Record companies, labels etc.
Overview by John Broven, Blues Unlimited, June 1964
WITH THE emergence of interest in blues recordings after the war, with its resultant popularity, it was only natural that there should be a multitude ...
Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding: Atlantic '67
Report and Interview by Bill Harry, Record Mirror, December 1966
FRANK FENTER is a tall, tanned, talkative South African who has a way of expression with his hands that would do credit to an Italian. ...
Duke/Peacock: 20 Years of Don Robey's R&B Empire
Report by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, October 1969
1969 Is the Twentieth Anniversary of Duke/Peacock Records of Houston, Texas, one of the best R & B Soul companies. ...
Supremes, The, Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson: Motown: The Gold In Their Bodies
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, Sunday Times, 1970
CONSIDERED TOGETHER at a party in New York, Nina Simone, the highly political folk singer, and Diana Ross, principal exhibit of the Motown Record Corporation, ...
Otis Redding: Phil Walden on Otis Redding and more (1971)
Interview by Charlie Gillett, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1971
It's 1971, and the Allmans are on the rise, Jimmy Carter is in the Governor's Mansion, and Otis is four-years-dead: Capricorn man Phil Walden and pals look back at Otis, the MGs, and discuss race and the South with remarkable frankness.
File format: mp3; in 4 parts, total file sizes: 96.1mb, total interview length: 1h 44' 59" sound quality: **
Interview by Charlie Gillett, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1971
From his youth as an avid record collector and black music fan, up to signing Ray Charles, Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegün tells the whole story.
File format: mp3; in 4 parts, total file sizes: 103.7mb; total interview length: 1h 53' 29" sound quality: ***
Review by Jonh Ingham, Phonograph Record, November 1971
SUN RECORDS and Phil Spector's Philles Records were the two most important independent record companies in the history of rock and roll. ...
Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, February 1972
IN 1967, ARETHA Franklin moved from Columbia to Atlantic – in what soon proved to be one of the most important moments in the history ...
David Geffen: David's Talented Asylum
Interview by Penny Valentine, Sounds, February 1972
Penny Valentine talks to America's leading manager David Geffen ...
Overview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, March 1972
The dog days of rock are upon us. ...
Island Records: Reggae to Riches
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, November 1972
IF YOU WORK for Island Records, nobody minds if you take your dog into the office every day – or even if it misbehaves on ...
Retrospective by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, January 1973
Richard Williams reviews the Cameo recordings, recently reissued on two double albums, which made Philadelphia the 'Crap Capital of America' ...
Interview by John Tobler, ZigZag, May 1973
If ever I've identified with a record company, the nearest thing in my mind to an ideal would be Elektra Records, for many reasons, not ...
Sylvia Robinson, Moments, The: All Platinum Records: Behind The Scenes With Joe Robinson
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, September 1973
JOE ROBINSON is President of All Platinum Records, a complex of record companies that embraces Stang, Vibration, Horoscope, Turbo and All Platinum labels. ...
Stevie Wonder: Motown the Uptight
Essay by Richard Williams, Let It Rock, July 1974
We’ve got love a’ go-go nowLet’s not wonder whyLove-a, love a’ go-go nowTomorrow that love may die– Stevie Wonder, 1966 Sing it loud for your ...
Leon Russell: A Recording Studio And Offices For Shelter Records: An Interview With Leon Russell
Interview by David A. Williams, unpublished, December 1974
"I ORGANIZED Shelter Records in Los Angeles in 1970. In 1972, I decided to move back to Tulsa to open one of the few recording ...
Johnnie Allan: The Promised Land …… And How To Get There: Oval Records
Report by Charlie Gillett, NME, December 1974
Inside looking out; CHARLIE GILLETT, who has started his own record label, Oval Records, reports from the other side of the fence on the processes ...
Review by Bob Fisher, NME, January 1975
Black is busting out all over ...
Moments, The: The Moments and All Platinum Records: Moments To Remember
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, April 1975
I'M SURE THE Moments will understand my meaning when I say that I am absolutely dumbfounded to be able to write a feature on them ...
Book Review by Bill Millar, Let It Rock, June 1975
Martin Hawkins and Colin Escott: Catalyst (Aquarius, £2.90, 176pp) ...
Various Artists: The Stax Story — Volumes 1&2 (Stax)
Review by Cliff White, Let It Rock, August 1975
COMPILATION ALBUMS are like Chinese meals. A wise choice of carefully balanced ingredients can be delicious: sometimes you just get heartburn. ...
Sylvia Robinson, Shirley Goodman: All Platinum Records: My Wife, The President…
Report and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, October 1975
IT'S NICE AND cool and dark in the back room of the bar, and you can sit in your booth and nurse a beer and ...
