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

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

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

Jefferson Starship, Stardrive with Robert Mason: Radio City Music Hall, New York NY

Live Review by Ian Dove, Rolling Stone, 21 November 1974

Starship to Crew: Down to Earth ...

Styx

Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 29 March 1975

NO QUESTION about it. Styx were stuck. Their second album had lain on the record warehouse shelves for two years doing nothing but gather dust. ...

Peter Frampton, Lynyrd Skynyrd, REO Speedwagon: Lynyrd Skynyrd, Peter Frampton, REO Speedwagon: Long Beach Arena, Long Beach CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 8 September 1975

Lynyrd Skynyrd Predictable ...

Fleetwood Mac: Fleetwood Mac (Reprise)

Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 27 September 1975

Have the Mac lost the knack of attack? ...

Kansas: City Stars

Interview by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, March 1976

KANSAS CITY — The way Kansas see it, their main problem these days is that of their image. Which has to do with their having ...

Peter Frampton — Up From Rock's Infantry

Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 23 May 1976

SUPPOSE, FOR illustration's sake, that your family is a rock 'n' roll band — not a great one, but solid and promising. The amateur dates ...

Peter Frampton, Gentle Giant, Gary Wright, Yes: Yes, Peter Frampton, Gentle Giant, Gary Wright: Anaheim Stadium, Anaheim CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 19 July 1976

Yes, Frampton in Rock Concert ...

Andy Pratt: Avenging Andy Rides Again

Interview by Stephen Demorest, Circus, 24 August 1976

THREE YEARS AGO, Andy Pratt had bats in his belfry. Flutter, flutter -you could hear the unrequited passions playing hide-and-go-seek in his psyche. ...

Peter Frampton: Frampton hits the middle

Report by Wayne Robins, Newsday, 3 October 1976

After 10 years on the fringes of popularity, Peter Frampton is suddenly on top. ...

Gary Wright, Peter Frampton: Peter Frampton: Empire Pool, Wembley, London

Live Review by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 30 October 1976

Rock genius...or just another biodegradable pretty boy? C. SALEWICZ sinks his nashers in P. FRAMPTON's persona and finds it... ALL SMILE AND NO TEETH! ...

Chicago: Chicago's 'Comeback'

Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 13 November 1976

FEW BANDS have enjoyed the stability of Chicago, those rather dull "pioneers of jazz-rock" whose 'If You Leave Me Now' not only tops the charts ...

Styx: Crystal Ball (A&M) **

Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, 4 December 1976

THIS ONE I rather like. Not so much for its musical qualities but for the strange sense of homour through which these five debonair Chicagoans ...

Boston, Bob Seger: State Farm Show Arena, Harrisburg PA

Live Review by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 8 January 1977

AMAZING WHAT a platinum album can do, isn't it? ...

Boston Stranglehold

Report and Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 29 January 1977

How can any band be so special that their VERY FIRST album goes platinum? A suspicious GEOFF BARTON goes to the States to investigate... ...

Styx: Crystal Ball (A&M)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, February 1977

NOPE, I WON'T deny it, I've liked Styx since I first heard their 'Lady' single. The ferocious chords of that tune crashed out with a ...

Boston: More Than a Sensation...

Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 19 February 1977

...more like a fairy tale come true, as the band who came from nowhere take off in unprecedented fashion. Chris Charlesworth reports from New Jersey ...

Fleetwood Mac (1977)

Interview by John Pidgeon, Rock's Backpages audio, March 1977

Mick Fleetwood takes us through a history of the band from 'Albatross' on, and is joined by Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham to talk about the Fleetwood Mac and Rumours albums.

File format: mp3; file size: 29.8mb, interview length: 32' 33" sound quality: ****

Kansas: (1) Who Are These Persons and (2) Why the Silly Clothes?

Interview by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 30 April 1977

(1) They're Kansas, one hot US band (2) They're pictured at a ritzy bash to celebrate the platinum status of their current long player Leftoverture. ...

Fleetwood Mac: Rumours (Warner Bros.)

Review by Stephen Demorest, Creem, May 1977

SURE, THIS album deserves platinum status a much as the next Kiss LP, but frankly there's only one cut that really sends me – 'Dreams', ...

Doobie Brothers, Fleetwood Mac, Steve Gibbons Band, Gary Wright: Fleetwood Mac, the Doobie Brothers, Gary Wright, Steve Gibbons: Day on the Green, Oakland Coliseum Stadium, Oakland CA

Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 8 May 1977

Downpour fails to dampen Day on the Green spirits ...

