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Steve Turner

Steve Turner

Steve began writing for BEAT INSTRUMENTAL as features editor and has subsequently written for NME, ROLLING STONE, Q and countless newspapers. Steve's books include Conversations with Eric Clapton (1976), Hungry for Heaven (1988), Cliff Richard: The Biography (1993), Van Morrison: It's Too Late to Stop Now (1993), A Hard Day's Write (1994), Jack Kerouac: Angelheaded Hipster (1996) and Trouble Man: The Life and Death of Marvin Gaye (1998).

115 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

The Beatles: One Pair Of Eyes: The Beatles

Essay by Steve Turner, Beatles Monthly, October 1969

The Parents who said "Ooh, you'll grow out of it" in 1963 are wondering about growing into it themselves in 1969. ...

Black Sabbath

Report and Interview by Steve Turner, unpublished, March 1970

2003 Note: Having written my very first article for the Beatles Monthly I was asked by the publisher, Sean O’Mahoney (aka Johnny Dean), to contribute ...

Jethro Tull in the Studio

Report by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, February 1971

SOMEWHERE IN London stands a black-painted church building with its innards ripped out and carefully replaced with all that modern interior decorating can offer. Inside ...

Marc Bolan, T. Rex: Marc Bolan

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, February 1971

AT THE DAWN of Britain's history Marc Bolan was a bard; in 1956 he served in the 2 I's coffee house to the skiffling rhythms ...

The Incredible String Band: Incredible String Band

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, March 1971

"The Beatles are British I suppose," said Bob Dylan in the first of his two post-accident interviews, "but you can’t say they’ve carried on with ...

Rod Stewart

Profile by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, March 1971

‘Another Remarkable Englishman’ ...

The Byrds: Byrds Eye View

Profile by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, June 1971

But I was so much older then,I’m younger than that now. ...

Mott The Hoople: Ian Hunter

Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, June 1971

MOTT THE HOOPLE are possibly the most exciting live band gigging in Britain today. A lot of that excitement emanates from the gymnastics, guitaristics, vocals, ...

Stackridge: An Every Day Story Of Country Folk

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, June 1971

NEW BANDS emerging today seem to roughly divide into two categories. ...

Syd Barrett, A Psychedelic Veteran

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, June 1971

In every great revolution heroes are created who in turn are often killed by the very ideals which they fought for. The "psychedelic revolution" of ...

The Moody Blues: Justin Time for the Moodies

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, June 1971

While I was at the Moodies offices, situated in the Surrey stockbroker belt, photographs were being taken of Justin and Graeme with Trevor Taylor of ...

David Bowie: Profile: David Bowie

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, July 1971

David Bowie doesn't give interviews. 'I don't feel that anything I could say would be worth quoting,' he says by way of explanation. However, he ...

The Band: The Boys in The Band...

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, July 1971

The Band have probably become the most highly respected group among groups since their first album was released three years ago. ...

Bonzo Dog Band: Vivian Stanshall

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, July 1971

"I take a hell of a lot of drugs." Says Vivian Stanshall describing how inspiration appears. "Then I go out to a hilltop with an ...

Procol Harum: The Purpose of Being Procol...

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, August 1971

THE SORT OF article in which Procol Harum are invited to star usually gets titled Procol Still To Make It Here or The Most Underrated ...

Marc Bolan, T. Rex: Marc Bolan: Hot Rods and Hot Love

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, November 1971

CAMOUFLAGED WELL enough to stand unnoticed in front of a rainbow, Marc Bolan sat crosslegged on his sofa and explained that "too much" had happened ...

Pete Townshend: Genius of the Simple

Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, December 1971

Pete Townshend is a little worried about the advancement that is being made with musical equipment and recording studios. "The technology is beginning to overtake ...

Gong: Rude and Banana Guitar Playing with Gong

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, December 1971

Someone once said that if Dylan Thomas was alive now he'd be writing for a rock group. Daevid Christopher Allen is the perfect example of ...

Wishbone Ash: A Surge of Greatness

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, December 1971

Wishbone may seem to have suddenly emerged as this year's brightest hope but as with all overnight success it's been a hard slog. The wrong ...

Lou Reed: Reed the Lyrics

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, 1972

LOU REED looked out of his seventh floor window down onto six floors of other people’s windows. He asked what the weather was like outside. ...

