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Sheryl Garratt

Sheryl Garratt

Freelance writer New Musical Express 1980-83, music ed City Limits 1983-86; freelance writer 1986-88: The Observer, The Sunday Telegraph, Honey, New York Rocker, The Face, News on Sunday, Looks; ed The Face 1989-95 (music/prodn ed 1988-89, winner Int Magazine of the Year PPA Awards 1994); freelance writer 1995-98: The Sunday Times, The Independent, The Guardian, Red, Elle and New Statesman; ed The Observer Life magazine 1998-2000, sr writer The Observer 2000-02; currently freelance for The Telegraph, The Times, Elle, Red, Grazia, Vanity Fair and GQ.

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91 articles

List of articles in the library

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Musical Youth: Under-Age Culture Shock

Report and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, New Musical Express, 28 February 1981

These kids have just done their first tour. Their average age is 11... Report: SHERYL GARRATT ...

The Beat: Locarno, Birmingham

Live Review by Sheryl Garratt, New Musical Express, 30 May 1981

THE WAY to tell how well a Beat gig is going is by Saxa's smile, and tonight he was grinning so wide the ends nearly ...

Linx, Light of the World, Spandau Ballet: Light Of The World, Innervisions: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Sheryl Garratt, New Musical Express, 20 June 1981

WHILE JAZZFUNK is fine late at night with the volume low, it's a strictly background sound to my ears, and so tedious live. Take Innervisions, ...

The Congos: Fighting In The Congos

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, New Musical Express, 18 July 1981

ALTHOUGH Black Uhuru's Red will most probably come out top, Heart Of The Congos is definitely one of the finest reggae albums to be released ...

The Bay City Rollers: Androgynous Heartthrobs

Essay by Sheryl Garratt, Collusion, June 1982

Rifling through her mid-70s scrapbooks, Sheryl Garratt reassesses a formative obsession and finds that the standard socio-rock explanations just don't add up. Blanded-out pop music ...

Carroll Thompson: First Lady of Lovers Rock

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, New Musical Express, 2 April 1983

SHERYL GARRATT FINDS OUT JUST WHAT MAKES CARROLL THOMPSON'S WORLD GO ROUND ...

Slim Gaillard: 100 Club, London

Live Review by Sheryl Garratt, New Musical Express, 17 September 1983

FOR ABOUT the tenth time that evening, Slim Gaillard spotted a camera pointing in his direction and stopped a song mid-way to pose. "Yes, I'm ...

Farley "Jackmaster" Funk , Marshall Jefferson, Frankie Knuckles: Sample and Hold: The House Sound of Chicago

Report by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, September 1986

"Sue the bastards!" WE'VE BEEN IN Chicago for two hours now, and for reasons too ridiculous to explain we are sitting in an Armenian restaurant talking ...

Princess: Throne Down!

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, October 1987

Desiree Heslop had an English girl's dream of US Soul Romance. She didn't find it working in Top Shop, or studying at the Royal Academy. ...

Gail Ann Dorsey: Bimbo Backlash — Gail Force

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, July 1988

THE REIGN of the bimbo over the British charts has been a long one. There's absolutely nothing wrong with pretty faces fronting other people's songs ...

Todd Terry: Can You Feel It?

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, October 1988

LONDON, JULY. The police, finally twigging onto the city's thriving house scene, raid a warehouse just south of the river. As is usual on such ...

Blackpool Weekender: Keeping The Faith

Report by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, May 1989

A modern Mecca: the finale of the Third Blackpool Soul, Funk & Jazz Weekender in early April, where dancers left cold by rap and acid gather ...

Cookie Crew: Some Cookies Don't Crumble

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Guardian, 21 June 1989

British rap is taken seriously in the States largely due to the Cookie Crew. Sheryl Garratt found out why ...

Whose Smiley Now?

Report by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, August 1989

THERE WERE stories of people dancing to police sirens, traffic noises, anything to stretch the Summer Of Love out a little longer, but never before ...

