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Neil Mason

Neil Mason

Neil Mason cut his teeth as a sub editor on dance magazine Muzik before joining Melody Maker as Albums Editor, becoming Reviews Editor during the death-rattle period. In October 1999 he wrote the title’s very last inkie cover and joined NME.COM the following year as the site's first Features Editor. In 2003 he joined War Child as Editor of the pre-iTunes music download site warchildmusic.com. Neil founded and edits Electronic Sound magazine.

37 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Echo & The Bunnymen, The Prodigy, Smashing Pumpkins: Glastonbury: Where Were You While We Were All Getting Dry?

Report by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 5 July 1997

So, you are back home again, tucked up in bed, bad dose of the snivels. Your shoes are f***ed, your bones a bit soggy. Well, ...

Ben Folds Five: The Wax Inspectors!

Report by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 20 July 1997

Jeez, the things you find out when you take an American band — BEN FOLDS FIVE — to a London tourist attraction — Madame Tussaud's ...

Meredith Brooks: Claws-out Bitchin' Pop

Profile and Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 9 August 1997

MEREDITH BROOKS talks a lot. She lives in LA. She doesn't do sugar, cigarettes, alcohol or drugs. ...

All Saints: Post Spice Hip-Hop

Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 23 August 1997

THERE ARE certain things in life you can be sure of. Rain on Bank Holidays, never having enough money, Alan Shearer getting injured when it ...

Coldcut: Heat to the Beat: Coldcut at 333, London

Live Review by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 6 September 1997

"HOW COLD can Coldcut get?" When sweat is dripping off your nose, your T-shirt has stuck and the most strenuous thing you've done is light ...

Loop Guru: Mental Guru!

Report and Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 4 October 1997

As UK techno's second wave engulfs America, we join 806 STATE, SYSTEM 7, BT, GROOVERIDER and our hosts LOOP GURU on the Big Top Tour, ...

Louise: Young, Gifted and Back!

Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 11 October 1997

Yep, she's here again. When we asked who was the lass with the most class, LOUISE shot to the top of our sex poll. Now ...

Lo Fidelity Allstars: Lo-Fidelity Allstars: Allstars In Your Eyes

Report and Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 18 October 1997

LO-FIDELITY ALLSTARS are gonna be massive. Who says? They do. And we agree. We join them on the UK tour everyone will claim to have ...

The Fall: Levitate (Artful)

Review by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 24 October 1997

AFTER 20 years, nine labels, 22 line-ups and one ballet, the Fall hit us with Levitate, their 30th album. Yup, that's 30 albums. Nevertheless, with ...

Finley Quaye: LA2, London

Live Review by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 8 November 1997

HOW IS IT that this cherub before us can be Tricky's uncle? ...

All Saints, Natalie Imbruglia: Saints And Sinner: All Saints: All Saints (London)/Natalie Imbruglia: Left Of The Middle (RCA)

Review by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 29 November 1997

OK, they're pretty, cool and main players in the New Pop Explosion but do they have any songs? ...

Idlewild: Eye-up Idlewild

Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 10 January 1998

Idlewild, Edinburgh's best kept secret, will floor you with their brain rushing brand of noise pollution ...

Catatonia: New Adventures In Sci-Fi

Profile and Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 24 January 1998

CATATONIA's last single was about "mobs" — no it's sci-fi doodlings! We hotfoot it to Wales and ask them what the hell's going on ...

Regular Fries: Rheingold Club, London

Live Review by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 24 January 1998

A CHIP SHOT ...

Stereophonics: Be Herr Now!

Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 14 February 1998

Voted Best New Band in The Maker's Readers' Poll, Stereophonics are set to seriously f*** up 1998. We join them in Berlin and hear how ...

Dust Junkys: Done & Dusted (Polydor) **½

Review by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 7 March 1998

ENTER PLANET DUST ...

Propellerheads: Metropolitan University, Leeds

Live Review by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 2 May 1998

'HEADS THEY LOSE? ...

