Vox
Report by Nick Kent, Vox, October 1990
HIS HOUSE IS FALLING DOWN, HE FREAKS OUT HIS BANDS MAKING UP SONGS MID-GIG, AND HE SPORTS A NICE LINE IN HOODED ANORAKS. BUT WHEN ...
Happy Mondays: Ryders On A Storm: Happy Mondays in The Altered States of America
Report and Interview by Betty Page, Vox, October 1990
"GET THAT THING off, man... get that dangerous f***ingmotherf***ing thing off!" Shaun Ryder has just had the tip of my sleek black Olympus micro-cassette machine ...
Beach Boys, The: The Beach Boys: Smiley Smile/Wild Honey; Beach Boys Concert/Live In London
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Vox, November 1990
WHEN I FIRST BOUGHT Smiley Smile (1967) as a spotty 15-year-old in the mid-'70s, I was pretty astounded by how radically wacko it was. I'd ...
Interview by Len Brown, Vox, November 1990
Morrissey could probably have done without the last year, and there's a been a few none too kind hacks and hackettes who say we could ...
Neil Young: This Young Will Run and Run
Interview by Nick Kent, Vox, November 1990
NEIL YOUNG'S manager Elliot Roberts told me: "He's doing interviews now because he's got things he wants to say. There's a lot of things going ...
Pet Shop Boys: Behaviour (Parlophone)
Review by Betty Page, Vox, November 1990
THE VEXED QUESTION is: what do we expect of The Pet Shop Boys? We expect, perhaps, in no particular order: excellent tunes, impossible-to-forget hooks; wry ...
Shamen, The: The Shamen: En-Tact (One Little Indian)
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, November 1990
THE PHUTURE is now. The Shamen once riffed and jangled in anoraks, got into splintered hip-hop iconoclasm for the magnificent In Gorbachev We Trust album ...
Happy Mondays: Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyaches (Factory)
Review by Betty Page, Vox, December 1990
IT MAY TAKE a while for the nation to be convinced of Happy Mondays' worth, to believe that they're not drug-dealing lowlife scum pissing around ...
Steely Dan: A Dan for all Seasons
Discography by Fred Dellar, Vox, December 1990
One more glance through the rock files to evaluate the deeds and doings of Steely Dan. Flicking the pages – Fred Dellar ...
Cure, The: The Cure: Mixed Up Kid
Interview by Betty Page, Vox, December 1990
If Disintegration led to just that for self-confessed 'English werewolf in Crawley' Robert Smith, what on earth will happen to him with the release of ...
Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin: Jimmy Page
Interview by Nick Kent, Vox, December 1990
In days of yore, communication breakdowns with the press suggested Jimmy Page was a dazed and confused prince of heavy metal. With Zeppelin reissues breaking ...
Report by Betty Page, Vox, December 1990
THE MUTANT HERO TURTLES HAVEN'T HIT JAPAN YET, BUT FOR THE MOMENT THE LOCALS ARE OBSESSED WITH A DAFT LITTLE COW WITH SPIRALLY EYES. WE ...
Sundays, The: They Do Like Sundays
Interview by Len Brown, Vox, January 1991
They do like the sundays in japan, where their three-rs album title was renamed for local pronunciation and they like 'em in the States. Despite ...
Alexander O'Neal: Alexander O’Neal
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Vox, February 1991
WHATEVER happened to the black ladykiller, that oversized teddy bear in a Versace suit serenading womankind with a cordless microphone in one hand and a ...
EMF: An Unbelievable Rise To Fame
Profile and Interview by Betty Page, Vox, February 1991
EMF ARE YOUNG, GOOD-LOOKING, LOUD AND HAVE BAD ATTITUDES. THEY ARE ALSO AMAZINGLY SUCCESSFUL. IS IT DOWN TO HYPE OR TALENT? BETTY PAGE INVESTIGATES. ...
Ocean Colour Scene: New Midland Talent: Ocean Colour Scene
Profile and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, February 1991
THE SAGA SO FAR: Manchester is out, Liverpool is in (again), Bristolians are as sore as ever and good London bands don't exist. Where this ...
Tanita Tikaram: All Grown Up with Nowhere to Go?
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, March 1991
TANITA TIKARAM DOESN'T think she is famous and can't bear to call herself a celebrity. ...
Transvision Vamp: Whatever Happened To Baby James?