Charly Records: The Dark Side Of The Sun
Retrospective by Charlie Gillett, Street Life, April 1976
SAM PHILLIPS must be shaking his head in bewilderment that somebody should be issuing his out-takes. ...
Stax: Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)...
Report by Cliff White, NME, August 1976
CLIFF WHITE charts the fall of Stax Records ...
Rubinoos, The, Jonathan Richman, Greg Kihn, Earth Quake: Beserkley Records: The Fabled Label
Overview by Ian Birch, Sounds, October 1976
SOME PLACES become legendary. Mystical meccas for the besotted. That is usually until you sample them first hand. ...
Sun Records reissues: Rock’n’Roll – first dinosaur still extant
Review by Cliff White, NME, November 1976
CLIFF WHITE examines a major re-packaging of Sam Philips' Sun catalogue. ...
Four on the Floor: The Motown Sound
Book Excerpt by Lenny Kaye, David Dalton, Rock 100, 1977
IT WAS EVER MORE THAN A RECORD LABEL. At its zenith, during a span that dominated most (if not all) of the sixties, the hit ...
Report by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, January 1977
GEOFF TRAVIS must feel like Dr. Frankenstein sometimes. Geoff is tall and lanky, with a fuzzy afro of light brown hair and a grin guaranteed ...
Judd Phillips: The Memphis Mercury Connection
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, March 1978
NO, IT ISN'T a devious underworld operation; rather, it is the efforts of the Chicago-based Mercury organisation to be the first major to capitalise on ...
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, April 1978
Since its revival a couple of years back, Cotillion Records has underlined Atlantic Records' commitment to black music. With pioneer Henry Allen at the helm, ...
Report by Paul Rambali, NME, August 1978
Last September, in our extraordinarily collectable NME Collectors Issue, we looked at the seemingly unstoppable explosion of independent record labels. Times change, though. Rebels become ...
Report by Max Bell, NME, October 1978
W. C. FIELDS would have hated the "Be Stiff" tour. A sixteen year child star who toured with Mickey Rooney? A performing punk dwarf called ...
Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis: The Sun King: Sam Phillips
Retrospective and Interview by Robert Palmer, Memphis, December 1978
BACK IN THE MID-'50s, the Sun Records studio at 706 Union Avenue was the epicenter of a sudden, wrenching shift in world consciousness. Tremors had ...
Ace Records: The Ace Story Vol. 1/Vol.2
Review by Pete Wingfield, Melody Maker, January 1979
THESE TWO VOLUMES, together with the indispensable Huey 'Piano' Smith and the Clowns collection in the same series (Ace CH 9) represent the first time ...
Rough Trade Records: The Humane Sell
Report and Interview by Ian Birch, Melody Maker, February 1979
Rough Trade aim to break down the barrier between the consumers and the consumed. ...
Modern-ists: The Bihari Brothers
Retrospective by Pete Grendysa, Goldmine, May 1979
TWO FACTORS combined to make the years of the Second World War uniquely fertile for Rhythm and Blues. One, strangely enough, was the shortage of ...
EMI: Saturday Night Beneath The Corporate Umbrella
Report by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, June 1979
MUSIC, FILMS TV, HOTELS, RESTAURANTS, MEDICINE, WEAPONS...HOW A GIANT RECORD COMPANY NOW EXTENDS INTO EVERY AREA OF LIFE – AND DEATH. ...
Eddy Grant: Living On The Ice Block
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, July 1979
How far can a black musician control his own destiny in white society? Surprise, surprise, not all the way, says the man in the front ...
Faulty Towers: Miles Copeland’s New Wave
Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, September 1979
MILES COPELAND is prone to saying things like "cracking America and the world is a big job and we're going to have to work really ...
Report by Mary Harron, Melody Maker, September 1979
Lots of people thought that Operation Julie was a bit of an anachronism. Who, in the late Seventies, could be dropping all those tabs? It ...
Aspects of Superpop: It Will Stand
Retrospective by Penny Reel, NME, November 1979
The Minit label of New Orleans flourished during the period 1960 to 1962 and consolidated one of the cornerstones of the Superpop era. Allen Toussaint ...
Cristina, Suicide, Lydia Lunch, Kid Creole & The Coconuts: ZE Night: Hurrah, New York City
Profile by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, June 1980
THE RICH ARE different from you and me, my friends. While we content ourselves with free promos and an occasional "plus-one" at a local bistro, ...
Orange Juice: The Sneer That Says Wish You Were Here
Profile and Interview by Paul Morley, NME, October 1980
THERE'S SOMEONE knocking on my door. A loud rap. I'm woken up with a start. I open the door. ...
Retrospective by Martin Hawkins, History of Rock, The, 1981
THE SUN RECORD COMPANY of Memphis, Tennessee, was one of the very few independent record labels to develop a unique and immediately identifiable 'sound'. ...
