Madonna furious as London Palladium censors her by dropping curtain and shutting off sound before end of live show – The Independent
Madonna has reacted with fury after London Palladium dropped the curtain and shut the sound off before the end of her live show on Wednesday night (5 February).
The singer posted a video of the show on her Instagrampage, in which she can be heard shouting, Censorship. Motherf***ing censorship. Artists are here to disturb the peace. F*** you, as the curtain falls.
Alongside the video, Madonna wrote: It was 5 minutes past our 11:00 curfew we had one more song to do and The Palladium decided to censor us by pulling down the metal fire curtain that weighs 9 tons."
Sharing the full story, not just the headlines
She added: "Fortunately they stopped it half way and no one was hurt.............. Many Thanks to the entire Audience who did not move and never left us. Power to The People!! #Irise #ongod #madamextheatre #thelondonpalladium.
The long gone Rainbow in Londons Finsbury Park was one of the great rock venues, and though I was young at the time it would be impossible to forget the impact of Bowie in one of his first outings as Ziggy Stardust. They havent even finished building the stage, I said with breathtaking naievety to the person next to me, on observing the scaffolding and ladder. Of course, it was all part of the Ziggy theatrics, a show that began with David/Ziggy walking out to the drums of Five Years and continued with mime, flamboyance and songs that have all become classics. I remember his appearance being heralded by music from Beethovens Ninth (also used in A Clockwork Orange, the film being current at the time). In those years Bowie always used it as his theme music. I also remember being blown away by the support act a fresh, imaginative outfit called Roxy Music. (David Lister)
Getty
Truly charismatic performers leave an indelible impression and I marvelled at the way Chuck Berry had the crowd in the palm of his hand when I saw him in the 1970s. But few could match Dolly Parton in her prime for her larger-than-life enthusiasm and sheer sense of fun. When the country superstar came to Londons Dominion Theatre in 1983, she played some mean finger-picking banjo, sang beautifully, especially on an a capella version of Do I Ever Cross Your Mind? and even did an Elvis impression. Her concert was filmed for a video release and about half an hour after the crowd had left in, they brought in a large group of young punks and Goths (to intercut into crowd shots) and suggest an edgy young following. Happily, I had stayed around and saw her deliver this impromptu extra set, which was full of risqu jokes and blue banter. Theres no one quite like her. (Martin Chilton)
Rex
You dont usually realise youre present at what will become a moment in history. But that sunny July afternoon at Wembley Stadium felt special right from the off, even if the off was Status Quo doing Rockin All Over The World. There were numerous stand-out moments; perhaps on paper the biggest was the return of Paul McCartney, topping the bill after nearly five years self-enforced absence from high-profile performing following the shooting of John Lennon. Somewhat sadly the sound failed for part of Let It Be, but we can draw a veil over that. The most stunning set of the day came from Queen: a high energy medley through Bohemian Rhapsody and Radio Ga Ga to We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions. No one fired up the crowd quite as much that day. And since the band had not been at their most visible around that time, this proved to be their resurrection. (David Lister)
Blues titan BB King released two of the greatest concert albums of the 20th-century in Live at the Regal (1964) and Live in Cook County Jail (1971). Even though he was 60 when I saw him at Londons Hammersmith Odeon in 1985, he was still full of energy. He sang with passion and his guitar work was transcendent, especially on gloriously funky version of The Thrill is Gone. I skipped my graduation ceremony for the concert and had the good fortune to bump into an old family friend called Ray Bolden, who had worked at Dobell's Record Shop in Charing Cross Road. King's face lit up to see Ray, who had put him up in his London flat in the 1950s. The blues superstar could not have been friendlier, despite his tiredness after a long gig. Seeing Muddy Waters live in 1979 was special but BB King at full power, bending guitar notes like no one else, topped even that. (Martin Chilton)
AP
When The Jesus & Mary Chain reached the status of noisenik godheads with their fourth album Honeys Dead in 1992, they decided to put together a visceral modern rock revue tour called Rollercoaster thats still ringing in my ears almost 30 years on. Of the three revolving support acts, Blur opened the night, mid-transformation from baggy latecomers to art-pop pioneers. With Damon Albarn flinging himself wildly around the stage and clambering up amp stacks, they premiered ferocious second-album character studies like Colin Zeal while screening films of the journey of meat from slaughterhouse to defecation, in reverse. Most crucially, with their all-horns-blazing new single Popscene, they kick-started Britpop right before our eyes. The Mary Chain, meanwhile, were at peak malicious, I left with my skull buzzing, my eyes opened and my tastes re-arranged, convinced I'd seen the new music, and I had. A gig that didnt just make my night, it made me. (Mark Beaumont)
