tue 05/08/2025

pop music

CD: Marina and the Diamonds - Electra Heart

Kooky ladies are very much of the moment, an ongoing moment, actually - the last couple of years, to be precise - but they seem to be with us to stay which is surely a good thing, especially in the playground. Better them than unreconstructed pole-...

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Minchin and Katy B for Somerset House

The Summer Series, the annual concerts at London's palatial Somerset House, have announced their line-up for July 2012. It runs the gamut from Australian musical comedy performer Tim Minchin (also composer of the music to the musical Matilda) to...

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CD: Santigold - Master of my Make-Believe

Santigold – Philadelphia singer Santi White - does not neatly fit into any stereotype of the modern female pop star. In fashion photographer Jason Schmidt’s multiple cover images she is both an Amazonian warrior guard and a waistcoat clad masculine...

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CD: Jason Mraz - Love is a Four Letter Word

Love is a four letter word. So is “shit”. But I decided not to travel the punk bile road on this one. Too easy. Still, I couldn’t imagine a worse fit for me than Jason Mraz, a relentlessly positive clean-living vegan Californian grinner. He’s not...

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UK Festivals Guide 2012

The Queen's given everyone an extra bank holiday, so while you rest up over the Easter holidays, start planning your next downtime with theartsdesk's definitive clickable festival guide for the summer. We have headline listings and links for all the...

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Kylie Minogue, Hammersmith Apollo

Last year, Kylie Minogue's Aphrodite World Tour took in 77 shows across five continents and grossed over $50m. It was a typically lavish production featuring a bespoke mechanical stage, costumes designed by Dolce & Gabbana and high-impact jets...

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Monkee Business the Musical, Opera House, Manchester

The world premiere here of Monkee Business the Musical was planned long before the untimely death in February of Davy Jones, the Manchester-born member of the manufactured band that outsold The Beatles and the Rolling Stones half a century...

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British Design 1948 - 2012: Innovation in the Modern Age, Victoria & Albert Museum

The V&A has played a blinder. This extraordinary, exciting and unexpected exhibition provides endless trips down memory lane for many and will be a revelation for others. Ignore the clunky title, moving us from the postwar Olympics of 1948 to...

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CD: Graham Coxon – A+E

Not sure about the title. Is it inspired by the place Graham Coxon used to finish up in each night during his drinking years? Not sure about the cover. Who wants to see a scabby knee? But there are no quibbles about the music. While Damon Albarn...

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JLS, O2 Arena

The X Factor has made it far easier for fans to connect with artists from the get-go - as far as the viewer is concerned, the life story of each auditionee starts at episode one. Following JLS from that first audition to a third sold-out arena tour...

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CD: Madonna - MDNA

Everyone wants their own Madonna. Some want the mischievous, tinny, Eighties, New York club chick; some want the sexadelic, Shep Pettibone-produced art-nudie; some want the gently euphoric Ray of Light trance angel; some want the house-tinted...

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Singles & Downloads: March 2012

After a nine-month absence, during which Joe Muggs explored the world's largest natural bassbin in the Amazonian rain forest and Thomas H Green waited to receive his passport back from the Bolivian government, Singles & Downloads returns to...

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