Boston: The Biggest Unknown Group On The Planet

Report and Interview by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 14 May 1977

THERE ARE five people in Boston. Barry, Tom, Sib, Brad and Fran. One year ago no one knew who they were. Today no one knows ...

Foreigner: Foreigner (Atlantic SD 18215 )*½ .

Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 28 May 1977

REMEMBER IAN McDonald? That's right, the geezer who used to mess around something chronic on keyboards for King Crimson back in the early days when ...

Foreigner: Foreigner (Atlantic SD 18215)

Review by Bob Spitz, Crawdaddy!, June 1977

FOREIGNER IS a Boston/Cream pie a la mode whose futile search for the perfect hard-rock formula is diverted long enough for them to squeeze out ...

Foreigner: Rock & Roll Prowess Heralds Foreigner

Profile by Toby Goldstein, Circus, 9 June 1977

THE STAGGERING success of Foreigner's debut Atlantic LP and single, 'Feels Like the First Time', proves that the world has been waiting for yet another ...

Boston: A Million Dollars & A Holiday Inn

Report and Interview by Toby Goldstein, Creem, July 1977

BOSTON LEARN TO BE STARS ...

Emerson Lake & Palmer, Journey: Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Journey: Cow Palace, Daly City CA

Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 5 August 1977

Smoke, props and balanced sound ...

Mink DeVille, Styx: Styx, Mink DeVille: Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 15 August 1977

Versatile Styx Impresses the Fans ...

Heart: Far Out!

Interview by Robin Katz, Sounds, 10 September 1977

Laid-back hippy cries from the Heart. Nancy Wilson talks to Robin Katz ...

Greg Kihn: Greg Kihn Again

Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, 3 December 1977

GREG KIHN again? Does that mean I missed the first one? Suppose it does. Oh, well. So it goes. ...

Bob Welch

Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 14 January 1978

BOB WELCH is a hit. After stints in Fleetwood Mac and H. Metal outfit Paris he is enjoying chart action/success with his French Kiss album ...

Meat Loaf: Bat Out Of Hell

Review by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 4 February 1978

EXCESS AND incongruity seem to be the key factors at work here. An abundance of diverse stylistic elements piledriven and packed high into what must ...

Kansas: The State of American Football (Is it Colorado, Nevada or Kansas?)

Report and Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 18 February 1978

This is in fact a feature about a rock band by GEOFF BARTON ...

Aerosmith, Kansas, Styx: American revolution: Aerosmith, Boston, Kansas and co.

Overview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 25 February 1978

LIKE A FOREST fire, the flames of the new wave roared across the British rock scene, leaving behind a charred and blackened landscape. A few ...

Kansas: Buffalo huntin' in Hamburg

Report and Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 25 March 1978

A species threatened with extinction suddenly gains a new lease of life, and causes a big stir in the world of natural history... in this ...

Jefferson Starship: Earth (Grunt BXL1-2515)

Review by Bob Spitz, Crawdaddy!, May 1978

STARSHIP FINDS PEACE ON EARTH ...

Foreigner’s Road Map: Destination Top Ten

Interview by John Mendelssohn, Rolling Stone, 4 May 1978

IN THE SPRING of 1976, Mick Jones found himself. With a dwindling bank account and dim prospects, even after twelve years of playing guitar and ...

Foreigner: Rainbow, London

Live Review by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 6 May 1978

The damage is done ...

Journey: No Longer an Uphill Road

Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 1 June 1978

NEW YORK — Journey's recent performance at New York's Palladium theater was the kind of show careers are built on. Led by Neal Schon's searing, lightning-fast ...

Styx: Top Rank, Sheffield

Live Review by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 3 June 1978

STYX, AS you'll doubtless be aware if you're familiar with the curious musical predilections of our American cousins, are a disgustingly successful five-piece band of ...

Styx

Interview by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 10 June 1978

BY DAY, DENNIS DE YOUNG WAS A REGULAR GUY WITH A PONCEY NAME, LACQUERED HAIR, AND A PENCHANT FOR GAUDY FAKE ANTIQUE FURNITURE... BUT BY ...

Foreigner: Unruffled by Platinum Pressure

Interview by Sam Sutherland, High Fidelity, July 1978

SPEAKING QUIETLY over the hum of a transoceanic phone connection. Foreigner's Mick Jones doesn't seem the least bit threatened by the musical and mercantile similarities ...

Kansas: Forum, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 16 September 1978

'Joke supergroup' have last laugh ...

Boston's Return: More than a Followup?

Interview by Toby Goldstein, High Fidelity, October 1978

IN THE cramped basement of a small neat house in one of Boston's outermost suburbs, the leader of a six-million-dollar band is trying to finish ...

REO Speedwagon Makes Its Own Way

Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 5 October 1978

Riding the Seger circuit ...

