Rock's Backpages
Interview by Steven Rosen, Rock's Backpages, December 1974
Steven Rosen talks to Arthur Lee in 1974 on the influence of the Byrds on Love, and his development as an artist.
File format: MP3 File size: 1mb<br> Interview length: 1 minute 27 seconds Sound quality: ***
Pete Townshend: Peter Townshend (1979)
Interview by Steven Rosen, Rock's Backpages, Winter 1979
Steven Rosen talks to Pete Townshend about developing his solo style after listening to Jimi Hendrix (1979).
File format: MP3 File size: 842kb<br> Interview length: 1 minute 11 seconds Sound quality: ***
King Sunny Ade: King Sunny Adé (1983)
Interview by Simon Witter, Rock's Backpages, January 1983
Nigerian giant Adé talks about juju music, tribalism and politics, the talking drum and much more.
File format: mp3; file size: 61.1mb, interview length: 1h 06' 43" sound quality: ***
Red Hot Chili Peppers, The: Red Hot Chili Peppers (1985)
Interview by Simon Witter, Rock's Backpages, August 1985
Peppers Flea and Hillel Slovak run down the band's history, compare and contrast production methods of Andy (Gang of Four) Gill and George Clinton, chat about punk and funk, and generally rabbit on!
File format: mp3; file size: 43.3mb, interview length: 47' 18" sound quality: ***
Interview by Simon Witter, Rock's Backpages, July 1986
The Chicago House pioneers Steve 'Silk' Hurley and Keith Nunnally on the form's origins, the rip-offs of Rocky Jones and DJ International, Farley 'Jackmaster' Funk's kleptomania, and th linksback to NYC via Frankie Knuckles.
File format: mp3; file size: 47.8mb, interview length: 52' 12" sound quality: ***
Hank Ballard and the Midnighters: Hank Ballard (1987)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, 1987
From Alabama to Detroit, from The Royals to The Midnighters, the great Hank Ballard tells of Clyde McPhatter, Billy Ward, King Records and 'The Twist' and 'Work With Me Annie'
File format: mp3; in 2 parts, total file sizes: 42.2meg, total interview length: 46' 05" sound quality: ***
Nirvana: Melody Ballroom, Portland, Oregon
Essay by James Rexroad, Rock's Backpages, April 1991
click here for photostory by James Rexroad ...
AUDIO: Three Dog Night's Danny Hutton (1993)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, June 1993
First Dog Hutton takes us back to the heady '60s days on the Sunset Strip, hanging out with Van Dyke Parks, Brian Wilson and Lowell George, and Three Dog Night.
File format: mp3; file size: 80.1mb, interview length: 1h 27' 31" sound quality: ***
MC5: AUDIO: The MC5's Wayne Kramer (1994)
Interview by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, January 1994
Detroit guitar-wrangler Wayne Kramer looks back at the MC5 and departed comrades Fred Smith and Rob Tyner, drugs and jail, and his life after the Five.
File format: mp3; file size: 39.6mb, interview length: 43' 14" sound quality: *
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, 1997
WITH THE swaggering chords of the opening ‘Rock'N'Roll Star,’ Oasis announced that big, brash Brit rock was here to stay--at least for a few years. ...
Sam Cooke: Live at the Harlem Square Club
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, 1997
MOST OF SAM Cooke's pop hits were sugary, blanched affairs. This album was the real deal, giving us the church-reared R&B singer who liked to ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, 1997
FEW WOMEN HAVE expanded the vocabulary of rock as bewitchingly as Kate Bush; among male stars, only Prince may have taken as many risks. Hounds ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, 1997
JOHNNY THUNDERS'S principal solo claim to fame, So Alone consists of Dollsy covers (the Shangri-Las' ‘Give Him a Great Big Kiss,’ the Chantays' surf chestnut ...
Cramps, The: The Cramps: Songs the Lord Taught Us
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, 1997
THE CRAMPS GOT away with their Z-movie, zombie-rock schtick because they were so intense in their conviction that it had more value than middlebrow humanist ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, 1997
NEXT TO CBGBS peers like the Ramones and the Voidoids, Talking Heads barely sounded like a punk band. After the startlingly non-conformist ‘Love Building on ...
Paul Simon: Graceland; Warner Bros 925447-2, Released September 1986
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, 1997
IN THE SUMMER of 1984, as he faced the problem of furthering a critically successful but commercially waning career, Paul Simon received a gift from ...
Kim Fowley: Riding Shotgun in Swinging London
Book Excerpt by Kim Fowley, Rock's Backpages, 1999
The arrival of The Beatles in 1964 convinced Kim Fowley that he had no immediate future as a freelance record producer in his native Los ...
Kim Fowley: Into The Sinister ’70s
Book Excerpt by Kim Fowley, Rock's Backpages, 1999
AS WE ALL KNOW, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison all died in fairly quick succession as the ’70s began. By the time Jim ...
Kim Fowley: The Thoughts of Chairman Kim
Book Excerpt by Kim Fowley, Rock's Backpages, 1999
On Being the Rock’n’ Roll Rupert Everett ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, June 1999
Barney Hoskyns talks to Iggy Pop, New York NY, 24 June 1999 File format: MP3 ; File size: 20.9mb; Interview length: 45 minutes; Sound quality: ***
Kim Fowley, Runaways, The: King of the Nighttime World
Book Excerpt by Kim Fowley, Rock's Backpages, 2000
In an exclusive extract from his forthcoming memoirs VAMPIRE FROM OUTER SPACE, Kim Fowley reveals how L.A. ultravixens The Runaways were formed – and how ...
Elvis Presley: Scotty Moore's Classic Axe Goes Under The Hammer
Report by Mark Pringle, Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, April 2000
Former Elvis Presley producer weeps after auctioning off "the most important guitar in rock and roll history" ...
Jack Nitzsche: Legendary Music Arranger and Composer, Jack Nitzsche Dies
Obituary by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, September 2000
Legendary arranger and award-winning composer Jack Nitzsche died at Queen Of Angels hospital in Los Angeles, Calif. , on August 25, 2000. Nitzsche’s death was ...
Lee 'Scratch' Perry: Into the Heart of the Ark: An Audience with Lee
Book Excerpt by Chris Salewicz, Rock's Backpages, November 2000
In an excerpt from his book Rude Boy: Once Upon a Time in Jamaica, Chris Salewicz recounts his February 1978 meeting with legendary reggae producer ...
Al Green: Take Me to the River: Al Green with Davin Seay
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, November 2000
"Gen’lmen, we just havin’ church here." Six words which - directed at me and a fellow soul buff at the Full Gospel Tabernacle church by ...
Fatboy Slim: The BACKPAGES interview: Fatboy Slim
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, November 2000
When Norman ‘Fatboy Slim’ Cook exploded on the world’s dancefloors with ‘The Rockafeller Skank’ and ‘Praise You’, he brought a sense of brash, manic fun ...
Greil Marcus: Top Spin Service!!
Profile and Interview by Charlie Gillett, Rock's Backpages, November 2000
Charlie Gillett, broadcaster and author of The Sound of the City, regularly invites guests to play radio "ping-pong" on his Saturday night show on London ...
Swamp Dogg: Cover Story: A Dogg with Attitude
Special Feature by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, November 2000
How a pint-sized pooch danced for his record label ...
Eminem, Outkast, Wu-Tang Clan: The Way They Are: Eminem and Friends
Review by Cleothus Hardcastle, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
HIP HOP, you don’t stop. Whatever it is that this hybrid of street poetics and processed beats represents for modern culture, it ain’t going away. ...
Steely Dan: Two Against Nature
Review by Ed Doheny, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
TWO AGAINST NATURE could have been horrible, as so many of these returns by grizzled ’70s vets are; as it was, the album was merely ...
Review by Ed Doheny, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
WHEN IT COMES to matters Californian, Warren is even more jaundiced than Steely Dan: if the Becker/Fagen take on El Lay was Elmore Leonard meets ...
Grandaddy: The Sophtware Slump
Review by Ed Doheny, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
"SHOULD NEVER have left the crystal lake/For parties full of folks who flake." There’s something irresistible about gnarly American guys going back to the land, ...
Review by Ed Doheny, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
A NEW KIND of backwoodsiness comes courtesy of lugubrious Nashvillians Lambchop, whose Kurt Wagner sounds like (prime influence/collaborator) Vic Chesnutt seasoned with shadings of Al ...
Review by Ed Doheny, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
COMPARED TO Lambchop’s Nixon – elliptical sketches of humanity from an alt.country porch – Smog’s Dongs of Sevotion gives us the music of a man ...
Johnny Cash: American III: Solitary Man
Review by Ed Doheny, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
ONE OF THE bullet-point discussions of this album – on which the mythopoeic Man in Black does the Rick Rubin thang a third time, thus ...
Radiohead: Here Are The Young Men: Radiohead’s Kid A
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
2000 WAS PARTLY about waiting for Yorko: waiting for the follow-up to the huge, incandescent, panoramic, faux-pomp OK Computer. And when Kid A finally arrived ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
A KEY STRAIN of early aughties rock is a school of bands desperately emulating the whiteboy guitar angst of Jeff Buckley and Thom Yorke. First ...
Björk, PJ Harvey: Bjork: Selmasongs; PJ Harvey: Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
Review by Djuna Parnes, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
OUTSIDE OF Kid A, Thom Yorke made two significant cameo appearances in A.D. 2000. Both were on albums by dark, "difficult" women who’ve spearheaded change ...
Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
...
Review by Melody Nelson, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
Saint Etienne: The Sound of WaterBent: Programmed to Love ...
U2, Richard Ashcroft: U2: All That You Can’t Leave Behind Richard Ashcroft: Alone with Everybody
Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
WE WERE assured that Dublin’s finest would be going back to basics on All That You Can’t Leave Behind; that they’d dispensed with the electro-trappings ...
Kingsbury Manx, Teenage Fanclub, Cosmic Rough Riders: The Retro Grade: Welcome To Calibernia
Review by Ed Doheny, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
Teenage Fanclub: Howdy! Cosmic Rough Riders: Enjoy the Melodic SunshineKingsbury Manx: Kingsbury ManxPhoenix: United ...
Badly Drawn Boy, Stephin Merritt: The Hour Of The Nouvel Troubadour
Review by Art Sperl, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
Badly Drawn Boy: The Hour of BewilderbeastMagnetic Fields: 69 Love Songs ...
Review by Djuna Parnes, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
1997’S FRACTURED, fundamentally bogus Vanishing Point laid the ground for the much more focused Xtrmntor, Bobby Gillespie’s first true manifesto of an album since the ...
Kelis, D'Angelo, Erykah Badu: D’Angelo: Voodoo/Erykah Badu: Mama’s Gun/Kelis: Kaleidoscope
Review by Cleothus Hardcastle, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
SOMEHOW "SOUL" music lives on, clinging to life in the midst of the coldest, meanest materialism. Straight outta Brooklyn came two of the heirs to ...
Review by Art Sperl, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
THE DREARY Stereophonics notwithstanding – isn’t Kelly Jones just the alt.britrock Bryan Adams? – there’s definitely something in the Welsh water that’s, well, different: a ...
Review by Art Sperl, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
IF IT WAS NO Utopia Parkway, Maroon was sufficiently quirky and humorous to hold the attention. There were crunchy hooks and pining sad-boy harmonies aplenty, ...
Revue/Re-View 2000: RBP’s Goodest, Baddest and Ugliest of The Year – Part 1
Guide by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
HERE ARE THE YOUNG MEN... ...
Revue/Re-View 2000: RBP’s Goodest, Baddest and Ugliest of The Year – Part 2
Guide by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
THE WAY THEY ARE ...
Revue/Re-View 2000: RBP’s Goodest, Baddest and Ugliest of The Year – Part 3
Guide by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
....AND YE SHALL KNOW THEM BY THE ECHOES OF BLUDGEONING PUNK-METAL RIFFOLOGY ...
Revue/Re-View 2000: RBP’s Goodest, Baddest and Ugliest of The Year – Part 4
Guide by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
LET’S GET WRANGLED ...
Revue/Re-View 2000: Lists? We've got ’em
Guide by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
RBP’s 20 Best Albums of 2000 ...
Melody Maker, 1926 - 2000, RIP
Obituary by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
An era came to an end on 14th December when IPC Magazines announced the closure of its oldest music title, Melody Maker. ...
Tim Buckley: The Multi-media Musings of an All American Ego
Retrospective by Heather Harris, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
L.A.-based photographer/writer Heather Harris was the last journalist ever to interview Tim Buckley. This is her account of the meeting she had with him in ...
Pop Staples, Staple Singers, The: It's All Over Now: A Farewell to Pops
Obituary by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
Roebuck ‘Pops’ Staples, patriarch of gospel-soul family group the Staple Singers, died on Tuesday, December 19. Possessor of a light, understated harmony voice and distinctive ...
Interview by Marc Weingarten, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
How a Brummie came to host the most respected public radio show in L.A. ...
Electric Light Orchestra: I Love That ELO! A Jeff Lynne interview
Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Rock's Backpages, 2001
IT IS JEFF LYNNE'S DIVINE RIGHT to wear women's clothing. British rockers d'un certain âge are afforded no-questions-asked lifetime passes for ambiguous sartorial choices simply ...
Bob Dylan: Bobquest: In Search of Zimmerman
Book Excerpt by Jill Furmanovsky, Rock's Backpages, 2001
‘Quest’: a search, especially an arduous one, for something that is greatly desired. Example: quest for life's meaning. ...
John Lennon: Memories Of John Lennon
Memoir by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, 2001
THE FIRST TIME I heard John Lennon’s voice was in mid-January 1963 in my father’s white Triumph Vitesse car, travelling from Skipton to York, going ...
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Memories Of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Peter Rudge
Retrospective by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, 2001
LYNYRD SKYNYRD WAS MANAGED BY my friend Peter Rudge from late 1973. Rudge’s main pre-occupation at this time was The Who, for whom he’d worked ...
Comment by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, January 2001
Fans of European football (soccer to all you Americanos out there) will already know that Italian maestro Roberto Baggio – he of the Buddhist beliefs ...
Rolling Stones, The, Andrew Loog Oldham: The Backpages Interview: Andrew Loog Oldham
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, January 2001
Last year saw the UK publication of Stoned, a wonderfully insightful film/fashion/music overview of the first Britpop era (1960-1964) by Andrew Loog Oldham, perhaps best ...
Stephen Malkmus: The BACKPAGES interview: Stephen Malkmus
Interview by Edward Helmore, Rock's Backpages, January 2001
After a decade working the streets with Pavement, lo-fi pin-up king Stephen Malkmus has cut himself free from the band to wander free. ...
Guide by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, January 2001
From Radio Ethiopia to Dread Zeppelin...20 classics of Cod-Reggae ...
Band, The: Rock’n’Roll Academy: Revisiting The Band’s Rock of Ages
Review by Martin Colyer, Rock's Backpages, January 2001
Two of my favourite live albums were recorded at either end of 1971. In February Taj Mahal added a horn section of four Tuba players ...
Phoenix: Mean Fiddler 2, London
Live Review by Etienne Petit, Rock's Backpages, January 2001
WOULD LONDON BE rocking tonight to Phoenix if they weren’t French? I ask only as a fellow countryman of this very fine group. If Thomas ...
