Scenes
Petula Clark, Herman's Hermits: On the Beat
Column by Louise Criscione, KRLA Beat, March 1965
PETULA CLARK really "tore up" the Ed Sullivan audience Sunday night. This girl sure swings; she even had the sedate adult audience clapping their hands ...
Petula Clark: Backstage Report: Pet Clark A Hit At Party
Report by Louise Criscione, KRLA Beat, May 1965
ONE OF THE record world's most popular attractions is the meet-the-press party for a performer whose records are bursting through the charts. ...
Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead: San Francisco Bay Rock
Guide by Gene Sculatti, Crawdaddy!, 1966
The San Francisco rock scene is a complex one. It is a plentiful jumble of hard rock, folk-rock, blues-rock, bubble-gum, and adult bands that have ...
Comment by Greg Shaw, Mojo Navigator, August 1966
FROM OUR RATHER strongly-worded editorial in the last issue, many have drawn the conclusion that we are totally against Bill Graham. Nothing, of course, could ...
Riots on Sunset Strip: Strip Of No Man's Land
Comment by uncredited writer, KRLA Beat, December 1966
The following is the first half of an opinion poll where teenagers give their views on the Sunset Strip controversy. Part II of this series ...
Riots on Sunset Strip: Strip Of No Man's Land (part 2)
Comment by uncredited writer, KRLA Beat, January 1967
This is the second half of The BEAT'S opinion poll where teens express their feelings about the Sunset Strip controversy. Part I appeared in the ...
Report by Danny Fields, Hullabaloo, May 1967
SHE HAD ALWAYS BEEN FASCINATED WITH HIM... AND HE HAD ALWAYS WANTED TO MEET HER ...HULLABALOO SAW THEM TOGETHER, SAW HER POSING, SAW HIM FILMING ...
Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane: The Golden Road: A Report on San Francisco
Overview by Paul Williams, Crawdaddy!, June 1967
SITTING IN THE window. Sixth Avenue, Greenwich Village, flirting with the girls going by, the Grateful Dead very loud on 4X speakers somewhere in the ...
Grateful Dead, Fugs, The, Mothers Of Invention, The: Miles' Trip: New York
Report by Miles, International Times, June 1967
"Two persons were shot dead and several others injured in a gun battle between shoplifters and store detectives in a Bronx supermarket today." ...
Hippies: How? Why? What Does It Mean?
Report by Jacoba Atlas, KRLA Beat, August 1967
SAN FRANCISCO – Five o'clock in the afternoon. The going home traffic already crowding the freeway to a frustrating halt. ...
Light Shows: Adventure Into Experimental Living
Report and Interview by Jacoba Atlas, KRLA Beat, February 1968
THERE'S A revolution happening; happening on all levels of society. From the streets to the museums people are talking about new trends, new ways of ...
Report and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, April 1968
When the Stones were rollin' – for £10 a gig ...
Report by Miles, International Times, April 1968
The UFO idea first began in February 1966 when Steve Stollman (front the ESP avant-garde jazz record label in New York – then still in ...
Bob Dylan: From Rock to Acid Rock
Essay by Michael Gray, International Times, October 1968
FROM ROCK to Acid Rock is first a ride to freedom, second an illusion. Rock, the kind of music for which Rosko still does extravagant ...
Charles Manson, Beach Boys, The, Dennis Wilson: Dennis Wilson: 'I Live With 17 Girls'
Interview by David Griffiths, Record Mirror, December 1968
SAID DENNIS Wilson, a bemused frown on his face: "I don't know why I'm telling you all this..." Well, whatever Dennis's reasons (if any), the ...
Eric Clapton, Jethro Tull, Rolling Stones, The: The Rolling Stones: Rock and Roll Circus
Report by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, December 1968
IT WAS a group fan's dream, when the giants of pop held a three hour jam session, while rehearsing for the Rolling Stones' Rock And ...
Lady Wootton talks to Caroline Coon about Pot
Interview by Caroline Coon, International Times, January 1969
THE BARONESS Wootton of Abinger was chairman of the subcommittee on 'Cannabis' of the Advisory Committee on Drug Dependence whose Report was published on 8th ...
Report and Interview by Mick Farren, International Times, May 1969
A NUMBER of musicians from various well known bands in London have, it was revealed to IT in an exclusive interview this week, formed an ...
Doors, The: Column: Around About, And Then Some
Report by Anne Moore, World Countdown News, June 1969
I HAVE JUST attended a happening, one that in a year or less will become another legend in the cycle of Jim Morrison. The event ...
Rolling Stones, The, Family: The Rolling Stones in Hyde Park: Out of the Way
Report by Geoffrey Cannon, New Society, July 1969
A world turned upside down ...
Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead: Burnout Sets In
Special Feature by Michael Lydon, Rolling Stone, August 1969
But I reckon l got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilise ...
David Bowie: The Beckenham Arts Lab
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, September 1969
"I RUN AN arts lab which is my chief occupation. It's in Beckenham and I think it's the best in the country. ...
The Apollo Theatre and the Fillmore East: Black and White Music in NYC
Comment by Loraine Alterman, New York Scenes, September 1969
MORE THAN Central Park and city blocks separate the Apollo Theatre in Harlem and the Fillmore East in the East Village. ...
Quintessence: Notting Hill Gate – a Single, a Group, and a Place
Profile and Interview by Rob Partridge, Record Mirror, January 1970
LONDON WEST Ten is the Grove. It is that part of Notting Hill straddling Ladbroke Grove, where, over the past few years, a whole new ...
The Sound of the Seventies and The Pop Proms: It's All a Put On
Report by Mark Williams, International Times, May 1970
Pop Proms, Rock machine & the penis of promoting. ...
Is Pop Music Putting The Boot In For Bovver?
