be told of an error) allowed a new kind of asynchronous communication. it was cheaper (free), faster, and much more efficient than mail, phone, or fax, with a roundtrip in minutes. only your colleagues had your address, but you could find people at other places using "finger". colleagues started sharing text formatted data tables, where 50k bytes was a big email message! then came attachments. this hack to insert 33% bloated 8 bit binary files inside of 7 bit text email opened a pandora's box. suddenly anyone had the right to send any size package for free, like a socialized united parcel service. microsoft outlook made it "drag 'n drop" easy for bureaucrats to send word documents. many computer scientists saw the future and screamed "just send text" but it was too late. microsoft kept tweaking its proprietary file formats forcing anyone with email to upgrade microsoft office. (i thought they finally stopped with office 97, but now i am getting doc x files, which might as well be in martian!) we faced aol newbies, mailing lists, free webmail, hotmail spam, rtf mail, chain letters, html mail, musical mail, flash mail, javascript mail, viruses, spybits, faked url's, phishing, nigerian cons, powerpoint arms races, spam blocking spam, viral videos, plaxo updates, facebook friendings, ad nauseum. the worst part is the legal precedent that your employer "owns" the mail sent out over the network provided. it is as if they own the soundwaves which emit from your throat over the phone. an idiot judgment leads to two kafkaesque absurdities: first, if you send email with an ethnic slur, receive email with a picture of a naked child or a copyrghted mp3, you can be fired. use email to organize a union? fugget about it! second, all email sent and received must now be archived as critical business documents to comply with sarbanes oxley. and homeland security wants rights to monitor isp data streams and stores, and hope no warrants are needed for data older than 90 days. free speech in the information age isn't your right to post anonymously on a soapbox blog or newspaper story. it means that, if we agree, i should be able to send any data in any file format, with any encryption, from a computer i am using to one your are on, provided we pay for the broadband freight. there is no reason that any government, carrier, or corporation should have any right to store, read, or interpret our digital communications. show just cause and get a warrant, even if you think an employee is spying or a student is pirating music. email is now a nightmare that we have to wake up from. i don't have a solution yet, but i believe the key to re imagine email is to realize that our computers and phones are "always on" the net. so we can begin with synchronous messaging (both sender and receiver are online)   a cross between file sharing, sms texting, and instant messaging   and then add grid storage mechanisms for asynchronous delivery, multiple recipients, and reliability. until then, call me. i've come to reject the common "seti" (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) wisdom that there must be millions of technology capable civilizations within our "light sphere" (the region of the universe accessible to us by electromagnetic communication). the drake formula provides a means to estimate the number of intelligent civilizations in a galaxy or in the universe. essentially, the likelihood of a planet evolving biological life that has created sophisticated technology is tiny, but there are so many star systems, that there should still be many millions of such civilizations. carl sagan's analysis of the drake formula concluded that there should be around a million civilizations with advanced technology in our galaxy, while frank drake estimated around 10,000. and there are many billions of galaxies. yet we don't notice any of these intelligent civilizations, hence the paradox that fermi described in his famous comment. so where is everyone? we can readily explain why any one of these civilizations might be quiet. perhaps it destroyed itself. perhaps it is following the star trek ethical guideline to avoid interference with primitive civilizations (such as ours). these explanations make sense for any one civilization, but it is not credible, in my view, that every one of the billions of technology capable civilizations that should exist has destroyed itself or decided to remain quiet. the seti project is sometimes described as trying to find a needle (evidence of a technical civilization) in a haystack (all the natural signals in the universe). but actually, any technologically sophisticated civilization would be generating trillions of trillions of needles (noticeably intelligent signals). even if they have switched away from electromagnetic transmissions as a primary form of communication, there would still be vast artifacts of electromagnetic phenomenon generated by all of the many computational and communication processes that such a civilization would need to engage in. now let's factor in what i call the "law of accelerating returns" (the inherent exponential growth of information technology). the common wisdom (based on what i call the intuitive linear perspective) is that it would take many thousands, if not millions of years, for an early technological civilization to become capable of technology that spanned a solar system. but because of the explosive nature of exponential growth, it will only take a quarter of a millennium (in our own case) to go from sending messages on horseback to saturating the matter and energy in our solar system with sublimely intelligent processes. the price performance of computation went from 10 5 to 108 cps per thousand dollars in the 20th century. we also went from about a million dollars to a trillion dollars in the amount of capital devoted to computation, so overall progress in nonbiological intelligence went from 10 2 to 1017 cps in the 20th century, which is still short of the human biological figure of 1026 cps. by my calculations, however, we will achieve around 1069 cps by the end of the 21st century, thereby greatly multiplying the intellectual capability of our human machine civilization. even if we find communication methods superior to electromagnetic transmissions we will nonetheless be generating an enormous number of intelligent electromagnetic signals. according to most analyses of the drake equation, there should be billions of civilizations, and a substantial fraction of these should be ahead of us by millions of years. that's enough time for many of them to be capable of vast galaxy wide technologies. so how can it be that we haven't noticed any of the trillions of trillions of "needles" that each of these billions of advanced civilizations should be creating? my own conclusion is that they don't exist. if it seems unlikely that we would be in the lead in the universe, here on the third planet of a humble star in an otherwise undistinguished galaxy, it's no more perplexing than the existence of our universe with its ever so precisely tuned formulas to allow life to evolve in the first place. john brockman, editor and publisher

academia.edu uses cookies to personalize content, tailor ads and improve the user experience. by using our site, you agree to our collection of information through the use of cookies. to learn more, view our privacy policy. academia.edu no longer supports internet explorer. to browse academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to upgrade your browser. enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. download free pdf 2017, parallel realities: the development of performance art in australia … 363 pages 1 file parallel realities: the development of performance art in australia, traces the development of performance art from its precursors in theatre, dada, happenings, fluxus and conceptual art to the various forms of performance art that exist today. unlike europe or america where performance has been traced by numerous writers and critics from its origins in european futurist evenings and dada soirees, the australian development of this art form has followed a different sequence of events. it is a story that more closely follows the development of an australian social and political identity and the arduous task of developing an australian art and culture within a predominantly materialist, pastoralist, pioneering society. this book examines in detail the development of performance art in australia through its links with theatre, the social and political changes in the society in which the artists live, the effects of influences from overseas, the influences and occasional alliances with popular culture and the pop music scene, and the major developments in the visual arts. by expanding my narration into areas of sociology, politics and general history i have endeavored to paint a broad picture of the social and political events that were occurring concurrent with important changes and developments in the visual arts and thus provide some insight into the sequence of events which has led to the appearance of performance art as a major art form today. the second section of this book chronicles the performance events of 31 pioneering australian artists with descriptions and photos provided by the artists themselves. this second edition is designed to be a free student online resource which includes the work of stelarc, mike parr, tim burns, dale frank, kevin mortensen, jill orr, ken unsworth and others. loading preview sorry, preview is currently unavailable. you can download the paper by clicking the button above. iccpr 2008 proceedings of the fifth international conference on cultural policy research, 2008 2017 2008 tarih kültür ve sanat araştırmaları dergisi, 2018 2011 paj, 2013 tdr, 2008 theatre research in canada, 2015 it wasn’t me, i won’t do it again, 2022 2009 memoirs of the queensland museum   culture, 2021 recollections, 2010 context: journal of music …, 1997 2011 2008 theatre and performance design, 2015 g le roux, 2007 modern drama, 2023 journal of australian studies, 2014 journal of art historiography, 2011 2015 theatre research international, 2015 studies in costume & performance, 2007 anthropology today, 2009 oxford art online, 2010 2018 when modern became contemporary art: the idea of australian art, 1962 1988, 2024

supported by this year’s show is an underwhelming exercise in nostalgia. but it’s still a joy to be under the big top with acts like the wheel of destiny. by alexis soloski a body double to the stars, he performed sometimes bone breaking feats in movies like “return of the jedi” and “back to the future.” and he was still at it in his 80s. by michael s. rosenwald algunos zoológicos han recurrido a un poco de tinte, o algo de simple y llano descaro, para hacer pasar un animal por otro. by victor mather zoos around the world have occasionally used a little dye, or just brazenness, to pass off one animal as another. by victor mather a virtuoso of physical comedy, he performed around the world with his wife. most notably, he helped stage clown shows in afghanistan. by michael s. rosenwald the streets of the scottish capital are packed as thousands of performers seek to entertain and entice. by robert ormerod this documentary chronicles the reboot and reopening in las vegas of the acrobatic show “o,” which shutdown during the pandemic. by glenn kenny vibrant, refreshing pink lemonade, a circus concession turned classic, is the taste of the season. by eric kim a circus performer, an unsociable student or someone who is ahead of the curve? over the decades, a “geek” has been all three. by sarah diamond as the ringling bros. and barnum & bailey circus hits the road for the first time in seven years, gone are the tigers, elephants and pennywise esque clowns. by jonathan abrams based on the 2006 novel by sara gruen, the musical follows a young man who hops a train and falls in with a ragtag, traveling group of entertainers. by alexis soloski and peter fisher a selection of entertainment highlights this weekend, including ethan coen‘s new film, “drive away dolls.” by danielle dowling a pesar de la falta de apoyo del gobierno y de instalaciones adecuadas, los jóvenes mongoles luchan para aprender y preservar el arte circense en un ruinoso edificio de 83 años de antigüedad. by david pierson contortionists and acrobats with celestial skills train in squalid conditions as the promise of a former sumo wrestler to restore the national circus to its past glory has gone mostly unfulfilled. by david pierson the family friendly circus troupe phare highlights the richness of cambodian culture with gravity defying acrobatics, indigenous music and rousing choreography. by brittani samuel christmas classics, comedic musicals and a star studded sondheim revival: a guide to the shows to see this season. by rachel sherman the extraordinary within the everyday: a holiday season rite returns with aerialists, trapeze acts, funny clowns (really!) and cotton candy too. by alexis soloski the model and television host dressed as a giant peacock with some help from cirque du soleil. by madison malone kircher can cirque du soleil get gen z’s attention? by german lopez cirque du soleil is hoping that it can expand its audience, perhaps with perfume that smells like a trapeze artist or a couch that embodies the spirit of clowning. by emma goldberg nipton, calif., has one main road and about two dozen residents. entrepreneurs with dreams of turning it around have come and gone. will this time be different? by debra kamin caitlin reichel and kristy graziano met at a holiday party in orlando, fla., in 2016, but it would take three more years to become a couple. by alix wall a selection of entertainment highlights this weekend, including a preview of season 4 of hbo's "succession." by danielle dowling though smaller and less glitzy than extravaganzas of years past, “dream big” is a brisk, welcoming, back to basics experience brimming with pizazz. by alexis soloski and seth caplan a photographer embedded with the sea clown sailing circus on the troupe’s journeys through the mediterranean. here’s what he saw. by nicola zolin to ride a motorcycle in the carnival motordrome, you need to be an alpha dog with sawdust in your veins. or at least have a driver’s license. by allie conti and desiree rios known as the world’s fastest woman juggler, she assisted her brother before launching a three decade solo career. by callie holtermann plus north korea’s covid strategy and china’s expanding internet censorship. by amelia nierenberg shuttered since 2017, ringling brothers will bring back its circus in 2023, but this time there will be no animal acts. by sarah maslin nir dick zigun, who spent decades restoring the brooklyn enclave to its carnivalesque glory, is forced out of the organization he helped create. by kimiko de freytas tamura the “scream” actor is on a mission to make people reconsider clowns   including himself. by alex williams the french circus company libertivore makes its american debut, though its director had to give up her performing career. by brian seibert at a time when ringling brothers had few black performers, she dazzled with aerial ballet and balanced on galloping elephants. by neil genzlinger the san francisco theater where the musical revue ran for decades will get a new show in the fall by the 7 fingers, a montreal circus collective. by julia jacobs during the pandemic, many circus artists had to train in cramped spaces. among them are former performers with cirque du soleil, which is reopening soon. by dan bilefsky after shuttering dozens of shows and shedding most of its work force, the vaunted canadian circus faces an uphill struggle to bounce back. by dan bilefsky over a half century, he hosted television shows, sold millions of albums and toured the americas. by oscar lopez the last surviving child of the flying wallendas’ founder, she was with the troupe for seven decades, performing heart stopping aerial stunts into her 80s. by sam roberts our critics and writers have selected noteworthy cultural events to experience virtually. “there are safety standards and safety features that were supposed to be in place for every event,” a lawyer for the acrobats said. by azi paybarah often called television’s first sex symbol, she was a striking presence on “super circus” from 1949 to 1955   and a master of promotion. by anita gates after decades in captivity and a 1,700 mile road trip from argentina into brazil, an asian elephant named mara finally gained a chance to roam. by sofía lópez mañán and brooke jarvis one of italy’s famed family owned circuses has been sitting out the coronavirus pandemic in a field outside rome. by jason horowitz and nadia shira cohen the coronavirus has pulverized the famed circus, forcing it to shut down dozens of shows and grounding its small army of circus artists. by dan bilefsky la lucha por la igualdad de género está muy rezagada en el país. pero seis mujeres destacan en los espectáculos con los grandes felinos. by declan walsh the broader struggle for women’s equality may be lagging in egypt, but six women dominate the field of lion taming in the country. by declan walsh it’s a two show day for storm marrero, who commutes from the bronx before suiting up in sequins and singing celia cruz. by alix strauss at the new cirque mechanics show, the revolving ring, rotating ladders and spinning swings might not thrill, but the performers do. by alexis soloski sure, there’s some awkward innuendo. but that doesn’t spoil the annual thrill of seeing a troupe so effortlessly diverse, international and adept. by alexis soloski the circus manager said neither the trainer nor the bear were seriously injured, and blamed spectators for provoking the animal with flashes from cellphone cameras. by andrew higgins on sunday night, nik and lijana wallenda walked a quarter mile on a wire strung 25 stories above midtown manhattan. by corey kilgannon nobody taught betty bloomerz how to swallow a sword. she just figured it out   one inch at a time. by jamie lauren keiles yes, it has clowns and death defying feats, but “luzia” also has spinning turntables and a waterfall that produces almost supernatural effects. by elisabeth vincentelli the muse brooklyn, a circus studio and event space in bushwick, has three years to find a new home that will allow its students and performers to soar. (literally.) by karen zraick the director of “non solus,” which melds dance and acrobatics, talks about their different vocabularies and shared respect for the body. by gia kourlas the company acquired the works entertainment, the makers of the illusionists magic franchise and other shows. by sophie haigney stark was one of the most celebrated animal trainers in a field dominated by men. she performed with tigers until she was nearly 80, then took her own life when she was separated from them. in “smashed,” gandini juggling seems to invent a new genre using elements of the dance theater of pina bausch and others. by alastair macaulay the big apple circus returns with oversize airborne cranberries, a steamy aerial ballet and a prancing pig. by alexis soloski after rosa van been married joseph bouglione in a lion cage, the bouglione family bought the cirque d’hiver in paris, still standing more than 80 years later. by sam roberts withstanding decades of cultural change, his world of wonders presented oddities and amazements at carnivals and fairs all over the united states. by neil genzlinger prague’s letni letna shows that circus, once dismissed as lowbrow entertainment, can be as potent as any performance genre. by laura cappelle animal rights activists declared victory after mondelez, the parent of nabisco, dropped a 116 year old design featuring circus cages. by matthew haag a rare female performer in a field dominated by men, she topped european circus bills in the 1950s and ’60s with an act that featured a dozen polar bears. by melissa eddy in “the electric woman,” tessa fontaine traces her experience of losing her mother against her life as a performer in america’s oldest sideshow. by rachel khong barry lubin, the revered star of the big apple circus, admitted that he pressured a 16 year old aerialist into posing for pornographic photos. by andy newman the vatican’s charity office secured free tickets for 2,100 people, among them the homeless and refugees, but some critics quickly spoke up. by gaia pianigiani the film has the ingredients of a splashy good time   the charismatic hugh jackman, for one   but it fast becomes a standard issue holiday biopic. by jason zinoman it’s a tempting comparison, but it gets both men wrong. by stephen mihm the romanès family puts on a spontaneous performance of song, dance and acrobatics, while promoting a message of acceptance. text by paméla rougerie a year after filing for bankruptcy, a beloved cultural institution returns to lincoln center. by alexis soloski the new york governor signed a bill that is the latest salvo in a growing movement to preserve the animals. by reggie ugwu jacob stulberg puts on a show for us. by sam ezersky scouts from russia and beyond hunt for talent at the year end moscow circus school shows. by sophia kishkovsky cirque du soleil, known for its acrobatic acts, announced that it had purchased blue man productions with an eye toward expanding it to china. by sopan deb a reader says her animal advocacy took root at her first circus in 1967. the circus held its last show at nassau coliseum on long island after declining ticket sales led its operator, feld entertainment, to decide to shut it down. by sarah maslin nir and nate schweber lonely nomads? not so much. by lizette alvarez daydream yourselves back to the golden age of circus at madison square garden. it hardly matter that the conceit doesn’t always work. by alexis soloski it has been on the road since 1871. but the ringling brothers and barnum & bailey circus will shut down after its last show may 21. by lizette alvarez the ringling brothers and barnum & bailey circus is closing for good. peek backstage, fly on the trapeze, and meet the show’s ringmaster of 18 years as he reflects on what he’ll miss most   all in 360° video. by benjamin norman, lizette alvarez, logan jaffe and kaitlyn mullin the impending demise of ringling bros. and barnum & bailey conjures memories of a toy flashlight, mercurochrome and the old madison square garden. by thomas r. pryor a former newspaper plant in ithaca, n.y., is now a 24 hour practice space whose founder considers stunts not only an art form but also “a life tool.” by zach montague yes, the three ring circus can seem like a relic. but something irreplaceable will be lost when this tent is closed for good. by jason zinoman the circus, which closed and filed for bankruptcy last year, was sold for $1.3 million and will reopen in time for its 40th anniversary. by joshua barone the circus has an elongated history with new york, stretching back to p.t. barnum,. some devotees have seen upward of 100 shows and befriended performers. by n. r. kleinfield like nero and even p.t. barnum, donald trump will eventually have to deliver bread along with the show. by sam roberts feld entertainment, the producer of ringling, said the circus would hold its final performances in may, citing declining ticket sales. by christopher mele vincent tullo captured part of the final season of the nonprofit circus, which announced this year that it had run out of money and would not return. by john leland photographs by vincent tullo of the final season of the big apple circus, which announced in july that it had run out of money.

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"if you ... the crystals, the righteous brothers, the ronettes, phil spector, ike & tina turner, muddy waters: muddy waters: electric mud (chess); various artists: demand performance (decca) review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 4 february 1969 muddy muddy waters ... creedence clearwater revival, steve miller: creedence clearwater revival: bayou country (fantasy 8387); steve miller band: sailor (emi st 2984) review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 11 february 1969 transcending the blues ... the beatles: too big for the band? comment by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 25 february 1969 mary hopkin, the film music for yellow submarine and wonderwall, and the two virgins album, were all made by beatles. but they have no other ... blood, sweat & tears: blood, sweat and tears: blood, sweat and tears (cbs) review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 4 march 1969 bound with blood and sweat ... family: the original family way profile by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 18 march 1969 family is the most original and ambitious of the british bands that have not fully emerged from' the club circuit. i first heard them a ... the rolling stones: rolling stone magazine: ripples from the stone report by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 25 march 1969 few reviews can make a first rank artist doubt his ability at the height of his success. at this level, critics can rarely do more than ... bob dylan: nashville skyline (cbs) review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 22 april 1969 nashville skyline man to tell the time by ... janis joplin: royal albert hall, london live review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 29 april 1969 crying for us ... country joe & the fish, dr. john, flying burrito brothers, the fugs: rocking into religion essay by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 27 may 1969 gods, bishops, priests and worshippers ... the mothers of invention, frank zappa: frank zappa & the mothers of invention: royal albert hall, london live review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 12 june 1969 update, 2019. frank zappa was always friendly when he and i met, between 1968 and 1970. this may have been because i took him seriously, ... steve miller band: brave new world (capitol) review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 17 june 1969 update, 2019. the are three omissions and one serious mistake in the piece below on the steve miller band's sailor (october 1968) and brave new ... giorgio gomelsky: the pop paragon report by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 22 june 1969 author's note, 2018. georgio died in new york in january 2014, aged 81. everybody with even a passing interest knows that georgio, whose dark bearded ... joni mitchell: clouds review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 24 june 1969 joni mitchell has written songs for tom rush, and the fairport convention have used her songs on both their albums. ... fairport convention, the incredible string band: joe boyd: freaky galahad profile by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 29 july 1969 "well, you'd put your arm round its neck, y'know, like this" (demonstrating) "and hold it on the seat next to you, like another person." ... the kinks, barbara lewis, the who: styles of the city comment by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 19 august 1969 geoffrey cannon on pop music ... the band, bob dylan: bob dylan, the band: isle of wight festival live review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 2 september 1969 the gospel according to dylan ... blind faith, johnny cash, country joe & the fish, creedence clearwater revival, crosby stills and nash, the doors: new albums from the doors, country joe, johnny cash, creedence, cs&n and blind faith review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 16 september 1969 finding a new faith: geoffrey cannon reviews pop music ... the kinks: arthur review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 3 october 1969 arthur and the empire ... the beatles: abbey road (apple) review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 8 october 1969 abbey road backtrack ... the rolling stones: jumping jack jagger comment by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 14 october 1969 the widening gap between the beatles and the rolling stones has been labelled as the contrast between aesthetics and politics. the difference between the two ... cream, fleetwood mac, john mayall: union jack blues comment by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 21 october 1969 meeting janis joplin a few months ago, before her albert hall concert, i was staggered to feel how nervous she was. then she explained. she ... davey graham, quintessence: island in basing street report by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 26 november 1969 update, 2019. in the piece below i mention that basing street, where island records was established in 1969 in what had been an abandoned chapel, ... eric clapton, delaney & bonnie: delaney & bonnie: royal albert hall, london live review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 3 december 1969 update, 2019. in their short time between 1969 and 1972, delaney and bonnie were glorious, for their quality, knowledge, and expressed love and joy of ... crosby stills nash & young: are we in tune? no essay by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 10 january 1970 author's note, 2018: the review below was cut by the guardian. what's here is uncut. who plays crosby stills nash (and young) albums now or, ... led zeppelin: lead balloon comment by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 13 january 1970 update, 2019. some facts from wikipedia, practically half century after my negative review below."led zeppelin are one of the best selling music artists in the history of audio ... brinsley schwarz, quicksilver messenger service, van morrison: van morrison, quicksilver messenger service, brinsley schwartz: fillmore east, new york ny live review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 10 april 1970 i was on that new york trip last weekend, too. my brief was to listen to the music. i have to report that as soon ... creedence clearwater revival, quintessence: royal albert hall, london live review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 17 april 1970 2019 update: i was crazy for creedence. for the guardian i reviewed bayou country in february 1969, saying "i rate john fogarty as high for ... the flock, it's a beautiful day, quintessence, johnny winter: sounds of the '70s at montreux report by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 1 may 1970 up the road from where i'm sitting now, senior television executives from ail over europe, and from america and japan, have been descending into a ... grateful dead: the grateful dead: hollywood festival, newcastle under lyme, staffordshire live review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 29 may 1970 disgracing the grateful dead ... joan baez, canned heat, country joe & the fish, crosby stills nash & young, arlo guthrie, jimi hendrix, jefferson airplane, john sebastian, sha na na, sly & the family stone, ten years after: various artists: woodstock (atlantic: 2663 001) review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 17 july 1970 update, 2020. woodstock. the name has many meanings. there's woodstock the town where bob dylan and the band lived once. but the main resonance is ... the isle of wight festival: three shades of wight overview by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 5 september 1970 apart from the music, what went on at the isle of wight last weekend? here are the most popular theories. ... jimi hendrix: electric rebel   an appreciation obituary by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 19 september 1970 "thanks for being so patient. next time we will really try and get it together." spoken two hours before a cold sunday dawn, three weeks ... janis joplin: an appreciation by geoffrey cannon memoir by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 6 october 1970 an evening at the royal garden hotel in april, 18 months ago. i was meeting janis joplin. i fished around for a while, trying to ... the band: listening to the band essay by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 10 october 1970 a number of rock music bands have been celebrated, in the past three years, not just as "supergroups," but as bands composed of superlative musicians, ... the band: supergroups: a matter of context essay by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 10 october 1970 a number of rock music bands have been celebrated, in the past three years, not just as "supergroups" but as bands composed of superlative musicians. ... bob dylan: new morning (cbs kc 30290) review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 23 october 1970 update, 2019. emerging from hibbing to new york's village. his pilgrimage to woody guthrie. the protest songs sung like a crow that are now a national ... johnny cash, eddie cochran, jerry lee lewis, roy orbison, carl perkins, elvis presley, charlie rich: sun records: the ooby dooby review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 30 october 1970 "'sinful music,' the townsfolk in memphis said it was. which never bothered me, i guess." elvis presley, interviewed in 1957. in the early 1950s, the ... the byrds: untitled (cbs 66253); preflyte (together records st t 1001) review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 13 november 1970 few musicians have mastered the 16 track recording machine. the abstract discipline it imposes on anyone faced with reducing all its available tracks to two, too ... the beatles, george harrison, john lennon, paul mccartney, ringo starr: ringo stars: geoffrey cannon on the beatles' solo albums review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 19 december 1970 ringo starr: beaucoups of blues; paul mccartney: mccartney; john lennon: john lennon plastic ono band; george harrison: all things must pass ... the velvet underground overview by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 8 january 1971 update, 2020: judging by what i play most as i work at home, the velvet underground and also lou reed are tops, together with them ... little richard: electric circus, new york ny live review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 21 january 1971 st mark's place, the high street of new york's east village, hums with memories these days. among them, at the new year, was little richard, ... john cale, the velvet underground: john cale: welsh underground profile and interview by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 12 april 1971 author's note, 2018. the velvet underground and nico and to a lesser extent white light/white heat are the albums that above all others up to ... the rolling stones: sticky fingers (coc 5910o) review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 23 april 1971 sticky fingers gather no moss ... carole king, little richard, paul mccartney: albums from paul mccartney, little richard and carole king review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 21 may 1971 there is no way to make great rock music from retirement. paul mccartney may have been seduced   by reading that he's equalled schubert   ... joni mitchell, graham nash: joni mitchell: blue/graham nash: songs for beginners review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 29 june 1971 joni mitchell's new album, blue, is about to be released here by warner brothers (k 44128). a large proportion of joni's most notable songs, to date, ... nesuhi ertegun: the world is his manor profile and interview by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 19 october 1971 geoffrey cannon talks to "the most powerful man in the record business outside america" ... the band, the beach boys, van morrison: van morrison: tupelo honey; the band: cahoots; the beach boys: surf's up review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 29 october 1971 out of the city ... arthur brown, alice cooper, the fugs, mc5, the mothers of invention, the stooges, screaming lord sutch, frank zappa: aesthetics of outrage overview by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 26 november 1971 update, 2020. "perverted, outrageous, violent, repulsive, ugly, tasteless. a travesty. that's what's good about them". this was a quote about the rolling stones, recorded around ... bob dylan, george harrison, leon russell, ravi shankar: george harrison & friends: the concert for bangladesh (apple) review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 4 january 1972 update, 2019: the first time i met george harrison was in the late 1960s, when he was still a beatle. i quite often went to ... randy newman: the man most likely to profile by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 3 march 1972 randy newman has been in people's heads since 1966, when alan price went to the top of the singles charts with randy's song 'simon smith ... the doors: "out here on the perimeter there are no stars" essay by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 20 march 1972 update, 2019. yes, folks are still listening to the doors. an extract from their album la woman, mentioned in the review of jim morrison's lyrics ... the beatles, smokey robinson, diana ross, the supremes: motown making millions profile by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 1 may 1972 author's update, 2019. "the manchester guardian? that's the best fuckin' newspaper in the world!" so david crosby told me in early 1969. he had answered ... the rolling stones: exile on main street (rolling stones records, coc 2 900) review and interview by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 20 may 1972 mick jagger on record ... elvis presley: madison square garden, new york ny live review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 17 june 1972 author's note, 2018: yes, it started for me with elvis, when in 1956 i heard a demo of his first rca record 'don't be cruel'/ ... the rolling stones: our name is called disturbance   the rolling stones: winterland, san francisco ca live review by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 28 june 1972 the rolling stones are on their first us tour since, the wild acclaim of their 1969 trip. in america, geoffrey cannon describes the impact of ... david bowie: starman profile by geoffrey cannon, the guardian, 7 july 1972 author's note, 2018. when i interviewed lou reed in new york in june 1972 he implored me to listen to david bowie, and especially to ... the sex pistols: sex pistols: the anarchic rock of the young and doleful profile by steve turner, the guardian, 3 december 1976 and then there was punk. tonight the sex pistols, focal point of the newly dubbed punk generation, take off on their first concert tour of ... allman and woman: cher & gregg allman: rainbow theatre, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 26 november 1977 on the face of it, cher and gregg allman are one of music's most unlikely couples; she a star of television spectacular and gossip column ... linda lewis: ronnie scott's, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 3 december 1977 the career of linda lewis presents the classic case of an artist caught on the horns of a dilemma between commercial success and artistic worth. ... tom robinson band: the tom robinson band: lyceum, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 8 december 1977 it was only a matter of time before the new wave explosion brought forth a performer like tom robinson, articulate enough to put into coherent ... professor longhair: late riser interview by mick brown, the guardian, 22 march 1978 mick brown talks to a survivor ... alexis korner: korner in blues interview by mick brown, the guardian, 21 april 1978 it is wholly fitting that the guest list for alexis korner's 50th birthday party this week at pinewood studios should have read like a who's who ... dolly parton: hammersmith odeon, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 21 november 1978 the fixation on dolly parton's buxom outrageousness has evidently become so acute that nowadays even ms parton feels obliged to use it as a butt ... tina turner: the willpower way from square one interview by mick brown, the guardian, 14 march 1979 tina turner, now singing alone, is back in britain. she talks to mick brown ... john fahey: the venue, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 16 july 1979 watching the american guitarist, john fahey, one is reminded of the occasion when ravi shankar performed at the famous concert for bangladesh. taking to the ... lena horne: one way to raise a roof interview by mick brown, the guardian, 21 july 1979 mick brown meets the new fangled lena horne ... the pretenders: lyceum, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 31 july 1979 less than a year after formation, the pretenders are already shaping up as one of the most interesting new british bands. led by chrissie hynde, ... ian dury & the blockheads: hammersmith odeon, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 8 august 1979 one of ian dury's most endearing mannerisms on stage is to extend the length of his microphone stand two feet above his head, accentuating his ... kevin coyne, dagmar krause: kevin coyne: babble, oval house, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 24 august 1979 having already seen babble banned from one london theatre as the result of a sensationalist and grossly misrepresentative newspaper story, kevin coyne found it necessary ... jerry lee lewis: killer's gospel interview by mick brown, the guardian, 16 february 1980 jerry lee lewis closes his current british tour in london at the rainbow tonight. mick brown reports ... the roches: the folk's back home interview by mick brown, the guardian, 31 may 1980 in the middle of an era of harsh rock, the roche sisters' sweet music has hit the jackpot. mick brown welcomes the new jersey trio ... def leppard, iron maiden, saxon: the lustre of heavy metal report by mary harron, the guardian, 19 july 1980 mary harron takes a trip to sheffield and discovers a surprising rock revival. ... shirley bassey: apollo, victoria, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 16 september 1980 two bouts of middle aged hysteria within the space of seven days is surely almost more than the body can decently stand. still shell shocked from religious ... airto moreira: the venue, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 23 september 1980 that south american music should have been the source of vitality and inspiration in jazz that it has over the past decade is due in ... public image ltd: pil: rotten's public image is on the mend interview by mary harron, the guardian, 26 september 1980 a former sex pistol is trying to make it as plain john lydon. mary harron reports ... led zeppelin: zeppelin drummer found dead report by mick brown, the guardian, 26 september 1980 john bonham, the drummer with led zeppelin rock group, was found dead yesterday in bed at the house of the group's lead guitarist, jimmy page, ... george melly: the venue, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 3 october 1980 one can think of few people other than george melly who could spend the early part of an evening speaking eloquently on a television literary ... pat benatar: dominion, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 20 october 1980 an evening with pat benatar is an instructive experience in the nature of the huge and seemingly unbridgeable gulf which now separates contemporary rock music ... robert palmer: dominion theatre, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 10 november 1980 yorkshire born robert palmer first achieved recognition partnering elkie brooks in the group vinegar joe in the early seventies, but it took a move to ... aretha franklin: once more with feeling profile and interview by mick brown, the guardian, 18 november 1980 mick brown on aretha franklin's return after years of soul searching ... talking heads: hammersmith palais, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 3 december 1980 despite having sold barely enough records in britain in the past to cover printing costs, and despite their live performances sometimes resembling a well kept secret, ... rev. james cleveland: pastor cleveland, superstar report by mick brown, the guardian, 24 december 1980 well manicured and mohair suited, america's most successful gospel performer leads an hour of electrifying worship on itv this sunday. mick brown reports ... bert jansch: the venue, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 22 january 1981 with the audience for folk music in a state of steady and seemingly irreversible decline, appearances by bert jansch seem to have become ever fewer ... bush tetras, james chance & the contortions: why the big apple lacks real bite report by mary harron, the guardian, 7 february 1981 london's rock scene is fizzing, but new york's has turned flat. mary harron reports ... new order: heaven, london live review by mary harron, the guardian, 11 february 1981 few groups have been faced with such a heavy burden of expectation as were new order in their london debut. this is the group formed ... marvin gaye: star in the remaking interview by mick brown, the guardian, 21 february 1981 marvin gaye was motown's blue eyed boy of the '60s. then, he fell dramatically. mick brown describes a soul man's self searching. ... tom waits: he's a coppola swell: tom waits interview by mick brown, the guardian, march 1981 the first time tom waits visited london, in 1976, he earned the dubious distinction of being thrown out of the club were he had been ... jeff beck: hammersmith odeon, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 10 march 1981 over the past few years jeff beck has given the impression of someone wilfully squandering a brilliant career. having established himself as one of the ... central line, freeez, linx, light of the world: funk for all the family report by mary harron, the guardian, 21 march 1981 jazz funk, an offshoot of american soul music, is sweeping away the tired sounds of disco. mary harron reports on an underground youth cult ... robert fripp, the lounge lizards: robert fripp's discipline, the lounge lizards: her majesty's theatre, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 11 may 1981 the pairing of the guitarist, robert fripp's newest venture discipline with the new york group the lounge lizards   offered two examples of radical sensibilities ... john martyn: making tracks to the top profile and interview by mick brown, the guardian, 23 may 1981 john martyn, in concert in london tonight, has been a cult figure for far too long. now he plans to change all that, as mick ... stanley clarke, george duke: george duke & stanley clarke: apollo victoria, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 26 may 1981 having taken root in the early seventies, flourished brightly for a few years and then appeared to wither into a state of atrophy, jazz rock did ... joe ely: the venue, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 1 june 1981 among an older generation alienated by the bleak and joyless fare offered up by so much of the british rock music that purports to be ... sam charters: chains that gave birth to the blues profile and interview by mick brown, the guardian, 6 june 1981 mick brown reports how the musicologist sam charters learned to stop feeling guilty about slavery ... coati mundi, cristina, kid creole & the coconuts, was (not was): michael zilkha: the king of mutant disco profile and interview by mary harron, the guardian, 4 july 1981 mary harron meets the rich kid behind ze records' success. ... earth, wind & fire: earth, wind and fire: wembley arena, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 11 march 1982 in the last 10 years, black music in america has moved steadily away from raw, personal expression towards a more sophisticated presentation which acknowledges show ... mickie most: the rock of ages interview by mary harron, the guardian, 26 march 1982 mickie most tells mary harron why in the world of pop the producer reigns supreme ... gil scott heron: the venue, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 10 april 1982 there can surely be few performances in london this year which for intelligence, authority, musical expertise, and sheer style can hope to equal this by ... richard and linda thompson: dominion, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 7 may 1982 loosely speaking, richard thompson is the sole practising legatee of the british folk rock tradition which he was instrumental in establishing 14 years ago as a ... willie nelson: hammersmith odeon, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 9 june 1982 it is true what they say about things being bigger in texas. you could wrap up a jumbo jet in the flag of the lone ... sun ra: the venue, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 29 july 1982 for herman blount, life has never been the same since he decided to change his name. a former big band piano player, herman metamorphosed into sun ... hot chocolate: monday night fever profile and interview by mick brown, the guardian, 31 july 1982 as hot chocolate ride high in the charts again, mick brown meets errol brown, britain's most successful black song writer, the toast of mickie most's ... light of the world: hammersmith odeon, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 2 august 1982 having come and gone among the first wave of black british funk bands when the genre was but a trickle, light of the world have ... the undertones: kilburn national, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 18 august 1982 followers of the undertones will be reassured to learn that after a 12 month leave of absence back in their native ireland, one thing remains unchanged: ... dollar brand/abdullah ibrahim: dollar brand: albany, deptford, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 3 september 1982 it is one of the most extraordinary aspects of the work of abdullah ibrahim, also known as dollar brand, that for a south african pianist ... blue rondo a la turk: camden palace, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 8 september 1982 the career of blue rondo a la turk illustrates vividly the perils of too close an association with style. maligned by critics for the cut ... kate bush: kate takes charge interview by mick brown, the guardian, 11 september 1982 mick brown meets the singer with a new album out on monday ... william burroughs: the beat guru loaded for bear interview by mick brown, the guardian, 1 october 1982 burroughs is in britain for a series of readings. mick brown reports. ... the gun club: the venue, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 7 october 1982 while the new guard of british pop cultivate sophistication, artifice and detachment, the american avant garde continue to celebrate the more basic virtues of rawness ... kid creole & the coconuts: lyceum, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 13 october 1982 it seems only fitting that when august darnell, a.k.a. kid creole, finishes this british tour which celebrates his transition from exotic cult figure to top ... philip glass: sadler's wells, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 26 october 1982 it is easy to see why phil glass, long recognised as being in the vanguard of american avant garde composers should have suddenly found himself lionised ... the roches: dominion theatre, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 9 november 1982 first the mcgarrigles and now, a fortnight later, the roches. how many more sets of slightly kooky sisters does the american folk circuit have for ... abc: sophistication to the last letter profile and interview by mary harron, the guardian, 19 november 1982 mary harron describes the hit group abc's recipe for success, reverting to a clean image. ... shalamar: dominion, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 23 november 1982 surprising as it may seem, the hottest ticket in town at present is not for abc, yazoo or any other of the leading lights of ... marty robbins: country dude of nashville obituary by mary harron, the guardian, 10 december 1982 mary harron on the style of marty robbins ... billy bragg: captain’s cabin, london live review by mary harron, the guardian, 1983 placing a heavy burden on a small but genuine talent, billy bragg has been hailed as the next big thing. ... billy fury: one of the first to rock obituary by mick brown, the guardian, 29 january 1983 mick brown pays tribute to the talents and the achievements of billy fury ... the thompson twins: hammersmith odeon, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 2 march 1983 with their tribal drumming, anti nuke benefits, funny clothes and shambolically exuberant performance, the thompson twins once personified a charming, if somewhat loopy strand of idealistic ... pigbag: dominion, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 7 march 1983 pigbag surprised everybody, not least themselves, by climbing into the american charts and subsequently the british ones in 1981 with 'papa's got a brand new ... john cale: the venue, london live review by mary harron, the guardian, 19 march 1983 over the past 20 years john cale has gone from the royal college of music to lamont young's avant garde theatre of eternal music to ... dolly parton: ask a dirty question, and you don't get any answers profile and interview by mary harron, the guardian, 29 march 1983 dolly parton smiles, and giggles, and parodies herself, but she's really not that kind of girl at all. not any longer, reports mary harron. ... dolly parton: dominion theatre, london live review by mary harron, the guardian, 29 march 1983 in the early stages we were treated rather like the captive audience at a television games show, as orders were issued for us to stand, ... dennis bovell: heaven, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 30 march 1983 for a man who is both producer, writer, performer and engineer, dennis bovell's career progresses at a frustrating and slow pace. as producer he seems ... joan armatrading: wembley arena, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 9 april 1983 there is about joan armatrading a quality of self containment, resolution and a complete absence of any suggestion of faddishness, artifice or compromise which is enormously ... joni mitchell: happy talkin' joni interview by mick brown, the guardian, 22 april 1983 it would be an exaggeration to describe larry klein as a hated man; but, face it, there must have been times when he has felt ... joni mitchell: wembley arena live review by mary harron, the guardian, 25 april 1983 with joni mitchell, the music and the life are inseparable. as a confessional songwriter the appeal is based on identification; with those of us who ... paco de lucia, al di meola, john mclaughlin: mclaughlin/di meola/de lucia: hammersmith odeon, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 20 june 1983 a combination of john mclaughlin, al di meola and paco de lucia   three guitarists in the world heavyweight class   promises a multitude of ... david bowie: milton keynes bowl, buckinghamshire live review by mary harron, the guardian, 4 july 1983 the british phase of the serious moonlight tour ended in a grassy amphitheatre where a crowd of 50,000 strained to see a little white figure ... nick heyward: dominion, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 5 july 1983 one almost fears for today's teenagers when someone as apparently anodyne as nick heyward becomes a teen idol. whatever happened to insurrection, rebellion, young lust, ... james blood ulmer: ace, brixton, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 9 july 1983 a protégé of ornette coleman and disciple of coleman's theory of harmolodics   a musical system of such devious complexity that possible only coleman and ... defunkt: albany empire, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 15 july 1983 defunkt are in the anomalous position of being an american band playing in a singularly american style who find themselves prophets without honour   or ... queen ida: dingwalls, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 28 july 1983 ida guillory is the nearest thing louisiana has to offer to a housewife superstar. a 55 year old grandmother, queen ida had spent almost her entire life ... wanted: a rock valhalla for the golden oldies comment by mick brown, the guardian, 4 august 1983 up and down the country sweet little sixteens have just about half a million signed autographs. in fact, all the best rock 'n' roll memorabilia ... michael (mikey) smith: michael smith: jamaica killing report by mick brown, the guardian, 26 august 1983 michael smith, internationally acclaimed as jamaica's foremost "dub" poet, was murdered last week, apparently a victim of jamaica's turbulent and violent political climate. smith, who ... fab 5 freddy: streetbeat, albany empire, london live review by mary harron, the guardian, 12 september 1983 once dismissed as a novelty, rapping has proved its durability, and as soon as you think it has died another wave of influence appears. as ... gary numan: hammersmith odeon, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 18 october 1983 even if you are undecided about his music, you have to give gary numan credit for his nerve and the mysterious hold which his meagre ... atlantic records essay by mick brown, the guardian, 1984 atlantic and other classic r&b issues are at last being reprinted  in britain. mick brown reports ... eric clapton: live at wembley live review by mick brown, the guardian, 1984 one has always suspected that eric clapton's worst enemy was his own reputation. few people live with  much less live up to  the ... the neville brothers: live at the shaw theatre, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 1984 the neville brothers are an institution whose time would seem to have come. four brothers from new orleans, their contribution to crescent city music over ... fats domino, ray charles: thorns in velvet: fats domino and ray charles at the capital jazz festival live review by mick brown, the guardian, 1984 among the collection of venerable antiques paraded for this years capital jazz festival  couldnt the organisers find anybody of note under the age of ... alexis korner: man of the blues obituary by mick brown, the guardian, 2 january 1984 the death of alexis korner at the age of 55 from cancer marks the closing of a chapter in british music. korner's role as one ... millie jackson: dominion, london live review by mary harron, the guardian, 23 february 1984 millie jackson has said publicly that she is bored with "talking trash," and with her image as soul's queen of sexual outrage. ... whitesnake: wembley arena, london live review by mary harron, the guardian, 5 march 1984 whitesnake are known as the male chauvinists of british heavy metal, which is a dizzying thought. lead singer david coverdale's stardom is based on his ... marillion: hammersmith odeon, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 13 march 1984 a night out for the lower sixth, dungeons and dragons players and the "progressive" rock fans time forgot. ... marvin gaye: heart and soul obituary by mick brown, the guardian, april 1984 marvin gaye, who was so shockingly killed in los angeles on sunday, one day before his 45th birthday, was not only a consummate soul music ... mary wells: albany, deptford, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 31 may 1984 mary wells made one mistake in her career almost 20 years ago and has been paying for it ever since. wells was motown's first international ... joan baez: the folk heroine mellows with age interview by mary harron, the guardian, 22 june 1984 in 1959 joan baez walked out on stage at the newport folk festival and touched off a wave of adulation that was to reach almost ... bob dylan: wembley stadium live review by mary harron, the guardian, july 1984 all summer, christians have been performing in football stadiums; first we had luis palau, then billy graham, and now bob dylan. but as it turned ... al green: royal albert hall, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 16 july 1984 green's performance has exchanged one form of transcendence for another, sexual love for spiritual faith, but it is still about ecstasy. ... aswad, jimmy cliff: jimmy cliff, aswad: crystal palace bowl, london live review by mary harron, the guardian, 30 july 1984 the annual nelson mandela festival was held in perfect sunlight in the secluded grassy amphitheatre at crystal palace. unfortunately one reason why it was so ... the clark sisters: dominion theatre, london live review by barney hoskyns, the guardian, 3 september 1984 guiding gospel music into the eighties has not been without its hazards for detroit's five clark sisters. when last year their gorgeous 'you brought the ... sisters of mercy: lyceum, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 2 november 1984 there was a time when the sisters of mercy would have provided not so much a performance in themselves as an excuse for the audience ... mötley crüe: dominion, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 21 november 1984 a good night for london transport. the fans had poured off the bus and tube to this one squeezed into satin pants, war paint, and ... michael mcdonald: hammersmith odeon, london live review by barney hoskyns, the guardian, 1985 this show proved one thing and proved it triumphantly: you can be a paunchy, greying white californian with a supremely uncool looking band and still have ... notes that are music to his ears: clive davis interview by mick brown, the guardian, 1985 what do barry manilow, donovan, janis joplin, and springsteen have in common? they owe a lot of their success to arista records boss clive davis. ... suzanne vega: live at the lse, london. live review by mick brown, the guardian, 1985 chess metaphors, the myth of odysseus and the woman he left behind, being a "small blue thing", and, possibly if you listen hard enough, love ... leonard cohen: hammersmith odeon, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 27 february 1985 for what are undoubtedly all the wrong reasons, one has come to approach leonard cohen with suspicion. the air of long suffering torture one associates with ... james: institute of contemporary art, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 21 march 1985 high flying in the independent charts, the current darlings of the music press and publicly championed by morrissey, lead singer with the smiths   these ... eurythmics on the break interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 7 may 1985 adam sweeting on the changing mood of a musical odd couple ... ricky skaggs: dominion theatre, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 20 may 1985 mick brown on ricky skaggs's county revival at the dominion ... ashford & simpson: ashford and simpson: hammersmith odeon, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 22 may 1985 time has revealed ashford and simpson to be the most enduring, adaptable   arguably the greatest   of all the great motown songwriting teams of ... scritti politti: the politics of green land interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 6 july 1985 adam sweeting meets scritti politti's radical singer songwriter ... r.e.m.: on the southern frontier interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 12 july 1985 adam sweeting meets one of the bands pioneering the new american rock ... neil young: old ways diehard profile and interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, september 1985 the old crosby, stills and nash hippie has taken on a new redneck colouration with firm roots in country music. adam sweeting looks back from ... duran duran: style counsel report and interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 2 september 1985 adam sweeting investigates the selling of a pop star package ... diana ross: second hand emotion   diana ross: royal albert hall, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 20 september 1985 diana ross's performance at the albert hall was a memorably touching experience   the only trouble was, reports mick brown, you couldn't believe a word ... bobby womack: testament of a preacher man interview by mick brown, the guardian, 12 october 1985 for anybody remotely interested in black music, past and present; in the continuity between the halcyon days of rhythm and blues and church music and ... alex chilton: mean fiddler, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 21 october 1985 back on top ... george benson: wembley arena, london live review by mick brown, the guardian, 1 november 1985 at last! a performer who has conquered the formidable problems of wembley arena and turned it to the service of a triumphant concert. ... new order: hammersmith palais, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 12 november 1985 slowly but surely, new order have amassed a huge following, seized a corner of the market, which is distinctively theirs and developed an inimitable sound. ... the style council: style council: wembley arena, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 12 december 1985 the style council has grown inexorably from being paul weller's bedroom version of soul into a force in the land. with more than a dozen ... masquerade: morgan khan: the groovy side of the street interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 14 february 1986 the entrepreneurial one man band morgan khan talks to adam sweeting ... big country: seer with feet on the ground interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 11 april 1986 adam sweeting catches big country as they are threatened with superstardom ... the cure, the waterboys: albert hall, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 28 april 1986 the cure stepped boldly from the shadows to close the series of sound waves for greenpeace shows with a towering set which lasted nearly two ... thrashing doves: marquee, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 27 june 1986 you know something's wrong when people insist that the housemartins write "great pop songs," dr. & the medics lodge at no.1 for weeks, and the ... wham!: wembley stadium, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 30 june 1986 george's time to go go: adam sweeting on wham!'s farewell concert at wembley ... keith jarrett, wayne shorter: capital jazz parade, royal festival hall, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 21 july 1986 winning sets ... the jesus & mary chain: the blasphemy of stardom profile and interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 21 july 1986 mark cooper reports on the brothers from east kilbride they banned on radio 1 ... chic, nile rodgers: source of the nile interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 22 august 1986 funk guitar specialist nile rodgers is also one of the world's great producers. adam sweeting reports ... b.b. king: hammersmith odeon, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 17 october 1986 after 30 odd years in the trade, in which he's travelled millions of miles and used up lord knows how many sets of guitar strings, it's ... zz top: wembley arena, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 22 october 1986 heads in the clouds ... julian cope: no tears for julian profile and interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 24 october 1986 after stunning success with the teardrop explodes, julian cope blew up. he's back with a new hit. adam sweeting reports ... robert palmer: how to run the riptide with style interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 7 november 1986 adam sweeting on the rise of robert palmer ... eurythmics: "i am not the androgynous annie lennox. i never was. i used it for something else" profile and interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 26 november 1986 the eurythmics leading lady talks to adam sweeting about her life, her music and her image. ... elvis costello & the attractions: royalty theatre, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 1 december 1986 elvis on the loose: adam sweeting sees a master in peak form. ... the oyster band: out of their shells profile and interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 16 january 1987 mark cooper on the oyster band's place in the "roots" dance revival ... rosie vela: out of this world interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 23 january 1987 adam sweeting meets rosie vela, the former cover girl now looking for success as a singer songwriter ... freddie jackson, alexander o'neal, teddy pendergrass, luther vandross: who took the heart out of soul? comment by adam sweeting, the guardian, 2 february 1987 as london prepares for more streamlined sophistication, adam sweeting wonders what happened to the sweat and suffering ... the judds: palladium, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 3 february 1987 how different one's life might have been if one's mother had been naomi judd. one might have been a cowboy, the local sheriff, or better ... luther vandross: hammersmith odeon, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 6 february 1987 deluxe on his side: adam sweeting on luther vandross's uptown sounds ... the psychedelic furs: hammersmith odeon, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 21 february 1987 shabby fur ... cyndi lauper: hammersmith odeon, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 26 february 1987 funny girl! cyndi lauper is equal parts shirley temple, rickie lee jones and bugs bunny, a fruitcake in a musical doll's house wearing cartoon clothes, ... the beatles, happy mondays, new order: cds: the slipped disc report by adam sweeting, the guardian, 27 february 1987 compact disc has brought the second coming of the beatles and the promise of a revolution in the rock industry. but is it a sound ... dat: how japan has got the trade taped report by mark cooper, the guardian, 27 february 1987 there's another audio revolution on the way, and it could pose a piracy threat to the music business, says mark cooper. ... rough trade records: rough at the top profile and interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 30 february 1987 in the record industry big doesn’t always mean best, and the independent rough trade have beaten the big boys in fostering new talent and ideas. ... lionel richie: crossing the square profile and interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 17 march 1987 the saintly lionel richie's co writer is the lord. adam sweeting reports ... anthrax, megadeth, metallica, slayer: thrash metal: psycho path to the top report by mark cooper, the guardian, 20 march 1987 thrash metal is the new noise of teenage horror, a vinyl equivalent of the video nasty. mark cooper reports on the bands that delight in ... nanci griffith, lyle lovett, ricky skaggs, randy travis: new country: banjoing the roy rogers image report and interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 27 march 1987 it may have had a hard time persuading people to take it seriously but, as adam sweeting reports, country music is winning ... erasure: central hall, westminster, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 11 april 1987 thanks mostly to the glittering andy bell, erasure manage not to be the cold stew of circuits and digital read outs decried by some. certainly, much ... chris isaak: a soft touch interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 17 april 1987 chris isaak's melancholy songs hark back to the teen ballads of the sixties, reports mark cooper ... millie jackson: hammersmith odeon, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 21 april 1987 dirty work: adam sweeting sees millie jackson strut her smut at hammersmith odeon ... tom jones: royal albert hall, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 21 may 1987 mock macho ... randy newman: the star and snipes interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 22 may 1987 mark cooper talks to randy newman, standard bearer against the smug and prejudiced ... the beastie boys: burden of the beasties report and interview by jack barron, the guardian, 23 may 1987 when the beastie boys step on stage in brixton tonight at the start of their british tour everyone  the media, authorities, and fans alike ... the beastie boys, ll cool j, public enemy, run dmc, slayer: def jam: don't knock the rock   rap it report by mark cooper, the guardian, 1 june 1987 mark cooper on how def jam crossed over punk with rap, white with black, and stayed cool with both sides ... david bowie: serious twilight   david bowie: wembley stadium, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 22 june 1987 adam sweeting finds david bowie losing his way at wembley ... miles davis: a little loving goes miles and miles. miles davis: royal festival hall, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 1 july 1987 adam sweeting finds one of jazz's greatest innovators in masterful form at the festival hall ... billy joel: wembley arena, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 11 july 1987 bout with an uptown boy: adam sweeting on a roistering evening with billy joel at wembley ... 10,000 maniacs, r.e.m.: rem and 10,000 maniacs: rulers of the campus interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 25 september 1987 college rock is alive and gigging in the us. mark cooper hears why from michael stipe of rem and natalie merchant of 10,000 maniacs ... john hiatt: return of the demon conqueror interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 9 october 1987 singer songwriter john hiatt is back   at his best   from the drugs and booze brink. adam sweeting reports ... aztec camera, roddy frame: aztec camera: cameraman has got the picture interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 16 october 1987 at 23, roddy frame of aztec camera has an old head on his shoulders, and as adam sweeting found out, his new lp benefits from ... robbie robertson: off the band stand interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 30 october 1987 after turning off the road to rock and ruin, robbie robertson is back   on his own terms. mark cooper reports ... george michael: by george, he's really got it interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 9 november 1987 rich, talented, and politically aware, george michael skilfully charts the tricky waters of superstardom. ... the proclaimers: right on in auchtermuchty profile and interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 13 november 1987 adam sweeting finds two reasons for feeling cheerful about alternatives to pop blandness   scotland's the proclaimers ... pink floyd, roger waters: roger waters: out of troubled waters profile and interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 20 november 1987 roger waters now finds himself in competition with his one time colleagues in pink floyd   he doesn't like it but there are compensations. mark cooper ... the beach boys, brian wilson: brian wilson: good and bad vibrations interview by jeremy gluck, the guardian, 1988 beach boy brian wilson owes his survival to his doctor and a regime of psychotherapy, diet and exercise, he told jeremy gluck. ... frankie goes to hollywood, holly johnson: frankie goes to litigation report and interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 18 january 1988 holly of frankie goes to hollywood takes his label to court today. adam sweeting reports ... leonard cohen: cohen's way profile and interview by mat snow, the guardian, february 1988 we live in the days of the flood, says leonard cohen. "most of my psychic landmarks have evaporated. i'm reluctant to apply the psychic realm ... afrika bambaataa: the funky cassandra interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 19 february 1988 adam sweeting spreads bambaataa's word for planet earth ... lyle lovett: lovett and leave it profile and interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 4 march 1988 lyle lovett is top of the country charts but the laid back texan has no intentions, he tells adam sweeting, of ending up on the treadmill ... prefab sprout: a satisfying whiff of glue interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 11 march 1988 paddy mcaloon of prefab sprout talks to mark cooperabout tin pan alley, nostalgia and his search for enchantment ... david byrne, talking heads: david byrne: heads and tales profile and interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 18 march 1988 with naked, talking heads' tenth album, david byrne is still asking "how did i get here?" mark cooper examines a stranger in paradise. ... the primitives: prims and proper profile and interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 8 april 1988 adam sweeting on the old fashioned hopefuls who struck a "modern" chord by repackaging pop's past ... thomas dolby: town & country club, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 27 april 1988 cruising in the slow lane ... morris day: hammersmith odeon, london live review by mark cooper, the guardian, 29 april 1988 a bad daydream ... nanci griffith: country rose of texas interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 29 april 1988 nanci griffith's music may live happily in bedsit or honky tonk but she tells anecdotes onstage to stop her audience fist fighting, reports adam sweeting ... alexander o'neal: wembley arena, london live review by mark cooper, the guardian, may 1988 bank holiday weekends used to be taken up with rock and roll frolics. these days soul music has a better grasp of good times and ... whitney houston: nec, birmingham live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 3 may 1988 adam sweeting marvels at a mega star in action at the birmingham nec ... david sylvian: teatro smeraldo, milan live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 13 may 1988 a touch of velvet   adam sweeting in milan finds david sylvian in mellifluous form ... fleetwood mac: all meat with the big macs interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 13 may 1988 as fleetwood mac start a major tour mark cooper talks to christine mcvie about the band that refused to die ... ry cooder: back slider profile and interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 20 may 1988 ry cooder is on the road again. he talks to mark cooper ... the sugarcubes: astoria, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 23 may 1988 with frail old people packing out wembley and the charts stuffed with the dross that even eurovision couldn't stomach (yobbish novelty records, the pitiable wet ... herman leonard: then was the time interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 4 june 1988 herman leonard caught the mood of the bebop era just by being there. he tells adam sweeting how ... scritti politti: pretension and polish interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 10 june 1988 adam sweeting drops in on one of the pop world's top name droppers ... george michael: earls court, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 14 june 1988 right on george in shape for the 90s adam sweeting sees a superstar work out ... prince: sign o' the times (dir. prince; paisley park films) film/dvd/tv review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 7 july 1988 let the good times rock   adam sweeting finds brilliance abounds in prince's latest film ... bob dylan: pennebaker looks back interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 15 july 1988 adam sweeting turns the tables on the man who documented the young dylan ... michael jackson: the greatest showman   michael jackson: wembley stadium, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 15 july 1988 adam sweeting on the dazzling michael jackson at wembley ... nico, the velvet underground: nico: a baleful dark brown voice obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 23 july 1988 nico, the baleful teutonic queen of sixties new york, has died in ibiza after a cerebral haemorrhage suffered while cycling in intense mid day heat. she ... prince: wembley arena, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 26 july 1988 minneapolis comes to broadway! even in the wake of wacko, prince's latest show is something of an eyeball popper. the 64 inch high prodigy materialises from a gleaming ... carly simon: free as a liberal prude profile and interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 30 july 1988 carly simon is back after years of artistic famine. she tells adam sweeting about life beyond the emotional bumps ... eric b. & rakim, big daddy kane, mantronix: taking the rap report and interview by bruce dessau, the guardian, 5 august 1988 club violence and the whiff of gunsmoke are accompanying rap's rise to prominence in the united states. bruce dessau reports ... everything but the girl, tracey thorn: tracey thorn: doctorate feelgood interview by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 10 august 1988 a daughter of punk, tracey thorn is riding high in the pop charts. but academia looms just as large in her life. ... bob marley & the wailers, bunny wailer, the wailers: a wailer surfaces to claim reggae's crown interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 26 august 1988 after marley, what price reggae? mark cooper on bunny wailer's musical crusade ... salt n pepa: salt 'n pepa: shakin' seasons interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 31 august 1988 it's hard being a woman rapper in a man's world, but salt 'n pepa have made it. adam sweeting found them in oklahoma city. ... talking heads, tom tom club: tom tom club: the byrne issue interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 14 october 1988 adam sweeting on talking heads, the tom tom club, and the great divide between the two ... cameo: flat out for the top interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 21 october 1988 to celebrate cameo's thirteenth album adam sweeting joins larry blackmon for a wholemeal bagel in downtown new york. ... anita baker, luther vandross: luther vandross, anita baker: omni coliseum, atlanta ga live review by mark cooper, the guardian, 25 november 1988 casanova in a shiny suit ... sandie shaw: university of london union, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 26 november 1988 sandie's sure thing adam sweeting welcomes sandie shaw back to live gigs. ... steve earle & the dukes: town & country club, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 1 december 1988 when more means less ... bon jovi: metal's mettle profile and interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 2 december 1988 adam sweeting meets bon jovi, the hard rockers turned chart phenomenc ... the proclaimers: hammersmith odeon, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 5 december 1988 the doublevision: adam sweeting savours the proclaimers at hammersmith odeon ... roy orbison: singer of the lives of the lonely obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 8 december 1988 yesterday, pop hero roy orbison died at the age of 52. adam sweeting records the legend of the broken hearted balladeer, whose life was as tragic ... sting: culture candy report and interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 16 december 1988 adam sweeting watches the label boom and fears a future of repackaged rock, candyfloss music and 'low stress' hard sell ... martin carthy: a passage to england profile and interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 29 december 1988 martin carthy believes in the power of performance, not purity. mark cooper meets the folkie who refuses to play safe. ... morrissey: wolverhampton live review by len brown, the guardian, 30 december 1988 with a soft charles hawtrey style "hullo" and a shower of flowers. steven patrick morrissey returns to the stage. it's two years since his uniquely english ... diesel park west: diesels firing on all cylinders interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 20 january 1989 adam sweeting in hamburg meets some lads from leicester whose time has finally arrived ... neneh cherry: a gap in the rap interview by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 25 january 1989 neneh cherry is one of many women invading the hip hop scene ... fine young cannibals: stay fresh and keep 'em hungry interview by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 8 february 1989 roland gift tells lucy o'brien about the fine young cannibals' appetite for success ... the judds: kentucky dreamers interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 10 february 1989 the judds' story is worthy of a country song. adam sweeting on the long road from morrill, kentucky, to the dominion, london. ... the waterboys: kilburn national, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 22 february 1989 the incredible galway gypsies ... david crosby: a hippy out of hell interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 3 march 1989 david crosby is back with an album and autobiography. he talks to adam sweeting ... philip glass, s'express: s'express: disorderly house profile and interview by bruce dessau, the guardian, 17 march 1989 mark moore and s'express have taken british music one step beyond the acid house formula. bruce dessau reports ... luther vandross: the soul survivor profile and interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 24 march 1989 mark cooper on the awesome presence that is luther vandross ... cowboy junkies: royal festival hall, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 27 march 1989 cowpoking explorers: one of the newest names in new country and an all out thrash attack ... luther vandross: a night with the fat controller   luther vandross: wembley arena, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 1 april 1989 adam sweeting finds the rich fare of luther vandross a mixed blessing at wembley arena ... roachford: town & country, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 5 april 1989 it may only be rock 'n' roll, but andrew roachford and his band kick up the kind of excitement from an audience that has been ... green on red: town & country, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 10 april 1989 it was one of those nights. "poor old dan," wailed dan stuart, leading the new look green on red into waters apparently uncharted by much rehearsal. ... the triffids: shaw theatre, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 14 april 1989 the way of the triffids ... sammy davis jr., liza minnelli, frank sinatra: frank sinatra, liza minnelli, sammy davis jr.: royal albert hall, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 20 april 1989 come to the cabaret, old chums. adam sweeting gets a kick out of liza, sammy and a revitalised frank sinatra at the albert hall. ... diana ross: the queen of muzak   diana ross: nec, birmingham live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 1 may 1989 adam sweeting finds the birmingham crowd more entertaining than diana ross ... lucinda williams: mean fiddler, london live review by mark cooper, the guardian, 5 may 1989 twang go the heart strings ... tom jones: royal albert hall, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 11 may 1989 jones the joker ... johnny cash: southern comfort profile and interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 12 may 1989 the man in black is back fighting the good fight. adam sweeting catches up with johnny cash, travelling troubadour, in cambridge ... the the's thatcher years interview by bruce dessau, the guardian, 12 may 1989 matt johnson tells bruce dessau how he's managed to mix pop and politics ... 