La's, The: The La’s: The La’s (Go! Discs)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, January 2001
WHO REMEMBERS the La’s when they first popped out of the Liverpool woodwork? A cherubic quartet of scallies, they were pure cutesy retro, ’60s revisitors ...
Report by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, January 2001
Anticipating the February 9 UK release of Cameron Crowe’s film Almost Famous, about a callow young scribe hitting the road with a mid-’70s rock band, ...
Guest List Blues: Almost Famous
Review by Ed Doheny, Rock's Backpages, February 2001
Ed Doheny on Cameron Crowe’s almost-good Almost Famous – the first movie with a rock journalist for a hero. ...
Review by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, February 2001
RBP's recent faves... ...
Strokes, The: The Strokes: Monarch, London, February 7
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, February 2001
U2 WERE rocking the Astoria across town, but the hotter ticket by far was this New York five-piece who sound like pure 1969 Live Velvets ...
Essay by Victoria Sandler, Rock's Backpages, February 2001
The estate of the demised Take That has bequeathed us so much: pretty boy bands aplenty, fashionably camp(er) covers of otherwise hideous unclassics – ‘Could ...
David Johansen’s Journey Through the Past
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, February 2001
Between songs the occasional, almost plaintive, yelp can be heard: "‘Subway Train’!" "‘Funky But Chic’!" One particularly persistent voice calls for ‘Babylon’, of all things, ...
Mighty Imperials, The: Keepers of the Flame, or a Retro-step too far?
Review and Interview by Mark Pringle, Rock's Backpages, February 2001
The Mighty Imperials: Jazz Café, London The Mighty Imperials – four white 18-year-olds from New York – blew into town this week ...
Eminem: In the Audience with Eminem
Live Review by Mark Pringle, Rock's Backpages, February 2001
Eminem: The London Arena, Docklands ...
Chrissie Hynde, Pretenders, The: The Backpages Interview: Chrissie Hynde
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, February 2001
Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders have just finished a fall 2000 U.S. tour opening for Neil Young. Hynde and her group included versions of Young's ...
So, what do Q know? RBP’s 50 favourite music books
Guide by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages, February 2001
"Genius!" trumpets the cover of this month’s Q magazine: "The 50 Best Music Books Ever Written." Naturally, we wuz hooked and forked over our three ...
Like A Hurricane: The 100 Most Intense Records Ever Made
Guide by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, March 2001
One way or another, all music is about emotion, even when it’s about lack of emotion. But some records reach the parts others never can, ...
Review by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, March 2001
The Rock’s Backpages Top 10 ...
Retrospective by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages, March 2001
ROUGH TRADE is 25 years old. In its early days, you wouldn’t have got odds on the firm lasting another 25 weeks. And like so ...
Daft Punk, Air: En Garde! Le Pop Nouveau Français, c’est Arrivé!
Profile by Etienne Petit, Rock's Backpages, March 2001
The late ’90s saw the flowering of a nouveau French techno-pop. Now Air, Daft Punk and friends are conquering the world. RBP’s Paris correspondent explains ...
Report by Bud Scoppa, Rock's Backpages, March 2001
"I Was Robbed," A Loser Whines, Then Delivers An Acceptance Speech That Never Was ...
Leonard Cohen: Field Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979 (Columbia)
Review by Martin Colyer, Rock's Backpages, March 2001
Coming off the extraordinary experience of making Death of a Ladies Man in 1977 with Phil Spector (being locked up in the studio, having a ...
Bob Dylan, Beach Boys, The, Rolling Stones, The: Rockumentaries on the Biography Channel
Film/DVD Review by Mark Pringle, Mat Snow, Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, March 2001
Not long ago, any glimpse on the box of a great musician was like catching sight of the lesser spotted grebe – all the lovelier ...
John Fahey: The Outsider: John Fahey 1939 - 2001
Obituary by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, March 2001
America lost of one of its most fascinating musical mavericks on Thursday, February 22, when guitarist John Fahey died after sextuple heart bypass surgery at ...
From the Dawn of Creation to the Birth of Poptones: A Walk Thru’ Joe Foster’s Vaults
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, March 2001
Barney Hoskyns meets Alan McGee’s right-hand man and hears about his ongoing mission to bring lost classics back to life ...
John Phillips, Mamas and The Papas, The: John Phillips — 1935-2001
Obituary by Ed Doheny, Rock's Backpages, March 2001
Ed Doheny remembers the head Papa. ...
Robbie Fulks: Country Music is Not Pretty: A User’s Guide to Robbie Fulks
Review and Interview by Martin Colyer, Rock's Backpages, March 2001
PrologueAnyway, before long the room has filled with people, and I grab my beloved Martin 00028 and take the stage. The show is one of ...
Review by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, April 2001
The Rock’s Backpages Top 10 ...
Janis Joplin, Big Brother & The Holding Company: Love, Sam
Retrospective and Interview by Ernesto De Pascale, Rock's Backpages, April 2001
On the eve of the premiere of off-Broadway show Love, Janis, Big Brother’s Sam Andrew remembers his friend and musical soulmate. ...
North Mississippi Allstars: Shake Hands with Cody: North Mississippi Allstars
Interview by Josh Rinkoff, Rock's Backpages, April 2001
Josh Rinkoff meets one o’ the Dickinson boys ...
Howard Tate: The Unearthing of Howard Tate
Report by Cleothus Hardcastle, Rock's Backpages, April 2001
"They had a thing in MOJO, like, Whatever happened to Howard Tate? He’s gotta be fuckin’ dead, man!"– David Johansen, talking to Rock’s Backpages, January ...
Grateful Dead: Ladies and Gentlemen, The Grateful Dead
Review by Mark Pringle, Rock's Backpages, April 2001
This week sees the 30th anniversary of the Dead's final run at the New York's Fillmore East. RBP's resident Deadhead Mark Pringle reviews the 4 ...
Ramones, The: Hey Ho, He’s Gone: Farewell Joey Ramone — 1951-2001
Obituary by Nicky Parade, Rock's Backpages, April 2001
The true heroes of rock and roll are always the freaks and the geeks. Joey Ramone, born Jeffrey Hyman on May 19, 1951, was both. ...
Ramones, The: In-a-Gadda-da-Gabba-Gabba-Hey!!
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, April 2001
The former leader of Thee Precisions and editor of Back Door Man pays personal tribute ...
Television: Gimme Friction: Television at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, April 2001
ONE MOMENT, more than any other during this one-off London show on Easter Sunday, summed up the nature of the curious rock beast that is ...
Missy Elliott: Rhymes & Misdemeanours: Missy Elliott Gets Her Freak On
Interview by Amy Linden, Rock's Backpages, April 2001
THE EXPRESSION "It takes a village to raise a child" has quickly morphed from sage African proverb to the "Have A Nice Day" of social ...
Mark Eitzel: The Soul Disappears Like A Hairline
Interview by William Higham, Rock's Backpages, April 2001
Mark Eitzel is most famous as the lead singer and songwriter of American Music Club, the influential godfathers of emotive lo-fi. They recorded seven harrowing ...
Review by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, May 2001
Fave Raves and Rabid Enthusiasms ...
Black Crowes, The: The Black Crowes: Lions (V2)
Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, May 2001
FOLKS, I'M AS big an enemy of hoary old "rock" and all its many cousins as most anyone I know. I can’t abide Oasis and ...
We Have the Power: A novice’s passport to the glorious sonic world of Power Pop
Guide by William Higham, Rock's Backpages, May 2001
"Power pop is what we play. What the Small Faces used to play and the kind of pop the Beach Boys played in the days ...
Ryan Adams: Country Music and its Alternatives
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, May 2001
Ryan Adams was alt.country’s brightest hope – the new Gram Parsons, no less – till his band Whiskeytown unravelled. Then he veered off the No ...
Git Down!! The 50 Funkiest Records Ever Made!!
Guide by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, June 2001
Once upon a time there was Funk. THE Funk. The Rhythm of the One. Now it's all four-on-the-floor hard-house and techy trance, dance-muzik devoid of ...
Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music: Another Time, Another Place: Bryan Ferry relives the early Roxy years
Interview by Nicky Parade, Rock's Backpages, June 2001
NP: I know that you didn’t particularly care for the term Glam. Is that because you felt it reduced Roxy to the level of, say, ...
Roxy Music, Brian Eno: Another Glam World: Brian Eno’s Adventures in Roxy Music
Interview by Djuna Parnes, Rock's Backpages, June 2001
DP: What does the phrase "Glam Rock" mean to you? ...
Doors, The: Asbolutely Dead: How the Jim Morrison Industry lives on
Essay by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, June 2001
"Well, we’re all in the cosmic movie, you know that! That means the day you die, you gotta watch your whole life recurring eternally forever, ...
White Stripes, The: The White Stripes: De Stijl (Sympathy for the Record Industry)
Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, June 2001
JACK AND MEG White are the future of the very industry for which their label espouses such compassion. These Detroit-based guitar/drum siblings strip Jon Spencer-style ...
DIG THIS! Special: 2001 at the Halfway Mark...
Review by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, June 2001
Folks, this month we’ve decided to forego our usual playlist format and instead give y’all the lowdown on the discs which have rocked our world ...
Rufus Wainwright: The Backpages Interview: Rufus Wainwright
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, June 2001
When Rufus Wainwright’s eponymous debut album appeared three years ago, it was as though the golden age of maverick American singer-songwriters had never ended. ...
Live Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, June 2001
My my, hey hey, hard rock will never die. OK, it doesn’t scan quite as well as ol’ Neil’s line, but you get my drift. ...
Prefab Sprout: The Backpages Interview: Paddy McAloon
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, June 2001
Fans of Prefab Sprout’s Paddy McAloon – the Gershwin of Tyneside – are used to defending him against the barbarians of Britrock and other genres ...
Blind Boys of Alabama: The Backpages Interview: Clarence Fountain of the Blind Boys of Alabama
Interview by Jason Gross, Rock's Backpages, June 2001
A sixty-plus-year-old gospel group that covers Tom Waits and the Rolling Stones songs for Peter Gabriel’s label? Is it possible? When most groups struggle to ...
John Lee Hooker: Goodbye Boogie Man
Obituary by Cleothus Hardcastle, Rock's Backpages, June 2001
"Woke up this morning..." ...
Leiber and Stoller: The Backpages Interview: Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
Interview by Cleothus Hardcastle, Rock's Backpages, June 2001
The names Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller are inseparable from the stories of rhythm’n’blues and rock’n’roll. They were two Jewish teenagers who felt black and ...
All Access: Front Row. Backstage. LIVE!
Film/DVD Review by Martin Colyer, Rock's Backpages, July 2001
"ROCK 'N' ROLL! PHEW!" It’s tempting to speculate what Jeff Bridges would say when faced with a B.B. King the size of a house, ...
Hot House: Headin' South: Muscle Shoals '87
Memoir by Martin Colyer, Rock's Backpages, July 2001
Martin Colyer was a member of Hot House, the Brit deep-soul trio who ventured down to Muscle Shoals in 1987 to cut their first album ...
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, July 2001
IF IT WASN'T quite the summer garden party it should have been, Radiohead's big homecoming bash at Oxford's South Park was mostly (or at least ...
Review by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, July 2001
RBP's Raves and Faves ...
Did Video Kill The Radio Star? MTV 20 Years On
Retrospective by James Slack, Rock's Backpages, July 2001
"MTV makes me want to smoke crack..." (Beck, 1992) ...
Marianne Faithfull: The Backpages Interview: Marianne Faithfull
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, July 2001
ON A SUNNY evening in the fair city of Dublin, Marianne Faithfull pads about her kitchen, barefoot in a denim skirt, preparing a rack of ...
Skinny Tie Heaven! The RBP Power Pop Top 100
Guide by William Higham, Rock's Backpages, August 2001
Chiming and choogling, winsomely pretty and archly melodic, freshfaced and faux-naif... yep, it's that formidable sub-genre POWER POP, a blissful marriage of melody and energy ...
Review by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, August 2001
RBP's Faves and Raves ...
Mercury Rev: Jonathan Donahue's Dark Dream
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, August 2001
TWO AND A half years ago, American mavericks Mercury Rev thought their career was pretty much over. For the band's two Catskills-based mainstays – singer/guitarist ...
Rolling Stones, The: Imaging The Stones: John Van Hamersveld
Book Excerpt by John Van Hamersveld, Rock's Backpages, August 2001
John Van Hamersveld was one of the key poster artists of the psychedelic rock era in Los Angeles. He was also the man to whom ...
Big Star, Posies, Arnold: Mean Fiddler, London
Live Review by Josh Rinkoff, Rock's Backpages, August 2001
A GOOD FRIEND OF MINE told me about an amazing group called Big Star. He said I should go out and buy a copy of ...
Skinny Tie Heaven! The RBP Power Pop Top 100, Part 2! (50 - 1)
Guide by William Higham, Rock's Backpages, September 2001
William Higham concludes his epic list by nominating the Top 50 PP classix of all time... ...
Aimee Mann: Key Largo: A Catchup Chat with Aimee Mann
Interview by Alvaro Costa, Rock's Backpages, September 2001
AC: So you haven't become a "Lady of The Canyon" after all... ...
Smiths, The, Johnny Marr: The Backpages Interview: Johnny Marr
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, September 2001
Rock's eternal sideman steps into the spotlight with The Healers – and talks to Barney Hoskyns about life as an ex-Smith. ...
Review by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, September 2001
AT THE RISK OF BANALITY AND REDUNDANCY – not to mention just plain inadequacy – suffice it to say that the apocalyptic horror of 11.09.01 ...
T. Rex, Marc Bolan: The Cosmic Dancer: The Short, Brilliant Ride of Marc Bolan
Retrospective by Nicky Parade, Rock's Backpages, September 2001
IT IS LONDON, JANUARY 1970. A new pop decade has begun, and two of its budding stars are huddled together at the Trident recording studio, ...
Morrissey, Smiths, The: This Disarming Man: In Defence of Morrissey
Retrospective by Djuna Parnes, Rock's Backpages, September 2001
WHAT A CURIOUS POSITION Morrissey holds in the pop firmament of the early 21st century. For a man who was one of the defining heroes ...
Bob Dylan: Love And Theft (Columbia/Sony)
Review by Martin Colyer, Rock's Backpages, September 2001
BOB DYLAN turned up unannounced at the Mariposa Folk Festival in Toronto in 1972, looking for Leon Redbone. Redbone was a singer and guitarist who ...
Peter Green, Van Morrison, Nina Simone: Bishopstock 2001: Nina Simone and Van Morrison
Live Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, September 2001
Two cantankerous legends hold court in the Devon sunshine ONE FESTIVAL, THREE DAYS, four major cancellations... and two obstreperous veterans doing their thang on Bank ...
Black Crowes, The: The Pride of Lions
Report and Interview by Ernesto De Pascale, Rock's Backpages, September 2001
Their "funky gospel rock" may be out-of-fashion, but the Black Crowes' Chris Robinson is unrepentant. Ernesto de Pascale meets him as he entertains the faithful ...
Interview by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, September 2001
Leaving the South behind for La-la land, Ryan Adams makes a bid for rock stardom. And why shouldn't he, asks the Reverend Al Friston? ...