Boston: San Francisco

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 14 October 1978

I SHOULD have been prepared for it, being in San Francisco and all that, but I hardly expected that a Boston concert would find me ...

Boston: Don't Look Back (Epic)

Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, November 1978

SHE'S THE ONE dreams were invented for, and you've had her. The pursuit was long and arduous, the affair sudden and turbulent. You've gone madly ...

Foreigner: Live in Los Angeles

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 25 November 1978

FOREIGNER ARE pretty much a thinking man's Bay City Rollers. ...

Rod Stewart: Blondes Have More Fun

Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 25 November 1978

OR BLOATED egos with lots of money get to see more of the world. ...

Jim Morrison: An American Prayer

Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 2 December 1978

A BOOK could be written (and has been), about James Douglas Morrison, sometime sex symbol, filmmaker, poet, drunk and rock 'n' roll star, so I ...

Billy Joel: The Miracle of 52nd Street

Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 14 December 1978

NOBODY EVER mistook Billy Joel for a matinee idol. In a world that worships angular, tall, rangy types like Robert De Niro and John Travolta, ...

Boston, Sammy Hagar: Boston Garden, Boston

Live Review by Ariel Swartley, Rolling Stone, 25 January 1979

Boston comes home ...

Toto: Toto

Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 3 February 1979

THIS COULD HAVE BEEN an unholy disaster. A group of Los Angeles session men forming their own band could have been the signal for God-knows-what ...

Toto: Roxy, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 10 February 1979

Toto: So-So at the Roxy ...

Toto: A Growth Industry For Modern People

Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 10 March 1979

A TOTO/SANDY ROBERTSON MULTI PLATINUM FINANCIAL READOUT ...

Toto: Losing The Studio Tan

Interview by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, 10 March 1979

DAVID PAICH has the grizzly, rough-hewn features of a particularly underhand heavyweight wrestler. The image is blown by a hugely infectious grin that recurs frequently, ...

Toto: Toto (CBS)

Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 17 March 1979

WILL THESE people never learn? In the time-honoured Hollywood tradition of foisting ambitious super-sessioners upon that large portion of the American public bereft of a ...

Toto: The Roxy, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 17 March 1979

We're an American b(l)and ...

Journey: Hold The (Balls On The) Line

Report and Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 24 March 1979

AN ADMIRABLE PHILOSOPHY. BUT WILL IT BE ENOUGH TO POPULARISE THE JOURNEY BRAND OF AMERICAN AOR IN THE UK? GEOFF BARTON SEEMS TO THINK SO ...

Journey: Truth About Evolution: Journey's Road

Interview by Michael Goldberg, Crawdaddy!, April 1979

LOS ANGELES — No one ever said touring was easy. Missed planes, sleepless nights, stolen equipment, cheap motels and mediocre food are all part of ...

Journey: Do You Sincerely Want To Be Liked?

Report and Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 4 August 1979

...JOURNEY do, and they flew SANDY ROBERTSON to LA just so he'd have a chance to like them close-up. And he did ...

Boston: Just another band from Boston with a cinema-organ called Bernie and a drummer called Sib who wears knee-socks (snigger)

Report and Interview by Hugh Fielder, Sounds, 29 September 1979

'We were just another band out of Boston/On the road and tryin' to make ends meet'. ...

Styx: Cornerstone (A&M AMLK 63711)

Review by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 6 October 1979

Styx come up Tramps ...

Boston: Rainbow Theatre, London

Live Review by Danny Baker, New Musical Express, 20 October 1979

GOAL! ...

Fleetwood Mac: Tusk (Warner Brothers)

Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 20 October 1979

ALMOST EVERYONE, barring the inevitable elitist bores blinkered by their own super-hipness, seemed to have a soft spot for Fleetwood Mac's Rumours. In late '77, ...

Foreigner: The Other Mick Jones Interview

Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 20 October 1979

SUPERMEGAPLATINUM SALES TECHNIQUE FOR BEGINNERS: FOREIGNER EDUCATE SANDY ROBERTSON ...

Jefferson Starship: The Starship, rebuilt

Interview by Wayne Robins, Newsday, 9 November 1979

LAST YEAR, it must have seemed as if the curse of Tutankhamen had fallen on the Jefferson Starship. In June, 1978, the band lost more ...

REO Speedwagon: After The Ninth Album You Don't Throw The TV Set Out Of The Window

Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 10 November 1979

THE INEVITABLE PROCESS OF MATURITY AS EXPERIENCED BY REO SPEEDWAGON. SANDY ROBERTSON WRITES ...