Overview by Rob Partridge, Record Mirror, May 1970
Robert Partridge argues that violence has taken on a different meaning ...
Bill Graham: The Man The US Kids Love To Hate
Interview by Roy Hollingworth, Melody Maker, May 1970
BREAKFAST at London's Savoy Hotel with Bill Graham. The man, who has the high cheekbones and thick mouth of an American Indian, and the thundering ...
Report by Jacoba Atlas, Melody Maker, September 1970
Jacoba Atlas reports on the street where she lives – Laurel Canyon, Hollywood, home of the rock stars... ...
Grateful Dead: Fillmore East, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, New York Times, April 1971
Grateful Dead Draws Far-Out Fans ...
If You Think It's Groovy To Rap, You're Shucking
Overview by Mike Jahn, New York Times, June 1971
WHEN YOU are trying to be a suburban Dharma Bum you have to try harder. Between the tennis court and the parking lot I read ...
Last Rites Are Merry Ones at the Fillmore East
Report by Mike Jahn, New York Times, June 1971
WITH SEVERAL thousand dollars worth of free food and beer and what one Fillmore regular described as "the best vibes since the place opened," the ...
The Rainbow Theatre: Cheap Seats In Pot Of Gold
Report and Interview by Penny Valentine, Sounds, October 1971
"ROCK audiences now are interested in having a comfortable place to sit and really listen to music. The days of freak out dancing to anything ...
Various Artists: Fillmore – The Last Days
Review by Jon Tiven, Fusion, October 1972
NO PART OF this review is meant as a slur against the names of Bill Graham, Fillmore Records, or Columbia Records. I realize that the ...
The Philadelphia Story, Early Sixties Style: What It Was, Was Pud
Retrospective by Greg Shaw, Fusion, October 1972
It all started in 1959, perhaps rock 'n' roll's bleakest year. Buddy Holly had gone down in flames over N. Dakota, Little Richard had gone ...
Overview by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, December 1972
DETROIT, FOUNDED in 1736 by a turncoat (to both sides) halfbreed Indian named Quazimodo from the Kuitee tribe which dwelled circa 1670-1777 on the shores ...
Wayne County & The Electric Chairs, New York Dolls: New York: The Dark Side Of Town
Report by Nick Kent, NME, May 1973
THE GRAFFITI IN the toilets at Max's Kansas City is abysmal. It's the only word that comes to mind – there's not one subversive scrawl, ...
Dr. John: Dr John aka Mac Rebennack
Overview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, July 1973
THE STORY OF NEW ORLEANS ROCK 'N' ROLL ...
Rolling Stones, The: The Rolling Stones: Stones-On-The Road Special
Report and Interview by Nick Kent, NME, September 1973
THE LADY behind the amps, staring hazily at Billy Preston and his band performing on stage, looked elegantly damaged. Half of her face was covered ...
Report by Dave Marsh, Melody Maker, October 1973
GREAT WHITE ROCK has not often come from New York City and its surrounding boroughs, even though – or perhaps because the American music business ...
Who, The: The Who’s Mod Generation: Quadrophenia Through The Years
Overview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, December 1973
If I could somehow live my teenage years over again, I think I would choose to live them as a Mod. What it must have ...
Dawn, Glen Campbell: Live in Las Vegas: Dawn and Glen Campbell
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, December 1973
"HANG ON tight," said the man in the next seat on the Western Airlines jet. "Landings in Las Vegas are the roughest in the world." ...
Electric Light Orchestra, Moody Blues, The, Move, The, Spencer Davis Group, Wizzard: Brum Beat
Overview by Rob Partridge, Melody Maker, January 1974
"Liverpool today – Birmingham tomorrow. That's the forecast for the beat business in rock music. Yes, the Brum Beat is all set to take over ...
San Francisco: Who needs music when we've got the Zebra?
Report by Mick Farren, NME, June 1974
IT WAS A bad times for San Francisco. It was spring, but whereas in most places this is greeted with some joy – with snows ...
Soft Machine, Wilde Flowers, The: Soft Machine, part 1
Retrospective by Ian MacDonald, NME, January 1975
CLASS OF '61 at the Simon Langton School, Canterbury – an exclusive, private establishment for the sons of local artists and intellectuals. Very free, emphatically ...
Lou Reed, Alice Cooper: Nick Kent – A Limey in LA #1: Hey Man, You With A Gwoop?
Report and Interview by Nick Kent, NME, March 1975
Speech impediments are the thing in Los Angeles this year. There are quite a lot of naked men jumping out of bushes – whereas more ...
Report by Nick Kent, NME, April 1975
ALSO INCLUDES: The Dog That Ate The Dog That Ate Los Angeles ...
Report by Nick Kent, NME, April 1975
...in a tune-up room on the last night of the Faces' 1975 LA gigs? Why, the closing aria in D from 'il Cavalleria Rusticana', of ...
Iggy Pop, Stooges, The: Iggy Pop: The Mighty Pop vs. the Hand of Blight
Special Feature by Nick Kent, NME, May 1975
Never before told! The story of a brilliant monster called IGGY POP, whose life and countless near-demises have provided Rock with one of its most ...
Television, Patti Smith: Down In The Scuzz With The Heavy Cult Figures
Report by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, June 1975
C.B.G.B. is a toilet. An impossibly scuzzy little club buried somewhere in the sections of the Village that the cab-drivers don't like to drive through. ...
Report by Vivien Goldman, NME, October 1975
Up T’NORTH, they don’t like London journalists snooping about. Still, this was a special occasion at the shrine of the " Northern Soul Scene." So ...
Report by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, November 1975
"BEAT ON the brat, beat on the brat, beat on the brat with a baseball bat..." ...
