Circus Raves

Black Oak Arkansas

Profile and Interview by Michael Gross, Circus Raves, March 1974

HIGH ON THE HOG – BLACK OAK ARKANSAS CELEBRATES SUCCESS. ...

Who, The: The Who Plunge Into Madness With Quadrophenia

Profile and Interview by John Swenson, Circus Raves, March 1974

GIVEN THE SITUATION that the average life span of a successful rock group is less than two years, the Who have set some kind of ...

Doobie Brothers: How Stampede Drove Their Fans Into Bars

Profile and Interview by Michael Gross, Circus Raves, May 1974

LATE ONE summer night in 1974, a clean-cut bar band plugged in on the stage of a waterfront singles menagerie in southern Connecticut. ...

Slade

Report and Interview by Michael Gross, Circus Raves, June 1974

THE AMBASSADOR THEATRE in Saint Louis has held its place in history since the 1920's as a grand old movie palace built in Hollywood's early ...

REO Speedwagon: R.E.O. Speedwagon: The Band That Flies Together

Report and Interview by Steven Rosen, Circus Raves, November 1974

WHAT REALLY GOES on after hours in Rock 'n' Roll Land? When a band is not touring or performing what do they do to take ...

Steppenwolf Howls Back From Oblivion On Slow Flux

Report and Interview by Steven Rosen, Circus Raves, November 1974

"IT JUST ISN'T fun anymore." With those cursory words on Saint Valentine's Day, 1972, John Kaye and the other members of Steppenwolf parted company – ...

Black Sabbath, Deep Purple: Black Sabbath and Deep Purple: Who Really Are The Kings Of Heavy Metal?

Comment by Jon Tiven, Circus Raves, November 1974

ONE HALF-DECADE ago, Black Sabbath couldn't get a favorable review if they begged for it – and beg they didn't. ...

Sensational Alex Harvey Band, The: Upstarts: The Sensational Alex Harvey Band

Profile by Jon Tiven, Circus Raves, December 1974

Alex Harvey is practically old enough to be your father: 38 years of rock’n’roll soul, to be exact. Of course he isn’t necessarily the oldest ...

David Bowie: Who Will I Be Now?

Report by Ron Ross, Circus Raves, February 1975

TWO YOUNG black men with Afros and Yes T-shirts gazed at the art-deco murals and shrugged their shoulders. As they awaited the debut of David ...

Queen's Four-Fold Strategy for Global Conquest

Report and Interview by Ron Ross, Circus Raves, March 1975

FROM A SINISTER MOAN, like a furious fiend lurking in a deep cave, Brian May's fed-back power chords slid up to a piercing demonic howl. ...

Deep Purple On The Road

Report and Interview by Jon Tiven, Circus Raves, March 1975

DAVID COVERDALE cocked his head forward and let loose with a thunderous growl to counter Ritchie's furious riff-picking. Glenn Hughes directed his bass notes at ...

Tom Scott, George Harrison: George Harrison: How Dark Horse Whipped Up A Winning Tour

Report and Interview by Michael Gross, Circus Raves, March 1975

AS GEORGE HARRISON'S tour began to cross America late in 1974, reports filtered back to New York City that all was not right. Though the ...

Steely Dan: Katy Lied

Review and Interview by Steven Rosen, Circus Raves, May 1975

EIGHT-THIRTY PM. On the sixteenth story of a monster New York skyscraper a lonely light shone at the end of a cavernous floor. The deserted ...

Roxy Music: Will They Rule America?

Interview by Ron Ross, Circus Raves, June 1975

THE LOBBY OF Howard Stein's Academy of Music was buzzing with expectation as a standing room only crowd counted the moments remaining until Roxy Music's ...

10cc: Mondo Perverts Flail Out With The Original Sound Track

Profile and Interview by Michael Gross, Circus Raves, July 1975

When they raided my club that nightThey ruined my act with the leather umbrellaThe Chief de Police got a frightHe was up in my boudoir ...

Sadistic Mika Band: Let Pink Floyd Fans Beware

Profile and Interview by Michael Gross, Circus Raves, July 1975

EARLY IN THE SUMMER of 1974, Mika Katoh, a small, beautiful, Japanese woman, walked out of her room in London's Portobello Hotel, and crossed the ...

Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson: Hunter-Ronson: Once Bitten, They're Twice Shy

Profile and Interview by Ron Ross, Circus Raves, July 1975

AFTER ALL those years in suburban Kent, last autumn Mick Ronson finally moved to a new house right off Hyde Park, the hub of Central ...

Elton John: A Million Dollar Friendship: An Interview with Gus Dudgeon

Interview by Jon Tiven, Circus Raves, August 1975

NARY A POTENTIOMETER breathed a word at the Caribou Ranch high in the Rocky Mountains. And the baffles relaxed as the massive array of equipment ...

Uriah Heep: After A Bum Reality, The Return To Fantasy With Wetton On Bass

Interview by Ira Robbins, Circus Raves, September 1975

"IT'S A WINE and roses situation," quoth Ken Hensley, speaking of the hand-in-glove way that Uriah Heep's new bass player, John Wetton, has fit into ...

Supertramp: To Concept Or Not To Concept?

Report and Interview by Jon Tiven, Circus Raves, September 1975

THE DEBATE RAGES on amidst rock scholars – is the latest album by Supertramp a concept album, or is it not? The critics vote "Yes", ...

Rainbow: Post-Purple: Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow

Report and Interview by Jon Tiven, Circus Raves, September 1975

HE IS FAMED for cultivating a public image that extends beyond even the bounds of the antisocial. Even with Deep Purple, his own band, his ...

Bob Dylan: Dylan's The Basement Tapes – The Best Of The Bootlegs Goes Establishment

Overview by Michael Gross, Circus Raves, October 1975

BOB DYLAN'S ART is his body of work. There are close to twenty legitimate Bob Dylan albums. There is a book, Tarantula, and another of ...

Black Sabbath: Sabbath's Sabotage: An interview with Tony Iommi

Interview by Mick Houghton, Circus Raves, October 1975

THREE TIERS OF GOLD, silver and platinum discs span one wall of the snooker room. They provide irrefutable evidence of the worldwide success of Black ...

Jethro Tull: A 'Minstrel' Bares His Soul

Interview by Steven Rosen, Circus Raves, November 1975

IAN ANDERSON IS twenty-eight years old today, a fact which pleases him none too greatly. The face is no betrayal of age; long and thin, ...

Eric Clapton: E.C. Was Here

Review by Bud Scoppa, Circus Raves, December 1975

ALTHOUGH ULTIMATELY hopeful, Eric Clapton's greatest records – the towering Layla and the intimate 461 Ocean Boulevard – are liberally laced with sorrow and pain. ...

Be-Bop Deluxe: Be-bop Deluxe: Futurama

Review by Ira Robbins, Circus Raves, December 1975

FIVE YEARS AGO in the bleak Northeast England town of Wakefield a guitar player named Bill Nelson sat around rapping with some friends who owned ...

Eagles, The: Fishing With The Eagles For the Universal Trout

Interview by Steven Rosen, Circus Raves, December 1975

THINGS ARE SO MELLOW on Jim Guercio's Caribou Ranch, those 3,200 acres of secluded headland lying right outside Denver, that even the birds seem to ...