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Women in Music, Feminism

1,258 articles

Brenda Lee — Only Fifteen but They Want Her for Hollywood

Profile by June Harris, Disc, 28 May 1960

"SHE'S DYNAMIC. For her age she's ridiculously adult, she knows exactly what she wants and goes all out to get it." This is Wham! producer Jack Good ...

Connie Francis: Connie Will Rock For Britain!

Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 10 August 1962

THERE'LL BE no more weepie-weepie songs from Connie Francis once her current hit 'Vacation' leaves the charts... for Connie is to record special future releases ...

Helen Shapiro: She's Full of her New Home

Interview by June Harris, Disc, 22 December 1962

Big party plans ...

Helen Shapiro: There's Going to be a Brand New Me says Helen Shapiro

Interview by June Harris, Disc, 30 March 1963

"IT'LL TAKE a little time," said Helen Shapiro, as we chatted during a BBC rehearsal, "but I've decided there's going to be a new me." ...

Brenda Lee: A Brenda Bargain – Re-Issue Collection on Ace of Hearts

Report by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 17 August 1963

LITTLE MISS NEWLY-MARRIED has had, believe it or not, no less than SEVEN years in the music business. And that's seven years making discs too. ...

Brenda Lee: Her Marriage and Career...

Profile and Interview by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 25 January 1964

Brenda Lee is back in the charts again. Her mother talks about Brenda and marriage. ...

Cilla Black, Lulu, Sandie Shaw: Cathy McGowan, Sandie Shaw, Cilla Black, Lulu: Screening the Girls

Interview by Sylvia Stephen, Fabulous, 21 February 1964

SHE WANDERED into my office looking a bit vague — a tall, slender girl, with long, straight dark hair. Tinted glasses hid her lovely blue-grey ...

Shirley Bassey, Cilla Black, Gigliola Cinquetti, Doris Day, Ella Fitzgerald, Kathy Kirby, Millie, Dionne Warwick: Meet The Chart Chicks!

Report by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 16 May 1964

PETER JONES TAKES A LOOK AT THE SUDDEN INFLUX OF THE BIG HIT GIRLS ...

Marianne Faithfull: Teledate with Marianne Faithfull

Interview by Sylvia Stephens, Fabulous, 12 December 1964

When Marianne Faithfull rang me up, we talked at first about the things all girls talk about when they natter on the 'phone. Then I asked the question ...

Sandie Shaw: Girl in a Girl's World: To Make Sandie Sure...

Interview by Jean-Marie, Rave, February 1965

Beginning a new rave series spotlighting each month a different girl star and the special world in which she lives. ...

Marianne Faithfull, The Nashville Teens: Marianne Faithfull: The Battle Over A Bird

Interview by David Griffiths, Record Mirror, 8 April 1965

SAID MARIANNE: "The trouble with having a record called 'The Little Bird' is that I don't like birds. I'm being involved in publicity situations where ...

Marianne Faithfull: Girl in Love in a Girl's World...

Interview by Jean-Marie, Rave, June 1965

Our Girl in A Girl's World series takes a look at a little bird who's sitting pretty in the charts right now — Marianne Faithfull. ...

Marianne Faithfull: Fairy Tales Can Come True — Look at Marianne Faithfull

Interview by Louise Criscione, KRLA Beat, 31 July 1965

WELL HERE we go again. This time we're off to an exclusive interview with a girl who looks like a refugee from a fairy tale ...

Dusty Springfield: Sunday Paper Scared off Dusty's Man

Report and Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 15 October 1965

THE DELECTABLE Miss Dusty Springfield was in candid mood when I spoke to her this week — about wigs, her nose . . . and ...

Dusty Springfield: Life + Laughs = Dusty Springfield

Interview by Louise Criscione, KRLA Beat, 27 November 1965

DUSTY SPRINGFIELD'S voice came over the house phone: "Why don't you come on up to my manager's room? I'll be up in a few minutes. ...

Nancy Sinatra: AWFUL For A Boy, JOKE For A Girl — That's The Argument Nancy Sinatra Used To Wax 'Boots' Hit

Interview by Ann Moses, New Musical Express, 11 February 1966

HER BOOTS may have been made for walkin'! But Nancy Sinatra's 'Boots' also jumped, ran and scrambled up the pop charts in both America and ...

Our Nancy's Life Abroad — with Those British Pop Stars

Profile and Interview by Loraine Alterman, Detroit Free Press, 13 February 1966

The telegram came from Interpop. It read "ARRIVING IN DETROIT FROM LONDON ON PANAM FLIGHT 57 TUESDAY 3:20 PM IS YOUNG LADY OF POSSIBLE INTEREST ...

Barbra Streisand: No Second Hand Roses

Profile by Carol Deck, KRLA Beat, 19 February 1966

A LOT OF words have been used to describe Barbra Streisand but the one that pops up most often is unique. ...

Cilla Black: Cilla on Marriage

Interview by Penny Valentine, Disc and Music Echo, 23 April 1966

'THE QUEEN HASN'T DONE TOO BADLY – BUT IT'S NOT YET FOR ME!' ...

Cilla Black: The Girl Behind The Giggle

Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express Annual, 1967

SHE'S EITHER LOVED OR HATED ...

Sandy Posey: Sandy's a Single Girl who goes for R&B

Interview by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 25 February 1967

"SHE'S DIFFICULT to interview — she's very quiet and she's only interested in music and people concerned with music." That was the advice I was ...

Janis Ian: Musical Psychologist: Janis The Voice Of Mini-Hippies

Profile by Mike Gormley, The Ottawa Journal, 21 July 1967

HERE WE go again. Another great song-writer is upon us. ...

Dionne Warwick: Learning To Take Her Time

Interview by Eden, KRLA Beat, 2 December 1967

DIONNE WARWICK has been acclaimed by fans and critics the world over as one of the greatest and most distinctive song stylists in the music ...

The First Edition, Jefferson Airplane, Spanky & Our Gang: The Ladies Infiltrate Pop Music

Report and Interview by Louise Criscione, KRLA Beat, 4 April 1968

POP MUSIC is a male medium... owing, perhaps, to the long-held belief that females buy the large majority of records. But at last it appears ...

Rosetta Hightower, Joe E. Young & the Toniks: Vicki Wickham: Leap to Toast

Interview by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 22 June 1968

VICKI WICKHAM, back in the days of Ready, Steady Go, had to keep at least one finger on the pulse of the pop-music scene. The programme ...

Big Brother & The Holding Company, Janis Joplin: Janis Joplin: Singer With The Bordello Voice

Profile and Interview by Al Aronowitz, LIFE, 20 September 1968

IF YOU HAVEN'T heard of Big Brother and the Holding Company by now, you're going to miss your chance. ...

Joni Mitchell: Joni, The Seagull From Saskatoon

Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 28 September 1968

TALKING TO Joni Mitchell about her songs is rather like talking to someone you just met about the most intimate secrets of her life. Like ...

Dusty Springfield: Five Great Years of Dusty

Interview by Penny Valentine, Disc and Music Echo, 2 November 1968

ON NOVEMBER 5, 1968, Dusty Springfield celebrates five years as a solo star. ...

Julie Driscoll: Girl Talk with Julie Driscoll

Interview by Dawn James, Rave, December 1968

When two girls get together anything can happen. When they are Julie Driscoll and Rave's Dawn James, everything does! ...

Big Brother & The Holding Company, Janis Joplin: Suddenly… Janis Joplin!

Profile and Interview by uncredited writer, Flip, December 1968

A YEAR AGO, Flip's Hollywood Editor (Carol Deck) and Flip's London Editor (Keith Altham) met at the now legendary Monterey Pop Festival. It was the ...

Joni Mitchell

Profile and Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, Rolling Stone, 17 May 1969

FOLK MUSIC, which pushed rock and roll into the arena of the serious with protest lyrics and blendings of Dylan and the Byrds back in ...

Karen Dalton: Bi•og'ra•phy: Karen Dalton

Press Release by uncredited writer, Capitol Records, September 1969

ALL KAREN DALTON has to do to create her own legend is sing. When she does, in a voice that belongs to no specific time ...

Nina Simone: God Bless The Child

Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, September 1969

NINA SIMONE was born Eunice Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina, the sixth of eight children. Her mother worked as a housekeeper and her father was ...

Big Mama Thornton: Stronger Than Dirt (Mercury)

Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 1 November 1969

ANYBODY WHO has ever seen Big Mama Thornton perform will vouch for the fact that she is a consummate entertainer. So good, in fact, that ...

Anne Nightingale: "I don't intend to start screaming 'Hello darling' down the microphone"

Report and Interview by uncredited writer, Record Mirror, 24 January 1970

TO BE the first anything is exciting. So it is not at all surprising that Anne Nightingale looked extremely nervous at her Press conference this ...

The GTOs: Permanent Damage (Straight/CBS)

Review by Miles, International Times, 27 February 1970

IT'S NOT TOO difficult to reject the spectacle of Hollywood, to drop out, find yourself, re-evalue your ideas, unless you LIVE in Hollywood. What if ...

Julie Felix: One Small Miss Felix

Profile and Interview by Tom McWilliams, Playdate, May 1970

A STRANGER NAMED Julie Felix confesses, "I hide behind my guitar". With no guitar to hide behind she meets the press. Hides behind the questions? ...

Christine Perfect/McVie: For Christine, Hard Work Hasn't Made Perfect

Interview by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 30 May 1970

HARD WORK is not always rewarded, as Christine Perfect is unfortunately finding out. Since leaving Chicken Shack to spend more time with her husband, Fleetwood ...

Sexy Soulful Women

Overview by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, 27 June 1970

I'M NOT sure why, but I'm more often moved by men singing than by women. Somehow I can identify with a much larger range of ...

Janis Joplin’s Full-tilt Boogie Ride

Report and Interview by David Dalton, Rolling Stone, 6 August 1970

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky – Janis Joplin and her newly-formed band, Janis Joplin Full-Tilt Boogie, debuted here June 12th, their first gig since they started rehearsing together ...

Janis Joplin: Remembering Janis

Obituary by Vernon Gibbs, Columbia Daily Spectator, 6 October 1970

JANIS JOPLIN used to stand on stage at the Fillmore and wring out evil, catastrophic blues numbers, agony-wracked protests cloaked in Southern Comfort elegance. It ...

Laura Nyro

Profile by Richard Williams, The Times, 5 January 1971

THE CURRENT STATE of pop music allows its performers to make the most naked personal statements. Only an artist with considerable character, though, can keep ...

Germaine Greer: A Groupie in Women's Lib

Report and Interview by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 7 January 1971

LONDON — ON a crazy Sunday afternoon in London, Germaine Greer lolls in the corner of a crowded room with a silver knit flapper's hat ...

Rita Coolidge: Now The Delta Lady Is Out On Her Own

Interview by Jacoba Atlas, Melody Maker, 1 May 1971

DURING THE Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour, Joe Cocker each night would take the microphone and announce "Here she is, our own Delta Lady, Rita ...

Nina Simone: Carnegie Hall, New York NY

Live Review by Vicki Wickham, Melody Maker, 22 May 1971

Nina the leader ...

Carol Hall, Carole King, Carly Simon, Ronnie Spector: New Albums from Carole King, Carly Simon et al

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 29 May 1971

King and friends Carole King: Tapestry (A&M AMLS 2025); Carly Simon: Carly Simon (Elektra EKS-74082); Carol Hall: If I Be Your Lady (Elektra EKS-7407R); Ronnie Spector: ...

Fanny: Fillmore East, New York NY

Live Review by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 30 May 1971

Fanny, a Four-Girl Rock Group, Poses a Challenge to Male Ego ...

Helen Reddy: Helen now a star in demand

Profile by Lillian Roxon, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 27 June 1971

THEY invited 20 people for a quiet little get together back at their Hilltop home after her show closed — and 280 turned up. ...

Loretta Lynn: Everybody's Got a Soul and a Heart

Interview by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 12 July 1971

(RBP editor's note: the intro to this article was written by Paul Connah, the interview undertaken primarily by Gene Guerrero) ...

Fanny: Charity Ball

Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 14 October 1971

WELL, LET'S SEE...first there was Goldie and the Gingerbreads and the UFO's. Then Cake, who were merely New York's answer to the Ronettes, and the ...

Goldie & The Gingerbreads, Genya Ravan, Ten Wheel Drive: Genya Ravan: Goldie Zelkovich Breaks Loose

Profile and Interview by Mike Jahn, Baltimore Sun, 17 October 1971

COLUMBIA RECORDS just bought Goldie Zelkovich away from Polydor Records, which makes Goldie very happy. ...

Annette Peacock: I'm the One

Press Release by uncredited writer, RCA Records, November 1971

THE SUMMER IS probably the best time to go down there, to the far reaches of the west West village. It's really calm, quiet and ...

Fanny: Charity Ball (Reprise)

Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Creem, November 1971

SEEING FANNY live after hearing Charity Ball leaves two possibilities: either the group doesn't know the first thing about recording or Richard Perry is a ...

Ace of Cups, The Carpenters, Fanny: There Aren't Many Girls In Hard Rock, But A New Day (And Attitude) Is Dawning

Essay by Jacoba Atlas, Billboard, 6 November 1971

WHEN I mentioned to Nicky Barclay of the first successful all-girl rock band Fanny that I was working on an article dealing with women in ...

Fanny: Music by Women

Interview by uncredited writer, The Great Speckled Bird, 22 November 1971

IT ALL started Wednesday at the royal coach inn with Viva. The inn is some architect's nightmare of Lancelot and Arthur's court, wooden chandeliers and ...

Aretha Franklin: Greatest Hits – on Atlantic and Columbia

Review by Pete Wingfield, Cream, December 1971

ON ATLANTIC: Greatest Hits illustrates the power that fourteen condensed, concise, definitive musical statements can exert – particularly in the soul/R&B field, totally geared until ...

Labelle, Dusty Springfield: Vicki Wickham: The Secretary That Roared

Interview by Toby Mamis, Phonograph Record, December 1971

I'D CONSIDERED doing this piece since mid-June. So, frankly, when the time came, I was thoroughly prepared. Prior to my interview with Vicki Wickham, I'd ...

"Mama" Cass Elliot: Cass Elliot: Cass Elliot (RCA)

Review by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 29 January 1972

CASS'S FIRST SOLO ALBUM for her new company shows that the lady has always had much more to offer in terms of phrasing and feel ...

Helen Reddy: Weekend Ever Reddy

Interview by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 5 February 1972

A VERY HEAVY Ameri­can biography on Helen Reddy comes on with excessive amounts of material on the super­natural, her beliefs in ESP and parapsycho­logy* until ...

Helen Reddy: Get Reddy

Interview by Jacoba Atlas, Melody Maker, 12 February 1972

"I STARTED singing my own songs because no one else was saying what I wanted to say," explains Helen Reddy, the Australian born singer who ...

Fanny: Fanny Hill (Reprise 2058)

Review by Metal Mike Saunders, The Rag, 13 March 1972

FANNY HAVE put out a totally consistent album that captures the spirit of 1964-5 rock coupled with the White Album Beatles/middle-period Badfinger instrumental sound. Considering ...

Judee Sill: A Sill-y Story: Judee Sill

Interview by Rosalind Russell, Disc, 8 April 1972

JUDEE SILL is quite a remarkable woman. When you consider her past it becomes apparent just how remarkable. She lost both her parents and her ...

Judee Sill

Interview by James Johnson, New Musical Express, 8 April 1972

ACCORDING to Judee Sill: "Out of the mud grows a lotus". In other words something beautiful comes from something unpleasant. The phrase applies well to ...

Fanny: Fanny Hill (Reprise 2058)

Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 13 April 1972

FANNY HAVE finally made it: their new album is full of the best mainstream rock and roll I've heard so far this year. As well ...

Joni Mitchell: An Interview (part 1)

Interview by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 3 June 1972

THE LADY WHO walks on eggs is sitting in her hotel suite overlooking St. James' Park with her legs tucked up, her chin resting on ...

Joni Mitchell: An Interview (part 2)

Interview by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 10 June 1972

LAST WEEK Joni Mitchell spoke for the first time in over two years about why she virtually "retired" from the music scene during a period ...

Labelle: Nona Hendryx of Liberated Labelle

Profile and Interview by Lillian Roxon, New York Sunday News, 2 July 1972

SOUL! NONA Hendryx of Labelle, a group of three young black women that has been together more than 10 years, gets this sweet look on ...

Martha Reeves & The Vandellas: Martha Reeves Goes Solo

Report and Interview by Phil Symes, Disc, 8 July 1972

MARTHA REEVES is going solo. After 10 years fronting one of Motown's most successful groups, Martha and the Vandellas, Miss Reeves is stepping out alone. ...

Birtha, "Mama" Cass Elliot, Labelle: Birtha and Mama Cass: The Right On Sound Called Liberated Rock

Report by Lillian Roxon, New York Sunday News, 17 September 1972

I WAS interested to read in one of those glossy magazines that the coming trend in music for the fall is "rock 'n' rouge," because ...

Claire Hammill

Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 25 November 1972

DRIVING OUT of London in his sparkling red Citroen, bound for Manor Studios, Oxfordshire, John McCoy talked about his girl Claire Hamill in a manner ...

Millie Jackson: Millie's Mojo Soul

Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, New Musical Express, 9 December 1972

AMONG THE better girl artists to emerge from America's R&B charts of late is Millie Jackson, who's been creating no small action over here in ...

Dory Previn: Surviving All Odds: Dory Previn

Interview by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 16 December 1972

WHEN DORY Previn wrote: "I no longer plead with heaven or go rummaging in books for the answers to the questions life contains", she had ...

Joni Mitchell: A Tender Dignity

Guide by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 6 January 1973

ONE DAY, many years ago, Al Kooper went home with a blonde Canadian chick who used to hang out with the Blues Project. In the ...

Millie Jackson: Millie Jackson (Mojo Select 2918.005 £2.00)

Review by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 16 February 1973

'If This Is Love'; 'I Ain't Giving Up'; 'I Miss You Baby'; 'A Child Of God'; 'Ask Me What You Want'; 'My Man A Sweet Man'; ...

Bette Midler: Trying To Be Free

Interview by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 17 February 1973

THE DIVINE MISS M. sparkles and shines like a great glossy cake trimmed up with rich icing. On stage, word has it, she is superbly ...

Fanny: The Crossroads Are Where Fanny Are At

Interview by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 24 February 1973

ALL RIGHT. So Fanny can play with due competence, can pull in and please the crowds, make chunky representative albums and they've got over the ...

Bonnie Raitt Gives It Back

Interview by David Rensin, Crawdaddy!, March 1973

LOS ANGELES – Bonnie Raitt is by nature a purposeful woman. On a personal level, she is attempting to forge a new ethic reaching beyond ...

Dory Previn: Madness, Fear and the Demons Inside

Interview by James Johnson, New Musical Express, 5 May 1973

AT THE END of the Dory Previn concert at Carnegie Hall, a couple of New Yorkers are standing near the exit, one whispering to the ...

Carly Simon, Dory Previn, Mary Travers: Record World Forum: Three Artists on the New Consciousness

Interview by Loraine Alterman, Record World, 19 May 1973

Carly Simon, Dory Previn and Mary Travers are three major artists whose work and lives exemplify the independent role women are assuming in society. As ...

Fanny

Report and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 2 June 1973

LEON WANTED US TO LIVE IN HIS HOUSE...WE WEREN'T INTERESTED NEEDLESS TO SAY ...

Carole King, Melissa Manchester: Carole King: Fantasy (Ode); Melissa Manchester: Home To Myself (Bell)

Review by Loraine Alterman, The New York Times, 15 July 1973

A Bland Carole King ...

Essra Mohawk: Just Baiting for Laura Nyro

Interview by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 8 September 1973

THIS IS a slightly strange situation to be in. Over there, in the corner of the room, Sherry Bo Berry, a member of the Cockettes-derived ...

John Lennon, Yoko Ono: Yoko: How I Rescued John from Chauvinism

Interview by Loraine Alterman, Melody Maker, 22 September 1973

DATELINE NEW YORK: A rare interview with a much maligned singer with a fine new album... ...

Yoko Ono: Yoko's A No-No: Yoko Ono: Kenny's Castaways, New York

Live Review by Vicki Wickham, Melody Maker, 3 November 1973

NEW YORK: I still haven't figured out what is "inside" everyone that makes them not only want to sing, but to so firmly believe they ...

Bette Midler, Yoko Ono: Bette Midler: Bette Midler (Atlantic); Yoko Ono: Feeling The Space (Apple)

Review by Loraine Alterman, The New York Times, 4 November 1973

No Torches for Bette and Yoko ...

Isis: Eight-Piece, All-Woman Band in Musical No-Man's Land

Report and Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Rolling Stone, 8 November 1973

NEW YORK – An all-woman rock band, one that really cooks, seems to be both a contradiction in terms and a lousy pun. They've come ...

Sarah Vaughan: Searching For That Natural Soul Sound

Interview by Max Jones, Melody Maker, 17 November 1973

MARSHALL FISHER, Sarah Vaughan's husband and personal manager, indicated that if I were to call round at the Mayfair Hotel an hour or so before ...

Suzi Quatro: The Girl in the Gang

Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1974

A SEPARATE dressing-room had been provided upstairs, but Suzi Quatro preferred to use the same one as her band. It was large, clean, grey and ...

Yoko Ono: The Whole World Is My Mother-In-Law

Profile and Interview by Caroline Coon, unpublished, 1974

2012 NOTE: Tidying through my papers some days ago I found, at last, an interview I did with Yoko Ono at home in New York ...

Suzi Quatro: Suzi Q: Expatriate Rockerette

Interview by Toby Mamis, Zoo World, 3 January 1974

N.Y. — "I DIDN'T want to play with girls anymore," she told me via transatlantic phone conversation, from her manager's office in London. ...

Joni Mitchell: Court and Spark (Asylum)

Review by Loraine Alterman, The New York Times, 6 January 1974

Joni's Songs Are For Everyone  ...

Allman Brothers Band, David Bowie, Jefferson Starship, Mott The Hoople, The Rolling Stones: The Rock Lovers

Report and Interview by Stephen Demorest, Circus, February 1974

Being a rock star has its advantages, but the spotlight is usually only big enough for one person. Circus took a behind stage look at ...

Toni Brown, Chi Coltrane, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon: Albums from Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell et al

Review by j. poet, The Berkeley Barb, 22 February 1974

j poet advertizes fer joni: male groopie wanted ...

Suzi Quatro: A Rap In The Loo With Suzi Q.

Interview by Chrissie Hynde, New Musical Express, 23 February 1974

CHRISSIE HYND, who's got this thing about black leather, snuggles up to SUZI QUATRO for an intimate girl-to-girl tête-à-tête in the Ladies' toilet ...

Joni Mitchell: New Victoria, London

Live Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, June 1974

WHEN JONI MITCHELL sang in a cinema next to Victoria Station, her entire audience fell in love with her three nights running. For weeks afterwards ...

Ellen McIlwaine: Honky Tonk Angel

Interview by Robin Katz, Sounds, 1 June 1974

ELLEN McILWAINE is probably the finest female guitarist to emerge in ages, says ROBIN KATZ. She handles her guitar with the expertise of a super-cool ...

Laura Nyro: The Five-Year, Five-Album Span Of High-Pressure Creativity

Overview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 29 June 1974

"Nights in New York street angels running down steps into the echoes of the train station to sing..." ...

Kiki Dee: Kooky Over Kiki

Interview by Barbara Charone, New Musical Express, 6 July 1974

ALL THE New York City rockers had come down to the Bottom Line to check out Rocket Records' latest entry, Kiki Dee. Elton John and ...

Annette Peacock: Primitive Bird Tries New Thing

Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 7 September 1974

ANNETTE PEACOCK, erstwhile prisoner in the Bowie/DeFries camp, reveals big plans for what you've all been waiting for... Yes folks, it's THE NEW MUSIC. Here ...

Dory Previn: Dory Previn (Warner Bros.)

Review by Loraine Alterman, The New York Times, 8 September 1974

The Perceptive Songs Of Dory Previn ...

Suzi Quatro: Elvis as Virgin Queen

Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, November 1974

"I STILL USE laundromats, and one day I was walking to one carrying a bag of laundry. I had a hat on and sunglasses because ...

Fanny: Unnnghhh! Grunt, Slurp…

Report and Interview by Jonh Ingham, New Musical Express, 30 November 1974

LETS BE SEXIST for a coupla paragraphs. ...

Maria Muldaur: The Muldaur Mystique

Interview by Barbara Charone, Hit Parader, December 1974

MARIA MULDAUR is a tease. That sexy helplessness she exudes by asking 'Won't You Feel My Leg' is only half the story. She'll turn the ...

Buffy Sainte-Marie

Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975

BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE came to prominence during the folk era, hoisted to underground approval on the virtue of her classic ‘Universal Soldier’ and her first album ...

Fanny: The Year Of The Woman

Interview by Michael Gross, Gallery, 1975

WITH ALL THE noise, convulsions, legal maneuverings, and groundbreaking advances made by feminists in the last few years, women remain the underdog minority in the ...

Joni Mitchell

Essay by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 11 January 1975

Question: what well-known biped possesses an upper-register vocalic system, is pleasant to look upon, and is almost universally misunderstood and/or patronised? Answer: any Rock 'n ...

Kiki Dee: More Than Opening For Elton

Profile and Interview by Michael Gross, Crawdaddy!, March 1975

NEW YORK – The first time Kiki Dee came to New York City, she was showcased by her newest record company, Rocket Records, at the ...

Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt: Linda Ronstadt: Heart Like A Wheel (Asylum EST 11358); Emmylou Harris: Pieces Of The Sky (Reprise K 54037)

Review by Phil Hardy, Let It Rock, April 1975

OVER RECENT months those familiar figures, the singer/songwriter and the solo artist have made their reappearance on the scene. But if you cast your eyes ...

Tammy Wynette: Truckers' Choice

Interview by Rob Partridge, Melody Maker, 19 April 1975

No-one captures the ideals of Middle America quite like Tammy Wynette. And she's got the hits to prove it — an astounding 24 Number Ones. ...

Ella Fitzgerald: Queen of Song

Interview by Max Jones, Melody Maker, 3 May 1975

Ella Fitzgerald — who has just completed a week at London's Ronnie Scott club — talks to MAX JONES ...

Candi Staton, Bettye Swann: Candi Staton and Bettye Swann: Broken Hearts, Do Right Women

Interview by Roger St. Pierre, New Musical Express, 14 June 1975

EVERY TIME I hear Bettye Swann's pained 'Don't You Ever Get Tired Of Hurting Me' I'm so moved I want to go and punch that ...

LaBelle

Report and Interview by Robin Katz, Let It Rock, July 1975

1. 'What Can I Do For You?' PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania. November 1974. Breakfast time (10:30). Patti LaBelle, Sarah Dash and Nona Hendryx are sitting in one corner of ...

Lesley Gore: They Don't Own Her

Report by Dave Marsh, Let It Rock, July 1975

IN 1964, A seventeen-year-old freshman named Lesley Gore put out her first record, 'It's My Party (And I'll Cry If I Want To)'. It was ...

Bonnie Raitt: Bonnie Comes Marching Home

Report and Interview by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 12 July 1975

When Bonnie Raitt comes marching home to pack Carnegie Hall, Penny Valentine is there to talk to "the one woman who is a pure musician ...

Rufus: Chaka: I Feel Sexless on Stage

Interview by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, 12 July 1975

CHAKA KHAN is a bit like a furry golly. She flops in front of the telly, cheering for Connors at Wimbledon, giggling and proudly displaying ...

Bonnie Raitt: Bonnie's Blues

Profile and Interview by Penny Valentine, Let It Rock, August 1975

WHEN SHE SINGS 15 year old girls run out of the audience, down the auditorium, arms raised in a two fisted salute. What they are ...

Betty Davis: Filthy But Funky

Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 5 August 1975

IT'S FUNNY how some women are genteel yet others may be quite the opposite – yet still manage to retain their femininity. ...

Betty Davis: Game is her Middle Name

Interview by Robin Katz, Sounds, 27 September 1975

Betty Davis hits Britain next month and she's BAAAAD, brother. Robin Katz checks out the lady who makes Tina Turner look like the Singing Nun... ...

Betty Davis: Ronnie Scott's, London

Live Review by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 25 October 1975

WITH THE Viking Warrior Case fresh in every mind, punters packed Ronnie's for the Betty Davis exposure. A threat to the moral health of the ...

Tanya Tucker: Country Girl

Profile and Interview by Rob Partridge, Melody Maker, 1 November 1975

THE CHOCOLATE-smothered Rice Krispies cup cake lay half-eaten on the plate, neglected after the first bite. Tanya, it seemed, was not in the best of ...

Patti Smith: La belle dame sans merci: Patti Smith: Horses (Arista Import) *****

Review by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 20 November 1975

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I give you the record of the year. Or the record of 1976, since it won't be released here until January.  ...

Patti Smith: Poetry In Motion

Interview by Robin Katz, Sounds, 13 December 1975

PATTI SMITH cannot compromise. She functions on her very own level of stratosphere, creating poetry, writing songs, lapping up the more elusive statics of life. ...

The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, Grace Slick: Grace Slick (1976)

Interview by Jim Esposito, Rock's Backpages audio, 1976

Interviewed at the Airplane house in San Francisco, the chanteuse of psychedelia rambles in splendid style on her early days in the Great Society, writing White Rabbit, drugs and drink and much more.

File format: mp3; file size: 77.2mb, total interview length: 1h 24' 21" sound quality: ***

Joni Mitchell: Hostess Twinkies for Your Dreams

Live Review by Michael Gross, Swank, 1976

Joni Mitchell: Nassau Coliseum ...

Laura Nyro: Five Years of Silence

Essay by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, January 1976

BORN LAURA Nigro, she was fated to sing the blues. Though her solitary visions weren't attuned to the pop pulse of the movement-minded sixties, she ...

Pan's People: I Was A Pan's People (And Lived)

Report and Interview by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 24 January 1976

Unwitting girls in White Slavery? Sex objects exploited for male fantasies? The best thing on Top Of The Pops? ...

Ronee Blakley: Welcome

Review by Chas de Whalley, New Musical Express, 14 February 1976

RONEE BLAKLEY was the star of Robert Altman's Nashville, if you remember, the film that was universally condemned by the inhabitants of Music City U.S.A. ...

Godzilla and I

Comment by Penny Valentine, Street Life, 21 February 1976

THERE ARE three women writers on Street Life. We are generally treated with the same 'respect' as our male colleagues. In other words, if there's no ...

Joan Armatrading, Elkie Brooks, Kiki Dee, Carol Grimes, Linda Lewis: A Question of Survival: Rock'n'Roll Women

Overview by Penny Valentine, Street Life, 6 March 1976

THE NUMBER of women working in British music is pitifully small. You can count them on one hand. Why? ...

Phoebe Snow Has No Regrets...Yet

Interview by Susin Shapiro, The Village Voice, 15 March 1976

'Which will prove more important, keeping open the WATS line to her career or being the best possible mother, in a first-person plural world?' ...

Bonnie Raitt: A Bonnie Lass

Profile and Interview by Robin Katz, Sounds, 27 March 1976

Bonnie Raitt (talking and singing 2000 words a minute) and Robin Katz (just talking 2500 words a minute) discuss men, music and the pursuit of happiness. ...

Gladys Knight and the Pips: Gladys Knight: Things happen when you're a disciple of Buddah...

Interview by Cliff White, New Musical Express, 8 May 1976

... but it helps if you're GLADYS KNIGHT AND THE PIPS. Here's how things are going, as told to CLIFF WHITE. ...

Dolly Parton: Parton's Creative Country

Interview by Mick Brown, Street Life, 15 May 1976

Heard the one about the Heathrow cowboy with Dolly tattooed from neck to backside? ...

Tanya Tucker: Country Baby

Profile and Interview by Stephen K. Peeples, Circus, June 1976

SHE'S ON THE Midnight Special stage wearing a Happy Days T-shirt given her by Anson Williams, leaning into Dennis Linde's 'Burnin' Love' with so much ...

Janis Ian: New Victoria, London

Live Review by Robin Katz, Sounds, 12 June 1976

TO EVEN the artist's surprise, the concert was sold out. Standing room was also sold out. The New Victoria audience once more displayed knowledgable enthusiasm ...

Patti Smith Fascinates Europe

Report by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 15 July 1976

LONDON — Patti Smith prompts some strong opinions here. New Musical Express drooled that Horses, her debut Arista album, was "better than... the first Beatles ...

Joan Armatrading: Just Joan

Interview by Robin Katz, Black Echoes, 25 September 1976

Suddenly England has a lady singer songwriter to vie with America's greatest. Robin Katz talks to Joan Armatrading ...

Bonnie Bramlett: Kicking Out The Jams

Interview by Kris DiLorenzo, The Aquarian Weekly, 27 October 1976

Lunching with Bonnie Bramlett (a.k.a. "Holler Mouth") is no ordinary trip to the coffeeshop. In fact, an afternoon with Bonnie Bramlett is more like a ...

Patti Smith: The Field Marshall on Portobello Road

Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 6 November 1976

"THIS ALBUM is I think much more feminine than the first album...the rhythm, it's more like ocean. The cuts that I love the best are ...

The Slits: Slits

Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 11 December 1976

Palmolive, drums; Kate Korus, rhythm guitar; Suzi Gutsy, bass; Arianna Forster, lead vocals ...

Dana Gillespie: Dingwalls, London

Live Review by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 25 December 1976

THIS DANA is certainly no fairtytale. ...

Linda Ronstadt (1976)

Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, Fall 1976

Ms Ronstadt talks about being brought up surrounded by music; moving from Tucson to Los Angeles and forming the Stone Poneys; the hit she didn't like, 'Different Drum'; her struggles with managers and producers making her first solo albums; meeting the future Eagles at the Troubadour; the move from Capitol to Asylum; getting together with producer Peter Asher, and strongly identifying with fellow women singers like Emmylou, Dolly and Bonnie Raitt.

File format: mp3; file size: 44.2mb; Interview length: 46' 01"; sound quality: *****

Linda Ronstadt (1976) [transcript]

Audio transcript of interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages transcripts, Fall 1976

This is a transcript of John's audio interview with Linda. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...

Sandy Denny (1977)

Interview by Karl Dallas, Rock's Backpages audio, 1977

The Queen of English Folk-Rock talks about going back on the road (the repertoire, the musicians and the nerves), about her recent split from Island Records, and about her new baby Georgia.

File format: mp3 File size: 9.5mb Interview length: 10' 23"; Sound quality: ****

The Slits

Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, '1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion', 1977

ONE OF THE arguments trotted out to minimize punk rock was that however good or bad the sound was live, it would be impossible to ...

Sandy Denny: Rendezvous

Review by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, May 1977

THIS IS THE ALBUM we have been waiting for since Sandy left Fairport Convention for the second time at the end of 1975. Over six ...

Sandy Denny Pregnant

Report and Interview by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, 16 July 1977

SANDY DENNY looked radiant. Yes, one is always supposed to say that about ladies when they're pregnant, but in this case it was true. She ...

Bonnie Raitt (1977)

Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, 28 July 1977

The singer/slide-guitarist talks about how she got into blues; about her albums from her first to her most recent, Sweet Forgiveness, via Takin' My Time and Home Plate; about producers John Hall and Jerry Ragovoy; about politics, feminism and women in music; and about the process of finding songs and not writing anymore. Read a transcript of this interview.

File format: mp3; file size: 30.2mb, interview length: 31' 30" sound quality: *****

Lena Zavaroni: A Jackie Pop Special on Lena Zavaroni: I Just Got This Idea That I Was Too Fat...

Interview by Robin Katz, Jackie, 30 July 1977

LENA ZAVARONI'S just turned thirteen — and she's already been a star for over four years! You might think that instant success at nine years ...

The Slits

Report and Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, August 1977

THERE ARE FEW groups I'd rather go and see at the moment than The Slits. They've only been going a few months in their present ...

Snatch: Speakeasy, London

Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 20 August 1977

LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE GIRLS Snatch it while you can ...

Heart: Far Out!

Interview by Robin Katz, Sounds, 10 September 1977

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

Joan Armatrading: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Cliff White, New Musical Express, 12 November 1977

AS ANY regular user of London's Underground rail network can testify, not all of the strolling troubadours who jostled for recognition in the balmy '60s ...

