Face, The
Dexy's Midnight Runners: Hearts Full Of Soul: Dexy’s Midnight Runners
Interview by Mike Stand, Face, The, May 1980
Dexy's Midnight Runners are working towards (cue fanfare) The End Of Rock As We Know It. Punk, heavy metal, ska, country & western, reggae, everything ...
Joe Jackson: Indifferent To Joe
Interview by Mike Stand, Face, The, May 1980
ROCK 'N' ROLL is supposed to be from The Wrong Side Of The Tracks and I suppose the Joe Jackson Band's rehearsal room qualifies. It's ...
Cure, The: A Cure For All Ills
Interview by Mike Stand, Face, The, June 1980
‘A FOREST’ a hit? Improbable as it sounds, yes. The Cure are on the move again. ...
Passions, The: Ships That Passion The Night
Interview by Mike Stand, Face, The, August 1980
"I MET THESE skinheads on the tube the other day who recognised me from a gig. They said they didn't know my name but they'd ...
Laurel Aitken, Desmond Dekker: Desmond Dekker and Laurel Aitken: Old Rude Boys Never Die
Profile and Interview by Chris Salewicz, Face, The, September 1980
DESMOND DEKKER and Laurel Aitken are two Jamaican vocalists who, in earlier musical incarnations, helped lay the ground for the eventual acceptance of reggae music ...
Interview by Jon Savage, Face, The, October 1980
Pop, that disposable distraction, is mostly about transience: it’s the order of the perpetual child, the moment! Not that those last long these days. Most ...
Brian Eno: Eno: Only The Small Survive
Interview by Dave Rimmer, Face, The, October 1980
One of the vital musical innovators of the Seventies, Brian Eno now inhabits a curious world. He lives in 'medieval' Manhattan, where he gambles on ...
Grace Jones: Confessions Of An Art Groupie
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Face, The, October 1980
IN THE LOUNGE bar of the Kensington Hilton, Grace Jones sprawls supinely in a wicker armchair and digs her fingers under the leaves of lettuce ...
David Bowie: The Gender Bender
Comment by Jon Savage, Face, The, November 1980
"WHAT DO YOU want to be when you grow up, David?" ...
John Lydon, Public Image Ltd: The Fugitive: John Lydon at Large
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Face, The, December 1980
IT SEEMS POETICALLY APPROPRIATE that John Lydon has chosen Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange as the film to insert into the video-cassette deck at Virgin's Townhouse ...
Ian Dury: The Royal Academy of Jackthelademy
Interview by Mike Stand, Face, The, December 1980
THE ARTIST, cultivator of a thousand verbaceous boarders, sits on a plastic chair in this desert of a room. Cropped short his greying hair gives ...
Interview by Jon Savage, Face, The, January 1981
Let It Rock, Sex, Seditionaries...Anarchy t-shirts and bondage straps. VIVIENNE WESTWOOD’S new collection is called World’s End. She talked about it to JON SAVAGE. ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Salewicz, Face, The, January 1981
ON A MONDAY morning so dark from thundery rainclouds it seems as though the sky has fallen in, Graham 'Suggs' McPherson, shoe-less and wearing only ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Home On The Range
Report and Interview by Chris Salewicz, Face, The, February 1981
PAUL SIMONON lives in a modest two-room Notting Hill basement flat just north of Ladbroke Grove tube station. ...
Public Image Ltd: Public Image Limited: The Flowers Of Romance (Virgin)
Review by Jon Savage, Face, The, April 1981
A typically caustic, sardonic title: the thorn in the rose. If much of the current chart has much of the grace and flow of 1966 ...
Interview by Mike Stand, Face, The, April 1981
"GOD HOLD you in the palm of His hand," said Saxa pulling the bedclothes up to his chin. "He close it and you are dead. ...
Essay by Jon Savage, Face, The, April 1981
IN A CORNER OPPOSITE the entrance, Richard Young, the photographer, has set up his stall. It has a simple backdrop of white cloth – this ...
Adam & The Ants: Adam Ant: Sound and Vision
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Face, The, April 1981
"Malcolm McLaren just said to me, "What do you want, Adam?" I said, "I'd like to be a household name, and have everyone know and ...
Hazel O'Connor: Cracked Actress: Hazel O' Connor
Interview by Mike Stand, Face, The, May 1981
HAZEL O'Connor lives on the fourth floor of a redbrick building in West Hampstead that looks as though it should belong to the water board ...
