The Life of a Showgirl is a massive hit – and massively divisive. What should Taylor Swift do next?

Swift’s 12th LP is set to dominate the charts – despite fans lampooning the lyrics and lamenting its quality. Guardian music writers discuss what it means for her career

Katy Perry review – ​like being high on Haribo while trapped in a theme park

In a fun but frenetic show, the star hangs off props, wears a glove that shoots pyrotechnics and generally distracts from her own energy and charisma

The best gig I ever saw cost £4. Spiralling concert prices are a cultural disaster

Tickets for big tours have vastly outstripped inflation, while smaller artists and venues struggle. The magic is in danger of being snuffed out entirely, says Guardian columnist John Harris

Long-lost John Lennon interview reveals US phone-tapping fears

Ex-Beatle spoke of performing ‘for another 60 years’ in interview to be aired for 85th anniversary of his birth

Nicole Scherzinger review – raunchy gags and dazzling stylistic zigzags

Riding high off Tony and Olivier wins, the Pussycat Doll turned theatre star showcases her astonishingly versatile singing chops and a standup’s gift for chaotic humour

‘Are the neighbours’ curtains twitching? Good!’ Avril A, the 80s housewife who became a star of Manchester’s gay scene

She sang out of tune, her choreography was bizarre – and everyone who saw her loved her. As her superb music is rereleased, her family and fans recall a subcultural great

Post your questions for Todd Rundgren

Ask the Philly singer, songwriter and Meat Loaf producer about his music, his collabs with Sparks and Robyn and more ahead of his UK tour

‘People screamed. Cried. Threw up’: 10 extraordinary life lessons from Ozzy Osbourne’s new memoir

The man who ended up smoking 30 cigars a day after trying to quit cigarettes also comes across in his book as level-headed, self-aware and savagely funny. Here’s what the late rock legend can teach us about addiction, fame and how to choose just the right support act

I judged this year’s Welsh music prize – and Don Leisure’s winning album sums up the nation’s eclectic spirit

Desert blues, transcendental electronica and a concept album about a mill powered by music­ – this year’s shortlisted albums were stunningly diverse, none more so than the crate-digging on the triumphant Tyrchu Sain

Rush reform for first time since drummer Neil Peart’s death

Canadian prog-rockers will play seven concerts in summer 2026 in the US, Canada and Mexico, after hiring new drummer Anika Nilles

‘The lyrics were throwaway. I never intended keeping them!’ How Feeder made Buck Rogers

‘My wife finds the whole thing hilarious. She was the girlfriend who inspired it. We’ve now been together for 30 years’

The Lemonheads’ Evan Dando: ‘Some people were supposed to take drugs – and one of them was me’

He was the darling of early-90s alt rock, but success came with the kind of rock’n’roll excess that many of his peers did not survive. Now, having finally quit heroin, he’s back with a new album, a memoir – and no regrets

Finn Wolfhard’s honest playlist: ‘I don’t know if I want to hear Sweet Child O’ Mine any more’

The musician and actor gives Bowie some welly at karaoke and is a lapsed G’n’R superfan. But which UK stadium indie-popsters created the first album he ever bought?

The Kooks review – a triumphant and touching mass singalong

Playing to the biggest crowds of the careers, the 00s indie stalwarts perform like they’re loving every minute – although there is also raw emotion in Manchester on the night after the synagogue attack

‘I was called an enemy of the people’: how the US Senate went to war with the biggest rock stars of the 1980s

Forty years ago Prince, Madonna and Judas Priest were among stars dubbed the ‘Filthy Fifteen’ in a high-profile parents’ campaign against ‘objectionable’ music. Some of those artists, and supporters like Alice Cooper, recall a major moral panic