‘Most of the songs were written in the midst of a breakdown,” says Owen Williams, lead singer with indie rock group the Tubs. “My long-term relationship had ended, so I was drunk constantly and being kind of obsessive about the people I was dating.” Williams doesn’t really need to tell me that he was in … Read more
How do we tell histories, particularly queer histories, when they are ignored by the establishment? In 1986, a loose design collective of around eight people named the House of Beauty and Culture started a shop in Dalston, east London. At the time, Dalston was a desolate area, nothing like the fashionable neighbourhood it is today. … Read more
K.W. Lee, a pioneering Asian American journalist whose reporting led to the release of a Korean immigrant on death row in California, and who covered the Koreatown community targeted in the Los Angeles riots of 1992, died on March 8 at his home in Sacramento. He was 96. His death was confirmed by his daughters, … Read more
I have played many Assassin’s Creed games over the years, but I’ve rarely loved them. Ubisoft’s historical fiction is perennially almost-great. A lot of players would say it reached its peak in the late 2000s, with the trio of renaissance Italy games beginning with Assassin’s Creed 2, and their charismatic hero, Ezio Auditore. Since then, … Read more
The list of people who have lined up to work with Chaka Khan is a who’s who of 20th-century music history. Stevie Wonder wrote her breakout hit Tell Me Something Good and played harmonica on I Feel for You. Whitney Houston sang backing vocals on her second album. Miles Davis played on 1988’s CK and … Read more
In the opening moments of A Body to Live in, a documentary by American film-maker Angelo Madsen, we are confronted with two black-and-white photographs. Taken in 1944 by the teenage Roland Loomis, they show him stripped to his underwear, his waist heavily restricted by a leather belt, a rope wrapped several times around his neck. … Read more
Jack and George Barnett arrange to meet me at the Hope Hotel, an 18th-century pub in their native Southend. With Talking Heads on the jukebox and pints already flowing at midday, it feels like we’ve stepped back into the good-time Essex seaside town of old. The twins arrive, Jack in a dark grey tweed and … Read more
She’s won multiple awards for her novels, had her Ted talk sampled by Beyoncé, and was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2015. Now, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is back with her first novel in 10 years – so if you haven’t read anything by the Nigerian author yet, it’s a good … Read more
It’s a story to keep Edinburgh fringe dreams alive. On their own dime, Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland rocked up at the festival in 2022 to try their luck. The US duo’s queer western clown show, And Then the Rodeo Burned Down, went from an audience of seven to winning a Fringe First award and … Read more
John Reis has lived as if there’s no tomorrow. Over the last 35 years, the hardest-working man in punk rock has recorded more than 25 albums and an avalanche of singles with groups including Rocket from the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, the Night Marchers, Sultans and more; as Swami John Reis, he’s about … Read more