R.E.O. Speedwagon: The Band That Flies Together
Report and Interview by Steven Rosen, Circus, November 1974
WHAT REALLY GOES on after hours in Rock 'n' Roll Land? When a band is not touring or performing what do they do to take up ...

Loggins & Messina: Mother Lode; Poco: Cantamos
Review by Jerry Gilbert, ZigZag, January 1975
INITIALLY THE main difference between these two progeny of the Buffalo Springfield is one of sophistication. While Poco strive desperately to recapture past glories, Loggins & ...

Styx
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, March 1975
NO QUESTION about it. Styx were stuck. Their second album had lain on the record warehouse shelves for two years doing nothing but gather dust. ...

Leo Sayer: Winter Gardens, Bournemouth
Live Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, October 1975
LEO SAYER IS in danger of losing fans if he persists in forcing his personality on audiences, as he did when his British tour opened at ...

Styx: Crystal Ball (A&M) **
Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, December 1976
THIS ONE I rather like. Not so much for its musical qualities but for the strange sense of homour through which these five debonair Chicagoans approach ...

Leo Sayer: Endless Flight
Review by Cliff White, NME, December 1976
ALTHOUGH A lot of recorded music is impersonal (not necessarily a bad thing, it's quite possible to enjoy a record for its own sake without knowing ...

Boston: The Biggest Unknown Group On The Planet
Report and Interview by Barbara Charone, Sounds, May 1977
THERE ARE five people in Boston. Barry, Tom, Sib, Brad and Fran. One year ago no one knew who they were. Today no one knows who ...

Chris De Burgh: At The End Of A Perfect Day
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, September 1977
YOU'D EXPECT sensitive singer-songwriters to be well-served by the quiet decorum of the studio where every nuance can be polished to perfection. But it doesn't work ...

Bob Welch
Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, January 1978
BOB WELCH is a hit. After stints in Fleetwood Mac and H. Metal outfit Paris he is enjoying chart action/success with his French Kiss album and ...

Meat Loaf: Bat Out Of Hell
Review by Paul Rambali, NME, February 1978
EXCESS AND incongruity seem to be the key factors at work here. An abundance of diverse stylistic elements piledriven and packed high into what must be ...

American revolution: Aerosmith, Boston, Kansas and co.
Overview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, February 1978
LIKE A FOREST fire, the flames of the new wave roared across the British rock scene, leaving behind a charred and blackened landscape. A few mighty ...

Styx
Interview by Andy Gill, NME, June 1978
BY DAY, DENNIS DE YOUNG WAS A REGULAR GUY WITH A PONCEY NAME, LACQUERED HAIR, AND A PENCHANT FOR GAUDY FAKE ANTIQUE FURNITURE... BUT BY NIGHT ...

Boston: Don't Look Back (Epic)
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, November 1978
SHE'S THE ONE dreams were invented for, and you've had her. The pursuit was long and arduous, the affair sudden and turbulent. You've gone madly to ...

Foreigner: Live in Los Angeles
Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, November 1978
FOREIGNER ARE pretty much a thinking man's Bay City Rollers. ...

Toto: Toto
Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, February 1979
THIS COULD HAVE BEEN an unholy disaster. A group of Los Angeles session men forming their own band could have been the signal for God-knows-what height ...

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 – ...

Fleetwood Mac: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, June 1980
CROWDS, HOWEVER passive, make me unhappy. As Eli Wallach said on TV (The Magnificent Seven) last Sunday afternoon, "If God didn't want them to be sheared, ...

Heart: Affairs of the Heart
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, July 1980
THE CLOSE QUARTERS in Nashville Tennessee claims to be America's only rock and roll hotel. Bar's open day and night, drugs no problem, you can borrow ...

Journey: Miyako Hotel, San Francisco
Report and Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, September 1981
Journey As A Way Of Life:

THERE ARE A lot of sumo wrestlers here. They're big, they're fat and they're Japanese. In Japan, I'm told, they have ...

Toto
Profile by John Tobler, Virgin Yearbook, 1982
A THEORY was circulating during the last two or three years to the effect that the acts dominating the US album charts, and therefore the FM ...

Foreigner
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, May 1982
"IT'S THE QUIET ones", as dear departed Ian McDonald once said, "that you shouldn't underestimate". Listening back to my tape after an hour at L'Ermitage Hotel, ...

Heart To Heart
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, May 1982
SEATTLE'S SPACE Needle is the architectural equivalent of the male nipple. Just sticks up there, totally redundant except as an amusing thing to play with when ...

Foreigner: Feels Like The Fifth Time
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, June 1985
THERE ARE TIMES when you truly appreciate Foreigner. For instance, like when Madonna's 'Like A Virgin' comes on the air. A navel she may have, deeper ...

Asia : Continental Drift?
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, April 1986
IT IS NO COINCIDENCE that supergroup rhymes with gloop. Supergroups are what Rolling Stone puts on the pages it can't flog to Camels and condom ...

Eric Clapton: Journeyman
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, December 1989
A CERTAIN self-deprecating irony is evident in the title of Eric Clapton's latest: a journeyman is certainly what he has become in his post-God years. ...

Jon Bon Jovi: Destination Anywhere
Review by Carol Clerk, Uncut, July 1997
THE ONLY living American to get the hang of TFI Friday. The hardest-working man in, oh, several industries. The pin-up pop star who dared to cut ...

Fleetwood Mac Won't Stop
Comment by Matt Hanks, Memphis Flyer, November 1997
IN THE SUMMER of '95, Fleetwood Mac found themselves slogging across the country on a dismal rock-and-roll revival tour, sandwiched between (God help them) REO Speedwagon ...

Oldies But Goodies: The Eagles, Chicago, Crosby Stills & Nash
Essay by Debbie Kruger, Weekend Australian, March 1998
GROUPS SUCH AS the Eagles, Chicago and Crosby Stills & Nash sold millions of records here in their heydey – the Eagles still do – but ...

The Fist of Pure Emotion
Essay by Victoria Sandler, Rock's Backpages, February 2001
The estate of the demised Take That has bequeathed us so much: pretty boy bands aplenty, fashionably camp(er) covers of otherwise hideous unclassics – ‘Could It ...

Gregg Rolie's Musical Journey
Interview by Joe Matera, Mixdown, March 2002
WHILE HE MIGHT not be a household name on his own, Gregg Rolie is responsible for co-founding two phenomenally popular, multi-platinum many times over super groups ...

Stevie Nicks
Interview by Graham Reid, New Zealand Herald, February 2006
STEVIE NICKS – the fairy queen singer in Fleetwood Mac – is in a Melbourne hotel room ready to go off to another rehearsal. In a ...

Asia
Discography by Steven Rosen, Goldmine, October 2006
ASIA WAS the hybrid formed when ELP and Yes both imploded and sent members scurrying about in search of a new band. ...

More Than a Feeling: The 20 Greatest AOR Tracks of All Time!
Guide by Matthew Hamilton, Rock's Backpages, July 2009
Author's Note: I have found that most discussions of AOR get easily sidetracked unless it's made clear which definition of the AOR acronym we're using. The ...