10,000 maniacs: a lioness's share of woe interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 19 may 1989 natalie merchant is fighting the world's battles in her songs. mark cooper finds out why. ... elton john: wembley arena, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 24 may 1989 battered and upright ... r.e.m.: hammersmith odeon, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 1 june 1989 the green line over georgia adam sweeting at hammersmith odeon on the homespun charms of r.e.m. ... cookie crew: some cookies don't crumble interview by sheryl garratt, the guardian, 21 june 1989 british rap is taken seriously in the states largely due to the cookie crew. sheryl garratt found out why ... bobby brown: bobby bites the bullet profile and interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 23 june 1989 mark cooper meets the young american soul star everybody's gunning for ... bobby brown: soul's carnal cruiser: bobby brown, wembley arena, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 26 june 1989 he came, they saw, he conquered... adam sweeting on bobby brown at the wembley arena ... cowboy junkies: the cowboy junkies: cowboy country profile and interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 30 june 1989 mark cooper hears how the cowboy junkies draw on canada for their inspiration ... chaka khan: hammersmith odeon, london live review by mark cooper, the guardian, 1 july 1989 no khan do... ... pere ubu, the pixies: pixies, pere ubu: kilburn national, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 7 july 1989 support for the pixies, boston's finest, came from pere ubu, born again (and again) as cortex tickling popsters via the cloudland album. vocalist david thomas, a sweating balloon ... pet shop boys: the pet shop boys: the double exposure interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 7 july 1989 previously glimpsed only on videos and record sleeves, the pet shop boys are going live. mark cooper previews their materialisation ... carole king: stepping out of the shadows profile and interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 14 july 1989 carole king is coming out from behind her piano because she wants to rock. mark cooper reports. ... pet shop boys: the pet shop boys: nec arena, birmingham live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 17 july 1989 all good guilty fun. adam sweeting watches the pet shop boys come to life ... bob mould, husker du: bob mould: out of the warehouse profile and interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 21 july 1989 despite the flood of veterans currently patching up ancient quarrels for one last sack of ancient dollars, divorce rather than reconciliation remains the common fate ... liza minnelli, pet shop boys: all eyes are on liza interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 14 august 1989 "my whole life i've sung songs that were written before i was born." but no longer. liza minnelli, oscar winning superstar, talks to adam sweeting about ... del amitri, diesel park west: del amitri, diesel dark west: astoria, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 15 august 1989 this was a fine example of the technology gap which now yawns between live performance and the studio. unless you're able to invest incalculable sums ... keith richards, the rolling stones: keith richards: sealed with a disc interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 25 august 1989 keith richards bridles at the suggestion that rock is a young man's game. spruced up, rifts with mick jagger all forgotten, he and the stones ... terence trent d'arby: d'arby has his day interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 7 september 1989 terence trent d'arby has a new album on the way. he also has a clearer idea of his role in the world, as adam sweeting ... gloria estefan: estefan in exile profile and interview by bruce dessau, the guardian, 15 september 1989 bruce dessau on the singer hailed by president reagan as the capitalist face of communist cuba. ... ian mcculloch: after the echo fades interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 22 september 1989 ian mcculloch has lost the bunnymen. but his confidence and boyish innocence remain intact. mark cooper reports. ... dusty springfield: starring role comment by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 27 september 1989 any woman pop star who comes out puts her career on the line as dusty springfield discovered. lucy o'brien reports ... the neville brothers: at last the legend lives profile and interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 5 october 1989 the neville brothers, long held in awe by fellow musicians, are finally selling records. mark cooper on the london bound band. ... kate bush: bushwacked by kate profile and interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 12 october 1989 the woman pouring tea in a hotel near emi records has a wide, warm smile and speaks with such endearing openness that you wonder if ... rickie lee jones: keeping her cool profile and interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 25 october 1989 shot to stardom 10 years ago, rickie lee jones has fought her way back  no less cool but much more confident. mark cooper reports ... the creatures, siouxsie & the banshees: siouxsie sioux: mellowing of a banshee interview by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 25 october 1989 lucy o'brien on siouxsie sioux's new creature comforts and lasting spirit ... don henley: eagle's elegy interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 28 october 1989 don henley of the eagles is 42. mark cooper found him lamenting lost youth as he prepares for his london concert. ... michelle shocked: culture shocked interview by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 8 november 1989 feminist fans may be outraged by her apparent change of image, but it's no sell out, as michelle shocked tells lucy o'brien ... belinda carlisle, the go go's: belinda carlisle: from go go to solo interview by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 22 november 1989 she's come through the live fast, look bad, almost die young scene to a beautiful future. belinda carlisle tells lucy o'brien how she did it ... the wonder stuff: brixton academy, london live review by mark cooper, the guardian, 28 november 1989 carry on rocking: mark cooper on a glittering performance from wonder stuff ... cat glover, prince: cat glover: cat goes for the cream interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 21 december 1989 adam sweeting on why prince's dancing sensation is aiming for stardom   without him ... terence trent d'arby: the marquee, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 10 january 1990 it's always a lark to be able to see major ish artists in small settings, and perhaps we should be grateful to all the people who ... simply red: wembley arena, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 11 january 1990 slightly red: adam sweeting on hucknall and co   skilful but loutish at wembley ... mel & kim: mel appleby: the bravery lying behind all that fun, love & money obituary by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 31 january 1990 lucy o'brien finds the pop world full of praise for the courage of mel appleby of the bubbly duo mel and kim, who this month lost ... quincy jones: the hit master profile and interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 8 february 1990 from satchmo to wacko jacko, quincy jones has worked with them all. now, he tells mark cooper, it's time to take stock. ... daniel lanois: royal festival hall, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 10 february 1990 best known for producing u2's the joshua tree and whipping up a little dust storm of hipness around dylan's oh mercy, daniel lanois is also a ... del shannon: pop before the beatles obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 10 february 1990 the apparent suicide of del shannon at his home in california puts the final tragic twist to a story which began well with a string ... grace jones: brixton academy, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 30 march 1990 the grace jones experience could be described as long awaited. the chap pressed up to the front of the stage certainly thought so. "waiting three hours ... the jungle brothers, krs one, public enemy: rapped in black report and interview by mark cooper, the guardian, 5 april 1990 an africa shaped pendant has become the new badge of honour for american rappers, reports mark cooper ... del amitri: the down to earth del boys interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 12 april 1990 'ancient', honest and confused   del amitri are not a typical overnight sensation, adam sweeting reports ... mary chapin carpenter, katy moffatt, willie nelson, kimmie rhodes: willie nelson, mary chapin carpenter, kimmie rhodes, katy moffatt: wembley arena, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 18 april 1990 the other nelson jumps genres ... clint black, rosanne cash, rodney crowell: clint black: mean fiddler, london; rosanne cash, rodney crowell: town & country club, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 28 may 1990 signing stetsons and killing time ... rag bag of mags report by adam sweeting, the guardian, 2 june 1990 adam sweeting looks at a new round of paper wars ... bobby brown: wembley arena, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 5 june 1990 coming over lewd and clear ... and why not?: brum, brum   hot tracks! interview by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 6 june 1990 having seen their heroes' feet of clay and having dodged the bros comparisons the only way for a successful young group, reports lucy o'brien is ... pet shop boys, dusty springfield: lusty springfield interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 7 june 1990 adam sweeting speaks to the '60s icon who has risen from pop's graveyard to breathe new life into the charts. ... prince: wembley arena, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 21 june 1990 the prince's new clothes ... little feat: hammersmith odeon, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 2 july 1990 there's a song on little feat's 1988 album, let it roll, called 'hangin' on to the good times'. it's a syrupy, self romanticising look back at ... madonna: wembley stadium, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 21 july 1990 madonna inc in tireless and tiresome spectacle ... bauhaus, fields of the nephilim, the mission, siouxsie & the banshees, sisters of mercy: a rave at the grave with the goths report and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 26 july 1990 black capes, death fixations, shelley recitals and an infinite supply of doom and gloom. caroline sullivan visits the haunts of the original gothfathers to see ... betty boo: take off for the girl from planet boo interview by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 22 august 1990 funky fantasy and shy eyes, hope and regret... lucy o'brien on the two sides of betty, aka alison ... living colour: rocking the boat interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 23 august 1990 establishment america says rock is a white man's prerogative. adam sweeting on why living colour think otherwise ... the time: time without the prince profile by bruce dessau, the guardian, 31 august 1990 most bands that get together after solo careers do so to cash in on their past. if the minneapolis band the time had wanted to ... crazy horse, the kinsey report, neil young: neil young: ragged glory (reprise); the kinsey report: powerhouse (pointblank) review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 13 september 1990 aged young still wild at heart ... jason donovan: hammersmith odeon, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 24 september 1990 it must have been sheer devilry that inspired someone to play prince over the pa directly before jason donovan came on stage. even jason, awaiting ... the lilac time: lilac time: bloomsbury theatre, london live review by bruce dessau, the guardian, 3 october 1990 it is indicative of the changing face of pop that on the cover of lilac time's new lp, and love for all, recorded in early ... janet jackson: janet takes her video on tour report by bruce dessau, the guardian, 19 october 1990 janet jackson's first solo tour has crossed the globe on its way to the uk   not without some hitches. one member of the entourage ... big fun, jason donovan, kylie minogue, new kids on the block: kylie minogue et al: mild at heart report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 23 october 1990 today's pop idols seem so insipid that fans are turning to turtles for thrills. caroline sullivan on the kylie/jason phenomenon. ... charlatans, the (uk): the charlatans: independents have their day profile and interview by bruce dessau, the guardian, 23 october 1990 twelve months is a long time in pop music. this time last year the charlatans had never made a record. they could only boast that ... a ha have the last laugh on the teeny tag profile and interview by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 14 december 1990 groups come and go in a flash but the boys from norway seem to have staying power. lucy o'brien reports ... emf: the marquee, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 18 december 1990 herod and the grey suits ... was (not was): the was bros who weren't interview by bruce dessau, the guardian, 3 january 1991 middle class jewish boys from motor city, was (not was) have set out to show that white men can make soul music. bruce dessau reports ... def leppard: obituary: steve clark   hard rock hero obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 10 january 1991 the death of def leppard's guitarist steve clark, aged 30, on tuesday morning was the latest disaster to strike the sheffield group. on new year's ... george michael: nec, birmingham live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 17 january 1991 "the most constructive thing i can do now is to try to be a great songwriter," says george michael. ... jonathan king: king prat interview by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 9 february 1991 on the titter count he scores high. and he insists on playing the prat because it pays off so handsomely. but the music biz has ... joni mitchell: they paint paradise interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 14 february 1991 now joni mitchell's more at ease at her easel, reports adam sweeting ... rickie lee jones interview by barney hoskyns, the guardian, march 1991 as any of the fans who have helped to sell out her shows in london and glasgow this weekend will know, rickie lee jones likes ... chickasaw mudd puppies, jane's addiction: jane's addiction, chickasaw mudd puppies: marquee, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 6 march 1991 they're already hacking a broad swathe through the americas, and jane's addiction's appearance for this "secret" show turned the marquee into a vile, heaving sweat box. ... the dave clark five, phil collins, don henley, keith moon, r.e.m.: drummers: adventurers in the skins trade overview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 8 march 1991 dim, manic, noisy, and rarely women. but drummers aren't all troll like, says adam sweeting ... gloria estefan: wembley arena, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 10 april 1991 the small but dynamic gloria estefan does not look like someone only recently recovered from a major back injury sustained in a road accident. ... unsound moves in the print trade report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 11 april 1991 caroline sullivan investigates the long standing malaise afflicting the weekly music press after last week's closure of sounds and the merger of record mirror with music ... 808 state: brixton academy, london live review by bruce dessau, the guardian, 15 april 1991 while manchester's club culture is rent asunder by rave dazed apathy and internecine drug wars, the bands that made the scene move on. happy mondays are ... alexander o'neal: royal albert hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 23 april 1991 alexander o'neal's last british tour was famed for the moment during the concert when a double bed was wheeled on stage and a young laydee ... inspiral carpets, massive attack: massive: blue lines (wild bunch/circa); inspiral carpets: the beast inside (mute) review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 25 april 1991 massive unfinished sympathy ... sting: hammersmith odeon, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 26 april 1991 it seems unlikely that sting has been paying attention to his critics, but with his new stripped down band and a show sprinkled with the police's ... new york dolls, johnny thunders, johnny thunders & the heartbreakers: johnny thunders: punk and drugs and warhol obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 30 april 1991 johnny thunders had long been a by word for self destruction through drugs and hard living. in 1981, trouser press magazine cynically declared thunders "legally dead" alongside a cartoon ... mc hammer: hammering pop peace and pepsi profile by bruce dessau, the guardian, 2 may 1991 if anyone was still sceptical about the mainstream of rap, a quick glance at mc hammer's considerable commercial achievements will soon put them right. his ... mc hammer: nec, birmingham live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 4 may 1991 hammered home: adam sweeting sees mc hammer let the rap rip at the birmingham nec on a night of music and moralising ... banderas: plain unfair interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 7 may 1991 in the precious and profitable world of pop, how you look, it seems, is more important than how you sound, caroline sullivan reports ... mc hammer: me, jesus and the president interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 7 may 1991 adam sweeting is privy to a generous 15 minutes of mc hammer's hard earned fame ... sinéad o'connor: angel of angst profile and interview by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 15 june 1991 sinead o'connor's need for self exorcism has made her a target of the tabloids. sean o'hagan talks to the outspoken singer. ... vanilla ice: wembley arena, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 25 june 1991 the touts on empire way were peevish. entire blocks of seats for vanilla ice's london debut were still empty and no one was buying. much ... rock at the movies essay by charles shaar murray, the guardian, july 1991 fashions in folk devils, like all other fashions, are subject both to painless expiry and to unexpected and possibly incongruous resurrections. ... deee lite: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 16 july 1991 last year, deee lite's fusion of hip hop beats and hippy good vibes supposedly presaged a kinder, gentler era in pop. nothing much changed, but deee lite still ... cath carroll: home is where the heart is profile and interview by bruce dessau, the guardian, 31 july 1991 with the release of her rhythmic debut album, england made me, cath carroll crosses from punk past to latin future, as bruce dessau reports ... milli vanilli: the award sinners report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 17 august 1991 the milli vanilli affair rocked the secretive world of pop. caroline sullivan on the scandal of stars who don't sing   and the judge with ... jane's addiction: lollapalooza report by simon reynolds, the guardian, 29 august 1991 lollapalooza means a bizarre happening. ... abc: when staying at home is as easy as abc interview by bruce dessau, the guardian, 5 september 1991 the world might have moved on, and other groups might be flavour of the week but, bruce dessaui argues, abc's martin fry remains the father ... voice of the beehive: town & country club, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 20 september 1991 bumble bees ... wet wet wet: ronnie scott's, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 4 november 1991 for wet wet wet's first british date for two years their record company was taking no chances. an audience of radio one competition winners was ... u2: achtung! saint bono profile by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 7 november 1991 all but canonised in ireland, u2's lead singer preaches redemption through rock 'n' roll. but now he's learning to write about girls. sean o'hagan profiles ... u2: achtung! saint bono profile by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 7 november 1991 all but canonised in ireland, u2's lead singer preaches redemption through rock 'n' roll. but now he's learning to write about girls. sean o'hagan profiles ... bourgie bourgie, faith hope & charity, joboxers, billy mackenzie, the pop tarts: everybody's gone drop of the pops report and interview by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 14 november 1991 as the recession hits record labels, lucy o'brien talks to some of the bands who've been given the chop ... salt n pepa: hammersmith odeon, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 7 december 1991 men, according to the rapteuses, salt 'n' pepa, are good for one thing. "and sometimes they're not even good for that," salt observed, on stage ... nirvana: the indie alternative report by simon reynolds, the guardian, 19 december 1991 this year saw groups like nirvana breaking into the mainstream,. simon reynolds reports on the changing face of the charts ... cookie crew, salt n pepa, sister souljah: sisters are rapping it for themselves report and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 16 january 1992 in the misogynistic world of rap, anybody who's not one of the boys is a whore or more genially a bitch. but even the female ... the rolling stones: bradford rolls away the stones: at the max film/dvd/tv review by bruce dessau, the guardian, 30 january 1992 bruce dessau reports on a rolling stones concert film   the first to be shown on imax ... horace andy, massive attack: keep on runnings report by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 15 february 1992 bob marley's music is not the young music in kingston today. ragga not reggae is king. and that took the british group massive attack to ... the wedding present: staying single interview by bruce dessau, the guardian, 20 february 1992 bruce dessau meets a band who bizarrely believe that 45s are still cool ... daisy chainsaw, the nymphs, shakespears sister: rock's savage sorority report and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 27 february 1992 caroline sullivan on how women are using music to cope with rape, abortion, drugs. ... barry white: hammersmith odeon, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 12 march 1992 lurve and kisses: caroline sullivan on the night barry white made the earth move ... lisa stansfield: soul of discretion in a hotel laundry profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 19 march 1992 'if i've a hole in my tights, i'll sew it up. you can wear them under trousers.' caroline sullivan on rochdale's most ordinary export, lisa ... tom petty & the heartbreakers: tom petty: wembley arena, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 26 march 1992 is tom petty thrashing out a mid life crisis or has he always been this way? his current show certainly leaves you wondering. american rock is ... curve, primal scream: curve: town and country club; primal scream: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 30 march 1992 the traditional concert is being supplanted in some surprising quarters by the rave   anything from an all nighter in which the group are just one ... julian lennon: kensal dock, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 2 april 1992 it is difficult to contain a sneaking compassion for julian lennon. unwelcome comparisons, rarely in his favour, continue to dog his career. they surfaced even ... l7: university of london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 11 april 1992 l7: the first artistically credible female heavy metalists, or rock vixens with more decibels than sense? the question divided the electorate at thursday's sold out show. ... desmond child, diane warren: tracks of their tears profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 18 may 1992 caroline sullivan hunts down the us songwriters responsible for the junk ballad ... carter the unstoppable sex machine: carter usm: stars of the singlets market report by bruce dessau, the guardian, 21 may 1992 never mind the music, it's the t shirt that counts these days. bruce dessau reports ... natalie cole, nat king cole: natalie cole: royal albert hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 25 may 1992 'unforgettable', natalie cole's "duet" with her father, nat "king", cleaned up this year's grammy awards. the song, wherein natalie's voice was grafted onto pop's 1951 ... erasure, right said fred: when the flirting stops report and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 9 july 1992 sex is back in the charts. but it doesn't seem to be using a condom. caroline sullivan reports ... sonic youth: here come the noise terrorists: sonic youth interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 21 july 1992 thunderous mantra grooves and jagged fanfares of atonal brass boom across the parched grass of new york's central park, though it could equally well be monterey ... throwing muses: kristin hersh: tortured by the muse interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 10 september 1992 caroline sullivan on the nightmare illness which drives singer songwriter kristin hersh ... tom waits: a mellower prince of melancholy interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 15 september 1992 he might still dress as though he staggers around sniffing under dustbin lids, but now the self styled oddball kid refuses to play his old ... abba, bjorn again: abba: the high priests of euro naff report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 21 september 1992 the sateen flared swedes are back again. caroline sullivan on abba   the revival ... happy mondays: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 19 october 1992 these are troubled times for the happy mondays. their new album, yes, please!, reputedly went over budget and has not had the sales to compensate. ... suede: sw1 club, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 22 october 1992 barely six months old, suede are attracting extravagant hyperbole. the london foursome have been deemed the best british guitar band since the smiths, and their ... rory gallagher: town & country club, leeds live review by simon warner, the guardian, 2 november 1992 it was always likely to be a heavy onus for the guitarist rory gallagher to bear when it was confirmed that he would be the ... bon jovi: search for a new faith interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 6 november 1992 jon bon jovi jumped off rock's roller coaster and started to look around. what he saw has changed what he is ... nigel kennedy: cat whose cream went sour interview by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 13 november 1992 'at some point i'll have to think about whether it's my responsibility as a musician to get into heavier drugs simply to find out more ... rock till they drop report and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 november 1992 most senior citizens hate pop. but a few still thrill to the sound of a synthesiser ... nina simone: diva of the dives interview by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 20 november 1992 approaching 60, nina simone, princess noir with the famed attitude, has got used to putting punters in their place. a one time classical musician she should ... shonen knife: ulu, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 2 december 1992 tokyo apparently has a flourishing indie scene, and female trio shonen knife are its stars. their popularity certainly emphasises the cultural gap between east and ... boney m: the fridge, brixton, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 19 january 1993 what mixture of whimsy and misanthropy persuaded arista records to release a "boney m megamix"? it appears to be part of a bizarre masterplan to ... cornershop: camden underworld, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 8 february 1993 were it not for the fact that two members are punjabi sikhs, leicester's cornershop would be just another dinful grunge unit. camden's underworld club was ... the stranglers: leeds university live review by simon warner, the guardian, 8 february 1993 in the sub cultural flow, punk rushed headlong in a bid to create the spontaneous, ephemeral and disposable. some irony then, that 15 years on, the ... belly: happy days in hell interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 10 february 1993 airy melodies and nightmare lyrics make belly a surprise hit ... tasmin archer: st george's hall, bradford live review by simon warner, the guardian, 9 march 1993 a black woman based in yorkshire, singer songwriter tasmin archer might be seen as a figure on the margins in almost every sense. add to that ... ice cube: murder rap profile by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 11 march 1993 he's armed and he's dangerous: ice cube's lyrics are about race hate, the los angeles gangs and the glory of the gun. he's america's worst ... apache indian, cornershop, fun da mental: real lives: rock of asians report and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 march 1993 britain's asian community has long hosted a thriving pop scene, operating in a lucrative parallel universe to the chart mainstream. now, caroline sullivan reports, radical ... bikini kill, huggy bear: university of london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 16 march 1993 riot grrrl, a radical feminist frock movement originating in washington state, is generating much controversy in the us. even the new york times has published a chin stroking ... arrested development: town and country club, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 18 march 1993 atlanta hip hoppers arrested development are the very antithesis of ice cube, whose tour they follow by just a few days. they counter cube's scatter gun ... huggy bear: angry young women interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 24 march 1993 take the in yer face spirit of punk, add a dash of mom's best feminist cant. born in the usa, now raising hell here, riot grrrls are ... the auteurs: camden underworld, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 march 1993 bound for a kind of glory caroline sullivan joined the crush to hear the auteurs ... the lemonheads: national ballroom, kilburn, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 7 april 1993 pop's tangy new taste ... kingmaker, pulp, the wedding present: wedding present/pulp/kingmaker: the leadmill, sheffield live review by simon warner, the guardian, 7 april 1993 the steel city, commemorating its centenary and celebrating soccer success, turned rock capital as a week of music events, including concerts, seminars and workshops, got ... the orb: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 20 april 1993 pioneers of neo progressive pop or appalling hippy throwbacks? that both descriptions apply to the orb indicates the scale of the changes occurring in rock music. ... pj harvey: rid of me (island cid8002/514 696 2) review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 23 april 1993 somerset psyche ... john shuttleworth: buzz club, manchester live review by simon warner, the guardian, 28 april 1993 one time punk parodist in the guise of jilted john, actor graham fellows has emerged in a new incarnation   a singer songwriter of dubious pedigree by ... sounds of blackness: the sounds of blackness: hammersmith apollo, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 april 1993 it was hard to believe that a gospel choir spawned the lubricious soulster, alexander o'neal, until you saw the ensemble in question. minneapolis's 40 piece sounds ... new order: joyful division interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 12 may 1993 new order have overcome the collapse of factory records and leapt into the charts with a number one album ... stereo mcs: academy, manchester live review by simon warner, the guardian, 24 may 1993 with the ticket touts in the manchester streets peddling their wares at up to £40 apiece, the stereo mcs were unquestionably the hottest ticket in ... shabba ranks: ragga bragger   shabba ranks: maestro club, bradford live review by simon warner, the guardian, 28 may 1993 shabba ranks, the bad boy of ragga, in bradford ... guns n' roses: chopper rock   guns n' roses: national bowl, milton keynes live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 31 may 1993 guns n' roses, high on attitude, bring their macho moves to milton keynes ... pet shop boys: mtv launches in russia   and the psbs cut the ribbon! report and interview by dave rimmer, the guardian, june 1993 2002 note: this piece about the launching of mtv russia was published by the guardian in london, by tip magazine in berlin, and by the ... the beatles, sex pistols: pointing pistols at the throne essay by jon savage, the guardian, 2 june 1993 there is something rotten in the state of england. republicanism is emerging as an option even for tory meritocrats   thanks to the punk's subversiveness ... bros, east 17, let loose, take that, worlds apart: pop goes the bubblegum report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 18 june 1993 teenybopper bands were once besieged by fans wherever they went. the new generation's tame in comparison. why? ... lena fiagbe , lenny kravitz: back to the future   lenny kravitz, lena fiagbe: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 june 1993 lenny kravitz brings a dash of sixties to the nineties at the brixton academy ... prince: my name is prince (well it was) report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 21 july 1993 to criticise prince is to reveal yourself as a musically illiterate jason donovan fan. but who is this workaholic, whose band call him 'sir' and ... prince & the new power generation: national indoor arena, birmingham live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 28 july 1993 funked up: the new pc prince starts his british tour in fine style in birmingham ... tony! toni! toné!: forum, london live review by andrew smith, the guardian, 8 september 1993 there are many unspoken rules in pop. one is that you can tell how important a group consider themselves to be by the number of ... saint etienne: st etienne: hacienda, manchester live review by simon warner, the guardian, 14 september 1993 britain's national popular music convention in the city, manchester's five day jamboree of industry chatter and on stage over drive, adds weight to the argument that the place, ... madonna: the entertainer   madonna: wembley stadium, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 27 september 1993 despite attempts to write her off, madonna's spectacular costume cabaret proved that she's not dead, just feverish. ... liz phair: hq club, london live review by andrew smith, the guardian, 29 september 1993 a few years back, with acid house at its peak and video games beginning to bite into record sales, there emerged a theory that rock ... pj harvey: good golly, ms polly interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 october 1993 screeching harridan? feminist heroine? one thing's certain: polly jean harvey's tortured song tantrums are a far cry from captain beefheart. ... leftfield, l.f.o., andrew weatherall: techno: the sound warp overview by jon savage, the guardian, 22 october 1993 let me take you on a journey... after the drugs and the digital industrial dreamscapes, just what is the secret of the mega successful techno white dance ... mojo: rock of ages report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 october 1993 mojo, a glossy monthly aimed at ageing rockers, is the latest in a long line of minutely targeted music magazines ... fun da mental: civic, london live review by andrew smith, the guardian, 2 november 1993 in 1992, we thought we were unshockable. then came news of an english band, those angry sons of asian immigrants, who had found a chink ... dina carroll: dina delivers the soul   dina carroll: hammersmith apollo, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 12 november 1993 a triumphant london debut for dina carroll at the hammersmith apollo ... michael bolton: the one thing (columbia 474355 2) review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 19 november 1993 this is the album meat loaf would make if his taste ran to easy listening pop rather than gothic rock. he and the astonishingly coiffed bolton ... pop: march of the modes comment by jon savage, the guardian, 23 november 1993 they're at it again. yes, even here in the guardian, the thirtysomething zombies, with their litany: pop isn't what it used to be, there are ... paul weller: royal albert hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 24 november 1993 anyone who doubts that a little fatherhood can be a dangerous thing should have been at the first of paul weller's two sold out london gigs. ... brian eno: eno's no bounds interview by jon savage, the guardian, 26 november 1993 brian eno used to wear leopard skin and make the synthesised squeaks and honks for roxy music. now he's the venerable intellectual of pop ... wet wet wet: sheffield arena live review by simon warner, the guardian, 29 november 1993 there is an honourable tradition of blue eyed soul stretching from the righteous brothers to hall & oates and stevie winwood, yet if wet wet wet ... sister sledge, tammy wynette: sister sledge: forum, london; tammy wynette: palladium, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 30 november 1993 standby your sisters: revived seventies disco queens sister sledge and the first lady of country music tammy wynette woo london ... diana ross: miss ross the boss interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 december 1993 singer, actress, businesswoman   diana ross has always been in control in 30 years of show business ... ice cube, snoop (doggy) dogg: snoop doggy dogg: doggystyle (eastwest 654492279 2); ice cube: lethal injection (4th & broadway brcd 609) review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 3 december 1993 two different versions of the art of gangsta rap. twenty one year old los angeleno snoop doggy dogg is about to make history by having his debut album ... pansy division, rpla, sister george, tongue man: queer to the core report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 17 december 1993 the pop establishment has always had a handful of gay stars   colourful, eccentric, lovable. but now there's 'queercore', a radical gay music movement with ... body count, ice t: ice hits meltdown   ice t & body count: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 27 december 1993 macho rapper ice t goes all soft and squishy at brixton academy ... the cranberries, elastica: astoria 2, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 17 january 1994 as limerick pop quartet the cranberries might warn london pop quartet elastica, beware the tag next big thing. the irish band basked in that title ... carleen anderson, young disciples: carleen anderson: songs from the soul interview by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 28 january 1994 carleen anderson has had a bitter, difficult life on both sides of the atlantic. now much of it features in her seductive, defiant music. ... d:ream: metropolitan university, leeds live review by simon warner, the guardian, 5 february 1994 the early weeks of this year have seen d:ream catapulted from the lower reaches of the top 30 to the pinnacle of the charts with ... snoop doggy dogg: cocking a leg at society profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 12 february 1994 to snoop doggy dogg, the hard man of rap, women are 'bitches' and 'niggaz with attitude' like him pack a pistol. caroline sullivan talked to ... cocteau twins: the cocteau twins: manchester academy live review by simon warner, the guardian, 15 february 1994 the core trio, more triplets than twins, have become weary of the media tag locating them as other worldly beings, cult objects disconnected from the realities ... chaka demus and pliers: chaka demus & pliers: maestro's, bradford live review by simon warner, the guardian, 10 march 1994 after the brooding intensity of shabba ranks and the controversies engulfing ragga and dancehall generally, it is easy to forget that while reggae has frequently ... r kelly: r. kelly: hammersmith apollo, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 march 1994 with rap the genre of choice of so many young american black musicians, traditional soul looks endangered. twenty five year old r kelly offers one answer to ... soul asylum: town & country club, leeds live review by simon warner, the guardian, 22 march 1994 a mere six years ago, rock records accounted for half the world's popular music sales. today the white, anglo american alliance has seen its market share ... marvin gaye: the ostend of the road film/dvd/tv review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 28 march 1994 arena's vivid documentary evokes marvin gaye's final years ... credit to the nation: rapped by rappers interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 april 1994 matty hanson   aka credit to the nation's mc fusion   has come under fire for his views on the values of gangsta rappers. is ... charlatans, the (uk), pulp, tindersticks: brash trash   the charlatans, pulp, tindersticks: sound city, the tramway, glasgow live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 6 april 1994 the charlatans and pulp play the opening night concert at sound city in glasgow ... primal scream: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 12 april 1994 retro rockers primal scream play brixton ... madder rose: astoria, london live review by andrew smith, the guardian, 13 april 1994 hendrix's line, when tuning his instrument between songs, used to be, "hey, only cowboys stay in tune." the post grunge equivalent of this, as articulated by ... hole: live through this (city slang efa 04935) review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 april 1994 love 'em or leave 'em ... kurt cobain, nirvana: kurt cobain: sound of silence comment by adam sweeting, the guardian, 18 april 1994 adam sweeting explains how the media didn't react to the significance of kurt cobain's death. ... pulp: metropolitan university, leeds live review by simon warner, the guardian, 29 april 1994 in a more just world it would now be time to set aside the macho posturings of the rock burn out and the dead ends of the ... blur: the blur of the moment profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 april 1994 after several false starts, blur have got it right with their album parklife, which is set to leap into the charts at number one. ... dr. dre, the lady of rage, snoop (doggy) dogg: bark without bite   snoop doggy dogg & dr. dre: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 2 may 1994 snoop doggy dogg comes over like a pup at the brixton academy ... bikini kill: bikini kill/yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (kill rock stars krs204) review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 6 may 1994 the biggest act on this washington label is these founding riot grrrls, whose first two mini albums are re released as a single tape/cd. the 32 minute running ... billy joel: earl's court, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 9 may 1994 billy joel's break up with model christie brinkley has received more media coverage than anything he has done since he married her, so it was predictable ... the auteurs: astoria 2, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 24 may 1994 this time last year, the pop press were grooming the auteurs to be the next big thing. it didn't quite happen, and now, a good ... radiohead: manchester university live review by simon warner, the guardian, 27 may 1994 "there are a lot of people out there who want to tear us to pieces," radiohead's vocalist thom e. yorke told the churning, cheering hordes ... the stone roses: stone roses, phone home report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 31 may 1994 their debut lp was one of the eighties' finest. yet five years on we're still waiting for the follow up. whatever became of the stone roses? ... lush: manchester university live review by simon warner, the guardian, 8 june 1994 challenged to a drinking contest by their support band, noise merchants blessed ethel, lush claimed they had chosen the easier option by returning to the ... brand new heavies: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by andrew smith, the guardian, 23 june 1994 when brand new heavies lumbered on to the scene in 1988, few would have rated their chances of surviving into 1994, let alone of becoming ... the beastie boys: beastie work if you can get it profile by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 24 june 1994 after years in the doldrums the beastie boys are back and packing out the astoria ... diana ross: nec, birmingham live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 27 june 1994 diana ross returns to celebrate a half century, and a mysterious 30th anniversary, at birmingham nec ... johnny cash: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 4 july 1994 "can you name anyone in this day and age who is as cool as johnny cash?", rolling stone magazine rhetorically asks. no one at this ... future sound of london: london calling interview by andrew smith, the guardian, 8 july 1994 two years ago future sound of london changed the course of dance music. now they are changing the way rock bands tour... ... galliano: forum, london live review by andrew smith, the guardian, 15 july 1994 galliano have the knack of polarising opinion. on the one side, you have a public who have been drawn to the band's deeply hip fusion ... paul oakenfold: pick and re mix profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 july 1994 paul oakenfold's new record has only his name on the cover. but he isn't a musician. he's the emperor of djs ... chaka demus and pliers, general levy: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 18 july 1994 the ranks of policemen who materialise outside brixton academy during shows by black artists were absent friday night. clearly, they had been informed that no ... house of pain: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 august 1994 pain, but no gain ... oasis: the boys are back in town profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 12 august 1994 trashed hotels, fist fights, easy sex   oasis have rediscovered rock's roots. they've also found the time to knock out a great tune ... prince: come (warner bros 9362 45700 2) review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 12 august 1994 we could be forgiven for assuming that prince   or the artist formerly known as prince, as he's officially titled   is uninterested in subjects ... gender vendors comment by jon savage, the guardian, 2 september 1994 from pink floyd to the pink pound, pop has provided a lifeline for the young to find heroes often denied a voice elsewhere ... jeff buckley: the garage, london live review by andrew smith, the guardian, 5 september 1994 as jeff buckley ambled lugubriously on to the stage, the faces of pretty much everyone in the capacity crowd betrayed the same thought   "how ... kylie minogue: fever kitsch profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 6 september 1994 from wholesome soap star to scantily clad sex kitten   kylie minogue has changed her image more times than she might care to remember. but ... blur, m people, shara nelson, michael nyman, the prodigy, pulp, take that, therapy?, paul weller: now the mercury rises report by jon savage, the guardian, 16 september 1994 jon savage sees the north take its regional revenge ... blur, pulp: bedsitters' night out   blur, pulp: alexandra palace, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 10 october 1994 minimalist pop has its day as blur and pulp share the bill at london's alexandra palace ... manic street preachers: manchester academy live review by simon warner, the guardian, 18 october 1994 if empty intellectualism has been etched on pop's calling card, there has always been the odd renegade determined to transform rock into an intelligent medium. ... east 17, pj & duncan, shampoo, take that: the new bottom line report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 19 october 1994 there was a time when sex in pop meant a shuttlecock down the jeans. the days of innocence are over. the steam age has begun. ... green day: astoria, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 24 october 1994 us band green day sing of misery and hatred but, live at the astoria, it's just one big party ... madonna: not cd of the week: madonna: bedtime stories (maverick 9362 45767 2) review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 28 october 1994 "making this album was a test of my sanity and stability," madonna writes in the sleevenotes, admitting for the first time that she's not always ... bill frisell plays buster keaton: queen elizabeth hall, southbank, london preview by john l. walters, the guardian, 29 october 1994 go west (1925), sherlock junior (1924), the high sign (1921), one week (1920). wednesday november 2 1994, 7.30pm ... suede: effete of clay   suede: city hall, hull live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 31 october 1994 brett anderson forsakes camp as suede struggle to impress in hull ... blur, elastica: blur: blurred vision report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 10 november 1994 they are the names on everyone's lips, the pop heroes from essex. blur are being mentioned in the same breath as the beatles, and yesterday ... how to get backstage guide by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 25 november 1994 feeling brazen? ready to crawl? caroline sullivan offers the definitive guide to bum rushing the show ... beck: manchester university live review by simon warner, the guardian, 28 november 1994 is this the age of the neurotic self obsessive? sold out signs at beck's debut uk gig suggest that his curious blend of twitchy unease and ... suicide: a tribe called quest: subterania, london live review by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 3 december 1994 in many ways. a tribe called quest are one of hip hop's best kept secrets. their debut album, people's instinctive travels... remains one of the defining moments ... gene, salad: astoria 2, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 5 december 1994 at least one man at this long sold out gig was there because he believed gene's frontman, martin rossiter, to be the late actor leonard's son. he ... bjorn again, the bootleg beatles, gary glitter: hark! the faded popsters sing report and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 6 december 1994 as christmas approaches, turkeys aren't the only ones preparing to hop into the silverfoil. ageing pop stars too come out but once a year ... massive attack: haçienda, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 7 december 1994 massive attack promised us a "multi media experience" and, boy, they gave us one. the traditionally grey, post modern confines of the haçienda were swamped in camouflage ... blur: lads and asses essay by jon savage, the guardian, 16 december 1994 the media's love affair with football has spawned a huge culture industry. but is it to blame for the return of loutishness? ... manic street preachers: bible of hate: manic street preachers: the astoria, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 21 december 1994 since achieving cult fame in 1990, the welsh quartet have preached nihilism juiced up with arty quotes from the situationists and literary figures. the not entirely novel ... jodeci: wembley arena, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 16 january 1995 hot crotch buns ... lisa germano, sarah mclachlan, saint etienne: stalkers: ever present possessive report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 16 january 1995 business is booming in the protection business. now many of those being protected are women pop stars targeted by dangerous stalkers ... bettie serveert, jeff buckley: jeff buckley, bettie serveert: astoria 2, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 21 january 1995 when jeff buckley's debut album, grace, was released last year, it received ferocious acclaim and spawned a resurgence of interest in jeff's folk singing father, ... sleeper: the duchess, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 20 february 1995 a great song and a video are no guarantee of credible pop success. it helps to have a talking point as well. no one understands this ... seefeel, spiritualized: spiritualized, seefeel: shepherds bush empire, london live review by andrew smith, the guardian, 27 february 1995 the ghost of st jimi must have been smiling: this was a good night for guitars. first, the london quartet seefeel set about deconstructing the ... pj harvey, tricky: red blooded chameleon   pj harvey, tricky: town & country club, london live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 8 march 1995 enigmatic as ever, pj harvey returns in red satin and fine form, with tricky in support ... barry white: rising to the big occasion   barry white: wembley arena, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 16 march 1995 seventies legend barry white has them swooning in the wembley arena aisles with his unique brand of bedroom soul ... simple minds: sheffield arena live review by simon warner, the guardian, 23 march 1995 it's official. rock, that huge, lumbering beast we thought had been exiled to the sports stadiums of the american midwest, is alive and almost kicking, ... elastica: under the influence   elastica: sheffield university live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 27 march 1995 elastica, the vanguard of the new new wave bands, smash and grab their way through classic punk pop in sheffield ... kurt cobain, manic street preachers: is this music to die for? report by andrew smith, the guardian, 31 march 1995 an article in this week's melody maker describes some of the dozens of letters the paper has been receiving every week since richey james's departure ... bush telegraph report and interview by andrew smith, the guardian, 7 april 1995 how come an unknown british band are so big in the us? ... the boo radleys: irish centre, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 7 april 1995 as music biz jokes go, the boo radleys are a very, very good one. formed in liverpool in 1989, their topsy turvy career (taking in baldness, ... janet jackson: platinum bland   janet jackson: london arena, millwall live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 10 april 1995 janet jackson's voice may be average, but her dancing is that of a well drilled athlete ... jimmy nail: hammersmith apollo, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 april 1995 this isn't jimmy nail's first crack at rock stardom. in the seventies, the glowering geordie was lead vocalist of a deservedly obscure punk group called ... oasis: sheffield arena live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 24 april 1995 oasis play the rock 'n' roll game in a one night stand at the sheffield arena. ... warren g: hammersmith apollo, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 25 april 1995 of the adjectives applied to gangsta rappers, "endearing" is way down the list. warren griffin, the latest sensation from the wrong side of long beach, ... hole: civic hall, wolverhampton live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 april 1995 in the name of love: caroline sullivan on a stunning start to hole's tour in wolverhampton ... take that: nobody else (rca) review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 5 may 1995 the teeny horrors' recent attempts to grow up have been partially successful; the newly acquired dreadlocks are frightening rather than alluring, but their third album is ... grooverider, moby, orbital: tribal and strife report by andrew smith, the guardian, 8 may 1995 the criminal justice act put the rave under house arrest. but it's out and it's phat in oxfordshire ... renegade soundwave, tricky: tricky, renegade soundwave: the grand, clapham, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 may 1995 cool, calm and very, very strange: caroline sullivan is haunted by bristol rapper tricky ... east 17: sheffield arena live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 22 may 1995 hormonesapoppin' as e17 storm the sheffield arena. no prisoners taken ... teenage fanclub: shepherd's bush empire live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 5 june 1995 you can tell a lot about a band from their choice of cover versions. as their tumultuous set rampaged to a close, teenage fanclub ripped ... pj harvey: queen of the night: p.j. harvey profile by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 12 june 1995 she’s taking america by storm. she’s very fashionable at the moment. she’s hipper than hip. that’s what paul mcguinness says; he’s the manager of u2 ... therapy?: town & country club, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 15 june 1995 dahmer karma and splenetic rage ... bon jovi: the noisy american report and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 17 june 1995 jon bon jovi was once the king of hairspray and spandex. now he wants to be taken a lot more seriously. the hell raising days are ... blur: boys will be lads   blur: mile end stadium, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 19 june 1995 a right old knees up with blur and their guests at mile end ... the rolling stones: don valley stadium, sheffield live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 10 july 1995 charlie upstages ye olde rock stars ... marianne faithfull: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 july 1995 better class of icon defies the years ... black grape: wulfrun hall, wolverhampton live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 22 july 1995 black grape are currently the hottest new property in british rock. even prior to their first single, acres of music press coverage had signalled the ... r.e.m.: cardiff arms park live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 24 july 1995 invalids losing their direction ... take that: then there were four   take that: manchester arena live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 7 august 1995 caroline sullivan on how a robbieless take that fare at manchester arena ... the sex pistols: never mind the tv bollocks report by jon savage, the guardian, 11 august 1995 jon savage mulls over the four year struggle to put his definitive study of punk, england's dreaming, on television ... cynthia plaster caster: come up and see my, er... profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 24 august 1995 caroline sullivan meets the woman who persuaded jimi hendrix to dip his erect member into a jar of gooey pink dental mould. ... the chemical brothers: rock steady dance beat interview by lisa verrico, the guardian, 25 august 1995 who says dance and rock don't mix? lisa verrico talks to the chemical brothers   a dj outfit who make it work ... foo fighters: academy, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 7 september 1995 spooky survivor ... stereolab: cockpit, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 28 september 1995 stereolab have been on the verge of a major breakthrough for longer than damon hill. they've been steadfastly supported by music press darlings for the ... brian eno: jingle the other one comment by pat kane, the guardian, 20 october 1995 brian eno can do no wrong. he's revered as a guru of music. but pat kane isn't taken in. to him he's "the world's smoothest ... melissa etheridge: one of the boys interview by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 3 november 1995 as a woman, melissa etheridges success in the major league of american rock is remarkable, as an out lesbian its unique. lucy obrien meets a ... juno reactor: goa trance: paradise lost can be regained report by andrew smith, the guardian, 16 november 1995 is a movement that started 12 years ago in a small south indian state about to take over the british club scene? andrew smith chills ... "mad" frankie fraser: criminal records interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 24 november 1995 dave simpson talks to former gangland killer turned recording artist 'mad' frankie fraser about his foray into pop music ... blur: time for the blur to fly   blur: nec arena, birmingham live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 27 november 1995 blur a flagging, studenty band? those memories are now long gone as screaming teenyboppers everywhere fight to hear their heroes ... take that, robbie williams: robbie williams: take one new man interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 15 december 1995 there is life after take that. robbie williams, the lad who broke ranks (and rules), is growing up. dave simpson finds him talking politics, paparazzi ... therapy?: brixton academy, london live review by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 16 december 1995 the riot act, scene two ... beck interview by david bennun, the guardian, 1996 at the age of 25, beck hansen has the air of a man who is surprised by nothing. either that, or he is surprised by ... coolio: the grand, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 5 january 1996 gangsta takes rap to new level ... henry rollins: forum, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 8 january 1996 monster made mellow: caroline sullivan wonders if mean rocker henry rollins can possibly be related to the loveable raconteur performing at the forum ... smashing pumpkins: a different kind of attitude interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 12 january 1996 they're awkward, they defy categorisation and they're huge in the us. adam sweeting asks if the uk will swallow the smashing pumpkins ... joan osborne: borderline, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 23 january 1996 meat and potato with little relish ... suede: hanover grand, london live review by susan corrigan, the guardian, 29 january 1996 snarling back on to the scene ... melissa etheridge: shepherds bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 31 january 1996 perky pioneer lacking magic ... placebo: dingwalls, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 8 february 1996 a little gender uncertainty never hurt any band, and it might prove the making of placebo. the swedish american trio is fortunate in boasting a singer, brian ... lou reed: walk on the mild side interview by ian penman, the guardian, 16 february 1996 lou reed was the ultimate rock'n'roller who mimed shooting up on stage. now he's clean and sober, but what kind of shape is his music ... pulp: sorted for kids   pulp: brighton centre, brighton live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 22 february 1996 in a police station one night, on stage the next, and the pulp fans have never been happier. caroline sullivan reports ... supergrass: bald truth, hairy moments   supergrass: apollo theatre, oxford live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 28 february 1996 supergrass were named best new band at last week's brit awards   but why? noisy they may be, but subtle they're not. caroline sullivan went ... eternal: apollo, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 6 march 1996 recent warnings linking club going to ear damage have got it all wrong. never mind amplified jungle or cranium pounding dub, the real threat to the nation's ... lush: brighton beach, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 11 march 1996 two trumps for a busted lush ... bis: sounds like teen spirit report and interview by susan corrigan, the guardian, 14 march 1996 why would top of the pops give space to a band without a record deal? and why is the band adamant it doesn't want one? ... album covers: new tricks up their sleeve interview by susan corrigan, the guardian, 18 march 1996 the lp cover is once again regarded as an art form. susan corrigan meets the designer largely responsible ... mary j. blige, boyz ii men, r. kelly, teddy riley: andre harrell: resurrection of the soul report and interview by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 22 march 1996 andre harrell is a man with a mission. the youngest head of motown since berry gordy, he tells sean o'hagan how he plans to put ... skunk anansie: skin deep interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 23 april 1996 she has been described as naomi campbell crossed with tank girl, but is there more to the singer with skunk anansie than just good cheekbones? ... k.d. lang: academy, birmingham live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 24 april 1996 a big boned gal among friends ... oasis: maine road, manchester live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 april 1996 oasis promoted to relegation spot ... everything but the girl: walking wounded (virgin)**** review by sheryl garratt, the guardian, may 1996 once known by cynics as everything but a laugh, ben watt and tracey thorn spent much of the eighties exploring the lonely outer fringes of ... orbital: de montfort university, leicester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 11 may 1996 dance music is the most innovative genre around, but orbital are leaving that behind. six years on from their rave smash 'chime', the hartnolls' recent ... chris de burgh: hampton court palace, surrey live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 18 june 1996 chris de burgh's banter saves the day at hampton court palace, says caroline sullivan ... 808 state: castlefield amphitheatre, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 24 june 1996 think of a free open air gig on the first day of summer and you'd probably imagine hippies, loud rock music and lots of mud. all ... iggy pop, sex pistols: last of the mohicans report by susan corrigan, the guardian, 26 june 1996 on sunday, the punks were rocking again. but what on earth were they wearing? ... damon albarn, blur: blur: meet damon, the poet interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 6 july 1996 blur's damon albarn tells caroline sullivan he is tired of being a star, tired of yob pop and tired off feuding. that's why he's reading ... electronic: why two's company interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 13 july 1996 bernard sumner and johnny marr, two of the great icons of eighties pop, tell dave simpson what keeps them going ... gary barlow, take that, robbie williams: gary barlow: gary takes it all interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 july 1996 the least fancied member of smash hit boy band take that was the one with the bona fide music training. now, gary barlow is writing songs ... the eagles: mcalpine stadium, huddersfield live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 15 july 1996 if you were wondering what happened to the british summer, then spare a thought for the residents of hell, california, whose habitat has frozen over. ... bis, sarah cracknell, elastica, garbage, shampoo, sleeper: the young pretenders report by susan corrigan, the guardian, 17 july 1996 susan corrigan talks to the teenagers with stars in their eyes. ... spice girls: the spice girls: girls just wanna be loaded profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 26 july 1996 last week, the world was as it should have been. gary barlow was number one, the summer's foreign novelty hit, 'macarena', was panting just behind ... drugs in rock culture: don’t try this at home essay by ian penman, the guardian, 2 august 1996 taking drugs changes things. it changes your blood stream and brain waves and bank balance; your heart rate and slang of choice and the circumference ... the divine comedy: york hall leisure centre, bethnal green, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 12 august 1996 divine, darling, simply divine ... charlatans, the (uk), oasis: blue tones   the charlatans: knebworth, herfordshire live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 august 1996 the charlatans must have dreamt of upstaging oasis. at knebworth, they almost did. but it came at a horrible price, says caroline sullivan ... lewis taylor: lewis taylor (island) **** £9.99 review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 16 august 1996 british soul stars are invariably compared to some american counterpart. mark morrison is derided as an r kelly imitator and seal as a composite of ... michael jackson: look who's wearing stalin's shoes report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 7 september 1996 he's bad, he's dangerous, he's history... wacko jacko is invading eastern europe and showing what capitalism can do when it comes to the cult of ... the mercury prize: pulp friction comment by simon frith, the guardian, 13 september 1996 tokenistic? predictable? ridiculous? critics claim all three. here, chairman of the judges simon frith defends the mercury music prize. ... johnny mathis: royal albert hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 17 september 1996 play misty for us again, ole buddy ... camden crawl: take me home report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 21 september 1996 after britpop, c96. caroline sullivan runs a marathon of new music in north london. ... metallica: earl's court, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 14 october 1996 classic metal misfits spit out decibels of defiance at the venue from hell ... baby bird: ugly/beautiful (echo) review by david bennun, the guardian, 18 october 1996 this baby's got wings david bennun celebrates a bedroom genius ... the fugees: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 21 october 1996 incredibly hiphop: if the fugees were any bigger, they'd explode. caroline sullivan finds out why ... andrea parker: 'the rocking chair' (mo' wax ep) review by dave simpson, the guardian, 25 october 1996 the chill factor: dave simpson enjoys a spooky orchestral set ... the chemical brothers: the chemistry set   the chemical brothers: academy, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 26 october 1996 dave simpson takes some anadin with the chemical brothers ... snoop (doggy) dogg: snoop doggy dogg profile and interview by david bennun, the guardian, november 1996 "i'm gonna live forever," says the man slumped in the chair opposite, his voice so soft it's barely more than a mumble. nobody has ever ... the beautiful south: zipless anoraks   the beautiful south: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 2 november 1996 their new album may have screamed in at number one but the beautiful south are lousy live, says caroline sullivan ... erasure: town & country, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 6 november 1996 size is everything in erasure pop world. for their last tour, they put on one of the biggest shows on earth, a theatrical triumph of ... the lightning seeds: ian broudie: number one seed interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 11 november 1996 ian broudie is responsible for some of the most enduring pop music of the decade. so what's his excuse for making that football record, asks ... def leppard: sheffield arena live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 15 november 1996 rusty metal with extra irony ... david bowie: the chameleon overview by ian penman, the guardian, 27 november 1996 david jones... major tom... ziggy... will the real david bowie ever stand up? and can the quick change act disguise the fact that it's been 20 ... sting: sheffield arena live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 30 november 1996 great rocker, poor jazzer. dave simpson catches sting in sheffield ... sleeper: town & country, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 11 december 1996 louise wener is a curious phenomenon. hers is the face that has launched a thousand front covers; her sharp tongue has spawned a million "quotable ... neneh cherry: cherry picker   neneh cherry: shepherds bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 12 december 1996 caroline sullivan on the sultry charms of neneh cherry at shepherds bush empire ... kurt cobain, bob marley & the wailers, elvis presley, thin lizzy, sid vicious: mummy's little rock'n'roll soldier report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 16 december 1996 they're mad, bad and dangerous to know, and the apple of their mothers eyes. caroline sullivan examines the closest of all relationships... ... nirvana, oasis, pulp, sex pistols: true brits interview by jon savage, the guardian, 20 december 1996 a young new york painter looks like becoming "the first artist of britpop". jon savage on how elizabeth peyton's portraits of jarvis, liam and noel ... east 17: sheffield arena live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 21 december 1996 rumours of east going west fuel night of confusion and great pop ... townes van zandt: keeping quiet for the sake of a song: townes van zandt 1944 1997 obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, january 1997 other musicians revered texan song writer townes van zandt who has died of a heart attack aged 52, but he made real efforts, helped by ... curtis mayfield: people get ready interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 17 january 1997 six years ago, when a freak accident paralysed him, it looked as if curtis mayfield's 30 year career was over. now he's recorded a new album ... kula shaker: abandon dope all ye who entertain interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 20 january 1997 toff rockers kula shaker got away with telling fans to take lots of drugs; east 17's essex boy brian harvey was crucified. that's pop, says ... elvis presley: 25% of the king: col. tom parker obituary by michael gray, the guardian, 23 january 1997 colonel tom parker, the flamboyant tent show hustler who was elvis presley's svengalian manager, has died in las vegas at the age of almost 90. he ... the associates, billy mackenzie: billy mackenzie: pop's great outsider obituary by paul morley, the guardian, 27 january 1997 an anarchic bassey, a sinister pavarotti, a monstrous madcap bowie, even when he was at his most obscure, his most difficult and extreme, there was ... the beatles: the sound of acid overview by jon savage, the guardian, 31 january 1997 hey man   it's time to beat that cosmic tabla and slap on a droning tape loop. drug infused psychedelia, says jon savage, never went away ... placebo: octagon, sheffield live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 15 february 1997 high on the placebo effect ... ash: the astoria, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 3 march 1997 boys enjoy early night ... mansun: brighton beach, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 12 march 1997 once upon a time, modernists (ha!) fought running battles with rockers along the seafront at brighton; now their descendants congregate at brighton beach in, um, ... jhelisa: language electric review by sheryl garratt, the guardian, 14 march 1997 the late night beauty of jhelisa's latest disc hides sharp teeth. sheryl garratt listens up ... james: wrinklie riot   james: town & country, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 15 march 1997 the fans are older, their knees are shot and they can't dance any more (if they ever could) dave simpson joins james's sell out tour ... peter andre: fairfield halls, croydon live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 22 march 1997 and it's one for the tummy caroline sullivan gets all worked up about peter andre ... the divine comedy: royal festival hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 march 1997 kitschy coup: few pop musicians could carry it off, but divine comedy's orchestral manoeuvres impress caroline sullivan ... the congos, dr. alimantado, bob marley & the wailers, junior murvin, lee "scratch" perry, max romeo and the upsetters: lee "scratch" perry: scratch'n'mix retrospective by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 18 april 1997 lee "scratch" perry may not have invented dub, but, says sean o'hagan, he is its one auteur   his influence can be heard from trip hop ... nico, the velvet underground: name game: billy name interview by jon savage, the guardian, 25 april 1997 at andy warhol's factory everybody wanted to be a star. everyone except billy name. he designed the factory, curated it, soothed the egos of warhol's ... sinead o'connor: an inconvenient woman: sinead o’connor profile and interview by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 26 april 1997 sinead oconnor bothers people. american audiences were outraged when she shunned their national anthem, the pop establishment was vindictive when she refused a brit, and ... supergrass: town & country club, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 9 may 1997 just alright on the night ... marilyn manson: your kids will love it profile by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 22 may 1997 marilyn manson sells himself as a scary satanist pervert. yeah, and caroline sullivan believes in santa claus ... jonny lang: hanson: the little brat pack interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 30 may 1997 they're too young to drink at their own gigs. but hanson are coming, and so is a new wave of pubescent poppers. caroline sullivan meets ... david bowie: hanover grand, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 4 june 1997 bowie wants to meet his public so he plays a small london club   heaven or what? some fans paid 100 pounds for a ticket. ... radiohead: ok computer review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 june 1997 caroline sullivan downs the aspirin and enjoys an intense but inspirational experience ... u2: pop smart comment by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 13 june 1997 u2 are that rarity, a clever rock band. so why do the english press hate them? by sean o'hagan ... massive attack, radiohead: radiohead, massive attack: rds arena, dublin live review by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 23 june 1997 storming through the downpour ... blur, oasis, the stone roses, paul weller: brit pop: the boys club essay by jon savage, the guardian, 4 july 1997 pop music is booming, right? british bands are taking over the world, right? wrong. the yobbish lads of brit rock are about to hit the ... the jesus & mary chain, my bloody valentine, oasis, primal scream: alan mcgee: the father of creation profile and interview by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 5 july 1997 hedonism was a way of life for alan mcgee. and who would expect anything less from the man behind oasis? but the road to pop tycoon ... soul coughing: fleece and firkin, bristol live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 19 july 1997 mr weird and mr wonderful caroline sullivan chills out with the coolest singers from the states ... soul coughing: irresistible bliss (london) £14.99 ***** review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 august 1997 caroline sullivan is completely blissed out ... paul weller: crystal palace national sports centre, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 4 august 1997 pub rock without the pub ... morrissey: maladjusted (island) ** £14.99 review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 8 august 1997 nine self pitying, lachrymose albums in a row   isn't it time morrissey grew up? ... the verve: academy, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 16 august 1997 dave simpson witnesses the miracle works of richard ashcroft, reunited with the apostles of the verve ... u2: wembley stadium, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 23 august 1997 bono and co go big, only to come up with a lemon ... dave godin: he's a soul man profile and interview by jon savage, the guardian, 12 september 1997 dave godin rubbed shoulders with motown's greats and brought us black american music. but, says jon savage, his great achievement was creating northern soul ... oasis: westpoint arena, exeter live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 september 1997 radical move to symbolism uh! as oasis tour goes pink floyd ... the fall: mark e. smith: by gum, it's mr grumpy profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 22 september 1997 he's getting old and his teeth are falling out, but the fall's mark e. smith is as fresh as ever, says caroline sullivan. ... monaco: astoria, london live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 23 september 1997 there's a current joke that goes "why haven't new order spawned a tribute group? because peter hook got there first." boom boom, and indeed, booming ... drop the dread, honky: why white artists wanna be black essay by james maycock, the guardian, october 1997 in 1959, john howard griffin, a white journalist, dyed his skin black and travelled through the southern states of america. he found the experience ... portishead: dread again   portishead: portishead (go! beat) ***** review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 3 october 1997 if portishead's first album spooked you out, their second one will really get to you, says caroline sullivan ... robbie williams: the show off must go on   robbie williams: the waterfront, norwich live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 4 october 1997 robbie williams doesn't need to get his kit off to impress, says caroline sullivan ... whitesnake: end of an earache   whitesnake: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 11 october 1997 hang up your air guitars: whitesnake will rock no more. caroline sullivan is oddly moved ... louise: the girl next door profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 october 1997 she is currently the uk's most successful female singer, she has been voted one of the sexiest women in the world, she even has a ... spice girls: the spice girls: abdi i̇pekçi arena, istanbul, turkey live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 october 1997 oriental spice: sponsor power, not bazaars, draws the girls to turkey ... five: boys will be boys bands report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 18 october 1997 you've never heard of five. the spice girls' inventors will make sure you do. caroline sullivan reports ... jewel: daddy cruel   jewel: bloomsbury theatre, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 21 october 1997 for a while on stage, jewel exudes vulnerability. then she tells you she wants to bash her father's teeth in. caroline sullivan reports ... peter andre: putting away the six pack interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 31 october 1997 with his doe eyes and firm stomach, peter andre was a classic teenybop chart success. now he's set on r&b cred, and has some impressive ... spice girls: the new product   spice girls: spiceworld (virgin) *** review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 31 october 1997 between the t shirts, mugs, movies, dolls and video games, the spice girls have put out a new album. caroline sullivan didn't hate it... ... ac/dc: bonfire review by david bennun, the guardian, november 1997 the late '70s and early '80s were bleak years for rock, and most other things besides. one of those moments in history which seem to ... king tubby, lee "scratch" perry, yabby you: blood and fire records: simply dread report and interview by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 7 november 1997 mick hucknall's devotion to the pioneers of dub and lovers' rock led him to form blood and fire records. sean o'hagan salutes them ... björk: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 november 1997 iceland's icon scares the hell out of caroline sullivan at the shepherd's bush empire. ... mary j. blige: mary j blige: from the bronx to the big time interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 18 november 1997 caroline sullivan has an audience with mary j blige, queen of hip hop soul ... black grape: leicester arena live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 24 november 1997 when shaun ryder recently sang black grape's comeback hit 'get higher', he no doubt afforded himself a mischievous grin. for years, ryder was the dark ... beth orton: a kinky disco kid interview by sheryl garratt, the guardian, 28 november 1997 singer beth orton shrugged off the tragedies of her youth and was inspired by acid house to mix folk with breakbeats. sheryl garratt hears how ... m people: just pedestrian   m people, wembley arena, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 november 1997 m people may do a lot for peugeot, but caroline sullivan is not moved ... bush, madonna, gwen stefani: for the love of blighty report by susan corrigan, the guardian, 1 december 1997 coming soon to a suburb near you: madonna. susan corrigan reports on a transatlantic affair ... shane macgowan, oasis: you lookin' at me? comment by pat kane, the guardian, 12 december 1997 in a week which saw shane macgowan arrested for hurling his microphone stand into the crowd and oasis storming off stage when a bottle was ... jamiroquai: battersea power station, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 16 december 1997 on the face of it, jamiroquai are an unlikely group to excite the passions they do. singer jason "jay" kay is the only member familiar ... robert palmer obituary by michael gray, the guardian, 17 december 1997 robert palmer, the distinguished american music journalist and blues expert, has died in new york aged 52. ... spice girls: spice: the final frontier report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 19 december 1997 the tabloids have turned on them, their fans are leaving them   even smash hits readers voted them worst group. is this the end for ... frank sinatra: nelson algren's the man with the golden arm retrospective by james maycock, the guardian, 1998 how nelson algren's acclaimed novel was made into hollywood's first film about heroin. ... hip hop: puppets on a string? essay by james maycock, the guardian, january 1998 how & why black rappers exploit racial stereotypes (with references to historical precedents through 20th century) ... gary barlow, mark owen, take that, robbie williams: take that: that was then, this is now report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 january 1998 two years after the split, the take that boys are more famous than ever   and no longer just for the excesses of robbie williams. ... barry manilow: barry glitter   barry manilow: wembley arena, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 24 january 1998 could it be magic? when mr manilow sings, grannies swoon, moan, even storm the stage. caroline sullivan knows just how they feel ... mark hollis: mark hollis review by david bennun, the guardian, february 1998 from 1980s synth pop with talk talk, mark hollis is now a solo artist of rare contemplation… it's all gone quiet over here. mark hollis has ... the beastie boys, money mark: money mark: on the money interview by tom cox, the guardian, 13 february 1998 there he was, fixing a gate   when along came a beastie boy. tom cox on the keyboard capers of the man who was nearly ... bernard butler: upstairs at the garage, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 11 march 1998 young pretender goes it alone ... blur, oasis: labour's love lost comment by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 13 march 1998 according to this week's nme, the honeymoon between pop and the government is well and truly over. sean o'hagan isn't surprised ... kylie minogue: kylie minogue (deconstruction) *** £15.99 review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 20 march 1998 caroline sullivan on the latest from the former pop kitten who's moving ever closer to that elusive musical maturity ... darren day, martine mccutcheon: martine mccutcheon, darren day, royal philharmonic: royal albert hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 26 march 1998 'ere, ducks, give that girl an oscar ... pulp: "nice one, jarvis!" interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 27 march 1998 jarvis cocker, latter day folk hero, talks to caroline sullivan ... james: manchester apollo live review by dave simpson, the guardian, april 1998 once upon a time, when james performed their most famous song 'sit down', whole audiences would do just that. nowadays it's tempting to suggest the ... pete seeger: flower father interview by tom cox, the guardian, 3 april 1998 a new tribute cd confirms folk singer pete seeger as the patron saint of hippy radicals   and he still hasn't lost hope. ... jurassic 5: jurassic 5 (pan) review by tom cox, the guardian, may 1998 back to skool: tom cox pays attention at the back as hip hop gets a lesson in positivity ... garbage: trash aesthetics profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 may 1998 'only happy when it rains', 'queer', 'subhuman'. and those are just the titles of garbage's harrowing songs. caroline sullivan on a band with a troubled ... jeff buckley: grace under fire retrospective by dave simpson, the guardian, 1 may 1998 singer jeff buckley lived in the shadow of his father tim's death. dave simpson remembers meeting the visionary of pain and loss, and hears the ... gomez: dingwalls, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 2 may 1998 bodysnatchers play the blues ... ian brown, the stone roses: ian brown: stone crazy report by jon savage, the guardian, 14 may 1998 ian brown, former singer in the stone roses, has caused a storm in the music press by comparing homosexuals to nazis. jon savage wants to ... saint etienne: garage, glasgow live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 14 may 1998 in their perfect world, saint etienne's new album, good humor, would be battling it out with the beatles and the prodigy. the prodigy? yes, because ... boyzone stories profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 may 1998 what's next for the irish boy band now that their main heart throb has got married? caroline sullivantalks to ronan keating about pop, faith and a ... super furry animals: a furry good year interview by tom cox, the guardian, 22 may 1998 the marauding welsh techno popsters are touring with a spinal tap scale set and making records like there's no tomorrow. tom cox meets the super furry animals. ... tricky: the forum, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 22 may 1998 choking on his own venom ... robbie williams: apollo, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 28 may 1998 he lives under the gaze of photographers; he's had public battles with fluctuating weight and unfeasible hairstyles; he's slaughtered by the press if he nips ... shirley bassey: a real big splendour   shirley bassey: royal festival hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 june 1998 only one woman can out oomph diana ross. caroline sullivan salutes shirley bassey ... kula shaker, john lennon, madonna, paul mccartney, gary numan, oasis, elvis presley, pulp, spice girls, sid vicious: mum's the word overview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 june 1998 they maybe rock icons, mad, bad and dangerous to know. but somewhere, some long suffering woman remembers them in nappies. caroline sullivan on that great institution, ... hanson: wembley arena, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 17 june 1998 teen hearts throb with teen music ... dana international: (wo)man of the summer: dana international interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 26 june 1998 caroline sullivan gets past the girl talk with eurovision winner dana international ... embrace: these charming men   embrace: limelight, belfast live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 27 june 1998 two brothers, one hell of a sound. dave simpson salutes embrace, huddersfield's oasis ... glastonbury: pop feast kicked off by football report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 june 1998 caroline sullivan sorts fab from drab ... tupac shakur: afeni shakur: the kick inside interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 july 1998 it is two years since gangsta rapper tupac shakur's short life ended in a hail of bullets. caroline sullivan talks exclusively to his mother about ... the beastie boys: beastie boys: hello nasty (grand royal) review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 3 july 1998 sick of introspective rock? pining for the time when hip hop was fun? so are the beastie boys. caroline sullivan fights for her right to party ... mark lanegan: scraps at midnight (beggars banquet) review by tom cox, the guardian, 3 july 1998 hard chimes: tom cox on a brooding, rumbling lone star ... whitney houston: nynex, manchester live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 11 july 1998 this town ain't hot enough... ... the jungle brothers: jungle brothers: straight out of the jungle (gee street) review by tom cox, the guardian, 17 july 1998 brooklyn's jungle brothers release great albums which no one buys and mediocre remixes which sell by the skipfull. ... morrissey: heaven knows he's miserable now... report and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 17 july 1998 he lives with his mum, he's been dumped by his label and he's going to court. finally, morrissey really has something to be fed up ... pulp: finsbury park, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 27 july 1998 "is this the way they say the future's meant to feel?" asked jarvis cocker as his hands, seemingly independent of the rest of his body, ... rufus wainwright: raise the rufus profile and interview by tom cox, the guardian, 7 august 1998 the son of loudon wainwright iii, this melodramatic young folk singer might be the next jeff buckley. tom cox meets him ... rock'n'roll infanticide essay by tom cox, the guardian, 7 august 1998 pop is on sick leave because the nation's youth hasn't done its music homework. tom cox tells aspiring young bands to nab their parent's record ... kylie minogue: little miss boomerang profile and interview by sheryl garratt, the guardian, 8 august 1998 kylie minogue has probably had more brickbats than bouquets since she quit soap stardom to become a pop singer. but, with a new record in ... the divine comedy: funny peculiar interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 august 1998 neil hannon, aka the divine comedy, belongs in the last century, says caroline sullivan   the man who penned the father ted theme tune is ... baby bird: there's something going on (echo) ** review by tom cox, the guardian, 28 august 1998 toxic wasteland: the new babybird has tom cox reaching for the sickbag ... larry graham, chaka khan, prince: stropping and funking   prince, chaka khan, larry graham: wembley arena, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 august 1998 the artist formerly known as prince did his best to stop caroline sullivan seeing his wembley gig. when she sneaked her way in, this is ... plush: more you becomes you (domino) review by tom cox, the guardian, 11 september 1998 more, please he may be a slowcoach, but tom cox says liam hayes is a genius ... the byrds, flying burrito brothers, international submarine band, gram parsons: gram parsons: another country retrospective by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 12 september 1998 twenty five years ago, gram parsons died in a remote desert motel, the victim of a prodigious appetite for drugs and alcohol that shocked even keith ... burt bacharach, elvis costello: burt bacharach and elvis costello: kings of america interview by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 19 september 1998 burt bacharach had his first hit when elvis costello was in short trousers. costello had hits of his own when bacharach's star was waning. now, ... mercury rev: calm after the storm interview by tom cox, the guardian, 2 october 1998 tom cox meets a bunch of animal loving weirdos who have made a mind boggling new album ... mobo workin' report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 9 october 1998 the music of black origin awards are now pop's trendiest bash, reflecting the dominant r&b influence in the charts. ... placebo: jagged little pill interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 9 october 1998 they wear dresses and make up, and think it's dangerous. but placebo's new album is a mature, mournful affair, even while the drug references court more ... kenickie: the rocket, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 10 october 1998 kenickie's in a twist ... the cure, hole: hole, the cure: the forum, london *** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 