Sandy Denny: Sandy Fights Back

Report and Interview by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, 12 November 1977

"IF I HAVE TO SING 'Matty Groves' one more time, I'll throw myself out of a window... I'll be doing a lot of stuff from ...

The Runaways

Report and Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 12 November 1977

THE HOUR OF MY VINDICATION is at hand. I'm sitting in the lobby of a London hotel waiting for the Runaways to descend from their ...

Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees

Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 3 December 1977

PREMISE: Record company executives have been skipping the brandy on their expense account lunches in their eagerness to sign up any band that can loosely ...

Linda Ronstadt: All Linda Ronstadt Needs Is The Lurv Of A Good Man

Interview by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 7 January 1978

JUST AFTER midnight a large coach pulls up outside a respectable New York City Hotel, precariously perched on the right side of Central Park. Assorted ...

Millie Jackson: In Tune With The People

Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 17 January 1978

Soul's upfront lady makes sure she stays on target by taking time and trouble to talk to the people and staying in touch with what's ...

The Ramones, The Runaways: The Ramones/The Runaways: Santa Monica Civic, Los Angeles

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 18 February 1978

RAMONES: singing about sun and surf while their home town suffered blizzards. 'Obladi-oblada' for the blank generation ...

Snatch

Profile and Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 6 May 1978

PATTI PALLADIN and JUDY NYLON came to Britain last year, made 3 remarkable singles (one with Eno) then split. Or did they? JON SAVAGE steps ...

Patti Smith (1978)

Interview by Howie Klein, Rock's Backpages audio, 14 May 1978

Ms Smith regales the listeners to KSAN, San Francisco, with stories about Tina Turner, Sandy Pearlman and the Clash; sings the praises of Fred 'Sonic Smith and Tom Verlaine; gives respect to Bill Graham. She also makes Public Service announcements, and comments on the commercials!

File format: mp3; file size: 81.9mb, interview length: 1h 29' 27" sound quality: ***

Kate Bush: The Shape of Things To Come: Kate Bush

Column by Simon Frith, Creem, July 1978

NOTE: This formed part of Simon's monthly Creem column "Letter from Britain". ...

Etta James (1978) [transcript]

Audio transcript of interview by Cliff White, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 12 July 1978

This is a transcription of Cliff's audio interview with Etta. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...

Patti Smith: The Patti Smith Group: The Palladium, New York NY

Live Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1978

Patti comes home a hero ...

Etta James: Dingwalls, London

Live Review by Cliff White, New Musical Express, 22 July 1978

THEY PROBABLY don't realise it but The Who once dedicated an album to Etta James. Meaty, Beaty, Big And Bouncy it was called, and by ...

Etta James' long search for stardom

Interview by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 10 August 1978

IT IS A cruel irony that had she not been a junkie for thirteen of her forty years, Etta James would probably still be working ...

Carlene Carter, Elizabeth Barraclough: Elizabeth Barraclough: Elizabeth Barraclough; Carlene Carter: Carlene Carter

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 19 August 1978

BUFFY SAINTE MARIE used to have this song called 'I'm Gonna Be A Country Girl Again', but you won't find Elizabeth Barraclough or Carlene Carter ...

Aretha Franklin: The Aretha Franklin Interview...

Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 29 August 1978

In one of the very rare interviews she grants, Lady Soul gave this in-depth story to B&S' David Nathan at her beautiful Encino, California home. ...

Kate Bush: Bringing It Back Home

Interview by James Johnson, The Evening Standard, 26 September 1978

THE feverish quality of the pop world barely intrudes into the calm atmosphere of the large comfortable family house on the edge of the Kent ...

Annie Nightingale Joins The Old Grey Whistle Test

Profile and Interview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 30 September 1978

WHY THE BBC MAKES YOUNG WOMEN CARRY OUT THIS HIDEOUS ANCIENT RITUAL ...

The Slits: Girl Trouble with The Slits

Profile and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 7 October 1978

NICK KENT on the wildest waifs in town ...

Kate Bush: Tête a Kate

Interview by Tim Lott, Record Mirror, 7 October 1978

The rock and roll business usually brings up its fair share of prima donnas, ready to grab what they can and cast off their friends ...

Joan Armatrading: Perrier Water and Privacy: Joan Armatrading

Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 14 October 1978

"LOOOK this way pet, wooood you dear," said the photographer in a voice fusing Andy Stewart and Larry Grayson. "Please pet". Fussing, fussing. ...

Heart Gets Back on the Right Beat

Interview by Wesley Strick, Rolling Stone, 30 November 1978

Legal battles behind them ...

15, 16, 17: Living For The Weekend

Profile and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, 20 January 1979

15, 16, 17 are the best-known of British reggae's new crop of female vocal trios. ...

The Runaways: And Now…The Runaways (Mercury)

Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 20 January 1979

THE TERMS are at once familiar and bizarre, charged with meaning and strangely vacuous: 'street,' 'action,' 'hungry and hot,' 'rock 'n' roll,' 'teenage,' 'weekend,' 'queen.' ...

Linda Ronstadt: America's Sex Valentine

Profile by Al Aronowitz, Gallery, February 1979

I KNOW AN eighteen-year-old genius named Jimmy Dunbar who thinks the ultimate prize in the ultimate contest would be a weekend with Linda Ronstadt. Not ...

Amanda Lear: The Secret Life of Amanda Lear

Interview by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, February 1979

SHE'S BEEN called everything from the Renee Richards of Rock to Miss Before and After Science of 1984. And although she's sold millions of albums ...

Tina Turner: The Willpower Way From Square One

Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 14 March 1979

Tina Turner, now singing alone, is back in Britain. She talks to Mick Brown ...

Joan Jett: Keep On Running: Joan Jett And The Hollywood Dream

Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 31 March 1979

...She decided she had the potential to become a Vocalist... she cut her first demonstration record. The record was sent to several companies and resulted ...

Chaka Khan, Earth Mother

Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 5 April 1979

NEW YORK — "I can read your thoughts right now, every one from A to Z," sings Chaka Khan in her current hit, 'I'm Every ...

Kate Bush: The Perfumed Garden Of Good And Evil

Live Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 14 April 1979

DID YOU EVER visit some distant relative for tea and cakes, and as a postscript have to sit through the "party piece" of their little ...

Rachel Sweet: What Rachel Did Next

Report and Interview by Penny Valentine, Melody Maker, 14 April 1979

Rachel Sweet may follow Tanya Tucker's career with particular interest, but she really wants to be Bruce Springsteen. PENNY VALENTINE followed her on a tour ...

Nina Hagen: The Euro Woman Cometh

Profile and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 9 June 1979

THE LOBBY OF Blake's Hotel in Kensington is a hive of useless activity. As I walk through the open glass doors with the just-so scrolling ...

Kirsty MacColl: Double Lives

Profile and Interview by Paul Sexton, Record Mirror, 14 July 1979

SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN the hype and the hit, when the noise has died down before it lives again, there's a spell of anticipation when the ...

Lena Horne: One Way to Raise a Roof

Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 21 July 1979

Mick Brown meets the new-fangled Lena Horne ...

The Mo-dettes: Fast, Loud, Pretty

Profile and Interview by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 18 August 1979

MET THEM ON A Monday, the Coca Cola spilt over the tape machine, and my MRX2 Oxide 45 mins each side @ 1 7/8 i.p.s. ...

The Slits: One Day, All Girls Will Be Made This Way: The Slits: Cut (Island) *****

Review by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 1 September 1979

SLACK JAW, warm hearts: Cuts is astoundingly good. ...

Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Slits: The Slits: Cut (Island); Siouxsie & The Banshees: Join Hands (Polydor)

Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 1 September 1979

AS THE Slits sing-song: don't take it seriously. ...

The Slits: Awkward in Interviews, Awkward in Life

Report and Interview by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 22 September 1979

DAVE McCULLOUGH CONFRONTS THE SLITS ...

Nina Simone: Lady Trashes The Blues

Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 29 September 1979

Nina Simone's concerts are almost as nerve-racking as her turbulent personal life, which makes it easy to see her as a weird, tragic mixture of Billie Holiday and Judy Garland. KARL ...

Don Cherry, Creation Rebel, The Slits: The Slits, Don Cherry & Happy House, Prince Hammer & Creation Rebel: New Theatre, Oxford

Live Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 29 September 1979

THE LAST time I talked about the Slits was centred around a disorientating weekend in Liverpool at the beginning of this year — a shaky ...

Kate Bush: "Wow, Wow, Wow, Amazing, Amazing, Ama—"

Interview by Danny Baker, New Musical Express, 20 October 1979

EMI: THREE LETTERS that have come to represent "the enemy" in rock'n'roll's war games. EMI House rambles like a country home with a thousand warrens ...

Girlschool: Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's … Girlschool

Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 3 November 1979

I MET GIRLSCHOOL in a pub called the Leather Bottle, which was appropriate because leather is what they wear and bottle is what they've got ...

Marianne Faithfull: Broken English (Island)

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 10 November 1979

BEFORE WE get started on the music... ...

Marianne Faithfull: Broken English (Island Ml) ***½

Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 17 November 1979

NOT SO much a comeback as a c-c-c-comeback. Marianne Faithfull has restarted her career more times than Frank Sinatra's retired. ...

Annette Peacock: A British Rail Breakfast With The Artbreak Kid

Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 1 December 1979

TIMING: a while ago someone asked Bob Geldof — famous vocalist and composer with the extremely well-known Boomtown Rats pop group — for his definition ...

The Raincoats: New Raincoats Don't Let You Down

Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, 1 December 1979

Following the sun, Palmolive washed her hands of the Raincoats. But they're back on the road, singing and playing. VIVIEN GOLDMAN took a long time ...

Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Marseille, Squeeze, Whitesnake: Are You A Whore For Rock 'N' Roll?

Report by Rosalind Russell, Record Mirror, 20 December 1979

ROSALIND RUSSELL thinks most of you are ...

Au Pairs: The Au Pairs: Battle of the Sexes

Profile and Interview by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 5 January 1980

I REMEMBER I got a letter some time ago from Ali of Another Tuneless Racket fanzine from Scotland, in which the author questioned the reasoning ...

Blondie: Pure Gloss

Interview by Rosalind Russell, Record Mirror, 2 February 1980

Now we can get back to those sexist headlines. Debbie Harry knows you need that to front a band, but don't forget the music and ...

Au Pairs, Girlschool, The Mo-dettes, The Passions, The Raincoats, The Slits: Women in Rock: Cute, Cute, Cutesy Goodbye

Interview by Deanne Pearson, New Musical Express, 29 March 1980

Exploited for the last two decades as dumb but pretty decorations in rock, some girls now demand and deserve musical respect — but some girls ...

The Go-Go's: Ready Steady Go-Go's

Profile and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 12 April 1980

GO-GO'S: 1. Bouncing entertainment; choreographed Happy Pill; females showing a hell of a lot for little reward. 2. Hollywood pink-punk band; all of the above ...

Marianne Faithfull: Rave Girl To Brave Girl: True Confessions Of Marianne Faithful

Report and Interview by Toby Goldstein, Creem, May 1980

"GOOD LORD, why?" rasps Marianne Faithfull, as she sinks into the hotel's rumpled bedding. "It's so strange, why would you be a fan of somebody ...

Joan Jett: At 21, a Survivor

Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 10 May 1980

AT 21, JOAN Jett is a five-year rock veteran. She was a 15-year-old San Fernando Valley high schooler when L.A. entrepreneur Kim Fowley recruited her ...

Joan Armatrading: Me Myself I (A&M)

Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 17 May 1980

JUST TO put new readers of my ongoing review of Joan Armatrading's work in the picture I should mention that I rather like this lady. ...

Girlschool: Girls At Their Best

Report by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 7 June 1980

THESE SCHOOL-TYPES WILL MAKE THE ORCHIDS WILT, SEZ PETE MAKOWSKI ...

Moe Tucker, The Velvet Underground: Maureen Tucker: "Quiet, Mommy's Recording"

Interview by Byron Coley, New York Rocker, July 1980

I GUESS THERE must be people out there who aren't aware of who Mo Tucker is. If you're one of them, listen up: MAUREEN TUCKER ...

Cristina: a Queen for Today?

Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 26 July 1980

JIVE OF THE JADED ...

Joan Armatrading On The Spot

Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 26 July 1980

IN THE STRANGE WAY it has at certain phases of your life, time is running backwards for Joan Armatrading. She's growing younger. To prove it ...

Delta 5: The Delta Of Venus: Delta 5

Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 2 August 1980

"DEL-TA-5! DEL-TA-5!" is good to chant. It feels as good as "Up-Starts! Up-starts!" or "A-C-D-C! A-C-D-C!" What might surprise you is that Delta 5 — ...

The Shaggs, The Slits: Slits: Y3LP (Y/Rough Trade import); The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World (Red Rooster/Rounder)

Review by Byron Coley, New York Rocker, September 1980

WHAT WE HAVE here are two sets of women arriving at (arguably) the same place by (unarguably) dissimilar routes. The place in question is Primitivesville ...

Grace Jones: This Year's Model

Interview by Mary Harron, Smash Hits, 4 September 1980

Mary Harron meets The Height Of Fashion ...

Kate Bush (1980)

Interview by Kris Needs, Rock's Backpages audio, 19 September 1980

Ms Bush talks about her recent (and only) tour – the practice, pleasures and fears of performing live; about her new (third) album Never For Ever; the 'paedophilia' allegations surrounding the song 'The Infant Kiss'; and ruminates on the pressures of success.

File format: mp3; file size: 28.6mb, interview length: 31' 16" sound quality: **

Phil Spector, Ronnie Spector: 'I Wasn't Even a Housewife': Ronnie Spector's true confessions

Report and Interview by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 27 September 1980

SHE WAS supposed to be promoting her album, but Ronnie Spector’s first solo album isn’t the kind of thing that’s about to stop the world ...

Lester Bangs, Blondie: Blondie by Lester Bangs (Fireside/Simon and Schuster)

Book Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, October 1980

Lester Bangs One Out ...

Bush Tetras: Sons and Daughters of No New York: Bush Tetras

Interview by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, October 1980

PAT PLACE: Guitar. Age 26. Born and raised in Chicago. Arrived in New York in 1975. "I was a visual art student... I came here ...

Carly Simon: Come Upstairs (Warner Bros.)

Review by James Hunter, The Village Voice, 1 October 1980

Carly Simon Yells and Screams ...

Kate Bush: Paranoia and Passion of the Kate Inside

Report and Interview by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, 4 October 1980

Kate Bush talks to Colin Irwin in Munich... ...

Pat Benatar: A Piece Of the Rock: The Pat Benatar Band Has Finally Got It

Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 8 October 1980

"FOR THE past five days I can't go to a restaurant without somebody coming up to me and saying 'Aren't you Pat Benatar?' That's the ...

Poly Styrene: Poly Unsaturates

Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 25 October 1980

Dazed and crumpled in the tumble-drier of fame. Poly Styrene has now ironed out the creases of her frayed psyche. Is she still hung-up? Is ...

The Roches: Revenge Of the Roches

Profile and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 11 November 1980

Lacerating Lyrics of The New Wave Heroines ...

The Slits: And Lo, "Three Wise Slits Take Their Temple To The West"

Report and Interview by Vivien Goldman, New Musical Express, 20 December 1980

GAMES ON TRAINS ...

Joan Jett: Jett Propelled

Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 24 December 1980

A STILL SWEATING Joan Jett sits in a dressing room at the Channel after her Saturday gig and tugs on her black skintight pants. "This ...

Brenda Lee, Connie Francis: Venus: The Role Of Women In Fifties Music

Overview by John Pidgeon, The History of Rock, 1981

APART FROM the amiable and avuncular Bill Haley, the most memorable figures of the first years of rock'n'roll presented an aggressively sexual, flamboyant, even threatening ...

Sheena Easton: Take My Time (EMI EMC 33 54) *

Review by Betty Page, Sounds, 17 January 1981

Pipe and slippers at the ready ...

Bette Midler

Interview by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 7 February 1981

SATURDAY NIGHT ended at seven o'clock on Sunday morning with one last bottle of Veuve Cliquot and Sunday began at four in the afternoon with ...

X’s Exene

Interview by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, Rag In Chains, April 1981

Shredder: Tell me what it’s like being the number one band around. ...

Hazel O'Connor: What Katy Did Next

Interview by Peter Silverton, Smash Hits, 16 April 1981

"I get letters saying, 'Did you change your name to Hazel O'Connor for stage work? Is your name really Kate?' They won't even let you ...

Dolly Mixture: These Are The Dollies Who Mixed It With The Macho Music Biz And Lost

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 2 May 1981

Cynthia Rose meets some '80s girls who've suffered rock sexploitation. ...

Girlschool: Hit and Miss? Yeah, right...

Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 16 May 1981

GARRY "Mr. Nasty" BUSHELL has a few reservations about Girlschool ...

David Bowie: Bowie For Breakfast: Angie Bowie’s Free Spirit

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 4 July 1981

David’s golden years get shredded as Angie spills half baked beans. ...

Grace Jones: In Between The Bumpers

Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 25 July 1981

Chris Salewicz goes behind the public face of Grace to discover that in the tall, exotic frame of a former model there's a little girl ...

The Pretenders: Pretenders

Interview by Peter Silverton, Smash Hits, 20 August 1981

"I must be the most boring person in the world..." sighs Chrissie Hynde. "What on earth is she on abut?" wonders Pete Silverton. ...

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 ...

The Slits: Return Of The Giant Slits

Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, November 1981

  IN 1977 THE Slits were a noisy, thrashing pupa, slashing at complacent sitcom existences and establishing themselves as an anarchistic, table-turning force. ...

The Slits: Return Of The Giant Slits (CBS 85269)

Review by Chas de Whalley, Record Mirror, 14 November 1981

LONG TERM Slits fans can relax. Just because the girls' latest album appears on the CBS label doesn't mean they've sold out, gone soft or ...

Dolly Mixture: DMs Put The Boot In

Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 19 December 1981

Dolly Mixture get (slightly) bitter. Garry Bushell gets (light and) bitter ...

Nico, Velvet Underground: In The Nico Time

Interview by Chris Bohn, New Musical Express, Spring 1981

HEY-HO, is it really that time of the decade already? Once again Nico has surreptitiously floated into the public consciousness – just when she was ...

Emmylou Harris

Interview by John Hutchinson, unpublished, 1982

JH: Emmylou, were you always interested in country music? ...

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 ...

Rhoda Dakar: Being Boiled – Rhoda Dakar

Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 23 January 1982

2-Tone's follow up to 'Ghost Town' is equally timely and a good deal more controversial. The single is 'The Boiler' and its subject is rape. ...

Marianne Faithfull: Ses Liaisons Dangereuses

Interview by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, February 1982

"I'VE ALWAYS KNOWN who I was," she says in a raspy, Bette Davis voice. "Whether I could achieve to express that to everyone else was ...

Joan Jett's Bad Reputation

Interview by Toby Goldstein, Musician, March 1982

Joan Jett, explosive rock 'n' roll contact hitter, leads her hordes of Joan clones into a fight to be themselves. ...

Sheena Easton: Through Sheena's Eyes Only

Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 22 April 1982

POP SINGER DOESN'T USE LYRICS TO DELIVER ANY MESSAGES ...

Au Pairs: Equal Shares For The Au Pairs

Interview by Iman Lababedi, Creem, May 1982

"He works the car, she the sink She's not here to think Sits with the paper, discuss the news She doesn't have political views" 'Diet' ...

Joan Jett Is A Very Nice Girl

Interview by Iman Lababedi, Creem, June 1982

The Public's Vindication of an Ex-Runaway ...

The Bay City Rollers: Androgynous Heartthrobs

Essay by Sheryl Garratt, Collusion, June 1982

Rifling through her mid-70s scrapbooks, Sheryl Garratt reassesses a formative obsession and finds that the standard socio-rock explanations just don't add up. Blanded-out pop music ...

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 ...

Cheetah: The Venue, London

Live Review by Phil Bell, Sounds, 24 July 1982

BOING, boing, boing, boing… Cor what a pair! ...

Bow Wow Wow: Candyed Camera

Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 7 August 1982

MARK COOPER puts a fatherly arm round ANNABELLA'S shoulders ...

Brenda Lee: Dynamite

Retrospective and Interview by Martin Hawkins, The History of Rock, September 1982

BORN BRENDA MAE TARPLEY in Atlanta, Georgia, on 11 December 1944, Brenda Lee is rumoured to have taken to the road with a singing group ...

Kate Bush: Kate Takes Charge

Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 11 September 1982

Mick Brown meets the singer with a new album out on Monday ...

Lydia Lunch: 13.13 (Ruby)

Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, November 1982

IN A BUSINESS where women singers are a dime a dozen these days (and trite women singers the norm), Lydia Lunch can be proud of ...

Joni Mitchell: Wild Things Run Fast

Review by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, 27 November 1982

I LISTEN TO Joni Mitchell's voice these days with a fleeting pang of nostalgia. Flitting from one plaintive note to another, fluttering up and down ...

The Go-Go's: Go-Go's Of Your Dreams

Report and Interview by Susan Whitall, Creem, December 1982

DEEP IN THE soul of every writer lies a secret: what does the writer do to avoid writing? I'll empty my brain pan now: I ...

Dolly Parton: Ask a Dirty Question, and you Don't Get Any Answers

Profile and Interview by Mary Harron, The Guardian, 29 March 1983

Dolly Parton smiles, and giggles, and parodies herself, but she's really not that kind of girl at all. Not any longer, reports Mary Harron. ...

Grace Jones: Are You Ready For A Brand New (Disco) Beat?

Interview by Iman Lababedi, Creem, April 1983

IF I WAS writing in Australia for Tie Yer Kangaroo Down rock mag, or in Germany for Ach Tung – Der March Goes On, or ...

Joan Armatrading: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 9 April 1983

THERE IS about Joan Armatrading a quality of self-containment, resolution and a complete absence of any suggestion of faddishness, artifice or compromise which is enormously ...

The Raincoats: An Old Raincoat Will Never Let You Down

Profile and Interview by Iman Lababedi, Creem, May 1983

NEW YORK — After the interview is over, Ana da Silva gives me a crash course on Portugese politics. Portugal is her homeland and she ...

Bonnie Tyler: Total Eclipse of the Chart

Interview by Chas de Whalley, Kerrang!, 5 May 1983

... but BONNIE TYLER'S a rocker at heart, sez CHAS DE WHALLEY ...

Joan Jett: Treading Her Turf — JOAN JETT Gets Some Respect (FINALLY!)

Interview by Toby Goldstein, Creem, July 1983

SUBURBAN RECORDING studios always look the same. They're tucked into inconspicuous blocky gray industrial parks or office buildings or shopping centers — identified by barely ...

Eurythmics, Annie Lennox: Eurythmics' Annie Lennox (1983)

Interview by Max Bell, Rock's Backpages audio, August 1983

The Eurythmics' front woman covers subjects from veganism to feminism, via marriage, class, the nature of success, and anything else she can think of.

File format: mp3; file size: 24.9mb, interview length: 27' 12" sound quality: ****

Lita Ford: From Runaway To Metal Goddess: Lita Ford's Got BLOOD If You Want It!

Profile and Interview by Iman Lababedi, Creem, August 1983

Out Of The Blue (Stepping Out) ...

Lita Ford: Out for Blood (Phonogram)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 6 August 1983

LADY ROCKERS who hurl the epithet "sweet thang" at their listeners do everything for me that over-friendly taxi drivers accomplish — or Chrissie Hynde live ...

Connie Francis: One From the Heart: the Connie Francis Interview

Interview by Mary Harron, Collusion, September 1983

When the '60s British Invasion of the American charts began, Connie Francis' songs of teenage life and love were hits all over America. But the ...

Kate Bush: The Barmy Dreamer

Interview by Jane Solanas, New Musical Express, 15 October 1983

Kate Bush has moulded herself in an icon of pop erotica — so much that suburban couples claim her breasts stimulate their love making. Yet ...

Carly Simon: Free, White, & Pushing 40

Interview by Nick Tosches, Creem, January 1984

"Maybe It Was My Big Mouth" ...

The Pretenders: Leather Wears Better Than Dreams

Profile and Interview by Lesley White, The Face, February 1984

In the last two turbulent years, Chrissie Hynde has had a baby by the man who once personified for her the rock and roll myth, ...

Bananarama: We All Broke Down And Cried

Interview by Ian Birch, Smash Hits, 15 March 1984

The last eight months have been a "nightmare" for Bananarama. Ian Birch finds out what went wrong. ...

Kate Garner, Haysi Fantayzee: Kate Garner: Woman's Own

Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 17 March 1984

KATE GARNER used to be known for taking her clothes off. Now she's keeping them on, even in the face of Adam Sweeting. ...

Etta James: Empress In Exile

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 14 April 1984

MOST EVERY year now Ms Jamesetta Hawkins – Etta to you – will at the behest of Dingwalls Boss (Goodman, that is) fly over ...

Linda Ronstadt: Performing Is Not My Gift

Report and Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, TV Guide, May 1984

SHE LOOKS SO darling, standing there on a Santa Barbara, Cal., stage in front of Nelson Riddle and his 43-piece orchestra, ready for the first ...

Girlschool: Staying After Girlschool

Report and Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, May 1984

GIRLSCHOOL MEMBERS Kim McAuliffe and Gil Weston flash me quick smiles as we're introduced in their road manager's hotel room, and I'm relieved to note ...

Joan Baez: The Folk Heroine Mellows With Age

Interview by Mary Harron, The Guardian, 22 June 1984

IN 1959 JOAN BAEZ walked out on stage at the Newport Folk Festival and touched off a wave of adulation that was to reach almost ...

Sade: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Max Bell, The Times, 2 August 1984

SADE IS CURRENTLY the hottest new voice in town. Her Diamond Life album has been highly praised and her jazz diva's image, allied to a ...

Cristina: Funny Girl

Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 8 September 1984

CRISTINA may live in luxury, but she's no pampered butterfly, as Helen FitzGerald finds out ...

Janet Kay: Do Actors Sing Better Lovers?

Interview by Paul Bradshaw, New Musical Express, 3 November 1984

JANET KAY comes offstage to talk to PAUL BRADSHAW ...

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts: Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth (Blackheart/MCA)

Review by J.D. Considine, Record, December 1984

IN SOME WAYS, the worst mistake Joan Jett ever made was recording 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll'. Sure, it was a great record, an instant ...

Rickie Lee Jones: The World According to Rickie Lee Jones

Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 12 December 1984

RICKIE LEE JONES is telling a story on the radio: "In the dreamscape where you write, there are people who shadow you. Like I have ...

Madonna (1984)

Interview by David A. Keeps, Rock's Backpages audio, Fall 1984

La Ciccone talks about making Desperately Seeking Susan: wanting the part; the producers Orion's doubts; screen tests etc., and getting the part; on not being an overnight success; her next single, 'Like a Virgin', and its video, including an encounter with a lion; her plans for the next year, including touring; aspects of her personality: eroticism, vulnerability, snottiness, and how she can be wooed.

File format: mp3; file size: 40.3mb, interview length: 41' 57" sound quality: ** (background noise)

Madonna: "I always acted like a star even before I was one!"

Interview by David A. Keeps, Smash Hits, 17 January 1985

And that time has certainly come. She's had massive hits both sides of the ocean, and she's started making movies and claiming she'd "like to ...

The Bangles: Yesterday and Today

Interview by Edwin Pouncey, Sounds, 2 February 1985

THE 'HOUSE full' sign was proudly on display outside Boston's Paradise Theatre, a local haunt that had, so I was informed, fallen from favour by ...

Ludus: Linder: Bicepsuality

Report and Interview by Cath Carroll, New Musical Express, 23 February 1985

CATH CARROLL tweaks the growing muscles of Ludus' LINDER and learns about the joy of weight training for women. ...

Madonna: Maybe She's Good: 10 Theories On How Madonna Got "It"

Interview by Laura Fissinger, Record, March 1985

Usually it takes a while for a pop star to earn heavyweight hatred from a significant percentage of the press and public. But like everything ...

The Bangles

Report and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 2 March 1985

IF IT'S TUESDAY, this must be Paris. How about Europe so far, girls? ...

Apollonia, Sheila E., Madonna, Missing Persons, Vanity, Vanity 6: Boy Toy Rock: Sex Sirens of the Decade

Report by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 21 April 1985

IF THE reports from her first concert in Seattle are any indication, you can expect Madonna to ask San Francisco, early in her show at ...

Madonna Milks Sexy, Savvy Image

Profile and Interview by Laura Fissinger, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 10 May 1985

USUALLY IT takes a while for a pop star to earn heavyweight hatred from a significant percentage of the press and public. But, like everything ...

Samantha Fox: The Best Girls Are Always In The Maker!

Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Melody Maker, 20 July 1985

Dumb blonde or shrewd businesswoman? Whatever your viewpoint, you've got to envy Sun Page Three girl SAMANTHA FOX. Still a teenager, she stands to earn ...

Amazulu: The Exciters

Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Melody Maker, 24 August 1985

At last AMAZULU have a hit. But can they hang on to their sanity? Caroline Sullivan talks to Claire and Nardo ...

Kate Bush: What Kate Bush Did Next

Interview by Max Bell, Sunday Express, Fall 1985

INQUIRIES ABOUT why Kate Bush has been off the recording scene for three years–an age, in pop–met with a chilly and defensive response from her ...

Madonna: 'Bruce Springsteen Was Born To Run, I Was Born To Flirt...'

Essay by Richard Cook, Sounds, 15 February 1986

RICHARD COOK takes a manly look at the pop tart goddess, MADONNA, who has put sleaze and safety back into pop stardom ...

We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Gonna Use It: Big Fuzz From The Jungle

Interview by Neil Taylor, New Musical Express, 1 March 1986

We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're
 Gonna Use It. What more can you
 say? Neil Taylor gets a word or two 
in edgeways. ...

Madonna: Can't Stop The Girl

Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 5 June 1986

HERE WE ARE on a nice drive down Cahuenga Boulevard — the journalist's rental wreck following Madonna's forty-plus-grand midnight-blue Mercedes sports coupe — and the ...

Samantha Fox: Tittle Tattle

Interview by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, 21 June 1986

No more Sammy's tits on page three! Unthinkable! More Sammy songs on Top Of The Pops! Even more unthinkable! While the world wrings its hands ...

The Go-Go's' Charlotte Caffey (1986)

Interview by Gerrie Lim, Rock's Backpages audio, 30 July 1986

The former Go-Go talks about the breakup of the band; about writing for and touring with the newly-solo Belinda Carlisle; about changes in her lifestyle in her 30s; and about how she was influenced by Debbie Harry and in turn influenced new women in pop. Plus she discovers that Belinda's solo album is in the Billboard charts with three bullets...

File format: mp3; file size: 30.4mb, interview length: 31' 39" sound quality: ***

Joan Jett Unchained

Interview by Karen Schlosberg, Creem, October 1986

"YOU PICKED AN interesting time to visit." Michael J. Fox has his tongue planted firmly in cheek as he stands in the backyard of a ...

Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders: The Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde (1986)

Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, October 1986

The Pretenders' frontwoman opines on everything from animal rights to capital punishment. She also talks about music once or twice.

File format: mp3; file size: 84.7mb, interview length: 1h 32' 30" sound quality: ***

Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders: Chrissie Hynde: Still spikey after baby

Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 19 October 1986

"PEOPLE OFTEN say to me in interviews: 'You aren't very prolific are you?' The answer is, no I'm not! I could step up my output, ...

Throwing Muses (1986)

Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, November 1986

The girls and boys on commune upbringings, parental marriages, women in rock, male v female sensibilities, Newport and Boston, having children and much more.

File format: mp3; file size: 50.9mb, interview length: 55' 35" sound quality: **½

We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use It

Interview by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, 15 November 1986

They sing! They dance! They make jokes! They play with bar-bells! They dye their hair! They talk in Brummy accents! They've got a new single ...

Kate Bush: The Whole Story

Review by John McCready, New Musical Express, 22 November 1986

IT WAS Mark Smith of top pop group The Fall who, in a typical broadcast of dedicated anti-trendiness, announced that vegetarianism helped one leave the ...

Eurythmics: "I Am Not The Androgynous Annie Lennox. I Never Was. I Used It For Something Else"

Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 26 November 1986

The Eurythmics Leading lady talks to Adam Sweeting about her life, her music and her image. ...

Sandy Denny: Who Knows Where The Time Goes (Island)

Review by Nick Coleman, New Musical Express, Summer 1986

WHEN SHE DIED I was still preoccupied with the politics of holey jeans and why the Ramones were the perfect emblem of the beast Modern ...

Muriel Gray: Don't Touch That Dial, Sassenach!

Interview by Lucy O'Brien, New Musical Express, 3 January 1987

Sick of Jools? Fed up with Paula? Well, the only saviour for you on The Tube must be MURIEL GRAY, who's now branching out into ...

Anita Baker: Heaven Can Wait

Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Melody Maker, 31 January 1987

ANITA BAKER, the new queen of soul, discusses the dos and dont's of the bigtime with a sympathetic Caroline Sullivan. ...

Grace Jones: Inside Grace Jones

Interview by Gene Santoro, Pulse!, February 1987

A Story About Film, Fashion and Fresh New Sounds. ...

Annie Lennox: The Right Stuff: Annie Lennox on Singers

Interview by Adam Sweeting, Q, February 1987

I NEVER HAD enough money to have a record player, so I never got into the habit ol buying records, and so my only real ...

Cyndi Lauper: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 26 February 1987

FUNNY GIRL! Cyndi Lauper is equal parts Shirley Temple, Rickie Lee Jones and Bugs Bunny, a fruitcake in a musical doll's house wearing cartoon clothes, ...

Nona Hendryx: Let's get metaphysical

Interview by Lucy O'Brien, New Musical Express, 20 June 1987

NONA HENDRYX, ex of Labelle, has called her new LP Female Trouble — but LUCY O'BRIEN finds she's now a "big gun" having "big fun", ...

Wendy and Lisa (1987)

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 16 July 1987

The Girl Bros. talk about their time as part of Prince's Revolution, and their then-new career as recording artists in their own right.

File format: mp3; file size: 28.6mb; Interview length: 31' 15"; sound quality: **

We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use It: Girls Just Wanna Have Fuzz

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, August 1987

Face it. If the four women in Fuzzbox had called their album We've Got a MIDI-compatible Digital Sampling Device and We're Gonna Use It, it ...

Sinitta: "Hello, I'm Sinitta and..."

Interview by William Shaw, Smash Hits, 12 August 1987

'TOY BOY' IS ABOUT MY 18 YEAR OLD LOVER ...

Roxanne Shanté: The Queen Rocks On

Interview by Lucy O'Brien, New Musical Express, 15 August 1987

B-boys beware! ROXANNE SHANTÉ has returned from bambino bearing with a hit 'Have A Nice Day'. LUCY O'BRIEN meets the Queen Bee. ...

The Judds: Harmonious Relations

Interview by Robin Katz, Over 21, 21 August 1987

Country singing duo The Judds are keeping their success in the family. Mother and daughter talk to Robin Katz. ...

Nina Simone: Moody Dues

Interview by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 14 November 1987

JAPANESE TOURISTS frantically snapping photographs of each other is a recurring scenario common to the lobbies of Europe's grandest hotels. Today is different. Stepping from ...

Girlschool: Nightmare at Maple Cross (GWR)

Review by Deborah Frost, The Village Voice, 17 November 1987

MOST ALL-GIRL BANDS are pretty stupid And not always for the same reasons most all-guy bands are – too much attitude, too little attitude, too ...

Sinead O'Connor: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 2 January 1988

SO, NINA SIMONE'S 'My Baby Just Cares For Me' – the clubland secret, the cult trophy – went High Street provincial, Top Ten Top Shop. ...

Sinead O'Connor: Skinhead And Scum-Stampers; A Short Sharp Shock

Interview by Neil Perry, Sounds, 2 January 1988

That's how emancipated Irish singer SINEAD O'CONNOR dealt with a record company suggestion that she should 'tart herself up'. NEIL PERRY comes to terms with ...

Lydia Lunch: ULU, London

Live Review by Julian Henry, Music Week, 18 January 1988

Lunch Punch ...

Throwing Muses: Storm Troupers

Interview by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 19 March 1988

THROWING MUSES' REBUILDING OF POP'S DARK SIDE IS WINNING THEM LOTS OF NEW FRIENDS. PAUL MATHUR AMBLED ACROSS THE ATLANTIC TO TALK TO SINGER KRISTIN ...

