David Sinclair
David Sinclair was born on October 24, 1952. He was educated at Eltham College, London and at Warwick University, where he graduated in 1975 with an honours degree in Politics. He played drums in London Zoo and TV Smith’s Explorers then worked as a BBC TV researcher on programmes including Wogan and The Rock’n’Roll Years. He became pop critic at The Times in London in 1985 and has contributed to Rolling Stone, Billboard, Q and Kerrang! He is the author of Tres Hombres: The Story of ZZ Top (1986); Rock On CD - The Essential Guide (1992, updated 1993); and Wannabe: How The Spice Girls Reinvented Pop Fame (2004). His parallel career as a singer, guitarist and songwriter continues with the release of his album, Hey, on Critical Discs/Proper, available from record shops and online at www.indiestore.com/davidsinclair
List of articles in the library by artist
AC/DC: Phew! Got Away With It, Readers!
Retrospective and Interview by David Sinclair, Q, December 1990
MOST PEOPLE in Britain first heard about AC/DC at about the time of the punk explosion. A bunch of roughneck Aussies with a guitarist dressed ...
Bryan Adams: The Life Of Bryan
Interview by David Sinclair, Q, November 1987
MOST OF THE stories about Bryan Adams tend to emphasise how ordinary the guy is. Like the one about an occasion in New York two ...
The Auteurs: New Wave (Hut Hut)
Review by David Sinclair, Q, March 1993
A NAME that the nation's tastemakers have been looking up in their dictionaries and dropping in the right circles for, oh, weeks. ...
Joan Baez: Play Me Backwards (Virgin)
Review by David Sinclair, Q, February 1993
WHAT EXACTLY is the most dignified role for the faded activist folk singer who wakes one morning to find herself five years older than the ...
Review by David Sinclair, Q, March 1992
IN 1990, IN A REGULAR feature called "The Experts' Expert", The Observer canvassed a cross-section of guitarists (David Gilmour, Hank Marvin, Brian May and others) ...
Interview by David Sinclair, Q, October 1989
FOREVER PORTRAYED as a moody, maverick, Jeff Beck has blazed an erratic trail littered with the detritus of broken guitars and broken bands. ...
Chuck Berry: The Poet of Rock'nRoll (Charly)
Review by David Sinclair, Q, September 1994
A colossally influential talent in his prime and a painful embarrassment in his decline, Chuck Berry has bequeathed a musical legacy that is like the ...
Black Eyed Peas: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, February 2005
CAN IT ONLY be 18 months since the Black Eyed Peas were jostling each other for space on the tiny stage of the 400-capacity Jazz ...
Interview by David Sinclair, Independent, The, July 2006
WHEN BLONDIE were admitted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, earlier this year, it seemed about time. After thirty million ...
David Bowie: Black Tie White Noise
Review by David Sinclair, Q, May 1993
THE 1980S WAS not a happy decade for David Bowie. ...
David Bowie: All The Old Dude Had, He's Still Got
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, November 2003
David Bowie: MEN Arena, Manchester ...
Kate Bush: Dear Diary: The Secret World of Kate Bush
Interview by David Sinclair, Rolling Stone, February 1994
CRICKLEWOOD IS not at all the kind of place you would expect to find Kate Bush. Although immortalized long ago in the title of a ...
Interview by David Sinclair, Q, June 1994
ISN'T IT odd how some bands can carry on year after year, getting consistently good reviews, backed by major record company muscle, yet still end ...
Cult, The: The Cult: Sonic Temple
Review by David Sinclair, Q, May 1989
Led-heavy and light of finger, The Cult are back ...
The Dead Weather: Boston Arms, London
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, June 2009
EIGHT YEARS AFTER I first saw the White Stripes play in the back room of the Boston Arms pub in Tufnell Park, North London, Jack ...
Review by David Sinclair, Q, February 1995
IT'S STRANGE when you think of the qualities we demand from our rock stars. ...
Report and Interview by David Sinclair, Q, December 1998
Yes, maam! Safety-conscious Celine Dion is the vowel-wobbling queen of candyfloss pop, and for 30 months she's sold one album every 1.2 seconds. David Sinclair ...
Elbow: Queen Margaret Union, Glasgow
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, October 2003
THERE WAS an air of resignation when the fire alarm went off at the Queen Margaret Union in Glasgow on Thursday night and the splendidly ...
Franz Ferdinand: Franz Ferdinand
Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, March 2004
AH, THE FIRST HYPE OF SPRING. In media watering holes from Camden to Sauchiehall Street, the tastemakers began sniffing the wind as long ago as ...
Rory Gallagher: The Show Must Go On!
Profile and Interview by David Sinclair, Q, July 1990
AT THE START of 1970 the world was Rory Gallagher's oyster. Cream had split up towards the end of 1968 and Hendrix, having dissolved the ...