october 1998 well, it's one way of getting a rock critic out of the house. just tell her a big band is going to make a secret ... ash: civic hall, guildford live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 october 1998 going by the number of teenage lovelies in the civic hall ladies' loo, ash are hot with the girls of guildford. maybe it's just that ... calexico, neal casal, golden smog, hazeldine, the jayhawks, lambchop, gram parsons, jim white: "alternative country is what punks play when they grow up..." overview by tom cox, the guardian, 16 october 1998 tom cox on the new bands that are making country music sexy ... fatboy slim: you've come a long way, baby (skint) review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 16 october 1998 big beats, monster choons   norman cook refuses to alter a chart busting formula, says caroline sullivan ... full circle report by tom cox, the guardian, 20 october 1998 in one of the most startling comebacks in music history, tom cox is delighted to find that sales of turntables and crackly old vinyl records ... alanis morissette: not cd of the week   alanis morissette: supposed former infatuation junkie (maverick) review by sheryl garratt, the guardian, 30 october 1998 oh stop moaning sheryl garratt finds pain but no gain in a wallowing follow up album ... a&r men: where's the bar? report and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 6 november 1998 they're narcissistic coke fiends with no interest in music, or so the legend goes   yet a&r men shape the future of pop. surely, asks ... jools holland, squeeze: jools holland: coolest cat on the tube profile and interview by sheryl garratt, the guardian, 7 november 1998 he's played piano with bb king and learned chords from ruben gonzalez   but deep down he's a rock 'n' roller who likes his nan's ... natalie imbruglia: natalie lmbruglia: apollo, manchester *** live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 10 november 1998 if anyone doubts the thespian talents of neighbours, they should look at natalie lmbruglia. while her displays as beth were hampered by scripts and career threatening ... marc bolan, rolan bolan, gloria jones: when marc bolan died, pop lost its brightest star. this man lost his daddy interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 18 november 1998 now rolan bolan is making his own bid for fame. caroline sullivan met him ... lucinda williams: small town fireworks interview by tom cox, the guardian, 27 november 1998 three parts honey, two parts bourbon   the road movie songs of folk rocker lucinda williams have been hugely influential over the past 20 years, and a ... sepultura, slayer: metal mickey   slayer, sepultura: astoria, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 28 november 1998 sepultura and slayer? caroline sullivan can't take it seriously ... the la's: lee mavers: the lost boy report and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 5 december 1998 lee mavers of the la's was a star in the early nineties and idolised by oasis. then he fell foul of drugs and disappeared. amid ... massive attack: london arena, millwall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 7 december 1998 chilled out prog hop struggling in a massive arena ... all saints, boyzone, b*witched, the corrs, five, meat loaf: smash hits poll winners' party: london arena, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 december 1998 planet pop to ground control: aaagh! ... the beatles: "no one else had the flair, the panache, the wit that brian had," says paul mccartney. so why did he die miserably and alone? retrospective by jon savage, the guardian, 18 december 1998 jon savage describes how brian epstein fell victim to drugs and the pressures of being a secret homosexual. ... rock’n’role: are singers the new feminist icons? overview by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 21 december 1998 in the us, they call it the third wave   a new feminism for a new generation. it is fuelled by popular culture in general ... bryan maclean   obituary obituary by john tobler, the guardian, 2 january 1999 love on the edge with the beautiful people ... mercury rev: wulfrun hall, wolverhampton live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 january 1999 if you've chanced upon the term 'post rock' and wondered what it meant, refer to mercury rev, who   at a guess   are the very ... black star liner: bengali bantam youth experience! (wea) review by dave simpson, the guardian, 29 january 1999 dave simpson adores black star liner's mix of bollywood soundtracks and skyscraping dance beats ... the band, the beatles, gene clark, nick drake, george harrison, curtis mayfield, todd rundgren, tom waits: the alternative top 10 guide by tom cox, the guardian, 29 january 1999 1 nick drake bryter layter (island, 1970) ... miles davis, billie holiday: billie 4 miles: a kind of blue love essay by james maycock, the guardian, february 1999 miles davis confessed twice in his candid autobiography he fancied billie holiday. "she had such a sensuous mouth," he remarked, "i thought she was not ... underworld retrospective and interview by david bennun, the guardian, february 1999 as low points go, this one was not merely a dip in life's road. it was a chasm. a gorge. a bloody great sheer sided canyon. ... bonnie "prince" billy: the great pretender   bonnie "prince" billy: water rats, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 6 february 1999 caroline sullivan knows one thing about bonnie 'prince' billy. he's common ... lauryn hill: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 8 february 1999 when lauryn hill played brixton, it looked like the venue was braced for a riot. but the only rampaging mob was on stage. caroline sullivan ... terrorvision: parr hall, warrington **** live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 10 february 1999 the rock scene is currently as serious as a pub that's running low on booze. oasis, the verve and pulp are the loudly voiced men at ... fatboy slim: norman conquest profile and interview by david bennun, the guardian, 12 february 1999 at his lowest ebb, norman cook, aka fatboy slim, nearly jacked it in to be a fireman. now he's a chart topper with a clutch of ... robbie williams: sheffield arena live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 16 february 1999 if the flat cap fits: is robbie williams the new arthur askey, asks caroline sullivan ... blur: 13 review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 5 march 1999 down and outstanding ... orbital: town & country club, leeds *** live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 22 march 1999 is it really 11 years since acid house? yup, the members of the class of '88 haven't reached for their pipe and slippers yet, but ... catatonia at the brixton academy live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 23 march 1999 'every morning when i wake up, i thank the lord i'm welsh,' sings catatonia's cerys matthews, and 3,000 people sing it back to her, voices ... martine mccutcheon, barbara windsor: albert square dancing interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 26 march 1999 eastenders is having a right old knees up at the moment. caroline sullivan talks to martine mccutcheon about her million pound record deal and, below, finds ... s club 7: warning: they're part spice girl, part monkee... report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 8 april 1999 seen the show, read the book, got the t shirt? you soon will have. caroline sullivan prepares for s club 7, coming to your tv screen ... the cranberries: why, why, why, dolores? the cranberries: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 april 1999 sure, cranberries lead singer dolores o'riordan has a great voice   but that's no reason to marginalise the rest of the band, says caroline sullivan ... tom waits: mule variations (epitaph) review by tom cox, the guardian, 16 april 1999 i'd hate to be the neighbourhood psycho on tom waits's street. you'd never quite feel safe, terrorised by those all seeing, scarecrow eyes, observing your every ... all saints: saints preserve us interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 23 april 1999 all saints keep marching on as girl power's most credible models. they talk to caroline sullivan about the good side of being bad ... chrissie hynde, the pretenders: chrissie hynde: the great pretender interview by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 27 april 1999 chrissie hynde, wild woman of rock, sits in a private members' club in london's portman square in a finely tailored pinstripe suit. despite the elegance ... grandmaster flash & the furious five, the sugarhill gang: good boys of rap review by tom cox, the guardian, 30 april 1999 grandmaster flash and the furious five and melle mel: 'adventures on the wheels of steel' (sequel)the sugarhill gang: rapper's delights (sequel)various artists: sugarhill club classics ... suede: glorious kinky interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 30 april 1999 it is ten years since suede released their seminal debut album. caroline sullivan meets one of the most influential bands of the nineties ... moby: grow out the roots   moby: play (mute) **** review by dave simpson, the guardian, 14 may 1999 dave simpson on moby's return to what he does best ... ralph mctell: streets of melton mowbray: ralph mctell report and interview by andy farquarson, the guardian, 14 may 1999 melton mowbray isn't the most obvious place to search for heroes, treasure and sentimental stories. but all three are here tonight somewhere. ... rufus wainwright: embassy rooms, london **** live review by tom cox, the guardian, 21 may 1999 and mother came too ... steve earle, the del mccoury band: steve earle and the del mccoury band: royal festival hall, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 25 may 1999 most of the first half of steve earle's three hour performance was dedicated to the expert bluegrass voicings of the del mccoury band, who backed earle ... ike turner, ike & tina turner: ike turner: what love had to do with it interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 26 may 1999 ike turner last spoke to his ex wife tina in 1986. since then, he tells caroline sullivan, he's taken too much flak ... gay dad: leisurenoise (london) review by dave simpson, the guardian, 28 may 1999 hyped to the hilt, gay dad's album isn't worth the wait, says dave simpson ... the bay city rollers: standing the butt test of time report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 may 1999 the bay city rollers were the boyzone of their day   only bigger. and their fans, including caroline sullivan, still pay homage ... catatonia: glowing in the dark live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 31 may 1999 red dragon flags, rugby shirts and the strains of 'road rage' drifting across the moist night air   it could only be wales's second biggest band ... brandy: royal albert hall, london live review by tom cox, the guardian, 1 june 1999 icy cool, but no fizz ... cotton mather: dingwalls, london review by tom cox, the guardian, 3 june 1999 absolutely fabs ... the rolling stones: murrayfield, edinburgh live review by pat kane, the guardian, 7 june 1999 there was one moment, exactly half way through this gig, which gets the rolling stones' dilemma down cold. as mick, keef, charlie and ronnie were off ... the chemical brothers: beat generation interview by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 12 june 1999 the chemical brothers are the clark kents of dance music   mild mannered and thoughtful in private, impossibly fast, pile drivingly powerful on stage. so how did ... shack: all you need is love interview by tom cox, the guardian, 14 june 1999 tom cox finds the head brothers of shack in liverpool   but spiritually, they're in los angeles, circa 1967 ... the chemical brothers: chemical brothers: surrender review by dave simpson, the guardian, 18 june 1999 this album sounds like the chemical brothers threw one hell of a party. banging on the door with 'let forever be', in his first dalliance ... kristin hersh: borderline, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 19 june 1999 in the sphere of rock as psychotherapy, kristin hersh has few peers. now a decade and a half into her career, she first established herself with the ... backstreet boys: earl's court, london ** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 21 june 1999 it's a depressing thought, but the backstreet boys have a strong claim to being the most popular group in the world right now. although no ... gomez: eclectic avenue interview by tom cox, the guardian, 25 june 1999 gomez may have won the mercury music prize, but they're not your typical hard living rock stars. tom cox meets the broadest minds in the business ... gary barlow: stronger, faster, better   and taller interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 2 july 1999 gary barlow may have been upstaged by the success of his former take that colleague. then again, says caroline sullivan, robbie can't fly ... jennifer lopez, ricky martin: ifs and butts: discs from jennifer lopez and ricky martin review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 2 july 1999 as latino pop looks set to take over the charts, caroline sullivan is only mildly impressed by the two artists leading the charge ... todd terry: terry's all gold   todd terry: resolutions (innocent) review and interview by david bennun, the guardian, 2 july 1999 todd terry is huge   and if his latest album is anything to go by, says david bennun, the house deity is about to get ... garbage/scottish parliament celebrations: edinburgh live review by pat kane, the guardian, 3 july 1999 they came in their thousands to venerate the true queen of scotland. while brenda was kicking off her ceremonial pumps, shirley manson was holding court ... boyzone, the corrs, geri halliwell, martine mccutcheon, mike + the mechanics, mark morrison, westlife: boyzone, westlife, corrs, geri halliwell et al: party in the park, hyde park, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 5 july 1999 famous for 10 minutes ... celine dion: up too close and personal: celine dion: don valley stadium, sheffield live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 8 july 1999 three songs in, a smiling celine dion decides she wants to talk to us, "personally". ... macy gray: irresistible sister   macy gray: macy gray on how life is (epic) **** review by tom cox, the guardian, 9 july 1999 sweat, toil, grit and sex (the real kind)... macy gray's debut album has the guardian's new pop critic, tom cox, champing at the bit. ... morphine, mark sandman: morphine: mark sandman   exponent of low rock and low life obituary by tom cox, the guardian, 13 july 1999 mark sandman, who has died aged 46 after collapsing on stage at a gig outside rome, was the central figure in morphine, america's premier exponents ... belle and sebastian: nobodies? perfect interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 16 july 1999 belle and sebastian may not court fame, but they've sure found success. ... elaine paige, cliff richard: cliff richard, elaine paige: hyde park, london live review by tom cox, the guardian, 19 july 1999 only for the converted ... ben christophers: kashmir club, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 21 july 1999 the uk music business is amply stocked with wellers and hucknalls, and even the williams slot is filled. what it has lacked, though, is a ... technique: 100 club, london live review by keith cameron, the guardian, 22 july 1999 such is the brouhaha provoked by technique in their brief career that one might innocently suppose it had something to do with their music, and ... merz: dingwalls, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 july 1999 if your name was conrad, why would you change it to the even less euphonious merz? there's a story behind it, as there is to ... destiny's child: the writing's on the wall (columbia) review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 30 july 1999 their hippyish name apart, there's nothing about these texas teenagers that hasn't been calibrated to comply with laws governing female r&b groups. ... elvis presley: elvis: he's alive! guide by tom cox, the guardian, 30 july 1999 it's 22 years since the king was found dead at gracelands, but some people still refuse to believe he has gone. tom cox sifts through ... all saints, bananarama, spice girls, the supremes: girl groups: smash hits report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 2 august 1999 so mel c thinks geri h is untalented, does she? when girl bands break up, says caroline sullivan, the pops get personal ... gigolo aunts: the garage, london live review by keith cameron, the guardian, 3 august 1999 the past is a foreign country, and it's where the gigolo aunts choose to live. "last time we were here we were touring with the ... secret knowledge: kris needs: i snogged debbie harry profile and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 3 august 1999 if you can't be a rock star, you can always get your kicks by hanging out with them. kris needs tells dave simpson how it's ... mark morrison: how to beat a bad rap interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 6 august 1999 the baddest boy in pop is out of jail. but behind mark morrison's hard facade caroline sullivan finds a big pussycat who wants nothing more ... dr. john: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by tom cox, the guardian, 7 august 1999 if it wasn't for the beard and white suit, you might mistake dr john for the warm up act. tom cox waits in vain for something ... aretha franklin: jerry wexler: aretha and me interview by tom cox, the guardian, 13 august 1999 jerry wexler, co founder of atlantic records and in house producer, was picking himself up off the floor of muscle shoals studio in alabama when he received ... roots manuva: the venue, london **** live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 13 august 1999 you could probably write the history of british hip hop in this space. the problem is less a dearth of homegrown talent than a lack of ... wondermints: bali (big deal/emi america) ***** review by tom cox, the guardian, 13 august 1999 bloody good vibrations   they use seaflutes and palm fronds and write sun drenched melodies. oh, and they tour with brian wilson. tom cox is in ... bros, five, spice girls: bob herbert 1942 1999 obituary by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 august 1999 bob herbert, who has died in a car crash aged 57, didn't invent the idea of the packaged pop group, but, as the man responsible ... supergirly: pop tarts interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 18 august 1999 madonna loves their parodies; so do elton, mick and boy george. dave simpson meets aussie sensation supergirl ... ben & jason, witness: witness/ben & jason: the social, london live review by keith cameron, the guardian, 20 august 1999 so convivial is the heavenly record label's latest location for west end hi living that any act willing to take on its wednesday night acoustic challenge ... elastica: six track ep (deceptive) * review by tom cox, the guardian, 27 august 1999 for all the tremors, speculation and mystique you might generate by disappearing off the face of the earth after a classic debut album, there's always ... guided by voices: the garage, london live review by tom cox, the guardian, 27 august 1999 pithy, his psychedelia ... the sugarhill gang: the jazz cafe, london ** live review by tom cox, the guardian, 28 august 1999 caught in a rap trap ... pulp   a quiet revolution: queen's hall, edinburgh **** live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 2 september 1999 blinds have more fun ... hawkwind: epoch eclipse 30th anniversary box set review by dave simpson, the guardian, 3 september 1999 how did hawkwind get a reputation as peace loving hippies? they were a barking mad, space age fusion of druggy menace and joyous sonic mayhem, and they ... os mutantes: everything is possible! (luaka bop) review by tom cox, the guardian, 3 september 1999 os mutantes are the sort of dreamers you might have found on a wayward acid trip in 1969, sitting around a campfire in a brazilian ... bernard butler: he won't be suede interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 10 september 1999 since leaving suede in 1994, bernard butler has taken the battering of his life just for being "different and eccentric". but the strong and silent ... whitney houston: sheffield arena ** live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 11 september 1999 diva takes a nosedive ... leftfield: best in field interview by david bennun, the guardian, 17 september 1999 four years ago leftfield made the greatest dance album of all time. then everything went quiet until the release of their new album this month. ... live killers comment by tom cox, the guardian, 17 september 1999 here's a joke. last night, i met an alien outside a pub in north london. we got chatting about hobbies and stuff, and he ended ... david bowie: david buckley: strange fascination   the definitive david bowie story book review by keith cameron, the guardian, 23 september 1999 while most bowie biographies (notably alias david bowie, peter & leni gillman's 1986 exposé of family mental illness and the bowie "myth") are as welcome ... the clash, joe strummer: joe strummer: definitely not admitting defeat yet interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 24 september 1999 "i think good manners will come back. in america, kids saw punk rock as a licence to be as rude as possible. i didn't like ... macy gray: squeak revenge interview by tom cox, the guardian, 24 september 1999 macy gray's unearthly voice was once the butt of everyone's jokes. but after a hit album, that voice is having the last laugh. tom cox ... shelby lynne: i am shelby lynne (mercury) review by tom cox, the guardian, 24 september 1999 her father shot her mother then killed himself, she has a problem with using 'g' in song titles and she's set herself up as the ... dot allison, arab strap: arab strap, dot allison: islington union chapel, london live review by keith cameron, the guardian, 25 september 1999 smitten souls ... alice in chains: music bank review by david bennun, the guardian, october 1999 if ever a central committee for naming things should be summoned into existence, i would like to nominate, for the chair, the inventor of the ... funkapolitan: bish, bash, posh: class and british pop essay by barney hoskyns, the guardian, 1 october 1999 as tony blair calls for a classless society, he might be surprised to learn that the world of pop music is riddled with toffs. self confessed ... wheat: water rat, king's cross live review by keith cameron, the guardian, 5 october 1999 in a relatively brief career, one imagines wheat are already weary of agricultural quips prompted by their name. but it would help if the massachusetts ... fine young cannibals, roland gift: roland gift: not the man he used to be interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 7 october 1999 roland gift tells dave simpson why he has no reason to mourn the demise of the fine young cannibals ... moloko: home, london ** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 11 october 1999 "we," declared the blonde girl in the dj booth, "are the moloko sound system." this was bad news indeed. every band currently has what it ... christina aguilera, breze: life in plastic, it's fantastic report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 october 1999 who are all these new singers who go straight in at no 1? caroline sullivan on the rise of the boil in the bag pop star ... the bay city rollers: my tartan heart retrospective by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 18 october 1999 caroline sullivan reflects on the life and love of a teenage bay city rollers fan ... beth orton: academy, manchester **** live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 19 october 1999 real angry woman ... the incredible string band: an incredible string reunion: an interview with robin williamson interview by andy farquarson, the guardian, 22 october 1999 to those of the rizla generation who spent the summer of 1967 rolling joints on its album sleeves, the incredible string band occupies near mythic status. ... gabrielle: sunshine after rainy days interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 22 october 1999 after what she's been through, who'd begrudge gabrielle her success? not caroline sullivan. ... horace andy: roots master   horace andy: living in the flood (melankolic) **** review by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 22 october 1999 thirty years into his career as a reggae singer, horace andy has hit paydirt, writes sean o'hagan ... the high llamas: snowbug (v2) review by tom cox, the guardian, 22 october 1999 the aural equivalent of icing desperately missing a cake, high llamas records are all arrangement and no song, taking the legacy of the beach boys ... campag velocet : music box, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 23 october 1999 market rap an outrage ... shelby lynne: embassy rooms, london **** live review by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 27 october 1999 one of the new breed of us country crossover stars, shelby lynne doesn't have the smooth, invincible sheen of a shania twain or a mindy ... hoyt axton, steppenwolf, three dog night: hoyt axton, 1938 1999 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 28 october 1999 singer songwriter who spanned folk, country and rock music ... jimmy webb: pizza on the park, london *** live review by keith cameron, the guardian, 28 october 1999 when the boo radleys wrote a song called 'jimmy webb is god' they presumably weren't gripped by a vision of the lord playing a gig ... crosby stills nash & young: "deja vu again" interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 29 october 1999 there's no mistaking the portly middle aged man with the walrus moustache beached on a sofa at the dorchester hotel, plucking the chords of neil young's ... merz: merz (epic) review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 october 1999 don't wait until next year for oasis or radiohead   the debut album from merz is here now, and it will leave you bewitched, says ... alton ellis, bob marley & the wailers, lee "scratch" perry, the pioneers, prince buster, max romeo and the upsetters, the skatalites: ska: fascinating rhythm retrospective by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 29 october 1999 fresh out of young jamaica in the 60s, ska became the defining sound of a vibrant music scene   in turn it influenced 70s reggae, ... horace andy: heavenly social, london live review by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 30 october 1999 after three decades as a singer, horace andy can still surprise. lucy o'brien reports ... shack: shepherd's bush empire, london   fine songs, poor show live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 6 november 1999 to look at the quartet of off duty plumbers who comprise liverpool's shack   which you can't do on their current album, hms fable, as it ... beck: arty like it's 1999   beck: midnite vultures (geffen) review by tom cox, the guardian, 12 november 1999 tom cox picks over the latest from a surreal, scrambled brain ... basement jaxx: academy, manchester **** live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 16 november 1999 big cheese party ... chuck prophet: underworld, london **** live review by keith cameron, the guardian, 17 november 1999 in 1989 chuck prophet was the snake hipped, guitar slinging foil to dan stuart's punch drunk sheriff in american rock'n'rollers green on red. ... coldcut: shepherds bush empire, london *** live review by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 17 november 1999 ramraiders of the past ... guided by voices: ale to the king interview by tom cox, the guardian, 19 november 1999 he's 42, his main influences are the beatles and genesis, and he's still putting self proclaimed rock'n'roll animals to shame. tom cox shared more than a ... the isley brothers: it's your thing: the story of the isley brothers (epic) ***** review by tom cox, the guardian, 19 november 1999 the most definitive summation of the isley brothers' career so far begins not with a song but a real, live shriek. ... eurythmics: wembley arena, london live review by tom cox, the guardian, 20 november 1999 thorn in my side ... everything but the girl: forum, london live review by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 20 november 1999 smooth grooves ... prince: pop stars as you'll never see them report by tom cox, the guardian, 20 november 1999 i have a certain contingent of friends who want to protect me from the music business because they think it's riddled with merciless charlatans and ... pavement: brixton academy, london **** live review by keith cameron, the guardian, 22 november 1999 a grave goodnight ... foo fighters: barrowland ballroom, glasgow live review by keith cameron, the guardian, 23 november 1999 a threadbare celtic cliché claims audiences at this decrepit old ballroom are better than anywhere else in the country, perhaps even the world. but as ... atomic kitten: who the hell are atomic kitten? profile by dave simpson, the guardian, 26 november 1999 so, who the hell are they? liverpudlian about to be pop sensations elizabeth mclarnon (18), kerry katona (19) and natasha hamilton (17). ... luscious jackson, pavement: a rocky place for friendships comment by tom cox, the guardian, 27 november 1999 this summer, i interviewed luscious jackson, the funky, friendly new york girl group, in a hotel suite de renovated to resemble an adolescent bedroom on the ... foo fighters: at the brixton academy live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 27 november 1999 the number of rock drummers who've realised they were destined for headier things at the front of the stage can be counted on two fingers: ... henry rollins: lse old theatre, london **** live review by keith cameron, the guardian, 30 november 1999 somewhere up there, reclining on a celestial tobacco cloud, bill hicks must cast a rueful eye towards the one man stand up multi gym that is henry rollins. ... marc almond, labelle, dusty springfield: vicki wickham: ready, vicki, go! retrospective and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 30 november 1999 she's managed stars from dusty springfield to marc almond and has just won an award for her lifetime's work in the music industry. but outside ... herb abramson, 1916 1999 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 3 december 1999 herb abramson, who has died aged 82, was one of the architects of atlantic records, which in the 1950s and 60s was the most creative ... pete townshend, the who: pete townshend: peter rabbits interview by tom cox, the guardian, 3 december 1999 i'm laughing, but pete townshend is frightening me. "yes!!!!!" he shouts, and bangs hard on the table in his richmond studio, for the second time ... the mavericks: hammersmith palais, london   let's do the timewarp live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 3 december 1999 there's a new best of the mavericks compilation launched to commemorate the "first decade of maverick music", which prompts the alarming thought that they may ... spice girls: robotic neurotics: spice girls: evening news arena, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 6 december 1999 your band may take a year off, but if you are a spice girl you just can't keep out of the headlines. ... george michael: even older, but no wiser   george michael: songs from the last century (virgin) ** review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 10 december 1999 he has fought for credibility since his wham! days   now he's blown it for ever, says caroline sullivan ... birth: who the hell are they?: birth profile by dave simpson, the guardian, 10 december 1999 so, who the hell are they? he, actually. the rather oddly named bournemouth export dawm lanten, who understandably prefers to be called dl. ... mullet of kintyre, anyone? comment by tom cox, the guardian, 11 december 1999 one of the best christmas presents you could buy for the 80s obsessive in your life this year is the mullet: hairstyle of the gods, ... the beach boys, phil spector, brian wilson: phil spector and brian wilson: the nutty producers retrospective by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 16 december 1999 without phil spector and brian wilson, the 60s would have sounded very different, says sean o'hagan. ... the notorious b.i.g., tupac shakur: the notorious big: born again (puff daddy records/arista) **; 2pac+outlawz: still i rise (interscope) **** review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 17 december 1999 stiff competition: caroline sullivan checks out the latest from two late rappers ... royal trux: bang, crash brilliance: royal trux: scala, london live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 18 december 1999 royal trux don't give a damn and don't care who knows it. ... coal chamber, korn, limp bizkit, orgy, rage against the machine, static x, system of a down, rob zombie: they love bands called snot and orgy and dress like s&m fans. welcome to nu metal report by dave simpson, the guardian, 20 december 1999 dave simpson tunes into the latest pop cult ... george clinton, funkadelic, parliament: george clinton: the p father of p funk retrospective by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 23 december 1999 who was pop's greatest showman? sean o'hagan has no hesitation in picking george clinton. ... bob dylan, 1966: a lot of nerve retrospective by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 30 december 1999 it was 1965, and in a surge of amphetamine fuelled creativity bob dylan was reinventing the pop song. but then a motorbike crash changed everything. as ... almost famous: 1973 and all that essay by charles shaar murray, the guardian, 2000 1973 as a rock and roll annus mirabilis? six thousand miles away from the old rolling stone office in san francisco, it felt more like ... bob b. soxx & the blue jeans: bobby sheen obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 2000 whenever he made records under his own name, bobby sheen, who has died aged 57, was out of luck. but as bob b soxx, the ... glen campbell profile and interview by david bennun, the guardian, 2000 "i can," says glen campbell, "wriggle my right breast." he demonstrates. it's true. he can. ... steely dan: librarians on acid profile and interview by barney hoskyns, the guardian, january 2000 steely dan have always split people down the middle. on one side sit major dudes like william gibson, who delight in the apparent disjunction between ... don "sugarcane" harris, 1939 1999 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 3 january 2000 the jazz, blues and rock violinist don "sugarcane" harris, who has died of pulmonary illness aged 61, played on four of frank zappa's albums, including ... gene: forum, london live review by keith cameron, the guardian, 18 january 2000 as the music industry struggles to acclimatise to the brave new online era, it's somehow fitting that the first major gig of the year should ... the wannadies: dingwalls, london live review by keith cameron, the guardian, 20 january 2000 the old adage says that a pop song is only truly popular once postmen are heard whistling it, but the approbation of bar staff isn't ... smashing pumpkins: dominion theatre, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 26 january 2000 heavy on the '70s metal ... oasis: what you on about? review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 28 january 2000 caroline sullivan is not convinced by the comeback single ... terris: astoria, london live review by keith cameron, the guardian, 29 january 2000 every year they come, wan faced desperadoes who all too willingly pronounce themselves saviours of that raddled old nag we know as rock 'n' roll. ... oasis: standing on the shoulder of giants (big brother) ** review by tom cox, the guardian, 4 february 2000 for has beens apparent, oasis still possess remarkable powers of intimidation, but in the build up to standing on the shoulder of giants they've cunningly switched tactics. ... the cure: astoria, london live review by keith cameron, the guardian, 11 february 2000 if life really begins at 40, then pity robert smith, a man who has spent more than 20 years ruminating on the sheer hopelessness of ... death in vegas: the cockpit, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 18 february 2000 better listen at home ... smashing pumpkins: machina/machines of god (hut) * review by tom cox, the guardian, 18 february 2000 for the dizzy hippy posing as disaffected slacker, smashing pumpkins were the perfect band to help you dream your way through the grunge era. ... pete townshend's lifehouse: sadler's wells, london live review by keith cameron, the guardian, 28 february 2000 pete townshend at sadler's wells? the ex who star's venue for this performance of the 30 years in the making rock opera lifehouse was, like its recent broadcast on radio ... ac/dc: stiff upper lip (emi) review by tom cox, the guardian, 3 march 2000 ac/dc may or may not currently be writing the best lyrics in rock. it's hard to tell, since they don't print them on their album ... shola ama: jazz café, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 11 march 2000 the story goes that west london teenager shola ama was singing to herself at hammersmith tube station one day when, in true pop legend fashion, a ... ali farka touré: barbican, london   niger river delta blues live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 14 march 2000 it has become increasingly difficult to prise malian guitarist ali farka touré away from the rural life in his home village of niafunke. ... kirsty maccoll: tropical brainstorm review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 17 march 2000 kirsty maccoll's first album since 1994 sees her flirting with latin rhythms and cliched tourist brochure lyrics. but, says caroline sullivan, it's better than you'd think ... prefab sprout: going for a song profile and interview by tom cox, the guardian, 21 march 2000 paddy mcaloon made prefab sprout one of britain's favourite bands. now you can buy the albums for just 10p. tom cox asks him how he ... lou reed: ecstasy (wea) review by tom cox, the guardian, 24 march 2000 it begins with a grumble: not lou himself, but a bass guitar attempting to clone the sound of an oap getting on a downtown bus, ... beck: wembley arena, london **** live review by tom cox, the guardian, 25 march 2000 chameleon colours ... the mighty imperials: mighty imperials: i can't dance to this modern racket essay by tom cox, the guardian, 25 march 2000 i'm supposed to be watching the debut uk gig by new york's mighty imperials, but, off to stage right, three black men are turning themselves ... cypress hill: astoria, london **** live review by keith cameron, the guardian, 28 march 2000 the ongoing debate about the decriminalisation of cannabis seems redundant when a substantial proportion of the 1,800 people shoehorned into the astoria have voted with ... phil collins: this man must be stopped comment by tom cox, the guardian, 30 march 2000 stop up your ears. unplug the radio. phil collins is back, with an oscar winning song, a tribute album, even a high profile lawsuit. tom cox prays ... julian cope: royal festival hall, london **** live review by tom cox, the guardian, 4 april 2000 it has been a long time since julian cope could be described merely as a singing psychedelic mystic eco warrior. ... the chart busters report and interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 4 april 2000 first britpop, then drum'n'bass, now uk garage: behind every popular band are the a&r scouts, hunting for acts who might repeat that success. ... inner city jam: a musical about rundown north london. in leeds comment by dave simpson, the guardian, 11 april 2000 inner city jam is a colourful portrait of king's cross. so why couldn't it find a theatre in the capital, asks dave simpson ... l7: manchester university live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 13 april 2000 bad grrls live forever ... coldplay, muse, radiohead, six by seven: no surprises: radiohead and their kind report by barney hoskyns, the guardian, 14 april 2000 after the success of ok computer, radiohead's next album is one of the most eagerly awaited records ever. perhaps, says barney hoskyns, that's why copycat ... angelica: the monarch, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 20 april 2000 girl pop has rarely been less prepossessing. the choices these days boil down to factory farmed mannequins like atomic kitten or fourth generation copies of hole that ... dwight twilley: magical mystery man retrospective and interview by tom cox, the guardian, 21 april 2000 the name dwight twilley probably doesn't ring a bell, but to the cognoscenti he's a rock'n'roll legend blessed with pop sensibility and irresistible animal magnetism. ... buena vista social club, omara portuondo: omara portuondo: royal festival hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 april 2000 cuba's edith piaf ... david pajo, papa m: papa m: brudenell social club, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 29 april 2000 how to avoid an audience ... matthew sweet: in reverse (zomba) review and interview by barney hoskyns, the guardian, may 2000 matthew sweet began the '90s with the much feted girlfriend, an album of angular, bittersweet power pop markedly different from the meaty rage of nirvana and ... the jayhawks: smile (columbia) review by tom cox, the guardian, 5 may 2000 "these songs act like country tinged rock and roll with an intellectual attitude and shit kicking ambiance, but they're smarter than they act... they aren't as simple ... heinz, john leyton, joe meek, the tornados: geoff goddard, 1939 2000 obituary by alan clayson, the guardian, 25 may 2000 innovative songwriter in an era before the beatles ... public enemy: new trinity, bristol live review by keith cameron, the guardian, 29 may 2000 though they no longer dominate hip hop as they did 10 years ago, it's worth remembering that, before public enemy, rap was not an instinctively ... pearl jam: wembley arena   forever grunge live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 31 may 2000 in the us, pearl jam are held up as everything a big rock band should be: unswervingly dedicated to their brooding art, with a complementary ... the dandy warhols: a toast to the wasted: the dandy warhols: the cockpit, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 8 june 2000 as iggy pop would testify, you can always rely on the british public to take a drug frazzled american wacko to their hearts. ... cat power: the spitz, london live review by keith cameron, the guardian, 10 june 2000 a shuffle in the dark: cat power leaves keith cameron ill at ease ... coldplay: cockpit, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 13 june 2000 for their ardent supporters, coldplay are the great white hopes of british angst rock. for their equally vociferous detractors, they are miserable musos who have ... richard ashcroft: alone with everybody (hut) ** review by tom cox, the guardian, 16 june 2000 kindred to the hippie but more english, less articulate, less political, more self serving and better at fighting, the dippie is a breed of musician that ... kasey chambers: daughter of a preacher man interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 4 july 2000 one day you're trapping foxes in the outback with your devout dad. the next, you're a country singer. adam sweeting meets kasey chambers. ... girl thing: no more girl power comment by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 5 july 2000 girl thing were meant to be the new spice girls. but the public had other ideas. caroline sullivan reports ... creedence clearwater revival, john fogerty: john fogerty: the saddest story in rock retrospective and interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 11 july 2000 in 1988 john fogerty was sued for plagiarising his own songs. adam sweeting talks to the creedence clearwater revival frontman about 12 years of bitter ... graham coxon: sheffield leadmill live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 13 july 2000 grunge therapy ... joão gilberto: the barbican, london live review by john l. walters, the guardian, 18 july 2000 try this for an example of musical minimalism: a man sits on a stool before a single microphone at the centre of a stage which ... kasey chambers: borderline, london live review by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 20 july 2000 kasey chambers is a 23 year old new country artist, from new south wales rather than nashville. she has already sold 70,000 copies of her debut album, ... sleater kinney: cockpit, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 26 july 2000 it’s hard enough being a 21st century, radical feminist post punk band, but sleater kinney have a further enemy in the sound system. "this is our fourth member," ... crescent, movietone: movietone: brudenell social club, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 31 july 2000 how do you know when a "pop" band is part of the underground? there are probably several definitions, but one of them must surely be ... eliza carthy, kate rusby, kathryn williams: sandals out, piercing in: the new folk sirens overview by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 24 august 2000 liverpudlian artist kathryn williams is among the nominees for this years mercury music prize   and hotly tipped to win. last year kate rusby was ... lowell george: time loves a hero: lowell george retrospective by adam sweeting, the guardian, 30 august 2000 the eagles sold more records and steely dan went down better with intellectuals, but the best american band of the 1970s was little feat, led ... andrew weatherall: my brilliant career interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 6 september 2000 andrew weatherall helped to invent both dance music and the superstar dj. then, burnt out and disillusioned, he went underground. as he emerges with a ... steely dan: wembley arena live review by john l. walters, the guardian, 11 september 2000 great gig, but what a shame not to hear 'what a shame about me'. it's the perfect singalong anthem for fans of steely dan, since ... little feat: forum, london live review by paul lester, the guardian, 13 september 2000 there were three groups who vividly chronicled life in post woodstock america. the band sought refuge from the psychedelic intensity of the period in the country's ... bob dylan: vicar st, dublin ***** live review by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 16 september 2000 the 800 tickets for this suddenly announced "intimate" show supposedly sold out in 15 seconds. for the select multitude, then, this was a night of ... melanie c: st george's hall, bradford live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 19 september 2000 of the many routes to solo stardom open to a spice girl, being a rock chick is not one of them. just ask mel c. ... magazine: maybe it's right to be nervous now (virgin, 3cds) **** review by keith cameron, the guardian, 22 september 2000 following an initial period of liberation, punk, like all revolutionary forces, soon substituted new orthodoxies for those it had blown apart. ... neal casal: borderline, london live review by john aizlewood, the guardian, 25 september 2000 it is hard not to sympathise with neal casal: he is surely doing this for love, not money. after seven mostly impressive albums in five ... radiohead: victoria park, london **** live review by keith cameron, the guardian, 25 september 2000 for darlings of an allegedly slack generation, you can't deny radiohead have high standards. this is the band who recently took 373 days to record ... the kingsbury manx: water rats, london live review by keith cameron, the guardian, 3 october 2000 in their riot of visual understatement, the kingsbury manx suggest a new derivation of math rock that has little to do with rigorously precise musicianship and ... shivaree: borderline, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 5 october 2000 although shivaree is nominally a band, all interest is inevitably going to focus on vocalist ambrosia parsley (her real name, should you feel inclined to ... allison moorer: dingwalls, london live review by john aizlewood, the guardian, 16 october 2000 she may be traditional down to her oft repeated felicitations to "y'all", but alabama's allison moorer is hardly a typical country woman, and not solely because ... eileen rose: spitz, london live review by john aizlewood, the guardian, 19 october 2000 another week, another female singer trying to merge alanis morissette's lyrical convolutions, sheryl crow's tuneful rock chickery and that hint of kookiness jewel embraces with ... jason donovan: jason gets sorted interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 19 october 2000 jason donovan was the golden boy of soap and pop 10 years ago. then he went bald and it all fell apart. now he's reinvented ... cousteau: cousteau review by john aizlewood, the guardian, 20 october 2000 we have been this way before. many times in fact, since 1967, when scott walker discovered jacques brel and embarked upon a most contrary solo ... coldplay: shepherd's bush empire live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 24 october 2000 the shambolically serious coldplay. ... u2: all that you can't leave behind review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 27 october 2000 prising themselves free from their mid '90s fixations with irony and las vegas glitz, u2 have circled back to what they've always done best. that means ... placebo: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 november 2000 it's halloween, so it's fitting that the evening's main attraction is a petulant succubus wearing a tight purple suit and nail varnish. if you hadn't ... smashing pumpkins: manchester apollo live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 2 november 2000 final fling for the painful pumpkins. ... cosmic rough riders: enjoy the melodic sunshine review by dave simpson, the guardian, 3 november 2000 it's seven years since alan mcgee "discovered" oasis blowing 18 wheeler off the stage in king tut's, glasgow. since then, his creation label has gone ... artful dodger (2000s): artful dodger: it's all about the stragglers review by paul lester, the guardian, 10 november 2000 artful dodger's debut is a glorious compilation of two step hooklines. ... spice girls, westlife: battle of the blands: westlife versus the spice girls comment by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 november 2000 it was the biggest chart clash since blur versus oasis: westlife versus the spice girls. what does that tell us about today's music business, asks ... marti pellow: apollo, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 13 november 2000 anybody who ever wondered how marti pellow managed to live with himself after producing the excruciating 'love is all around'   14 weeks at number ... wondermints: borderline, london live review by john aizlewood, the guardian, 17 november 2000 in the momentary silence following 'global village idiot''s harmonic but angular climax, some wag shouts "surf's up!" it's part request, part comment and everyone in ... bent: rocket, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 18 november 2000 we’re heading for the silly season. for the next month or so, the tv companies will dig out those old episodes of top of the ... david cavanagh: the creation records story   my magpie eyes are hungry for the prize (virgin) book review by stevie chick, the guardian, 25 november 2000 when news of the closure of creation records broke on november 26 1999, one person at least must have been grateful. david cavanagh now had ... craig david: city hall, sheffield live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 27 november 2000 people are divided on craig david. for some, he is the spearhead of uk garage, whose pioneering "two step" music has swept him to two number ... ...and you will know us by the trail of dead: and you will know us by the trail of dead: cockpit, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 29 november 2000 with a name like and you will know us by the trail of dead, you could say these texan noise punks are looking for trouble   ... ac/dc: nec arena, birmingham live review by keith cameron, the guardian, 30 november 2000 more than 25 years after they started it, ac/dc are still playing it   the riff. the same sticklebacked three chord trick has been their passport ... richard ashcroft: apollo, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 5 december 2000 the verve man rises again in style ... jean jacques burnel: manchester university live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 11 december 2000 jean jacques burnel is one of rock's most notorious characters. in the stranglers' authorised biography, no mercy, 20 pages tackle the subject of "burnel, violence". ... cradle of filth: astoria, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 18 december 2000 and a satanic merry christmas from cradle of filth, nice ipswich boys whose idea of a great night is quaffing freshly drawn virgin's blood to rev ... the human league: human remains report by dave simpson, the guardian, 20 december 2000 what are the human league doing playing a bank's christmas do? dave simpson reports ... the corrs: wembley arena live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 22 december 2000 glamour and gutsiness   par for the corrs ... bill frisell: let your fingers do the talking interview by richard williams, the guardian, 2001 jazz guitarist bill frisell has worked with everyone from chet baker to marianne faithful. so why start taking lessons now? richard williams met him ... all saints: when the saints go marching out retrospective by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 10 january 2001 they've been on the verge of it before, but this time it looks as though all saints are finally splitting up. caroline sullivan laments the ... the frank and walters: glass review by john aizlewood, the guardian, 12 january 2001 it is hardly giving away state secrets to acknowledge that things are not going well for cork's frank and walters. when their 1992 debut trains, ... joe: better days review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 14 january 2001 when you're born with a name as memorable as usher or aaliyah, there's no need to rack your brains for a zappy alter ego. if, ... brit awards 2001: prize fools report by dave simpson, the guardian, 17 january 2001 the brits shortlist will spark a hunt for the next coldplay or craig david. dave simpson despairs ... the divine comedy: divine comedy: riverside studios, london review by john aizlewood, the guardian, 26 january 2001 "tonight, we're going to play all of the new album. ... dido: what went right? profile and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 29 january 2001 last november, 29 year old dido armstrong and her boyfriend bob were discussing their day at work. bob had gone to the office and relaxed with a ... ani difranco: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by john aizlewood, the guardian, 1 february 2001 without a hint of mainstream chart or media attention over a decade long career, without a new record to promote and without any discernible music industry ... ronnie scott: playing with fire report and interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 5 february 2001 the musicians' union is accused of failing its members. ... natalie cole: king and i interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 8 february 2001 natalie cole has been a prostitutes' tout, a junkie and the winner of no fewer than eight grammys. she tells dave simpson about scandal, success ... eminem: manchester arena live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 9 february 2001 eminem's reputation as world's number one bad boy rapper precedes him. amid scenes reminiscent of the sex pistols, his records have been banned by student ... rickie lee jones at the jazz cafe live review by ian penman, the guardian, 10 february 2001 rickie lee jones is something of an anomaly. her latest album, it's like this, has just been nominated for a grammy   but how many ... lina: manchester university live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 13 february 2001 lina's delicious smoky big band sound ... the price is wrong comment by adam sweeting, the guardian, 14 february 2001 it's been a bad week for music fans   but a good week for the industry. adam sweeting on why the cd swindle has to ... fun lovin' criminals: loco (chrysalis) review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 23 february 2001 felonious funk: caroline sullivan enjoys the wiseguy lotharios of new york ... rough trade: top of the shops retrospective and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 26 february 2001 one little store inspired a new breed of musician and turned the record industry on its head. dave simpson celebrates 25 years of rough trade ... westlife: manchester arena live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 26 february 2001 as the band remind us from the stage, they are the only group to have their first five british singles enter the chart at number ... manic street preachers: our manics in havana report and interview by simon price, the guardian, 2 march 2001 wales's fab three have just become the first major western rock act ever to play in cuba. simon price went with them ... kylie minogue: camping with kylie: kylie minogue: manchester apollo, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 9 march 2001 having recovered from the pretensions of duets with nick cave and songwriting with the manic street preachers, kylie has returned to the fluffy pop we ... gay dad: "we're back. don't tell your friends" interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 march 2001 two years ago, when gay dad were at their most hyped, lead singer cliff jones predicted that his band's name would be remembered as "either ... linton kwesi johnson: wardrobe, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 23 march 2001 it's 26 years since linton kwesi johnson became the world's first and foremost dub poet with the single 'dread beat an' blood'. for this rare ... the deftones, linkin park: linkin park/deftones: manchester apollo live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 26 march 2001 the boy band, nu metal style ... laura nyro: songs in the key of life: laura nyro's angel in the dark review by richard williams, the guardian, 6 april 2001 this album is incomplete, but so was laura nyro's life. it is the project on which she was working when she died of ovarian cancer ... muse: manchester academy live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 9 april 2001 cheek sucking muse camp it up ... shane macgowan and simon napier bell: the sound and the fury book review by ian penman, the guardian, 14 april 2001 black vinyl, white powder, simon napier bell (390pp, ebury press £16.99)a drink with shane macgowan, victoria mary clarke and shane macgowan (360pp, sidgwick & jackson £15.99) ... starsailor: plain sailing: starsailor profile and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 17 april 2001 starsailor have been tipped as the most exciting band since coldplay. has that been a curse or a blessing, asks dave simpson. ... cosmic rough riders: fibbers, york live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 25 april 2001 recent months have seen cosmic rough riders bask in an enviable reputation as rock critics have fallen over themselves to hail the band as the ... david byrne: "therapy is like a lobotomy. who wants to have all their edges shaved off?" report and interview by ian gittins, the guardian, 27 april 2001 he's accepted now, at last, that he'll always be known for one thing: the big suit. in 1984, david byrne, the voice of new york ... kristin hersh: shepherds bush empire, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 28 april 2001 with her new album, sunny border blue, kristin hersh has done no harm whatsoever to her image as the sylvia plath of pop. while hersh ... goldfrapp: "the mercury prize? oh god, that would be great. i deserve something" profile and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 4 may 2001 singing sensation alison goldfrapp tells dave simpson why her time has come. ... ryan adams: lyric theatre, hammersmith live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 8 may 2001 as frontman of quasi legendary "alt country" band whiskeytown, ryan adams found excitable listeners likening him to gram parsons or even bob dylan. comparisons like these have ... r.e.m.: reveal review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 11 may 2001 this is the second album rem have made since the departure of drummer bill berry, and (on disc at least) it finds them settling into ... outkast: partners in rhyme: outkast profile and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 18 may 2001 one of them is a blonde wigged, teetotal vegetarian who reads pushkin. the other breeds pitbulls in his spare time. together they have been called the ... s club 7: pop's magnificent seven: s club 7: arena, sheffield **** live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 21 may 2001 for their first tour, s club 7 are taking risks. dark haired hannah is lowered in on a parachute, while clean cut jon clambers out of the ... anoushka shankar: daddy's girl profile and interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 30 may 2001 if anyone was born to play the sitar, it's anoushka shankar. adam sweeting asks her about life in ravi's shadow. ... the eagles: you can break up any time you like, but you can never leave report by adam sweeting, the guardian, 5 june 2001 "while the band did break up in 1980, our music continued without us," wrote eagles founder member glenn frey last year. "it was becoming increasingly ... the eagles: eagles: earls court, london live review by john aizlewood, the guardian, 12 june 2001 with many tickets costing £60, an official baseball top going for a mere £70 and queues of more than 30 minutes to enter earls court, ... rufus wainwright: "my parents the folk heroes" profile and interview by barney hoskyns, the guardian, 15 june 2001 the wittiest request from the crowd at rufus wainwright's new york show last week was for ‘rufus is a tit man’, a song written aeons ... travis: songs in the key of life: travis interview by keith cameron, the guardian, 23 june 2001 if there is one thing you can be completely sure of, it is this: at some point today, a u.k. radio station will play a ... paco de lucia: royal festival hall, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 30 june 2001 despite all the detours in paco de lucia's career, his current seven piece ensemble maintains links with his past. still present from the group's original 1981 ... slaves to the rhythm: is napster dying? report by edward helmore, the guardian, 7 july 2001 after leading the digital music revolution, edward helmore says former fans won't flock back to napster when it relaunches this summer ... ernie k doe obituary obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 10 july 2001 in 1961, into pop charts dominated by the likes of elvis presley, connie francis and dion and the belmonts came the novelty song, 'mother in law', whose ... wyclef jean: brixton academy, london ** live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 10 july 2001 ... fred neil obituary by colin irwin, the guardian, 11 july 2001 he wrote one of the most famous songs of the late 20th century, but fred neil, who has died aged 64 of cancer, remains one ... the human league: human remains: the human league retrospective and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 13 july 2001 two decades after their synthpop assault on the charts, the human league are back. ... erykah badu: apollo, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 18 july 2001 i have seen bowie atop a giant glass spider and u2 stuck inside a lemon, but i cannot recall an entrance like erykah badu's. ... ashton, gardner & dyke: tony ashton, 1946 2000 obituary by alan clayson, the guardian, 19 july 2001 born of a musical family in blackburn, ashton grew up in blackpool. before leaving school at 15, he was already a competent pianist and organist, ... catatonia, cerys matthews: cerys matthews: "i'll end up a spinster, like my role model anne widdecombe" interview by ian gittins, the guardian, 20 july 2001 a year ago, after a rumoured nervous breakdown, a rift within the band and a cancelled tour, the music press had consigned cerys matthews and ... mercury rev’s dark dream interview by barney hoskyns, the guardian, august 2001 on may 28, 1998, jonathan donahue and sean "grasshopper" of mercury rev sat rather dejectedly in a diner in woodstock, new york, and talked about ... i was an oz schoolkid memoir by charles shaar murray, the guardian, 2 august 2001 it's 30 years since oz was prosecuted in an infamous obscenity trial. the underground magazine had been guest edited by a bunch of teenagers   and ... the chameleons: irish centre, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 3 august 2001 there's a wonderful   if apocryphal   story about the major label a&r team that was dispatched to manchester in the 1980s with instructions to sign ... nerina pallot: borderline, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 8 august 2001 as nerina pallot observes, radio seems to get behind just one female singer songwriter a year, making the odds against success about the same as winning ... primal scream: astoria, london live review by john aizlewood, the guardian, 14 august 2001 having long ago meandered woozily across the line between inexorably naff and insufferably hip, primal scream find themselves approaching another musical crossroads. ... david krakauer, roby lakatos: an evening of klezmer/gypsy music: royal albert hall, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 17 august 2001 this was a late night dip into "the music of the diaspora and of the dispossessed", as the proms brochure melodramatically put it. ... charlatans, the (uk): the charlatans: leadmill, sheffield live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 18 august 2001 last week's shock revelations that keyboard player tony rogers is suffering from testicular cancer was a rare occurrence of a rock band making the national ... boz scaggs: the boz is back interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 27 august 2001 the least driven man in rhythm and blues has somehow produced another album. adam sweeting gets the lowdown ... ben christophers: spitz, london live review by john aizlewood, the guardian, 6 september 2001 times are tough right now for the musical descendants of jeff and tim buckley, tim hardin and talk talk in their noodly period. always on ... blade, roots manuva: the home boys: roots manuva and the uk posse report and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 13 september 2001 who needs eminem and p diddy when we've got perfectly good british rappers? dave simpson talks to roots manuva and the uk posse ... war within war: black americans and the vietnam conflict retrospective by james maycock, the guardian, 15 september 2001 the vietnam war saw countless numbers of america's young men   both black and white   thrown into combat. they were there to fight the ... the residents: royal festival hall, london live review by john aizlewood, the guardian, 18 september 2001 "you're not the real residents!" shouts a heckler. he may or may not have a point   there is no way of telling. since 1972, ... ryan adams: "i'm not a star to myself. i just make records" interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 19 september 2001 the young bob dylan once said that the only way for an aspiring songwriter to develop was to write 10 songs every day, then throw ... preston school of industry: barfly, sheffield live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 26 september 2001 in the early 1990s dark ages before britpop, homegrown guitar music was going through a painful obsession with america. at one point almost any statesider ... richie hawtin: manchester sankey's soap live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 29 september 2001 on those rare non dj ing nights, when richie hawtin sleeps, perhaps he dreams that he was part of the detroit stable of artist djs who invented techno, ... spiritualized: academy, manchester live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 3 october 2001 the live album is traditionally the wooden spoon of rock releases, dumped on the public either to fulfil a contract or bide time until the ... aphex twin: tank boy: aphex twin profile and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 5 october 2001 from limp bizkit to madonna, everyone wants to work with the aphex twin. but those high paying jobs aren’t important, he tells paul lester. he’d only ... groove armada: leadmill, sheffield live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 23 october 2001 acknowledged kings of chill out, groove armada's music works best in certain environments, ideally a mediterranean beach, hours after closing time. however, presenting chilled out sounds within ... harold budd, bill laswell, jah wobble: jah wobble's solaris: ocean, london live review by john aizlewood, the guardian, 23 october 2001 never afraid of embracing the cerebral, jah wobble's latest group project, solaris, is inspired by stanislaw lem's 1961 science fiction novel and, especially, andrei tarkovsky's ... rock's backpages: blasts from the past report and interview by andy farquarson, the guardian, 1 november 2001 your ancient copies of nme can go. andy farquarson reports on an online library of music journalism. ... alicia keys: "i love chopin… he's my dawg": alicia keys report and interview by ian gittins, the guardian, 2 november 2001 stevie loves her, oprah's after her and prince is always on the phone. as alicia keys prepares to storm the uk charts, ian gittins meets ... freeheat: who the hell are... freeheat overview by dave simpson, the guardian, 9 november 2001 a regular guide to new bands heading your way ... the white stripes: l2, liverpool live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 15 november 2001 the curious success of the white stripes is proof that rock'n'roll fairy tales can still happen. ... steps: sheffield arena live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 27 november 2001 watching steps brings to mind george orwell's image of the future as "a boot stamping on a human face for ever". the band inhabit their ... the beatles, george harrison: george harrison: all things must pass comment by adam sweeting, the guardian, 30 november 2001 for those who grew up in the 60s, george harrison's death further compounds the feeling that popular culture will never be as good again. ... the beatles, george harrison: george harrison 1943 2001 obituary by chris welch, the guardian, 1 december 2001 george harrison, singer, guitarist, composer and filmproducer: born liverpool 25 february 1943; mbe 1965; married1966 pattie boyd (marriage dissolved 1977), 1978 oliviaarias (one son); died ... delirious?: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by john aizlewood, the guardian, 7 december 2001 delirious?'s defining moment occurs at the close of their set. 'i'm not ashamed' is a green day style, punky rock song. singer martin smith, a slender, ... let's talk about me: paul gorman's in their own write book review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 8 december 2001 the music industry is full of pompous bores   and that's just the writers. ... creed: weathered review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 december 2001 although virtually unknown here, this florida post grunge trio sold nearly 1m copies of weathered in its first week of american release. something in singer scott ... hood: cold house review by dave simpson, the guardian, 14 december 2001 the cover of cold house depicts the yorkshire moors, blurred, as if something is happening just beyond the lens. this desolate region is best known ... marti pellow: wembley arena, london live review by john aizlewood, the guardian, 17 december 2001 hardly the most hospitable venue at the best of times, a third full wembley arena is a depressing place indeed. such is marti pellow's lot post  ... the du tels: gods, monsters and us interview by john aizlewood, the guardian, 18 december 2001 they fought with beefheart, lost jeff buckley and grew used to obscurity. but the du tels just keep on going. ... the hives: astoria, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 19 december 2001 with rock's current favourite flavour being the three chord thrashing of the strokes and white stripes, the hives couldn't have picked a better moment to offer ... clifford t ward: clifford t. ward, 1944 2001 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 22 december 2001 singer songwriter whose work added melody and poetic sensibility to the pop scene ... the miles hunt club: borderline, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 11 january 2002 modesty was never regarded as one of miles hunt's attributes, and although his stadium size years with the wonder stuff have receded into posterity's rear view mirror, ... grandmaster flash & the furious five: grandmaster flash interview by frank broughton, the guardian, 26 january 2002 a recent survey suggests that up to 62% of the world's population is now a famous dj. in hotspots like shoreditch, it's easier to find ... slipknot: meet'n'greet in glasgow: slipknot interview by ian gittins, the guardian, february 2002 it's valentine's say afternoon in glasgow and a strange kind of love is afoot. outside the city’s virgin megastore, a tearful 13 year old boy is gasping ... indigo girls: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by john aizlewood, the guardian, 1 february 2002 amy ray and emily saliers can't quite remember the last time they played london. it may have been six years, or seven. whatever, they tell ... mary j. blige: "my boyfriend was trying to kill me. there were weapons." interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 february 2002 the world loves a troubled diva, and for 10 years mary jane blige has provided her public with a continuous flow of what her friend, ... alien ant farm: manchester academy live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 4 february 2002 every pop movement worth its salt needs a bunch of pranksters. the hippies had neil innes's satirists the bonzo dog doo dah band, punk boasted the ... melissa etheridge: dominion theatre, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 5 february 2002 it’s not every performer who could fill a theatre the size of the dominion with just their voice and a guitar, but melissa etheridge pulled ... yann tiersen: royal festival hall, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 8 february 2002 boosted by the success of the rose tinted flick amelie, yann tiersen's fluffy and whimsical music is enjoying a surge of cultish popularity. ... the hives: junction, cambridge live review by tom cox, the guardian, 10 february 2002 the hives put on a fine imitation of garage rock. and the garage is where it would be best appreciated ... ike turner: ronnie scott's, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 february 2002 if you didn't know ike turner was 70 before this show, you certainly did within minutes of his swaggering entrance. ... gwen stefani, no doubt: gwen stefani: "we'll make one more album, then i'll get pregnant" interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 february 2002 gwen stefani and no doubt are back. but maybe not for very long. she talks to caroline sullivan ... sam moore: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by john aizlewood, the guardian, 15 february 2002 of the myriad sad sights on the live circuit, none is more distressing than the wobbly of voice and stomach soul veteran vainly trying to ... waylon jennings, 1937 2002 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 15 february 2002 rebel who revitalised country music and recorded nashville's first million selling album. ... menlo park: borderline, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 19 february 2002 the freakish menlo park suggests the sort of many headed monstrosity you would be left with in the aftermath of a nuclear armageddon. ... shaggy: manchester arena live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 20 february 2002 if shaggy wasn't called shaggy, his whole career might not have happened. bonky would have been too rude, rumpy not suggestive enough. ... ian brown: rock city, nottingham live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 22 february 2002 if the stone roses had not crumbled beneath him, ian brown would never have become a solo artist. four years ago he was even considering ... the faint: who the hell are ... the faint profile by dave simpson, the guardian, 22 february 2002 so, who the hell are they? newer romantics todd baechie (synths, vocals), clark baechie, jacob thiele (synths), joel petersen (bass) and the not inappropriately ... josh rouse: dingwalls, london live review by john aizlewood, the guardian, 28 february 2002 nashville based josh rouse is not one to bare his soul. "people often ask me what this or that song means," he mutters, before stepping into ... joan jeanrenaud: no strings: joan jeanrenaud profile and interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 28 february 2002 joan jeanrenaud had the classical world at her feet as cellist with the kronos quartet. she tells adam sweeting how she finds life on her ... the electric soft parade: manchester university live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 28 february 2002 despite the fervour for hot american bands the strokes and the white stripes, britain has not forgotten how to make effortlessly classic, exciting guitar based pop. ... buzzcocks: part time punks: the buzzcocks retrospective and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 1 march 2002 the buzzcocks were one of punk's most influential bands. now, 25 years on, pete shelley and howard devoto are recording together again. paul lester meets ... angie stone: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 5 march 2002 when her first solo album appeared in 1999, soulstress angie stone was already 33, and more strapping than your average microbe sized r&b singer. ... femi kuti and positive force: ocean, london live review by john l. walters, the guardian, 11 march 2002 saxophonist femi kuti fronts a 14 piece band, with drums, two percussionists, guitar, bass, keyboards, four horns and three singers. like a soul review or a ... ali g: the joke's on you: ali g's 'me julie' comment by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 march 2002 this week ali g releases his first single, 'me julie'. caroline sullivan wishes he wouldn't. ... charlatans, the (uk): the charlatans: "everyone has their share of bad luck don't they?" interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 15 march 2002 their accountant ran off with £350,000, a keyboard player died on them, and now the lead singer has moved to la. so what keeps the ... zero 7: the teaboys done good: zero 7 profile and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 18 march 2002 paul lester meets zero 7, the recording studio flunkies turned clubbers' favourites. ... ol' dirty bastard, wu tang clan: ol' dirty bastard: portrait of the artist in jail report and interview by william shaw, the guardian, 22 march 2002 he was the clown prince of hip hop, famously appearing onstage with the wu tang clan while on the run from the police. now ol' dirty bastard ... roy hollingworth, 1949 2002 obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 22 march 2002 colourful critic who embarked on a mission to become a rock star. ... tony wilson: home entertainment: tony wilson on factory records interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 29 march 2002 the man behind manchester's chaotic factory records, joy division and happy mondays takes us through his own back catalogue ... sheryl crow interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 march 2002 sheryl crow tells caroline sullivan about britney, beyoncé and the state of rock'n'roll   'i worry about how these girls are sexualised at such a young ... dead men walking: camden underworld, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 30 march 2002 "the resistance starts here!" according to a manifesto penned by pete "wah!" wylie. "it's about the return of rock'n'roll... real songs, not manufactured pap that's ... matthew herbert, matmos, nymphomatriarch, ultra red, matt wand: music from unlikely places: nymphomatriarch, matmos, matthew herbert, ultra red, matt wand review by david hemingway, the guardian, april 2002 noel gallagher may attribute oasis's success to having simply written unpretentious, uncomplicated songs on his guitar, but not everyone shares this fascination with six strings. ... the bellrays: rocket, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 4 april 2002 two years ago in this newspaper, alan mcgee decried the "bedwetters" of modern pop. where, he asked, were "the characters" and "the great rock'n'roll music ... india.arie: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by john aizlewood, the guardian, 12 april 2002 in 1997, erykah badu's emergence briefly heralded a flurry of female acoustic soul singers. they dressed badly, enjoyed the smell of incense on stage and ... lester bangs: pills and thrills retrospective by nick kent, the guardian, 12 april 2002 although his name is already starting to be listed among the ranks of the elite late 20th century literary trailblazers, lester bangs   the fragile hearted, drunken ... michelle branch: the spirit room review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 12 april 2002 the songwriterly bent of the latest signing to madonna's label will draw comparisons with maverick's star turn, alanis morissette. the fundamental difference between the queen ... half japanese, teenage fanclub: teenage fanclub/jad fair: barbican, london live review by john aizlewood, the guardian, 25 april 2002 "is this a joke?" shouts a disgruntled heckler midway through this unsatisfying evening. "get off". it doesn't seem to be a joke. the barbican's only ... lisa lopes: lisa "left eye" lopes obituary by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 27 april 2002 rebel hit singer notorious for breaking the old r&b rules. ... coil, mouse on mars, plaid: mouse on mars, plaid and coil: barbican, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 29 april 2002 the final concert in the barbican's only connect series sought to explore "the inspiration of the computer game on electronic music", or so it said ... elvis presley, otis blackwell: otis blackwell 1932   2002 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, may 2002 prolific writer behind some of elviss greatest hits ... kosheen: shepherds bush empire, london live review by john aizlewood, the guardian, 2 may 2002 the bristol revolution of massive attack, portishead and tricky seems almost a fiction of folk memory in these backwards looking days of the strokes and the ... fischerspooner: #1 review by dave simpson, the guardian, 3 may 2002 leading lights of the electroclash movement, new york art fashion strategists fischerspooner come armed with a manifesto ("style is substance", superficiality is something to be lauded), ... the bellrays: meet the bellrays review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 3 may 2002 poptones' last major release, the hives' debut, was titled your new favourite band, and it obligingly became the label's biggest seller to date. prudently, the ... queen: mercury rising: we will rock you comment by pete paphides, the guardian, 11 may 2002 a new west end musical, we will rock you, plunders queen's back catalogue for tunes. but, says peter paphides, it misses the chance to tell ... glastonbury interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 17 may 2002 "if you look right through the centre of the pyramid stage," says michael eavis, waving at the steel framework that squats surreally in the middle ... arthur lee, love: hard times: arthur lee report and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 21 may 2002 arthur lee was once bigger than hendrix or jim morrison. back on the road after six years in jail, love's frontman talks to paul lester. ... depeche mode, dave gahan: dave gahan: new life interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 26 may 2002 in the early days of depeche mode, cider was dave gahan's worst vice. then came speed, smack and a trip to hospital. now, he tells ... a. r. rahman, andrew lloyd webber: bollywood by numbers report and interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 30 may 2002 when lloyd webber wanted a composer for his indian musical, it had to be ar rahman. ... ozzy osbourne: meet the osbournes report and interview by ian gittins, the guardian, june 2002 you know that embarrassing scenario where you go round to visit a married couple and they end up having an unholy ruck in front of ... paul oakenfold interview by ian gittins, the guardian, june 2002 two years ago, paul oakenfold was getting profoundly bored. the original post acid house superstar dj, known to friends and relatives as oakey and to the ... god save the toddlers report and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 3 june 2002 why would anyone want to turn punk classics like 'pretty vacant' and 'white riot' into kids' lullabies? dave simpson reports ... abba: supertroupers interview by pete paphides, the guardian, 8 june 2002 people were often a bit sneery about abba, born of eurovision, duded out in satin and feathers, quintessentially pop. only years after the group broke ... the libertines: cockpit, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 10 june 2002 the libertines are the latest group to be thrust into the ring as the industry tries to find a uk guitar band capable of taking ... television: queen elizabeth hall, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 21 june 2002 it was something of a coup to recruit television for david bowie's meltdown festival. the glacial new wavers made rock history with their 1977 debut album, ... señor coconut y su conjunto: royal festival hall, london live review by john l. walters, the guardian, 29 june 2002 what a treat   to sip a cup of assam in the festival hall ballroom while señor coconut y su conjunto play kraftwerk cover versions ... timothy white 1952 2002 obituary by chris charlesworth, the guardian, july 2002 in his polka dot bow tie, cream chinos and white buckskin shoes, timothy white, who has died aged 50, cut a stylish figure in a profession ... charles mingus, eric mingus: eric mingus: the big brand interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 4 july 2002 there's the mingus big band, the mingus orchestra... and then there's eric mingus. he talks to adam sweeting about life in a jazz dynasty ... speedy keen, thunderclap newman: speedy keen, 1945 2002 obituary by alan clayson, the guardian, 6 july 2002 speedy keen, who has died suddenly aged 56, was a mainstay of thunderclap newman, the pop outfit responsible for the anthemic 'something in the air', ... beth orton: electric ballroom, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 11 july 2002 with a new album, daybreaker, due at the end of the month, this one off show was an opportunity for beth orton to shake down the ... baxter dury: len parrott's memorial lift review by dave simpson, the guardian, 19 july 2002 wary of the fate that befalls pop offspring who impersonate their parents (hello, julian lennon), baxter dury has journeyed as far beyond his dad ian's ... isaac hayes: a black woodstock: wattstax retrospective and interview by james maycock, the guardian, 20 july 2002 intro: this is about 1000 words longer than the version published by the guardian. there’s much more on the concert, more quotations and more on ... isaac hayes, the staple singers, kim weston: loud and proud: wattstax retrospective and interview by james maycock, the guardian, 20 july 2002 when los angeles erupted in the bloodiest racial uprising of the 1960s, the black citizens of watts sent a message to the world, demanding that ... senor coconut y su conjunto: el baile aleman (new state recordings) review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 16 august 2002 despite his name, his album title and the fact that his introduction is in spanish, senor coconut is a german called uwe schmidt who fronts ... sleater kinney: one beat review by john aizlewood, the guardian, 16 august 2002 the rather inglorious tradition of shouty punk women began with the slits, but trio sleater kinney take their cue from long forgotten compatriots ut, whose celebration of ... toploader: magic hotel (s2) review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 16 august 2002 toploader have "good time band" imprinted on their dna. ... rosco gordon, 1928 2002 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 18 august 2002 the american singer and pianist rosco gordon, who has died aged 74, was an obscure but influential figure, less in his own idiom of rhythm ... spandau ballet: wild boy: gary kemp retrospective and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 23 august 2002 spandau ballet did more than provide a soundtrack for xr3i driving essex casuals in the 1980s. at least that's what gary kemp, the band's creative force, ... the crescent at 100 club, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 7 september 2002 the bubbling liverpool scene has produced the weird (the coral), the weirdly named (hokum clones) and the weirdly good (the bandits). and then there are ... mudhoney: boat club, nottingham live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 12 september 2002 being an american grunge rocker must be one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. past incumbents, from nirvana to alice in chains to ... jeff beck, john mclaughlin, the white stripes: jeff beck and guests: royal festival hall, london live review by john l. walters, the guardian, 17 september 2002 whatever your take on rock guitar heroics, jeff beck's three night south bank residency was certainly the most miscellaneous gig of the year, and a logistical ... avril lavigne: mean fiddler, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 19 september 2002 it is easy to see why avril lavigne was snapped up by a major label before she was old enough to drink at most of ... beck: i'm a muso, baby: beck interview by paul lester, the guardian, 20 september 2002 beck's new album, written after a nasty split with his fiancee, is so forlorn that the music press is afraid for his health. but, he ... aqualung: who the hell are ... aqualung profile by dave simpson, the guardian, 20 september 2002 aqualung... dreaming of badass rap and bruising beats ... cathy dennis, orchestral manoeuvres in the dark: songwriters: musical chairs special feature by pete paphides, the guardian, 21 september 2002 today's pop stars, say their critics, aren't half as talented as their predecessors because they have little or nothing to do with writing their songs. ... wayne shorter: after the storm interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 26 september 2002 wayne shorter made his name with saxophone pyrotechnics. but now it's all peace and tranquillity   unless you mention wynton marsalis ... beenie man: beenie there, done that interview by lulu le vay, the guardian, 28 september 2002 one of the biggest stars of jamaican dancehall, beenie man's outgrowing the reggae charts and going global. lulu le vay meets him as he gets ... shaggy: it was him: shaggy profile and interview by