Getty
When Pixies came onto a London stage on my birthday in 2004 and played Pixies songs and music just doesnt get better than that it was pure relief, euphoria and dark-hearted epiphany. Tame sent me feral, Gigantic was titanic, Bone Machine crushed out my marrow. Black Francis snarled, barked and ranted through Gouge Away, Monkey Gone To Heaven and Debaser, every bit the demented pervert preacher he ever was; Kim Deals angelic coos and bass melodies made an unholy pact with Joey Santiagos werewolf guitar riffs, seemingly played with a plectrum made of Satans fingernail. Of their four Brixton dates that week, I lost every ounce of my s*** at three. Best gigs ever, no particular order.(Mark Beaumont)
EPA
North Londons tiny and now-defunct, Buffalo Bar in the 2000s, hosted early gigs from the likes of Bloc Party, The Libertines, The Maccabees or Foals. Their show took place 14 months before the release of their debut album Antidotes, and it justified their precocious reputation as a live act. That night, the energy of their high-octane math-rock was infectious; its not often that you see a band in their earliest days and know that this is probably the last time youll be able to reach out and touch them. The songs followed: "The French Open", "Balloons", "Hummer, Mathletics, all fuelled by astoundingly complex polyrhythms, interweaving staccato synths and guitar played high on the fretboard in angular electro harmonies, set to punk-disco techno beats and urgent "new wave" vocals. Id never seen a rock gig so precisely engineered (a sticker on the synth read "Math is for Everyone"), yet so exhilarating. There was a true sense wed discovered something great. (Elisa Bray)
Rex
Problematic in every way given singer Alice Glasss October 2017 statement accusing her former bandmate Ethan Kath of sexual abuse, non-consensual sex and controlling behaviour, but this short set in front of a small crowd in a Camden bar was proof that when a performer truly plugs into the mother lode, the intensity they generate can burn itself into your retinas and shake your soul. Glass was 19 years old, and for most of the set just a blur of spectral movement frozen into violent shapes by an almost incessant strobe; singing, shouting and screaming her way through songs such as Courtship Dating. The result was a reminder that whenever one of your heroes gets on stage to try to channel that primal essence of rock n roll or whatever the hell it is most of the time, theyre just trying to find an echo of something that once flowed through them. That can go on for 50 years or more. Theres sadness now in the memory, but on this day in April 2008, Glass had it. (Chris Harvey)
PA
It used to be that rocknroll was a young persons game; anyone over the age of 50 still tearing it up on stage needed to calm down and have a word with themselves. Nick Cave, the latter-day harbinger of the apocalypse still identifiable by his raven hair and pallbearers suit, has consistently shown us the idiocy of this thinking. Ive seen Cave perform scores of times and he has never let me down, but this show, which coincided with the release of the album Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, was a whole new level of spectacular: funny, furious, life-affirming, heavy on the biblical melodrama. Alongside the Bad Seeds, then operating as a seven-piece coolly attired in suits, open-necked shirts and slicked-back hair, Cave showed how musical talent can deepen rather than ebb in mid-life, and how he was and indeed remains untouchable in terms of intellect, charisma and sheer feral energy. (Fiona Sturges)
Rex
Leonard Cohen steps onto the stage, dressed in grey shirt and tie, black waistcoat, trilby concealing his white hair. It's sweltering. And yet Cohen, in his mid Seventies, is barely breaking into a sweat. Much like his attire, the songs - such as "Dance Me to the End of Love" and "So Long, Marianne" are immaculate, his voice no longer a wail but a raw, rumbling baritone. The Spanish sun is beating down and my friends and I are genuflecting before one of the greatest lyricists of all time. This was to be the only time I saw him live and no performance has ever, in terms of pure emotional intensity, targeted me with such laser-guided precision as his rendition of "Hallelujah". The song's been covered by everyone from Jeff Buckley to Alexandra Burke, but sung by him that day, it's surely never felt as moving. (Patrick Smith)
Getty
The great Sixties and Seventies soul singers are nearly all gone now, and I doubt well ever see their like again. Bobby Womack had recovered from colon cancer but was in the early stages of Alzheimers Disease, and less than a year from his death in June 2014, when he played the UK in the summer of 2013. He came on stage on a sunny Saturday afternoon at the Latitude festival, to play songs from his brilliant comeback album, The Bravest Man in the Universe, to a basking, picnicking audience. All soul singers come from gospel, he told them. Womacks voice still seemed like a gift from God. The years of cocaine addiction hadnt altered its richness and warmth. To be in the presence of Womack that day, knowing it would likely be the last time, was very special.(Chris Harvey)
PA
