Thor’s Hammer - January 2002 The Sunday Times - By Stewart Lee - January 27th, 2002

In the early 1960s, Iceland didn’t have the music of Bjork, or even the quizmaster skills of Magnus Magnusson, to put it on the cultural map; it didn’t even have television. But, somehow, Iceland did have its own home-grown garage-rock group, every bit as vibrant and vital as the more famous counterparts then flowering in…

Alan Moore - January 2002 The Sunday Times - By Stewart Lee - January 6th, 2002

In the coffee bar of the 1976 Comics Convention at the NEC in Birmingham, a bearded American introduced himself to my mother: “I’m Chris Claremont.” Then he turned to me: “I write X-Men. Do you read that?” I was eight years old, but I suddenly realised, with some regret, that penning stories of spandex-clad mutants…

Tortoise / All Tomorrow’s Parties 2001 - April 2001 The Sunday Times - By Stewart Lee - April 15th, 2001

West along the coast is the ancient market town of Rye; to the east, Derek Jarman’s driftwood garden fossilises in the shadows of Dungeness power station; between the two, a short walk from the crazy-golf course, lie the utilitarian chalets of the Pontin’s holiday camp in Camber Sands, East Sussex. Last weekend its family-fun facade…

Rowland S. Howard - July 2000 The Sunday Times - By Stewart Lee - July 9th, 2000

You can recognise a Rowland S Howard guitar lick in seconds. A quavering, tremulous thing, half anaemic Duane Eddy, half spaghetti-western soundtrack, permanently hovering on the brink of collapse. But for the past decade, Howard has been missing in action, while his one time bandmate Nick Cave is recognised as one of the world’s finest…

Sonic Youth - December 1999 The Sunday Times - By Stewart Lee - December 5th, 1999

How does a four-piece rock band set about covering a composition like Yoko Ono’s 1961 Voice Piece for Soprano, a set of notes reading simply – “Scream. 1. Against the wind. 2. Against the wall. 3. Against the sky.”? Presumably, its copyright is infringed by millions of mewling babies or arachnophobic women worldwide on a…

John Fahey - September 1999 The Sunday Times - By Stewart Lee - September 19th, 1999

From the late 1950s onwards, guitarist John Fahey has forged a unique fusion of traditional American musics and avant-garde conceits, bending blues and folk templates into new forms and dousing them with found sounds. Today, Fahey is flattered by the collaborative attentions of underground guru Jim O’Rourke, Sonic Youth’s ever-adventurous Thurston Moore and experimental rockers…