Frank Zappa

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, January 1972

Frank Zappa was staying at the London hotel which possesses the actual loo shown on his internationally famous poster. When I arrived at the reception ...

Kid Jensen

Report and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, January 1972

KID JENSEN IS probably more able to make or break an album than any other radio jockey in the free world. His two-hour show is ...

King Crimson

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, January 1972

Pete Sinfield is, of course the Bernie Taupin... the Keith Reid... of King Crimson. Together with Robert Fripp he forms the lowest common denominator of ...

Elton John: Bernie Taupin: The B-Side of Elton John

Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, February 1972

The offices of DJM records in new Oxford Street give the feeling of being a shrine to the glory of Elton John. Button-size stickers are ...

Randy Newman: Who Is Randy Newman?

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, February 1972

The name of Randy Newman kept cropping up in the interviews I wrote for Beat Instrumental. First of all it was Keith Reid who claimed ...

Yes: The Great Yes Technique Debate

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Rolling Stone, 30 March 1972

London — "I tell you this much," said the studio doorman, "it’s been a real eye-opener working here. See, my generation don’t really appreciate how ...

Cream: "Nobody can replace Cream" — Ginger Baker

Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, April 1972

It seems that it’s not only the record-buying public that consider Ginger Baker to be the world’s top drummer. "I haven’t ever heard anybody who’d ...

Al Stewart

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, April 1972

Al Stewart earned his fame by singing about Bedsitter Images and closed subway stations. Now he owns a house in Hampstead outside of which he ...

MC5: No More Violence

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, April 1972

MC5 decided to conduct their interview with me in one of their cupboard-size hotel bedrooms. On the door was a poster of Chairman Mao, on ...

Nik Cohn: My Book is Rubbish but it’s the Best

Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, May 1972

"There is only one decent book that has ever been written on pop," said Nik Cohn from beneath his wide brimmed hat, "and that's Awopbopaloobopalopbamboom ...

Argent: First Get Yourself On The Telly!

Interview by Steve Turner, Cream, June 1972

WHATEVER GETS SAID about hit singles and Top Of The Pops, there's no denying that they still form the most powerful tonic that a British ...

Marc Bolan, T. Rex: Marc Bolan: Top of the Guitar Parade

Guide by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, June 1972

BEHIND EVERY success story there’s a team of guitars. Marc Bolan decided to give his chosen few a taste of the publicity he’s been getting ...

Grateful Dead: The Legend Of The Dead

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, June 1972

ALTHOUGH THE GRATEFUL DEAD are a rock band, they've almost been turned into an institution, a way of life over, the years since they came ...

David Bowie: The Rise and Rise of David Bowie

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, August 1972

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ChangesCh-ch-ch-ch-ChangesLook out you Rock 'n Rollers.(Changes). ...

Marc Bolan, T. Rex: Marc’s Music, Film & Future

Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, October 1972

The following interview with Marc Bolan took place in a restaurant near Little Venice in London. Originally the meeting was to have taken place at ...

Roxy Music

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, October 1972

Peace Rock, Acid Rock, Hard Rock, Country Rock, Psycho Rock, Fag Rock & Glam Rock, NOW WE’VE GOT SCI-FI ROCK BY: ROXY MUSIC. ...

Kris Kristofferson: White Man’s Soul Singer

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, November 1972

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON, I'd heard it said before, manages to combine the seemingly opposing qualities of little boy lost and man of the world. Indeed, it's ...

Sha Na Na: Moving History with Sha Na Na

Report by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, November 1972

Back-stage areas are hardly ever glamorous and form a stark contrast with the dazzle of lights and adulation that lurk beyond. Here, even the most ...

Todd Rundgren

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, November 1972

There are some parts of New York City that nice people just don't walk around. The East Village, for instance, is one of them. It's ...

Genesis: A Hit LP in the Making

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, December 1972

Some people are too embarrassed to ask Peter Gabriel about his spot of artificial 'premature' baldness. He's seriously thinking of making a public statement saying ...

Alice Cooper: No More Mr Nice Guy

Report and Interview by Steve Turner, Outloud, 1973

Vincent Furnier is sitting in Max's Kansas City on 24th Street and Park Avenue in downtown New York City. It's 1 a.m. on a Monday ...

Elton John: Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only The Piano Player

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, January 1973

Elton John is a fast worker. He just about has to be because he allows himself only ten days to write and rehearse all the ...