Most rockstars, terrified of seeming to be trying too hard, would never dream of hiring a choreographer. But St Vincent, AKA Annie Clark, is no ordinary rockstar. For her Digital Witness tour, the musician recruited Annie B Carson to help her dream up a procession of strange, shuffling moves to perform alongside her brilliant self-titled fourth album. At End of the Road Festival a small, Dorset delight which she had played with David Byrne a year earlier her headline set was scuzzy, eccentric, and thrilling. At one point, without missing a lick on her guitar, she rolled herself down an oversized flight of white stairs like a glitching robot. Then again, no robot can play guitar like that. (Alexandra Pollard)
Getty
After 35 years away from the stage it was a moment Kate Bush fans never thought would happen. Beforehand, I was reporting from outside the venue for NME and the excitement and energy was extraordinary, like nothing I've ever experienced. One woman told me it would be fine if she died after the gig because she would die happy. The show started with a "greatest hits" section. And then it all got a bit more, well, Kate Bush, with a dramatic adaptation of "The Ninth Wave". Sinking ships, confetti cannons, surreal fish people and a soliloquy about sausages. Act three was more pastoral. The second side of "Aerial", "The Sky of Honey", was performed in front of the most beautiful visuals I've ever seen: birds, a red sun, a moon tilting on its axis and then Kate suspended into the air. Pure theatre. As we filed out, there was a sense that the audience was stunned. I still am. (Lucy Jones)
Rex
Patti Smith was celebrating the 40th anniversary of her seminal 1975 album Horses at Field Day in Victoria Park, London, 2015. The sky was a perfect blue, and the sun was still blazing hot at 7pm. Im sorry about the dark glasses, Smith said by way of introduction. Im not trying to be cool, its just, you know the sun. Youre the f***ing coolest! a fan screamed back. From there, she and her band, including long-serving guitarist Lenny Kaye, embarked on a blistering set that had myself, and many other audience members, in tears. Smith is a ferocious performer, she spat and snarled and howled; tearing up her guitar as though it just insulted one of her favourite poets. It didnt matter if she messed up, as she did on Break it Up, because she offered the instantly immortal words: I dont do nothing perfect. I only f*** up perfect. You felt you were in the presence of something momentous. (Roisin OConnor)
Getty Images
When DAngelo released his surprise third record the politically fraught Black Messiah it ended the 14-year hiatus that followed 2000s Voodoo. It also reminded music fans that the American hip-hop artist was still as monumentally talented as he was back then. Accompanied by his eight-strong band The Vanguard, his show at the Hammersmith Apollo was a visceral, quasi-religious experience. Jesse Johnson, formerly of Prince-produced outfit The Time, added funky hooks to Sugah Daddy, while legendary bassist Pino Palladino took time out from The Who's live shows to join in the fun. At one point DAngelo led a classic James Brown funk staple, holding three fingers in the air so the band could respond with three loud vamps. One encore was followed by a second that broke the curfew with free abandon, until DAngelo was left on stage alone, reflective and blissful. It inspired a divine kind of worship, for a show that was appropriately titled "The Second Coming". (Roisin OConnor)
Corbis
A week before she played Brighton, I reviewed Lordes Alexandra Palace show in London. It was a five-star performance the New Zealand musician exorcised the pain of the break-up she'd chronicled on her brilliant second album Melodrama, twitching and twirling as an abstract house party played out in glass boxes around her. The stage design was so good, in fact, that Kanye West may or may not have nicked it a year later. Seeing her in Brighton the following week, without a notepad in my hand, I saw even more clearly all the intimate nuances of her performance and was free to give in entirely to the exhilarating, heartbreaking melodrama of it all. (Alexandra Pollard)
Getty Images
When youve been going to gigs for decades, you tend not to expect anything new, just variations some mind-blowing, others not on what you have seen before. So when I saw David Byrnes American Utopia show, it felt like stumbling on the Ark of the Covenant. Here was a man who had been working in music for 40 years completely redrawing the rules of pop performance no drum riser, no cables, no visible amps or microphones and taking it deep into the territory of experimental theatre. In opposition to the usual freeform live music set-up, this tour was the result of fastidious planning, with everything rehearsed to the last nanosecond. And yet, forever on the move, dressed in matching grey suits and dancing barefoot in formation, Byrne and his 12-piece band were loose-limbed, unfettered and joyous to watch. And the music was pretty great too. (Fiona Sturges)
EPA
Before her short run at Hammersmith Apollo last year, Hlose Letissier known as Christine and the Queens, though she dropped all but the "Chris" for her second album tweeted: I think we finally have some surprises for those who come to the shows! She delivered on that promise falling snow and sand, and a balcony homage to Romeo and Juliet as she redefined what a pop show could be. With a gender-fluid cohort of athletic dancers, she brought to theatrical life her tumultuous journey towards embracing her pansexual identity, and finding liberation. And we went through all those emotions with her, those alternately tender and powerful vocals never faltering despite the restless dance routines. Everyone was on their feet dancing, and her declaration of inclusivity could not have been more empowering: Vive everyone! We left thrilled and elated. (Elisa Bray)