Interview by Betty Page, Vox, March 1991
Exploiter or exploited? Rock Bitch or just bitched at? Either way Wendy James just lurrves the attention – and the dosh. Betty Page probes for ...
Spacemen 3, Spiritualized: Spaceman 3: Two Into Three Won't Go
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, April 1991
...OR, WE TWO WERE THREE. THE SPACEMEN THREE, THAT IS. PETER AND JASON, TO BE PRECISE. BUT WHILE THIS PAIR OF SPACE CADETS WERE ONCE ...
Joni Mitchell: Joni Rides Home
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Vox, April 1991
JONI MITCHELL MAY HAVE CUT HER MUSICAL TEETH DURING THE ERA OF LOVE AND PEACE BUT SHE TAKES NONE TOO KINDLY TO COMPARISONS WITH TODAY'S ...
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, April 1991
NOT YOUR AVERAGE ROCK'N'ROLLER – THAT'S MIKE EDWARDS, PRIME PROPHET OF JESUS JONES, WHO SHUNS SEX'N'DRUGS AND READS MACHIAVELLI ON TOUR. STEPHEN DALTON SOAKED UP ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1991
THEY MUST have scratched their heads at Burbank when R.E.M. delivered Out Of Time. Far from capitalising on the success of Green, where America's most ...
Beautiful South, The: The Beautiful South: Sneaking Beauties
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, May 1991
PAUL HEATON GLOWERS like Mister Punch's suicidally depressed uncle with a killer migraine and inflamed piles. He is not a happy man. ...
Fall, The: Mark E Smith: Not Falling, Soaring
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, June 1991
MARK E SMITH'S REPUTATION precedes him like massed stormtroopers on the horizon. Fourteen years on, the Fall frontman still sets everyone on edge, either in ...
D Mob, Cathy Dennis: Cathy Dennis: Cathy Comes Home
Interview by Betty Page, Vox, July 1991
Currently the UK's biggest female success Stateside, "D Mob Diva" Cathy Dennis returns to her native Norwich only to be met with a resounding... who ...
Wedding Present, The: The Wedding Present: Sea Monsters (RCA)
Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, July 1991
BY NOT HI-jacking the groovy train in order to revive a flagging career, The Wedding Present now stand virtually alone amongst their mid-'80s indie contemporaries. ...
Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, July 1991
IT'S THE DREAM ticket – two prime movers from the two most significant British pop groups of the '80s unite to form a unique presidential ...
Mock Turtles: The Mock Turtles: Two Sides
Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, September 1991
AS THE MUSICAL coffers of the '60s increasingly come to resemble a stretch of what used to be the South American rain forests, a band ...
Tom Waits: The Early Years Volume I (Edsel)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, September 1991
LONG BEFORE he became the rather self-conscious Harry Dean Stanton type he is today, Tom Waits used to intone straight-to-the-heart-of-the matter barroom blues, most of ...
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, September 1991
A Top 20 Single in Britain, feted in the USA and Japan...Suddenly Carter are hot. But it's been a long, hard haul for this duo ...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty: Petty Larceny
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Vox, September 1991
HEIR TO DYLAN OR BEL AIR AIRHEAD? SOMETIME WILBURY TOM PETTY IS 40 WITH KIDS, AND EVEN THOUGH HIS NEW ALBUM WITH THE HEARTBREAKERS IS ...
Black Crowes, The: The Black Crowes: Nod's As Good As A Wink To A Black Crowe
Report and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, September 1991
Currently America's hottest new Faces, The Black Crowes have made a huge name for themselves with just one ass-kickin' LP, mucho slagging off of "the ...
Guns N' Roses: Welcome To My Nightmare
Interview by Nick Kent, Vox, October 1991
Guns N' Roses are undoubtably the biggest noises in rock. But for how long? Would you buy two simultaneously released LPs at full price? Will ...
Comment by Betty Page, Vox, October 1991
YOU EXPECT IT FROM HEAVY METAL, BUT NOW RAP AND INDIE HAVE JOINED THE SEXIST ASSAULT ON women: LYRICS, SLEEVES, and lecherous behaviour at gigs. ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, October 1991
FIRST THINGS first. Tin Machine now sound like an expensive hobby, though that may be what they are, since Bowie took his chums to Sydney ...
Dire Straits: On Every Street (Vertigo)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, November 1991
AND ON EVERY CD player...they wish. ...