The Beautiful South: Popping out for a bit

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, December 1989

The Beautiful South: classic English pop or a bit boring, really? ...

Adamski, Paul Oakenfold, Seal, The Shamen: Adamski: Play for Today

Report and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, April 1990

First there were the raves, and a few imaginative DJs who mixed live music with the records.Then there was Adamski, and the madness that is ...

Primal Scream: Ten Minutes In The Mind Of Bobby Gillespie

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, August 1991

Why did you start playing dance music?Better music, better chicks, better drugs. Is rock'n'roll dead? No. There's a lot of great rock'n'roll bands, like Jane's ...

Morrissey, Suede: Brett Anderson & Morrissey: Suedegate

Comment by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, May 1993

Does this magazine print deliberate lies? Well actually no, we don't ...

The Beloved: Dearly Beloved

Report and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, July 1993

Hailed as a spokesman for the E generation, Jon Marsh is now following a path few would have predicted. With a much-underrated new album receiving ...

Marshall Jefferson: Moving House

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, September 1994

I FIRST MET MARSHALL Jefferson in 1986, in his native Chicago. House was just starting to bloom there, and he was working on 'Move Your ...

The Bay City Rollers: Bay City Rollers: About Men, About Women

Book Excerpt by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, 6 November 1994

Sheryl Garratt blushes to recall the badges, banners and hystericaleuphoria of belonging to a teenybopper gang — but mourns thesense of togetherness lost when real ...

Take That, Robbie Williams: Robbie Williams: The Wild One

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, October 1995

Robbie Williams was always the cool one in Take That. His appearance at this year's Glastonbury, dancing onstage with his mates Oasis, only confirmed that. ...

Mrs Wood: Queen Of Hardbag

Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, December 1995

I FIRST MET MRS WOOD on a trip to BCM in Majorca. The manager had flagged up his attractions outside the club in four-foot letters: ...

Club Flyers: Just An Illusion

Comment by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, February 1996

Nice flyer, shame about the club: Sheryl Garratt on the art of parties. ...

Everything But The Girl: Walking Wounded (Virgin)****

Review by Sheryl Garratt, The Guardian, May 1996

ONCE KNOWN by cynics as Everything But A Laugh, Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn spent much of the Eighties exploring the lonely outer fringes of ...

De La Soul

Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Sunday Times, July 1996

IN 1989, DE LA Soul's debut album Three Feet High And Rising was hailed by New York's Village Voice as "the Sergeant Pepper of hip ...

East 17 in Moscow

Report by Sheryl Garratt, The Independent, July 1996

WE'RE IN THE atrium of a sleek, modern, five-star hotel that is actually in Moscow but could be almost anywhere in the world. In the ...

Neneh Cherry

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, September 1996

WHEN NENEH CHERRY was a toddler, she met Miles Davis. She remembers his gravelly growl of a voice, and recalls him opening his trumpet case ...

Spice Girls: The Spice Girls

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Big Issue, December 1996

THE PAY IS GOOD, the perks are fantastic, but there's one thing they never tell you about being a pop star – the hours are ...

Tom Jones: Q+A: Tom Jones

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, March 1997

He plays himself in Mars Attacks! but would love to play James Bond, is hung like a donkey but not like a horse, and doesn't ...

Robbie Williams: Q+A

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, April 1997

On the horizon of credibility, a faint cry is heard: "Who ate all the pies, who ate all the pies, who ate, who ate, who ...

1988 and All That

Comment by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, August 1997

The summer of love that grew out of the Balearic scene wasn't as revolutionary as some claim, says Sheryl Garratt ...

Beth Orton: A Kinky Disco Kid

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Guardian, 28 November 1997

Singer Beth Orton shrugged off the tragedies of her youth and was inspired by acid house to mix folk with breakbeats. Sheryl Garratt hears how ...

Sasha and Digweed play Twilo

Report and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, December 1997

JOHN DIGWEED stares at the sleek, black stretch limo we've ordered to take us from the hotel to the club in New York. "I usually ...