The Strawbs: Strawbs: Glitter where a frown used to be

Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, February 1973

BLUE WEAVER'S doctor will be giving him some vitamin tablets at the end of January. He'll have earned each and every one of them. For ...

Bruce Springsteen: Was Bob Dylan the Previous Bruce Springsteen?

Interview by Steve Turner, New Musical Express, 6 October 1973

"RANDY NEWMAN is great but he’s not touched. Joni Mitchell is great but she’s not touched. Bruce is touched... he’s a genius!" Manager Mike Appel ...

Duke Ellington: Westminster Abbey, London

Live Review by Steve Turner, New Musical Express, 3 November 1973

IF DUKE ELLINGTON was responsible for the banal lyrics accompanying his new composition Sacred Concert which was premiered at Westminster Abbey last week he should ...

David Bowie: How to Become a Cult Figure in Only Two Years

Profile by Steve Turner, Unpublished piece for Nova, 1974

Mickie Bloomfield is a 16-year-old shipping clerk who lives in a tower block off the Old Kent Road and who in order to ‘be great ...

David Bowie: The Scruffy Little Failure who became David Bowie

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, New Musical Express, 18 April 1974

Ken Pitt, Bowie's former manager and the only man In the world who's lived with both Bowie and James Dean, reflects on the days before ...

Randy Newman: Enter the Cynic

Live Review by Steve Turner, New Musical Express, 8 June 1974

Randy Newman: Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London ...

Randy Newman: Aw, forget it. Just ask me my favourite colour…

Profile by Steve Turner, New Musical Express, 15 June 1974

Randy Newman says he’s not an over-indulgent cynic. He also says he’s sick of folks asking him silly questions. After all, Dylan’s said he likes ...

10cc: Viability Of New Marketing Techniques Illustrated

Interview by Steve Turner, New Musical Express, 29 June 1974

What's this? A band with no image. They'll never shift the vinyl, insists STEVE TURNER firmly. But 10cc prove that there's more to the art ...

Leonard Cohen: Depressing? Who? Me?

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, New Musical Express, 29 June 1974

Nervous? Tense? So’s Leonard Cohen. In fact, he’s so miserable he’s even given up suicide. Steve Turner attempts to pin down the Beautiful Loser himself, ...

Eric Clapton: The Rolling Stone Interview: Eric Clapton

Interview by Steve Turner, Rolling Stone, 18 July 1974

LONDON — Robert Stigwood, his manager, put it about as simply and as playfully as it could be put, after a celebration party in April: ...

Steeleye Span: Ye Olde Rocke & Rolle

Profile by Steve Turner, Rolling Stone, 12 September 1974

CONSIDER STEELEYE SPAN – grounded firmly in traditional English folk music and trying to crack a largely American audience that has no background in, or ...

The Rolling Stones: Making the Stones’ New Album

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Rolling Stone, 5 December 1974

Twenty-one albums on, Keith Richard is back in Richmond, the Thameside London suburb where the Rolling Stones first played the local clubs 12 years ago. ...

Eric Clapton: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Steve Turner, New Musical Express, 14 December 1974

THURSDAY NIGHT marked the final gig in the third of Eric Clapton's post-hibernation tours and in conjunction with the Wednesday night concert, the first time ...

Mike Oldfield

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, unpublished, for Rolling Stone, 1975

Photographs of Mike Oldfield show him to he a tight-lipped introvert with hardly a trace of emotion present in his face. The interviews, when granted, ...

The Pretty Things: New Pretty Things Get a Led Zep Uplift

Interview by Steve Turner, Rolling Stone, 10 April 1975

LONDON – The Pretty Things were there at the beginning. Phil May, the band’s lead singer and only original member, followed Keith Richards out of ...

Badfinger: The Breaking of Badfinger

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, unpublished, for Rolling Stone, July 1975

"I used to think the Beatles were in a mess," says Bill Collins, personal manager to Badfinger for the past nine years, "but let me ...

Press Receptions

Overview by Steve Turner, New Musical Express, 26 July 1975

NME raises its bleary-eyed head to peer at the wacky world of Press receptions. Or how to get some not-so-cheap publicity. ...

Larry Parnes

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, New Musical Express, 2 August 1975

"Marty Wilde was managed by Larry Parnes – 'They don't call me Parnes, shillings and pence for nothing' – who entered rock as Tommy Steele's ...