Interview by Betty Page, Vox, November 1991
Mark Hollis takes minimalism to its limit with a one-note solo on Talk Talk's new album, Laughing Stock. Still, a solo, like life, is what ...
Daniel Lanois, U2: Daniel Lanois and U2: Five Men and Achtung Baby
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, December 1991
The new U2 album — released on November 18 — is "rougher and harder-hitting than anything we've done before" …Producer Daniel Lanois talks to Max ...
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, December 1991
It's taken eight years for Manchester pop princes James to become a BIG DEAL. But before the stadia of the world are rocked, there's that ...
Taj Mahal: Playing The Cosmic Blues
Retrospective and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, December 1991
BACK IN THE '60S when he was fronting the Rising Sons with Ry Cooder, they used to call Taj Mahal a cosmic intellectual blues player. ...
Interview by Betty Page, Vox, December 1991
Marc Almond may be mellowing in middle age, but who's he trying to kid that he's the Englebert Humperdinck of the '90s? Betty Page meets ...
Genesis: We Can't Dance (Virgin)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, December 1991
GENESIS'S 17TH album arrives some five years after Invisible Touch. As befits these sedate Home Counties chaps, We Can't Dance is the product of modest ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, December 1991
BONO VOX once mentioned in passing that if and when he ever published a volume of his poetry, the title of said tome would be ...
Belinda Carlisle: Christmas Crackers
Interview by David Quantick, Vox, January 1992
It may be Christmas but it's the season of no fun for Belinda Carlisle. VOX found her heavy with child, enslaved by her hormones and ...
High Llamas, The: The High Llamas: Apricots (Plastic Records)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, March 1992
SEAN O'HAGAN, formerly of the admirable Microdisney but now pursuing a solo path with the latter's rhythm section in tow, is a man with much ...
Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine: At Home With Carter
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, April 1992
Carter can't seem to stay out of the headlines – but they're valiantly resisting the pressures of fame. Stephen Dalton toured Fruitbat's new house. ...
My Bloody Valentine: The Sound Of Violence
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, April 1992
My Bloody Valentine inspire purple journalistic prose and surreal interpretation. But live, they just enjoy inflicting pain. Reading covers its ears while Stephen Dalton shoegazes ...
Del Amitri: Hangin' With The Del Boys
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, May 1992
Fashion? Del Amitri – the most polite boot-wearing, outsize sideboard-toting popsters in the Northern Hemisphere – couldn't give a Flying Scotsman ...
Nirvana, Kurt Cobain: Kurt Cobain: I'm Not Gonna Crack!
Profile and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Vox, July 1992
Poisoned by the chalice of instant success, bedridden with road-rash after a ton of amp-smashingly intense gigs – what's happened to Nirvana's tortured singer and ...
Dazed and Infused: The Summer of Love
Retrospective by Miles, Vox, August 1992
"You had to be there" Barry Miles travels back in time. IT'S 25 years since the Summer of Love freaked its way into the ...
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, September 1992
At the age of 48, Lou Reed is better disposed to write sedate six-string symphonies about mortality than feedback musings on the subject of scoring ...
Julian Cope: A Rune With A View
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, September 1992
Powerful things, ley lines. They can make Julian Cope commune with rocks, and cause his old boss Bill Drummond to break the silence he's kept ...
Bruce Springsteen: Talking To The Boss
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Vox, September 1992
FOLKLORE TELLS us there was a time, about 25 years ago, when meeting the stars was a simple matter. You just had to hang out ...
Interview by Peter Silverton, Vox, October 1992
TOM WAITS is in Paris wrestling with the truth. As usual the truth is losing, but that's what happens when you're promoting your first album ...
Tom Robinson Band: Tom Robinson: Living In A Boom Time
Review by Chas de Whalley, Vox, October 1992
ACROSS ELEVEN TRACKS, recorded live on tour in Ireland earlier this year, Tom Robinson reinvents himself as a solo folk singer. But where some faded ...
U2, Public Enemy: Public Enemy and U2: The Chuck and Bono Show
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, December 1992
When U2's tour brought Public Enemy to the Deep South, where segregation is still an issue, Chuck D did his best to pour napalm on ...
Suede: Who Loves A Lad In Suede?
Report and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, May 1993
Suede were touted 'the best new band in Britain' before they even left the blocks, now, as they release their debut album, VOX delves behind ...
Essay by Stephen Dalton, Vox, June 1993
Ever since Woody Guthrie scratched 'This Guitar Kills Fascists' on his six-string, musicians have exploited rock's confrontational possibilities, from anti-racism to sexual revolution, in a ...