Aphex Twin: Don't Fear The Aphex: The Weird Genius of Richard James
Profile by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, October 2001
WHEN APHEX TWIN released his groundbreaking Selected Ambient Works 85-92 almost a decade ago, the record arrived as a godsend to anyone who loved Kraftwerk ...
Phil Spector: Back to Monomania! The Legend of Phil Spector
Retrospective by Ed Doheny, Rock's Backpages, October 2001
THE WORD IS THAT Cameron Crowe and Tom Cruise are set to make a movie about Phillip Harvey Spector, the greatest record producer in the ...
Bob Dylan: Life and Life Only: Bob Dylan at 60
Retrospective by Mick Gold, Rock's Backpages, October 2001
HE'S BEEN RECORDING FOR 40 years, 43 albums, never-ending tours. There’s something Shakespearean about the complexity of his work: so many points of view expressed ...
Review by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, October 2001
RBP's Raves and Faves ...
PJ Harvey: Big Exit: P.J. Harvey's Last Night
Live Review by Djuna Parnes, Rock's Backpages, October 2001
IT IS THE SECOND OF TWO SOLD-NIGHTS in Sarf London, and the last date of a very long tour – much of it spent supporting ...
Spiritualized: Let It Shine Down: Mr Spaceman's Stroboscopic Pomp Gospel
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, October 2001
Spiritualized: Hammersmith Apollo, 12th October ...
Obituary by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages, November 2001
"Friendly. Grouchy. Kind. Grudging. Selfless. Resentful. Materialistic. Unworldy." ...
North Mississippi Allstars: The North Mississippi Allstars: Water Rats, London
Review and Interview by Josh Rinkoff, Rock's Backpages, November 2001
SHAKE HANDS WITH SHORTY, the first album from Memphis band the North Mississippi Allstars, was possibly one of the best releases of last year. ...
Dave Matthews Band: The Backpages Interview: Dave Matthews
Interview by Ed Doheny, Rock's Backpages, November 2001
IT'S A MEASURE OF the marked disparity between Dave Matthews' superstar status in America and his almost total obscurity in Europe that the marketing campaign ...
Cher: The Backpages Interview: Cher
Interview by Melody Nelson, Rock's Backpages, November 2001
SHE IS ONE of the supreme pop divas, the half-native-American goddess formerly known as Cherilyn Sarkarsian LaPier. Her rollercoaster ride of a career has taken ...
Ooooh Las Vegas! 37 Stories, and It's All Out There…
Essay by Holly Gleason, Rock's Backpages, November 2001
Country music publicist Holly Gleason spends a night in Sin City – and comes to terms with the celebrity frenzy that is pop's new American ...
White Stripes, The: The White Stripes: Astoria Theatre, London, 21st November
Live Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, November 2001
THE MOTOR CITY IS BURNING – on London's Charing Cross Road. An hilariously heraldic "City Of Detroit" flag – with a Latin inscription translating as ...
Memoir by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, December 2001
It is a year since IPC shut down Melody Maker, the oldest of all popular music magazines. In this affectionate memoir, former MM staffer and ...
DIG THIS! Fave Raves and Rabid Enthusiasms – RBP's 20 Best of the Month…
Guide by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, December 2001
1 The Congos: 'Fisherman', from Dread Meets Punk Rockers Uptown (Selected by Don Letts) (Heavenly)Dread Meets Punk Rockers is a fabulous collection of mid-'70s roots ...
Over to YOU: RBP Readers Vote!!
Guide by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, December 2001
RBP's TWO-PART epic "Cry Me A River: The 100 Most Heartbreaking Records Ever Made" feature sparked a torrent – well, a stream, anyway – of ...
Best of the Year: RBP's Albums of 2001
Guide by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, December 2001
2001 WAS a bewildering mix of Gallic kitsch, hip Americana, Britpop residue and ghetto-fabulous hip hop. Limeys fell in love with the Strokes and the ...
Cry Me A River! The 100 Most Heartbreaking Records of All Time…(100-51)
Guide by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, December 2001
Hands up who's never been reduced to tears by a love song. There can't be many of you out there. ...
Cry Me A River! The 100 Most Heartbreaking Records of All Time… (50-1)
Guide by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, December 2001
Last week we gave you the first 50 of our all-time gut-wrenching love songs. This week we complete a ton of tearjerkers with our Top ...
Lucinda Williams: Essence (Lost Highway)
Review by Martin Colyer, Rock's Backpages, December 2001
HOW D'YOU follow up a Grammy-winning, plaudit-garnering album that took three years and as many producers to make? Well, you go to Minneapolis and get ...
Sparklehorse: It’s a Wonderful Life (Parlophone)
Review by Djuna Parnes, Rock's Backpages, December 2001
A GANGLY Virginian whispering fractured Victrola lullabies in the soft falsetto of a geeky angel, Mark Linkous occasionally borders on greatness. The third ’horse album ...
R.E.M.: REM: Reveal (Warner Bros.)
Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, December 2001
REVEAL IS, well, a revelation — especially for anyone as weary of the bogus and posturing Michael Stipe as this writer is. After the band’s ...
Jim O'Rourke: The Backpages Interview: Jim O’Rourke
Interview by Djuna Parnes, Rock's Backpages, December 2001
IS HE THE Ryan Adams of the alternative-to-the-alternative axis? Or just the Beck of the avant-avant-garde? For ten years, Jim O'Rourke has worked with everyone ...
Dictators, The: The Dictators: live at El Sol, Madrid 24th November
Live Review by Lindsay Hutton, Rock's Backpages, December 2001
HEY ANDY SHERNOFF! You tell us that your generation ain't the salvation of this R'n'R beastie but I beg to differ. ...
Rolling Stones, The: If You Want To Know Anything, Ask Stanley: A Memoir
Memoir by Tina McElroy Ansa, David Sandison, Chris Wohlwend, Rock's Backpages, January 2002
David Sandison handled PR for the Rolling Stones when Stanley Booth went on the road with them in 1969. ...
Van Dyke Parks, Beach Boys, The: Wouldn't It Have Been Nice: An Interview with Van Dyke Parks
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, January 2002
VAN DYKE PARKS was the intellectual southerner who penned the baroque, cryptic lyrics for 'Surf's Up', 'Heroes and Villains' and other Brian Wilson masterpieces. He ...
Essay by Kandia Crazy Horse, Rock's Backpages, January 2002
"What matters most is how well you walk through the fire." - Charles Bukowski ...
Being My Almost Absolutely True Adventures with Stanley Booth
Essay by David Dalton, Rock's Backpages, January 2002
The South, sir, is no more than the Creation viewed by a crocodile.– Rev. Sydney Smith I ADMIT I don't know what ...
Rolling Stones, The: Rolling Away the Stones: Stanley and I
Essay by Michael Lydon, Rock's Backpages, January 2002
Michael Lydon was the other reporter on the infamous Rolling Stones' 1969 tour of America. This is his recollection of meeting Stanley Booth, and the ...
DIG THIS! Fave Raves and Rabid Enthusiasms
Review by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, January 2002
RBP's 10 Best of the Month of January 2002 ...
DIG THIS! Fave Raves and Rabid Enthusiasms for February 2002
Review by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, February 2002
GIG OF THE MONTH ...
Various Artists: Good Rockin' Tonight - The Legacy of Sun Records (Sire)
Review by Martin Colyer, Rock's Backpages, February 2002
ANOTHER WEEK, another tribute album, but this one is pretty successful. Beautifully packaged, with only one obvious clunker (Johnny Halliday's 'Blue Suede Shoes'? He don't ...
Review by Martin Colyer, Rock's Backpages, February 2002
IF YOU DIG the pulsating sound of a fully revved-up Hammond B3, the headlong rush of a low-down bar-band playing the blues and the close-to-heaven ...
Sam Moore: Plenty Good Lovin’ (Swing Café)
Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, February 2002
TOO OFTEN great "lost" albums went AWOL for a very good reason – they weren’t very good. But 30 seconds into what should have been ...
David Holmes: Ocean's 11 original soundtrack (Warner Sunset)
Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, February 2002
WHEN IT COMES to the soundtrack too often a compilation of old tunes represents the limit of Hollywood ambitions. Director Steven Soderbergh and DJ David ...
Norah Jones: Come Away With Me (EMI Capitol)
Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, February 2002
NORAH JONES may not be up there with Wolf J Flywheel in the memorable moniker stakes, but mark it well. Produced by Arif Mardin, this ...
Quincy Jones: Q - The Autobiography Of… (Hodder & Stoughton)
Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, February 2002
WHAT AN extraordinary life the multi-talented Mr Jones has led. He's worked with everyone from Count Basie to Melle Mel, Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson ...
Beach Boys, The, Brian Wilson: Brian Wilson: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, February 2002
NOT ONLY did my spine tingle during the third night of Brian Wilson's sell-out four-night stand in London, but I also cried with joy. The ...
Marianne Faithfull: Tears Gone By: the Rebirth of Marianne Faithfull
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, February 2002
The former Sister Morphine talks about her remarkable new album Kissin Time. ...
Rufus Wainwright: Acting Casanova: Rufus Wainwright at the Town Hall, New York City
Live Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, Rock's Backpages, February 2002
LIKE MEMPHIS crooner Al Green before him, Rufus Wainwright is L.O.V.E. To see him in concert, as we did last week in Manhattan, is to ...
Indigo Girls: Become You (Epic)
Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, March 2002
STEPPING BACK from the rockier edge of their last two albums, the Indigo Girls have opted for a rootsier feel on their latest offering. It’s ...
Kiss: Gene Simmons: Kiss and Make-up - The Autobiography of Gene Simmons (Century)
Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, March 2002
THEY WANTED to dress like comic-book superheroes and write football-terrace anthems like Slade. Out of such dumb genius, vast fortunes are made. Kiss were also ...
N*E*R*D*: In Search Of… (Virgin)
Review by Josh Rinkoff, Rock's Backpages, March 2002
MY JOURNEY to this album started about a year ago, when I realised that my knowledge of hip-hop barely extended beyond Snow and Vanilla Ice. ...
Average White Band, Sweet: Unmasked: "Mick Tucker" and Other Rock Impostors
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, March 2002
I NEVER knew Mick Tucker, Sweet’s drummer, who died last week, but I once met a man who impersonated him, or at least pretended he ...
DIG THIS! Fave Raves and Rabid Enthusiasms for March 2002
Review by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, March 2002
ALBUMS OF THE MONTH ...
Report by David Quantick, Rock's Backpages, March 2002
THERE ARE many differences between Britain and America – they like Hootie and the Blowfish, for example, and we like Chas and Dave; their milk ...
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: The Backpages Interview: Jon Spencer
Interview by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, March 2002
The world's most incendiary blues-punk noisemeisters return this month with a full-on, balls-out rock'n'roll album. ...
Richard Hell: The Backpages Interview: Richard Hell
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, March 2002
The original Bowery ripped-shirt nihilist – born plain Richard Meyers in Kentucky – is back with two collections of odds'n'ends: the two-CD Time (Matador) and ...
About a Bloke: The 10 Tracks Nick Hornby Couldn't Live Without
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Mark Pringle, Rock's Backpages, March 2002
WELCOME TO a new if occasional treat: AURAL SURVIVAL, a sit-down with a much-loved CELEBRITY FAN in order to ascertain the 10 recorded performances he ...
Be Good Tanyas, The: The Be Good Tanyas: Borderline, London, 19th March
Live Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, April 2002
TO DISPLAY delight at making music might sound an obvious and easy thing to do. This show by the Canadian trio of Frazey Ford, Samantha ...
Various Artists: Electric (Telstar)
Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, April 2002
THE OLDEST track on this 34-track compilation dates from 1974 – and Sparks’ 'This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both of Us' still sounds ...
Joan Baez, Bob Dylan: David Hajdu: Positively Fourth Street (Bloomsbury)
Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, April 2002
NOW OUT in paperback, this engrossing account of the intertwined lives of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mimi Baez Fariña and Richard Fariña from the late ...
Neil Young: Are You Passionate? (Reprise)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rock's Backpages, April 2002
NEIL YOUNG'S new studio opus opens with a quintessentially sultry Stax/Volt groove, courtesy of the Booker T. & the MGs rhythm section, over which Young’s ...
Dig This! Fave Raves and Rabid Enthusiasms for April 2002
Review by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, April 2002
ALBUM OF THE MONTH! ...
Give Up The Day Job!: Scribes turned Stars, Poachers Turned Gamekeepers!
Guide by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, April 2002
This week, a propos of nothing in particular – the new Pet Shop Boys album, perhaps? – we consider the careers of the many ...
Tom Waits: The Backpages Interview: Tom Waits
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, April 2002
Thomas Alan Waits is about to release two albums simultaneously – Alice and Blood Money. In this previously unpublished interview from the spring of 1985, ...
Band, The: The Night They Put The Band To Rest: The Last Waltz Revisited
Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, April 2002
"THE LAST WALTZ" was The Band's star-studded swansong, staged on Thanksgiving Day, 1976. Martin Scorsese made a timeless rockumentary about it, inspiring a hundred alt.roots-rockers ...
Aretha Franklin: The Queen's Greatest Tracks
Review by Martin Colyer, Barney Hoskyns, Mark Pringle, Rock's Backpages, May 2002
"THEY USED to call me a jazz singer," Aretha told Val Wilmer in 1968. "Now I think what I sing is closer to R&B and ...
Joy Division: 24 Hour Party People: directed by Michael Winterbottom
Review by Djuna Parnes, Rock's Backpages, May 2002
MUCH TO MY surprise, this self-serving cinematic essay about and around Anthony H. Wilson of Factory and Haçienda fame is a resounding success. It's extremely ...
David Bowie: The Dame's New Clothes
Essay by Nicky Parade, Rock's Backpages, May 2002
How David Bowie became Mr. Respectable ...
Bob Dylan: Revisiting Dylan's Highway
Book Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, May 2002
Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan (Black Swan)Isis: A Bob Dylan Anthology, edited by Derek Barker (Helter Skelter) ...
David Bowie: How I alienated David Bowie!
Comment by John Mendelsohn, Rock's Backpages, May 2002
IN THE AUTUMN of 2000, I had gone from being a very well paid Web designer to being an out-of-work former Web designer. ...
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The: The Yeah Yeah Yeahs: The Garage, London, 28th April
Live Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, May 2002
I HAVE seen rock and roll future and it goes YEAH YEAH YEAH!!! Or, more cautiously: I have mostly been blown away by the latest ...
John Hammond and his Wicked Grin Band: The Borderline, London, 27th April
Live Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, May 2002
BY INJECTING a dose of blues into a collection of Tom Waits tunes, John Hammond created his most satisfying and critically acclaimed album in years, ...
Wishbone Ash: A Tribute to Heroes! Ashbone U Wish do Wishbone Ash
Live Review by John Mendelsohn, Rock's Backpages, May 2002
I WILL NOT feign objectivity. When Wishbone Ash dissolved in 1977 because of the usual "creative differences" (Nigel and Steve wanted to be creative, while ...
Fontella Bass: The Backpages Interview: Fontella Bass
Interview by Ernesto De Pascale, Rock's Backpages, May 2002
With a series of gospel albums released in the last few years, Fontella 'Rescue Me' Bass is more alive than ever. Now she's on her ...