Disc Haven For Rockers: Rough Trade
Report and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, January 1981
SMALL, INDEPENDENT labels have introduced many of rock music's most influential figures. Elvis Presley (on Sun Records), Chuck Berry (Chess) and Little Richard (Specialty). Even ...
Interview by Vivien Goldman, NME, May 1981
Vivien Goldman meets Daniel Miller, the man who brought you The Silicon Teens, The Normal and Depeche Mode. Though only one of these exists – ...
Why is This Man Hip But a Complete Failure?: Michael Zilkha and ZE Records
Interview by Paul Rambali, NME, December 1981
Paul Rambali meets Mr. ZE, Michael Zilkha and learns how the music on his label has made him fashionable but broke. ...
‘Home Runs, No Bunts’ — Solar Power On The Rise
Interview by Gene Sculatti, Los Angeles Times, December 1981
Does the Stones' latest album fail to start you up? Has your affair cooled with the New Romantics? You say you didn't grow up to ...
Blondie: Animal House: Chris Stein, Blondie, and Animal Records
Interview by Cynthia Rose, NME, 1982
MUSICIAN/PHOTOGRAPHER Chris Stein has spent the last four years becoming what some Americans consider "a compulsive over-achiever", and others call 'an enthusiast'. ...
Profile by Bill Millar, History of Rock, The, 1982
Until recently little was known of Berry Gordy Jnr’s background. Such information as was available made no sense at all except on a romantic level, ...
Leonard Chess: Grand Master Of The Blues
Retrospective by Tony Russell, History of Rock, The, 1982
Chess is one the great labels. Along with Sun and Atlantic it has stamped its trademark indelibly on the history of rock. ...
Overview by Paolo Hewitt, Melody Maker, April 1982
TIMELESS music...a rare and precious thing...hard to find ...even harder to create: that's Motown music when it was in its heyday. It was a music ...
Depeche Mode, Yazoo: The Meaning Of Mute
Profile and Interview by Johnny Black, Masterbag, September 1982
(1) Not emitting articulate sound:NOT THAT YOU could blame him if his utterances were totally inarticulate, because Daniel Miller has been having a hard and ...
Berry Gordy: The Man in the Middle
Interview by Mick Brown, Sunday Times, 1984
Surrounded by the stars he created – Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Diana Ross – stands Berry Gordy, the man who 25 years ago founded ...
Essay by Mick Brown, Guardian, The, 1984
Atlantic and other classic R&B issues are at last being reprinted — in Britain. Mick Brown reports ...
Essay by Paul Morley, NME, February 1984
PAUL MORLEY, the man who took FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD to Number One, takes a long day's journey into night where he wonders whether he ...
Interview by Paul Rambali, Face, The, June 1984
NOTES SCRAWLED habitually on the back of Richard Branson’s hand attest to a hectic day. He had been invited to lunch by the financial editor ...
Report and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, NME, October 1984
The first year of ZTT has been a spectacular success with Frankie Goes To Hollywood singles 'Relax' and 'Two Tribes' becoming respectively the fourth and ...
Chris Strachwitz: Slices From Arhoolie
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, June 1985
EL CERRITO, Calif. – "Since I only record music I really love, it's like being a preacher or a junkie," mused Chris Strachwitz, founder of ...
Report and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, July 1985
They don't sound like the Ramones, and they don't look like the Sex Pistols, but bands like Hüsker Dü, the Minutemen and the Meat Puppets ...
Stax Records' Estelle Axton (1985)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, October 1985
From Satellite Records to 'Disco Duck': Stax Records' Estelle Axton on the "recording bidness" - pre-Stax Memphis and Sun and Elvis, Rufus Thomas, the Mar-Keys, 'Last Night', Otis, Hayes and Porter, the record shop, and through to Al Bell and the downfall.
File format: mp3; in 3 parts, total file sizes: 82.4meg, total interview length: 1h 29' 53" sound quality: ***
K-Tel's Place in the Music Industry: Where Have All the One-Hit Wonders Gone?
Retrospective by Larry Jaffee, Popular Music and Society, 1986
COMEDIAN ROBERT KLEIN has a story about how you can call up K-tel and order every record ever made. A forty-foot trailer will drive up ...
Sleevenotes by Gene Sculatti, Edsel Records, 1986
It was no Sun Records. It wasn't Philles or Dimension, or Cameo-Parkway or even Big Top. But Autumn Records surely qualifies as one of America's ...
Beastie Boys, The, Slayer: Def Jam Records: Men Or Beasties?
Report and Interview by Don Watson, NME, January 1986
IN CRUMPLED, jeans, trainers and an AC/DC T-shirt Rick Rubin represents the current hippest record company in New York, Def Jam Records. ...
