Interviews, Q&amp;As and feature articles<br />

theartsdesk in Aalborg: Northern Winter Beat 2015

THE ARTS DESK IN AALBORG: NORTHERN WINTER BEAT 2015 Peter Hook, Efterklang’s new band and the music of agitated hamsters in north Denmark

Peter Hook, Efterklang’s new band and the music of agitated hamsters in north Denmark

It’s the kind of care-worn venue that’s obviously seen some history. The walls are plastered with handbills for uncompromising bands like Billy Childish’s The Headcoats and America’s God Bullies. Some nosing reveals that it opened in 1983 and Green Day played here in 1993 while paving the way to conquering the world. 1000FRYD – “tusanfrid” if you’re Danish – is low-ceilinged, narrow, tiny and has a stage which would struggle to hold a band with more than five members.

PJ Harvey: Recording in Progress, Artangel at Somerset House

PJ HARVEY: RECORDING IN PROGRESS, ARTANGEL AT SOMERSET HOUSE The musician in full creative swing: a voyeur’s delight

The musician in full creative swing: a voyeur’s delight

Artangel continues to instigate extraordinary events in extraordinary places. Over the past two decades and more, directors Michael Morris and James Lingwood have helped generate major and ground-breaking work by Rachel Whiteread, Brian Eno, Laurie Anderson, Roni Horn, Jeremy Deller, Steve McQueen, Matthew Barney, Gregor Schneider, Francis Alÿs and many others. It's a long list. Their latest collaboration with PJ Harvey is no less thought-provoking and inspiring than the best of their unique collection of imaginative and risk-taking projects. 

First Person: Finding Oppenheimer

FIRST PERSON: FINDING OPPENHEIMER The author of the RSC's new play about the creator of atomic bomb seeks an elusive truth

The author of the RSC's new play about the creator of atomic bomb seeks an elusive truth

That the truth will always be so much bigger than we can comprehend is something I had to accept as I started to write Oppenheimer. There are so many sources, so much information, so many hundreds of books, declassified files, interviews and history. One biography of the man took its authors 25 years to write. And there are still the hidden thoughts that were never written down, conversations long forgotten by people now long dead. There have to be so many omissions that it is an impossible task to tell this "truth" over the course of one evening’s entertainment.

First Person: Doing The Walworth Farce

FIRST PERSON: DOING THE WALWORTH FARCE Acclaimed comedy director introduces Enda Walsh's new farce starring three Gleesons

Acclaimed comedy director introduces Enda Walsh's new farce starring three Gleesons

The (pronoun) Walworth (area in South London, near the Elephant and Castle) Farce (a comedy that aims at entertaining the audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, and improbable: often incomprehensible plot-wise, they are also characterised by physical comedy, the use of deliberate absurdity, and stylised performances).

The Story of The Beatles' Last Song

THE STORY OF THE BEATLES' LAST SONG Extract from a new Kindle single about the recording of 'Abbey Road'

Extract from a new Kindle single about the recording of 'Abbey Road'

Summer was nigh. In May 1969 the Lennons bought Tittenhurst Park, an 85-acre estate in the same stockbroker belt as John’s first Beatles home, Kenwood. It needed work and a while would pass before they moved in. At EMI, John and Yoko busied themselves with their resistible third LP, The Wedding Album. Heroin intake was vigorous.

Best of 2014: Dance & Ballet

BEST OF 2014: DANCE & BALLET A dozen unforgettable events from a rich year

A dozen unforgettable events from a rich year

You usually know a good piece or performance when you see one, but sometimes you only identify a great one as such significantly after the fact. What better way to test a work's durability, then, than by seeing what remains of it in the memory after six or 12 months? I admit this "best of" exercise is pretty subjective, but 2014 was such a rich year for dance that I've had to be ruthless: an item only makes my list if I still feel excited when I recall it.

Best of 2014: Top 13 Films, 5-1

BEST OF 2014: TOP 13 FILMS, 5-1 The countdown concludes with our top five film picks

The countdown concludes with our top five film picks

Continuing on from yesterday where great British comedy sat alongside Turkish slow cinema in our countdown of the best films from 13-6, here are our top five films of 2014. Another diverse selection which celebrates ambitious and immersive storytelling, technical prowess and breathtaking sights.

5. Inside Llewyn Davis (dirs. Ethan Coen, Joel Coen)

Best of 2014: TV

BEST OF 2014: TV Prog Rock, detectives, two world wars and the young Batman were among 2014's highlights

Prog Rock, detectives, two world wars and the young Batman were among 2014's highlights

Apologies in advance to fans of The Missing, The Honourable Woman, The Fall, Game of Thrones or House of Cards, none of which feature in the list below, but might well have done. So might The Good Wife, Ripper Street and Peaky Blinders. The fact is, in our teeming everything-everywhere world now boosted by Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Now TV and many more, whittling a whole year down to a handful of nuggets requires the wisdom of Solomon, the patience of Job, and the devious brain of a superhacker.

Best of 2014: World Music

BEST OF 2014: WORLD MUSIC Best of the year, quite a lot of which was by revolutionary women

Best of the year, quite a lot of which was by revolutionary women

The most extraordinary bunch of global musicians I met this year were the groups who were singing on the barricades during the Ukrainian Revolution on the Maidan Square, foremost among them the all-female Dakh Daughters, who describe themselves as "freak cabaret". The video below is well worth a look as they sing in front of massed ranks of police and army to an exhilarated crowd (the music comes in after five minutes):