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Tom Cox

Tom Cox

Tom Cox (pictured with feline friends) was born in Nottingham in 1975, and then again, in the same place, in 1988, after watching the US Masters golf championship on television. For the following five years, he proceeded to crap up his exam results by spending every waking hour thinking about his backswing, eventually reaching a handicap of two and getting suspended from his home club for hitting a ball very gently into someone's trolley.

In 1992, after golf had stopped interfering with his education, music took over, as Tom began to write his own underground fanzine, Words I Might Have Ate, in the process gaining the respect of an assortment of Radio One Disc Jockeys, music press editors and indie rock sociopaths. As a result of this, he was briefly employed by the New Musical Express, until 1997, when he finally got tired of ending every review with the phrase "Which was nice!".

From 1997 until 2000, Tom wrote about pop music for The Guardian, becoming the paper's Rock Critic in 1999. Since then, his writing has appeared in The Sunday Times, The Times, Esquire, The Observer, The Daily Telegraph, Uncut, Mojo, The Mail On Sunday, Word, Jack and Golf International, and on Radio Four's Front Row.

In 2002, Bantam Press published Nice Jumper, a memoir of his time as a teenage golf rebel. In early 2003 the book was shortlisted for the National Sporting Club/Ladbrokes' Best Newcomer award.

It was followed in August 2003 by Educating Peter (also published by Bantam). Tom's attempt to understand the modern teenage psyche by way of a road trip with a melancholy fourteen year-old Slipknot fan.

Tom's next book, Lost Tribes Of Pop, was published by Piatkus. He lives in Norfolk with his wife and four duplicitous cats. In 2022 he published Villager, his debut novel.

 

95 articles

List of articles in the library

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Tricky: Rock City, Nottingham

Live Review by Tom Cox, Uncut, June 1997

THE END of the millennium is nigh! Most men will perish and the rest will get extremely stressed out and have to take lots of ...

Wilco: Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton

Live Review by Tom Cox, Uncut, June 1997

"WE SAW all those teenage girls outside and we assumed they were here for us. Hey, man, what gives?" ...

Yo La Tengo: I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One

Review by Tom Cox, Uncut, June 1997

AS OFT-used tags go, "The New Velvet Underground" is so wide-ranging, it's almost become a genre in itself. Got a penchant for dark clobber and ...

Supergrass: Live review

Live Review by Tom Cox, Uncut, July 1997

GAZ COOMBES inadvertently summed the whole thing up himself earlier this year. Speaking of his newly-shedded hair, the Supergrass singer professed his absolute astonishment at ...

Cheap Trick: Light of the Trick

Interview by Tom Cox, Uncut, August 1997

 The return of the pioneering power-pop band. ...

The Go-Betweens: The Fleadh, Finsbury Park, London

Live Review by Tom Cox, Uncut, August 1997

SOME BANDS just seem to outgrow their natural life through sheer influence. Something profound dictates that as their reputation accumulates people remember them as a ...

The Zombies: Zombies: Baroque'N'Roll Music

Interview by Tom Cox, Uncut, November 1997

Zombie Heaven claims to include 99.5 per cent of everything you ever recorded. There must be a few unheard demos that slipped through the net. ...

The Kinks, Ray Davies: Kinks: The Singles Collection/Waterloo Sunset — The Songs Of Ray Davies

Review by Tom Cox, Uncut, December 1997

It's a shame about Ray: Classic chartbreakers and their creator's solo furrow ...

Ray Davies

Interview by Tom Cox, Uncut, January 1998

How do you feel about this so-called line of classic quintessentially English songwriters starting with you, continuing with Paul Weller and ending with Damon Albarn? ...

Roger McGuinn: Born To Rock And Roll

Review by Tom Cox, Uncut, January 1998

The former Byrd's mid-Seventies solo years ...

The Beastie Boys, Money Mark: Money Mark: On the money

Interview by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 13 February 1998

There he was, fixing a gate — when along came a Beastie Boy. Tom Cox on the keyboard capers of the man who was nearly ...

The Nazz: Nazz: From Philadelphia

Review by Tom Cox, Uncut, March 1998

Odds'n'sods collection from Todd Rundgren's power poppers ...

The Pixies: Pixies Reissues

Review by Tom Cox, Uncut, March 1998

Come On PilgrimSurferrosaBossanovaTrompelemonde Boston scree party: incredible back catalogue from the precursors of grunge ...