Atlantic Records: Label Of 1,000 Dances
Essay by Penny Reel, NME, August 1986
ATLANTIC RECORDS was the supreme R&B label among many which flourished during the music's pre-eminence from shortly after the Second World War up to the ...
Black Flag: SST Records: Working Muscles, Packaged Wallop
Report and Interview by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, September 1986
YOU COULD SAY this is the darkest Dark Age the music world has seen yet, what with commercial radio more dead than death itself and ...
Report by Adam Sweeting, Q, October 1986
THE CONNAUGHT ROOMS in London, WC2, are used to Lord Mayors, masonic gatherings and businessmen full of brandy, but on a grey August Monday the ...
Specials, The, Selecter, The, Madness: The End of 2-Tone: Madness/The Specials/The Selecter
Report by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, November 1986
Farewell, Madness – the last of the 2-Tone tribe. Phil Sutcliffe follows the fate of the three groups that pioneered the ska revival. ...
Sound Of Silence: The Rise Of The Compact Disc
Report by Jack Barron, Sounds, December 1986
You don't have to be a classical fanatic or yuppie stadium rock lover to appreciate compact disc – the quiet revolution has hit the indie ...
John Richbourg: The Grandaddy Of Soul
Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Soul Survivor, Summer 1986
OF THE MANY white disc jockeys who pioneered the airplay of black rhythm 'n' blues through the 1950s and 60s, perhaps the most influential in ...
Chess Studios: Notes for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Retrospective and Interview by Don Snowden, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1987
THE ROCK 'N ROLL scheme of things has offered up any number of delineated "Sounds", those confluences of particularly musical elements that came to be ...
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, NME, January 1987
Before disco there was Philadelphia International Records, the Soul label of the '70s. Now it's been documented in a boxed set of albums. BARNEY HOSKYNS ...
Tony Wilson: One Man and a Music Factory
Interview by James Brown, Sounds, February 1987
In the first of a special series on the men and women behind the scenes of the music business JAMES BROWN talks to TONY WILSON, ...
Rough Trade Records: Rough At The Top
Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Guardian, The, February 1987
In the record industry big doesn’t always mean best, and the independent Rough Trade have beaten the big boys in fostering new talent and ideas. ...
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, May 1987
MALACO RECORDS isn't exactly a household name in the music industry but the Jackson, Mississippi-based label was behind one of the surprise grass-roots success stories ...
Willie Mitchell: From Hi to Waylo: the Spirit of Memphis Soul
Report by Barney Hoskyns, unpublished, 1988
LOVERS OF authentic southern American soul are in for a major treat this weekend when a "Memphis Soul Revue" holds court at London's Town & ...
Rick Rubin: The Devil's Disciple
Interview by Jack Barron, NME, April 1988
Beelzebub or Midas? Def Jam supremo RICK RUBIN walks the fine line between brilliance and stupidity. JACK BARRON joins him on the tightrope and enters ...
Beastie Boys, The, Slayer, LL Cool J: Rick Rubin: Mental Metal Master
Interview by Paul Elliott, Sounds, March 1989
From rap to metal, LL Cool J to Slayer, producer Rick Rubin has shaped the definitive street beats of the decade. Paul Elliott hears the ...
Bobby 'Blue' Bland: Malaco: Soul’s Retirement Home
Report and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Times, The, July 1989
"BLUES SINGERS don't retire", said the late Howlin' Wolf, and Bobby "Blue" Bland might well agree with him. After thirty seven years virtually nonstop on ...
Erasure, Depeche Mode, Inspiral Carpets: Staying Mute
Profile and Interview by John McCready, Face, The, August 1990
ELECTRONIC. TEUTONIC. Independent. European. Regardless of the reality of its catalogue, Mute Records has a certain image. Like any record label with a desire to ...
Various Artists: Rubaiyat: Elektra's 40th Anniversary
Review by Mat Snow, Q, November 1990
IN 1950 NEW YORKER Jac Holzman started Elektra with $600 of his bar mitzvah money, recording artists in their own homes with a tape machine ...
Various Artists: The Sun Story Vols 1 & 2
Review by Johnny Black, Q, February 1991
IT WOULD BE convenient to be able to cite Sam Phillips's Memphis-based Sun Records, with Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis on its roster, as ...
Various Artists: The Sun Story Vols 1 & 2
Review by Johnny Black, Q, February 1991
Sun compiled. Historic and musically satisfying – even without Elvis. ...
Willie Mitchell, Al Green: Hi Records: That Memphis Beat
Overview by Colin Escott, Record Hunter, July 1991
Long in the shadow of Sun and Stax, Memphis based Hi Records finally hit the big time with Al Green and set the '70s soul ...