Fleetwood Mac: Madison Square Garden, NYC

Live Review by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, 1 December 1979

YOU ENTER the stream of bodies pouring through the portholes of Madison Square Garden. You get caught up in the tide. Into the awesome space ...

Dire Straits: Whitla Hall, Belfast

Live Review by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 22 December 1979

IN THE foyer they flog T-shirts, programmes and all the paraphernalia of a rock band's promotional department bar embossed wellingtons and inflatable underwear. Rumours that ...

Kansas: Even Though They've Sold Over 10 Million Albums in the USA to Date... Kansas are a New Wave Band

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 12 January 1980

HOWCUM? ASKS SYLVIE SIMMONS ...

Toto: Hydra (CBS 83900)**½

Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 19 January 1980

The money programme ...

Styx: A Bang and a Wimp-er

Report and Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 2 February 1980

Despite the hit single 'Babe' Styx are still Pomp Rock Supremos, Claims Geoff Barton from the USA ...

Styx: Cow Palace, San Francisco CA

Live Review by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 6 March 1980

WHEN HOLLYWOOD wanted to inject some real contemporary action into Mannix or one of those made-for-TV movies back in the Sixties, they'd throw in a ...

Journey: Departure (Columbia Records 36339)

Review by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, 9 March 1980

THIS IS the third in a series of albums that began with the platinum Infinity and continued with Evolution. ...

Fleetwood Mac: Can't Go Home Again

Profile and Interview by Chris Salewicz, Trouser Press, April 1980

OF COURSE, Fleetwood Mac is the American Dream. The band's success story is the stuff of which the mythology of modern day America is made: ...

Journey: Departure (Columbia)

Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 12 June 1980

DEPARTURE OFFERS ample proof that the Seventies hard-rock genre so many people have been trying to bury for the last few years just doesn't want ...

Fleetwood Mac: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 28 June 1980

CROWDS, HOWEVER passive, make me unhappy. As Eli Wallach said on TV (The Magnificent Seven) last Sunday afternoon, "If God didn't want them to be ...

Heart: Affairs of the Heart

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 5 July 1980

THE CLOSE QUARTERS in Nashville Tennessee claims to be America's only rock and roll hotel. Bar's open day and night, drugs no problem, you can ...

Sniff 'n' The Tears: The Game's Up (Chiswick)

Review by Deanne Pearson, The Face, August 1980

IT'S DIFFICULT to see how and why, at first, Chiswick, a R&R and punk label predominantly, are involved with a band such as Sniff 'n' ...

Daryl Hall & John Oates: Hall and Oates: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by David Hancock, Evening News, London, 23 September 1980

The Rock of Gold ...

Pat Benatar: Dominion, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 20 October 1980

AN EVENING with Pat Benatar is an instructive experience in the nature of the huge and seemingly unbridgeable gulf which now separates contemporary rock music ...

Stephen Bishop's Escape From Hollywood

Profile and Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 16 January 1981

IN APRIL 1975, an obscure singer-songwriter named Stephen Bishop wrote an article for the small Los Angeles publication Folkscene which stated he'd been writing songs ...

REO Speedwagon: The Prairie Dog Has His Day

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 2 May 1981

Fifteen years of slogging around the mid-west of America in clapped-out Chevrolets and crashing planes has finally put REO Speedwagon on the No. 1 album ...

Jefferson Starship: Modern Times (RCA)

Review by Jim Farber, Creem, July 1981

Dear Stockholder, We are very pleased to report to all of you who own stock in the Jefferson Starship Corporation that our 1980 financial gross was ...

Styx: Can Styx Save America?

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Kerrang!, September 1981

"Young Americans listen when I say/There's people putting us down/I know they say we've gone lazy/To tell you the truth we've seen better days/Don't need ...

Journey As A Way Of Life

Report and Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, September 1981

MIYAKO HOTEL, SAN FRANCISCO ...

Boston, Cheap Trick, Foreigner, Jefferson Starship, Journey, Rainbow, REO Speedwagon, Styx, Toto: Hard Pop, Suburban Rock

Report by J.D. Considine, Musician, October 1981

Band like REO, Styx and Journey have taken the details of the rock sound and made the medium the whole message, capitalizing on the rock ...

Journey to the Centre of the AORth

Report and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Kerrang!, October 1981

by Sylvie Simmons in San Francisco ...

Journey: Escape **

Review by Deborah Frost, Rolling Stone, 29 October 1981

'WHO'S CRYING Now', the hit single off Journey's hit LP, isn't super hip, super deep or even real, real hooky. But it does sound good. ...