Flaming Lips: Zaireeka

Review by Tom Cox, Uncut, April 1998

Four-CD set from Oklahoma experimentalists, requiring four stereos for playback ...

Pete Seeger: Flower father

Interview by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 3 April 1998

A new tribute CD confirms folk singer Pete Seeger as the patron saint of hippy radicals — and he still hasn't lost hope. ...

Jurassic 5: Jurassic 5 (Pan)

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, May 1998

Back to skool: Tom Cox pays attention at the back as hip-hop gets a lesson in positivity ...

Willard Grant Conspiracy: Rustic Grunge

Interview by Tom Cox, Uncut, May 1998

LOG CABINS. Big coats. A stroppy Tindersticks undercut with ghostly suspense. Damp, misty woodland. Autumn. These are the things Flying Low, the second album by ...

Super Furry Animals: A furry good year

Interview by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 22 May 1998

The marauding Welsh techno-popsters are touring with a Spinal Tap-scale set and making records like there's no tomorrow. Tom Cox meets the Super Furry Animals. ...

Gomez: Grim North Meets Crazy South

Interview by Tom Cox, Uncut, June 1998

THE INITIAL sensation sits somewhere between inspecting the tonsils of a vast, mythical reptile from The Land That Time Forgot and stepping around the mouth ...

Neal Casal: Out-duding the early James Taylor

Profile and Interview by Tom Cox, Uncut, July 1998

NEAL CASAL grins craftily — he's been careful to bring his electric guitar to Uncut's photo session and not his acoustic. "No Nick Drake shots ...

Mark Lanegan: Scraps At Midnight (Beggars Banquet)

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 3 July 1998

Hard chimes: Tom Cox on a brooding, rumbling lone star ...

The Jungle Brothers: Jungle Brothers: Straight Out Of The Jungle (Gee Street)

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 17 July 1998

BROOKLYN'S JUNGLE Brothers release great albums which no one buys and mediocre remixes which sell by the skipfull. ...

Cheap Trick: Cheap Trick At Budokan: The Complete Concert

Review by Tom Cox, Uncut, August 1998

NEVER-BEFORE-RELEASED, full version of the candy-coated metal superheroes' finest hour ...

Rufus Wainwright: Raise the Rufus

Profile and Interview by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 7 August 1998

The son of Loudon Wainwright III, this melodramatic young folk singer might be the next Jeff Buckley. Tom Cox meets him ...

Rock'n'roll Infanticide

Essay by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 7 August 1998

Pop is on sick leave because the nation's youth hasn't done its music homework. Tom Cox tells aspiring young bands to nab their parent's record ...

Baby Bird: There's Something Going On (Echo) **

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 28 August 1998

Toxic wasteland: the new Babybird has Tom Cox reaching for the sickbag ...

Mercury Rev: Deserter's Songs

Review by Tom Cox, Uncut, October 1998

Divine stratospheric trip from sentimental gadgeteers ...

Mercury Rev: Calm after the storm

Interview by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 2 October 1998

Tom Cox meets a bunch of animal-loving weirdos who have made a mind-boggling new album ...

Calexico, Neal Casal, Golden Smog, Hazeldine, The Jayhawks, Lambchop, Gram Parsons, Jim White: "Alternative country is what punks play when they grow up..."

Overview by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 16 October 1998

Tom Cox on the new bands that are making country music sexy ...

Full Circle

Report by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 20 October 1998

In one of the most startling comebacks in music history, Tom Cox is delighted to find that sales of turntables and crackly old vinyl records ...

Lucinda Williams: Small town fireworks

Interview by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 27 November 1998

Three parts honey, two parts bourbon — the road-movie songs of folk-rocker Lucinda Williams have been hugely influential over the past 20 years, and a ...

The Band, The Beatles, Gene Clark, Nick Drake, George Harrison, Curtis Mayfield, Todd Rundgren, Tom Waits: The alternative top 10

Guide by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 29 January 1999

1 Nick Drake Bryter Layter (Island, 1970) ...

Kurt Cobain, Nirvana: Kurt's Gone. So What?

Comment by Tom Cox, Guardian Unlimited, 5 April 1999

ROCK KILLS. The list of victims is too long and depressing to print here. We still raise an eyebrow when another tortured Narcissus bites the ...