Rough Trade Records: Life After Debt?
Report by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, August 1991
On May 31, Rough Trade was pronounced dead. Thus ended a 15-year indie dynasty run by "brown ricers" — with a £40 million turnover. But ...
Ahmet Ertegun And The History Of Atlantic Records
Profile and Interview by Hank Bordowitz, Schwann Spectrum, Winter 1991
"WHEN I FIRST started Atlantic Records," reflects the label founder, Ahmet Ertegun, "I intended to make good blues and jazz music, as well as some ...
Who The Hell Does Anthony H. Wilson Think He Is?
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, February 1992
IN THE headquarters of Factory Records, Manchester, I found myself privy to a sight and sound seldom witnessed, I dare say, by any human being ...
Profile and Interview by Martin Aston, Q, October 1992
SEATTLE, IN the top left-hand corner of America, is famous for its once-thriving post-war aerospace industry, for its breweries and coffee, pine forests and clean ...
The Sultan’s Story: Ahmet Ertegun and Atlantic Records
Retrospective and Interview by Hank Bordowitz, Schwann Spectrum, Fall 1992
FIFTY YEARS AGO, the son of the Turkish ambassador to the United States, then in college, sought to supplement his allowance. He and his partner ...
Factory Records: Hacienda that?
Report by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, February 1993
THE LATEST Manchester T-shirt says "Hacienda that". But is it? After the great indie label's collapse under debts of more than £2 million in late ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, March 1993
Smokin' weed in the MOMA courtyard: growing up in NYC and the people he grew up with; meeting the Erteguns; writing for Billboard; the early days at Atlantic and working with the great Ray Charles
File format: mp3; in 2 parts, total file sizes: 44.5meg, total interview length: 48' 40" sound quality: ***
Nirvana: Sub Pop: See Label For Details — An Interview with Bruce Pavitt
Interview by Cynthia Rose, Dazed & Confused, 1994
In 1979, when he was a college student, Bruce Pavitt started a fanzine called Subterranean Pop. Although the hipsters around him were pushing UK imports, ...
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 ...
Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd: The South Rises Again: The Improbable Return of Redneck Rock
Overview by Robert Gordon, Creem, 1995
Robert Gordon on Capricorn Records and the Southern Rock Revival ...
Report and Interview by Paul Gorman, MOJO, 1995
Home Taping Is Saving Music From The Shaggs to... Bruce Forsyth? Joe Foster’s Rev-Ola label, born of "frenzied tape-swapping," is home to all manner ...
Commodores, The: The Past Of Young America
Review by Carol Cooper, Newsday, 1995
The Commodores: Best Of The CommodoresVarious Artists: The Music, The Magic, The Memories of Motown: A Tribute to Berry Gordy JUST WHEN we were sure ...
Cholly Atkins: The Man Who Taught Motown How to Dance
Retrospective and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, LA Reader, January 1995
CHARLES "CHOLLY" ATKINS has had two careers, and he has flourished in both. In the golden age of tap, he was half of one ...
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, MOJO, February 1995
Berry Gordy has finally told his own story. Harvey Kubernik met him in LA. ...
Sleeping With The Enemy: When Musicians Become Record Executives
Report and Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, March 1995
YOU WOULD think Gary Lemel is one of the luckiest guys around. As President of Music for Warner Bros, films, he gets to pal around ...
Berry Gordy: A Conversation With Mr Motown
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Goldmine, March 1995
DIANA ROSS and the Supremes. Stevie Wonder. Marvin Gaye. The Temptations. The Four Tops. Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. The Marvelettes. Michael Jackson and the ...
Various: The Complete Sun Singles Vol 1 (Bear Family)
Review by Tony Russell, MOJO, April 1995
SUN RECORDS HAS A SPECIAL PLACE IN the history – or, if you never took to Presley, the demonology – of popular music, and the ...
Russell Simmons: The Emperor Of Rap
Interview by Ben Thompson, MOJO, July 1995
SO WHY DO THEY CALL RUSSELL Simmons 'Rush'? The Def Jam emperor loses little time in answering this question. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Request, 1996
"It was a good scene even when it was shitty, wasn’t it?"– Derek Taylor, Beatles publicist, 1970. ...
Sleevenotes by Don Snowden, MCA Records, 1996
THE COMPETITION amongst independent R&B labels after the post-World War II era was understandably fierce. Labels often lived from single to single – moving fast ...
Al Green, Ann Peebles, Willie Mitchell: Various Artists: Royal Memphis Soul – Hi Records
Review by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, July 1996
When Muscle Shoals went flabby and Stax couldn't pay their taxes, Hi Records took up the soul baton. Barney Hoskyns says hello to a collection ...