Interview by Paul Rambali, Face, The, June 1981
A CHECKER CAB pulls up at the corner of MacDougal and 7th; out of it steps Mr. Michael Zilkha. The cab is ...
Interview by Paul Morley, Face, The, June 1981
POSITIVE Noise play at Cabaret Futura, and I think that they're the best group who've yet played there. What a range, I think, what reserves. ...
Interview by Paul Rambali, Face, The, July 1981
Born in Spanishtown, Jamaica, the daughter of an eminent clergyman, Grace Jones moved to Syracuse in upstate New York at the age of 12. A ...
Spandau Ballet: A Revolt Into Style
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Face, The, August 1981
"IF PEOPLE want to find out what is the working class attitude to life," Gary Kemp declares forcefully, leaning towards me over a corner table ...
Clash, The: The Clash: The Return of Native Paranoia
Report by Chris Salewicz, Face, The, August 1981
IN HOT humid New York City, the eight Clash dates at Bonds discotheque had their number doubled following a first night raid by the Fire ...
Chas Jankel, Ian Dury: Ian Dury and Chas Jankel: Teeth and Smiles
Interview by Mike Stand, Face, The, September 1981
IAN DURY is in prime form. He is just back from a short holiday in Greece and is, if not exactly bronzed, then distinctly off-white, ...
Overview by Jon Savage, Face, The, November 1981
I’ve been waiting for this one ever since the Black Arabs: a classic rip-off single to finally mop up any punk detritus and put it ...
Teardrop Explodes, The: Julian Cope: Julian Weirds Out!
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Face, The, November 1981
I'D BEEN worried about Julian Cope. This nagging concern had started some four months ago, during one hot and humid night in New York City, ...
Crass: The Aesthetics of Anarchy: A Report from the House of Crass
Interview by Mike Stand, Face, The, December 1981
THIS MUST be the dialectic of rock journalism. The talk is about whether there should be talks. Should Crass co-operate with The Face? ...
Soft Cell: Tainted Pop: An Interview with Marc Almond
Interview by Jon Savage, Face, The, January 1982
IT HAPPENS less these days — the law of diminishing returns — but I still have occasional single obsessions that are also, thankfully, irrational. ...
Interview by Mike Stand, Face, The, February 1982
DARKNESS AND DEGRADATION IN SOUND AND WORD! But first let’s talk about Northampton! ...
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Face, The, March 1982
FLEXING her feet in a pair of black Dr Martens, Kim Wilde sits in an orderly, wholesome manner at one end of a carefully battered, ...
Retrospective by Jon Savage, Face, The, March 1982
You might well suppose the marriage of pop and television to be made in heaven, so inseparable do they seem. Perhaps not: you have complaints. ...
Jam, The, Paul Weller: The Paul Weller Interview
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Face, The, May 1982
AS PAUL WELLER says, in the mid-1960s the original spirit of Mod implanted itself into the soul of young Britain with a self-nurturing, almost religious ...
Interview by Paul Rambali, Face, The, July 1982
Ry Cooder is tall, like a Texan, and dry, very dry, like a Margarita; tall in both physical height and musical standing, dry in both ...
Prince: Someday Your Prince Will Come
Essay by Carol Cooper, Face, The, June 1983
THE THING TO BEAR IN MIND is that Prince does not do interviews. He certainly didn't do this one, nor any of a dozen others ...
Gil Scott-Heron: Shooting from the Hip: Gil Scott-Heron
Interview by Max Bell, Face, The, June 1983
With verse and music slung from his belt, GILSCOTT-HERON is making his stand against the Cowboy. Some people accuse him of being right on. But ...
Talking Heads, David Byrne: David Byrne: First Degree Byrne
Interview by Max Bell, Face, The, June 1983
FOR SOMEONE WITH such an aversion to limelight, fame and wild applause, David Byrne certainly puts himself about a bit. Ever since he formed Talking ...
Profile and Interview by Paul Rambali, Face, The, June 1983
IN ANY MODERN dictionary of infamy, the name of Malcolm McLaren would merit a lengthy entry. He has been a purveyor of fetish-wear, an agent ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: The Chapel of Love: Bob Marley’s Last resting Place
Report by Chris Salewicz, Face, The, June 1983
ON A HILLSIDE in a peaceful corner of Jamaica’s lush rural hinterland – Natural Mystic Country – perches the simple white-washed chapel erected on the ...