T'Pau: Crystal Tipps, Kicks to Kill

Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 19 March 1988

All hail t'purveyors of t'power and t'glory that is T'PAU. STEVEN WELLS meets up with Caz Decker in Berlin. Swoon. ...

Eighth Wonder: Lookin' The Way You Like And Likin' The Way You Look

Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 23 March 1988

... the Patsy Kensit way (i.e. wrestling with bits of steel "piping", scoffing plenty of bubble-gum (?) and being booted out of the school netball ...

Salt 'n' Pepa: Look Ma Top Of The World

Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 26 March 1988

SALT 'N' PEPA WILL DO ANYTHING TO HAVE EVERYTHING. WITH THEIR NEW SINGLE, 'PUSH IT', ACCELERATING UP THE AMERICAN CHARTS IT LOOKS AS THOUGH THEIR ...

Voice Of The Beehive: Where Angels Fear to Tread

Interview by Barbara Ellen, New Musical Express, 26 March 1988

Walking the earth, stalking the fringes of the chart, VOICE OF THE BEEHIVE go five rounds with a Beaujolais-addled BARBARA ELLEN on the set of ...

Tracy Chapman: Tracy Chapman (Elektra)

Review by Len Brown, New Musical Express, April 1988

SHE COMES from the wilderness, as prophesised, with a voice like molasses, hair like an ink blot and a heartful of tears. She comes with ...

10,000 Maniacs, Natalie Merchant: 10,000 Maniacs: Merchant Banquet

Interview by Jon Wilde, Melody Maker, 23 April 1988

WHILE 10,000 MANIACS ARE UP, UP, AND AWAY, SINGER NATALIE MERCHANT IS IMMERSED IN SOME GRAND DIVERSIONS OF HER OWN. SHE TAKES A SPRINGY STEP OFF THE UP ESCALATOR TO ...

Joni Mitchell: Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter

Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, May 1988

She's danced to the beat of her own drum all the way from Laurel Canyon to uptown Los Angeles. Joni Mitchell talks about her life, ...

Throwing Muses: Vivien Goldman catches up with the Throwing Muses

Interview by Vivien Goldman, The Observer, 8 May 1988

WITH MUCH TALK about the late-1980s being the day of the post-feminist woman, it is natural to ask: if feminist battles are won, why are ...

Cindy Lee Berryhill: She's Got (Almost) Everything

Profile and Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, June 1988

EIGHTEEN REASONS WHY CINDY LEE BERRYHILL IS NEAT: ...

Sinead O'Connor: Dominion Theatre, London

Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 11 June 1988

PRIVATE CONFLICTS ...

Exene Cervenka, Johnette Napolitano, Victoria Williams: Victoria Williams, Exene Cervenka, Johnette Napolitano: McCabe's, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Don Waller, Los Angeles Times, 18 July 1988

Three Women, One Fine Show ...

Lita Ford: Lita

Interview by Holly Gleason, Spin, August 1988

IT'S A SLOW night at the Redwood Room, a shot-and-beer North Hollywood hole in the wall where blue collar types, in heavy work boots and ...

Everything But The Girl, Tracey Thorn: Tracey Thorn: Doctorate feelgood

Interview by Lucy O'Brien, The Guardian, 10 August 1988

A daughter of punk, Tracey Thorn is riding high in the pop charts. But academia looms just as large in her life. ...

Patti Smith Resurfaces

Profile and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 27 August 1988

DETROIT – "I'm still shaky from this," says Patti Smith, who's been driven by her husband, Fred Smith, through a hellish rainstorm and rush-hour traffic ...

Björk, The Sugarcubes: Rock From Reykjavik: Behold Bjork and her Sugarcubes

Interview by Gerrie Lim, Exposure, September 1988

THEY COME FROM a land of ice and snow, where volcanic peaks and photogenic glaciers surround settlements given to fish factories and sundry cottage industries, ...

Harry Crews: Wrecking Crews

Interview by David Stubbs, Melody Maker, 1 October 1988

Harry Crews are an all-woman band featuring Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and Lydia Lunch. They're destined to "combust after the next three days". But ...

Toni Childs: Looking On The Morning Light: Toni Childs, A New Voice And A New Beginning

Interview by Gerrie Lim, Playboy, December 1988

A LONE VOICE of incandescent beauty amid a wilderness of disposable pop music. That's how I saw Toni Childs. ...

Yazz: The Benetton Skeleton Gets It On

Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 3 December 1988

Who is this seaweed munching ex-clothes-horse YAZZ person? And why am I covered in bark? asks STEVEN WELLS. ...

Chaka Khan: Khanal Knowledge

Interview by John McCready, The Face, 1989

"ASK ME what you want, John. I can take it. I mean, what are you going to do — spank me?" ...

Neneh Cherry: A Gap in the Rap

Interview by Lucy O'Brien, The Guardian, 25 January 1989

Neneh Cherry is one of many women invading the hip hop scene ...

Sheena Easton: The Prime of Miss Sheena Easton

Interview by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 28 January 1989

A star in the States and yet either a twee girlie singer or second-string Prince collaborator in her home country, SHEENA EASTON, courtesy of that ...

Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians: The Marquee, London

Live Review by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 4 February 1989

THE MESSY BEAT Angels were well and truly bushed after a week of post-Dali wassailing, but the sight of Edie Brickell's band was as startling ...

Dusty Springfield: Brand New Dusty

Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 12 February 1989

She was the beehive who buzzed to the top of the Sixties pops and faded into the California sunset in the Seventies. The Press proved ...

Madonna: Wishing on a Star

Essay by Paul Mathur, Spin, April 1989

Success and failure are both difficult to endure. Along with success come drugs, divorce, fornication, bullying, travel, medication, depression, neurosis and suicide. With failure comes ...

Bonnie Raitt: Nick Of Time (Capitol LP/Cassette/CD)

Review by Simon Witter, New Musical Express, 6 May 1989

NICK OF Time, the LA slide blues songstress' 10th album, is a peach and a half. Ripened to perfection through years of cultivation. There is ...

Chaka Khan: Vivid And Real

Interview by Sean O'Hagan, New Musical Express, 13 May 1989

CHAKA KHAN, the smooth voice of early '70s soul, has been thrust back into the limelight with a new dance cut of her hits I'm ...

k.d. lang: Prairie Fire

Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 30 June 1989

WELCOME TO the Griffith Park Pony Rides. Assorted toddlers, most of them 2- or 3-something, are circling a dusty track, strapped onto tired ponies. Not ...

Cynthia Plaster Caster (1989)

Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, July 1989

The mould-breaking Chicago groupie on her life from being a star-struck kid to pulling out Jimi's pubes, via being snogged by Andrew Loog Oldham, her discovery of the "hampton", and her ingenious way with dental plaster. Features a "cast" of thousands!

File format: mp3; file size: 56.9mb, interview length: 1h 02' 08" sound quality: ** (background noise)

Wendy And Lisa: Wendy & Lisa: Satisfy Yourself

Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Melody Maker, 5 August 1989

AFTER THEIR JUICY FRUIT AT THE BOTTOM LP GOT THE ECSTATIC REVIEWS IT SO RICHLY DESERVED, IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE WENDY AND LISA ...

Vixen: Every Man For Herself

Report and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, September 1989

The highway to hell is a merciless thoroughfare for the all-girl heavy metal band. Male counterparts regard you with deep suspicion, record companies run a ...

Kate Bush: In The Realm Of The Senses

Interview by Len Brown, New Musical Express, 7 October 1989

The essence of sensuality and child-like wonder or screeching wood nymph? KATE BUSH steps back into the spotlight after four years of reclusive recording and ...

Roxanne Shanté: 'I Have Never Seen A Man Talk To An Ugly Woman. Never.'

Interview by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 7 October 1989

There is nothing that ROXANNE SHANTE won't rap about and no limit to who she disses. Here she talks to PAOLO HEWITT about men, music ...

Rickie Lee Jones: Keeping Her Cool

Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, The Guardian, 25 October 1989

Shot to stardom 10 years ago, Rickie Lee Jones has fought her way back – no less cool but much more confident. Mark Cooper reports ...

The Creatures, Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie Sioux: Mellowing of a Banshee

Interview by Lucy O'Brien, The Guardian, 25 October 1989

Lucy O'Brien on Siouxsie Sioux's new Creature comforts and lasting spirit ...

Michelle Shocked: Culture Shocked

Interview by Lucy O'Brien, The Guardian, 8 November 1989

Feminist fans may be outraged by her apparent change of image, but it's no sell-out, as Michelle Shocked tells Lucy O'Brien ...

Belinda Carlisle, The Go-Go's: Belinda Carlisle: From Go Go to Solo

Interview by Lucy O'Brien, The Guardian, 22 November 1989

She's come through the live-fast, look-bad, almost die-young scene to a beautiful future. Belinda Carlisle tells Lucy O'Brien how she did it ...

Joan Jett: Motorcycle Slut With The Mystic Cross: Joan Jett roars up the alley in Singapore

Report and Interview by Gerrie Lim, unpublished, December 1989

JOAN JETT is sitting in a dressing room a long, long way from home, and the perceptible sliver of anxiety in her voice suggests that ...

Neneh Cherry: Send In The Clowns

Interview by Barbara Ellen, New Musical Express, 9 December 1989

After the huge trans-Atlantic success of 'Buffalo Stance', NENEH CHERRY has established herself as one of the Pop world's most creative and exciting mainstream acts. ...

Lydia Lunch (1989)

Interview by Martin Aston, Rock's Backpages audio, Winter 1989

The morning after a London performance, Ms Lunch discusses herself as a spoken word performer and artist: being censored; confronting issues such as abuse of women; her pleasure at being on the margins; other spoken word performers like Henry Rollins and Karen Finley; how she came to music via lyrics, and about the confrontational nature of audiences.

File format: mp3; total file size: 45.5mb, total interview length: 47' 21" sound quality: ****

Lydia Lunch (1989) [transcript]

Audio transcript of interview by Martin Aston, Rock's Backpages transcripts, Winter 1989

This is a transcript of Martin's interview with Lydia. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...

Lucinda Williams: Annadale Hotel, Sydney

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 6 January 1990

MICK FROM Weddings Parties Anything and Jon from Paul Kelly's Messengers are The Indigo Boys, the support act, and something I miss entirely except for ...

Mel & Kim: Mel Appleby: The Bravery Lying Behind All That Fun, Love & Money

Obituary by Lucy O'Brien, The Guardian, 31 January 1990

Lucy O'Brien finds the pop world full of praise for the courage of Mel Appleby of the bubbly duo Mel and Kim, who this month lost ...

Linda Ronstadt: Ronstadt's Rainstorm Of Emotion

Interview by Holly Gleason, CD Review, March 1990

LINDA RONSTADT enters the press room at a trade magazine's office in Los Angeles with her five-person entourage, and immediately manages to find familiar territory ...

Sinead O'Connor: I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got (Ensign LP/Cassette/CD)

Review by David Quantick, New Musical Express, 10 March 1990

THE FIRST ONE had O'Connor screaming in a storm of icy blue. This one has a sleeve that looks like a Phil Collins album, all ...

The Roches: Dominion Theatre, London

Live Review by Michele Kirsch, New Musical Express, 24 March 1990

YOU HAVE to understand, weird was not always marketable. Here we have three sisters from New Jersey who've been standing on a stage with acoustic ...

Grace Jones: "Born To F*** — I should get a tee-shirt saying that"

Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Melody Maker, 7 April 1990

THE ICE QUEEN MAY BE MAKING A CONSCIOUS EFFORT TO MELT HER IMAGE AND BECOME MORE FEMININE, BUT SHE WAS STILL HARD ENOUGH TO BURY ...

Suzanne Vega: Godmother Of New Age

Interview by Len Brown, New Musical Express, 14 April 1990

Suzanne Vega was brought up as a Puerto Rican, attended the neo-legendary New York School Of Performing Arts and went on to become the sensitive ...

Madonna

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Interview, June 1990

I INTERVIEWED Madonna at the Disney Studios, of all places, where she was rehearsing her Blond Ambition tour. It's not really so odd that she ...

The Breeders: A New Breed of Women in Rock

Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 1 July 1990

TAKE A PIXIE, add a Muse, throw in a Perfect Disaster and you've got the Breeders. ...

Sinead O'Connor: Great Woods Center for the Performing Arts

Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 15 August 1990

MANSFIELD – The last time Sinead O'Connor hit town, in May at the Orpheum, her star was rapidly ascending, and she took the stage with ...

Salt-N-Pepa: Salt 'N' Pepa: Shakin' Sweet

Report and Interview by Barbara Ellen, New Musical Express, 25 August 1990

Is this the end of rap's top pumptresses SALT 'N' PEPA? Bored with making millions and being reviled by all the hard rappin' 'bitches' they ...

L7: V is for Vixcore

Interview by Everett True, Melody Maker, 1 December 1990

Are L7 really Californian white trash bitches from hell or is EVERETT TRUE just having another wet dream? It's best you read on... ...

Whitney Houston: An Interview with Whitney Houston

Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 1991

SO MUCH HAS BEEN written and said about Whitney Houston since she burst on to the recording scene in 1985 with 'You Give Good Love', ...

Babes in Toyland: Angry Young Women

Essay by Barney Hoskyns, Vogue, 1991

ROCK AND ROLL is being hijacked by angry girls with electric guitars. Tired of playing airbrushed pop dollies for salivating male voyeurs, women on ...

Edie Brickell: Nice 'N' Edie Does It

Interview by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 12 January 1991

EDIE BRICKELL doesn't look like a tough Texan, but don't be fooled by her sweet smile and soft drawl, she's one mean rockin' mama. PAUL ...

Maria McKee: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Interview by Barbara Ellen, New Musical Express, 12 January 1991

Written off by the LA rock cattlemarket following the demise of neo-Country nearly men Lone Justice, MARIA MCKEE was left licking her wounds amongst famous ...

Eurythmics, Annie Lennox: Annie Lennox: Who's That Girl?

Profile and Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Select, February 1991

Never afraid to experiment and shock, Annie Lennox has paraded a succession of challenging images during the last decade — from androgynous hedonist to caring ...

Joni Mitchell: Lookin' Good, Sister

Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 23 February 1991

THE HAIR still tumbles to the shoulders, sunshine blonde; the smile is as winsome as ever; the perfect bone-structure remains, well, perfect. ...

Transvision Vamp: Whatever Happened To Baby James?

Interview by Betty Page, Vox, March 1991

Exploiter or exploited? Rock Bitch or just bitched at? Either way Wendy James just lurrves the attention – and the dosh. Betty Page probes for ...

Joni Mitchell: Joni Rides Home

Interview by Adam Sweeting, Vox, April 1991

JONI MITCHELL MAY HAVE CUT HER MUSICAL TEETH DURING THE ERA OF LOVE AND PEACE BUT SHE TAKES NONE TOO KINDLY TO COMPARISONS WITH TODAY'S ...

Nikki D, Yo Yo: Yo-Yo and Nikki D: Bum Rush the Locker Room

Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Musician, May 1991

Yo-Yo and Nikki D turn the turntables on sexist homies ...

Bananarama: Sisters Undie The Skin

Interview by Betty Page, New Musical Express, 4 May 1991

After the gold-disc rush of SAW, BANANARAMA are doing the Dobbie, rediscovering Youth, preparing for their tenth anniversary as The Greatest British All Girl Group ...

Banderas: Plain unfair

Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 7 May 1991

In the precious and profitable world of pop, how you look, it seems, is more important than how you sound, Caroline Sullivan reports ...

Babes in Toyland: Mean Fiddler, London

Live Review by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 22 June 1991

AS YET ANOTHER lame-brain shuffles nervously before taking the plunge, the anti-stage-diving lobby have a point for once. In the context of Babes In Toyland's ...

Kirsty MacColl: Kirsty In Control

Interview by Mark Cooper, Daily Telegraph, 22 June 1991

Mark Cooper watches as Kirsty MacColl reluctantly prepares to meet the world ...

Pat Benatar: True Love  

Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 27 June 1991

TO HER CREDIT, Pat Benatar has never been a purist. From the beginning, this opera-trained mom has not cared whether you classified her as a ...

Throwing Muses: The Real Ramona (Sire) ***½

Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 27 June 1991

AS THROWING Muses has developed, so have the band's imperatives. On the Muses' first album, Kristin Hersh and Tayna Donelly, the group's two singer-songwriters, were ...

Babes in Toyland: Wench Warfare

Interview by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 29 June 1991

Championed by Sonic Youth and John Peel, hot-blooded all-girl 'foxcore' grunge-rockers BABES IN TOYLAND are coming to your house, sneezing explosively, dissing moms and men ...

Bonnie Raitt's Ace of Hearts

Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, July 1991

THE 'NICK OF Time' baby has arrived. "Everyone thought I was singing that song about me," Bonnie Raitt is saying. "But it was happening to ...

Salt-N-Pepa: Salt 'N' Pepa: My Condiments To The Chef

Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 27 July 1991

The most successful female rap group ever, SALT 'N' PEPA have come a long way since the cartoon innuendo of 'Push It'. Now they're busy ...

Pat Benatar: True Love

Review by Tom Graves, Rock & Roll Disc, August 1991

SOME PEOPLE are labouring under the mistaken notion that Pat Benatar is a rock vocalist. What she really is is a music video ...

Bonnie Raitt

Interview by Andy Gill, Q, September 1991

Collectors of happy endings, look no further. Bonnie Raitt's career was dumper-bound until a P45 from her record company inspired her to rediscover her musical ...

Hole: Pretty on the Inside (Caroline)

Review by Robert Gordon, Spin, October 1991

THE WEATHERVANE continues turning, from R.E.M. to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and now, perhaps, to Sonic Youth. Coproduced by SY's Kim Gordon and Don ...

Sexism

Comment by Betty Page, Vox, October 1991

YOU EXPECT IT FROM HEAVY METAL, BUT NOW RAP AND INDIE HAVE JOINED THE SEXIST ASSAULT ON women: LYRICS, SLEEVES, and lecherous behaviour at gigs. ...

Madonna: The Billion Dollar Lady's New Deal

Comment by Barney Hoskyns, The Times, 13 November 1991

THE NEWS THAT Madonna has just clinched a deal making her the highest-paid performer in the history of the pop industry only confirms what we ...

Hole: California Screaming

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 23 November 1991

From out of Nowhere, California, to topping the English independent charts and headlining London, HOLE have been one of the year's most talked-about bands. A laughable hangover of the post-Sub Pop ...

Tori Amos: Stranger in a Strange Land

Report and Interview by Mark Cooper, Daily Telegraph, December 1991

THE LIGHT IS falling in Tori Amos's Kensington flat and she is packing for a Christmas visit to her parents back in the USA. Amos ...

Sheena Easton (1991)

Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, Fall 1991

From taking the morning train to having the look, Mat Snow probes Sheena Easton about her life in music, Esther Rantzen, Kenny Rogers, Prince and all.

File format: mp3; file size: 56.9mb, interview length: 1h 02' 09" sound quality: ***

Babes In Toyland: The Astoria, London

Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 11 January 1992

IF WE'RE TO have anger in rock, then let it boil like this. Babes In Toyland's fury is intimidating. They were never more than a ...

Cookie Crew, Salt-N-Pepa, Sister Souljah: Sisters Are Rapping It For Themselves

Report and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 16 January 1992

In the misogynistic world of rap, anybody who's not one of the boys is a whore or more genially a bitch. But even the female ...

Tori Amos: Vote Tori

Profile and Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, 22 January 1992

Some songwriters wash their dirty linen in public. Tori Amos dries hers there as well. Nick Coleman dodges the rows of hanging knickers to meet ...

PJ Harvey: Powerhaus, London

Live Review by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 8 February 1992

LAST NIGHT A PJ SAVED MY LIFE ...

PJ Harvey: Sex and Bile and Rock and Roll

Interview by Jim Arundel, Melody Maker, 8 February 1992

IT'S SUNDAY AFTERNOON, grey and bitter and it looks like rain. Your flatmate, Lisa, and her gangly boyfriend, Ben, are in her room. They're burning ...

Hole: Belting Out That Most Unfeminine Emotion

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 9 February 1992

SUSAN FALUDI, the author of Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, said recently in a magazine interview that "anger is not something that's an ...

PJ Harvey: Scrumpy's Trusted Nut

Interview by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 15 February 1992

Way out West Country! Cut off from television, newspapers and all your favourite bands, PJ HARVEY is brewing up an intense, sexual storm that's set ...

Daisy Chainsaw, The Nymphs, Shakespears Sister: Rock's Savage Sorority

Report and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 27 February 1992

Caroline Sullivan on how women are using music to cope with rape, abortion, drugs. ...

Babes in Toyland, Daisy Chainsaw, Hole, The Nymphs: Scream with the She-Rebels

Overview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 15 March 1992

WHILE ROCK'N'ROLL abounds with angry young men, female rage has always been a scarce commodity. There's been the gleeful anarchy of the Slits, Patti Smith's ...

The Nymphs: Nymphomania!

Interview by James Brown, New Musical Express, 21 March 1992

Destined to rock the bones of the hard rock circuit, THE NYMPHS have already made a name for themselves in America by pissing on desks ...

Groupies: Stars In Their Thighs

Report and Interview by Steven Wells, David Quantick, New Musical Express, 28 March 1992

NME'S LOOK AT THE THINGS THAT GO HUMP IN THE NIGHT ...

L7: University of London

Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 11 April 1992

L7: THE FIRST artistically-credible female heavy metalists, or rock vixens with more decibels than sense? The question divided the electorate at Thursday's sold out show. ...

Cher: The Beat Goes On

Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Q, May 1992

...But for how much longer? Q accepts an invitation to Cher's bedroom and finds a woman who is troubled with doubt. "I'm not sure where ...

Tori Amos Finds Herself

Report and Interview by Paul Zollo, Musician, May 1992

"IT ALL COMES from the centre," she says, pointing to her navel. Tori Amos is explaining where her songs are conceived. "It's like a constant ...

Babes in Toyland, Curve, Daisy Chainsaw, PJ Harvey, Lush, Silverfish: The Witch Report

Report and Interview by Betty Page, New Musical Express, 9 May 1992

HIPS, LIPS, TITS, POWER! Meet the new breed of enchantress, the spell-binding women who are taking the male bastille and giving it some earthily female ...

L7: Maiden LA

Report and Interview by Sally Margaret Joy, Melody Maker, 16 May 1992

To get on L7's shitlist, all you have to do is be a member of the Moral Majority or dis women. To get off the ...

Bikini Kill: Revolution Girl Style Now (Bikini Kill)

Review by Everett True, Melody Maker, 30 May 1992

"Stop the j-word jealousy from killing girl love/Encourage in the face of insecurity." (Bikini Kill) ...

L7: Strip Sleaze Artists

Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 30 May 1992

Ranting, shouting, swearing, spilling conspiracy theories, spitting food in faces — L7, that is, not STEVEN WELLS (for once)! Gag, vom and die laughing as ...

Carleen Anderson, Brand New Heavies, DaYeene, M People, Joey Negro, Young Disciples: Girls on Song

Report and Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Mixmag, June 1992

"IT'S JUST tinkly pianos and wailing slags," was how 808 State once summed up the contribution of female vocalists to house music. If it wasn't ...

Phyllis Hyman: Heart to Heart

Interview by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 16 June 1992

When Phyllis Hyman opens her heart, it opens all the way, with no holds barred. In a totally frank and, candid interview, the B&S best female vocalist ...

Kylie Minogue: She Came, She S.A.W., She Conquered

Interview by Stuart Maconie, New Musical Express, 22 August 1992

In the great theme park that is the British Popular Experience, KYLIE MINOGUE represents a national treasure, which is not bad going for an Australian. ...

L7: Babes In Boyland

Interview by Cathi Unsworth, Melody Maker, 29 August 1992

In last week's Great Metal Debate, L7 just couldn't f***en believe there are people out there so moronic that they can't tell these gals from ...

Sinead O'Connor: Am I Not Your Girl? (Ensign/All formats)

Review by Betty Page, New Musical Express, 12 September 1992

TORCHED BY YOUR PRESENCE, DEAR ...

Babes in Toyland: Year of the Kat

Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 15 November 1992

Kat Bjelland's penchant for purging her emotions brings Babes in Toyland to the brink of alternative rock stardom ...

Etta James: The Time Of Her Life

Interview by Roger St. Pierre, Blues & Soul, 17 November 1992

With her new Jerry Wexler-produced The Right Time album showcasing Etta James at the pinnacle of soul creativity, the lady talks to Roger St. Pierre ...

Shonen Knife: Naughty But Knife

Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, 18 November 1992

Their songs have titles like 'Flying Jelly Attack' but Shonen Knife claim it's all serious stuff. As London succumbs to a Japanese arts invasion, Nick ...

Tori Amos

Interview by Mark Petracca, Entertainment Weekly, 1993

THE LAST PERSON you'd expect pumping the stair master at your local "Y" would be Tori Amos, but lo and behold, there she was in ...

Seven Year Bitch, Tribe 8: Seven Year Bitch: Sick 'Em (C/Z); Tribe 8: Pig Bitch (EP Harp)

Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, January 1993

THANKS TO the Riot Grrrl revolution, perhaps, or just maybe the fact that indie labels have been sprouting up quicker than McDonald's franchises, women rockers ...

Sinead O'Connor: Crazy Baldhead

Comment by Adrian Deevoy, Q, January 1993

IT'S A PHILOSOPHICAL agenda that would make David Icke vibrate with envy. Consider Sinead O'Connor's current take on the state of play: 96 per cent ...

Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love: Kurt and Courtney: Love and hate and the whole damned thing

Interview by Everett True, Melody Maker, 2 January 1993

In the concluding part of our exclusive interview, Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love attempt to explain the truth behind their controversial relationship and how distorted ...

David Bowie: Angie Bowie cuts into the spotlight

Retrospective and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 20 January 1993

WE WERE AT Turner Fisheries – Angela Bowie, David Bowie's famous ex, and I. I nursed two drinks. She ate half a seafood dinner, sent ...

Bikini Kill: Bikini Kill EP (Kill Rock Stars) **½

Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 4 February 1993

ANY DECENT PARENT would be proud of a daughter who staked her claim as a "riot grrrl" these days. ...

Wendy James: This Year's Model: The Second Coming of Wendy James

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 6 February 1993

The last time we spoke to WENDY JAMES, she made a lot of typically outrageous claims for herself. She would be the biggest name in ...

Björk: A Quiet Storm

Interview by Simon Witter, The Sunday Times Magazine, 21 February 1993

A brief interview piece from early '93, just before her album Debut came out. Nobody, least of all her, had any idea how huge it ...

Huggy Bear: The Revolution…

Comment by Everett True, Melody Maker, 27 February 1993

Ever since HUGGY BEAR released their debut EP, Rubbing The Impossible To Burst, the band have been educating, irritating and agitating with their confrontational "girl ...

Blood Sausage, Huggy Bear, Linus: Huggy Bear: Will Not Be Televised!

Report by Sally Margaret Joy, Melody Maker, 27 February 1993

friday 9.40pm: one of the herd at The Word ...

Annie Lennox, Eurythmics: Annie Lennox: Front Woman

Interview by Mac Randall, Musician, March 1993

CONGRATULATIONS ON your Grammy nominations. Are you making any bets on how you'll do? ...

Belly: Belly in Wonderland

Profile and Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Spin, March 1993

Former Throwing Muse Tanya Donelly is up her Belly with highly imaginary tales of a very real world. ...

Where Are They Now? Pan's People

Interview by Martin Aston, Q, March 1993

BEFORE POP video, before the miscegenetic raunch of Hot Gossip, before we knew better, there was Pan's People. They were Top Of The Pops' resident ...

Debbie Gibson: Deborah Gibson: Body Mind Soul

Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 4 March 1993

USED TO BE the most risqué thing about Debbie Gibson was how in 'Lost in Your Eyes' you could hear her sing "I get weak ...

Bikini Kill, Huggy Bear: Huggy Bear/Bikini Kill: Our Troubled Youth/Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! (Catcall)

Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 6 March 1993

REBEL GRRRLS ...

Huggy Bear: Ready, Teddy, Go!

Special Feature by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 6 March 1993

You've seen HUGGY BEAR smash up mainstream complacency on The Word, you've been baffled by a load of biased ranting on some kind of new ...

Bikini Kill, Huggy Bear: University of London

Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 16 March 1993

RIOT GRRRL, a radical feminist frock movement originating in Washington state, is generating much controversy in the US. Even the New York Times has published a chin-stroking ...

Bikini Kill, Huggy Bear: Riot Grrrl: The Riot Girls And Bender Boys Tour

Profile and Interview by Sally Margaret Joy, Melody Maker, 20 March 1993

It really is happening! The Daily Star said so! Yup, one year after The Maker first reported on this new phenomenon, the whole world has ...

Huggy Bear: Angry Young Women

Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 24 March 1993

Take the in-yer-face spirit of punk, add a dash of Mom's best feminist cant. Born in the USA, now raising hell here, Riot Grrrls are ...

Aimee Mann: Sweet Revenge

Interview by Mac Randall, Musician, April 1993

"WE'VE HAD a joke going recently," Aimee Mann says, "that the new album has three themes: despair, defeat and revenge." ...

k.d. lang: k.d. Sings The Blues

Profile and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, April 1993

She’s a genre-hopping pantheist, Lesbian, vegetarian, big-mouthed aromatherapist. In big boots. Yet despite unpromising ingredients, k.d. lang’s multi-layered cake continues to rise quite beautifully and ...

Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Chia Pet, Tsunami: Who are the Riot Grrrls?

Report by Susan Corrigan, i-D, April 1993

Riot Grrrl is an American network of feminist punk bands, angry, personal fanzines and women's discussion groups dedicated to 'girl-positive' action. We visited Riot Grrrls ...

PJ Harvey: Rid Of Me (Island)

Review by Betty Page, New Musical Express, 24 April 1993

THE FIRST time, it gave me third degree burns. I was driving when the title track's soft murmur exploded into a rocket-thrusted motorcycle roar and ...

Dr. Dre: Ain't nothing but a gender thang?

Interview by Amy Linden, Request, May 1993

Dr. Dre and writer Amy Linden go one-on-one on sexism and The Chronic. Nobody wins. ...

PJ Harvey: Platter du Jour — PJ Harvey: Rid of Me (Island/PLG)

Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Spin, May 1993

POLLY JEAN Harvey knows that women in positions of power or prestige quickly get demonized. So on Rid of Me, the second album by her ...

Gallon Drunk, PJ Harvey: PJ Harvey, Gallon Drunk: Rock City, Nottingham

Live Review by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 22 May 1993

LIKE IGGY said, all aboard for Fun Time. The pat preconceptions hanging around this inspired pairing suggest that chuckles will be thin on the ground. ...

Revolution Rock

Essay by Stephen Dalton, Vox, June 1993

Ever since Woody Guthrie scratched "This Guitar Kills Fascists" on his six-string, musicians have exploited rock's confrontational possibilities, from anti-racism to sexual revolution, in a ...

Monie Love: In a Word or 2 (Warner Bros.)

Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1993

MONIE LOVE is a good storyteller, an adept rapper and a mediocre songwriter. Her lyrics flow and flow, but on In a Word or 2, ...

Whitney Houston: Down and Dirty

Interview by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1993

YOU'RE EXPECTING her to float delicately into the room, but Whitney Houston strides in with a purposeful air. She's dressed way down in purple stretch ...

Sonny Til & The Orioles: Is This The Woman Who Invented Rock & Roll?: The Deborah Chessler Story

Retrospective and Interview by Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone, 24 June 1993

IN AN EARLY EPISODE of Homicide: Life on the Street, Barry Levinson's recent TV series about a team of Baltimore cops, the detective played by ...

Gallon Drunk, PJ Harvey: PJ Harvey: The Academy, New York NY

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 10 July 1993

FROM GRUNGE'S "castration blues" to the glutinous gloom of Come/Red House Painters/Mazzy Star to tonight's support band Gallon Drunk (with their cliché-encrusted homage to Nick ...

Hole: The Price of Love?

Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 17 July 1993

...but what's it all about? SIMON PRICE listens as COURTNEY LOVE fills him in on the (w)Hole picture. ...

Blood Sausage, Skinned Teen: Skinned Teen, Blood Sausage: The Dome, London

Live Review by Ngaire Ruth, Melody Maker, 17 July 1993

NEW KIDS IN TOWN ...

Tina Turner, Ike & Tina Turner: What's Love Got To Do With It? (Dir.: Brian Gibson, Buena Vista Pictures)

Film/DVD/TV Review by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 20 July 1993

Tina: a legend in her own time ...

SWV: It's About Time (RCA/BMG 07863 66074)

Review by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 20 July 1993

IT'S ABOUT Time is a pretty applicable title for this group's release in the UK which has been long overdue. Into their umpteenth hit single ...

Babes In Toyland: Rock And Roll Babes

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, August 1993

Deposit your 'feminist rock' preconceptions at the door, pigeonhole fans. Babes In Toyland were playing raucous licks long before the Riot Grrrls left finishing school... ...

Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa: Patti Scialfa: Red-Headed Woman

Profile and Interview by Ian Birch, Q, August 1993

ABOUT AN HOUR and a half from New York going south down the New Jersey Turnpike and then east on the Garden State Parkway is ...

Jane Siberry: Songs in a Brave New Key

Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 9 August 1993

MOST PERFORMERS would call getting booed during a concert their worst nightmare. Not Jane Siberry. Although she suffered that fate last year, at the height ...

Belly, The Breeders, Tanya Donnelly, The Pixies, Throwing Muses: Kim Deal & Tanya Donelly: A conversation about Belly, the Breeders, Throwing Muses, the Pixies & alternatives

Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Musician, September 1993

STROLL INTO the Dayton, Ohio, house shared by twins Kim and Kelley Deal on a muggy summer afternoon and step over a clutter of CDs, ...

Liz Phair

Profile and Interview by Martin Aston, The Independent Catalogue, September 1993

IT'S FOUR IN the afternoon, and Liz Phair is itching to go jogging. But there's plenty of time; this is her first bout of UK ...

Huggy Bear: Taking The Rough With The Smooch (Wiiija/All formats)

Review by John Harris, New Musical Express, 18 September 1993

PUCKER LIPS NOW ...

Liz Phair: HQ Club, London

Live Review by Andrew Smith, The Guardian, 29 September 1993

A FEW years back, with acid house at its peak and video games beginning to bite into record sales, there emerged a theory that rock ...

Bikini Kill, Huggy Bear: Huggy Bear: Our Troubled Youth/Bikini Kill: Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah (Kill Rock Stars) ****

Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 30 September 1993

PICTURE a punk rocker: Ian MacKaye and Emma Goldman are her heroes. She reads Maximum Rock 'n Roll and plays 'Holidays In The Sun' on ...

Janis Ian: Protest and Survive

Profile and Interview by Andy Gill, Q, October 1993

AT THE age of 42, Janis Ian is making a comeback (her second, or is it third?), which would be unexceptional save for the fact ...

PJ Harvey: Good golly, Ms Polly

Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 1 October 1993

Screeching harridan? Feminist heroine? One thing's certain: Polly Jean Harvey's tortured song-tantrums are a far cry from Captain Beefheart. ...

Babes In Toyland: Forum, London

Live Review by Ngaire Ruth, Melody Maker, 2 October 1993

TOYS R U.S. ...

The Breeders: The real new deal

Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 28 October 1993

The BREEDERS get wet and wild as they dive back into action on "Last Splash" ...

Carleen Anderson: Funky Diva

Profile and Interview by Kodwo Eshun, i-D, November 1993

Carleen Anderson was a member of James Brown's band. Then she sang with the Young Disciples. This month she releases her passionate solo debut — ...

Kirsty MacColl: Singer Kirsty MacColl: Wry with a Twist of Laughter

Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 12 November 1993

DEPRESSION AND despair have their place in pop music, especially in English pop. In recent years, it's come through most tellingly in the shimmering sadness ...

PJ Harvey: P.J. Harvey: 4-Track Demos

Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 25 November 1993

THE POP INDUSTRY loves to simulate authenticity, a trick that, like the manufacturing of fake antiques, puts demands on the consumer. It's hard to tell ...

10,000 Maniacs, Natalie Merchant: Natalie Merchant: Little Sister Syndrome

Interview by Andy Gill, MOJO, December 1993

MOJO: YOU'VE BEEN described as "interminably serious". Is that accurate? ...

