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Andrew Tyler

Andrew Tyler

Andrew Tyler wrote for Disc and Music Echo in the early 1970s and then for New Musical Express from 1973 to 1980. He was subsequently news features editor with Time Out. As a freelance writer, he contributed regularly to The Observer, The Independent, the Guardian and others. He is the author of Street Drugs. From 1995 until September 2016, Andrew was the director of Animal Aid, Europe's largest animal rights organisation and one of the first in the world. After suffering from Parkinson's, Andrew died at Dignitas in April 2017.

Mark Gold's Guardian obituary

88 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Emitt Rhodes: The long and winding Rhodes

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc and Music Echo, 4 December 1971

Hailed as a "one man Beatles" EMITT RHODES talks about his musical influences to Andrew Tyler ...

Nicky Hopkins

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc and Music Echo, 4 December 1971

DURING THE NEXT 12 months Nicky Hopkins, the world's best-known anonymous pianist, will be the fourth German on the right no more. After years of ...

King Crimson: Reshuffle At The Court Of The King

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc and Music Echo, 8 January 1972

"WE'VE ALL gone through our various changes and Peter and I came out at different places." ...

Man: Violence? Man You Ain't Heard Nothing Yet!

Profile and Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc and Music Echo, 8 January 1972

MAN HAD JUST finished a gig in Hamburg's notorious Top Ten Club and were ambling around town looking for action when someone stuck a two-bore ...

John McLaughlin, Mahavishnu Orchestra: John McLaughlin: Man For All Seasons

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc and Music Echo, 15 January 1972

Meet John McLaughlin the jazz giant, man of God, New York hermit and cult leader ...

Black Sabbath

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc and Music Echo, 20 January 1972

"THE TROUBLE with English and European crowds," said Black Sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, "is that they listen to you as if you were a jukebox. ...

Manassas, Stephen Stills: Stephen Stills: Angry in Suburbia

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc and Music Echo, 18 March 1972

"HEY, THERE'S a tape recorder going. Hey, there's a tape going here," Steve Stills tosses a dice in the direction of the chatter and chuckles, ...

Harry Nilsson: Nilsson Knees Up

Report by Andrew Tyler, Disc and Music Echo, 25 March 1972

THE PINNER contingent were no match for the notorious East Enders from Stepney, London, even though they did outnumber them 42 to 12. ...

Deep Purple: Machine Head (Purple Records, TPSA 7504, £2.40)

Review by Andrew Tyler, Disc and Music Echo, 1 April 1972

Just a flash of inspired Purple ...

The Groundhogs: Who Will Save The World (United Artists UAG 29237, £1.94)

Review by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 1 April 1972

THE RICHLY decorated, animated gatefold cover hints at something special inside and there aren't too many disappointments. ...

Rory Gallagher: On the Road with Rory

Report and Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc and Music Echo, 8 April 1972

Andrew Tyler found out just how hard life on the road is when he followed Rory Gallagher north on a couple of gigs. ...

Rory Gallagher: Rollicking Rory - Live at Leeds

Profile and Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 8 April 1972

YOU SEE THEM EVERYWHERE. Those uniformed peak capped gendarmes with sergeant stripes and an air of placid bewilderment. ...

The Faces Under The Big Top

Report and Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 6 May 1972

AFTER A WHILE, you get the feeling you're part of the scenario for one of those colossally far-fetched paperbacks with titles like Rock God (make ...

Chicago: Chicago Is…

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 13 May 1972

"IT'S RIDICULOUS really," said Chicago's composer and keyboard man, Bob Lamm, "Here I am in Hollywood, living in grand style and my parents are still ...

Joe Cocker: I Almost Forgot What Rock 'N' Roll Was All About

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 13 May 1972

THE CURRY looked sort of ropey. It had probably been frozen for a lifetime between cardboard. Joe Cocker examined it incredulously, sifting it through his ...