Hollywood Stars, The, Runaways, The, New Order (US), The, Iggy Pop: The LA Rock Explosion
Overview by Phast Phreddie Patterson, New York Rocker, February 1976
IN THE BEGINNING... ...
Report by Nick Kent, NME, March 1976
In downtown Manhattan the rock 'n' roll war rages on as potential crown princes of Punkdom battle for recognition.. NICK KENT interprets the action ...
Horslips: Rock in Ireland: Rock in the Dark Ages
Report and Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, May 1976
IF OXFAM WERE to adopt the same stategy towards rock starvation as they do towards the plight of the world's hungry, then one of the ...
Spirit: America: The Titanic Might Be Sinking, But There Are Plenty Of Lifeboats Left
Essay by Max Bell, NME, July 1976
BACK IN this very spot, Mick Farren pulled out his critical cudgels and delivered a sorely needed attack on the current state of rock'n'roll. ...
Ronnie Prophet, Lynn Anderson, Steve Young: Nashville
Report by Mick Farren, NME, November 1976
An Englishman's adventures in the city of the rhinestone kings. Mick Farren was that Englishman. ...
Report by Mick Farren, NME, November 1976
In which Mick Farren doesn't talk to Chet Atkins, visits Opryland, views the tourist spots from the OAP's bus and, (quiver, quiver....), converses with Dolly ...
CBGBs, Max's etc: Underground Overground
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, November 1976
"PUNK ROCK? What's that supposed to mean? The bands that play at my club aren't punks. They might wear leather jackets, chew gum and try ...
Grateful Dead: My Night With The Dead
Report and Interview by Mick Farren, NME, May 1977
IT'S LIKE GOING back home."Acid!""Acid, black beauties!""Acid!""You got any pot to sell?""No, man, all I got is acid and black beauties."What else could it be ...
Sex Pistols, The, Television: Pimp-Rock?
Comment by Lisa Jane Persky, New York Rocker, June 1977
EVERYTHING happens to us all so quickly these days that even before something is completed, it is dated, labels must be attached for definition and ...
New York: Suddenly It's A Hell Of A Town Again…
Report by Mick Farren, NME, June 1977
And why? Because folks have got nothing to lose. Because it's happening, it's exciting, life is fun again and people aren't ashamed to have a ...
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, March 1978
"CBGB & OMFUG" is what it says over the door of Hilly Kristal's rock and roll dive down on New York's Bowery. That's the club ...
Overview by Paul Rambali, NME, April 1978
Exploring alternative hives of industry in Akron, City of Rubber, and Cleveland, City of Steel. ...
Waitresses, The, Tin Huey, Jane Aire & The Belvederes: Rock in Akron: The Music Of Greater Akron
Report and Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, June 1978
Is this the avant-garde or the sound of cash registers? Pete Silverton has a pretty good idea ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, June 1978
OH JESUS! After Devo, the (marketing) deluge. ...
Lydia Lunch, Teenage Jesus & the Jerks: Teenage Jesus and the Jerks: Out To Lunch
Interview by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, July 1978
A Dialogue between Roy Trakin and Lydia Lunch of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks ...
Idols, The, Heartbreakers, The, New York Dolls: The Jerry Nolan Story!!
Interview by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, July 1978
JERRY NOLAN is 32 years old. He has been in the New York Dolls and the Heartbreakers. He has made three albums which did not ...
Rodney Bingenheimer: A Child of the Myth
Profile and Interview by Lisa Jane Persky, L.A. Weekly, May 1979
KEEPING MY fingers on the minimal pulse of the musical movement in L.A. which, gratefully, is growing, I cannot ignore one of its prime gardeners. ...
Report and Interview by Paul Morley, NME, July 1979
IT'S OUT of the blue and into the black. A place is left somewhere behind where the front pages of the daily newspapers comment hysterically ...
Kim Fowley, Helen Reddy: Sandy Robertson's Hollywood Confidential
Report by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, September 1979
"On my first visit to Los Angeles I was conventionally prepared for almost anything except for what it really looked like – a quite beautiful ...
Who, The: The Ace Face’s Forgotten Story: Pete Meaden
Interview by Steve Turner, NME, November 1979
I’m the face babyIs that clear?I’m the faceIf you want it.All the others are third-class tickets by me babyIs that clear?– Pete Meaden for the ...
Report by Steven X Rea, Oui, 1980
The City of Angels has become a Dada delight ...
Remember Those Fabulous Seventies? A Musical Stroll From Woodstock To Punk-rock
Overview by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, January 1980
The best characterization of rock'n'roll's third decade is that of 10 years spent revising, refining and recalling the music of the '60s. While '50s bands ...
Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, November 1980
STEVE STRANGE, chief of the new clan of the beautiful people has made a record. MARK COOPER talks to him about the concept ...
Beatles, The: AUDIO: Gypsy Dave with The Beatles in India (1981)
Interview by Keith Altham, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1981
Travel with Donovan-acolyte Gypsy Dave to the ashram at Rishikesh to witness The Beatles meeting the Maharishi. Gypsy Dave is the cynic in the camp, and makes his escape with Ringo and Maureen.
File format: mp3; file size: 19.8mb; Interview length: 21' 38"; sound quality: **
1967: The Year It All Came Together
Retrospective by Simon Frith, History of Rock, The, 1981
Rock is Jimi Hendrix’s guitar introduction to ‘Hey Joe’; it is Mick Jagger strutting onstage; it is Bob Dylan singing ‘John Wesley Harding’; it is ...
Postmark: Austin, Texas — The Demise of the Armadillo and the Rise of Garagelend Punk
Report by Cynthia Rose, NME, March 1981
IF YOU PAID to survive The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and saw it as anything other than a blackly anarchic polemic in favour of vegetarianism, then ...
