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Charlie Carter

New Zealand band's loud, raucous live shows prove the perfect way to stay afloat in a music industry suffering from declining record sales, says saxophonist Scott 'Chopper Reedz' Towers  

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A man who says he’s ‘just possessed by music’ talks about the evolving style of his woozy slow-burn songs of love and loneliness and how he has no idea what to expect from his first appearance in Asia with his band The Violators

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A sold-out concert in Hong Kong this week is testament to the enduring popularity of the former Smiths frontman – and age has neither wearied nor filtered his outspoken views

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The dreampop band would rather be in the studio than on the stage, so their upcoming Hong Kong gig marks a rare chance to see Johan Duncanson, Martin Larsson and Daniel Tjäder live

Five years since they hit the big time, the electro-pop pioneers are playing their first gig in the city – and even if you don’t know their name, you’ll undoubtedly recognise the music of theirs that has appeared in film and TV

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Latest Australian music sensation have gone from cult heroes to media darlings in space of five years and three albums, and judging by how quickly Mong Kok gig sold out, it’s going to be huge

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More than a decade after breaking up amid a haze of drugs and recrimination, The Libertines are back with Pete Doherty and are headlining the city's favourite music festival

Matt Bellamy and co go back to rock basics with a concept album about the dehumanising effects of remote warfare

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Reformed and rehabilitated, Manchester's madcap mavericks play Hong Kong for the first time next week. Lead singer Shaun Ryder fills in the gaps from the late 1980s to today, in which time he's become a reality TV star and father of six.

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Before Oasis, there was Iron Maiden. Long before Manchester's gobbiest pop stars even thought of flicking two fingers at a paparazzo, East London's rock titans were strutting round the world as the consummate lad band.

The camp gravitas of the rolling piano intro to Gloria Gaynor's biggest hit says everything you need to know about why I Will Survive remains one of the pop era's most enduring successes. It's over the top, it's bold, it's pompous, it's sassy ... and it's brilliant.

Has there ever been a more direct, immediate and even threatening mission statement in the title and cover art of any record than that of Public Enemy's third album?

There's a convincing case to be made for The Rolling Stones' trio of albums straddling the 1960s and '70s being the most accomplished run of records in pop history.

Many songs are revered and reviled in equal measure, but only one has both the majesty and grating pretentiousness to provoke both emotions in a single listener.

In the late 1960s, Sly and the Family Stone were the ultimate peace, love and harmony band. Multiracial and upbeat, their brand of funk, pop and soul was calculated to project a vision of a united world. It's no surprise they provided some of the most intoxicatingly inspirational moments at the Woodstock festival in 1969.

In the mid-1970s, Britain's punk rockers warned there was no future; a decade later, some were laughably boasting they were the future.

Although they harness the recording and promotional potential of new technology, they have led the way in reviving the defunct flexi disc.

Canadian rockduo Japandroids are still pinching themselves over their meteoric rise, writes Charlie Carter,