Drugs: Ill Communication

Report by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, March 1998

Sheryl Garratt learns from those at our hospitals' sharp end that Ecstasy may not be the biggest threat to clubbers' health after all ...

Kylie Minogue: Little Miss Boomerang

Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Guardian, 8 August 1998

Kylie Minogue has probably had more brickbats than bouquets since she quit soap stardom to become a pop singer. But, with a new record in ...

DJ Pierre, Marshall Jefferson, Frankie Knuckles: House Music: Jack in the Day

Book Excerpt by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, October 1998

Chicago's Eighties club scene was the tinderbox that sparked a global dance music explosion. Sheryl Garratt remembers the time... ...

Alanis Morissette: Not CD of the Week — Alanis Morissette: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (Maverick)

Review by Sheryl Garratt, The Guardian, 30 October 1998

OH STOP MOANING Sheryl Garratt finds pain but no gain in a wallowing follow-up album ...

Jools Holland, Squeeze: Jools Holland: Coolest cat on the tube

Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Guardian, 7 November 1998

He's played piano with BB King and learned chords from Ruben Gonzalez — but deep down he's a rock 'n' roller who likes his nan's ...

Geri Halliwell, George Michael, Spice Girls: Geri: life after spice

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, 6 June 1999

Once, she was known to the world as Ginger, the sassiest, loudest Spice Girl. Now, she's grown up, grown out the red, and is ready ...

Bleachin': Jeremy Healy and Amos Pizzey: Club Class

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, 13 August 2000

Guest lists and free champagne, bright cocaine nights and dark, empty comedowns... Jeremy Healy and Amos Pizzey have the power to pack dance floors everywhere ...

Junior Vasquez

Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, 28 September 2000

IN THE SUMMER of 1990, I was in New York for the New Music Seminar, as were many of the UK's emerging new DJs and ...

Wookie: Garage Convert

Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, 22 October 2000

'RINSE IT OUT for us, mate!' The bag being handed over in the foyer of this small but bustling recording studio is not full of ...

Leeroy Thornhill: A Prodigy Returns

Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, 18 February 2001

THERE WAS A tendency for bands coming out of the acid house club explosion to have dancers – Cressa in the Stone Roses, Bez with ...

Alabama 3: Underworld, London NW1

Live Review by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, 25 March 2001

A shambolic and inspiring band prove that Alabama is a state of mind ...

Dido: How Dido did it

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, 20 May 2001

Dido was always an outsider: the girl with ratatouille on rye packed lunches at school, who wished she'd been christened Claire. Now, thanks to an ...

Goldie: Walford gets its golden boy

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, 17 June 2001

Goldie is in Eastenders, wants to play Richard III, and then sculpt. Does the jungle star ever stop? ...

Life Support: Michael and Emily Eavis

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, 24 June 2001

Michael Eavis, founder of the Glastonbury Festival – taking a rest this year – and his youngest daughter Emily. ...

Sara Cox: Vox Cox

Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, 24 June 2001

IT'S 7AM AND the tall, pretty young woman I'm watching work has clearly not been out of bed too long. Her blonde hair is tied ...

Gorillaz: Hey, Hey, We're The Gorillaz

Profile by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, 29 July 2001

IN ITS TENTH year now, the £20,000 Mercury Music Prize is awarded every September to the best British album. Chosen by a panel of critics, ...

The Big Chill Festival

Report by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, 26 August 2001

IT'S A WARM Sunday afternoon, and I'm stretched out on the grass watching white clouds blow across blue sky, while Norman Jay plays some of ...

Aaliyah, Singer/Actress

Obituary by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, 2 September 2001

AALIYAH DANA HAUGHTON was just 22 when she died last Saturday in a plane crash in The Bahamas, but she'd already been famous for seven ...

Groove Armada: Mellow Fellows

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, 9 September 2001

IT'S A HOT summer afternoon, Tom Findlay and Andy Cato have cold beers, and we're all sitting on a terrace in west London overlooking the ...