Essay by Jon Savage, Face, The, April 1981
IN A CORNER OPPOSITE the entrance, Richard Young, the photographer, has set up his stall. It has a simple backdrop of white cloth – this ...
Britain invades the world: Mid-Sixties British Music
Retrospective by Tom Hibbert, History of Rock, The, 1982
Before 1964, the United States' worldwide domination of the pop music industry — and youth culture in general — was virtually total. Few British artists ...
New York: Positively 4th Street
Retrospective by Lenny Kaye, History of Rock, The, 1982
The music that came out of New York's melting pot ...
Television, Heartbreakers, The, Blondie: The Bowery Beat: CBGBs and All That
Retrospective by Tom Hibbert, History of Rock, The, 1982
FROM 1970 ONWARDS, the US rock mainstream grew increasingly staid, predictable and unimaginative. On the surface, the American scene appeared to offer nothing but sleepy ...
McCabe's Hippie Spirit Celebrates Anniversary
Report and Interview by Todd Everett, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, January 1982
TOMORROW, MCCABE'S guitar shop in Santa Monica is marking its 13th anniversary, even though its actual opening took place in October, 1969 (which means, if ...
45 Grave, Vox Pop: California Screamin': 45 Grave and Vox Pop
Profile and Interview by Byron Coley, New York Rocker, September 1982
"All I can say is that everyone in Vox Pop is smarter than everyone in 45 Grave."--Jeff Dahl, May '82"I'm smarter than everyone in Vox ...
Report and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, NME, November 1982
"Only the mice and the great ones are happy when I arrive." ...
Grateful Dead: Dawn of the Deadheads
Report and Interview by David Gans, Headliner, August 1983
THE PSYCHEDELIC era is ancient history, and LSD is so far out of fashion that it probably doesn't even need to be illegal any more. ...
The Rolling Stone Interview: Bill Graham
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, December 1985
The P.T. Barnum of rock & roll celebrates his twentieth anniversary ...
Report by Cynthia Rose, Vogue, 1986
Aginners, glyphies, rednecks, rattlesnakes, conjunto, honky-tonk and wheatberry pancakes: Austin is the cultural nexus of Texas. ...
Deep Soul Mecca: Muscle Shoals, Alabama
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, unpublished, 1986
MUSCLE SHOALS: the very name suggests some grotesque image dreamt up by a surrealist painter. Shouldn't it be Mussel, you wonder... and yet this North ...
Patti Smith: The Patti Smith Group's Lenny Kaye on NYC punk (1986)
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages Audio, January 1986
Musician and journalist Kaye on the CBGBs scene, the differences between US and UK Punk, Patti Smith and his seminal Nuggets compilation.
File format: mp3; in 2 parts, total file sizes: 56meg, total interview length: 1h 01' 06" sound quality: ***
Patti Smith, Television: Punk in New York: Blitzkreig Bop
Retrospective and Interview by Mat Snow, NME, February 1986
"And one fine morning she turns on a New York-station / And doesn't believe what she hears at all / She started dancing to that ...
Report and Interview by Richard Grabel, Creem, April 1986
THIS IS CRAZY. I'm in Cheriy's Roller Rink, in Northeast Washington, D.C. The place is filled with black teenagers, and even their younger brothers and ...
Led Zeppelin: Rodney B.'s Endless Party
Retrospective and Interview by Steven Rosen, Guitar World, July 1986
The parties were legendary, the hotels trashed regularly, the hangers-on flowed constantly when the Zep cruised the skyways. ...
Billy Vera: Billy & the Beaters et al: Bar Bands Make The Rounds
Report and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, December 1986
THE SATURDAY NIGHT crowd packed into At My Place in Santa Monica whooped it up as Billy & the Beaters kicked off their opening set ...
Replacements, The, Hüsker Dü: Husker Du and The Replacements: Euphoric… Urgent... Raucous... Drunk
Profile and Interview by Andy Gill, Q, August 1987
MINNEAPOLIS: it must be something they put in the water. ...
What's The Matter With Kids Today?
Comment by John Mendelsohn, Creem, October 1987
THERE ARE lots of wide open spaces around where I live. In the late spring, I can gaze out from the window of my study ...
Smith & Mighty: Smith And Mighty: Bristol Rising
Profile and Interview by John McCready, Face, The, 1988
Coming from the same sound system roots as Soul II Soul, dance producers Smith And Mighty are at the centre of a thriving West Country ...
Farm, The: The Dark Side Of The Mersey: Retro-Rock Scallies
Report and Interview by John McCready, Face, The, 1988
A HIPPIE IS chased down a darkened street by a group of 16 year-old Casuals. In most parts of Britain, what follows is likely to ...
Report and Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, February 1988
OUTSIDE THE LONG BEACH Arena, south of Los Angeles on the California coast, there is a massive field. Reserved for recreational activities throughout the rest ...
Overview by Simon Witter, unpublished, May 1988
2002 note: I went to New Orleans to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Dec 87, took a week's holiday there with photographer Chris ...
Profile and Interview by Paolo Hewitt, NME, March 1989
Here PAOLO HEWITT gets on the Voice Beat with SMITH & MIGHTY and SOUL II SOUL. ...
Blue Nile, The, Danny Wilson: The Soul of Scotland: Danny Wilson/The Blue Nile
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Sunday Correspondent, October 1989
"THE WHOLE Scottish scene is getting a little out of hand", admits Ronnie Gurr, an affable, affluent-looking Scotsman who, in his capacity as a roving ...
Retrospective and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, July 1990
IT WAS 1976 and they were five newcomers in three bands. Together, they helped stage 'Radio Free Hollywood' and opened the door for hundreds of ...
Retrospective and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, August 1990
"My eyes were opened. There's a new world and a new society and a new spirit." ...