Interview by Paul Rambali, Face, The, July 1983
SOMEWHERE ON the southern outskirts of Manchester there is a graveyard. Next to the graveyard is a rehearsal room where the four members of New ...
Elvis Costello: The Face Interview: Elvis Costello
Interview by Paul Rambali, Face, The, August 1983
ALMOST seven years ago now, the son of dance band singer Ross McManus invented somebody called Elvis Costello. It was possible to do that in ...
Kid Creole & The Coconuts: To The Life Boats
Profile by Carol Cooper, Face, The, September 1983
"Strange, how potent cheap music is."– Noel Coward, Private Lives ...
Eurythmics, Annie Lennox: Annie Lennox: MaSQUERaDE!
Interview by Max Bell, Face, The, October 1983
THE EURYTHMICS used to rehearse in a room above a picture framers in Camden Town. Now, with money in the bank and record sales approaching ...
Interview by Jon Savage, Face, The, October 1983
For someone whose work has graced millions of record sleeves and influenced a whole generation, Jamie Reid’s personal profile is not the highest. This is ...
Culture Club: A Boy For Europe
Interview by Max Bell, Face, The, November 1983
THE BEST thing about the Culture Club is that anybody can join. Membership isn't exclusive. Jon, Roy, George and Mikey have managed to come up ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Salewicz, Face, The, November 1983
IN THE HITCHHIKERS Guide To The Galaxy the number 42 is revealed as the clue to The I Meaning Of Life. This is the origin ...
ABC: Past Imperfect, Future Tense
Interview by Jon Savage, Face, The, January 1984
On the dreamstage of a pop-music fantasy, ABC were cast as the perfection of a glossy ideal. But their irony was misread, their clothes misconstrued. ...
Prefab Sprout: Faith, Hope & Glory?
Profile and Interview by Max Bell, Face, The, March 1984
"IF ALL THIS HADN'T worked out I was resigned to being a librarian. That's what I wanted to do." Thus speaks Paddy McAloon, brains in ...
X: Guitars Against The Golden State
Profile and Interview by Robin Eggar, Face, The, April 1984
They've been called The Last American Rock Band. It's a tag they hate. ...
Electro: The Beatbox Bites Back
Essay by David Toop, Face, The, May 1984
1984: Two a.m. at The Funhouse and the giant video screen fills with the image of the Master O.C.'s hands scratching an Enjoy 12 inch. ...
Interview by Paul Rambali, Face, The, June 1984
NOTES SCRAWLED habitually on the back of Richard Branson’s hand attest to a hectic day. He had been invited to lunch by the financial editor ...
Live Review by Ira Robbins, Face, The, June 1984
ELVIS Costello’s 1983 American tour was so boring that even longtime fans found it difficult to remain alert for an entire set of pseudo-cabaret runthroughs. ...
Tom Verlaine: Tom Foolery: Tom Verlaine
Interview by Max Bell, Face, The, July 1984
CAN IT REALLY be ten years now since we first heard about Television and the infamous New York scene of 1974? Those days, laughingly referred ...
Interview by Max Bell, Face, The, August 1984
PARTHENON DRIVE, Norris Green, is one of Liverpool's quieter backwaters. The road, with its leafy gardens and council houses, is not scarred by graffiti or ...
Chic: Nile Rodgers: Brother, Can You Spare a Riff?
Interview by Paul Rambali, Face, The, September 1984
THE CHIC SOUND – unique, polished, assertive – was the Motown of the '70s, synonymous with the rising aspirations of black America. It was to ...
Report and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, Face, The, October 1984
"WHAT WE'RE DOING here is bringing back the talkies," David Bowie announces self-mockingly. His livid mask recalls the white-faced clowns and demons of the Commedia ...
Profile and Interview by Carol Cooper, Face, The, November 1984
DESPITE WHAT you may have read, there is no such thing as a monolithic black American style. The attempt to pigeonhole black creativity into narrow ...
Curtis Mayfield: Keep On Pushing: Curtis Mayfield
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Face, The, 1985
They were still calling it ‘race music’ when Curtis Mayfield started singing in the late ‘50s. An influential and innovative artist, Mayfield gave a stirring ...
Paul Young: Too Much, Too Young
Interview by Dave Rimmer, Face, The, January 1985
CLOSE YOUR EYES and picture the man who is talking. Chances are you imagine him looking well turned-out in a sharp and quite possibly shiny ...
