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Derek Boltwood

Derek Boltwood

London was exploding with musical talent when I left Hornsey Art College clutching my Fine Arts degree in 1967. Most of the people I knew were either in – or trying to get into – the music business. Ray Davies had left Hornsey a couple of years earlier, and now the Kinks were beginning their legend. Pink Floyd were kick-starting theirs around the corner at Crouch End. My girlfriend Babs had just joined a dance group called Pan's People. I was trying to be a DJ in a forgettable club somewhere near Notting Hill. Painting pictures was not producing the income I needed to survive.

A weekly music paper called Record Mirror was looking for an Art Editor. So, with a little help from my friends¹, I became an art editor. A couple of months after I’d taken the job I noticed that, while I was slaving at my desk all day, the journalists were out enjoying themselves. So, with a little help from my friends², I became a journalist.

I wrote for Record Mirror for a wonderful couple of years, met some amazing people, made some terrific friends and had some unforgettable times ... most of which I’ve forgotten. I was in at the birth of some great bands and partied with people who were creating musical milestones. I kept writing. When a bunch of West Country hippies wanted to start a mystical rock festival at Glastonbury, they invited me to share my musical expertise with them. I, in turn, learnt to divine lay lines.

I managed one of the best rock bands in the country for a while – the Pretty Things. One night, returning from a music festival, my car was written off. I ended up in hospital. I should have been in America, tying up a band tour. But, being bedridden, it didn’t happen. My appetite for the music business was on the wane. So with a little help from my friends³, I wrote a novel and had it published.

I was struggling to finish my fourth book, so moved out of London and down to Dorset for rural solitude and inspiration. I didn’t finish the book, but I met the love of my life. We married. We ran a thatched inn by the sea for five years. We had – and have – three wonderful children. Glynis and I now live in the south of France.

¹ Norman Jopling, feature writer, Record Mirror
² Peter Jones, editor, Record Mirror
³ Shel Talmy, record producer and publisher (Talmy Franklin)

List of articles in the library by artist

Aphrodite's Child: 'Rain & Tears' 300 Yrs Old!

Profile and Interview by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, November 1968

ONCE UPON a time, about three hundred years ago as the crow flies, a German organist with nothing better to do sat down at his ...

Bonzo Dog Band, Joe Cocker, Peter Sarstedt, Tiny Tim: Tiny Tim, Joe Cocker et al: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, November 1968

ONCE UPON a time in the land of the Charity, a concert was given in aid of all the boys' clubs all over the country. ...

Arthur Conley: The Prince Of Sweet Soul Music

Interview by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, October 1967

THE WORLD of Pop is pretty crazy. And it's pretty crazy when a twenty-one-year-old singer is 'discovered' twice in his twenty-one-year-old life by two of ...

Deep Purple: From The Underground: Deep Purple

Profile and Interview by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, January 1969

AND WHILE the rain falls in Britain, Deep Purple look out of their windows in America and the sun is shining a spotlight upon them ...

Deviants, The: From the Underground: The Deviants

Profile and Interview by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, November 1968

IT'S BEEN SAID of the Deviants that they are the only real underground group. Like roots of the underground perhaps – because Mick Farren, first ...

Eire Apparent, Jimi Hendrix, Herd, The, Arthur Brown: Jimi Hendrix Experience, Arthur Brown, The Herd, Eire Apparent: Saville Theatre, London

Live Review by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, October 1967

Hendrix and Brown triumph at the Saville Theatre... ...

'Mama' Cass Elliot, Mamas and The Papas, The: After The Split With The Mamas & Papas, Mama Cass' Broke, But Happy!

Interview by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, March 1969

A ROARING log fire and its reflection in the pine-panelled walls gave the whole room a cosy reddish glow all ankle-deep in carpet and large ...

Flowerpot Men, The: The Flowerpot Men: Flowered, Belled and Beaded

Interview by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, September 1967

"I WAS strolling casually through the dining-car of a British Railways choo-choo train the other day, flowered belled and beaded, as befits a Flowerpot Man, ...

Foundations, The : Before This Record, We Were Just What You'd Call 'Bums' Say The Foundations

Interview by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, November 1967

IT'S ENOUGH to make psychedelia and Flower Power turn in its grave. I mean, how dare a group like the Foundations have the effrontery to ...

Aretha Franklin: A History Of Soul Queen Aretha Franklin

Profile by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, December 1967

WELL, WHAT'S going to happen in 1968? New faces? New stars? Of course. But as we step gingerly over the threshold into the new year, ...

Richard Harris, Jimmy Webb: Richard Harris: 'He Still Wants To Be A Pop Star..!'

Interview by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, March 1969

Richard Harris Talking Of His Boy Jim Webb ...

Jefferson Airplane: The Fantasy World of Grace Slick...

Interview by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, October 1967

THE WONDERS of modern science never fail to leave me gasping for breath. I find it absolutely incredible to think that I could, for example, ...

John Sebastian, Crosby Stills and Nash: Sebastian's Workshop... Combining John, Donovan, Dave, Steve, Graham, Al, Mike and Mama Cass...!

Interview by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, December 1968

RECIPE FOR nice sounds: take John Sebastian, Dave Crosby, Steve Stills, and Graham Nash. Add the occasional Mama Cass or Al Kooper or Mike Bloomfield, ...

Harry Nilsson: Computers to Composer

Interview by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, September 1968

SOMETIMES – not very often – but sometimes. What? Sometimes exciting things happen in pop music. Talents emerge that are new, refreshing. A shot in ...

Pink Floyd: 'We Feel Good' Say The Pink Floyd

Interview by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, October 1967

LITTLE DID Mike Leonard know, during the second half of the nineteen-forties, that the experiments he was making in a new art form he was ...

Sam & Dave: Soul Explosion!

Interview by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, November 1967

A DOUBLE Dynamite Duo with a tradition to live up to. That's Sam and Dave – and their tradition is hit records. Hits like 'Soul ...

Small Faces, The: The Small Faces: At Last The 1948 Cockney Show...

Interview by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, April 1968

I WAS DIGGING the sounds of this record called 'Lazy Sunday', and grooving along gently thinking I was listening to Tony Newley singing with a ...

Joe South: Joe Tells Of The Games People Play...

Interview by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, April 1969

GET UP, GO over to the window and look out. Up and down that pavement outside every day walk people, some for pleasure, some going ...

Cat Stevens: Cat's Back

Interview by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, October 1968

Cat's back. Dogs and Matthew and his offspring and guns and things and now his wife. Not that he has a wife – but here ...

Ten Years After: The Fastest Guitarist Alive!

Interview by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, March 1968

I'VE RECKONED Ten Years After since I first saw them, months ago, down at the Marquee club, where they were busy playing their own kind ...

Traffic: Saville Theatre, London

Live Review by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, September 1967

TRAFFIC GREAT AT SAVILLE ...

Vanilla Fudge, Who, The: The Who, Vanilla Fudge: Saville Theatre, London

Live Review by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, October 1967

OH MY GOODNESS yes. It was definitely an ear-splitting, mind-blowing, supersonic-sounding sensation at the Saville last Sunday. ...

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