Tom Waits: Mule Variations (Epitaph)

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 16 April 1999

I'D HATE TO be the neighbourhood psycho on Tom Waits's street. You'd never quite feel safe, terrorised by those all-seeing, scarecrow eyes, observing your every ...

Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, The Sugarhill Gang: Good Boys Of Rap

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 30 April 1999

Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five And Melle Mel: 'Adventures On The Wheels Of Steel' (Sequel)The Sugarhill Gang: Rapper's Delights (Sequel)Various Artists: Sugarhill Club Classics ...

Rufus Wainwright: Embassy Rooms, London ****

Live Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 21 May 1999

And mother came too ...

Brandy: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 1 June 1999

Icy cool, but no fizz ...

Cotton Mather: Dingwalls, London

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 3 June 1999

Absolutely Fabs ...

Shack: All You Need is Love

Interview by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 14 June 1999

Tom Cox finds the Head brothers of Shack in Liverpool — but spiritually, they're in Los Angeles, circa 1967 ...

Gomez: Eclectic Avenue

Interview by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 25 June 1999

Gomez may have won the Mercury Music Prize, but they're not your typical hard-living rock stars. Tom Cox meets the broadest minds in the business ...

Macy Gray: Irresistible sister — Macy Gray: Macy Gray On How Life Is (Epic) ****

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 9 July 1999

Sweat, toil, grit and sex (the real kind)... Macy Gray's debut album has the Guardian's new pop critic, Tom Cox, champing at the bit. ...

Morphine, Mark Sandman: Morphine: Mark Sandman — Exponent of low rock and low life

Obituary by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 13 July 1999

MARK SANDMAN, who has died aged 46 after collapsing on stage at a gig outside Rome, was the central figure in Morphine, America's premier exponents ...

Elaine Paige, Cliff Richard: Cliff Richard, Elaine Paige: Hyde Park, London

Live Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 19 July 1999

Only for the converted ...

Elvis Presley: Elvis: He's Alive!

Guide by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 30 July 1999

It's 22 years since the King was found dead at Gracelands, but some people still refuse to believe he has gone. Tom Cox sifts through ...

Dr. John: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London

Live Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 7 August 1999

If it wasn't for the beard and white suit, you might mistake Dr John for the warm-up act. Tom Cox waits in vain for something ...

Aretha Franklin: Jerry Wexler: Aretha And Me

Interview by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 13 August 1999

JERRY WEXLER, co-founder of Atlantic Records and in-house producer, was picking himself up off the floor of Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama when he received ...

Wondermints: Bali (Big Deal/EMI America) *****

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 13 August 1999

Bloody good vibrations — They use seaflutes and palm fronds and write sun-drenched melodies. Oh, and they tour with Brian Wilson. Tom Cox is in ...

Elastica: Six Track EP (Deceptive) *

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 27 August 1999

FOR ALL THE TREMORS, speculation and mystique you might generate by disappearing off the face of the earth after a classic debut album, there's always ...

Guided By Voices: The Garage, London

Live Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 27 August 1999

Pithy, his psychedelia ...

The Sugarhill Gang: The Jazz Cafe, London **

Live Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 28 August 1999

Caught in a rap trap ...

Os Mutantes: Everything Is Possible! (Luaka Bop)

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 3 September 1999

OS MUTANTES are the sort of dreamers you might have found on a wayward acid trip in 1969, sitting around a campfire in a Brazilian ...

Live Killers

Comment by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 17 September 1999

HERE'S A JOKE. Last night, I met an alien outside a pub in north London. We got chatting about hobbies and stuff, and he ended ...

Macy Gray: Squeak Revenge

Interview by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 24 September 1999

Macy Gray's unearthly voice was once the butt of everyone's jokes. But after a hit album, that voice is having the last laugh. Tom Cox ...

Shelby Lynne: I Am Shelby Lynne (Mercury)

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 24 September 1999

Her father shot her mother then killed himself, she has a problem with using 'g' in song titles and she's set herself up as the ...

The High Llamas: Snowbug (V2)

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 22 October 1999

THE AURAL equivalent of icing desperately missing a cake, High Llamas records are all arrangement and no song, taking the legacy of the Beach Boys ...

Beck: Arty like it's 1999 — Beck: Midnite Vultures (Geffen)

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 12 November 1999

Tom Cox picks over the latest from a surreal, scrambled brain ...

Guided by Voices: Ale to the King

Interview by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 19 November 1999

He's 42, his main influences are The Beatles and Genesis, and he's still putting self-proclaimed rock'n'roll animals to shame. Tom Cox shared more than a ...

