Black Sky Thinking

Love Bytes: Artists Choose Their Favourite Music By The Black Dog

To mark the year in which Spanners was reissued, musicians such as Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Mike Paradinas and Call Super heap praise on IDM/ ambient rave pioneers The Black Dog

Why Elton John’s Watford FC Chairmanship Was His Finest Hour

Lifelong Watford FC fan Keith Kahn-Harris looks at Elton John's time as chairman of the club, his friendship with Graham Taylor, and asks why the music industry couldn’t offer the megastar the solace that football could. Images all courtesy Alan Cozzi Archive & Watford FC

Spotify Wrapped & Apple Music Replay Vie To Be The “John Lewis Ad” Of Streaming

The streaming services have become locked into an arms race to see who can own the end of year reveal, says Eamonn Forde. It's just that the artists who are, arguably, being badly treated and the listeners who foot the bill are the ones doing all of the heavy lifting when it comes to branding and marketing

Wrapper’s Decline: Why Spotify Wrapped And Apple Music Replay Are Battling To Be “The John Lewis Ad” Of Annual Roundups

An Ungraspable Intelligence: Bird Song In The Time Of Collapse

Referencing two new albums, the compilation Synthetic Bird Music and Kate Carr's A Field Guide To Phantasmic Birds, plus Daphne du Maurier's avian horror and one of England's oldest documented songs, Summer Is Icumen In, Daryl Worthington asks how the rich interlinked history of bird song and human music has changed over the centuries and what it now means in a time of climate crisis

Shadowplay: The Case For Regulating Online Ticket Touting

The online ticket resale industry is still exploitative and worryingly unregulated. Professor Guy Osborn of Westminster Law School and Professor Mark James of Manchester Law School present their latest research on this controversial practice and make a case for a new Labour government bringing in legislation to deal with it

How Spotify Is Taking Crumbs From Quietus Artists’ Tables

Eamonn Forde gives us an update on how the new streaming royalties system where a threshold of 1000 plays has to be reached before money is paid out, is an unprincipled devaluation of the music we all hold dear

Screen Wash: Are Music Docs Becoming Little More Than A PR Tool?

On the release of soft soap film Peter Doherty: Stranger In My Own Skin, Daniel Dylan Wray asks if music documentaries made in conjunction with their subjects can ever be anything other than a PR exercise, or "doc washing"

They Don’t Know: Jude Rogers On Kirsty MacColl

When asked to write the sleeve notes for a new box set covering the two decade-long career of Kirsty MacColl, Jude Rogers realised that most people tended to associate the singer with two things, yet the story told by See The Girl, is one of artistic richness and talent in the face of an industry that barely cared

Junk Shop Classical On Eugene Goossens: Music Stories Told £1 LP By £1 LP

As the Sydney Opera House turns 50, Phil Hebblethwaite unravels a story of sex magic and the occult that threatened to wreck its creation years before a brick had been laid

tQ Is 15! Help Us Stay Alive By Subscribing & Gobble A Load Of Perks

As tQ unexpectedly survives another turn around the sun, here's how you can help us by subscribing – and a list of the ACTUAL WEEKS WORTH of exclusive, subscriber-only archive content now available for you to delve into

How NME Has Flushed Its Moral Compass Partnering With Ladbrokes

Brand partnerships in music are nothing new, especially in these straitened financial times. But, argues Eamonn Forde, NME's latest tie-up with gambling firm Ladbrokes is entirely beyond the pale

Lost And Found: An Introduction To Andrew Poppy By Paul Morley

Among the chart topping radical pop hits of Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Art Of Noise, contemporary composer Andrew Poppy was, on the surface of it, an oddity on ZTT. Here Paul Morley explains why he was an ideal fit for the label

Do You Have Plans For 4 Sept 2640? On Music Of Extreme Duration

Benjamin D. Duvall looks at what the longest musical performances in history teach us about the current climate crisis

Facing The Music: We Need You To Subscribe To The Quietus

We’ve recently had to strip back what the Quietus does, closing down our film and arts sections and have reluctantly put our books section on ice. In order to protect our music coverage we need at least another 350 people to subscribe to the site, says editor John Doran, but just look at what you get in return…

Green Issues: Music, Cannabis And You

Music and intoxication have gone hand in hand since prehistory, but the relationship of music and cannabis is particularly strong and complex, says Jono Podmore, a former habitual smoker, as he investigates a groundbreaking new study which may get us closer to understanding these links