Bob Mould, Sugar: Ground Sugar
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, June 1993
After the candy-coated calm of Sugar’s Copper Blue comes the breeding, howling storm of Beaster. And the man at the helm, Bob Mould, ain’t about ...
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, June 1993
With Icelandic indie stadium-fillers The Sugarcubes on seemingly permanent hold, singer Bjork Gudmundsdottir launches her solo career this month with a single, ‘Human Behaviour’. She ...
Suede, Bernard Butler: Bernard Butler: Gentleman And Player
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, July 1993
When his father died last year, Bernard Butler used his guitar to assuage his grief. Now Britain's most important guitar hero since Johnny Marr has ...
Babes in Toyland: Babes In Toyland: Rock And Roll Babes
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, August 1993
Deposit your 'feminist rock' preconceptions at the door, pigeonhole fans. Babes In Toyland were playing raucous licks long before the Riot Grrrls left finishing school... ...
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, October 1993
Three years after their split from spiritual home 4AD Records, the Cocteau Twins return with a new album, Four Calendar Cafe, looking to eclipse the ...
Pet Shop Boys: Very (Parlophone)
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, November 1993
A BANG, a crash, a highbrow cultural reference – and the best Pet Shop Boys album yet drops in for cream tea and scurrilous gossip. ...
Charlatans, The (UK): The Charlatans: Return to Madchester
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, March 1994
After a few indiscretions, Manchester's adopted sons The Charlatans are keeping their motor running with the help of Ambient hippy Steve Hillage... ...
Oasis, Primal Scream, Jesus & Mary Chain, The: Creation Records: Creative Accounting
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, April 1994
Primal Scream, Jesus And Mary Chain, Boo Radleys... Creation has nurtured a family of provocative rock rebels. Alan McGee looks back on the first ten ...
Lemonheads, The: I Get The Feeling I'm Being Bullshitted
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, August 1994
IT'S A SHAME about Evan. Maybe we have a case of wrong time, wrong place, but dark moods are written all over his scowling, handsome, ...
Review by Gavin Martin, Vox, September 1994
THIS IS THE last ever album to be released by 'Prince' before he metamorphoses, full time, into a 'Symbol', and it reeks of salacious sex, ...
Report by Andrew Mueller, Vox, October 1994
Only the pissing rain made Woodstock '94 faithful to the original. Mostly, it was a hyped-up, chaotic gathering of middle-class punters and middle-order bands. ...
Pearl Jam, Nirvana: Pearl Jam: Reluctant Hero
Comment by Andrew Mueller, Vox, January 1995
After years of putting Eddie Vedder down, Kurt Cobain's final retribution was to pass him Grunge's crown of thorns. But will he be able to ...
M People: Bizarre Fruit (DeConstruction)
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, January 1995
Excess baggage ...
Stone Roses, The: The Stone Roses: Second Coming (Geffen)
Review by Gavin Martin, Vox, February 1995
TIMING CAN count for a lot in the fickle world of pop. When they released their eponymous first album in 1989, just in time to ...
Interview by Angus Batey, Vox, March 1995
Ice-T, Ice Cube, LL Cool J... The West Coast of America is famous for its frozen rappers. Now cometh the latest million-selling iceman: Coolio ...
Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, March 1995
Intelligent Techno god or the world's next fascist dictator? Moby likes to piss people off, and he's very good at it... ...
Weezer: The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, April 1995
Weezer may have written a million-selling debut album full of sparkling punk-pop songs, but it means nothing to super-nerdy frontman Rivers Cuomo. He's 23; time ...
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, May 1995
Jarvis Cocker, the only kid in his Sheffield classroom who wore lederhosen, didn't have a girlfriend till he was 19. Now he's a pin-up and ...
Skunk Anansie: The Year Skunk Broke: Skunk Anansie
Report and Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Vox, September 1995
Two indie EPs have been enough to catapult Skunk Anansie from British cult status to the silver screens of Hollywood. VOX joins them for a ...
Black Grape: It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah! (Radioactive)
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, September 1995
YOU KNOW the story. Just over two years ago, it all went pear-shaped for Shaun Ryder. Smack addiction, bitter infighting and musical stagnation finished off ...
Björk: Call Of The Wild: Bjork
Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Vox, October 1995
Bjork hasn’t let two years of critical kudos and VIP bullshit go to her head. As she heads out on a major world tour, VOX ...
