Jerry Gilbert
Jerry Gilbert worked as a staff writer on Melody Maker in 1969 (specialising in folk and blues) before joining the founding team of Sounds (1970-74) where he was deputy editor. He later wrote regularly for media as diverse as Zigzag, Midweek and the Daily Mirror, later starting the first dance trade magazine Disco International in 1976 and LIVE! in 1991. Today he operates mostly in the leisure hospitality and entertainment technology trade sectors, writing monthly columns for both Night and Theme magazines.
List of articles in the library by artist
Atomic Rooster: More Respect For The Rock Organ
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, October 1970
VINCENT CRANE, ambitious leader of Atomic Rooster, firmly believes that the full potential of the organ has yet to be exploited within a rock concept. ...
Band, The: The Band: Stage Fright (Capitol)
Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, October 1970
WHEN YOU hear the term country/rock, you immediately think of Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko and Levon Helm, collectively The Band. For ...
Barclay James Harvest: Waiting ForThe Cherry Harvest
Profile and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, August 1973
A COUPLE of years ago I chanced to review an album by a band which transformed a flirting relationship into something of a commitment. The ...
Barclay James Harvest: Who Reaped Barclay James’ harvest?
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, November 1975
After seven years with a sizeable reputation and a loyal following, Barclay James Harvest still haven’t made any money. ...
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, July 1972
THE drive out to Topanga Canyon from Hollywood along Sunset is quite a heady experience in itself and when Bob "The Bear" Hite is there ...
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, November 1972
AN AMERICAN-style interview generally means a rap over the breakfast table and it was under such circumstances that I met Harry Chapin at the Westbury ...
Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, May 1971
IF CLOVER'S first album on Liberty was good, then this follow up is fantastic. The material is a rich variety of country music which brings ...
Sandy Denny: Sandy Brings Out The Tears
Live Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, 1973
"SANDY DENNY really draws ‘em out", exclaimed Al Stewart, surveying the sea of well-known faces who had assemble at the Howff to see Britain’s number ...
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, September 1973
Sandy Denny and Trevor Lucas were at their Fulham flat watching the test match when I arrived to tape the talk-in. England’s terrible plight was ...
Rick Derringer: All American: Rick Derringer
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, December 1973
RICK ZEHRINGER, one time leader of the McCoys, is now better known as Rick Derringer, the All American Boy. Through his work with Johnny and ...
Doobie Brothers: The Doobies’ Little Gem
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, December 1972
LAST YEAR, when the Doobie Brothers made their recording debut with Warner Brothers, there was little reaction either at the time of the release of ...
Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, March 1971
I GET THE FEELING that only a Joe Boyd-Paul Harris alliance could have produced such a superb album as this. And once again a great ...
Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, March 1972
ISLAND APPEARED to have forgotten about Nick Drake until he ambled into the offices one day and presented them with this album. No one knew ...
Nick Drake: Something else for Nick? An interview with Nick Drake
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, March 1971
NICK DRAKE IS A SHY, INTROVERTED folk singer who is not usually known to speak unless it is absolutely necessary. But Nick is not the ...
Family: In the Talk-In: Charlie Whitney
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, 1971
FAMILY GUITARIST Charlie Whitney had just returned to his Notting Hill home after a stint in the north of England. ...
Flying Burrito Brothers: After The Burritos
Retrospective and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Let It Rock, October 1972
BY THE TIME rhythm guitarist Gram Parsons left the Byrds shortly after the release of their monumental Sweetheart Of The Rodeo album, country-rock had become ...
Fotheringay, Elton John: Elton John, Fotheringay: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Jerry Gilbert, Penny Valentine, Sounds, October 1970
PUTTING ELTON John second billing to Fotheringay at the Royal Albert Hall on Friday night was a taste of mistaken booking if ever there was ...
Richie Furay, Poco: Poco: Interview with Richie Furay
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, February 1972
RICHIE FURAY has been one of the guardian angels of rock music over the past five years, coming to the fore in 1969 when he ...
Rory Gallagher: Travelling Full Circle
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, May 1972
RORY GALLAGHER admitted this week, that his new year European tour had been a tremendous morale booster.... reinforcing old favourites like 'Laundromat' and 'Sinner Boy' ...
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, March 1973
THEY SAY that Scotsmen never return home once they've arrived in London, but in the case of Bernie Gallagher and Graham Lyle, they find their ...
Gallagher & Lyle: Give The Boys A Break
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, 1972
Well, Blackheath Wanderers Sports Club wasn’t quite the venue I had in mind for obtaining the first signs of a sun tan this summer, but ...
Report and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, September 1972
PETER GABRIEL – slightly eccentric or acute schizophrenic? He cycles to Island Studios to begin a day's work on the new Genesis album, and unpacks ...
Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, September 1972
"HAVE YOU GOT a copy of the new album yet?", Mike Rutherford inquired meekly as Genesis prepared to go onstage at the Marquee last week. ...
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, November 1972
WERE YOU and Tony Banks the prime instigators of the original Genesis back at Charterhouse School? ...
Groundhogs, The: Mac’s Home Cooking: The Groundhogs
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, May 1973
DO-IT-YOURSELF man Tony McPhee stands among the debris of a still-unfinished studio at his home in Haverhill, Suffolk. ...
Groundhogs, The: The Groundhogs: Tony McPhee At The Talk-In
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, March 1972
A FRESHLY cropped Tony McPhee arrived at United Artists offices at some ridiculous hour in the morning, borne out by the fact that Mac was ...
Groundhogs, The: Tony McPhee: Prisoner In His Own Castle?
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, September 1975
Jerry Gilbert looks at Tony McPhee’s decision to split the Groundhogs. ...
Hawkwind: When It Comes To Mind-Blowing, Hawkwind Are Really Into It
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, October 1970
HAWKWIND MAY not be the world's most affluent group, or the world's most successful group, but they are certainly one of the most mind-blowing. ...
Homesick James: Homesick Finds a Home From Home
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, October 1970
HOMESICK JAMES is a likeable faintly extrovert character whose first British visit seems to have made a mockery of his nickname. For homesickness seemed to ...
Son House (part 1): Living King of the Delta
Retrospective and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, October 1970
IT WAS the final day of Eddie "Son" House's final sortie away from America. Outside, the rain was pouring down; inside the car sat Son, ...
Son House (part 2): Robert Johnson Overshadowed Son and the Whole Delta
Report and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, October 1970
SINCE 1966 Son House had only recorded once, a very poor performance for Roots which had failed to capture any of the emotion and lyricism ...
Alan Hull: Pipedream (Charisma)
Review by Jerry Gilbert, Let It Rock, July 1973
THERE WAS NO justification for prolonging the life of Lindisfarne Mark One while it suppressed the primal scream of Alan Hull. ...
Alan Hull, Lindisfarne: The Lindisfarne Saga
Retrospective by Jerry Gilbert, ZigZag, July 1975
THREE YEARS AGO it seemed like the end of an era. ...
Humblebums, The, Stealers Wheel, Gerry Rafferty: The Gerry Rafferty Interview
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, ZigZag, December 1975
GERRY RAFFERTY rarely comes up in interviews, seldom works on the road and is in London even less often. And yet when it comes to ...
Report by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, September 1973
THE DAY Starship One landed in Hollywood it effused a trace of the old redolence and affaced just a little of the Hollywood myth. The ...
Robert Johnson: Unravelling the Legend of Robert Johnson
Retrospective by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, June 1971
JERRY GILBERT looks at Robert Johnson, greatest of the Delta bluesmen ...
Leo Kottke: The ZigZag Interview: Leo Kottke
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, ZigZag, January 1976
I'VE ALWAYS dreaded starting so called in depth interviews with 'Go back to your earliest recollections etc and in the case of Leo Kottke I ...
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, May 1972
LINDISFARNE'S MERCURIAL rise to fame in the past year has done little to alter the outlook of their chief songwriter, James Alan Hull. Hully remains ...
Lindisfarne: Alan Hull: Playing In The Band
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, March 1973
ALAN HULL, who has led Lindisfarne a stormy path across the other side of the world, is back in Barnet – the Mecca of the ...
Report and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, October 1972
"FIVE CRATES OF Brown ale and a crate of Guinness please." Twelve quid across the bar to a landlord shaking his head in disbelief, and ...
Report and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Melody Maker, December 1971
"No, we'll never work as hard as this again. It's killing the magic. And it's not doing us much good either" - Si Cowe, guitarist, ...
Loggins & Messina: Kenny Loggins (With Jim Messina Sittin' In) Talkin' 'Bout…
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, ZigZag, January 1974
WHERE BETTER to interview Kenny Loggins and Jimmy Messina that in the crowded restaurant of a good old Holiday Inn, with piped music from the ...
Loggins & Messina: They’re Havin’ A Good Time: Loggins & Messina
Report and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, Spring 1972
THE KENNY Loggins/Jim Messina band is the best thing to emerge from LA in years. Their recent Stateside tour with Delaney & Bonnie took audiences ...
Loggins & Messina, Poco: Loggins & Messina: Mother Lode; Poco: Cantamos
Review by Jerry Gilbert, ZigZag, January 1975
INITIALLY THE main difference between these two progeny of the Buffalo Springfield is one of sophistication. While Poco strive desperately to recapture past glories, Loggins ...
