The Dumb Sound: Pop Before the Beatles
Report and Interview by Al Aronowitz, Saturday Evening Post, August 1963
2003 note: The following was trimmed down to fit in the pages of the Saturday Evening Post by Bill Ewald, one of the few editors whose ...

Peter & Gordon Are Poles Apart
Interview by Keith Altham, NME, April 1965
BEFORE THEIR trip to Japan and the Far East I lunched with Peter Asher and his sparring partner Gordon Waller, and a more unlikely combination would ...

Sonny & Cher
Report and Interview by Keith Altham, NME, August 1965
"I NEVER intended to be a singer," confessed Sonny, when I found him squatting on the stairs in the corridors of a BBC Theatre in Shepherd's ...

Sonny & Cher Get Even
Interview by Keith Altham, NME, October 1965
SONNY struck back last week! When I phoned him at his home in Los Angeles recently, I got him out of bed at five o'clock in ...

The Herd Take Over As Screamers' New Idols
Interview by Keith Altham, NME, October 1967
MY CONTENDER as the man "most likely to get ripped to pieces by hysterical females" in 1967 is Peter Frampton, the seventeen-year-old vocal-guitarist with the Herd. ...

Sandie Shaw: Her Anatomical Assets
Report and Interview by Keith Altham, NME, November 1967
PROVING quite conclusively that she has legs right up to her shoulders, Sandie Shaw wearing her self-designed string mini dress (or was it a vest?) proved ...

Sandie Shaw
Interview by Keith Altham, NME, November 1967
I WENT several rounds with Eve Taylor and Sandie Shaw over dinner last Friday, where among other things we discussed her performance at last week's Royal ...

Sonny and Cher: We're In Love, That's The Secret Of Success
Memoir by Keith Altham, NME, 1968
IT WAS ON July 31, 1965, that a stocky little man dressed after the fashion of an Eskimo bounced across the reception hall in London Airport, ...

Love Affair: A Love Affair To Remember…
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, January 1968
IT'S EXCITING, it's fun, it's new – it's the Love Affair! ...

Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich: Nine Hits In A Row
Interview by Keith Altham, NME, July 1968
WHEN I arrived at the Lime Grove TV studios it was to find that Tich, Mick, Beaky, Dozy and Dave Dee (how about that for a ...

The Monkees
Interview by Mike Grant, Rave, August 1968
HAVE YOU ever wondered what its like to hardly ever finish a meal in peace without someone thrusting an autograph book under your nose – "It's ...

Dave Dee's Happy To Make Instant Hits
Interview by Keith Altham, NME Annual, 1969
GROUPS come and go but Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, it seems, go on for ever. And the secret of their success? According to ...

The Dave Clark 5's Mike Smith
Interview by Keith Altham, Record Mirror, January 1970
NOT UNLIKE 'old man river' the Dave Clark Five keep rolling along and just when the critics are about to re-write their obituaries – missing believed ...

Christie: Geoff Christie
Interview by uncredited writer, Beat Instrumental, June 1970
DESPITE having a successful single in 'Yellow River', Geoff Christie (front man of new group Christie) would have been happier had the group just not been ...

Tony Orlando: The Last Of The Teenage Idols
Retrospective by Bill Millar, Record Mirror, April 1971
THE ODEON, Kingston-upon-Thames. Or maybe it was The Granada. It's 9.20 p.m. on the 15th February 1962 and Clarence 'Frogman' Henry has just boogied his head ...

Neil Diamond: The Jekyll and Hyde of Pop
Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, June 1971
NEIL DIAMOND is a latter day Jekyll and Hyde. The quiet, hesitant, sensitive man you meet in a plush London hotel suite is nothing like the ...

The Osmonds: They're Enough To Make You Scream…
Report by Keith Altham, NME, May 1972
LAST FRIDAY at High Noon it was 'teen time' at London's Churchill Hotel, where those Beetle-haired Monkee-faced and indecently wholesome Osmond Brothers (You have probably seen ...

Bobby Vee: Bye Bye Bobby – Meet Mr Villene
Profile and Interview by Caroline Boucher, Disc and Music Echo, August 1972
A CLAIM to fame you don't often associate with Bobby Vee is that he once sacked Bob Dylan from his band. Over here having just finished ...