Salt-N-Pepa: Too Live Cruet

Interview by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 18 December 1993

From girls to women, SALT-N-PEPA have moved on from their Svengali-led days to create their own agenda of single motherhood, sex and answering back to ...

Tori Amos: The Keys to Success

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 16 January 1994

Tori Amos, the piano's Nigel Kennedy with a prettier face, has swapped America and her classical training for Britain and its pop. ROBERT SANDALL meets ...

Elastica: Esquires, Bedford

Live Review by Ian Watson, Melody Maker, 22 January 1994

HALFWAY THROUGH this supposedly low-key warm up for Elastica's appearance on The Word, Justine apologises for the amount of coverage the band have been getting. ...

Hole, Courtney Love, Nirvana: Courtney Love: Hole in One

Interview by Caitlin Moran, Melody Maker, 19 February 1994

Hole are, to all intents and purposes, Courtney Love. And Courtney Love is a one-woman spite factory, spewing out bile and savaging anyone who dares ...

Kirsty MacColl: Raging Against the Machine

Interview by Paul Sexton, The Times, 25 February 1994

There are many ways to describe Kirsty MacColl, but "female singer-songwriter" is not one of them, she tells Paul Sexton ...

Janis Joplin: Janis (Columbia/Legacy)

Review by Mark Cooper, MOJO, March 1994

DYLAN FELL OFF his motorcycle, The Beatles broke up and Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin paid the full price of ‘60s rock stardom ...

Voodoo Queens: Voodod Queens: Chocolate Revenge

Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, March 1994

UNREPENTANT BAD GIRLS with a taste for culinary and bibulous excess, the Voodoo Queens have cannily put their career back on track with a debut ...

Joan Jett: The Original Riot Grrrl

Interview by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 24 March 1994

Joan Jett lives up to her bad reputation ...

Carleen Anderson, Madeline Bell, Rhoda Dakar, N'Dea Davenport, Pauline Henry, Marsha Hunt, Denise Johnson, Dee C Lee, Shara Nelson: The New Soul Rebels

Report and Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Vox, April 1994

Singing hairdos? Not any longer. Britain's new breed of single black females are feisty, independent and take no prisoners ...

The Raincoats: Raincoats prove that there's life after punk

Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 5 April 1994

CAMBRIDGE – Backstage before their first American gig in 12 years – hey, only their fourth gig period in that time – Raincoats bassist/guitarist/singer Gina ...

Hole: Live Through This (City Slang/All formats)

Review by Barbara Ellen, New Musical Express, 9 April 1994

HOLE ON THE RAGE ...

Aimee Mann (1994)

Interview by Ian Ravendale, Rock's Backpages audio, 18 April 1994

Ms. Mann talks about her first band Til Tuesday; record company indifference; songwriting collaborations past and future (but not Ray Davies!); and working with Jon Brion on Whatever.

File format: mp3; file size: 18mb, interview length: 19' 41" sound quality: ****

Tori Amos, Björk, PJ Harvey: PJ Harvey, Björk, and Tori Amos: Hips. Lips. Tits. Power.

Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Q, May 1994

Well, would you spill their pint? In the last 18 months, Polly Harvey, Björk, and Tori Amos have rogered the charts with their special brew ...

Bikini Kill: Bikini Kill/Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah (Kill Rock Stars KRS204)

Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 6 May 1994

THE BIGGEST act on this Washington label is these founding riot grrrls, whose first two mini-albums are re-released as a single tape/CD. The 32-minute running ...

Sleeper: Sheer Tart Attack

Interview by Dave Simpson, Melody Maker, 14 May 1994

PC is shite! The The NWONW bands just need a good shag! Meat-eating is cool! Meet LOUISE WENER of fizzy power-poppers SLEEPER, who tells DAVE ...

Sleeper: Kipping Against The Pricks

Interview by John Harris, New Musical Express, 21 May 1994

Tired of being safe? Fed up with worrying about the ozone layer? Bored with modern life? Then you need SLEEPER. The last of the dirty, ...

Dusty Springfield: Goin' Back – The Very Best of Dusty Spingfield; Dusty – The Legend of Dusty Springfield

Review by Ian Birch, MOJO, June 1994

"I love Dusty Springfield. I wanted to name our daughter Dusty but I knew we couldn't because, I mean, Dusty Springsteen...She had a nice big, ...

Laurie Anderson: The Nerve Of Her

Interview by Gillian G. Gaar, Rolling Stone, 16 June 1994

THE GENERAL PUBLIC MAY HAVE heard little from performance artist Laurie Anderson in recent years. But that's certain to change in 1994, a hectic year ...

L7: Old Trout, Windsor

Live Review by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 25 June 1994

SANITARY CONFINEMENT ...

Liz Phair: Sexual Perversity in Chicago

Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Details, July 1994

Where and when did you write the famous line "I want to be your blowjob queen"? ...

Shampoo: Wash 'n' Pogo!

Interview by Stuart Maconie, Select, August 1994

Glamour! Sex! Unlimited platinum credit accounts at Top Shop! Insurrectionist teenage punkettes Shampoo want all of these things and more. Is there a Svengali in ...

Luscious Jackson: Girls Just Want to Have Funk

Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 21 August 1994

Luscious Jackson's four females play the game their way, incorporating New York's vibrant soundtrack of punk and hip-hop, jazz and soul. ...

Sheryl Crow: The Education of Sheryl Crow

Interview by Dave DiMartino, Musician, September 1994

The long strange trip of an overnight success ...

Kylie Minogue: Fever Kitsch

Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 6 September 1994

From wholesome soap star to scantily clad sex kitten — Kylie Minogue has changed her image more times than she might care to remember. But ...

Joni Mitchell (1994)

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 14 September 1994

The First Lady of the Canyon looks at her past and present, from her Canadian youth through the Canyon days, the nightmare of the '80s and to her place in 1994. Songs, places, lovers, friends, gender and politics. Oh, and Bob Dylan's bad breath.

File format: mp3; file size: 116.9mb, total interview length: 2h 1' 46" sound quality: ***

Blondie, Debbie Harry: Blondie: Plastic Letters, Autoamerican, The Hunter Deborah Harry: Koo Koo, Rockbird, Def Dumb And Blonde

Review by Susan Compo, MOJO, October 1994

AS NORMAN MAILER ONCE SAID, "ALL blondes are natural blondes." Look it up in any book of pop quotes and you'll probably find a picture ...

Chrissie Hynde: "Guys in bands are pussies"

Interview by Max Bell, Vox, October 1994

Should Kurt Cobain have unplugged his fax or Evan Dando blabbed about crack? Should Brian Jones have smoked in public? Chrissie Hynde has the answers ...

Luscious Jackson: Homecoming Queens

Interview by Kodwo Eshun, i-D, October 1994

Luscious Jackson embody New York's old school cool. They're more than just a female version of The Beastie Boys — and they're going to be even bigger. ...

Marianne Faithfull Springs Eternal

Interview by Deborah Frost, BAM, 7 October 1994

"Since AIDS, I've changed my attitude. Now I'm honored. I want to be part of the gay community and I am." ...

Elastica: From Hype To Eternity

Interview by Everett True, Melody Maker, 8 October 1994

ELASTICA were voted Best New Band in our Readers' Poll almost before the band had released a note. Why? Because you could tell just by ...

Joni Mitchell: Lady of the Canyon

Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 31 October 1994

FOR JONI MITCHELL, fame has been a fickle lover. In the 1970s, it lavished her with sold-out tours and numerous magazine covers. She was the ...

Luscious Jackson: The New York four-piece couch their songs of womanhood in a laidback, yet energetic, jazzy groove…

Report and Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, November 1994

NATURAL INGREDIENTS, the first full-length album from female New York four-piece Luscious Jackson, is the follow-up to World Clique that Deee-Lite never made – funky, ...

Marianne Faithfull (1994)

Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, November 1994

Promoting her autobiography, la Faithfull talks at length about, well, just about everything really: writing the book with David Dalton; being called a witch by the Catholic Church; the aesthetics of sex, and the Rolling Stones and the Redlands bust.

File format: mp3; file size: 62.4mb, interview length: 1h 08' 10" sound quality: ***

Elastica: Things that make you go URGGHHH!

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Vox, December 1994

JUSTINE FRISCHMANN sings and plays guitar with Elastica, a band whose cool balance of ingenuousness and ingenuity should shortly eclipse her other claims to fame as ...

Huggy Bear: Erotic Bleeding: Huggy Bear: Weaponry Listens To Love (Wiiija/Famous Monsters Of Filmland)

Review by John Robb, Melody Maker, 3 December 1994

Forget the Riot Grrrl politics — if you must. Huggy Bear are/were a brilliantly confrontational punk rock band, much-maligned and misunderstood. Much like JOHN ROBB, ...

Lisa Germano: Stepping Out From John Mellencamp's Shadow, Singer and Violinist Lisa Germano Hits a Nerve On Geek The Girl

Profile and Interview by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 15 December 1994

"IT DOESN'T FEEL good to be stuck," Lisa Germano says, as she surveys the opening of a dark tunnel that cuts a 30-foot passageway through ...

Me'Shell NdegeOcello

Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 29 December 1994

WHAT A DIFFERENCE a year makes. Twelve months ago bassist and band leader Me'Shell NdegeOcello's debut album, Plantation Lullabies, had just been released by Maverick. ...

Cher: Daring To Be Different

Report and Interview by Paul Gorman, Music Week, 1995

CHER'S NEW ALBUM It's A Man's World may well have the most apt, albeit ironically stated, title of the year. For her first project for ...

Sheryl Crow: As Sheryl Crow Flies

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, January 1995

EIGHT YEARS BACK, a young music teacher from Kennett, a tiny Bible Belt town ("Twin Peaks. Three stop lights, one police station, one high school.") ...

Lisa Germano, Sarah McLachlan, Saint Etienne: Stalkers: Ever-Present Possessive

Report by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 16 January 1995

Business is booming in the protection business. Now many of those being protected are women pop stars targeted by dangerous stalkers ...

Laura Nyro: Union Chapel, Islington, London

Live Review by Rob Steen, MOJO, February 1995

WHEN LAURA PLAYED MONTEREY, nerves and rushed rehearsals saw her flounder as the hairies waited for Hendrix. Tonight there are enough baldies in the pews ...

Richard Hell: Victor Bockris presents Susan Sontag & Richard Hell, New York City, 1978

Interview by Victor Bockris, The Poetry Project, February 1995

IT WAS THE EVENING of the fifteen-foot snow blizzard and SUSAN SONTAG was due at my Greenwich Village apartment from her 107th Street penthouse at ...

Alanis Morissette: Adventures of Alanis in Wonderland

Profile by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 1 February 1995

SHE IS THE newest cover girl for "alternative" rock, a populist answer to Courtney Love. Fans and critics throughout North America have embraced Ottawa native ...

Sleeper: PJ and Bunkum

Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 4 February 1995

The meteoric rise of SLEEPER is matched only by the meteoric speed of singer LOUISE WENER's gob. Anti-feminism, anti-PC, anti-voting but pro shagging, drinking and ...

Linda Ronstadt (1995)

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 7 February 1995

The First Lady of Counry Rock on a life in music: from Tuscon to LA; the Troubadour scene; hanging out with Jim Morrison and Gram Parsons; exploring standards and Mexican music; singing, production and producers.

File format: mp3; file size: 152.1mb, interview length: 2h 28' 27" sound quality: ***

Sleeper: The Duchess, Leeds

Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 20 February 1995

A GREAT song and a video are no guarantee of credible pop success. It helps to have a Talking Point as well. No-one understands this ...

Sleeper: Done Lying Down

Interview by Susan Corrigan, i-D, March 1995

Sexy, sassy and certainly not afraid of shocking, Sleeper's Louise Wener is a guitar goddess with no need to compromise on her way to the ...

Linda Ronstadt: Ronstadt Proves She Can Go Home Again

Profile and Interview by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, 19 March 1995

LINDA RONSTADT settled comfortably into a couch in her record company offices. The cream-colored ensemble she was wearing emphasized her preternaturally translucent skin. She has ...

Linda Ronstadt: Homecoming Queen: Linda Ronstadt

Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, April 1995

Thirty years ago Linda Ronstadt left Tucson for the folk-rock Mecca of Los Angeles. Now the first lady of softly streamlined country returns to the ...

Brandy: Early Delivery

Profile and Interview by Carol Cooper, Rolling Stone, 6 April 1995

ON 'BABY', THE second single from her platinum-album debut, Brandy, sweet, petite Brandy Norwood latches on to the song's skeletal groove and rides it as ...

Björk: An International Word

Interview by Andrew Smith, Ray Gun, May 1995

HER HOUSE IS set back from the street, on a wide avenue in Maida Vale. A pair of imposing, wrought iron security gates shield it ...

Nancy Sinatra: Walkin' Again

Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 6 May 1995

IF YOU KNOW one thing about Nancy Sinatra, it's her signature song — and may we suggest it's one of The Signature Songs of All ...

PJ Harvey: Harvey's New Hooks, Persona

Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 26 May 1995

POLLY JEAN HARVEY has become, of late, a very public face. Last month's cover of Spin, a recent Tower Pulse, the current issue of Request. ...

Babes In Toyland: The Boardwalk, Manchester

Live Review by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, 27 May 1995

I MISS Ligament cos (I was gonna come up with an excuse as contrived as my mate, who was late for school one day cos ...

Björk: Post

Review by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, June 1995

POP IS BACK, rock is dead (again). That, at any rate, is one conclusion we could draw from the success of Bjork Gudmundsdottir. ...

PJ Harvey: Queen of the Night: P.J. Harvey

Profile by Lucy O'Brien, The Guardian, 12 June 1995

SHE’S TAKING America by storm. She’s very fashionable at the moment. She’s hipper than hip. That’s what Paul McGuinness says; he’s the manager of U2 ...

Sarah McLachlan: Front and Centre Stage

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 28 July 1995

SARAH MCLACHLAN was lounging in her air-conditioned trailer, exhausted but exhilarated after a day spent fielding media questions and a night spent singing, strumming and ...

Shania Twain: Country Princess

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 28 August 1995

IT IS THE AUGUST holiday weekend, but there is no rest for Shania Twain. New country music's hottest new sensation is busy paying her dues ...

Alanis Morissette: Jagged Little Pill

Review by Geoffrey Himes, Request, September 1995

IT'S AS IF Annette Funicello had grown up and become Janis Joplin. Just 11 years ago, Alanis Morissette was a cute, 10-year-old actress on Nickelodeon's ...

Jane Siberry: The Woman Who Scared Herself

Interview by Jim Irvin, MOJO, September 1995

Your new LP, Maria, sounds very different to your other albums. I gather it was recorded fairly spontaneously. ...

PJ Harvey: Caught in the Act

Interview by Susan Corrigan, i-D, September 1995

POLLY JEAN HARVEY IS AN ICONOCLAST WHOSE MUSIC INSPIRES ADULATION WHILE HER IMAGE INSPIRES SPECULATION. LESSER SINGERS HAVE CRUMBLED UNDER SUCH SCRUTINY. BUT IS PJ ...

Selena: Dreaming Of You  

Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 7 September 1995

MARTYRED MEXICAN-American superstar Selena, shot to death by her ex-fan club president outside a Corpus Christi, Texas, motel this past March, loved dressing skimpily onstage ...

TLC: Phoenix from the Flames

Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 11 November 1995

Controversial New Jill megastars TLC are one of the biggest bands on the planet right now... and they're bankrupt. It's a long story, but SIMON ...

Madonna: Meanwhile Back at the Raunch

Interview by Barbara Ellen, New Musical Express, 2 December 1995

Phew!!! Hold on to your seats because MADONNA is about to reveal all... NOOOOOO!!! she's not stripping off again, but she IS telling all to ...

Tori Amos: Ginger Nut

Profile and Interview by Pete Paphides, Time Out, 20 December 1995

SOMETIMES IT'S hard to know where the marketing stops and the music begins. When Tori Amos's record company launched her first album, Little Earthquakes in ...

Aaliyah talks about her One In a Million album & more

Interview by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 1996

Just 17 but already something of a music biz veteran with a million selling debut album and dues-paying road activities behind her, the sweetly seductive ...

Bikini Kill: Stars and Gripes: Bikini Kill: Reject All American (Kill Rock Stars)

Review by Everett True, Melody Maker, 6 April 1996

BIKINI KILL. Prime movers in 1992's Riot Grrrl scene. Agitators, manipulators, punk rockers, irritants. They're back! And EVERETT TRUE still loves 'em ...

Emmylou Harris: Singing With a Voice That's Always True to Her Heart

Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 11 April 1996

EVEN WHEN Emmylou Harris was a fixture on the country charts for a decade starting in 1975, her music was marked by an uncommon sense ...

Patti Smith: She is Risen

Interview by Holly George-Warren, Option, May 1996

"I was feeling sensations in no dictionary He was less than a breath of shimmer and smoke The life in his fingers unwound ...

Sleeper: i-Q: Louise Wener

Interview by Susan Corrigan, i-D, June 1996

Sleeper's leading lady has more to offer than big boots and a big mouth. Susan Corrigan examines the true colours of a lass with sass ...

Claire Martin: Mojo Rising: Claire Martin

Profile and Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, June 1996

CLAIRE MARTIN may well be the best British jazz singer for a generation, but she drives like a maniac. "Nervous?" she cackles, slamming into third, ...

Bikini Kill, Mecca Normal, Sleater-Kinney, Team Dresch, Tribe 8: Riot Grrrl Returns, With a Slightly Softer Roar

Comment by Evelyn McDonnell, The New York Times, 2 June 1996

AT THE HEART of feminism lies the belief in self-determination: women should define their own identities. One recent expression of that tenet can be found ...

Alanis Morissette: Bruised: Alanis Morissette: Enmore Theatre, Sydney

Review and Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Q, July 1996

Alanis Morissette: she's got the whole world in her hands. ...

Kenickie: The Zap, Brighton

Live Review by David Bennun, Melody Maker, 13 July 1996

COULD I just get this out of the way? I mean, Kenickie are wonderful for what they are, not what they aren't, but I'd just ...

Beth Orton: Go Orton!

Interview by Paul Moody, New Musical Express, 24 August 1996

CONTEMPORARY FEMALE singer-songwriters, then: fiercely independent, forever marketed as several colours short of a full palette and ever-prone to massive crossover success care of the ...

Fiona Apple: Fifty Foot Teeny

Interview by Cliff Jones, The Face, September 1996

FIONA APPLE is a Manhattan teenager ablaze with songs of love, loss, anger and pain. "Given my way, I'd tie all shrinks together and burn the fuckers!" ...

Garbage: Modern Life is Rubbish

Interview by Steven Daly, The Face, September 1996

ONCE SHE WAS just another washed-up indie singer from Edinburgh. Then fate, MTV and three American rock musos intervened, and now Shirley Manson finds the ...

Fiona Apple

Profile and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, November 1996

Turning tears on her pillow into pearls ...

Kenickie: Kamikaze! Karaoke! Kenickie!

Interview by Caitlin Moran, Melody Maker, 9 November 1996

KENICKIE may barnstorm through life like kamikaze karaoke kids, but there's sadness in their madness ...

Joni Mitchell: Hits and Misses

Review by Susan Whitall, Houston Press, 26 December 1996

IN A POP WORLD where female musicians are designed, micromanaged and as carefully positioned in the marketplace as a new brand of air freshener, how ...

Kate Bush: Hounds of Love

Review by Barney Hoskyns, unpublished, 1997

FEW WOMEN HAVE expanded the vocabulary of rock as bewitchingly as Kate Bush; among male stars, only Prince may have taken as many risks. Hounds ...

Foxy Brown, Lil' Kim: Lil' Kim & Foxy Brown: Mack Divas

Report and Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, The Source, February 1997

What demons lie beneath the excessive glam and the in-yo face sexuality? The Source gets hip close and personal with hip-hop's twin testaments to divahood: ...

Madonna: Sleek-A-Boo

Comment by Caitlin Moran, The Face, February 1997

New Madonna, new danger? Groomed, elegant — the Material Girl has matured with good grace. Will her fans wish she hadn't bothered, asks Caitlin Moran ...

Dorothy Moore: Giving It Straight To You

Retrospective and Interview by Bill Carpenter, Goldmine, 14 March 1997

MISSISSIPPI HAS probably been trashed more than any other darn state in the union. It's been called the poorest state (which sho' ain't a crime, ...

Sleater-Kinney: An All-Grrrl Band at Heart

Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 16 March 1997

In true, independent Riot Grrrl fashion, the Sleater-Kinney trio is getting heard far and wide (No. 3 in Village Voice) without abandoning its community. ...

Courtney Love: Love's Labor Lost

Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 3 April 1997

How Courtney blew her fight for an Oscar nomination as the junkie wife of a porn king in The People vs. Larry Flynt ...

Laura Nyro: Stoned Soul Picnic: The Best Of Laura Nyro

Review by Paul Lester, Uncut, June 1997

AT THE age of 21, she was the most sought-after writer in America, a one-woman hit factory, providing songs for everyone from Sinatra to Aretha. ...

Sleater-Kinney: There's a Riot Goin' On

Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 12 June 1997

SLEATER-KINNEY want to bring feminist punk rock to the mainstream ...

En Vogue: Girl Power!

Interview by David Quantick, Q, July 1997

They are the quite spicy girls. A long time ago, they were manufactured by a pair of svengalis. Since then, they've had lorryloads of hits, ...

No Doubt: Ska-Spangled Banter!

Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 5 July 1997

Why has Beavis & Butt-head country gone mad for NO DOUBT's peculiar brand of ska-pop-funk-type-thing? And how has singer Gwen ended up as a feminist ...

Spice Girls: Too Hot to Handle

Interview by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 10 July 1997

How five British pop tarts built their own world empire ...

Tracy Chapman, Sarah McLachlan, Kinnie Starr, Suzanne Vega: Songs of the Sirens: Lilith Fair

Report by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 28 July 1997

THEY READ tarot cards on the grass in the afternoon sun and danced under the moon to the sounds of Tracy Chapman. And before they ...

Meredith Brooks: Claws-out Bitchin' Pop

Profile and Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 9 August 1997

MEREDITH BROOKS talks a lot. She lives in LA. She doesn't do sugar, cigarettes, alcohol or drugs. ...

Spice Girls: The Spice Girls: The Notorious Zig-A-Zig-Ah!

Profile by David Stubbs, Melody Maker, 16 August 1997

THERE'S NO ducking it. The Spice Girls are undoubtedly the most successful British teenypop act. Their album, Spice, has sold over seven million albums in ...

All Saints: Post Spice Hip-Hop

Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 23 August 1997

THERE ARE certain things in life you can be sure of. Rain on Bank Holidays, never having enough money, Alan Shearer getting injured when it ...

Foxy Brown, Lil' Kim: Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown: Nasty Girls

Essay by Bethan Cole, i-D, September 1997

Sisters with voices? Or Ladies with an attitude? Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown are just as nasty as they wanna be ...

Leah Andreone, Tracy Chapman, Paula Cole, Lauren Hoffman, Jewel, Sarah McLachlan, Mudgirl, Kinnie Starr, Suzanne Vega, Cassandra Wilson: Lilith Fair: The Gorge Amphitheatre George, Washington

Live Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Spin, September 1997

"JUST A SECOND, just a second now," said Canadian performer Kinnie Starr as she abruptly swung her electric guitar down and stepped off the tiny ...

The Geraldine Fibbers: Blood on the Tracks

Interview by RJ Smith, Spin, September 1997

The Geraldine Fibbers' new album, Butch, is a wonder, a violent, uncompromising sprawl of a rock record, a punch to the heart. But, worries RJ Smith, if ...

No Doubt: Over And No Doubt?

Interview by Ian Watson, Melody Maker, 13 September 1997

No Doubt have went from garage band to worldwide stardom. But is it the end of the band as we know it? We join them ...

Hole: My Body The Hand Grenade (City Slang)

Review by Everett True, Melody Maker, 11 October 1997

COURTNEY LOVE reigned supreme in 1995 – and didn't we know she knew it. Now, with the release off a new album, well, it's all ...

Billie Holiday: How to Buy Billie Holiday

Guide by Fred Dellar, MOJO, November 1997

TIME WAS when Billie Holiday records were hard to come by. But Motown's filmed version of her life, based on a dubious autobiography to which ...

Björk: Who the Hell Does Björk Think She Is?

Interview by Paul Elliott, Q, November 1997

She does weird, waily pop diva. Her producers do the rest. Often they do even more than that. Which leaves her free to turn on ...

Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders: Chrissie Hynde

Interview by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1997

IN 1978, CHRISSIE Hynde, an Akron, Ohio, native living in London, formed the Pretenders. The hand's 1980 debut, The Pretenders, featuring guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, bassist ...

Fiona Apple

Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1997

FIONA APPLE is 20 years and one
 album old, and already she knows the
 bipolar swings of stardom. Thanks to
 one fortuitously placed demo tape, ...

Joan Jett

Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1997

IN 1976, JOAN Jett was a black-leather-wearing 16-year-old living across the street from Los Angeles' notorious Whisky-a-Go-Go and writing songs like the classic fox anthem ...

Mary J. Blige

Interview by Vivien Goldman, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1997

UNITING GENERATIONS with her twin
 allegiances to R&B and rap, Mary J.
 Blige delivers emotional intimacy 
packaged in a luxurious voice. ...

Queen Latifah

Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1997

ONE WAY to control your career is to declare yourself sovereign. When 19-year-old Dana Owens came rapping out of Newark, N.J., in 1989, she assumed ...

Sinead O'Connor

Interview by Vivien Goldman, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1997

AT AGE 30, Sinead O'Connor seems to be experiencing a rebirth with her critically acclaimed new EP, Gospel Oak, and the ecstatic reception to her ...

Mary J. Blige: Mary J Blige: From the Bronx to the Big Time

Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 18 November 1997

Caroline Sullivan has an audience with Mary J Blige, queen of hip hop soul ...

Missy Elliott: Supa Woman!

Interview by Andy Crysell, New Musical Express, 6 December 1997

She writes Number Ones! Makes "wacky" videos! Is, like, totally fly! And MISSY "MISDEMEANOR" ELLIOTT, rap's brightest new talent, has come to save us… ...

Salt-N-Pepa: Condiment-al as Anything

Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 13 December 1997

And you thought Girl Power was a new thang? Oh no, SALT-N-PEPA invented it a decade ago. The Maker catches up with the trio in ...

Origin of the Spices: From Riot Grrrl to Girl Power

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Seven Years of Plenty (Victor Gollancz) , 1998

The riot grrrl/girl power liaison: from a whisper to a screen near you ...

Queen Latifah: From Here to Royalty

Interview by Amy Linden, The Source, 1998

Y'all know Lah: She's our number one sister, our Queen for life. Ladies first and all. But y'all cats be wonderin'. Wantin' to know if ...

Missy Elliott

Profile and Interview by Bethan Cole, i-D, January 1998

AT THIS moment she's so far out, floating in her own self-programmed audiogalactic, that no one else in hip hop or R&B can touch her. ...

Ani DiFranco: Just an Old Fashioned Girl (with Blue Hair)

Interview by Jeff Apter, nyrock.com, February 1998

JUST WHO is Ani DiFranco anyway? Doc Martin-clad punk-poet icon, do-it-yourself business guru, feminist folksinger: there are so many sides to this Buffalo girl from ...

All Saints: They Know Where It's At

Interview by Angus Batey, Vox, March 1998

And finally we have lift-off. Yes, 'Never Ever' may have taken its time getting there, but Britain's finest all-girl band have hit Number One, and ...

David Bowie, Kurt Cobain, Bob Dylan, Marianne Faithfull, Foo Fighters, Courtney Love, Joni Mitchell, Oasis, Liz Phair, The Rolling Stones, Patti Smith, Veruca Salt: Access all areas: The Rock Muse

Report and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Harper's Bazaar, April 1998

Scratch an epic rock god and you'll usually find a cool, inspiring woman who supplied him with lyrics, contacts and style. Now that girl power ...

Jewel, Sarah McLachlan: Lady’s Day: Lilith Fair

Report and Interview by Edward Helmore, MOJO, April 1998

AT RISK OF PROVOKING EITHER THE TRADITIONAL yawn or a punch in the face whenever it is suggested that this is the year of women ...

Tori Amos

Interview by Barbara Ellen, The Observer, 24 May 1998

"The more comfortable I get with my sexuality, the less it leaks all over the place" ...

Imogen Heap

Profile and Interview by Dan Gennoe, Making Music, June 1998

7PM AND THE West London pub where Making Music is currently propping up the bar is starting to fill up in anticipation of the Italy ...

Linda Ronstadt: The Linda Ronstadt Interview: Tucson, Arizona, 17 June 1998

Interview by Debbie Kruger, unpublished, June 1998

DK: You are a performer who has covered the most diverse range of genres in popular music, and they are all listed on your bio ...

Tori Amos: From The Choirgirl Hotel (East West)

Review by Kit Aiken, Uncut, June 1998

Fourth album from singer/songwriter with a fan base of two million. ...

Tori Amos: Her Secret Garden

Interview by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 25 June 1998

With a little help from her faeries, she is doing more than just getting by ...

Dusty Springfield Re-releases

Review by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, July 1998

Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty/Where Am I Going/Songbooks Three more re-releases from the undisputed Queen of UK pop-soul ...

Linda Ronstadt: Everlasting Linda

Profile and Interview by Debbie Kruger, Weekend Australian, 18 July 1998

IT'S SUMMER IN TUCSON, around 38° C, and Linda Ronstadt is sanguine about the waterlilies sprouting in her pond. The rest of the grounds are ...

Mr. Airplane Man: Mississippi Queens: Mr. Airplane Man's Delta dreams

Profile and Interview by Ted Drozdowski, The Boston Phoenix, 31 August 1998

A RAIN’S PEELED the edge off a steamy August night in the Mississippi Delta. But a two-piece jukehouse band are roaring on stage in Clarksdale's ...

Sinead O'Connor: Eyewitness October 1992: America Slays Sinead O'Connor

Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Q, September 1998

Two weeks after tearing up a picture of the pope on Saturday Night Live and receiving a lifetime ban from the US TV show, Sinead ...

Erykah Badu, Indigo Girls, Sarah McLachlan, Natalie Merchant, Billie Myers, Sinéad O'Connor: Sarah McLachlan, The Indigo Girls, Erykah Badu et al: Lilith Fair, Civic Stadium, Portland, Oregon

Live Review by RJ Smith, Spin, September 1998

BEFORE ANYTHING else is said about the opening night of the 57-date Lilith Fair, let's note the nice: The climate at Portland's Civic Stadium was ...

Hole: Celebrity Skin (DGC)

Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 17 September 1998

Courtney Love and Hole make a fiery, flowery return ...

Sheryl Crow

Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Q, October 1998

She hasn't taken heroin and she won't gossip about Eric Clapton, so what will she do? "People have needs," she tells Adrian Deevoy, darkly. ...

Lucinda Williams (1998)

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 2 November 1998

Ms Williams talks about the often-torturous gestation of her magnificent Car Wheels On A Gravel Road album, and about her roots and influences, musical and literary.

File format: mp3; file size: 29.8mb, interview length: 32' 29" sound quality: ** (phoner)

Dar Williams

Interview by Terry Staunton, Uncut, December 1998

"IT'S THE teachers who are to blame, if you ask me. Probably more so than parents, because they're kinda paid to shape young minds — ...

Alanis Morissette: Growing Pains: Alanis Morissette: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (Maverick) ***

Review by Stuart Maconie, Q, December 1998

How do you follow a 28-million seller? Simple, pretend you're Sylvia Plath ...

Nina Simone

Interview by Precious Williams, The Big Issue, December 1998

NINA SIMONE is furious that there is no alcohol left in the house. It's not even 11 o'clock in the morning and yet the 65-year-old ...

Rock’n’Role: Are Singers The New Feminist Icons?

Overview by Lucy O'Brien, The Guardian, 21 December 1998

IN THE US, they call it the Third Wave – a new feminism for a new generation. It is fuelled by popular culture in general ...

Ronnie Spector: Life Club, New York City

Live Review by Evelyn McDonnell, The Village Voice, 29 December 1998

"BRIAN WILSON wrote this song for me," Ronnie Spector said on Wednesday at her annual holiday party at Life, "but because of publishing and contracts ...

The Rolling Stones: Anita Pallenberg (1998)

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, Summer 1998

The one-time consort to Keith Richards talks about the place of the women behind the men in rock'n'roll: the blondes the men went and still go for; the lack of equality in the relationships; feelings of uselessness and lack of support systems, and about Marianne Faithfull, Courtney Love and Yoko Ono.

File format: mp3; file size: 17.8mb, interview length: 18' 30" sound quality: ** (phoner)

Marianne Faithfull, Courtney Love, Oasis, The Rolling Stones: Anita Pallenberg (1998) [transcript]

Audio transcript of interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages transcripts, Summer 1998

This is a transcription of a phone interview. Listen to the audio of this interview.   ...

Marianne Faithfull: An Interview

Interview by Will Self, Independent on Sunday, 1999

THERE'S NOTHING much crasser in life than being told by someone, shortly after you've met them: "You really remind me of so-and-so..." It's bad enough ...

Sheryl Crow: Not Much To Crow About: Sheryl Crow's Rockin The Globe Live (A&M DVD)

Review by Rick McGrath, Culture Court, 1999

I’VE GOT GOOD news and bad news for Sheryl Crow fans. The good news is Sheryl’s in fine voice on this live concert DVD. The ...

Hole: Sleepless in Seattle

Interview by Everett True, Melody Maker, 30 January 1999

It's million-selling records, a 24-hour media circus and a limo in every city for HOLE, but does Courtney Love want even more success? Oh yes... ...

Foxy Brown: Chyna Doll

Review by Evelyn McDonnell, The Village Voice, 2 February 1999

FOX ON THE RUN ...

Dusty Springfield: You Started Something: Dusty Springfield

Profile and Interview by Lucy O'Brien, The Observer, 21 February 1999

Dusty Springfield, now battling with cancer, is finally being recognized as the first queen of Britpop after 40 years in the business. ...

Hole: Courtney Love vs. Everett True

Interview by Everett True, The Stranger, 25 February 1999

THE FOLLOWING are excerpts from a conversation that took place in a hotel room in Seattle, last December after the Hole concert at KeyArena. No ...

Britney Spears: Baby One More Time (Jive)

Review by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, 6 March 1999

I WOULDN'T, actually. Jailbait. Pastels. Popsox. Mall rat. Sure, all the obvious jokes cover up the fact that this is a document of pure venality. ...

Dusty Springfield: My Date with Dusty

Memoir by Sean O'Hagan, The Observer, 7 March 1999

Britain's first lady of soul had chosen us to make what was to be her last video. We'd found the perfect location, we'd borrowed a ...

Kelly Willis: Just Walk Away: Kelly Willis' What I Deserve

Review by RJ Smith, The Village Voice, 13 April 1999

KELLY WILLIS HAS the most uncomfortable-making way of saying "thank you". Live a few weekends ago I heard her say it at least a dozen ...

Sleater-Kinney: The Roxy, Los Angeles

Live Review by Marc Weingarten, Rolling Stone, 15 April 1999

THE THRIFT-shop slummers and the baby-T cutie-pies who crammed the Roxy for Sleater-Kinney's L.A. performance only drove home what's become painfully obvious: This Olympia, Washington, ...

All Saints: Saints Preserve Us

Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 23 April 1999

All Saints keep marching on as Girl Power's most credible models. They talk to Caroline Sullivan about the good side of being bad ...

Missy Elliott: Missy In Action: The Divine Ms. Elliott

Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, May 1999

MISSY "MISDEMEANOR" Elliott is an infamously snappy dresser, so when she emerges from a discreet recess in her LA hotel room wearing nothing more elaborate ...

Karen Dalton: Who Loves You The Best Now?

Retrospective by Max Bell, Sunday Telegraph, 8 May 1999

Karen Dalton was a chronic recluse who died in obscurity. But now she's being hailed as one of the most original folk singers of the ...

Sleater-Kinney: The Garage, London

Live Review by Everett True, Melody Maker, 8 May 1999

"BUT SHE sounds just like Cher," my companion beseeches me, as Sleater-Kinney run through the fine, staccato 'The End Of You' — Corin Tucker's voice ...

