Richard Grabel

Eric B & Rakim: 
Paid In Full

Review by Richard Grabel, NME, August 1987

THE BOY Rakim has a helluva style on the mike. ...

John "Jellybean" Benitez, Arthur Baker: Burn This Disco Out

Report by Richard Grabel, NME, May 1983

THE BEST DISCO IN NEW YORK IS THE FUNHOUSE WHERE SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER IS ENJOYING A RENAISSANCE WITH AMERICA'S TEENAGERS. RICHARD GRABEL INVESTIGATES THE NEW ...

Black Flag: My War (Continued)

Report and Interview by Richard Grabel, NME, July 1986

FRIDAY NIGHT at New York's Irving Plaza, filled to the rafters with punks letting their freak flags fly. Tattered, dazed and confused kids line the ...

Black Uhuru: My Father's Place, New York NY

Live Review by Richard Grabel, New York Rocker, October 1981

I HAD TO choose between this and the Palladium show (the entire Black Uhuru American Tour) and I figured this was the show to see. ...

Black Uhuru: Pure Mad People Live In This Place

Profile and Interview by Richard Grabel, Creem, April 1983

WHEN BOB Marley died, there was some loose talk going around about Michael Rose, Black Uhuru's lead singer and songwriter, being groomed to be "the ...

Bongos, The: The Bongos: Bongo Journalism

Interview by Richard Grabel, New York Rocker, June 1981

THE BONGOS are part of a small brigade making pop music that remains fun to be part of. They are engaging entertainers. ...

Bow Wow Wow: Here & Now It's Bow Wow Wow!

Interview by Richard Grabel, Creem, June 1983

THE STORY has to begin with Malcolm McLaren, the ex-Kings Road clothier who brought the Sex Pistols to the world. Having seen his punk rock ...

Camper Van Beethoven: Ludwiggin' Out!

Profile and Interview by Richard Grabel, NME, September 1986

WHAT'S A Camper Van Beethoven? Actually, I forgot to ask. But check what I heard when I asked about its role models. ...

George Clinton: Mutiny On The Mothership — Uncle Jam Wants Out

Report and Interview by Richard Grabel, NME, December 1979

Drummer Jerome Brailey and Horny Hornsman Fred Wesley have already quit Funkadelic – and now George Clinton is giving up live performances. Richard Grabel reports ...

Cramps, The: The Cramps: Songs The Lord Taught Us (IRS)

Review by Richard Grabel, New York Rocker, September 1980

TO TRASH THE trashiest, that was the Cramps' initial challenge to the burgeoning punk scene. Lux Interior threw down the gauntlet in 'Garbage Man', snarling ...

E.S.G.: ESG: No Guile or Wile, Just Wallop

Profile and Interview by Richard Grabel, NME, May 1981

THESE DAYS, a lot of bands glorify the appearance of being what they are not. ...

Fleetwood Mac: Madison Square Garden, NYC

Live Review by Richard Grabel, NME, December 1979

YOU ENTER the stream of bodies pouring through the portholes of Madison Square Garden. You get caught up in the tide. Into the awesome space ...

Fleshtones, The: The Fleshtones: Hexbreaker! (IRS)

Review by Richard Grabel, NME, September 1983

RESOLUTELY UNFASHIONABLE, the stalwart Fleshtones keep making their good-time party records and getting better at it each time out. ...

Funky Four + One, The, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five: The Funky Four + One: Rap, Rap, Rap

Report and Interview by Richard Grabel, NME, May 1981

Young South Bronx unwraps the rapping revolution ...

Gang of Four, Buzzcocks, The: The Buzzcocks, Gang of Four: Club 57, New York NY

Live Review by Richard Grabel, NME, September 1979

THIS IS AN interesting juxtaposition: Buzzcocks work on a high energy formula, a formula that works; Gang Of Four work away from formula – they ...

Lowell George: Hard Rock Cafe, New York NY

Live Review by Richard Grabel, NME, July 1979

LOWELL GEORGE didn't so much leave Little Feat as fade out of it, gradually reducing his writing for the group and his participation in the ...

Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five: Grandmaster Flash: Flash is Fast, Flash is Cool

Profile and Interview by Richard Grabel, NME, September 1981

THE SOUTH BRONX lies just across a thin stretch of the Harlem River from Manhattan, but it could be worlds away. ...

Hüsker Dü: Dü You Believe In Magic?

Interview by Richard Grabel, NME, April 1987

Hüsker Dü, major-label guys, zoom on with their finest LP yet and an affirmation of their world view. RICHARD GRABEL is still a true believer ...

Gregory Isaacs: Savoy, New York NYC

Live Review by Richard Grabel, New York Rocker, January 1982

SMOOTH IS the word for Gregory Isaacs. So smooth, and so suave. The cool king of that gentle, romantic Jamaican reggae called lover's rock. ...

Kid Creole & The Coconuts: The Rake's Progress

Interview by Richard Grabel, NME, May 1982

One singer sacked, bad vibes with the vibes player, a dodgy new LP, and a frankly suspect panama hat – Richard Grabel battles through the ...

