This week Martpol looks at some musical approaches to religion... It’s been quite a while since I considered spiritual matters on a Sunday. Or perhaps I mean since I made a point of doing so on a Sunday rather than simply, say, slipping into a semi-contemplative blur after a nice roast ... Read More...

In this week's music feature, we look at wealth, boredom, drugs, sex dolls, love and madness... Human beings, as we know, are never happy, especially when they have everything. TS Eliot writes books for me; King Farouk's on tenterhooks for me; Sherman Billingsley even cooks for me...Monotonous, monotonous. That's Eartha Kitt in a ... Read More...

This week Mahlerman treats us to some outstanding Americana... The tradition of playing music at home, all but dead in broken Britain, flourishes still in atomized America and produces, along with the reality-wannabies, a never ending stream of talent in the performing arts. And the music they produce usually has a ... Read More...

From the archives, a guest post on a great Romanian diva from the remarkable blogger Gadjo Dilo... Mr. Gaw has kindly offered me the chance to contribute to this estimable blog. I had my own - now suspended due to pressure of work – where I liked to post about cultural life here ... Read More...

In this week's music slot we look at how words can get in the way of meaning, even in pop...  We'll be soaked and ruddy, comes for pearly dewdrops drops.. tis the lucky lucky penny penny penny buys the pearly dew drips soaks... I think we'd all agree with that, wouldn't we? There's ... Read More...

Continuing our Roy Orbison double bill, here are some clips from the concert film A Black and White Night. Broadcast in January 1988 (Orbison died in December the same year), in A Black and White Night the Big O performed with a remarkable line-up of guest stars, including Bruce Springsteen, Elvis ... Read More...

Had he lived, Roy Orbison would have been 75 this year. Here, Daniel Kalder writes about the Big O's transcendental power... For me, like most people, memory is intricately intertwined with music. Another Brick in the Wall pt 2 was a hit the year I started school, and so the song always ... Read More...

During the holiday season we're running a few repeats from the archives. Let's cheer ourselves up after a rotten week with one from September 2010... here's Patrick Kurp on some joyful music... What these performances have in common besides the pleasure I take in watching and listening to them is the ... Read More...

Many records can be simply bad, but it's a rare tune indeed that is so toe curlingly awful, both lyrically and musically, that it transcends its humble ingredients to become something rather 'special'. Having had the privilege of being introduced to some of the world's most sublime music via this Lazy Sunday slot on ... Read More...

Dabbler Editor Brit pays tribute to Amy Winehouse, who died on Saturday at the age of 27. Long-term readers of my Think of England blog may remember that I went through a period of infatuation with Amy Winehouse, having been to see her perform at a smoke-filled dungeon called The Academy, ... Read More...