Fiona Sturges

Away with the fairies

2009-07-10T16:13:00.000+01:00

Natasha Khan, aka Bat for Lashes, sings of a hippy-dippy universe of woodlands and wizards. Fiona Sturges enters her world
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Refugee from Soviet Kitsch

2009-07-03T16:28:00.000+01:00

Regina Spektor's family fled Moscow for the United States but, she tells Fiona Sturges, it was a conversation on an Israeli mountain that began her transition to New York alt-folk darling
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Baby, we weren't born to run

2009-06-26T16:31:00.000+01:00

He is the working-class hero, the champion of the underdog, the everyman in search of the American Dream. His place in the pop canon is irrefutable, his name mentioned in the same breath as Tom Waits, Neil Young, Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan. So why is it that Bruce Springsteen leaves me cold?
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The return of dance music

2009-06-05T16:40:00.000+01:00

After a period of commercial decline, the original trailblazers of Nineties dance music are back in a big way. The rush of nostalgia is well deserved, argues Fiona Sturges
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Lady Gaga: How the world went crazy for the new queen of pop

2009-05-16T13:19:00.001+01:00

She's pop's newest princess and the paparazzi's latest plaything. But it is Lady Gaga who is calling the shots. By Fiona Sturges
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Hello campers!

2009-05-12T21:08:00.001+01:00

Joe Orton's The Erpingham Camp is coming to Brighton Pier, complete with audience participation and fish'n'chips. Fiona Sturges reports
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Maxïmo Park: Clinical but never cynical

2009-05-08T14:54:00.000+01:00

Landfill indie? No way, insists Maxïmo Park's Paul Smith. Fiona Sturges hears how they challenge the medium of pop
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Stand-up women

2009-05-02T14:50:00.000+01:00

Despite the macho culture of many comedy clubs, the number of female comics is on the rise, and a national women-only competition is thriving. But, as Fiona Sturges finds out, the struggle isn't over
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Madonna: 'Quiet, concentrated, a little moody'

2009-05-02T14:45:00.000+01:00

After Martin Schreiber paid an unknown New York dancer $30 to pose naked for an art class, little did he know that he was sitting on a potential gold mine. Fiona Sturges met him
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Pop Idol

2009-05-02T14:41:00.001+01:00

As his swinging art bus rolls into town, artist Peter Blake talks to Fiona Sturges about his life's work, his false retirement and 'that' album cover...
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Peaches and cream

2009-04-24T08:56:00.001+01:00

The charts are full of sassy young female solo stars, but Peaches was there first. With a reputation as a shocking exhibitionist, she tells Fiona Sturges she has a vulnerable side too
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Music review - PJ Harvey, Corn Exchange, Brighton

2009-04-16T10:43:00.000+01:00

PJ Harvey has never been one to pointlessly bask in the limelight. Judging by her interviews – and she doesn’t give many – she’d rather be sitting in her local in Dorset discussing the finer points of jam-making than giving it the big rock-star ‘I Am’.
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Gomez land a bigger prize

2009-04-03T17:10:00.000+01:00

The Southport band had a meteoric rise to fame when they took the Mercury Prize in 1998, but were soon forgotten. America has been their salvation, says Fiona Sturges
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Obituary - Jade Goody

2009-03-23T08:56:00.001Z

From the moment Jade Goody emerged from Channel 4's Big Brother house in 2002, bursting out of an ill-fitting pink satin dress, she was a media phenomenon and an icon for the reality television-addicted, Heat magazine-loving masses.
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Music review - Emiliana Torrini

2009-03-18T08:54:00.000Z

In a recession-battered industry, it's a smart singer-songwriter who is able to broaden their assets. The part-Italian, part-Icelandic, Brighton-based singer Emiliana Torrini has pulled off what looks to be the ultimate professional balancing-act.
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Music review - The Noisettes

2009-03-16T22:51:00.000Z

On the ubiquitous critics' lists of über-cool pop babes destined to hit the big time this year – see La Roux, Little Boots, Lady Gaga – one name was conspicuous by its absence.
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Music review - Elbow

2009-03-02T09:32:00.000Z

"You need forgiveness when you've been in a band this long," says Elbow's Guy Garvey, squinting into the lights. Forgiveness for what, you wonder?
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Music review - Emmy the Great

2009-02-04T15:15:00.001Z

It's a bold and, some might say, foolish singer that pronounces herself great before she's got her career off the ground.
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Heaven knows I'm happy now - Top Of The Pops returns

2008-12-18T10:44:00.002Z

The year was 1984. It was a damp Thursday night, and I was a moody 11-year-old marooned on the sofa in a dark corner of the West Country watching Top of the Pops.
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Music review - Kings of Leon

2008-12-03T10:41:00.000Z

They're hard workers, I'll give them that. Ever since they first appeared in 2003, the Kings of Leon have toured relentlessly, criss-crossing the globe and – if you believe the stories – leaving a trail of ravished maidens and STDs in their wake.
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Music review - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

2008-11-26T10:43:00.000Z

The last time I saw Nick Cave he was shopping for groceries in Marks & Spencer. It's not a sight you expect to see – the latter-day harbinger of the apocalypse clutching a wire basket and scanning the ready-meal section.
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Music review - Ida Maria, Komedia, Brighton

2008-11-25T11:36:00.001Z

'I'm sorry I haven't broken a rib yet," remarks Ida Maria, the Riot Grrl-esque punk-pop diva and, if you're seduced by the hype, Scandinavia's hottest new export.
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Guns 'n' Roses and the lost album

2008-11-23T11:33:00.001Z

It's taken 14 years, but Guns N' Roses finally release their sixth album tomorrow. Will it be worth the wait? Late, says Fiona Sturges, doesn't always mean great
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Indie icon required

2008-10-24T15:28:00.001+01:00

There's a vacancy for a feisty female to represent the current musical scene, says Fiona Sturges. And, with the demise of The Long Blondes this week, their lead singer Kate Jackson could be just the woman for the job
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Sarah Silverman: Woman on the edge

2008-10-19T13:35:00.001+01:00

When Sarah Silverman performs her first British stand-up show tonight, no taboo will go unbroken. But is she merely a pretty girl with a filthy mouth, or is there more to her comedy than equal-opportunities offensiveness? By Fiona Sturges
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