Dave Berry
Profile and Interview by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, February 1973
IT'S VERY EMBARRASSING to be caught out when you haven't done your homework. We hadn't planned much before we met Dave Berry because we automatically assumed ...

The Four Seasons: Ten Years And Still Hanging On
Retrospective by Bob Fisher, Let It Rock, March 1973
IN AUGUST LAST YEAR Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons celebrated ten years as one of the most successful recording groups America has ever produced. ...

This Is Suzi Quatro. She's Heavy
Interview by Tony Stewart, NME, June 1973
ON THE HORIZON of Charles Street, London, or more precisely in the RAK Record Company offices, is a Star. Her name is Suzi Quatro. Five foot ...

The Carpenters: It's Plane Sailing!
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, September 1973
HEAD DOWN THE Santa Ana freeway, turn off on San Gabriel, make a couple of rights and you're in Downey, a right-wing, unpretentious suberb of the ...

David Cassidy: Real Cool Cassidy
Report by Nick Kent, NME, October 1973
I ALWAYS FIGURED secretly that David Cassidy was a cool guy. ...

Growing Up With Sonny & Cher
Retrospective by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, November 1973
RECENTLY, THE SONNY & Cher Comedy Hour devoted a special show to what they called "The Sonny & Cher Years". ...

Suzi Quatro: The Girl in the Gang
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, Sunday Times, 1974
A SEPARATE dressing-room had been provided upstairs, but Suzi Quatro preferred to use the same one as her band. It was large, clean, grey and brightly-lit; ...

Mud, Glorious Mud
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, February 1974
"HYPE, BILGE, lies, rubbish!" These are the epithets often hurled when a band appears on Top Of The Pops weekly, and soars chartward with a brazenly ...

David Cassidy: Terminal Fandom
Report and Interview by Chrissie Hynde, NME, June 1974
IN "FREE" ADULTS, mass frustration breeds war. In "free" teenagers, mass frustration breeds rock phenomena. ...

Gary Puckett: How We Split The Gap
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, July 1974
"YEAH I GUESS you could say I was kinda surprised when I got the news. But the funny thing is that I kinda predicted it myself, ...

The Bay City Rollers: Kings Of Pop!
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, November 1974
IN THE same week that Muhammad Ali regained his heavyweight boxing title, the featherweight crown of pop, too, has changed ...

The Glitter Band
Interview by Harry Doherty, Disc and Music Echo, November 1974
"GARY IS great. His operation was a success and there are no aftereffects at all. If anything, it has improved his voice." ...

Jonathan King: A Rose in a Fisted Glove
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, March 1975
WHEN JONATHAN KING first manifested his presence upon this already sufficiently troubled planet he was able to masquerade as a genuinely provocative presence, mainly because he ...

The Sweet: No Longer Unfashionable
Interview by Max Bell, NME, April 1975
ROCK SNOBBERY. THAT'S what it is. A prevailing attitude that anything commercially successful in terms of the charts must therefore be top-twenty hype, not suitable for ...

Smokey: No Smokey Without Fire…
Profile and Interview by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, August 1975
THE NEWS that Chinn and Chapman had signed a new band was predictably greeted by the music business with one big yawn. What would this lot ...

Bay City Rollers: Once Upon A Star
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, September 1975
THE BAY CITY Rollers campaign is underway, and its components are familiar: screaming female fans in Great Britain, Sid Bernstein masterminding tour plans, back-to-back appearances on ...

David Essex: Roll On For The Main Attraction
Interview by Barbara Charone, Sounds, September 1975
JUST OFF the Fulham Road, round the corner from an old cinema that Manticore have converted into a hollow rehearsal hall, David Essex sits in a ...

Cliff Richard: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Chris Salewicz, NME, November 1975
A GIANT TUPPERWARE ...

Bubblegum: A Beginners' Guide
Guide by Ken Barnes, Let It Rock, December 1975
ARCHIES: As the Monkees started to slip in late '68, Don Kirshner unveiled his new media blitz – a cartoon show (based on a popular comic ...

Meet The Hit Makers Of '75
Overview by Bob Woffinden, NME, December 1975
We kid you not.
What else happened?
Remarkably little actually. ...

Monkee-Mania... In The '70s?
Retrospective by Ken Barnes, Who Put The Bomp, 1976
I WROTE A prototype version of this piece in 1973, at a time when admitting you liked the Monkees was about as cool as driving a ...

