BBC Music Magazine
A funny thing happened...
Without context or words, can instrumental music really be amusing, as the pianist Alfred Brendel suggested? Of course it can,
2 min |
September 2025
BBC Music Magazine
Why British hi-fi is up amongst the world's best
Our expert Chris Haslam gives advice on buying the latest hi-fi equipment
4 min |
September 2025
Record Collector
THE HOUSE OF DUNLOP
There’s more to making a live album than meets the eye, or ear, as Will Macnab attests in a case study of soundtracking singer-songwriter Gareth Dunlop
3 min |
September 2025
Record Collector
The Collector
This month: Seth Lakeman
6 min |
September 2025
Record Collector
“EVERYTHING I DO? GREAT SONG!”
Canadian singer, songwriter, photographer and purveyor of commercial rock, Bryan Adams, returns with album No 17, Roll With The Punches. It’s incredible that he still finds the time to record and tour, given everything else he does – including activism for various causes. Yet, while Joel McIver was expecting an enlightening chat about a 40-year career of playing arenas, possibly with some interesting anecdotes about Tina Turner and the Canadian honours system, he wasn't expecting to duet with Adams on a rendition of Britain’s longest-running No 1 single...
10+ min |
September 2025
Record Collector
SCOTT...OF THE ART CHART HIT
Remember M's Pop Muzik, that striking No 2 smash from May 1979? Like Gary Numan and Flying Lizards' '79 hits, it was a sign of a synth-pop future yet to come. And now M aka Robin Scott is going back to that future, with his first album on a major label for 40 years. Southend, London, Canvey, Westcliff:
10+ min |
September 2025
Record Collector
Sister Act One
Behold moody rockers' ambitious, if odd-sounding, debut album in repackaged form. It's gloomy, it's grandiloquent... best not mention the other G word.
2 min |
September 2025
Record Collector
THE ENGINE ROOM
The unsung heroes who helped forge modern music
4 min |
September 2025
Record Collector
No Backing Down
No Backing Down Brett Anderson & co. remain in thrilling, exhilarating form as their second act hits new heights.
3 min |
September 2025
Record Collector
Connie Francis 1937-2025
The American singer and actress was one of the biggest pop stars of the 50s and early 60s.
7 min |
September 2025
Record Collector
GREAT GIGS FROM THIS GUY
With a new live album imminent, and the critical and commercial success of Luck And Strange under his belt, David Gilmour talks with Daryl Easlea, who last interviewed him for Record Collector 23 years ago. So much has happened since then. Reflecting on his new live film and album – Live At Circus Maximus, Rome/The Luck And Strange Concerts – Gilmour assesses where he's at in his 80th year, and, energised by his 2024 tour, reflects on some other landmark performances in his career.
10+ min |
September 2025
Record Collector
ARRESTING DEVELOPMENT
It's a badge of honour to be one of rock's most divisive bands, and one that Cardiacs' late, great captain, Tim Smith, might have worn with pride. Jo Kendall hears from Tim's brother Jim, Cardiacs' longstanding bassist, about their ongoing legacy as they celebrate the publication of a book, a reissue of second album, On Land And In The Sea, and the long-awaited lost LP, LSD.
9 min |
September 2025
Record Collector
Heard Ya Missed Me WELL I'M BACK!
For the UK singles chart of the week beginning 17 October 1992, the top spot went to singer-songwriter Tasmin Archer’s Sleeping Satellite, a sparkling electro-acoustic number with an addictive, shuffling backbeat.
4 min |
September 2025
Record Collector
VALUE ADDED FACTS
Ian Shirley, esteemed alumnus of the Rare Record Price Guide, answers your questions
10+ min |
September 2025
Record Collector
Foundation Course
Expanded edition of second album reveals how David Byrne & co. tightened their sound and made a record built to last.
4 min |
September 2025
Prog
Father Figure
Singer-songwriter and the voice of the Genesis Revisited shows, Nad Sylvan has moved further away from his onstage persona with his latest solo album, Monumentata. He reveals the story behind the intimate record that pays homage to his late father and finds him mixing up influences - from Pink Floyd and Keith Emerson to The Addams Family!
6 min |
Issue 162
Prog
Dogged Determination
Forty years ago this September, Kate Bush released Hounds Of Love. Her fifth studio record reinstated her position as one of the most innovative and creative artists of all time and yielded the (future) chart-topper Running Up That Hill. But its creation wasn't always smooth. Here's the story behind one of Bush's best-loved albums.