Pat Benatar: Hot L Baltimore's (Not Just) For Children: Nice Girl Finishes First & Demands Recount

Report by Richard Riegel, Creem, November 1981

COLUMBIA, MARYLAND, is a "planned community" nestled among scads of functional greenery, midway between Baltimore and Washington D.C. Columbia was laid out according to the ...

Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks: Fleetwood Mac: Stevie Nicks, Macramé Goddess

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, 1982

TO STEAL from Groucho Marx (after all we're talking nicks), the trouble with doing interviews is having to sit down next to someone you don't ...

Toto

Profile by John Tobler, Virgin Yearbook, 1982

A THEORY was circulating during the last two or three years to the effect that the acts dominating the US album charts, and therefore the ...

Quarterflash: Quarterflash (Geffen)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, February 1982

BET IF YOU'RE like me, you made your definitive acquaintance with Quarterflash via the magic of radio. Sure, I received my album right off, but ...

Foreigner: The Forum, Inglewood CA

Live Review by Mark Leviton, Music Connection, 4 March 1982

FOREIGNER HAS managed to transcend the clichés of the much-vilified heavy metal rock form. Their Forum show was a powerful, direct lesson in how to ...

Foreigner: The Forum, Inglewood CA

Live Review by Mark Leviton, Music Connection, 4 March 1982

FOREIGNER HAS managed to transcend the clichés of the much-vilified heavy metal rock form. Their Forum show was a powerful, direct lesson in how to ...

Loverboy: Hot Nights In Puerto Rico

Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, April 1982

Canadian Loverboys Work For Their Weekend ...

Foreigner: Fame, 4 Tune + 4 Play

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 1 May 1982

Sylvie Simmons joins the FOREIGNER legion to meet Mick Jones ...

Heart To Heart

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 29 May 1982

SEATTLE'S SPACE Needle is the architectural equivalent of the male nipple. Just sticks up there, totally redundant except as an amusing thing to play with ...

Stevie Nicks: 20 Questions: Stevie Nicks

Interview by David Rensin, Playboy, July 1982

Ladies and Gentlemen, the reigning queen of rock – on recklessness, relationships and reincarnation. Contributing Editor David Rensin met with Stevie Nicks (whose album Bella ...

Asia: Asia (Geffen)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, July 1982

HOW FITTING to confront this record at the same moment the Royal Navy is steaming toward the Falklands, in the last-hurrah hard-on of Tory imperialism. ...

Asia Major or Asia Minor?

Report and Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, August 1982

Just A Coupla White Guys Sittin' Around, Makin' Money, etc. ...

Loverboy: Rock's Five Nice Guys

Profile and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 5 August 1982

DENVER — NICE. That's the perfect word to describe Loverboy, a rock band so wholesome the Boy Scouts should consider offering it an honorary membership. ...

Fleetwood Mac: Mirage (Warner Bros. 23607-1)

Review by Sam Sutherland, High Fidelity, October 1982

AFTER THE bold experimentation of Tusk, the seamless pop flow of the new Fleetwood Mac album sounds initially like a studied attempt to recycle the ...

REO Speedwagon: Good Trouble (Epic)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, October 1982

FROM OUT OF THE STEREOS OF BABES ...

Billy Squier: Is Articulate Rock The Perfect Formula, And What About The Supermarket Disaster?

Interview by J. Kordosh, Creem, December 1982

THE SALES OF Emotion In Motion were in the neighborhood of 425,000 during the first 10 days it was available to the public. Someone told me that ...

Styx: Kilroy Was Here (A&M)

Review by J. Kordosh, Creem, June 1983

MEET THE Premise. Rock 'n' roll has been banned from this good green Earth by your usual bunch of hypocrites. Woe is everyone. Along comes ...

Genesis: NEC, Birmingham

Live Review by Max Bell, The Times, 28 February 1984

WHEN GENESIS first came to prominence, some 12 years ago, they were regarded as leaders in the rock-as-theatre movement. The combination of their former vocalist ...

Fleetwood Mac, Christine McVie: Christine McVie: Egos Can Be Painless

Interview by Steven X Rea, High Fidelity, June 1984

Fleetwood Mac member and solo artist Christine McVie is confident when she says, "I'll leave the trailblazing to the teenagers." ...

Foreigner: Agent Provocateur (Atlantic)

Review by Craig Zeller, Creem, April 1985

HAVE TO admit I've had some good times inspired by Foreigner. Why, just this afternoon I dozed off watching MTV (understandably so) and had a ...

REO Speedwagon: Wheels Are Turnin' (Epic)

Review by Jon Young, Creem, April 1985

THESE ARE THE MEN OF BONANZA ...