Crosby Stills Nash & Young: CSNY: Graham Nash & David Crosby

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, New Musical Express, 1 November 1975

It’s hard to pin down the seventies. We're already half-way through and still there’s no significant characteristic about which we’ll be able to reminisce in ...

The Dave Clark Five, Herman's Hermits, The Searchers: The Sound Of '64

Retrospective by Steve Turner, New Musical Express, 8 November 1975

WHEN 'GLAD All Over', the third single by The Dave Clark Five, hit number one in Britain in January of 1964 it offered the media ...

Jackson Browne

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, unpublished, for NME, 1976

He has one of those haircuts favoured by Americans not yet accustomed to the artistry of male hair-styling: shiny, lank and equal length all over. ...

Queen: Four Queens Beat Opera Flush

Report and Interview by Steve Turner, Rolling Stone, 11 March 1976

Cashing In on a Rock Rhapsody ...

The Moody Blues

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, New Musical Express, 17 April 1976

It all seemed as though it should have had some connection with what I was there for. ...

Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Sha Na Na: Sha Na Na: Madison Square Garden Rock & Roll Spectacular, New York City

Live Review by Steve Turner, New Musical Express, 27 November 1976

THERE ARE some memories we have which are straightforward memories, but then there are other memories which are more like memories of memories and we're ...

The Sex Pistols: Sex Pistols: The Anarchic Rock of the Young and Doleful

Profile by Steve Turner, The Guardian, 3 December 1976

And then there was punk. Tonight the Sex Pistols, focal point of the newly dubbed punk generation, take off on their first concert tour of ...

Eric Clapton: Give Me Strength

Interview by Steve Turner, Sounds, 19 February 1977

Meg and George Patterson's cure for heroin addiction ...

Thomas A Dorsey: The Father Of Gospel: Thomas A. Dorsey

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Melody Maker, 14 May 1977

He likes his stories does Thomas A. Dorsey, and with a 77-year-old mind in charge of the telling, they do tend to crop up more ...

Jessy Dixon, Paul Simon: Dixon Spreading the Gospel with Paul Simon

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Melody Maker, 19 August 1978

Jessy Dixon, who plays London's Rainbow on September 2, talks to Steve Turner ...

Bob Dylan: Dylan’s Conversion: We Name the Guilty Men

Essay by Steve Turner, New Musical Express, 8 September 1979

Nothing guarantees more scorn in rock’n’roll circles than a man who gets religion. I mean, we pay these guys to visit hell and bring us ...

Eric Clapton: Clapton: Driving Sideways Again

Live Review by Steve Turner, Melody Maker, 8 October 1979

DEAR Eric, On Sunday I came up to Staffordshire to see your warm-up concert with the new band. When you came out dressed in that ...

The Who: The Ace Face’s Forgotten Story: Pete Meaden

Interview by Steve Turner, New Musical Express, 17 November 1979

I’m the face babyIs that clear?I’m the faceIf you want it.All the others are third-class tickets by me babyIs that clear?– Pete Meaden for the ...

Bob Dylan: Getting in Touch with Christ (You Know It Ain’t Easy)

Interview by Steve Turner, New Musical Express, 3 January 1981

BECAUSE HE DIDN'T preach in between numbers during his recent West Coast concerts and because he sang ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ and ‘The Times They ...

Cliff Richard

Profile by Steve Turner, The History of Rock, 1983

CLIFF RICHARD HAS DONE MUCH more than merely survive on the British pop scene. He remained a chart act and pin-up in the Eighties, still ...

Malcolm McLaren, The Sex Pistols: The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle: How Malcolm McLaren made cash from chaos

Profile by Steve Turner, The History of Rock, 1983

THERE IS A CERTAIN TYPE OF ROCK MANAGER whose clients become the means to express his own artistic vision: in the late Fifties, Larry Parnes ...

Mickie Most: The Midas Touch: Mickie Most

Profile by Steve Turner, The History of Rock, 1983

Record production made millions for Mickie Most ...

U2: Songs Of Praise: Fire and Fervour from Ireland’s U2

Profile by Steve Turner, The History of Rock, 1984

U2, ONE OF IRELAND'S MOST SUCCESSFUL rock bands ever, seemed something of an anachronism when they arrived on the scene in 1980. The group had ...