10 min |
Issue 162
Prog
Kate: Behind The Camera
Renowned Italian photographer Guido Harari snapped Kate Bush during the commercial peak of her career from 1982 to 1993. In an extract from his book The Kate Inside, he offers a fascinating glimpse into what it was like to work with the singer-songwriter and how the Hounds Of Love press images came about.
8 min |
Issue 162
Prog
Now What?
In 1974, Mike Oldfield defied the critics and hit the top of the UK charts with Hergest Ridge, the ambitious follow-up to his unexpectedly successful debut Tubular Bells. To coincide with the release of the 50th-anniversary edition, the musician, his siblings and collaborators recount the story of an album created by an overwhelmed 21-year-old taking refuge near the Welsh borders.
7 min |
Issue 162
Prog
LOOK Around You
Truth can be stranger than fiction, and that's something Hats Off Gentlemen It's Adequate embrace on their latest album, The Uncertainty Principle. Moving away from sci-fi and exploring themes of science and human interaction, Malcolm Galloway and Mark Gatland explain why they took a deep dive into the history books to uncover tales of scientists, spies and nuclear bombs.
5 min |
Issue 162
Prog
III Is The Magic Number
With the release of III - Candles & Beginnings, Auri are finally taking their show on the road. The unconventional Finnish/Yorkshire power trio of Tuomas Holopainen, Johanna Kurkela and Troy Donockley tell Prog about the lure of intimate shows, mysterious song lyrics, and the magic of music. Just don't expect any Holopainen headbanging.
7 min |
Issue 162
Prog
MAESTROWORKS
Bringing a hard-rock swagger and the majesty of metal to their own brand of prog rock, Magic Pie break a six-year studio silence with Maestro. Frontman Eiríkur Hauksson tells Prog about being a metalhead in a prog world, writing songs at bus stops, and feeling the heat on Cruise To The Edge.
5 min |
Issue 162
Prog
HEATHER FINDLAY
The great and good of progressive music give us a glimpse into their prog worlds.
2 min |
Issue 162
Prog
GRACE HAYHURST
Classically trained multi-instrumentalist lets rip on her complex debut.
2 min |
Issue 162
Prog
VMBRA
Manchester quartet hit heavy and soft with radiant prog sound.
2 min |
Issue 162
Prog
THE SENSATIONAL ALEX HARVEY BAND
As his stint with late 60s psychedelic act Giant Moth and his largely spoken-word documentary/concept LP Alex Harvey Presents: The Loch Ness Monster attest, Alex Harvey's long, eclectic career was studded with prog-friendly episodes. It was in 1972, though, that the singer recruited the group that were his passport to all kinds of versatility. With The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, prog, hard rock, and a slightly sinister strain of mime and Weimar Republic-inspired theatricality were go.
1 min |
Issue 162
Prog
BIOSCOPE
Popcorn at the ready as Marillion's Steve Rothery and Tangerine Dream's Thorsten Quaeschning deliver cinematic soundscapes and musical moving pictures on widescreen debut album.
3 min |
Issue 162
Prog
Sounds Of Love
Kate Bush's fifth album combines hit singles with a seven-song conceptual suite, all expressing the unmistakable style of one of progressive music's most uncompromising visionaries. To mark 40 years of inspiration, The Anchoress, Within Temptation's Sharon den Adel, Auri's Johanna Kurkela, The Blackheart Orchestra's Chrissy Mostyn and Exploring Birdsong's Lynsey Ward celebrate the enduring magic and influence of Hounds Of Love.
6 min |
Issue 162
Prog
Where Are We?
Stockholm instrumentalists Gösta Berlings Saga are back and celebrating 25 years of heady musical adventures with their seventh album, Forever Now. Driven by a thrill-seeking wanderlust to explore new sounds and the desire to remain recognisable, the band tell Prog they're always searching for something new, even if they're not actually sure what that is.
5 min |
Issue 162
Prog
GALAHAD
Forty years ago, a group of Dorset lads named their new band after a local fruit and veg delivery business, not an Arthurian knight as was widely perceived. They've since battled through numerous lineup changes and personal challenges, but Galahad never gave up on their musical quest.
2 min |