The Beta Band: International Student House, London

Live Review by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 23 May 1998

THEY'RE THE ONE FOR US ...

Elliott Smith: Interview Transcript

Interview by Neil Mason, unpublished, June 1998

I'D BEEN TO SEE Elliott Smith's first UK show a week earlier, can't recall where, but it was clearly enough to get me back a ...

Elliott Smith: Acoustic Splendour

Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 27 June 1998

CATEGORIES and pigeonholes and genres. They sure make our job easier. Everyone fits neatly in somewhere. Elliott Smith isn't too sure. ...

The Beta Band: Gringo Stars

Report and Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 25 July 1998

Take an explosive mix of the Primals, The Verve and Billy Smart and, voila!, THE BETA BAND: proof that UK music is fighting fit and up ...

theaudience: theaudience (Mercury/eLLeFFe)

Review by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 15 August 1998

THEAUDIENCE have sure ruffled some feathers in the short time they've been around. They could have slipped under the wire unnoticed; instead, they've added an ...

Idlewild

Profile and Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 17 October 1998

THROUGH THE idle pre-gig chit-chat, four lads wend their way from the rear of the venue towards the stage. As the singer politely picks his ...

Robbie Williams: Robbie Fowl!: Robbie Williams: I've Been Expecting You (Chrysalis) **

Review by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 31 October 1998

SINCE Life Thru A Lens appeared last September, a lot has happened to fat Bob. Mind you, a lot happened to him before Life Thru ...

Ash Dish The Dirt

Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 28 November 1998

Did you know Tim's nickname at the scouts was "Timmy Testicle" or that Charlotte guzzles Vodka? We make each member of Ash leave the room ...

Massive Attack: London Arena, London

Live Review by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 19 December 1998

THE VICTORIOUS BIG ...

Stereophonics, Tom Jones: Tom Jones and the Stereophonics

Profile and Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 1 March 1999

LOOKING OUT across the affluent Silverlake area of Los Angeles stretching out below us, this is not your usual house. Perched high on a hilltop, ...

3 Colours Red: Evel Superstars!

Report and Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 8 May 1999

3 COLOURS RED are drinking, throwing up and rocking the hell out of the USA. And they've met Evel Knievel! But make no mistake, they're ...

Groove Armada: Blissful Beats

Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 8 May 1999

MOST PEOPLE would have a raft of tunes. Andy Cato and Tom Findlay go one better. They're ain't called Groove Armada for nothing, you know. ...

Cast: Magic Hour (Polydor) ***

Review by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 15 May 1999

CAST, BLESS them, have always been pissing in the wind. Why does it seem to go Pete Tong for our Eighties heroes? Well, here's one ...

Foo Fighters: Dave Grohl

Report and Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 23 October 1999

IT'S A SPARKLY autumnal London morning. In a back road off Oxford Street, a band are huddled in a radio production company recording an interview ...

Blink 182: Potty By Nature

Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 24 November 1999

Skate-punkers BLINK 182 come clean on snot, boobies and why they're not the bad boys of rock ...

Oasis: Noel Gallagher: Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants track by track

Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, January 2000

...

John Lydon, The Sex Pistols: Johnny Rotten on the Sex Pistols' 20 Wildest Moments

Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, June 2000

With The Filth & The Fury coming your way, John Lydon AKA Johnny Rotten, recalls how the Sex Pistols became the most exciting band ever ...

John Lydon: Psychobabble: John Lydon

Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, June 2000

NOTE: When the Filth and the Fury film was released in 2000, Lydon agreed to do three press interviews, of which Melody Maker, for some ...

Dope Smugglaz Allstars: Toke Implosion: Dope Smugglaz Allstars

Report and Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 6 September 2000

THERE ARE some moments in life when you have to take a good look around. Some moments that hurt when you pinch yourself because, in ...

The Human League: The Things That Dreams Are Made Of

Retrospective and Interview by Neil Mason, electronic, July 2012

Studios with leaking roofs, trips to new romantic clubs in a little Hillman Imp, and a heavy metal single recorded between sessions. They're all part ...

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