The Everly Brothers: Back In Favour

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 13 May 1972

JUST WHEN we were getting used to thinking of the Everly Brothers as a monument to a distant era they come up with Stories We ...

Jo Jo Gunne: The Spirit of Jo Jo Gunne

Profile and Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 27 May 1972

SOME say the stench given off by their first album is just too rank to bear. Others are moved to disagree. Strong stuff, it is ...

Yes: Yes are Well and Grooving

Profile and Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 27 May 1972

IN THE basement of Una Billings School of Dancing, Shepherd's Bush, London, Yes are bouncing ideas off each other for a new album. Jon Anderson, ...

Stackridge: The Stackridge Story

Review and Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 3 June 1972

NOW JIM Walters has passed his bricklaying exams he's rejoined his old band Stackridge. If things don't work out, you see, he'll have something to ...

Caravan: Missing Out On Hysteria

Report by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 24 June 1972

YOU CAN almost see the sky through the hazy plastic roof. Richard Sinclair hands around huge pastries stuffed with stringy macro weeds. Guzzling Cokes and ...

Viola Wills

Profile and Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 24 June 1972

THE SANCTIFIED Sisters, four beautiful black ladies Joe Cocker collected in the US for his British homecoming, are more than visual relief from all those ...

Dick Heckstall-Smith: At Last The Leader Of The Band

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 1 July 1972

HE'S ABOUT five miles high and not coming down: "I feel as if I've got wings growing out of my ankles. Part of me is ...

The Moody Blues: Moodie Blues: Graeme Edge Living Like A Lesser Mortal

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 1 July 1972

RESTING IN a reverse overhead lotus, a tortoiseshell at his feet and fingers pointing towards the All-Saints Hare Krishna Temple in the Marylebone Road, Graeme ...

J. Geils Band: J Geils Band: Rude Noises

Report and Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 8 July 1972

J. GEILS make the sort of rude music Jagger and his band specialised in before they started showering regularly and holidaying in the South of ...

Paul Williams: The Dwarf Genus

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 8 July 1972

HE WAS hanging out in one of those saucy marble and satin masterpieces tucked away neatly behind Piccadilly. His suite, equipped with Scotch, peanuts, a ...

Average White Band: Above Average White Band

Profile and Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 22 July 1972

THIS PIECE, unless I serve a personal restraining order and keep my legs firmly crossed, is likely to develop into a hysterical citation of the ...

Atomic Rooster: Rooster Keep On Crowing

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 22 July 1972

ATOMIC ROOSTER have seemed set to topple more than once as Vincent Crane, the band's organist and catalyst, found himself virtually alone. ...

Billy Preston: Man at the Top

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 29 July 1972

THE FORMIDABLE hand of fate has moved in to give Billy Preston his first American No. 1 hit — something he's clamoured for since turning ...

Fleetwood Mac, Christine Perfect/McVie: Fleetwood Mac: Perfect Woman

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 5 August 1972

PETE GREEN'S in Israel. Jeremy Spencer is making cassettes of devotional songs and recruiting the wayward and lonely for The Children Of God and Fleetwood ...

Stone The Crows: Maggie May

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 5 August 1972

ON THE fringe of unassuming Dunstable, Beds., Queensway Hall crouches like an errant space machine — an impressive spectacle and very expensive. It's at least ...

Little Richard: The Georgia Peach

Report and Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 19 August 1972

OOOWEE, Lawd knows it was a bad night's work. According to the divine plan, the Wembley crowd should have been blowing kisses at the Georgia ...

Rev. James Cleveland, Aretha Franklin: Aretha Franklin: Amazing Grace (Atlantic SD 2-906 0996, £3.69)

Review by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 26 August 1972

ARETHA MOVING AT SNAIL'S PACE ...

Van Morrison: Saint Dominic's Preview (Warner Bros. K46172, £2.09)

Review by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 2 September 1972

FOLLOW THAT VAN ...