The Isley Brothers: It's Your Thing: The Story of the Isley Brothers (Epic) *****

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 19 November 1999

THE MOST DEFINITIVE summation of The Isley Brothers' career so far begins not with a song but a real, live shriek. ...

Prince: Pop stars as you'll never see them

Report by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 20 November 1999

I HAVE A certain contingent of friends who want to protect me from the music business because they think it's riddled with merciless charlatans and ...

Luscious Jackson, Pavement: A rocky place for friendships

Comment by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 27 November 1999

THIS SUMMER, I interviewed Luscious Jackson, the funky, friendly New York girl group, in a hotel suite de-renovated to resemble an adolescent bedroom on the ...

Pete Townshend, The Who: Pete Townshend: Peter Rabbits

Interview by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 3 December 1999

I'M LAUGHING, BUT Pete Townshend is frightening me. "Yes!!!!!" he shouts, and bangs hard on the table in his Richmond studio, for the second time ...

Mullet of Kintyre, anyone?

Comment by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 11 December 1999

ONE OF the best Christmas presents you could buy for the 80s obsessive in your life this year is The Mullet: Hairstyle of the Gods, ...

Oasis: Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (Big Brother) **

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 4 February 2000

FOR HAS-BEENS APPARENT, Oasis still possess remarkable powers of intimidation, but in the build-up to Standing on the Shoulder of Giants they've cunningly switched tactics. ...

Smashing Pumpkins: Machina/Machines of God (Hut) *

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 18 February 2000

FOR THE DIZZY hippy posing as disaffected slacker, Smashing Pumpkins were the perfect band to help you dream your way through the grunge era. ...

AC/DC: Stiff Upper Lip (EMI)


Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 3 March 2000

AC/DC MAY OR may not currently be writing the best lyrics in rock. It's hard to tell, since they don't print them on their album ...

Prefab Sprout: Going for a Song

Profile and Interview by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 21 March 2000

Paddy McAloon made Prefab Sprout one of Britain's favourite bands. Now you can buy the albums for just 10p. Tom Cox asks him how he ...

Lou Reed: Ecstasy (WEA)

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 24 March 2000

IT BEGINS WITH a grumble: not Lou himself, but a bass guitar attempting to clone the sound of an OAP getting on a downtown bus, ...

Beck: Wembley Arena, London ****

Live Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 25 March 2000

Chameleon colours ...

The Mighty Imperials: Mighty Imperials: I can't dance to this modern racket

Essay by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 25 March 2000

I'M SUPPOSED TO BE WATCHING the debut UK gig by New York's Mighty Imperials, but, off to stage right, three black men are turning themselves ...

Phil Collins: This man must be stopped

Comment by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 30 March 2000

Stop up your ears. Unplug the radio. Phil Collins is back, with an Oscar-winning song, a tribute album, even a high-profile lawsuit. Tom Cox prays ...

Julian Cope: Royal Festival Hall, London ****

Live Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 4 April 2000

IT HAS BEEN a long time since Julian Cope could be described merely as a singing psychedelic mystic eco-warrior. ...

Dwight Twilley: Magical Mystery Man

Retrospective and Interview by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 21 April 2000

The name Dwight Twilley probably doesn't ring a bell, but to the cognoscenti he's a rock'n'roll legend blessed with pop sensibility and irresistible animal magnetism. ...

The Jayhawks: Smile (Columbia)

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 5 May 2000

"THESE SONGS ACT like country-tinged rock and roll with an intellectual attitude and shit-kicking ambiance, but they're smarter than they act... they aren't as simple ...

Jeff Kelly: Melancholy Sun

Review by Tom Cox, Uncut, June 2000

MAMMOTH BOX set from Green Pajamas frontman, covering "lost years". ...

Richard Ashcroft: Alone With Everybody (Hut) **

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 16 June 2000

KINDRED TO THE hippie but more English, less articulate, less political, more self-serving and better at fighting, the dippie is a breed of musician that ...

Phoenix: United

Review by Tom Cox, Uncut, July 2000

THEY'RE FRENCH, they're pals with Air – and they sound like Steely Dan. ...

Chris Bell

Retrospective by Tom Cox, Uncut, August 2000

BASED ON the bittersweet songcraft of Big Star's "lost" classic debut, No 1 Record, Chris Bell is often referred to as the McCartney to Alex ...