REX
The long gone Rainbow in Londons Finsbury Park was one of the great rock venues, and though I was young at the time it would be impossible to forget the impact of Bowie in one of his first outings as Ziggy Stardust. They havent even finished building the stage, I said with breathtaking naievety to the person next to me, on observing the scaffolding and ladder. Of course, it was all part of the Ziggy theatrics, a show that began with David/Ziggy walking out to the drums of Five Years and continued with mime, flamboyance and songs that have all become classics. I remember his appearance being heralded by music from Beethovens Ninth (also used in A Clockwork Orange, the film being current at the time). In those years Bowie always used it as his theme music. I also remember being blown away by the support act a fresh, imaginative outfit called Roxy Music. (David Lister)
Getty
Truly charismatic performers leave an indelible impression and I marvelled at the way Chuck Berry had the crowd in the palm of his hand when I saw him in the 1970s. But few could match Dolly Parton in her prime for her larger-than-life enthusiasm and sheer sense of fun. When the country superstar came to Londons Dominion Theatre in 1983, she played some mean finger-picking banjo, sang beautifully, especially on an a capella version of Do I Ever Cross Your Mind? and even did an Elvis impression. Her concert was filmed for a video release and about half an hour after the crowd had left in, they brought in a large group of young punks and Goths (to intercut into crowd shots) and suggest an edgy young following. Happily, I had stayed around and saw her deliver this impromptu extra set, which was full of risqu jokes and blue banter. Theres no one quite like her. (Martin Chilton)
Rex
You dont usually realise youre present at what will become a moment in history. But that sunny July afternoon at Wembley Stadium felt special right from the off, even if the off was Status Quo doing Rockin All Over The World. There were numerous stand-out moments; perhaps on paper the biggest was the return of Paul McCartney, topping the bill after nearly five years self-enforced absence from high-profile performing following the shooting of John Lennon. Somewhat sadly the sound failed for part of Let It Be, but we can draw a veil over that. The most stunning set of the day came from Queen: a high energy medley through Bohemian Rhapsody and Radio Ga Ga to We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions. No one fired up the crowd quite as much that day. And since the band had not been at their most visible around that time, this proved to be their resurrection. (David Lister)
Blues titan BB King released two of the greatest concert albums of the 20th-century in Live at the Regal (1964) and Live in Cook County Jail (1971). Even though he was 60 when I saw him at Londons Hammersmith Odeon in 1985, he was still full of energy. He sang with passion and his guitar work was transcendent, especially on gloriously funky version of The Thrill is Gone. I skipped my graduation ceremony for the concert and had the good fortune to bump into an old family friend called Ray Bolden, who had worked at Dobell's Record Shop in Charing Cross Road. King's face lit up to see Ray, who had put him up in his London flat in the 1950s. The blues superstar could not have been friendlier, despite his tiredness after a long gig. Seeing Muddy Waters live in 1979 was special but BB King at full power, bending guitar notes like no one else, topped even that. (Martin Chilton)
AP
When The Jesus & Mary Chain reached the status of noisenik godheads with their fourth album Honeys Dead in 1992, they decided to put together a visceral modern rock revue tour called Rollercoaster thats still ringing in my ears almost 30 years on. Of the three revolving support acts, Blur opened the night, mid-transformation from baggy latecomers to art-pop pioneers. With Damon Albarn flinging himself wildly around the stage and clambering up amp stacks, they premiered ferocious second-album character studies like Colin Zeal while screening films of the journey of meat from slaughterhouse to defecation, in reverse. Most crucially, with their all-horns-blazing new single Popscene, they kick-started Britpop right before our eyes. The Mary Chain, meanwhile, were at peak malicious, I left with my skull buzzing, my eyes opened and my tastes re-arranged, convinced I'd seen the new music, and I had. A gig that didnt just make my night, it made me. (Mark Beaumont)
Getty
When Pixies came onto a London stage on my birthday in 2004 and played Pixies songs and music just doesnt get better than that it was pure relief, euphoria and dark-hearted epiphany. Tame sent me feral, Gigantic was titanic, Bone Machine crushed out my marrow. Black Francis snarled, barked and ranted through Gouge Away, Monkey Gone To Heaven and Debaser, every bit the demented pervert preacher he ever was; Kim Deals angelic coos and bass melodies made an unholy pact with Joey Santiagos werewolf guitar riffs, seemingly played with a plectrum made of Satans fingernail. Of their four Brixton dates that week, I lost every ounce of my s*** at three. Best gigs ever, no particular order.(Mark Beaumont)
EPA