Alice In Chains, Posies, The, Mother Love Bone: A Seattle Slew
Report and Interview by Dave DiMartino, Rolling Stone, September 1990
Record companies are flocking to the Great Northwest, signing bands like crazy and hoping to find the Next Big Thing ...
Talking Heads, Ramones, The, Blondie: Meet The Family: Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads
Report and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, October 1990
There's Debbie, and there's Tina and, let's see, there's little Joey, hasn't he grown? Then there's and Chris and, uh, Chris... From the shadowy ...
A Special Time In Rock: 1966 On The Sunset Strip
Retrospective by Roy Trakin, Los Angeles Times, 1991
THE SUMMER of 1966 on L.A.'s Sunset Strip was a time when many young musicians thought anything was possible. A teenager from the San Fernando ...
Massive Attack: Wheeling In The Years
Interview by Jim Arundel, Melody Maker, February 1992
BRITAIN IS CRAP, we decide over lunch in a Bristol restaurant where we're waiting for Massive Attack. The food is cold, the service is virtually ...
Melvins, The, Nirvana, Mudhoney, Supersuckers, Soundgarden, Green River: Seattle: Grunge City
Report and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, April 1992
For real rockers Seattle is the ultimate wet dream. By Michael Azerrad ...
The Haçienda: Club It To Death
Report by John Robb, Siren, May 1992
BRICKS AND mortar. For a building the Haçienda has become one hell of an icon for youth culture, a myth perpetrated by Manchester and Factory ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1993
A brief history of Hollywood (the Fowley version); growing up in L.A., and growing up fast; getting into the music biz, and the calamity that was The Beatles. The King of the Hollyweird Night tells all.
File format: mp3; in 4 parts, total file sizes: 105.2mb, total interview length: 1h 54' 48" sound quality: ***
AUDIO: Rodney Bingenheimer (1993)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, July 1993
His arrival in Los Angeles in 1965; hanging out with the Beatles and the Stones; his legendary English Disco; the groupies — Lori, Sable and Queenie... the Mayor of the Sunset Strip looks back.
File format: mp3; file size: 29.9mb, interview length: 32' 39" sound quality: ***
Report and Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent on Sunday, 1994
AUTUMN 1994. The fake foliage hanging from the ceiling gives the Eve Club off Regent Street the air of a woodland glade. The venue for ...
Report by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, January 1994
Barney Hoskyns visits the idyllic Catskill mountain retreat colonized by The Band, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and fellow bohemians. ...
Boulevard of Broken Dreams: A Trip Down the Sunset Strip
Guide by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, January 1994
SUNSET BOULEVARD: the very name is synonymous with dreams, unrealities, tableaux of palm trees and convertibles in the golden light of southern California. Billy ...
Report by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, February 1994
CBGB celebrates its 20 years of rock & roll ...
Portishead, Massive Attack: Trip Hop Don't Stop: Massive Attack and Portishead
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, September 1994
Imagine a cross between ambient and hip-hop. Imagine a Brit version of Cypress Hill or Gravediggaz's spooky Gothic Hop. Imagine the sound of 'bombs exploding ...
Shadows, The, Hank Marvin: Four-Eyes, One Vision: The Shadows
Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 1995
BRIAN RANKIN GREW UP IN NEWCASTLE: WHEN he was 16, in 1957, he travelled to London with his school friend Bruce Welch "in an attempt ...
Marty Wilde: The Blackheath Jungle
Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 1995
MARTY WILDE WAS, ALONG WITH CLIFF, BRITAIN'S BIGGEST ROCK star from 1958 through 1960: there was even a girl's comic named after him. Born Reginald ...
Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 1995
HELEN SHAPIRO WAS BRITAIN'S FIRST TEENAGE FEMALE pop star. Born in 1946, she made her first record at the age of 14, for Norrie Paramor ...
Move It! The British Rock 'n' Roll Explosion
Overview by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 1995
FOR MOST PEOPLE OF 40 AND UNDER, British pop begins with The Beatles: this is the view that has been encouraged by rock writers ever ...
Wilde Flowers, The: Wilde Flowers: Tales Of Canterbury: The Wilde Flowers Story (Voiceprint)
Essay by Rob Chapman, MOJO, April 1995
Caravan, Soft Machine, Kevin Ayers & The Whole World: all grew from the stem of the legendary Wilde Flowers. Rob Chapman tells their story. ...
Replacements, The, Soul Asylum, Jayhawks, The, Hüsker Dü: The Minneapolis Scene: Left Of The Dial
Overview by Marc Weingarten, Guitar World, August 1995
In the early Eighties, Hüsker Dü, The Replacements and a handful of other scruffy Minneapolis bands forged what is now known as indie rock. This ...
Retrospective and Interview by Richard Gehr, unpublished, 1996
In 1996, Richard Gehr went down to Texas to explore the history and mythology of Buddy Holly’s home town. This was his unpublished report for ...
Report and Interview by R.J. Smith, New York Times, January 1996
EVEN FOR A break-all-the-rules punk rock band, some rules still apply. It's 10 minutes to stage, and the members of Rancid are sitting in their ...
Phast Freddie's Hollywood (Circa 1973-1983)
Guide by Phast Phreddie Patterson, unpublished, October 1996
"There's a world where I can go and tell my secrets to...."* ...
The Troubadour Club: A History
Retrospective by Johnny Black, Troubadour, 1997
WHEN THE SUN goes down over Santa Monica Boulevard, there's really only ever been one place to be and that's inside Doug Weston's legendary Troubadour ...
Report by Martin Aston, Q, June 1997
Dangerous business, rock'n'roll. One minute, you're having hits, the next, you're taking them. Whether as macho prop or tool of the trade, totin' a gun ...
Speed Garage: Sound Of The Future
Report and Interview by Bethan Cole, Muzik, September 1997
It's harden faster, sharper and more bass-heavy than ever before, it has MCs, rewinds, ragga vocals and time-stretching. Its energy and hedonism is hard to ...
Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead: Haight-Ashbury
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Independent on Sunday, December 1997
The times they have a-changed, but not without a certain irony. Or a certain continuity, come to that. ...
Working on a Building of Love: The Great Days of the Haçienda
Retrospective by John McCready, Face, The, Spring 1997
With Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People opening in the UK this weekend, we reprint Face writer John McCready's wonderful account of the club's rise, ...
B.B. King, Robert Lockwood Jr., Lowell Fulson: B.B. King: Bright Lights Big City
Report and Interview by Paul Trynka, MOJO, May 1998
Fifty years ago B.B. King arrived in Memphis, Tennessee, and found himself in the eye of a musical hurricane. Today he celebrates the giants who ...
Overview by Andria Lisle, Downtowner, July 1998
There’s an old saying that goes like soKeep trying and you’ll get where you want to goWhen things get rough, buckle downDon’t give up – ...
Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, 'Seven Years of Plenty' (Gollancz), October 1998
"A recent article in the New York Times proclaimed Newport as The New Seattle..." Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 13 December, 1996 ...
Essay by Blake Gumprecht, Journal of Cultural Geography, Fall 1998
Landscape into Art THE ROLE OF LANDSCAPE and the importance of place in literature, poetry, the visual arts, even cinema and television, is well established ...
The Graying of Indie Rock: What do you do for an encore after the spark is gone?
Essay by Eric Weisbard, Village Voice, March 1999
WHEN THE guy in Fuck announced his 37th birthday, people thought he was joking. The occasion was too cruddy: the rumpus-room attic of a gross ...
Smart, Lyrical, Even Genteel, But Is It Rock?
Essay by Eric Weisbard, New York Times, August 1999
FOR ONE breed of rock fan, last year's most important album was probably Lucinda Williams's Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, a dozen perfectly turned ...
Retrospective by Ben Myers, Kerrang!, August 1999
Thirty years ago this week, followers of CHARLES MANSON committed a series of brutal murders that changed US culture forever. On the anniversary of the ...
Jim O'Rourke, Jon Langford, Wilco: Chicago: Indie City
Report and Interview by Eric Weisbard, Spin, September 2000
Sick of a world ruled by Britney and Backstreet? Visit Chicago: a salt-of-the-earth midwestern town where old-world pleasures like community, cheap rent, cheap beer, gritty ...
Rolling Stones, The: The Rolling Stones in Exile
Retrospective by Philip Norman, Sunday Times, 2001
THE TWO pre-eminent British bands of the gaudy 1960s marked the grey dawn of the 1970s in very different ways. ...
Report by Angus Batey, Dazed & Confused, March 2001
"I'm a person just like youBut I've got better things to doThan sit around and fuck my headHang out with the living deadSnort white shit ...
Guess Who, The, Teenage Head, Michel Pagliaro: Ten Canadian Records You Shouldn’t Live Without
Guide by Gary Pig Gold, Cosmik Debris (cosmik.com), April 2001
CULTURALLY, CANADA is without a doubt one of the most diverse nations on the planet, and with its record stores awash since the 1950's in ...
Hot House: Headin' South: Muscle Shoals '87
Memoir by Martin Colyer, Rock's Backpages, July 2001
Martin Colyer was a member of Hot House, the Brit deep-soul trio who ventured down to Muscle Shoals in 1987 to cut their first album ...
Minor Threat, Fugazi: Ian MacKaye: Inventing Hardcore
Profile and Interview by Ben Myers, Careless Talk Costs Lives, March 2002
"These are our demands: we want control of our bodies. decisions will now be ours. you can carry out your noble actions, we will carry ...
Report and Interview by Will Hermes, Village Voice, April 2002
LET US NOW praise great Americans: Louis Armstrong, Jerry Garcia, and Grandmaster Flash made their history with equal parts pioneer cojones and improvisatory derring-do. They ...
Shine On, The Lights Of The Bowery: The Blank Generation Revisited
Retrospective and Interview by Peter Murphy, Hot Press, July 2002
ONE MORE MAN gone. A year after the passing of his brother in arms Joey, Dee Dee Ramone died from a narcotics overdose. ...
Elvis Presley: Memphis Still Sings The Blues
Report by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, August 2002
MEMPHIS IS ONLY technically in Tennessee. In psychic reality, it's the capital of Mississippi. Everyone who lives there knows it. What this 50 per cent ...
Beatles, The: Miles: John, Paul, George and… Barry
Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, October 2002
IN 1965, A YOUNG bookseller named Barry Miles decided to throw a birthday party in his London flat for his friend, the beat poet Allen ...
Paul Du Noyer : Liverpool - Wondrous Place (Virgin Books)
Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, November 2002
THE FORMER EDITOR of Q magazine 's history of music in Liverpool hangs his tale on three venues – the Cavern, Eric's and Cream. In ...
Notes Towards a Definition Of “Indie”
Essay by Tim Footman, Careless Talk Costs Lives, January 2003
From: Jerry Thackray. To: Contributors. Sent: 15 April 2002 08:21. Subject: From MOJO. "Opening with an editorial diatribe about the state of the music press, ...
Jefferson Airplane: The Summer Of Haight
Retrospective and Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, MOJO, April 2003
In January 1967, Jefferson Airplane were all set for take-off. But within months their dream was crumbling. Jeff Tamarkin on the destructive undercurrent to the ...
Parliament, Funkadelic, George Clinton: George Clinton: Motor Booty
Retrospective and Interview by Lloyd Bradley, MOJO, October 2003
In 1963 George Clinton took a first step toward funk overlordship. He shut his East Coast barbershop and flew to Motown. Lloyd Bradley finds out ...
