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Dave Schulps

Dave Schulps’s 30-plus-year career as a music journalist of sorts probably can be said to have begun under a laboratory hood (i.e. a large vent for eliminating noxious fumes) at a science high school in the Bronx, which he and lab partner Ira Robbins hid behind in order to read Melody Maker during lectures. Although he didn’t write (actually, co-write) his first piece, a review of Lou Reed’s solo debut, until a couple of years later, the spark was ignited then, and fortunately did not blow up the lab.

In 1973 - the week of the US release of Mott the Hoople’s epic Mott album, to be exact - he and Robbins visited the home of a local record fanatic where they were introduced to former college paper music editor Karen Rose. For some reason, the three, inspired by the two music ‘zines they’d seen at that point, Alan Betrock’s amazing Rock Marketplace and Greg Shaw’s groovy Who Put the Bomp, decided to start one themselves. Dubbed Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press at first - and later cleverly shortened (along with the cuffs) to Trouser Press - the expected first-and-only issue somehow managed to sell out, leading to a decade more of same. Well, sort of. The original hand-stapled, 24-page mimeographed (look it up, youngsters) sheets sold in front of concerts gave way to ever-increasingly more professional production and distribution.

For Schulps, though, things weren’t quite the same at TP after the cataclysm that was 1977 (though, in truth, he continued listening to Elvis, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones alongside the Clash, Ramones and Pistols) and some time in ’79 he left his managing editor’s post and huge salary behind to (gasp!) manage a rock band.

Two years later, after finding out what he was not put on this earth to do - and acquiring a taste for Hank Williams, George Jones and Lefty Frizzell during a painful year’s unemployment - he returned to writing with the music trade Cashbox, only to skip out when a nascent radio syndicator made him an offer he couldn’t refuse (the offer being, it’s not Cashbox). 23 years later and thousands of uncredited interviews later, he’s still there and so, amazingly, is Robbins, who came aboard some years ago.

Those interested in checking out Schulps’ very occasional output outside Trouser Press can consult the morgues of Circus, Gig, Crawdaddy!, Hit Parader, Sounds, Musician, Guitar World, Walrus, BAM, Grindstone, Uncut and The Big Takeover...if you can find them!

Dave currently resides in Los Angeles.

List of articles in the library by artist

Kevin Ayers

Interview by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, September 1980

IN A BUSINESS geared more and more towards pushing product, Kevin Ayers is a rare commodity. He's never sold great amounts of records, but has ...

Solomon Burke: An interview with Joe Henry

Interview by Dave Schulps, Rock's Backpages, June 2002

This brief interview with Joe Henry was conducted on the "red carpet" arrival line at the ASCAP pop music awards in May. Henry received an ...

Solomon Burke: The Bishop of Soul returns

Special Feature by Dave Schulps, Rock's Backpages, June 2002

MICK JAGGER may have insisted once upon a time that "it’s the singer not the song," but that doesn’t necessarily mean that even the greatest ...

Elvis Costello: I fought the law!

Profile and Interview by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, December 1977

RARELY HAS MYSTERY surrounded the arrival of a new rock performer the way it has Elvis Costello. Totally unknown a year ago, courtesy of Stiff ...

Dave Davies: This Man He Laughs Tonight: Dave Davies Spearheads Kinks Attack!

Interview by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, August 1980

SIXTEEN YEARS AFTER 'You Really Got Me', the Kinks are entering the 80's in better shape than anyone has a right to expect them to ...

Dave Edmunds, Rockpile: Dave Edmunds: New Wave, 1955

Profile and Interview by Dave Schulps, Musician, July 1981

"MUSICALLY, WE didn't find a niche for ourselves. It amounted to a couple of songs from a Nick Lowe album, a couple of songs from ...

Rory Gallagher: TOTP meets Mr. Gallagher: The Story on Rory

Interview by Dave Schulps, Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, April 1976

LET'S START AT the beginning. Your first band was the Fontana Showband. What exactly is a showband? ...

Jam, The: The Jam: All Mod Cons

Review by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, February 1979

IT HAS TAKEN the Jam merely three albums to go from a young band with a lot of energy and a love for mod-era rock'n'roll ...

Jam, The: The Jam: Rising Sons

Interview by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, May 1980

HAS IT really been three years since the Jam made its first live appearance in America? Since three teenagers in matching suits and skinny ties ...