Kylie Minogue: The Showgirl Must Go On

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, 23 September 2001

Kylie Minogue won't discuss her personal life, but after 17 dizzy years as soap starlet, pop princess, gay icon and Barbie Doll, she's starting to ...

Lamb: Happy as Larry...

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, 14 October 2001

After babies and break-up, Lamb have grown up.  ...

Robbie Williams: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, 14 October 2001

WHAT A SWELL party it was. Not being an opera fan, I don't often see 3,500 people in black tie and evening gowns. It's a ...

Pop Idol: Idols Made In Our Own Image

Comment by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, 3 February 2002

AND THEN THERE were two... Last night's penultimate episode of the latest 'water-cooler TV' left only two hopefuls, Gareth Gates and Will Young, remaining from ...

Adrian Sherwood: It's My Turn

Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Guardian, 24 February 2003

THERE'S NOTHING about the outside of Adrian Sherwood's home in north London to explain why the likes of Sinead O'Connor, Sly and Robbie, Primal Scream ...

Björk: The Wild One

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Word, July 2003

"I LOVE HIM, I love him, I love him, I love him/ This time, I'm gonna keep it to myself." Björk is swaying as she ...

Simply Red: Mick Hucknall: Songs of Freedom

Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Word, August 2003

Mick Hucknall is performing a record he made at home, released on Simply Red's label, in a restaurant he owns in Paris. This kind of ...

Shaun Ryder: What's the story behind Shaun Ryder killing all those pigeons?

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Word, August 2003

IN THE LANGUAGE of advertising, Shaun Ryder is an early adopter. A man who tends to walk ahead of the pack and influence those behind ...

Mis-Teeq

Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Evening Standard, October 2003

"WHEN WE WERE younger, we were always entertaining people," says Su-Elise Nash, at 22 the youngest member of the UK's most urban girl group, Mis-Teeq. ...

Pink Q&A

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, October 2003

You were scheduled to snog Madonna at the MTV awards, but you dropped out and Britney took over. Why? ...

Jonathan Ive: The Father Of Invention

Report and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Word, March 2004

In a world where computer technology is a religion and its curvy iconography is changing everything, a shy 37-year-old Englishman is the newly-elected High Priest. ...

Angie Stone

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Evening Standard, July 2004

ANGIE STONE breezes into the bar at the Lowry Hotel in Manchester apologising for the burger in her hand and explaining that she's just flown ...

Anastacia: Sprock Chick

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Evening Standard, 12 November 2004

"I'M LOOKING FORWARD to my 40s," declares Anastacia, a tiny woman with big hair, bold glasses and a big, big voice. "I want lines in ...

The Chemical Brothers: Dancing To The Death: The New Club Culture

Report and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Times, 28 January 2005

CLUB CULTURE is over so no music coming out of the dance arena can be interesting. It's not usually put so bluntly but I've read ...

Kasabian

Report and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, March 2005

THERE ARE many ways to reach a rock band's heart. Sex and drugs are the most tried and tested, but I've never found either very ...

Estelle: Urban Ambassador

Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Metro, 7 April 2005

IT'S BEEN A long time coming, but finally things are moving for the feisty Fulham-born singer and rapper Estelle. Fast. So fast, in fact, that ...

Coldplay: My Travels With Oxfam: Chris Martin's Ghana Diary

Report by Sheryl Garratt, GQ, August 2005

Day 1: Accra ...

Rave On… But Be Careful

Comment by Sheryl Garratt, The Times, 3 September 2005

IT IS EASY TO forget how grey and grim Britain seemed in the late 1980s. The Tories had been in power for ever; young men ...

Scritti Politti: Return of Scritti Politti

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Evening Standard, 21 July 2006

For almost a decade, Green Gartside abandoned his band and the pop scene. Now he's back with a new album — and a surprise Mercury ...