North Londons tiny and now-defunct, Buffalo Bar in the 2000s, hosted early gigs from the likes of Bloc Party, The Libertines, The Maccabees or Foals. Their show took place 14 months before the release of their debut album Antidotes, and it justified their precocious reputation as a live act. That night, the energy of their high-octane math-rock was infectious; its not often that you see a band in their earliest days and know that this is probably the last time youll be able to reach out and touch them. The songs followed: "The French Open", "Balloons", "Hummer, Mathletics, all fuelled by astoundingly complex polyrhythms, interweaving staccato synths and guitar played high on the fretboard in angular electro harmonies, set to punk-disco techno beats and urgent "new wave" vocals. Id never seen a rock gig so precisely engineered (a sticker on the synth read "Math is for Everyone"), yet so exhilarating. There was a true sense wed discovered something great. (Elisa Bray)
Rex
Problematic in every way given singer Alice Glasss October 2017 statement accusing her former bandmate Ethan Kath of sexual abuse, non-consensual sex and controlling behaviour, but this short set in front of a small crowd in a Camden bar was proof that when a performer truly plugs into the mother lode, the intensity they generate can burn itself into your retinas and shake your soul. Glass was 19 years old, and for most of the set just a blur of spectral movement frozen into violent shapes by an almost incessant strobe; singing, shouting and screaming her way through songs such as Courtship Dating. The result was a reminder that whenever one of your heroes gets on stage to try to channel that primal essence of rock n roll or whatever the hell it is most of the time, theyre just trying to find an echo of something that once flowed through them. That can go on for 50 years or more. Theres sadness now in the memory, but on this day in April 2008, Glass had it. (Chris Harvey)
PA
It used to be that rocknroll was a young persons game; anyone over the age of 50 still tearing it up on stage needed to calm down and have a word with themselves. Nick Cave, the latter-day harbinger of the apocalypse still identifiable by his raven hair and pallbearers suit, has consistently shown us the idiocy of this thinking. Ive seen Cave perform scores of times and he has never let me down, but this show, which coincided with the release of the album Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, was a whole new level of spectacular: funny, furious, life-affirming, heavy on the biblical melodrama. Alongside the Bad Seeds, then operating as a seven-piece coolly attired in suits, open-necked shirts and slicked-back hair, Cave showed how musical talent can deepen rather than ebb in mid-life, and how he was and indeed remains untouchable in terms of intellect, charisma and sheer feral energy. (Fiona Sturges)
Rex
Leonard Cohen steps onto the stage, dressed in grey shirt and tie, black waistcoat, trilby concealing his white hair. It's sweltering. And yet Cohen, in his mid Seventies, is barely breaking into a sweat. Much like his attire, the songs - such as "Dance Me to the End of Love" and "So Long, Marianne" are immaculate, his voice no longer a wail but a raw, rumbling baritone. The Spanish sun is beating down and my friends and I are genuflecting before one of the greatest lyricists of all time. This was to be the only time I saw him live and no performance has ever, in terms of pure emotional intensity, targeted me with such laser-guided precision as his rendition of "Hallelujah". The song's been covered by everyone from Jeff Buckley to Alexandra Burke, but sung by him that day, it's surely never felt as moving. (Patrick Smith)
Getty
The great Sixties and Seventies soul singers are nearly all gone now, and I doubt well ever see their like again. Bobby Womack had recovered from colon cancer but was in the early stages of Alzheimers Disease, and less than a year from his death in June 2014, when he played the UK in the summer of 2013. He came on stage on a sunny Saturday afternoon at the Latitude festival, to play songs from his brilliant comeback album, The Bravest Man in the Universe, to a basking, picnicking audience. All soul singers come from gospel, he told them. Womacks voice still seemed like a gift from God. The years of cocaine addiction hadnt altered its richness and warmth. To be in the presence of Womack that day, knowing it would likely be the last time, was very special.(Chris Harvey)
PA
Most rockstars, terrified of seeming to be trying too hard, would never dream of hiring a choreographer. But St Vincent, AKA Annie Clark, is no ordinary rockstar. For her Digital Witness tour, the musician recruited Annie B Carson to help her dream up a procession of strange, shuffling moves to perform alongside her brilliant self-titled fourth album. At End of the Road Festival a small, Dorset delight which she had played with David Byrne a year earlier her headline set was scuzzy, eccentric, and thrilling. At one point, without missing a lick on her guitar, she rolled herself down an oversized flight of white stairs like a glitching robot. Then again, no robot can play guitar like that. (Alexandra Pollard)
Getty