Kiss

Interview by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, December 1978

WINTER 1974: When I saw the cover of the first Kiss album, I laughed. I mean, here were these four geeks looking like rejects from ...

Ronnie Lane, Pete Townshend: Pete Townshend & Ronnie Lane: Rough Mix

Review by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, October 1977

WHATEVER THE reasons may be for Pete Townshend's self-imposed exile from both recording and commenting on the current music scene, it's a relief to have ...

Motors, The: The Motors

Profile and Interview by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, December 1977

SO YOU THINK Stiff are the only one allowed to go slightly batty with their advertising, eh? Well guess again. These Motors boys got 'em ...

Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin, Yardbirds, The: Jimmy Page: The Trouser Press Interview

Interview by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, October 1977

Dave Schulps, senior editor of Trouser Press, spent more than six hours with Page, one of the longest interviews Page ever did. The interview was ...

Graham Parker: Another Grey Area

Review by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, June 1982

IF, AS GRAHAM PARKER declared on Squeezing Out Sparks, "passion is no ordinary word," then Another Grey Area should by all rights have been no ...

Tom Robinson Band: Tom Robinson: Right On, Mister!

Profile and Interview by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, June 1978

THE ABILITY TO walk into a room and make someone you've never met feel like they've known you for years is called 'charm.' The ability ...

Tom Robinson Band, Kinks, The: The Tom Robinson Band: Power In The Darkness (Harvest); The Kinks: Misfits (Arista)

Review by Dave Schulps, Feature, August 1978

"If left is right and right is wrong, you'd better decide which side you're on."– Tom Robinson ...

Rolling Stones, The, Andrew Loog Oldham: Andrew Loog Oldham

Interview by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, June 1978

ONE OF THE most interesting personalities of the first decade of British rock was the Rolling Stones' sharp-tongued, red-headed manager, Andrew Loog Oldham. ...

Rolling Stones, The, Ronnie Wood: Ronnie Wood: New Stone Tries a Solo

Report and Interview by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, July 1979

WHEN TP FIRST interviewed Ron Wood, back in the fall of 1974, the Faces' guitarist and ex-Beckite was more than happy to answer questions about ...

Rumour, The: The Rumour: Not Mac's — Max!

Interview by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, October 1977

"ASK US WHY we called the album Max, c'mon, ask us." ...

Sex Pistols, The: Sex Pistols in Memphis

Report by Dave Schulps, Sounds, January 1978

ITEM: Officers of the Memphis, Tennessee Vice Squad attended the Sex Pistols' American debut performance in Atlanta on Thursday just to make certain that the ...

Television: Adventure (Elektra)

Review by Dave Schulps, Crawdaddy!, June 1978

TELEVISION USE the energy and the imagery of the Big Apple, cross-pollinating them with a musical vision akin to what was coming out of the ...

Television: Tom Verlaine: In Search of Adventure

Interview by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, May 1978

IT HAS BEEN over a year since Television's debut album, Marquee Moon, and for the band's American fans most of that time has been a ...

Pete Townshend, Who, The: In Which Pete Townshend Gets Personal

Interview by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, May 1978

"SHADDUP," YELLS Pete Townshend. Then he slaps his leg and Towser the dog comes running over. "Do you want to go out?" Pete asks, getting ...

Tyla Gang, Jonathan Richman: Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers: Live (Beserkley); The Tyla Gang: Yachtless (Beserkley)

Review by Dave Schulps, Crawdaddy!, April 1978

BESERKLEY RECORDS certainly keep things interesting. Slightly over a year ago they became the first American New Wave independent to secure a distribution deal with ...

Who, The: Pete Townshend

Interview by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, April 1978

KAREN TOWNSHEND answers the door wearing a puzzled look. "Hello. I'm here to see Pete. We've got an interview scheduled for ten o'clock." The puzzled ...

Who, The: What's Next For The Who

Report by Dave Schulps, Circus, December 1975

"The report of my death is greatly exaggerated"– Mark Twain ...

Ronnie Wood: New Stone Tries a Solo

Report and Interview by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, July 1979

WHEN TP FIRST interviewed Ron Wood, back in the fall of 1974, the Faces' guitarist and exBeckite was more than happy to answer questions about ...

XTC: Go 2

Review by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, February 1979

XTC'S FIRST ALBUM, White Music, released earlier this year, was a stunning debut from a band that defies easy labeling. ...

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