Hole, Courtney Love: The Lesson Of Love: Courtney's Got The Hole World In Her Hands

Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 14 May 1999

IT IS A STILL-SLEEPY Courtney Love whose familiar voice comes over the phone line early one morning from Cincinnati. It's the first day of her ...

Britney Spears: Psychobabble

Interview by Ian Watson, Melody Maker, 19 June 1999

"Psychoanalyse me, baby, one more time," she asked, and so it was that Britney Spears ended up on the Psychobabble couch ...

The Dixie Chicks: Dixie Chicks

Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Q, July 1999

Good heavens! It's the bottle-blonde, country Corrs. ...

Cher: The Beat Goes On: For the Fourth Decade in a Row, Cher Hits a High Note

Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 16 July 1999

CHER KNOWS WHAT it means to ride rock and roll's wild roller coaster. Over the years, she has zoomed to the top and plummeted to ...

Geri Halliwell: Pungent Spice: Geri Halliwell: Schizophonic (EMI) ***

Review by Stuart Maconie, Q, August 1999

She's covered all the bases. She hasn't covered them all well. ...

Alison Krauss, Me'Shell Ndegeocello: Sounds of Heartache: Alison Krauss and Me'Shell Ndegeocello

Essay by Geoffrey Himes, Baltimore City Paper, 18 August 1999

IT WOULD BE hard to think of two female singers more different than Alison Krauss and Me'Shell Ndegeocello. Krauss, a straight European-American from the Midwestern ...

Dusty Springfield: 'That Noise Is the Joy…'

Retrospective and Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, AllMusic.com, September 1999

IT WAS just one of those things. I interviewed Dusty Springfield for two hours in Beverly Hills one afternoon in May, 1973, for Rolling Stone. ...

Diana Krall: Sweet Seduction

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 13 September 1999

IT'S MID-MORNING in a quiet hotel restaurant and Diana Krall is having a love affair with an artichoke. ...

The Dixie Chicks, Shedaisy: Dixie Chicks: Fly; Shedaisy: The Whole Shebang

Review by Eric Weisbard, The Village Voice, 15 September 1999

EVERYONE IN NASHVILLE understands that the New Country formula-slick production with a seamless touch of roots and updated suburban family values-isn't enough anymore. ...

L7: L'Amour, Brooklyn NY

Live Review by Evelyn McDonnell, The Village Voice, 28 September 1999

L7 Blow-Up in Brooklyn ...

Cher: Live At Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim, California, August 20th, 1999

Live Review by Erik Himmelsbach, Rolling Stone, 30 September 1999

BY EMBRACING her inner Studio 54, Cher recently landed the biggest hit of her four-decade career with the dance-house thumper ‘Believe’. Her mammoth stage show, ...

Chicks on Speed: Speed Queens!

Profile and Interview by Toby Manning, Jockey Slut, October 1999

MUNICH'S CHICKS ON SPEED: THEY CAN PAINT FAST! ...

Nina Simone: Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

Retrospective by James Maycock, The Independent, 10 November 1999

In the Sixties, Nina Simone's music radically espoused black civil rights. But by the turn of the decade she had rejected politics. Why? ...

Ella Mae Morse, 1924-1999

Obituary by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, December 1999

ELLA MAE MORSE, whose 1942 hit 'Cow-Cow Boogie' became the first million selling disc for Capitol Records, died on October 16th at the Western Arizona ...

Skunk Anansie: Second Skin

Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Telegraph Magazine, Summer 1999

SKIN WALKS into her manager's house in St. John's Wood and immediately shows off her jeans. "I wanted a pair of trousers that go VROOM ...

Ronnie Spector Talks to Rainbows

Report and Interview by Dave Thompson, Alternative Press, Fall 1999

SHE WAS ONE of the voices of the American 60s, the purest element in Phil Spector's Wall Of Sound, the heartbeat of an entire generation's ...

Dolly Parton

Interview by j. poet, Stereotype, 2000

THE MUSIC BUSINESS IS FULL OF ironies and insane contradictions, and Dolly Parton – a savvy businesswoman as well as an all-round entertainer – is ...

Kim Fowley, The Runaways: King of the Nighttime World

Memoir by Kim Fowley, unpublished, 2000

Kim Fowley reveals how L.A. ultravixens the Runaways were formed – and how he helped give birth to Hollywood punk. ...

Samantha Mumba: Gotta Tell You

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 2000

FOLLOW THE ANALOGY: Britney is to McDonald's as Christina is to Burger King, as Jessica is to Wendy's as Mandy is to Dunkin' Donuts or ...

Kelis Doesn't Get Mad, She Gets Even

Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Rolling Stone, 9 March 2000

Hip-hop's current It Girl talks about her reputation, decision-making, and more ...

Kirsty MacColl: Tropical Brainstorm

Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 17 March 2000

Kirsty MacColl's first album since 1994 sees her flirting with Latin rhythms and cliched tourist-brochure lyrics. But, says Caroline Sullivan, it's better than you'd think ...

L7: Manchester University

Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 13 April 2000

Bad grrls live forever ...

Angelica: The Monarch, London

Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 20 April 2000

GIRL POP has rarely been less prepossessing. The choices these days boil down to factory-farmed mannequins like Atomic Kitten or fourth-generation copies of Hole that ...

Britney Spears: Dear Diary: Britney Spears

Comment by Metal Mike Saunders, The Village Voice, 6 June 2000

NOVEMBER 3, 1998, was the release date of the '... Baby One More Time' CD single and 12-inch (w/ 'Autumn Goodbye' on the B side). ...

Jane Bunnett: Our Gal in Havana

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 26 June 2000

SHE'S BEEN CALLED "Havana Jane", and Canada's Jane Bunnett has certainly earned the title. The celebrated jazz flautist and soprano saxophonist has been a familiar ...

Sleater-Kinney: Cockpit, Leeds

Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 26 July 2000

IT’S HARD ENOUGH being a 21st-century, radical feminist post-punk band, but Sleater-Kinney have a further enemy in the sound system. "This is our fourth member," ...

Caroline Coon: Still fighting the bad guys

Profile and Interview by Barbara Ellen, The Observer, 30 July 2000

In the '60s, Caroline Coon was famous for helping people caught in drugs busts. In the '90s she defended her right to paint penises. Now, ...

The Carpenters: Karen Carpenter

Retrospective by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, August 2000

KAREN CARPENTER possesses such iconic value now — feminist totem, camp death-cult, Prozac Nation suffragette — it is increasingly difficult to assess her unique musical ...

Laura Nyro: Oh My Love-Trumpet Soul: Laura Nyro's New York Tendaberry

Retrospective by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, August 2000

AND A GREAT tenderness came forth from the unforgiving streets of the East Side. It's easy to dislike Laura Nyro. Your first requirement is to ...

Rickie Lee Jones: Life On The Edge

Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 26 August 2000

"EVERYBODY," Rickie Lee Jones sang on her 1997 album Ghostyhead, "starts out pure, starts out ridiculous, starts out beautiful..." And then? And then, says Jones ...

Chris Ho: Why Singapore Rocks

Report and Interview by Carol Cooper, Crawdaddy!, September 2000

As an acronym, the term A.S.E.A.N. has become the name of a small regional trade & tourism organization known as the "Association of South East ...

Daphne and Celeste: Daphne & Celeste: "If you stick your tongue out, after a while it tastes like a condom!"

Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 2 September 2000

Daphne & Celeste — social commentators, teen girls bringing a breath of fresh air to the testosterone-charged air of the Carling Weekend. Of course not ...

Joan Osborne: Righteous Love

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 11 September 2000

THE FIRST TIME I turned on the radio and heard 'St. Theresa', (the opening track off Osborne's 1995 release, Relish) I felt branded for life. ...

Peaches: The Teaches Of Peaches (Kitty-Yo)

Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 16 September 2000

THE MUSIC — harsh shards of electronic fuzz, coupled with unforgiving whiplash beats — sounds like ATR's Alec Empire playing lounge music for a San ...

Emmylou Harris: Red hot and no sign of a cowboy

Interview by Tim Cooper, The Evening Standard, 11 October 2000

Forget all those whiney, lovesick singers. Emmylou Harris is the performer who makes country music respectable. Tim Cooper talks to her in New York as ...

Björk, PJ Harvey: Bjork: Selmasongs; PJ Harvey: Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea

Review by Djuna Parnes, Rock's Backpages, December 2000

OUTSIDE OF Kid A, Thom Yorke made two significant cameo appearances in A.D. 2000. Both were on albums by dark, "difficult" women who’ve spearheaded change ...

Emmylou Harris: Ghosts and Angels

Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, December 2000

The spectres of a war hero father and a doomed country troubador haunt her music. Emmylou Harris tells Phil Sutcliffe why she still hasn't found ...

PJ Harvey: Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea

Review by Ian Penman, Uncut, December 2000

Self-produced sixth album is curate's egg ...

Kirsty MacColl

Profile and Interview by Caitlin Moran, The Times, Spring 2000

One of our finest singers is also one of our finest writers, and has been for all of 21 years. Caitlin Moran meets the never ...

Bonnie Tyler

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

b. Gaynor Hopkins, 8 June 1951, Skewen, Wales ...

Cleo Laine

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

b. Clementina Dinah Campbell, 27 October 1928, Middlesex, England ...

Cyndi Lauper

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

b. Cynthia Anne Stephanie Lauper, 22 June 1953, Brooklyn, New York, USA ...

Helen Reddy

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

b. 25 October 1941, Melbourne, Australia ...

Jewel

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

b. Jewel Kilcher, 23 May 1974, Payson, Utah, USA ...

Judy Garland

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

b. Frances Ethel Gumm, 10 June 1922, Grand Rapids, Minnesota, USA, d. 22 June 1969, London, England ...

Peggy Lee

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

b. Norma Egstrom, 26 May 1920, Jamestown, North Dakota, USA ...

All Saints: When The Saints Go Marching Out

Retrospective by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 10 January 2001

THEY'VE BEEN on the verge of it before, but this time it looks as though All Saints are finally splitting up. Caroline Sullivan laments the ...

Dido: What went right?

Profile and Interview by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 29 January 2001

LAST NOVEMBER, 29-year-old Dido Armstrong and her boyfriend Bob were discussing their day at work. Bob had gone to the office and relaxed with a ...

Laura Cantrell: Vulnerable, minimalist Manhattan country

Profile and Interview by Colin Irwin, MOJO, March 2001

NOBODY'S MORE surprised by the wealth of critical and public acclaim for Laura Cantrell than the gently self-deprecating artist herself. ...

Kylie Minogue: Camping with Kylie: Kylie Minogue: Manchester Apollo, Manchester

Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 9 March 2001

HAVING RECOVERED FROM the pretensions of duets with Nick Cave and songwriting with the Manic Street Preachers, Kylie has returned to the fluffy pop we ...

Gina Arnold in the Present Tense

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, April 2001

LOVE HER OR hate her, rock critic Gina Arnold writes from her own point of view. For Arnold, when writing about music, objectivity is thrown ...

Laura Nyro: Songs in the Key of Life: Laura Nyro's Angel in the Dark

Review by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 6 April 2001

THIS ALBUM IS incomplete, but so was Laura Nyro's life. It is the project on which she was working when she died of ovarian cancer ...

Destiny's Child: The Joys Of Child-ish Behaviour

Interview by Precious Williams, The Evening Standard, 23 April 2001

THE SASSIEST girl group in the world are slumped on a sofa lamenting the "awfulness" of how they look. Destiny's Child – Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly ...

Goldfrapp: "The Mercury prize? Oh God, that would be great. I deserve something"

Profile and Interview by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 4 May 2001

Singing sensation Alison Goldfrapp tells Dave Simpson why her time has come. ...

Dido: How Dido did it

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, 20 May 2001

Dido was always an outsider: the girl with ratatouille on rye packed lunches at school, who wished she'd been christened Claire. Now, thanks to an ...

Alanis Morissette: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London

Live Review by David Bennun, Mail On Sunday, June 2001

SAY WHAT YOU like about Alanis Morissette – and I intend to – there's no denying the girl can belt it out. Alone among the ...

Beverley Martyn, John and Beverley Martyn: Been Gone So Long: Beverley Martyn

Retrospective and Interview by Bob Stanley, MOJO, June 2001

After 30 years away from it all, Beverley Martyn is making music again. She speaks to Bob Stanley about her music, friends, enemies and looking ...

Missy Elliott: Rhymes & Misdemeanours: Missy Elliott Gets Her Freak On

Interview by Amy Linden, XXL, July 2001

The expression "It takes a village to raise a child" has quickly morphed from sage African proverb to the Have a Nice Day of social ...

Lil' Kim: Hello Nasty: Lil' Kim: Kentish Town Forum, London

Live Review by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 7 July 2001

THERE'S SUCH A thing as hip-hop time. It doesn't generally apply to gigs, more to long-suffering journalists kept waiting for hours on end for an ...

Björk: The Last Great Pop Star

Interview by Nick Coleman, The Independent, 9 August 2001

She thumps reporters, wears funny clothes and thinks she was born in the wrong century. Now she's made an album about her kitchen. Nick Coleman ...

Madonna: Serious artist, or celebrity hustler?

Comment by Evelyn McDonnell, Times Herald-Record, 25 August 2001

The great Madonna debate: Does she inspire or annoy you? ...

PJ Harvey: Hammerstein Ballroom, New York

Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 3 September 2001

APPARENTLY I'D HEARD correctly — and the critic was the gangling boy behind me, piping up shortly after lead singer Polly Jean Harvey joined her ...

Gabrielle

Profile and Interview by Ian Watson, Sunday Herald, October 2001

SHE DOESN'T SHUT UP. Present Gabrielle with a simple query and her mouth goes into overdrive. She hits the ground sprinting, talking so quickly she ...

Le Tigre: Feminist Sweepstakes (Mr. Lady)

Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, November 2001

OFTEN RADICALS get so entrenched they even distrust their own sense of pleasure. But Kathleen Hanna is such a great rocker that at the very ...

Yoko Ono: Just imagine: Yoko Ono

Interview by Andrew Smith, Observer Music Monthly, 4 November 2001

In the '60s, Yoko Ono married John Lennon and campaigned for peace in Vietnam. More than 30 years on, she's still irrevocably linked to her ...

Garbage: White Trash: Shirley Manson

Interview by Tim Cooper, The Evening Standard, 8 November 2001

Shirley Manson, pop's most famous redhead, has suddenly gone blonde. A new look to match her new outlook. ...

Macy Gray: It's a Macy, Macy world

Profile and Interview by Tim Cooper, The Observer, 18 November 2001

"She's phat, she's tight, she's outta control..." It was supposed to be a routine celebrity interview, but it ended in a jet-ski chase across the ...

Dusty Springfield: The Ultimate Collection

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 3 December 2001

OH, POP MUSIC! One minute, it pushes the envelope wide-wide open, then the next seals it up tight as can be! Such a force it ...

Marianne Faithfull

Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, AnOther Magazine, Fall 2001

ON THE TOP floor of a Georgian townhouse, a punt away from the Lansdowne Road rugby stadium, one of rock's greatest female icons bends down ...

The GTOs: Girl Together Outrageously: Pamela Des Barres

Interview by Ian Fortnam, Classic Rock, 2002

IN CASUAL DEFIANCE of the fact that her fifty-fifth birthday looms large, the Marchioness Des Barres positively radiates rude good health and an undeniably disarming ...

Julie Felix

Retrospective and Interview by Colin Harper, Record Collector, 2002

"HOW CAN WE explain the phenomenon of Julie Felix?" mused Karl Dallas, Melody Maker's titan of folk, in a December 1965 concert review. "Clearly anyone ...

Madonna (2002) [transcript]

Audio transcript of interview by Steven Daly, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 2002

This is a transcript of Steven's audio interview with Madonna. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...

Nico and The Marble Index: A Conversation with Danny Fields

Interview by David Dalton, Gadfly, 2002

WHEN THE MARBLE Index appeared in 1969 it seemed unplaceable, flying out of some timeless place, as if we were hearing from a possessed medieval ...

Dee Dee Bridgewater: Sophisticated Lady: This Is Dee Dee Bridgewater

Interview by James Maycock, Pride, 2002

"DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER is very effervescent and very energetic and very optimistic and very positive," I'm informed. "Dee Dee Bridgewater has consumed my life." ...

Mary Chapin Carpenter/Anne Lamott: Royce Hall, UCLA

Live Review by Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 28 January 2002

THE PAIRING OF author and singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter at UCLA's Royce Hall on Saturday could have gone any number of ways. ...

Alicia Keys: Rock Me Amadeus

Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, February 2002

It's a long way from New York's 42nd Street to the 44th annual Grammy Awards. But after seven years of juggling Harlem street life, fractious ...

Kelly Hogan: Because It Feel Good

Review by j. poet, Country Music, February 2002

LET YOUR MIND wander back about years ago, to a recording studio noted for churning out reverb-drenched country, pop and rhythm and blues. ...

Duffy: Rockferry

Review by Gavin Martin, Daily Mirror, 29 February 2002

DO YOU EVER get the feeling that the British music industry runs on a slightly unimaginative copycat pattern? ...

Marianne Faithfull: Rock Steady

Report and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Vogue, March 2002

ON A DAMP December afternoon in bucolic Buckinghamshire, a legendary female icon of the '60s is leading her Noughties counterpart down the garden path. Literally. ...

Charli Baltimore: No more drama

Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, XXL, April 2002

Refocused and full of determination, Charli says she's got what it takes to rock the mic right. B.I.G.'s former mistress, Ms. B-More, has returned to ...

The Creatures, Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie Sioux: An Interview

Interview by Paul Mathur, This is not Retro, May 2002

I GUESS THE OBVIOUS QUESTION IS WHY ARE THE BANSHEES BACK, AND HOW DID THAT COME ABOUT? ...

The Go-Go's: The Fab Femme Five

Retrospective and Interview by Paul Elliott, Q, May 2002

Long before girl-band conveyor-belt pop and mainstream stardom for their mucky singer Belinda Carlisle, there was "the world's best female band" The Go-Go's. Meet the ...

Pink: Go Ahead Pink, Make Our Day!

Comment by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 4 May 2002

Be afraid Britney, Gwen and Kylie: there's only one candidate to be the new Madonna ...

Mariah Carey: Greatest Hits

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 8 May 2002

THERE'S A popular mythology out there that says that certain things–like pop divas and Fortune 500 companies–never die. ...

Le Tigre: King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow

Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 2 June 2002

LONG AGO, IN ANOTHER LIFE, I got into a spot of bother after beginning a review of Bikini Kill/Huggy Bear's shared album with the semi-humourously ...

Shakira: Colombian Gold

Interview by Ted Kessler, The Observer, 14 July 2002

As a schoolgirl she drove the nuns crazy with her belly dancing, now she's got the world gyrating. Ted Kessler meets Shakira, the Colombian superstar ...

Linda Thompson: Miserable Old Sod Linda Thompson Returns as Exquisitely Sad as Ever

Interview by Mac Randall, New York Observer, 29 July 2002

THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE who say that Linda Thompson is the greatest female rock singer alive. I'm not one of them-partly because I think her ...

Sleater-Kinney: One Beat

Review by John Aizlewood, The Guardian, 16 August 2002

THE RATHER inglorious tradition of shouty punk women began with the Slits, but trio Sleater-Kinney take their cue from long-forgotten compatriots Ut, whose celebration of ...

Beth Orton: Daybreaker

Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, September 2002

Third album from Norfolk singer-songwriter, featuring numerous collaborators. ...

Alison Krauss: Let Me Touch You For A While: Alison Krauss Creates Intimacy Amongst the Disenfranchised

Essay by Holly Gleason, Rock's Backpages, 16 September 2002

THERE IT WAS ONE DAY – propped against my doorway in West Hollywood – a plain brown cardboard box like so many others. Anonymous. Almost ...

LeAnn Rimes, Saint Etienne, Holly Valance: Holly Valance: Footsteps/LeAnn Rimes: Twisted Angel/Saint Etienne: Finisterre

Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 11 October 2002

BEFORE BOY BANDS began breeding it was singing soap stars who were the plankton of pop. ...

Björk: “In England they think I'm one of the Teletubbies”: Björk

Interview by Paul Lester, The Guardian, 25 October 2002

Björk looks back on two decades of music, fame and scrapping with the media. ...

Anoushka Shankar: Pleasing herself, as well as Dad

Interview by Kris Nicholson, Record, 8 November 2002

Anoushka Shankar, at 21, has had a life full of music ...

Christina Aguilera: Has Anyone Seen Christina?

Interview by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 14 November 2002

Because all we can find is Xtina, with her explosive beats, body piercings and broken glass.  ...

Pink: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 15 November 2002

THERE WERE TWO types of female fan at Pink's Brixton Academy gig. ...

Missy Elliott, Hil St. Soul, Shania Twain: Shania Twain: Up!; Missy Elliott: Under Construction; Hil St Soul: Copasetik & Cool

Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 22 November 2002

Why settle for the pleasantly inoffensive tunes of Shania Twain when Missy Elliott and her posse are busy rewriting the hip-hop rulebook. ...

Ani DiFranco: Blowin' in a New Wind

Essay by Gene Santoro, The Nation, 26 November 2002

AS THE 2002 election results came in, I surfed through 100 cable channels with nothing on and hit an infomercial hosted by John Sebastian for ...

Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, Martine McCutcheon: Jennifer Lopez: This is Me… Then/Mariah Carey: Charmbracelet/Martine McCutcheon: Musicality

Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 29 November 2002

ON HER NEW album, Jennifer Lopezhas cannily mixed her real life romance with her music. So listening to This is Me… Then feels a little ...

Shania Twain: Up! Is A Direction: Shania Twain’s New CD(s)

Review by Rick McGrath, Culture Court, December 2002

More Of The Same Old, But I Give It A 10 For Marketing Moxie, Dick! ...

Etta James: I'm Only Sleeping

Retrospective by Andria Lisle, MOJO, December 2002

"SOMETHING TOLD ME IT WAS OVER/When I saw you and here talking/Something deep down in my soul said, 'Cry, girl'/When I saw you and that ...

Avril Lavigne, Pink: Riot Girls

Report and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 9 December 2002

Goodbye cheerleaders, hello snarling, smoking punks. Dorian Lynskey on how Pink! made teen pop grow up ...

Shakira: Latin Chancer

Profile by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 14 December 2002

Shakira should forget the political posturing, says Lisa Verrico, and stick to what she does best — making music and looking good. ...

Shakira: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 17 December 2002

NO MATTER where you sat in Wembley Arena on Monday night, you were never far from open-mouthed men trying not to drool at this year's ...

Alicia Keys: Alicia in Wonderland

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Inside Entertainment, Summer 2002

SHE HAS THE hooks and the looks – and depth and diversity too. Barely out of her teens, Alicia Keys may be the most sophisticated ...

The Runaways: Runaways: The Runaways/Queens Of Noise/Live In Japan/Waitin' For The Night

Review and Interview by Ian Fortnam, Classic Rock, 2003

UNTIL THE ADVENT of Sunset Strip cherry bombers The Runaways, all-girl rock bands were invariably self-consciously butch and hairy apparitions with names like Birtha and ...

John Lennon, Yoko Ono: Yoko Ono: A 1992 Interview

Book Excerpt by Paul Zollo, 'Songwriters on Songwriting' (rev. edn, Da Capo), 2003

IT WAS A SAD and a little spooky to walk into the Dakota on this dark and rainy winter night, an evening not unlike the ...

Fanny: First Time In A Long Time – The Reprise Records

Review by Gillian G. Gaar, MOJO, January 2003

First time on CD for all four studio albums in a set that finally heeds David Bowie's cry: "Revivify Fanny! And I will feel that ...

Queen Latifah: Queen of Hearts

Interview by Amy Linden, Heart & Soul, January 2003

As rap's first lady, small-screen trailblazer and emerging Hollywood star, Queen Latifah, anyone would admit, has opened doors where there were none. But here, in ...

Mira Calix, Vivian Green, Norah Jones, Terri Walker: After Norah

Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 10 March 2003

Norah Jones's Grammy-grabbing success has opened the floodgates for young, female singer-songwriters like Terri Walker, Vivian Green and Mira Calix ...

Janis Ian: An interview

Interview by Carl Wiser, Songfacts, 14 March 2003

JANIS IAN released her first song, 'Society's Child', in 1967 when she was 15. The famous record producer Shadow Morton wasn't interested until Janis set ...

Avril Lavigne: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 30 March 2003

THE THINGS YOU hear on trains. There I was, upgraded to Weekend First a couple of years ago (eight quid, but it was a long ...

Macy Gray: Outlandish, outrageous and utterly original

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Inside Entertainment, April 2003

THE HIGH PRIESTESS of Freak is looking suspiciously like a Volvo-Driving Soccer Mom. ...

Shania Twain

Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Blender, April 2003

She was singing in bars at age eight. She lived for Supertramp. And she married the world's most successful hair-metal producer. So how on Earth ...

Lil' Kim: La Bella Mafia (Atlantic)

Review by Chris Roberts, Uncut, June 2003

Rapper-turned-actress hams her way through third album ...

Nina Simone: Always Searching for a Key

Obituary by Ian Penman, The Wire, June 2003

The realisation that she was black in a country run by whites, a woman in a world run by men, turned Nina Simone into the ...

Rosanne Cash: Rosanne's Rules

Report and Interview by j. poet, Paste, 15 June 2003

"I'M NOT A militant female songwriter, and I wouldn't want to be considered some kind of new age uber-feminist," Rosanne Cash says. "But having said that, ...

Liz Phair: Ex-indie rock queen is back on the scene

Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Miami Herald, 22 June 2003

IT HAS BEEN 10 years since Liz Phair first shocked the prudish world of independent rock with the frank sexual confessions of her debut album, ...

Björk: The Wild One

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Word, July 2003

"I LOVE HIM, I love him, I love him, I love him/ This time, I'm gonna keep it to myself." Björk is swaying as she ...

June Carter Cash, 1929-2003

Obituary by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, July 2003

A country matriarch says goodbye. ...

Northern State: Dying in Stereo EP

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 1 July 2003

THE FIRST THAT you'll read about Northern State in just about any review are their stats – these are three 20-something women who are from ...

Blondie, Debbie Harry: Blondie's Debbie Harry (2003)

Interview by Chris Roberts, Rock's Backpages audio, 7 July 2003

Elle ne regrette rien: La Harry on Blondie then and now, NYC then and now, on art and movies, on Chris Stein, and on the latest Blondie album The Curse of Blondie

File format: mp3; file size: 67.8meg, interview length: 1h 10' 40" sound quality: **

Mary J. Blige: The Ballad Of Mary J

Interview by Precious Williams, Scotland on Sunday, 31 August 2003

MARY J BLIGE'S daunting reputation as a volatile, prickly diva has always threatened to eclipse her extraordinary vocal talent. Legend has it that her record ...

Madonna: The Early Days

Retrospective and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, September 2003

"SHE'LL BE BIGGER than Olivia Newton John!" That's what incandescent young A&R man Michael Rosenblatt told his boss, Sire Records founder-owner Seymour Stein back in ...

Dido: Soup with Dido

Interview by David Quantick, The Word, September 2003

DIDO LIVES in Islington, along with half the Labour Party, the entire cast of EastEnders and the late Arthur Mullard, who used to sit outside ...

Pink: Missundaztood (Arista)

Review by Todd L. Burns, Stylus, 1 September 2003

WHO WOULDA THUNK IT? Pink, much like Vitamin C, seemed to have one interesting portion to her image. The music was capable, but the lyrics ...

She Bop II: Rock Chicks Fight Back

Comment by Lucy O'Brien, The Guardian, 13 September 2003

Lucy O'Brien reflects on her monumental history of the music business ...

It's A Family Affair

Report by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 25 September 2003

Juggling a baby and a career is difficult enough for anyone – but how do you manage it when you're a pop star? Caroline Sullivan ...

Mis-Teeq: Hammersmith Apollo, London

Live Review by Ian Watson, Yahoo! Music, October 2003

THE BEST bits, as with their often startling appearances on daytime radio, are when they mutate suddenly. ...

Tywanna Jo Baskette: A Profile

Profile and Interview by j. poet, Harp, October 2003

NASHVILLE-BASED Tywanna Jo Baskette lives the life she sings about. ...

Thea Gilmore: "It's sad the lengths girls go to, pouting on the cover of their CD"

Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 23 October 2003

Thea Gilmore has released five albums, received rave reviews and turned down endless offers from major labels. And she's still only 23. She talks to ...

Macy Gray, Mya: Macy Gray: The Trouble With Being Myself/Mya
: Moodring


Review by Carol Cooper, The Village Voice, 24 October 2003

BOTH WOMEN crouch nearly nude on their album covers, gazing with feral yet somehow fetal reproach at potential consumers, like naughty fairy changelings who've had ...

Liz Phair's slick new sound has shocked her fans

Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 26 October 2003

IMAGINE PJ HARVEY recording with Pete Waterman, or Bjork co-writing songs with one of Simon Fuller's stable of top pop tunesmiths. Weird, and not in ...

Rah Digga: Da unbreakable

Interview by Amy Linden, XXL, November 2003

She's the rare female MC who's known for her jaw-dropping lyrics — not the thing between her legs. That's why we love Digga, Digga … ...

Kylie Minogue: The Butt Stops Here

Comment by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 19 November 2003

So she's 35, but does that really mean Kylie should cover up, asks Caroline Sullivan ...

Pink: Killer Queen: Pink: Try This (Arista/BMG) ****

Review by Dan Gennoe, Q, December 2003

Come in, Madonna, your time is finally up ...

Nelly Furtado: Folklore

Review by Will Hermes, Spin, December 2003

POP RADIO is so appalling that even a modest charmer like Nelly Furtado's 'I'm Like a Bird' makes you kneel in gratitude. ...

Nelly Furtado: Looking back to go forward

Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 6 December 2003

Pressured by the expectations for her new album, Nelly Furtado dug into her Latin roots for inspiration, she tells Lisa Verrico. ...

Michelle McManus: The stars in our eyes

Comment by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 30 December 2003

Pop Idol winner Michelle McManus may claim to be happy with her size, but pop's obsession with image could well put an end to that, ...

Mary Lou Williams: Linda Dahl: Morning Glory – A Biography of Mary Lou Williams

Book Excerpt by Gene Santoro, 'Highway 61 Revisited...', 2004

MARY LOU WILLIAMS was the first girl who really made it into the boys' club that was (and mostly still is) jazz. Sure, girl singers ...

Dolly Parton: Mother's Pride: Various: Just Because I'm A Woman: Songs Of Dolly Parton ****

Review and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, January 2004

A dozen brilliant women with a stirring reminder that the beloved boob flaunter and wacky wig wearer is a truly great songwriter. ...

Tori Amos: Why does Tori Amos want to penetrate the patriarchy?

Interview by Sylvia Patterson, The Word, January 2004

TORI AMOS SWOOPS into the London hotel room like a friendly bat, huge black rectangles of silken cloth dangling from the sleeves of an interesting ...

Rickie Lee Jones: The Devil in Miss Jones

Profile and Interview by Andy Gill, The Independent, 16 January 2004

Rickie Lee Jones has always had her demons - and now she's living in the America of George Bush and Jeffrey Dahmer. ...

The Distillers: The Ballad of Brody Dalle

Interview by Sylvia Patterson, The Face, February 2004

Just as they're about to make it huge, The Distillers are in the middle of a bitter punk-rock feud. The LA punk scene's split down ...

The Distillers, Peaches: The Distillers and Peaches: When Brody met Peaches...

Interview by Ben Myers, Kerrang!, February 2004

THEY MAY have only met once before but within thirty second of being re-introduced backstage at London's Brixton Academy it's clear that Brody Dalle and ...

Beyoncé: The Solid Gold, Super Fly Destiny of Beyoncé

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Inside Entertainment, February 2004

SHE'S YOUNG, GIFTED and black. She's also devout, hard-working and extremely fly. ...

Melissa Etheridge: Hitched, Happy, and On Tour

Interview by Bonnie J. Morris, Gay & Lesbian Review, The , March 2004

MELISSA ETHERIDGE has been a lesbian rock icon since 1988, when audiences who had not heard her at clubs and women's music festivals grabbed her ...

Pink: Shocking Pink

Interview by Ian Watson, The Evening Standard, 18 March 2004

She nearly killed herself with drugs, but now pop's wild child has cleaned up her act. As she prepares to play Wembley, Pink tells Ian ...

Anastacia (2004)

Interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages audio, 19 March 2004

The big-voiced gal talks about her joust with breast cancer, her friendship with Elton John, and her latest album Anastacia.

File format: mp3; total file size: 32.3mb, total interview length: 35' 18" sound quality: ****

Katy Rose

Profile and Interview by Robin Eggar, The Sunday Times, 21 March 2004

Don't expect "goofy love songs" from Katy Rose: this 17-year-old Californian is proud to show her dark side. ...

Norah Jones: Don't Fence Me In

Profile and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, April 2004

Success Nearly Cost Norah Jones Her Sanity. Now She's Back – Stronger, Wiser And Ready To Do Things Her Way. ...

Alanis Morissette (2004)

Interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages audio, May 2004

On relationships, lesbianism and androgyny, predatory older men, sex, fear of and desire for fame, anxiety attacks, therapy and medication, the whole nine yards.

File format: mp3; total file size: 32.8mb, total interview length: 35' 49" sound quality: ***

PJ Harvey

Profile and Interview by Ian Watson, Rolling Stone (Australia), May 2004

THE DAY PJ HARVEY turned thirty something clicked in her head. She spent her twenties fighting against herself, trying to quash the parts of her ...

Joanna Newsom: The Milk-Eyed Mender (Drag City)

Review by Richard Gehr, The Village Voice, 4 May 2004

THE INCREDIBLE String Band's cryptic whimsy and Vashti Bunyan's beautiful balladry have quietly resurfaced in a bushel of great new bands, and especially so, it seems, ...

Cher's Farewell Tour: Glasgow SECC

Live Review by Kathryn Flett, The Observer, 16 May 2004

"WILL IT START when all the people with tickets are in?" whispers the girl seated behind me at the Glasgow SECC, venue for the first ...

Amy Winehouse: Concorde 2, Brighton ****

Review and Interview by Paul Elliott, Q, July 2004

Meet the hotshot jazz chanteuse you couldn't take home to mum. ...

Angie Stone: Stone Love

Review by Lucy O'Brien, MOJO, August 2004

Subtle licks and straight talking on the South Carolina neo-soul songstress's third solo album. ...

Carly Simon: Reflections – Carly Simon's Greatest Hits

Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, August 2004

THIS IS THE fifth Carly compilation in less than ten years (and, yes, one was imaginatively entitled Nobody Does It Better), during which time she ...

Laura Branigan, 1952-2004

Obituary by Dave Laing, The Guardian, 31 August 2004

LAURA BRANIGAN, who has died of a brain aneurysm aged 47, was a powerful singer with a five-octave range who in an earlier generation would ...

Carly Simon: Anticipation

Review by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, September 2004

PRE-"YOU’RE SO Vain" and pre-marriage-to-James-Taylor, the leggy and large-mouthed Park Avenue Jewess made two pleasant 1971 albums of melodiously laid-back adult pop. LA-flavoured and sprinkled ...

Joanna Newsom: Daydream Believer

Profile and Interview by Frances Morgan, Plan B, September 2004

Joanna Newsom is a new kind of folk heroine, plucking out spells and lullabies on 46 thrumming strings. ...

Marine Girls: An Interview

Retrospective and Interview by Everett True, Plan B, September 2004

20 years ago, Marine Girls made two albums of beautifully minimal girly pop based round a shared love for flapjacks, Young Marble Giants and the ...

Estelle: "The only way I'm going on the cover of FHM is in a body bag"

Interview by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 27 September 2004

Estelle, the loudest new voice in hip-hop, talks to Dave Simpson ...

Melissa Auf Der Maur, Hole: Melissa Auf Der Maur

Interview by Ian Fortnam, Classic Rock, October 2004

The one-time Hole bass player and now solo performer talks about Courtney Love, Billy Corgan, her music, her musical upbringing, and where destiny has taken ...

Nancy Sinatra: An Interview

Interview by Ken Scrudato, Filter, October 2004

SOME VELVET MORNING (or evening, perhaps) back in 1940, a child was born of a very, very famous father. SHE was doubtless a vision of ...

Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears: Battle of the pop babes: Britney Spears' Greatest Hits; Kylie Minogue's Ultimate Kylie

Review by Kathryn Flett, The Observer, 17 October 2004

IT'S OBVIOUSLY entirely unfair to treat the popular artistes Kylie Minogue and Britney Spears as conjoined twins, forcing them to share the same review (would ...

Millie Jackson: An Interview

Interview by Lois Wilson, Record Collector, November 2004

Lois Wilson meets the queen of X-rated soul ...

Sandie Shaw: Nothing Comes Easy (EMI)

Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, December 2004

AS STAGE GIMMICKS go, not wearing shoes is a pretty lame one, but it's what the tabloids of the '60s would inevitably focus on when ...

Judee Sill: Heart Food and Dark Peace: Judee Sill

Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, The Observer, 12 December 2004

This is an expanded version of "The Lost Child", published in The Observer Music Monthly. ...

Alicia Keys: Shining Star

Profile and Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, XXL Hip Hop Soul, Spring 2004

She bodied the sophomore jinx in one week, proving that ALICIA KEYS ain't goin' nowhere no time soon. Walk with the New York songbird through ...

Madonna

Retrospective by Dan Gennoe, Q Icons, Fall 2004

THE EXECUTIVES at MTV must have thought God himself was shining a light on them. In 1984, for the first Video Music Awards, they needed ...

Dolly Parton (2005) [transcript]

Audio transcript of interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 2005

This is a transcription of Gavin's audio interview with Dolly. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...

Mary J. Blige (2005) [transcript]

Audio transcript of interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 2005

This is a transcription of Gavin's audio interview with Mary J. Blige. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...

Shakira (2005) [transcript]

Audio transcript of interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 2005

This is a transcription of Gavin's audio interview with Shakira. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...

Marianne Faithfull: Marianne Faithful: Strong Poison

Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Harp, January 2005

INITIALLY MORE infamous than famous, Marianne Faithfull was known more for her extraordinary beauty and her liaison with Mick Jagger than she was for her ...

Debbie Harry: Encounter with a Stiletto: Debbie Harry in 1974

Memoir by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, February 2005

EVERY TIME Bob Gruen called me he’d open the conversation with "What’s happening, man?" Of course it was me who should have been posing the ...

Marianne Faithfull

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, February 2005

Wooed by Dylan, ripped off by Jagger, too hardcore for Burroughs. A drug addict who recovered to make grainy, dramatic music rife with sex and ...

Lydia Lunch: The Bottom Line: Everett True meets Lydia Lunch

Interview by Everett True, Plan B, February 2005

"I ALWAYS BRING my prophylactic along on touragainst other people's germs — the mic cover. If you smell mics, you know why. They're raunchy. When ...

The Slits: The Distaff Side of Punk - The Slits Re-Released at Last

Retrospective by Mac Randall, New York Observer, 14 February 2005

IF YOU ASK PEOPLE to name the most influential punk-rock bands of all time – even people who boast scarily high levels of pop-culture awareness ...

Joni Mitchell

Retrospective by Jim Irvin, The Word, March 2005

NINE WAS A memorable age for Roberta Joan Anderson. Three things occurred that year, more than 50 years ago, which affect her to this day: ...

Françoise Hardy: What was the message Dylan sent Françoise Hardy halfway through his Paris concert?

Interview by Mark Ellen, The Word, March 2005

A BLUSTERY STROLL from the Champs Elysée, past the upscale delicatessens of 17ème District, across the deep-pile foyer of a high-security apartment block and you're ...

Avril Lavigne: O Sister, What Art Thou?

Interview by Tim Cooper, The Independent, 11 March 2005

Teenage girls can't resist Avril Lavigne's sulky-teen pose. So Tim Cooper decides to let his daughter interrogate the pop princess. ...

Dido, KT Tunstall: Dido et al: Music to Watch Girls Buy

Overview by Pete Paphides, The Times, 25 March 2005

Our correspondent casts a weather eye over the fleet of female singer-songwriters floating their sonic pedalos in the wake of Dido's mighty MOR steamship ...

Lady Sovereign: Cargo, London

Live Review by Sophie Heawood, The Guardian, 30 March 2005

THE PROBLEM with turning your life into your career is that you never get a day off. This irony dawns on Lady Sovereign tonight, as ...

Judee Sill: Spirited Away

Retrospective by Mick Houghton, Uncut, April 2005

UNTIL RECENTLY, Judee Sill and her two Asylum albums were all but forgotten. Her story is so tragic as to be nearly unbelievable, the antithesis ...

Laura Nyro: Lady Lightning: Laura Nyro

Retrospective by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 2 April 2005

"EXPERIENCED A catastrophe so profound that its effects would never quite fade" (Laura Nyro) ...

M.I.A.: Fighting talk

Interview by Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 22 April 2005

She's a revolutionary's daughter and her music oozes attitude. Dorian Lynskey meets MIA. ...

Kathryn Williams: Over Fly Over

Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 7 May 2005

KATHRYN WILLIAMS is one of those artists for whom a Mercury nomination – for her 2000 debut Little Black Numbers – brought a level of ...

Sleater-Kinney: The Power Of Three

Interview by Everett True, Plan B, June 2005

Seven albums in, trailblazing Olympia trio Sleater-Kinney still feel like punk rock ruffians. ...

Sleater-Kinney: The Gamblers: Sleater-Kinney Makes A Stab At Greatness With Its Ambitious New Album

Report and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Baltimore City Paper, 22 June 2005

RARE IS THE punk-rock band that makes its best music 11 years after starting. Few punk bands even make it to the 11-year mark and ...

Patti Smith's Horses at Meltdown: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Tim Cooper, The Independent, 27 June 2005

PATTI SMITH IS standing alone on the stage reciting the poem that describes her teenage dream to escape a blue-collar production line ("Inspecting pipe, 40 ...

Shannon McNally: No Bones About It

Profile and Interview by John Morthland, No Depression, 30 June 2005

THIS IS A STORY about new beginnings, or at least about keepin' on keepin' on. Or maybe it's about, as some really pissed-off wit once ...

Yoko Ono: Profile: Yoko Ono, 70, New York City, N.Y.

Profile and Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Harp, July 2005

YOKO ONO is diminutive in size, but huge in spirit. A fearless avatar, she will attempt anything whether it’s topping the Billboard charts as a ...

Lil' Kim: The Naked Truth (Atlantic)

Review by Dan Gennoe, dotmusic.co.uk, 29 September 2005

IF TIMING IS everything, Lil' Kim's couldn't be much worse. ...

Ms Dynamite: Judgement Days

Review by Ian Watson, Yahoo! Music, October 2005

WHEN MS DYNAMITE'S debut album was dismissed by some critics in 2002 as "tiresome finger-wagging", it seemed the erstwhile Niomi McLean-Daley was getting a rough ...

Patti Smith: Dome, Brighton

Live Review by Everett True, Plan B, October 2005

HOW COOL IS this intoxication? She struts onstage dressed like a goddamn old-fashioned rock'n'roll star in her man's jacket and dirty boots. She pirouettes a ...

Kate Bush: Return of the Recluse

Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Independent on Sunday, 2 October 2005

PLENTY HAS HAPPENED in the twelve years since Kate Bush last released an album. Tory sleaze has morphed into New Labour; mobile phones and iPods ...

Liz Phair: Is All Phair In Rock 'N' Roll?

Interview by Bob Mehr, Harp, November 2005

THE PENINSULA HOTEL is an elegant, bordering on ostentatious, spot in the heart of Chicago's Magnificent Mile. As the concierge and desk staff scurry about ...

Liz Phair: Who Does Liz Phair Think She Is?

Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Blender, November 2005

TELL US ABOUT YOUR SELF-PORTRAIT. WHO IS PRINCESS SCRIBBLY? ...

Madonna: Famous for being more famous than famous: Madonna and other icons

Comment by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 4 November 2005

Our writer muses on the qualities that separate the icon from the merely great. ...

Corinne Bailey Rae : Corinne Bailey Rae: 'I Was Speechless, Just Squeaking!'

Interview by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 11 November 2005

Burt Bacharach thinks she's fabulous, and Jools Holland said her voice made him melt. Dave Simpson meets Corinne Bailey Rae, the singer they are calling ...

Madonna: Looks Good on the Dancefloor

Interview by Simon Garfield, Observer Music Monthly, 20 November 2005

With 'Hung Up' at number one and her new album also set to storm to the top of the charts, Madonna has taken back her ...

CocoRosie: Scala, London

Live Review by Ian Watson, Yahoo! Music, December 2005

THE BLOKE in the audience isn't impressed. "Where's CocoRosie then?" he shouts. "Who the fuck are you?" Just about visible to the crowd on ground ...

Kiki Dee: Dee Liberation

Interview by Lois Wilson, Record Collector, December 2005

Kiki Dee on working with Motown, Elton John and Boots The Chemist. ...

Au Pairs: Stepping Out of Line

Retrospective and Interview by Kieron Tyler, MOJO, March 2006

THE MIDDLE OF the first decade of the 21st century has seen a reappraisal of the music which followed punk. Not an academic, clinical exercise, ...

Saffire – The Uppity Blues Women: Deluxe Edition

Review by Carol Cooper, The Village Voice, 24 March 2006

IF YOU BUY only one acoustic blues album this year, why not a best-of from a self-affirming trio of feisty females? ...

Dusty Springfield: The Invention of Dusty Springfield

Retrospective and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Independent, 26 March 2006

Mary O'Brien was born with the voice that would make her our greatest female pop singer, but everything else that went to make the icon ...

Candi Staton (2006) [transcript]

Audio transcript of interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages transcripts, April 2006

This is a transcript of Gavin's audio interview with Candi. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...

Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan: When Beauty Met the Beast

Profile and Interview by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 21 April 2006

What happened when Isobel Campbell teamed up with the wild man of rock, Mark Lanegan? The result, says Laura Barton, could make her Queen of ...

Martha Wainwright: Fire in her belly

Profile and Interview by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 22 May 2006

She grew up in one of folk's first families and tried to resist following them into a musical career. But then Martha Wainwright fell in ...

Jackie DeShannon: Jackie de Shannon: Majestic DeShannon

Retrospective and Interview by Kieron Tyler, MOJO, June 2006

Jackie Deshannon — Folk Rock Pioneer, Chart Artist and Songwriter of Renown ...

Shirley Bassey: Cardiff International Arena

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, June 2006

SHE MAY BE OLDER than John Prescott and camper than Liberace, but Dame Shirley Bassey's sold-out homecoming show in Cardiff on Tuesday was greeted with ...

Martha Wainwright: Bloomsbury Theatre, London

Live Review by Tim Cooper, The Independent, 1 June 2006

THIS WAS AN evening that lent fresh meaning to the term "intimate" – and, for that matter, "spontaneous". It made you feel like you'd been ...

Pink: P!nk

Interview by Barbara Ellen, The Observer, 4 June 2006

"Opinionated" barely begins to cover it. Barbara Ellen meets the ballsy, bolshy pop star who has refreshingly barbed advice for Prince William, the Queen, shallow ...

Paul McCartney: Lady Madonna: In defence of Heather Mills-McCartney

Comment by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 15 June 2006

IN THE WEEK in which Lady McCartney has been accused of being, quite literally, a lying whore, I hope it is of some small comfort ...

Nelly Furtado: Loose

Review by Will Hermes, Entertainment Weekly, 19 June 2006

POP STARS generally xerox other acts' looks and hooks — it's expedient, and it works. But Nelly Furtado's multiplatinum 2000 album, Whoa, Nelly! (which included ...

Lily Allen: The Sound Of The (Garden) Suburbs

Interview by Jude Rogers, The Word, July 2006

Lily Allen makes urban music with a difference — she's had a life she can't complain about. And via MySpace and a daily blog she's built ...

Spice Girls: The Spice Girls: It Was a Power Trip

Retrospective by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 14 July 2006

Ten years after the release of the first Spice Girls album, our writer argues that the social legacy of "girl power" is still with us. ...

Cerys Matthews: Ballad of the born-again pop star

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 22 July 2006

Things got so bad for Cerys Matthews in the '90s that she broke down on stage. But a new life in rural Nashville has revitalised ...

Dusty Springfield: Complete As and Bs

Review by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, August 2006

OF ALL THE overused terms that blight today’s pop culture, "icon" surely grates the most. In these inane post-Warhol times, everybody is an icon and ...

Bonnie Raitt: Red Hot Mama

Profile by Jason Gross, Creative Loafing, 3 August 2006

ARE THERE ANY active old-school divas that we can still look up to? Cher? Retired. Tina Turner? Retired. Barbara Streisand? Her too. Joni Mitchell? Yep. ...

Joanna Newsom

Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Telegraph Magazine, September 2006

EVERY TIME Joanna Newsom walks into her house she has cause to reflect on the ways that nature encroaches on human affairs. "I think there ...

Amy Winehouse: Back to Black (Island)*****

Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 27 October 2006

SHE'S A BRAVE lass, Amy Winehouse. It's rare to find any artist changing their approach between albums, and virtually unknown if their debut was a ...

The Dixie Chicks: Dixie Chicks: United Centre, Chicago

Live Review by Bob Mehr, MOJO, November 2006

President-baiting Texans gain new fans but lose musical momentum. ...

All Saints: Saintlier than thou

Interview by Barbara Ellen, The Observer, 5 November 2006

Older and wiser after their acrimonious split, Britain's bitchiest girl group are back together — as friends, mums and bandmates. ...

Courtney Love: Love, Actually

Profile and Interview by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 9 November 2006

Courtney Love was rejected by her parents at 9, raised in institutions and grew into the wild woman of rock. Our correspondent spent the weekend ...

Joanna Newsom: It's a Thin Line…

Profile and Interview by James Medd, Esquire, December 2006

From Bush to Bjork, pop's greatest women have always divided audiences. Joanna Newsom knows it – and she doesn't care. ...

The Dixie Chicks: The Playboy Interview

Interview by Alan Light, Playboy, December 2006

IT IS MARCH 10, 2003. The Dixie Chicks – Natalie Maines, Emily Robison and Martie Maguire – are playing an SRO show in London at ...

Lily Allen, Joanna Newsom, Amy Winehouse: Year Of The Woman

Overview by Jude Rogers, New Statesman, 11 December 2006

At the beginning of 2006, the prospects looked bleak for strong, idiosyncratic female pop acts. Jude Rogers meets three remarkable artists who changed all that ...

Judee Sill: A Brief Life, an Enduring Musical Impression

Retrospective by Tim Page, The Washington Post, 30 December 2006

ON THE DAY after Thanksgiving 1979, Judee Sill, a 35-year-old, deeply depressed and physically broken singer-songwriter, took an overdose of opiates and cocaine in her ...

Neko Case: The Singer and the Song

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, SOCAN Words and Music, Summer 2006

FOR YEARS, Neko Case has been hailed as a siren, a honky-tonk angel with a stunning contralto described variously as "eerie," "luscious," "transcendent" and "the ...

Bobbie Gentry: Mystery Girl: The Forgotten Artistry of Bobbie Gentry

Retrospective by Holly George-Warren, 'Listen Again' (Duke University Press), 2007

SHE'S BEEN called the J.D. Salinger of rock & roll. Mississippi-born singer/songwriter/guitarist/producer Bobbie Gentry is every bit as mysterious as the steamy, Delta-flavored story-song she ...

Jessica Simpson: A Public Affair

Review by Dan Gennoe, dotmusic.co.uk, February 2007

IF WISHING MADE it so, Jessica Simpson would be the biggest pop star on the planet. ...

Everything But The Girl, Tracey Thorn: Tracey Thorn: Everything and More

Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 24 February 2007

Tracey Thorn is the voice of Everything But The Girl, one of pop's most enduring partnerships. Seven years after retreating from music to raise her ...

Natasha Bedingfield: NB (Sony)

Review by Dan Gennoe, dotmusic.co.uk, April 2007

THE GREATEST GIFT AN older sibling can give is the chance to learn from their mistakes. Natasha Bedingfield, formerly known as the younger sister of ...

Joni Mitchell: How Joni Mitchell Got Her Groove Back

Interview by Robin Eggar, Rolling Stone (Germany), May 2007

JONI MITCHELL is lost in her own music, eyes closed, head still, an American Spirit burning between her fingers. A scarcely sipped glass of red ...

Debbie Harry: Q&A: Debbie Harry

Interview by Stephen Dalton, Classic Rock, 7 May 2007

The Blondie frontwoman and figurehead reflects on personal survival, the 1970s New York scene at CBGB and how the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ...

Lily Allen, Joss Stone, Amy Winehouse: Digital Venuses: Lily Allen, Joss Stone, Amy Winehouse

Comment by Kandia Crazy Horse, San Francisco Bay Guardian, 8 May 2007

CALL THEM the new British bitch pack: barefoot soul shouter Joss Stone and her ascendant sistren, skankin' Lily Allen and torchy Amy Winehouse (Corinne Bailey ...

Amy Winehouse

Interview by Amy Linden, XXL Hip Hop Soul, June 2007

UNDER LOS ANGELES' sparkly surface there lies a noir beauty, and nowhere is that gritty glamour more present than at the legendary Chateau Marmont. Nestled ...

Frankie Knuckles, David Mancuso, David Morales: Def Mix: The house that Judy built

Retrospective and Interview by Bill Brewster, Pacha, August 2007

AT THE CENTRE of every story is what philosopher Malcolm Gladwell calls a "connector". Connectors are people who know lots of other people. They are ...

Maria Muldaur: Sweet and Sassy, Bawdy and Blue

Profile and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Detroit Metro Times, 29 August 2007

WHEN SINGER Maria Muldaur takes the stage at this week's Detroit Jazz Festival, it will be a culmination of a chain of events that run ...

Lori McKenna: Dreams of an Everyday Housewife

Profile and Interview by Holly Gleason, No Depression, 31 August 2007

LORI MCKENNA has always loved the same boy. She first laid eyes on him in third grade. They started dating in their junior year, married ...

Judy Dyble, Fairport Convention: Judy Dyble

Retrospective and Interview by Richie Unterberger, Record Collector, September 2007

IMAGINE BEING the original woman singer in the most esteemed British folk-rock group of all – only to be replaced, after just one album, by ...

Legends of Songwriting: Diane Warren

Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, September 2007

ASKED WHETHER she could ever love a person as much as she loves songwriting, Diane Warren doesn't miss a beat in answering an emphatic "No." ...

Madonna: For the first time, her friends and lovers speak out

Retrospective by Lucy O'Brien, Independent on Sunday, 2 September 2007

How did a destitute dance student become the princess of pop? ...

Stevie Nicks: A Survivor's Story

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Telegraph Magazine, 8 September 2007

Thirty years after she sold her soul to the devil and, with Fleetwood Mac, set new records for rock'n'roll overindulgence, Stevie Nicks has somehow lived ...

Annie Lennox: The First Lady

Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Inside Entertainment, October 2007

WHEN I FIRST met her, she spoke in a whisper, protecting the gold-plated vocal cords that had made Eurythmics one of the top musical acts ...

Siouxsie Sioux: Sans Banshees, Siouxsie Returns

Interview by Ken Scrudato, SOMA, October 2007

IT'S HARD TO recall a time when the scent of Armageddon has hung so heavy in the international air as it has during this, the ...

Aimee Mann: Boxing Clever

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2007

AIMEE MANN reckons she could take Bob Dylan in a boxing bout. It would be a close run thing but age and height advantage would, ...

Marianne Faithfull: Come My Way

Sleeve notes by Tim Tooher, Rev-Ola Records, November 2007

THE ACCEPTED WISDOM regarding Marianne Faithfull is that in the 1960s she was the mere puppet of oft-considered shady, behind-the-scenes operators like Andrew Loog Oldham ...

Suzanne Vega: Blue Notes

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2007

THE SONG 'Bound' on Suzanne Vega's quite brilliant new album, Beauty & Crime, finds her wondering "if you might still want me". ...

Adele: Move Over, Amy…

Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 23 November 2007

... and Lily, and Kate: there's a new star in town. Adele Adkins is only 19, but her voice has bewitched everyone from Jools Holland ...

Joan Jett, The Runaways: Joan Jett

Interview by Ian Fortnam, Classic Rock, December 2007

The punk-loving former Runaways hellraiser talks about being in the first girl rock band, her fondness for S&M clothes, her blurred sexuality and almost joining ...

Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse: I need a break, what shall I have: heroin or a baby?

Comment by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 20 December 2007

As Amy Winehouse's problems mount, and Lily Allen announces that she is pregnant, Caitlin Moran explains that the two young singers are under the same ...

Feist: Fantastic Feist

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, SOCAN Words and Music, Summer 2007

TORONTO'S MUSIC Gallery is housed in St. George the Martyr Church, on the edge of a park and a stone's throw from Queen Street West. ...

Amy Winehouse: Life Imitating Art...

Comment by Kate Mossman, The Word, January 2008

...imitating life. When did Amy Winehouse start to inhabit her songs, wonders KATE MOSSMAN. ...

Kate Nash: Singing oh oh on a Friday night

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

WHILE TOM MORELLO strums away in his Nightwatchman guise around the corner, British newcomer Kate Nash is sitting backstage in her dressing room at the ...

Susan Christie, Wendy Flower, Heather Jones, Selda: Lie back and think of ukuleles: Lost Ladies of Folk

Retrospective and Interview by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 2 January 2008

SOMETHING PECULIAR happened at the dawn of the 21st century: eccentric folk music of the late 1960s became covetable again. ...

Spice Girls: The Spice Girls: Never Mind The Bum Notes

Live Review by Jude Rogers, New Statesman, 3 January 2008

The Spice Girls: O2 Arena, London ...

Adele, Duffy: Adele and Duffy are products of the age of X Factor

Comment by John Aizlewood, The Guardian, 4 January 2008

You can thank Simon Cowell for the results of the BBC's The Sound of 2008 poll. ...

Adele, Duffy, Laura Marling: Adele, Duffy et al: This Year's Vintage

Report by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 11 January 2008

Caroline Sullivan on 2008's big female voices ...

k.d. lang: The Second Coming of k.d. lang

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 13 January 2008

When she came out 15 years ago, she became the poster girl of lesbian chic. Even Madonna courted her. Then the spotlight dimmed — until ...

Sheryl Crow: Why Sheryl Crow is starting over

Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 26 January 2008

Battling cancer and adopting a child led Sheryl Crow to reassess what is important in life. No longer concerned with what people think, she has ...

Laura Marling: "My songs are not pretty"

Interview by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 4 February 2008

IN A RECENT POSTING on a music website, one of Laura Marling's growing army of fans described her output as "pretty folk songs about boys". ...

Adele, Duffy: Who's better – Duffy or Adele?

Comment by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 4 February 2008

The national topic of conversation has shifted from speculating on the weather to a more pressing subject: the search for this year's Amy Winehouse. ...

Björk Week on The Lipster

Interview by Jude Rogers, The Lipster, March 2008

BACK IN OCTOBER last year, in the misty early days of The Lipster, I e-mailed Björk's publicist, telling him about the plans for our website, ...

k.d. lang: kd lang: Kravis Center, West Palm Beach, FL

Live Review by Holly Gleason, Harp, March 2008

KD LANG WALKED onstage, guitar on her back and glided effortlessly into 'Upstream', a song about the nature of life, the struggle of human nature ...

Dolly Parton: Backwoods Barbie **½

Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone Online, 6 March 2008

NO MATTER how flamboyantly pop Dolly Parton's music became in the early Eighties, she was always a country girl at heart. ...

Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks: The Q Interview: Stevie Nicks: "I had to be strong otherwise I would never have gotten through all this."

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Q, May 2008

Stevie Nicks is the epitome of California rock excess. While in Fleetwood Mac, she sold millions and snorted half of Colombia. Solo, she sold millions ...

Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons: The Ballad of Emmylou Harris

Retrospective and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 1 June 2008

At 61, Emmylou Harris is still the drop-dead-gorgeous queen of country rock. But behind closed doors the singer has sad secrets to reveal. ...

Grace Jones: Still a Slave to the Rhythm

Profile by Andy Gill, The Independent, 18 June 2008

She's belted Russell Harty, beaten James Bond and brought the house down with her fashion sense. Now the inimitable Grace Jones is back at Meltdown. ...

Adele: 19

Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 26 June 2008

LIKE FELLOW CROONERS Amy Winehouse and Kate Nash, Adele Adkins polished her skills at the Brit School in south London – as good a finishing ...

Dolly Parton: Warmth, Wonder and Wisdom: Dolly Parton, O2 Arena, London

Live Review by Jude Rogers, New Statesman, 17 July 2008

The superstar country singer proves her worth as a feminist icon. ...

BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Delia Derbyshire: In Praise of Delia Derbyshire

Profile by Jude Rogers, Guardian Unlimited, 20 July 2008

Last week's news that lots of Derbyshire tapes had been found and digitised marked the latest stage in her recovery as a musical, and feminist, ...

Rock, Roll, and Me: Writing the '60s

Memoir by Jane Heil, Forum of World Cultures, 20 July 2008

THE FIFTY or so articles I wrote for Hit Parader and other rock and country magazines are packed away on a high shelf in my apartment. I ...

Amy Winehouse: Can Amy Winehouse be saved?

Report by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 27 July 2008

Her phenomenal talent has been eclipsed by her terrifying ability to self-destruct. Can anything save Amy from herself? ...

X-Ray Spex: Germfree Adolescents (Deluxe Edition)

Sleeve notes by Kieron Tyler, Sanctuary Records, August 2008

ALTHOUGH X-RAY Spex split up close to thirty years ago, their music remains timeless and vividly fresh. The band might have been birthed during 1977's ...

Katy Perry: On Music: Katy Perry — Voice of No Angel

Comment by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 8 August 2008

IT'S BEEN quite a week for sex, music and me. Take last weekend. There I was at the Big Chill festival, hot-browed and clammy-palmed, watching ...

Joan As Policewoman: Goodbye and Hello: Joan as Policewoman

Profile and Interview by Mark Mordue, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 9 August 2008

BIRDS ARE SHRIEKING through the trees all over Rushcutter's Bay. It is as if something violent and tuneful is going on at once as we ...

Mary Gauthier: Liberty Belle

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2008

Singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier was something of a late starter – but once she picked up that pen she certainly had plenty to write about. Having ...

Bob Dylan: Suze Rotolo: A Freewheelin' Time – A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties (Aurum Press)

Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 7 September 2008

SUSAN, OR SUZE, Rotolo was Bob Dylan's first serious girlfriend, and unlike many other characters from his pre-iconic phase she has, up until now, revealed ...

Ladyhawke: Asperger's, allergies and aubergines

Interview by Paul Lester, The Guardian, 11 September 2008

Adored by Courtney and loved by Kylie, Ladyhawke is no ordinary pop star. The '80s throwback tells Paul Lester how music got her through a ...

Labelle: Back to Now (Verve)

Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, San Francisco Bay Guardian, 29 October 2008

A FEW weekends back, I rose at the crack of dawn to see Allen Toussaint perform at Joe's Pub in Manhattan for the venue's 10th ...

Lucinda Williams: Little Honey (Lost Highway)

Review by Graeme Thomson, The Word, November 2008

WHENEVER A MUSICIAN announces that their new offering is the "most eclectic album they've ever made", it's sure to be a rough ride. ...

Beyoncé: Shy Big Sister by Day, Wild Girl by Night

Interview by Pete Paphides, The Times, 14 November 2008

Her partner wowed Glastonbury, her music sells millions and her private life keeps everyone guessing. We talk to an unusually demure superstar. ...

La Roux: New Band of the Day: La Roux

Profile by Paul Lester, The Guardian, 19 November 2008

Make no mistake, today's new artist is a solo female synth star in waiting. ...

Poly Styrene, X-Ray Spex: The Return of Punk's First Lady: Poly Styrene

Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 21 November 2008

Thirty years after singing of bondage and toothpaste, via a stay at a psychiatric hospital and motherhood, Poly Styrene is back on stage, without X-Ray ...

Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan: Dishing the Dirt: Isobel Campbell

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, December 2008

ISOBEL CAMPBELL has just killed a bluebottle, a crime of muscacide for which she carries absolutely no remorse.  ...

The Mo-dettes: The Story So Far (Cherry Red)

Sleeve notes by Alex Ogg, Cherry Red, December 2008

THE MO-DETTES first emerged towards the end of 1978, after guitarist Kate Korus (aka Katherine Corris, formerly of the Slits) and drummer June Miles-Kingston met ...

Odetta: Grit, Guts and Glory

Profile by Jude Rogers, The Observer, 4 December 2008

She inspired Dylan, was pals with Ella, and was due to play at Obama's inauguration: Jude Rogers on Odetta Holmes. ...

Mary Margaret O'Hara: Christmas wishes from Canada's psychic singer-songwriter

Interview by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 5 December 2008

DOWN THE WIRES from Canada comes Mary Margaret O'Hara, her voice as devastatingly delicate as shattering glass. ...

Lady Gaga, La Roux: Slaves To Synth

Report and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 17 December 2008

The male guitar band is dead. The future is electro, female, DIY – and very in your face. Caroline Sullivan talks to the solo acts ...

The Slits: An extract from Typical Girls; The Story Of The Slits

Book Excerpt by Zoë Street Howe, Omnibus Books, 2009

NOTE: Zoe Street Howe managed to interview all four original members of The Slits – Ari Up, Viv Albertine, Tessa Pollitt and Paloma 'Palmolive' Romero ...

Florence and the Machine, Lady Gaga: On Music: Lady GaGa and Florence Welch

Comment by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 16 January 2009

Lady GaGa and Florence Welch have been hailed as the new queens of pop. But why pretend they're anything more than cheap imitations? ...

Lily Allen: Celebrity: Lily Allen

Interview by James Medd, GQ (Australia), February 2009

She's released a new album and that string of expletives at Elton John at the UK Men of the Year Awards. So how will GQ ...

Candi Staton: How tragedy makes the diva

Retrospective and Interview by Pete Paphides, The Times, 13 February 2009

WHAT IS CANDI Staton doing on Valentine's Day? With hindsight, it seems an indiscreet question to ask a single 65-year-old woman. ...

Bikini Kill, Huggy Bear: Grrrl Power

Retrospective and Interview by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 4 March 2009

The Riot Grrrl scene brought feminism to alternative rock in the '90s. Fifteen years on, the aftershocks are still making waves, says Laura Barton. ...

Amanda Ambrose: Remembering Amanda Ambrose

Retrospective by Fred Dellar, Rock's Backpages, 23 March 2009

BECAUSE I'D BEEN an Amanda Ambrose fan since the '60s, during 2007 I nudged Poker Records into releasing an Ambrose album. ...

Marianne Faithfull

Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Interview, April 2009

TALKING TO MariaTALKING TO Marianne Faithfull over the day's first coffee is a bit like waking up for cocktails. She's alert and energetic, but chicly ...

Bat For Lashes: Two Suns

Review by Dan Gennoe, dotmusic.co.uk, 6 April 2009

CONCEPT ALBUMS are always a bad idea. Fact. Concepts take over; lyrics, melodies, songs merely a way of fulfilling them. The concept of Natasha "Bat ...

Bat for Lashes: Two Suns

Review by Alex Ogg, The Quietus, 6 April 2009

IF KATE BUSH was the most frequent comparison cited in reviews of Natasha Khan's 2006 debut album Fur And Gold, the debt is equally palpable ...

Lady Sovereign: Sov Story

Profile and Interview by John Lewis, Hotline, June 2009

John Lewis talks to Wembley's grime-pop diva Lady Sovereign about that "difficult" second album. ...

The Dead Weather, Jack White: Q&A with Jack White, The Dead Weather

Interview by Kimberly Mack, Music Connection, June 2009

JACK WHITE HATES to wait. ...

The Slits: A Thousand Nights Of Confusion

Comment by Zoë Street Howe, Alex Ogg, Rock's Backpages, June 2009

Zoë Street Howe's new biography of punk's original bad girls, The Slits, is released in July through Omnibus. Alex Ogg tried to find out more about ...

Janelle Monáe: Flash forward: Janelle Monáe

Report and Interview by Chris Campion, The Observer, 14 June 2009

Introducing this month's hottest talent, the android-loving future of R&B. ...

Florence and the Machine: What's Haunting Florence and the Machine?

Report and Interview by Pete Paphides, The Times, 19 June 2009

Florence Welch, of Florence and the Machine, was a macabre child. Now she's haunted by other fears — of success, mainly. ...

Sunny War: Songstress-Musician Sunny War

Profile and Interview by Michael Simmons, L.A. Weekly, 15 July 2009

ON THE TINY YouTube screen is a close-up of a diminutive black woman who looks about 12 but is, in the video, 16. Her hair's ...

Liz Phair: Exile In Guyville (15th Anniversary Edition)

Review by Laura Barton, The Word, August 2009

All's Phair In Love And War: Raw, rude and "very 1993", Liz Phair led Girl Power's first offensive. ...

Laura Nyro: Dark Angel: The Stone Soul Genius of Laura Nyro

Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, September 2009

Author's note: This is a "director's cut" version of the feature that ran in the January 2010 issue of Uncut. ...

Dolores O'Riordan: Travelling Light

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2009

Dolores O'Riordan, former singer with the Cranberries, tells David Burke of her journey close to the edge during those heady days of pop stardom, and ...

Sinead O'Connor: Faith and Courage

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2009

TRUTH WILL always out in the end. And the truth-sayers will be vindicated where once they were vilified. ...

Bat for Lashes: "She's not wicked, nor kooky. And don't tell her she's like Tori Amos…"

Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Observer Music Monthly, 6 September 2009

NATASHA KHAN does not feel herself. She is standing in the living room of a cramped Brooklyn apartment on a frosty January morning. If first ...

Bikini Kill, Huggy Bear: The 10 Myths of Riot Grrrl

Comment by Everett True, The Guardian, 14 September 2009

YOU READ a lot of stuff about Riot Grrrl, most of which isn't true. Things such as ...  ...

Peter, Paul & Mary, Mary Travers: Mary Travers obituary

Obituary by Dave Laing, The Guardian, 17 September 2009

PETER, PAUL AND MARY were the most successful vocal group of the American folk revival of the 1960s. In particular, they were responsible for bringing ...

Peter, Paul & Mary, Mary Travers: Mary Travers, 1936-2009

Obituary by Dave Laing, The Guardian, 17 September 2009

Singer with the 1960s hit-making American folk revival trio Peter, Paul and Mary. ...

Yoko Ono: Still Walking On Thin Ice

Retrospective and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 17 September 2009

After 40 years of being unfairly accused of breaking up the Beatles and harshly mocked for her avant garde art and pop music, Yoko Ono ...

Ruby Turner: The Gospel according to Ruby

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, October 2009

"THEY CAN KEEP their big record deals. Gone are the days when I'm going to be told what to do. I can go to bed ...

The Slits: Trapped Animal

Review by Everett True, bbc.co.uk, October 2009

This is as good as can be expected – and fortunately, that is pretty good. ...

Corinne Bailey Rae : Corinne Bailey Rae: "It happened to me. It could happen to anyone at any time."

Profile and Interview by Sean O'Hagan, The Observer, 4 October 2009

From out of the darkest place, following the sudden death of her husband, Corinne Bailey Rae is re-emerging with an extraordinarily intimate and impassioned album. ...

Miriam Makeba : Mama Afrika 1932-2008

Review by Colin Irwin, bbc.co.uk, 5 October 2009

Majestic recordings by a genuine world music pioneer. ...

Beyoncé: I Am… Yours: An Intimate Performance at Wynn Las Vegas (Columbia)

Review by Mike Diver, bbc.co.uk, November 2009

A greatest hits-style setlist performed with accomplished pizzazz ...

Ellie Greenwich: Leader Of The Pack

Obituary by Bob Stanley, MOJO, November 2009

BARRY MANN and Cynthia Weil were the social conscience, Gerry Goffin and Carole King the most tortured, but it was Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry ...

Florence and The Machine: Mental Machine Music

Interview by Ian Gittins, Wonderland, November 2009

POP SHOULD ALWAYS be poetic, not prosaic. ...

Laura Marling

Profile and Interview by Johnny Black, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2009

DESPITE ALL HER best efforts to stick a spike in the wheel of success, Laura Marling is fast-becoming the most talked-about young singer-songwriter of recent ...

Rosanne Cash

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2009

THERE COMES A time in every young man or woman's life when dad mounts the pulpit and delivers a homily on the kind of music ...

The Raincoats

Interview by Lois Wilson, MOJO, November 2009

Post-punk's dissonant game changers return to inspire again. ...

