Daryl Easlea
Born between Rubber Soul and Revolver, Daryl Easlea was in music retail between 1979 and 1997, and left to belatedly take his degree in American History and International History at Keele, where he also ran the student radio station. He began writing professionally in 1999. After graduating in 2000, he became the deputy editor at Record Collector, where he remains a regular contributor. His work has also appeared in Mojo, Mojo Collections, various Q and Mojo specials, The Guardian, Uncut, Dazed & Confused, The Independent, Socialism, The Glasgow Herald, The Encyclopaedia of Popular Music, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die and bbc.co.uk.
He also compiles and annotates CDs (his favourite being 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong: 39 Fall Greats), DJs, broadcasts and was born to dance. His book Everybody Dance: Chic & The Politics Of Disco was published by Helter Skelter in December 2004 and was voted NME's third best book of 2005. His second, an extended essay to accompany the Supremes exhibition at the V & A is published by V & A Publishing in May 2008. Talent Is an Asset: the Story of Sparks was published by Omnibus Press in April 2010, while Crazy In Love: The Beyonce Knowles Biography was published in October 2011. He lives with his darling wife and daughter by the seaside rather near where he was born.
List of articles in the library by artist
ABC: “It Was Like Disco, But In A Bob Dylan Way”: The Lexicon Of Love
Sleevenotes by Daryl Easlea, Neutron/Mercury Records, November 2004
FEW ALBUMS DEFINE the resonance and the beauty of a particular era as does The Lexicon Of Love by ABC. It could be said that ...
David Bowie: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust And the Spiders From Mars: 30th Anniversary Edition
Review and Interview by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, July 2002
"I'm really just a Photostat machine. I pour out what has already been fed in. I merely reflect what is going on around me" – ...
Chic: These Are The Good Times
Retrospective and Interview by Daryl Easlea, Mojo Collections, Fall 2001
THINK CHIC, think chic – a passport back to Studio 54, 70s hedonism; good times, guaranteed to bring gravity to the flapping flares and mirrorball-twirling ...
Chic: Raymond Jones, 1958-2011
Obituary by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, August 2011
ALTHOUGH A NAME that doesn't readily trip off the tongue, most of RC's readers have danced at some point or another to the understated beauty ...
Chic, Tony Thompson: Tony Thompson
Obituary by Daryl Easlea, Guardian, The, November 2003
TONY THOMPSON, WHO has died of cancer aged 48, was among the finest of all pop/rock drummers. Although his name is frequently absent from the ...
Chic, Norma Jean Wright: Norma Jean Wright: Norma Jean
Sleevenotes by Daryl Easlea, Demon Records, July 2011
NORMA JEAN WRIGHT'S sole album on Bearsville, released in 1978, is something of a curio, and is notable for the fact it was the first ...
Retrospective and Interview by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, 2002
In 1985 an album was released that sold little and contributed to the demise of one of the most venerated groups of the 80s. With ...
Ian Dury: Buried Treasure: Ian Dury and the Blockheads' Do It Yourself
Retrospective and Interview by Daryl Easlea, unpublished, March 2003
HOW CAN A platinum-selling album that reached No. 2 in the UK charts be classed as "buried treasure"? Easily. Do It Yourself remains a well-kept ...
Fall, The: 50,000 Fall Fans Can’t Be Wrong: The Very Best of The Fall 1978-2003
Sleevenotes by Daryl Easlea, Sanctuary Records, Spring 2004
IN THE EARLY months of 2004, The Fall’s first album, Live At The Witch Trials, celebrated its 25th anniversary. When The Fall started, rock wasn’t ...
Franz Ferdinand: Whatever You Want Us To Be
Report and Interview by Daryl Easlea, Dazed & Confused, November 2005
With their second album, Franz Ferdinand, the post-millennial fab four, look certain to become one of the biggest bands on the planet. Where better to ...
Interview by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, March 2003
ROCK HISTORIANS HAVE a problem with David Gilmour because he is, well, so very balanced. Displaying little of the madness or angst of Pink Floyds ...
Live Review by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, February 2009
THE STEEL CITY TOUR is a thrilling glimpse of the once- future through the lens of the past. What these groups attempted in Sheffield at ...
Retrospective and Interview by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, Summer 2009
HERE'S IRONY for you: there were several things timed for the release of Michael Jackson's London shows that were to provide testimony to the man's ...
John Martyn: The Gentlest Circus: One World
Sleevenotes by Daryl Easlea, Universal/Island Records, Fall 2004
YOU WOULD THINK one of the last characters to survive the supposed punk rock cull of 1976/77 would be John Martyn. To outsiders, he was ...
Steve Mason, Beta Band, The: An Interview with Steve Mason
Interview by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, November 2010
DE: Tell us about your latest projects. ...
Lee 'Scratch' Perry: The RC INTERVIEW: Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry
Interview by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, 2004
LET NO ONE tell you otherwise. An hour with reggae maverick Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry is a wondrous thing. His ‘madness’, however stage-managed, is there, almost ...
Pink Floyd, David Gilmour: David Gilmour: The Record Collector Interview
Interview by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, May 2003
ROCK HISTORIANS have a problem with David Gilmour because he is, well, so very balanced. Displaying little of the madness or angst of Pink Floyd's ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis in Hollywood
Retrospective by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, August 2001
"I've had intellectuals tell me that I've got to progress as an actor, explore new horizons, take on new challenges, all that routine. I'd like ...
Sparks: What A Difference The Days Made: Sparks Look Back
Interview by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, Summer 2003
FOR OVER 30 YEARS, Sparks have always been a glorious musical anachronism. To think that their genesis is on the American West Coast at the ...
Obituary by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, June 2012
WHEN DONNA SUMMER relocated from the US to Germany to star in the Munich production of Hair, she unwittingly set a course that would result ...
Thievery Corporation: Gentlemen Robbers: Thievery Corporation
Retrospective and Interview by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, July 2005
FOUNDED IN 1995, Washington-based dance duo Thievery Corporation is in that select band of acts, that even though they remain elusive to the great majority, ...
Underworld: Celebrating the Underbelly: Underworld
Retrospective and Interview by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, September 2008
UNDERWORLD HAVE been at the forefront of electronic music for the past 15 years. The partnership at the group's core, Karl Hyde and Rick Smith, ...
Obituary by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, September 2005
THERE WAS SOMETHING special about Luther Vandross (who died 1st July). Free of the brashness of the other male soul performers of the 80s; here ...
Obituary by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, August 2003
FEW ARTISTS CAPTURED the aspirational glamour of the 70s better than Barry White. ...
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