After 35 years away from the stage it was a moment Kate Bush fans never thought would happen. Beforehand, I was reporting from outside the venue for NME and the excitement and energy was extraordinary, like nothing I've ever experienced. One woman told me it would be fine if she died after the gig because she would die happy. The show started with a "greatest hits" section. And then it all got a bit more, well, Kate Bush, with a dramatic adaptation of "The Ninth Wave". Sinking ships, confetti cannons, surreal fish people and a soliloquy about sausages. Act three was more pastoral. The second side of "Aerial", "The Sky of Honey", was performed in front of the most beautiful visuals I've ever seen: birds, a red sun, a moon tilting on its axis and then Kate suspended into the air. Pure theatre. As we filed out, there was a sense that the audience was stunned. I still am. (Lucy Jones)
Rex
Patti Smith was celebrating the 40th anniversary of her seminal 1975 album Horses at Field Day in Victoria Park, London, 2015. The sky was a perfect blue, and the sun was still blazing hot at 7pm. Im sorry about the dark glasses, Smith said by way of introduction. Im not trying to be cool, its just, you know the sun. Youre the f***ing coolest! a fan screamed back. From there, she and her band, including long-serving guitarist Lenny Kaye, embarked on a blistering set that had myself, and many other audience members, in tears. Smith is a ferocious performer, she spat and snarled and howled; tearing up her guitar as though it just insulted one of her favourite poets. It didnt matter if she messed up, as she did on Break it Up, because she offered the instantly immortal words: I dont do nothing perfect. I only f*** up perfect. You felt you were in the presence of something momentous. (Roisin OConnor)
Getty Images
When DAngelo released his surprise third record the politically fraught Black Messiah it ended the 14-year hiatus that followed 2000s Voodoo. It also reminded music fans that the American hip-hop artist was still as monumentally talented as he was back then. Accompanied by his eight-strong band The Vanguard, his show at the Hammersmith Apollo was a visceral, quasi-religious experience. Jesse Johnson, formerly of Prince-produced outfit The Time, added funky hooks to Sugah Daddy, while legendary bassist Pino Palladino took time out from The Who's live shows to join in the fun. At one point DAngelo led a classic James Brown funk staple, holding three fingers in the air so the band could respond with three loud vamps. One encore was followed by a second that broke the curfew with free abandon, until DAngelo was left on stage alone, reflective and blissful. It inspired a divine kind of worship, for a show that was appropriately titled "The Second Coming". (Roisin OConnor)
Corbis
A week before she played Brighton, I reviewed Lordes Alexandra Palace show in London. It was a five-star performance the New Zealand musician exorcised the pain of the break-up she'd chronicled on her brilliant second album Melodrama, twitching and twirling as an abstract house party played out in glass boxes around her. The stage design was so good, in fact, that Kanye West may or may not have nicked it a year later. Seeing her in Brighton the following week, without a notepad in my hand, I saw even more clearly all the intimate nuances of her performance and was free to give in entirely to the exhilarating, heartbreaking melodrama of it all. (Alexandra Pollard)
Getty Images
When youve been going to gigs for decades, you tend not to expect anything new, just variations some mind-blowing, others not on what you have seen before. So when I saw David Byrnes American Utopia show, it felt like stumbling on the Ark of the Covenant. Here was a man who had been working in music for 40 years completely redrawing the rules of pop performance no drum riser, no cables, no visible amps or microphones and taking it deep into the territory of experimental theatre. In opposition to the usual freeform live music set-up, this tour was the result of fastidious planning, with everything rehearsed to the last nanosecond. And yet, forever on the move, dressed in matching grey suits and dancing barefoot in formation, Byrne and his 12-piece band were loose-limbed, unfettered and joyous to watch. And the music was pretty great too. (Fiona Sturges)
EPA
Before her short run at Hammersmith Apollo last year, Hlose Letissier known as Christine and the Queens, though she dropped all but the "Chris" for her second album tweeted: I think we finally have some surprises for those who come to the shows! She delivered on that promise falling snow and sand, and a balcony homage to Romeo and Juliet as she redefined what a pop show could be. With a gender-fluid cohort of athletic dancers, she brought to theatrical life her tumultuous journey towards embracing her pansexual identity, and finding liberation. And we went through all those emotions with her, those alternately tender and powerful vocals never faltering despite the restless dance routines. Everyone was on their feet dancing, and her declaration of inclusivity could not have been more empowering: Vive everyone! We left thrilled and elated. (Elisa Bray)
REX
Fans who were at the gig have tweeted about the show, saying Palladium staff turned the lights off and shut off the sound, leavingMadonna to argue with them before returning to the stage to sing I Rise with an unplugged microphone.
Madonna has cancelled numerous dates in her sold-outMadame Xtour, with the star suffering from an unspecified injury that she said has been causing her overwhelming pain.
Her first show at the Palladium was awarded four stars by The Independents critic Kate Hutchinson, who called the concert an eyeball-twisting audiovisual assault.