Report by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, November 2003
On wildfires, Schwarzenegger and the suicide of a troubled genius – Barney Hoskyns’ diary of a month in Hollywood Babylon. ...
Eminem: Can't Forget The Motor City: Detroit from Hitsville to 8 Mile
Book Excerpt by Nick Hasted, Omnibus Books, Summer 2003
The Dark Story of Eminem is the first book by Nick Hasted, whose work has previously appeared in The Independent, the Guardian and Uncut magazine. ...
Guide by Paul Gorman, MOJO, May 2004
MOD'S FASTIDIOUS nature dictates that the path between purism and pedantry is oft-trod. Were the Birds arty r&b enthusiasts, more allied to the scruffy Stones ...
Essay by Michael Baker, Perfect Sound Forever, November 2004
In Memory of Robert Quine, Master of Beautiful Musical Expression, 12/30/1942 Akron, Ohio5/30/2004 NYC ...
Essay by Michael Baker, Perfect Sound Forever, November 2004
V. The Pagans: Claustrophobia and Creation ...
Report and Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, August 2005
Their accent may be regional but their success is global. Ben Thompson meets three new bands from pop music's latest hotspot ...
New Orleans: The Heart of the Matter
Retrospective by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, September 2005
"I'm not sure, but I'm almost positive, that all music came from New Orleans."–Ernie K-Doe, 1979* ...
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Bentley, Austin Chronicle, October 2005
TIME IS A CONTINUUM that's sometimes hard to trace. Look too far back and things get hazy. Try gazing into the future and it's all ...
Stardust and Sawdust Nights: Los Angeles Bars of a Bygone Age
Guide by Kirk Silsbee, LA CityBeat, December 2005
Martoni's ...
Neil Young: Canyon of the Mind: Tall Tales of Topanga Rock
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Calabasas, Summer 2005
REMOVE THE WORD "Canyon" from the glossary of Southern California rock and you're left with a gaping hole. Canyons have been inseparable from LA's music ...
Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Hotel California', 2006
UP ON THE Sunset Strip, the live scene was hurting. Name bands were now too big to play small clubs like the Whisky: they'd be ...
This Be an Empty World Without the Blues – So Clifford Antone filled it
Retrospective by Bill Bentley, Austin Chronicle, May 2006
THE FIRST TIME I met Clifford Antone, he sold me a sandwich. He had opened a shop on Guadalupe, right around the corner from the ...
The Costa del Sol: Elvis Has Left The Cantina
Report by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, July 2006
ELVIS PRESLEY is having a grand time. He is cuddling up to tipsy girls and giving them individual verses of 'Return to Sender' as they ...
Move Over 1976 – The Revolution Is Here And Now
Comment by Mark Pringle, Rock's Backpages, October 2006
ANYONE UNDER 30 reading this can piss off right now. This is for your mum and dad. You don't need the help, they do. The ...
Retrospective by Bob Stanley, Times, The, October 2006
THE EIGHTIES HAVE – like the stack-heeled Seventies before them – been repackaged and filed away as an era of Duran Duran, Dynasty and mobile ...
Rockin' on the Outskirts: S.F. Rock Beyond the Ballrooms
Sleevenotes by Gene Sculatti, Rhino, October 2006
Love Is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets box (Rhino) ...
They Think It's All Over? The Slight Return Of Football Hooligan Subcultures
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, 2007
ONCE AGAIN the book shelves are heaving, a few weeks before a new season, with football hooligan memoirs. One of the best of these 'histories' ...
Summer of Love: 40 Years Later
Retrospective by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, May 2007
1967: The stuff that myths are made of ...
Retrospective by Will Hermes, Village Voice, July 2007
OH YES, it was wicked cool: getting jacked at machete-point on the subway after a night of clubbing, and at bayonet-point outside of high school. ...
Happy Mondays: Salford Lads Club
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, August 2007
'YOU SALFORD NANCY Boy!' was a regular insult hurled from the wings at the late Anthony H. Wilson, educated at De La Salle College in ...
New York Noise: Anarchy in the USA
Book Review by Simon Witter, Daily Telegraph, December 2007
PERUSING THE WEALTH of multi-disciplinary artistic talent beaming out of the 400 black and white images in New York Noise (Soul Jazz Publishing), it's hard ...
Beatles, The, George Harrison: George Harrison Visits Haight-Ashbury In Summer 1967
Retrospective by Richie Unterberger, MOJO, Summer 2007
UNCOMMON sightings were downright common in the Haight-Ashbury during the Summer of Love. But even in that colorful context, the visit of George Harrison to ...
Book Review by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, February 2008
In the summer of 1971, Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg holed up in a villa on the Riviera with the other members of the Rolling ...
Culture's Coming Home? Liverpool And Pop
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, April 2008
LIVERPOOL ONE! The slogan for a new regenerated port city, European Capital of Culture, 2008. Liverpool One is the name for a retail project in ...
Neil Sedaka: New York's Rock'n'Roll Rhapsody
Overview by Philip Norman, Mail On Sunday, July 2008
NEW YORK HAS inspired so much of the greatest popular music ever written. London may have its chirpy Cockney ditties like 'Underneath the Arches', and ...
Love: Orange Skies Over the Castle
Retrospective by Kirk Silsbee, New Angeles Monthly, October 2008
"Love – featured tonight in the Diamond Mine! On display in the psychedelic department store!" –Dave Diamond, KBLA, June 16, 1967 ...
New Order: Off the Hook – The Peter Hook Interview
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Scotland on Sunday, October 2008
Since his acrimonious split with New Order, Peter Hook has seldom been happier. Ahead of his memoir about the legendary Hacienda club, the pirate captain ...
Lydia Lunch, Sonic Youth: No Wave: Histories Along The Bowery
Interview by Olly Beck, Garageland, November 2008
The New York No Wave Movement: More Punk than Punk. Olly Beck talks to Thurston Moore ...
