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Jeff Apter

Jeff Apter

Jeff Apter is the author of more than 20 books, including biographies of Jeff Buckley (A Pure Drop), the Cure (Never Enough), the Finn brothers (Together Alone) and Keith Urban (Fortunate Son).

His latest book, 2017’s High Voltage: The Life of Angus Young AC/DC’s Last Man Standing, has been a #1 bestseller in Australia, with various international versions, including a US edition published by the Chicago Review Press, to follow in 2018. As a ghostwriter, Jeff has worked with Mark Evans from AC/DC (Dirty Deeds), Kasey Chambers (A Little Bird Told Me) and Richard Clapton (The Best Years of Our Lives). In 2015, Jeff was the creative consultant for the Australian production of the award-nominated A State of Grace: The Music of Jeff and Tim Buckley, which featured Gary Lucas and Gods & Monsters, Martha Wainwright, Cold Specks and Steve Kilbey.

While resident in the USA during the late 1990s, Jeff interviewed and wrote about such legends as Aretha Franklin, Robbie Robertson, Patti Smith, Frank Black, Mick Rock, Lucinda Williams and many others, filing stories for various newspapers and magazines, plus on-line sites Addicted To Noise, Sonic Net and New York Rock. Jeff then spent five years as Music Editor at Australian Rolling Stone and was a contributor to Vogue, The Bulletin and GQ magazines; he has also written for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and Australian Hi-Fi. Jeff has worked on DVDs for the bands Silverchair (where he interviewed Van Dyke Parks), You Am I and Powderfinger.

Jeff lives in Wollongong, NSW, with his wife Diana, daughter Elizabeth, son Christian and a cat that’s so damned cool it needs no name.

Jeff Apter online

29 articles

List of articles in the library

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Neil Young: Still Crazy Horse After All These Years

Report by Jeff Apter, nyrock.com, 1997

THE GODFATHER OF GRUNGE, Neil Young, shows no intention of slowing down. Busier than a politician on the election trail, he divided his '97 year ...

Bob Dylan: University of Hartford Sports Center, Connecticut

Live Review by Jeff Apter, nyrock.com, 18 April 1997

"BOB'S IN THERE," I overhear some reefer-chugging Dylanspotter in the parking lot say, nodding towards a darkened touring van. Getting a little closer, I couldn't ...

The Rolling Stones: Stones' Last Tour (Before The Next Five)

Report by Jeff Apter, nyrock.com, September 1997

LOOKS LIKE the Rolling Stones plan to keep on rolling well into the next millennium. On August 18, 1997, they launched their most recent album/tour ...

Ron Sexsmith: Westbeth Theater, New York City

Live Review by Jeff Apter, No Depression, 25 September 1997

WHILE THE REAL world is tough on outsiders, they'll always be welcomed in the land of thinking-person's music. Toronto troubadour Ron Sexsmith has perfected the ...

Marilyn Manson at CMJ Musicfest

Report by Jeff Apter, nyrock.com, October 1997

THERE ARE MANY perceptions of Marilyn Manson. The most common, in no special order, are that he's a baby eater, a Satan worshiper, and a ...

Patti Smith: Return of the Thin White Duchess

Profile and Interview by Jeff Apter, nyrock.com, November 1997

PATTI SMITH needs some new socks. I'm standing next to her in an elevator in midtown Manhattan, when she glances down at her feet, which ...

Through the Lens of Mick Rock

Retrospective and Interview by Jeff Apter, nyrock.com, December 1997

WITH A NAME such as his, British-born photographer Mick Rock's destiny was laid out before him: he had to work in the peculiar world of ...

Ani DiFranco: Just an Old Fashioned Girl (with Blue Hair)

Interview by Jeff Apter, nyrock.com, February 1998

JUST WHO is Ani DiFranco anyway? Doc Martin-clad punk-poet icon, do-it-yourself business guru, feminist folksinger: there are so many sides to this Buffalo girl from ...

Holly Cole: Westbeth Theater, New York

Live Review by Jeff Apter, nyrock.com, February 1998

CANADIAN CHANTEUSE HOLLY Cole might not write the songs, but she sure knows how to make the whole world sing. And while the cozy downtown ...

Aretha Franklin: Queen Aretha Holds Court

Report and Interview by Jeff Apter, nyrock.com, March 1998

THERE ARE few performers for whom one name is sufficient (and no, this list does not include Yanni). Think Bruce, Garth, Iggy, Janis. And, of ...

Ben Folds Five: New Geeks on the Block: Ben Folds Five at Hammerstein Ballroom, NYC

Live Review by Jeff Apter, nyrock.com, March 1998

SOMETIMES PERSEVERANCE really does pay off. Take, for example, the rags-to-not-quite-riches rise of Ben Folds, who, along with Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee, make up ...