Foreigner: Feels Like The Fifth Time

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, June 1985

THERE ARE TIMES when you truly appreciate Foreigner. For instance, like when Madonna's 'Like A Virgin' comes on the air. A navel she may have, ...

Michael Bolton: Bolton Lightning

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Sounds, 15 June 1985

Michael Bolton — Big in America, but still hiding in the UK's import racks. Steffan Chirazi tracks the keyboard wizard to New York ...

Asia : Continental Drift?

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, April 1986

IT IS NO COINCIDENCE that supergroup rhymes with gloop. Supergroups are what Rolling Stone puts on the pages it can't flog to Camels and condom ...

Tina Turner

Report and Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 13 August 1986

• She was a huge star in the sixties, down the dumper in the seventies and now, at 47, she's a huge star again.• She ...

38 Special, Dwight Twilley: 38 Special: Strength In Numbers (A&M); Dwight Twilley: Wild Dogs (A&M)

Review by Craig Zeller, Creem, October 1986

AT WORK, we play the radio constantly. A good part of the time it's tuned to the local oldies station. The other day I was ...

Foreigner, Lou Gramm: Lou Gramm: A Jaunt to Dimension Solo

Profile and Interview by Chuck Eddy, Creem, August 1987

BEST WAY to kick this off is to can the corny suspense and letcha in on what the man told me, which I'm sure as ...

Europe: Honest Injun

Interview by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 23 January 1988

EUROPE have a new single on release called 'Cherokee' — the fourth to be lifted from the mega-successful Final Countdown LP — accompanied by a ...

Foreigner: Inside Information (Atlantic)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, April 1988

LONG-TIME Foreigner fans should open this album's gatefold jacket very slowly (if at all), as the double-spread group photo within confirms that Our Boys are ...

Fleetwood Mac, Foreigner, Whitesnake: Does Keith Olsen really believe in this stuff, or what?

Interview by Alan di Perna, Musician, November 1988

IT'S EASY to sneer at the increasingly predictable formulas that sell records in the millions these days. What's hard is to actually believe in the ...

Radio's Rock of Ages

Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 1 June 1989

Is the classic-rock format dictating which acts record companies sign? ...

Chris Rea: The Road To Hell (Magnet WX 317)

Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 3 November 1989

CHRIS REA'S latest is not without its ironies, especially the "Thanks" column in the sleeve credits which includes "Everyone in all the governments". Compared to ...

Eric Clapton: Journeyman

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, December 1989

A CERTAIN self-deprecating irony is evident in the title of Eric Clapton's latest: a journeyman is certainly what he has become in his post-God years. ...

David Lee Roth: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by David Sinclair, The Times, 5 March 1991

AN IRREPRESSIBLE showman, David Lee Roth has got where he is primarily by dint of athletic energy, brass neck and sheer force of personality. His ...

Dire Straits: On Every Street (Vertigo)

Review by Max Bell, Vox, November 1991

AND ON EVERY CD player...they wish. ...

Asia: The Paradise, Boston MA

Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 27 February 1993

Pompous and pretentious Asia ...

World Party: Bang! (Ensign Chen)

Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, May 1993

Bang! is Karl Wallinger's Victor Meldrew album. Sequestered in a garret for two years since Goodbye Jumbo, he shuffles blinking into the daylight to enquire, ...

Phil Collins: Both Sides

Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, December 1993

BASICALLY, UNCOOL, £12-million-a-year, Tory-endorsing Phil Collins is good on Love, not much cop on Life. So although, for reasons unknown, the totally solo Both Sides ...

R.E.M.: R.E.M: Monster (WEA)

Review by Stuart Maconie, Q, November 1994

When U2 swapped their Romany drifter look for the PVC strides and comedy shades, there was, after the initial confusion, a general hum of approbation. ...

Bon Jovi: These Days (Mercury 5282482)

Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, August 1995

RETURNING FROM their minor flirtation with funky modernity and relatively short hair on Keep The Faith, Jon and the boys swing back into classic Jovi ...

The Blue Nile: Peace At Last (Warner)

Review by Stuart Maconie, Q, July 1996

AS PROLIFIC AS the Easter Island statue makers and with almost as underworked a PR, The Blue Nile will feature heavily when Arthur C. Clarke's ...

Bon Jovi: Jon Bon Jovi: Destination Anywhere

Review by Carol Clerk, Uncut, July 1997

THE ONLY living American to get the hang of TFI Friday. The hardest-working man in, oh, several industries. The pin-up pop star who dared to ...

Fleetwood Mac Won't Stop

Comment by Matt Hanks, Memphis Flyer, 12 November 1997

IN THE SUMMER of '95, Fleetwood Mac found themselves slogging across the country on a dismal rock-and-roll revival tour, sandwiched between (God help them) REO ...

