Guides

In 1968, a rock song built around a fuzzed-out riff, a relentless organ line and a drum solo stretching into the distance became an unlikely radio problem.…

The best small-venue gigs make the room feel like part of the band. You hear the floorboards, the nervous laugh before a song, the scrape of a pick and the…

Classic rock album art has often treated architecture as more than scenery. A railway crossing, power station, hotel façade or weathered row of terraces can…

Rock has always understood the sound of a life coming apart. A cracked amp, a bruised vocal and a chorus built for the open road can turn grief, bankruptcy,…

When the lights went out, the usual machinery of songwriting disappeared with them. No laptop, no studio monitors, no scrolling through plug-ins: just an…

Rock history is full of strange pairings that looked questionable on paper but made perfect sense in the studio. A metal band meets a hip-hop crew, a punk icon…

The modern rock festival is more than a sequence of bands on a stage. It is a temporary community built around loud music, shared identity, open-air living and…

The Beatles’ connection with Liverpool’s Cavern Club has become part of rock mythology: four young musicians, a packed basement, sweat on the walls and a sound…

The Ashford Saints arrive with Blackwater Mile, a debut album that smells of valve amps, damp rehearsal rooms and long drives through the English countryside.…

A great bushwalk needs a soundtrack with movement. The right rock playlist can make a steep climb feel purposeful, turn a long ridge into a cinematic passage…