Nick Coleman
Nick wrote for NME for a year during the mid-80s before becoming Music Editor of the London listings magazine, Time Out, in 1987. From 1994 until 2006 he was Arts and then Features Editor at the Independent and Independent on Sunday before leaving to go freelance. His memoir The Train in the Night was published to wide acclaim in 2012.
List of articles in the library by artist
Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, September 1993
American singer-songwriter Aimee Mann, is 'better than just about everyone', but she's only now clawing her way to success. Nick Coleman takes her to dinner ...
Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, August 1993
From Sly and Robbie to Mick Jagger and Public Image, record producer Bill Laswell's client list is as varied as the sounds he pulls out ...
Björk: Björk: The Last Great Pop Star
Interview by Nick Coleman, Independent, The, August 2001
She thumps reporters, wears funny clothes and thinks she was born in the wrong century. Now she's made an album about her kitchen. Nick Coleman ...
Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, November 1993
Kate Bush – what's she like, eh, with her wailing voice, whimsical words and penchant for throwing wild Terpsichorean shapes? Suitably intrigued by her new ...
David Bowie: A Rock 'n' Roll Suicide: A live art event by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard: ICA London
Report by Nick Coleman, Independent, The, July 1998
"OF ALL THE SHOWS on this tour, this particular show will remain with us the longest. Not only is it the last show of the ...
Sandy Denny: Who Knows Where The Time Goes (Island)
Review by Nick Coleman, NME, Summer 1986
WHEN SHE DIED I was still preoccupied with the politics of holey jeans and why the Ramones were the perfect emblem of the beast Modern ...
Donald Fagen, Steely Dan: Donald Fagen: Dan Dare
Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, May 1993
Back in the '70s, Steely Dan grabbed the American Dream by the throat with their deceptively soft rock. Now singer Donald Fagen is back, giving ...
Dr. Feelgood, Wilko Johnson: Wilko Johnson: Rhythm Doctor
Interview by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, January 2005
Flood and drugs and R&B – the life and works of Wilko Johnson have been fast and turbulent. But the Essex Assassin is still rocking ...
Retrospective by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, January 2010
As a new film reminds us, he was a polio survivor from the suburbs and not much of a musician. ...
Retrospective by Nick Coleman, Independent, The, September 2006
Thirty years after drugs killed Free's guitarist, the band are back in vogue. They just won't talk to each other. ...
Robert Fripp, David Sylvian: Double Edge
Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, June 1993
Guitar hero meets cool synth dude on The First Day, a new album by Robert Fripp and David Sylvian. They should go together like a ...
Marvin Gaye's Here, My Dear: Deal Me Out
Retrospective by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, February 2008
At the age of 39, Marvin Gaye's marriage hit the rocks, and he was forced into the studio to pay the divorce fees. Reissued 30 ...
Good The Bad and The Queen, The: At Least It's Raining: An Albarn/Simonon Psychogeography
Interview by Nick Coleman, Believer, The, October 2007
Things shared by Damon Albarn and Paul Simonon:North KensingtonA Love of DickensA group hug with Chrissie Hynde ...
Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, June 1989
"Sometimes I wonder if you love me the way you say you do... Sometimes I just fold my arms and say... weeeee-eeeeh awooooah!" ...
Profile and Interview by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, August 2010
Gered Mankowitz wasn't yet 21 when his pictures captured London's groovers at their hippest. As the portraitist prepares to put his Hendrix archive on show, ...
Steve Hillage, Gong: Steve Hillage: Woggle Head
Profile and Interview by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, January 2007
Steve Hillage was a prime groover on the Canterbury psychedelic scene of the Seventies and still makes far-out trance music today. So why do people ...
Profile and Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, October 1992
BOOM BOOM boom boom – gonna shoot you right down… The blues is always the blues, even when it's advertising copy. Right off your feet. ...
John Martyn: The Boy Can't Help It
Interview by Nick Coleman, MOJO, October 1994
Rambunctious loons, Soave-swilling romantics, tireless anarchists, people who fill baths with dead fish, all detect in him some sort of kindred spirit. John Martyn by ...
Booker T. Jones: Booker T Jones: The King Of Stax Picks Up His Axe
Interview by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, April 2009
With his band the MGs, Booker T was the resident genius at one of America's great soul labels. Now, with a bit of help from ...