Chicago, Crosby Stills and Nash, The Eagles: Oldies But Goodies: The Eagles, Chicago, Crosby Stills & Nash

Essay by Debbie Kruger, Weekend Australian, 7 March 1998

GROUPS SUCH AS the Eagles, Chicago and Crosby Stills & Nash sold millions of records here in their heydey – the Eagles still do – ...

Steve Miller Band: The Joker's later work revisited

Retrospective by Gavin Martin, Uncut, July 1998

BY THE time of his 1976 UK chart breakthrough, Fly like An Eagle, Steve Miller's many attributes had been established on the impressive series of ...

Michael Bolton

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

b. Michael Bolotin, 26 February 1953, New Haven, Connecticut, USA ...

REO Speedwagon

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001

Neal Doughty, b. 29 July 1946, Evanston, Illinois, USA; Alan Gratzer, b. 9 November 1948, Syracuse, New York (replaced by Bryan Hitt, b. 5 January ...

The Fist of Pure Emotion

Essay by Victoria Sandler, Rock's Backpages, 2 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 ...

Journey, Poison: Party On, Dude: Rock Package Tours

Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 24 May 2001

GET READY, Houston, 'cuz here they come – rolling into town in waves all summer long. No, not the Bayou City's infamous mosquito swarms, but ...

Toto: Steve Lukather: An Interview

Interview by Joe Matera, Mixdown, 2002

THE NAME STEVE LUKATHER is well respected amongst musicians and guitarists alike worldwide. Still in his teens, Lukather joined Boz Scaggs' backing band, then went ...

Journey, Santana: Gregg Rolie's Musical Journey

Interview by Joe Matera, Mixdown, March 2002

WHILE HE MIGHT not be a household name on his own, Gregg Rolie is responsible for co-founding two phenomenally popular, multi-platinum many times over super ...

The Darkness: SECC, Glasgow

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, December 2004

IN POP, last year's underdog can so easily become this year's one-trick pony. The Darkness ended 2003 as the former rank outsiders who triumphed over ...

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: Fight Club

Profile and Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Harp, November 2005

WITH THE swagger of the young Yardbirds and the unstudied panache and casual arrogance of the early Stones, Nick Jago, Robert Been and Peter Hayes ...

Bon Jovi, Jon Bon Jovi: Jon Bon Jovi (2005)

Interview by Maureen Paton, Rock's Backpages audio, 8 December 2005

The Bon Jovi front man talks about his family background, still being a New Jersey boy, and remaining close to his parents; being in bad movies; how the band has stayed together, but not wanting to be on the road for the rest of his life; the temptations of the road, his family life, and fostering children; Hurricane Katrina, and class and race in America.

File format: mp3; file size: 27.3.mb, interview length: 28' 27" sound quality: ** (phoner)

Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks: Stevie Nicks

Interview by Graham Reid, The New Zealand Herald, 25 February 2006

STEVIE NICKS – the fairy queen singer in Fleetwood Mac – is in a Melbourne hotel room ready to go off to another rehearsal. In ...

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty: Anatomy of a rock star

Profile and Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Harp, July 2006

ALMOST EVERYONE that knows Tom Petty for any length of time calls him Tommy. ...

Asia

Discography by Steven Rosen, Goldmine, 13 October 2006

ASIA WAS the hybrid formed when ELP and Yes both imploded and sent members scurrying about in search of a new band. ...

Boston: 30 Minutes with Tom Scholz of Boston

Interview by Mike Mettler, Sound + Vision, November 2006

Two of rock's Holy Grail albums, 1976's Boston and 1978's Don't Look Back are finally remastered by the band's meticulous mastermind, and he tells us ...

Peter Bjorn and John: Bogart's, Cincinnati

Live Review by Steven R Rosen, Harp, December 2007

MAYBE IT'S a Bjorn thing, but the audience at Bogarts in Cincinnati had trouble figuring Peter Bjorn And John out. ...

Michael Jackson, Steve Lukather, Spinal Tap, Toto: Toto: Get in the Van…

Interview by Scott McLennan, Rip It Up (Australia), February 2008

Steve Lukather's resumé over the last three decades not only showcases a prolific musician, it also suggests a wildly divergent talent unafraid of variety. The ...

Kansas: Q&A: Rich Williams of Kansas Talks History, Houston and Will Ferrell

Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 29 May 2008

IN THE REALM of classic rock warhorse bands, few have managed to straddle genres like Kansas. Fist pumping FM rock anthems ('Carry On Wayward Son', ...

Boston, Chicago, Journey, REO Speedwagon, Toto: More Than a Feeling: The 20 Greatest AOR Tracks of All Time!