Yoko Ono, John Lennon: John Lennon: Give New York A Chance
Guide by Philip Norman, Daily Mail, December 2008
FEW EXILES have been so cherished by a city as John Lennon was by New York. Certainly, none has ever left such a legacy of ...
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 ...
Manchester Studies: Reading John Robb's The North Will Rise Again
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, June 2009
The North Will Rise Again: Manchester Music City 1976-1996 John Robb (Aurum, 2009, £16.99) ...
Memoir by John Pidgeon, Rock's Backpages, July 2009
ONE WARM SPRING Friday night in 1964, cooling off between sets outside the Ricky Tick club in Windsor, I share a match flame with a ...
Cyril Davies, Blues Incorporated, Alexis Korner: Blues Incorporated: How British R&B Trashed Trad
Retrospective by John Pidgeon, Rock's Backpages, September 2009
ALEXIS KORNER'S Parisian birthplace, Austro-Greek parentage, noble features and languid growl endowed him with an aura of exoticism unreflected in his musical partner Cyril "Squirrel" ...
Flailing and Railing: Brendan Mullen, 1949-2009
Memoir by Don Snowden, Rock's Backpages, October 2009
BEST KNOWN as a catalyst and chronicler of the late '70s L.A. punk scene centred around the Masque club, Brendan Mullen died suddenly of a ...
Retrospective and Interview by John Pidgeon, Rock's Backpages, October 2009
THE FIRST PUBLIC appearance of what would one day be touted as "the greatest rock and roll band in the world" was hardly headline news, ...
N-Dubz, Tinchy Stryder, Taio Cruz, Chipmunk, Dizzee Rascal: N-Dubz and The Second Coming of Brit Pop
Overview by Ben Thompson, Observer Music Monthly, November 2009
It has been a long, rocky road for homegrown urban music in the UK, but this year N-Dubz and a close-knit group of stars have ...
Manchester's Music Scene Now Has Everything Everything
Overview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, January 2010
Never mind the Buzzcocks... or Stone Roses, or New Order: Manchester can stop trading on its former glories. Three new bands explain how they are ...
From Mod to Emo: Why Pop Tribes Are Still Making a Scene
Overview by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, February 2010
Like-minded music fans have been herding together for half a century — but are die-hard pop tribes now a thing of the past? Do today's ...
Broken Social Scene: An Ever-Changing Canadian Collective of Rock'n'Roll Royalty
Retrospective and Interview by Edward Helmore, Independent, The, May 2010
IT'S CLOSE TO MIDNIGHT and Kevin Drew, co-founder of Broken Social Scene, is sleeping on the floor of a New York recording studio, headphones clamped ...
Retrospective by Gene Sculatti, Rock's Backpages, September 2010
LAST SATURDAY, paging through an article on Robert Plant in the September issue of MOJO, I learned that, upon their initial meeting in a Dublin ...
At Large in the Black Hole of Punk L.A.
Sleevenotes by Jon Savage, 'Black Hole' (Domino Records), November 2010
NOTE: Adapted from Strange Things # 1, published spring 1988, this forms the first part of the liner notes for Black Hole: Jon Savage Presents ...
Bob Dylan: Izzy Young: The Man Who Made Bob Dylan
Retrospective and Interview by Kris Needs, MOJO, December 2010
NOVEMBER 4, 1962: Bob Dylan is invoking the time-honoured image of the out-of-town rambler lost on New York's convoluted subway system as he nervously attempts ...
Mickey Newbury: Guitars, Boats And Fairways: Mickey Newbury and Friends on Old Hickory Lake
Sleevenotes by Chris Campion, Saint Cecilia Knows Records, 2011
IT LOOKS, FROM ABOVE, like a snake arching through the brush. A series of long blind curves that begins at Hendersonville, the small community formed ...
Tim Brown: The Wigan Casino Years (Outta Sight)
Book Review by Mike Atherton, Echoes, February 2011
THE TITLE of this striking new book is carefully chosen. Of course there was Northern Soul before the Wigan Casino and, almost 30 years after ...
Minor Threat, Bad Brains: Ian Mackaye meets Bad Brains and invents hardcore
Retrospective by Stevie Chick, Guardian, The, June 2011
NO MERE THREE-CHORD punk dullards, Washington DC's Bad Brains had chops to spare. They'd started as jazz-fusion quintet Mind Power, worshipping at the altar of ...
Doors, The: Cars Hiss By My Window: The Doors' L.A. Woman landmarks
Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, unpublished, February 2012
Sunset Sound Recorders, 6650 Sunset Blvd.The Doors had made their first two albums in this celebrated Hollywood studio, but it was also here that L.A. ...
Memoir by John Pidgeon, Rock's Backpages, June 2012
I'M IDLING ALONG the High Street in my tan sit-up-and-beg Ford Pop, when 'Whatcha Gonna Do About It' comes on the radio. ...
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Times, The, September 2012
RIPLEY... EPSOM... WALLINGTON. The names hardly resonate in the way that Clarksdale or Greenville or Natchez do. Yet in their way these Surrey towns are ...
New Order: Lost Years in Original Modernity? On Listening to New Order's Lost Sirens
Retrospective by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, March 2013
THIRTY SEVEN Year Party People! Since Ian Curtis, Stephen Morris, Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook began playing regularly as Joy Division in 1978, that's effectively ...
Peace: Tiny, Smug and Blissfully Ignorant Minds: New British Indie and Peace's In Love (Columbia)
Special Feature by Neil Kulkarni, fuckyouneilkulkarni.blogspot.co.uk, April 2013
"I. Man's perceptions are not bound by organs of perception; he perceives more than sense (tho' ever so acute) can discover." — William Blake, ...
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