Are You Receiving? Killing Joke As Post Punk Pioneers

Killing Joke have entered their 45th year with a new single and sold out show at the Royal Albert Hall. John Doran wonders when they, and select other goth peers, will be recognised as post punk innovators

You Suffer: How A One Second-Long Song Represents The Age Of Anxiety

Novelist Benjamin Myers reflects on the 1.316 second-long track 'You Suffer' by grindcore titans, Napalm Death, and what it says about the age of anxiety we all live in

How Vic & Bob’s Mulligan & O’Hare Got Me Into Experimental Music, By Jennifer Lucy Allan

Jennifer Lucy Allan explains how a childhood love of Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer's avant-folk duo Mulligan & O'Hare opened her ears to the avant-garde, and realising that the most 'serious' music can often be a total hoot

Zos Sounds: The Musical Adventures Of Austin Osman Spare

As a fundraising campaign to recreate Austin Spare’s tarot deck nears its goal, Mark Pilkington explores how the artist and occultist influenced musicians from Amebix to Led Zeppelin

The Beatles, Bond & A Culture War Over George Lazenby’s Hair

At the end of the 1960s, Bond was old hat as the hippies wafted their locks over culture. John Higgs, author of a new book on 007, the Beatles and British identity, explores the culture war that raged over follicular extravagance

Surfing The Lad Totale: Lias Saoudi On Supporting Liam At Knebworth

This summer, Fat White Family supported Liam Gallagher at his Knebworth enormagig. Writing for tQ, Lias Saoudi recalls the excesses of ego, self-debasement, see-through Spanx and sachets of butter required to face the bucket hat hordes.

Sensation Nation: Blair, Oasis, Cocaine, Diana & British Maximalism 1997

Twenty-five years ago, Ian MacMillan was an arts writer and TV producer witnessing the madness of the YBA's Sensation exhibition first hand. Looking back, he argues it was representative of a shallow yet maximalist moment in British culture

tQ Is 14! Help Us Survive (& Get Exclusive Music) By Becoming A Subscriber

Revolting teenagerhood continues as we reach 14 years of bringing you the best new music – here's how you can become a subscriber, support what we do and get instant(ish) access to exclusive releases by Hey Colossus and Vanishing Twin

Portalunacy: Remembering The Leeds Festival Riot of 2002

The Carling Weekend was a rite of passage for many youngsters, but JR Moores got more than he bargained for when he attended Leeds Festival in 2002. He recalls police helicopters, burning portaloos and petulant headliners; and asks "What was that all about?"

Corrugated Iron: Bill Drummond On David Keenan, John Higgs And The 1960s

Bill Drummond writes on two new books, David Keenan's Industry Of Magic & Light and John Higgs' Love And Let Die, as well as his love of corrugated iron and the end of the 1960s

Jew Or Nazi? Ted Kessler’s Encounters With Mark E. Smith

In an exclusive extract from his forthcoming book Paper Cuts, music journalist Ted Kessler recounts three indelible interviews with The Fall’s Mark E. Smith. MES portraits courtesy of David Tonge

Glasto Reminded Me How I Hate People, But Not As Much As I Hate Myself

Marc Burrows would have had a lovely time at Glastonbury were it not for the tens of thousands of other people and their flags and the reminder that snobbery often comes from self-loathing

I Believe In Growing Old With Grace: Oobah Butler On An Obsession With Spencer Krug

Oobah Butler talks about his enduring relationship with the maverick indie musician Spencer Krug, whose new album was released this month

Viking ‘Roids: The Northman, White Nationalism & Toxic Masculinity

Is the mythologising of extreme violence in The Northman historical accuracy or merely providing succour to the toxic masculinity of the modern far right? Layla Legard investigates

Women Of Their Word: The Reality Of Being A Female Music Writer

There is more extraordinary music writing by women than ever before, yet female writers are still facing a host of barriers that their male counterparts are not. From online abuse to tokenism from editors, Jude Rogers recounts the realities of her life in journalism, and her hopes for the future of the industry

The Ides Of Merch: Why Venues Need To Stop Ripping Off Musicians

Touring is not as lucrative as you might think. Are venues really taking 30%+ commission on merchandise? Artists have had enough. Sean Adams explores how attitudes are changing