See the original post:
Madonna furious as London Palladium censors her by dropping curtain and shutting off sound before end of live show - The Independent
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- Government censorship comes to Bluesky, but not its third-party apps yet - TechCrunch - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Time to re-read The Masses, the 1910s literary magazine crushed by government censorship. - Literary Hub - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Operation Caged Bird Seeks to Unban Books from Naval Academy: Book Censorship News, April 25, 2025 - Book Riot - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- 12 Moments Of Anime Censorship That Became Bizarrely Hilarious - SlashFilm - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- I faced censorship and attacks at MIT for trying to teach about Palestine. This reflects the rising fascism in higher education. - Mondoweiss - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Opinion | The Naval Academy Canceled My Lecture on Wisdom - The New York Times - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- University suspects big tech Google and Meta censoring ads just because its Catholic - The College Fix - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Netflix Co-CEO Says Theyre Not in China Because Not a Single Episode Cleared the Censorship Board - IndieWire - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Republicans, beware: Censorship by the right is no better than by the left | Opinion - USA Today - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- DITV: YAF Brings in CEO of Babylon Bee to Speak About Censorship - The Daily Iowan - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- There are medieval roots to modern attempts to censor controversial literature - KJZZ - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Barbra Streisand can tell you: Censorship is not the answer - The Frederick News-Post - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Meta Oversight Board Fumes As Facebook Ends Censorship Initiatives - The Daily Wire - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Bluesky Just Bowed to Censorship Demands in Turkey, but Theres a Loophole - Gizmodo - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Censorship is getting louder: Metas fine is just the echo - Pearls and Irritations - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Trump Administration Blasts Biden, Fauci for Outright Censorship on Revamped Covid-19 Website - Yahoo - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- Book censorship: Why its not going to stop with the books, no matter how you spin it - DMNews - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- Wall Streets silent protest: censorship in the age of Trump - The Irish Times - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- Digital Blasphemy: Netflixs Controverial Censorship of Mel Gibsons The Passion for Easter - Bleeding Fool - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- Censorship in STEM: A Recap of the Heterodox Academy STEM Community Meeting at USC April 24 - University of Nevada, Las Vegas | UNLV - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- Top Ultra-processed Foods Researcher at NIH Resigns, Citing Censorship - Civil Eats - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- Trump-style book censorship is spreading just ask British librarians | Alison Hicks - The Guardian - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- Why would he take such a risk? How a famous Chinese author befriended his censor - The Guardian - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- Grandpas advice for the new wave of American censors - FIRE | Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- Trump admin accused of censoring NIHs top expert on ultra-processed foods - Ars Technica - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- 100 mph speeders, 4/20 sales, RI lobbyist expenses, RISD censorship: Top stories this week - The Providence Journal - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- 'Wuthering Waves' Developer Responds to Backlash Over Censorship - The Gooner Rage is Real - VICE - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- State Department shuts down agency that pushed censorship of conservative news sites - Must Read Alaska - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- DrainMore Than FightAuthoritarianism and Censorship - The Fulcrum - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- Theyre Coming For Us: Media Censorship in the Age of Palestinian Genocide - Counterpunch - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- Censorship or Caution? The ACSA's Gaza Journal Controversy Exposes a Field at War With Itself - Architect Magazine - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- Why deregulating online platforms is actually bad for free speech - The Conversation - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- We Took on Book Bans in Our Small Conservative Community and Won - Teen Vogue - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- MAJOR VICTORY Trump Administration Declassifies the Biden Administrations Secret Domestic Surveillance and Censorship Strategy, Following AFLs... - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- Banned Books and Censorship: Who Gets to Decide What We Read? - The Teen Magazine - April 21st, 2025 [April 21st, 2025]
