The Rev. Al Friston

Ryan Adams Strikes Gold

Interview by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, September 2001

Leaving the South behind for La-la land, Ryan Adams makes a bid for rock stardom. And why shouldn't he, asks the Reverend Al Friston? ...

At the Drive-In, And You Will Know Us By The..., Queens Of The Stone Age: Queens of the Stone Age/At the Drive-In/...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead

Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, December 2000

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Band, The: The Night They Put The Band To Rest: The Last Waltz Revisited

Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, April 2002

"THE LAST WALTZ" was The Band's star-studded swansong, staged on Thanksgiving Day, 1976. Martin Scorsese made a timeless rockumentary about it, inspiring a hundred alt.roots-rockers ...

Black Crowes, The: The Black Crowes: Lions (V2)

Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, May 2001

FOLKS, I'M AS big an enemy of hoary old "rock" and all its many cousins as most anyone I know. I can’t abide Oasis and ...

Black Sabbath, Tool, Slipknot, Papa Roach: They Have Come For Your Parents: Ozzfest 2001, National Bowl, Milton Keynes, 26th May

Live Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, June 2001

My my, hey hey, hard rock will never die. OK, it doesn’t scan quite as well as ol’ Neil’s line, but you get my drift. ...

Doors, The: Asbolutely Dead: How the Jim Morrison Industry lives on

Essay by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, June 2001

"Well, we’re all in the cosmic movie, you know that! That means the day you die, you gotta watch your whole life recurring eternally forever, ...

Peter Green, Van Morrison, Nina Simone: Bishopstock 2001: Nina Simone and Van Morrison

Live Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, September 2001

Two cantankerous legends hold court in the Devon sunshine ONE FESTIVAL, THREE DAYS, four major cancellations... and two obstreperous veterans doing their thang on Bank ...

Queens Of The Stone Age: Queens of the Stone Age: Songs For The Deaf (Polydor)

Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, September 2002

ONCE IN A BLUE MOON an album happens along that relights your fire – that brings moribund rock back to life. The odd quasi-supergroup that ...

R.E.M.: REM: Reveal (Warner Bros.)

Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, December 2001

REVEAL IS, well, a revelation — especially for anyone as weary of the bogus and posturing Michael Stipe as this writer is. After the band’s ...

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: The Backpages Interview: Jon Spencer

Interview by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, March 2002

The world's most incendiary blues-punk noisemeisters return this month with a full-on, balls-out rock'n'roll album. ...

Lewis Taylor: Lost and Found: Lewis Taylor's Pop-Rock Masterpiece

Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, March 2007

IF LOS ANGELES is the perfect place to fall in love with an album-as-road-soundtrack – as aural companion to the zen ebb and flow of ...

U2, Richard Ashcroft: U2: All That You Can’t Leave Behind Richard Ashcroft: Alone with Everybody

Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, December 2000

WE WERE assured that Dublin’s finest would be going back to basics on All That You Can’t Leave Behind; that they’d dispensed with the electro-trappings ...

White Stripes, The: The White Stripes: De Stijl (Sympathy for the Record Industry)

Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, June 2001

JACK AND MEG White are the future of the very industry for which their label espouses such compassion. These Detroit-based guitar/drum siblings strip Jon Spencer-style ...

White Stripes, The: The White Stripes: Astoria Theatre, London, 21st November

Live Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, November 2001

THE MOTOR CITY IS BURNING – on London's Charing Cross Road. An hilariously heraldic "City Of Detroit" flag – with a Latin inscription translating as ...

Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The: The Yeah Yeah Yeahs: The Garage, London, 28th April

Live Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, May 2002

I HAVE seen rock and roll future and it goes YEAH YEAH YEAH!!! Or, more cautiously: I have mostly been blown away by the latest ...