The Bee Gees: The Bees Gees: From Down Under To Disco

Profile by Steve Turner, The History of Rock, 1984

SINCE ENTERING POP MUSIC in the Fifties, the Bees Gees have had three careers on three continents, each more successful than its predecessor. The first ...

Pictures That Rocked the World: Live Aid

Report by Steve Turner, Radio Times, 13 July 1985

Fresh from co-writing the world’s fastest selling single, Bob Geldof is up to his eyes in organising the world’s biggest and most ambitious rock concert. ...

Jackson Browne

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Q, 1986

Jackson Browne used to hang his head and weep when he considered the folly of Man. These days he doesn’t bother. These days he gets ...

Suzanne Vega

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Q, 1986

Suzanne Vega had a feeling and tried to imagine what shape this feeling would have if it had been an object. She imagined it small ...

David Byrne: The True Story of David Byrne

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Mail On Sunday, 1986

THERE'S SOMETHING faintly forbidding about David Byrne. Oh, he's friendly enough, sitting over the table of a discreet suite at Blake's Hotel in Kensington for ...

Bob Dylan: Times A-Changin’ for a Prophet Who Just Wants to Play

Profile by Steve Turner, The Sunday Times, 17 August 1986

When Bob Dylan takes to the stage today at the National Film Theatre in London to face the press, he is unlikely to repeat the ...

Jackson Browne: Heartache Out, Protest In: Jackson Browne

Report and Interview by Steve Turner, The Sunday Times, 5 October 1986

"Doesn’t he look young!" gasped a woman behind me as Jackson Browne strolled on stage to kick off his six-date London run which ends tonight. ...

Sting: Pretentious? Sting?

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Q, 1987

Sting holds court not in the music room with the sofas and grand piano nor in the oak-panelled study with the leather-topped desk and racing ...

Jackson Browne: "A Dixie Cup of Nuclear Waste Could Kill the Planet"

Interview by Steve Turner, Q, January 1987

Jackson Browne used to hang his head and weep when he considered the folly of Man. These days he doesn't bother. These days he gets ...

Suzanne Vega: "I loved the idea of the solitary wanderer with the guitar recreating Woody Guthrie"

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Q, January 1987

The small, shy voice of Suzanne Vega has finally found its audience. Steve Turner follows her passage from the New York folk clubs that first ...

The Beatles: Sgt Pepper, The Inside Story Part II

Retrospective and Interview by Steve Turner, Q, July 1987

'STRAWBERRY FIELDS Forever' and 'Penny Lane', released in February '67, were the first-fruits of the sessions and they didn't disappoint. As American rock critic Greil ...

U2: Another Day, Another Dollar

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Q, July 1987

WHEN U2 FIRST played Chicago, in the spring of 1981, it was as part of a loss-making tour. They played one club and a university ...

Mick Jagger: Coming Under The Thumb: Mick Jagger

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, You, 20 September 1987

"You have to set an example," says the middle-aged father of four. But can this really be the drug-taking, rebellious, orgiastic Mick Jagger speaking? It ...

Suzanne Vega: New Waif Music

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Sunday Express Magazine, 1 November 1987

Suzanne Vega is, on her own admission, a most unlikely rock star. On stage at Sydney’s Town Hall, rooted to the spot and hung with ...

Duran Duran: We’re Big Boys Now

Interview by Steve Turner, Company, 1988

Simon Le Bon doesn’t look like a teen idol on this particular day. A T-shirt flaps around the top of loose black trousers, his hair ...

Johnny Cash

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Unpublished, written for Q, 1988

Who do people think Johnny Cash is? "A conservative country singer who lives down in the South somewhere," according to the Man in Black himself, ...

Sting: Kathleen Turner Doesn’t Turn Me On

Interview by Steve Turner, You, 28 February 1988

Erstwhile teacher turned pop musician Sting spent a week writhing naked on a bed with Kathleen Turner for his new film Julia and Julia. His ...

Leonard Cohen: The Profits Of Doom

Interview by Steve Turner, Q, April 1988

HIS SINGING VOICE is only slightly more tuneful than the low rumble of his speaking voice. His melancholy outlook attracts the special attention of the ...

Talking Heads: Still Making Sense?

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Q, April 1988

Talking Heads were once unconventional art-school types looking for an audience on the underground rock circuit. Now they’re unconventional multi-media types who convene annually for ...