Humble Pie: Black Birds Baked in a Pie

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 14 October 1972

STEVE MARRIOTT has a dream. A colossal vision of honey-voiced black ladies and a crazy Louisiana sax player, skinny as a wasp and with dynamite ...

Argent, Colin Blunstone, The Zombies: Plague of the Zombies

Interview by Rosalind Russell, Andrew Tyler, Disc, 14 October 1972

Were the Zombies one of the great neglected bands of the '60s? They had their hits, broke up and then created the sort of interest ...

Argent, Nazareth: Sundown, Mile End, London

Live Review by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 11 November 1972

SUPPOSE A Rock-n-Roll band gave a concert and no one came – a thought that might have flashed through Rod Argent's mind as he scanned ...

Lindisfarne: On and Off the Wagon

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 18 November 1972

THERE HAVE BEEN more dazzling, more debauched rock'n'roll roadshows. Some of the more spectacular have been known to cushion the strain of touring with sultry ...

Led Zeppelin: Page Five

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 25 November 1972

ROCK OF AGES: Andrew Tyler meets rock recluse JIMMY PAGE, ex-Yardbird, on the completion of Led Zeppelin's fifth album. ...

Sparks: Food First, Music Second

Profile and Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 25 November 1972

"Too many groups we know are into music." ...

Ringo Starr, T. Rex: Ringo Starr on Born to Boogie

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 9 December 1972

"BOLAN STRUTS, man, and I like that about him a lot. A lot of people, when they first meet him, can be put off because ...

The Beatles, Marc Bolan, Ringo Starr, T. Rex: Ringo: Apple to the Core

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 16 December 1972

RINGO WAS always supposed to be like that empty-headed klutz who followed Peter Sellers everywhere in the Magic Christian — a good-humoured and honourable Tonto-figure ...

Sharks showing their teeth

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 30 December 1972

SHARKS KNOW enough riffs to play hard-to-get. If they really wanted to wear Mexican sandals, army socks from Badges and Equipment and be very mysterious, ...

Crazy Horse: Crazy Horse At Crooked Lake (Epic £2.29) **

Review by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 20 January 1973

LIKE THOSE unfortunates who happen to be the son, daughter, sister or brother of a famous personage, Crazy Horse seemed to be lumbered with the ...

Steely Dan: Can't Buy A Thrill (Probe SPB 1062, £2.25)

Review by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 20 January 1973

THIS ONE'S already speeding up the Billboard and Cashbox charts – currently around the 30 mark and likely to jump about 20 places by next ...

Claudia Lennear: Brown Sugar Lady

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 27 January 1973

A CLUSTER of fly-bursting, brown-skinned ladies has become pretty much standard roadshow equipment for plenty of white rock bands these past few years. The lead ...

John Peel: Peel And The Pig — An Everyday Story Of Country Folk

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 17 February 1973

JOHN PEEL is a sensitive figure with a sturdy patch on the crotch of his jeans and a tendency towards schoolgirls and sensible underwear. A ...

The Osmonds: The Business Of Being An Osmond

Report and Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 10 March 1973

EDD LEFFLER knows just how to take care of his boys. He knows all about double and triple entendres and how reporters sometimes like to ...

Mahavishnu Orchestra: Birds Of Fire (CBS 65321, £2.29)

Review by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 17 March 1973

Mahavishnu more than one degree under ...

Procol Harum: Grand Hotel (Chrysalis CHR 1037 £2.30)

Review by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 17 March 1973

Procol's Hotel Mark II ...

Rick Springfield: Tricky Ricky

Profile and Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 17 March 1973

RICK SPRINGFIELD'S record company and management people, leaving nothing to chance, have been dropping the odd hint. Like the smart white-on-white, life-size poster that arrived ...

Procol Harum: Six Years In The Harum

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 24 March 1973

'GARY'S GOT GOUT,' Keith Reid explains without so much as a trace of nonsense in his eyes, 'so he couldn't make it today.' ...

Average White Band: Marquee, London

Live Review by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 7 April 1973

IT'S SO EASY to be brought down by the gross excesses of what is fondly being referred to as the "pop revival." Much of it ...

