Don Watson

Marc Almond: Revenge Of The Sleazebag

Interview by Don Watson, NME, September 1984

AS LONDON swelters, there's one back alley in Soho's underarm narrow enough to escape the sun's onslaught. Damp and dingy it seems to seep moisture ...

Laurie Anderson: More Blank Than Frank

Interview by Don Watson, NME, June 1986

AS SHE confides to us in her live show, Laurie Anderson was a bird in a previous incarnation. ...

Band of Holy Joy, The: Band Of Holy Joy: The Big Ship Sails

Review by Don Watson, NME, May 1986

AND SO the shock of the new continues to give way to the celebration of the old. ...

Band of Holy Joy, The: The Band Of Holy Joy: The Loneliness Of The Late Night Drinker

Interview by Don Watson, NME, December 1986

1986 was the year that Englishness made a comeback, and no one caught its multi-faceted moods of gloom and nostalgia better than THE BAND OF ...

Beastie Boys, The, Slayer: Def Jam Records: Men Or Beasties?

Report and Interview by Don Watson, NME, January 1986

IN CRUMPLED, jeans, trainers and an AC/DC T-shirt Rick Rubin represents the current hippest record company in New York, Def Jam Records. ...

Birthday Party, The, Nick Cave: Nick Cave: If This Is Heaven I'm Bailing Out

Interview by Don Watson, NME, May 1984

THE ENIGMA of The Birthday Party, like that of Kaspar Hauser, begins with grunts in the darkness and ends in murder. ...

Black Flag: My War (SST)

Review by Don Watson, NME, March 1984

TO SAY that Black Flag's Damaged was the punk LP of 1981, is tantamount to (if I may be allowed to lapse for a moment ...

Black Flag: Heart of Darkness

Interview by Don Watson, NME, September 1984

RUN! THIS can't be happening! The headlights of the car bearing down on Greg Ginn and Bill Stevenson capture two slack-jawed faces, stark with astonishment, ...

Cocteau Twins: The Cocteau Twins: Fun From Falkirk - Fat Chance?

Interview by Don Watson, NME, November 1982

FRIDAY night is cardboard-box-kicking night. ...

Brian Eno: Man Out Of Time: Brian Eno

Interview by Don Watson, Spin, May 1989

"IS THIS 1962 OR 20 YEARS ON?" asked the sleeve notes of the first Roxy Music LP, the record that introduced Brian Eno to the ...

Eurythmics: 1984: For The Love of Big Brother (Virgin)

Review by Don Watson, NME, November 1984

WAR IS Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, Ignorance Is Strength and this soundtrack LP with the logo of Radford's 1984 on its cover is not the ...

Everything But The Girl: Eden (Blanco Y Negro)

Review by Don Watson, NME, August 1984

CONCEIVED IN the bedroom (as was much great music) Eden has been hermetically sealed so none of its sensitivity should leak out in transit, and ...

Faust: The Faust Tapes: Faust Epiphany

Retrospective by Don Watson, Wire, The, September 2000

ONE OF THE EFFECTS of the rabid reissue programs that accompanied the CD revolution was to offer shrinkwrapped package tours into your teenage bedrom. Music, ...

Go-Betweens, The: The Go-Betweens: Up From Down Under

Interview by Don Watson, NME, November 1983

HOW TOUCHINGLY ENGLISH this all is. Outside in the late autumn Notting Hill Gate landscape shoppers shuffle through the leaves, surprised at the novelty of ...

Hüsker Dü: New Day Rising

Review by Don Watson, NME, March 1985

THESE ARE fast times that we live in, something that dawned upon Hüsker Dü long before New Day Rising glimpsed the light. ...

Grace Jones: Slave To The Rhythm (ZTT)

Review by Don Watson, NME, November 1985

THE SCENE: An unwashed and impolitely dazed Paul Morley stumbles into the ZTT offices one day. "But Trevor, the people are hungry for imagination, stimulation, ...

Richard H. Kirk: Sound Tracked

Interview by Don Watson, NME, May 1984

IT DOESN'T take too long to suss that Richard Kirk's medium is The Image – here's a man who's ill at ease with The Word. ...

Billy Mackenzie, Associates, The: Spoilt Brat, Silly Prat Or Visionary Genius?: Billy Mackenzie

Interview by Don Watson, NME, September 1983

ONLY A YEAR AGO The Associates seemed to have the world at their feet; with three hit singles behind them and their first tour in ...

Madness: A Serious Case Of Madness

Interview by Don Watson, NME, August 1985

No longer just Nutty Boys, MADNESS have grown into troubled and doubting pop commentators on the English way of life. DON WATSON traces the Four ...

Madonna: True Blue

Review by Don Watson, NME, July 1986

"SO I'M HERE looking through an old picture frame/Waiting for a perfect view/I hope something special will come into my life/Another fine edition of you" ...

Alison Moyet: Alf (CBS)

Review by Don Watson, NME, November 1984

AS THE blue dawn pours in through the shutters, Alison Moyet stares from the cover of her first solo LP with a look that immediately ...

Orange Juice: Texas Fever (Polydor)

Review by Don Watson, NME, March 1984

TO MAKE things clear from the start, Texas Fever arouses an excitement I thought I may be in danger of forgetting, at least in connection ...

Gram Parsons: We'll Sweep Out The Ashes In The Morning

Retrospective by Don Watson, NME, April 1985

"Death is a warm cloak. An old friend. I regard death as something that comes up on a roulette wheel every once in a while."Gram ...

Pet Shop Boys: Suburban Stardom

Essay by Don Watson, NME, June 1986

England swings to the yawning sound of the suburbs, where Dynasty kids dream of escape and fortune. DON WATSON reflects on the hit and myth ...

Iggy Pop: Blah, Blah, Blah

Review by Don Watson, NME, October 1986

"I'M A real wild one." Iggy Pop, 1986. ...

Simple Minds: Sparkle In The Rain

Review by Don Watson, NME, February 1984

Give The Kerr A Bono ...

Simple Minds: Taking Kerr of Business

Interview by Don Watson, NME, September 1983

SIMPLE MINDS: on the banks of a new gold dream? Or simply wet? DON WATSON fathoms it out with Jim Kerr ...

Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees: The Howling

Retrospective by Don Watson, NME, February 1986

SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES: "a great whirlpool of noise, pulling the future down." Many moons later DON WATSON recalls the dawn of the great Sioux ...

Sisters of Mercy: Razor Shock: Sisters of Mercy

Report and Interview by Don Watson, NME, 1983

HOW ODD this all looks, reflected in the opaque black lenses of Wayne Hussey's absolutely Ian Hunter shades. ...

Smiths, The: The Smiths: The Smiths (Rough Trade)

Review by Don Watson, NME, February 1984

"And if you must go to work tomorrow Well, if I were you I wouldn't bother" ('Still Ill') ...

Swans: Greed

Review by Don Watson, NME, March 1986

WHAT IS the sound of a Swan in love? ...

David Sylvian: Blonde On Blonde

Interview by Don Watson, NME, August 1986

TWO YOUNG men, once blond, face one another and indulge in the absurd activity of taking music seriously. "Almost too seriously," says David Sylvian. The ...

Tom Waits: Reigning Hats And Dogs: Tom Waits at the Dominion, London

Live Review by Don Watson, NME, October 1985

COME INSIDE, the finger beckons and the man with the stubble breaks out a grin and leans in your direction... ...