Review by David Sinclair, Q, June 1993
IT STARTS with the musical equivalent of an itch. A guitar plonks away softly, a light clattery drum sound brushes against the beat, and eventually ...
Retrospective and Interview by David Sinclair, Q, June 1992
IF EVER A story has grown in the telling it is that of Jimi Hendrix. From a no-name sideman on the American chitlin circuit to ...
Jimi Hendrix: Radio One (Rykodisc)
Review by David Sinclair, Q, April 1989
AHEAD OF NEXT year's 20th anniversary of his death there are already tell-tale signs of renewed interest in the legacy of Jimi Hendrix, still unquestionably ...
Review by David Sinclair, Q, May 1989
Are You ExperiencedAxis: Bold As LoveSmash HitsElectric LadylandBand Of GypsiesThe Cry Of LoveIsle Of WightHendrix In The WestWar HeroesLoose EndsCrash LandingMidnight LightningThe Singles AlbumKiss The ...
Hold Steady, The: The Hold Steady: Carling Academy, Oxford
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, December 2008
ON THE FACE OF IT, the Hold Steady are upholders of a classic rock tradition. A five-man, New York group who craft their songs out ...
INXS at Wembley Stadium: All the aces but little heart
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, July 1991
QUITE BY coincidence INXS mount their London summer spectacular on the sixth anniversary of the Live Aid concert at this same venue, In so far ...
INXS: Welcome To Wherever You Are
Review by David Sinclair, Q, September 1992
NOW 15 years old, INXS have made remarkably little go a long way. ...
Interview by David Sinclair, Q, May 1991
JOE JACKSON is clearing up and moving out of his first floor Manhattan apartment. A cool breeze blows gently through the open French windows and ...
Jamiroquai: The Return Of The Space Cowboy
Review by David Sinclair, Q, December 1994
ONLY JAY Kay could come up with as naff a title as The Return Of The Space Cowboy and make it sound about right. A ...
Kings of Leon: Brighton Centre, Brighton
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, December 2008
CALEB FOLLOWILL was in an expansive mood as Kings of Leon began their biggest British tour yet. "This has been one of the best years ...
Lemonheads, The: The Lemonheads: Come On Feel The Lemonheads (Atlantic)
Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, October 1993
IT SEEMS A quaint idea now, but there was a time when being a "serious" rock band didn't necessarily mean carting a ton of attitude ...
Lemonheads, The: The Lemonheads: Come On Feel The Lemonheads (Atlantic)
Review by David Sinclair, Q, November 1993
IT SEEMS a quaint idea now, but there was a time when being a "serious" rock band didn't necessarily mean carting a ton of attitude ...
Joni Mitchell: Conversation with a Wandering Dreamer
Review and Interview by David Sinclair, Times, The, February 1991
WITHIN 60 SECONDS of setting eyes on me, Joni Mitchell has started telling me about her dreams. I am spared details, but she insists that ...
Morrissey: This Charming Mandroid
Interview by David Sinclair, Times, The, February 1995
I FIRST MET MORRISSEY in 1984. I was a researcher on the BBC television show Eight Days a Week and he was on the programme's ...
Review by David Sinclair, Q, January 1993
With the colossal success of Nevermind, Nirvana brought grunge to the masses, a phenomenon which has radicalised "mainstream" rock across the board. ...
Overview by David Sinclair, Q, April 1988
IF THERE IS ONE group for whom the enhanced audio medium of CD might have been invented, it is Pink Floyd. From its earliest days ...
Police, The: The Police: Greatest Hits
Review by David Sinclair, Q, October 1992
"ALL SONGS WRITTEN by Sting", it says under the 16 titles on Greatest Hits – 15 of them Top 20 hits, five of them Number ...
Police, The: Wiry: The Police Live
Review by David Sinclair, Q, 1995
IT’S EASY TO forget what an outstanding live act The Police were. Combining musicianly flair (guitarist Andy Summers) with furious bursts of energy (drummer Stewart ...
Interview by David Sinclair, Times, The, July 1996
THE MAN WITH the most celebrated identity crisis in pop is installed on the 48th floor of a Manhattan hotel. The lift goes up so ...
Prince and The New Power Generation: 0{+>
Review by David Sinclair, Q, November 1992
APPARENTLY UNAFFECTED by his elevation to executive status at Warner Brothers Records, Prince bounces back with yet another 75 minutes' worth of music celebrating his ...
Queen: Made In Heaven (Parlophone)
Review by David Sinclair, Q, November 1995
MADE IN Heaven is an album so heavily freighted with emotional resonance that it is quite impossible to disentangle the music from the unique historical ...