Roxy Music, Sharks: Rainbow Theatre, London

Live Review by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 7 April 1973

SIX OR seven months ago, a Roxy performance was such a cool business you got the impression the band would be just as satisfied if ...

Lindisfarne: On Reflection: Alan Hull of Lindisfarne

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 14 April 1973

FOR SEVERAL weeks there had been rumbling and muttering noises suggesting that all was not well with Lindisfarne. It was Alan Hull in a careless, ...

The Beatles, Paul McCartney, Wings: Paul McCartney: Spilling the beans...

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 14 April 1973

Paul McCartney on Wings, Klein and the chances of a Beatles get-together. Andrew Tyler reports ...

David Bowie, Cherry Vanilla: Cherry Vanilla: Cherry Sauce

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 21 April 1973

...Or hot gossip from a former skin-flick queen who's been hired to handle David Bowie's publicity machine. ...

Manassas: Down The Road (Atlantic K40440, £2.17)

Review by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 5 May 1973

Mystical Manassas ...

Yes: A Story of Chinese Scriptures and Vegetable Eaters

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 2 June 1973

STEVE HOWE... ENGLAND IS STILL BEST ...

Jefferson Airplane, Grace Slick: Grace Slick in London: Killing three stones with one bird

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 30 June 1973

THE HEAT in London is stifling, writes your man from the front, but the cool of the hotel room, and the glass of chilled champagne ...

Jethro Tull: Wembley Arena

Live Review by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 30 June 1973

I REMEMBER THE TIME when you could hum along to a Jethro Tull tune. I even remember the time you could hum along to a ...

David Bowie, Humble Pie, Judge Dread, Slade, Wizzard: The Bouncers

Report by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 30 June 1973

ANDREW TYLER Investigates the growing thuggery in concert halls the world over. And gets points of view from the stars, bouncers and the companies who ...

Genesis: The Rainbow Theatre, London

Live Review by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 10 August 1973

IT'S A LITTLE dishonest using the same strokes to hammer Genesis as are periodically used against Yes. But there you go. Such is the nature ...

Medicine Head

Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 25 August 1973

SO YOU'RE a dues-paying rock 'n' roll star with a couple of weeks to kill and you decide to flit off to Ahmadnagar and hang ...

Mahavishnu Orchestra, Santana: Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin: A Pair Of White Pants Will Never Let You Down

Report and Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 15 September 1973

THIS PIECE might easily be subtitled "How to operate with ice-cool expediency without ruffling your cosmique mantle." But that would definitely be rushing things. ...

Yoko Ono

Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 22 September 1973

IF ALL THE world were a movie set, the Japanese artist could have married her rock star and lived happily ever after in the East ...

Brenda Lee: Mmmmm…Sweet Nuthin's

Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 6 October 1973

WESTCLIFF-ON-SEA, Monday: "To make the most of the things you were born with...Think Big." ...

The Kinks: Ray Davies: Doggie Tricks And Bizness Licks

Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 13 October 1973

THIS IS THE TRUE STORY of a street dog and his best friend – an incorrigible pair who get to see each other only on ...

The Persuasions: Big Legs 'n' Bad Asses

Profile and Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 13 October 1973

WE'RE BACKSTAGE at Birmingham's Odeon, logjammed into a feeble grey van – a constable and sergeant at the controls – and now we're going to ...

Ellie Greenwich: Leaders of the Pack

Interview by Roy Carr, Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 3 November 1973

Ten years ago the American pop scene was dominated by two opposing song factories — KIRSHNER'S Krazy Kids and the Behemoths of the BRILL BUILDING. ...

Neil Young: The Naked Cowboy Fresh Out Of Beans

Essay by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 3 November 1973

EXPERIMENTS IN college dormitories with electrodes, erectoids and heat-meters show that the most consequential moment of a stripper's act is just prior to the panties ...