- Nina Jankowiczs censorship bull, onshoring risks are manageable and other commentary - New York Post - April 5th, 2025 [April 5th, 2025]
- Opinion: If US schools are censored, students will struggle to form their own opinions - The Asheville Citizen Times - April 5th, 2025 [April 5th, 2025]
- Lonely Island surprised 'Jizz in My Pants' wasn't censored on SNL : 'There's still potentially kids watching' - Entertainment Weekly - April 5th, 2025 [April 5th, 2025]
- Censoring Santosh and the grim truth of police torture - Hindustan Times - April 5th, 2025 [April 5th, 2025]
- The Antitrust Division Hosts a Big-Tech Censorship Forum - Department of Justice (.gov) - April 5th, 2025 [April 5th, 2025]
- Is the future of censorship-resistant VPNs, no VPNs? - TechRadar - April 5th, 2025 [April 5th, 2025]
- The VPN industry must change or face losing the battle against censorship - Tom's Guide - April 5th, 2025 [April 5th, 2025]
- DOJ, FTC listen to Big Tech censorship concerns - Global Competition Review - April 5th, 2025 [April 5th, 2025]
- CIF Becomes the Official Sponsor of Dirty Mouths, turning censorship into sponsorship. - Marketing Communication News - April 5th, 2025 [April 5th, 2025]
- India quietly censored a White Lotus Season 3 scene; even HBO didnt see this coming - The Indian Express - April 5th, 2025 [April 5th, 2025]
- Journalists in Haiti defy bullets and censorship to cover unprecedented violence - The Independent - April 5th, 2025 [April 5th, 2025]
- CEO of Babylon Bee visits campus, gives talk about dangers of censorship - The Crimson White - April 5th, 2025 [April 5th, 2025]
- One White Lotus Scene Was Conspicuously Missing in India, and Its Part of a Bigger Censorship Issue - IndieWire - April 3rd, 2025 [April 3rd, 2025]
- Australian tribunal to rule on whether using biologically accurate pronouns online is grounds for censorship - Alliance Defending Freedom... - April 3rd, 2025 [April 3rd, 2025]
- Its About Censorship, Erasure, and Control: the GOPs Push for Parental Rights - The Texas Observer - April 3rd, 2025 [April 3rd, 2025]
- Mastercard agrees to eschew pressure to engage in censorship of ads - adfmedia.org - April 3rd, 2025 [April 3rd, 2025]
- 'Stories About Overthrowing the Government Are No Longer Allowed': Anime Censorship Overseas Adding to Broadcast Woes - Comic Book Resources - April 3rd, 2025 [April 3rd, 2025]
- Media apathy makes Schmitts hearing on government censorship all the more vital - Read Lion - April 3rd, 2025 [April 3rd, 2025]
- Mastercard, Facing Pressure Over Role In Global Censorship Effort, Agrees To Major Change - The Daily Wire - April 3rd, 2025 [April 3rd, 2025]
- Launch: New OONI Explorer thematic censorship pages - Open Observatory of Network Interference | OONI - April 3rd, 2025 [April 3rd, 2025]
- Jersey City Library Set to Welcome 'The Hammer' to Talk on Censorship, Book Bans - TAPinto - April 3rd, 2025 [April 3rd, 2025]
- Anime Is Booming, But New Censorship Rules Are About to Threaten Some of Its Top Shows - Screen Rant - April 3rd, 2025 [April 3rd, 2025]
- Twitter Files journalist Matt Taibbi spars with Bidens disinfo czar in censorship hearing: We dont need a truth squad - New York Post - April 3rd, 2025 [April 3rd, 2025]
- From censorship to curiosity: Pope Francis appreciation for the power of history and books - The Conversation - April 3rd, 2025 [April 3rd, 2025]
- Oppenheimer Now Streaming Uncensored on Netflix in India After Theatrical Censorship - IGN India - April 3rd, 2025 [April 3rd, 2025]
- What is Sahyog, which Elon Musk-owned X called a censorship portal? - The Indian Express - April 3rd, 2025 [April 3rd, 2025]
- Mark Zuckerberg-Led Meta Set To Face 'Truth' At Senate Hearing Over China Operations And Communist Party Censorship Efforts - Meta Platforms... - April 3rd, 2025 [April 3rd, 2025]
- Sharyn Rothstein looks at censorship through the eyes of a badass librarian - DC Theater Arts - April 1st, 2025 [April 1st, 2025]
- The dangers of censorship: The harm of book banning - Collegiate Times - April 1st, 2025 [April 1st, 2025]
- Can Controversy and Censorship Ever Be Good for Artists and Their Art? - observer.com - April 1st, 2025 [April 1st, 2025]
- Why is X suing the Indian govt over censorship? Musks heft within US administration could play a part - The Straits Times - April 1st, 2025 [April 1st, 2025]
- Explained: What is the Sahyog Portal that X has called out for censorship? - MediaNama - April 1st, 2025 [April 1st, 2025]
- Censorship and the question of artistic freedom - Times of India - April 1st, 2025 [April 1st, 2025]
- Art Censorship: Between Restriction and Sharpening Idea of Freedom of Expression - Universitas Gadjah Mada - April 1st, 2025 [April 1st, 2025]
- Mass surveillance and censorship/ What is DPI, intended for use by the government? - cna.al - April 1st, 2025 [April 1st, 2025]
- The Freckled Face of Censorship or How Book Bans Are Restricting Our Freedoms - U.S. News & World Report - March 26th, 2025 [March 26th, 2025]
- Spice Girls latest victims of woke censorship as iconic '90s song has 'offensive' lyric removed by BBC and other stations - GB News - March 26th, 2025 [March 26th, 2025]
- MEDIA ADVISORY: HFAC Subcommittee Hearing on the Censorship-Industrial Complex - House Foreign Affairs Committee - March 26th, 2025 [March 26th, 2025]