Robbie Robertson: Making a Noise

Interview by Jeff Apter, nyrock.com, May 1998

WHEN ROBBIE ROBERTSON croons "I can't let go ... It's in the blood" during his transcendent new release, Contact from the Underworld of Redboy, he's ...

U2: Interview wth Wim Wenders

Interview by Jeff Apter, Rolling Stone (Australia), November 2000

This interview was held in conjunction with the theatrical release of The Million Dollar Hotel in Australia. ...

Powderfinger: Band Of The Year

Interview by Jeff Apter, Rolling Stone (Australia), April 2001

POWDERFINGER ARE THE Rolling Stone 2000 Music Award heroes. The results are in and thousands of you voted for them. Powderfinger are Band Of The ...

The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Freaky and Stylish: When the Chili Peppers Met Dr. Funkenstein

Book Excerpt by Jeff Apter, 'Fornication' (Omnibus Press), 2004

By 1985 the Red Hot Chili Peppers were a band in trouble. Their self-titled debut album, released the year before, had been a disaster, and ...

The Difficult Second Album Syndrome

Comment by Jeff Apter, unpublished, Spring 2004

ONE OF POP MUSIC’S most accurate axioms is that second albums are the toughest. Typically, you have some of the best years of your life ...

The Cure: Hardcore Pornography: The Cure

Book Excerpt by Jeff Apter, 'Never Enough' (Omnibus Press), 2005

Goth rock icons the Cure had a lot to lose while recording their hugely influential, career-making album, 1982's Pornography - not the least being their ...

The Raveonettes: Back in Black

Interview by Jeff Apter, GQ (Australia), June 2005

The Raveonettes are retro-obsessed Danes with a thing for the dark side of the road. Frontman Sune Rose Wagner spills to Jeff Apter on sleazy ...

Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Scream: Scream And Scream Again: Dave Grohl

Book Excerpt by Jeff Apter, 'The Dave Grohl Story' (Omnibus Press) , 2006

In 1987, DC hopeful Dave Grohl finally scored what he thought was the best gig in the world: drumming for hardcore legends Scream. But what ...

Silverchair

Book Excerpt by Jeff Apter, A New Tomorrow, 2006

While making their fourth album, 2002's critics' favourite Diorama, Australian trio Silverchair underwent a creative makeover, endured tension with their label Atlantic, cemented a bond ...

No Doubt

Book Excerpt by Jeff Apter, Omnibus Press, 2007

Driven by a love of all things 2-Tone and led by reluctant star Gwen Stefani, Orange County hopefuls No Doubt made their public debut at ...

Paul Kelly (singer-songwriter): Paul Kelly's Stolen Apples

Report and Interview by Jeff Apter, Rave (Australia), June 2007

PAUL KELLY obviously likes the look of the road less travelled. Who else would consider fusing the poetry of lower-case American e.e. cummings with an ...

Jeff Buckley: A Pure Drop: The Life Of Jeff Buckley

Book Excerpt by Jeff Apter, Omnibus Press, August 2008

An excerpt from A Pure Drop: The Life Of Jeff Buckley, by Jeff Apter, published by Omnibus Press, September 2008. (304pp, hardback, £19.95) ...

Helen Reddy (2012)

Interview by Jeff Apter, Rock's Backpages audio, 30 November 2012

The Australian icon on her hardscrabble early years in America; her friendships with journalist Lillian Roxon, Liza Minnelli and with songwriter Peter Allen; her first hit 'I Don't Know How to Love Him', and her massive 'I Am a Woman'; feminism and her Grammy speech; her retirement, and her fascination with hypnotism and spiritualism.

File format: mp3; file size: 45.1mb, interview length: 1h 36' 07" sound quality: ** (wind, background noise)

The Church: Further/Deeper

Review by Jeff Apter, Rolling Stone (Australia), 16 October 2014

Jangly vets change line-up but maintain that certain something quite peculiar. ...

The Bee Gees: The Odessa Files

Book Excerpt by Jeff Apter, 'Tragedy: The Ballad of the Bee Gees' (Jawbone), Spring 2016

In 1968, the Bee Gees set out to make their very own Sgt Pepper, an album they hoped would prove they were much more than ...

Sherry Rich: The Divine Crimson V

Review by Jeff Apter, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 17 September 2021

EVER SINCE she formed a high school band with a blonde Queensland up-and-comer named Keith Urban, good people have gravitated to Sherry Rich. ...

Paul Kelly (Australia): Enough with the gravy: a plea for a new national Christmas anthem

Comment by Jeff Apter, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 22 December 2021

I REMEMBER the first time I heard 'How to Make Gravy'. It was 1997, and I was about halfway through a two-year stint living in ...

Crowded House, Neil Finn: Running Down a Dream: the making of Together Alone

Book Excerpt by Jeff Apter, 'Don't Dream It's Over' (Jawbone), February 2024

This is an edited extract from Don't Dream It's Over: The Remarkable Life of Neil Finn by Jeff Apter, published in the UK by Jawbone ...

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