Janet Jackson

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Grazia, August 2006

THE FAMILY RESEMBLANCE is unmistakable. With her high cheekbones and big brown eyes, Janet Jackson looks eerily like her brother Michael before he began his ...

Everything But The Girl, Tracey Thorn: Tracey Thorn: Everything and More

Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 24 February 2007

Tracey Thorn is the voice of Everything But The Girl, one of pop's most enduring partnerships. Seven years after retreating from music to raise her ...

Sheryl Crow: Why Sheryl Crow is starting over

Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 26 January 2008

Battling cancer and adopting a child led Sheryl Crow to reassess what is important in life. No longer concerned with what people think, she has ...

Sharleen Spiteri: Hit Single

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 3 July 2008

Texas' Sharleen Spiteri has gone solo. This time it is personal, she tells Sheryl Garratt. ...

Katy Perry: Kiss Me, Katy

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Observer Music Monthly, 10 August 2008

Katy Perry's 'I Kissed a Girl' is a runaway hit in the States – and she's now repeating that success over here. Sheryl Garratt caught ...

The Chemical Brothers: Chemical Brothers: Talking about new album Brotherhood

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 23 August 2008

They started out playing the back rooms of pubs, and now fill stadiums around the world. But despite being Britain's biggest dance act, the Chemical ...

Dido: Queen of the Road

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 29 October 2008

Dido is Britain's most successful female artist ever, yet is releasing only her third album since her 1999 breakthrough. She tells Sheryl Garratt about the ...

Will Young: From Now On

Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 28 November 2008

Since winning Pop Idol in 2002, Will Young has had huge commercial success, yet depression and self-doubt have dogged his achievements. Now with his critically ...

Florence and the Machine: Lungs (Island) ****

Review by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, 14 June 2009

FOR A WHILE, former Camberwell Art School student Florence Welch tried to be the singer the record companies wanted her to be: namely, a more ...

Yoko Ono: Still Walking On Thin Ice

Retrospective and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 17 September 2009

After 40 years of being unfairly accused of breaking up the Beatles and harshly mocked for her avant garde art and pop music, Yoko Ono ...

Courtney Love: Damage Limitation

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 1 April 2010

Courtney Love has declared her image ripe for rebranding, and with her drug addiction under control and her band reinvigorated, she is heading in the ...

Duffy: Living The Dream

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 30 September 2010

Growing up in north Wales, Aimée Ann Duffy dreamt of being a singing star. When success came suddenly, it brought adulation, awards and a call ...

Pet Shop Boys on The Most Incredible Thing

Report and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 17 February 2011

The Pet Shop Boys have joined forces with Sadler's Wells on The Most Incredible Thing, a ballet based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. ...

Noel Gallagher, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds: Noel Gallagher: A Grown-up Pop Star

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 15 October 2011

With the launch of his first solo album, Noel Gallagher reflects on life without Liam, turning down The X Factor and giving up the parties. ...

Damon Albarn, Afel Bocoum: Damon Albarn in Mali

Report and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Seven, 23 July 2012

Between staging an opera and preparing for Blur's Olympic show, Damon Albarn travelled to Mali to spend quality time with an old friend. But Islamic ...

Madness: Suggs on 30 years as music's most dysfunctional family

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 22 October 2012

How do seven men who can barely be in the same room together remain one of the most enduring groups British music has ever known? ...

Tinie Tempah: The Most Stylish Man In Music

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 25 March 2014

From the outset, rapper Tinie Tempah was determined to stand out from the crowd. He talks to Sheryl Garratt about the evolution of his style ...

Viv Albertine, The Slits: The Creative Life of Viv Albertine

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 11 May 2014

She hung out with Sid Vicious, trashed hotel rooms and her album was blacklisted. So what's changed for the former punk Viv Albertine – apart ...

Blondie, Debbie Harry: Debbie Harry on punk, refusing to retire and sex at 69

Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 1 March 2015

Forty years after Blondie found fame on the New York scene, Debbie Harry is still waving the flag for women in the music business – ...

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