The Fall: Mark E. Smith: Just Who Does Mr. Grumpy Think He Is?

Retrospective and Interview by Tom Cox, The Times, 24 November 2000

Mark E. Smith, leader of the Fall, is captain of the awkward squad. That didn't deter Tom Cox. ...

Dion: A Masterpiece? Was It?

Interview by Tom Cox, Daily Telegraph, 10 February 2001

IMAGINE IF YOU made the best record of your career, in collaboration with one of your heroes, and it was released only abroad, leaving such ...

Syd Barrett: Disappearances Can Be Deceptive

Report by Tom Cox, The Observer, 22 April 2001

THERE ARE PROBABLY better places in the world to go to become invisible than Cambridge, but perhaps not if you are an ex-rock star with ...

Let's Try That One Again...

Comment by Tom Cox, The Observer, 20 May 2001

IN AN ERA WHEN pop carries scant mystery and every 'best ever' list imaginable seems to have been compiled, the term 'lost classic' has so ...

Ryan Adams, Evan Dando, The Handsome Family, Lambchop, Mark Lanegan, Mark Mulcahy, Gram Parsons, Whiskeytown, Jim White, Willard Grant Conspiracy, Lucinda Williams: Twangs can only get better

Overview by Tom Cox, The Observer, 21 October 2001

Country has gone way beyond Nashville, says Tom Cox. It's the new rebel music. ...

The Hives: Junction, Cambridge

Live Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 10 February 2002

The Hives put on a fine imitation of garage rock. And the garage is where it would be best appreciated ...

The Hives: The Junction, Cambridge

Live Review by Tom Cox, The Observer, 10 February 2002

The Hives put on a fine imitation of garage rock. And the garage is where it would be best appreciated ...

Kylie Minogue, The Strokes: NME Awards: Where's the aggro?

Comment by Tom Cox, Daily Telegraph, 2 March 2002

This week's NME Awards celebrated the same corporate values as the Brits, says Tom Cox ...

Alanis Morissette: Under Rug Swept

Review by Tom Cox, Daily Telegraph, 2 March 2002

RUMOURS HAVE been circulating that the latest album from Alanis Morissette is a more "musical" and "refined" effort than its two predecessors. The truth of ...

Jools Holland: A little man goes a long way

Comment by Tom Cox, The Observer, 7 April 2002

Jools Holland can't sing and he isn't funny, so why exactly is he so successful and compelling? ...

The Darkness: Band of 2003

Report and Interview by Tom Cox, Observer Music Monthly, 14 December 2003

"IT'S GOING TO BE a bit like having sex in front of your parents – you know, that moment when you're a teenager and you've ...

Dazed and Confused: The ultimate hang-out movie

Retrospective by Tom Cox, Daily Telegraph, 2004

Richard Linklater's 1993 high-school hit Dazed and Confused is available on Netflix from today. In this feature, originally published in 2004, Tom Cox explains why ...

Digital Magic Makes A Musician Of Me

Comment by Tom Cox, Daily Telegraph, 4 May 2004

I THINK IT'S SAFE to say I'm never going to learn to play a musical instrument properly now. The realisation first came to me about ...

Circulus: If You Go Down to the Woods Today

Profile and Interview by Tom Cox, Observer Music Monthly, 19 June 2005

If you go down to the woods today... then you're sure to meet Britain's finest neo-medieval psychedelic folk-rock band. Or you are if you're author ...

Tunng: Comments of the Inner Chorus

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 21 May 2006

Their sinister, retro-modern folk is Tom Cox's idea of bucolic bliss. Even if it scares the bejesus out of him ...

Tunng: Comments of the Inner Chorus

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 21 May 2006

Their sinister, retro-modern folk is Tom Cox's idea of bucolic bliss. Even if it scares the bejesus out of him. ...

Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel: Going for a song: Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush's 'Don't Give Up'

Retrospective by Tom Cox, The Sunday Times, 19 November 2006

I'D HAD WAITING jobs before, and could deal with the £2.56 hourly wage, the slave-driving supervisor who wouldn't stop talking about his masturbation habits, and ...

Sloan: Happy 20th Birthday Sloan: The Band That Most Made Me Want To Write For A Living

Report and Interview by Tom Cox, tom-cox.com, 11 May 2011

ALL WRITERS HAVE an early turning point or moment of encouragement that kicks off their career in earnest, gives them that little extra push to ...

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