From petrol pump attendant to Dylan-feted rocker and Judd Apatow muse: the delightfully unlikely life of Graham Parker

Fifty years ago Parker was hailed as rock’s next big thing, but he picked a different path: cult records, a Hollywood diversion, an aversion to stardom. Ahead of a UK tour, he looks back at his strange trajectory

Joey Ramone smiling! And having fun! At the beach! Roberta Bayley’s best photograph

‘Joey didn’t surf. And he didn’t like this photo. He said, “You made my legs look thin.” Like it was my fault he had skinny legs’

‘Everything countercultural is doomed, isn’t it?’​ Sofie Royer, the bracingly brilliant pop star pondering life’s big questions

Referencing Tarkovsky and French theory, the Austrian-Iranian singer is writing some of today’s wittiest music – though she’s ‘too pop for the art world, too indie-darling for the mainstream’

‘It’s more freaky, more balls to the wall’: how alt-country won over a new generation

From Waxahatchee and Florry in the US to Brown Horse and Little Grandad in the UK, a wave of young songwriters are reinvigorating the subgenre’s earnest emotion and twang

The extraordinary untold story of Freddie Mercury: Mary Austin on her best friend – and love of her life

He was Queen’s flamboyant frontman. She was his shy girlfriend, dreaming of marriage until they both realised he preferred men. Thirty-five years after his death, in the week he would have turned 80, Mary Austin talks about their unbreakable bond

Reading and Leeds festival review – post-GCSE blowout shows how dominant dance music now is

Charli xcx and Fontaines DC are spellbinding and there’s an awesome array of genres, but the biggest turnouts are for tech house names like Kettama and Josh Baker

Daisy Chain Fields review – Olivia Rodrigo’s women-led festival is electric amid extreme heat

Performances from Rodrigo, Stevie Nicks, Chappell Roan and Sarah McLachlan raise $20m for charity yet are marred by poor planning for heatwave

The Waterboys review – Steve Earle joins a gloriously unruly return to Fisherman’s Blues

The Nashville singer-songwriter is among the guests joining Mike Scott for a sprawling, exuberant revue that finds new life in the Waterboys’ rootsy past

Kevin Mitchell: ‘90% of us are loving, peaceful people. A few bad eggs are making us all look bad’

The musician also known as Bob Evans talks about Suburban Songbook turning 20, believing in aliens and his ‘pretty decent legs’

‘It’s easier when nobody’s watching’: inside the secretive and sublime freak-folk of @

Their un-Googlable, very online name is the antithesis of this earthy duo’s sublime art-folk. Like their emotionally ambiguous music, the pair don’t give up their mysteries easily

The best music of autumn 2026: Johnny Marr, Phoebe Bridgers, Rachel Chinouriri and more

Irish noisemongers Gilla Band, shadowy producers Two Shell and lovable band the Big Moon have new records, and there are tours from Bob Dylan and Kelela – plus the best of jazz, global and classical

Reading and Leeds have dropped BBC Introducing for a new ‘nepo baby stage’. Where does it leave DIY artists?

As R&L replace the BBC’s unsigned artists stage with one filled with rock scions and a Simon Cowell boyband, many are decrying disappearing opportunities for grassroots acts

How Katseye became the world’s biggest girl group – while falling apart

Their raucous pop music has made Katseye the biggest girl band in two decades. Can they weather toxic fandom, critical pans and a dwindling member count?

Dahi: Black Boy (Alternative) review – Kendrick producer takes the spotlight for all-star guitar celebration

The Grammy winner unites former clients including Lamar and Ravyn Lenae for a playful, dazzling voyage through the guitar’s diversity, from alt-rock to Afrobeat

Greek Orthodox priest and cult musician clarifies views on homosexuality

Father Dionysios Tabakis says his views are those of Orthodox church, ‘nothing more, nothing less’