ian gittins, the guardian, october 2002 the westin rio mar hotel in puerto rico is a textbook playground of the rich and famous. way beyond merely luxurious, the baroque décor is ... queens of the stone age: monarchs of rock: queens of the stone age interview by ian gittins, the guardian, october 2002 "i’ve been chasing my tail trying to have a good time on this tour," grumbles josh homme, the towering 6’ 4" frontman of queens of ... hear'say, gone tomorrow comment by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 october 2002 in it for the fame, the manufactured popstars didn't have so much as a slogan to fall back on when the going got tough. caroline ... john otway: all aboard the otway express interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 3 october 2002 the one hit wonder behind 'really free' is returning to the charts, with a bit of help from chiltern railways, mystic meg ... and adam sweeting ... norah jones at shepherd's bush empire, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 3 october 2002 at 23, norah jones is both old beyond her years and curiously insecure in front of an audience, even such a plainly partisan one as ... the coral: newcastle university live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 3 october 2002 their eponymous debut has made the coral one of the most talked about bands of the year. despite missing out on the mercury prize last month, ... robbie williams: robbie's £80m deal puts emi on new path comment by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 5 october 2002 record giant's move into entertainment business on wider front highlights changing situation at a time when classical market is faltering ... so solid crew: crew's control profile by pete paphides, the guardian, 5 october 2002 they raced from zero to inner city heroes in one summer, then stalled in scandal. but don't write off so solid   there's a serious business ... jamie cullum: so you want to be a jazz star? comment by john l. walters, the guardian, 11 october 2002 it's the tv show that will never be made   but it would be a lot more fun than popstars ... ginsberg's flannel and other stories book review by ian penman, the guardian, 12 october 2002 in the sixties, barry miles, 322pp, jonathan cape, £17.99 ... kathryn williams: dancehouse, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 14 october 2002 this is the musical equivalent of a late night on someone's sofa: where love and laughter come tumbling out with secrets. the stage set consists ... puressence: liverpool university live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 15 october 2002 around a decade ago, four scruffy mancunian street urchins took to the stage of london's tufnell park dome. their music was raw and unformed but ... tom jones, wyclef jean: tom jones: 'when you're working with bling blings, you gotta wear bling blings' interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 17 october 2002 caroline sullivan is left breathless by tom jones's hip hop makeover ... foo fighters: one by one (roswell/rca) review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 18 october 2002 the radar seems to have gone awry in the track sequencing: after sitting through the opening tracks   the blunt metal grunt of 'all my ... nickel creek: memorial hall, sheffield live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 23 october 2002 as advertising executives and careers advisers often tell us, presentation is everything. but nobody appears to have told san diego four piece nickel creek. formed around ... (british) sea power: british sea power: night and day, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 24 october 2002 if top of the pops depicts current pop as an endless procession of identically styled wannabes with no discernible individuality, british sea power are determined ... björk: “in england they think i'm one of the teletubbies”: björk interview by paul lester, the guardian, 25 october 2002 björk looks back on two decades of music, fame and scrapping with the media. ... feeder: comfort in sound review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 25 october 2002 by the end of 2001, welsh rock mid tablers feeder had quietly amassed 14 top 75 singles, only one of which, 'buck rogers', was familiar to ... jeff buckley: keeper of the flame: jeff buckley's mum report and interview by mark paytress, the guardian, 30 october 2002 it is five years since jeff buckley took his final, mid evening stroll into the wolf river, a sleepy tourist spot on the outskirts of memphis, ... the vines: academy, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 30 october 2002 no one understands hype better than the vines. launched in a blaze of hyperbole earlier this year, they have been called everything from the "australian ... justin timberlake: justified (jive) ** review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 november 2002 some say in all seriousness that this album of generic r&b crotch grabbing will establish britney's former squeeze as the new michael jackson. ... zz top: apollo, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 2 november 2002 in a mythical competition to find more than seven wonders of the world, zz top's beards must be in with a shout. although this is ... blue (england): blue: one love review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 8 november 2002 blue's melancholy all rise, probably the only hit of 2001 to feature accordion as lead instrument, was such a sterling example of what thoughtful production ... tim rose, 1940 2002 obituary by alan clayson, the guardian, 12 november 2002 singer best known for his 1967 version of the anti nuclear song 'morning dew' ... rhythm kings: the musicians of motown essay by richard williams, the guardian, 14 november 2002 so many things made the motown sound special  the singers, the songs, even the food. but what about the musicians? ... jefferson airplane: high priestess: grace slick and ‘white rabbit’ retrospective and interview by mark paytress, the guardian, 15 november 2002 white rabbit has just come out top in a poll to find the finest drug song ever. mark paytress discovers that its writer/singer grace slick ... seven inches of heaven report by pete paphides, the guardian, 16 november 2002 for adolescents, it was a thrill   the first music they owned. singles survive in the cd age as bootlegs and indie specials. their covers ... joni mitchell: "i'm quitting this corrupt cesspool" report and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 21 november 2002 why joni mitchell has had it with the music business ... diana's greatest hits comment by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 22 november 2002 never mind the oak salt cellars and carved ashtrays in paul burrell's loft   it was diana's cds that give us the real measure of ... new order: "we've had it large" profile and interview by ted kessler, the guardian, 22 november 2002 a five year split, a suicide, financial ruin, heavy cocaine abuse... new order have survived the lot   and they're nowhere near quitting. ted kessler meets ... sum 41: does this look infected? review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 22 november 2002 eagerly awaited by fans of infant metal, does this look infected? is custom built to cash in on the success of its predecessor, all killer no ... doves: octagon, sheffield live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 23 november 2002 a doves gig isn't exactly like witnessing bon jovi. there aren't any rising drum platforms, spinning motorcycles or banks of flailing hair. nobody says "rock'n'roll!" ... the cradle will rock: punk rock for babies comment by pete paphides, the guardian, 23 november 2002 nirvana and the clash are the perfect bedtime listening for toddlers, reckons new label punk rock baby. anything for a good night's sleep, says peter ... jesse malin: apollo, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 26 november 2002 jesse malin is telling us a story. at 11, he says, he was obsessed with having sex with his babysitters. when he got $40 for ... nickelback: sheffield arena live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 27 november 2002 everything about nickelback is huge   from their big rock, a more radio friendly version of nirvana, to the big truck that brings them to this ... the eighties matchbox b line disaster: rocket, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 29 november 2002 of the many odd pop movements born in the 1980s, few were quite so peculiar as psychobilly. a mutant blend of punk, rockabilly and vincent ... patty griffin: bush hall, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 4 december 2002 after completing a dozen dates supporting billy bragg, who played his last gig of the tour at the shepherd's bush empire, patty griffin moved around ... avril lavigne, pink: riot girls report and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 9 december 2002 goodbye cheerleaders, hello snarling, smoking punks. dorian lynskey on how pink! made teen pop grow up ... fine young cannibals: leadmill, sheffield live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 13 december 2002 in 1999, roland gift told the guardian: "i'd rather shovel shit than live off my past." three years on, as the lost soul singer reactivates ... girls aloud: females with attitude comment by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 16 december 2002 despite the hype, could reality tv's girls aloud be the first girl band to matter since the spice girls? ... groove armada: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 16 december 2002 at five minutes to midnight, two stiletto booted teenage girls were scurrying toward brixton academy, clutching each other's hands, as if nonentity from pop idol awaited ... jake thackray, 1939 2002 obituary by alan clayson, the guardian, 28 december 2002 original lyricist and founding father of the english chanson. ... guns n' roses: meltdown report by nick kent, the guardian, 3 january 2003 with guns n' roses, he was one of the biggest  and baddest  rockers on the planet. now his new album is a decade ... n.w.a, so solid crew: why hip hop must take its share of blame for spread of violence among teenagers comment by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 6 january 2003 does hip hop glamorise gun culture? it depends who you ask. guns have been part of the baggage of hip hop since 1988, when los angeles's nwa ... kinky: kinky review by dave simpson, the guardian, 10 january 2003 three years ago virgin records had the novel idea of importing a mexican pop band. titan were a wacky bunch. their posters proclaimed a cross ... the libertines: 'we believe in melody, hearts and minds': the libertines profile and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 10 january 2003 pete doherty and carl barat   joint singers, guitarists, songwriters and ideologues of east london based quartet the libertines   are having an argument about an ... pushing the pressure point essay by david stubbs, the guardian, 11 january 2003 the news that the vines have been sent back to australia, following a bout of ricky gervais/grant bovey style pat a cakes onstage between singer craig nicholls and ... penny valentine 1943   2003 obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 13 january 2003 richard williams mourns "probably the first woman to write about pop music as though it really mattered". below, some examples of what made valentine such ... glut of rival ceremonies gives industry a sobering warning comment by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 january 2003 before anyone says a disparaging word about the brits, as invariably happens around now. bear in mind that, compared with america's stodgy grammys, they are ... lou reed: the raven review by richard williams, the guardian, 17 january 2003 if anyone is still wondering, more than a quarter of a century later, what lou reed's metal machine music was all about, they need look ... rock in the dock comment by andrew mueller, the guardian, 18 january 2003 a few weeks ago, a nationwide leap in gun crime was lent grim focus by the murder of two young women at a party in ... dashboard confessional: metro, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 20 january 2003 crammed into the small space in front of the metro's stage were about 150 people, and half of them seemed to know every word to ... audioslave: astoria, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 21 january 2003 take three former members of politically correct punk rappers rage against the machine and add the singer from proto grungists soundgarden, and you have got the first ... asian dub foundation: rappers with a cause: asian dub foundation report and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 24 january 2003 they helped secure the release of the warehouse worker satpal ram from prison. now they're tackling domestic violence, asylum, the war on terror and the ... jay z: jay z: get carter interview by ted kessler, the guardian, 25 january 2003 america's favourite hip hop artist jay z is hanging up his mic. after all, what's left to talk about when you've achieved everything? ted kessler raps things ... hell is for heroes: the neon handshake review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 31 january 2003 named after a 1962 steve mcqueen war film, this london "post hardcore" five piece sound authentically irritated. is it because their skater boy wallet chains are slapping against ... the faint: underworld camden live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 3 february 2003 at first it's hard to know how seriously to take the faint. they look like they are re enacting an episode of the tube from 1981 ... low: parish church, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 10 february 2003 a few years ago, someone suggested that one way to fill churches would be to throw the doors open to pop concerts. the idea was ... the bay city rollers, courtney love: courtney love: love will tear us apart comment by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 february 2003 i wish i'd saved the emails. there were eight, spanning december 1999 to april 2002, all written in unpunctuated lower case. ... linkin park: pirate paranoia report by toby manning, the guardian, 15 february 2003 since the advent of the unholy trinity of internet, mp3 and cd burner, the music industry has gone into piracy tailspin. toby manning feels like ... zwan: billy corgan interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 21 february 2003 billy corgan has been dreaming of christina aguilera, pop's best undressed woman. she was staying at the same london hotel as corgan's new band, zwan, ... adrian sherwood: it's my turn profile and interview by sheryl garratt, the guardian, 24 february 2003 there's nothing about the outside of adrian sherwood's home in north london to explain why the likes of sinead o'connor, sly and robbie, primal scream ... norah jones: keeping up with jones report and interview by edward helmore, the guardian, 28 february 2003 multiple grammy winner norah jones honed her skills in the clubs of new york   and now those dingy venues are bracing themselves for a ... turin brakes: ether song (source) **** review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 28 february 2003 this mercury  and brits nominated duo have a patina of hipness, but their appearance on the launch night of bbc3 unmasked them as aspiring david grays, ... blur, oasis: live forever film/dvd/tv review by david stubbs, the guardian, 1 march 2003 there are many reasons to see live forever, the new documentary about the 1990s britpop years. mostly they involve noel gallagher and damon albarn being ... johnny paycheck, 1938 2003 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 3 march 2003 despite the efforts of many producers and publicists, country music has resisted being severed from its roots in southern us working class life. ... har mar superstar: notting hill arts club, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 7 march 2003 if the exhibitionist known to his mother as harold martin tillman is, as yet, a superstar only in his own mind, it's not for lack ... linkin park: brixton academy, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 7 march 2003 with each successive press release, the sales figures for linkin park's debut album, hybrid theory, spiral upwards remorselessly   13m, 14m, now apparently as many ... altered images, the belle stars, dollar, five star, the human league, visage, kim wilde: the here and now tour: many happy returns report and interview by pete paphides, the guardian, 8 march 2003 to some, the here and now tour is a has beens cabaret, to others it's a harmless trip down memory lane. peter paphides reports from the ... dirty vegas: cockpit, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 11 march 2003 america has long bestowed huge success on unlikely british groups who barely make it in their homeland: a flock of seagulls, the completely unmemorable fixx ... placebo: astoria, london live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 13 march 2003 preaching to the converted: placebo's set at the astoria was underpinned by the buzz of low level hysteria. ... the kills: 100 club, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 march 2003 not to be confused with the thrills, the kills emanate a frigid stylishness that dares anyone to scoff at their ludicrous stage names (somehow, it's ... liberty x: city hall, sheffield live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 21 march 2003 nothing captures the british public's imagination quite like a victorious underdog. a year ago jessica, kelli, tony, michelle and kevin were rejected by the popstars ... wayne shorter, weather report: wayne shorter: alegria (verve) review by john l. walters, the guardian, 21 march 2003 saxophonist wayne shorter still towers over contemporary jazz. over four decades he's combined compositional flair with an original and masterly command of tenor and soprano ... interpol: astoria, london live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 26 march 2003 it seems almost quaint these days to protest that a band is derivative. not so long ago bands would talk themselves hoarse in defence of ... mis teeq: eye candy review by dave simpson, the guardian, 28 march 2003 with their second album, mis teeq shift further from their garage roots towards the more internationally lucrative r&b. ... the white stripes: the sweetheart deal interview by keith cameron, the guardian, 29 march 2003 "speramus meliora; resurget cineribus"   the motto of the city of detroit translates as "we hope for better things; it will rise from the ashes". ... inspiral carpets: leeds university live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 3 april 2003 of the so called "holy triumvirate" that rescued british pop in the early 1990s, inspiral carpets always plays third fiddle to the stone roses and happy ... edwin starr obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 4 april 2003 among the chants and songs accompanying this year's anti war marches a reprised relic first sung by african american soul musician edwin starr, who has died, ... mull historical society: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 7 april 2003 although colin macintyre claims that there are no record shops on the isle of mull, that doesn't appear to have prevented him from squeezing a ... david gates: royal albert hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 11 april 2003 though generally overlooked in polls of top soft rock songwriters, the former bread frontman david gates merits a place up there with bacharach and the bee ... roachford: jazz cafe, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 11 april 2003 back in the late 1980s, andrew roachford was signed to cbs and scored hits with the likes of 'cuddly toy', 'family man' and 'kathleen'. then ... little eva obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 14 april 2003 it was hardly an original piece of choreography, but 'the loco motion' was certainly one of the most impressive records produced by the early 1960s vogue ... the mars volta: mean fiddler, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 16 april 2003 no musical genre unites generations in revulsion quite like prog rock. decades on, it remains the pariah of pop, the only 1970s style that has never ... fleetwood mac: excess baggage: fleetwood mac interview by paul lester, the guardian, 18 april 2003 mental illness, drug abuse, affairs, breakups   it's a miracle that fleetwood mac are still alive. but here they are with a rumours era lineup, and ... the bluetones: cockpit, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 21 april 2003 while blur and oasis can flit from mansion to stadium, fate has been less generous to britpop's other leading lights. while many have abandoned pop ... cradle of filth: the astoria, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 23 april 2003 can a "black metal" band be properly satanic if the bassist is called dave? this is one of several contradictions posed by the genre's only ... blur: think tank review and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 25 april 2003 backstage at l'espace clacquesin, a former brewery 20 minutes from the centre of paris, blur are relaxing. the band has just performed for 200 invited ... beck: royal albert hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 april 2003 as a professional enigma, beck hansen has a reputation to maintain, and it is tiring work. he feels compelled to stay one step ahead of ... s club 7: that's showbiz! comment by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 30 april 2003 s club are mystified as to how they only made £400,000 each to their manager's £50m. it's called talent. ... busted: you are so busted! report and interview by ian gittins, the guardian, may 2003 the words are tall, luridly colourful and carefully stitched onto a bed sheet, and the sentiment is unambiguous. as busted guitarist matt jays eyes alight ... panjabi mc: the album (dharma/showbiz) review by dave simpson, the guardian, 2 may 2003 panjabi mc has already provided one of the most refreshing hits of the year with january's 'mundian to bach ke', which fused bhangra, breakbeats and ... four tet: scala, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 20 may 2003 you couldn't accuse kieran hebden, alias four tet, of lack of ambition. now 25, he has already made eight albums, four as four tet and ... macy gray: shepherds bush empire, london *** live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 21 may 2003 her record company had spent the day warning everybody that she would be on stage at 9pm, not 9.15pm as advertised, but in the end ... neil young: "will i be deported?" interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 22 may 2003 it is difficult to find supportive things to say about george bush unless your construction company is rebuilding iraq, but it would be a droll ... the dandy warhols: dandy warhols: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 26 may 2003 well, here's a thing. an oregon band best known for adopting the spinal tap adage "have a good time all the time" are enchanting an ... adam masterson: younger and wiser interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 27 may 2003 the glut of artists working in the alt country and folk rock areas might be a logical reaction against the treacly deluge of pubescent pop, but there ... busted: apollo, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 29 may 2003 earlier this week it emerged that government expenditure of £650m has failed to make much of an impact on truancy. perhaps it's time ministers consulted ... jason mraz: waiting for my rocket to come review by dave simpson, the guardian, 6 june 2003 the cover depicts the 25 year old virginia singer songwriter sat in the gutter with a cockerel, haplessly waiting for the rocket of fame to hit him. ... ok go: rescue rooms, nottingham live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 11 june 2003 with the strokes at one end of the spectrum and busted at the other, powerpop is gradually replacing dance music as the chief currency in ... steely dan: everything must go review by richard williams, the guardian, 13 june 2003 unique among contemporary musicians, the post comeback steely dan make records that are more fun to read than to listen to. ... the american song poem anthology: music by the metre review by david stubbs, the guardian, 20 june 2003 so you think it's only since the rise of manufactured pop, with its endless boy and girl bands, each a more faded and insipid photocopy ... happy mondays: shaun ryder: "i look all right, don't i?" interview by ted kessler, the guardian, 20 june 2003 two years ago shaun ryder was finished. he had lost his money, his mates and the plot. with a new album out, he tells ted ... bonnie raitt: apollo, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 21 june 2003 if she hadn't sold millions of country blues rock records and won a stetson full of grammies, bonnie raitt could have had a career peddling the secrets of ... har mar superstar: beats working interview by simon price, the guardian, 21 june 2003 life's just one long party for doughy exhibitionist har mar superstar, as he heads to ibiza for a weekly residency at manumission. simon price helps ... the seeds: borderline, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 24 june 2003 they had a question about psychedelic california bands on university challenge the other night, but the seeds didn't get a mention. about all anybody can ... fun lovin' criminals: royal festival hall, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 25 june 2003 the natural habitat of the fun lovin' criminals is some sweat soaked cavern like the astoria, so the cool formality of the festival hall could easily ... kelly osbourne: rock city, nottingham live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 26 june 2003 kelly osbourne urges the audience to put their hands in the air. the boys are instructed to make fists and the girls to hold up ... good charlotte: astoria, london ** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 2 july 2003 the maladjusted young of the 1980s looked for comfort to the smiths, whose main role was to assure british youth that, no matter how miserable ... ministry: academy, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 3 july 2003 before marilyn manson and nine inch nails, chicago's ministry pioneered industrial music and outrage. journalists visiting the studio of al jourgensen and paul barker would ... monica: after the storm review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 4 july 2003 this former teen r&b sensation has spent the five years since her last album "dealing with my own development"   showbiz speak for "pondering ways of ... yo la tengo: city varieties, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 7 july 2003 you never know what to expect with yo la tengo. the hoboken veterans' 11 albums cover bouncy surf pop, frazzled velvet underground noise and jazz doodling. ... kings of leon: electric ballroom, london *** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 july 2003 the surest sign that kings of leon are having a moment is the 180 requests for this show's 40 press tickets. ... sparklehorse: manchester university live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 17 july 2003 sparklehorse's mark linkous had a dramatic start to an enduring career. in 1996, he was briefly clinically dead after an overdose of valium and antidepressants. ... kosheen: scala, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 19 july 2003 kosheen's amiable trip hop ticks all the espace generation's boxes: the bristol trio have been endorsed by ronan keating and nominated in the watered down dance category ... terry hall: fun boy free: terry hall interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 22 july 2003 terry hall asks if we can delay the first question until he's had a cigarette. he's not a big small talker, so there's an awkward ... bebel gilberto: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by john l. walters, the guardian, 25 july 2003 bebel gilberto's tanto tempo was the great summer album of 2000. and 2001. and 2002. ... cracker: countrysides review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 25 july 2003 probably inspired by the pea brained rantings of george bush and his bible bashing cronies, cracker decided the only way forward in these difficult times was to ... cracker: countrysides review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 25 july 2003 probably inspired by the pea brained rantings of george bush and his bible bashing cronies, cracker decided the only way forward in these difficult times was to ... shack: manchester university live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 29 july 2003 shack's mick head has had a few plaudits hurled his way: in 1999 the nme put him on the front cover and billed him as ... donald fagen: kamakiriad film/dvd/tv review by john l. walters, the guardian, 1 august 2003 the main reasons for buying a dvd of donald fagen's kamakiriad are sonic: the crisp intelligence of the songwriting is matched by the sumptuous clarity ... kosheen: kokopelli review by dave simpson, the guardian, 1 august 2003 with britain's obsession with dance music finally dwindling, bristol's kosheen have ditched the million selling formula of 2001's resist for something altogether darker and rockier. ... lisa maffia: first lady review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 1 august 2003 just because so solid crew are paranoid, it doesn't mean someone isn't after them. since the 30 odd strong uk garage cartel emerged from battersea in south ... closing time essay by david stubbs, the guardian, 2 august 2003 on july 3, the house of lords failed to block government moves to introduce a new law requiring pubs, clubs and cafes to apply for ... dashboard confessional: a mark, a mission, a brand, a scar review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 8 august 2003 emo is the variant of punk pop that favours sensitivity and intelligence over beer and boobies, and dashboard confessional are its leading lights. ... eliza carthy, fred frith, david toop: on the edge: sunny delights column by john l. walters, the guardian, 8 august 2003 in hot weather, some tunes just have to be heard in the great outdoors says john l walters ... ash: somerset house, london live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 11 august 2003 it's a good time to be ash. after the failure of 1998's leathery, unconvincing nu clear sounds, they were facing bankruptcy, destined to be remembered as ... alien ant farm: mean fiddler live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 22 august 2003 on tour last year, alien ant farm were involved in a bus crash in spain, which left their driver dead and the band traumatised and ... seal: linbury studio theatre, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 28 august 2003 seal's golden voice is the stuff of which summer weekends are made, so he has missed a trick by scheduling his new album for september, ... snow patrol: witchwood, ashton under lyne live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 29 august 2003 snow patrol have had a curious journey. they began as belfast popsters the polar bears. then they moved to glasgow and became fey, jangly contemporaries ... josh rouse: 1972 review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 5 september 2003 for nebraska born, nashville dwelling josh rouse, the choice of title is simple: "it's the year i was born." it was also the year his favourite telecaster ... the rapture: a new york state of mind profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 6 september 2003 out of time, ahead of fashion   the rapture are the real sound of new york. if they can make it there, says caroline sullivan, ... ian macdonald, 1948 2003 obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 8 september 2003 probably no other critic   not even the late william mann of the times, with his famous mention of pandiatonic clusters   contributed more to ... matchbox 20: matchbox twenty: apollo, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 11 september 2003 as with american gas guzzling cars, the big blustery rock band is a species under threat. stereophonics' new album is a mere platinum (its predecessor was ... david bowie: reality review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 12 september 2003 like all proper dave albums, bowie's 26th has at its core a concept, around which 11 songs uneasily cluster to articulate the master's daft vision. ... the dixie chicks: dixie chicks: birmingham nec live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 12 september 2003 "anyone aware of the incident march 10?" asks singer natalie maines, referring to the band's last uk visit, when a remark that she was "ashamed" ... erin mckeown: grand review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 12 september 2003 erin mckeown is a singer songwriter introvert who just happens to be partial to pop and a bit of jazz. she writes intriguing (if slightly fussy) ... she bop ii: rock chicks fight back comment by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 13 september 2003 lucy o'brien reflects on her monumental history of the music business ... spiritualized: leadmill, sheffield live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 15 september 2003 there are rules that generally apply at rock concerts. artists tend to speak to the audience, if only to say "hello", lead singers tend to ... rancid: apollo, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 16 september 2003 although punk rock is still reeling from the death of clash icon joe strummer, the movement is probably in its healthiest commercial state for 25 ... it's a family affair report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 25 september 2003 juggling a baby and a career is difficult enough for anyone   but how do you manage it when you're a pop star? caroline sullivan ... jamie cullum: bright young thing profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 25 september 2003 at 24, jamie cullum has a £1m record deal and a mobo nomination. he talks to caroline sullivan about nirvana, prince william, and his mission ... robert palmer, 1949 2003 obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 27 september 2003 born in batley, yorkshire, and raised in malta (his father was a naval officer), palmer had a voice that could be suave and gritty by ... the band of blacky ranchette: still lookin' good to me review by sylvie simmons, the guardian, 2 october 2003 ... fannypack: beastie girls interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 6 october 2003 fannypack are young, smutty and fresh   and they might just make hip hop fun again. caroline sullivan meets them. ... fannypack: so stylistic review by dave simpson, the guardian, 10 october 2003 ever since the beastie boys went serious and salt 'n' pepa pushed it as far as they could, the world has lacked an act who ... the electric soft parade: the american adventure review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 10 october 2003 this brighton brother act have survived a mercury prize nomination (for last year's debut, holes in the wall), a q award for best newcomer and a ... the thrills: filesharing etc.: money pit comment by pete paphides, the guardian, 11 october 2003 who are the victims of music filesharing? peter paphides reveals the real band of thieves ... damien rice: metropolitan university, leeds *** live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 14 october 2003 david gray achieved his first major success in ireland, something else he has in common with irish singer songwriter damien rice. they share the same management ... sugababes: wanna be in our gang? interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 17 october 2003 sugababes were 15 when they released their first single. three years and one line up change later, they are the coolest, smartest girl band in the ... thea gilmore: "it's sad the lengths girls go to, pouting on the cover of their cd" profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 23 october 2003 thea gilmore has released five albums, received rave reviews and turned down endless offers from major labels. and she's still only 23. she talks to ... thea gilmore, adam masterson: thea gilmore/adam masterson: liverpool university live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 27 october 2003 with so many singer songwriters around, establishing an individual identity has never been more difficult. when adam masterson cranks up his croaky voice and harmonica, the ... amy winehouse: dietrich with a nose stud interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 28 october 2003 her voice belongs in a 1940s jazz bar. but amy winehouse may be the future of hip hop. dave simpson meets her ... hot hot heat: the next skinny thing profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 3 november 2003 they're polite, prefer video games to groupies   and they're canadian. can hot hot heat really be the new strokes? caroline sullivan meets them. ... beyoncé: manchester arena live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 4 november 2003 some while after beyoncé is due on stage, a voice announces that the support act won't be appearing and that beyoncé will be with us ... blondie: academy, liverpool live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 15 november 2003 one of the problems with seeing "classic" bands some 20 years on is the physical decline, particularly in the case of a band like blondie. ... chic, tony thompson: tony thompson obituary by daryl easlea, the guardian, 15 november 2003 tony thompson, who has died of cancer aged 48, was among the finest of all pop/rock drummers. although his name is frequently absent from the ... kylie minogue: the butt stops here comment by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 19 november 2003 so she's 35, but does that really mean kylie should cover up, asks caroline sullivan ... michael jackson: no more mileage in being wacko comment by adam sweeting, the guardian, 21 november 2003 michael jackson's efforts to maintain his self proclaimed status as "the king of pop" are looking desperate as the passage of time and profound changes in ... ryan adams: "i've been jumping off bridges" interview by sylvie simmons, the guardian, 21 november 2003 the one good thing about projectile vomiting is that at least your t shirt stays clean. ryan adams's frat house top is a spotless scarlet, its brightness ... the thrills: weirdo magnets: the thrills report and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 21 november 2003 it is a cold but sunny saturday lunchtime in capitol hill, a boho district of seattle full of cafes and shops with names like natural ... bob dylan: why i love bob dylan comment by martin colyer, the guardian, 25 november 2003 last saturday it was forty years ago that jfk was assassinated. yet by november 1963, bob dylan had already been performing in greenwich village for ... last christmas, i gave you my chart column by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 26 november 2003 caroline sullivan is appalled by this year's efforts for the chrismas no 1, but finds some consolation in the thought that next year the singles ... stellastarr*: islington academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 26 november 2003 to hear the gothy gushings of the current intake of new york art rockers, you'd think the decade that inspires them, the 80s, began and ended ... wyclef jean: "i preach to the streets" interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 28 november 2003 why did wyclef jean help tom jones do hip hop? why has he got 62 guns? and what's he doing with 20,000 songs on a dictaphone? ... the guitar: axes to grind comment by andrew mueller, the guardian, 29 november 2003 according to a body of instrument suppliers called the music industries association, in the last 12 months the british people bought no less than 700,000 ... belle and sebastian: city hall, sheffield live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 4 december 2003 the old "great on record, but don't see them live" adage could have been invented for belle and sebastian. folk who've witnessed their gigs recount ... amy winehouse: bush hall, london ***½ live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 5 december 2003 you wait all millennium for a commercial but unembarrassing british female singer, then two come along within weeks of each other. ... explosions in the sky: the earth is not a cold dead place review by dave simpson, the guardian, 5 december 2003 if the idea of an album of instrumentals filled with titles such as 'first breath after coma' sounds like heavy going, this texan four piece are ... electric six: leeds metropolitan university live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 6 december 2003 in june this year, detroit pranksters electric six crammed the traditional pop rise, fall and rise again into one bizarre moment when they split up ... basement jaxx: leeds university live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 10 december 2003 the mood of crisis in dance music won't have been helped by this week's news that ecstasy use is in decline. for dance music's acts ... nickelback: brixton academy, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 10 december 2003 maybe it's because they're from vancouver, but nickelback are a different species from the current wave of fashionable us metal. whereas the likes of korn ... gogol bordello: garage, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 13 december 2003 gogol bordello's ukrainian gypsy lead singer, eugene hutz, calls his band "an orchestra of fucking immigrants, jamming in a minor". hutz has the kind of ... the durutti column: manchester university live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 15 december 2003 the durutti column were the first signings to factory records before the label went all joy division shaped. frontman vini reilly co wrote morrissey's first solo hit ... rickie lee jones: bloomsbury theatre, london live review by john l. walters, the guardian, 16 december 2003 nine musicians stroll on to a stage packed with stringed instruments, keyboards, horns and percussion. four of them are wearing hats, and under the coolest ... saint etienne: palladium, london live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 16 december 2003 in another life, saint etienne are pop royalty. in this one they practice a kind of pop not pop: exquisitely crafted and arranged songs that are always ... ed harcourt: bush hall, london live review by sylvie simmons, the guardian, 18 december 2003 the sound man is got up as santa and a roadie is dressed as an elf. there's tinsel around the mic stand and an inflatable ... david bowie, neil young: no more heroes comment by nick kent, the guardian, 19 december 2003 the best thing you can say about 2003 is that it's almost over. ... michelle mcmanus: the stars in our eyes comment by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 30 december 2003 pop idol winner michelle mcmanus may claim to be happy with her size, but pop's obsession with image could well put an end to that, ... elton john: how sir elton recovered his cool comment by ian gittins, the guardian, 2004 when the very first psychedelic rock star, william blake, declared that the fool who persists in his folly shall become wise, he hit on a ... scissor sisters: fun with filth: scissor sisters report and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 9 january 2004 they come from new york's shock art scene and they write songs about drugs, drag queens and cruising. paul lester meets clubland's hottest new act, ... blak twang: cargo, london live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 16 january 2004 by the standards of british hip hop, blak twang (aka tony olabode) is a crusty old veteran. it's hard work playing the americans at their own ... joss stone: the soul sessions review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 16 january 2004 there's no missing the thrill of novelty that runs through recent coverage of joss stone. see! a white devon teenager become america's newest soul sensation. ... north mississippi allstars: borderline, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 19 january 2004 the north mississippi allstars are the "best blues rock band in the world", according to barry, the borderline's promoter, and he's probably right. the allstars first ... brian wilson   grin and bear it interview by sylvie simmons, the guardian, 23 january 2004 when brian wilson had his nervous breakdown in the 1960s, he was working on a concept album called smile. his fellow beach boys dismissed it ... razorlight: cockpit, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 23 january 2004 newcomers razorlight are proof that pop careers are being built ever faster. the london band were signed to the vertigo label last year in the ... scissor sisters: scissor sisters review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 30 january 2004 it takes a genius to cover 'comfortably numb' in the style of the bee gees and not reduce it to a kitsch joke. on their ... sia: cargo, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 17 february 2004 is sia furler destined to join the roll call of great australians, up there with kylie, edna everage and mel gibson? she is probably too self effacing ... keane: joseph's well, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 19 february 2004 it may be synonymous with 1066 and the battle of hastings, but the sussex town of battle doesn't call much else to mind, least of ... doris troy, 1937 2004 obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 20 february 2004 although she was born in the bronx, and first came to prominence in the us with her 1963 hit 'just one look', doris troy, who ... n.e.r.d., pharrell williams: the hit man: pharrell williams profile and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 20 february 2004 he co produced nearly 20% of tracks currently being played on british radio. but he is also a star in his own right   as a ... rhyme and punishment comment by andrew mueller, the guardian, 21 february 2004 you may have heard this yarn   it's one of those things people email each other, that they might share a chuckle at the foibles ... atomic kitten: manchester arena live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 23 february 2004 the official line is that atomic kitten are taking time off mainly so that natasha hamilton can look after her young son, josh. however, a ... brian wilson: royal festival hall, london live review by richard williams, the guardian, 23 february 2004 so how good, finally, is smile, the great lost song cycle that brian wilson kept the world waiting 37 years to hear? the only possible ... monster magnet: manchester university live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 24 february 2004 monster magnet have always displayed an ability to be in the right place at the right time. formed in 1989, when nirvana's fury revitalised all ... bees, the (isle of wight): the bees: ulu, london live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 24 february 2004 you'd think that a stranger emerging from a backstage area with four of the headlining band's guitars would look suspicious, but evidently not suspicious enough. ... katie melua: barbican, york live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 8 march 2004 few artists can boast a number one album at the age of 19, but the most curious aspect of katie melua's success is her audience. ... my bloody valentine: i lost it: kevin shields speaks profile and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 12 march 2004 in his first interview for 12 years, my bloody valentine's kevin shields talks to paul lester about his madness, making alan mcgee cry   and ... david axelrod: royal festival hall, london live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 19 march 2004 the snowy haired, bespectacled 67 year old on stage makes an unlikely hip hop hero   but david axelrod's funky, filmic back catalogue has provided rich pickings for producers ... pink: birmingham nec live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 22 march 2004 every night, pink goes down on christina aguilera. she pins her to the floor and dominates her sexually before serenading her with one of her ... vilayat khan 1928 2004 obituary by ken hunt, the guardian, 25 march 2004 one of the greatest sitar players of his age ... jan & dean: jan berry obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 2 april 2004 teen dream and surf pop star ... morrissey: "somebody has to be me": morrissey interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 9 april 2004 now 44, steven patrick morrissey is, to quote one of his songs, a handsome devil. ... my chemical romance: i brought you my bullets, you brought me your love (polydor) *** review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 9 april 2004 although my chemical romance have tried to spice up their image by nicknaming their patch of suburban new jersey "the crimezone", it would be surprising ... richmond fontaine: post to wire review by dave simpson, the guardian, 16 april 2004 richmond fontaine frontman willy vlautin has a growing reputation as the writer of some of the most depressing songs in america. in his narrated snapshots ... stairway to hell essay by nick kent, the guardian, 19 april 2004 they asked me to write this piece about "self destruction and its place in rock" and that immediately set me to thinking: what do they mean ... supergrass: watching the 'grass grow interview by ian gittins, the guardian, 24 april 2004 a decade in the music business hasn't hurt supergrass. in fact, they're quite happy with their status as britain's fifth favourite band, finds ian gittins. ... jolie holland: bush hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 6 may 2004 amy winehouse happened to be playing around the corner when jolie holland was making her london debut, a fact worth mentioning because both singers are ... john martyn: the lowry, salford live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 8 may 2004 if john martyn hadn't become a folk/blues/rock legend, he could have knocked out a career as a mimic. at one point, he perfectly impersonates alf ... earl okin: the unluckiest man in pop profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 10 may 2004 after 35 years in the business, earl okin is about to release his first album. he tells caroline sullivan why it's taken him so long ... terry allen: lock 17, london live review by sylvie simmons, the guardian, 13 may 2004 of all of the underground country artists from the texas panhandle (joe ely, butch hancock, jimmie dale gilmore, etc) none is as quite as maverick, ... kanye west: forum, london live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 20 may 2004 a protege of jay z and damon dash, kanye west is not one to hide his light under a bushel. ... jesse malin: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 27 may 2004 jesse malin's through a beer glass darkly take on american rock wouldn't be nearly as fashionable if it was sold under the name john mellencamp. it just goes to ... devendra banhart: ica, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 2 june 2004 as his first name suggests, devendra banhart's parents were "alternative" types. he has certainly done them proud, growing up into a folk hippy with a beard ... kasabian: field of dreams interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 10 june 2004 the true spirit of glastonbury is alive and well   but you'll find it at a farm in leicester not somerset. dave simpson meets kasabian ... jamelia: civic hall, wolverhampton live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 11 june 2004 there's often a gulf on the live circuit now between current acts with records to promote and returning veterans with back catalogues, which is unfortunately ... tim booth: bone review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 11 june 2004 the old rock stars' home that is sanctuary records has a new resident in the former james singer, and on his first solo album he ... ray charles, 1930 2004 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 12 june 2004 during the 1960s, a generation of teenagers discovered america's hidden music of black blues, gospel and soul, and many of them promptly fissured into followings ... the concretes: the concretes review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 18 june 2004 this swedish eight piece is half band, half cottage industry: they design their own sleeves, direct their own animated videos and, for good measure, are sending ... the unfortunate incident of the log in the night time: glasto on the box comment by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 21 june 2004 caroline sullivan will be enjoying glastonbury from the safety of her sofa. she explains why she's delighted ... feist: bush hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 6 july 2004 this venue has recently hosted a succession of newish female songwriters   polly paulusma, jolie holland   who are doing a good job of making dido ... dogs die in hot cars: please describe yourself review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 9 july 2004 shame it's too late to change their terrible name, because dogs die in hot cars will find it splashed all over the place if their ... slash, velvet revolver: slash: "i died. i do remember that." profile and interview by adam sweeting, the guardian, 9 july 2004 when three battered ex junkies from guns n'roses got together to form velvet revolver, the cynics got ready for a flop. guitarist slash tells adam sweeting ... polyphonic spew comment by andrew mueller, the guardian, 10 july 2004 there is no person more deluded than he or she who has a song programmed into their mobile phone. ... syreeta, 1946 2004 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 13 july 2004 stevie wonder's partner in music and (briefly) marriage ... burrito deluxe: borderline, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 16 july 2004 veterans don't come more gnarled and whiskery than the cast of burrito deluxe, whose five members have been plying their trade for decades. in steel ... joss stone: the guardian profile: joss stone profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 23 july 2004 with her astonishingly mature, emotive black soul voice the devon teenager is an r&b sensation in the us and a talent that knocks "reality pop" for ... razorlight: johnny borrell: "i don't even look human" interview by laura barton, the guardian, 28 july 2004 he claims to be a better songwriter than bob dylan and has likened himself to charles dickens. but is there more to johnny borrell, the ... hank dogs: half smile review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 30 july 2004 this generation crossing family outfit's second album was originally recorded for nick drake producer joe boyd's hannibal label, but not released. it emerged in america two ... pete doherty: peter doherty: fez club, sheffield live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 31 july 2004 in recent weeks, peter doherty has been reported as having racked up a heroin/crack addiction costing £250 a day, skipped out on three attempts at ... gillian welch and david rawlings: shepherds bush empire, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 2 august 2004 "we love playing here," gillian welch told us more than once, and since she and her musical soulmate david rawlings were on for more than ... pere ubu, spiritualized: spiritualized/pere ubu: royal festival hall, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 4 august 2004 thirty years into their career, cleveland art punks pere ubu remain engaging mavericks. ... har mar superstar: welly club, hull live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 5 august 2004 the welly isn't a place you'd expect to find a "superstar". its name implies somewhere you'd only really want to step into when it's raining; ... finn brothers: the finn brothers: everyone is here review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 6 august 2004 thanks to their collective experience with crowded house and split enz, neil and tim finn ought to have learned a bit about this songwriting malarkey ... hayseed dixie: borderline, london live review by sylvie simmons, the guardian, 12 august 2004 "i'm here to testify", says front man barley scotch in one of many beer fuelled, between song spiels, "that hank williams' 'lost highway' and ac/dc's 'highway to ... the dears: who the hell are the dears? profile by dave simpson, the guardian, 27 august 2004 so, who the hell are they? canadians murray lightburn (vocals/guitar), natalia yanchak (keyboards/vocals), valerie jodoin keaton (keyboards/flute), martin pelland (bass), george donoso iii (drums) and patrick ... laura branigan, 1952 2004 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 31 august 2004 laura branigan, who has died of a brain aneurysm aged 47, was a powerful singer with a five octave range who in an earlier generation would ... howe gelb, giant sand: howe gelb: true grit interview by sylvie simmons, the guardian, 3 september 2004 howe gelb, of giant sand, may be the hardest working man in alt country. but as he releases yet another record, he'd rather talk about mojitos and ... beenie man: tatchell v beenie man: arrest this development comment by andrew mueller, the guardian, 4 september 2004 let's hope that no friends of the jamaican dancehall artist beenie man have recently reminded him that the only thing worse than being talked about ... leann rimes: birmingham nia live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 16 september 2004 generations of hapless young men have been attracted by the archetypal "girl next door" on the grounds that beneath that innocent exterior lurks some undiscovered ... girls aloud: how i became a girl aloud report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 17 september 2004 caroline sullivan spends a week in the shoes   the very painful shoes   of the uk's number one girl band ... interpol: antics review by dave simpson, the guardian, 24 september 2004 on paper, interpol's second album should offer more grist to the mill of those who think they're too indebted to joy division. ... mcfly: wolverhampton civic hall live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 24 september 2004 signs in wolverhampton civic hall read: "tonight's concert will be very loud. ear defenders are available on request." the danger comes not from mcfly but ... estelle: "the only way i'm going on the cover of fhm is in a body bag" interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 27 september 2004 estelle, the loudest new voice in hip hop, talks to dave simpson ... manic street preachers: not so manic now: manic street preachers interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 1 october 2004 top of the pops audience members are nothing if not versatile. five minutes ago, on the last friday evening in september, they were directing their ... skeeter davis, 1931 2004 obituary by alan clayson, the guardian, 1 october 2004 blending country music with mainstream pop ... the guardian profile: vince power profile by laura barton, the guardian, 8 october 2004 the self made music promoter with a hardman image and an antagonistic work style is seeking to sell his stake in his mean fiddler empire. if ... two lone swordsmen: basics, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 12 october 2004 for most of the last decade andrew weatherall was one of dance culture's prime movers. he produced primal scream's hallowed screamadelica and lived it large ... electric six: metro, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 october 2004 "some ground rules", says electric six's dick valentine, by way of introduction. "if you touch me, i'll kill you. if you're a homo and you ... dave godin: champion of black music who coined the term "northern soul" obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 20 october 2004 when the musicians and singers of the first motown revue   the miracles, the supremes, martha and the vandellas, "little" stevie wonder and earl van ... french rock'n'roll: what   no accordion? interview by david mckenna, the guardian, 22 october 2004 call a compilation le nouveau rock'n'roll français and, even now, you risk sparking associations with the figure most people take to represent the old french ... the detroit cobras: detroit cobras: baby review by dave simpson, the guardian, 29 october 2004 detroit cobras' biggest fans include the white stripes and coca cola, who are currently using their take on hank ballard's 'cha cha twist' in an advert. ... one hit chunder essay by david stubbs, the guardian, 30 october 2004 the one and only, a hardback celebration of one hit wonders by tom bromley, is a touch too self satisfied a stocking filler, inviting us, not for ... handsome boy modeling school   cartoon capers profile and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 4 november 2004 they found fame with gorillaz and de la soul. now handsome boy modeling school are taking inspiration from batman to make surreal hip hop. they talk ... handsome boy modeling school: white people review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 5 november 2004 if the idea of handsome boy modeling school doesn't annoy, it should. an r&b prank comprised of two us rap producers using pseudonyms and famous ... the corrs: wembley arena live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 10 november 2004 disappointingly for some of the boys in the crowd, the corrs were one sister short, since drummer caroline is recuperating after the birth of her ... the dears at the ica, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 12 november 2004 generally described as "cinematic"   code for "prone to moroseness; just add muted horns"   the dears are more a horror double bill tonight. as montreal's ... the thrills: apollo, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 15 november 2004 when the thrills first blazed out of dublin in 2002, there was something sweetly charming about a bunch of naive irish lads writing eulogies to ... screaming headless torsos: london jazz festival, spitalfields, london review by john l. walters, the guardian, 17 november 2004 looked at baldly, the screaming headless torsos are just another rock'n'roll band with chops; a power trio plus vocals and percussion. ... alison krauss and union station: lonely runs both ways review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 19 november 2004 this is krauss's first studio album for three years, though in the meantime she's delivered a bestselling live album, won three grammy awards, and made ... gwen stefani: love. angel. music. baby. *** review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 19 november 2004 a genuine character   which immediately distinguishes her from 90% of other successful pop females   gwen stefani has made a solo debut that's as ... the beta band: "i always thought we'd be as big as radiohead" interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 24 november 2004 what happens when a group £1.2m in debt tours for the last time? dave simpson joins the beta band to find out. ... bob dylan, roger mcguinn: jacques levy, 1935 2004 obituary by ken hunt, the guardian, 26 november 2004 in 1969, jacques levy, who has died of cancer aged 69, became director of the erotic revue oh! calcutta!, off broadway. it was that show which ... the bravery: roadhouse, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 1 december 2004 in the annual december search for next year's "next big thing", new york five piece the bravery are possibly in pole position. signed to island def ... kevin coyne, 1944 2004 obituary by alan clayson, the guardian, 6 december 2004 kevin coyne was a singer songwriter respected by his contemporaries but lacking their chart success. nevertheless, largely through radio one presenter john peel's championing, he built ... xmas lps: worst christmas on record essay by david stubbs, the guardian, 11 december 2004 the christmas single is a thing of thudding familiarity   brace yourself again for jona lewie to make his annual re emergence, bludgeoning you like a ... dimebag darrell, pantera: just a good ol' boy: dimebag darrell obituary by edward helmore, the guardian, 17 december 2004 former pantera guitarist dimebag darrell was murdered on stage by a lone gunman last week. edward helmore celebrates the life of the influential and charismatic ... hawkwind: manchester university live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 22 december 2004 these psychedelic veterans' 35 year career is not for the fainthearted. however, the original psych rockers are showing few signs of slowing down. surprisingly sprightly founder member ... hanson: boys to men profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 4 january 2005 hanson want to be taken seriously as an alt rock band. but will anyone forgive their teeny bop past? by caroline sullivan ... m83: before the dawn heals us review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 14 january 2005 anthony gonzalez's last album, dead cities, red seas and lost ghosts, triggered pages of prose purpler than prince's wardrobe. nobody actually used the phrase "sonic ... plush: 12 bar, london live review by jude rogers, the guardian, 14 january 2005 plush's liam hayes isn't a man who does things easily. he released his first single in 1994, his first woozy lp in 1998, and didn't ... richard buckner: dents and shells review by sylvie simmons, the guardian, 14 january 2005 there are three kinds of american folk artist: those who sit, contented, on a back porch contemplating america's landscape and ways; those for whom its ... athlete: leadmill, sheffield live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 17 january 2005 the coldplay keane snow patrol axis of earnest, crafted songwriting is the most lucrative in british rock, and athlete are the latest to get involved. when the ... adam green: joseph's well, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 1 february 2005 "let's get loose," says adam green. "you guys are all going to get laid anyway. i'm just the lubrication." this is typical of the mischievous ... mindy smith: dingwalls, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 3 february 2005 there are times when every performer wishes that time could be spun into reverse, and particular performances erased. this was one of those occasions for ... hanson: underneath (cooking vinyl) review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 4 february 2005 the youngest hanson brother was aged just 11 when the tulsa trio released the mighty 'mmmbop' in 1997. now they've leapt into a kind of ... the house of love: you only live twice interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 8 february 2005 ten years ago, the house of love fell apart, fists flying. they tell dave simpson what brought them back together. ... death from above 1979: cockpit, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 9 february 2005 with so many four piece guitar bands clogging up the live circuit, canada's death from above 1979 are certainly a bit different. a two piece featuring the ... bap kennedy: the big picture review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 11 february 2005 bap kennedy used to front energy orchard, and then, with a bit of help from steve earle, he discovered the symbiotic qualities of irish folk ... martha carson, 1921 2005 obituary by alan clayson, the guardian, 14 february 2005 born irene amburgey, the second of three sisters, martha carson was a guitarist in a troupe, led by her father, that entertained at functions close ... low: royal festival hall, london live review by jude rogers, the guardian, 22 february 2005 for the devoted fan, watching low rock out must be like watching bob dylan switch on the amplifiers at the manchester free trade hall. ... arcade fire: funeral review by dave simpson, the guardian, 25 february 2005 while every third british band mines 1979 80 post punk, arcade fire, from canada, have stolen a march by investigating the us "no wave" of the same ... doves: moss side story report and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 25 february 2005 the manchester that doves grew up in has disappeared. they take dave simpson on a guided tour of the city   and show him the ... natasha bedingfield: colston hall, bristol live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 25 february 2005 surfing on a tide of hit singles and a monster debut album, natasha bedingfield has leapt to the head of the female singer songwriter queue in ... hunter s thompson: rock of rages comment by andrew mueller, the guardian, 26 february 2005 following hunter s thompson's suicide, many obituarists, looking for a representative snippet of the doctor's bug eyed vitriol, served up the following trenchant assessment of the ... a single minded pair: rescuing radio 1's official chart show report and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 28 february 2005 tuned in kids are turning off radio 1's chart show. can a new double act help it shake off its staid image, asks caroline sullivan. ... kaiser chiefs: employment review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 4 march 2005 last week, radio 4's front row applied itself to the thorny question of what label to slap on the current crop of young british guitar ... phantom planet profile by dave simpson, the guardian, 9 march 2005 so, who the hell are they? alexander greenwald (vocals), jacques brautbar (guitar), darren robinson (guitar), sam farrar (bass) and jeff conrad (drums. their absurdly catchy single, ... the beatles: abbey road: where magic was made profile by paul trynka, the guardian, 11 march 2005 paul trynka looks back at the relationship between the biggest band of all time and the studio that helped them create their sound ... bright eyes: metropolitan university, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 15 march 2005 there are probably teams of record company scientists striving to create the perfect amalgam of bob dylan, lou reed and leonard cohen, but bright eyes singer ... moby: garage, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 17 march 2005 among moby’s many hats are producer, remixer, club dj, techno nerd and ambient maestro. for this one off gig to mark the arrival of his new album, ... inxs need you tonight report by andrew mueller, the guardian, 19 march 2005 it's not the sort of job that often gets advertised. michael hutchence, notwithstanding his bizarre death, aged 37, in 1997, generally looked like he was ... rilo kiley: marquee, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 19 march 2005 "you rock!" squealed an american voice, in a fit of either delusion or rank flattery. what this country influenced la quartet notably don't do is rock. ... nas: hip hop violence: pop goes the weasel report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 23 march 2005 for the record: guns don't go bang but pop, a noise a lot like a jumbo bottle of champagne being opened. as this was a ... cousteau: borderline, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 24 march 2005 with a new album due in april, their debut for the endeavour label after a stint with chris blackwell's palm, cousteau are hoping there's a ... lady sovereign: cargo, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 30 march 2005 the problem with turning your life into your career is that you never get a day off. this irony dawns on lady sovereign tonight, as ... laura nyro: lady lightning: laura nyro retrospective by richard williams, the guardian, 2 april 2005 "experienced a catastrophe so profound that its effects would never quite fade" (laura nyro) ... sophie b. hawkins: sophie b hawkins: roscoe, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 6 april 2005 an international pop star with 1992's smash 'damn i wish i was your lover', sophie ballantine hawkins has since fallen out with her record company ... fischerspooner: odyssey review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 8 april 2005 casey spooner and warren fischer's first album met a sobering fate: their much ballyhooed £1m deal was followed by commercial oblivion, which helped drive ministry of ... joy division: deborah curtis: "i was just besotted" retrospective and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 11 april 2005 twenty five years ago, ian curtis, lead singer of joy division, killed himself. his wife deborah talks to laura barton about getting over him, obsessive fans ... chuck prophet: borderline, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 16 april 2005 it's been 20 years since chuck prophet found himself lumped in with la's neo psychedelic "paisley underground" during his tenure with green on red. but since ... m.i.a.: fighting talk interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 22 april 2005 she's a revolutionary's daughter and her music oozes attitude. dorian lynskey meets mia. ... johnathan rice: "i fought for this" interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 25 april 2005 when johnathan rice got his record deal, he was too poor to eat. now, along with his pop star girlfriend, he's the toast of the us ... mötley crüe's titty cam report and interview by ian gittins, the guardian, may 2005 i have just spent two weeks on the road with mötley crüe. our sweep through canada and the us midwest took in edmonton, des moines, ... black eyed peas: brixton academy, london *** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 9 may 2005 almost alone among hiphoppers, the black eyed peas have a sense of humility, so they must cringe at their label's hype. whoever decided this amiable la fourpiece ... ahmad jamal: barbican, london live review by john l. walters, the guardian, 11 may 2005 like cream, ahmad jamal's trio is an influential outfit, hugely successful in its time, whose place in history can be underestimated. his early music had ... dorris henderson, 1935 2005 obituary by ken hunt, the guardian, 12 may 2005 the british folk scene has been characterised as insular, but african american dorris henderson, who has died aged 70, disproved that. when she arrived in london ... oasis: history boys comment by john harris, the guardian, 15 may 2005 oasis's sixth album is out at the end of the month. john harris wonders whether it can really be the promised return to form ... m83: scala, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 21 may 2005 despite the inadvertent hilarity france is likely to contribute to eurovision, it has been unfashionable for several years to accuse the french of pop ineptitude. ... moloko, roisin murphy: roisin murphy: her time is now profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 27 may 2005 when moloko split up, roisin murphy found herself without a band, a plan or a partner. she tells caroline sullivan how half an hour of ... roll deep: in at the deep end review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 27 may 2005 last year was the year grime failed to break big, and nobody failed to break big quite like wiley. his excellent solo debut was festooned ... the tube: sound of the underground essay by david stubbs, the guardian, 28 may 2005 the release of the first series of the tube on dvd is a chance to give kudos to a groundbreaking programme that naively but bravely ... van morrison: johnny rogan: van morrison   no surrender (secker & warburg) book review by david sinclair, the guardian, 28 may 2005 johnny rogan supplies everything you wanted to know about van morrison   and even more that you didn't. david sinclair digests an almost comically unflattering ... live8: just another gig   with added feelgood factor comment by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 june 2005 nearly every a lister worth the name is doing their bit, making live8 the first truly all star charity show since live aid. madonna! u2! coldplay! you ... tanita tikaram: "i was an odd kid" interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 2 june 2005 seventeen years ago, during her first flush of success as a precocious young songwriter, tanita tikaram was lampooned by 'smash hits'. under a photo of ... laura cantrell: jazz cafe, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 3 june 2005 when you burst into tears on stage, forget the words to several songs and introduce your double bass player as a guitarist, chances are you're ... ladytron: ica, london live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 10 june 2005 the stage resembles the tomorrow's world studio circa 1980: you imagine judith hann appearing to introduce pop music of the future. instead of glowing laptop ... billy corgan: thefutureembrace review by dave simpson, the guardian, 17 june 2005 the former smashing pumpkin has long endured a deserved reputation as the most egotistical, whining man in rock. however, maturity and the clipping of corgan's ... billy corgan: forum, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 20 june 2005 having been a superhero of alt.rock with smashing pumpkins, billy corgan hasn't looked quite so sure of himself in his subsequent adventures. his potential new ... damien rice: palladium, london *** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 20 june 2005 the many superlatives dished out to damien rice stem primarily from his ability to wow live crowds. ... hayseed dixie: borderline, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 8 july 2005 "we're your worst nightmare   educated rednecks," announces hayseed dixie's frontman barley scotch, taking a giant gulp from a bottle of newcastle brown ale. you ... the ramones, patti smith, talking heads, television: heaven or las vegas: cbgbs closes down report by laura barton, the guardian, 8 july 2005 laura barton on what the closure of the world's most famous punk rock club, cbgb's, says about the state of new york's live music scene. ... baxter dury: barfly, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 9 july 2005 his music may bear scant resemblance to ian's, but baxter dury seems to have inherited his father's grooming regime. tousled, dog eared and sporting a few ... snoop (doggy) dogg: snoop dogg: manchester arena live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 13 july 2005 searching audience members with metal detectors as they file in suggests the authorities are expecting trouble. but the rapper who was once up on a ... james blunt: i was blunt’s instrument comment by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 21 july 2005 "double whammy for blunt," says a headline in this week's issue of trade magazine music week, acknowledging the fact that songwriter james blunt is at ... richmond fontaine: borderline, london live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 21 july 2005 for more than a decade, richmond fontaine have been plying their trade in the american northwest, turning out a string of albums which have gathered ... long john baldry, 1941 2005 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 23 july 2005 guitarist and singer who was a key figure in the british rhythm and blues movement ... maximo park: vivaz, scarborough live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 23 july 2005 it's been quite a week for newcastle's maximo park. on tuesday their a certain trigger album was nominated for the mercury prize. since then their ... hayseed dixie: southern fried metal profile and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 27 july 2005 hayseed dixie aren't your average ac/dc covers band: they come from nashville, play banjos and read the guardian. ... buck 65: secret house against the world review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 29 july 2005 over the past decade, rich terfry, a former baseball player from nova scotia, has built an impressive cult following with his unique amalgam of hip hop, ... chip taylor: lock 17, london **** live review by adam sweeting, the guardian, 30 july 2005 even before he met carrie rodriguez, chip taylor's life had the authentic ring of fiction about it. ... madeleine peyroux: "i'm an outcast" report and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 2 august 2005 madeleine peyroux could be the new norah jones   if she didn't find the idea insulting. she tells caroline sullivan about walking out on her ... ciara: goodies (laface/zomba) ** review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 5 august 2005 why do r&b divas keep losing their nerve? destiny's child's last album saw them regress from unstoppable robo amazons into simpering wifeys, and atlanta newcomer ciara ... kanye west: natural born show off: kanye west report and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 5 august 2005 press playbacks tend to be uncomfortable affairs. a record label, eager to unveil its latest prestige release but terrified of a stray copy leaking on ... blur, oasis: britpop: remember the first time retrospective and interview by john harris, the guardian, 12 august 2005 without britpop, would we have had hit guitar groups, stadium anthems or rock stars on newsnight? ten years on, john harris looks back on how ... goldfrapp: supernature review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 12 august 2005 last week, gyles brandreth gave an entertaining account of his first attempt to become a conservative mp. fresh out of university and bursting with his ... the dandy warhols: just dandy interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 19 august 2005 once upon a time the dandy warhols lived a spartan existence, struggling from gig to distant gig. then someone made an unflattering documentary about them. ... devendra banhart: cripple crow review by sylvie simmons, the guardian, 16 september 2005 devendra banhart, the itinerant texan minstrel with a base in san francisco, has come a long way since his low fidelity, high word count debut oh me oh ... laura veirs: bush hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 27 september 2005 the recently coined "americana" genre that seattle songwriter laura veirs inhabits is underpinned by a yearning to reconnect with the land. in veirs's case, this ... arctic monkeys: fast and furious: arctic monkeys report and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 30 september 2005 it's a radiant late september day outside a recording studio in rural lincolnshire. summer is still clinging on by its fingertips, a lawnmower purrs in ... death of the album review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 3 october 2005 why insist on 50 minutes of music when you could have a perfect 10   or better still, a single? ... guillemots: madame jo jo's, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 6 october 2005 this week's band of the moment make an entrance that can be classified as either an exciting piece of theatre or a takeover of the venue by a ... tom vek: "everything i'm doing is so cool" interview by laura barton, the guardian, 7 october 2005 super geek tom vek talks to laura barton about the silence between cd tracks, how his album 'just fell out of him' and what he gets ... roll deep: cargo, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 12 october 2005 "but anyway, back to the album ... " this will prove the leitmotif of tonight's show, as the roll deep collective find themselves yo yoing between ... bob houston, 1939 2005 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 14 october 2005 a writers' champion, he spanned rock, royalty and robust trade unionism. ... cut copy: 'it's certainly not knob twiddling' interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 14 october 2005 when they are not letting off fireworks in people's houses, or rugby tackling mylo off the stage, australia's cut copy are the future of synth pop. ... the go! team: astoria, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 14 october 2005 what a difference a mercury nomination makes, as frontwoman ninja discovers when she bounces on to the stage to announce "we're the go! team," and ... maximo park: tales of woe and vodka report and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 21 october 2005 to get over the girls, he turned to drink. to get over the drink, he turned to music. at last, with maximo park, paul smith ... sun ra: space is the place essay by david stubbs, the guardian, 22 october 2005 "fuck the ghetto! look to space!" that, according to wayne kramer of mc5, in a nutshell was the message of sun ra, as conveyed over ... arctic monkeys: have the arctic monkeys changed the music business? report by laura barton, the guardian, 25 october 2005 the arctic monkeys swung toward the no. 1 slot this sunday with an unstoppable momentum. ... animal collective: scala, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 29 october 2005 like watching speeded up footage of the dawn, you don't quite notice when one part of an animal collective set has ended and another has started. ... the fall: irish centre, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 29 october 2005 pop mark e smith is missing, and whispers in the crowd ponder whether the notoriously unpredictable frontman has finally gone the way of the 40 odd ... the fiery furnaces: ica, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 31 october 2005 great gigs, like great drama, require an element of conflict, and the fiery furnaces have the advantage on that one: they are brother and sister. ... corinne bailey rae : corinne bailey rae: 'i was speechless, just squeaking!' interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 11 november 2005 burt bacharach thinks she's fabulous, and jools holland said her voice made him melt. dave simpson meets corinne bailey rae, the singer they are calling ... 