Bob Dylan: Me and Lozza… and Bob too!
Live Review by Richard English, Rock's Backpages, May 2002
Bob Dylan: Brighton Entertainment Centre 4th May LOZZA AND I are in the Standing Area in front of the Brighton Conference Centre ...
Neil Young: Brixton Academy, London, 21st May
Live Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, June 2002
NEIL YOUNG'S in a pretty unassailable position these days: revered by everyone from fresh-faced teens to grizzled pensioners of the Woodstock generation, and free to ...
Solomon Burke: An interview with Joe Henry
Interview by Dave Schulps, Rock's Backpages, June 2002
This brief interview with Joe Henry was conducted on the "red carpet" arrival line at the ASCAP pop music awards in May. Henry received an ...
Gary Wilson: You Think You Really Know Me (Motel Records)
Review by Yancey Strickler, Rock's Backpages, June 2002
ROUGHLY 3,000 people named Gary Wilson currently live in the United States. Gary Wilson coaches the University of Minnesota's track team. Gary Wilson breeds bearded ...
Sons of the Pioneers: The Sons of the Pioneers: The Ultimate Collection (Hip-O/MCA Nashville)
Review by Jason Gross, Rock's Backpages, June 2002
IN THE WAKE of the success of the Coen Brothers'/T-Bone Burnette's O Brother, Where Art Thou, you'd surely hope that some people would be curious ...
Biggie and Tupac: directed by Nick Broomfield
Review by James Slack, Rock's Backpages, June 2002
WHATEVER your take on Broomfield and his bumbling public school fecklessness, there's no denying the bloke makes riveting documentaries. Following up the chilling Kurt and ...
Dig This! Fave Raves and Rabid Enthusiasms for June 2002
Review by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, June 2002
GIG O' THE MONTH! ...
Allman Brothers Band: Song O' The South: How the Allman Brothers made a Redneck Negress out of me
Special Feature by Kandia Crazy Horse, Rock's Backpages, June 2002
AN UNORTHODOX daughter of Dixie, born in the year of their classic Fillmore East live album, my life truly began when I heard the exotic, ...
The Meeting of the ‘Twain: Monterey Pop and the Great California Divide
Special Feature by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, June 2002
"TRAVELING UP the Coast from the ruins of the Sunset Strip to the Haight is a Dante-esque ascent," New Yorker Richard Goldstein could write of ...
Solomon Burke: The Bishop of Soul returns
Special Feature by Dave Schulps, Rock's Backpages, June 2002
MICK JAGGER may have insisted once upon a time that "it’s the singer not the song," but that doesn’t necessarily mean that even the greatest ...
Like Rock Never Happened: Pop Idols for Tibet... or Greenpeace... or whatever
Comment by John Mendelsohn, Rock's Backpages, June 2002
WELL, I HOPE everybody's satisfied. Back in the early '80s (you can look it up!), I was railing in Creem about the institutionalisation of surliness ...
Lenny Kravitz: A Man Called Sex
Live Review by Richard English, Rock's Backpages, June 2002
Lenny Kravitz: Wembley Arena, 17th June ...
John Lennon: How I Almost Met the Late John Lennon
Memoir by John Mendelsohn, Rock's Backpages, June 2002
LEGEND AND VH1 have it that when Elton John made his Los Angeles debut at the Troubadour in August 1970, he blew everyone away, and ...
Live Review by Alvaro Costa, Rock's Backpages, July 2002
EVERYTHING WAS in its right place during Radiohead's intense Portuguese tour: sunny skies, five sold-out nights in Porto and Lisbon Coliseums, an adoring and ...
David Byrne: Leicester De Montfort Hall, 7th July
Live Review by Andy Farquarson, Rock's Backpages, July 2002
AN INCONGRUOUSLY large stage dominates the tiny park which is the setting for a one-day festival at Leicester's De Montfort Hall. As two risers are ...
David Bowie: Royal Festival Hall, London, 29th June
Live Review by William Higham, Rock's Backpages, July 2002
IT SEEMS LIKE some of the old guard are rediscovering their form over the last eighteen months: Brian Wilson, Bryan Ferry, Roger Waters and now ...
DIG THIS! Fave Raves and Rabid Enthusiasms for July 2002
Review by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, July 2002
GIGS O' THE MONTH! ...
John Entwistle, Who, The: Thunderfingers' Last Stand: Remembering John Entwistle
Memoir by Keith Altham, Rock's Backpages, July 2002
THE NEWS OF John Entwistle's death reached me by email from LA via Pete Townshend's PA Nicola Joss in Las Vegas on Thursday night. ...
Rory Gallagher: When The Good Guys Die: Remembering Rory Gallagher
Memoir by Harry Doherty, Rock's Backpages, August 2002
I REMEMBER IT WELL, the day Rory Gallagher died. It was brought back to me the other week when news of George Best and his ...
Elvis Presley: Memphis: Visions of a Bluff City
Special Feature by Joss Hutton, Rock's Backpages, August 2002
Click here to see Joss Hutton's evocative images of Memphis, 25 years after Elvis's death ...
Birthday Party, The, Nick Cave, Boys Next Door, The: A Boy Next Door
Retrospective and Interview by Michel Faber, Rock's Backpages, August 2002
Novelist Michel Faber remembers the Young Nick Cave. ...
Queens Of The Stone Age: Queens of the Stone Age: Songs For The Deaf (Polydor)
Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, September 2002
ONCE IN A BLUE MOON an album happens along that relights your fire – that brings moribund rock back to life. The odd quasi-supergroup that ...
Ray Charles: Thanks for Bringing Love Around Again (Crossover)
Review by Michael Lydon, Rock's Backpages, September 2002
RAY CHARLES' NEW CD, Thanks for Bringing Love Around Again – his first since Strong Love Affair in 1995 – opens with 'What'd I Say', ...
Muddy Waters: Robert Gordon: Can't Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters (Jonathan Cape)
Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, September 2002
MUDDY WATERS STANDING at a mike hollering "I’m a man", giving those three simple words a world of meaning – invitation, warning, primal statement and ...
Soft Cell: Cruelty Without Beauty (Cooking Vinyl)
Review by Djuna Parnes, Rock's Backpages, September 2002
THE GOD-UNCLES of electroclash make a long-overdue comeback with a fascinatingly reflective album – "We've gotta keep dancing through the years/We've gotta keep smiling through ...
Ron Sexsmith: Cobblestone Runway (Nettwerk America)
Review by Djuna Parnes, Rock's Backpages, September 2002
DISMAYINGLY DROPPED by Capitol, the moon-faced Canadian troubadour has fetched up on one of those last-chance-saloon indies, hopefully not an indication that his career's in ...
DIG THIS! Fave Raves and Rabid Enthusiasms for September 2002
Review by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, September 2002
ALBUM O' THE MONTH! ...
Essay by Holly Gleason, Rock's Backpages, September 2002
THERE IT WAS ONE DAY – propped against my doorway in West Hollywood – a plain brown cardboard box like so many others. Anonymous. Almost ...
Warren Zevon: The French Inhaler Hastens Down The Wind: Warren Zevon Learns To Let Go
Essay by Holly Gleason, Rock's Backpages, October 2002
THERE'S THAT THING called friend-of-a-friend, where you're "in" even before you know about the other person. And so it was with Warren Zevon, produced by ...
Datsuns, The: The Big Noise from Down Under: The Datsuns
Interview by Joss Hutton, Rock's Backpages, October 2002
THE UK SEEMS to be going underground rock ‘n’ roll ker-razy at the moment, what with the success of The White Stripes and The Hives, ...
David Bowie: Fifty Ways To Love Your Bowie: Half a Ton of Fave Daves
Guide by William Higham, Rock's Backpages, October 2002
WITH THE Bard of Beckenham on a critical high right now (and yes, new album Heathen IS his best in years), it seems an opportune ...
Erma Franklin: A Tribute to Erma Franklin
Obituary by David Nathan, Rock's Backpages, October 2002
I DID THE FIRST of my two interviews with Erma Franklin and although it’s been twenty-nine years since, I can remember with vivid detail. ...
Aerosmith: Starwood Amphitheatre, Tennessee
Live Review by Holly Gleason, Rock's Backpages, October 2002
"EVERY DAY, I LOOK in the mirror/ All these lines in my face gettin' clearer/ The past is gone..." It is a benediction, an acceptance, ...
DIG THIS! Fave Raves and Rabid Enthusiasms for October 2002
Review by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, October 2002
ALBUMS O' THE MONTH! ...
DIG THIS! Fave Raves and Rabid Enthusiasms for November 2002
Review by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, November 2002
ALBUM OF THE MONTH ...
Paul Du Noyer : Liverpool - Wondrous Place (Virgin Books)
Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, November 2002
THE FORMER EDITOR of Q magazine 's history of music in Liverpool hangs his tale on three venues – the Cavern, Eric's and Cream. In ...
Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, November 2002
STEVE EARLE’S life is a gift for biographers, a rock'n'roll fuck-up who came back from the dead with his intelligence and integrity intact. Most ...
MC5: MC5 - A True Testimonal (Future/Now Films)
Review by Lindsay Hutton, Rock's Backpages, November 2002
SEVEN YEARS in the making, this is a multi-dimensional boot up the jacksy to the increasing legion of lazy tosspots that compares anything with a ...
Richard Harris: The Grim Reporter
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, November 2002
Phast Phreddie Patterson on those gone but not forgotten. ...
Tim Rose, Little Johnny Taylor: The Grim Reporter November 2002
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, November 2002
Phast Phreddie Patterson on those gone but not forgotten ...
Memoir by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, November 2002
BACK IN AUGUST 1973, Melody Maker sent me to Los Angeles to become their US correspondent, the third in line after Roy Hollingworth and Michael ...
Book Review by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, November 2002
Simon Warner peruses a fresh academic take on rock journalism ...
Essay by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, December 2002
Simon Warner on Dazed & Confused at 10 – and The Wire at 20! ...
Nirvana: Kurt’s Chronicler: An Chat With Charles R. Cross
Interview by Alvaro Costa, Rock's Backpages, December 2002
Alvaro Costa checks in with the author of the acclaimed Heavier Than Heaven. ...
Queens Of The Stone Age: Cometh the Age, Cometh l’Homme
Interview by Alvaro Costa, Rock's Backpages, December 2002
To pay homage to Songs For The Deaf, RBP’s Album Of The Year, Alvaro Costa is granted an audience with the chief Queen of the ...
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Holly Gleason, Rock's Backpages, December 2002
PHAST PHREDDIE PATTERSON and HOLLY GLEASON pay tribute ...
Run DMC, Clovers, The, Coasters, The, Lonnie Donegan: The Grim Reporter December 2002
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, December 2002
Phast Phreddie Patterson on those gone but not forgotten ...
DIG THIS! Fave Raves and Rabid Enthusiasms for December, and the best of 2002!
Review by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, December 2002
ROCK DOC OF THE MONTH! ...
Stereolab, Joe Strummer, Lovin' Spoonful, The: The Grim Reporter January 2003
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, January 2003
Phast Phreddie Patterson on those gone but not forgotten ...
Jane Birkin, Serge Gainsbourg: Jane Birkin: Je T’Aime… Moi Aussi!
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, January 2003
FOR THOSE of you who missed it, the general premise of the current TV ad for Kronenberg 1664 lager is as follows: If Britain were ...
Hold Your Head Up: In Praise of Bi-Level Rock!
Comment by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, February 2003
Barney Hoskyns, co-author of The Mullet: Hairstyle of the Gods, hails Mullet Rocks!, a new compilation of bodacious bi-level hard rockers. Below we feature cool ...
T. Rex, Bee Gees, The: The Grim Reporter February 2003
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, February 2003
Phast Phreddie Patterson on those gone but not forgotten ...
DIG THIS! Fave Raves and Rabid Enthusiasms for February 2003
Review by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, February 2003
RADIO SHOW OF THE MONTH ...
Ry Cooder, Manuel Galbán: Ry Cooder and Manuel Galbán: Mambo Sinuendo (Nonesuch/Perro Verde)
Review by Martin Colyer, Rock's Backpages, February 2003
THE WHOLE BUENA Vista Social Club never really pushed my buttons – I liked the film well enough but always drifted off when listening to ...
Review by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, February 2003
"WHAT WOULD entice social misfits from provincial hellholes like, say, Northampton, Wigan and Exmouth to join the world of sex, drugs, travel and free records ...
Todd Rundgren: He Put A Spell On Me: The True Stardom of Todd Rundgren
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, March 2003
It is 30 years since TODD RUNDGREN released the spellbinding A Wizard, A True Star. BARNEY HOSKYNS makes a case for it as The Best ...
Chuck Barris: Confessions of a Populist Mind
Report and Interview by Steven R Rosen, Rock's Backpages, March 2003
Steven Rosen talks to self-confessed CIA assassin Chuck Barris – inspiration to George Clooney – about the pop classic he penned back in 1962. ...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: The Grim Reporter March 2003
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, March 2003
Phast Phreddie Patterson on those gone but not forgotten ...
Overview by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, March 2003
Why new music titles keep coming despite uncertain times. ...
Obituary by Keith Altham, Rock's Backpages, March 2003
Keith Altham remembers his good friend – not to mention his teen idol – Adam Faith. ...
Hank Ballard and the Midnighters: Hank Ballard 1927-2003
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, March 2003
RHYTHM & BLUES singer Hank Ballard (76) died of throat cancer on March 2 at his home in Los Angeles. His chief claim to ...
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, March 2003
BAMBOO CANE FIFE player and drummer Othar Turner (94) died of a heart condition on February 27 at one of his daughters’ home in Gravel ...
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, March 2003
BRITISH POP STAR and actor Adam Faith (Terrence Nelhams, 62) died of a heart attack on March 8 in Stoke-on-Trent, England, where he was appearing ...
Live Review by Josh Rinkoff, Rock's Backpages, March 2003
Last week I went to the Astoria to see hip-pop miracle-workers-cum-funkmeisters N*E*R*D get down with their bad selves. This week is the turn of New ...
Jesse Malin: Troubadour, Los Angeles, March 6th
Live Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, Rock's Backpages, March 2003
GOTHAM HAS BEEN re-christened New Rock City due to its current vogue of garage rock acts and assorted weirdo ensembles straight outta Brooklyn, to incongruously ...
Calexico: Bowery Ballroom, New York City
Live Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, Rock's Backpages, March 2003
IN MY OLD AGE, I am trying to get hip. So I have temporarily relinquished my inner redneck. Left that twang-and-trash loving gal on the ...
Freddy Cannon: Chuck Barris: Confessions of a Populist Mind
Interview by Steven R Rosen, Rock's Backpages, March 2003
Steven Rosen talks to self-confessed CIA assassin Chuck Barris – inspiration to George Clooney – about the pop classic he penned back in 1962. ...
Sid Vicious: John Mendelsohn catches up with the late Sid Vicious
Interview by John Mendelsohn, Rock's Backpages, March 2003
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS after the fact, it appears less and less likely that Elvis's death was a hoax. Not so that of punk rock icon Sid ...
Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin: An Interview with Jimmy Page
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, March 2003
BH: About ten years ago you talked about the footage that's in the DVD. Robert said he didn't want to go back there while you ...