Puff Daddy: Sean 'Puffy' Combs: Multi-Million Dollar Man
Profile and Interview by Sonia Poulton, Muzik, January 1997
At 26, SEAN 'PUFFY' COMBS is reputed to be worth some $170 million. But that's not all the East Coast hip hop mogul has a ...
Chess Records: The Original Blues Brothers
Interview by James Maycock, Independent, The, November 1997
"WOW, YOU guys are really getting it on!" exclaimed Chuck Berry, observing the Rolling Stones cut 'Down The Road Apiece', a track he'd recorded himself ...
CTI Records: Coffee Table Jazz For The 1970's
Retrospective by James Maycock, Independent, The, December 1997
CREED TAYLOR was extremely shrewd at marketing jazz to those who were nervous of the genre, particularly after the discordant shreaks & squeaks made by ...
How To Start A Record Company: Decca Records
Retrospective by Colin Escott, 'Tattoed on their Tongues' (Schirmer Books), 1998
DECCA RECORDS was launched in the United States in August 1934 when business confidence was mired below zero. If Decca had collapsed, as it ...
Chess Set Still Sings The Blues: Marshall Chess and Chess Records
Interview by James Maycock, Daily Telegraph, 1998
JUST OVER 50 YEARS AGO, brothers Phil and Leonard Chess, two industrious Polish immigrants in Chicago, tentatively established what would become the most famous blues ...
Sleevenotes by Jim Irvin, Sequel Records, 1998
"AY-YI-YI, THE BEAT IS CRAZY!" ‘Sucu Sucu’, an insanely catchy samba novelty, was a chart sensation in the autumn of 1961. The forgotten theme to ...
Producer in Paradise: Joel Dorn Revisits a Golden Age of Jazz
Report and Interview by Ted Drozdowski, Boston Phoenix, April 1998
JOEL DORN describes himself as "a stand-up guy. I grew up on the street corners and in the playgrounds, and I was raised to believe ...
Down-home delights: The soulful blues of Malaco Records
Report by Ted Drozdowski, Boston Phoenix, June 1998
THIRTY OR 40 YEARS AGO, the Jackson-based Malaco Records would have been called a "race" label. That was the tag for outfits like Specialty, King, ...
Young Turk Who Got The Blues: Ahmet Ertegun & The 50th Anniversary Of Atlantic
Profile and Interview by James Maycock, Independent, The, July 1998
IN HUNDREDS of photographs, Ahmet Ertegun appears anonymously beside the famous. The celebrity might be a gaunt Phil Spector, Mick Jagger grinning widely or a ...
Absolute Kristal: CBGB's new punk rock label
Report and Interview by Ted Drozdowski, Boston Phoenix, July 1998
HILLY KRISTAL'S MAD AS HELL and he's not gonna take it anymore. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration. But the 66-year-old hipster who owns the New ...
Motown: Stop! In The Name Of Love
Overview by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, August 1998
SECOND ONLY to The Beatles' catalogue as the finest single coherent body of pop music ever recorded are the records made in Detroit for Motown ...
Manhattan Rides The Range – Atlantic's Rarest Country Records
Discography by Pete Grendysa, DISCoveries, September 1998
NOW CELEBRATING 50 years in business, the Atlantic Record Company is submerged in the corporate swamp of an entertainment megalith. It didn't start out that ...
Deep River: The Bounty of Alan Lomax
Retrospective by Ted Drozdowski, Boston Phoenix, June 1999
THE CD STARTS with a banjo picker burning on a hoedown called 'Cripple Creek,' progresses along a chain of mountain songs to 'Arkansas Traveler,' and ...
Coldcut: Ninja Tune: Way Of The Ninja
Profile and Interview by Dan Gennoe, 7, 2000
TEN YEARS AGO COLDCUT DECIDED THEY'D HAD ENOUGH OF TOP OF THE POPS AND SET-UP UP NINJA TUNE. XENCUTS, THE ORGY OF FREE-THINKING DECKS, BEATS ...
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, cdnow.com, May 2000
NAMED AFTER a legendary 1976 EP by Sonic’s Rendezvous Band, the German label City Slang has been home to some of the best and most ...
Various Artists: The Immediate Single Collection
Essay by Rob Chapman, MOJO, June 2000
A 6-CD, 161-track box set of Oldham and Calder's '60s love-child. Billed as Happy To Be Part Of The Industry Of Human Happiness. ...
Tupac Shakur: Jailhouse Rap: An Exclusive Conversation With Suge Knight
Interview by Roy Trakin, Hits, July 2000
MULE CREEK State Prison is the fourth jail rap entrepreneur Marion "Suge" Knight has been locked up in since he was given a nine-year sentence ...
The Soul in the Machine: Whatever Happened to Atlantic Records?
Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, What'd I Say, 2001
"UNFORTUNATELY, we’re running a big business here now," Ahmet Ertegun confessed to author Gerri Hirshey in 1982. "And it sort of ... well, it drives ...
Ahmet Ertegun and Various Authors: What’d I Say: The Atlantic Records Story
Review by Bill Millar, unpublished, 2001
THIS IS ONE muthahumping doorstep of a book as big as the Times Atlas and just as heavy. There are 900 photos and 160,000 words ...
"The Agora of the Wayward": A Quarter Century of Rough Trade
Sleevenotes by Jon Savage, Mute Records, March 2001
"I USED TO buy my records in a shop in Trafalgar Road, and the man there was quite avant-garde for his day. Whenever I bought ...
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 ...
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 ...
A Champion Of Punk Rides Off Into The Sunset: Saluting Howie Klein
Profile by Michael Goldberg, Neumu, July 2001
HE WAS THE CHAMPION OF PUNK ROCK, BACK IN '76 when no one quite knew what to make of it. ...
Mike Oldfield: The Making of Tubular Bells
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Q, August 2001
One of the most influential pieces of music in rock history – much imitated, used in movies, TV commercials and documentaries, sampled by Janet Jackson, ...
Ryan Adams, Wilco, Lucinda Williams: Lost Highway Blues
Report by Jason Cohen, slate.com, August 2001
The dirty little secret about Ryan Adams and his record label. ...
Heavenly: Escaping Into Le Jardin de Heavenly
Retrospective by Michael Goldberg, Neumu, September 2001
Finding comfort in obscure pop sounds from the past ...
Roots-Music Renegades: Fat Possum Records
Report and Interview by Andria Lisle, Memphis Flyer, December 2001
With artists Robert Belfour, T-Model Ford, and Hasil Adkins, Fat Possum Records captures the last gasps of a dying art. ...
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 ...
Stan Cornyn with Paul Scanlon: Exploding (Harper Entertainment)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, June 2002
"THE REALLY important factor was that we were a younger company than Columbia," Warners insider Stan Cornyn said in 1993. "We weren't structured so tightly ...
Rhythm Kings: The Musicians of Motown
Essay by Richard Williams, Guardian, The, November 2002
So many things made the Motown sound special – the singers, the songs, even the food. But what about the musicians? ...
Way Of The Ninja: Ninja Tune Records
Retrospective and Interview by Dan Gennoe, New Routes, 2003
Dan Gennoe visits the HQ of boundary pushing independent record label Ninja Tune and views their break beat blueprint for world domination. ...
Double Figures: Ten Years Of The Domino Effect
Press Release by Ben Thompson, Domino Records, July 2003
CAPTAIN'S LOG, stardate 1993: John Major's village-cricket-and-warm-beer based moral crusade inspires a parallel "back-to-basics" drift in UK rock 'n' roll (with Justine Frischmann as its ...
Elvis Presley: Sam Phillips: Rock'n'Roll Evangelist
Obituary by Andria Lisle, MOJO, September 2003
For Sam Phillips rock'n'roll was a religion And, boy, did he spread the gospel. ...
Profile and Interview by Carol Cooper, Village Voice, January 2004
DAPPER, CHARISMATIC, and 68 years young, Johnny Pacheco is one of New York's cultural lions, a Juilliard alumnus who revolutionized the way Afro-Latin swing, a/k/a ...
Julian Cope, XTC: The Old Boy Network
Report by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, June 2004
GETTING DITCHED by a major label is not always the end of the line for the big stars of yesteryear, as Terry Staunton reports ...
Putumayo: The Little Label That Could
Report by Carol Cooper, Village Voice, July 2004
WHILE THE REST of the music industry downsizes like mad, an 11-year-old independent label the majors used to snicker at has scored a 15 percent ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, December 2004
The mogul of Laurel Canyon on Asylum Records, managing artists and his close relationships with the likes of JD Souther, Laura Nyro, David Crosby and Joni Mitchell.
File format: mp3; file size: 25.1mb, interview length: 26' 07" sound quality: * (phoner)
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 ...
Profile by David Stubbs, Guardian, The, November 2005
YOU'D IMAGINE THE minimal and portentous name 4AD, with its arcane, spiritual overtones (4AD is the year many historians believe Christ was actually born), to ...
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? ...
Rough Trade: The Second Coming
Profile and Interview by Dan Gennoe, British Council New Routes, 2006
IN THE WORLD of independent record labels, Rough Trade is a bona fide living legend. Born in the late '70s from the West London record ...
Herb Alpert: The House that Herb and Jerry Built: A&M Records
Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, March 2006
THE HISTORY of American pop music is filled with great partnerships. Most of them, from Rodgers & Hart to Jam & Lewis, are songwriting teams ...