U2: The Rock of the Irish

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Sunday Express Magazine, 16 October 1988

Until the huge international impact of U2, the upper rungs of rock’n’roll had been almost totally dominated by musicians from Britain and America. For a ...

David Byrne: A Composer of Pleasure

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, The Times, 1 December 1989

What do you think you are best at? David Byrne, neat in a blue button-down collar shirt and college athlete’s haircut, looks nervously into the ...

Phil Collins: I Don’t Look Like a Sex God

Interview by Steve Turner, Radio Times, 31 March 1990

By his own admission Phil Collins is an unlikely superstar. He’s the drummer turned singer, the background boy become celebrity, the chap next door gone ...

Roger Waters

Interview by Steve Turner, Radio Times, 25 May 1990

RW: I did an interview a couple of years ago for a guy called Red Beard who worked for a radio station in Dallas and ...

Robert Plant: Zeppelin Man Takes the High Road to Nirvana

Interview by Steve Turner, The Times, June 1990

This month’s tour by Robert Plant, which reaches England tonight, has been his first European jaunt since his days with Led Zeppelin, the band which ...

By the Time I Got Back to Woodstock

Essay by Steve Turner, The Independent, 4 August 1990

TO SALLY GROSSMAN, the living room of her Bearsville home near Woodstock in New York State is nothing extraordinary. It has an old fireplace, some ...

John Lennon: Some Time in New York City: John Lennon’s Manhattan

Essay by Steve Turner, The Independent, 18 August 1990

"I SHOULD HAVE been born in New York," John Lennon once said. "I should have been born in the Village. That’s where I belong. Everybody ...

MC Hammer: Hammer delivers several sharp hits

Interview by Steve Turner, The Times, 4 September 1990

Steve Turner talks to MC Hammer, whose rap album has topped the US charts for 13 weeks ...

Laurie Anderson: Rebel from Decade of Greed

Interview by Steve Turner, The Times, 22 November 1990

Laurie Anderson’s first big work since United States, the two-part, eight-hour show she took on the road in 1983, is Empty Places. Shorter (ninety minutes ...

The Rolling Stones: Rolling into Discord with a Single Song

Interview by Steve Turner, The Times, 25 February 1991

With the release next month of the song ‘High Wire’, The Rolling Stones will become the first big rock act to refer directly to the ...

The Doors: Take out a Subscription to the Resurrection: Jim Morrison

Retrospective by Steve Turner, The Independent, 23 March 1991

PÈRE-LACHAISE CEMETERY is bizarre enough in itself – 100,000 sepulchres crowded into a busy Paris suburb and rolling down hillsides like an invading army from ...

Van Morrison: Down Van's streets of dreams

Essay by Steve Turner, The Independent, 30 March 1991

Van Morrison's Belfast was full of religion, jazz and child-like visions. Steve Turner visits his haunts, where neighbours remember 'the shy boy' ...

Led Zeppelin: Stairway to Heaven, Paved with Gold

Essay by Steve Turner, The Independent, 6 April 1991

Steve Turner follows the maze of mysticism and Celtic mythology to a small cottage in Snowdonia where the legend of Led Zeppelin was forged ...

Elvis Presley: Rock first rolled here

Guide by Steve Turner, The Independent, 13 April 1991

Thousands of worshippers still flock to Memphis, birthplace of Elvis. They should bypass Graceland. Rock first rolled here. ...

U2: The Irishness on the Inside of Bono and U2

Essay by Steve Turner, The Independent, 20 April 1991

Steve Turner tours Dublin who, despite huge success, can still drink quietlt at home ...

David Bowie: The Great Escape of the Thin White Duke

Essay by Steve Turner, The Independent, 4 May 1991

When the pressure of fame became too much to handle, David Bowie retreated to Berlin to renew his ceative energies. Steve Turner followed in his ...

Tim Buckley: Talking In Tongues

Interview by Steve Turner, MOJO, July 1995

IF TIM BUCKLEY was alive today I'd probably get in touch with him to apologise. You probably don’t remember me, I'd say, but I interviewed ...

The Beatles: Timeless Illustrious Past: Why The Beatles Are Still Big Business

Essay by Steve Turner, Wiener Zeitung, June 1999

ALTHOUGH THE Beatles disbanded almost thirty years ago, public interest in the group has never waned. Beatles records still sell in their millions worldwide (six ...

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