Goldfrapp: Popping The Cherry: Goldfrapp's Glam Adventure
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, April 2003
AFTER THE post-triphop, Shirley-Bassey-meets-Stereolab masterpiece that was 2001's Felt Mountain, Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory have bravely opted to change direction. Their new single 'Train', ...
Now Ain't The Time For Your Tears
Comment by Mick Farren, Rock's Backpages, April 2003
Where are the dissident voices in Bush's gung-ho Amerika? MICK FARREN writes in fury not sorrow. ...
Paul McCartney, Beatles, The: Paul McCartney: Back In The World, Earls Court, London April 21st
Live Review by Richard English, Rock's Backpages, April 2003
ALL MY LIFE I’d wanted to see the Beatles. My sister saw them at Hammersmith in the ‘60s and screamed. This was my ...
Obituary by David Nathan, Rock's Backpages, April 2003
FOR PEOPLE THE world over, the passing of the great, legendary Dr. Nina Simone on April 20, 2003 will be met with much sadness. ...
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, April 2003
SOUL SINGER Edwin Starr (61) died of a heart attack at his home in central England on April 2. Edwin Starr was one of Soul ...
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, April 2003
SOUL SINGER and songwriter Homer Banks (61) died of cancer in Memphis on April 4. Banks achieved most of his fame from writing songs ...
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, April 2003
SINGER LITTLE EVA (59) died of cervical cancer at a hospital in Kinston, North Carolina on April 10. She was born Eva Narcissus Boyd on ...
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, April 2003
NEW ORLEANS bluesman Earl King (69) died from diabetes related complications on April 17 at St. Charles General Hospital in New Orleans. He was ...
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, April 2003
BEBOP SAXOPHONIST Teddy Edwards (78) died of prostate cancer on April 20 in Los Angeles. During the '40s, he was a top draw on ...
Felice and Boudleaux Bryant: Felice Bryant 1925-2003
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, April 2003
SONGWRITER FELICE BRYANT (77) died of cancer at her home in Gatlinburg, Tennessee on April 22. She and her husband Boudleaux Bryant were very ...
Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, Adam Faith: The Grim Reporter April 2003
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, April 2003
Phast Phreddie Patterson on those gone but not forgotten ...
DIG THIS! Fave Raves and Rabid Enthusiasms for April 2003
Review by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, April 2003
GIG OF THE MONTH ...
DIG THIS! Fave Raves and Rabid Enthusiasms for May 2003
Review by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, May 2003
SOUNDTRACK OF THE MONTH ...
Elbow, Radiohead: Radiohead: Hail To The Thief(Parlophone); Elbow: Cast Of Thousands (V2)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, May 2003
AS YOU'LL KNOW by now, rock's favourite Oxonians have hauled their guitars out of the deep freeze and put the Warp(ed) electronica of Kid A ...
Homer Banks, Earl King, Little Eva, Nina Simone, Edwin Starr: The Grim Reporter May 2003
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, May 2003
Phast Phreddie Patterson on those gone but not forgotten ...
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, May 2003
COUNTRY SINGER June Carter Cash (73) died in Nashville on May 15 of complications from heart surgery. She was the daughter of country legend ...
Don & Dewey: Dewey Terry 1937-2003
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, May 2003
ROCK’N’ROLL PIONEER Dewey Terry (65) died of a brain tumor on May 11 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. He had been ...
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, May 2003
NEW YORK ART rocker Sumner Crane (56) died of lymphoma at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan on April 14. He was a member the ...
Noel Redding, Jimi Hendrix: Noel Redding 1945-2003
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, May 2003
NOEL REDDING (57) was found dead at his home in Clonakity, Ireland on May 11. No cause of death has been reported. He ...
Noel Redding, Jimi Hendrix: The Angels Did Sing: Noel Redding 1945-2003
Memoir by Keith Altham, Rock's Backpages, May 2003
MY FIRST TRIP to the U.S. for the New Musical Express was with The Jimi Hendrix Experience for the Monterey Festival. So the sad death ...
Jimi Hendrix, Noel Redding: He Don't Live Today (Sorry): My Noel Redding Experience
Memoir by Gary Pig Gold, Rock's Backpages, May 2003
LET ME TELL YOU: The very first "real" concert I was ever allowed to attend as a wee Canadian tyke just so happened to be ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: The Night Bob Marley Didn't Play the Bouncing Ball
Memoir by Penny Reel, Rock's Backpages, May 2003
IT IS 1973, around the time of the release of Catch A Fire, that Bob Marley And The Wailers are booked to play at Admiral ...
Live Review by William Higham, Rock's Backpages, May 2003
FOR AN OLD XTC fan it doesn't get any better than this (well, not until Andy Partridge loses his stage fright anyway). And when I ...
Lucinda Williams: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Martin Colyer, Rock's Backpages, May 2003
I LAST SAW Lucinda Williams live about ten years ago when she supported Mary Chapin Carpenter in London – not an auspicious show. She seemed ...
Led Zeppelin: All Loud On The Western Front: How Zep Conquered The World
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, May 2003
With the release of the sensational DVD and the fearsome live How The West Was Won, LED ZEPPELIN are back in our midst as purveyors ...
Hail, Hail, Rock'n'Roll Writing!
Comment by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, May 2003
This month, Bloomsbury – the home of rockin' Harry Potter – publishes The Sound & the Fury: A Rock's Backpages Reader, a selection of seminal ...
Steely Dan: The Backpages Interview: Steely Dan
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, June 2003
This week sees the release of Everything Must Go, the follow-up to Steely Dan's Grammy-grabbing Two Against Nature. BARNEY HOSKYNS discusses war, economics and online ...
Thrills, The: Can Buy The Thrills!
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, June 2003
IRISH BOYS HAVE always gone off to the promised land in search of girls and gold, but Dublin's Thrills did more than that. They spent ...
Don & Dewey, June Carter Cash, Noel Redding, Mars: The Grim Reporter
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, June 2003
Phast Phreddie Patterson on those gone but not forgotten ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rock's Backpages, June 2003
IN JASON LYTLE’S WORLD – one that should be readily recognisable to the rest of us in this troubling decade – things are breaking down, ...
Radiohead: Hail to the Thief (Capitol)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rock's Backpages, June 2003
"IS THAT BACKWARDS?" a colleague asked of the music I was playing as he passed by my office. "That's not backwards," I replied; "it's Radiohead." ...
Animals, The: Grim Reporter - July 2003
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, July 2003
Phast Phreddie Patterson on those gone but not forgotten ...
Super Furry Animals: Power To The Furries! Gruff Rhys Speaks
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, July 2003
Welsh wunderkinder the Super Furry Animals return this week with the fabulous Phantom Power. Cardiff’s furriest bard talks to Barney Hoskyns about love, war and ...
Elbow: Given The Elbow: The Confessions Of Guy Garvey
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, August 2003
Two years ago, Elbow released Asleep In The Back, an intense suite of prog-inflected songs that stands as one of the finest albums ever to ...
Victoria Beckham: Keepin’ It Real
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rock's Backpages, August 2003
YOU COULD HARDLY blame the ridicule-mongers for nearly swooning with delight a couple of months ago when Victoria Beckham revealed that she would soon begin ...
Dig This! Fave Raves and Rabid Enthusiasms for September 2003
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, September 2003
Stuff that’s floating Barney Hoskyns’ boat this month... ...
Randy Newman: Is Randy Newman the Old Eminem?
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, September 2003
The funniest and least sentimental songwriter in America has revisited his back pages on The Randy Newman Songbook, Volume 1. BARNEY HOSKYNS asks him about ...
Rufus Wainwright: Chelsea Mourning: Wanting Rufus Wainwright
Comment by Kandia Crazy Horse, Rock's Backpages, September 2003
YOU’RE WALKING, you’re virtually running, exhilarated, exultant, across West 23rd Street, away from Chelsea where you’ve tripped the Apocalypse of Rufus Wainwright and at once ...
Good Charlotte: American Candyass, or: Why Good Charlotte Must Die
Comment by Metal Mike Saunders, Rock's Backpages, September 2003
ARE YOU PEOPLE not understanding? Doesn't anyone learn anything from the lessons of the past? The tail end of poof metal's monstrous commercial ...
Revelations In The Head: Ian MacDonald 1948-2003
Obituary by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, September 2003
THE NEWS THAT Ian MacDonald has taken his own life comes as a terrible shock, both to the colleagues who knew him and to the ...
Grand Wizard Theodore: Yes Yes Y'all and it don't stop, to the beat y'all and it don't stop
Comment by Mark Pringle, Rock's Backpages, October 2003
RBP's very own Mark Pringle got invited to curate the inaugural exhibition – Yes Yes Y'all: hip hop from scratch – at the Hospital in ...
Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant: Stairway to Snowdonia: Rapping with Robert Plant
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, October 2003
For Robert Plant, life after Led Zeppelin has been anything but predictable. Resisting attempts to coast on the Zep legend, Percy has trodden his own ...
David Olney: Borderline, London
Live Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, October 2003
THE QUALITY OF his writing has earned him namechecks from the late Townes Van Zandt and Steve Earle, and the likes of Emmylou Harris and ...
N*E*R*D, Justin Timberlake: Justin Timberlake joins N.E.R.D.: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Josh Rinkoff, Rock's Backpages, November 2003
WHITE, BLACK, Jewish, Muslim. Butcher, baker, candlestick maker. They are all here tonight. Where I hear you ask? Babylon? Brent Cross? No. Tonight I ...
Gathering Moss: The Fossilisation of Rolling Stone
Comment by Tim Footman, Rock's Backpages, November 2003
BILLY JOEL? Billy fucking Joel??? ...
Headless Heroes Of The Apocalypse (Slight Return), Part One
Essay by Kandia Crazy Horse, Rock's Backpages, November 2003
Welcome to Rock City, where voodoo economics and soul providers shadowbox at the Crossroads. Kandia Crazy Horse on The Band, Big Star and white boys ...
Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse Pt 2
Essay by Kandia Crazy Horse, Rock's Backpages, November 2003
KANDIA CRAZY HORSE continues her scintillating sermon on the curious relationship between White Boys and Black Soul. This week: from Traffic thru’ Eddie Hinton on ...
Report by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, November 2003
On wildfires, Schwarzenegger and the suicide of a troubled genius – Barney Hoskyns’ diary of a month in Hollywood Babylon. ...
Johnny Dowd: The Spitz, London
Live Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, November 2003
BECAUSE THEY SHARE a dark gothic sensibility and a preoccupation with biblical notions of sin, Johnny Dowd is often bracketed with Nick Cave. ...
Dig This! Barney Hoskyns fillets his Fave Raves and Rabid Enthusiasms for December 2003
Guide by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, December 2003
1 Basement Jaxx feat. Siouxsie Sioux: ‘Cish Cash’, from Kish Kash (XL Recordings)The most consistently playful – no, make that joyful – duo in electronic ...
Steve Marriott, Humble Pie: Very ‘Eavy: Remembering Steve Marriott and 'Umble Pie
Retrospective by Paul Gorman, Rock's Backpages, December 2003
IT SEEMS inconceivable now, but Humble Pie were once very, very big, albeit for a short while. In recent years – post-Loaded, post-Britpop, post-lad, post-PC ...
Rolling Stones, The, Keith Richards: And Sitteth At The Right Hand Of God…
Retrospective by Jonh Ingham, Rock's Backpages, December 2003
Jonh Ingham recalls a night in the presence of Keith Richards, April 1976. ...
Retrospective by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, 2004
A WHIFF OF hedonism lingered amid the dense fog of cigarette smoke inside the top floor suite of Detroit's luxurious Ponchartrain hotel. David Bowie sighed, ...
Isaac Hayes: Hot Buttered Soul
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, 2004
BY 1969 BLACK artists were following rock's lead and recording very long tracks. At the forefront of such experimentation was big bad Isaac Hayes, co-author ...
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, 2004
DICK CLARK IS ONE of the most recognized personalities in entertainment in America: He hosts two nationally syndicated radio shows ("Rock, Roll and Remember" ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, January 2004
Barney Hoskyns takes stock of 2003 – from André 3000 to Warren Zevon ...
Joni Mitchell: Queen Joni Approximately
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, January 2004
Raised in Canada, Joni Mitchell found her way to California in 1968. Barney Hoskyns on the crowning of a canyon princess. ...
Beach Boys, The, Brian Wilson: Brian Wilson Smiles Again: Live at the Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, March 2004
WE STILL HAVE so much invested in the idea of Brian Wilson’s genius. Three decades since he last wrote a genuinely great song, we continue ...
Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead: Rockin' the Rhein with the Grateful Dead (Rhino triple CD)
Review by Mark Pringle, Rock's Backpages, May 2004
DO I DETECT the dead hand of Phil Lesh lurking here? Is there some kind of agenda, to portray the Dead as much more than ...
Janis Joplin, Band, The, Grateful Dead: Choo Choo Ch’Boogie: Festival Express 1970
Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, September 2004
IT WAS THE Lollapalooza of its day – a week-long, three-date circus of a rock and roll tour featuring The Band, Buddy Guy, Janis Joplin, ...
Mark Knopfler, Dire Straits: The Rock’s Backpages Interview: Mark Knopfler
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, September 2004
RBP: You recorded your new album Shangri-La at the studio of the same name in Malibu. When was the studio refurbished? ...
Nick Cave, Birthday Party, The: The Lyre of Cave: An Interview
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, September 2004
RBP: Could you have imagined, all those years ago, that you’d have this amazingly even and consistent career? ...
Tom Waits: Long Gone: Tom Waits Talks
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, September 2004
RBP: Is it true you cut Real Gone in an old schoolhouse in the Mississippi delta? ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, November 2004
RBP: 15 years into your recording career, how do you look back on it? Are you content with what you’ve achieved? ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, Summer 2004
RBP: Not to suggest that Uh Huh Her must be entirely autobiographical – or "confessional" – but you don’t sound terribly happy in these songs. ...
Mercury Rev: A Long Strange Migration: Jonathan Donahue Talks
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, January 2005
RBP: What difference did it make working in your own studio for the first time? ...
Doves, Sub Sub: The Backpages Interview: Jimi Goodwin
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, February 2005
RBP: I was interested to read that you holed up in various remote parts of Britain for Some Cities. I seem to recall Elbow did ...
Debbie Harry: Encounter with a Stiletto: Debbie Harry in 1974
Memoir by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, February 2005
EVERY TIME Bob Gruen called me he’d open the conversation with "What’s happening, man?" Of course it was me who should have been posing the ...
Rufus Wainwright: The Backpages Interview: Rufus Wainwright
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, March 2005
RBP: Is Want Two in any way the flipside to, or a contrast to, Want One? Or is it just a companion collection? ...
Stevie Wonder: The Backpages Interview: Stevie Wonder
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, March 2005
RBP: You're working these long all-night stretches in the studio. How different is it from when you worked in the early '70s? ...
Sandy Denny: The North Star Grassman and the Ravens
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, March 2005
TO BILLY CONNOLLY she was "one of the angriest women I ever met", while Island press officer David Sandison recalled her as a "belligerent and ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, March 2005
DENNY'S SECOND solo set, produced by boyfriend and Fotheringay graduate Trevor Lucas, was a decided improvement on her great but scattered debut. Evenly balanced between ...