Smiths, The: The Smiths: Dreamer In The Real World
Profile and Interview by Nick Kent, Face, The, May 1985
To his father, he was a "complete fruitcake," to his contemporaries "the village idiot". Yet in the treacherous image-bloated clone-zone of pop, his is the ...
Jesus & Mary Chain, The: The Jesus and Mary Chain: Jesus Wept
Profile and Interview by Max Bell, Face, The, June 1985
ACCORDING TO MR Geoff Travis, chief of staff at the born again, doubly hip Rough Trade records (purveyors of high class pop to the gentry), ...
Womack and Womack (and Womack): Bring The Family Back
Profile and Interview by David Toop, Face, The, December 1985
BORN IN THE SOUL YEARS, SURVIVING THE LEAN YEARS, THE WOMACK FAMILY HAVE PUT A LIFETIME'S EMOTIONS INTO THEIR MUSIC. BUT CECIL AND LINDA WOMACK ...
Morris Day, Time, The: Now Is The Time For Morris Day
Interview by Carol Cooper, Face, The, December 1985
He played the senior dude in Purple Rain, the one who nearly stole the show from his real-life hometown rival Prince. He calls his autobiographical ...
Duran Duran: The Pop Dream Come True
Report and Interview by Dave Rimmer, Face, The, December 1985
NIGHT SETTLES ON The Palace Hotel, Philadelphia, like a sigh of relief. All the acts have finished all their frantic, last minute preparations for Live ...
LL Cool J: Def Jam: The Rap Brat Pack
Report and Interview by David Toop, Face, The, March 1986
THE GREATEST CREATIVE CONVERGENCE IN 20th Century music has been the American Jewish/Black independent record company. Reel 'em off: Herman Lubinsky and Savoy Records, Hy ...
David Sylvian Vs. The Pop Goliath
Interview by Dave Rimmer, Face, The, March 1986
THE MAN WHO STROLLED INTO the lobby was small and neat, grey-suited with white shoes. His hair was a natural darkish brown a small silver ...
Sample and Hold: The House Sound of Chicago
Report by Sheryl Garratt, Face, The, September 1986
"Sue the bastards!"WE'VE BEEN IN Chicago for two hours now, and for reasons too ridiculous to explain we are sitting in an Armenian restaurant talking ...
Luther Vandross: Let's Start with Pacman
Interview by David Toop, Face, The, March 1987
LUTHER VANDROSS SPRAWLS UNTIDILY ACROSS THE COUCH AND SHOOTS THAT LOOK. "MS PACMAN," HE CORRECTS. ...
Report and Interview by Dave Rimmer, Face, The, Summer 1987
SEARCHLIGHTS SWAY IN THE SKY over Hollywood Boulevard and Vine as the premiere party for La Bamba the movie strides into full swing. The subject ...
Farm, The: The Dark Side Of The Mersey: Retro-Rock Scallies
Report and Interview by John McCready, Face, The, 1988
A HIPPIE IS chased down a darkened street by a group of 16 year-old Casuals. In most parts of Britain, what follows is likely to ...
Scritti Politti: The Green Manifesto
Interview by David Toop, Face, The, 1988
The only pop artist who can incorporate Miles Davis and Jacques Derrida into the same repertoire, Green Gartside is still pondering the "the undecideability of ...
Smith & Mighty: Smith And Mighty: Bristol Rising
Profile and Interview by John McCready, Face, The, 1988
Coming from the same sound system roots as Soul II Soul, dance producers Smith And Mighty are at the centre of a thriving West Country ...
Depeche Mode: Modus Operandum: Depeche Mode in Detroit
Interview by John McCready, Face, The, 1989
IT'S JUST after one at the best club on the planet. This is Detroit’s Music Institute, an all-night and most-of-the-next-day juice bar with a sound ...
Interview by John McCready, Face, The, 1989
INSPIRED BY a single, ‘There She Goes’, and an assortment of odd, beautiful and tangential B-sides built from nothing but raw creativity, I feel like ...
Guide by John McCready, Face, The, 1989
TECHNO HAS turned ordinary record buyers into badly-informed technology obsessives. ...
Interview by John McCready, Face, The, 1989
"ASK ME what you want, John. I can take it. I mean, what are you going to do — spank me?" ...
Jane's Addiction: Jane’s Addiction: Guns ’N Poses
Interview by John McCready, Face, The, 1990
Some people think Jane’s Addiction are the new Guns N’ Roses, even the new Rolling Stones. Others think that singer Perry Farrell will save rock ...