4ad: for the records profile by david stubbs, the guardian, 12 november 2005 you'd imagine the minimal and portentous name 4ad, with its arcane, spiritual overtones (4ad is the year many historians believe christ was actually born), to ... john lennon: lennon online comment by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 november 2005 when you can't really function you're so full of fear, a digital downloader is something to be ... marvin gaye: seaside healing essay by david stubbs, the guardian, 19 november 2005 in spring 1981, in an act akin to james brown relocating to hull, a 42 year old cash strapped marvin gaye took the southampton ferry to the belgian ... the strokes: rebirth of the cool interview by laura barton, the guardian, 25 november 2005 once they were the hippest band on the planet; then it all went a bit quiet for the strokes. they tell laura barton how they ... editors: angsty young man interview by paul lester, the guardian, 28 november 2005 their frontman is half of a celebrity couple and they're tipped to be as big as u2. but that doesn't mean editors are happy. ... roots manuva: kentish town forum, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 28 november 2005 there has always been something of the drunk uncle at a wedding about roots manuva, so it's as much of a surprise for him as for us to see ... the bravery: brixton academy, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 1 december 2005 absurdly skinny new york electro poppers the bravery have polarised music fans from the outset. for every acolyte lauding their self titled debut album earlier this year, ... gogol bordello: night and day, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 2 december 2005 new york based "gypsy punks" gogol bordello are providing an interesting spin on beatlemania. a girl dancer clad in multicoloured romany type rags is hauled onstage specifically ... ryan adams: 29 review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 2 december 2005 with almost no information supplied by adams, the advance publicity for 29   the rootsy crooner's third album this year   amounted to a hotchpotch ... clap your hands say yeah: and the crowd goes wild: clap your hands say yeah profile and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 9 december 2005 earlier this year, clap your hands say yeah were struggling to sell more than five albums a day. now they're selling out every venue they ... beth orton: spitz, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 16 december 2005 beth orton has always been accompanied by a narrative of loneliness. the death of her parents inspired many of her early songs, which told of ... the fall: "excuse me, weren't you in the fall?" retrospective and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 5 january 2006 mark e. smith's band is legendary for its ever changing line up. dave simpson made it his quest to track down everyone who has ever been a ... irma thomas: after the fall report and interview by richard williams, the guardian, 6 january 2006 new orleans crowned her the queen of soul, but it wasn't until she was feared missing after hurricane katrina that the rest of the world ... wilson pickett: singer who revolutionised the sound of '60s soul obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 20 january 2006 in 1964 wilson pickett, who has died of a heart attack aged 64, was signed by atlantic records of new york. it was an era ... the chiffons, the shangri las, the shirelles: sweet nothings retrospective by richard williams, the guardian, 21 january 2006 the lyrics are all about boyfriends, the melodies only a few bars long. why are the 1960s girl groups still so enchanting? richard williams hears ... kid creole & the coconuts: kid creole and the coconuts: jazz café, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 25 january 2006 in an exchange which seems quite fair  we get the scissor sisters, the americans get gavin rossdale   us acts often make it big here ... katie melua: international conference centre, harrogate live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 26 january 2006 katie melua is popular with men of a certain age. producer (and former womble) mike batt discovered her, wogan and parky championed her, and her ... arctic monkeys: whatever they say they are, that's what they are report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 27 january 2006 earlier this week, the times dealt the arctic monkeys the backhanded compliment of labelling them "spotty poets". it's the "poets" that concerns us here. ... johnny cash: cash upfront comment by andrew mueller, the guardian, 28 january 2006 walk the line, james mangold's cinematic telling of the early life of johnny cash, takes its title from one of its subject's best known songs. ... the kooks: rocket, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 1 february 2006 when people suggest that pete doherty would have been so much better without the drugs, they should listen to the kooks. the brighton based foursome have ... the jam, paul weller: paul weller: "the jam? they were a way of life." retrospective by john harris, the guardian, 3 february 2006 as paul weller prepares to receive a lifetime achievement brit, john harris salutes a giant. ... jorge ben, gilberto gil, os mutantes, caetano veloso, tom ze: gilberto gil, caetano veloso, gal costa, jorge ben, os mutantes and tom ze: tropicalia/a brazilian revolution in sound retrospective by richard williams, the guardian, 10 february 2006 "they looked like three angels," the singer and composer caetano veloso wrote of his first sight of the members of os mutantes, a young rock ... miles davis: kind of overkill comment by john l. walters, the guardian, 10 february 2006 miles davis wouldn't have wanted his out takes made public, so why all the box sets? ... david gilmour: on an island review by john l. walters, the guardian, 24 february 2006 in the 40 years since pink floyd burst on to the london scene, initially as part of a vibrant underground that included folk, jazz and ... isobel campbell: bush hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 24 february 2006 as an ex member of the potentates of twee, belle and sebastian, singer/cellist isobel campbell can't be expected to stride across the stage like a rock ... isobel campbell: bush hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 24 february 2006 as an ex member of the potentates of twee, belle and sebastian, singer/cellist isobel campbell can't be expected to stride across the stage like a rock ... jaheim: ghetto classics review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 24 february 2006 reared with the usual hip hop cv ("the projects", spells in the slammer), jaheim hoagland was so precociously naughty that, by age 16, he was already ... the concretes: scala, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 27 february 2006 jd salinger claimed he was a paranoid in reverse who suspected people of plotting to make him happy. the concretes seem to be gripped by ... death cab for cutie: astoria, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 3 march 2006 after a near decade loitering on the college rock margins, seattle four piece death cab for cutie saw an appearance on us teen soap the oc power ... the concretes: in colour review by dave simpson, the guardian, 3 march 2006 the concretes' second album is as changeable as the seasons. songs such as 'on the radio' and 'change in the weather' are full of the ... lou rhodes: scala, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 6 march 2006 where do old ravers go when they retire? they get drunk and go to lou rhodes gigs. tonight the scala is a sea of dirty ... mark morrison: ’i'm the most reallest black artist in england' interview by sophie heawood, the guardian, 8 march 2006 after the court cases, the jail time and the unfounded rape allegation, mark morrison is keen to put his bad boy image behind him. he ... ed motta: aystelum review by john l. walters, the guardian, 17 march 2006 there isn't an american or british equivalent to ed motta   this eccentric and outrageously gifted brazilian is a complete one off. ... embrace: this new day review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 17 march 2006 eighteen months ago, embrace made the decade's least expected comeback when their aptly titled fourth album, out of nothing, reached number one. their reappearance, after ... candi staton: "i was so drunk i fell on to the stage" interview by sophie heawood, the guardian, 24 march 2006 disco diva candi staton lost everything to alcohol and abuse, but the song she recorded for a diet video saved her. now, at 66, she's ... the knife: silent shout review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 24 march 2006 one theory explaining the decline in dance music's capacity to shock and amaze points the finger at the dj jetset's culture of professional good blokery, which ... imogen heap: "it's just a magic thing" interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 28 march 2006 after being dumped by her label, singer imogen heap was broke and despondent. then a surveyor, a tv soap and a lion came to her ... nada surf: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 30 march 2006 occasionally, an unknown band will be booked into a support slot months in advance, have a hit in the meantime and on the night find ... plan b: islington academy, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 1 april 2006 there are things that get said only for the shock factor, and then there are things that are just shocking. plan b's subject matter, with ... roachford: spitz, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 6 april 2006 for a one hit wonder, roachford sure has a lot of tunes. gone are the early gigs, as a diehard fan reminds him tonight, where he ... salsa celtica: islington academy, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 12 april 2006 it is not often that a salsa concert takes a break for a bagpipe solo, but that juxtaposition is salsa celtica's unique selling point. as ... the zutons: strange but true profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 april 2006 no one expected the zutons to make it big   least of all themselves. caroline sullivan meets the best sci fi trash rock band in britain. ... the knife: scala, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 14 april 2006 if anyone bought a ticket for tonight's show because of an advertisement, in which hundreds of coloured balls tumble gaily down a san francisco hill, ... the zutons: tired of hangin' around review by mat snow, the guardian, 14 april 2006 confronted by the first zutons album in a blind test, experts might well have identified it as the work of some long forgotten art school band ... placebo: alexandra palace, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 15 april 2006 when placebo first hit the charts in the mid 1990s, brian molko's thick black eyeliner and androgynous posturing caused a bit of a stir, as much ... serge gainsbourg: what a drag comment by nick kent, the guardian, 15 april 2006 throughout my career as a music journalist, i've often found myself sharing the same orbit as some of the more maladjusted talents of the late ... daniel johnston: "i know the darkness" profile and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 21 april 2006 "i love that girl so much i can't get enough of her crazy love" ('crazy love', daniel johnston) ... isobel campbell and mark lanegan: when beauty met the beast profile and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 21 april 2006 what happened when isobel campbell teamed up with the wild man of rock, mark lanegan? the result, says laura barton, could make her queen of ... josh ritter: songs of innocence and experience profile and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 28 april 2006 mark twain, bob dylan, einstein and thomas jefferson   singer songwriter josh ritter tells laura barton what makes him tick. ... panic! at the disco: astoria, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 29 april 2006 panic! at the disco's debut album may be called a fever you can't sweat out, but tonight their obsessive fans are trying to do just ... hilary duff: hammersmith apollo, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 may 2006 all except pubescent girls are entitled to ask: "hilary who?" this 18 year old actor/singer is a massive star in the eyes of sugar magazine readers, but ... terri walker: i am review by mat snow, the guardian, 5 may 2006 soul is crowded with beautiful voices who set their sights no higher than singing sweet nothings. ... the beta band, king biscuit time: steve mason: 'i've had enough' report and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 8 may 2006 steve mason, the former beta band frontman, should have been on tour this week. instead, he's quit music   and disappeared. by dave simpson ... the futureheads: grump up the volume interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 12 may 2006 the futureheads have grown up and discovered how to write "classic tunes". but don't expect any airs and graces, says jude rogers ... hard fi: brixton academy, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 16 may 2006 billy bragg might seem an unlikely guest to support a pop rock band like hard fi, but both acts are often referred to as "of the people". ... the rakes: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 17 may 2006 in the current surfeit of guitar bands named after collective nouns, a group needs something singular if they are not to fall prey to nme ... grandaddy: jason lytle: "stuff doesn't happen unless i'm alone" profile and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 19 may 2006 the critics loved them. their peers loved them. but grandaddy never made the jump to stardom their contemporaries the flaming lips managed. now the band's ... ed motta: the world of ed motta interview by john l. walters, the guardian, 19 may 2006 note: this is the original "director's cut" version of the piece that ran in the guardian. ed motta is the plump prince of brazilian pop dance music, ... tunng: comments of the inner chorus review by tom cox, the guardian, 21 may 2006 their sinister, retro modern folk is tom cox's idea of bucolic bliss. even if it scares the bejesus out of him. ... tunng: comments of the inner chorus review by tom cox, the guardian, 21 may 2006 their sinister, retro modern folk is tom cox's idea of bucolic bliss. even if it scares the bejesus out of him ... freddie & the dreamers: freddie garrity, 1936 2006 obituary by alan clayson, the guardian, 22 may 2006 clowning pop star with a series of '60s hits   and a zany dance   to his name ... martha wainwright: fire in her belly profile and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 22 may 2006 she grew up in one of folk's first families and tried to resist following them into a musical career. but then martha wainwright fell in ... girls aloud: nottingham arena live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 24 may 2006 "i just can't believe that, four years on, we're doing an arena tour!" announces nadine coyle with genuine astonishment. she's not the only one. while ... scritti politti: hearts and flowers: scritti politti profile and interview by simon reynolds, the guardian, 26 may 2006 it's seven years since green from scritti politti released an album   time spent boozing away in self doubt. so what brought him back to his ... matthew herbert: fuelled by outrage interview by david stubbs, the guardian, 27 may 2006 "check these out," says matthew herbert aka dr rockit, radio boy, modern day big band leader, seductive deep house purveyor, moments after answering the door to his studio cum pad ... hot chip: king's college, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 3 june 2006 hot chip are five white englishmen who stand in a straight line across the stage, as if waiting to be shot. they claim to love ... orson: metropolitan university, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 5 june 2006 the home office has more to worry about than escaped prisoners trying to attack us in our beds. our communities are being invaded by floppy haired, ... bic runga: today new zealand, tomorrow the world profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 7 june 2006 is bic runga the next great chanteuse? caroline sullivan finds out. ... tom waits, neil young: jim jarmusch: "tom waits said he would glue my head to the wall" profile and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 9 june 2006 when jim jarmusch speaks, it is like a man emptying out his pockets. "wild zero. guitar wolf. where they're killing zombies. rude boy. the clash. ... keane: paint it black interview by sophie heawood, the guardian, 9 june 2006 in a bid to shake off their clean cut image, keane have been exploring murkier territory   and hanging around with bret easton ellis and irvine ... the automatic: not accepted anywhere review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 16 june 2006 blame the american emo bands, or the palpable fury of those nu metal teenagers who skulk around with stares that could kill kittens, but indie is ... busta rhymes: hammersmith apollo, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 17 june 2006 looking as if he's been styled by mr t, and garlanded in enough bling to sink a small island, busta rhymes bounces on to the ... mary j. blige: mary j blige: wembley arena, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 19 june 2006 that mary j blige has been through some troubles in her life is well known; it's what makes her an icon of strength and survival ... hype and glory: how to create a buzz report by dave simpson, the guardian, 20 june 2006 as alan mcgee books a made up band, dave simpson looks at the science of creating a buzz. ... the dixie chicks: dixie chicks: 'we had a song at no 1. the next day it was at no 70' interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 23 june 2006 natalie maines has a little cluster of black teardrops tattooed on her lower leg, trickling from her ankle down to her foot. dixie chicks' poised ... don't mention the war   unless you're over 50 comment by andrew purcell, the guardian, 23 june 2006 neil young's latest album, living with war, was supposed to be more than a collection of protest songs. to optimistic critics of the occupation of ... lostprophets: liberation transmission review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 23 june 2006 they're from south wales and lumber songs with titles such as 'a town called hypocrisy' and 'always all ways (apologies, glances and messed up chances)', but ... guillemots: through the window pane review by dave simpson, the guardian, 6 july 2006 is that pronounced "gillmots" or "gee mo"? arguments rage, but after three attempts to finish their debut, birmingham's most oddly named band make the classic mistake ... gnarls barkley: hammersmith apollo, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 8 july 2006 "i was gonna strip for all the girls tonight but they said i'd get locked up. you can have a little peep though," says cee lo, ... brian eno: the big chill essay by michel faber, the guardian, 10 july 2006 gleaming metal doors slide open noiselessly at the touch of a button, and i step into the secret subterranean studio of brian eno. the atmosphere ... syd barrett, 1946 2006 obituary by alan clayson, the guardian, 11 july 2006 former lead singer of pink floyd whose drug induced breakdown and reclusive retirement created a musical legend ... pink floyd, syd barrett: syd barrett: shine on you crazy diamond obituary by nick kent, the guardian, 12 july 2006 syd barrett, the most famous recluse in rock, is dead. it would be easy to mourn the founder of pink floyd as a casualty of ... golden smog: another fine day review by dave simpson, the guardian, 14 july 2006 it's been eight years since the last golden smog album, which may be down to the logistical problems of assembling a band including wilco's jeff ... pet shop boys: jewel in the crown: pet shop boys interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 14 july 2006 on a balmy summer's evening, the grounds of the tower of london shudder to the art disco thunder of the pet shop boys' 1988 hit 'left ... new york dolls: the new york dolls: 'before us, there was nothing' interview by ian gittins, the guardian, 14 july 2006 punk pioneers the new york dolls imploded in a haze of heroin three decades ago. now they're back  and this time, finds ian gittins, ... justin timberlake: hammersmith palais, london *** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 july 2006 when janet jackson's bosom slipped out mid song at the 2004 super bowl, only one person came out of the affair unscathed. ... erykah badu: somerset house, london live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 17 july 2006 in her billowing white robes, with hair piled into a gigantic afro mohican, erykah badu looks incandescent and remarkable against the night sky at this ... paolo nutini: night & day, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 19 july 2006 nineteen year old italian glaswegian paolo nutini used to work in his parents' chip shop. then his debut single 'last request' crashed into the top five. his working ... css: cansai de ser sexy (sub pop) review by dave simpson, the guardian, 21 july 2006 if a pile of 1979 80 disco and post punk records washed up on a brazilian beach, the lucky beneficiaries would party like css. ... rhymefest: "we need heroes" interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 21 july 2006 he sharpened his teeth battling it out as an mc against eminem. now rhymefest is taking on his toughest opponent yet: rap itself. dorian lynskey ... roberta flack: hammersmith apollo, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 21 july 2006 she's well into her 68th year but roberta flack remains a strikingly prepossessing figure. a riot of comedic quips and acerbic asides beneath a leonine ... the costa del sol: elvis has left the cantina report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 21 july 2006 elvis presley is having a grand time. he is cuddling up to tipsy girls and giving them individual verses of 'return to sender' as they ... christina aguilera: koko, london **** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 22 july 2006 making an entrance worthy of kylie, christina aguilera looks stunning. having reined in her penchant for leather and cleavage and adopted a look inspired by ... peaches: filth and fury profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 24 july 2006 for peaches, the famously x rated rapper, the personal has just got political. caroline sullivan hears about her beef with bush ... michael franti: "the troops thought: this guy's got balls" interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 26 july 2006 it's all very well to sing anti war songs in california   but in baghdad? to american soldiers? michael franti tells dorian lynskey why he took ... lambchop: hayward gallery, london live review by john l. walters, the guardian, 28 july 2006 lambchop are one of those cult american bands that push all the right "alt" buttons: alt.country, alt.rock, alt.symphonic pop. their approach to songcraft recalls the ... rishi rich: the project review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 4 august 2006 the names on this album might be unfamiliar to some, but their work is all pervasive in the pop landscape. whose mary j blige remix apparently ... arthur lee, love: arthur lee 1945 2006 obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 7 august 2006 flower power myth maker who captured the dark side of the summer of love ... timbaland: "i'm up here. everyone else is down there." profile and interview by angus batey, the guardian, 8 august 2006 tim "timbaland" mosley, the most in demand music producer in the world, is tired. but the task of staying awake is made easier because, right now, ... katie melua: talk the talk report and interview by andrew purcell, the guardian, 11 august 2006 katie melua wants to crack america. andrew purcell hears how she plans to do it   from playing to overexcited housewives to targeting chat shows. ... eagles of death metal: the innuendo crowd interview by laura barton, the guardian, 19 august 2006 eagles of death metal are here to sentence you to "death by sexy". but not before they've charmed you with their double entendres, finds laura ... evan dando, the lemonheads: evan dando: 'i can't completely let go of drugs   and i don't want to' interview by mat snow, the guardian, 23 august 2006 he was the golden boy of grunge, and then he threw it all away. evan dando tells mat snow why he wants to make a ... broken social scene: just one big happy family, eh? report and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 25 august 2006 a bleary eyed amy millan is winding her way across toronto in a desperate search for coffee. the traffic lights switch to green and she scans ... ice cube: respectability? it can wait interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 august 2006 he went from gangsta notoriety to hollywood stardom. now ice cube has returned to the studio   to show today's rappers where they've gone wrong. ... metric: king's college, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 august 2006 for the past couple of years, the 20 strong music factory known as broken social scene has been canada's wellspring of all things indie. metric are ... beyoncé: b'day (sony) **** review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 september 2006 like most american singers of her magnitude, beyoncé speaks in life coach soundbites that portray recording an album as a spiritual rite of passage. ... india.arie: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 september 2006 india arie is so personable that, on meeting her a few years ago, nelson mandela began the conversation by asking if she had a boyfriend. ... fergie admits drugs shame! profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 8 september 2006 the three girls on the south london station platform couldn't have been more than 13, and as they waited for the train, they were singing, ... devendra banhart: metropolitan university, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 9 september 2006 halfway through devendra banhart's gig, something unusual happens. the singer, who has been slurping something strong from a bottle on his amp, gets into conversation ... patti smith: the lady's for returning interview by mark paytress, the guardian, 9 september 2006 patti smith knows a thing or two about rock'n'roll heroes. emerging in a blaze of controversy with her epochal 1975 debut album, horses, she wrapped ... the killers: empress ballroom, blackpool **** live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 10 september 2006 you can almost imagine the delight when some bright spark suggested the killers launch their big comeback in the "vegas of the north", and the ... amy winehouse: bloomsbury ballroom, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 september 2006 while amy winehouse has been off making the follow up to her 2003 mercury nominated debut album, frank, her role as the new kid on the block ... stockholm syndrome report and interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 15 september 2006 sweden's indie bands are invading the uk, armed only with talent, style, ambition and government grants. time to surrender, says jude rogers ... johnny jenkins, otis redding: johnny jenkins, 1939 2006 obituary by ken hunt, the guardian, 16 september 2006 flamboyant musician who influenced hendrix and otis redding ... rehab: the funky check in report by ian gittins, the guardian, 16 september 2006 what do pete doherty, justin hawkins and keane's tom chaplin have in common? all have been in rehab recently, some for the first time. but ... jamelia: walk with me review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 22 september 2006 there's no disputing jamelia davis's ability to turn out a fantastic single: her last album contained three of the best of that year in 'superstar', ... jay z: manchester arena review by dave simpson, the guardian, 23 september 2006 few pop "retirements" have caused as many eyebrows to raise as that of shawn carter, aka jay z. ... the horrors, siouxsie & the banshees, sisters of mercy: back in black: the goth revival report and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 29 september 2006 the faversham, a pub close to leeds university, is a brightly decorated bar, popular with lawyers and office workers. but a couple of decades ago ... sting: lso st luke's, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 6 october 2006 sting's latest artistic venture, despite being pregnant with pratfall potential, is a remarkable triumph. ... psychic tv: body politics interview by mark paytress, the guardian, 7 october 2006 when psychic tv's genesis p orridge walks out on stage at the astoria this evening, on a rare visit to london, those who've followed the career ... ghostface killah: coronet, london *** live review by angus batey, the guardian, 11 october 2006 "if you listen to my lyrics, you'll know i'm a soul baby," confesses dennis coles midway through a typically eccentric set. "and you've got to ... lupe fiasco: islington academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 october 2006 lupe fiasco's debut london headliner was originally booked for the scala, but transferred to the sterile islington academy after an unrelated shooting at the original ... the killers: saints of sin city: the killers interview by nick kent, the guardian, 20 october 2006 over the course of 50 years, we have borne witness to the on going development of popular music, and many diverse faiths and cultures from all ... the dears: the cockpit, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 27 october 2006 in the days when bryan adams bestrode the charts, canadian music was a credibility free zone. so much so that the dears' frontman murray lightburn ... damien rice: 9 (14th floor) ** review by mat snow, the guardian, 3 november 2006 a heartbreak album for those who weep along to vintage radiohead and leonard cohen rather than george jones and tammy wynette, damien rice's 2002 debut, ... razorlight: wembley arena, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 3 november 2006 every budding british rock star fantasises about the night he or she will be able to say the three little words that mean they have ... a heckler's guide comment by laura barton, the guardian, 6 november 2006 want to know what to shout at tony blair when he makes his farewell tour next year? then read on. ... my chemical romance: brixton academy, london *** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 november 2006 at 9:45 on sunday morning, it wasn't surprising to see a queue already straggling down the side of brixton academy. ... gwen stefani: the sweet escape (polydor) **** review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 december 2006 the no doubt singer's solo output should be the blueprint for any aspiring pop star who doesn't want to sacrifice credibility for the sake of ... kasabian: "we're for all the people stuck in crap jobs" interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 1 december 2006 kasabian have crossed swords with keane, the stones and even showaddywaddy. but really they're just a bunch of ordinary lads who want to be loved. ... katie melua: wembley arena, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 5 december 2006 "jeff buckley used to sing this song," says an earnest katiemelua, crouched over her acoustic guitar. "it's called 'lilac wine'." as she begins to croon ... the gutter twins, the twilight singers: bad news boys profile and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 8 december 2006 tattoos, drugs, beatings, stalkers, prison, betrayal and years of making great music   could greg dulli and mark lanegan be any more rock'n'roll? they talk ... memorable moments in music 2006 comment by john l. walters, the guardian, 8 december 2006 i've never been convinced by the cult of the superstar dj. when the tv programme faking it revealed that a bright cellist could learn to ... randy crawford: hammersmith apollo, london live review by john l. walters, the guardian, 12 december 2006 i've always had a soft spot for randy crawford. ever since i caught her eye backstage at a recording of top of the pops and ... dion: "i saw the devil himself" interview by andrew purcell, the guardian, 15 december 2006 he's been a doo wop legend, a heroin addict, a protest singer and a phil spector protege: now dion's a grammy nominated bluesman. andrew purcell met him ... nas: why the grammys have ditched rap comment by edward helmore, the guardian, 15 december 2006 rap music, and the commotion, fur and bling that often accompanies its biggest stars, will be noticeably absent from the grammy awards in los angeles ... ahmet ertegun obituary by adam sweeting, richard williams, the guardian, 16 december 2006 a mogul who nurtured the careers of stars such as ray charles, led zeppelin, aretha franklin and dusty springfield ... burial: burial review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 22 december 2006 you don't need to know a thing about london's dubstep scene to find this cryptic debut the most mesmerising electronic album of the year. ... cold war kids: new band of the week: cold war kids profile by paul lester, the guardian, 9 january 2007 the best new band in america, according to nme, these los angeles blog buzz boys sing about robbers, rapists and religion. ... deicide: music box, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 11 january 2007 florida may be the sunshine state but it is forever shrouded in darkness as home to the world's leading proponents of satanic death metal. deicide ... the hours: back from the brink interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 12 january 2007 the hours have been through drugs, death and abandonment. but adversity has turned them into britain's most powerful new band. dave simpson caught up with ... robyn: new band of the week   robyn profile by paul lester, the guardian, 18 january 2007 the manga missy elliott from sweden. ... kaiser chiefs: back to the future in kaiserworld? comment by john harris, the guardian, 19 january 2007 the backlash has begun for the kaiser chiefs, and their new song has no 'la la las'. but there's still a strong case for cheering ... damon albarn, the good, the bad & the queen: the good, the bad & the queen: the good, the bad & the queen review by ben thompson, the guardian, 21 january 2007 damon albarn could have fallen flat on his face here. but this love letter to the capital might be his finest hour, writes ben thompson ... how to beat the difficult second album syndrome comment by ian gittins, the guardian, 26 january 2007 sophomore slump or comeback of the year? asked fall out boy in a brilliantly prescient track on their 2005 album from under the cork tree, ... david byrne: imelda   the nightclub years interview by andrew purcell, the guardian, 29 january 2007 david byrne keeps a small black diary on his bookcase, with 'db   idears' written on the spine in gold ink. without rifling through its ... pete seeger, bruce springsteen: bruce blew my cover: pete seeger report and interview by edward helmore, the guardian, 1 february 2007 on the first friday of the month, in fine weather and sometimes foul, you will find pete seeger, the folk singing legend and pioneering environmentalist, in ... bloc party: a weekend in the city review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 2 february 2007 bloc party's second album begins like an episode of panorama, full of frowning portent and ambition to say something about the state of britain today. ... lady sovereign: scala, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 10 february 2007 "the biggest midget in the game," all 5ft 1in of her, is no longer the gauche grime girl from wembley. dropping in for one uk show ... arcade fire: why the arcade fire are molten hot comment by jude rogers, the guardian, 20 february 2007 two weeks until neon bible hits the shops and the hype has hit arctic monkeys levels. but where are the sceptical critics to keep the ... ghosts: fibbers, york live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 23 february 2007 ghosts are living proof of the old adage about the tortoise and the hare. the bandmates' long and bewilderingly dubious past includes soft rock, britpop ... midlake: melody makers profile and interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 23 february 2007 deep in texas lies a town where everyone is a musician. so what's its secret? jude rogers tours denton with its hottest property, midlake, and ... wynton marsalis: shock of the new profile and interview by john lewis, the guardian, 2 march 2007 wynton marsalis almost explodes with rage when he talks about hip hop. so why has the jazz stalwart recorded a track on which he breaks into ... lcd soundsystem: sound of silver review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 9 march 2007 lcd soundsystem's james murphy is chiefly regarded as a man with a gargantuan record collection. ... nico: from the velvets to the void retrospective by simon reynolds, the guardian, 16 march 2007 nico was the original model/actor/singer. unlike her successors she was absurdly talented, but she was also a violent racist, with an awful darkness at her ... pentangle: britain's grateful dead profile and interview by nick coleman, the guardian, 16 march 2007 folk pioneers pentangle recently played together for the first time in 30 years. this is the perfect time for them to reform for good, says ... bright eyes: koko, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 22 march 2007 it is a tribute to conor oberst's force of personality that the name bright eyes is now associated with him rather than with the rabbit eulogising ... kate nash: spitz, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 28 march 2007 kate nash could not be more "now" if she had been invented by myspace geneticists. her vintage dresses, breathless blog and peevish tunes are so ... cajun dance party: new band of the day: cajun dance party profile by paul lester, the guardian, 29 march 2007 each day, paul lester puts on his hardhat and lowers himself into the mine shaft of modern music seeking sonic gold. today, he emerges with ... razorlight: arena, newcastle live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 6 april 2007 razorlight's motormouth frontman johnny borrell grabs the headlines, but the band's unsung hero is drummer and co songwriter andy burrows. it's no coincidence that since he ... faithless: sheffield arena live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 10 april 2007 recent years have not been kind to the 1990s megaclub generation. however, despite frequently threatening retirement, london based collective faithless have proved as difficult to shift ... laura veirs: manchester university live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 11 april 2007 "we hope you like our embroidered outfits," begins laura veirs. "we went that extra mile." she is referring to her floral dress and the suits ... the kids are all right: jon savage's teenage   the creation of youth book review by andy beckett, the guardian, 14 april 2007 andy beckett enjoys jon savage's compelling and meticulous prehistory of adolescence, teenage. ... the plastic people of the universe: egon bondy, 1930 2007 obituary by ken hunt, the guardian, 20 april 2007 dissident czech writer and lyricist for plastic people of the universe ... madeleine peyroux: 'it's ok to be dark' interview by ian gittins, the guardian, 24 april 2007 madeleine peyroux made it big with intense reworkings of other people's tunes. isn't it time she struck out alone? ... bob dylan, king crimson: ian wallace, 1946 2007 obituary by alan clayson, the guardian, 27 april 2007 drummer with king crimson and bob dylan ... the sea and cake: everybody review by john harris, the guardian, 27 april 2007 the sea and cake have made a "rock album", it sounded like a bad idea   but by the end of the last track, only ... justin timberlake: arena, sheffield live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 30 april 2007 lately, pop has been dominated by guerrilla gigs and scruffily clad bands   but no one told justin timberlake. ... russell simmons: taking the words out of their mouths comment by angus batey, the guardian, 30 april 2007 when russell simmons says rappers should stop saying "bitch", "ho" and "nigger", he doesn't go far enough. ... amerie: dancefloor dynamite retrospective and interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 11 may 2007 she studied hard, likes to stay in   and used to be such a stiff dancer people laughed at her. so how did amerie become ... the watersons: "feeling part of a dynasty in musical terms is a great feeling" profile and interview by nick coleman, the guardian, 12 may 2007 author's note: the guardian chopped this in half. it's better at full length   but then i would say that. this is the full length one. ... von südenfed: tromatic reflexxions review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 18 may 2007 mark e smith recently described his first encounter with lcd soundsystem's fall influenced 'losing my edge'. "this sounds exactly like me," he told a hapless shop ... the fall, mouse on mars, von südenfed: von südenfed: tromatic reflexxions review by ben thompson, the guardian, 20 may 2007 the name von südenfed suggests a german first world war flying ace who went on to build a global pharmaceutical dynasty around a popular headache remedy. ... william orbit: 'people will see my heart and soul' interview by ian gittins, the guardian, 23 may 2007 pop music has been good to william orbit. two decades at the top of his game as one of dance music's leading producers and remixers ... editors: roundhouse, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 30 may 2007 talk about advance warning   the first three songs of their set are called 'bones', 'bullets' and 'blood', so nobody can claim to be surprised ... calvin harris: beat route profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 june 2007 calvin harris had a solid career in fruit and veg to look forward to. then the charts, fame and kylie minogue got in the way. ... elvis perkins: all about my mother: elvis perkins profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 5 june 2007 elvis perkins tells caroline sullivan how the tragic deaths of his famous parents have shaped his melancholy pop. ... roky erickson: the man who went too high: roky erickson retrospective and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 8 june 2007 the most improbable of rock comebacks began on the night of march 19, 2005 at an austin, texas restaurant called threadgill's. every year, the eatery ... ghosts: the world is outside review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 june 2007 things have come to a pretty pass when the feeling are influential enough to have spawned a genre of their own. ... john cale, lcd soundsystem: john cale meets lcd soundsystem interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 15 june 2007 they are both stars of new york's music scene   pioneers of the coolest pop, separated by 30 years. james murphy and john cale get ... destiny's child, kelly rowland: kelly rowland: destiny fulfilled profile and interview by angus batey, the guardian, 15 june 2007 kelly rowland reassures angus batey that, despite the all the conspiracy theories, she has not had a phantom baby, her new album isn't bitter about ... swamp dogg bites back interview by andrew purcell, the guardian, 15 june 2007 "when i felt like i needed profanity, i used profanity," swamp dogg begins. and as he cheerfully swears his way through his 50 years in ... john legend: soul food for thought interview by angus batey, the guardian, 20 june 2007 feted by everyone from kanye west to paul mccartney, john legend could easily rest on his laurels. but the cerebral singer/producer tells angus batey he's ... scouting for girls: new band of the week: scouting for girls profile by paul lester, the guardian, 20 june 2007 every day, scoutmaster paul lester is out on campsites, chopping wood and erecting tents in the name of musical exploration. today, he teaches three men ... editors: violently happy interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 22 june 2007 joining editors backstage at a gig in amsterdam, dave simpson tries to solve the riddle of the band's songs: how can misery sound this good? ... ornette coleman interview by andrew purcell, the guardian, 29 june 2007 this afternoon i will meet ornette coleman, the world's greatest living jazz musician. coleman is an iconoclast's iconoclast, lou reed's hero, a saxophonist who plays ... al green: royal albert hall, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 30 june 2007 al green is the last of the american southern soul giants of the 1960s and 70s, a survivor where otis redding, wilson pickett and sam ... arctic monkeys, kings of leon, roisin murphy, my chemical romance, razorlight: new releases: roisin murphy | razorlight | my chemical romance | kings of leon | arctic monkeys review by rob fitzpatrick, the guardian, 7 july 2007 pick of the week ... talib kweli: jazz café, london live review by angus batey, the guardian, 9 july 2007 if there are to be winners and losers in what has become hip hop's year of living introspectively, it would be difficult to think of a ... the go! team: elektrowerkz, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 9 july 2007 "it's great to be back in london," says ninja, the go! team's pocket dynamo frontwoman. "we've just been playing in china, so it's nice to ... steely dan: hammersmith apollo, london live review by john l. walters, the guardian, 10 july 2007 "hi ya kids," says steely dan's donald fagen, "we're going to play songs from the recent past, and going back to the deep 70s...if you ... elvis perkins: new band of the week: elvis perkins profile by paul lester, the guardian, 11 july 2007 who has paul lester dug up for us today? why the singer songwriter son of a psycho... no, the psycho. ... beach house, the dears, midlake: bella union 10th anniversary: royal festival hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 july 2007 bella union, the boutique label launched by cocteau twins bassist simon raymonde, has quietly simmered away since 1997, rarely setting the musical agenda, but occasionally ... sean kingston: new band of the week: sean kingston profile by paul lester, the guardian, 18 july 2007 every day, that slippery paul lester is just one musical step ahead of you. today, he introduces a fellow whose sugary reggae with a sour ... the boys next door, radio birdman, the saints, the scientists: come the revolution: oz punk retrospective and interview by keith cameron, the guardian, 20 july 2007 you thought punks in the uk had things to be angry about? over in australia, bands had a real fight on their hands, says keith ... liliput: defunct punk essay by john harris, the guardian, 20 july 2007 with lyrics like "hotch potch, hugger mugger, bow wow, hari kiri, hoo poo", how could anyone forget late '70s punk outfit liliput? ... chapterhouse, moose, my bloody valentine, ride, slowdive: diamond gazers: shoegaze retrospective and interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 27 july 2007 at the start of summer 2007 a supple, shimmery thread started darning itself through a long line of euphoric sounding albums. from maps to blonde redhead, ... fairport convention: "there was a manic feeling in the air" retrospective and interview by john harris, the guardian, 3 august 2007 in 1969, reeling from the shock of a tragic car crash, fairport convention recorded an album that would change british folk for ever. john harris ... ayo: she shall overcome interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 8 august 2007 her mum was a heroin addict. her dad kidnapped her from a foster home. but she conquered the chaos   and is now hitting the ... grant lee phillips: dingwalls, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 10 august 2007 the california songwriter who shares his first name with america's two main civil war generals is anything but combative. given to gentle jokes mid performance, the ... liars: liars review by mike barnes, the guardian, 12 august 2007 liars vocalist and guitarist angus andrew reckons that this is the first album on which he has felt like a proper songwriter and admits he ... tony wilson, 1950 2019 obituary by paul morley, the guardian, 13 august 2007 record label boss and broadcaster with twin passions: music and manchester. ... robert glasper: "i'd like wynton to listen to my ipod" interview by john lewis, the guardian, 17 august 2007 jazz may be pianist robert glasper's first love, but hip hop deserves equal respect, he tells john lewis ... frankmusik: new band of the week: frankmusik profile by paul lester, the guardian, 23 august 2007 today, paul lester introduces a former beatboxer reborn as a bleeptastic alien. he's mika on acid ... rilo kiley: academy 3, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 23 august 2007 to walk into a riley kilo gig is to aurally enter a world of dangerous or illicit sex. their song 'smoke detector' contains lines about ... scouting for girls: 100 club, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 25 august 2007 if scouting for girls turn out to be notable for nothing else, they have at least saved the name roy from extinction. but roy stride, ... sean kingston: instant messenger profile and interview by angus batey, the guardian, 31 august 2007 three months ago, no one had heard of sean kingston. now he has a no 1 single and a mobo nomination   all thanks to ... the go! team: trash hits profile and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 31 august 2007 confusing, tough and above all, exciting   that's how go! team want to sound. dorian lynskey puts the masters of sass to the test. ... ida maria: new band of the week: ida maria profile by paul lester, the guardian, 5 september 2007 paul lester introduces a band that sounds like a sugarcubed strokes or a less fluffy cardigans. ... dizzee rascal, the klaxons, amy winehouse: the mercury prize: the agony and the ecstasy report by jude rogers, the guardian, 6 september 2007 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 ... kanye west: graduation (def jam/mercury) **** review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 7 september 2007 whatever you think of kanye west   genius, prat, prattish genius   chances are he has thought it first. ... scissor sisters, siouxsie & the banshees: siouxsie to ana matronic: 'i get the voodoo thing. my dad milked snakes' interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 7 september 2007 scissor sister ana matronic idolises siouxsie   so we brought the two together to discuss punks, parents and the male ego. by caroline sullivan ... kt tunstall: wilton's music hall, london *** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 12 september 2007 kate tunstall uses her initials for the same reason joanne rowling became jk   she thought a female name would generate preconceptions. her music also ... n dubz: new band of the week: n dubz profile by paul lester, the guardian, 13 september 2007 today, paul lester introduces a bunch of hoodies with harmony who not only david cameron will want to wrap his arms around and squeeze. ... foo fighters: "i've never gotten off on chaos" interview by keith cameron, the guardian, 14 september 2007 foo fighter dave grohl talks to keith cameron about what kept him alive and kicking after the death of kurt cobain and nirvana. ... erasure: royal albert hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 27 september 2007 the uk tour that ended with this albert hall show saw erasure touch down in preston and grimsby   towns at the bottom of most ... pj harvey: songs of innocence and experience interview by john harris, the guardian, 28 september 2007 pj harvey sings like a child on her new, stripped down album, but it's full of grim subject matter. john harris hears how the elusive singer songwriter ... joanna newsom/roy harper/the moore brothers: royal albert hall, london live review by jude rogers, the guardian, 1 october 2007 "can i get the house lights on for a second?" joanna newsom rocks her harp on her heels, peers through her cameraphone at the raucous ... ani difranco: bush hall, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 8 october 2007 ani difranco may have emerged in the grunge era but she is no slacker. rejecting all major label blandishments, the politicised us singer songwriter has self released ... james brown, bobby byrd: bobby byrd, 1934 2007 obituary by alan clayson, the guardian, 9 october 2007 james brown's right hand man for 20 years ... kevin ayers, robert wyatt: kevin ayers and robert wyatt retrospective and interview by simon reynolds, the guardian, 24 october 2007 "i could hardly recognise him at first," says kevin ayers. "but there, under that great beard, was robert and he hadn't changed a bit." the ... roots manuva: the war on jiggification report and interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 26 october 2007 stevie chick on how uk hip hop got its groove ... mötley crüe: ban this sixx filth! report by ian gittins, the guardian, 27 october 2007 thought mötley crüe's biog the dirt was the ultimate rock read? pah! ian gittins helped bassist nikki sixx write his gruesome journals. those of a ... robyn: scala, london n1 live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 3 november 2007 robyn’s website makes the contentious claim that the swedish singer is the "most killingest pop star on the planet", which will be news to, say, ... super furry animals: roundhouse, london live review by jude rogers, the guardian, 6 november 2007 there is a theory tumbling around that the super furry animals are the welsh beatles. ... gg allin, big lurch, spade cooley, the housemartins, jah cure, leadbelly: the ten most dangerous comment by graeme thomson, the guardian, 11 november 2007 graeme thomson lists the musicians you wouldn't want to meet on the mean streets… then goes into hiding ... maroon 5: the band they hate to love interview by angus batey, the guardian, 16 november 2007 they've sold 2m albums in the uk, 10m in the us. but they can't get a good review. angus batey goes backstage with maroon 5, ... thom bell, blue magic, the delfonics, the stylistics: symphonic soul: "you get more bees with honey" retrospective and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 16 november 2007 take one soul ballad. add a falsetto vocal, swooping strings, timpani and an oboe or two. that's symphonic soul. paul lester talks to the heroes ... the kissaway trail: roadhouse, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 17 november 2007 if danish quintet the kissaway trail's live act were more like their tremendous eponymous debut album, there would be choirs and orchestras on stage. swans ... amy winehouse: carling academy, newcastle live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 20 november 2007 forty five minutes after amy winehouse is due on stage, there is still no sign of the singer, which offers an opportunity to ponder the latest ... (british) sea power: british sea power: rock needs to get back to nature comment by ben myers, the guardian, 20 november 2007 cities have been done to death. more rock bands should take inspiration from countryside, mountains and rivers   like british sea power ... adele: move over, amy… profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 23 november 2007 ... and lily, and kate: there's a new star in town. adele adkins is only 19, but her voice has bewitched everyone from jools holland ... george pringle: the social, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 23 november 2007 "just wait till my husband gets out of prison," sulks the skinny girl, poking a pinky into her mound of frothed hair. the audience titter ... jeff beck: ronnie scott's, london live review by john l. walters, the guardian, 29 november 2007 it is dinner time in soho, but ronnie's seems set for a fusion version of the mad hatter's tea party. ... ida maria: islington academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 december 2007 ida maria is like a child in charge of a bucking bronco   the bronco being her unique voice. it's an ululating yelp speckled with ... css: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 5 december 2007 cansei de ser sexy (as they initially were until they gave in to the english speaking world's lack of enthusiasm for other tongues) have already grasped ... crystal castles: new band of the day: crystal castles profile by paul lester, the guardian, 6 december 2007 paul lester hearts these darlings of the electronic underground, whose "songs" sound like a load of gameboys going off all at once in your brain ... sia: king's college, london *** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 6 december 2007 a good half dozen vocalists have passed through the career development lab that is zero 7 (the dance act also known as producers of soft furnishings pop to ... james taylor: "i used to check my bumpers for blood" report and interview by paul sexton, the guardian, 20 december 2007 he sang sweet simple tunes with deeply felt narratives, but james taylor's demons almost tore him apart. the thrice married ex drug addict tells paul sexton how ... patrick wolf: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 22 december 2007 somehow, while nobody was looking, patrick wolf has become a singular pop star. in his dreams, this gangly 24 year old is a dazzling, chart friendly hybrid of ... susan christie, wendy flower, heather jones, selda: lie back and think of ukuleles: lost ladies of folk retrospective and interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 2 january 2008 something peculiar happened at the dawn of the 21st century: eccentric folk music of the late 1960s became covetable again. ... adele, duffy: adele and duffy are products of the age of x factor comment by john aizlewood, the guardian, 4 january 2008 you can thank simon cowell for the results of the bbc's the sound of 2008 poll. ... george pringle: hail, hail, rock'n'roll: george pringle essay by laura barton, the guardian, 4 january 2008 i like my bus journey songs to have a narrative; 'cinematic mini epics' as george pringle might put it. music for dreamers and loners ... adele, duffy, laura marling: adele, duffy et al: this year's vintage report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 11 january 2008 caroline sullivan on 2008's big female voices ... carbon/silicon: inn on the green, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 14 january 2008 it is hugely ironic that mick jones was fired from the clash for "betraying the spirit of punk" as, three decades on, he has stayed ... amy winehouse: how popular is crack? comment by laura barton, the guardian, 23 january 2008 footage has emerged of the troubled songstress amy winehouse apparently smoking crack at her home in east london. the substance is widely regarded as the ... goldfrapp: manure rather than manicure interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 25 january 2008 after past glam excesses, goldfrapp are turning to nature for inspiration. jude rogers heads for their country retreat and hears why they are english eccentrics ... the feeling, the hoosiers, scouting for girls: is radio whistling the right tunes? report and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 25 january 2008 things are changing on the airwaves. caroline sullivan finds radio 1 ditching rock for "pop". ... laura marling: "my songs are not pretty" interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 4 february 2008 in a recent posting on a music website, one of laura marling's growing army of fans described her output as "pretty folk songs about boys". ... adele, duffy: who's better   duffy or adele? comment by laura barton, the guardian, 4 february 2008 the national topic of conversation has shifted from speculating on the weather to a more pressing subject: the search for this year's amy winehouse. ... fleet foxes: america's next great band report by paul lester, the guardian, 11 february 2008 hometown: xachua'bsh, washington.the lineup: robin pecknold, nicholas peterson, skyler skjelset, christian wargo, casey wescott. ... the mountain goats: john darnielle   "i was a very pretentious young writer" interview by laura barton, the guardian, 15 february 2008 john darnielle is an obsessive compulsive who loves monsters, black sabbath and the word wyoming   and he's also one of america's best lyricists. ... manic street preachers: the manic street preachers: nicky wire reflects on the musical tradition of his home country interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 february 2008 "there's a lovely welsh word, cynefin, which means 'habitat'. it's the idea that there are factors in your environment that have an influence on you ... crystal castles: astoria 2, london *** live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 18 february 2008 toronto duo crystal castles appear intent on being the most cryptic band imaginable. eschewing interviews and declining to divulge their ages, producer/keyboardist ethan kath and ... mgmt: "we want to scare the squares" interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 20 february 2008 mgmt make "future '70s" music, want to be produced by barack obama and have played gigs as giant snowmen. confused? you should be, says dave ... the zombies: album of the living dead: how the zombies made odessey & oracle retrospective and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 22 february 2008 the zombies recorded their last album in 1967, released it with a spelling mistake on the cover, then split up. but odessey & oracle has ... realistic crew, suhancos: "this is hungary   we don't have stars": realistic crew and suhancos report and interview by angus batey, the guardian, 29 february 2008 hungarian hip hop has been going strong since 1984, and its musicians are keen to be recognised globally. the problem: they're just not hungarian enough. angus ... buddy miles 1947 2008 obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 29 february 2008 rock drummer who graced the stage with hendrix in his heyday ... bon iver: hail, hail, rock'n'roll: bon iver report and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 29 february 2008 if we have spoken in the past couple of weeks, i apologise. if you have poured out your heart and found me blank faced, if you ... jane birkin: roundhouse, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 3 march 2008 a career as a muse comes with no promise of great longevity, yet 17 years to the weekend after the death of her infamous artistic ... autechre: digital, newcastle live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 4 march 2008 rochdale's sean booth and rob brown have become leading practitioners of what has been tagged "intelligent dance music", a term synonymous with former ravers who ... nickelback: my five year feud with nickelback essay by ian winwood, the guardian, 5 march 2008 the band sent me flowers for my funeral, then challenged me to a fight. none of it caused me as much pain as their music. ... mgmt: oracular spectacular (sony bmg) review by jude rogers, the guardian, 7 march 2008 this is the first great pop record of the year, a fizzing cherry bomb that sparkles with energy, ideas and a huge love for music in ... the breeders: sister bliss retrospective and interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 14 march 2008 as girls growing up in ohio, kim and kelley deal weren't expected to do anything more musical than shake a tambourine. the duo tell stevie ... devotchka: a mad and faithful telling review by charlie gillett, the guardian, 16 march 2008 passion, desperation and a nifty accordion. charlie gillett reckons he's found something very special indeed ... jack white, the raconteurs: jacks white: is jack white trying to kill music journalism? comment by david bennun, the guardian, 18 march 2008 the new raconteurs album is to be released without pre publicity. is this a gesture of fairness to the fans, or an attempt to silence the ... panic! at the disco: university, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 19 march 2008 the red haired girl at the bar is having a crisis: she has been declared too young to buy alcohol and furiously hurls an apparently bogus ... terry callier: the jazz cafe, london live review by angus batey, the guardian, 24 march 2008 about 40 minutes into this riveting performance, terry callier cuts to the chase. "we've talked about so much stuff now," he says with a shrug, ... the clash, mikey dread: mikey dread, 1954 2008 obituary by alan clayson, the guardian, 25 march 2008 a pioneering reggae artist and broadcaster, he worked with the clash and ub40 ... elmer valentine, 1923 2008 obituary by ken hunt, the guardian, 27 march 2008 co owner of l.a.'s whisky a go go venue ... alec empire strikes back report and interview by angus batey, the guardian, 28 march 2008 "i fight back!" a grinning alec empire blurts, explaining why his ipod contains only three albums (by john coltrane and stockhausen) but has been filled ... kristin hersh: queen elizabeth hall, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 28 march 2008 kristin hersh had a traumatic 1980s. she formed a band, us indie rock icons throwing muses, when she was just 14, and thereafter had to deal ... the black keys: attack and release review by jude rogers, the guardian, 28 march 2008 in the shadow cast by the mighty white stripes, blues rock often lumbers between despair and excess. ... the kooks: kooks: "i am a hit machine ... i just roll 'em out!" interview by sophie heawood, the guardian, 4 april 2008 skinny jeans and catchy hooks have made the kooks a "priority act" in the post boyband world. sophie heawood follows them to japan to find out ... adam green, the moldy peaches: adam green: the park bench balladeer profile and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 10 april 2008 adam green's music, featured in the movie juno, has brought him fame. that's fine, he tells laura barton, but he'd rather be at home eating ... mumford & sons: new band of the week: mumford & sons profile by paul lester, the guardian, 14 april 2008 these london based lovers of folky americana sound like coldplay reincarnated as hillbillies. apparently this is a good thing. ... the fratellis: royal albert hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 16 april 2008 secure in his standing as one of rock's greats, the who singer roger daltrey, organiser of the annual week of teenage cancer trust gigs, was ... death cab for cutie: platinum unknowns retrospective and interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 18 april 2008 death cab for cutie may be the biggest selling band that nobody recognises   even at their own gigs. stevie chick meets them. ... the long blondes: forum, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 24 april 2008 winning the nme radar award for best new band in 2006 wasn't quite the turning point sheffield's long blondes were entitled to expect. their first ... portishead: third review by jude rogers, the guardian, 25 april 2008 portishead's third album is initially more a record to admire than to love, its muscular synthesisers, drum breaks and abrupt endings keeping the tension high. ... the roots: it's like a jungle sometimes... report and interview by angus batey, the guardian, 25 april 2008 they are a hip hop purist's dream, constantly touring and constantly praised. but behind the scenes, the roots have a fight on their hands. angus batey ... was (not was): islington academy, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 1 may 2008 it's close on 20 years since was (not was) last played in the uk, and don was is feeling nostalgic. "is anybody here old enough ... howlin rain   did the earth move for you? profile and interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 2 may 2008 the patronage of rick rubin is considered a very big deal within the us music industry. aged 21, in 1984, this white heavy rock fan ... wire: academy 2, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 9 may 2008 bands generally break up then reform some years later to trot out the hits to fill up their pension funds, but wire have never played ... diva is served report by ian gittins, the guardian, 12 may 2008 madonna demands 25 cases of kabbalah water backstage at her gigs, not to mention 12 dozen boxes of strawberries and yorkshire tea. but what absurd ... rain parade: remembering the rain parade retrospective by alan mcgee, the guardian, 12 may 2008 just recently i've been taken back to the paisley underground scene of the early '80s and a band whose music still speaks to me today. ... girls aloud: brighton centre **** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 may 2008 girls aloud long ago ceased to be a guilty pleasure, and are now just a pleasure. it defies the laws of reality tv that they're ... the zutons: you can do anything review by craig mclean, the guardian, 18 may 2008 it's not their most immediate set but slowly, writes craig mclean, their class becomes apparent ... sandi thom essay by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 20 may 2008 the hyping of her first record seemed a step too far. can a new album restore this singer's popularity? ... bon iver: for emma, forever ago review by jude rogers, the guardian, 23 may 2008 heartbreak often buckles sad records, turning sentimental confessions into whiny navel gazing exercises. so thank heaven for bon iver's justin vernon, who avoids this problem beautifully. ... steve winwood: scala, london live review by john l. walters, the guardian, 23 may 2008 a quiet legend before he was even out of his teens, steve winwood is one of a handful of musicians who shaped the way rock ... rihanna: sweetness and steel: rihanna profile and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 23 may 2008 on a hot spring day, inside a large, airy studio in the town of castaic, california, a group of men and women are watching paint ... spiritualized: take aurally interview by ian gittins, the guardian, 24 may 2008 jason pierce of spiritualized gives ian gittins his perfect pop prescription ... kiss: overblown, overpaid and over here interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 30 may 2008 for the headliners of download heavy metal festival, there are millions to be made, fans to ogle (and sometimes sleep with), and platform boots to ... dirty pretty things: astoria, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 31 may 2008 ever since the libertines split in 2004, carl barât has been regarded as the more responsible of their two co vocalists. ... bo diddley obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 2 june 2008 american pioneer of rock'n'roll who influenced the beatles and the rolling stones ... yellow magic orchestra: royal festival hall, london live review by paul lester, the guardian, 20 june 2008 japan, the home of technology, was naturally going to produce its own kraftwerk. we just never imagined yellow magic orchestra, the original cyberpunks, would age ... cashier no 9: new band of the week: cashier no 9 profile by paul lester, the guardian, 24 june 2008 under the harsh glare of the spotlight today are a belfast band who sound so 'baggy' their songs come with a free pair of joe ... the fratellis: "we don't want to be a pop band" report and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 27 june 2008 it's late afternoon outside amsterdam's paradiso club, and the small group of teenagers hanging around on the steps have just seen something to get excited ... venom: "this is the devil's music" profile and interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 27 june 2008 credited with inventing an entire genre and influencing some of the world's biggest metal bands, venom are still seen as a bit of a joke ... bloc party: what's the weirdest chart hit of all time? comment by paul lester, the guardian, 11 july 2008 bloc party's new single mercury fires them into the realm of pop eccentricity. who else resides there? ... wu tang clan get it together report and interview by angus batey, the guardian, 11 july 2008 "i'll be honest with you, and i'll be honest with your paper," sighs robert diggs, managing to sound both emphatic and resigned at the same ... the bug: london zoo review by ben thompson, the guardian, 13 july 2008 all the great british writer/producers of the past two decades have found their own trademark equilibrium between guest vocals and backing tracks. ... wu tang clan: shepherds bush empire, london live review by angus batey, the guardian, 17 july 2008 the moment where it all clicks into place for the wu tang clan comes about halfway through their rambunctious, chaotic and uncommonly exciting 70 minutes on ... ne yo: 'do i have to sell my soul?' profile and interview by angus batey, the guardian, 18 july 2008 he's an r&b singer, and songwriter to the stars. but when the music stops, ne yo vanishes from the spotlight. he tells angus batey why that's ... my morning jacket: the forum, london live review by jude rogers, the guardian, 19 july 2008 kentucky's my morning jacket used to be the adventurous alt.country cousins of flaming lips and wilco, making music as dusty and wild as their beards. ... devotchka: ica, london live review by john l. walters, the guardian, 22 july 2008 devotchka, an american four piece fronted by exuberant singer guitarist nick urata, play what might best be described as "indie world", or "slavic punk". their sepia website plays ... duffy: somerset house, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 22 july 2008 the biggest selling artist in britain this year? that would be wales' aimee duffy, sales of whose rockferry album passed the million mark a few weeks ... artie traum, 1943 2008 obituary by ken hunt, the guardian, 25 july 2008 musician and producer whose tastes covered folk, jazz and rock ... hot chip, todd rundgren: hot chip/todd rundgren: that's one potent hot toddy interview by paul lester, the guardian, 25 july 2008 hot chip gave todd rundgren his first hit in 35 years. rundgren talks to the band's alexis taylor   and almost causes an international incident. ... katy perry: on music: katy perry   voice of no angel comment by jude rogers, the guardian, 8 august 2008 it's been quite a week for sex, music and me. take last weekend. there i was at the big chill festival, hot browed and clammy palmed, watching ... rodriguez: detroit's comeback king retrospective and interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 8 august 2008 we meet rodriguez on the eve of his first headlining show in america, 38 years after his debut cold fact. ... hank williams: don helms, 1927 2008 obituary by alan clayson, the guardian, 26 august 2008 steel guitarist who backed hank williams ... metallica: "why hasn't anyone dethroned us yet?" retrospective and interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 5 september 2008 five years after the critical and commercial disaster of st anger, they're back to save metal   and save themselves in the process. stevie chick ... keane: on music: keane   a successful turnaround comment by jude rogers, the guardian, 5 september 2008 keane are no longer soundtrack material for middle class tantrums. they now have the sound of a band turning their frowns upside down ... ladyhawke: asperger's, allergies and aubergines interview by paul lester, the guardian, 11 september 2008 adored by courtney and loved by kylie, ladyhawke is no ordinary pop star. the '80s throwback tells paul lester how music got her through a ... katy perry: water rats, london ** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 september 2008 katy perry has found the best way to ensure her debut uk gig is a sellout. although she has had the no. 1 single for ... pink floyd: richard wright obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 16 september 2008 keyboard player and founder member of pink floyd ... kimya dawson: union chapel, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 17 september 2008 kimya dawson has always traded in the infantile, and never more than now. the former moldy peaches singer, whose solo material tends towards the coy ... russell simmons: the hustler interview by angus batey, the guardian, 18 september 2008 hip hop mogul russell simmons helped run dmc, public enemy and the beastie boys make it big. but is his greatest talent self promotion? angus batey meets ... katy perry: one of the boys ** (capitol) review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 19 september 2008 is there nothing lipstick lesbianism can't do for a 23 year old former gospel singer? ... mercury rev: "let's try to corral this wild horse, fellas" interview by mike barnes, the guardian, 19 september 2008 after years of chaos and in fighting, mercury rev are back on track. they tell mike barnes how they reinvented their music   and themselves ... marvin gaye, edwin starr, the temptations, the undisputed truth: norman whitfield, 1941 2008 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 19 september 2008 he co wrote and produced some of motown's greatest hits ... mercury rev: snowflake midnight review by jude rogers, the guardian, 26 september 2008 ten years after deserter's songs became a gorgeous americana classic, mercury rev have made another masterpiece. ... nappy brown, 1929 2008 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 26 september 2008 1950s blues and r&b singer resurgent in the 80s and last year. ... natalie cole: the unforgettable ms cole interview by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 26 september 2008 natalie cole is the superstar's daughter who became a black panther, a cocaine addict   and a huge success in her own right. as she ... 50 cent: from the firing line to the firing range interview by angus batey, the guardian, 1 october 2008 curtis "50 cent" jackson is in a strangely revealing mood as he discusses working with de niro and pacino, how getting shot harmed his record ... delphic: new band of the week   delphic profile by paul lester, the guardian, 1 october 2008 delphic could be the best new band in manchester, as they evoke the spirit of its hacienda days in a forward thinking, indie rave type way. are ... aswad, jah shaka: franco rosso's babylon retrospective and interview by kieron tyler, the guardian, 4 october 2008 kieron tyler celebrates that rare thing   a british movie about reggae ... kaiser chiefs: off with their heads review by jude rogers, the guardian, 17 october 2008 this summer, mark ronson brightly told us that kaiser chiefs' new album, their third in four years and the first on his watch, sounded like ... estelle: the guardian profile: estelle swaray profile by angus batey, the guardian, 17 october 2008 mobo win is vindication for singer who had to move to us to find success. ... toumani diabaté: "our music is older than bach" interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 17 october 2008 damon albarn, björk and the lso have all fallen under the spell of toumani diabaté. where will mali's master kora player strike next? ... the dears: porchester hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 21 october 2008 a west london hall that advertises itself as the ideal spot for weddings and birthday parties is a perverse place to find the dears, a ... jenny lewis: koko, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 22 october 2008 jenny lewis is a mistress of reinvention. originally a child actor, with a string of bit part roles in roseanne, baywatch and the golden girls, she ... fall out boy: chemical brothers interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 24 october 2008 fall out boy are the pin ups of choice for an over medicated, emo generation. but as election day approaches in the us, the band tell stevie ... hank williams, hank williams jr., hank williams iii: go your own way: hank williams and his progeny report and interview by angus batey, the guardian, 24 october 2008 hank williams changed the face of country music. how can his descendants live up to that? angus batey finds out. ... kaiser chiefs: the forum, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 25 october 2008 in 2005, kaiser chiefs squeezed into a pop scene that was fixated on arch art rockers. today, the band are a neo britpop fixture, seemingly sent to ... jerry garcia, grateful dead, merl saunders: merl saunders, 1934 2008 obituary by ken hunt, the guardian, 27 october 2008 keyboard wizard who often worked with jerry garcia, with or without the grateful dead ... the temptations: the band that took motown higher retrospective and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 31 october 2008 forty years ago this month, the temptations released a single that would change the face of motown. martin luther king jr had been gunned down ... the mothers of invention: jimmy carl black, 1938 2008 obituary by alan clayson, the guardian, 4 november 2008 drummer and sometimes lead vocalist who worked with frank zappa and captain beefheart ... howe gelb, giant sand: howe gelb: enter sandman interview by everett true, the guardian, 5 november 2008 "giant sand is a mood," remarks singer howe gelb on the back of my promo copy of the new giant sand album, provisions   what ... the killers: royal albert hall, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 5 november 2008 the killers have sold 12m albums worldwide yet still find themselves at a crossroads. ... erik darling, 1933 2008 obituary by ken hunt, the guardian, 7 november 2008 erik darling, who has died of lymphoma aged 74, led a rich and varied life in folk music and straddled many of the genre's definitions. ... herbie hancock: herbie rides again interview by andrew purcell, the guardian, 7 november 2008 he has enjoyed electro, pop and funk incarnations but, as herbie hancock tells andrew purcell, it's all about playing one right note ... hot chip: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 10 november 2008 "welcome to the hot chip show," shouts guitarist al doyle, as if priming the crowd for a vegas cabaret act rather than five londoners whose ... mcfly: sheffield arena live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 11 november 2008 remember the days when boy bands were 10 a penny and schoolgirls would wage war over whether take that or east 17 were more luscious? ... fleet foxes: why is our radical folk heritage ignored? comment by luke turner, the guardian, 14 november 2008 modern british music is so in thrall to americana that our own treasure trove of radical traditional folk is in danger of being forgotten ... the big pink: new band of the week: the big pink profile by paul lester, the guardian, 18 november 2008 today's bright young things take their name from the band, and their inspiration from the early 90s. ... the big pink: new band of the week: the big pink report by paul lester, the guardian, 18 november 2008 today's bright young things take their name from the band, and their inspiration from the early '90s. ... la roux: new band of the day: la roux profile by paul lester, the guardian, 19 november 2008 make no mistake, today's new artist is a solo female synth star in waiting. ... shontelle: new band of the week: shontelle profile by paul lester, the guardian, 20 november 2008 today's new artist was once an army cadet forced to give rihanna punishment push ups for being late. lucky old tarmac, eh? ... dizzee rascal: academy, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 21 november 2008 dizzee rascal, who in 2003 carried off the mercury music prize, recently told newsnight's jeremy paxman he was thinking of running for prime minister. he seems ... ryan adams: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 25 november 2008 despite what ryan adams tells us tonight, it wasn't true that this was the first time he had ever played london "without being chemically challenged". ... live music: is this the end of the road? report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 28 november 2008 gigs have been shoring up the ailing music industry   but they're not as popular as they once were. caroline sullivan reports on growing anxiety ... taio cruz: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 4 december 2008 taio cruz has been described as a british cross between timbaland and john legend   "british" being the operative word. a privately educated londoner, cruz ... mary margaret o'hara: christmas wishes from canada's psychic singer songwriter interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 5 december 2008 down the wires from canada comes mary margaret o'hara, her voice as devastatingly delicate as shattering glass. ... abc, heaven 17, the human league: abc/human league/heaven 17: hammersmith apollo, london live review by paul lester, the guardian, 10 december 2008 there are queues around the building for the sheffield groups who brought electro funk (heaven 17), orchestral disco (abc) and synth pop (the human league) to ... lady gaga, la roux: slaves to synth report and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 17 december 2008 the male guitar band is dead. the future is electro, female, diy   and very in your face. caroline sullivan talks to the solo acts ... the monochrome set: remembering the band that history forgot retrospective by john robb, the guardian, 9 january 2009 there haven't been many bands like the monochrome set. they should have been absolutely massive, but instead were sidelined by their post punk peers and were ... the astoria: share your beer stained memories report by ian winwood, the guardian, 13 january 2009 you can always tell when a gig at the astoria has just finished because you'll be greeted with the sight of 2,000 people spilling out ... florence and the machine, lady gaga: on music: lady gaga and florence welch comment by jude rogers, the guardian, 16 january 2009 lady gaga and florence welch have been hailed as the new queens of pop. but why pretend they're anything more than cheap imitations? ... franz ferdinand: tonight review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 18 january 2009 on their eponymous 2004 outing, franz knew exactly what they wanted to do and they executed it to perfection. they conjured something fresh from orange ... franz ferdinand: heaven, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 22 january 2009 franz ferdinand are back, but their advance publicity has been distinctly misleading. ... grace jones: the sage, gateshead live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 23 january 2009 they used to say that you could tell how good an elvis gig was by the length of time it took his quiff to disintegrate. ... david bowie, the rolling stones: guy peellaert, 1934 2008 obituary by ken hunt, the guardian, 29 january 2009 belgian artist most famous for his rock dreamscapes ... buddy holly: the angel with the devil's music: buddy holly retrospective by richard williams, the guardian, 30 january 2009 fifty years ago, buddy holly's life was sadly cut short. richard williams salutes the clean cut 22 year old who came to britain and showed a whole generation ... hitting rock bottom comment by pat kane, the guardian, 31 january 2009 musicians know about recession   they're already making films, building websites and creating merchandise just to keep playing. ... how the fanzine refused to die report and interview by simon reynolds, the guardian, 2 february 2009 blogs are the cheapest, fastest and easiest way to get your music writing out there   but that hasn't stopped a new generation of writers picking ... hudson mohawke: new band of the week: hudson mohawke profile by paul lester, the guardian, 2 february 2009 this 22 year old warp signing sounds like crystal castles holding a disco inside an early '80s atari computer console with the entire crew of george clinton's ... jacques brel: jacques the lad: jacques brel retrospective by graeme thomson, the guardian, 6 february 2009 first things first. try to forget that jacques brel, the belgian singer songwriter, is indirectly responsible for terry jacks's 'seasons in the sun'. forget also for ... the cramps: lux interior obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 6 february 2009 co founder of the cramps, exponents of trash culture and 'psychobilly' music ... the gaslight anthem: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 10 february 2009 the gaslight anthem are doomed to be forever compared with bruce springsteen. similarly hailing from new jersey, this raw four piece play muscular, taut rock'n'roll songs ... ellie goulding: new artist of the day   ellie goulding profile by paul lester, the guardian, 16 february 2009 this currently unsigned welsh lass is a cross between a singer songwriter and a synth pop starlet. is she another kate nash? a kooky british lykke li? ... secret machines: ruby lounge, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 16 february 2009 in an ideal world, the secret machines would be playing in a volcanic crater at pompeii, or taking the stage in the rocky mountains as ... the ting tings: the day glo duo: the ting tings interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 18 february 2009 "all i've been thinking about," says jules de martino, the male half of the ting tings, seated in a swish manchester restaurant, "is steak and ... single vision: fierce panda records retrospective and interview by ian gittins, the guardian, 20 february 2009 the new wave of new wave was never really much cop. it was an early 1990s music press concocted punk revival scene based around a handful ... grandmaster flash & the furious five: grandmaster flash: all hands on deck profile and interview by andrew purcell, the guardian, 27 february 2009 they thought he was mad, they spat him off stage, he hit the drugs... but grandmaster flash gave 'dj' a whole new meaning. andrew purcell ... bikini kill, huggy bear: grrrl power retrospective and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 4 march 2009 the riot grrrl scene brought feminism to alternative rock in the '90s. fifteen years on, the aftershocks are still making waves, says laura barton. ... the rev. claude jeter, the swan silvertones: claude jeter, 1914 2009 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 12 march 2009 claude jeter, who has died aged 94, pioneered the technique of falsetto singing in african american music, as leader of the gospel group the swan ... john legend: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 march 2009 as befits a singer who decided that his original surname, stephens, didn't capture his essence, john legend precedes his entrance with black and white footage of himself ... alan livingston, 1917 2009 obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 20 march 2009 alan wendell livingston, businessman, born 15 october 1917; died 13 march 2009 ... island records: the secret of its success comment by simon reynolds, the guardian, 23 march 2009 the legendary label, which celebrates its 50th birthday in may, managed in its heyday to achieve that rare feat: combining commercial success with artistic integrity ... all bands on deck: pirate radio and the boat that rocked report and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 27 march 2009 for a few weeks last spring, a corner of shepperton studios became the nerve centre of the fictional pirate station, radio rock. mounted on a ... mastodon: blood, sweat and beards: mastodon interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 27 march 2009 in the two decades and change since metallica's landmark master of puppets album debuted, heavy metal has charted an ascendant course, from derided, marginalised and ... brian eno, david byrne: the business is an exciting mess: brian eno and david byrne interview by edward helmore, the guardian, 27 march 2009 david byrne is sitting outside the ladies parlour, upstairs at the tampa theatre, one of the most spectacular 1920s movie palaces in the us, in ... ray parker jr.: who you gonna call? 118 118 comment by johnny sharp, the guardian, 4 april 2009 ray parker jr is the latest ad/pop crossover. johnny sharp wants more ... diamanda galás: "my performance is catharsis" interview by ian gittins, the guardian, 10 april 2009 death, disease, loss and exile   diamanda galás covers it all. ian gittins meets an extraordinary singer who is still fighting injustice ... jason mraz: hammersmith apollo, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 10 april 2009 while the world has been going about its business, jason mraz has quietly sold 3.5m copies of his grammy nominated 2008 album, we sing, we dance, ... the bay city rollers: tam paton obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 10 april 2009 bay city rollers manager who was mired in scandal ... jeffrey lewis: the neurotic from new york: jeffrey lewis interview by andrew purcell, the guardian, 13 april 2009 a few years ago, jeffrey lewis wrote a song called 'sal's pizza has sold out to the yuppie scum', complaining about the rising cost of ... the enemy: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 april 2009 anyone who thinks "the kids" are an apathetic lot who would rather vegetate in front of their xboxes than start a revolution should see the ... the hours: see the light review by dave simpson, the guardian, 16 april 2009 given that the hours' singer antony genn lost much of his life (and dental work) to drug addiction, he's hardly going to let a setback ... the noisettes: "we've come to clean up the indie landfill" report and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 17 april 2009 noisettes are in a tv studio just outside paris   along with the sugarhill gang and singer songwriter tracy chapman. they are just some of the ... paloma faith: new band of the week: paloma faith profile by paul lester, the guardian, 20 april 2009 this former burlesque performer updates amy winehouse's tourch song soul with a vampish, theatrical flair ... lady sovereign: 5 cavendish square, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 21 april 2009 lady sovereign operates on hip hop time, so it's compulsory for her to be an hour late for this low key comeback show, at   oddly enough ... n dubz: o2 empire, london live review by paul lester, the guardian, 22 april 2009 grime is the new pop. the screams that greet support act tinchy stryder are shrill enough, but when n dubz bound on they're almost deafening. the ... girls aloud: sheffield arena *** live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 27 april 2009 the recession does not appear to be affecting girls aloud, whose entrance involves pyrotechnics, hydraulic platforms and the whipping off of glittering white ballgowns to reveal ... the barron knights: duke d'mond, 1943 2009 obituary by alan clayson, the guardian, 28 april 2009 singer whose group's top 10 hits brought parody to 1960s pop ... the chills, the clean: nuns at the altar of rock: flying nun records retrospective and interview by martin aston, the guardian, may 2009 "there's something about the antipodes that irritates britain," reckons martin phillipps, on the phone from dunedin on new zealand's south island. almost 25 years ago, ... jackie deshannon: return of the starry eyed girl interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 1 may 2009 it's lunchtime at claridge's, and a glamorous blonde in sparkling stilettos shimmers out of the lift. no one bats an eyelid, but then she starts ... the horrors: primary colours (xl) review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 1 may 2009 they live! left for dead after a hype overdose two years ago, southend's ghost train garage rockers have risen again with a second album so daring and ... devo: we are legend report and interview by pat long, the guardian, 2 may 2009 new wave oddballs devo used to warn that consumerism was crumbling. now they're back to say we told you so. pat long tips his funny ... taylor swift: shepherd's bush empire, london *** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 9 may 2009 cosy places such as the shepherd's bush empire can't figure much in taylor swift's schedule these days   the us's top selling artist of 2008 must ... shontelle: "the army brought out my tough side   but i wanted to be fabulous" interview by sophie heawood, the guardian, 11 may 2009 when shontelle layne got a call last year saying that her song 'battle cry' had been picked for barack obama's campaign album yes we can, ... local natives: new band of the week   local natives profile by paul lester, the guardian, 3 june 2009 one of this year's sxsw hits, this "vocal group" are like vampire weekend, fleet foxes and arcade fire in one hairy package. ... robyn, röyksopp: "there's this idea that you're an oddball, far up at the top of the world" profile and interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 5 june 2009 love songs to robots, cement mixer music, trios with houses on their shoulders… no wonder scandinavian artists get noticed. jude rogers kicks off our scandipop special ... ornette coleman: mister anything goes profile and interview by john lewis, the guardian, 10 june 2009 he's taken jazz where it has never gone before   playing with pipers, punks and divas. as ornette coleman arrives in britain, patti smith, moby ... faith no more at the brixton academy live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 june 2009 faith no more's first gig in 11 years starts on a promisingly high note. a keyboard tinkles a lullaby melody, a spotlight picks out singer ... white denim: fits review by ben thompson, the guardian, 14 june 2009 the genre that was once called "college rock" is currently drifting in a distinctly post graduate direction. but for those who find 2009's us indie vanguard ... ornette coleman, the roots: the roots with ornette coleman: royal festival hall, london live review by john lewis, the guardian, 17 june 2009 it seems fitting that philadelphia hip hoppers