Sandy Denny: Like an Old-Fashioned Waltz
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, March 2005
BEGUN IN LA and finished in London, Like an Old-Fashioned Waltz may be Denny's finest hour. Kicking off with 'Solo', one of her trademark piano ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, March 2005
FOLLOWING the Fairport Convention reunion that produced 1975's Rising For The Moon, Rendezvous was Denny's last LP before her death from a brain haemorrhage in ...
Walter Yetnikoff with David Ritz: Howling at the Moon (Abacus Books)
Review by Mark Pringle, Rock's Backpages, March 2005
THERE IS AN immutable law of Recovery that states that the man with the loudest voice (and it usually is a man) will consume great ...
9 Songs (Dir. Mike Winterbottom)
Review by Mark Pringle, Rock's Backpages, March 2005
OK, SO BASICALLY what happens is this: a saturnine, monosyllabic bloke meets a self-obsessed, vacuous girl at a Black Rebel Motorcycle Club gig at the ...
Report and Interview by Alvaro Costa, Luis Oliveira, Rock's Backpages, April 2005
AN EVENING IN MADRID - "blessed" by los galacticos Ronaldo and Luis Figo - kicked off Coldplay's world domination plan for 2005. Real Madrid's ...
Ry Cooder: The Backpages Interview: Ry Cooder
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, May 2005
RBP: Do you remember the folk scene of the early '60s as being polarized on more or less political/commercial grounds? How do you recall the ...
Jimmy Webb: The Backpages Interview: Jimmy Webb
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, May 2005
RBP: Bones Howe remembered you as being very shy when he first met you circa 1967. Is that how you remember it? ...
Cream: Royal Albert Hall, London, 5 May 2005
Live Review by Richard English, Rock's Backpages, May 2005
THIRTY SEVEN YEARS ago my Mum wouldn't let me go to the Cream Farewell Concert. She didn't want me to mix with all those ...
LL Cool J, Faith Evans: Grant Park, Chicago
Live Review by Mark Pringle, Rock's Backpages, July 2005
NOW WE KNOW why the Ladies Love Cool James: it’s not for his remarkably buff 40-something body (though they do love that); not even for ...
Frank Black: The Backpages Interview: Frank Black
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, July 2005
RBP: Where did the idea of going down south to record Honeycomb come from? ...
Robbie Robertson, Band, The: The Backpages Interview: Robbie Robertson
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, October 2005
RBP: A Musical History seems like a formidable undertaking. ...
Burt Bacharach: The Backpages Interview: Burt Bacharach
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, October 2005
RBP: What exactly did Sony BMG's Rob Stringer say that prompted you to try something so different with At This Time? ...
Herb Alpert: The Backpages Interview: Jerry Moss and A&M Records
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, December 2005
RBP: Is it true you and Herb Alpert first met in New York? Was he still working with Lou Adler at the time? ...
Neil Young: Jimmy McDonough: Shakey - Neil Young's Biography
Book Review by Craig W. Thomas, Rock's Backpages, Fall 2005
INTO MY HOLIDAY knapsack this year I tucked a biography of Lowell George that a friend had lent me, and I picked it up on ...
Bob Dylan: The Last Supper Club: On Bob Dylan’s Late Style
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, 2006
"GOOD EVENING, ladies and gentlemen. Would you please welcome Columbia recording artist, Bob Dylan." ...
Essay by Craig W. Thomas, Rock's Backpages, 2006
Back at the start of 2002 I wrote this essay for XTC and their management, partly because I wanted to do a book on the ...
Beth Orton: Comfort of Strangers (EMI)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, February 2006
HAS EMPTY become the new full? Every month we read of another singer-songstress who's stripped down her sound, kept things "spare and minimal". Now it's ...
Raconteurs, The, White Stripes, The: Jack White's Side Dish: The Raconteurs
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, May 2006
THE BUSMAN'S holiday has a long if mixed history in rock. From makeshift supergroups to one-off time-killers to impromptu jam sessions, sideline moonlightings are part ...
Interview by Graham Reid, Rock's Backpages, May 2006
NO ONE COULD accuse reclusive songwriter and singer Scott Walker of haste. In the time between Walker's last album Tilt and his latest The Drift, ...
Eric Clapton: EC Is PC: Eric Clapton at the Royal Albert Hall, 25 May 2006
Live Review by Richard English, Rock's Backpages, May 2006
ON A SUNNY SPRING evening Eric Clapton gave his sixth of seven gigs at the Royal Albert Hall, the "nation's village hall" as Queen Victoria ...
Santana: All That He Is: Santana at Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Richard English, Rock's Backpages, May 2006
IN A PANAMA HAT, Hawaiian shirt, baggy jeans, trainers, shades, pallid complexion, and bristly moustache that he was careful not to get his chewing gum ...
Go-Betweens, The, Grant McLennan: Goodbye Fireboy: Grant McLennan 1958 - 2006
Obituary by Toby Creswell, Rock's Backpages, May 2006
GRANT MCLENNAN, who died in his sleep on MAY 6, 2006, was one of the outstanding songwriters of his generation. He was acknowledged an artist ...
Big Star, Lester Bangs: The Great Lig in the Sky: The Legendary Rock Writers Convention of May 1973
Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, June 2006
ON MEMORIAL DAY weekend in May 1973, over a hundred of the leading rock writers of the day flew into Memphis, Tennessee, for 72 hours ...
Live Review by Mark Pringle, Rock's Backpages, June 2006
LET'S LOOK at what Paul Simon and Allen Toussaint share. They both wrote songs that helped shape this thing of ours, this culture we've shared ...
RIP Top Of The Pops, 1964-2006
Retrospective by Mark Pringle, Rock's Backpages, June 2006
THE FACT IS, Top Of The Pops, the "iconic" British pop TV show, whose closure after 42 years was announced last week, was really never ...
Led Zeppelin: The Power and the Glory: Led Zeppelin and the making of IV
Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, July 2006
Author’s note: This is the full, unexpurgated version of a piece for Uncut magazine. It is itself a very truncated distillation of the full-length study ...
John Scofield, Punk-Funk All Stars: Punk-Funk All Stars/Trio Beyond: Barbican, London
Live Review by Mark Pringle, Rock's Backpages, July 2006
GIG OF THE YEAR, without a doubt. To see a stage-full of musicians embrace the possibility of total chaos, of absolute failure is, in these ...
Crosby Stills Nash and Young: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young: Auburn, Washington, July 27th 2006
Live Review by Charles Bermant, Rock's Backpages, August 2006
"Do you think there are any Republicans here?" We are on the queue for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's Freedom of Speech show, and the ...
Essay by Charles Bermant, Rock's Backpages, October 2006
PUYALLUP, WA – Are there gatherings like this anywhere outside of the modern American West? A million people come to a converted dusty field over ...
Killers, The: A Wrock Riter's Guilty Pleasure: The Killers
Comment by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, October 2006
IN LIMEYLAND we're obsessed with Guilty Pleasures, thanks not least to the doughty efforts of DJ Sean Rowley, who revels on his radio show in ...
Move Over 1976 – The Revolution Is Here And Now
Comment by Mark Pringle, Rock's Backpages, October 2006
ANYONE UNDER 30 reading this can piss off right now. This is for your mum and dad. You don't need the help, they do. The ...
Essay by Tim Riley, Rock's Backpages, November 2006
LONG BEFORE "POST-MODERN" became pure jargon, Buddy Holly put quotes around his "normalcy" to disarm rock machismo. ...
Interview by Sean O'Hagan, Rock's Backpages, November 2006
An edited version of this interview appeared in The Observer, October 29, 2006 ...
The Cultural Politics Of 'Pop': Hanif Kureishi's Life In Popular Culture
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, November 2006
THIS ESSAY IS on the cultural politics of Pop. It situates an emblematic writer, Hanif Kureishi, in the context of post-war Pop art and culture ...
Live Review by Len Brown, Rock's Backpages, December 2006
A DICKENSIAN SMOG shrouds the city centre and the increasingly familiar ghost of Manchester's Christmas' past shuffles onto the stage. "Well, they look friendly," he ...
Review by Brendan O'Keeffe, Rock's Backpages, Spring 2006
SCOTT WALKER, mid-'60s pop star turned cult artist, makes Steely Dan look prolific and is about as visible as Syd Barrett. Recluse or not, Walker's ...
They Think It's All Over? The Slight Return Of Football Hooligan Subcultures
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, 2007
ONCE AGAIN the book shelves are heaving, a few weeks before a new season, with football hooligan memoirs. One of the best of these 'histories' ...
Bee Gees, The: Bee Gees' Generations
Report by Charles Bermant, Rock's Backpages, January 2007
PORTLAND, OREGON USA – Last year, self-proclaimed pop music geek Ellen Osborn was tooling around town when she got an idea: "There should be an ...
Lewis Taylor: Lost and Found: Lewis Taylor's Pop-Rock Masterpiece
Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, March 2007
IF LOS ANGELES is the perfect place to fall in love with an album-as-road-soundtrack – as aural companion to the zen ebb and flow of ...
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, March 2007
BACKPOOL ROX II, issue 9, price £2, came out at the end of last year. You won't find it referred to in Babylon's Burning, the ...
Amy Winehouse: Somerset House, London
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, July 2007
THE LAST TIME I had a ticket for Amy Winehouse was back in March, at Spaceland in LA. She'd played the Roxy the night before ...
Hold Steady, The: The Hold Steady: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, July 2, 2007
Live Review by Jonh Ingham, Rock's Backpages, July 2007
I FORGET WHICH sexy mega rock god said it, but it was someone suitably svelte and saturnine who said, "Anyone who tells you they got ...
Dusty Springfield: The Real Dusty Springfield
Memoir by Keith Altham, Rock's Backpages, July 2007
THE DUSTY I knew as a music journalist for the NME in the Sixties and interviewed a dozen times was a wondrously talented loveable mess ...
Richard Thompson: The Dust Of History: Forty Years Of Richard Thompson's Guitar/Vocal
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, July 2007
'But I'll be a friend and tell you what's in storeThere's nothing at the end of the rainbowThere's nothing to grow up for anymore''The End ...
Happy Mondays: Salford Lads Club
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, August 2007
'YOU SALFORD NANCY Boy!' was a regular insult hurled from the wings at the late Anthony H. Wilson, educated at De La Salle College in ...
Obituary by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, August 2007
THE DEATH of Richard Cook at the age of 49 robs us of one of the finest writers UK music journalism has produced. He was ...
Richard Cook 1957-2007: Friends and Colleagues Pay Tribute
Obituary by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, September 2007
The great jazz and rock writer, who died on August 25, 2007, is remembered by those who worked with him at NME and Sounds. ...
Pete Doherty: A Dandy In Alto Minho
Interview by Alvaro Costa, Jose Manuel Simoes, Rock's Backpages, September 2007
PAREDES DE COURA, Portugal: a sleepy, lush village, somewhere northwest of Porto. Every summer, for five days, Coura moonlights as the sunnier, less muddy and ...
Peter Green: Sleep Easy Jeff Beck
Essay by Tom Graves, Rock's Backpages, September 2007
ON TOP OF the indignity of coping with a severed digit (which is coming along quite nicely, thank you very much) I learned last week ...
David Crosby, CPR: CPR: David Crosby/James Raymond
Interview by Steven Rosen, Rock's Backpages, September 2007
UP ON THE fifth floor of Warner Brothers Records, David Crosby and James Raymond are embracing each other as if they haven't seen each other ...
Live Review by Martin Colyer, Rock's Backpages, October 2007
SO THE CROWD parts to let Garth Hudson wheel his wife Maud to the stage, and Maud's dressed for a Woodstock winter, hat, scarves and ...
Jefferson Starship, Big Brother & The Holding Company: Revisiting the Summer of Love
Report by Charles Bermant, Rock's Backpages, October 2007
Things aren't what they used to be, but they never were in the first place ...
Jimi Hendrix: The Jimi Hendrix Experience Live At Monterey DVD, CD
Report and Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, October 2007
The Jimi Hendrix Experience Live At Monterey for the first time ever on October 16th was released by Experience Hendrix/Geffen/Ume on DVD. The legendary U.S. ...
Report and Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, November 2007
REELIN' IN THE Years Productions and Stax Records (a division of Concord Music Group) has issued Dreams To Remember: The Legacy of Otis Redding on ...
Bob Dylan, Who, The: From Dylan to The Who: Film-maker Murray Lerner
Profile and Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, November 2007
Murray Lerner on his new The Other Side Of The Mirror – Bob Dylan Live At The Newport Folk Festival 1963-1965 DVD and the just ...
Stylistics, The, Thom Bell: Sweet Soul Symphonics: Thom Bell and the Stylistics
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, November 2007
THE STYLISTICS were a permanent fixture on the British pop charts of the early '70s. Every tenth record that came out of my tinny transistor ...
Retrospective and Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, November 2007
THE LEGENDARY songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller will be honored in person at the 2007 Gala Benefit Concert of the Lauri Strauss ...
Harry Nilsson: A Roundhead in a Pointy-Head World: The Tragedy of Harry Nilsson
Retrospective by Erik Himmelsbach, Rock's Backpages, December 2007
IT WAS A brisk fall day in 1978 when the stretch limo appeared like a sore thumb onto a tenement block of Brooklyn's downtrodden Bushwick ...
Bob Dylan's John Wesley Harding
Retrospective by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, December 2007
ON DECEMBER 27, 1967, Columbia Records released the Bob Johnston-produced Bob Dylan John Wesley Harding long player. In January of 1968 it was one of ...
Bob Dylan: He's Not There: Todd Haynes' Dylan
Essay by Mick Gold, Rock's Backpages, December 2007
"THE MINUTE you try to grab hold of Dylan, he's no longer where he was. He's like a flame: If you try to hold him ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, 2008
THE INITIAL, BOOMING Wall of Sound strains of 'Flowers and Football Tops' on this Scotland foursome’s promising debut are like the opening of Martin Scorsese’s ...
Overview by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, February 2008
FOR DECADES, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Leonard Cohen has been a global poetic force and influential songwriter. ...
Beatles, The: Two Encounters With Neil Aspinall
Memoir by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, March 2008
RBP REGULARS will doubtless have read last week's obituaries for Neil Aspinall, who worked for the Beatles from 1961 until shortly before he died. He ...
Steve Lukather, Toto: Toto's Eclipse of the Art
Interview by Mike Mettler, Rock's Backpages, April 2008
HAVE WE PERHAPS witnessed the last hurrah for the mega-selling studio-musos-cum-touring-phenoms Toto? According to guitarist/vocalist/co-founder Steve Lukather, "we're winding it down. This DVD [Falling in ...
Culture's Coming Home? Liverpool And Pop
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, April 2008
LIVERPOOL ONE! The slogan for a new regenerated port city, European Capital of Culture, 2008. Liverpool One is the name for a retail project in ...
Retrospective by Keith Altham, Rock's Backpages, April 2008
MY FIRST experience of trying to interview Keith Moon in June '65 as a music journalist should have alerted me to the problems yet to ...