Profile and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, December 1975
HEADLEY GRANGE is an unimposing place, rambling, but not overly large and possessing none of the characteristics that make for a manor, stately home, or ...
Profile and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, 1972
JON MARK sits outside his local in Wimbledon, quietly supping a pint. The sun is hot and bar strangely quiet in the unusual absence of ...
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, 1971
BACK FROM a promotional tour of the States, Ian Matthews sat in a West End Wimpy Bar pondering his next move. He knows precisely what ...
Mississippi Fred McDowell: Church House, Farnham
Live Review by Jerry Gilbert, Melody Maker, March 1969
"I'M NOT a rock and roll singer. The only way you make me rock is by putting me in a rockin' chair. But if you ...
Kate & Anna McGarrigle: Sisters In Song
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, April 1976
UNTIL DEMAND forced them to issue that classic Maria Muldaur album two years ago Warner Bros. had always shown a marked reluctance to promote its ...
Don McLean: Eye On The Future, Ear In The Past: Don McLean
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, September 1973
DON McLEAN took a deep breath and launched into a long qualification of his next album — how one cycle was complete and how his ...
Ralph McTell: You Well-Meaning Brought Me Here (Famous)
Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, October 1971
RALPH'S FANS have had a long wait for the release of his fourth album – but the wait has been well worthwhile for this is ...
Mighty Baby: A Jug Of Love (Blue Horizon)
Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, October 1971
MIGHTY BABY have been around for an awful long time, and owing to contractual problems which have restricted their recording activities, they have very little ...
Joni Mitchell: Joni Still Feels The Pull Of The Country
Report and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Melody Maker, January 1970
CANADIAN FOLK singer Joni Mitchell this week denied rumours that she would be retiring after her Royal Festival Hall concert on January 17th. ...
Randy Newman: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, March 1972
NEWMAN GIVING HIS ALL ...
Report and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, January 1973
1973’s NEW BROOM struck its first death blow last week when the on-off rumors of Pentangle’s long-pending split seemed finally to be confirmed. ...
Review by Jerry Gilbert, ZigZag, August 1975
ZIGZAG HAS FALLEN into the habit of reviewing Poco albums with trepidation. With each new Poco release Andy Childs, an old Poco buff himself, passes ...
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, October 1975
THE SUDDEN relaunch of Poco has kicked up some pretty weird conversations and ironies. For few former Poco buffs are willing to believe that Head ...
Poco: One Of The Great Mysteries Of Rock
Profile and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, September 1973
Five years and six albums after they formed Poco remain one of the great mysteries of rock and roll – a band who have lurked ...
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, December 1973
POCO’S TIM Schmitt and Paul Cotton were asked whether Richie Furay would have the band to play on the same bill as Loggins & Messina, ...
Poco: The World Still Hasn’t Caught Up With Poco
Profile and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, ZigZag, September 1974
WHEN GEORGE GRAHAM, THE quiet member of Poco, opined that a hit single would really get Poco away as far back as the Summer of ...
Renaissance: A New Life for Renaissance
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, March 1974
IT’S FOUR years since the first Renaissance album came out. It was a memorable week as I recall Island issuing that and Fairport Convention’s Liege ...
John Renbourn, Pentangle: Pentangle/John Renbourn
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, 1971
DECEMBER, ASIDE from its obvious festive revelries, has also been notable for the temporary withdrawal of the Pentangle. In the meekest possible way they have ...
Biff Rose: The Half Live Adventures Of Biff Rose
Retrospective by Jerry Gilbert, ZigZag, January 1975
"My use of words is just some antics..." A chronoligical analysis of Biff Rose's albums ...
Rowan Brothers, The: The Rowan Brothers: The Rowans
Review by Jerry Gilbert, ZigZag, February 1976
THE ROWAN BROS. have variously been described as the greatest thing since the Beatles (J. Garcia in Rolling Stone) and Clive Davis's Biggest Mistake. A ...
Todd Rundgren: A Wizard, A True Star (Bearsville)
Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, April 1973
A MAZE. A truly amazing album. That might well have been the subtitle of this latest excursion into the land of magic from henna-haired hero ...
Profile and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, ZigZag, December 1974
THE ACTIVITIES OF John B. Sebastian post-Woodstock haven't so much been a mystery as mystifying. ...
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, May 1973
There Goes Rhymin’ Simon is the title of Paul Simon’s new solo album, and last week he was in New York to talk about the ...
Report and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, March 1974
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN was confined to the boardwalk life on New Jersey. He lived over a drug store "in all the craziness of downtown", prayed for ...
Bruce Springsteen: Born To Run (Columbia import)
Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, September 1975
THE VISIONARIES and rock and roll prophets who predicted that this album would be the making of Bruce Springsteen may have noted that while their ...