KLF, The: KLF: Tales From The White Room
Interview by John McCready, Face, The, 1990
SINISTER. That's the word. The KLF are sinister. With their pervy mail-order black-hooded packamacks, their propaganda and their perfect assimilation of rave culture they are ...
Beats International, Fatboy Slim: Beats International
Report and Interview by John McCready, Face, The, 1990
Beats International are a pop group of their time... an indie star turned dance guru, a soap star turned singer, and a motley crew of ...
Stone Roses, The, Happy Mondays: The Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays
Report and Interview by Nick Kent, Face, The, January 1990
AFTER A YEAR of underground success, Stone Roses and Happy Mondays crowd into a Top Of The Pops dressing room to celebrate their entry into ...
Report and Interview by David Toop, Face, The, January 1990
A LITTLE suburban parking spot in Carson, Los Angeles, and balmy tranquility hangs in the air like Valium fallout. There are harsh alien sounds, though: ...
Smiths, The, Morrissey: Morrissey: The Deep End
Interview by Nick Kent, Face, The, March 1990
Walking backwards into the Nineties, has Morrissey finally lost all sane 'focus' on his career? ...
Erasure, Depeche Mode, Inspiral Carpets: Staying Mute
Profile and Interview by John McCready, Face, The, August 1990
ELECTRONIC. TEUTONIC. Independent. European. Regardless of the reality of its catalogue, Mute Records has a certain image. Like any record label with a desire to ...
Massive Attack: The Bristol Bunch
Interview by John McCready, Face, The, 1991
MASSIVE ATTACK were part of Bristol's Wild Bunch crew, a posse who pioneered UK hip hop. In 1986 they helped put together ‘The Look Of ...
Primal Scream: Ten Minutes In The Mind Of Bobby Gillespie
Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Face, The, August 1991
Why did you start playing dance music?Better music, better chicks, better drugs. Is rock'n'roll dead? No. There's a lot of great rock'n'roll bands, like Jane's ...
Report and Interview by Sean O'Hagan, Face, The, April 1992
IT'S EARLY evening in a Russian restaurant somewhere in west London, a place that specializes in vodka – chili vodka, lemon vodka, brandy vodka, even ...
Suede, Morrissey: Brett Anderson & Morrissey: Suedegate
Comment by Sheryl Garratt, Face, The, May 1993
Does this magazine print deliberate lies? Well actually no, we don't ...
Miami Bass: How Low Can You Go?
Report by John McCready, Face, The, 1994
In Florida, a pair of 15-inch speakers carry more B-boy cred than a pair of fat-laced sneakers, and your car is judged not by speed ...
Oasis: Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Beatles...
Interview by Cliff Jones, Face, The, August 1994
The next Pistols, the next Beatles, or just this month's Next Big Thing? Oasis are good enough to fight the hype – but the battling ...
Marshall Jefferson: Moving House
Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Face, The, September 1994
I FIRST MET MARSHALL Jefferson in 1986, in his native Chicago. House was just starting to bloom there, and he was working on 'Move Your ...
Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Face, The, December 1995
I FIRST MET MRS WOOD on a trip to BCM in Majorca. The manager had flagged up his attractions outside the club in four-foot letters: ...
Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Face, The, September 1996
WHEN NENEH CHERRY was a toddler, she met Miles Davis. She remembers his gravelly growl of a voice, and recalls him opening his trumpet case ...
Neu!, Amon Düül, Faust: Welcome To The Machine: Kraut Rock
Overview by John McCready, Face, The, November 1996
Julian Cope has championed it, new Nineties bands are ransacking it and the ageing German hippies that first created it are now packing in techno ...
Retrospective by John McCready, Face, The, 1997
TEN YEARS IS A LONG TIME. Three score short of a lifetime, I know, but long enough to establish your own space programme and see ...
Report and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Face, The, December 1997
JOHN DIGWEED stares at the sleek, black stretch limo we've ordered to take us from the hotel to the club in New York. "I usually ...
Working on a Building of Love: The Great Days of the Haçienda
Retrospective by John McCready, Face, The, Spring 1997
With Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People opening in the UK this weekend, we reprint Face writer John McCready's wonderful account of the club's rise, ...
Report and Interview by Ian Fortnam, Face, The, 2001
STANDING CENTRE-stage and plastered in a grin that pretty much redefines the very word maniacal is a 52-year old man uniquely blessed with the voice ...
Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Face, The, October 2003
You were scheduled to snog Madonna at the MTV awards, but you dropped out and Britney took over. Why? ...
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