Lynsey De Paul: Love Bomb
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, January 1976
LYNSEY DE PAUL'S new Aimed-at-America image seems to be Sex & Sleaze – with class. Visually, as any potential consumer can see by directing an orb ...

The Sweet: Top of the Pops
Interview by Chris Salewicz, NME, January 1976
OH, YOU know, it gets so very confusing. What with the fickleness of all these rock writers and the constant need to come across with a ...

Slik: Slik Forever!
Interview by Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, March 1976
"THE THING IS," confides Billy McIsaac, Slik's 26-year-old keyboards player, "we have a positive attitude to everything." He is speaking with the advantage of hindsight. It ...

Arrows: Golden Arrows
Report and Interview by Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, May 1976
NEVER IN THE history of rock 'n' roll has it been more difficult for bands to get the exposure they need to break big and grab ...

Europe: The Future Of Pop?
Overview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, May 1976
AS IT WAS Stockholm, and as the ever-witty 10cc were playing there, Eric Stewart thought it'd be nice to pay a little tribute to a Swedish ...

David Essex: Earl's Court, London
Live Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, May 1976
FOUR TIMES AT his Earls Court, London, show on Saturday night, David Essex strikingly fused the electric atmosphere of theatre with rock. The effect was magically ...

David Essex: Essex Dons The Motley Again
Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, May 1976
DAVID ESSEX: 'I'm going to do a kind of rock revue in a West End theatre. It'll be incredible – I've got so many bizarre ideas ...

Sweet: Sounds Girl In Sweet Nude Bathing Horror
Report and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, June 1976
THE ERSATZ raunch, bump and grind of 'The Stripper' blares out over the Sportshalle in Cologne. Thousands of minute German teenyboppers are creaming in excitement at ...

Slik: We're Like A Scapegoat For The Rollers
Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, July 1976
TEARS TRICKLE down her 12-year-old cheeks. She's speechless, overcome by the emotion of the moment. She has, after a stubborn battle, won the right to meet ...

The Bay City Rollers: Rollers' American Civil War
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, September 1976
THE STATE TROOPER, with his tall hat perched firmly on a head with very little hair, seemed to be in control. One hand grasped a small ...

The Bay City Rollers: Dedication (Bell)
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, September 1976
Leslie McKeown, (lead vocals and background), Eric Faulkner (lead guitar, rhythm and acoustic guitars, vocals), Stuart Wood (bass and vocals), Derek Longmuir (drums, percussion, vocals), Ian ...

Bay City Rollers: New Victoria Theatre, London
Live Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, September 1976
SOME TIME ago, David Essex remarked that he was fed up with critics reviewing his audiences when they should have been more concerned with the music ...

The Bay City Rollers: The View From Seat A6
Live Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, September 1976
"Then one day I found a perfect plan,
I shake my ass and sing in a rock and roll band,
From now on there'll be no compromisin'
Rock and ...

David Essex: Out On The Street (CBS) ****
Review by Barbara Charone, Sounds, October 1976
DAVID ESSEX has arrived at a most interesting junction in his career. Standing at the crossroads, his fourth studio album paints a versatile self-portrait of an ...

David Essex: Manchester Palace, Manchester
Live Review by Paul Morley, NME, November 1976
CLEAN ROCK from the super slick, sadly lackadaisical David Essex Band at the plush Manchester Palace is a harmless way to waste a few hollow Sunday ...

Abba: Arrival
Review by Bob Woffinden, NME, November 1976
How they made a billion while still in their twenties
WITH THE POP MUSIC OF TODAY ...

ABBA: Arrival (Epic)
Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, December 1976
ABBA: Frida Lyngstad and Anna Faltskog (vocals), Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus (guitars, keyboards, backing vocals) with Ola Brunkert and Roger Palm (drums), Janne Schaffer, Anders ...

Adoring ABBA
Comment by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1977
"ABBA IS the most exciting pop phenomenon of the ‘70s," claims their bio, and for once it’s no hype. My admiration for this group knows few ...

The Captain and Tennille: Come In from the Rain
Review by Lester Bangs, Circus, September 1977
IT'S TOO EASY to be cynical about the Captain and Tennille. People who pride themselves on being hip and chic find it very convenient to put ...

Confessions of A Bee Gees Fan
Essay by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, June 1978
THE OTHER day I read this shocking story in the Sun: it seems that when Andy Gibb set off from Australia to find fame, fortune and ...

Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich: Dingwalls, Camden
Live Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, October 1978
HIPSTER PANTS held up with two-inch-wide white belts, op-art shirts with bloody great monstrous collars that hang down to armpit level and then button down with ...

The Bay City Rollers: Strangers In The Wind
Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, November 1978
IT WOULD indeed be wonderful to report that, after a lengthy break, the Bay City Rollers have returned to remind us that they were really a ...

Boney M: Babylon By Limousine
Profile and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, December 1978
"A Colchester farmer on his own accounts for 10,000 of the 400,000 advance orders of Boney M's 'Mary's Boy Child'. George Story heard the single being ...

Yummy, Yummy, Chewy Chewy: A Bubblegum Yarn
Essay by Robot A. Hull, Creem, October 1979
"PERHAPS THE blight of the late '60s was 'bubblegum', music planned entirely as a product, not as anybody's art." – Charlie Gillett, The Sound Of The ...

Abba: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, December 1979
JUST FOR THAT night "ABBA – World Tour 1979" nestled next to Motorhead and the Heartbreakers on my pet leather's lapel. Talk about extremes – ...

Systems Muzak: Depeche Mode at The Venue, London
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, NME, February 1981
THOSE ARBITERS of modern taste who would wish on you the indecencies of things like Spandau Ballet are generally the same people who can be seen ...

Adam Ant: Sound and Vision
Interview by Chris Salewicz, The Face, April 1981
"Malcolm McLaren just said to me, "What do you want, Adam?" I said, "I'd like to be a household name, and have everyone know and like ...

Rock’s Death Songs
Retrospective by Cynthia Rose, The History of Rock, 1982
ON 16 FEBRUARY 1979, Elvis Costello and the Attractions performed Leon Payne’s 1974 country anomaly ‘Psycho’ at Hollywood’s Palomino Club and, late in 1981, the live ...

Kim Wilde
Interview by Chris Salewicz, The Face, March 1982
FLEXING her feet in a pair of black Dr Martens, Kim Wilde sits in an orderly, wholesome manner at one end of a carefully battered, brown ...

Talk Talk
Report and Interview by Dave Rimmer, Smash Hits, August 1982
BIT OF AN abrasive character, this Mark Hollis from Talk Talk. Halfway through our chat, I innocently mention that they're often compared to Duran Duran, the ...

The Sound Of The Crowd: The Kajagoogoo Tour
Report and Interview by Neil Tennant, Smash Hits, May 1983
BEFORE THE show’s begun, the first girl faints. Her friends point down at her and the security chaps lift her over the crash barrier and away ...

Puppy Love In The Plasma-Glow: Kajagoogoo at Hammersmith Odeon
Live Review by Richard Cook, NME, June 1983
AS PHENOMENA GO, Kajagoogoo seem like the nastiest end of a train that starts in Boy George's inspirational and self-sufficient glamour and ends in the carnivorous, ...

Back To Square One: Nick Heyward
Interview by Neil Tennant, Smash Hits, Spring 1983
"IS IT REALLY worth talking about?" Ask Nick Heyward what he's been up to in the six months since the release of ‘Nobody's Fool’, the last ...

Nik Kershaw: Fame! Riches! Fast Cars! Lots Of Free Meals And Fizzy Drinks!
Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Smash Hits, September 1984
ABOUT A YEAR ago it was Nik and Sheri Kershaw's wedding day. Registry office, parents and friends, reception at their small house in Essex, cut the ...

Boy George and the War On Pop
Essay by Ian Penman, NME, December 1984
2003 note: I don’t know about this: "this" being the original 2,000 words I handed in at the very last minute to a poor, frazzled Mat ...

George Michael: Mein Whampf!
Interview by Mat Snow, NME, June 1986
"ALTHOUGH I AM honest, I will deal with an interview with the confidence of GEORGE MICHAEL, POP STAR. And the way I deal with people day ...

A-Ha: Scoundrel Days
Review by David Quantick, NME, October 1986
HERE THEY are again Norway's finest and the group who cleaned up after the chart fragmentation of Culture Club, Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran, A-Ha are ...

I Like The Monkees
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, December 1986
ONE OF THE worst aspects of rock 'n' roll is that it's often centered on this debate as to whether something is "cool" or not. Taste, ...