the roots should help kick off ornette coleman's meltdown festival. ... why "disco sucks!" sucked retrospective by ben myers, the guardian, 18 june 2009 the "disco sucks!" campaign in 1979 had racist and homophobic undertones   and, 30 years on, has proven to be a resolute failure ... kraftwerk: ralf hütter: "i got a new head, and i'm fine" interview by john harris, the guardian, 19 june 2009 the bikes ... the robots ... the dream of man and machine in perfect harmony. how is the kraftwerk vision of the future shaping up? ... crystal fighters: new band of the week: crystal fighters interview by paul lester, the guardian, 23 june 2009 this east london five piece bring traditional basque folk music screaming and kicking into the 21st century by fusing it with heavy dance rhythms and synthesisers. ... michael jackson obituary by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 26 june 2009 the self styled king of pop, whose musical gift was overshadowed by his private life ... bruce springsteen: why indie nerds love the boss report and interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 26 june 2009 springsteen, a tweepop hero? ... lady gaga: academy, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 1 july 2009 the 23 year old formerly known as stefani germanotta must be pop's most ruthlessly effective self promoter since madonna. ... spinal tap: wembley arena, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 1 july 2009 no matter how witty they may be, few satires or novelty songs repay repeated listening. so how come a packed wembley is rocking to the ... metric: the mellow mania of metric interview by laura barton, the guardian, 6 july 2009 they made their name with spiky, angry songs perfect for sweaty clubs. now metric are finding their lighter side. will the band's fans go for ... vincent gallo, yes: how vincent gallo taught me to love yes profile by alan mcgee, the guardian, 14 july 2009 the pop culture polymath has used his spectacular tastes to introduce people to much maligned musical genres. but if only he could get around to releasing his ... the mars volta: somerset house, london live review by paul lester, the guardian, 15 july 2009 this may have taken place in the idyllic environs of somerset house, and the band might describe their latest album, octahedron, as "acoustic", but reports ... the ting tings: somerset house, london live review by paul lester, the guardian, 16 july 2009 with la roux, that other boy girl synthpop duo, currently dominating the charts, the ting tings have started to look a bit, well, 2008. ... shakira: on music: shakira   the she wolf bites comment by jude rogers, the guardian, 17 july 2009 shakira's howling alter ego is properly, wonderfully strange, going back to the old rules of pop star alternate personas ... half man half biscuit: why half man half biscuit are wholly terrific profile by ben myers, the guardian, 23 july 2009 witty and dry, sardonic yet never cynical, the lyrics of half man half biscuit are an undiscovered treasure trove. it's time this great birkenhead band ... sugababes: 'we took our eye off the ball' interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 24 july 2009 after a brush with self doubt, the sugababes are back on form. keisha buchanan, amelle berrabah and heidi range talk about their new album, get sexy ... hurts: profile profile by paul lester, the guardian, 27 july 2009 this electro pop boy duo look as though they've been styled by helmut newton, directed by anton corbijn and produced by trevor horn on a martin hannett ... u2: ego warriors: u2 speak out on rock star hypocrisy interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 30 july 2009 over the years, u2 have taken many a kicking. but the band believe they're unjustly maligned for their unique brand of "stadium activism" ... ze records: 'it was like a fairytale' retrospective and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 30 july 2009 the extraordinary story of the trail blazing new york label that launched was (not was), kid creole and suicide ... buffy sainte marie retrospective and interview by colin irwin, the guardian, 31 july 2009 all gushing jet black hair, radiant smiles and shining eyes, buffy sainte marie looks fabulous. "do i? why thank you..." ... speech debelle : is speech debelle really "not black enough"? comment by jude rogers, the guardian, 31 july 2009 speech debelle seems to be yearning for another vision of blackness, rather than settling for being "urban" and making race redundant ... will the indie chart rise again? report and interview by bob stanley, the guardian, 31 july 2009 in its 1980s heyday, the indie chart was a beacon of top alternative music. then the majors took over. now it may get a new ... ellie greenwich, 1940 2009 obituary by richard williams, the guardian, august 2009 not long after ellie greenwich, who has died at the age of 68, met her future husband and songwriting partner jeff barry at a thanksgiving ... beth jeans houghton: new band of the week   beth jeans houghton profile by paul lester, the guardian, 6 august 2009 this quirky newbie could easily be dismissed as just another kooky songstress were it not for the quality of her music and voice. oasis fans ... toro y moi: new band of the week: toro y moi profile by paul lester, the guardian, 13 august 2009 though he doesn't sound like the flaming lips, this multi instrumentalist whiz kid blurs the boundary between electronica and americana in the same way. ... the xx: xx   a teen band with a difference interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 13 august 2009 the minimalist four piece band from a notting hill garage are equally awed by pixies and aaliyah ... barry beckett, 1943 2009 obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 16 august 2009 behind every star there is a great producer, musician or record company a&r man. barry beckett, who has died aged 66 after a series of ... ellie greenwich: remembering songwriting legend ellie greenwich retrospective by jude rogers, the guardian, 27 august 2009 she changed the shape of 60s pop by writing some extraordinary songs, including 'be my baby' and 'da doo ron ron' ... muse make space for the music review by jude rogers, the guardian, 28 august 2009 when is music too much? i'm not talking about the torrent of songs that surround us every day   i've argued how we should work ... the duke & the king: testifying with american royalty profile and interview by james medd, the guardian, 3 september 2009 are they a revivalist folk soul band or a religious cult? either way, this charismatic three piece are on a mission from god. ... coldplay, jay z: coldplay/jay z: lancashire cricket club, manchester live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 september 2009 there are only a few bands big enough to ask artists who are at the very top of their own genres to work as their ... bikini kill, huggy bear: the 10 myths of riot grrrl comment by everett true, the guardian, 14 september 2009 you read a lot of stuff about riot grrrl, most of which isn't true. things such as ... ... editors: 02 birmingham academy live review by paul lester, the guardian, 15 september 2009 the fact that this was the opening night of birmingham's new academy meant there was already a buzz. there was added excitement because editors are ... peter, paul & mary, mary travers: mary travers, 1936 2009 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 17 september 2009 singer with the 1960s hit making american folk revival trio peter, paul and mary. ... florence and the machine: academy, birmingham **** live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 21 september 2009 florence and the machine's musical ascent has been remarkably precipitous. ... la roux: 'of course lady gaga's not my thing' profile and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 24 september 2009 it is morning, and 21 year old elly jackson   or la roux, arguably the biggest new pop star of the year   is on the eurostar ... music's intellectual property eviction notice essay by john pidgeon, the guardian, 24 september 2009 what made old singles so great? session musicians, that's what. so why are those players finding their royalties disappearing? ... esben and the witch: new band of the week: esben and the witch profile by paul lester, the guardian, 25 september 2009 brighton trio esben and the witch channel literature, nature and sorrow to create hauntingly ethereal tales of dark, foreboding romance. ... spandau ballet's reunion: once more with girdles report and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 october 2009 with 10 top 10 hits, spandau ballet were the epitome of 80s pop. after much bitterness and a court case, the band are reunited again ... fat freddy's drop: boondigga & the big bw review by charlie gillett, the guardian, 4 october 2009 warning: of the nine tracks here, only two run for less than six minutes, and both of them stretch way past five. you had better ... chase and status: new band of the week   chase and status profile by paul lester, the guardian, 5 october 2009 hailed by pharrell, snoop and jay z as go to remix guys, this drum'n'bass duo capture a mood of high energy menace ... thom yorke and flea: orpheum theatre, los angeles live review by sophie heawood, the guardian, 5 october 2009 the news that thom yorke had come to los angeles and formed a temporary supergroup with flea from the red hot chili peppers was surprise ... nick drake: robert kirby, 1948 2009 obituary by colin irwin, the guardian, 7 october 2009 in his first year as a music student at cambridge university, robert kirby sought to join footlights, the undergraduates' fabled arts and drama club. he ... age of chance's bangers and mash ups retrospective and interview by angus batey, the guardian, 8 october 2009 sampling, dance rock, cross genre cover versions ... age of chance did it all 20 years ago, but no one was listening. as their back catalogue goes ... the instrumental touch comment by jude rogers, the guardian, 8 october 2009 instrumental music is the neglected child of rock and pop   but it's the absence of a human presence that can make it so interesting. ... depeche mode, gary numan, ultravox: one nation under a moog: how britain went synthpop retrospective by simon reynolds, the guardian, 10 october 2009 as new bbc4 documentary synth britannia shows, the synthesizer first dehumanised then re humanised british pop, fulfilled the diy promise of punk, and changed how bands ... egyptian hip hop: new band of the week: egyptian hip hop profile by paul lester, the guardian, 12 october 2009 this manchester band have never set foot in cairo and don't rap on their records, so they're perfectly named then ... gavin bryars ensemble: union chapel, london live review by john lewis, the guardian, 19 october 2009 this opens a series of concerts raising money for margins, a charity for london's homeless, and there's something grimly appropriate about tonight's choice of material. ... dizzee rascal: roundhouse, london **** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 22 october 2009 "dizzee rascal for prime minister, yeah?" as if to emphasise that he is more than just an east london grime mc these days, rascal ended ... robbie williams: writing off robbie williams is unfair and premature comment by jude rogers, the guardian, 22 october 2009 expectations of immediate success are threatening to strangle robbie williams's comeback at birth, even when his single is selling well and the new album is ... phoenix: by the time they get to… phoenix interview by andrew purcell, the guardian, 23 october 2009 growing up in versailles, an affluent suburb of paris, the four boys who would eventually form phoenix bonded over their love of american pop culture. ... sufjan stevens's symphony for new york report and interview by andrew purcell, the guardian, 27 october 2009 the brooklyn queens expressway is a miserable stretch of road. the bqe, as new yorkers call it, has narrow lanes, no hard shoulder, countless potholes, and ... fleetwood mac: manchester arena live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 29 october 2009 "this band have a complex emotional history," begins guitarist lindsey buckingham, hinting at fleetwood mac's rollercoaster of bedhopping, cocaine, mental illness and religious cults, which ... jls: 'we became an unshakable force' report and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 october 2009 x factor runners up don't usually win mobos   but jls were always meant for more than talent shows ... brendan mullen obituary obituary by jon savage, the guardian, 2 november 2009 nightclub owner who acted as a catalyst for the la punk scene ... bon jovi: alan mcgee meets jon bon jovi interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 5 november 2009 when creation boss and oasis mentor alan mcgee confessed his admiration for veteran rocker jon bon jovi on a guardian blog, we just had to ... ellie goulding: first sight: ellie goulding guide by jude rogers, the guardian, 5 november 2009 who is she? the 21 year old future of pop, if you believe the hype. born in hereford and brought up in rural wales, she now makes ... journey: why is journey's 'don't stop believin'' back in the charts? comment by jude rogers, the guardian, 5 november 2009 the 17th bestselling track in the country is the power ballad 'don't stop believin'' from 1981. how did journey get so popular? ... just jack: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 11 november 2009 it is possible that if jack allsopp had picked a stage name with a bit more brio   barnstorming jack, say   he might have fulfilled ... carla bley: queen elizabeth hall, london live review by john l. walters, the guardian, 19 november 2009 at first glance, carla bley's current band, the lost chords, look like just another jazz quartet. then you listen to what they play, and realise ... gil scott heron: i'm new here review by jude rogers, the guardian, 19 november 2009 rather than treating them like national treasures, let's hope musicians stretch their prejudices about what older artists can do ... john mayer: 'you can't make music as a famous person' interview by angus batey, the guardian, 19 november 2009 "i basically visualised a record called battle studies as a way to sum up the last two years of my life: what i've learned and ... badly drawn boy, goldfrapp, the yeah yeah yeahs: rock stars storm the movie soundtrack world overview by graeme thomson, the guardian, 19 november 2009 from goldfrapp to badly drawn boy, from karen o to nick cave, more and more big names are lining up to write music for films. ... cheryl cole: twist and pout: cheryl cole's new album cover essay by laura barton, the guardian, 19 november 2009 if the pose seems vaguely familiar, it may be that side on, over the shoulder look. laura barton has certainly seen it somewhere before. ... cocteau twins: elizabeth fraser: the cocteau twins and me interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 26 november 2009 for 18 years she was the "voice of god" in the cocteau twins. now elizabeth fraser finds it too difficult even to think about her ... newton faulkner: union chapel, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 26 november 2009 newton faulkner seemed a whimsical choice to headline the final night of the annual mencap little noise series   previous shows had featured more obvious ... they've got the x factor profile and interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 3 december 2009 in the last 10 years, the x factor and its ilk have bucked record buying trends and breathed new life into a dying industry. we talk ... little boots, gary numan: when gary numan met little boots report and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 3 december 2009 he arrived in 1979, bringing synthpop to the masses. she is part of the bold new wave reinventing the genre for the 21st century. so ... beach house: new band of the week   beach house profile by paul lester, the guardian, 7 december 2009 it is only a matter of time before these us alt rockers will be acclaimed for their slow, atmospheric lo fi lullabies. ... the bravery, girl thing, andrew wk: yesterday's promising music stars: where are they now? interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 10 december 2009 they had the right backers and the buzz, but suddenly ... nothing happened. what went wrong with these three much touted noughties acts, girl thing, the ... ellie goulding: pop sensation profile and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 12 december 2009 "i know these cups look dirty," says ellie goulding, frowning at the two floral mugs she carries across the room, "but really they're not. it's just ... top of the noughties pops essay by bob stanley, the guardian, 17 december 2009 can bob stanley listen to every no 1 song from the noughties and escape with his sanity intact? he recalls a musical decade that ranged ... travis: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 22 december 2009 glasgow folk popsters travis named themselves after the psychotic robert de niro character in taxi driver, but anyone chancing on them halfway through their sold out christmas ... simon reynolds's notes on the noughties: clearing up the indie landfill comment by simon reynolds, the guardian, 4 january 2010 at the start of the noughties, indie was seen as the rubbish dump of contemporary music. but by the end of the decade, it had ... vampire weekend: 'they're attacking a version of us that doesn't exist' profile and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 7 january 2010 vampire weekend are being mobbed in california. by teenage girls. in a skate park normally frequented by crystal meth addicts. what makes this so unexpected ... so solid crew: 'what we're doing is bigger than music' interview by angus batey, the guardian, 14 january 2010 after a dramatic rise and a messy, destructive fall, so solid are back. this time they intend to keep the tunes   and the money ... bobby charles obituary obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 15 january 2010 the rock'n'roll classics 'see you later, alligator' and 'walking to new orleans' are among the compositions of the louisiana born singer songwriter bobby charles, who has died aged ... summer camp: new band of the week   summer camp profile by paul lester, the guardian, 18 january 2010 this secretive boy girl duo have so far retained a sense of anonymity and mystique, but not for much longer   they are going to be ... kate & anna mcgarrigle: kate mcgarrigle: obituary obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 19 january 2010 folk singer and songwriter at the heart of an innovative music making family ... kate & anna mcgarrigle: kate mcgarrigle remembered comment by laura barton, the guardian, 20 january 2010 there are two words that have always epitomised the voice of kate mcgarrigle for me   they came in a rolling stone review that followed ... laura veirs: academy, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 20 january 2010 lady gaga has a bra firing sparks; la roux has that gravity defying quiff. pacific north western chanteuse laura veirs's only visual prop is the large bulge ... manchester's music scene now has everything everything overview by paul lester, the guardian, 22 january 2010 never mind the buzzcocks... or stone roses, or new order: manchester can stop trading on its former glories. three new bands explain how they are ... delphic, egyptian hip hop, everything everything, hurts: manchester's music scene now has everything everything report and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 22 january 2010 there's an old adage in the trades (the music business, newspapers and magazines) that value glamour and novelty: two's a coincidence, three's a scene. in ... lonelady: paul morley's showing off … lonelady profile and interview by paul morley, the guardian, 22 january 2010 paul morley meets warp's new mancunian signing lonelady, who he would never tip as the next big thing, but might, for those missing a certain ... marina and the diamonds: dingwalls, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 27 january 2010 as 2009 dawned, the critical consensus held that female fronted art pop would dominate the year's musical landscape. this prediction proved remarkably ­prescient, with florence and the ... midlake: 'i wish i'd heard black sabbath in high school' interview by sylvie simmons, the guardian, 28 january 2010 texas rockers midlake grew up playing jazz, but fell headlong into a love affair with vintage rock. here they talk about their latest fixations, and ... lonelady: new artist of the week   lonelady profile by paul lester, the guardian, 29 january 2010 this solitary singer's bad mood music conjures the dark, dour manchester of ian curtis and ian brown. ... flexipop!'s shameless pop legacy retrospective by tim lott, the guardian, 4 february 2010 trashy, silly and unashamedly puerile, flexipop! only lasted two years. but, says novelist tim lott, who started the magazine, its revolutionary spirit can still be ... stornoway: "we once won a giant bowl of fruit" interview by laura barton, the guardian, 4 february 2010 from gigs in camper vans to being on tv with jay z, it's been a rollercoaster of a ride for stornoway so far. no wonder they ... the low anthem: the folk rockers who sing about darwin profile and interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 4 february 2010 "i hope people don't think we're just relics," says ben knox miller, sincerely, dressed in a jacket fashioned from an old burlap flour sack, and ... mumford & sons: the almighty power of mumford & sons profile and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 11 february 2010 the pub is filling up: city boys in pinstriped suits, women clutching dry white wines; candles are lit on upstairs tables, voices rise to fill ... lissie: new artist of the week   lissie profile by paul lester, the guardian, 12 february 2010 a guitar toting americana lovechild who belongs to the 1970s, and whose new single is more freeway rock than floaty folk. ... syd arthur: new band of the week: syd arthur report by paul lester, the guardian, 15 february 2010 these funky folkies are sons and heirs of those canterbury musicians who did whimsical things with psychedelic and progressive rock. ... lostprophets: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 16 february 2010 the singer wears a chanel watch and dates tv presenters, his bandmates have the angular facial planes of male models, and you can bet they ... ronika: new band of the week   ronika profile by paul lester, the guardian, 18 february 2010 this candy coated queen might look like gwen stefani, but her sugary surface conceals a deeper link with underground dance. ... hot chip: academy, newcastle **** live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 19 february 2010 hot chip walk on to deafening applause… on tape. then the real audience start clapping, not just at their arrival, but at the audacity of ... fionn regan: my way or the highway profile and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 22 february 2010 his debut album was nominated for the mercury prize   then his label locked away the follow up. for his third album, fionn regan is going ... whitney houston: why someone in whitney houston's condition shouldn't be on stage report by dave simpson, the guardian, 24 february 2010 whitney houston has a problem. in fact, she seems to have a lot of problems. according to reports from monday night's concert in brisbane, australia ... from mod to emo: why pop tribes are still making a scene overview by jude rogers, the guardian, 25 february 2010 like minded music fans have been herding together for half a century   but are die hard pop tribes now a thing of the past? do today's ... bbc 6 music: the beauties and the beast comment by jude rogers, the guardian, 27 february 2010 passion, intelligence and wonderful tunes   6 music has it all, and found many fans despite its tiny budget. so why on earth is it ... air: roundhouse, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 28 february 2010 when air first appeared with their 1998 debut album, moon safari, the french duo seemed to define the musical zeitgeist. ... fingers inc.: fingers, inc: 'mystery of love' (club version) retrospective by jon savage, the guardian, 2 march 2010 first released in 1985 (on alleviated records), then remixed by larry heard for a dj international 12", 'mystery of love' seemed to come out of ... elvis presley: the return of the king retrospective by richard williams, the guardian, 4 march 2010 elvis presley left the army 50 years ago this week, to suggestions that the music he pioneered had died in his absence. the truth turned ... kate nash: brudenell social club, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 8 march 2010 one of pop's most curious phenomenons sees formerly squeaky pop stars rebelling against what made them famous. just as the manufactured monkees ended up singing psychedelic songs ... sparklehorse: mark linkous, 1962 2010 obituary by rob hughes, the guardian, 9 march 2010 the american singer songwriter mark linkous, who has killed himself aged 47, worked with the flaming lips, daniel johnston and danger mouse, but is best known ... wu lyf   new band of the week profile by paul lester, the guardian, 10 march 2010 this mysterious crew appear to be some kind of strange manc cult, full of quasi spiritual fervour and revolutionary intent. ... frightened rabbit in the headlights interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 11 march 2010 frightened rabbit's scott hutchison was so shy he was kept back a year at nursery   but now fame in american beckons, writes jude rogers. ... lady antebellum: new band of the week: lady antebellum profile by paul lester, the guardian, 17 march 2010 there's no denying their huge success in the us, but the polished country rock trio are simply not worthy of an ipod slot next to the ... joan jett, kristin hersh, le tigre, throwing muses: what happened to angry female music stars? comment by jude rogers, the guardian, 25 march 2010 are there any angry women left in rock and pop? joan jett, riot grrrl figurehead kathleen hanna and others talk about where it went wrong ... frank zappa, tom waits: herb cohen: combative label boss and manager of frank zappa and tom waits obituary by rob hughes, the guardian, 1 april 2010 herb cohen, who has died aged 77 of complications from cancer, did not elicit much affection from the artists he managed, but he played a ... the cranberries: royal albert hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 2 april 2010 bands give all sorts of reasons for reuniting, but the cranberries' must be the most novel: in 2009, after five years apart, they decided to have ... tinie tempah: koko, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 7 april 2010 the 21 year old south london grime mc and rapper tinie tempah spent two weeks at no. 1 last month with his abrasive single 'pass out', and ... n dubz: academy, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 8 april 2010 n dubz show that pop's generation gap is alive and well. for anyone over 21, the north london trio's trademark hats look like the sort of ... malcolm mclaren 1946 2010 obituary by dave simpson, the guardian, 9 april 2010 the impresario and iconoclast malcolm mclaren, who has died aged 64 from the cancer mesothelioma, was one of the pivotal, yet most divisive influences on ... paolo nutini: royal albert hall, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 11 april 2010 paolo nutini has quietly become a commercial a lister. his second album, sunny side up, made the paisley singer songwriter the bestselling british male artist of last ... i am arrows: new band of the week: i am arrows profile by paul lester, the guardian, 15 april 2010 former razorlight drummer andy burrows turns clever multi instrumentalist   with surprisingly listenable results. ... she & him: a musical marriage made in heaven profile and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 15 april 2010 "how's the soy cappuccino?" asks zooey deschanel, sliding back into her seat and peering over at the white cup and saucer set before m ward. ... dee dee bridgewater: barbican, london live review by john l. walters, the guardian, 19 april 2010 dee dee bridgewater has a technique and musicality that bests most performers of her generation, and her understanding of the "great american songbook" makes pretenders ... the duke & the king: union chapel, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 21 april 2010 "ain't no dust cloud from heaven can keep us from our congregation! can i get an 'amen'?" demands the duke & the king's leader, simone ... john grant: queen of denmark (bella union) review by dave simpson, the guardian, 22 april 2010 john grant used to front the czars, whose failure to translate acclaim into sales no doubt further fuelled his supersized self loathing. ... the national: gloomy … with a hint of sunshine report and interview by andrew purcell, the guardian, 22 april 2010 it was past six in the morning, in the bar of bono's hotel in dublin. the members of the national and rem were seated around ... lcd soundsystem: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 26 april 2010 having vowed to disband lcd soundsystem when he turned 40, james murphy   who reached that milestone in february   is currently on his (presumably) ... pavement get back on the horse interview by keith cameron, the guardian, 29 april 2010 pavement's reunion tour is a gamble in more ways than one   especially for its horse racing drummer ... usher: "the fans want my soul" interview by angus batey, the guardian, 29 april 2010 baring his soul is second nature to r&b superstar usher, but although he has documented his recent divorce on a new album, he's got to ... fool's gold: the cockpit, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 4 may 2010 from vampire weekend to foals, afrobeat has become a part of pop lately, but there's nothing quite like this. fool's gold aren't   as one ... foals: "i built a fortress around myself" report and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 6 may 2010 in an amsterdam square, tourists all around, yannis philippakis is pouring his heart out. the singer of foals is describing how he has kept a ... kris kristofferson: a nashville rebel reminisces retrospective and interview by graeme thomson, the guardian, 6 may 2010 there's some wonderful youtube footage of kris kristofferson receiving a gong at the 1970 country music association awards. he lopes on stage with his hair ... bobby mcferrin gets vocal interview by john lewis, the guardian, 7 may 2010 composer, conductor, vocalist, youtube inspiration: you can't pin bobby mcferrin down. his latest idea? completely improvised concerts ... joanna newsom: "is it time for a glass of wine?" interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 9 may 2010 she models for armani, enjoys a game of baseball and likes to stay out drinking cocktails. jude rogers meets joanna newsom, the outspoken singer making ... scouting for girls: academy, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 9 may 2010 after meeting at school and in the cub scouts, harrow three piece scouting for girls have become absurdly successful. their 2007 debut went double platinum and ... cameron carpenter: rhinestone cowboy profile and interview by edward helmore, the guardian, 20 may 2010 organist and showbusiness are words rarely put together. but cameron carpenter is a man on a mission, and, watch out, he's developing a secret weapon ... the antlers: scala, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 23 may 2010 with the blanched, haunting hospice, new york trio the antlers made one of the most devastating albums of last year. written by 23 year old singer and ... alicia keys: o2 arena, london review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 26 may 2010 hooking up with jay z for 'empire state of mind' has elevated alicia keys to a level of stardom where it will no longer do to ... everything but the girl: tracey thorn and ben watt: everything but the grief profile and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 26 may 2010 they wrote sad songs, survived serious illness and fell out of love with pop. now tracey thorn and ben watt are back. ... grizzly bear: freed from captivity interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 27 may 2010 grizzly bear are the cult indie group that suddenly got rather big. jude rogers talks to their frontmen. ... marshall jefferson, totally enormous extinct dinosaurs : marshall jefferson and totally enormous extinct dinosaurs comment by paul morley, the guardian, 28 may 2010 to paul morley's left, '80s chicago dance dj marshall jefferson. to his right, orlando from up and coming producers totally enormous extinct dinosaurs. can morley find the ... lauryn hill: whatever happened to lauryn hill? essay by stevie chick, the guardian, 28 may 2010 the former fugee won five grammys for her chart topping solo album, the miseducation of lauryn hill, in 1998. but we are still waiting for the ... rage against the machine: finsbury park, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 7 june 2010 last christmas a facebook campaign powered californian rap metal veterans rage against the machine to the top of the singles chart, pipping the x factor victor ... brad paisley: a different kind of cowboy interview by angus batey, the guardian, 10 june 2010 brad paisley is not your usual nashville country star. he talks about how obama made him proud to be american   and why he dreams ... led zeppelin, robert plant: going veggie with robert plant memoir by caroline boucher, the guardian, 20 june 2010 it wasn't easy grabbing a decent stew in carnaby street with the led zeppelin singer, says caroline boucher. ... frank sidebottom: chris sievey 1955 2010 obituary by rob hughes, the guardian, 22 june 2010 musician, entertainer and alter ego of the cult comedy creation frank sidebottom. ... the gaslight anthem: manchester academy live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 27 june 2010 bruce springsteen's guest appearance with the gaslight anthem at last year's glastonbury cemented the uk's continuing relationship with sweat soaked americana and further propelled new jersey's ... grizzly bear: hyde park, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 29 june 2010 now in its second year, the serpentine sessions festival is the absolute obverse of glastonbury's sprawling eclecticism. with audience numbers capped firmly at 3,000, this ... lady gaga and the new world order comment by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 1 july 2010 lady gaga's music videos are undoubtedly elaborate   but is there any truth to one blogger's claims that they are loaded with occult references and ... mystery jets: somerset house, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 9 july 2010 four years after their first album, mystery jets must be resigned to the knowledge that, unless the music world tilts on its axis, their quirky pop ... the black keys: "it's ridiculous to say that we play the blues" report and interview by andrew purcell, the guardian, 9 july 2010 for eight months now, since the end of a relationship, the black keys drummer pat carney has been living in new york's lower east side. ... sugar minott obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 12 july 2010 prolific jamaican musician who was a pioneer of dancehall reggae ... little axe: from blues to hip hop and back interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 15 july 2010 skip mcdonald was playing a gig in portugal, billed as just him and guitar. a fair portion of the audience had seen the billing and ... bill frisell, jan garbarek, keith jarrett, pat metheny: manfred eicher: the sound man profile and interview by richard williams, the guardian, 17 july 2010 admired by radiohead, friend of godard, manfred eicher is the founder of ecm, one of the most successful jazz labels in the world. he tells ... katy b   new artist of the week profile by paul lester, the guardian, 19 july 2010 this brit school graduate is to dubstep what tracy thorn was to trip hop   the go to girl for those wanting classy female input. ... rumer: new band of the week   rumer profile by paul lester, the guardian, 21 july 2010 four new songs prove that forthcoming single, 'slow', isn't just a beautiful fluke for this soulful, karen carpenter esque vocalist. ... erykah badu: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 28 july 2010 the lot of an erykah badu fan isn't always a happy one. in the long queue outside brixton academy, two women are indignantly discussing the ... j. cole profile by paul lester, the guardian, 4 august 2010 this 25 year old mc is clearly going to be massive but it remains to be seen if he is the true saviour of real hip hop ... bobby hebb, 1938 2010 obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 5 august 2010 us singer songwriter whose greatest hit   much recorded by others   was 'sunny'. ... lady antebellum: shepherd's bush empire live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 august 2010 the gulf between uk and us musical tastes is epitomised by nashville's lady antebellum. back home, the trio's emollient country pop   which, to british ears, ... nicki minaj: new band of the day: nicki minaj report by paul lester, the guardian, 16 august 2010 can nicki minaj challenge the likes of lady gaga when it comes to future female pop star? or will her super sexualised persona seem dated in six ... dylan leblanc: "songs are like headstones to me" interview by laura barton, the guardian, 19 august 2010 dylan leblanc has crammed the baggage of his 20 year old life   lost loves, southern living and breakdown   into his music. now the new neil ... stromae: new band of the week: stromae profile by paul lester, the guardian, 19 august 2010 you don't need a degree in french to realise this belgian exponent of mournful euro disco is not a happy bunny ... lcd soundsystem, the pixies, the zombies: why your favourite band should split up overview by jude rogers, the guardian, 19 august 2010 from the pixies to the zombies, jude rogers talks to the bands who chose to burn out, not fade away ... janelle monáe: sister from another planet interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 26 august 2010 inspired by sci fi novels and afro futurists, janelle monáe is a cyber diva taking r&b into far out places. dorian lynskey meets the most compelling new character ... the last poets: after the party: music and the black panthers retrospective and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 2 september 2010 one day last december, umar bin hassan of the last poets attended a gathering in chicago to commemorate local black panther party leader fred hampton, ... stromae: cheese (mosaert) review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 2 september 2010 it's daring of belgian rapper stromae to give his first album a title that encourages gags about it being a load of fromage, and equally brave to ... caitlin rose: slaughtered lamb, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 5 september 2010 "there sure are a lot of you here tonight," observes caitlin rose, gazing out at the packed cellar bar of this london folk club. there's a ... bruno mars: new band of the day: bruno mars report by paul lester, the guardian, 13 september 2010 from adoration to zzzzzzzzz, purveyor of mellifluous pabulum bruno mars runs the whole gamut of romantic cliche ... rumer: bloomsbury theatre, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 september 2010 rumer's pristine voice   a dead ringer for karen carpenter's   is best suited to the kind of luxurious easy listening treatment that sold millions of ... black lace, jive bunny, stock aitken waterman: novelty records: when pop goes bad retrospective by dave simpson, the guardian, 22 september 2010 the excruciatingly catchy novelty song was a hallmark of the 1980s. is it back? and how do you write one? dave simpson talks to the ... bruce springsteen: "people thought we were gone. finished." retrospective and interview by keith cameron, the guardian, 23 september 2010 hobbled by legal wrangles, a frustrated bruce springsteen turned born to run's optimism on its head   and darkness on the edge of town was ... the duke & the king: the duke and the king: long live the duke and the king review by dave simpson, the guardian, 23 september 2010 only a year after their acclaimed debut, simone felice's post felice brothers band's follow up is undeniably lovely. ... ceelo green: cee lo green: "i'd do a lot more damage if i could" interview by angus batey, the guardian, 30 september 2010 there aren't many musicians who would consider releasing an expletive laden viral hit to be selling out in some way. angus batey meets the remarkable pop soulster ... belle and sebastian: love, belle and sebastian style interview by laura barton, ian watson, the guardian, 30 september 2010 a collection of love songs featuring norah jones on vocals   have indie's hippest wallflowers gone mainstream? not for a second, finds laura barton ... mark ronson and the business intl.: hackney empire, london *** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 30 september 2010 it's no longer unusual for producers to become artists in their own right, but mark ronson looks like he hasn't quite thought the whole thing ... of montreal: academy 2, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 7 october 2010 the stage is dominated by a large, caped figure, wearing a three foot goldfish on his head, and firing fake guns at the crowd. this bizarre creature ... blade, krs one, public enemy, ruthless rap assassins: the hip hop heritage society report and interview by angus batey, the guardian, 7 october 2010 why aren't public enemy, boogie down productions and other classic hip hop acts lovingly reissued in the same way as other genres? because guardians of rap's ... these new puritans: a band like no other report and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 7 october 2010 part high concept innovators, part wannabe pop moguls, these new puritans are a band entirely apart from their peers. dorian lynskey asks what makes the difference. ... hurts: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 10 october 2010 with george osborne channelling the economic policies of geoffrey howe, manchester duo hurts appear equally enamoured of the ways of the early 1980s. their fixation ... solomon burke   obituary obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 10 october 2010 one of the all time great american soul singers and songwriters, he scored a huge hit with 'everybody needs somebody to love'. ... brandon flowers: academy, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 14 october 2010 from the strokes' julian casablancas to mick jagger, rock frontmen have often stumbled over the transition to solo singer   but brandon flowers has never ... nadine coyle, girls aloud: girls aloud's nadine coyle on her solo debut interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 14 october 2010 often hailed as the best singer in girls aloud, now nadine coyle is going solo   with a little help from tesco's. so is this ... john legend, the roots: john legend and the roots: hearts, minds and soul report and interview by angus batey, the guardian, 19 october 2010 john legend and the roots' album of '60s and '70s protest songs is no mere history lesson   it's an open letter to a divided ... robyn: academy, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 20 october 2010 robyn carlsson is one of a rare breed who bridge the divide between pop fluff and cool electro. her throbbing electronic music nods to mainstream ... suede: suede brush up interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 22 october 2010 drugs, m.e. and despair sent the poor urchins of britpop their separate ways in 2003. now suede have come roaring back to life. ... tony wilson: a fitting headstone for tony wilson's grave comment by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 26 october 2010 a memorial headstone for factory records founder tony wilson has been unveiled in a manchester cemetery this week. ... isobel campbell and mark lanegan: "i write the songs; he's the eye candy": isobel campbell and mark lanegan profile and interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 28 october 2010 it's the contrasts between isobel campbell and mark lanegan, clearly visible from any seat in the barbican tonight, that you notice first. campbell, stage left, ... heaven 17 retrospective by paul morley, the guardian, 29 october 2010 paul morley re introduces heaven 17 as they dive into the nostalgia circuit. ... summer camp   a profile profile by paul morley, the guardian, 29 october 2010 it's already possible to read so much about slippy, trippy new boy meets girl pop group summer camp in that online otherworld where this kind of hyper smart, ... shirley collins/alasdair roberts/trembling bells: cecil sharp house, london live review by jude rogers, the guardian, 1 november 2010 it's halloween weekend in camden, north london, and ghosts are rising at cecil sharp house. ... egyptian hip hop: brudenell social club, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 4 november 2010 singer la roux recently pronounced the electro genre "over"   perhaps because of an upsurge of balding 1980s originals whose careers have been revived by ... paramore: "we're not just teenybopper superstars" interview by paul lester, the guardian, 4 november 2010 noisy guitars, angsty lyrics, inter band romance, a little light rebellion   it's a formula that has made paramore huge. paul lester meets their star singer ... jamie woon: new band of the day: jamie woon profile by paul lester, the guardian, 5 november 2010 you'll love the dark side of the woon, a brit school singer songwriter moving towards dubstep. but his smoother songs ... ... reg king obituary obituary by pat long, the guardian, 7 november 2010 accomplished soul singer and frontman of mod band the action ... bobby jameson rages against the vietnam war retrospective by jon savage, the guardian, 10 november 2010 a fanfare of slow, church organ chords   straight out of a horror film   resolves into a brutal bo diddley beat. a few blasts of ... local natives: clockwork from orange county profile and interview by andrew purcell, the guardian, 11 november 2010 after years of honing their tight harmonies, southern californians local natives are breaking out. but they've suffered a few comparisons too many. ... die antwoord: scala, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 16 november 2010 if die antwoord are a joke, they're a painfully acute one. this over the top south african rap rave trio, comprising rappers ninja and yolandi visser and a ... paramore: o2 arena, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 16 november 2010 they've had a no 1 album with brand new eyes and have sold out their uk arena tour, but paramore aren't on the musical radar ... jedward: grand opera house, york live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 17 november 2010 "by day we have flat hair, at night we stick our hair up and become superstars," shrieks the john grimes half of jedward, explaining the ... heaven 17, the human league, orchestral manoeuvres in the dark: forgive us our synths   how 80s pop found favour again overview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 18 november 2010 ostentatiously intellectual and scornful of rock'n'roll cliche, the likes of omd and heaven 17 briefly set 80s pop alight   and now they're back in favour. ... niki & the dove: new band of the week: niki & the dove profile by paul lester, the guardian, 19 november 2010 this swedish group's goth tinged electro pop is full of witchy darkness and mystical allure. ... mcfly: paul morley's showing off mcfly profile by paul morley, the guardian, 26 november 2010 paul morley describes mcfly's ascent from guitar toting teeny boppers to 'entertainment hosts' for the multimedia generation. ... warpaint   an interview interview by paul morley, the guardian, 26 november 2010 paul morley steps into the sleepy, mysterious, terrifying world of la rock band warpaint. ... johnny flynn's special relationship profile and interview by andrew purcell, the guardian, 2 december 2010 johnny flynn followed his childhood sweetheart to new york, then came back and fired up the english antifolk scene. he tells andrew purcell about a ... daft punk's robots aren't the only ones rocking the multiplex report by paul lester, the guardian, 4 december 2010 at the end of the trailer to forthcoming movie somewhere, we are given just two pieces of information: 1) that the film was written and ... israel kamakawiwo'ole: somewhere over the rainbow… lies a crock of gold profile and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 5 december 2010 a cover version of 'somewhere over the rainbow', by a ukulele playing, morbidly obese hawaiian called israel kamakawiwo'ole, has become an unlikely multimillion seller hit. ... wyclef jean: "fans are calling me the new dylan" interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 5 december 2010 what scuppered wyclef jean's bid to be president of haiti? well, it wasn't modesty. on the eve of the election result, the rapper talks death ... shakira: manchester arena **** live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 15 december 2010 "i'm here to please you," begins the colombian superstar shakira. then, wearing what may be a coat of paint rather than trousers, she hauls girls ... the beach boys, cristina, elvis presley, cliff richard, shakin' stevens: bob stanley's guide to writing the perfect christmas hit guide by bob stanley, the guardian, 16 december 2010 from elvis to shakey, from cliff richard to mark e. smith, every pop star worth their salt has sung a song of santa at some ... plan b: 'strickland banks may be soul, but it's still real life': plan b report and interview by ian gittins, the guardian, 16 december 2010 the international lingua franca of christmas tv is fromage and france's leading commercial channel, tf1, is no exception. having arrived in paris on a lunchtime ... ke$ha: shepherd's bush empire, london **** live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 17 december 2010 it's easy to dismiss ke$ha as a primark take on lady gaga, but such an appraisal disregards the fact that 23 year old kesha sebert this year ... captain beefheart obituary obituary by caroline boucher, the guardian, 18 december 2010 don van vliet, better known as captain beefheart, who has died aged 69 of complications from multiple sclerosis, was one of the most influential american ... captain beefheart: a tour through captain beefheart's back catalogue retrospective by jon savage, the guardian, 22 december 2010 don van vliet shouldn't be seen as a "weirdo"   he had pop tricks up his sleeve and his most difficult music entered the top ... the humblebums, gerry rafferty, stealers wheel: gerry rafferty, 1947 2011 obituary by michael gray, the guardian, 4 january 2011 singer and songwriter known for 'stuck in the middle with you' and 'baker street' ... cradle of filth: is dani filth suffolk's greatest icon? comment by johnny sharp, the guardian, 5 january 2011 when the county's tourist board launched a poll, it didn't count on it being hijacked by cradle of filth fans ... the decemberists: the changing of the seasons profile and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 6 january 2011 a year ago, the decemberists' colin meloy retreated to a house in the woods of northern oregon. he tells laura barton about the effect it ... leadbelly: john szwed: the man who recorded the world   a biography of alan lomax book review by richard williams, the guardian, 8 january 2011 richard williams hails the man who devoted his life to recording the songs and soundscapes of america and beyond. ... woody guthrie, burl ives, leadbelly, mississippi fred mcdowell, muddy waters: john szwed: the man who recorded the world   a biography of alan lomax book review by richard williams, the guardian, 8 january 2011 richard williams hails the man who devoted his life to recording the songs and soundscapes of america and beyond. ... drake: hammersmith apollo, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 10 january 2011 drake was one of 2010's more singular success stories. ... broadcast: trish keenan: obituary obituary by pat long, the guardian, 18 january 2011 trish keenan, who has died from pneumonia aged 42, was best known as the singer and songwriter for broadcast, the cult band that she and ... the archies, the monkees: don kirshner obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 20 january 2011 it irked don kirshner, who has died of heart failure aged 76, that he was never inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame. ... gang of four: old punks, new content profile and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 20 january 2011 post punk masterminds gang of four are back with their first new recorded material since their 2004 return to action. but why does it come packaged ... miguel atwood ferguson, j dilla: j dilla: the mozart of hip hop report and interview by rob fitzpatrick, the guardian, 27 january 2011 childhood cello lessons paid dividends for the late j dilla when he shook up urban music with his maverick beats. now the classical world is ... charlie louvin, 1927 2011 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 28 january 2011 the singer and guitarist charlie louvin, who has died aged 83, was half of one of country music's best loved and most influential double acts. ... john barry, 1933 2011 obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 31 january 2011 composer most closely associated with the golden age of james bond but whose scores ranged from midnight cowboy to dances with wolves ... all about eve, cardiacs, levitation, the magic numbers: cardiacs tribute album to raise money for paralysed singer tim smith report and interview by ian gittins, the guardian, 3 february 2011 cardiacs singer tim smith suffered a heart attack and a paralysing stroke two years ago, and musicians are now flocking to cover his strange, unique ... the bravery: hoxton bar & kitchen, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 4 february 2011 there was a time, back in 2005, when it looked as if the bravery would overtake the killers as the us's premier purveyors of synthy, ... the white stripes: detroit's rock heroes remembered retrospective by stevie chick, the guardian, 5 february 2011 there was an outpouring of grief this week when the white stripes announced they were to split. stevie chick explains their magic while photographer ewen ... arcade fire: "it's a lot easier to get smaller" interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 10 february 2011 with a no. 1 album on both sides of the atlantic, arcade fire are on the verge of u2 scale stardom. but, ever the provocateurs, they ... june tabor: watery, not grave profile and interview by pete paphides, the guardian, 10 february 2011 june tabor's new album draws inspiration from the sea. but dogs, cows and a margarine ad also featured when pete paphides met her. ... lady antebellum: grammys 2011: why can't lady antebellum find success in the uk? report by paul lester, the guardian, 14 february 2011 country pop trio lady antebellum were the king's speech of last night's grammys, winning six awards (compared to firth and co's seven at the batfas), including ... lady gaga, valentino: lady gaga's new gay anthem comment by jon savage, the guardian, 14 february 2011 has lady gaga's 'born this way' got what it takes to be a classic gay anthem? jon savage on the debt she owes to a ... bright eyes: scala, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 15 february 2011 it's the day before conor oberst's 31st birthday but a spontaneous audience rendition of 'happy birthday' has left the nebraska singer songwriter grimacing. "well, it's one ... jason derulo at academy, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 23 february 2011 "you're the one for me," sings jason derulo, into the eyes of a girl hauled from the audience on to the stage. they embrace so ... maggoty lamb goes behind the barricades in rock writers' class war comment by ben thompson, the guardian, 23 february 2011 journalists would have us believe it's public school leavers v the salt of the earth in the battle of the charts. is that really the case? ... amanda ghost: not in kansas any more interview by angus batey, the guardian, 24 february 2011 no one was more shocked than singer songwriter amanda ghost when she was asked to run epic records. she talks about what peeking behind the music industry curtain taught ... noah and the whale: "i never thought of myself as a singer" interview by laura barton, the guardian, 24 february 2011 with a new outlook, new drummer and some nice new shirts, noah and the whale are ready to meet the world head on. but their ... foo fighters, ceelo green: foo fighters/cee lo green: wembley arena, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 27 february 2011 one off shows throw up some bizarre juxtapositions, and at this nme sponsored big gig, ceelo green was painfully aware he was not the support act that ... talk talk: how talk talk spoke to today's artists retrospective by ben myers, the guardian, 28 february 2011 in his weighty 2010 tome electric eden: unearthing britain's visionary music, rob young charted a century's worth of musicians who helped define british folk. in ... kenny gamble: "philadelphia was the party with a tormented soul" profile and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 3 march 2011 philly soul's sweet sound hid masked warnings about growing chasms in 1970s american society ... lupe fiasco: "i have the right to speak out" interview by angus batey, the guardian, 3 march 2011 "solzhenitsyn put it very quaintly," says lupe fiasco. "basically, there's a duality in everything   there's two sides to every story. sometimes they complement each ... justin bieber: nia, birmingham live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 6 march 2011 justin bieber fans will tell you there are two only kinds of people in the world: "beliebers" and the rest of us. for those who ... deerhunter: the psychedelic south: deerhunter's atlanta profile and interview by martin aston, the guardian, 10 march 2011 note: in 2011, i flew to atlanta, georgia, to spend the weekend with bradford cox, frontman of the city's great neo psychedelic rockers deerhunter, for the ... chase and status: chase & status: roundhouse, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 13 march 2011 in the late 1980s, wimbledon fc became known as the least aesthetic but most effective of football teams. eschewing all nuance or subtlety, they played ... rumer: the persistence of rumer interview by pete paphides, the guardian, 17 march 2011 sarah joyce was given a mission by her dying mother: to make peace with her past. she talks about the journey to pakistan that freed ... katy perry: hammersmith apollo, london **** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 18 march 2011 katy perry is strutting across the stage, a giant spray of feathers fanning out from her tiny backside, and she's singing, "i wanna see your ... jet harris & tony meehan, the shadows: jet harris, 1939 2011 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 21 march 2011 the first and greatest bass guitarist of the shadows, he also topped the charts with drummer tony meehan. ... folk's man of mystery: is cecil sharp a folk hero or villain? retrospective by colin irwin, the guardian, 24 march 2011 it sounds like some hideous tv reality show dreamed up by simon cowell and andrew lloyd webber during a night on the lash. dump eight ... loleatta holloway, 1946 2011 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 24 march 2011 her voice made 'ride on time' a smash hit in 1989 ... the hoosiers: pop 'til you're dropped: the hoosiers' major label woe profile and interview by angus batey, the guardian, 24 march 2011 how tight is the margin between being the toast of your record company and being a failure? one chart place, as the hoosiers found out ... kyuss: kings of the stoner age retrospective and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 25 march 2011 "i didn't think that at 40 years of age i would still be talking about generator parties," kyuss frontman john garcia says with a puzzled ... kylie minogue: motorpoint arena, cardiff live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 27 march 2011 kylie minogue's aphrodite   les folies tour, which arrived in britain with two dates in cardiff last weekend before taking up a five night residency at ... crystal fighters: bringing basque the beats interview by paul lester, the guardian, 28 march 2011 the uk's crystal fighters are reinventing spanish folk. how? ... the unthanks: howard assembly room, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 29 march 2011 the unthanks' startling folk has all the eerie power of their native northumbria's coast. backed by trumpet, drums and a female string section reminiscent of ... taylor swift: o2, london **** live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 31 march 2011 one night in london, even a night at the o2, is small beer compared to taylor swift's record breaking success back home in the us. ... destroyer: new band of the week: destroyer profile by paul lester, the guardian, 1 april 2011 rescuing qualities such as "good playing" from critical hell, dan bejar's band serve up a feast of unironic '80s fetishism. ... black eyed peas, taio cruz: never mind the balearics: the ibiza ification of pop comment by simon reynolds, the guardian, 14 april 2011 from black eyed peas to taio cruz, much recent pop looks to ibiza for inspiration. and yet for all the hands in the air moments, this music is ... adele: academy, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 15 april 2011 even if adele adkins's record breaking 11 weeks at the top of the album chart ends on sunday   and it looks like the foo fighters ... david bowie, kraftwerk: taxi zum klo's berlin is a sexual playground retrospective by jon savage, the guardian, 21 april 2011 bowie, christiane f and taxi zum klo: these are the things that made berlin so alluring to the british pop culture of the late '70s ... r kelly: hammersmith apollo, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 25 april 2011 it has been more than a decade since r kelly, the self proclaimed king of r&b, last passed through london   time enough for his original ... chipmunk: proud, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 26 april 2011 the supposedly marginal, insular london grime scene keeps throwing up mainstream pop stars. in the wake of dizzee rascal and tinie tempah, 20 year old tottenham rapper ... katy b: o2 academy, oxford live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 may 2011 it's not hard to guess that katy b, for all her success in taking her personable version of uk funky into the top 10, isn't ... nirvana: krist novoselic and the beatification of nirvana report and interview by keith cameron, the guardian, 5 may 2011 once the enfants terribles of the seattle rock underground, nirvana have now been exalted by the city elders. bassist krist novoselic talks about becoming a ... steve reich: musicians, composers and artists pay tribute interview by mike barnes, the guardian, 5 may 2011 steve reich is a major influence on today's musicians, artists and film makers. as the barbican pays tribute, we ask some of them why   and ... wild beasts: sex obsessed and scrupulously polite profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 5 may 2011 on a balmy april morning in east london, hayden thorpe is remembering the night last september when wild beasts failed to win the mercury prize ... odd future wolf gang kill them all: tyler the creator in the uk: forget hip hop, we're the new sex pistols! interview by paul lester, the guardian, 7 may 2011 tyler the creator touches down to talk goblins, chillwave and the trouble with saying stupid stuff ... the walker brothers: john walker, 1943 2011 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 9 may 2011 singer with the walker brothers, one of the most popular bands of the 1960s ... friendly fires: heaven, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 10 may 2011 despite a gold debut album and brit and mercury nominations, friendly fires are still a long way from household name status   something the st albans ... snoop (doggy) dogg: snoop dogg: forum, london live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 18 may 2011 like law & order stalwart ice t and are we there yet? star ice cube, snoop dogg is proof that one generation's corrupter of morals is ... cornell dupree obituary obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 23 may 2011 for a time in the mid 1960s, the band of the great rhythm and blues tenor saxophonist king curtis contained two guitarists. the first, jimi hendrix, ... laurel halo: new band of the week: laurel halo profile by paul lester, the guardian, 23 may 2011 this ambient artist cites the "asymptotic quantification of memory" among her influences. a wire cover star is born ... ... white denim: between indie rock and a hard place profile and interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 26 may 2011 "we've talked about starting another band and just writing really straightforward, boring pop songs," says white denim bassist steve terebecki, sitting in a london bar. ... kaiser chiefs... but under your control profile and interview by pete paphides, the guardian, 3 june 2011 burned by past leaks, kaiser chiefs release their new album today after exactly zero buildup   and it might well be the world's first bespoke ... civil wars, the: new band of the week: the civil wars profile by paul lester, the guardian, 3 june 2011 we have adele to thank for introducing us to this americana duo, whose songs deal with affairs of the heart and lives lived hard ... hank ballard and the midnighters, chubby checker, joey dee & the starliters: let's twist again retrospective by richard williams, the guardian, 4 june 2011 fifty years ago, a new dance craze swept the world and changed for ever the way people move. richard williams, up on his feet when it ... bon iver: "i'm really confused right now" profile and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 9 june 2011 bon iver's first album brought justin vernon success beyond his comprehension. with his hugely anticipated second album out soon, laura barton asks   can he ... ladytron: forum, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 9 june 2011 named after a roxy music song and enthusiastically endorsed by brian eno, ladytron's art rock credentials are impeccable. however, 12 years into their career, and with ... the coasters: carl gardner, 1928 2011 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 13 june 2011 singer and founding member of the r&b hitmakers the coasters. ... dj kool herc djs his first block party retrospective and interview by angus batey, the guardian, 13 june 2011 dj kool herc djs his first block party (his sister's birthday) on 13 august 1973 at 1520 sedgwick avenue, bronx, new york ... grandmaster flash & the furious five, grand wizard theodore: grand wizard theodore accidentally invents scratching in 1975 (or does he?) retrospective by angus batey, the guardian, 13 june 2011 among hip hop's canonical creation myths, few are as perfectly formed as grand wizard theodore's invention of scratching. ... arctic monkeys make the fastest selling debut ever report by jude rogers, the guardian, 14 june 2011 23 january 2006: number 48 in our series of the 50 key events in the history of indie music ... bad brains, minor threat: ian mackaye meets bad brains and invents hardcore retrospective by stevie chick, the guardian, 14 june 2011 no mere three chord punk dullards, washington dc's bad brains had chops to spare. they'd started as jazz fusion quintet mind power, worshipping at the altar of ... fleet foxes: how fleet foxes are handling high expectations profile and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 16 june 2011 huge success began a steep learning curve for the seattle band. bandleader robin pecknold explains how the second album put the band in a "dark ... the horrors: academy 3, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 18 june 2011 the horrors are true pop chameleons. ... hip hop and festivals: an awkward relationship comment by ben myers, the guardian, 23 june 2011 when they get it right, rappers can rival stadium rock acts. but a mere gust of wind can expose how few mcs can hack festivals ... kings of leon: hyde park, london live review by paul lester, the guardian, 23 june 2011 it had been pouring with rain all day, but by the time kings of leon came on stage, the dark clouds had gone   they ... prince: "i'm a musician. and i am music" interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 23 june 2011 ringtones are evil. islamic countries are fun. the internet is like "a carjacking", where there are no boundaries. prince on being pop's "loving tyrant" ... the byrds, david crosby, chris hillman: jim dickson, 1931 2011 obituary by rob hughes, the guardian, 27 june 2011 producer and manager behind the byrds ... toto: hammersmith apollo, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 28 june 2011 last year saw veteran american soft rockers journey enjoy an indian summer with their 1980 hit 'don't stop believin''. a full three decades after its initial ... bill wells and aidan moffat: bill wells: "i've more in common with indie" report and interview by mike barnes, the guardian, 30 june 2011 snubbed by scotland's jazz scene, guitar virtuoso bill wells has teamed up with ex arab strap man aidan moffat for a panoramic meditation on life and ... mowest, mo' problems: the glorious failure of motown's californian outpost profile by graeme thomson, the guardian, 30 june 2011 in 1971 motown set up a californian arm, mowest. as a new compilation shows, it put out some terrific music, but it was a commercial ... ok go: koko, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 30 june 2011 it should come as no surprise that ok go shows are studiedly eccentric affairs. the us band's emergence in 2006 was fuelled not by their music but by ... the great rock'n'roll sellout report by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 30 june 2011 gone are the days when bands would be scorned for getting into bed with corporate sponsors and brands, so what ever happened to "selling out"? ... björk: is björk the last great pop innovator? comment by simon reynolds, the guardian, 4 july 2011 earlier this year i interviewed amanda brown of cult band la vampires and was surprised when she announced that "every day i wake up and ... andrew gold, 1951 2011 obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 6 july 2011 singer songwriter famed for the 1970s chart hit 'lonely boy' ... new order: joyless divisions: the end of new order report and interview by rob fitzpatrick, the guardian, 14 july 2011 brought together to promote a new best of compilation, peter hook and his bandmates can barely bring themselves to speak to each other. they reveal where ... hurts: somerset house, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 july 2011 manchester electro duo hurts are so in thrall to new romantic stylishness that one review of last year's debut album, happiness, suggested that even their gigs were ... amy winehouse obituary by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 23 july 2011 singer with a soul steeped voice whose instantly successful back to black album reflected her tormented experience of love ... justin townes earle: boogaloo, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 29 july 2011 justin townes earle has some serious musical heritage to live up to. the 29 year old singer songwriter is not only the son of multi grammy winning us country singer, ... pentangle: royal festival hall, london live review by john l. walters, the guardian, 3 august 2011 by pulling together folk, jazz and blues into evocative, melodic albums, pentangle were ahead of the curve in the late 1960s. an early "supergroup", they ... gene mcdaniels obituary obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 15 august 2011 gene mcdaniels, the american singer and songwriter, who has died aged 76, began and ended his career as the smoothest of vocal stylists. his hits ... ashford & simpson: nick ashford, 1941 2011 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 23 august 2011 singer and songwriter who had a string of hits with his wife, valerie simpson, during motown's heyday. ... kurt cobain, nirvana: ten myths about grunge, nirvana and kurt cobain guide by everett true, the guardian, 24 august 2011 kurt cobain loved abba, wasn't from seattle and didn't invent grunge. everett true, the man who pushed the singer's wheelchair on stage for his last ... crowded house, pajama club: pajama club: no more crowded house interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 25 august 2011 once their children had left home, crowded house songwriter neil finn and his wife found themselves with too much time on their hands   and ... david "honeyboy" edwards, 1915 2011 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 30 august 2011 blues singer and guitarist with an enthralling style, he played with robert johnson. ... honeyboy edwards: david honeyboy edwards, 1915 2011 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 30 august 2011 blues singer and guitarist with an enthralling style, he played with robert johnson. ... king creosote and jon hopkins: diamond geezers: king creosote and jon hopkins report and interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 30 august 2011 pop is full of odd couples, but this year's mercury prize shortlist contains a particularly compelling one. jon hopkins, 31, is baby faced and fashionably dressed, the image ... laura marling: "i've got the confidence now" interview by laura barton, the guardian, 1 september 2011 at just 21, folk star laura marling is already three albums into a career built on furious talent and untempered ambition. she talks to laura ... beirut: academy, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 7 september 2011 "this is another one of those, er, singalongs," says beirut's zach condon, sounding slightly embarrassed by what's going on around him. once again, the cavernous ... august darnell, kid creole & the coconuts: kid creole: "i'm not a party man anymore" retrospective and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 7 september 2011 he was a zoot suited wise guy who crooned out hit after hit. now kid creole is back. paul lester meets the man who blew a ... ultrasound: the reformation of ultrasound: "in an instant, it felt necessary" profile and interview by martin aston, the guardian, 8 september 2011 say what you like about the second coming of ultrasound   this is one reformation that isn't driven by money. ... the dixie cups, jean knight, leiber and stoller, the neville brothers, robert parker, robbie robertson: wardell quezergue, 1930 2011 obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 14 september 2011 distinguished and subtle new orleans arranger and musician ... craig douglas, nic jones, cliff richard: copyright extension: good for cliff and the beatles, bad for the little guys? report by bob stanley, the guardian, 15 september 2011 the extension in copyright law is hailed as a victory for musicians. but while it will surely benefit cliff, the beatles et al, it will ... shin joong hyun: south korea's psychedelic mimic turned master retrospective and interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 15 september 2011 he learned american pop via a hand built radio, became a psychedelic pop star in his own right, then was tortured by south korea's dictatorship. meet ... childish gambino: new band of the week   childish gambino profile by paul lester, the guardian, 30 september 2011 as comedians dabbling in rap go, donald glover has lot more going on than will smith. ... tony bennett: palladium, london ***** live review by jude rogers, the guardian, 4 october 2011 this is how to do it. at 85, tony bennett scampers on to the palladium stage in a perfectly pressed suit, a folded red hankie ... bert jansch: a modest man with an immodest talent obituary by pete paphides, the guardian, 6 october 2011 "remember asking bert, 'when you were doing it, did you know that you were like … heavy? heavier than all those bands that were heavy? ... frankie knuckles: the house that frankie knuckles built profile and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 13 october 2011 frankie knuckles is back, minus a foot but loaded with plaudits including a street named after him in chicago ... other lives: the prairie stories of other lives profile and interview by martin aston, the guardian, 13 october 2011 inspired by the landscape of their native oklahoma, other lives combine their rustic rock with classical minimalism. martin aston meets a band without limits. ... lou reed, metallica: "it has so much rage": metallica and lou reed talk about their new album interview by edward helmore, the guardian, 20 october 2011 it's a collaboration that has prompted much head scratching, but lou reed and metallica tell edward helmore that teaming up to make their new album was a ... pete rugolo, 1915 2011 obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 21 october 2011 controversial jazz composer and arranger best known for his work with stan kenton ... the stone roses' reunion: what's the worst that can happen? comment by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 22 october 2011 the stone roses are the latest in a long line of bands to get back together. shameless profiteering? or the chance to heal old rifts ... barry feinstein 1931 2011 obituary by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 24 october 2011 the american photographer barry feinstein, who has died aged 80, made his most famous series of images when he accompanied bob dylan and the band ... lady leshurr   new artist of the week profile by paul lester, the guardian, 24 october 2011 birmingham mc melesha o garro is making a creditable crack at being a homegrown nicki minaj or missy elliott. ... florence and the machine: hackney empire, london **** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 26 october 2011 parents who worry that their teenage daughters have few pop role models other than the intemperately sexual rihannas of the world should be pleased that ... my morning jacket: "we had to work it out ourselves" interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 27 october 2011 they started out in a barn in kentucky, and became one of rock's great cult success stories. my morning jacket's jim james talks to stevie chick ... ryan adams: union chapel, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 2 november 2011 what does a hellraiser do when he reaches 37 and finds little hell left to raise? for ryan adams, whose unpredictability has kept fans enthralled ... foxes: new band of the week   foxes profile by paul lester, the guardian, 4 november 2011 does the world really need another big voiced belter of witchy gothisms? foxes doesn't make a wholly convincing case it does. ... cabaret voltaire, richard h. kirk: warp records: richard h kirk looks back on a futuristic life report and interview by david stubbs, the guardian, 5 november 2011 richard h kirk spent much of his career waiting for the future. he remains a resident of sheffield, a city with a rich tradition in ... heavy d. & the boyz: heavy d: obituary obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 9 november 2011 the rapper heavy d, who has died suddenly aged 44, after collapsing at his home, was among a handful of hip hop stars from the 1980s ... r.e.m.: "there's a good chance we'll never play together again" interview by pete paphides, the guardian, 10 november 2011 after 31 years, r.e.m. are no more, after an amicable, mutual decision to split. but is it really what they all wanted? and is it ... st. vincent: queen elizabeth hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 11 november 2011 you wouldn't want to call annie clark   the texas born singer guitarist who named herself after the hospital where dylan thomas died   pretentious, but she ... lianne la havas: nation of shopkeepers, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 16 november 2011 the latest artist to appear on later with jools holland before releasing a note, lianne la havas is a paloma faith backing singer turned major ... lana del rey: scala, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 17 november 2011 lana del rey may become the most recognised stage name since fellow new yorker lady gaga, but it's just as possible it will end up ... pat boone, tim buckley, david gray, king creosote, this mortal coil: 'song to the siren''s irresistible tang retrospective by martin aston, the guardian, 17 november 2011 its writer refused to record it. pat boone almost killed it. then it was resurrected as a b side to an indie prestige project. martin aston on how ... the rolling stones: why a rolling stones bootleg is one of my albums of the year comment by john harris, the guardian, 22 november 2011 their recent reissues might be rubbish, but 1973 bootleg brussels affair shows the stones at their onstage peak. ... andrew bird's sonic arboretum reminds me of the natural music we are losing report and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 24 november 2011 in chicago's museum of contemporary art this december, there will sprout up a peculiar kind of forest: 50 horned speakers, each standing between 19 and ... those darlins: new band of the week   those darlins profile by paul lester, the guardian, 28 november 2011 once heavy on the hillbilly, these southern girls have ditched yee haws and ukuleles to be a power pop proposition. ... jill scott: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 december 2011 "i had an album out this year," jill scott informs a chokingly full brixton academy. the congratulatory bellows have hardly faded before she tartly adds: ... the black keys "we've put in more hours than anyone" interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 1 december 2011 the black keys' singer/guitarist, dan auerbach, surveys his surroundings   a five star hotel in one of the more salubrious parts of london   and seems ... howlin' wolf, hubert sumlin: hubert sumlin, 1931 2011 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 5 december 2011 revered blues guitarist who combined musically with howlin' wolf "like gasoline and a lit match" ... dobie gray, 1940 2011 obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 11 december 2011 american singer and songwriter held in special affection by northern soul fans ... billie jo spears, 1937 2011 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 15 december 2011 country singer whose biggest hit was 'blanket on the ground' ... rizzle kicks: scala, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 16 december 2011 rizzle kicks's music is not a place to search for hidden depths. the brighton duo of jordan "rizzle" stephens and harley "sylvester" alexander sule went top ... simply red: here's to mick hucknall's amazing voice memoir by john harris, the guardian, 21 december 2011 admitting i liked simply red didn't fit with the nme's maoist indie conspiracy, but hucknall's repertoire is studded with triumphs ... azealia banks, kreayshawn, lady leshurr, reema major, dominique young unique: azealia banks and the charge of the women mcs report and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 5 january 2012 watch out, nicki minaj, there's a host of feisty, eccentric female rappers on your trail   and not all of them are here to pay their ... guided by voices: don't give up the day job retrospective and interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 5 january 2012 riven by addictions and family problems, guided by voices' late blooming was a double edged sword. so why, after 15 years, has the classic lineup reunited? ... one direction: hammersmith apollo, london *** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 10 january 2012 "screw bieber fever," tweeted a fan on the afternoon of this boy band's first london headline gig, "i've got a one direction infection." ... ani difranco: union chapel, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 11 january 2012 marriage and motherhood have impacted on ani difranco's productivity. having released 18 albums in as many years, the prodigiously driven and prolific us singer songwriter has ... plaid: koko, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 15 january 2012 it's 2am on sunday morning in this club night, but plaid are here to move minds, not feet. ... indie rock's slow and painful death report by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 16 january 2012 sales figures suggest alternative rock is in a dismal place right now. will it ever recover? and should we care? ... enter shikari: borderline, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 17 january 2012 it's hard to imagine a less appealing musical template than sixth form politics and bludgeoning metal riffs welded to cack handed skrillex style electronic beats. it is therefore ... the smiths: how we made: andy rourke and mike joyce on the smiths' first gig interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 23 january 2012 andy rourke, bass ... gym class heroes, stooshe: koko, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 31 january 2012 the only girl band tipped in the bbc sound of 2012 poll, stooshe have been excitably described as "salt n pepa meet odd future". but the comparison ... beth jeans houghton: yours truly, cellophane nose review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 2 february 2012 it's no surprise to learn that beth jeans houghton has synesthesia, a condition that causes her to "taste" colours (red is just like safeway crisps, ... snow patrol: the o2, london *** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 february 2012 when snow patrol released fallen empires, the 2011 album that comprises a substantial part of this gig, singer gary lightbody revealed that the new record ... whitney houston obituary by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 february 2012 superstar singer credited as the first 'pop diva', whose compelling talent was lost to drug addiction ... labrinth: jazz cafe, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 15 february 2012 pop stars become producers, but producers rarely become pop stars. mark ronson, for one, has unintentionally demonstrated the pitfalls awaiting studio wizards who step from ... perfume genius: "i've learned not to trust myself" profile and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 16 february 2012 porn footage and his mum were two of the inspirations for songs on mike hadreas's second album, which, yes, features the same themes of lurid ... greil marcus: a life in writing profile and interview by simon reynolds, the guardian, 17 february 2012 greil marcus lives in a newly built, cedar shingled house on the border between oakland and berkeley. ... simple minds: "maybe we shouldn't have cashed in…" retrospective and interview by graeme thomson, the guardian, 23 february 2012 a couple of years ago a young, anonymous musician approached jim kerr in a glasgow rehearsal studio and began humorously haranguing him. "he was like, ... django django: xoyo, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 28 february 2012 the word of mouth about django django is growing deafening. as the london via edinburgh quartet head towards the end of their first uk tour, the venue ... marina and the diamonds: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 28 february 2012 marina "and the diamonds" diamandis is about to release the follow up to 2010's top five debut album the family jewels, but there's something so exuberantly off kilter ... davy jones, the monkees: davy jones, 1945 2012 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 29 february 2012 former child actor who became a star with the '60s pop group the monkees. ... sinéad o'connor: "i define success differently" interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 march 2012 from her public search for a husband to attempted suicide and hospitalisation, the irish singer has had a turbulent year even by her own standards. ... the cribs: ulu, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 march 2012 their one album alliance with johnny marr ended last year, but if the jarman brothers from wakefield, who comprise the cribs, never repeat the top 10 ... sade: why sade is bigger in the us than adele profile by sophie heawood, the guardian, 13 march 2012 britain may have all but forgotten her, but 80s popstar sade is a huge star in the us since her 2010 comeback. so what's the ... maggoty lamb interviews visionary music critic david toop interview by ben thompson, the guardian, 23 march 2012 so influential is the author of ocean of sound that some are now saying "we are all david toops". how does that feel? ... haim: new band of the week: haim profile by paul lester, the guardian, 23 march 2012 a band featuring three sisters, who combine the wafty whimsy of folk with r&b beats. it shouldn't really work. it does ... jls: o2, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 25 march 2012 who could have predicted not one but two x factor boybands would exceed their allotted 15 minutes? the onus is now on jls to out dazzle ... earl scruggs, 1924 2012 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 29 march 2012 banjo player with a breathtaking style who shaped bluegrass and explored other genres ... eric clapton, pete townshend: jim marshall, 1923 2012 obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 5 april 2012 the "father of loud", he gave his name to the world famous, ubiquitous amplifier. ... steps: arena, liverpool live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 5 april 2012 a decade after the acrimonious split documented in last year's steps reunion tv series   which painted the group as living a budget version of fleetwood ... allman brothers band, lynyrd skynyrd: alabama shakes: the saga of southern rock comment by barney hoskyns, the guardian, 6 april 2012 it was only a matter of time before bbc4 green lit a friday night documentary about the sub genre southern rock. the subject is irresistible to connoisseurs ... cher lloyd: indigo2, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 10 april 2012 even on her first headlining tour, cher lloyd isn't constrained by lack of confidence: she wants nothing less than for fans to feel that "this is ... ronika: old blue last, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 11 april 2012 "the madonna of the midlands", as nottingham singer/producer ronika sampson has been unenviably labelled, is having an intriguing effect on a quartet of young women ... martina topley bird, tricky: tricky interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 18 april 2012 seventeen years ago, maxinquaye made tricky an unlikely pop star, and made him angry and unhappy. now, though, he and martina topley bird are ready to ... hall of mirrors: new band of the week   hall of mirrors profile by paul lester, the guardian, 20 april 2012 boasting a magical retro 60s sound, jessica winter's pretty nightmares are enchanting. think julie andrews in hell. ... bow wow wow: islington academy, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 1 may 2012 the sex pistols were not malcolm mclaren's only situationist prank. after the demise of the pistols, mclaren managed an early incarnation of adam & the ants; he then ... gaz coombes: i should camus interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 6 may 2012 gaz coombes, once the cheeky, cheery supergrass frontman, now reads french authors and writes brooding songs about bombs. ... grimes: brudenell social club, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 9 may 2012 "i've got no vocals," begins grimes, aka 24 year old montreal based artist claire boucher. it turns out she isn't plugged in, but the gig's beginning is only ... happy mondays: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 may 2012 if you discount his propensity for using the f word, you could call shaun ryder a solid citizen these days. the happy mondays' leader is slim, ... palma violets: new band of the week   palma violets profile by paul lester, the guardian, 17 may 2012 grounded in garage rock and psych, palma violets struggle to achieve the epic and intense   but they'll still be hailed as heroes. ... jay z, kanye west: jay z and kanye west: o2 arena, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 20 may 2012 jay z and kanye west are hip hop's current two main players, and they are pathologically keen to celebrate the fact. ... alt j: new band of the day: alt j report by paul lester, the guardian, 24 may 2012 this cambridge four piece not only write clever music and boast more references than a jobs agency, they've also set tongues wagging with their rapturously received ... rumer: st james's church, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 25 may 2012 "i spoke to pf sloan himself on the phone the other night, and he said, 'i'm praying for you.'" it's three songs into rumer's set, ... beach house: village underground, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 27 may 2012 the early 1990s shoegaze scene is not widely regarded as british music's finest moment. peopled by bands such as lush and slowdive   who crafted ... doc watson, 1923 2012 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 30 may 2012 for almost 50 years, doc watson, who has died aged 89, was the most illustrious name in traditional american folk music. a superb, original guitarist ... a$ap rocky: electric ballroom, london live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 7 june 2012 "i want everyone to get their money's worth," says a$ap rocky, the self described "pretty motherfucker from harlem". "i want someone to leave here passed out." ... fleetwood mac, bob welch: bob welch: 1945 2012 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 8 june 2012 guitarist and songwriter with fleetwood mac in the early '70s ... lee ranaldo: brudenell social club, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 10 june 2012 the apparent end of sonic youth has produced the unlikely emergence of the band's co founder as a sweetly tuneful rocker. after 30 years crafting walls ... the stone roses: hultsfred festival, sweden live review by jude rogers, the guardian, 15 june 2012 so this is the third coming. their first was at the much mythologised tail end of the 80s, when indie and dance music swaggered together, and the ... van dyke parks: return of a musical maverick profile by richard williams, the guardian, 15 june 2012 as the small, white haired, bespectacled man in a sleeveless cardigan took his seat a few rows from the front of the stalls in london's royal ... chic, friendly fires, grace jones, kelis, lana del rey, stooshe: kelis, grace jones, lana del rey, chic, friendly fires et al: lovebox festival, victoria park, london live review by jude rogers, the guardian, 18 june 2012 ... alt j: borderline, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 20 june 2012 one of pop's great delights is its unpredictability: a month ago, who could have foreseen an unknown cambridge art rock quartet landing in the top 20 ... the stone roses: why i won't be going to see the stone roses comment by john harris, the guardian, 23 june 2012 since their magical peak in 1990, the band has delivered only disappointment and disaster. so is their latest reunion a chance for them to finally ... chvrches: new band of the week: chvrches profile by paul lester, the guardian, 26 june 2012 with their super heavy brand of "neon gold pop", we have nothing but praise for this scottish indie group. ... nic jones: what the folk! nic jones is back retrospective and interview by colin irwin, the guardian, 28 june 2012 thirty years after the car crash that almost killed him, folk hero nic jones is returning to the stage. he talks about his rebuilt body ... m. ward: koko, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 4 july 2012 matthew ward is set to bid farewell to his cult status. after a decade spent forging a solo career in the cosy backwater of the ... robert ellis: new band of the week: robert ellis profile by paul lester, the guardian, 4 july 2012 gram parsons is long dead, but those with a taste for la country might sense the return of the grievous angel in this singer ... roxette: manchester arena live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 5 july 2012 formed in 1986, the swedish duo roxette were one of the biggest pop phenomena of the 1980s and 1990s. in 2012, the vast arena isn't ... kitty wells, 1919 2012 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 17 july 2012 the "queen of country music" in the post war era, she had her first hit with 'it wasn't god who made honky tonk angels'. ... dennis coffey, smokey robinson & the miracles, del shannon, edwin starr, the temptations, stevie wonder: bob babbitt, 1937 2012 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 18 july 2012 one of the last surviving members of the funk brothers, the backbone of tamla motown ... damian marley: 30 minutes with … damian marley interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 19 july 2012 the reggae star on the bittersweet pleasure of watching footage of his father, why people have started calling him "gong zilla", and how jamaica has ... plan b: 100 club, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 31 july 2012 plan b's third album, ill manors, went straight into the album chart at no. 1 this week, despite being a spectacular musical contrast to the ... deadmau5, skrillex: edm: how rave music conquered america profile by simon reynolds, the guardian, 2 august 2012 after 20 years, electronic dance music has made it big in the us. and big means big. with las vegas's electric daisy carnival grossing $40m, ... dinosaur jr.: j mascis: "i never took it that seriously" interview by paul lester, the guardian, 3 august 2012 the godfather of grunge on being rock's least loquacious talker, the merits of free dental care, and whether his band dinosaur jr were the chuck ... kendrick lamar: new band of the week: kendrick lamar profile by paul lester, the guardian, 3 august 2012 independent, idiosyncratic 25 year old rapper from compton who's been making waves in hip hop circles and has just cooked up a recipe for the big time ... mf doom: doom: "it's all new, all fun" profile and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 16 august 2012 rapper (mf) doom is back in london, the city where he was born, with key to the kuffs, an album that references rhyming slang and ... mick jagger: christopher andersen: mick   the wild life and mad genius of jagger book review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 17 august 2012 christopher andersen's biography of mick jagger is little more than an anthology of juicy gossip. ... the lumineers: new band of the week   the lumineers profile by paul lester, the guardian, 17 august 2012 with a cornucopia of campfire singalongs, this colorado crew are poised to paint the world sepia with their rousing, rustic folk. ... amanda palmer: "thank god my best friend's a therapist" interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 19 august 2012 she lets fans scrawl on her naked body and she crowd funded her new lp to the tune of a record breaking $1.2m. is amanda palmer the ... afghan whigs: the afghan whigs: koko, london live review by kate mossman, the guardian, 20 august 2012 greg dulli addresses the boxes at london's koko: "you've got to have sex up there! i want to see your faces while you're at it." ... razorlight: myrtle park, bingley live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 2 september 2012 in the days when razorlight's johnny borrell happily compared himself to bob dylan and charles dickens, he would not have expected to rock up at ... bonnie guitar, jean shepard, kitty wells: honky tonk women: the female artists who made it big in country music report and interview by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 6 september 2012 it's not easy for women to survive in the macho world of country. some of those who did, such as jean shepard and bonnie guitar, ... joe south, 1940 2012 obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 12 september 2012 american singer and songwriter best known for 'games people play' ... joy division: peter hook: unknown pleasures   inside joy division book review by andy beckett, the guardian, 19 september 2012 andy beckett on a raw, surprising account of the classic post punk band ... carly rae jepsen: kiss (polydor) ** review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 20 september 2012 this canadian idol runner up's super hit 'call me maybe'   the uk's second biggest single of 2012   was a polarising experience. ... biffy clyro: roundhouse, london live review by kate mossman, the guardian, 24 september 2012 two songs down and there's a fight on   a small whirlpool of boys in the crowd headbutting each other's sternums. as they fall into ... mumford & sons: mumford and sons: roundhouse, london live review by kate mossman, the guardian, 25 september 2012 marcus mumford is likely to be found starving, bleeding, dying, sighing, fading, sinning, hopeless, "in the dark" or   as the new song 'broken crown' ... andy williams obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 26 september 2012 popular crooner who sold more than 100m albums in a career that spanned eight decades ... ultravox: hammersmith apollo, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 28 september 2012 reformed bands almost always find it nigh on impossible to recapture the musical glories they routinely summoned up in their pomp. ultravox may be a unique ... big jim sullivan, 1941 2012 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 3 october 2012 session guitarist with more than 50 chart toppers to his name ... nickelback: manchester arena live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 7 october 2012 canadian rockers nickelback aren't universally popular. some 55,000 american football fans once signed a petition to attempt to stop them playing at half time. a ... cheryl cole: o2 arena, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 8 october 2012 a recent bit of rebranding has seen cheryl cole styling herself as just "cheryl", the inference being that she's reached a level of fame where ... mika meets dita von teese: "i've had to work hard to stay like this" interview by paul lester, the guardian, 11 october 2012 the flamboyant singer and the burlesque performer share their thoughts on fetishism, sexuality and pop as the ultimate masquerade. ... dirty projectors: gorilla, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 15 october 2012 when alice cooper recently accused today's rock stars of lacking testosterone and "playing from the brain", he could have had david longstreth in mind. ... grizzly bear: academy, manchester review by dave simpson, the guardian, 19 october 2012 grizzly bear don't have lavish videos featuring big cars and girls, expensively produced songs about bling or even an easily recognisable frontman. however, none of ... chilly gonzales: barbican, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 21 october 2012 "harmony's french, but the melancholy melody's so slavic," raps chilly gonzales, words tumbling out in a canadian accented torrent. "whether i rap fast or slow, the ... amanda palmer & the grand theft orchestra: manchester cathedral live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 25 october 2012 amanda palmer is no stranger to controversy. the former dresden dolls singer writes songs about her experiences of date rape and abortion. she somehow coaxed her growing ... matthew e. white: new band of the week profile by paul lester, the guardian, 25 october 2012 so in thrall to the golden age of country soul is white that you'll find yourself using the phrase "tasty licks" without irony. ... massive attack: blue lines: massive attack's blueprint for uk pop's future retrospective by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 28 october 2012 in 1991, the laidback bristol collective roused themselves to unleash their debut album. reissued 21 years on it remains a landmark. here, an early champion ... dead can dance: royal albert hall, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 28 october 2012 in the late 1980s, effusive music journalists were in the habit of eulogising spectacularly ornate or baroque pieces of arthouse music   particularly on the 4ad ... terry callier obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 30 october 2012 from his beginnings in jazz, folk and soul music onwards, the singer and guitarist terry callier, who has died aged 67 after suffering from throat ... civil wars, the: the civil wars at apollo, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 31 october 2012 on paper, the civil wars shouldn't work at all. joy williams is 29, brought up in california and grew up on blues and country. john ... robyn: brixton academy, london live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 2 november 2012 lena dunham knew what she was doing when she deployed robyn carlsson's peerless 'dancing on my own' during an emotionally conflicted sequence in girls. like ... gil evans: purple hazer: the many lives of gil evans retrospective by richard williams, the guardian, 7 november 2012 his cool, luminous sound redefined jazz. then he threw it all in for jimi hendrix. richard williams on the brilliant and mercurial gil evans. ... bon iver: wembley arena, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 9 november 2012 it started in a log cabin and it has led to wembley. when little known singer songwriter justin vernon retreated to his father's wisconsin woodland hideaway late ... david byrne: how music works book review by michel faber, the guardian, 9 november 2012 given the vastness of the subject, calling a treatise how music works seems intellectually arrogant, but it could also be seen as disarmingly frank, a ... sixty years of the uk charts retrospective by bob stanley, the guardian, 13 november 2012 sixty years ago on wednesday, the first singles chart was published in britain   turning pop music into a competitive sport. bob stanley on how ... death cab for cutie, benjamin gibbard: ben gibbard: "we've got a superhero in seattle. i'm not making this up" interview by kate mossman, the guardian, 14 november 2012 he's ridden a death cab, worked for the postal service and ventured into alt country. ben gibbard picks the songs he's written that explain him best. ... the penguins: cleve duncan, 1935 2012 obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 15 november 2012 singer and founder member of the penguins, noted for their hit 'earth angel' ... 10cc: "it was a tragedy we didn't stay together" interview by paul lester, the guardian, 20 november 2012 they made some of the cleverest and most inventive music of the 70s, but split up at the height of their success. 10cc come together ... bobby womack: forum, london live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 26 november 2012 you wait years for a bobby womack show, and two turn up at once. unfortunately, that is not as good as it sounds. the 68 year old ... beth orton: memorial hall, sheffield live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 28 november 2012 "good evening shef f f f f iel d d d," begins beth orton, as an incorrectly set microphone makes her voice sound as if it has been remixed by king tubby. then ... mickey baker, 1925 2012 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 2 december 2012 versatile american guitarist who had a million selling hit with 'love is strange' ... elbow: o2 arena, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 3 december 2012 elbow have been describing this end of year arena tour as their "farewell party", and the reason for their sabbatical is a curious one. frontman guy garvey ... seal: apollo, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 10 december 2012 "c'mon," says seal, holding back the first verse of his signature tune 'killer' until the audience is clapping from front row to back. then he leaps ... public service broadcasting: new band of the week   public service broadcasting profile by paul lester, the guardian, 12 december 2012 this london duo put archive sounds to an electronic beat   think pathé meets pet shop boys. ... lady antebellum: on this winter's night review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 december 2012 a christmas album by america's unfathomably all conquering lady a? why didn't they think of it before? in fact, they almost did   six of the 12 tracks ... drowners: new band of the week: drowners profile by paul lester, the guardian, 13 december 2012 meet the new york punk pop band named after a suede single and fronted by a male model ... abc: theatre royal, drury lane, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 19 december 2012 abc were always a band with a manifesto. three decades ago, the sheffield group emerged equally in thrall to the debonair allure of bryan ferry ... kimbra: vows review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 20 december 2012 new zealand songwriter kimbra johnson was the sinuous star turn on gotye's 'somebody that i used to know', and the exposure sent this solo debut into the ... pussy riot: activists, not pin ups comment by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 20 december 2012 clever, committed and courageous, pussy riot are the only band that mattered in 2012. they have used their year in the spotlight to expose injustice. ... fontella bass, 1940 2012 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 28 december 2012 soul and gospel singer who had a top 10 hit with 'rescue me' ... jimmy mccracklin, 1921 2012 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 28 december 2012 versatile blues singer and songwriter whose compositions included 'tramp', recorded by otis redding and carla thomas. ... laura mvula: ones to watch in 2013: laura mvula interview by paul lester, the guardian, 31 december 2012 her soulful vocals and florid soundscapes have helped this 26 year old invent a new musical genre   gospeldelia ... ash: king's college, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 2013 ash have been rock stars for 12 years and four albums, yet, as singer tim wheeler has noted, they're still younger than some of the ... patti page, 1927 2013 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 3 january 2013 with record sales estimated at more than 100m, which included more than a dozen million selling singles, patti page, who has died aged 85, was one ... caravan: queen elizabeth hall, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 10 january 2013 punk's scorched earth policy towards the past has brought many a musical career to a premature halt. it's no coincidence that veteran progressive rockers caravan originally ... johnny marr, the smiths: johnny marr on the smiths, morrissey and putting politics back in pop interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 11 january 2013 with the release of his first solo album the messenger, the former smiths guitarist talks about finally embracing his old sound, david cameron and why ... graham stewart: bang! a history of britain in the 1980s book review by andy beckett, the guardian, 17 january 2013 a study of thatcher's era that leaves vital questions unanswered ... kendrick lamar: hammersmith apollo, london live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 21 january 2013 on a snowy night in london, compton seems as distant as mars. twenty five years ago the los angeles suburb was the epicentre of a hip hop ... frightened rabbit: "we've gone back to brutal honesty" interview by graeme thomson, the guardian, 24 january 2013 scottish band frightened rabbit are a hit in the us, but little known in britain. can their new album, pedestrian verse, change that? ... matthew e. white: lexington, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 24 january 2013 "this one's a groover," smiles a hirsute, check shirted matthew e white, looking like the kings of leon's friendly stoner cousin as he leads his five piece ... soak: one to watch: soak interview by kate mossman, the guardian, 27 january 2013 the 16 year old singer songwriter from derry soak aka bridie monds watson, releases her second ep in a year ... aimee mann: royal festival hall, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 29 january 2013 "wow, there are people in here all of the way to the back!" marvels aimee mann two songs in, shielding her eyes to gaze deep ... parquet courts: new band of the week: parquet courts profile by paul lester, the guardian, 30 january 2013 this new york band are so new york it's not true   but they're more brooklyn than staten island ... modestep: evolution theory (max) review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 31 january 2013 if pendulum rule the teen rave market, modestep seem destined to reel in their little brothers and sisters. ... cecil womack, 1947 2013 obituary by john lewis, the guardian, 5 february 2013 cecil womack, who has died aged 65, saw his role as one of r&b's backroom boys   a songwriter, producer, arranger and session singer for ... the troggs: reg presley, 1941 2013 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 5 february 2013 the troggs were not among the most technically proficient of british pop groups of the 1960s, but they generated great affection among audiences and disc ... the troggs: reg presley, 1941 2013 obituary by alan clayson, the guardian, 6 february 2013 reg presley was the singer and principal songwriter of the troggs, the group that put the hampshire town of andover on the pop map with ... hurts: heaven, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 10 february 2013 one thing in hurts' favour is that they're no bandwagon jumpers   here's one band who will never sully their glaciated synth pop by lobbing in a ... frightened rabbit: concorde 2, brighton live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 february 2013 until recently, glasgow's frightened rabbit were best known for being bigger in america than at home. ... woody guthrie: house of earth review by michel faber, the guardian, 14 february 2013 michel faber asks if this explicit novel of poverty and sex is any more than a historic curio. ... kevin ayers, 1944 2013 obituary by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 20 february 2013 founder member of soft machine and a key figure in british psychedelic rock. ... girls aloud: arena, newcastle live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 22 february 2013 a decade ago, when reality tv show popstars: the rivals pitted girls aloud against favourites one true voice, you wouldn't have put money on the ... girls aloud: metro radio arena, newcastle live review by kate mossman, the guardian, 24 february 2013 five minutes before the end it becomes clear this is girls aloud's farewell tour. ... magic slim, 1937 2013 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 24 february 2013 singer and guitarist considered an icon of chicago blues ... one direction: o2, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 24 february 2013 if simon cowell is in the house tonight as one direction start their first uk arena tour, he might have to conclude that his earthly ... suede: "who says you can only do great stuff if you're damaged?" profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 5 march 2013 good news for beautiful, conflicted outsiders: after 11 years, suede are back   with an album that's as sharp as their singer's cheekbones. ... hurts: exile review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 7 march 2013 as adam ant once said, ridicule is nothing to be scared of   words hurts should take to heart, as their second album will provoke ... david bowie: when bowie met burroughs retrospective by jon savage, the guardian, 9 march 2013 on 28 february 1974, rolling stone magazine published a remarkable encounter between david bowie and william burroughs. entitled "beat godfather meets glitter mainman", the event had been hosted ... the kills: alison mosshart: "i listened to love songs for 24 hours straight yesterday" interview by kate mossman, the guardian, 10 march 2013 some musicians wear their commitment to rock'n'roll like a series of battle scars. queens of the stone age's josh homme has the place and time ... adamski, seal: seal and adamski: how we made 'killer' interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 11 march 2013 the singer and producer recall the acid house anthem that took them from illegal raves to stardom and a no 1 hit. ... john grant: heaven, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 14 march 2013 it's fair to say john grant takes the art of the confessional singer songwriter to a whole new plane. despite obviously being painfully thin skinned, this quixotic ... the magnolia electric co., songs: ohia: jason molina, 1973 2013 obituary by everett true, the guardian, 19 march 2013 us singer songwriter who combined rock with alt country as songs: ohia and magnolia electric co. ... john fullbright: new band of the week: john fullbright profile by paul lester, the guardian, 24 march 2013 new americana singer songwriter from woody guthrie land winning converts including the great jimmy webb. ... iggy azalea: one to watch: iggy azalea report and interview by kate mossman, the guardian, 24 march 2013 iggy azalea has a highly developed sense of the absurd. she saw paparazzi outside her hotel this morning and felt obliged to put on dark ... billy bragg: barking's woody guthrie on 30 years of songs and activism interview by john harris, the guardian, 26 march 2013 from agitpop to love songs, bragg has brought his audience through life with him, creating a soundtrack to thousands of lives ... bring me the horizon: cockpit, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 3 april 2013 "'ow the fuck are we feeling, leeds?" asks oli sykes, frontman of bring me the horizon, to roars of approval. his sheffield quintet are leading ... led zeppelin, the rolling stones: andy johns, 1950 2013 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 9 april 2013 consummate sound engineer who worked with some of rock's greats ... (british) sea power: british sea power: metropolitan university, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 11 april 2013 ten years after their debut, the decline of british sea power, the brighton based oddballs remain one of the most quixotic, enigmatic presences in british pop, ... phoenix: bankrupt! review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 18 april 2013 bankrupt? ... lady leshurr: lady lesshur: "the industry just doesn't know what to do with women" interview by kate mossman, the guardian, 20 april 2013 the midlands born mc on morals, inspiration and why the uk needs a female rap star ... chvrches: village underground, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 may 2013 seeing chvrches (pronounced "churches") live is akin to discovering a 1980s edition of top of the pops, in which clare grogan of altered images has teamed ... john murry: bush hall, london live review by kate mossman, the guardian, 9 may 2013 his house burned down, he famously "died" for a few minutes and he already owns his own burial plot: tonight the sticky vinyl letters "tim" ... van dyke parks: "i was victimised by brian wilson's buffoonery" retrospective and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 9 may 2013 he co wrote the beach boys' smile and now works with everyone from rufus wainwright to skrillex. but don't dare to call him quirky, says van ... the knife: roundhouse, london live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 10 may 2013 if the knife's current mission, advertised in the title of the swedish duo's new album shaking the habitual, is to disrupt assumptions, then their first ... daft punk: the midas touch profile and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 19 may 2013 it is a peculiar experience meeting the most famous faceless musicians in the world. daft punk are certainly well known. eight years after their last ... the doors, ray manzarek: ray manzarek was the key to the doors comment by laura barton, the guardian, 21 may 2013 as a teenager, i stuck a picture of ray manzarek on my school pencil tin   no other musician could make you feel like you ... the xx: night + day, berlin live review by kate mossman, the guardian, 22 may 2013 split open the head of jamie xx and you might expect to find an image of post industrial sadness   an empty ferris wheel turning in the rain, ... grandmaster flash & the furious five: how we made: jiggs chase and ed fletcher on 'the message' interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 27 may 2013 the producer and mc of the hip hop classic recall trying to persuade grandmaster flash to grow a social conscience. ... lorde: new band of the week: lorde profile by paul lester, the guardian, 7 june 2013 this nz teen is about to make a big splash beyond blog land. think lily meets lana, only cuter and more cutting. ... jungle: new band of the week: jungle profile by paul lester, the guardian, 19 june 2013 unknowns create mesmeric urban tribal music with potentially viral video ... bobby "blue" bland dies at 83 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 24 june 2013 bobby "blue" bland, who has died aged 83, was among the great storytellers of blues and soul music. in songs such as 'i pity the ... the national: roundhouse, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 27 june 2013 "we played the barfly a few years ago," reminisces the national's singer matt berninger, making affectionate reference to the long standing, archetypal indie sweatbox just down ... janelle monáe: "i'm a time traveller. i have been to lots of different places" interview by kate mossman, the guardian, 30 june 2013 she's an android dating style queen who's been compared to bowie. is the r&b singer the saviour of pop? ... jason derulo: "i couldn't even tie my own shoelaces" interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 2 july 2013 jason derulo is back in the charts   despite breaking his neck after a back flip went wrong. so is the r&b sensation still doing acrobatics? ... jay z, justin timberlake: jay z/justin timberlake: queen elizabeth olympic park, london ***** live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 15 july 2013 has london ever had a more dystopian venue than the olympic park? compared to wireless's old home of hyde park this partially astroturfed gravel car ... ke$ha: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 16 july 2013 as you will grasp from her twitter handle   @keshasuxx   kesha sebert likes to think of herself as mad, bad and dangerous. ... t model ford: obituary obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 19 july 2013 mississippi blues guitarist who captivated audiences with his hypnotic playing and random storytelling ... the deviants, mick farren: goodbye, mick farren, activist, rabble rousing rocker and nme journalist memoir by charles shaar murray, the guardian, 29 july 2013 mick farren, who died onstage in london on saturday, was a "living banner for the psychedelic left". he was also a friend who joined me ... pond (australia): pond: hobo rocket review by dave simpson, the guardian, 1 august 2013 including two current members of tame impala and one ex member in nick allbrook, aussie band pond are a slightly jokier but no less productive relation ... fka twigs: new band of the week: fka twigs profile by paul lester, the guardian, 6 august 2013 so, so amazing ethereal dubstep pop from gloucestershire ... eleanor friedberger: "rock is a young man's game" interview by laura barton, the guardian, 8 august 2013 the former fiery furnaces singer talks about her new album, personal record, why she likes being a tomboy   and won't be playing electric guitar ... jack clement, 1931 2013 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 11 august 2013 jack clement, who has died aged 82, was not only a prolific and successful songwriter and an able musician but had a long track record ... one direction fans queue for prime view of a global success story report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 20 august 2013 diehard directioners pack leicester square for glimpse of biggest british/irish boyband in decades at film premiere ... neko case: "i have to battle with myself" interview by laura barton, the guardian, 23 august 2013 singer neko case was at the top of her game when she was struck silent by depression. she tells laura barton about retreating to her ranch ... rizzle kicks: roaring 20s review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 august 2013 sunny dispositions and chirpy tunefulness saw rizzle kicks achieve a double platinum debut in 2011. ... prefab sprout: paddy mcaloon: "i'll do without an audience to make the music i want" profile and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 5 september 2013 prefab sprout sold millions of records in the '80s, but singer paddy mcaloon always made music for himself rather than the masses. now he's back ... arctic monkeys: itunes festival, roundhouse, london live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 10 september 2013 from lithe, lusty rock to r&b and menacing theatricality, the artic monkeys were on form with impressive versatility ... caro emerald: royal festival hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 september 2013 post winehouse retro jazz singer caro emerald already has a no 1 album under her belt, and even wider fame looks likely ... jackie lomax, 1944 2013 obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 17 september 2013 the career of the liverpool born singer and songwriter jackie lomax, who has died aged 69, seemed set on a golden path when he became one ... mazzy star: "we weren't really in the mood to release music" profile and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 19 september 2013 you might think that a band letting 17 years elapse between their third and fourth albums was unusual. you might therefore assume that there was ... ty segall: garage rock's pied piper leads a new march profile and interview by james medd, the guardian, 21 september 2013 the hardest working slacker in lo fi has another album coming out, but this time he's having a bash on drums. ... justin timberlake: roundhouse, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 september 2013 his ex boyband dna compels him to give the footwork as much prominence as the songs ... dizzee rascal: roundhouse, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 30 september 2013 beyond the celeb friends roundup, dizzee's agility and cheery badman appeal is undeniable ... katy b: xoyo, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 2 october 2013 london's dance music doyenne unveils a euphoric new set that sounds exactly the way a great night out clubbing can feel. ... lizzo   new band of the day profile by paul lester, the guardian, 4 october 2013 sour female attitude from minneapolis, with a little help from bon iver and chums. ... bauhaus, belly, the birthday party, cocteau twins, dead can dance, m/a/r/r/s, the pixies, this mortal coil: 4ad records: the "pure" label behind pixies and cocteau twins retrospective and interview by martin aston, the guardian, 10 october 2013 little was known about ivo watts russell and peter kent, the enigmatic founders of celebrated indie label 4ad, until they were tracked down in the us. ... john mayer: o2, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 21 october 2013 the blues guitarist turned rock star surveys his discography for a tame but well crafted show. ... girls allowed? the women on top in the music industry report and interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 26 october 2013 after sinead o'connor's open letter of concern to miley cyrus, sexism in the music business has never been more discussed. but what do the women ... lou reed, 1942 2013 obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 28 october 2013 velvet underground frontman and solo artist whose hymns to transgressive behaviour created an audience of outsiders. ... tinie tempah: demonstration review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 31 october 2013 when a label announces that one of its major autumn pop releases contains "no obviously constructed singles", it usually signals that the artist has lost their mojo. ... the jonas brothers: why the jonas brothers were doomed from the start essay by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 31 october 2013 the transition from boyband to adult musician is   whisper it   harder if you are in possession of a y chromosome. ... avril lavigne: avril lavigne review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 7 november 2013 'rock'n'roll', 'here's to never growing up', 'bad girl': the titles on avril lavigne's fifth album are self explanatory. ... glass animals: new band of the day: glass animals profile by paul lester, the guardian, 7 november 2013 this quirk pop quartet are the first signing to super producer paul epworth's new label ... chase and status: arena, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 10 november 2013 celebrating their 10th year as a dance act by progressing to arenas, saul "chase" milton and will "status" kennard stand knob twiddling behind lasers, giant jets ... keane: as keane bow out in berlin, i pray it's not for good essay by sophie heawood, the guardian, 11 november 2013 unbearable as it is to contemplate, the release of a greatest hits album by the band from battle could mark their split. ... ariana grande: "i'm not comfortable being forwardly sexual" interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 november 2013 she got her big break on a children's tv show, is adored by legions of teenage fans, and now she has released an album   ... crystal fighters: brixton academy, london **** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 24 november 2013 if you thought this sextet could only evoke vampire weekend and css, then think again: live, their passion can't be faulted ... lee hazlewood, international submarine band, nancy sinatra: lee hazlewood: the wayward guru of cowboy psychedelia retrospective by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 28 november 2013 best known for reviving nancy sinatra's career with 'these boots are made for walkin'', lee hazlewood was a highly unorthodox record producer. an epic box ... mary j. blige: "whitney houston's funeral freaked me out" interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 28 november 2013 the queen of hip hop soul on giving up alcohol, getting fit and cutting out the drama in her life. ... phosphorescent: "it's hard to know how far you've slipped, if you're slipping" interview by laura barton, the guardian, 28 november 2013 after 10 years of touring, matthew houck felt his life falling apart. how did he pull it together to make the best record of his ... little boots: heaven, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 november 2013 pop's nearly woman evokes kylie and lady gaga, but ultimately brings a wide eyed intensity all her own ... childish gambino: because the internet review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 5 december 2013 childish gambino, the creation of us actor/standup donald glover, was initially seen by some as too plugged in to media circles to be persuasive as a rapper. ... palma violets: concorde 2, brighton live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 5 december 2013 the london foursome are living the indie god dream, mixing ramshackle punk garage with irresistible visual appeal. ... deerhunter: the zoo, brisbane live review by everett true, the guardian, 10 december 2013 you know that thx ad, designed to showcase the depth and complexity of sound at the start of dvds   the volume distorting and taking ... five thirty, world of twist: the perils of being ahead of your time: world of twist and five thirty retrospective by bob stanley, the guardian, 16 december 2013 if you visit topshop this week, you'll see that the high street is readied for a mid '90s revival: 2014 will mark the 20th anniversary of ... lou reed tribute concert brings stars of music to harlem live review by edward helmore, the guardian, 18 december 2013 patti smith, moe tucker, antony hegarty, paul simon and debbie harry sing at reed's memorial service in new york. ... ray price 1926 2013 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 18 december 2013 country music entered a golden period after the second world war, as scattered regional styles such as honkytonk, western swing and bluegrass began to coalesce ... clean bandit: new band of the day: clean bandit profile by paul lester, the guardian, 24 december 2013 they're the brainy cambridge grads with the classical strings and background in russian cinema making groovy garage pop. ... the isley brothers: 10 of the best guide by stevie chick, the guardian, 7 january 2014 1. 'shout (parts 1 & 2)' the brothers isley (kelly, rudy and ron) started out singing gospel music before embarking upon a pop career that would ... maroon 5, robin thicke: maroon 5/robin thicke: lg arena, birmingham live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 9 january 2014 it must be strange being robin thicke. there he was, bouncing along with a solid if unremarkable 10 year career in r&b and suddenly 'blurred lines' ... jackson c. frank: the tragic tale of jackson c. frank, forgotten legend of the '60s retrospective by bob stanley, the guardian, 9 january 2014 he was one of the great singer songwriters of the '60s folk scene, more highly regarded by some than paul simon. but he only recorded one ... angel olsen: new band of the day   angel olsen profile by paul lester, the guardian, 13 january 2014 intense spectral country with a hint of grunge from missouri ... lamb of god: academy, newcastle live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 15 january 2014 "lamb of god! lamb of god!" cry north east england's metal hordes in a room where ritual is king. pints are hurled and tattoos are compared ... george clinton, funkadelic: george clinton: "i was born in a lavatory, so i have a legitimate claim on the funk" interview by adrian deevoy, the guardian, 23 january 2014 hello george. first things first: what are you wearing? i got my suit on, baby. i like to change things up every now and then. so ... pete seeger: the man who brought politics to music obituary by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 28 january 2014 one of pete seeger's greatest achievements was incorporating political activism into music, and realising that liberation struggles need a soundtrack ... pete seeger: the road goes on for ever obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 28 january 2014 the folk singer believed in handing on the traditions he had done so much to save, so that others could carry them forward. it was ... lightnin' rod's hustlers convention: rap's great lost album retrospective and interview by graeme thomson, the guardian, 30 january 2014 a full decade before public enemy revolutionised the world of rap, chuck d first encountered the album he describes today as "a verbal roadmap for people trying to ... metronomy: old market, brighton live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 30 january 2014 the band makes a euphoric homecoming loaded with new material that twitches and percolates like nu rave sly stone ... suzanne vega: the sage, gateshead live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 3 february 2014 the black clad singer songwriter gives her new album an ethereal feel, but still delivers her crowd pleasing classics   and pays homage to a legendary fellow new ... shirley collins: five of her best songs guide by jude rogers, the guardian, 11 february 2014 one of england's greatest folk singers has performed live for the first time in over three decades. to mark her return, here are some of ... disclosure on disco, sting and their new romantic parents report and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 13 february 2014 they craft immaculate dance pop hits with big names from lorde to mary j blige, but when we caught up with them on their us tour ... rudimental: academy brixton, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 february 2014 joined by a robust supporting cast   including prince's new bff lianne la havas   the london quartet deliver a ramshackle yet oddly cohesive sold out ... foals: alexandra palace, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 16 february 2014 the once spindly art rockers have made a full transformation to a thrillingly spontaneous pop group capable of reigning over arenas. ... dream theater: apollo manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 17 february 2014 cape wearing former yes keyboard player rick wakeman recently told the guardian where prog rock went wrong in the 1970s. "we had this thing where bands ... devo: five great moments retrospective by jon savage, the guardian, 19 february 2014 bob casale, the guitarist of the american new wave pioneers, has died. in tribute, a longtime fan picks five key moments from his career ... ann peebles: the girl with the big voice retrospective and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 20 february 2014 there's a common cliché in music biopics that you might call the eureka fallacy. our hero is having a conversation or strumming a guitar when ... arcade fire in haiti: "i feel like it makes sense of me" report and interview by edward helmore, the guardian, 26 february 2014 where would arcade fire be without the woo hoos and dense rhythms that characterise many of their best songs? likely not in jacmel, a haitian coastal ... david crosby: "the fbi scare me more than hell's angels" interview by paul lester, the guardian, 26 february 2014 the legendary songwriter on janis joplin, being "the voice of cosmic america" and croz, his first solo album in 20 years. ... duffy power, 1941 2014 obituary by colin harper, the guardian, 27 february 2014 pop singer who found fame in the 1960s and became consumed by the blues, taking up alexis korner as an early mentor. ... the clash, vivien goldman, sex pistols: never mind the swastikas: the secret history of the uk's "punky jews" retrospective by vivien goldman, the guardian, 27 february 2014 punk svengalis malcolm mclaren and bernie rhodes were jewish, and the faith had an influence on uk labels and journalists. for jewish kids, meanwhile, the ... angel haze: gorilla, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 9 march 2014 "i know i haven't done a bunch of shows, so thanks y'all for coming out to see me eventually," says angel haze, reflecting on her ... dillinger, yellowman: yellowman/dillinger: band on the wall, manchester   two reggae legends on the same bill live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 10 march 2014 incorrigible showmen unite with a superb band in a smallish venue to give an enthusiastic young audience a treat ... drake, the weeknd: drake/the weeknd: manchester arena live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 12 march 2014 abel tesfaye, aka the weeknd, is receiving the kind of cheers you rarely hear for what is technically a support act. the fast rising 22 year old toronto ... the stranglers on 40 years of fights, drugs, ufos and "doing all the wrong things" retrospective and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 12 march 2014 legend has it the stranglers started a fight with the clash, took heroin for a year, exploited strippers on stage, and incited a riot in ... hamilton bohannon: return of a disco legend: hamilton bohannon report and interview by edward helmore, the guardian, 17 march 2014 the disco pioneer hamilton bohannon played his first show in 30 years this weekend. we were there, and caught up with him afterwards. ... destroy all monsters, sonic's rendezvous band, the stooges: scott asheton, 1949 2014 obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 17 march 2014 all action drummer who was a mainstay of the stooges both in their early years and during later reunions ... justin timberlake: sheffield arena live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 31 march 2014 the first thing sheffield sees of justin timberlake is his giant silhouette on an enormous backdrop. ... frankie knuckles, 1955 2014 obituary by bill brewster, the guardian, 1 april 2014 trailblazing american record producer and club dj hailed as the godfather of house ... st. paul & the broken bones: st paul & the broken bones profile by paul lester, the guardian, 4 april 2014 the latest soul revivalists from the us who wowed the crowds at the recent sxsw (allegedly). ... lavender country, chely wright: country music's gay stars: "we're still kicking down the closet door" report and interview by graeme thomson, the guardian, 10 april 2014 country music is known for tears, beers and big hats   not gay anthems. one singer set out 40 years ago to change that, but ... beverley martyn: "i'm still here and i know who i am now" interview by graeme thomson, the guardian, 17 april 2014 "i thought i was over the hill," says beverley martyn, sipping water in a west london café and poring over a life filled with dark ... phil hardy, 1945 2014 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 25 april 2014 the late 1960s and the '70s saw a sea change in media coverage of popular culture, especially cinema and music. film reviewers and pop journalists ... lily allen: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 28 april 2014 five years ago lily allen retreated to the cotswolds to get married and to start a family, and proclaimed that she was retiring from music. ... beverley martyn: bush hall, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 30 april 2014 beverley martyn has quite the folk backstory. a teenage paramour of bert jansch, who taught her to play guitar, she recorded and toured america with ... slint's spiderland: the album that reinvented rock retrospective and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 1 may 2014 in 1991, teenage band slint recorded spiderland, a brooding, sinister record that invented post rock and influenced a generation of musicians. what inspired a group of ... janelle monáe: the institute, birmingham live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 9 may 2014 "janelle! mon áe!" yells the birmingham crowd as the singer is pushed on in a wheelchair, wearing a straitjacket. she leaps up, throwing off the garment ... clean bandit: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 11 may 2014 this chart topping dance/classical outfit create some genuinely unusual hybrid sounds, and they're consistently entertaining, if occasionally a bit daft ... tune yards: village underground, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 14 may 2014 merrill garbus orchestrates a joyous performance that is simultaneously metropolitan and tribal ... bill haley: 'rock around the clock'   the world's first rock anthem retrospective by bob stanley, the guardian, 22 may 2014 the 1950s made stars of elvis, little richard and fats domino, but bill haley & his comets are rock'n'roll's forgotten pioneers. ... slowdive: village underground, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 22 may 2014 it's difficult to recollect a more maligned musical movement than the early '90s shoegaze scene. ... one direction: stadium of light, sunderland *** live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 29 may 2014 there may be yet more trouble ahead but it will clearly take more than a whiff of controversy to blunt 1d's appeal ... katy perry: o2 arena, london live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 1 june 2014 it's unfortunate for katy perry that her prismatic tour is rolling into town just three weeks after miley cyrus's bangerz. ... razorlight   johnny borrell isn't a buffoon, he's a national treasure profile by laura barton, the guardian, 10 june 2014 the world has mocked johnny borrell for a decade. for what? doing the things we want rock stars to do. it's time to celebrate him, ... mavis staples: union chapel, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 11 june 2014 "happy birthday to me," mavis staples sings vampily. "how old am i? sixteen years old." in fact, she turned 75 today, but 16 feels about ... duke ellington, bill evans, jimi hendrix, the last poets, john mclaughlin, cecil taylor: alan douglas, 1931 2014 obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 18 june 2014 record producer best known for his controversial posthumous releases of jimi hendrix recordings ... gerry goffin, 1939 2014 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 20 june 2014 lyricist who, with his partner carole king, wrote many hit songs of the 1960s. ... the eagles, bernie leadon: eagles: leeds arena live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 25 june 2014 "we'll play together again when hell freezes over," insisted the eagles' don henley when the 70s' biggest selling american band fell apart in 1980, amid drug ... coldplay: royal albert hall, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 2 july 2014 a great break up album can be a thing of wonder. from bob dylan's red raw blood on the tracks to marvin gaye's self lacerating here, my dear ... duke ellington, sun ra: the secret history of the jazz greats who were freemasons essay by john lewis, the guardian, 2 july 2014 jazz and freemasonry are unlikely bedfellows, but in the 1950s, the secret society became a support network for musicians and the world's largest fraternity for ... example: live life living review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 3 july 2014 encouraged by the success of his 2011 album, playing in the shadows, singer/rapper example plumped for an experimental, guitar accented follow up in 2012, only to find ... jack white's secret london gig: surgical masks, dry ice and disease live review by laura barton, the guardian, 3 july 2014 late on wednesday night, jack white's fans were summoned to a dark 'medical research centre' off the strand for a sinister immersive theatre show with ... lostprophets, no devotion: lostprophets: "he said he was innocent" interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 10 july 2014 when lead singer ian watkins pleaded guilty to 13 child sex offences, his former bandmates went into a state of shock. now, still angry and ... tame impala: albert hall, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 13 july 2014 it must be strange for tame impala's kevin parker to have written an album about isolation and loneliness and then be required to share his ... no devotion: islington academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 28 july 2014 for a new startup, the welsh american sextet no devotion come with disproportionate baggage. five were members of lostprophets, whose name became tarnished when singer ian ... katy b: pride, liverpool waterfront live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 3 august 2014 out of her natural club environment, and thrust on to a pigeon strewn, rainy promenade, katy b compensated by having something for everybody. ... new order: 10 of the best retrospective by dave simpson, the guardian, 6 august 2014 from the tragedy of ian curtis's suicide emerged one of the defining groups of the '80s, combining pop smarts with experimental leanings. here are 10 ... ariana grande: my everything review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 21 august 2014 in her 2013 debut album, yours truly, teen actor turned pop starlet ariana grande established a unique, nostalgia based beachhead, interweaving '90s r&b and 1960s girl groups. ... the kooks' luke pritchard: "when i look back on some of the songs i wrote, it makes me laugh" interview by paul lester, the guardian, 22 august 2014 the new kooks record features electric church music, a strong ethiopian jazz influence ... and no songs about the singer's penis. no wonder luke pritchard thinks ... interpol on supermodels, surfing and (not) hanging out with the strokes interview by sophie heawood, the guardian, 28 august 2014 things have changed on the eve of the new yorkers' fifth album, el pintor. not only is it their first without bassist, carlos d, they ... 5 seconds of summer: roundhouse, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 5 september 2014 the sydney foursome 5 seconds of summer aren't just a boyband, they want us to know. check the cover of their globally successful debut album: ... jungle, pharrell williams: pharrell williams/jungle: roundhouse, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 11 september 2014 he looks dapper, and he opens the show with a brilliant blast of robot funk, but the r&b pioneer is a bit too reserved on ... the deers, hinds (formerly the deers): new band of the week: the deers interview by paul lester, the guardian, 12 september 2014 this all female spanish band capture the sound and spirit of c86 via spector and the velvets. ... kate tempest: poet, performer, novelist: the rise of the uncategorisable kate tempest report and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 12 september 2014 mercury nomination and place on prestigious list of poets are well deserved accolades for bright young performer ... alt j: this is all yours review by dave simpson, the guardian, 18 september 2014 sublime hooks and textures ... lauryn hill: brixton academy, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 21 september 2014 the one time leading light of 90s r&b ditched neo soul subtleties in favour of ear splitting hip hop on the first date of her short uk tour ... alt j: brighton centre live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 24 september 2014 "i'm a female rebel," insists miley cyrus's disembodied voice, piercing the opening song of alt j's show. stripped of twerking and tongue associations, the sampled line floats in ... jessie j: itunes festival, roundhouse, london *** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 24 september 2014 naff, good hearted and prone to motivational guff, jessie j has a big sister kindliness that gets the fans bouncing ... mary j. blige: mary j blige: roundhouse, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 26 september 2014 a masterful mary j. blige takes the audience to giddy heights of joy and depths of pain as she showcases her imminent london sessions album. ... tanya donnelly, throwing muses: throwing muses/tanya donelly: islington assembly hall, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 26 september 2014 donelly was in strident, declamatory form alongside stepsister kristin hersh and the rest of her former alt rock cohorts. ... ed sheeran: itunes festival, roundhouse, london **** live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 30 september 2014 choirmaster builds to a climax... but keeps his shirt on. the multimillion selling star stretches english self deprecation to the limits while creating a whole band's worth of ... the fall: steve hanley and olivia piekarski: the big midweek: life inside the fall book review by barney hoskyns, the guardian, 1 october 2014 (this is the original   and very slightly different   version of the review that appeared in the guardian...) in her blurb for this compelling memoir, ... lynsey de paul "stood out like a cut glass decanter among milk bottles" retrospective by bob stanley, the guardian, 2 october 2014 author bob stanley pays tribute to singer songwriter lynsey de paul, who has died from a suspected brain haemorrhage. ... lynsey de paul, 1950 2014 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 2 october 2014 singer, composer and the first female musician to win an ivor novello award. ... meghan trainor: an interview interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 2 october 2014 is the surprise megahit really a dig at thinner women? no way, says the singer, it's about loving and rocking whatever you've got ... julian casablancas: "i have nothing against gentrification" interview by paul lester, the guardian, 9 october 2014 the strokes singer on brunch and banks, dictatorship in the us and his voidz protest album, tyranny. ... underworld's dubnobass... 20 years on retrospective and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 9 october 2014 the plan, in the beginning, was that there was no plan. no album, no record label, no tours. karl hyde and rick smith of underworld ... vashti bunyan: st pancras old church, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 9 october 2014 bunyan remains a bashful presence live, her forte a strain of bucolic dream folk in which nothing much happens, very prettily. ... culture club: heaven, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 22 october 2014 the first time culture club played this basement nightclub, smash hits' reviewer neil tennant didn't see much of a future for them. ... jake bugg: alexandra palace, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 22 october 2014 jake bugg's ascent to fame may have been precipitous, but his idea of showmanship remains remarkably minimalist. ... ty segall: electric ballroom, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 13 november 2014 segall and his band attack these garage psych nuggets with wild glee, joyriding them like stolen cars. ... mastodon: brixton academy, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 30 november 2014 the four frontmen straddle the divide between their hardcore roots and crossover future with ease. ... bobby keys, 1943 2014 obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 3 december 2014 saxophone player for many of the greats of rock'n'roll, including the rolling stones ... divine styler profile and interview by chris campion, the guardian, 4 december 2014 unclassifiable, esoteric and revered by the hip hop cognoscenti, divine styler releases his first album in 14 years, def mask   a tour de force of ... ian mclagan, 1945 2014 obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 4 december 2014 music history has a special niche reserved for ian mclagan, who has died aged 69 after suffering a stroke. ... young fathers: xoyo, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 11 december 2014 the edinburgh hip hop trio weave disparate influences together to generate a jaw droppingly synchronised anarchy ... d'angelo: black messiah   first listen review: 'investing vintage soul with a fresh lustre' review by paul lester, the guardian, 15 december 2014 d'angelo's black messiah, his first album since 2000's voodoo, looks back to the funk greats while retaining a modern political edge ... benjamin booker, dd dumbo, rag'n'bone man, ike turner: "a little punk, a little jazz, a little shoegaze": meet the new blues report and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 1 january 2015 from the spirituals of the deep south to the white stripes, it's a music that has constantly reimagined itself. but is anyone really ready for ... james bay: the new noise bubble: are critics' choice awards for new artists a blessing or a curse? comment by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 january 2015 awards such as the bbc's sound of 2015 can be vital in helping new artists break through and get noticed by fans   but can ... little jimmy dickens, 1920 2015 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 8 january 2015 country music star of the 1950s and '60s who remained a stalwart of the grand ole opry. ... chris spedding: 100 club, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 12 january 2015 chris spedding is a rare creature: both semi legendary and utterly anonymous. one of the most prolific session musicians of all time, this virtuoso guitarist's 50 year ... adam lambert, queen: queen and adam lambert: arena, newcastle live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 14 january 2015 as fanciful as it sounds, in lambert the legendary rock band have found a flamboyant showman with the freddie factor ... fall out boy: american beauty/american psycho review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 january 2015 "this is a really important record," fall out boy bassist pete wentz says of their sixth album. that's less self aggrandising than it appears: he meant only that the long serving ... kim fowley, 1939 2015 obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 18 january 2015 few people in pop music spanned such a range as kim fowley, the record producer, songwriter and sunset strip svengali who has died aged 75. ... slipknot: sheffield arena, sheffield live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 19 january 2015 "is that fuckin' sheffield i hear?" asks corey taylor, slipknot's horror masked frontman. ... the decemberists, the mountain goats, mark ronson: songs for swinging authors: can novelists write good lyrics? report and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 21 january 2015 forget moon in june. today's pop lyrics are written by pulitzer winning novelists. we talk to the writers muscling into pop   and the musicians flirting ... pond (australia): pond: man it feels like space again review by everett true, the guardian, 22 january 2015 a few months ago, i praised the ongoing psych pop revival currently happening in australia   bands in all the major metropolises (and numerous small towns) ... the go betweens: robert forster: i wouldn't be able to make sense of madonna or drake interview by everett true, the guardian, 22 january 2015 as a new go betweens box set is released, brisbane's great purveyor of awkward pop talks about turning critic and which of his songs ed sheeran ... the beatles, joy division, the smiths, jack white: manna for fans: the history of the hidden track in music retrospective by jude rogers, the guardian, 25 january 2015 from inner groove loops to absurd backmasking, artists have long found ways to embed secret songs, cryptic writings and coded messages in their albums. ... natalie prass: the lexington, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 29 january 2015 during a momentary delay between songs, nashville singer songwriter natalie prass looks to the audience and, with a genial awkwardness, says: "i feel like i should ... hozier: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 3 february 2015 the crashing desolation of andrew hozier byrne's debut single, 'take me to church', makes for a perversely delectable earworm. one of the most streamed songs of last ... don covay, 1938 2015 obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 4 february 2015 songwriter, singer and record producer whose compositions became hits for stars including chubby checker and aretha franklin. ... steve aoki: brixton academy, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 10 february 2015 edm's poster boy indulges in bone headed gimmicks that range from hurling cakes at the front row to crowd surfing in a rubber boat. ... drake: if you're reading this, it's too late review by paul lester, the guardian, 13 february 2015 on thursday night, drake did what is increasingly becoming known as "a beyoncé" and dropped, without warning, if you're reading this, it's too late, the ... zane lowe on apple, the bbc and why he'll miss london interview by laura barton, the guardian, 16 february 2015 after 12 years as radio 1's most enthusiastic music fan, lowe is leaving the bbc to work for apple's new radio service in la. the ... django django: the wardrobe, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 17 february 2015 django django have always favoured doing things with a twist. their eponymous debut was hailed for its innovative, modern take on psychedelia, offering a beaty ... lesley gore, 1946 2015 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 17 february 2015 singer whose passionate teen anthems of the '60s included 'it's my party' and 'you don't own me'. ... sandy denny: mick houghton: i've always kept a unicorn   the biography of sandy denny book review by barney hoskyns, the guardian, 21 february 2015 what, hypothetically, would have happened if sandy denny had tried out for the voice uk? would rita and ricky and will.i.am and sir tom have ... d'angelo: hammersmith apollo, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 22 february 2015 he may be a soulful innovator, but there has always been a strong traditionalism in d'angelo's music, and he begins tonight by tapping into a ... gil scott heron: the revolution lives on report and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 22 february 2015 political activist, rap pioneer and poet gil scott heron shaped the sound of today   from talib kweli and kanye west to kendrick lamar. his friends ... the pop group: have the pop group finally become a pop group? retrospective and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 26 february 2015 bristol's post punk provocateurs have released citizen zombie, their first album for 35 years. in 1975, they drew on dub, free jazz and baudrillard; 2015 finds singer ... lionel richie: o2 arena, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 2 march 2015 with the stamina of a performer half his age, the veteran soul star swings between raucous r&b and sweet ballads to the delight of an ... the war on drugs: brixton academy, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 3 march 2015 adam granduciel's fractured, soul spilling songs move beyond ragged glory americana into rhythmic, sparky epics tonight. ... björk: "i couldn't just write a disco song" interview by sophie heawood, the guardian, 12 march 2015 björk's new album vulnicura documents the mess and pain of a breakup, but she's not downhearted. she talks about the influence of british punk and ... daniel johns: aerial love review by everett true, the guardian, 12 march 2015 upon the january release of song 'aerial love', daniel johns's first new music in eight years, i read the reviews and couldn't quite believe them. ... the skints: fm review by dave simpson, the guardian, 12 march 2015 originating in the often squat based east london ska punk scene, the skints have built up a formidable live reputation around europe's festivals for their "east london ... daevid allen, gong, soft machine: daevid allen, 1938 2015 obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 13 march 2015 founder member of the psychedelic rock groups soft machine and gong. ... sleaford mods: grammar wanker: sleaford mods 2007‑2014 by jason williamson (bracketpress) book review by john harris, the guardian, 18 march 2015 drug comedowns and fist fights   an angry and uncompromising collection of lyrics. who else in modern english music is doing anything quite like this? ... sister rosetta tharpe: the godmother of rock'n'roll retrospective by richard williams, the guardian, 18 march 2015 she could outplay chuck. she could outsing aretha. and she influenced everyone from elvis to rod. richard williams revisits the songs and sufferings of the ... thin white rope: cult heroes: thin white rope were scorched, alien, hostile retrospective by graeme thomson, the guardian, 24 march 2015 thin white rope were named after william burroughs's description of ejaculating semen in naked lunch   and that's not even the best thing about them. ... the strokes: how we made is this it retrospective and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 24 march 2015 albert hammond jr, lead guitar: ... charli xcx: concorde 2, brighton live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 25 march 2015 "brighton, put your fucking middle fingers up!" are charli xcx's first words as she launches her first uk tour as headliner. brighton needs no encouragement: ... django django: "after our first album, everything went nuts" interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 26 march 2015 django django's first record propelled them from back room gigs to the top of festival bills. how did they escape second album syndrome? ... nick cave: the sick bag song (canongate) book review by barney hoskyns, the guardian, 28 march 2015 when you've personally witnessed nick cave nodding out on heroin and slowly lowering his head into a candle flame   his mass of dyed black ... tracey thorn: "i'd kill to be able to sing like adele" interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 12 april 2015 the everything but the girl frontwoman, whose book about the art of singing is out this month, on twitter, the x factor   and why ... gaz coombes: the cluny, newcastle live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 1 may 2015 with psychedelic symphonies and darkly ecstatic drug meltdowns, the ex supergrass frontman takes the crowd on a ride from melancholia to euphoria. ... charli xcx, tkay maidza: charli xcx/tkay maidza: the met, brisbane live review by everett true, the guardian, 8 may 2015 "i've been in brisbane three days," charli xcx laughs, "and i've eaten five hotdogs, so thanks for that!" ... b.b. king, 1925 2015 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 15 may 2015 self deprecating but with a magisterial stage presence, king developed a style that was both innovative and rooted in blues history. ... badbadnotgood, ghostface killah: ghostface killah: electric ballroom, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 18 may 2015 toronto jazz trio badbadnotgood deliver razor edge grooves to join the most prolific wu outside the clan for a frenetic tour through his back pages ... lianne la havas: wilton's music hall, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 20 may 2015 wilton's is an exquisite throwback, the oldest grand music hall in britain, and lianne la havas knows all about curious venues. just over a year ... brandon flowers: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 22 may 2015 the killers frontman delivers a buzzy rock'n'synth solo show   rounded off by a duet with chrissie hynde   but he can't shake his nice guy ... richard goldstein: another little piece of my heart: my life of rock and revolution in the '60s (bloomsbury) book review by barney hoskyns, the guardian, 23 may 2015 when richard goldstein got married, murray "the k" kaufman   the famous new york disc jockey who'd anointed himself "the fifth beatle" in 1964   ... daniel johns: "making a big heavy rock record would have been pathetic" interview by everett true, the guardian, 25 may 2015 the former silverchair frontman meets his former detractor to talk new album talk, r&b rebellion and being the daniel radcliffe of australian rock. ... twinkle obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 26 may 2015 singer and songwriter who found fame in the 1960s with her teenage tragedy hit record 'terry'. ... how the compact disc lost its shine report and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 28 may 2015 it's 30 years since dire straits' brothers in arms began the cd boom. how did the revolution in music formats come about and what killed ... earl sweatshirt: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 4 june 2015 disappointed by the lack of enthusiasm from the crowd, the tetchy 21 year old is entirely true to the restless agitation of his music ... jungle: brixton academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 5 june 2015 jungle's show begins as more gigs should: with a terrifyingly poised eight year old breakdancer spinning on her head, effortlessly eclipsing the adult musicians behind her. having ... mac demarco, ride, savages, patti smith: field day: victoria park, london   an embarrassment of riches report by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 8 june 2015 the festival market grows ever more crowded, but east london's clued up shindig keeps getting it right, with fka twigs, patti smith, ride and many more ... amanda palmer: union chapel, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 11 june 2015 she has always been an open book, and now amanda palmer has written one. tonight's gig is largely to promote the art of asking, the ... kathryn williams: "sylvia was a big shadow over my writing" interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 14 june 2015 singer songwriter kathryn williams talks about how sylvia plath inspired her new album, and why she is determined to rescue the poet from the 'sexy, depressing ... sarah cracknell: gorilla, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 21 june 2015 "you may notice that i've got a bad throat," begins sarah cracknell, ominously. for the next couple of songs, she struggles to hit the higher ... taylor swift: apple royalties u turn: is taylor swift the most powerful woman in music? report by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 22 june 2015 viewed as an advocate for artists and a game changer, almost no other pop star could have made the corporate behemoth roll over. ... nina simone: "are you ready to burn buildings?" retrospective by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 22 june 2015 from singing the soundtrack to the civil rights movement to living in self imposed exile in liberia, nina simone never chose the easy path. as a ... florence and the machine: "i funned myself out" interview by sophie heawood, the guardian, 25 june 2015 big nights and big feelings left "a trail of absolute destruction" in florence welch's wake. as she prepares for the biggest night of her life ... michael head & the strands: the olde world review by dave simpson, the guardian, 25 june 2015 after fronting the revered but unsuccessful pale fountains, shack and the strands alongside his guitarist brother john, michael head was once dubbed "britain's greatest songwriter (recognise him?)" ... black grape: forum, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 30 june 2015 black grape hit no 1 with their debut album in 1995, yet never truly felt part of the britpop circus. for obvious reasons, you were ... tyler, the creator: cherry bomb review by paul lester, the guardian, 30 june 2015 it's a good time for odd future fans. earl sweatshirt's new album just dropped, frank ocean's follow up to channel orange is imminent and there's even a golf wang app: "tyler ... pete townshend, the who: pete townshend: "music has always suffered from being tied to politics or religion" report and interview by tim cooper, the guardian, 2 july 2015 as he releases a version of quadrophenia performed by the royal philharmonic orchestra, the who's guitarist explains that his band were never really anti establishment. ... cannibal ox: oslo, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 16 july 2015 the new york hip hop duo were at their best as they unleashed the cavernous thunder and pungent rhymes of their classic album the cold ... earl sweatshirt on hollywood parties, deconstructing hermann hesse and therapy interview by paul lester, the guardian, 16 july 2015 once the world's most notorious teenage rapper, the 21 year old is back with a second full length album   and a more mature outlook ... wilco: star wars **** review by dave simpson, the guardian, 17 july 2015 the chicago band's ninth album successfully blends bowie space glam, beatles psychedelic singsong and captain beefheart weirdness ... nick jonas: islington academy, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 20 july 2015 the former teen star has shaved his head, picked up a guitar and is covering outkast. but while his talent is undeniable, he needs to ... cluster, harmonia: dieter moebius, 1944 2015 obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 22 july 2015 though born in switzerland, dieter moebius, who has died aged 71, was destined to become renowned as one of the pioneers of so called krautrock. ... mica levi: bold tendencies, london live review by ben thompson, the guardian, 2 august 2015 if artists are, as grayson perry has astutely noted, "the shock troops of gentrification", then musicians aren't too far behind them. roosting on the art installation bedecked ... cilla black 1943 2015 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 3 august 2015 the british pop revolution of the 1960s involved not only male guitar bands, but also several young female singing stars, including cilla black, who has ... sun kil moon: st george's church, brighton live review by david bennun, the guardian, 4 august 2015 back, then, to the old question of whether, and how, one separates the artist from the art. mark kozelek's music has been justly treasured since ... curtis mayfield: 10 of the best guide by stevie chick, the guardian, 5 august 2015 deploying sweet soul and blistering funk   and pouring his gorgeous, honeyed falsetto over it all   curtis mayfield veered between breezy optimism and hard edged ... the apartments: album's birth so traumatic 'it's a miracle it exists at all' profile and interview by andrew stafford, the guardian, 7 august 2015 peter milton walsh had no intention of releasing the songs he wrote after tragedy struck. after 18 years he is ready to share them at ... the jam: à la mod: how the jam and mod style transcended fashion retrospective by paul gorman, the guardian, 12 august 2015 a new exhibition of the jam at somerset house proves that the mod look, from carnaby street to uniqlo, is the gift that keeps on ... potus playlist: barack obama shares his favorite summer tracks on spotify comment by maura johnston, the guardian, 14 august 2015 the us president freshens america's musical palate with a survey of tried and true classics and discoverable new artists ranging from soul to rock to jazz. ... magnum, suzi quatro, saxon, uriah heep, wishbone ash: "we'll retire at 106. what else can we do?" the rockers who won't call it a day report and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 18 august 2015 from suzi quatro to saxon's biff byford, rock's pioneers have been making music for more than 40 years. here they talk about leather jumpsuits, performing ... johnny cash, leonard cohen, bob dylan, simon & garfunkel: bob johnston, 1932 2015 obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 18 august 2015 record producer who played a significant role in the recording career of bob dylan. ... destroyer: poison season review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 20 august 2015 dan bejar found unexpected late career success with 2011's kaputt, and seems uncomfortable with the high expectations for its follow up   but it turns out to ... richard dawson, st. vincent, super furry animals: green man festival, glanusk park, brecon beacons   home town heroes and hot tubs steal the weekend live review by laura barton, the guardian, 24 august 2015 super furry animals take saturday with a gloriously long set, while a dazzling st vincent proves that green man just gets better with age ... halsey profile by paul lester, the guardian, 4 september 2015 she's the new superstar in waiting, dividing the critics   but amassing an army of believers   with her powerful yet sorrowful pop r&b ... blick bassy: "i want to expose the dangers of the immigration dream" interview by laura barton, the guardian, 9 september 2015 the cameroonian singer songwriter draws on figures from miles davis to african freedom fighters to produce his soulful, melodic sound   but it wasn't until he ... wolf alice: newcastle university live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 22 september 2015 in an age of instant everything, wolf alice prove that the tortoise can still beat the hare. after they formed (initially as an acoustic duo) ... the eagles, don henley: don henley interview by paul lester, the guardian, 1 october 2015 you would never know that a member of the biggest american band in history had just entered the building. dressed down in chequered shirt and ... the icarus line: cult heroes profile and interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 6 october 2015 death threats, doomed acts, audience baiting: the exploits have overshadowed the music at times. but they are still the greatest rock group of the 21st century. ... the lemonheads: ritz, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 8 october 2015 without the drugs, and supported by the youthful enthusiasm of bassist jen turner, evan dando gives his hit parade the care it deserves   and ... u2: o2 arena, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 26 october 2015 the cathartic nature of the band's 13th studio album, songs of innocence, is sensitively reflected in this tour, which melds the personal and the political. ... afrika bambaataa, mark ronson: afrika bambaataa and mark ronson: uptown and downtown funk masters report and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 27 october 2015 the pair remember two influential generations of hip hop dance parties ahead of being honoured next month for their contributions to new york city's club scene. ... dave gahan & soulsavers: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 27 october 2015 dropping the synths for soulsavers' beefed up guitars, basildon's elvis is too charismatic to blend in with the band ... beach house: ritz, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 28 october 2015 "this one's going to be in near darkness," mutters the man on the door, and beach house emerge in so much gloom that if one ... björk on iceland: "we don't go to church, we go for a walk" interview by laura barton, the guardian, 16 november 2015 björk used to walk across the tundra singing at the top of her lungs. john grant left america for its rocky grandeur and sigur rós's ... chvrches: the dome, brighton live review by david bennun, the guardian, 17 november 2015 what a curious, synthetic experience it is to see chvrches. not that there's ever anything amiss with pop feeling synthetic. what makes chvrches odd is ... jon savage: 1966   the year the decade exploded book review by bob stanley, the guardian, 20 november 2015 the pop music you hear in your teenage years affects you more deeply than at any other time in your life. people who don't go ... gloria estefan: how her rhythm got america … and the world retrospective and interview by maura johnston, the guardian, 25 november 2015 pop hits with latino influences are de rigueur now   and no one has had a greater impact on this state of affairs than cuban americans ... mercury rev: oval space, london live review by jude rogers, the guardian, 28 november 2015 a couple are slow dancing next to the ladies' loos, moony smiles on their faces. three similarly minded women float out of the bathroom, swaying their hands ... mumford & sons: mumford and sons: motorpoint arena, sheffield live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 30 november 2015 the waistcoats may have been abandoned in favour of leather jackets, widescreen rock and lasers, but pandemonium erupts for every stomping oldie. ... lush reunited: "we were seen as a band who'd turn up to the opening of a packet of crisps" retrospective and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 3 december 2015 ethereal, angelic shoegazers or boozy scenesters? seventeen years after they split up, lush talk about their legacy   and why they have reformed. ... carly rae jepsen: islington assembly hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 8 december 2015 'the call me maybe' singer infuses her 80s textured pop with believability and uses her underdog status to win over the audience ... hudson mohawke: roundhouse, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 11 december 2015 with synths that screech like air brakes and crushing, abrasive beats, a night of mohawke's musical maximalism is both exhilarating and wearying ... saint etienne: fairfield halls, croydon live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 13 december 2015 saint etienne are frequently sublime, but they can also be ridiculous. it is surely beyond the ability even of pete wiggs and bob stanley to ... sleater kinney: a riot grrrl remembers: hunger makes me a modern girl: a memoir by carrie brownstein book review by kate mossman, the guardian, 29 december 2015 a complex and moving portrait of a coming of age in america ... alien ant farm: northumbria university, newcastle live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 11 january 2016 the likes of korn and limp bizkit may have been the stars of nu metal, but californians alien ant farm were the movement's successful pranksters. while ... angel haze: o2 abc, glasgow live review by ben thompson, the guardian, 16 january 2016 eyes flashing in the shadow of her pristine white baseball cap with its breaking black heart motif   the brim seems to have been extended ... dua lipa: hope & ruin, brighton live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 19 january 2016 she invites comparisons with labelmate lana del rey, but the young londoner's lack of audience interaction make her seem as if she has nothing to ... the eagles, glenn frey: glenn frey obituary obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 19 january 2016 singer and guitarist with the us rock band the eagles, and co writer of such memorable songs as 'hotel california', 'new kid in town' and 'heartache ... the rolling stones: the real life jumpin' jack flash: how david litvinoff shook the '60s book review by jon savage, the guardian, 19 january 2016 he inspired mick jagger, fought with lucian freud and shared lovers with ronnie kray. but david litvinoff's taste for danger would take him into the ... shearwater: jet plane and oxbow review by dave simpson, the guardian, 21 january 2016 shearwater's sometime naturalist frontman, jonathan meiburg, describes the band's ninth and finest album as a "protest record", and it finds him surveying a world embattled ... black: colin vearncombe didn't want to be defined by one song   and he shouldn't be retrospective by pete paphides, the guardian, 27 january 2016 the singer of black viewed his hit 'wonderful life' as a burden, something that has often been the fate of artists with one breakout hit ... paul kantner obituary obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 31 january 2016 leading light in jefferson airplane and san francisco’s summer of love ... hot chip, thurston moore, this heat: this is not this heat: cafe oto, london live review by luke turner, the guardian, 14 february 2016 hot chip's alexis taylor and sonic youth's thurston moore joined the experimental lineup for a night of fresh and focussed sounds ... barry adamson: "i've been called the outsider's outsider" interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 15 february 2016 the bad seeds and magazine bassist on writing music for david lynch, being ignored by morrissey and moving to moss side to recuperate after the ... david bowie, lady gaga: lady gaga's david bowie tribute didn't do either artist justice comment by maura johnston, the guardian, 16 february 2016 gaga has bowie's shapeshifting abilities and a strong voice, but the late star's legacy was ill served by the hectic megamix she performed. ... white denim: the deaf institute, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 16 february 2016 they don't have the sheen of contemporaries the black keys, but fired up guitar solos and soulful falsettos get the crowd whooping ... loyle carner: garage, london ★★★★☆ live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 22 february 2016 soul searching hip hop with charged intensity the fresh faced british rapper's unsentimental candour is coupled with a thrilling love for language and j dilla inspired beats ... bill ryder jones: the deaf institute, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 6 march 2016 a magical talent spills melody and emotion. co founder of the coral takes the solo route to fuse grunge and gentleness in compelling tales of everyday ... phil lynott, thin lizzy: graeme thomson: cowboy song   the authorised biography of philip lynott book review by barney hoskyns, the guardian, 9 march 2016 this fine telling of the messy life of thin lizzy's charismatic frontman is studded with moments