Michael Hann

In defence of Mick Hucknall Before Simply Red came on stage at the Greenwich peninsula’s enormodome, the screens showed a clip of a very young Mick Hucknall being interviewed. What he wanted, he said, was to be a great singer. U...

I reviewed Simply Red. I like Mick Hucknall more with each passing year. www.spectator.co.uk/article/in-d...

Without Ace Frehley, Kiss could not have achieved their extraordinary greatness | Michael Hann The guitarist was the most proficient musician in the original lineup and his bludgeoning ‘monster plod’ was central to their sound

I write about the late Ace Frehley. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...

Told you he wasn’t dead

I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight — Americana with a dash of Englishness from Richard and Linda Thompson Heavily influenced by The Band, the 1974 track by the folk-rock duo also featured a Manchester horn ensemble

I wrote about I Want To See the Bright Lights Tonight. www.ft.com/content/fd38...

John Lodge was a pioneering force of British rock’s most underrated band The late musician helped steer the Moody Blues into an exciting and groundbreaking new era of psychedelia

I wrote about the late John Lodge. Spent the afternoon listening to the Moody Blues. They were really very good. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...

Like Gabor Mate set to club beats: Lady Gaga, at the O2, reviewed Lady Gaga’s show was to begin at 7.30  prompt, we were told. No opening act. And at 7.30 something did happen: the big screen over the stage started showing a film of Ms Gaga, clad in scarlet finery, ...

I went to see Lady Gaga and the Beths, though not sharing a bill. www.spectator.co.uk/article/like...

This is the most transparent administration ever! The people demanded the files, and the White House is opening them up!

From Kate Bush to Pentangle to T-Rex, the late Danny Thompson’s musical brilliance knew no bounds The bassist, who has died aged 86, was an extraordinary and wildly versatile presence in British music, bringing his personality into everything he played

I wrote about the late Danny Thompson, who invented a new vocabulary for British music. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/s...

You’d think the MOTD producers might have looked at Rooney’s management career and pondered whether he had difficulty articulating his undoubted genius for football. But no. He’s famous, so put him on telly.

Together for Palestine concert: Benedict Cumberbatch, Damon Albarn and Neneh Cherry take stage at galvanising and star-studded gig for Gaza Scores of artists, speakers and activists appear a four-hour fundraiser curated by Brian Eno – but it’s Palestinian voices who make the biggest impression

I went to last night’s Together for Palestine concert. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/s...

I’m Literally Gonna Sexx You Up

She Literally Sells Sanctuary

I’ve Got You Under My Skin, Literally

Ferdinandesque from Koné. What a joy to look so much better than FC Hollywood. #WREQPR

Thanks!

The other night @dorianlynskey.bsky.social made the point to me that Kirk’s remarks can’t be broadcast by the BBC, because they would breach regulatory standards. Hence the weird silence

Spinal Tap eat your heart out: the Pretty Things drummer Viv Prince forged the blueprint for rock’n’roll hijinks Stories of meth drinking, crayfish slinging and laying carpet onstage while Sandie Shaw played briefly made him rock’s most unhinged wild man

I wrote about Viv Prince of the Pretty Things. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/s...

Incredible

Spinal Tap eat your heart out: the Pretty Things drummer Viv Prince forged the blueprint for rock’n’roll hijinks Stories of meth drinking, crayfish slinging and laying carpet onstage while Sandie Shaw played briefly made him rock’s most unhinged wild man

I wrote about Viv Prince of the Pretty Things. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/s...

Britain's loveliest, most thoughtful festival The last weekend of August is my favourite of the year. That’s when I pootle down to Cranborne Chase to the loveliest, most thoughtful festival in the UK. End of the Road is a festival for those who l...

I reviewed the best festival, @endoftheroadfestival.com www.spectator.co.uk/article/brit...

YouTube video by RENOU49100 FELT 'Primitive Painters 4:51

Happy 40th birthday to the glorious Primitive Painters by Felt featuring Elizabeth Fraser, which was released on this day in 1985. Here's the original video from back then (THREAD)
youtu.be/Rp8AvC_ESdM

The most fun I’ve had all year was playing Merry Xmas Everybody at the @endoftheroadfestival.com silent disco on Saturday night. Love those two hours

Wayne Rooney is every bit as good a pundit as he was a manager

Have there been any big pop chart hits in the last 20 years that use 1950s rock'n'roll as their chassis, in the way Faith did, or Love Machine did? Not rock'n'roll revival ones, but ones where you can hear a clear debt, even in something as basic as using the Bo Diddley rhythm.

Baby, Please Don’t Go — haunting delta blues became a hard-rock staple Big Joe Williams’s 1930s song went through multiple manifestations, most memorably when Van Morrison’s Them covered it

I wrote about Baby, Please Don’t Go www.ft.com/content/7d8d...

The Seeds are primitive but magnificent I have nothing but admiration for those men who burn a candle for the music of 1966. Partly because, like them, I believe 1966 to be pop’s greatest year, but mainly because being a psychedelic hipster...

I wrote about The Seeds, The Sting-Rays and MJ Lenderman www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...

Next one’s the best.

‘I tried to be nice. Sometimes I would explode’: John Fogerty on Creedence, contracts and control As the driving force behind Creedence Clearwater Revival, he wrote some of the 60s’ most enduring songs. But a poor record deal followed by years in the wilderness drove him to the brink of breakdown....

I enjoyed speaking to John Fogerty about Creedence. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/a...

The terrifying charisma of Liam Gallagher You’d have thought Wembley Stadium was a sportswear convention, so ubiquitous were the three stripes down people’s arms from all the Adidas merch: veni, vidi, adi. Pints drunk: 250,000 a night, appare...

I reviewed Oasis. www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...

Magnificent: Stevie Wonder at BST Hyde Park reviewed The highs of Stevie Wonder’s Hyde Park show were magnificently high. The vast band were fully clicked into that syncopated, swampy funk, horns stabbing through the synths, the backing singers adding gospel fervour. And Wonder – now 75 – sang like it was still the 1970s, his voice raspy one minute, angelic the next. Anyone

I reviewed Stevie Wonder and Heavenly. www.spectator.co.uk/article/magn...