King Crimson, Robert Fripp: King Crimson: Robert Fripp's Chocolate Cake Discipline

Interview by Richard Grabel, Creem, February 1982

In The Court Of The Crimson King, Phase II ...

Let's Active

Interview by Richard Grabel, Creem, October 1986

IT'S BEAUTIFUL down in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where Let's Active live. Maybe it influences the gentle dynamism and meticulous construction of their ingenious pop sounds ...

Lydia Lunch, 8-Eyed Spy: Lydia Lunch: Out To Lydia

Interview by Richard Grabel, NME, August 1981

Richard Grabel lays on the red carpet treatment for his Lunch date ...

Madness: Hurrah, New York NY

Live Review by Richard Grabel, NME, December 1979

THERE'S NO tradition of ska being popular in America. Millie Small and Desmond Dekker each had one novelty hit a piece, and that's it. But ...

Bob Marley & the Wailers: Bob Marley & The Wailers: Apollo Theatre, New York NY

Live Review by Richard Grabel, NME, November 1979

BOB MARLEY had to change his approach. He had a virtual patent in the international arena on the stance of the mad-shaman reggae icon, the ...

Material: When Is A Band Not A Band?

Interview by Richard Grabel, NME, April 1981

When it's Material, who are sort of several New York bands who are always sort of coming and going in all sorts of wonderful ways. ...

Pere Ubu: CBGB's, New York NY

Live Review by Richard Grabel, New York Rocker, April 1978

THIS EVENING at CBGB's was a showcase for two bands newly signed to recording contracts by Blank Records. ...

Lee 'Scratch' Perry: Curse of the Vampires

Interview by Richard Grabel, NME, July 1981

Legendary Jamaican producer Lee "Scratch" Perry raps and rants in New York. Richard Grabel listens to his method and madness. ...

Pogues, The: The Pogues: It's Really Pogue, Man

Profile and Interview by Richard Grabel, Creem, September 1986

TALKING TO Shane MacGowan, singer and lyricist with a spirited bunch of North London Irish lunatics called the Pogues – trying to decipher the words ...

R.E.M.: Murmur (IRS)

Review by Richard Grabel, NME, September 1983

R.E.M., LIKE THE B-52's, come from Athens, Georgia, but it must be the other side of town. Where the Bs are flamboyant, emblazoning their borrowed ...

Selecter, The: The Selecter: Beyond Black And White

Interview by Richard Grabel, New York Rocker, September 1980

JERRY DAMMMERS must be reeling. The Specials' gap-toothed leader created a movement when he started the 2-Tone label, figuring that his own band would be ...

Slits, The: The Slits: Hurrah, New York NY

Live Review by Richard Grabel, NME, January 1980

ANOTHER American debut of another new British band at Hurrah's. But this is New Year's Eve and the ticket is 25 bucks – probably a ...

Patti Smith: The Palladium, New York NY

Live Review by Richard Grabel, NME, June 1979

SITTING ALONE on the side of the stage, Patti Smith intones a rap that mixes passages of 'Wave', her latest failed-mystic monologue, with protestations of ...

Soul Asylum, Hüsker Dü: Hüsker Dü, Soul Asylum: Irving Plaza, New York

Live Review by Richard Grabel, NME, March 1986

SOUL ASYLUM are lean, scrappy, hungry. they play with a determination to make their mark quickly. They play to win. ...

Television, Tom Verlaine: Tom Verlaine: Happiness Is A Guitar Called Fender...

Interview by Richard Grabel, NME, October 1979

...And how to make original rock & roll with it in the late '70s is your problem. It's also TOM VERLAINE'S ...

Trouble Funk, Redds And The Boys, Experience Unlimited (EU), Chuck Brown & the Soul Searchers: Crankin' That Go Go Gadget

Report and Interview by Richard Grabel, Creem, April 1986

THIS IS CRAZY. I'm in Cheriy's Roller Rink, in Northeast Washington, D.C. The place is filled with black teenagers, and even their younger brothers and ...

Was (Not Was): Mudd Club, New York NY

Live Review by Richard Grabel, NME, October 1981

WAS CRAWL OUT THE WOODWORK ...

James White and The Blacks: Danceteria, New York NY

Live Review by Richard Grabel, NME, April 1982

FLINGING THE FUNK IN YOUR FACE ...

Wire ...Of The Tastiest Kind

Interview by Richard Grabel, Creem, September 1987

COLIN NEWMAN and Graham Lewis, of the nearly living legendary beat combo Wire, are amiable, approachable guys who nonetheless make no attempt to hide their ...

X's Wild Los Angeles Gift: Sign On The Dotted Line, Please!

Interview by Richard Grabel, Creem, June 1982

X ARE FINALLY getting some respect. Their first album, Los Angeles, released in 1980 on the independent Slash label, sold some 80,000 copies, not bad ...

Yellowman: Meet The Years Most Unlikely Sex Symbol

Interview by Richard Grabel, NME, December 1982

"I THINK I know what's coming..." ...