Led Zeppelin: Why We Should Dig The 'Rock Dinosaurs' All Over Again
Guide by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, December 2007
They were the biggest band of the 1970s and they're about to reform ...
John Martyn: The Barbican, London
Live Review by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, September 2006
"Burble burble burble... President Bush... flffle mffle wffle... 'kin 'ell... urgle wurgle gurgle... I'm trouble too! Heheheheheh..." ...
Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, January 1993
California smile, insolent mouth, articulate manner — Mick Jagger is an 'interesting bunch of guys' and each one still has the edge. But is he ...
Pentangle: Britain's Grateful Dead
Profile and Interview by Nick Coleman, Guardian, The, March 2007
Folk pioneers Pentangle recently played together for the first time in 30 years. This is the perfect time for them to reform for good, says ...
Keith Richards: How to be Keef: A User's Guide
Guide by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, July 2006
WHAT GOES through the mind of a rock colossus as he falls from a coconut tree? Depends on your rock colossus, of course. So let's ...
Keith Richards, Rolling Stones, The: Keith Richards: Grin Reaper
Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, July 1990
YOU CAN look Keith Richards in the eye and ask him if he's spent all his adult life divorced from reality. He stops, inclines his ...
Book Review by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, February 2008
In the summer of 1971, Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg holed up in a villa on the Riviera with the other members of the Rolling ...
Sandy Denny: The Queen of Fairport
Retrospective by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, May 2012
LESS THAN A decade ago a retrospective CD box-set came out. A Boxful of Treasures documented the life and career of the English singer-songwriter Sandy ...
Shonen Knife: Naughty But Knife
Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, November 1992
Their songs have titles like 'Flying Jelly Attack' but Shonen Knife claim it's all serious stuff. As London succumbs to a Japanese arts invasion, Nick ...
Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes: Southside Johnny Lyon: Greetings From Asbury Park
Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, February 1992
Unlike his old buddies Bruce Springsteen and Little Steven, Southside Johnny Lyon has forsaken the trappings of rock stardom for clapboard houses and the smell ...
Interview by Nick Coleman, Intelligent Life, Spring 2008
Sparks are to begin performing their entire oeuvre next week in Islington. Singer Russel Mael tells Nick Coleman it's like buying pork futures... ...
Sundays, The: The Sundays: Blind Optimism
Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, December 1992
After the sheer brilliance of their debut album, The Sundays have delivered a follow-up, Blind, which is... not quite so fabulous. Nick Coleman goes to ...
Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, 1992
Fourteen years after they split, New York's noo-wave punksters Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd have repaired Television. Nick Coleman is electrified by their new album. ...
Richard and Linda Thompson, Linda Thompson: Linda Thompson
Interview by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, September 2007
Linda and Richard Thompson's marriage was fiery – so much so that Nick Hornby began a script about the legendary folk rockers. Here, on the ...
Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, May 1992
Until 'Walk The Dinosaur', the funky, cosmic pop of Was (Not Was) remained a cult. Now they've reached the giddy heights of supporting Dire Straits, ...
Robert Wyatt and Annie Whitehead: Songs In The Key Of Louth
Report and Interview by Nick Coleman, Independent, The, October 2000
The trombonist Annie Whitehead has arranged a suite of Robert Wyatt's tunes, spanning 25 years of his off-beat career. Nick Coleman talks to them in ...
List of genre pieces
Princes And Peasants Of Medieval Pop
Overview by Nick Coleman, Independent, The, May 1998
Musicians have long been fascinated by the Middle Ages. Perhaps it's down to the tight trousers and catamites. ...
Adrian Sherwood: The Man Who Built Jamaica In The Midlands
Interview by Nick Coleman, Independent, The, February 2011
The founder of On-U Sound tells Nick Coleman that there is more to reggae than 'ooom-chicky...' ...
back to LIBRARY
Best Databases: RBP is Runner-up in Best Niche category
Video: Johnny Marr talks about Rock's Backpages
RBP on Spotify: The genius of Judee Sill
RBP Album Club in Chicago, June 30th: Paul Yamada and Liam (Plush) Hayes celebrate a Curtis Mayfield classic
Essential Listening: Roy Trakin meets the Replacements in '87
Essential Reading: Andrew Smith's history of the first dotcom boom
RBP Album Club, July 11th: Nick Hornby and Nick Coleman celebrate Southside Johnny's debut
Join the Facebook group now