SOUTH BANK I think we all know the story behind Coldplay’s Yellow but, in case you’ve forgotten, it seems that frontman Chris Martin was absent-mindedly looking out his window one afternoon when he saw something – the sun, a daffodil, Gwyneth Paltrow, nobody’s entirely sure – which made him stop and say to himself: “That’s yellow, that is.” And the effect this thing – whatever it was – had on the sensitive singer’s psyche was so profound that, some hours later, when drummer Will Champion came in from the garden and asked his bandmate why he was staring out the window, all the latter could do was shake his head and repeat, over and over again, these four words: “It was all yellow.” And Will ... Continue reading →

Neneh Cherry sits in her manager's fashionable office, wearing a necklace made out of a mousetrap that swings around as she speaks. Behind her, pinned to a wall, there is a calendar featuring a topless woman. "That's kept me going today," laughs Cherry, her corkscrew hair looking much the same as it did in 1988, the year her hip-hop-influenced single Buffalo Stance made her a star. Musically, Cherry has travelled a long way from those days. Next month sees the release of her first solo album since 1996: a collection of free-jazz, avant-garde covers.The Cherry Thing is the result of her collaboration with Norwegian/Swedish jazz trio the Thing, known for their punkish live performances: frontman and saxophonist Mats Gustafsson regularly sprays the front row of ... Continue reading →

Neneh Cherry sits in her manager's fashionable office, wearing a necklace made out of a mousetrap that swings around as she speaks. Behind her, pinned to a wall, there is a calendar featuring a topless woman. "That's kept me going today," laughs Cherry, her corkscrew hair looking much the same as it did in 1988, the year her hip-hop-influenced single Buffalo Stance made her a star. Musically, Cherry has travelled a long way from those days. Next month sees the release of her first solo album since 1996: a collection of free-jazz, avant-garde covers.The Cherry Thing is the result of her collaboration with Norwegian/Swedish jazz trio the Thing, known for their punkish live performances: frontman and saxophonist Mats Gustafsson regularly sprays the front row of ... Continue reading →