Sam Fender

Abba to Zappa: pop, rock and classical music to look forward to in 2022

UK rap’s biggest star goes on tour, Wet Leg drop a deadpan debut and Rosalía gets into reggaeton. Here are the albums, concerts and tours the big hitters have in store

Alexis Petridis and Andrew Clements

30, Dec, 2021 @6:00 AM

New artists join Adele and Dua Lipa on list for first non-gendered Brit awards

As the music prizes strive for inclusivity, first-timers Self Esteem and Central Cee make the shortlist along with veterans Abba

Ben Beaumont-Thomas

18, Dec, 2021 @6:21 PM

The 50 best albums of 2021

And finally – a deserving winner, whose second solo album is a truly relatable, pin-sharp pop classic. We reveal our No 1 album of 2021

Ben Beaumont-Thomas and Laura Snapes

17, Dec, 2021 @6:52 AM

Sam Fender review – euphoric homecoming has them hollering in the streets

A rapturous crowd offer a hero’s welcome to the singer whose epic anthems deliver eeriness, intimacy and utter exhilaration

Dave Simpson

19, Nov, 2021 @12:01 PM

Sam Fender: Seventeen Going Under review – music that punches the air and the gut

The North Shields songwriter replaces his former broad-brush politicking with rousing but arrestingly bleak, personal material that puts his indie-rock peers in the shade

Alexis Petridis

07, Oct, 2021 @11:00 AM

On my radar: Sam Fender’s cultural highlights

The Tyneside rocker on his favourite bath time podcast, a second world war memoir and where to get the best breakfast kippers

Killian Fox

02, Oct, 2021 @2:00 PM

Reading and Leeds festival review – Stormzy and Liam Gallagher unite the masses

With thoughts of Covid banished in a blitz of teenage hugging, there are some terrific moments amid this disappointingly male-heavy lineup

Dave Simpson

30, Aug, 2021 @10:08 AM

Sam Fender: ‘Leftie is now a slur in working-class towns’

In a brutally honest interview ahead of his stunning second album, the Tyneside chart-topper discusses politics, family, fame and mental health

Interview by Ben Beaumont-Thomas

25, Aug, 2021 @12:00 PM

Sam Fender: Hypersonic Missiles review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

The North Shields singer-songwriter may look cookie-cutter but his gritty, gloriously anthemic songs on toxic masculinity, violence and death are anything but

Alexis Petridis

12, Sep, 2019 @11:00 AM

Sam Fender: ‘I don’t want to cling on to the “class hero” thing’

Amid pop’s wave of bland, relatable boys with guitars, the North Shields musician offers spikier songs about faceless politicians and the pressures on young men

Kate Hutchinson

03, Aug, 2019 @2:00 PM

Sam Fender: Tyneside tunesmith with an axe to grind

With his Springsteen-inspired restlessness and ear for the left-behind, the Brits critics’ choice winner is a shot in the arm of the stale, male troubadour scene

Kitty Empire

02, Mar, 2019 @2:00 PM