The Raincoats: The Raincoats (We ThRee)

Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, November 2009

THIS 1979 ROUGH TRADE album is a period piece and a sacred artefact, not least because of its subsequent endorsement by an "extremely unhappy, lonely ...

Ellie Goulding: First Sight: Ellie Goulding

Guide by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 5 November 2009

WHO IS SHE? The 21-year-old future of pop, if you believe the hype. Born in Hereford and brought up in rural Wales, she now makes ...

Cheryl Cole: Twist and pout: Cheryl Cole's new album cover

Essay by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 19 November 2009

If the pose seems vaguely familiar, it may be that side-on, over-the-shoulder look. Laura Barton has certainly seen it somewhere before. ...

Rickie Lee Jones: Album by Album: Rickie Lee Jones

Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, December 2009

THOUGH SHE will always carry the pop albatross that was her Top 5 hit 'Chuck E's in Love' (1979), Rickie Lee Jones remains one of ...

Norah Jones: The Fall

Review by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, December 2009

THE FALL IS A PRETTY comprehensive break-up album. Norah Jones has broken up with Lee Alexander, for eight years her boyfriend and double-bassist and, on ...

Regina Spektor: Academy, Birmingham

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, December 2009

IT APPEARS REGINA SPEKTOR has finally crossed over from word-of-mouth cult to left-field star, judging by her rapturous reception at a packed Birmingham show on ...

Miley Cyrus: O2 Arena, London

Live Review by Pete Paphides, The Times, 16 December 2009

WHEN JIM MORRISON sang, "The men don't know but the little girls understand," on the Doors' 'Backdoor Man', whatever he had in mind all those ...

Laura Veirs: Mixed-Up Confusion

Interview by John Lewis, Hotline, January 2010

Laura Viers came to folk via punk, is geeky yet cool, young but experienced and both delicate and tough. John Lewis meets her. ...

Teena Marie (2010)

Interview by David Nathan, SoulMusic.com, January 2010

Teena picks her favourite seven tracks from her own back catalogue, and selects three by other artists that mean the most to her.

File format: mp3; file size: 72mb; Interview length: 1h 18' 39"; sound quality: ***

Lady Gaga: Transvision Vamp: Lady Gaga

Comment by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, January 2010

THE POWER OF Lady Gaga has been one of the most scintillating features of 2009: three number one UK singles, a sprawling debut album and ...

Jenny Hval, rockettothesky: Jenny & the Jets: The Musical Universe of Rockettothesky

Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 12 January 2010

Rockettothesky's Jenny Hval may have made little impact outside of Scandinavia, but that needs to change. According to Wyndham Wallace, she's one of the most ...

Lonelady: Paul Morley's showing off … Lonelady

Profile and Interview by Paul Morley, The Guardian, 22 January 2010

Paul Morley meets Warp's new Mancunian signing Lonelady, who he would never tip as the next big thing, but might, for those missing a certain ...

Patti Smith: Promises Fulfilled: Patti Smith: Just Kids

Review and Interview by Bill Holdship, Metro Times, 17 February 2010

LOVE RELATIONSHIPS between great artists have inspired some fine literature throughout history, be it works the artists created for each other during their own lifetimes ...

Joan Jett, The Runaways: Joan Jett

Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Interview, 20 February 2010

IN THE FOUR years that they were together, the quintet of teenage girls that made up The Runaways cut a swath of hard rock, harder ...

Laura Veirs

Interview by Johnny Black, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2010

"I DON'T OWN MANY THINGS," Laura Veirs tells me. "I'm not a things person." ...

Patti Smith: On Mapplethorpe and more: Patti Smith

Profile and Interview by Edward Helmore, Vogue, March 2010

WITH THE POSSIBLE EXCEPTION of her hero Bob Dylan, no one has perfected the look of the downtown bohemian poet as comprehensively as Patti Smith. ...

Ellie Goulding: Lights

Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 1 March 2010

ELLIE GOULDING tripped into the public consciousness two weeks ago, as she stood knock-kneed and tongue-tied between Fearne Cotton, Geri Halliwell and Courtney Love at ...

The Runaways: Wild Thing — How Sandy West Was Lost

Retrospective by Evelyn McDonnell, L.A. Weekly, 18 March 2010

ON A SUMMER day in 1975, a 16-year-old girl carrying a Silvertone guitar took four public buses from Canoga Park to a two-story house in ...

Kim Fowley, The Runaways: Sex sells: The Girl Band That Changed Pop Forever

Retrospective by Chris Salewicz, The Independent, 19 March 2010

IN EARLY OCTOBER 1976, the Runaways, an all-girl five-piece from Los Angeles, played a sell-out show at London's Roundhouse, their debut date in the UK. ...

Joan Jett, Kristin Hersh, Le Tigre, Throwing Muses: What Happened To Angry Female Music Stars?

Comment by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 25 March 2010

Are there any angry women left in rock and pop? Joan Jett, riot grrrl figurehead Kathleen Hanna and others talk about where it went wrong ...

Cherie Currie, The Runaways: Cherie Currie recalls life as underage, underwear-wearing provocateur

Interview by Jim Sullivan, Boston Herald, 7 April 2010

WHETHER YOU WERE a rock fan in 1975 — or whether you weren't even conceived — you're going to want to take in The Runaways, ...

The Runaways: Queens of noise: The Runaways

Film/DVD/TV Review by Bill Holdship, Detroit Metro Times, 7 April 2010

Kristen Stewart's Joan Jett is one of many killer riffs that makes The Runaways. ...

Lady Gaga: Aladdin Sane Called, He Wants His Lightning Bolt Back: On Lady Gaga

Essay by Mark Dery, True/Slant, 20 April 2010

"HOW NOT DUMB is Gaga?" asked the New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones, in the first flush of Gagamania. Almost exactly a year later, his ...

Hole: Nobody's Daughter

Review by Everett True, BUST, 26 April 2010

HEY. GLAD YOU could make it. Thought we might want to establish a few rules before I get down to the actual reviewing. ...

Karen Elson: The Ghost Who Rocks

Interview by Ken Scrudato, BlackBook, May 2010

IT'S HARDLY likely you've ever had occasion to look it up, but there are, to be sure, no direct flights from Manchester to Nashville. But ...

Millie Jackson: An Interview

Interview by Carl Wiser, Songfacts, May 2010

"LET WHITE FOLKS cross over to me..." An R&B star with a stunning voice, Millie Jackson was close to breaking into the mainstream like her ...

Envy, Kelis: Givin' It To The Homegirl: The Trouble With Kelis 


Comment by Neil Kulkarni, The Quietus, 10 June 2010

With Neil Kulkarni finding something rotten in the state of girl-pop, he turns up his nose at Kelis' curdled Milkshake and explains why Brit Envy ...

Joan Jett: I Love Rock And Roll

Interview by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, August 2010

Joan Jett talks to Terry Staunton on the making of the Runaways movie, and life after the band split. ...

Salt-N-Pepa

Interview by John Lewis, Hotline, August 2010

IT'S BEEN 25 years since the rappers we know and love as Salt-N-Pepa burst into our consciousness. They are now forty-something women, living in suburban ...

Indigo Girls, Sarah McLachlan, Cat Power, Suzanne Vega: The Lilith Fair Abides

Report by Maura Johnston, The Village Voice, 4 August 2010

A late-'90s fest returns with great ideas (the Lilipad!), throwback headliners, and terrible marketing. ...

Katy Perry: What Katy Perry did next

Comment by Sophie Heawood, The Times, 27 August 2010

For a moment Lady Gaga looked to have outgunned her, but the singer is back on top. We look at what drives her ...

Janelle Monáe: A New Pioneer Of Afrofuturism

Comment by John Calvert, The Quietus, 2 September 2010

Against a pop climate beset by fraudulent marketing plans on two shiny legs, John Calvert argues that Janelle Monáe brandishes the acetylene torch for radical ...

Bikini Kill: Sara Marcus: Girls to the Front

Book Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 10 October 2010

BROOKLYN-BASED writer and musician Sara Marcus deserves a medal just for daring to write a book about Riot Grrrl, the fiercely uncompromising feminist movement of ...

Nicki Minaj: Pink Friday

Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, November 2010

THE LEVELS OF anticipation surrounding Nicki Minaj's debut album have been so delirious that you almost expect Pink Friday not to be delivered by digital ...

Shelby Lynne: Suiting Herself

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2010

"I ALWAYS COME off to cats like you as negative, but it's not that way. I'm just honest." Shelby Lynne's been explaining what it is ...

Marina and the Diamonds: Marina & the Diamonds

Interview by Scott McLennan, Rip It Up (Australia), 23 December 2010

One of the breakthrough acts of 2010, Marina Diamonds shone brightly this year via her debut album The Family Jewels and colourfully skewed pop singles ...

Stars and Girls

Comment by Jude Rogers, House, Spring 2010

They may be sneered at by serious music fans, but boy bands have provided a gateway into womanhood for generations of young females… ...

Anna Calvi, Joan As Police Woman, Mélanie Pain: Mélanie Pain: My Name/Joan As Police Woman: The Deep Field/Anna Calvi: Anna Calvi

Review by James Medd, The Word, February 2011

Three records rich in charm and melancholy. Give it up for Mélanie Pain, Joan As Police Woman and Anna Calvi. ...

The Slits: Memories Of Ari Up

Memoir by Adam Blake, Rock's Backpages, February 2011

AT THE START OF September 2005 I moved into a new place: a rather Agatha Christie-esque 1930s apartment block at the posh end of Ladbroke ...

June Tabor: Watery, Not Grave

Profile and Interview by Pete Paphides, The Guardian, 10 February 2011

June Tabor's new album draws inspiration from the sea. But dogs, cows and a margarine ad also featured when Pete Paphides met her. ...

PJ Harvey: Let England Shake (Island)

Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 11 February 2011

ON WHAT MAY be her best album, Polly Harvey offers a portrait of her homeland as a country built on bloodshed and battle, not so ...

Viv Albertine: Self-Portrait: Viv Albertine

Interview by Martin Aston, MOJO, March 2011

I DESCRIBE MYSELF as… Vivacious. Vindictive [laughs]. Vain. Vociferous. Someone attempting to be honest but probably failing miserably. Mostly because of all the conditioning that ...

Beth Ditto: Winning The Fame Game With No Regrets

Interview by Luke Turner, The Quietus, 1 March 2011

As she prepares to release her new EP with Simian Mobile Disco, Luke Turner sits down with Beth Ditto and finds that, a million record ...

PJ Harvey: The Troxy, London

Live Review by Ben Thompson, Sunday Telegraph, 6 March 2011

ON THE LEFT of the Limehouse Troxy stage stands PJ Harvey – enrobed in one of her Belgian fashion confederate Ann Demeulemeester's trademark pristine, shroud-like ...

Adele: Academy, Leeds

Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 15 April 2011

EVEN IF Adele Adkins's record-breaking 11 weeks at the top of the album chart ends on Sunday – and it looks like the Foo Fighters ...

PJ Harvey: "I feel things deeply. I get angry, I shout at the TV, I feel sick."

Profile and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, The Observer, 24 April 2011

Polly Harvey opens up to Dorian Lynskey about 20 years in music and the emotions behind her latest dark masterpiece. ...

Poly Styrene, X-Ray Spex: Poly Styrene

Obituary by Chris Salewicz, The Independent, 27 April 2011

Singer who blazed a trail for punk's feminist revolutionaries ...

Alison Krauss: Key coordinates for the First Lady Of Bluegrass ALISON KRAUSS are Paul Rodgers + ELO x Ralph Stanley

Interview by Kate Mossman, The Word, May 2011

PAPARAZZI CAME to the Baglioni Hotel at Hyde Park Gate this morning to catch Debbie Harry, who's staying in Room Four. They went into bonus ...

Laura Cantrell: St. Bonaventure's, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 4 May 2011

Moonlighting from her unlikely day job as a Wall Street consultant, the country-folk singer embarks on a low-key UK tour. ...

Ellen Willis: Out Of The Vinyl Deeps – Ellen Willis on Rock Music (University of Minnesota Press)

Book Review by Evelyn McDonnell, The New York Times, 10 June 2011

WOODSTOCK WAS A RIP-OFF. Creedence Clearwater Revival eclipsed the Rolling Stones. Bob Dylan struggled with identity. Janis Joplin "was not so much a victim as ...

Nicki Minaj, Britney Spears: Britney Spears, Nicki Minaj: Staples Center, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 21 June 2011

Haters Go Home: Britney Dominates L.A. Show ...

Poly Styrene, X-Ray Spex: Poly Styrene: A Life In Day-Glo

Obituary by Kris Needs, MOJO, July 2011

PUNK UNIQUE POLY STYRENE OF X-RAY SPEX DIED ON APRIL 25. KRIS NEEDS PAYS TRIBUTE TO AN UNFORGETTABLE TALENT ...

The World's Oldest Teenager: Remembering Jane Scott

Obituary by Holly Gleason, Los Angeles Times blogs, 4 July 2011

SHE WAS LIKE Andy Warhol: iconic blond hair set in a most determined pageboy that never moved. That, and red oversized glasses. You couldn't miss ...

Marianne Faithfull: Horses and High Heels

Review by Steven R Rosen, Blurt, 11 July 2011

MARIANNE FAITHFULL'S 1979 Broken English may be as influential an album to come out of Britain's punk revolution as any – and it isn't even ...

Amy Winehouse

Obituary by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 23 July 2011

Singer with a soul-steeped voice whose instantly successful Back to Black album reflected her tormented experience of love ...

Dolly Parton: The Liberty Belle: Dolly Parton Speaks

Interview by Jude Rogers, The Quietus, 30 August 2011

Ever the showbiz professional, Dolly Parton leads Jude Rogers a merry dance during her allotted 20 minutes of chat about partners, Gaga, sexuality, The Lord ...

Grace Jones: Hurricane

Review by Steven R Rosen, Blurt, 20 September 2011

ODD THAT TWO icons of dance music, Pet Shop Boys and Grace Jones, both had to wait years to get strong British albums released this ...

Grimes, Laurel Halo, Maria Minerva, Stellar OM Source: Breaking Through the Synth Barrier

Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 7 October 2011

SUDDENLY IT SEEMS there are a lot more women twiddling those knobs than ever before. ...

Bettye LaVette: One Difference Between Bettye LaVette and Susan Boyle

Profile and Interview by Steven R Rosen, Cincinnati CityBeat, 19 October 2011

BETTYE LAVETTE'S late-career success story is one of the music business' most remarkable. The powerful 65-year-old R&B singer/stylist first recorded in 1962 — 'My Man ...

Chrissie Hynde, The Slits, X-Ray Spex: Lasses of the Mohicans

Retrospective by Vivien Goldman, New Statesman, 31 October 2011

Vivien Goldman charts the history of Britain’s rebellious female punks. ...

Feist: Metals (Polydor)

Review by Bud Scoppa, Uncut, November 2011

LESLIE FEIST'S career path has been a zigzag. The Nova Scotia-born, Toronto-based artist played guitar with rapper Peaches (who nicknamed her Bitch Lap Lap) and ...

Florence and the Machine: Ceremonials

Review by Kate Allen, idolmag.co.uk, November 2011

BROKEN-HEARTED women have made the three biggest pop albums, of the 21st century: Back To Black, Lungs and 21. And so it falls to Florence ...

Rickie Lee Jones: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Rob Steen, Rock's Backpages, November 2011

FIRST, A HEALTH WARNING: if you are prone to cringe, foam or rage at reviews that put emotion first and last, and make no attempt ...

Me'Shell Ndegeocello: Meshell Ndegeocello: Weather

Review by Carol Cooper, The Village Voice, 15 November 2011

'WEATHER' ISN'T the first Meshell Ndegeocello single to fall into the category of "freak folk," but the album of the same name is her first ...

Taylor Swift: Madison Square Garden, November 22nd, 2011

Live Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 24 November 2011

STANDING ON A PLATFORM in the middle of the Arena, Taylor Swift looked genuinely amazed. A young girl in the cheap seats randomly began to ...

Nico: Chelsea Mädchen: The Funny Side of Nico

Review by Larry Jaffee, Rock's Backpages, 25 November 2011

NICO NEVER STRUCK me as funny. Some of her more morose material, such as her even more gothic take on the Doors' 'The End', or the ...

Kylie Minogue: The Abbey Road Sessions

Review by Jude Rogers, The Quietus, 30 November 2011

IN 2006, while in recovery from cancer, Kylie Minogue talked to Another Magazine about her love of Grey Gardens.  ...

Laura Nyro

Retrospective and Interview by Bruce Pollock, brucepollockthewriter.com, December 2011

ONE OF THE MOST enigmatic and evocative and emotionally intense songwriters ever to hit the Top 40, Laura Nyro's career survived numerous dips and bends. ...

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's women problem

Comment by Evelyn McDonnell, salon.com, 11 December 2011

DO THE MATH: Out of the 11 new members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class of 2012, one — Laura Nyro — ...

Billie Jo Spears, 1937-2011

Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 15 December 2011

Country singer whose biggest hit was 'Blanket on the Ground' ...

Adele

Profile and Interview by Jude Rogers, The Gentlewoman, Spring 2011

2011 saw a perfect start for Adele Adkins, a British singer with incredible international appeal. When her second album was released in January, it went ...

Bat for Lashes: The Haunted Man

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, 2012

Ivor Novello Award winner takes things a little too seriously. ...

Lauryn Hill: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

Review by Lloyd Bradley, bbc.co.uk, 2012

Hill’s multi-award-winning debut became part of the mainstream on its own terms. ...

Lisa Hannigan: Companion Piece

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2012

David Burke spends a little time with Lisa Hannigan and hears how her latest solo album, Passenger, is an altogether more relaxed affair. ...

Nanci Griffith: Blue Moons and True Believers

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2012

About to make a welcome return to our concert halls and with a new album imminent, Nanci Griffith is in conversation with R2's David Burke. ...

Cesária Évora, 1941–2011

Obituary by Carol Cooper, Rock's Backpages, 3 January 2012

BURIED ON HER home island of São Vicente the Tuesday before Christmas amid nationwide mourning in her native Cape Verde,  singer Cesária Évora enjoyed more ...

Azealia Banks, Kreayshawn, Lady Leshurr, Reema Major, Dominique Young Unique: Azealia Banks and the charge of the women MCs

Report and Interview by Paul Lester, The Guardian, 5 January 2012

Watch out, Nicki Minaj, there's a host of feisty, eccentric female rappers on your trail – and not all of them are here to pay their ...

Ren Harvieu, Lana Del Rey: Far from Dusty: Ren Harvieu and Lana Del Rey

Review by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 23 January 2012

TWO GUYS ON a streetcar in 1940: "Say, have you heard about that horn player Louis Armstrong? He's so authentic! His mother was a prostitute, you ...

Dory Previn: Remembering Dory Previn

Memoir by Loraine Alterman, Rock's Backpages, February 2012

MY DEAR FRIEND of nearly 40 years, Dory Previn, died last week. She was a great songwriter who exposed her deep feelings about love ...

Adele, Whitney Houston, Taylor Swift: The Girls Most Likely

Comment by Mitchell Cohen, Rock's Backpages, February 2012

SHE WAS ANOINTED, for sure. Behind the curtain, all the machinery was being cranked up for her debut, all the fanfare that was possible back ...

Emeli Sandé: Her Version Of Events: Emeli Sandé Interviewed

Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 8 February 2012

Emeli Sandé discusses human brains, Virginia Woolf and Cher Lloyd with John Doran ...

Emeli Sandé: Our Version of Events

Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 13 February 2012

SHE IS SET to be one of the pop faces of 2012 but Emeli Sandé is not yet the finished article. This doesn't mean she ...

Whitney Houston: The Greatest Voice Of Her Generation

Comment by Andy Gill, The Independent, 17 February 2012

Wannabes are rife, yet she was a singular talent, says Andy Gill ...

Adele: Why Adele Is The Pop Star We Need

Comment by Jude Rogers, The Quietus, 23 February 2012

Adele is a one woman cash vache! Get off her back losers, says Jude Rogers ...

Etta James 1938-2012

Obituary by David Hepworth, The Word, March 2012

JOHNNY OTIS was relaxing in his San Francisco hotel room one afternoon in 1954 when his manager called from the lobby and said he was ...

Neneh Cherry: Unsung Hero/ine

Retrospective by Don Snowden, Rock's Backpages, March 2012

THE ORIGINAL TITLE for this piece was "Ticked Off at a Tick". The reason being that I spent more than a few years operating under ...

Keyshia Cole, Linda Jones: Bodies in Pain: The Redemptive Soul of Linda Jones and Keyshia Cole

Essay by Mark Anthony Neal, New Black Magazine, 8 March 2012

"The young lady who is the absolute personification of soul itself" – MC, January 1970 ...

Timi Yuro: That Time Of Yuro: Timi Yuro

Retrospective by Steven R Rosen, Blurt, 23 April 2012

ANY LIST OF proto-feminist Top 40 hits of the 1960s would have to include Timi Yuro's 1962 'What's A Matter Baby' along with Lesley Gore's ...

Carole King: A Natural Woman: A Memoir

Book Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 25 April 2012

MY FAVORITE SCENE in Carole King's long-awaited A Natural Woman comes near the beginning — appropriately, since the teen hitmaker was the epitome of an ...

Norah Jones: 10 Questions for Norah Jones

Interview by Graeme Thomson, The Arts Desk, 26 April 2012

NORAH JONES is back. New haircut, new sound, new producer. The first of these, while very nice, needn't concern us too much. The second, meanwhile, ...

Rumer

Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, June 2012

"TEA ANYONE?" says Rumer from the doorway of her beach hut. "Plenty of sandwiches left." Dazed by the mad March sun, her audience of biz ...

Bonnie Raitt: Slipstream Effect: Bonnie Raitt

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, June 2012

IT'S BEEN A TOUGH seven years for Bonnie Raitt since the release of her last studio album, Souls Alike. She lost both her parents, Broadway ...

Carolina Chocolate Drops: Sweet Sounds: Rhiannon Giddens and Carolina Chocolate Drops

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, June 2012

RHIANNON GIDDENS'S birthday back in February was a bittersweet occasion. The Carolina Chocolate Drops co-founder-member's celebrations were tempered by her grief upon learning of the ...

Patti Smith: Banga

Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 4 June 2012

AFTER HER National Book Award-winning memoir Just Kids greatly expanded her audience, Patti Smith could have done the usual aging-rock-legend safety move: record an album ...

Kitty Wells, 1919-2012

Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 17 July 2012

The "Queen of Country Music" in the post-war era, she had her first hit with 'It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels'. ...

Palma Violets, Savages: Savages/Palma Violets: Liverpool Leaf

Live Review by Kate Mossman, The Observer, 29 July 2012

IT'S A BARGAIN, two for one, a post-punk bogof: the band they're calling the all-girl Joy Division, plus four boys named after perfumed sweets. Both ...

Pussy Riot: The Riot Girls' Style

Comment by Vivien Goldman, New York Times magazine blogs, 8 August 2012

IT HAS BEEN a shock to see the bravely smiling faces of three girls from the Russian punk collective Pussy Riot locked in a glass ...

Pussy Riot Sentenced To Two Year Jail Term

Report by John Doran, The Quietus, 17 August 2012

RUSSIAN PUNK BAND Pussy Riot have been sentenced to two years in jail each after being found guilty of hooliganism earlier in the day. ...

Aimee Mann: The Discreet Charm of Aimee Mann: An Interview

Interview by Martin Colyer, Rock's Backpages, September 2012

A freewheeling chat, taking in Mann's new Charmer, her talented collaborators, reality TV, turning up the treble, Laura Linney's focus, Jack Kerouac's drying-out and women's ...

Bonnie Guitar, Jean Shepard, Kitty Wells: Honky-tonk women: the female artists who made it big in country music

Report and Interview by Sean O'Hagan, The Guardian, 6 September 2012

It's not easy for women to survive in the macho world of country. Some of those who did, such as Jean Shepard and Bonnie Guitar, ...

Madonna: Thoughts On Madonna's MDNA Tour in America

Live Review by Carol Cooper, Rock's Backpages, 9 September 2012

AS I WRITE THIS Thursday night, I can hear Madonna singing from Yankee Stadium through the window of my Harlem apartment. In fact, the sound ...

Pussy Riot and the Politics of Grrrl Punk

Comment by Evelyn McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 13 September 2012

I WONDER, as they sit in their separate cells, what songs the three jailed members of Pussy Riot sing to themselves to keep their spirits ...

Chely Wright's Rediscovered Country

Profile by Charles Bermant, No Depression, 24 September 2012

WE ALL HOLD our own set of prejudices and preconceptions, with clear ideas about politics and religion, tolerance and hatred for country music singers and ...

Lana Del Rey: An American Nightmare: Lana Del Rey Live

Live Review by John Calvert, The Quietus, 27 September 2012

I MET HER last year. She talked about loneliness and how she never had any time for religion, until she got into some trouble in ...

Joni Mitchell Memories

Comment by Ellen Sander, Rock's Backpages, October 2012

I WAS driving Stephen Stills to a CSN recording session, it must've been 1969, and the subject of Joni Mitchell came up. ...

Ellie Goulding: Halcyon

Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 8 October 2012

ELLIE GOULDING has been letting it be known that this follow-up to her three-million-selling debut album, Lights, is a far darker and more troubled record, ...

Angel Haze: Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, London

Live Review by John Calvert, The Quietus, 11 October 2012

In the latest Calvert Report, our man John Calvert starts to feel unusual as he sees Angel Haze live at Hoxton Bar & Kitchen. ...

Leslie Winer: "If I Hit You, You'd Feel It": Leslie Winer, Trip Hop's Forgotten Pioneer?

Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 29 October 2012

Some argue that Leslie Winer aka © invented trip hop in 1990 with her ill-fated album, Witch. Now she's back with &c, a retrospective compilation ...

Hurray for the Riff Raff: Protest and Survive

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2012

MUSIC AS AN instrument of change – remember that concept? It may seem a little naïve at a time when even the mighty have fallen ...

Anna Meredith: Classical with a twist

Interview by Rob Fitzpatrick, The Sunday Times, 4 November 2012

How did the composer Anna Meredith go from the Last Night of the Proms to walloping dubstep? ...

Connie Smith: Honoring Connie Smith: 45 RPM at Douglas Corner, Nashville

Live Review by Holly Gleason, No Depression, 7 November 2012

FOR THOSE WHO believe real country music has fled Nashville, the recent CMA Awards would do little to ease your notion. Bombast, smoke, lasers and ...

Madonna: Q: When will Madonna stop being relevant? A: When we stop asking if Madonna's still relevant.

Comment by Mark Kemp, Creative Loafing, 14 November 2012

WHEN MADONNA drolly announced to fans packed into the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 24, that "we have a black Muslim in the ...

Ke$ha: Dancing Up a Storm but Dying to Rock

Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 23 November 2012

LOS ANGELES – At the Third Encore rehearsal studio in North Hollywood, there's a wall decorated with photographs of clients who've prepared there for tours, ...

Kylie Minogue: The mysterious popstar who can do no wrong

Report and Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 29 November 2012

As an album of "reimagined" Kylie songs emerges, Kate Mossman goes in search of the singer herself. ...

Helen Reddy (2012)

Interview by Jeff Apter, Rock's Backpages audio, 30 November 2012

The Australian icon on her hardscrabble early years in America; her friendships with journalist Lillian Roxon, Liza Minnelli and with songwriter Peter Allen; her first hit 'I Don't Know How to Love Him', and her massive 'I Am a Woman'; feminism and her Grammy speech; her retirement, and her fascination with hypnotism and spiritualism.

File format: mp3; file size: 45.1mb, interview length: 1h 36' 07" sound quality: ** (wind, background noise)

Martha Wainwright: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London

Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 3 December 2012

AMONG THE prodigal polymath musicians of the Wainwright-McGarrigle clan, Martha seems destined to come second to her brother Rufus. Among the prodigal polymath musicians of ...

Rosanne Cash: Union Chapel, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 3 December 2012

A HOST OF FACTORS, including brain surgery, have conspired to keep Rosanne Cash away from London for the last six years. Returning to a full ...

Laurie Spiegel: Resident Visitor: Laurie Spiegel's Machine Music

Retrospective and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 6 December 2012

The experimental pioneer's groundbreaking work with computers in the '70s and '80s helped lay the foundation for many of today's electronic noise makers. ...

Pussy Riot: Activists, not Pin-ups

Comment by Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 20 December 2012

Clever, committed and courageous, Pussy Riot are the only band that mattered in 2012. They have used their year in the spotlight to expose injustice. ...

Lianne La Havas: Effenaar, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Live Review by Jude Rogers, Q, February 2013

YOU'RE 23 AND released your first single a year ago. ...

Marianne Faithfull: Ca$h for Questions

Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Q, February 2013

She was the sensuous '60s starlet who flew too close to the sun, only to emerge from addiction as a rasp-voiced grande dame of the ...

Frank Zappa: Gail Zappa: Mother of Re-Invention

Comment by Mark Leviton, Rock's Backpages, 8 February 2013

I'M A HUGE admirer of Frank Zappa, and have been since the mid-'60s. As a music critic I've written about him extensively, and during my ...

Anaïs Mitchell: Interview

Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 5 March 2013

Anaïs Mitchell, dubbed "the Queen of modern folk", tells Rob Hughes why she's inspired by centuries-old British ballads. ...

Cat Power: Her Majesty's Theatre, Adelaide

Live Review by Scott McLennan, Rip It Up (Australia), 7 March 2013

WHY DO CIGARETTE packet warnings have to always be such a downer? ...

Iggy Azalea: One to watch: Iggy Azalea

Report and Interview by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 24 March 2013

IGGY AZALEA has a highly developed sense of the absurd. She saw paparazzi outside her hotel this morning and felt obliged to put on dark ...

Lady Leshurr: Lady Lesshur: "The industry just doesn't know what to do with women"

Interview by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 20 April 2013

The Midlands-born MC on morals, inspiration and why the UK needs a female rap star ...

Beyoncé: O2 Arena, London

Live Review by Kate Allen, Classic Pop, June 2013

The Mrs Carter Show rolls into town, but does the queen of pop justify the hype? The answer is yes and no. ...

Sinéad O'Connor: Institutionalised: The Faith and Courage of Sinead O'Connor

Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 5 June 2013

Though her personal life has often overshadowed her career, Sinead O'Connor remains a treasured musical force. Belatedly back on the road to promote her most ...

The Riot Grrrl Collection by Lisa Darms (The Feminist Press)

Book Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 6 June 2013

The Riot Grrrl Collection spreads girl germs of the '90s movement ...

Bonnie Raitt interview

Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 6 June 2013

SOMETIMES, JUST sometimes, the good ones win out. Ask Bonnie Raitt. In a career now into its fifth decade, and which once appeared to be ...

Lorde: New Band Of The Week: Lorde

Profile by Paul Lester, The Guardian, 7 June 2013

THIS NZ TEEN is about to make a big splash beyond blog-land. Think Lily meets Lana, only cuter and more cutting. ...

Rihanna's Victim-Diva Complex

Essay by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 27 June 2013

Six months ago Rihanna looked like she was losing it, and now she looks to be in complete control. ...

Janelle Monáe: "I'm a time traveller. I have been to lots of different places"

Interview by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 30 June 2013

She's an android-dating style queen who's been compared to Bowie. Is the R&B singer the saviour of pop? ...

Merry Clayton: That Background Sound: Merry Clayton

Retrospective by Mitchell Cohen, Rock's Backpages, 30 June 2013

BY THE TIME Merry Clayton got the call one night that got her out of bed and into the studio to unleash her window-rattling voice ...

Iggy Azalea: "I haven't got daddy issues!"

Interview by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 10 July 2013

IN 2004, A 14-year-old Australian white girl named Amethyst Kelly heard Tupac Shakur for the first time. Blown away by his poetic intensity, she resolved ...

Lil' Kim: The hip hop star is a little big woman in a man's world

Interview by John Lewis, Metro, 11 July 2013

"I'M A GIRLY GIRL," says Lil Kim. "I'm strong but I'm very timid. Very dainty." This, of course, is the same Lil Kim who wrote ...

Betty Davis, The Family Stand, Nona Hendryx, Klymaxx, Labelle, Mother's Finest: Rise of the Funky Divas

Overview by Michael A. Gonzales, Ebony, 12 August 2013

BEGINNING IN THE early 1970s, a small army of female funk-rock performers that included Chaka Khan, Betty Davis, Labelle, Mother's Finest, Brides of Funkenstein, Parlet, ...

The Runaways: Evelyn McDonnell: Queens of Noise – The Real Story of the Runaways (Da Capo)

Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 21 August 2013

ANYONE WHO has seen either the Hollywood film The Runaways or the documentary Edgeplay may think they know the story of this band of five ...

Zola Jesus: A Zola Jesus Baker's Dozen: 13 LPs By Women Who Inspired Me To Sing

Interview by Luke Turner, The Quietus, 27 August 2013

Zola Jesus (Nika Rosa Danilova) gives us a special Baker's Dozen — 13 albums by female singers who inspired her to find her own voice ...

Neko Case: The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You

Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 3 September 2013

ONCE MERELY A third of the New Pornographers' indie-rock-Avengers front line and a solo act with country-rock leanings, ginormous pipes and comedy-club-stage banter, Neko Case ...

Jessie J: 'I'm A Hard Worker. I Want To Be Great At Everything I Do'

Interview by Kate Mossman, The Observer, 29 September 2013

Chart-topper, devoted daughter, role model for teenagers... how does Jessie J manage it all? ...

Miley Cyrus: Bangerz

Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 7 October 2013

BRITNEY, JUSTIN T, XTINA… Miley Cyrus is not the first former Disney starlet to chafe at her anodyne past and yearn to show us her ...

Katy Perry: Prism ***

Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 21 October 2013

KATY PERRY, the frivolous, hard-partying pop starlet, has an unfortunate Achilles heel – she wants to be taken seriously.  ...

Girls Allowed? The Women On Top In The Music Industry

Report and Interview by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 26 October 2013

After Sinead O'Connor's open letter of concern to Miley Cyrus, sexism in the music business has never been more discussed. But what do the women ...

Celine Dion: "I am having my wild moment!"

Interview by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 8 November 2013

YOU DON'T GET to be the most successful female singer in history, selling more than 200 million albums, without looking after your voice. Thirty minutes ...

Lady Gaga: ARTPOP

Review by Mike Diver, Clash, 13 November 2013

THE FIRST FOUR minutes of Stefani Germanotta's third album proper are completely fascinating. 'Aura', this set's opener, manages to be a multitude of songs at ...

Lorde: 'People Have Treated Me Like A Fascinating Toy'

Interview by Kate Mossman, The Observer, 24 November 2013

She's the pop phenomenon of 2013, chalking up No. 1s around the world, signing a £1.5m deal and hanging out with Bowie. How does it ...

St. Vincent: The Totally Original Sound of St. Vincent

Profile and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Smithsonian , December 2013

TO UNDERSTAND Annie Clark's inventiveness as a composer, it helps to listen more closely to the first single off her latest solo album, Strange Mercy. ...

Beyoncé: Beyoncé

Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 13 December 2013

UNUSUALLY FOR an industry fuelled by hype, it was the most well-kept secret since David Bowie's comeback album earlier this year, and all the more ...

The Runaways: Girl Power: The Birth of the Runaways

Book Excerpt by Evelyn McDonnell, 'Queens of Noise' (Da Capo), Summer 2013

Reprinted from Queens of Noise: The Real Story of the Runaways by Evelyn McDonnell. Available from Da Capo Press, a member of The Perseus Books ...

The Sequence: Funk You Up – The Complete Sugarhill Recordings

Sleeve notes by Bob Fisher, unpublished, 2014

SUGARHILL RECORDS was formed in 1979 by Joe and Sylvia Robinson and by early 1980 had presented the world with a "new" music – rap. ...

Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry: New Skin

Comment by Dorian Lynskey, GQ, January 2014

Reinvention can make or break our pop princesses ...

Katharine Jenkins: Katherine Jenkins and the classical music stars who please our ears – and eyes

Report by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 21 January 2014

DRESSED IN something crimson and curve-enhancing by Stella McCartney, and teetering on Kurt Geiger heels, Katherine Jenkins has assured us that she's heading "back to ...