Rolling Stones, The: The Rolling Stones Shine A Light Concert Film Opens April 4th
Report by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, April 2008
ON APRIL 4th director Martin Scorsese's concert documentary on the Rolling Stones, Shine A Light, was released and distributed in the U.S. by Paramount Classics ...
Karen Dalton: In Her Own Time and Ours: The Cult of Karen Dalton
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, May 2008
THERE ARE VOICES and then there are voices. Sometimes the ones that move us most are those most on the edge: the ones racked with ...
Pet Shop Boys: Pop Into Art: Post-Punk Aesthetics Revisited
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, May 2008
"Girls, Boys, Art, Pleasure"– Chris Lowe, Pet Shop Boys, 'Paninaro 95' ...
Carole King's Monumental 1971 Tapestry Returns In 2 CD Deluxe Edition
Special Feature by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, May 2008
Harvey Kubernik tells the story of the making of this epochal album, and interviews producer Lou Adler ...
Ry Cooder: His Name is Flathead: An Interview with Ry Cooder
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, June 2008
With his new album, Ry Cooder completes the trilogy of records about 1940s/50s California that began with Chavez Ravine and continued with My Name Is ...
Bruce Springsteen: Got Live If You Want It? Bruce Springsteen On Stage, 1968-2005
Essay by Rod Tootell, Rock's Backpages, July 2008
Rod Tootell asks how well-served the Boss has been by his official live recordings – and nominates his Top 20 tracks. ...
Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? Ten Years After The Repetitive Beat Generation
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, July 2008
OVER A decade ago I researched the rise and fall of a British publishing phenomenon – the so called 'cult fiction' of writers like Nicholas ...
David Bowie: Virgin/EMI To Issue David Bowie: Live Santa Monica '72 On July 8th
Report by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, July 2008
VIRGIN/EMI Records on July 8th will release David Bowie: Live Santa Monica '72 in limited edition CD and numbered 180-gram double vinyl LP packages culled ...
Elvis Presley: The Return of the King: Elvis and the Making Of The '68 Comeback Special
Retrospective by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, August 2008
When Elvis Presley donned a black leather suit and stepped in front of NBC's cameras for his 1968 TV special, he changed the historical perception ...
Elbow: The Seldom Seen Kid (Fiction/Geffen)
Review by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, September 2008
THIS IS THE FOURTH album from the most recent winners of the U.K.'s prestigious Mercury Music Prize and, after three releases on V2, the first ...
Incredible String Band, The: A Goat of Many Colours: The Incredible String Band
Retrospective and Interview by Pete Paphides, Rock's Backpages, October 2008
Forty years ago this month, The Incredible String Band released their benchmark double album Wee Tam & The Big Huge, just one of many milestones ...
Essay by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, October 2008
FOR MANY years now I have been a closet Abba fan. This was not always the case. ...
Picture This: 10 Years of Rock Archive
Essay by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, October 2008
PRIDE OF PLACE on my office wall belongs to a photograph by Jill Furmanovsky. It's an image that takes me back almost 30 years to ...
Annika Norlin, Hello Saferide: Modern Stories from Östersund: Annika Norlin
Interview by Lindsay Hutton, Rock's Backpages, December 2008
YOU MAY NOT be familiar with Annika Norlin's name yet but I hope that one of these days you will be. The organic rise of ...
Special Feature by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, December 2008
Rob Partridge was a true music man – a witty, loyal, and deeply knowledgeable fan whose loss will be felt throughout the UK ...
Life in the Old Dog Yet: The Finest 50 Tracks of the Year – Plus the Rock's Backpages Awards!
Special Feature by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, December 2008
RBP's very own Seldom Seen Kids – make that Wrinklies – present their aural highlights of A.D. 2008. Awards MC'd by Martin Colyer. ...
Rolling Stones, The, Merry Clayton: Merry Clayton on the Rolling Stones' 'Gimme Shelter' Session
Retrospective and Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, 2009
MERRY CLAYTON was born on Christmas Day and a graduate of Jefferson High School's music department then under renowned instructor Sam Browne, in Los Angeles, ...
Van Morrison: Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl (Listen to the Lion/EMI)
Review by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, January 2009
FAR INTO THE post-apocalyptic future, long after people have holed up in their fallout shelters, emerging only to forage for what little edible green foodstuff ...
Elliott Murphy at the Hotel Café, L.A.
Review by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, January 2009
BACK IN 1973, this celebrated Long Island singer/songwriter and the New York Dolls were the twin toasts of the town's still-nascent rock-crit community. ...
Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino)
Review by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, January 2009
ACTUALLY, IF YOU haven't picked up on these guys by now, you haven't been surfing the online music blogosphere, which has been blathering about this ...
Janis Ian: Society's Child (Tarcher/Penguin)
Review by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, March 2009
I ADMITTEDLY hadn't thought much about Janis Ian lately, even as my good friend Andy Schwartz kept recommending this surprisingly compelling, always-candid autobiography, going so ...
Mel Torme, Nina Simone: Gus Wildi's Bebopping Jazz Baby: Bethlehem Records
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, Rock's Backpages, March 2009
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1953. American TV companies were gearing up for the first programmes in colour, Playboy was cock-a-hoop about featuring Marilyn Monroe on the cover and ...
Move, The: The Move at the Fillmore West, October 1969
Retrospective by Archie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, April 2009
THE PAST COUPLE years have been like heaven for those in the Move musical fandom community. Rob Caiger of Face the Music spent years searching ...
Rolling Stones, The, Cyril Davies: The Rolling Stones at the Ricky-Tick, January 1963
Memoir by John Pidgeon, Rock's Backpages, April 2009
THE FIRST TIME I hear Cyril Davies blow his harmonica is January 1963 at Leo's Jazz Club in Windsor. As I approach, shoulders hunched against ...
Elvis Presley, John Lennon: Sympathy for the Devil – A Kind Word for Albert Goldman
Essay by Tom Graves, Rock's Backpages, April 2009
ALBERT HARRY GOLDMAN is inarguably the most controversial music biographer of the last generation. His biographies of first Elvis, then John Lennon, have been spit ...
The Fields Of Annie Road: Song For The 96
Comment by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, April 2009
ANFIELD ROAD, or 'Annie Road' (Allt, 2005), is the opposite 'end' to Liverpool's Kop at their world famous football stadium of Anfield. ...
Prince: Purple Drain: Is It Time to Give Up on the Prince We All Want?
Comment by Paul Yamada, Rock's Backpages, April 2009
ON THE FINAL Sunday of March 2009, Prince released a 3-CD set. Two of the albums are his music with his band; the other is ...
Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan: Bob Johnston on Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Nashville Skyline
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, May 2009
JUNE 17th MARKS the 40th anniversary of the original Columbia Records release of Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline album, produced by Bob Johnston. ...
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Izod Center, East Rutherford, New Jersey
Live Review by Kris DiLorenzo, Rock's Backpages, May 2009
A SPRINGSTEEN HOMECOMING is always a big deal, and this time there were only two shows, in a smaller arena than last summer’s Giants Stadium ...
Retrospective by Kris Needs, Rock's Backpages, May 2009
'I must play music that is beyond this world' – Albert Ayler ...
The Last Days of a Great Guitar Shop: RIP Manny's Music Store
Retrospective by Binky Philips, Rock's Backpages, May 2009
AFTER 75 YEARS, Manny's Music Store on West 48th St in Manhattan will close its doors forever at the end of this month. Obviously, this ...
Neil Young: Monumental: Neil Young's Archives, Vol. 1
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, May 2009
NOTE: This is an extended version of a review written in a Belfast hotel room for the Observer Music Monthly. BH* ...
Rage Against the Machine: Steven Wells, 1960-2009
Special Feature by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, June 2009
An august bunch of RBP contributors – friends, colleagues, and plain admirers of the man – pay tribute to an inspired rent-a-gob who died bravely ...
Seeds, The: Sky Saxon 1937-2009: A Belated Tribute to an Acid-Punk Icon
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, June 2009
Lost in the the shock and hysteria of Michael Jackson's death was the scant reportage of another pop passing: that of crazed LA garage-pop ...
Another Look at the Nashville Skyline
Report by Bill Wasserzieher, Rock's Backpages, June 2009
NASHVILLE IS a town of serene churches and raucous honky tonks. ...
Barry Beckett: Soul Provider: Muscle Shoals keyboard legend Barry Beckett in His Own Words
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, June 2009
NOTE: This is a pretty straight transcript of what the late Barry Beckett said to me in his new Warner Brothers office in Nashville in ...
Manchester Studies: Reading John Robb's The North Will Rise Again
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, June 2009
The North Will Rise Again: Manchester Music City 1976-1996 John Robb (Aurum, 2009, £16.99) ...
Memoir by John Pidgeon, Rock's Backpages, June 2009
IT'S THURSDAY, 6th July 1972. The Guardian lies on the doormat, its front page torn, as usual. I've questioned the paperboy. He says the slot's ...
Memoir by John Pidgeon, Rock's Backpages, June 2009
IN JANUARY 1980, the gates of 4641 Hayvenhurst Avenue in Encino were open, unguarded. As I parked, an Alsatian bounded to the car and bared ...
Memoir by John Pidgeon, Rock's Backpages, July 2009
ONE WARM SPRING Friday night in 1964, cooling off between sets outside the Ricky Tick club in Windsor, I share a match flame with a ...
Tom Wilkes, 1939-2009: Legendary Designer of Posters and Album Covers
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, July 2009
Tom Wilkes, legendary poster and album cover designer (Monterey Pop, the Rolling Stones' original Beggars Banquet, Neil Young's Harvest, Janis Joplin's Pearl, George Harrison's All ...
Guide by Matthew Hamilton, Rock's Backpages, July 2009
Author's Note: I have found that most discussions of AOR get easily sidetracked unless it's made clear which definition of the AOR acronym we're using. ...
Ronnie Lane, Faces, The: Remembering Ronnie Lane
Retrospective by John Pidgeon, Rock's Backpages, July 2009
IT MAY WELL have been his 'Song Of A Baker' on the Small Faces' Ogden's Nut Gone Flake that first had me believing that Ronnie ...
10 LPs You Probably Don't Have (But Should)
Comment by Tom Graves, Rock's Backpages, August 2009
WE ALL HAVE seen the lists of the absolutely greatest LPs, singles, movies, TV shows, books, etc. OF ALL TIME. I've done them myself and ...
Undisputed Heavyweight Champions of the Mix Tape: 30 Years of Transatlantic Friendship on Cassette!
Memoir by Mark Leviton, Rock's Backpages, August 2009
MY ENGLISH FRIEND Neil and I have one of the longest, strangest, and most voluminous correspondences in the history of the world – a correspondence ...
Music Go Music: ICA, London, 22 September 2009
Live Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, September 2009
A FIVE-FOOT-TALL hourglass stood on stage, its sands unmoving, when Music Go Music made their London debut at the ICA last night. The prop seemed ...
Laura Nyro: Dark Angel: The Stone Soul Genius of Laura Nyro
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, September 2009
I keep hearin' daddy through his grave:"Little girl, of all the daughters,You were born a woman,Not a slave."('The Confession', 1968) ...
Cyril Davies, Blues Incorporated, Alexis Korner: Blues Incorporated: How British R&B Trashed Trad
Retrospective by John Pidgeon, Rock's Backpages, September 2009
ALEXIS KORNER'S Parisian birthplace, Austro-Greek parentage, noble features and languid growl endowed him with an aura of exoticism unreflected in his musical partner Cyril "Squirrel" ...
Feelies, The: The Feelies: Crazy Rhythms/The Good Earth
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, October 2009
THE FACT THAT the Feelies came from New Jersey – and complained that driving to Manhattan through the Holland Tunnel gave them headaches – didn't ...
Various Artists: Where The Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets 1965-1968 (Rhino)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, October 2009
LENNY KAYE CAN'T have had any idea what he was starting when he compiled his original Nuggets double album of psychedelic "artyfacts" back in 1972. ...
Flailing and Railing: Brendan Mullen, 1949-2009
Memoir by Don Snowden, Rock's Backpages, October 2009
BEST KNOWN as a catalyst and chronicler of the late '70s L.A. punk scene centred around the Masque club, Brendan Mullen died suddenly of a ...
Retrospective and Interview by John Pidgeon, Rock's Backpages, October 2009
THE FIRST PUBLIC appearance of what would one day be touted as "the greatest rock and roll band in the world" was hardly headline news, ...
Imperial Dogs: They Wanna Get Their Poodles In Your Noodles: Imperial Dogs
Retrospective and Interview by Dave Laing (Australia), Rock's Backpages, November 2009
IN RECENT YEARS, as I've hit an age where time fucking flies by, and an entire decade has passed by in what feels ...
Raincoats, The: The Raincoats: The Raincoats (We ThRee)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, November 2009
THIS 1979 ROUGH TRADE album is a period piece and a sacred artefact, not least because of its subsequent endorsement by an "extremely unhappy, lonely ...
Raconteurs, The, The Dead Weather, White Stripes, The: The Backpages Interview: Jack White
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, November 2009
ON THE 18TH of August 2009, in Salt Lake City, I was privileged enough to sit down with Jack White – variously a White Stripe, ...
Very Noughtie: RBP's Best Albums, 2000-2009
Special Feature by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, December 2009
WHILST CONCEDING that we are all "listed out" after a solid decade of anniversary-fixated list-o-mania – lists of lists of lists! – we at RBP ...
Best of the Noughties: RBP Writers' Top Twenties, 2000-2009
Special Feature by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, December 2009
NOTE: Some of these lists are ordered but many writers opted simply to provide lists in either alphabetical or no particular order. Some couldn't think ...
Miles Davis: Mapping the Sonic Future: Miles Davis' In a Silent Way
Retrospective by Don Snowden, Rock's Backpages, December 2009
IN THE MIDST of all this full-blown industry overkill of the 40th anniversary of this or the expanded deluxe edition commemorating 25 years of that, ...
Interview by Archie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, December 2009
The man who bore the weight of being the "New Dylan" in the mid-'70s looks back at his early days, his move to Europe, and brings us up to date with where he's at in the 21st century
File format: mp3; file size: 20.9mb; Interview length: 22' 52"; sound quality: ***
Lady GaGa: Transvision Vamp: Lady GaGa
Comment by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, January 2010
THE POWER OF Lady GaGa has been one of the most scintillating features of 2009: three number one UK singles, a sprawling debut album and ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, January 2010
THERE'S NOTHING more gratifying for a rock music fan than to witness an act suddenly seize the moment, feel its oats and begin to break ...
Book Review by Leyla Sanai, Rock's Backpages, January 2010
FATHER OF hip–hop, granddaddy of rap, articulate polemicist and early pioneer of the fusion of black politics with poetry and music, Gil Scott–Heron has been ...
Todd Rundgren: The Dream Goes on Forever: Todd Rundgren Plays A Wizard, A True Star Live
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, February 2010
OUT INTO THE damp chill of a February night we came, the scattered legions of Toddheads – crossing fingers for transcendence, willing to settle for ...
MGMT: Congratulations (Columbia)
Review by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, February 2010
THESE BRAINY Wesleyan alums remain just as ironical about their rock star dreams than ever, despite a year in which they garnered a Grammy nod ...