Black Grape: Spills 'n' Thrills and Jelly Aches
Report and Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, Vox, November 1995
After breaking and entering the album charts at Number One, BLACK GRAPE decided to drag their scuzzy, 24-hour party on the road. VOX gets over-friendly ...
Ash: Turn Up, Check In, Rock Out!
Report by Steven Wells, Vox, December 1995
These days, most teenagers leave school and sign on. But not ASH – they play loud punk rock, trash hotels and party till they puke. ...
Pulp: Different Class (island)
Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, December 1995
WHERE, ONE wonders, does he do the dishes? The pre-eminence gris of kitchen-sink drama has spent so long washing other people's dirty linen, the plumbing ...
Retrospective by Ian Fortnam, Vox, 1996
WITH INDIEDOM firmly in the grip of the inane and the insipid, the doleful delinquents of 1986 were in dire and desperate need of a ...
Partridge Family, The: The Tragedy of Danny Bonaduce
Retrospective by Ian Fortnam, Vox, 1996
EVEN NOW, after almost three decades of relative sanity, it's utterly impossible to erase the excruciatingly impish image of Danny Bonaduce from the nation's collective ...
Interview by Steven Wells, Vox, April 1996
SAN FRANCISCO: Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas is being projected onto the fire curtain while the stage is being prepared for Garbage. The soundless ...
Fun Lovin' Criminals: Fun Lovin’ Criminals
Interview by Ian Fortnam, Vox, September 1996
DON’T BELIEVE the hype! Europe's largest open-air rock festival did celebrate its 26th anniversary this year. ...
Evan Dando, Lemonheads, The: Evan Dando
Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, Vox, November 1996
I HAVE REASON to believe that Evan Dando has been drinking. It's not so much his appearance – grimy T-shirt, flared polyester trousers crudely cut ...
Interview by Keith Cameron, Vox, May 1997
THE WAITRESS next door to the Blue Note desperately wants to come, but she couldn't get the night off work. "Oh, it'll be fantastic!" she ...
Mary J. Blige: Mary J Blige: Material World
Interview by Angus Batey, Vox, June 1997
WHAT'S THE most embarrassing item of clothing you've ever bought? ...
Interview by Angus Batey, Vox, June 1997
The songTHE SECOND single to be taked from Primal Scream's forthcoming Vanishing Point LP, 'Star' finds Bobby Gillespie drawing on his personal vocabulary of revolutionary ...
Smiths, The: The Smiths' Backpages
Retrospective by Ian Fortnam, Vox, June 1997
They were the darlings of the '80s bedsit generation, a loner, a muso and their mates who created British Pop pretty much from scratch. Ten ...
Roni Size and Reprazent: Collective Consciousness
Report and Interview by David Stubbs, Vox, January 1998
Dust off your bus pass and get down with RONI SIZE and REPRAZENT. There's Bristol beats aplenty, Genghis Khan gets a look in, and skipping ...
Pogues, The, Shane MacGowan: Shane MacGowan: It's A Long Way From Tipperary
Retrospective by Ian Fortnam, Vox, January 1998
AS PUNK PASSION dissipated and died, choking on its own irrelevance, a generation of serial venters were suddenly deprived of its primal, therapeutic effect. The ...
INXS: Michael Hutchence 1960-1997
Obituary by Andrew Mueller, Vox, January 1998
THAT MICHAEL HUTCHENCE should fail to reach his 40th birthday is, perhaps, no surprise in itself – his career was distinguished by a wholehearted subscription ...
Interview by Gavin Martin, Vox, January 1998
PATTI SMITH, the cultural dynamo who claims to have "several decades left in me yet" is never one to court convention. With no plans to ...
Review by Dele Fadele, Vox, April 1998
IF THE YOUNG Jim Kerr; who fronted Johnny And The Self Abusers in the late '70s tailspin of punk, knew what fate had in store ...
David Bowie: Best Of 1974/1979 (EMI)
Review by Ian Fortnam, Vox, June 1998
Where the first instalment of this condensed collection of Bowie's "best" work covered the formative innocence of the man's glam rock period, 1974/1979 finds the ...
Stereophonics: The Stereophonics
Interview by Ian Fortnam, Vox, June 1998
"Only in America," postulates a booming Welsh baritone, "could they have a museum dedicated to a fucking soft drink." ...
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