As she releases her new solo album, Play Me, the former Sonic Youth star answers your questions on acting for Kristen Stewart, doing Basquiat’s photocopying, and who really invented punk rock

Did you plan to change rock music for ever? Were you envisaging a decades-long career, or was it all a bit more haphazard? Nepthsolem
When Sonic Youth first started, there had been such a high bar set for music that achieved something that people hadn’t done before, it was difficult to know how to add to that. There was the Velvet Underground, who cast a huge shadow, and then all the no wave bands, and when you’re faced with all that coolness, and you feel like you don’t belong, how do you make something happen? You have to focus on the thrill of making something that is like nothing that existed before. It sounds pretentious to say, “We wanted to do something new”, but that was it, and then you have to see what happens. And that’s still my approach. Honestly, I had no intention of doing solo records – I’d been playing in an improv-based project with Bill Nace, Body/Head, but that was all. And it was this producer in LA, Justin Raisen, he kept bugging me to make a solo record. There was no plan; in the end, again, I was like, let’s see what happens.

Your memoir, Girl in a Band , is one of my favourites. It reads almost like a novel. Have you ever considered writing a novel? timwthornton
I’ve thought about it. I consider myself more as a visual artist who writes, rather than a writer . I won’t say I won’t ever try to write a novel, but writing is always a challenge, just the getting started part, and I’m such a procrastinator. But once I get into it, I really, really enjoy it. It’s the thinking I love. A lot of times I actually don’t know what I think about something until I start writing about it.

Academics discover black people ‘significantly more likely’ to be identified when compared with other ethnic groups

Essex police has paused its use of live facial recognition (LFR) technology after a study found cameras were significantly more likely to target black people than people of other ethnicities.

The move to suspend use of the AI-enabled systems was revealed by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which regulates the use of the technology deployed so far by at least 13 police forces in London, south and north Wales, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Hampshire, Bedfordshire, Suffolk, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Surrey and Sussex.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning , Philippe Auclair and Mark Langdon to review Wednesday night’s Champions League action and to look ahead to the Carabao Cup final

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Barcelona hit seven against Newcastle at Camp Nou. The visitors equalised a couple of times but Barça kept scoring and scoring and scoring.

• ‘It’s not come from any place of malicious intent’

• Manager has spoken to Enzo Fernández ‘at length’

Liam Rosenior has revealed that Chelsea have found the mole leaking team news. The starting XI was published by French media before the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie against Paris Saint-Germain. A week later, it also emerged before kick-off that Wesley Fofana was not in the lineup and that Trevoh Chalobah and Jorrel Hato were at centre-back.

“We know [who it is],” Rosenior said. “And it’s not come from any place of malicious intent to me or the team. We know where it’s come from and we’ve dealt with the situation.” Rosenior did not elaborate but it is understood that the information did not come from a player or staff member.

US defense secretary suggests Thursday will be ‘largest strike package yet … death and destruction from above’

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The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth , said on Thursday there is no “timeframe” for ending the US war against Iran and did not deny reports that the Pentagon could seek an extra $200bn in taxpayer funding.

The military US-Israeli offensive began three weeks ago and continues to widen. Donald Trump threatened on Wednesday to “massively blow up” the world’s biggest gasfield after Israeli strikes on the Iranian site prompted Tehran to escalate strikes on oil and gas facilities around the Gulf.

On second anniversary of his sister ending her life at Dignitas, Tony Marra will protest outside parliament with other campaigners

Two years after Paola Marra, on the eve of her death, appealed to politicians to change the law on assisted dying, the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill is stuck in the House of Lords. For her brother, the second anniversary of her death will be spent protesting outside parliament.

Marra died aged 53 on 20 March 2024. She documented her solo journey from north London to Dignitas in Switzerland in photographs and a short film by the photographer Rankin , released posthumously, as well as in a powerful interview with the Guardian .

Lovehoney sponsors Aphrodite-themed ‘pleasure garden’ full of flowers associated with love and sex

It is one of the most prestigious events of the UK social calendar, but the great and good attending Chelsea flower show may be in for a shock this year as the Royal Horticultural Society unveils a sex-themed garden sponsored by a company that sells vibrators.

Lovehoney, a sex toy company, is sponsoring an Aphrodite-themed “pleasure garden” full of flowers and plants associated with love and sex.

Chelsea flower show will be held at the Royal Hospital Gardens from 19-23 May.

(Chandos)
Whately/Drake
Kitty Whately and Julius Drake perform the fervent, fun and intoxicating works of a British musician whose fresh assessment is richly deserved

Born in 1923, Madeleine Dring studied at the Royal College of Music, where her teachers included Herbert Howells and Vaughan Williams. An unconventional career, including stints in theatre, pantomime and cabaret, was cut short by her death from a brain aneurysm at 53. Already considered a maverick, the fact that much of her music remained unpublished until the late 1990s threatened to condemn her to obscurity.

Enter Kitty Whately and Julius Drake, whose wide-ranging survey puts paid to any idea that Dring was not a serious composer. Drawing on poets from Shakespeare and his Elizabethan colleagues to the composer’s contemporaries, Dring’s canny knack for word-setting proves as effective as her ability to find a distinctive new melody for an old chestnut such as It Was a Lover and His Lass.

Gemma Whelan and Stephen Mangan are among the cast in this multi-voiced tale of family tensions and trauma, set during the 1985 Live Aid charity concert

It is July 1985, two days before Live Aid, the historic charity concert taking place simultaneously in London and Philadelphia to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. Goth teenager Hanna Gordon has been asked by her mother, Lydia, to distribute invitations to their neighbours for a get-together at their house “in aid of the children”. Hanna suspects Lydia’s intentions may not be entirely charitable and that she wants to show off their new barbecue. Hanna’s longsuffering dad, Peter, isn’t keen, complaining “it’ll cost a fortune to feed the whole bloody street”.

Hanna, who is keeping a secret from her family, may be mortified at her mother’s party plans but she nonetheless does what she asks, delivering the invitations around their suburban cul-de-sac while only dimly aware of a mysterious figure lurking in the shadows. When Lydia spots the same figure a day later skulking in their garden, it is clear something is afoot on Delmont Close.