Bruce Springsteen: It's Hard to be a Saint in the City
Profile and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, ZigZag, August 1974
ALL DRESSED UP AND NO PLACE TO GO ...
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, January 1973
SINCE THE formation of the first traditional, electric folk supergroup, to lump together every possible stigmatic cliché that was attached to them, Steeleye Span have ...
Steeleye Span: Maddy Prior in the Talk-In
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, December 1973
WITHIN THE precincts of Warwick Castle a BBC Outside Broadcast team were attempting to film the second Steeleye TV show in their peregrinations around famous ...
Steeleye Span: The Folk Who Plugged In
Retrospective and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, December 1975
NOW WE are six was a title conveniently borrowed from A. A. Milne to acknowledge that in 1973 Steeleye Span had finally decided to add ...
Steeleye Span: The Steeleye Span Talk-In
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, June 1973
STEELEYE HAVE JUST added a drummer for the first time since the band formed. Can you explain how this came about? ...
Cat Stevens: The Patterns Of A Chocolate Man
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, March 1974
With an almost regimental sense of routine, Cat Stevens is back in England rehearsing for his first tour in eighteen months. ...
Al Stewart: The Poetic Man Tells Of His Love
Report by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, May 1972
THE FACT that the rock public generally seem to be adamant in their appraisal of Al Stewart is a definite sign for the good; for ...
Strawbs, The: Jacks Out For The Strawbs
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, August 1973
THE BEST, and possibly only, way of breaking in a new band is to retreat into the country, converge on the local inn and set ...
Strawbs, The: Ten Years Of The Strawbs – Part Two 1970-1975
Retrospective and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, ZigZag, October 1975
THE STRAWBS were the first band to really find commercial success from within a folk environment. Dave Cousins was always clever in his adaptations of ...
Strawbs, The: Ten Years of the Strawbs: From Donegan to Dali in Five Easy Stages
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, ZigZag, September 1975
THROUGH A ten-year period that has seen them frequently under-rated, and a time when they probably least deserved it the subject of mass adulation, the ...
Strawbs, The: The Strawbs' Dave Cousins
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, January 1972
Can you talk, first of all, about the early days of the Strawbs, how you came together and so on. ...
Strawbs, The: The Strawbs: An interview with Dave Cousins
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, April 1974
DAVE COUSINS is one of the few musicians whom one can interview repeatedly and always come back with a fresh slant or a new revelation. ...
Strawbs, The: The Strawbs: Ripe Strawbs
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, November 1973
THE STRAWBS are at last beginning to mature into the kind of band that does justice to the eminence of the musicians involved. "Come down ...
Taj Mahal: The Real Thing (CBS)
Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, July 1971
FOR SOME reason it all seems to have gone wrong for Taj Mahal. ...
Taj Mahal: Taj: Thinking The Blues
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, December 1973
TAJ MAHAL was dressed in full regalia when we arrived at his hotel room in Manhattan, and the room revealed signs that he and his ...
James Taylor: Mud Slide Slim And The Blue Horizon (Warner Reprise)
Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, May 1971
GOOD OLD predictable James has done it again. He offers not the slightest hint of surprise on his new album, and as expected he has ...
James Taylor, Matthews' Southern Comfort: Palladium, London
Live Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, October 1970
THE CLUMSY, gangling, instantly lovable James Taylor conquered the London Palladium and made his eventual return to England a triumphant one on Sunday. ...
Richard and Linda Thompson: Richard & Linda Thompson: Hokey Pokey
Review by Jerry Gilbert, ZigZag, September 1975
THE SINGULAR most remarkable aspect of this album is its manifestation of Richard Thompson's capacity to absorb. And if that sounds a long winded way ...
Profile and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, ZigZag, February 1976
LOUDON WAINWRIGHT'S biggest paradox is his insistence that his values and lifestyle are no different from any man in the street: but his eccentricities are ...
Muddy Waters: The Man Who Urbanised The Blues
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, October 1970
TOP CHICAGO bluesman Muddy Waters, still crippled from a car crash nine months ago, will be wearing a smile when he returns to England in ...
Aj Webber: Straight From The Heart
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, September 1973
AJ WEBBER is neither to be confused with dustbin Dylanologist A.J. Webberman nor with British bumpkin Adge Cutler, although like the Adge she comes from ...
Bill Withers: Live At Carnegie Hall (A&M)
Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, June 1973
FIRST TIME I saw Bill Withers live he was appearing at the huge Louisiana State Fair in Baton Rouge to a matter of about 20,000 ...
Bill Withers: Making Music Till He Drops
Report and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, November 1972
THE QUEST for that intangible magic with which so few of us are blessed, can often entail a very long journey indeed. And whilst Bill ...
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