Review by David Sinclair, Q, August 1991
IS DAN REED a little too good to be true? ...
Rolling Stones, The: The Rolling Stones: Flashpoint
Review by David Sinclair, Q, May 1991
THE STEEL MACHINE/Urban Jungle extravaganza of 1989 and '90 was the most colossal tour the rock world has ever witnessed. By its close, The Rolling ...
Rolling Stones, The: The Rolling Stones: Steel Wheels
Review by David Sinclair, Q, October 1989
NOT ONLY did The Rolling Stones come out of the traps considerably faster than the current wave of mouthy young turks but they have stayed ...
Interview by David Sinclair, Q, October 1990
Carlos Santana's fortuitous appearance at the bottom end of the Woodstock bill completely changed his life. From that moment, he was swept up into an ...
Scritti Politti: Return Of An Eighties Enigma
Profile and Interview by David Sinclair, Times, The, July 1999
AS DISAPPEARING TRICKS go, the strange case of Green Gartside is not quite up there with those of Richey Edwards or blues hero Peter Green, ...
Review by David Sinclair, Q, January 1988
WHILE ANDREW ELDRITCH has been away, all sorts of musical mice have been out to play. In the wake of the first and last Sisters ...
Britney Spears: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, October 2000
ROBBIE WILLIAMS may believe he has no competition. But the day after he began his latest tour, the American superstar Britney Spears arrived to play ...
Spinal Tap: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, July 2009
THE BIZARRE blurring of the lines between comedic fiction and showbusiness reality continued apace with the staging of Spinal Tap's "One Night Only World Tour" ...
Spin Doctors: Pocket Full Of Kryptonite (Epic)
Review by David Sinclair, Q, April 1993
Spin Doctors must be the first group in recent memory to sell a million records and get their faces on the cover of Rolling Stone ...
Spin Doctors: Turn It Upside Down (Epic)
Review by David Sinclair, Q, July 1994
"Oh, mama, I'm gonna roll with a truckload of hurt. These wheels have rolled across I don't know how many bags of dirt."(from 'Bags Of ...
Bruce Springsteen: Bruce Rocks the U.K - But He Can't Match His Own Impossibly High Standards
Live Review by David Sinclair, Rolling Stone, June 1993
"WHEN I WAS YOUNG, I truly didn't think music had any limitations," said Bruce Springsteen in an interview with New York Newsday last year. "I ...
Bruce Springsteen: Perfect Mastery Of The Beat
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, June 1985
Bruce Springsteen: Slane Castle, Dublin ...
Bruce Springsteen: Charles R. Cross: Backstreets and Marc Eliot: Down Thunder Road
Book Review by David Sinclair, Q, September 1992
BACKSTREETS IS THE AMERICAN quarterly fanzine whose editors maintain a painstaking and uncritical log of the life of Bruce Springsteen. First published in November 1989, ...
Review by David Sinclair, Q, November 1994
SUEDE'S FANS have always been utterly unwavering in their belief in the band. But out there, in the big bad world, the group still suffers ...
Profile and Interview by David Sinclair, Rolling Stone, October 1995
IT'S A GLORIOUS SUMMER DAY in Oxford, city of dreaming spires in the heart of England. Three young tykes laugh and joke with each other ...
Interview by David Sinclair, MOJO, April 1994
THEY SAY THERE'S ONE IN EVERY CROWD. BUT HE'S ALWAYS hard to spot because he looks so normal. Quiet, polite, a little shy even. You ...
Judie Tzuke at the Hammersmith Odeon
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, October 1985
DESPITE HER GREATEST CLAIM to fame still being her one British hit single in 1979,'Stay With Me 'till Dawn', Judie Tzuke has released seven albums ...
Tom Waits: Well Worth the Waits
Report and Interview by David Sinclair, Times, The, October 2004
NEXT MONTH Tom Waits will make his first British concert appearance for 17 years. And if the word filtering back from Vancouver and Seattle, where ...
Neil Young: Got A Problem Pal?
Interview by David Sinclair, Q, January 1993
Neil Young is back with a new LP and an all-consuming grievance. Lately, something has been getting the old goat's goat like nothing before. That ...
Neil Young: Still a Young Man's Game
Interview by David Sinclair, Times, The, May 2003
HE CALLED one of his albums Rust Never Sleeps. But does Neil Young ever sleep? In the 12 months since he last played in Britain, ...
Review by David Sinclair, Q, February 1994
THE LONGEST-RUNNING trio in rock, ZZ Top come down from the hills less frequently these days, yet they remain blithely impervious to the ravages of ...
Review by David Sinclair, Q, January 1988
IN THE WORLD league table of entertainers' earnings recently compiled by Forbes magazine, only one rock group, U2, was thought to have amassed more than ...
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