Tom Silverman: No Expense Spared
Interview by Larry Jaffee, MediaPack, May 2006
Tom Silverman, the pioneer rap music label owner of New York-based Tommy Boy Records, is unusual among his label head peers. He's willing to spend ...
ECM, World Circuit, Topic: Groove Is In Their Hearts
Report by Mark Hudson, Observer, The, August 2006
In the corporate world of modern music, some niche labels still thrive through their passion and commitment. As jazz pioneer ECM reaches its 1,000th release ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, Richard Williams, Guardian, The, December 2006
A mogul who nurtured the careers of stars such as Ray Charles, Led Zeppelin, Aretha Franklin and Dusty Springfield ...
The Second Coming of Rough Trade
Report and Interview by Dan Gennoe, British Council/New Routes, Spring 2006
IN THE WORLD of independent record labels, Rough Trade is a bona fide living legend. Born in the late '70s from the West London record ...
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 ...
Independent Thinker: An Interview with Charlie Gillett
Interview by Alex Ogg, unpublished, Fall 2008
NOTE: The following is the full transcript from an interview with Charlie that took place towards the end of 2008 as research for my book ...
Rocking Cincinnati's R&B Cradle
Retrospective and Interview by R.J. Smith, New York Times, January 2009
A CROWD GATHERS around crumbling walls that are a small evolutionary step up from a miserable pile of bricks. The facade leaks water, and masonry ...
Single Vision: Fierce Panda Records
Retrospective and Interview by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, February 2009
THE NEW WAVE OF NEW WAVE was never really much cop. It was an early 1990s music press-concocted punk revival scene based around a handful ...
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 ...
Suicide: The Marty Thau Interview
Interview by Jeremy Gluck, Bucketful of Brains, March 2009
"I've always believed there is a fine line between abstract and pure accessibility and that is what I've always looked for ... an artist who ...
ZE Records: 'It Was Like A Fairytale'
Retrospective and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, July 2009
The extraordinary story of the trail-blazing New York label that launched Was (Not Was), Kid Creole and Suicide ...
Fit for a King: Syd Nathan and King Records
Report and Interview by Steven R Rosen, Cincinnati CityBeat, October 2009
AS JON HARTLEY FOX made his scheduled appearance at a Books by the Banks event at the Duke Energy Center Oct. 17, the many years ...
Def Jam at 25: The Yankees of Hip-Hop Labels, Reconsidered
Comment by Amy Linden, Village Voice, October 2009
WHAT IS IT about hip-hop that, inevitably, almost any conversation revolves around dates – around how far back in the day you can claim to ...
Obituary: Consummate Nashville record man Shelby Singleton, of Mercury and Sun
Obituary by John Broven, Now Dig This, November 2009
SHELBY SINGLETON, the consummate record man who was the most capable latter-day custodian of Sun Records, died of brain cancer in a Nashville, Tennessee hospice ...
Bobby 'Blue' Bland: For Members Only: Bobby Bland on Malaco
Sleevenotes by Barney Hoskyns, Malaco Records, October 2010
TWENTY-FIVE years ago, searching for the extant spirit of southern soul, I made my way to a former Pepsi-Cola warehouse in a decidedly unlovely industrial ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, November 2010
In conversation at Rough Trade East – the legendary record man on all things Elektra: folk to folk-rock; signing Love and the Doors, Paul Rothchild, the lunacy of Paxton Lodge, the MC5 and the Stooges, and through to leaving the business...
File format: mp3; in 2 parts, total file sizes: 58.9mb, total interview length: 1h 04' 21" sound quality: ****
Ahmet Ertegun: A Day of Tribute in New York
Book Excerpt by Robert Greenfield, 'The Last Sultan' (Simon & Schuster), 2011
APRIL 17, 2007. In the tiny village New York can sometimes become when it honors one of its own who has fulfilled the dream of ...
Kenny Gamble: "Philadelphia was the party with a tormented soul"
Profile and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, March 2011
Philly Soul's sweet sound hid masked warnings about growing chasms in 1970s American society ...
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 ...
Mowest, Mo' Problems: The Glorious Failure Of Motown's Californian Outpost
Profile by Graeme Thomson, Guardian, The, June 2011
In 1971 Motown set up a Californian arm, Mowest. As a new compilation shows, it put out some terrific music, but it was a commercial ...
The Original Trustafarian: Chris Blackwell
Profile and Interview by Edward Helmore, Sunday Telegraph, May 2012
IT'S CLOSE TO MIDNIGHT, a sickle moon hangs low over the Caribbean Sea in the direction of Cuba, and Grace Jones is making her way ...
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Essential Reading: Bud Scoppa's 1971 Byrds classic