Report and Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, February 2010
JANIE HENDRIX, the CEO of Experience Hendrix LLC, and Sony Music Entertainment's Legacy Recordings will launch their monumental 2010 Jimi Hendrix Catalog Project on Tuesday, ...
Bobby Vee, Bobby Darin: Was 1960 Really The Worst Pop Year Ever?
Retrospective by Gene Sculatti, Rock's Backpages, March 2010
KIDS TODAY. And the music they listen to! As I write, Billboard's (U.S.) Top 10 features three songs with the F-word in their title, one ...
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Rock's Backpages, March 2010
ON 28 OCTOBER, 1964, the T.A.M.I. Show was recorded at the Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California. T.A.M.I. stood for Television Audience Measurement Index, though ...
xx, The: The xx: xx (Young Turks/XL Recordings)
Review by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, March 2010
THIS LONDON-BASED QUARTET-turned-trio is fronted by a pair of precocious 20-year-olds in Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sims, who share vocals with an intimacy that’s ...
Man of the World: A Rock's Backpages Tribute to Charlie Gillett, 1942-2010
Special Feature by Various Writers, Rock's Backpages, March 2010
CHARLIE GILLETT'S contributions to music are far too numerous to be listed here. Briefly, he was the author of the seminal history The Sound Of ...
Rolling Stones, The: The Rolling Stones: Andy Johns on recording Exile On Main St.
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, March 2010
ANDY JOHNS is a world class sound engineer and record producer. On May 18th his work with the Rolling Stones on their 1972 Exile On ...
Bow Wow Wow, Sex Pistols, The, Malcolm McLaren: Malcolm McLaren 1946-2010
Obituary by Alex Ogg, Rock's Backpages, April 2010
MALCOLM MCLAREN, who died on April 8 aged 64 after a protracted battle with cancer, was punk's self-mythologised circus barker. His custodianship of the musical ...
Live Review by Richard English, Rock's Backpages, May 2010
IT'S RARE THAT ONE mixes Aristotle with rock, but it was impossible to ignore a giant eye rolling on the back projection screen during 'Voodoo ...
Bobby Keys, Rolling Stones, The: Bobby Keys: Sax Sideman Extraordinaire
Profile and Interview by Tarquin Campbell, Rock's Backpages, May 2010
LYON, FRANCE. It's the morning after another night of revelry on the Rolling Stones tour of Europe in 1982. The band and entourage convene ...
Delbert McClinton: Tarrytown Music Hall, New York
Live Review by Kris DiLorenzo, Rock's Backpages, May 2010
IT'S BEEN A WAAAY too long time, but I'd be stupidly remiss if I didn't rave about Delbert McClinton's show at the Tarrytown Music Hall ...
Phil Collins Goes Back to his Soul-Music Roots
Interview by Johnny Black, Rock's Backpages, August 2010
JB: Your new album, Going Back, quite literally goes back to your musical roots. So where did you first start to become interested in music? ...
Little Feat: Feats Don't Fail: Richie Hayward R.I.P.
Obituary by Don Snowden, Rock's Backpages, August 2010
If you like country with a boogie beat / He's the man to meet... ...
Retrospective by Gene Sculatti, Rock's Backpages, September 2010
LAST SATURDAY, paging through an article on Robert Plant in the September issue of MOJO, I learned that, upon their initial meeting in a Dublin ...
Robert Plant: Band of Joy (Decca)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, September 2010
NOTE: Herewith an expanded version of a review written for Classic Rock magazine... BH ...
Al Kooper, Bob Dylan: Al Kooper on Bob Dylan's record producers Tom Wilson and Bob Johnston
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, October 2010
"In 1966 Dylan went down to Nashville for Blonde On Blonde He stayed out in the studio 10 or 12 hours. Bob never left it. ...
Retrospective by Don Snowden, Rock's Backpages, December 2010
AMAZING, ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. At 80 years old, Ornette Coleman is still capable of generating overt displays of outrage without doing anything more than playing his ...
Ron Sexsmith: Long Player: In Praise of Ron Sexsmith
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, February 2011
"We have had a gutful of fast art and fast food. What we need more of is slow art: art that holds time as a ...
Slits, The: Memories Of Ari Up
Memoir by Adam Blake, Rock's Backpages, February 2011
AT THE START OF September 2005 I moved into a new place: a rather Agatha Christie-esque 1930s apartment block at the posh end of Ladbroke ...
Smiley Culture: Mark Paytress Meets Smiley Culture On The Cusp Of Fame, 1984.
Interview by Mark Paytress, Rock's Backpages, March 2011
AS BRITAIN'S first successful MC, whose fast, fluid style had more in common with rap than reggae, Smiley Culture's place in history is assured. He ...
Belated Props: Arhoolie Records at 50
Comment by Don Snowden, Rock's Backpages, March 2011
DON'T IT FIGURE that Arhoolie's 50th anniversary just happened to overlap with the publication of John Szwed's biography of Alan Lomax? An unfortunate but appropriate ...
John Storm Roberts: An Appreciation
Memoir by Don Snowden, Rock's Backpages, April 2011
I'VE ALWAYS BEEN more than a bit ambivalent about the whole concept of mentoring, at least when it applies to the music world we run ...
Retrospective by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, July 2011
STEVE VAN ZANDT, May 2011, Lillehammer, Norway: "The anti-apartheid Sun City project (single, album, video, documentary, book, teaching guide) was a high point and a ...
Amy Winehouse: A Rock Star Dead Again at 27
Comment by Wayne Robins, Rock's Backpages, July 2011
THE OTHER DAY I was listening to Amy Winehouse sing "You Know I'm No Good" on WFUV, and thought about how authentic she sounded. Not ...
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, September 2011
POP HISTORY seemed, for some commentators at least, to have stopped sometime in the late 1980s. This was the 'postmodern' moment for many critics and ...
Nirvana: Smells Like a Sellout: Nirvana and the Death of Alternative Rock
Essay by Toby Creswell, Rock's Backpages, September 2011
NOWADAYS EVERYBODY ascribes the collapse of the recording industry to illegal downloading. But as Bob Dylan recently observed, "Remember when that Napster guy came up ...
Live Review by Richard English, Rock's Backpages, October 2011
I PARKED MY ZIMMER FRAME, tuned my hearing aid, munched a senna pod and shuffled into the Albert Hall with the other boomers. A man ...
Retrospective by Tim Meade, Rock's Backpages, October 2011
WE ALL KNOW THE STORY of the Beach Boys' SMiLE. After Pet Sounds, Brian set out to make a "teenage symphony to God" that ...
Brian Wilson, Beach Boys, The: Brian Wilson and SMiLE
Retrospective and Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, October 2011
NOTE: A small portion of this interview appeared in the 2011 MOJO '60s issue. ...
Rickie Lee Jones: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Rob Steen, Rock's Backpages, November 2011
FIRST, A HEALTH WARNING: if you are prone to cringe, foam or rage at reviews that put emotion first and last, and make no attempt ...
Live Review by Mick Gold, Rock's Backpages, November 2011
BOB-CATS PUSHED relentlessly forward against the bar at the front of the former Hammersmith Odeon, hats on their heads. Mark Knopfler was caressing liquid guitar ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rock's Backpages, December 2011
WILCO FANS ARE AS polarized as the US congress. Some revel in the band's eardrum-pulverizing forays into the sonic unknown, introduced on 2000's art-damaged Yankee ...
Bon Iver: Bon Iver (Jagjaguwar)
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rock's Backpages, December 2011
ADOPTING THE nom de plume Bon Iver, Justin Vernon made the leap from unknown to major artist in the few seconds between the strummed acoustic ...
Senior Moments: 2011's Best Albums by Artists Over 50
Special Feature by Steven R Rosen, Rock's Backpages, December 2011
IN AN EFFORT TO SHOW the world – or at least its readers – that rock music continues, and often even improves, when its practitioners ...
Tim Hardin: The Unforgiven: Tim Hardin and the Shock of Grace
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, February 2012
NOTE: This is the "director's cut" version – at almost twice the length – of a piece written for MOJO and subsequently used as the ...
Dory Previn: Remembering Dory Previn
Memoir by Loraine Alterman, Rock's Backpages, February 2012
MY DEAR FRIEND of nearly 40 years, Dory Previn, died last week. She was a great songwriter who exposed her deep feelings about love ...
Paul McCartney: Macca's Ration Book Romance: 'We Three'
Comment by Fred Dellar, Rock's Backpages, February 2012
PAUL MCCARTNEY'S latest album, Kisses On The Bottom, is, to a great extent, based around a number of songs his father once loved: age-old standards ...
Retrospective by Don Snowden, Rock's Backpages, March 2012
THE ORIGINAL TITLE for this piece was "Ticked Off at a Tick". The reason being that I spent more than a few years operating under ...
Memoir by Mark Shipper, Rock's Backpages, April 2012
WELL, I CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE. Deep in the back of my head I have this Karmic debt I owe to Greg Shaw for setting ...
Memoir by Geoffrey Cannon, Rock's Backpages, April 2012
IT ALL STARTED at school when as a Bluecoat Boy I smuggled me into the local record shop in Horsham, Sussex, and my buddy told ...
Donna Summer: Thoughts on Donna Summer
Comment by Mark Shipper, Rock's Backpages, May 2012
BY NOW YOU'VE HEARD about the sad passing of Donna Summer or, as she's always referred to, "Disco Queen Donna Summer" – she hated that ...
Donna Summer: Last Dance... and Gone
Memoir by Holly Gleason, Rock's Backpages, May 2012
IN THAT FLOOD of ebony hair, there was always that one gardenia. Floating on top of the satiny waves of almost-porn star mane, it spoke ...
Live Review by Pete Makowski, Rock's Backpages, May 2012
ALMOST A WEEK LATER and my ears are still ringing – and I don't know if it's due to the rousing response of the audience ...
Big Star: Big Star Third at London's Barbican
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, May 2012
I WENT TO LONDON'S BARBICAN last night, fully prepared to be underwhelmed and unsatisfied: so many of these album recreations are too ramshackle for their ...
Beach Boys, The: The Beach Boys: Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Orange County
Live Review by Gene Sculatti, Rock's Backpages, June 2012
"THERE'S SOMETHING RIDICULOUS about a 70-year-old man going out there and singing 'Fun, Fun, Fun.'" So said my wife last week when I told her ...
Memoir by John Pidgeon, Rock's Backpages, June 2012
I'M IDLING ALONG the High Street in my tan sit-up-and-beg Ford Pop, when 'Whatcha Gonna Do About It' comes on the radio. ...
Seeds, The: 22420 Pacific Coast Highway: Tales of Tim Hudson, Sky Saxon… and Ian Botham
Memoir by Mick Middles, Rock's Backpages, July 2012
STICK-THIN, clad in purple and black. Leather trousers, knee-length boots. Boney, bug-eyed, skank hair, dead face, white cheeks. This strange man was telling me to ...
Rodney Crowell's Melodic Literacy
Interview by Charles Bermant, Rock's Backpages, August 2012
RODNEY CROWELL, who turns 62 on August 7, has been on our radar since the 1970s, when he was the freshest horse in Emmylou Harris' ...
Orion, Elvis Presley: Not Elvis, BUT….
Retrospective by Gary Pig Gold, Rock's Backpages, August 2012
FIRST, THERE WAS you-know-who. Or at least up until thirty-five years ago there was. ...
Steely Dan: Any Major Dude Will Tell You: The Funked-Up Muzak and Cerebral Genius of Steely Dan
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, September 2012
NOTE: This is an updated version of a piece written for the short-lived biannual Faber/Domino publication Loops. I've revived it to commemorate the 40th anniversary ...
Retrospective by Don Snowden, Rock's Backpages, September 2012
GOD, THE AVENGERS were a great little band. And I say little band only because time and geography conspired against any possibility of them being ...
Aimee Mann: The Discreet Charm of Aimee Mann: An Interview
Interview by Martin Colyer, Rock's Backpages, September 2012
A freewheeling chat, taking in Mann's new Charmer, her talented collaborators, reality TV, turning up the treble, Laura Linney's focus, Jack Kerouac's drying-out and women's ...
Led Zeppelin: No Stairway! The Real Best of Led Zeppelin
Guide by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, September 2012
Forget 'Stairway to Heaven'. In fact, forget 'Heartbreaker' and 'Rock and Roll' and (yikes!) even 'Dazed and Confused' and 'When the Levee Breaks'. (Definitely forget ...
Madonna: Thoughts On Madonna's MDNA Tour in America
Live Review by Carol Cooper, Rock's Backpages, September 2012
AS I WRITE THIS Thursday night, I can hear Madonna singing from Yankee Stadium through the window of my Harlem apartment. ...
Interview by Pete Makowski, Rock's Backpages, October 2012
"TWO FLAT TIRES on a muddy road. Thick and Throbbing. The rhythm section from Hell and holding on strong." ...
Rolling Stones, The: Everybody Must Get Stoned: Andrew Loog Oldham Speaks
Interview by Paul Trynka, Rock's Backpages, December 2012
ANDREW OLDHAM'S two books of memoirs, Stoned and 2Stoned, are not only vital, entertaining works on the genesis and growth of the Rolling Stones; they ...
Retrospective and Interview by Rod Tootell, Rock's Backpages, December 2012
IN SEPTEMBER 1974, a Swedish journalist was interviewing a rock singer pretty much unknown in Sweden. His name was Bruce Springsteen. ...
Senior Moments: The Best 30 Albums of 2012 by Artists 50 and Over
Special Feature by Steven R Rosen, Rock's Backpages, December 2012
As voted by over 80 of RBP's leading lights, here are the year's 30 best long-players made by artists of a certain vintage – those ...
Old Ideas and Wrecking Balls: Rock's Top Senior Moments of 2012
Essay by Steven R Rosen, Rock's Backpages, December 2012
THE 84 ROCK'S BACKPAGES contributors – and other invited music aficionados – who participated in our second Senior Moments poll had a heap of fun ...
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Her Majesty's Theatre, London
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, February 2013
AT 55 NICK CAVE remains an impressive advert for the dissolute life. Squint at the guy on the stage of Her Majesty's Theatre and – ...
Alvin Lee: Finally Going Home: Alvin Lee
Interview by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, March 2013
This tribute piece is based on an interview conducted on the release of Alvin's 2012 album Still on the Road to Freedom, a sequel of ...
New Order: Lost Years in Original Modernity? On Listening to New Order's Lost Sirens
Retrospective by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, March 2013
THIRTY SEVEN Year Party People! Since Ian Curtis, Stephen Morris, Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook began playing regularly as Joy Division in 1978, that's effectively ...
Yip Harburg and the Story of 'Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead'
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, Rock's Backpages, April 2013
THOUGH I HAVE tremendous sympathy for those who lost their jobs, their dignity and sometimes their lives, following the pit closures and ensuing strike of ...
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, April 2013
MOST PEOPLE WHO KNOW ANYTHING about music journalism know that the late Frank Zappa defined it, in 1977, as "people who can't write interviewing people ...
Eagles, The: Where Eagles Dared: California's Signature Rock Band Comes to London
Report by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, April 2013
Messrs. Schmit, Henley, Frey and Walsh (photo: Debbie Kruger) WELCOME TO the Hotel Connaught, the plush old Mayfair institution where Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Joe Walsh ...
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