Matraca Berg: The Daughter of Music Row

Retrospective and Interview by Holly Gleason, Oxford American, 22 January 2014

A SLIGHT, YOUNG brunette stood alone in a navy Richard Tyler slip on the Opry House stage, backed by a pianist and a string quartet, ...

Kim Gordon, Sonic Youth: Kim Gordon: Life after Sonic Youth

Profile and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, The Observer, 16 February 2014

Artist, musician and style icon, Kim Gordon has been at the cutting edge of culture for more than 30 years. Dorian Lynskey meets the singer ...

Neneh Cherry: "People ask me where I've been for 18 years…"

Report and Interview by Kate Mossman, The Observer, 23 February 2014

On the cutting edge of pop in the '80s and '90s, the singer paved the way for today's sassy female stars. Now she's back with her ...

Lorde: Sound Academy, Toronto

Live Review by Juliette Jagger, Exclaim!, 16 March 2014

A LONE SPOTLIGHT cut through the blackness in the room to reveal Lorde at centre stage, where her presence was immediately overwhelming. ...

Kylie Minogue: "It's not right if you're a woman who enjoys expressing her sexuality pretending you're not sexual"

Interview by Jude Rogers, New Statesman, 27 March 2014

Jude Rogers talks to the pop princess about gay best friends, life after breast cancer and why she spent New Year alone. ...

The State of the Rock Chick: Individual Style or Manufactured Fashion?

Comment by Rachel Felder, Vanity Fair, 10 April 2014

AS USUAL, this year's Coachella lineup includes a handful of female artists – like Haim, Lorde, and Lana Del Rey – who look as good ...

Chrissie Hynde: "Alcohol is worse than heroin and my pal Kate Moss should lose the fur coats": Chrissie Hynde on fighting form

Profile and Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Event Magazine, 12 April 2014

She has single-handedly built the template for the modern female rock'n'roller: she has out-partied, out-married and, in many cases, outlived her contemporaries. ...

Kate Bush: Sonic Foam: Kate Bush

Essay by Ian Penman, London Review of Books, 17 April 2014

A DREAM, just before waking. It's a day or two after Kate Bush's unexpected announcement of her return to the concert stage for a series ...

Iggy Azalea: The New Classic

Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 21 April 2014

AZALEA IS certainly one of the most singular pop success stories of recent years. ...

Lily Allen: Sheezus

Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 27 April 2014

LILY'S BACK, and this time it's personal. But then, it always has been: few modern pop stars have engaged with the sweet 'n' sour of ...

Lily Allen: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London

Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 28 April 2014

FIVE YEARS AGO Lily Allen retreated to the Cotswolds to get married and to start a family, and proclaimed that she was retiring from music. ...

Iggy Azalea: The New Classic

Review by Lucy O'Brien, The Quietus, 29 April 2014

"WHEN THE SMOKE clears I'm the last bandit," Iggy Azalea raps optimistically on 'Walk The Line', a stand-out track on her long-awaited debut album. ...

Beyoncé

Profile by John Lewis, Populous, May 2014

IF YOU WANT an embodiment of the contradictions that seem to define Beyoncé Knowles, just listen to her 2008 anthem 'Single Ladies'. Sonically, it's one ...

Beyoncé: Knowles' House Party: Beyoncé: The O2, London ****

Live Review by Jude Rogers, Q, May 2014

Pop superstar takes her Mrs Carter tour to the next level in London ...

Lucinda Williams

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2014

HARD TO BELIEVE now, given her adulatory reputation among commentators and contemporaries alike, but when Lucinda Williams was hawking her songs around, looking for a ...

Women's march

Comment by Frances Morgan, The Wire, May 2014

Compiling by gender can expand rather than reduce sonic horizons. ...

Lily Allen: Sheezus

Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 5 May 2014

HAVING ANNOUNCED her "retirement" when she retreated to the countryside to start a family five years ago, Lily Allen affects to be nervous of her ...

Viv Albertine, The Slits: The Creative Life of Viv Albertine

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 11 May 2014

She hung out with Sid Vicious, trashed hotel rooms and her album was blacklisted. So what's changed for the former punk Viv Albertine – apart ...

Hurray for the Riff Raff: Bard of the Big Easy

Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 31 May 2014

Alynda Lee Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff was living rough until New Orleans inspired her to sing. "I owe the city," she tells ...

Chrissie Hynde: Talker Of The Town: Chrissie Hynde

Interview by Simon Price, The Quietus, 10 June 2014

Chrissie Hynde is releasing her first-ever solo album. But never mind that. Just let her talk. Because the legendary Pretenders leader can talk for London, ...

Holly Williams

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2014

HOLLY WILLIAMS carries her lineage lightly. Which can't be easy when your grandfather was Hank Williams Sr, the beating heart and tortured soul of country ...

La Roux: Conway Hall, London

Live Review by Rick Pearson, The Evening Standard, 3 July 2014

IT'S BEEN five years since La Roux's Elly Jackson announced she was going in for the kill. The intervening period has seen the south Londoner ...

Sky Ferreira

Interview by Jenny Valentish, Time Out Melbourne, 23 July 2014

Ferreira returns to Australia to show why the night time is her time ...

FKA Twigs: LP1

Review by Luke Turner, The Quietus, 15 August 2014

LEGION AND LAMENTABLE are the reviews of female artists written by male music critics in which their hands appear to have drifted away from the ...

Jessie J

Profile and Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Event Magazine, 23 August 2014

Jessie J reveals she's quitting Britain because she's fed up with gossip about her sex life... and she's heading to America "where they take me ...

Taylor Swift on 1989

Interview by Alan Light, Radio.com, October 2014

  "EVERY RECORD, I've tried to challenge myself to make something different," says Taylor Swift. "Red was really experimental, so I ended up with a sound ...

Meghan Trainor: An Interview

Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 2 October 2014

Is the surprise megahit really a dig at thinner women? No way, says the singer, it's about loving and rocking whatever you've got ...

Taylor Swift: 1989

Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 24 October 2014

Pop star shows "promising signs of maturity". But whether it's adolescent exaggeration or an attempt to bring more intriguing strategies into pop lyricism is debatable. ...

Courtney Barnett: El Rey Theatre, L.A.

Live Review by Roy Trakin, Addicted To Noise, 10 November 2014

ROCK 'N' ROLL may be on its last legs, but it is still capable of providing an epiphany along its death spiral. Thank god for ...

Iggy Azalea, Jennifer Lopez, Nicki Minaj, Meghan Trainor: The Booty Myth

Report by Evelyn McDonnell, Cuepoint, 10 November 2014

Are female pop stars glorifying their bodies or objectifying them? Well, it's complicated. ...

Barbara Lynn: How Barbara Lynn Changed The Blues Forever

Interview by John Morthland, Wondering Sound, 12 November 2014

BARBARA LYNN, who topped rhythm and blues charts in 1962 with 'You'll Lose a Good Thing', which also crossed over to the pop Top 10, ...

Taylor Swift: Billboard Woman of the Year Taylor Swift on Writing Her Own Rules, Not Becoming a Cliche and the Hurdle of Going Pop

Interview by Alan Light, Billboard, 5 December 2014

TAYLOR SWIFT never doubted that her fifth album, 1989, would sell 1 million copies in its first week. But others were not so confident. ...

Bully, Cherry Glazerr, The Deers, Hinds (formerly The Deers), Skinny Girl Diet: Girl power is back: A new wave is reigniting the fight against sexist attitudes in music

Report and Interview by Paul Lester, The Independent, 5 December 2014

They're not "super-girly", nor are they rabidly feminist. They just want to be in a band, the way men can just be musicians without having ...

Natalie Prass: The Lexington, London

Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 29 January 2015

DURING A MOMENTARY delay between songs, Nashville singer-songwriter Natalie Prass looks to the audience and, with a genial awkwardness, says: "I feel like I should ...

Dead Kennedys: Highway to Hell: My Life on the Road with the Dead Kennedys

Memoir by Amy Linden, Cuepoint, 3 February 2015

IN 1981, I MOVED back to New York City after spending four years in San Francisco. I was 22, and a childhood friend and I ...

Lesley Gore, 1946-2015

Obituary by Dave Laing, The Guardian, 17 February 2015

Singer whose passionate teen anthems of the '60s included 'It's My Party' and 'You Don't Own Me'. ...

Kim Gordon, Sonic Youth: Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon (Faber & Faber)

Book Review by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 19 February 2015

Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon reflects on the break-up of her marriage and the loss of New York's netherworld ...

Sandy Denny: Mick Houghton: I've Always Kept a Unicorn – The Biography of Sandy Denny

Book Review by Barney Hoskyns, The Guardian, 21 February 2015

WHAT, HYPOTHETICALLY, would have happened if Sandy Denny had tried out for The Voice UK? Would Rita and Ricky and Will.i.am and Sir Tom have ...

Lulu: "I've had the most unbelievable life"

Retrospective and Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Event Magazine, 28 February 2015

POP STARDOM at 15. Two failed marriages – one to a hard-drinking Bee Gee. An "insane" affair with David Bowie. Turning down Frank Sinatra. Cheating ...

Blondie, Debbie Harry: Debbie Harry on punk, refusing to retire and sex at 69

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 1 March 2015

Forty years after Blondie found fame on the New York scene, Debbie Harry is still waving the flag for women in the music business – ...

Britney Spears: Why Did Britney Spears Quietly Drop an Album then Take it Down?

Report by Kate Allen, Rock's Backpages, April 2015

ARE WE ALL sick of "surprise" music releases yet? Are we supposed to feign excitement over Beyoncé serenading Jay Z via a Tidal-exclusive video (the ...

Bebe Rexha: Concrete, Shoreditch

Live Review by Kate Allen, FMS, 22 May 2015

WEDNESDAY NIGHT saw the debut London show of – we're saying it – our (and by extension, your) favourite new pop star, Bebe Rexha. ...

Shirley Collins: "When I sing I feel past generations standing behind me"

Retrospective and Interview by Jude Rogers, The Observer, 31 May 2015

LEWES, EAST SUSSEX, is a lovely, slyly rebellious town. Pretty shopfronts and streets mask its political history: Thomas Paine wrote his first pamphlet here demanding ...

Buffy Sainte-Marie

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2015

DON'T TELL THE wife, but I've fallen for Buffy Sainte-Marie. She probably doesn't feel the same way about me, but then being well-versed in the ...

Sly & the Family Stone: Still All the Way Live

Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, Ebony, 29 July 2015

BACK IN 1967, when funky trumpeter Cynthia Robinson joined forces with musical visionary Sly Stone, most "girls" in band units wore pretty dresses and harmonized ...

Cilla Black 1943-2015

Obituary by Dave Laing, The Guardian, 3 August 2015

THE BRITISH POP revolution of the 1960s involved not only male guitar bands, but also several young female singing stars, including Cilla Black, who has ...

Marian McPartland, Kate Tempest: A Tale of Two British Women: Marian McPartland and Kate Tempest

Comment by Larry Jaffee, Women Across Frontiers, 25 August 2015

AMERICAN SINGER-SONGWRITER Aimee Mann once told me during an interview how male executives from major record labels always gave her problems when she wanted to ...

Fanny: The Untold Story of the original Queens of Noise

Retrospective and Interview by Geoff Barton, Classic Rock, September 2015

They may have been overshadowed by the Runaways, but nobody did it quite like Fanny, the original all-girl rock'n'roll band who blazed a trail through the ...

Miley Cyrus: Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz

Review by Kate Allen, Fashion Music Style, 2 September 2015

HOW MUCH of a surprise release is this, really? After a disappointingly unremarkable turn as the host of the MTV Video Music Awards – which ...

Lizzy Mercier Descloux: Rockfort: Remembering Lizzy Mercier Descloux

Retrospective by David McKenna, The Quietus, 10 September 2015

David McKenna looks back at the life of Parisian poet, painter and post punk musician, Lizzy Mercier Descloux. ...

Joan Armatrading

Interview by Carl Wiser, Songfacts, 16 September 2015

The revered singer-songwriter talks inspiration and explains why she put a mahout in 'Drop the Pilot' ...

Chrissie Hynde: Reckless

Book Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 17 September 2015

There's no pretending in Chrissie Hynde's spare, deft memoir Reckless ...

Joanna Newsom: Divers

Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, November 2015

Freak-folk Cinderella follows acclaimed 2010 triple with an album of erudite pop and deepening moods. Mark Paytress takes the plunge. ...

Patti Smith: M Train

Book Review by Larry Jaffee, Women Across Frontiers, 17 November 2015

MY FIRST REVELATORY encounter with Patti Smith was listening on the radio in the fall of 1975 around the time of the release of her ...

Adele: 25

Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 18 November 2015

New album arrives to save the music industry ...

Sleater-Kinney: A Riot Grrrl Remembers: Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl: A Memoir by Carrie Brownstein

Book Review by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 29 December 2015

A complex and moving portrait of a coming of age in America ...

Loretta Lynn

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2016

THE WORD "legend" has been devalued by misappropriation in modern linguistic currency. These days it is increasingly (and stupidly) used as a synonym for "star" ...

Ke$ha, The Last Shadow Puppets: Sexism on repeat: how the music industry can break the cycle

Essay by Maura Johnston, The Guardian, 11 March 2016

From Kesha's case against Dr Luke to Miles Kane's objectification of a female journalist, the industry has to admit there's a problem before sexism is ...

The 1975, Taylor Swift: Matt Healy's comments about Taylor Swift were not the words of a misogynist

Comment by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 18 March 2016

The 1975 singer attracted controversy by saying that dating Taylor Swift would be emasculating. It was me he was speaking to, and I saw an ...

Beyoncé's Lemonade is an object lesson in collaboration

Comment by Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 28 April 2016

She's the centripetal force that marshals the likes of Robert Plant, Jack White, Kendrick Lamar and MNEK to craft exquisite pop music that transcends boundaries ...

Ani DiFranco: Righteous Babe: Ani DiFranco On Music, Politics, And Staying Independent

Interview by Mark Leviton, The Sun Magazine, May 2016

SINGER-SONGWRITER Ani DiFranco doesn't like her music to be labelled. Some have called it "folk-punk," but when asked to define what she does, DiFranco says, ...

Scarlet Fantastic: An Interview with Maggie K de Monde

Interview by Nicky Charlish, Spindle, 6 June 2016

VETERAN SINGERS who are forever new. That's not a contradiction in terms. Maggie K de Monde has been singing with her band Scarlet Fantastic – ...

Prince: The Sexual Politics of Prince

Essay by Larry Jaffee, Women Across Frontiers, 15 June 2016

PRINCE'S UNEXPECTED passing on April 21, 2016, shook popular culture and resulted in the long-overdue recognition of his unique musical genius. Yet Prince enigmatically contradicted ...

case/lang/veirs: case/lang/veirs (Anti-)

Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, July 2016

WHILE A collaboration was first mooted several years ago, it was only when k.d. lang and Neko Case contributed to Laura Veirs' underrated 2013 album ...

Vivien Goldman: Do Everything Yourself: The Lessons Of Punk Renaissance Woman Vivien Goldman

Profile and Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Record, The (NPR), 21 July 2016

ON JUNE 29, 64 years after the day she was born in London to Jewish parents who had fled Nazi Germany, Vivien Goldman was back ...

Millie: An Interview with Millie Small

Interview by Tom Graves, Goldmine, August 2016

MILLIE SMALL, the diminutive Jamaican teen sensation who introduced the world to the sounds of ska with her worldwide smash hit 'My Boy Lollipop', is ...

Joanna Newsom: End of the Road festival, Wiltshire

Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, September 2016

THERE AREN'T MANY contemporary musicians I'd stand in the pissing Wiltshire rain at summer's end to hear: I'm too ancient to care too much about ...

Adele: TD Garden, Boston

Live Review by Maura Johnston, The Boston Globe, 15 September 2016

THE CURRENT TREND of downcast pop – minor keys, lyrics drenched with bitterness, an overwhelming sense of despair – can be at least partially traced ...

Amy Winehouse's Back to Black: 10 Things You Didn't Know

Retrospective by Maura Johnston, Rolling Stone, 27 October 2016

How 'Rehab' came to be, which song Nas inspired and other behind-the-scenes facts about singer-songwriter's 2006 smash ...

Shirley Collins: With a guitar and a lipstick

Review by Jude Rogers, The Sunday Times, 6 November 2016

The radical folk pioneer has cut a bold new album – her first for 38 years. ...

Julia Holter: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London

Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 15 November 2016

The singer-songwriter cast a spell over the crowd with her cherished characters and carnival of sounds – but an industro-rock climax proved too much for ...

Gillian Welch: Boots No. 1 - The Official Revival Bootleg

Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, 28 November 2016

THE ARRIVAL OF A new record from Gillian Welch and her partner Dave Rawlings is an eagerly anticipated event at Just Backdated. ...

Paula Cole: The Songfacts Interview

Interview by Carl Wiser, Songfacts, 22 December 2016

PAULA COLE NEVER watched the Grammys, which made it a little weird when she won the award for Best New Artist in 1997 (also weird, ...

Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson: The Girls of Rhythm Nation

Retrospective by Mitchell Cohen, Music Aficionado, 2017

THEY COULD have been rivals in a pop soap opera. Whitney Houston prim and buttoned-up, Janet Jackson frisky and up for anything. Whitney was a ...

Ella Fitzgerald: 100 Songs For a Centennial (Verve 2016-00957)

Sleeve notes by Kirk Silsbee, Verve Records, February 2017

AT FIRST BLUSH, a hundred songs from any artist seems like overkill.  In the case of Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996), whose recordings number in the thousands, ...

Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry: "Purposeful pop": can stars like Katy Perry create change through music?

Comment by Maura Johnston, The Guardian, 14 February 2017

After Perry's #wokepop at the Grammys, there's an argument about how subversive pop can be in 2017. History shows it will take more than hashtags. ...

Rickie Lee Jones

Interview by Carl Wiser, Songfacts, 27 February 2017

Rickie Lee Jones on songwriting, social media, and how she's handling Trump. ...

Nelly Furtado: Canadian Bands You Should Know: Nelly Furtado

Profile and Interview by Juliette Jagger, nmc.ca, 24 March 2017

AT THE ONSET OF 1998, Nelly Furtado was a fresh-faced, bright-eyed, 19-year-old singer-songwriter from Victoria, BC, sharing a partitioned apartment at Yonge and Finch in ...

The Dixie Chicks: There's Your Trouble: Considering the Dixie Chicks controversy, with hindsight 20/20

Retrospective and Interview by Holly Gleason, No Depression, 23 May 2017

IT WAS EARLY 2003. The Dixie Chicks were easily the biggest girl group in history — and also the biggest act in country music post–Garth ...

Lorde talks second albums and night-time energy on the eve of Australian tour

Profile and Interview by Andrew Stafford, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 16 June 2017

I'M TOLD I CAN call her Ella: Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor is quite a mouthful. The single-syllable name by which she is better known, though, ...

Feist: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London

Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 28 July 2017

The Canadian indie-folk star transforms the sparse songs of recent album Pleasure into luminous ballads and splenetic blues-rock shredding. ...

Feist: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London

Live Review by Rick Pearson, The Evening Standard, 28 July 2017

JARVIS COCKER joined Feist on stage at the Empire, ambling on during 'Century' to ask: "How long is a century? Almost as long as a ...

Courtney Barnett, Jen Cloher: Jen Cloher and Courtney Barnett: "We couldn't be more contrary if we tried"

Profile and Interview by Andrew Stafford, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 28 July 2017

A PIECE OF PAPER stuck to the entrance of the Coburg RSL in Melbourne reads "cash only (dark ages)". It's not much warmer inside than ...

Big Mama Thornton: Big Mama's Blues

Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, November 2017

BIG MAMA THORNTON – alias Willie Mae Thornton – knew how it worked. Like her black R&B contemporaries, male and female (but especially female), she ...

Debbie Gibson: All-American Girl

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, November 2017

DEBBIE GIBSON feels as though she's in a Tina Turner moment at this stage of her career, on the precipice of a midlife renaissance. ...

St. Vincent: Masseducation

Review by Tom Doyle, MOJO, November 2017

Heartache and nihilism meet sonic trickery in Annie Clark's troubled fifth. ...

Paloma Faith: The Architect

Review by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 19 November 2017

DO PALOMA FAITH fans have a collective name? If not, they should adopt one Swiftie-ly. Palomarmy may be too much of a mouthful; Faithfuls would ...

Amanda Palmer: Union Chapel, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 21 November 2017

The mood at this show by the singer-songwriter was warm, communal and interactive, but the set was overstuffed with bloodless cover versions. ...

Ke$ha: Kesha: Brixton Electric, London

Live Review by Pip Williams, The Line of Best Fit, 22 November 2017

There are few secrets in California popstar Kesha's private life. Her battle with anorexia made headlines, whilst her lawsuit against producer and alleged abuser Dr. ...

Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks: Stephen Davis: Gold Dust Woman – The Biography of Stevie Nicks

Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 24 November 2017

Stand Back! New Bio on Stevie Nicks Has Plenty of Gold-and-Fairy Dust ...

Charli XCX: 'Boys'

Review by Pip Williams, The Line of Best Fit, 8 December 2017

DO YOU REMEMBER the first time you heard 'Boys'? On first listen it might not have seemed like anything special — perhaps a bit repetitive, ...

Angel Olsen, Sharon Van Etten: Angel Olsen: Phases/Sharon Van Etten: (it was) because i was in love

Review by Jon Young, Mother Jones, 9 December 2017

WHETHER PERFORMING stark acoustic folk or giving her confessional songs a jolt of electricity, Angel Olsen always sounds like she's one beat away from a ...

Betty Davis: Betty: They Say I'm Different (Dir. Phil Cox, Native Voice Films & La Compaigne Des Taxi Brousse)

Film/DVD/TV Review by Neil Kulkarni, The Wire, March 2018

IN A MUSIC world in which no one disappears, and even the most negligible figures can be persuaded to break their post-fame incommunicado isolation if ...

The Breeders, The Pixies: Kim Deal: "Misogyny is the backbone of the music industry"

Interview by Barbara Ellen, The Observer, 3 March 2018

KIM DEAL, 56, sings and plays rhythm guitar with the Breeders, formed in 1989 as a side project with Throwing Muses' Tanya Donelly. The band's ...

Sampa the Great: After the Australian Music Prize, Sampa the Great wants to set her story straight

Interview by Jenny Valentish, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 5 April 2018

SAMPA THE GREAT didn't get the memo that artists should be of the tortured persuasion. She peppers her speech with gales of laughter. She wants ...

Dua Lipa: SSE Hydro, Glasgow

Live Review by Graeme Thomson, Mail On Sunday, 22 April 2018

Dua's great Lipa forward: the charismatic pop star du jour proves herself to the hangar born on the opening night of her first arena tour. ...

Courtney Barnett: Coping Mechanisms

Interview by Pip Williams, The Line of Best Fit, 15 May 2018

Ahead of her second album, Tell Me How You Really Feel, Courtney Barnett tells Pip Williams how she's embraced anxiety and used it as a ...

Courtney Barnett on coping with fame, homophobia – and thinking she still sucks

Profile and Interview by Jenny Valentish, The Guardian, 17 May 2018

The Australian musician has gone from indie darling to global star, but she's still uneasy in the limelight and wracked with self-doubt – even self-hate. ...

Tori Amos: An angry 40-year-old is a scary thing

Report and Interview by Bill DeYoung, The Stuart News, 23 June 2018

TORI AMOS recently celebrated her 40th birthday, and the singer/songwriter says it was no big deal. She'd already had her rites of passage. ...

Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders: Chrissie Hynde

Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Event Magazine, 4 August 2018

Still super-hip (and all lip) at 66, the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde tells Event why she swears at fans, enrages sex abuse victims… and has swapped ...

Aretha Franklin: Aretha: The Voice of America

Obituary by Carol Cooper, The Village Voice, 17 August 2018

IT MAY BE difficult for anyone born after 1980 to fully grasp how important Aretha Franklin has been to America. There is simply no longer ...

Madison Beer: Pop interview: Madison Beer on 'Home with You', five years after Justin Bieber declared her a star

Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 26 August 2018

The teenage singer is storming up the charts without the help of a record label. Is this the future? ...

Ariana Grande: How Ariana Grande floated free

Comment by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 29 August 2018

Grande has lifted the weight of the Manchester terror attack with a collection of gloriously oddball, career-changing pop songs. ...

Beth Ditto: "I don't think I can act. I'm just really good at talking."

Profile and Interview by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 24 October 2018

The Gossip frontwoman has started acting, and her first role is a "redneck loud woman" in the new Gus Van Sant film. She talks about ...

MØ’s journey to Neverland

Interview by Pip Williams, The Line of Best Fit, 26 October 2018

Her new album Forever Neverland may court eternal youth, but MØ won't allow herself the luxury of denial. Denmark's hottest export explains the paradoxical nostalgia ...

Dorothy Carvello: Anything for a Hit – An A&R Woman's Story of Surviving the Music Industry (Chicago Review Press)

Book Review by Robert Dean Lurie, National Review, 12 November 2018

"A BOOK FOR the #MeToo and Times Up Movements," proclaims the PR one-sheet for Dorothy Carvello's new memoir. ...

Christine and the Queens: Why Christine and the Queens makes me feel like I'm ten years old and climbing a tree

Comment by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 28 November 2018

SHORTLY BEFORE THE end of her gig last week at the Hammersmith Apollo, Héloïse Letissier, in bra and trousers, ran from the upper circle back ...

A Top 40 Countdown & A Plea For a Mitzvah in the Streaming Age: The Best Music Journalism of 2018

Guide by Jason Gross, Rock's Backpages, December 2018

2018 WAS A really good year, just not politically, socially, psychologically and spiritually... well, there was plenty of good music, as Fader, Consequence of Sound ...

LP: "I can feel the male and female in me flying around in a fury when I'm singing": LP on songwriting and diversity

Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 5 December 2018

She has written hits for Rihanna, Cher and Christina Aguilera — and she's been dropped by a series of major labels. Is it finally time for ...

Billie Holiday: Lady Sings the Blues

Book Review by Nick Hornby, The Sunday Times, 9 December 2018

Unsparing in its portrayal of addiction, divorce and racism, Billie Holiday's memoir is now a Penguin Modern Classic. ...

Lily Allen: Roundhouse, London

Live Review by Rick Pearson, The Evening Standard, 18 December 2018

EYEBROWS WERE raised earlier this year when Lily Allen's latest album, No Shame, was nominated for the Mercury Prize but it fully deserved its place ...

Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love: Only Noise: In the Wake of Kurt's Suicide, Courtney Love Changed My Life

Memoir by Carla DeSantis Black, AudioFemme, 4 April 2019

ONLY NOISE explores music fandom with poignant personal essays that examine the ways we're shaped by our chosen soundtrack. This week, legendary ROCKRGRL editor Carla ...

Maren Morris, Kacey Musgraves: Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris and the Politics of Joy

Comment by Mitchell Cohen, Music Aficionado, July 2019

NOT MANY people in the audience at Irving Plaza in New York knew who Kacey Musgraves was when she opened there for Little Big Town ...

Joan Baez: Saint Joan

Retrospective and Interview by Liz Thomson, Tortoise, 21 July 2019

As Joan Baez prepares to give her final performance, Liz Thomson talks to her and traces a 60-year career filled with courage and conviction. ...

Linda Ronstadt: Why Linda Ronstadt is the Quintessential "Girl Singer"

Retrospective by Mitchell Cohen, Music Aficionado, September 2019

I FIRST SAW her at the Bitter End on Bleecker Street in the early '70s; I was in the second row, sipping on an ice ...

Breaking out of the galaith box: Women music journalists in America, 1920–1960

Retrospective by Don Armstrong, Music Journalism History, October 2019

Introduction  In a gay, diminutive galaith box comes an indelible lip paste blended from the finest beautifiers, exuberantly youthful in color. 'Feminine Frills', Edita Miller Lenz (Billboard, ...

Blondie, Debbie Harry: Debbie Harry: Face It

Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, October 2019

IT IS A popular misconception that – once they have tasted chart success and seen their faces in magazines – music stars like Debbie Harry ...

Little Simz: Mama Roux’s, Birmingham

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 24 October 2019

LAUNCHING HER latest nationwide tour with a cosy sold-out show in Birmingham, Little Simz radiated easy confidence, musical dexterity and enormous charm. ...

Tina Turner at 80

Retrospective by Steve Pafford, stevepafford.com, 26 November 2019

How a middle aged woman from Tennessee pulled off the greatest comeback in music history ...

Leonard Cohen: His Muses Were Many Women

Essay by Larry Jaffee, Record Collector, 3 December 2019

THE NEW DOCUMENTARY Leonard & Marianne: Words of Love, directed by Nick Broomfield, ostensibly is about the romance on the Greek island of Hydra in ...

Tal Wilkenfeld: Queen of the Bass: Why Tal Wilkenfeld is every rock star's secret weapon

Profile and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 16 December 2019

Adored by Prince, Jeff Beck and the Who, thirtysomething jazz prodigy Tal Wilkenfeld is one of the most in-demand musicians in the world. And it's ...

Kim Wilde

Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Event Magazine, 11 January 2020

"Touring with Bowie was a thrill. But I was on a high for weeks after winning gold at the Chelsea Flower Show": Kim Wilde on ...

Poppy, Selena Gomez: Selena Gomez: Rare, Poppy: I Disagree

Review by Alfred Soto, Humanizing the Vacuum, 23 January 2020

In my first reviews of new music since realizing I hadn't finished half my Xmas shopping, I examine a pair of albums by a star ...

Sleater-Kinney: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 27 February 2020

THEY STILL DO PUNK ROCK better than anyone, but the veteran US band have ably stepped into icy electronics, disco and offbeat pop. ...

Fiona Apple: Fetch the Bolt Cutters

Review by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 17 April 2020

The unhurried artist's first studio album in eight years is astonishing, intimate and demonstrates a refusal to be silenced ...

The Rolling Stones: Black, blue and very bad taste: the Rolling Stones billboard that still sparks controversy

Retrospective by Edward Helmore, The Observer, 19 April 2020

There was a feminist outcry when the band used a tied-up model to promote their 1976 album. Is rock'n'roll more enlightened now? ...

Cher Lloyd is bigger than the bullshit

Interview by Pip Williams, The Line of Best Fit, 4 May 2020

Cher Lloyd cannot think of anything worse than taking up breadmaking in lockdown. ...

The Chicks: Gaslighter (Columbia)

Review by David Bennun, Metro, July 2020

THE CHICKS formerly known as Dixie haven't released a new studio album in 14 years, which makes Gaslighter a pretty big deal. ...

Nadine Shah

Interview by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 23 July 2020

The musician talks about missing Glastonbury, being inspired by Abigail's Party and turning the tables on music critics. ...

The GTOs, Frank Zappa: Miss Mercy, colourful L.A. rock fixture and cofounder of Frank Zappa's GTOs, dies at 71

Obituary by Chris Campion, Los Angeles Times, 31 July 2020

MISS MERCY, the effervescent rock 'n' roll superfan who found fame as a member of Frank Zappa's "groupie" girl-group the GTOs (Girls Together Outrageously), died ...

Inflatable Boy Clams, Pink Section: San Francisco Punk Pranksters: Pink Section, Inflatable Boy Clams

Retrospective and Interview by Richie Unterberger, Please Kill Me!, 19 August 2020

Influenced by the punk scene centered at Mabuhay Gardens, and the fun, bohemian spirit of a city that was, back then, an affordable place to ...

Helen Reddy, 1941-2020

Obituary by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 30 September 2020

Australian singer who enjoyed huge success with her 1972 feminist anthem 'I Am Woman' ...

Junglepussy: JP4 (Secretly Canadian)

Review by David Bennun, Metro, 22 October 2020

HOW MUCH fun is Shayna McHayle, more felicitously known as Junglepussy? More fun than a boxful of puppies with sharp little teeth and a bone ...

Pale Waves: A Different Kind of Love

Interview by Pip Williams, The Line of Best Fit, 23 February 2021

Heather Baron-Gracie reflects on the creative and personal freedom she found within Pale Waves as the band celebrate the release of new album Who Am ...

Lydia Lunch's Infinite Rebellion

Profile and Interview by Jim Farber, The New York Times, 28 June 2021

FOR NEARLY two hours on a recent afternoon, Lydia Lunch sat in her bright Brooklyn apartment and spoke with bracing speed, and at an alarming ...

Ornette Coleman, Chris Darrow, Nico: All That Is My Own: Nico at Steve Paul's The Scene, October 1967

Book Excerpt by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike, 'You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone' (Faber), July 2021

Excerpted from Jennifer Otter Bickerdike's You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone: The Biography of Nico, published this month by Faber ...

Orla Gartland: DIY 'til she dies

Interview by Pip Williams, The Line of Best Fit, 19 August 2021

Tomorrow, Orla Gartland releases her debut album, Woman On The Internet. In the decade since the Irish singer/songwriter began uploading tracks to YouTube as a ...

Amyl and the Sniffers: Comfort to Me

Review by Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 10 September 2021

Frontwoman Amy Taylor crackles like a live wire with too much current in Melbourne punk band's electric second album. ...

Sherry Rich: The Divine Crimson V

Review by Jeff Apter, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 17 September 2021

EVER SINCE she formed a high school band with a blonde Queensland up-and-comer named Keith Urban, good people have gravitated to Sherry Rich. ...

Martha Wainwright: Union Chapel, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Evening Standard, 21 September 2021

The singer songwriter was on perky form in a set that hinged on songs that explored her recent divorce ...

Little Simz: Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

Review by John Lewis, Uncut, October 2021

Epic fourth album by the award-winning north London rapper ...

Tina Turner: Regal, Fierce & Divine: Tina Turner Roars into the Rock Hall on her own terms

Retrospective and Interview by Holly Gleason, Pollstar, October 2021

TINA TURNER in a chain mail dress… Tina Turner in a black leather mini skirt, denim jacket, seam up the back of those legs… Tina Turner in ...

Dionne Warwick: For the Love of Dionne

Retrospective by Michael A. Gonzales, Oldster, 6 October 2021

A new documentary and an art exhibit put 80-year-old Dionne Warwick back in the spotlight. But as far as journalist and critic Michael A. Gonzales ...

Overlooked No More: Ruth Polsky, Who Shaped New York's Music Scene

Retrospective by Rachel Felder, The New York Times, 18 November 2021

She booked concerts at influential nightclubs in the 1980s, bringing exposure to up-and-coming artists like the Smiths and New Order. ...

Billie Eilish: "I've gotten a lot more proud of who I am"

Interview by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 4 December 2021

The pop superstar on her extraordinary year — the Bond theme, that Vogue cover, the success of her second album — and hosting Saturday Night ...

Vashti Bunyan: "My voice made me think of sorrow. I didn't even sing to my children"

Retrospective and Interview by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 18 March 2022

GROOMED TO BE A 60S POP STAR, the singer instead headed for the Hebrides in a horse-drawn cart and then withdrew from music for 30 ...

Ann Wilson, Heart, Led Zeppelin: Ann Wilson: "Singing Led Zeppelin taught me how to sing rock 'n' roll — loud and high"

Interview by Laura Barton, The Independent, 24 April 2022

With her sister Nancy, Ann Wilson fronted the revolutionary, female-led hard rock outfit Heart. Laura Barton speaks to her on the cusp of a new ...

Olivia Rodrigo: Radio City Music Hall, New York City

Live Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 28 April 2022

LAST NIGHT at Radio City Music Hall, Olivia Rodrigo provided a whole lotta deja-vu as she performed her hugely successful debut album, Sour, as well ...

Zola Jesus on spirituality and overcoming the lone genius archetype

Interview by Pip Williams, The Line of Best Fit, 20 June 2022

Against a striking backdrop of towering ancient rock formations in Turkey, Zola Jesus filmed the video for recent single 'Lost'. Blanketed in snow, this landscape ...

Sophie Jamieson: St Pancras Old Church, London

Live Review by Irina Shtreis, Louder Than War, 23 February 2023

An evening of intensity with the London-based songwriter. ...

SZA: O2 Arena

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Evening Standard, 19 June 2023

A MARATHON 30-song musical feast became a swashbuckling maritime adventure as SZA brought her SOS world tour to London for this, the second in an extended four-night ...

Bridget St John: Still Bridget St John

Retrospective by Mark Cooper, Rock's Backpages, November 2023

I CAN'T RECALL ever having seen Bridget St John before although I owned her first couple of albums as the '60s wobbled into the '70s. ...

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