John Lennon: Please, Your Majesty, Can Our John Have A Free Pardon?

Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 19 January 1974

Heavy breathing over the phone as ANDREW TYLER gets the lowdown from LENNON in L.A. Genius is police harassment, says the Walrus ...

Marianne Faithfull: As Years Go By

Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 2 February 1974

EVEN THOUGH it's so bloody cold, everyone wants to know what happens to John Osborne's loathsome soldier hero in the end. ...

The Carpenters

Report and Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 16 February 1974

PEOPLE ARE always saying that the real modern age miracle is how you can fly London to Furt-frank and stand a penny on a table, ...

Marc Bolan, T. Rex: Marc Bolan: Zinc Alloy And The Hidden Riders Of Tomorrow (EMI)

Review by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 2 March 1974

I WAS HOPING the spangled dwarf was going to pull off something approaching musical competence just so as I could do my small bit to ...

Todd Rundgren: A Wizard, A True Star and Todd

Essay by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 2 March 1974

SHOO AWAY, Todd, and stop filling my head with this blue vinyl trash because it turns my head to glass and I'll never see light ...

Graham Nash: Return of the Manchester Mind Wrestler

Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 20 April 1974

CONSIDERING the wastage rate in the higher echelons of rock 'n' roll, it's not difficult to accept as the norm a situation in which an ...

Monty Python's Flying Circus: Monty Python: Hi There, Tiger!

Report and Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 25 May 1974

THE DUNBLANE HYDRO bestrides a cemented hillock just five miles across freeway and dale. ...

The Osmonds: Our Man in Lost Wages

Report by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 17 August 1974

The man to the right of this announcement is ANDREW TYLER: He's a hippie. And he's on the loose in YOUR neighbourhood. Parents, protect your ...

Man: Recall the Beginning! A journey from Eden, cert U

Report and Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 3 May 1975

"Director Andrew Tyler and stars The MAN Band together produce a moving enconium for a dying lifestyle. I wept"William F. Buckley ...

Van Der Graaf Generator: In and Out of The Box

Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 28 June 1975

INTROSPECTION. THAT'S WHY your face is on the floor and you're listening... doo dee dum doo. The French are good at it. French rock crowds ...

John Lennon's battle with the US Immigration Department

Report by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 26 July 1975

JOHN LENNON, IN his battle of wits with the US Immigration Department, is looking less like the stoical pre-doomed crazy of old, and more like ...

Windsor/Watchfield Festival: The Smallest Story Ever Told

Report by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 30 August 1975

Meanwhile...out west on Windsor's High Chaparral, a wandering hippie couple in search of the Ultimate Alternative Festival are waylaid by a pack of journalists hungering ...

Victor Jara

Report and Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 4 October 1975

VICTOR JARA sang songs for the people of Chile. In 1973, in the Santiago boxing stadium, a soldier cut off Jara's fingers before six thousand ...

Bruce Springsteen

Report and Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 15 November 1975

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN says he just writes down his impressions of stuff whereas here in Hollywood, Calif., there are people in from New York who believe ...

10cc: The 10cc Fine Art Collection

Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 7 February 1976

In which the Fab Four pick their Fabbest Fourteen to illustrate the ascent of sweetness, light, and the Technological Aesthetic to the neanderthal world of ...

Fun Boy Three, The Specials: Fun Boy Three: Why?

Report by Fred Dellar, Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 16 January 1982

FRED DELLAR and ANDREW TYLER report on the vicious race attack that put Lynval Golding in hospital ...

Mick Jagger, The Rolling Stones: Rolling Stones: Taking The Mick Mick Mick Mick Mick

Report by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 8 May 1982

Andrew Tyler joins the Jagger press gang and finds the man won't fade away ...

Escape from Sanity: An Englishman in San Francisco in 1967

Memoir by Andrew Tyler, unpublished, October 2016

NOTE: This is an excerpt from an as-yet unpublished memoir by the former Disc/NME writer and Animal Aid activist, who very sadly died on 28 ...

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