of bathos, but one sticks particularly in the mind. ... alessia cara: "social media is like a fake reality and it's hard to block things out" profile and interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 10 march 2016 she's struck pop gold in the us and has befriended taylor swift and drake   despite describing herself as an 'antisocial pessimist'. and then there's ... ke$ha, the last shadow puppets: sexism on repeat: how the music industry can break the cycle essay by maura johnston, the guardian, 11 march 2016 from kesha's case against dr luke to miles kane's objectification of a female journalist, the industry has to admit there's a problem before sexism is ... little mix: brighton centre live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 march 2016 it would be hard to find a less weird girl group than little mix, which makes the question posed on a screen   "are you ... the 1975, taylor swift: matt healy's comments about taylor swift were not the words of a misogynist comment by laura barton, the guardian, 18 march 2016 the 1975 singer attracted controversy by saying that dating taylor swift would be emasculating. it was me he was speaking to, and i saw an ... lydia lunch: lexington, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 22 march 2016 lunch unites with gallon drunk's james johnston and ian white for the most joyfully bawdy music of her career. ... wolf alice: folkestone leas cliff hall live review by ben thompson, the guardian, 26 march 2016 a crossword compiler's clue for the genre of brit  and grammy nominated, north london quartet wolf alice might read as follows: "compound musical form, first half ... at the drive in: roundhouse, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 28 march 2016 dynamism undimmed by the departure of jim ward, the band play punk rock as a pure adrenaline rush, tempos changing and riffs turning on hairpins. ... the sound: cult heroes: the sound   critical darlings who were crowded out by kings of angst retrospective by dave simpson, the guardian, 29 march 2016 with the zeal of joy division, the majesty of the bunnymen and the melancholy of the cure, it's one of music's eternal mysteries why this ... explosions in the sky: the wilderness review by dave simpson, the guardian, 31 march 2016 texan four piece explosions in the sky have developed an international cult following as their post rock instrumentals have appeared everywhere from film soundtracks to tv trailers. ... lukas graham: lukas graham review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 31 march 2016 lukas graham forchhammer, to give this danish songwriter/frontman his full name, has scored the biggest hit of 2016 so far with '7 years'. ... al green: 10 of the best guide by angus batey, the guardian, 20 april 2016 from a chequered career, the tussle between the religious and the secular is audible on all of green's best songs   even the ones he ... daryl hall & john oates, supertramp: cruise control: how yacht rock sailed back into fashion overview by jennifer otter bickerdike, the guardian, 20 april 2016 smooth, well produced, meticulously written: soft rock had a bad reputation in the diy '80s and '90s. but today it has renewed relevance. an aficionado explains. ... delines, the , richmond fontaine: willy vlautin: "i had a picture of steinbeck and a picture of the jam" interview by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 24 april 2016 willy vlautin is an american musician and novelist based in portland, oregon. his alt country band richmond fontaine won critical acclaim with their 2004 album, post ... the lumineers: o2 academy brixton, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 25 april 2016 like mumford & sons, the lumineers have adopted a strand of rootless country folk that has no geographical connection to nashville. founding members wesley schultz and ... beyoncé's lemonade is an object lesson in collaboration comment by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 28 april 2016 she's the centripetal force that marshals the likes of robert plant, jack white, kendrick lamar and mnek to craft exquisite pop music that transcends boundaries ... drake: how drake became the all pervading master of hyper reality rap comment by simon reynolds, the guardian, 28 april 2016 the canadian artist's success at spreading both his sound and self far and wide owes much to his desire to be everything to everybody   ... a ha's morten harket: "i'm not an entertainer, i'm an engager" interview by paul lester, the guardian, 4 may 2016 the a ha frontman talks longevity, kierkegaard, uriah heep, why john barry rubbed a ha up the wrong way, and the problem with large breasts ... james blake: "i'm the opposite of punk   i've subdued a generation" profile and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 5 may 2016 kanye, beyoncé, drake and frank ocean have all been inspired by the unassuming londoner's sound. now he's coming of age with his new album, the ... miracle legion: cult heroes: miracle legion   the band thom yorke loved, who could have been rem retrospective by martin aston, the guardian, 17 may 2016 even at the time, in april 1986, i knew it was unnecessary hyperbole on my part when my submitted melody maker feature about an emerging ... guy clark, 1941 2016 obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 19 may 2016 guy clark, who has died aged 74, once commented that his twin occupations of songwriting and guitar building were "just a way to while away the ... kid creole & the coconuts: my kid creole musical was a hard nut to crack retrospective by vivien goldman, the guardian, 20 may 2016 three decades after i met kid creole and the coconuts while profiling them for nme, their musical cherchez la femme has finally reached the new ... tommy genesis: new band of the week: tommy genesis profile by paul lester, the guardian, 20 may 2016 in the beginning, there was rap. tommy genesis, from canada, takes it to a new level with her brittle, daring and cold atl trap. ... pj harvey et al: field day, victoria park, london live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 13 june 2016 a lineup including skepta, deerhunter, james blake and pj harvey prove more than able to banish wet weather blues with warm and powerful performances. ... james carr, aretha franklin, elvis presley: chips moman, 1937 2016 obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 15 june 2016 guitarist, record producer and songwriter who co wrote 'the dark end of the street' and worked with elvis presley, aretha franklin and tammy wynette. ... the 5th dimension: elegant pop crooners who wowed the mainstream retrospective by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 21 june 2016 my parents owned only two albums that weren't folk or opera. one was the original broadway cast recording of the musical hair, which was famous ... coldplay: chris martin: "coldplay are saying the opposite of walls and brexit" interview by sophie heawood, the guardian, 23 june 2016 it is rather gratifying, when meeting a band who have sold 80m albums and are about to headline the world's biggest music festival for the ... serge gainsbourg, mick harvey: mick harvey: delirium tremens review by andrew stafford, the guardian, 23 june 2016 two decades after intoxicated man and pink elephants, nick cave's right hand man returns to serge gainsbourg's oeuvre to explore even stranger corners. ... ralph stanley, 1927 2016 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 26 june 2016 following the death of bill monroe in 1996, ralph stanley became the leading name in bluegrass, embodying in both his music and his bearing the ... minnie riperton: 10 of the best tracks guide by stevie chick, the guardian, 29 june 2016 she had a five octave vocal range, inspired stevie wonder and gave birth to maya rudolph   the tragedy is that this huge musical talent died ... belly: leeds univeristy live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 17 july 2016 beguiling fairytales, big choruses   as the crowd declare love, it beggars belief that belly have spent so long in cold storage. ... suicide, alan vega: alan vega, 1938 2016 obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 18 july 2016 co founder and frontman of the confrontational electronic band suicide ... the lemon twigs: new band of the week: the lemon twigs profile by paul lester, the guardian, 18 july 2016 prodigious brothers from new york make lush, lo fi pop inspired by the beatles, beach boys and any number of eclectic influences. ... the faces, michael jackson, the police, slade: john pidgeon, 1947 2016 obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 21 july 2016 rock writer turned broadcasting executive who did much to reinvigorate bbc radio comedy. ... the moles: tonight's music review by dave simpson, the guardian, 11 august 2016 like their peers the chills, the moles' gently psychedelic, impassioned indie rock strayed into the elemental. now reactivated around australian founder richard davies after interest was ... bastille: dan smith of bastille: "i sound like a nervous wreck who hates doing this" profile and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 25 august 2016 dan smith and i have been talking in the corner of a hotel bar for ten minutes when a middle aged man walks over and asks: ... lisa hannigan: at swim review by dave simpson, the guardian, 26 august 2016 it's 14 years since lisa hannigan first came to attention as the second voice on damien rice's debut, o, and five since her last album, ... margo price: scala, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 2 september 2016 price is a country traditionalist who turns the hard luck stories of her life into irresistibly vivid and vibrant music. ... jesca hoop, iron & wine: sam beam and jesca hoop: union chapel, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 2 september 2016 the voices of iron & wine's beam and californian singer songwriter hoop pool mellifluously together until they seem made for each other. ... dr. dre, eazy e, ice cube, n.w.a: jerry heller, 1940 2016 obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 7 september 2016 music manager who launched nwa and set up ruthless records with eazy e ... "landmark clubs are evidence of creativity and energy in a city": why fabric's closure matters report and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 8 september 2016 britain's clubland is shrinking but the world famous london venue had survived the trend   until now. what does its loss mean for the capital's cultural ... bastille: wild world review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 8 september 2016 being highly successful seems not to have figured in frontman dan smith's aspirations for bastille, whose 4m album sales have triggered ambivalence and self doubt. ... david bowie, john phillips: bowie and the missing soundtrack: the amazing story behind the man who fell to earth retrospective and interview by chris campion, the guardian, 8 september 2016 david bowie is rumoured to have written a score to the sci fi classic that's locked up in some vault. but the truth is much stranger ... ed harcourt: "i'm coming out with fists flying" interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 14 september 2016 it's taken seven albums, visions of the child catcher and billy bunter's reflection in the mirror, but the english songwriter has finally refound his voice ... sean paul: electric ballroom, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 september 2016 the sparky showboater's glory days may be some way behind him, but his rueful rhythms haven't just aged well over the years   they carry ... nick cave: one more time with feeling, skeleton tree and the power and language of grief interview by mark mordue, the guardian, 19 september 2016 the subject matter is heavy   the death of a child   but the results are divine in an album that emerges from struggle to ... björk: royal albert hall, london live review by jude rogers, the guardian, 22 september 2016 the icelandic star's electrifying voice and sense of fun transcend the conventional setting. ... bon iver: 'there are people who are into being famous. and i don’t like that' interview by laura barton, the guardian, 24 september 2016 justin vernon’s falsetto folk infiltrated pop and caught kanye’s ear but now he’s kicking against the fame game. for his new album, he explains why the ... gene clark: 10 of the best guide by david bennun, the guardian, 28 september 2016 from hallucinatory stormers to dylan esque big city tales, here are 10 tracks that define an artist forever ahead of a game he always ended up losing. ... acid mothers temple: hope & ruin, brighton live review by david bennun, the guardian, 29 september 2016 non stop head melting psychedelia   each pulsating, echo drenched disco rock groove excels the one before, ending in a collective instrumental howl: amt are hot, sweaty cool sonic ... new order: peter hook: substance   inside new order book review by andy beckett, the guardian, 5 october 2016 the band's bassist gives full details of drugs, groupies and excesses on tour, but his account of new order's voyage to becoming a pop institution ... david bowie, robert glasper, gogo penguin, shabaka hutchings, kendrick lamar, donny mccaslin, courtney pine, sons of kemet, the comet is coming, thundercat, kamasi washington: the new cool: how kamasi, kendrick and co gave jazz a new groove essay by john lewis, the guardian, 6 october 2016 a generation of jazz musicians has grown up with hip hop in its blood. the result is the thrilling reinvention of a genre that has been ... michael kiwanuka: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 12 october 2016 michael kiwanuka is a mass of contradictions and all the better for it. he's a self doubting soul man whose second album, love & hate, recently ... arab strap: the cluny, newcastle upon tyne live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 13 october 2016 aidan moffatt and malcolm middleton revive tales of chaotic lifestyles for brexit britain, with music that ricochets between folk, pop and intense dance. ... the beach boys: mike love: good vibrations book review by bob stanley, the guardian, 13 october 2016 love lacked the sensitivity of his cousin brian wilson, but he kept the band going after their fall from grace. he tells his side of ... angel olsen: concorde 2, brighton live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 october 2016 angel olsen's breakthrough album, 2014's burn your fire for no witness, brought the st louis born songwriter into contact with those she calls "weirdos"   people ... craig david: brixton academy, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 21 october 2016 the likable pop soul veteran hasn't lost his sentimental side, but he reveals a slightly harder edge with stage prowling antics and tongue tying raps. ... craig david: brixton academy, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 21 october 2016 the likable pop soul veteran hasn't lost his sentimental side, but he reveals a slightly harder edge with stage prowling antics and tongue tying raps. ... bobby vee, 1943 2016 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 25 october 2016 singer whose infuriatingly catchy '60s hits included 'rubber ball' and 'the night has a thousand eyes'. ... mary j. blige, maxwell: mary j. blige/maxwell: o2 arena, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 30 october 2016 blige commands the stage with raw rage and consciousness raising while neo soul pioneer maxwell melts the room with trademark loose grooves. ... pj harvey: o2 academy brixton, london live review by david bennun, the guardian, 31 october 2016 the musician brings her hope six demolition project on tour to rail against social ills, and confirm her status as a forceful commentator. ... alicia keys: "i want to make sure all the issues about race are addressed" profile and interview by kate mossman, the guardian, 6 november 2016 at a hometown launch for her new album, here, the new york singer songwriter talks about the us election, black lives matter and modern family life. ... leonard cohen: looking at leonard cohen's darkness misses the warmth of his words comment by laura barton, the guardian, 11 november 2016 when you listen to the lyrics cohen wrote, you realise how alive his language is   and how much he was seeking the light. ... leon russell, 1942 2016 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 14 november 2016 in 2010, elton john surprised his fans by releasing an album in collaboration with the pianist, singer and songwriter leon russell, whom he described as ... julia holter: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 15 november 2016 the singer songwriter cast a spell over the crowd with her cherished characters and carnival of sounds   but an industro rock climax proved too much for ... a tribe called quest return: "you fight for what you love   and you go through hell to get it" interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 17 november 2016 eighteen years after their last album, the hip hop legends are back with a record that reunites original members q tip, ali shaheed muhammad, jarobi white and ... sharon jones: obituary obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 20 november 2016 powerful soul and funk singer with the dap kings hailed for her stage presence. ... drake, green day, sting: american music awards: anti trump sentiment peppers pop's timid party report by maura johnston, the guardian, 21 november 2016 usually the awards show is a chance for those who turn up to walk away with a gong, but this year several acts and presenters ... chance the rapper: academy, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 21 november 2016 the hip hop boundary breaker had a triumphant night in manchester, keeping his audience on their toes with a mix of humility, eclecticism and spirituality. ... slick rick: "you learn from prison time   what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" profile and interview by paul lester, the guardian, 24 november 2016 his morality tales of ghetto life made the anglo american rapper famous   and chillingly predicted his imprisonment for attempted murder. now, 13 years since he ... the lemon twigs: brudenell social club, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 2 december 2016 michael and brian d'addario dress like they're in a 70s panto, but any suggestions of pastiche are demolished by the humbling beauty of their songs. ... pwr bttm: west hill hall, brighton live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 4 december 2016 if queer punk finds its commercial feet in 2017, it will be largely thanks to the enthusiastic efforts of pwr bttm. on their debut uk ... skepta: alexandra palace, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 4 december 2016 received wisdom has long held that grime, the attitudinal amalgam of garage, jungle, rap and electro that ripped out of east london's sink estates at ... greg lake obituary obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 8 december 2016 key figure in 1970s prog rock as bass guitarist for emerson, lake & palmer ... the 1975: o2 arena, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 16 december 2016 matt healy lounge lizards across the stage as his band charm the first of two sellout o2 crowds with sharp edged, irresistible songs. ... george michael: why george michael was the greatest pop star of the mtv era comment by maura johnston, the guardian, 26 december 2016 jackson had the moves, madonna had the moxie, prince had the sex   but george michael had the voice … and thrilling songs like spinning ... austra: "how psychedelic would our world be if technology wasn't just about making someone money?" interview by maura johnston, the guardian, 5 january 2017 depressed at the state of the world, canadian vocalist and producer katie stelmanis dove into naomi klein, star trek, cyborgs and latin american dance music ... peter sarstedt, 1941 2017 obituary by dave laing, the guardian, 9 january 2017 singer songwriter who topped the charts in 1969 with 'where do you go to (my lovely)' ... the blue aeroplanes: academy 2, newcastle upon tyne live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 16 january 2017 with their constantly changing lineup, poetic lyrics and unstoppable dancer wojtek, the bristol band show no signs of landing. ... jojo: koko, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 18 january 2017 after 10 years out the singer is back, singing about depression, defiance and desire in a voice that skims from delicacy to sledgehammer vehemence. ... busted: hammersmith apollo, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 5 february 2017 wall to wall screaming greets the trio's return, but 13 years on their infectiously exuberant punk pop has been replaced by cloying, synth heavy soft rock ... busted: hammersmith apollo, london   all grown up and not so much fun live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 5 february 2017 wall to wall screaming greets the trio's return, but 13 years on their infectiously exuberant punk pop has been replaced by cloying, synth heavy soft rock. ... beyoncé, lady gaga, katy perry: "purposeful pop": can stars like katy perry create change through music? comment by maura johnston, the guardian, 14 february 2017 after perry's #wokepop at the grammys, there's an argument about how subversive pop can be in 2017. history shows it will take more than hashtags. ... at the drive in pick up where they left off   sounding like the future profile by stevie chick, the guardian, 24 february 2017 seventeen years after they split, at the drive in's return brings back hot footed, high wire punk that honours their past. ... lady leshurr: the arch, brighton live review by david bennun, the guardian, 27 february 2017 ingenious freestyler combines mischief, wit and expert comic timing. ... lorde: 'green light' review by maura johnston, the guardian, 2 march 2017 the 20 year old new zealand singer makes a triumphant return with a stellar '90s inspired pop song about her first heartbreak. ... prefab sprout: why prefab sprout's return with 'america' is a whim and a wonder report by pete paphides, the guardian, 6 march 2017 paddy mcaloon surfaced on friday with a new track that is heartbreaking in an entirely unexpected way. ... hurray for the riff raff: the navigator review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 9 march 2017 "i feel that the soul of new york is under attack," americana songwriter and bronx native alynda segarra recently said. her sixth album as hurray ... zac brown band, brad paisley: brad paisley/zac brown band: o2 arena, london live review by andrew mueller, the guardian, 13 march 2017 hats off to two entertaining stars of the c2c festival who take contrasting approaches to god, the south and the good ol' us of a. ... angelo badalamenti, julee cruise: "make it like the wind, angelo": how the twin peaks soundtrack came to haunt music for nearly 30 years retrospective and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 24 march 2017 just as david lynch's series inspired a new form of tv, so angelo badalamenti's soundtrack has echoed down the decades, acquiring a life of its ... thundercat: gorilla, manchester live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 26 march 2017 the gifted bassist and kendrick lamar sidekick twists fusion, soul and hip hop into magical shapes. ... phoenix and the flower girl: new band of the week: phoenix and the flower girl profile by paul lester, the guardian, 27 march 2017 the last ever new band of the week brings an appropriately phantasmagoric end to the column's 11 year run ... jesca hoop: brudenell social club, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 29 march 2017 the traditional music business strategy of finding a distinctive style and sticking to it doesn't apply to jesca hoop. ... thundercat: heaven, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 29 march 2017 the prodigious bassist's songs veer between jazz fusion and intimate, soulful pop   augmented live by detours into wild improvisation ... father john misty: "i get sick pleasure out of reading about how much people hate me" interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 30 march 2017 josh tillman says he has given himself permission to self destruct again. he talks about turning his latest album, pure comedy, into an 'insane' musical   ... dua lipa: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 14 april 2017 "this is crazy," asserts dua lipa, which may be exaggerating the situation a bit. being able to sell out the 2,000 capacity shepherd's bush empire will ... anderson .paak: forum, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 17 april 2017 .paak barely pauses for breath in this irresistible sprint through his hard luck/good fortune tracks: this is a man unafraid to break a sweat to ... laura nyro: the passion and soul of laura nyro retrospective by laura barton, the guardian, 19 april 2017 twenty years after her death, the rhythmic and shifting life of a songwriter who composed for the stars   but sidestepped celebrity herself   is ... bob dylan: palladium, london live review by david bennun, the guardian, 30 april 2017 singer who redefined rock'n'roll 50 years ago continues to confound expectations as tour brings him to london palladium. ... ed sheeran: o2 arena, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 2 may 2017 his rapping may be workmanlike, his music sentimental, and his wardrobe straight outta oxfam, but sheeran's phenomenal rise is justified: he's great live ... lou reed's friends dismiss claim that 'walk on the wild side' is transphobic report and interview by edward helmore, the guardian, 20 may 2017 defence came after canadian student body apologized for "hurtful" lyrics to the trans community after including the 1972 hit on a playlist at a campus ... iron maiden: liverpool arena live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 21 may 2017 steaming cauldrons and drum riser acrobatics … bruce dickinson and co's languid brand of british heavy metal embraces all and shows no signs of rust ... chesney hawkes, nik kershaw: chesney hawkes and nik kershaw: how we made 'the one and only' interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 22 may 2017 chesney hawkes, singer my dad was in the tremeloes. as a kid, i watched him   len "chip" hawkes   in his leather trousers with his ... broken social scene: albert hall, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 24 may 2017 the day after the arena bombing, manchester city centre is almost deserted and police patrol the streets. evening sunshine pours through stained glass windows into ... sam amidon: the following mountain (nonesuch) review by jude rogers, the guardian, 1 june 2017 gritty, personal new paths in folk ... richard dawson: rough trade east, london live review by laura barton, the guardian, 7 june 2017 richard dawson opens his short, early evening show at rough trade east with a traditional folk ballad, 'the cruel ship's carpenter'. a contrary choice, perhaps, for ... saint etienne: 10 of the best retrospective by jude rogers, the guardian, 7 june 2017 in the early 90s, a trio from south east england set out to fulfil pop's potential. nearly 30 years later, they're still making bold, inventive music. ... radio birdman: brutally honest doco cements legacy of volatile sydney punk band review by andrew stafford, the guardian, 9 june 2017 the '70s band battled poverty, depression and infighting. descent into the maelstrom shows how they also changed the face of australian music. ... public service broadcasting report and interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 17 june 2017 the band's new album, every valley, chronicles the destruction of the welsh coal industry and how its legacy still resonates in these uncertain times. ... benjamin booker: how i turned my personal meltdown into a rallying cry for black america profile and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 21 june 2017 he was overweight, abusing drugs and fleeing from his self harming past. so he took all his problems   and turned them into the sensational new ... the maccabees: alexandra palace, london live review by david bennun, the guardian, 30 june 2017 there's much to be said for perseverance. seven years ago and two albums in, the maccabees, if not quite the "landfill indie" of britain's post libertines ... richard dawson: time travel, bhs and urine   the strange world of folk singer richard dawson interview by laura barton, the guardian, 30 june 2017 the newcastle singer meticulously researches the worlds he conjures up in song   and that can mean details of local history or the minutiae of ... linkin park, stormzy: linkin park: o2, london   nu metal escapees move beyond teen angst live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 4 july 2017 pop r&b smashes and an appearance from stormzy underline just how far the band have come since the dark days of limp bizkit ... ed kuepper, laughing clowns, the saints: saint ed kuepper to be honoured with renamed brisbane park report and interview by andrew stafford, the guardian, 9 july 2017 push for brisbane to further celebrate its second seminal band as ed kuepper park named in city's south west. ... the horrors: omeara, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 12 july 2017 previewing their new album v, the gothic hipsters hint at a life beyond the record nerd crowd, mixing in throbbing electronics to lighter waving effect. ... offa rex: the queen of hearts review by jude rogers, the guardian, 13 july 2017 as band building chat up lines go, "we'll be your albion dance band" is certainly niche. ... mary j. blige: mary j blige: kew gardens, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 17 july 2017 performing amid amid a messy divorce, mary j blige delivers a hugely emotional set, her voice both racked and silky as she rebukes men for ... declan mckenna: what do you think about the car? review by dave simpson, the guardian, 20 july 2017 with a major label deal and a super televised glastonbury appearance under his belt at the age of 18, declan mckenna has the youthful self confidence ... horace andy: komedia, brighton live review by david bennun, the guardian, 20 july 2017 the reggae veteran has some of his eerieness smoothed out in a brisk and businesslike set   but his vibrato laden voice remains spellbinding. ... tyler, the creator: flower boy review by paul lester, the guardian, 21 july 2017 is the rapper once banned from the uk for homophobic lyrics now coming out? either way, this heavenly hip hop record visits multicoloured corners of his ... feist: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 28 july 2017 the canadian indie folk star transforms the sparse songs of recent album pleasure into luminous ballads and splenetic blues rock shredding. ... interpol, lcd soundsystem, the moldy peaches, the strokes, vampire weekend, the yeah yeah yeahs: lizzy goodman: meet me in the bathroom   rebirth and rock and roll in new york city, 2001 2011 book review by barbara ellen, the guardian, 8 august 2017 this oral history of new york's musical renaissance is vivid, informative and full of passion. ... jen cloher: jen cloher review by andrew stafford, the guardian, 10 august 2017 a slow burning masterpiece from a first class songwriter ... wolf alice: the venue, derby live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 17 august 2017 last year, wolf alice singer ellie rowsell told the observer that she was reading michael azerrad's book our band could be your life, which had ... muse: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 20 august 2017 there's no downsizing in this pulverising set of audience chosen tracks performed in an intimate space as they would be at wembley stadium ... judy dyble and andy lewis: summer dancing review by jude rogers, the guardian, 24 august 2017 burrow through folk rock's foundations, and you'll find judy dyble, an early singer in fairport convention, with the incredible string band, and the group that burst, ... korn: o2 academy brixton, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 24 august 2017 bombastic, brutish riffs and snarling frontman jonathan davis combine to deliver authentic thrills of the skull cracking kind. ... taylor swift: 'look what you made me do' review by maura johnston, the guardian, 25 august 2017 the pop star's return is full of visceral disses, but it's not clear whether she's playing a role or being herself. ... linda ronstadt: "i don't like any of my albums" interview by laura barton, the guardian, 28 august 2017 the country music legend has won 11 grammys, made 28 studio albums and worked with everyone from paul simon to frank zappa. she says listening ... pond (australia): pond: bethnal green working men's club, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 29 august 2017 it is pond's fate forever to be discussed in relation to tame impala, and it is hardly surprising. this band from perth, western australia, began ... niall horan: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 1 september 2017 for people who have spent two nights camping on the pavement outside the shepherd's bush empire, 18 year old india rain harrison and her mother, christine, are ... neil finn: out of silence review by andrew stafford, the guardian, 2 september 2017 piece by piece, neil finn's out of silence comes together in simplistic beauty. ... charles bradley, 1948 2017 obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 24 september 2017 american soul singer and songwriter who found fame late in life ... p.j. proby, cliff richard, gene vincent: jack good, 1931 2017 obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 29 september 2017 music pioneer who led a revolution in television coverage of pop ... terence trent d'arby, sananda maitreya: why terence trent d'arby became sananda maitreya: "it was that or death" interview by paul lester, the guardian, 5 october 2017 in 1987, his debut album saw him hailed as a rival to michael jackson and prince   but then his star crashed and burned. he ... the mountain goats: brudenell social club, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 6 october 2017 john darnielle was on gloriously shambolic form as music's goth capital was treated to a chaotic evening that merged flute solos with satanic worship. the mountain ... destroyer: ken review by dave simpson, the guardian, 19 october 2017 indie polymath moves from hurtling shoegaze to blissed out electronica. ... mick jagger, john lennon, paul mccartney: rolling stone founder falls out with biographer over candid life story report and interview by edward helmore, the guardian, 22 october 2017 jann wenner, whose magazine charted pop music and culture since the '60s, gave joe hagan full access but is unhappy with the result, especially "the ... jane weaver: ramsgate music hall live review by laura barton, the guardian, 23 october 2017 certain english female singing voices make a direct grab for the central nervous system. from sandy denny to sarah nixey, maddy prior to sarah cracknell ... ac/dc, the easybeats: george young should be remembered as the sonic architect of australian rock music obituary by andrew stafford, the guardian, 24 october 2017 the easybeats guitarist and ac/dc producer wasn't just a star in his own right, but a behind the scenes industry giant. ... steely dan: bluesfest at the o2, london live review by david bennun, the guardian, 30 october 2017 donald fagen, now sole founding member after the death of walter becker, is the vocal grit in the oyster of steely dan's sophisticated, frictionless grooves. ... paul gorman: the story of the face book review by andy beckett, the guardian, 1 november 2017 this huge, rich book is a celebration not only of the style bible but of london, manchester and liverpool in the late 20th century. ... robert plant on led zeppelin, alison krauss and his endless wanderlust interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 2 november 2017 in our series where great musicians tell the stories behind memorable records from their back catalogue, the led zep frontman discusses his enduring love for ... insane clown posse: riverside, newcastle live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 15 november 2017 controversy seems to follow insane clown posse around. the detroit "horrorcore" duo have seen albums pulled from shelves and their army of fans, the juggalos, ... alice coltrane: "it's like you're on top of the alps": alice coltrane's spiritual jazz rediscovered retrospective by jude rogers, the guardian, 17 november 2017 this weekend sees a host of london jazz festival events revisit the work of alice coltrane, who broke the rules of jazz to blaze a ... liam gallagher: first direct arena, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 4 december 2017 raw power and energy radiate from the former oasis frontman as he draws on songs from his solo debut and era defining classics in a dynamo ... carla bruni: union chapel, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 11 december 2017 playing unusual covers of ac/dc, depeche mode and willie nelson alongside strong self penned material, bruni performs with poise and catwalk swagger. ... mastodon: brixton academy, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 11 december 2017 a triumphant blend of brutal nosebleed thrash, furious prog style epics and multi part harmonies exhilarates the hardcore faithful. ... demi lovato: o2 arena, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 2018 vulnerable but resolute, the singer pursues her "truth" in an affecting and revelatory show. ... dolores o'riordan   obituary obituary by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 16 january 2018 lead singer of the cranberries whose startling, steely voice enchanted audiences on hits such as 'linger' and 'zombie'. ... fall out boy: mania review by dave simpson, the guardian, 19 january 2018 many a band has stumbled trying to take a cult following with them into the uber mainstream. however, since re forming in 2013, fall out boy have ... toto: how we made 'africa' interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 30 january 2018 "if this is a hit," i said, "i'll run naked down hollywood boulevard." ... architects: alexandra palace, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 5 february 2018 eighteen months after their guitarist's death, the brighton metal band turn a ferocious evening into a poignant homage architects receive an ovation simply for walking on ... james bay: electric brixton, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 16 march 2018 james bay's ascent to pop stardom has appeared effortless. having scooped the brits critics' choice award in 2015, the hitchin born singer songwriter duly saw his debut ... jarvis cocker: ramsgate music hall live review by laura barton, the guardian, 29 march 2018 moving like a spider and dispensing fruit to the audience, the one time pulp frontman's new songs seem some of the best of his career. ... macklemore: victoria warehouse, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 2 april 2018 when he was a struggling unknown, seattle's ben haggerty, aka macklemore, pondered being a white rapper: "i give everything i have when i write a ... 5 seconds of summer: heaven, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 6 april 2018 sydney's guitar popsters nakedly woo their young female fans but cut the flirting as they pitch for the crossover adult market. ... shame: brudenell social club, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 11 april 2018 the young londoners make no bones about thieving ideas from other bands, but their blend of intense rhythms and sarcastic banter is unique. ... kendrick lamar: from street kid to pulitzer: why kendrick lamar deserves the prize profile by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 22 april 2018 the clarity, complexity and honesty of his lyrics alone merit the highest award for the hip hop star and "greatest rapper alive". the first pulitzer prize for ... natalie prass: bush hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 24 april 2018 the virginia songwriter has added funk and soul to her swooning ballads and '60s pop, fired up by "all the crap that's going on in ... tangerine dream: union chapel, london live review by david stubbs, the guardian, 25 april 2018 for their first uk show without founder member edgar froese, the synth pioneers enlivened their proggy ambience with techno, but still created the same cosmic ... eleanor friedberger: rebound review by dave simpson, the guardian, 4 may 2018 in 2016, eleanor friedberger spent a month in athens, greece, ending up in what the half greek american describes as an "'80s goth disco"   called ... frightened rabbit: scott hutchison, 1981 2018 obituary by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 may 2018 singer and writer of emotionally raw folk rock songs that attracted a wide following for his band, frightened rabbit. ... frank turner: roundhouse, london   big hearted anthems and love songs to america live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 14 may 2018 the provocative singer songwriter balances the profane and the polite with a set that triggers a joyous mass sing along ... courtney barnett on coping with fame, homophobia   and thinking she still sucks profile and interview by jenny valentish, the guardian, 17 may 2018 the australian musician has gone from indie darling to global star, but she's still uneasy in the limelight and wracked with self doubt   even self hate. ... chvrches: "it only takes two seconds to say: i don't agree with white supremacy." interview by kate mossman, the guardian, 20 may 2018 the glaswegian synth pop trio rose to fame on the back of relentless touring, even as frontwoman lauren mayberry fended off online abuse. their new album ... janis ian: how we made 'at seventeen' interview by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 29 may 2018 janis ian, singer and songwriter ... the the: royal albert hall, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 6 june 2018 performing for the first time in 16 years only days after his father’s death, 1980s indie hero matt johnson retains a gravel voiced gravitas ... gruff rhys and the bbc national orchestra of wales: wales millennium centre, cardiff live review by jude rogers, the guardian, 12 june 2018 new album babelsberg was well suited to the grand occasion, with flavours of glen campbell among spacious melodies. ... hollywood vampires: genting arena, birmingham live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 18 june 2018 the original hollywood vampires drinking club included the likes of john lennon and harry nilsson. today, the band of the same name are a curious ... moloko, roisin murphy: róisín murphy: "pop's about putting across the primitive parts of yourself" retrospective and interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 21 june 2018 the former moloko singer on the freedom and heartbreak that inspired her favourite tracks from her back catalogue ... olivia chaney: shelter (nonesuch) review by jude rogers, the guardian, 6 july 2018 folk artists stepping into singer songwriter territory are often treated with suspicion, as if their egos must be propelling them beyond the small stories of smaller ... mgmt: somerset house, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 10 july 2018 the fake plastic shrubs on stage have more charisma than andrew vanwyngarden and ben goldwasser in this understated, underwhelming set. ... ty segall and white fence: joy review by dave simpson, the guardian, 20 july 2018 californian cult garage rocker ty segall is a textbook example of how to succeed in the modern music industry on one's own terms. over the ... various artists: this is trojan 50! review   the label that changed britain review by lloyd bradley, the guardian, 26 july 2018 trojan's releases introduced the uk to reggae, deejaying, toasting, lovers rock, dancehall   and five star's dad. this is an immaculately curated collection of a ... aretha franklin, 1942 2018 obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 16 august 2018 queen of soul whose voice could scald or soothe, and whose talent drew on both sacred and secular traditions ... gabrielle: under my skin review by dave simpson, the guardian, 17 august 2018 it's 25 years since gabrielle scored a no 1 with her first single, 'dreams' ("can come true …"), virtually the story of her mercurial rise ... the beasts of bourbon: beasts of bourbon's spencer p jones: hellraiser among australian rock greats obituary by andrew stafford, the guardian, 23 august 2018 some were scared off by the guitarist's snarling delivery and reputation, but you'd be hard pressed to name a bad song. ... the lemon twigs: go to school review by dave simpson, the guardian, 24 august 2018 oh how we laughed when these two teenage former child actors emerged from long island in 2016. their garish soft rock 70s jackets and mullets made ... idles: joy as an act of resistance review by dave simpson, the guardian, 31 august 2018 pop music takes us to some wonderful places in 2018 but, sleaford mods aside, doesn't often reflect the sharp end of austerity, post referendum britain. but, ... ariana grande: koko, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 5 september 2018 "where should we start?" asks ariana grande, intimating that this unadvertised finale of a mini tour called the sweetener sessions is to be a democratic affair. ... mac miller obituary obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 9 september 2018 american rapper and music producer who confronted his personal history of substance abuse in his lyrics ... hozier: koko, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 12 september 2018 once a chorister, andrew hozier byrne ultimately followed in his father's blues footsteps and swapped allegiances to the music that sells its soul to the devil ... the cranberries: "she was on a roll": the cranberries on the last days of dolores o'riordan interview by kate mossman, the guardian, 13 september 2018 the last time the cranberries guitarist noel hogan saw dolores o'riordan was in the limerick hotel where we are now standing, in november 2017. he ... the go betweens: "it's a widely misunderstood song": how the go betweens made 'streets of your town' retrospective and interview by andrew stafford, the guardian, 19 september 2018 is the winner of guardian australia's songs of brisbane poll about brisbane? even band members aren't sure. ... prince: piano & a microphone 1983   revelatory listen from a colossal talent review by dave simpson, the guardian, 21 september 2018 the recordings on this posthumous prince album weren't originally intended for release. but they capture prince rogers nelson at the peak of his powers, alone ... spiritualized: hammersmith apollo, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 23 september 2018 by turns poignant and defiant, the soulful rock'n'roll wastrel jason pierce turns up the feedback and faces down his mortality   flanked by a horn ... charles aznavour   10 of the best guide by alan clayson, the guardian, 2 october 2018 france's leading musical ambassador, who died on monday, was admired by such disparate entertainers as bob dylan, elvis costello and sometime sex pistol glen matlock. ... suede: eventim apollo, london   more stellar than ever in a tremendous primal celebration live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 14 october 2018 brooding menace and quasi paganism replace urban sleaze as a feral brett anderson gives it his all in a staggering performance ... beth ditto: "i don't think i can act. i'm just really good at talking." profile and interview by laura barton, the guardian, 24 october 2018 the gossip frontwoman has started acting, and her first role is a "redneck loud woman" in the new gus van sant film. she talks about ... kacey musgraves: bristol hippodrome live review by jude rogers, the guardian, 24 october 2018 despite a fantastic sound from her band, the grammy winning star is awkward on stage as her lyrics are lost in the dry ice. ... what crisis? why music journalism is actually healthier than ever report and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 24 october 2018 a steady decline in circulation of the music press, epitomised by the closure of nme this year, has created new opportunities for stalwarts and niche ... architects: holy hell   addressing tragedy with gravity and defiance review by dave simpson, the guardian, 9 november 2018 in 2016, brighton metalcore giants architects were sent reeling when founder guitarist and songwriter, tom searle   brother of drummer dan   died of skin ... judge jules: how we made: ministry of sound interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 13 november 2018 "i found a car park in elephant and castle, south london, with a roof covered in pigeon poo. i walked in and thought, 'this is ... interpol: royal albert hall, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 15 november 2018 with warmth and emotional heft, the new york band continue their journey towards rock's top tier ... bring me the horizon: arena birmingham live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 26 november 2018 ahead of their forthcoming sixth album, the sheffield pop metal band provide catharsis but stop short of being true spokesmen for a troubled generation. 'we'll never sell ... the good bad & the queen: the good, the bad & the queen: north pier theatre, blackpool live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 2 december 2018 damon albarn jabs a finger at brexit britain's divisions but the show turns bawdily riotous and, with the help of a male voice choir, inspirational away ... wooden shjips: v review by dave simpson, the guardian, 3 december 2018 this time last year, wooden shjips were working on a "summer record", but external events impinged on the creative process. there was america's climate of ... the cardigans: manchester apollo live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 4 december 2018 the guitar pop band reconvene to play their biggest selling album, gran turismo   but shine brightest when they leave its darkness behind. ... david cavanagh: the writer who saw the musicians behind the music comment by john harris, the guardian, 31 december 2018 with his acute observations on david bowie, paul weller and radiohead, cavanagh combined a passion for music with an eye for the small details of ... nitzer ebb: the return of pop perverts nitzer ebb retrospective and interview by luke turner, the guardian, 3 january 2019 loud, rude and flirting with fascistic imagery, nitzer ebb took synth pop and sexual deviance to working class essex. three decades on, they're back   now ... dave laing, 1947 2019 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 14 january 2019 music writer, rock correspondent and academic who understood and communicated the cultural worth of pop. ... phil collins: suncorp stadium, brisbane live review by andrew stafford, the guardian, 20 january 2019 a notable hobble and diminished vocal range don't detract from an enjoyable night of nostalgia backed by a crowd that have been waiting for this ... bring me the horizon: amo review by dave simpson, the guardian, 25 january 2019 "it ain't heavy metal, but that's alright" ... snow patrol: o2 arena, london   drifting along in a clinical quest for love live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 27 january 2019 snow patrol have been away but absence has not dimmed their mass appeal. this first tour for seven years, in support of last year's moderately ... davido: o2 arena, london   afrobeats' alpha male takes nigeria to the world live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 28 january 2019 aided by idris elba and popcaan, the nigerian singer underlines his global credentials by tying together us rap and african pop ... james ingram, 1952 2019 obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 30 january 2019 when he topped the us singles chart in 1990 with 'i don't have the heart', it was the first time james ingram had scored a ... the residents   american dreams turned to grotesque nightmares live review by luke turner, the guardian, 5 february 2019 the anonymous, long serving denizens of the post hippy underground are joined by mother teresa and john wayne for a bizarre take on vaudeville ... the struts: stylus, leeds live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 18 february 2019 if rami malek hadn't landed the part of freddie mercury in the bohemian rhapsody film, it should surely have gone to luke spiller. the struts' ... our native daughters: songs of our native daughters review by laura barton, the guardian, 21 february 2019 four black female banjo players wrestling with gender, race, slavery, sexual assault and the domination of the male gaze might make an admirable if arduous prospect, but ... rhiannon giddens: "i see this album as part of a movement to reclaim black female history." review and interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 24 february 2019 the grammy winning artist's collaborative project songs of our native daughters puts poems and narratives about slavery to music. ... mark hollis, talk talk: a sacred voice: mark hollis sang the english gospel comment by graeme thomson, the guardian, 26 february 2019 talk talk began as '80s synth pop stalwarts, but hollis developed not only what became known as post rock, but his own transcendent music. ... billie eilish: academy, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 28 february 2019 a teenage talent not quite eclipsed by screaming fans: the la singer had her young audience shouting her empowering lyrics as she worked the room ... the struts: bristolian rhapsody: how the struts put the pout back in pop profile and interview by paul moody, the guardian, 5 march 2019 he's the leotard clad double of freddie mercury with the showboating to match. struts frontman luke spiller reveals how he owes it all to justin hawkins ... foals: gorilla, manchester live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 5 march 2019 ahead of their fifth album, yannis philippakis and co. blend the avant garde with football terrace energy. ... foals: everything not saved will be lost part i review by dave simpson, the guardian, 8 march 2019 foals have found a new zip to their grooves: this is a fitting soundtrack for a world mired in uncertainty ... scott walker: from the sun lounger to the electric chair: scott walker's experimental genius comment by rob young, the guardian, 26 march 2019 fired up by noam chomsky in the late 1970s, the musician's "late style" became a forbidding avant garde zone that fearlessly engaged the modern world. ... blackpink: ddu du you know? english is losing its grip as the language of pop comment by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 4 april 2019 monster hits by k pop bands and spanish speaking rappers show it's not necessary to sing in english to conquer the world ... bill medley, jennifer warnes: how we made dirty dancing's '(i've had) the time of my life' interview by henry yates, the guardian, 9 april 2019 franke previte, co songwriter: ... katia et marielle labèque, thom yorke: thom yorke, katia and marielle labèques: barbican, london live review by john lewis, the guardian, 10 april 2019 marielle and katia labèque lead a hypnotic programme that included max richter, the national’s bryce dessner and timo andres. ... anderson .paak: "people are like   damn! how are you not on crack cocaine right now?" profile and interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 13 april 2019 the soul and funk innovator on his turbulent childhood, subverting "morose" hip hop and why he's pro kanye. ... drake review: o2, london live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 13 april 2019 dazzling visuals have no story to tell in a disjointed set with killer hits   and money   to burn. ... iggy pop: opera house, sydney live review by andrew stafford, the guardian, 16 april 2019 that supple physique can't move quite like it used to, but the 71 year old's voice is in unbelievably good shape. ... iggy pop: sydney opera house live review by andrew stafford, the guardian, 16 april 2019 sydney opera house: that supple physique can't move quite like it used to, but 71 year old's voice is in unbelievably good shape ... the stone roses looked like every lad i'd known and filled me with northern pride comment by laura barton, the guardian, 1 may 2019 the mancunian band released their debut album 30 years ago this week, giving north west teenagers music to call their own. ... rhiannon giddens with francesco turrisi: there is no other review by jude rogers, the guardian, 3 may 2019 folk music shouldn't have stars, but rhiannon giddens' illuminating charge is hard to ignore. this february, she led the brilliant our native daughters project, collaborating ... marina and the diamonds: royal albert hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 7 may 2019 the family is out for marina diamandis tonight   not just the blood relatives, a dozen of whom have turned out to cheer on pop's ... carly rae jepsen: "i'm more confident in my weirdness now" interview by kate mossman, the guardian, 12 may 2019 when carly rae jepsen wrote 'call me maybe', billboard's "greatest chorus of the 21st century", she was aiming for a sense of "childish excitement". it's ... wheatus: how we made 'teenage dirtbag' interview by henry yates, the guardian, 22 may 2019 author's note: this is the original version of the piece submitted to the guardian. ... baroness: gold & grey   ambitious rockers go beyond metal review by dave simpson, the guardian, 14 june 2019 baroness have certainly paid their dues. a bad 2012 bus crash, resulting in traumatic injuries and the departure of three members, played havoc with the ... the chills: martin phillipps' triumph and tragedy told with extraordinary candour film/dvd/tv review by andrew stafford, the guardian, 14 june 2019 the independent scene that emerged from dunedin, new zealand, in the early 1980s had all the strange qualities musical trainspotters around the world associate with ... black midi: one to watch: black midi profile by jude rogers, the guardian, 22 june 2019 this enigmatic young london four piece are the most exciting new guitar band in britain. ... the eagles: eagles: wembley stadium live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 24 june 2019 their split was so severe that they titled their by no means inevitable 1994 reunion album hell freezes over, but now it seems not even the death of ... marianne faithfull, tom jones, the nashville teens, the rolling stones, them: decca records in 1964: the rolling stones, van morrison, tom jones and the british pop explosion retrospective by jon savage, the guardian, 3 july 2019 to celebrate 90 years of decca records, a new book about the label's history is being released. in this exclusive extract, renowned music critic jon savage ... doves: somerset house, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 17 july 2019 initially undercut by weedy sound, the mancunian trio become muscular and euphoric in this greatest hits set. ... the celibate rifles: celibate rifles star damien lovelock packed multiple lifetimes into his 65 years obituary by andrew stafford, the guardian, 2 august 2019 the punk rocker, author, raconteur and health guru, who has died from cancer, was a big man with a big voice and a hell of ... ty segall: first taste review by dave simpson, the guardian, 2 august 2019 over the last 11 years, californian cult garage rocker segall has released 13 solo albums, collaborated with tim presley on last year's excellent joy, played ... the rolling stones: metlife stadium, east rutherford, nj live review by edward helmore, the guardian, 6 august 2019 with mick jagger's recent heart operation clearly a success, the stones sound better than they have in years. ... mel b: grand theatre, leeds   a brutally honest evening live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 26 august 2019 this show is billed as "brutally honest" so let's be brutally honest. mel b's audience isn't full   although neither is it the sales disaster ... aldous harding: metro, sydney live review by andrew stafford, the guardian, 27 august 2019 watching the folk singer perform is to be touched by something deeply human and oddly universal. ... ben folds: "i dreaded that song coming out": ben folds on 'brick', william shatner and hitting rock bottom interview by andrew stafford, the guardian, 29 august 2019 in australia with his new memoir, the 'songwriting sociopath' discusses creativity and what shatner taught him about coolness: 'he just does not give a shit' ... dorris henderson, john renbourn: tangled up in blues: john renbourn & dorris henderson   the '60s film/dvd/tv review by colin harper, the guardian, october 2019 by the time of his fourth solo album, the lady and the unicorn (1970), john renbourn was living in a thatched cottage in hampshire and, ... the new lost city ramblers: john cohen, 1932 2019 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 14 october 2019 film maker, photographer, folk music revivalist and founder member of the new lost city ramblers ... nick tosches, 1949 2019 obituary by richard williams, the guardian, 23 october 2019 american writer who epitomised the rackety world of the 1960s rock press and went on to become a successful biographer ... tricky: queen elizabeth hall, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 27 october 2019 after a year of tragedy, the spotlight shy producer stays in the shadows during this erratic yet utterly mesmerising set. ... van morrison: a duel with van morrison: "is this a psychiatric examination? it sounds like one" interview by laura barton, the guardian, 31 october 2019 the singer songwriter is releasing his sixth album in three years   his best since 1997. would he like to expand on how he made it, ... michael kiwanuka: kiwanuka review by dave simpson, the guardian, 1 november 2019 the soulful singer's third lp is timeless and contemporary at the same time, with shades of everything from what's going on to screamadelica. ... lil peep: everybody's everything review by dave simpson, the guardian, 15 november 2019 lil peep's death from a drugs overdose in 2017 hasn't stopped a thriving industry continuing in the emo rapper's wake. last year's come over when ... aldous harding: the strange world of aldous harding interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 17 november 2019 the new zealander can be an unnerving presence. she's also one of the most original songwriters around. she talks about meat loaf, apocalypse now … and ... chuck berry, lulu, ronnie wood: ronnie wood: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 22 november 2019 lulu and imelda may bring powerhouse guest vocals but the rolling stone can't match up in this mediocre homage. ... snow patrol: how they made 'run' interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 26 november 2019 "i went on a three day bender in glasgow and woke up blind in one eye with teeth missing. after i recovered, songs started pouring out ... trupa trupa: the polish post punk band confronting the holocaust profile and interview by julian marszalek, the guardian, 29 november 2019 the gdańsk quartet rail against rightwing hate speech   and have uncovered a dark secret about their country in the nazi era ... the notorious b.i.g., tupac shakur: "i didn't want it to be an autopsy": the podcast exploring biggie and tupac's murders report and interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 7 december 2019 a new series of slow burn re examines the deaths of two of music's biggest stars. "we still haven't had closure," says its host. ... roxette: 'it must have been love': roxette's power ballad is a masterpiece of pain essay by dave simpson, the guardian, 10 december 2019 by following the motown blueprint of blending ecstatic music with agonised lyrics, roxette created the ultimate breakup song   and the late marie fredriksson delivered ... roxette: marie fredriksson obituary obituary by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 13 december 2019 commanding female vocalists were never more popular than in the late 1980s, and for a time marie fredriksson, whose voice could blister paint or seduce ... james blunt: how we made 'you're beautiful' interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 14 january 2020 'it's portrayed as a romantic song but it's actually a bit creepy. it's about a guy   me   stalking someone else's girlfriend while high' ... marc almond: royal festival hall, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 11 february 2020 singing of italian horror films and hollywood cemeteries, almond is on magnificently melodramatic form. ... tame impala: the slow rush review by dave simpson, the guardian, 14 february 2020 perth's disco dork returns after a four year hiatus with an album that finds existential meaning in genre surfing dance music ... andrew weatherall, 1963 2020 obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 18 february 2020 the list of andrew weatherall's achievements as dj, musician, songwriter, producer and remixer could fill a hefty volume. his career took him from working as ... these new puritans: barbican, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 24 february 2020 the duo's vast sonic canvases, here expanded with a 16 piece ensemble, are ambitious and cinematic but need focus. ... sleater kinney: brixton academy, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 27 february 2020 they still do punk rock better than anyone, but the veteran us band have ably stepped into icy electronics, disco and offbeat pop. ... michael kiwanuka: o2 academy, birmingham live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 2 march 2020 the two time brit nominee rejects a brash victory lap in favour of a deep dive into his socially conscious hit album ... alanis morissette: shepherd's bush empire, london live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 5 march 2020 morissette's acoustic outing for her smash hit album's anniversary proves these songs are as lacerating as ever ... jamie cullum: barbican, york live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 12 march 2020 although some routines are getting well worn, cullum hops between hip hop, crooning and one liners with aplomb ... rick astley, stock aitken waterman: rick astley: how we made 'never gonna give you up' interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 23 march 2020 "one day i was making the tea for bananarama. the next i was at no 1." ... malcolm mclaren: paul gorman: the life and times of malcolm mclaren book review by sean o'hagan, the guardian, 6 april 2020 huckster, visionary   or a bit of both? an exhaustive new biography chases down the elusive punk promoter ... clannad: how clannad made 'theme from harry's game' interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 13 april 2020 "the chorus comes from ancient irish music. some people thought i was singing, 'on the dole, all day'" ... fiona apple: fetch the bolt cutters review by laura barton, the guardian, 17 april 2020 the unhurried artist's first studio album in eight years is astonishing, intimate and demonstrates a refusal to be silenced ... discharge, gbh: 'they made sex pistols sound like take that': the fury of midlands punk profile and interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 21 april 2020 discharge, gbh and other scrappy bands rose up out of a scene where gigs were like wars. clay records' leading lights recall how technique came ... xtc: how we made 'making plans for nigel' interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 27 april 2020 "british steel responded by rounding up a lot of workers called nigel and getting them to say their jobs were actually great." ... mark lanegan: "heroin stopped me dying of alcoholism" interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 30 april 2020 his guilt over kurt cobain's death, his scrap with liam gallagher, his year getting clean ... the former screaming trees frontman reveals why writing his ... blake mills: mutable set review by dave simpson, the guardian, 8 may 2020 with his fourth solo album the acclaimed producer faces down the confusion of modern life with intoxicating calm. ... nubya garcia, shabaka hutchings, nérija, seed ensemble, sons of kemet, emma jean thackray, the comet is coming: add some township jive! how london's jazz scene set itself apart profile and interview by john lewis, the guardian, 27 may 2020 the city's young jazz community has flourished by drawing on everything from hip hop to calypso and highlife, creating a unique cosmopolitan sound. ... bonnie pointer, the pointer sisters: bonnie pointer, 1950 2020 obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 10 june 2020 "i'm the kind of person who likes to do adventurous, new things," said the singer bonnie pointer in 1979. "it's got to be a challenge ... madonna: where to start in her back catalogue guide by lucy o'brien, the guardian, 17 june 2020 in listener's digest, we help you explore the work of great artists. next: how the 1980s material girl transformed herself into a mature millennial pop ... buju banton: "every black man have to fight": buju banton on prison and liberation interview by lloyd bradley, the guardian, 2 july 2020 jamaica's reggae megastar received a hero's welcome when he came home after seven years in a us jail. "no guts, no glory   that's my ... neil young says trump's use of songs at mount rushmore "not ok with me" report by edward helmore, the guardian, 4 july 2020 singer objects to playing of 'like a hurricane' and 'rockin' in the free world' and says he stands with lakota sioux protesters ... nadine shah interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 23 july 2020 the musician talks about missing glastonbury, being inspired by abigail's party and turning the tables on music critics. ... fontaines d.c.: a night at montrose, dublin live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 8 august 2020 the dublin five piece launch their brilliant second album with an intense, pre recorded livestream event and bonus commentary. ... burna boy: twice as tall review by lloyd bradley, the guardian, 14 august 2020 fun and fury from nigerian pop polymath. by rooting modern production in traditional melody, and drawing on various musical styles while staying true to african ... it's immaterial: "we got there!" cult pop band it's immaterial back after 27 years interview by wyndham wallace, the guardian, 15 september 2020 the literate liverpudlians had a one off hit with 'driving away from home' in 1986, but perfectionism and tragedy prevented their third album coming out until ... fleet foxes: "you can fake a guitar solo. you can't fake your voice" interview by laura barton, the guardian, 23 september 2020 back with a warm new album, robin pecknold talks about how the pandemic cured his anxiety   and how the beach boys' golden falsettos changed ... helen reddy, 1941 2020 obituary by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 30 september 2020 australian singer who enjoyed huge success with her 1972 feminist anthem 'i am woman' ... working men's club: working men's club (heavenly) review by dave simpson, the guardian, 2 october 2020 the west yorkshire band take the stark electronics of the post punk scene and warm them with detroit techno and italian house   while addressing andrew ... demi lovato has made the most damning protest song of the trump era review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 15 october 2020 how do you solve a problem like donald? like nixon, reagan and thatcher before him, president trump has been a great catalyst for protest in ... faithless: how we made 'insomnia' interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 19 october 2020 "mtv forced us to change the first line. it was originally: i only smoke weed when i need to" ... oneohtrix point never: the warped genius behind uncut gems's spine chilling score interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 27 october 2020 his soundtrack shredded audiences' nerves. now producer daniel lopatin is using radio to bring trump's america together. ... walter/wendy carlos: "she made music jump into 3d": wendy carlos, the reclusive synth genius retrospective and interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 11 november 2020 she went platinum by plugging bach into 20th century machines, and was soon working with stanley kubrick. but prejudice around her gender transition pushed wendy carlos ... ac/dc: "malcolm was there in the studio and we all knew it" interview by laura barton, the guardian, 14 november 2020 the rock'n'roll heroes return after four years and the death of founding guitarist malcolm young with a new album and a mission to reverse how ... enemies of the sheeple: why do pop stars fall for conspiracy theories? comment by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 30 november 2020 from madonna to ian brown, musicians seem to be drawn to wild theories about jfk and 5g. there's a reason for that… ... roland gift: "i went back to where being pretty didn't matter" interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 3 december 2020 he was "the first black punk in hull" and was named one of the world's 50 most beautiful people. but the singer turned his back ... mf doom: obituary obituary by stevie chick, the guardian, 1 january 2021 a hip hop genius who built his own universe of poetry ... yvette janine jackson: freedom (fridman gallery) review by john lewis, the guardian, 15 january 2021 the composer’s two new works, exploring slavery and homophobia, are like immersive non visual films ... gillian welch and david rawlings: all the good times review by jude rogers, the guardian, 19 february 2021 the pandemic hangs heavy in the long term duo's first album to share joint billing, and thrives when welch leads. ... sean paul's teenage obsessions: "my coventry grandmother cooked me bubble and squeak" interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 11 march 2021 ahead of two new albums this spring, the dancehall superstar recalls the poignancy of his first love, and how water polo took his mind off ... the fratellis: how we made 'chelsea dagger' retrospective and interview by henry yates, the guardian, 29 march 2021 "my girlfriend was a burlesque dancer who used the name chelsea dagger. it was a play on britney spears." ... the offspring: platinum pop punks the offspring: "we're outcasts among outcasts" retrospective and interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 14 april 2021 they scored a uk no 1 single and the biggest selling independent album ever. thirty seven years into their career, the california band ponder middle aged sex   ... rhiannon giddens and francesco turrisi: they're calling me home review by jude rogers, the guardian, 16 april 2021 rhiannon giddens' new album with francesco turrisi, her partner in life as well as music, explores two subjects that occupied them (and, frankly, the rest ... bob koester, 1932 2023 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 28 may 2021 owner of chicago's influential jazz record mart and delmark label, which recorded many of the city's blues greats ... crowded house: dreamers are waiting review by andrew stafford, the guardian, 3 june 2021 the band's first album since 2010 is full of beautiful details and deceptive tonal shifts   a slow burn but worth the effort ... james harman, 1946 2021 obituary by tony russell, the guardian, 25 june 2021 blues singer, songwriter and harmonica player renowned for his demanding approach as a bandleader ... celeste: union chapel live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 8 july 2021 the soul jazz star's sold out performance is unabashedly mainstream, but has real emotional heft. ... rose royce: how we made 'car wash' interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 12 july 2021 "this will never be a hit, we told each other   we are literally singing about a car wash!" ... the 5th dimension, mahalia jackson, b.b. king: stevie, gladys, nina … summer of soul uncovers a festival greater than woodstock retrospective and interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 15 july 2021 as the us boiled with violence, 1969's harlem cultural festival nourished spirits with soul, jazz and gospel. now, questlove has turned lost footage of it ... jimmy cliff: the return of jimmy cliff: 'rebel spirit is still in the jamaican people' retrospective and interview by lloyd bradley, the guardian, 6 august 2021 as he releases new music at the age of 77, one of reggae's foundational figures charts his astonishing life in music, via swinging london, brazilian ... liars: "to dive into yourself is scary": the anxiety and awesome alt rock of liars interview by luke turner, the guardian, 10 august 2021 for 20 years, angus andrew has made liars one of rock's most interesting, slippery acts   and by microdosing drugs to help understand his fears, ... don everly, 1937 2021 obituary by michael gray, the guardian, 22 august 2021 half of the everly brothers, the famous us pop duo known for hits such as 'bye bye love', 'wake up little susie' and 'cathy's clown' ... diane warren: "i'm a one in a billion": how diane warren penned windswept power ballads for cher, gaga and dion interview by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 26 august 2021 she's the queen of the power ballad mega hit   and has even written songs for biden, harris and ringo starr. now the world's most ... rick james: "there's a lot to unpack": the dark, difficult life of rick james retrospective by jim farber, the guardian, 2 september 2021 in a new documentary, the defining funk artist's ups and many downs are examined with a clear eye and a lack of sugar coating. ... amyl and the sniffers: comfort to me review by andrew stafford, the guardian, 10 september 2021 frontwoman amy taylor crackles like a live wire with too much current in melbourne punk band's electric second album. ... the boo radleys: "it seemed to capture a wave": how the boo radleys made 'wake up boo!' interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 13 september 2021 "martin wrote the song while watching the big breakfast on acid. then, when we recorded the song in wales, there was a night when some ... the rolling stones: rolling stones: the dome at america's center, st. louis live review by edward helmore, the guardian, 27 september 2021 the veteran rockers return to the road with an emotional tribute to their long time drummer and a reinvigorated sense of purpose. ... fontaines d.c.: university of liverpool live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 3 october 2021 the dubliners burst brilliantly back on stage with literary hearted rock that's up there with the smiths or the pogues ... billy bragg: "boris was trolling me the whole time. we've got a wind up merchant as pm." interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 29 october 2021 as the bard of barking tours a new album, he reflects on modern politics, his scraps with the daily mail and why he could do ... courtney barnett on being forced to stop: "i felt myself opening up in a different way" interview by andrew stafford, the guardian, 5 november 2021 a breakup, a pandemic and a homecoming left the singer with time to sit and think. her new album radiates the calmness and kindness she ... sam fender: utilita arena, newcastle live review by dave simpson, the guardian, 19 november 2021 a rapturous crowd offer a hero's welcome to the singer whose epic anthems deliver eeriness, intimacy and utter exhilaration ... billie eilish: "i've gotten a lot more proud of who i am" interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 4 december 2021 the pop superstar on her extraordinary year   the bond theme, that vogue cover, the success of her second album   and hosting saturday night ... lady gaga: lady gucci is just the latest guise of the ever transmutable lady gaga profile by edward helmore, the guardian, 8 december 2021 pop singer, activist, art installation, actor, stefani germanotta has taken on many faces ... david lasley, 1947 2021 obituary by adam sweeting, the guardian, 15 december 2021 singer songwriter whose four octave vocal range made him one of the most sought after backing singers in american music ... idles: o2 brixton academy, london live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 22 january 2022 galvanised by newly sober sharp joe talbot, the impassioned bristol band aim wider, higher and louder in a thrilling showcase of their latest album, crawler. ... mark lanegan defied darkness to become one of his generation's most soulful singers obituary by stevie chick, the guardian, 23 february 2022 once primed to self destruct, lanegan found salvation and creative freedom in collaborations that brought out the nuances of his uniquely dignified voice. ... "my aim was oyé, not glastonbury": liverpool's beloved african music festival turns 30 retrospective and interview by patrick clarke, the guardian, 14 march 2022 africa oyé attracts the world's biggest african artists, inspires local black musicians and remains free to all. so what next for the community minded festival that ... robert fripp, king crimson: "a force entirely of itself": robert fripp on the difficult legacy of king crimson report and interview by jim farber, the guardian, 16 march 2022 the complicated and fractious history of the prog rock titans is explored in revealing new documentary in the court of the crimson king. ... vashti bunyan: "my voice made me think of sorrow. i didn't even sing to my children" retrospective and interview by jude rogers, the guardian, 18 march 2022 groomed to be a 60s pop star, the singer instead headed for the hebrides in a horse drawn cart and then withdrew from music for 30 ... griff: chalk, brighton live review by caroline sullivan, the guardian, 21 march 2022 after the baffling flop of her single 'black hole', the pop singer songwriter is still ready to reach for the stars in this breezy, funny show ... the psychedelic furs: royal albert hall, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 6 april 2022 frontman richard butler is now 65, but his nicotine rasp remains a thing of wonder and the band's pop smarts mean they have aged well ... chris bailey, the saints: chris bailey of the saints: the voice that tore across the world, and changed the face of brisbane comment by andrew stafford, the guardian, 11 april 2022 david malouf said poetry could never occur in brisbane in the '70s and '80s. the saints proved otherwise   and revolutionised the music industry. ... the prodigy: mountford hall, liverpool live review by patrick clarke, the guardian, 15 july 2022 the late vocalist is etched in lasers for a comeback show that proves the fiery veterans are still a source of euphoria ... the libertines: wembley arena, london live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 24 july 2022 carl barât and pete doherty produce some strong moments but without their youthful excitement it’s a rickety affair that wasn’t built for a huge venue. ... interpol: my youngest brother is a famous rockstar. i used to worry for him, but now i just feel so proud memoir by ted kessler, the guardian, 31 july 2022 we both loved music growing up but when he sent me his demo cd i was afraid he would be mocked. now interpol is my ... the mars volta: "the most revolutionary thing we could do was to make a pop record." report and interview by john doran, the guardian, 12 august 2022 after their 2013 split left fans in shock, cedric bixler zavala and omar rodríguez lópez reveal how the church of scientology drove them apart   and inspired ... bret mckenzie, flight of the conchords: "trying not to be funny was a challenge": flight of the conchords' bret mckenzie on his serious solo debut interview by laura barton, the guardian, 20 august 2022 he has written duets for man and muppet, parodied morrissey in the simpsons, and become hollywood's go to for bringing "heart" to the movies. now he's ... harry styles: harry's house review by laura barton, the guardian, 7 september 2022 harry styles's high end lockdown album is surprisingly of a piece with other longlisted albums by artists as distinct as joy crookes and gwenno ... jann wenner on rolling stone: "some reviews were just insufferably nasty" interview by jim farber, the guardian, 16 september 2022 the founder of the legendary magazine discusses his rise to the top, navigating famous friendships and hiding his sexuality ... leftfield: "having a colonoscopy was like being in a nightclub" interview by dave simpson, the guardian, 10 october 2022 if the uk electronica pioneers' new album sounds urgent, that's because neil barnes has faced divorce, depression and a cancer scare. "i thought: if i ... kanye west reportedly showed explicit photos to employees at adidas report by edward helmore, the guardian, 23 november 2022 rapper and designer created "toxic environment" by sharing images of kim kardashian and his own sex tapes, rolling stone reports ... wet leg: o2 kentish town forum, london live review by dorian lynskey, the guardian, 24 november 2022 despite having fans in iggy pop and barack obama, the isle of wight duo are sticking with small venues for now   and enlivening them ... fiona soe paing: sand, silt, flint review by jude rogers, the guardian, 21 december 2022 the scottish burmese singer evokes history, folk tales and atmospheres in this nicely uncanny set blending electronics and field recordings ... kingsize taylor, 1939 2023 obituary by spencer leigh, the guardian, 11 january 2023 singer and guitarist with the dominoes, merseybeat rivals to the beatles in the early 1960s ... boygenius: indie supergroup boygenius: "anything that starts a fire in you is the stuff of life" interview by laura barton, the guardian, 24 march 2023 phoebe bridgers, lucy dacus and julien baker are three of the best   and most obsessed over   songwriters today. ahead of a debut album together, ... john lennon, yoko ono: "people will find out": may pang on her time with john lennon and yoko ono interview by jim farber, the guardian, 5 april 2023 in a new documentary, the woman who went from assistant to lover of the ex beatle talks about her side of a misunderstood story ... ben howard: "it felt like a falling apart": ben howard on returning to music after two strokes interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 16 june 2023 when he suffered two mini strokes last year, the singer songwriter felt like "the world was pouring in". but the experience has fuelled his most fluid, experimental ... neutral milk hotel, the olivia tremor control: psych pop utopians elephant 6: "our plan was to humiliate the corporate rock industry" retrospective and interview by stevie chick, the guardian, 5 september 2023 with bands including neutral milk hotel and instruments including lawnmowers, the collective upended us indie rock. its members explain how a new documentary healed their ... people's behaviour at music gigs is getting worse. i have three rules to solve that comment by simon price, the guardian, 14 september 2023 live shows should allow for self expression, catharsis and abandon. it's the boorishness and selfishness that need to stop ... kate ceberano: "i've been misrepresented by ignorance   i work really hard and i love what i do" interview by toby creswell, the guardian, 11 december 2023 the australian singer talks about quitting school at 14, growing up in scientology and why she's finally coming into her own as an artist, aged ... michael kiwanuka, little simz, sault, cleo sol: sault: drumsheds, london live review by stevie chick, the guardian, 15 december 2023 utterly astonishing debut show by uk soul enigmas: joined by string sections, choristers and teams of dancers, the eclectic collective   including cleo sol, little ... the vaccines: pick up full of pink carnations review by dave simpson, the guardian, 12 january 2024 high octane sonic euphoria: the indie rockers' sixth album offers more of the same boisterous widescreen anthems and big singable choruses   but with some subtler ... idles: the return of idles: "i don't have to hide behind violence any more" interview by jim farber, the guardian, 13 february 2024 the outspoken british band have a new album full of love, but still feel anger towards a heartless government and a collapsing society ... the pogues: hackney empire, london live review by patrick clarke, the guardian, 5 may 2024 triumphant tribute to energy and poetry of band's early days: an inspired cast of guests from nadine shah to jim sclavunos stand in for the ... midnight oil: the power and passion of midnight oil: the inside story of the band that changed australia interview by toby creswell, the guardian, 5 june 2024 a new documentary   more than five years in the making   follows the unforgettable trajectory of one of australia's greatest rock bands, who are ... smashing pumpkins, weezer: smashing pumpkins and weezer: o2 arena, london live review by ian gittins, the guardian, 10 june 2024 mismatched '90s rockers bore and charm: billy corgan's band are bloated with self importance, but rivers cuomo and company continue to dole out witty power pop with ... back to library copyright notice to search for precise terms or phrases, it is advisable to place quote marks at either end of the phrase. advanced search sign up for the rbp newsletter to search for precise terms or phrases, it is advisable to place quote marks at either end of the phrase. advanced search

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supported by word through the times a circus performer, an unsociable student or someone who is ahead of the curve? over the decades, a “geek” has been all three. by sarah diamond a headline on a 2021 new york times article made a bold claim: president biden was a geek. a “watch geek in chief,” to be exact. the president’s affinity for luxury timepieces   he wore a rolex at his inauguration   had caught the eye of the styles desk. the noun “geek” dates to the late 19th century, when it was an american slang word for a “foolish, offensive” or “worthless” person, according to the oxford english dictionary. by 1919, a “geek” was a circus entertainer performing grotesque acts, like biting the heads off animals. in 1946, the times reviewed “nightmare alley,” a novel about a man who joins a carnival and learns “what makes a geek bite the heads off chickens.” from this definition grew a more modern one. by the second half of the 20th century, a “geek” was a social outcast, though not one performing in sideshows. this “geek” was “an overly diligent, unsociable student,” or “any unsociable person obsessively devoted to a particular pursuit,” per the oxford dictionary. benjamin nugent, who wrote the book “american nerd,” and a times magazine article about “nerds,” suggested that the meanings of “geek” and “nerd” converged in the 1970s. (he cited a 1980 on language article by william safire, who wrote that “pencil geek” was a synonym for “nerd” on some college campuses, as an early example.) mr. nugent said in an interview that the words became associated because both were initially “terms of abuse for unappealing people.” perhaps because of its meanspirited nature, “geek” appeared sparingly in the times. when it did, the word was often in articles about high school. in 1977, an article mentioned a belief at one high school that anyone who boycotted the prom “on either feminist or philosophical grounds was probably a phony   either a cheapskate, or a geek who couldn’t get a date.” in a 1984 review of the movie “sixteen candles,” the writer described molly ringwald’s moody protagonist as “being pursued by a character who is known as the geek.” in 1987, gary panter, a painter and cartoonist quoted in the times, anointed pee wee herman as the “new ascendant geek or the triumphant nerd   the type of person who in the 50’s no one talked to but who is now the height of fashion.” he was right: as the decades passed, “geeks,” in defiance of the word’s definition, had gained some social status.