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. ...

Foreigner: Can't Slow Down

Review by Barney Hoskyns, bbc.co.uk, September 2009

A ghastly collection that might as well have been written by a computer ...

Foreigner's Mick Jones (2009)

Interview by Carl Wiser, Songfacts, 23 October 2009

On songwriting, production and working with stepson Mark Ronson: the Englishman in New York fills in the gaps.

File format: mp3; file size: 34.2mb; Interview length: 37' 21"; sound quality: ***

Fleetwood Mac: Manchester Arena

Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 29 October 2009

"THIS BAND have a complex emotional history," begins guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, hinting at Fleetwood Mac's rollercoaster of bedhopping, cocaine, mental illness and religious cults, which ...

Journey: Why is Journey's 'Don't Stop Believin'' Back in the Charts?

Comment by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 5 November 2009

The 17th bestselling track in the country is the power ballad 'Don't Stop Believin'' from 1981. How did Journey get so popular? ...

Journey's trend: Why this band don't stop believin'

Comment by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, 16 December 2009

IN THE CLOSING moments of Glee, the newest US smash to creep on to our TV screens, an ensemble of high school singers and musicians ...

Emerson Lake & Palmer, Foreigner, UFO, ZZ Top: High LOL-tage: Mike Diver's classic rock adventure

Live Review by Mike Diver, Drowned in Sound, 3 August 2010

The other day our former overlord Mike Diver phoned up DiS HQ to belligerently demand we implement what he described as "the final phase" of ...

Journey: How 'Don't Stop Believin'' Became Such a Monster Hit

Report by Steven R Rosen, American Songwriter, November 2010

POP STARS OF disparate ages and musical styles, when forced to share a stage, can be as awkward together as "strangers waiting up and down ...

Chicago: Mobsters, Crime And Jazz: Danny Seraphine's Chicago Story

Review and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 16 December 2010

FROM THEIR 1967 founding to his unceremonious ouster from the group in 1990, Danny Seraphine provided the pounding backbeat for Chicago, both for the early, ...

Rock of Ages Musical Exhumes '80s Power Ballads

Report by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, 27 February 2011

THERE HAVE BEEN few musical sins committed in the name of rock 'n' roll as egregious as the power ballad. Not really rock and not ...

Toto: Hammersmith Apollo, London

Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 28 June 2011

LAST YEAR saw veteran American soft-rockers Journey enjoy an Indian summer with their 1980 hit 'Don't Stop Believin''. A full three decades after its initial ...

Genesis, Mike + the Mechanics: Mike Rutherford: The Trick Of The Tale

Retrospective and Interview by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, February 2014

Genesis and Mike + The Mechanics' founder Mike Rutherford has written an autobiography with a difference. Daryl Easlea met him to discuss The Living Years. ...

Fleetwood Mac: Then play on

Retrospective and Interview by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, March 2014

British blues band Fleetwood Mac rose to fame on the strength of Peter Green's playing and writing. Their success as an Anglo-American AOR act is ...

Survivor: Jim Peterik Still Has That Eye of the Tiger

Retrospective and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 28 October 2014

AN ANSWERING-MACHINE message not only changed Jim Peterik's life forever, but led to the creation of one of the '80s biggest anthems that can still ...

Styx: For Dennis DeYoung, It's Still the Best of Times

Retrospective and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 9 April 2015

TO MANY classic-rock fans, it would seem a bit of unnecessary clarification to bill a Dennis DeYoung show as "Dennis DeYoung: The Music of Styx". ...

Toto: How we made 'Africa'

Interview by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 30 January 2018

"If this is a hit," I said, "I'll run naked down Hollywood Boulevard." ...

Journey's Jonathan Cain: Still Believin' in Music and Other Higher Powers

Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 1 May 2018

YOU COULD practically hear the piercing screams of millions of HBO viewers across the land on the night of June 10, 2007 as they were ...

Peter Frampton: Over And Out

Profile and Interview by Henry Yates, Classic Rock, June 2019

Peter Frampton's diagnosis with a degenerative muscle condition means the clock is ticking on his fabled guitar skills. But as the 68-year-old heads out on ...

Pacific Breeze

Column by Wayne Robins, Copper, 15 June 2020

IT MIGHT BE hard to imagine, but there was a time when there was not a Japanese restaurant in every city neighborhood and suburban strip ...

Steve Lukather, Toto: Steve Lukather: 33/3rd

Interview by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, 25 March 2021

STEVE LUKATHER has played on countless records owned and streamed worldwide. For most musicians, just being a founder member and only constant of Toto would ...

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