‘Its release seemed timely as the Tories had just left office. But then Diana died and all cheerful songs were taken straight off the radio. Boom! It disappeared’
The singer is not only a hero for gay men. For a young lesbian like me in the 1990s, she was an object of desire and an inspiration, says Tiff Bakker, a New York-based writer
On this giddy first taste of the US pop star’s third album, she sets aside her rock bona fides to revel in the opulent flush of a crush-come-true. But why does it seem so doomed?
From lurid pranks and late-night drives, to why playing in the Revolution was like joining the marines – Prince’s friends and collaborators recount their memories of one of the music world’s most majestic and mercurial performers
The podcaster’s third sequin-festooned album in a row is her most retro, with its slightly cringe moments balanced by unerring quality control and opulent arrangements
Unsettling breathing, arrhythmic clatter, gloomy piano and military snares underpin a Beefheartian portrayal of a boorish warmonger on the band’s ominous return
Mould’s fearsomely loud power trio Sugar rode the wave of grunge, but called it quits when the scene lost its innocence. Now the band are reuniting – before it’s too late
‘Trauma-bonding’ with his future wife on Big Brother, selling their wedding pics to OK!, walking off Buzzcocks, writing hits for stars like Kylie and Olly Murs … as the singer returns, he looks back at a tumultuous career