The Revenge of Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Report and Interview by Dave Rimmer, Q, Summer 1986
"NO ONE GETS IN HERE!" screams Brian Nash, slamming the caravan door and flicking the lock. "No one!" Outside hover a few members of the Frankie ...

Who The Hell Does Jonathan King Think He Is?
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, March 1987
"WHO IS THE REAL Jonathan King? There is no real Jonathan King. Jonathan King simply does not exist, dear heart..." ...

John Fred: The Long Career of a One-Hit Wonder
Retrospective and Interview by Steven R Rosen, One Shot, Fall 1987
IT SEEMED A BOW to novelty and nostalgia. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which features roots-music artists of all sorts, was sponsoring a performance ...

Bros: Good Morning, America!
Report and Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, November 1989
"VERNA!" CRIES Luke Goss, the drummer. "Verna! Can I have another triple Hennessy's, please, darl?" ...

Wet Wet Wet: Holding Back The River
Review by Lloyd Bradley, Q, December 1989
PLEASANT AS it was, Wet Wet Wet's first album, Popped In Souled Out, was always too slick to be really interesting. ...

George Michael: Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1
Review by Mat Snow, Q, October 1990
SOME THREE YEARS and 14 million copies later, George Michael follows up his solo debut Faith with an album that should prove to any lingering doubters ...

Pet Shop Boys: Behaviour
Review by Mark Cooper, Q, November 1990
DURING LAST YEAR'S concerts, Pet Shop Boys reserved a moment amidst the costumes and the dancing for an intimate spell at the piano with Neil and ...

Who The Hell Does David Essex Think He Is?
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, February 1991
DAVID ESSEX KNOWS all about the pressures that go with being an international star but still manages to keep a friendly smile on his face most ...

One-Hit Wonders: They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!
Guide by Mat Snow, Q, March 1991
Rock ‘n’ roll, they say, is a cruel mistress. How often has pop fame proved but a tragically brief interlude between obscurity and oblivion! Well, an ...

Paula Abdul
Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Q, August 1991
THE FAMOUS DANCER'S legs are hidden by the kind of white trouser suit favoured by the molls of Italian mobsters, but the tiny figure with the ...

Chris Montez: All-Time Greatest Hits
Review by Tom Graves, Rock and Roll Disc, October 1991
ANYONE WHO still doesn't think remastering ace Steve Hoffman is a genius should be forced to listen to this anthology of Chris ...

Adam And The Ants: Where Are They Now?
Profile by Martin Aston, Q, September 1992
"DON'T WORRY – HE'LL soon be a hairdresser in North Finchley." So it was that, with Malcolm McLaren's unprophetic words as encouragement, the original Ants jettisoned ...

Frankie Goes To Hollywood: Where Are They Now?
Profile by Martin Aston, Q, October 1992
THERE ARE FEWER more meteoric sagas than that of Liverpool's Frankie Goes To Hollywood – from almost complete obscurity to the hottest, and the most controversial, ...

Madonna: Erotica
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, December 1992
WEIRD. ALMOST EVERY blushful purchaser will have recently caught the artist in flagrante, bollock, so to speak, naked. ...

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 bar, ...

The Spice Girls: Girls Just Wanna Be Loaded
Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, July 1996
LAST WEEK, the world was as it should have been. Gary Barlow was number one, the summer's foreign novelty hit, 'Macarena', was panting just behind and ...

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 terrible. ...

Culture Clash: The Return Of The 50 Foot Gender Benders
Report and Interview by Dave Thompson, Alternative Press, 1998
"LIAM GALLAGHER is so sexy! There’s not much irony in the things Liam says, it’s just pent up rotweiler frustration. But honey, I think ...

I Feel Like I Win When I Lose: The Eurovision Song Contest
Retrospective by Rob Chapman, Mojo, May 1998
WHAT HAVE FRANCOISE HARDY, Esther Ofarim, and Ofra Haza got in common? Answer, they are all fine singers. But before they got such deserved reputations they ...

Spice Girls: Gone But Not Forgotten
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, Sunday Times, June 1998
POOR GAZZA. Or should that be typical Gazza? Looking for a holiday destination as far from the World Cup as possible, he chooses the Ritz-Carlton hotel ...

Kylie Minogue: Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, July 1998
SHE MAY HAVE spent most of the Nineties pursuing different musical directions with mixed results, but Kylie Minogue can still sell out three nights at a ...

Kylie Minogue: Little Miss Boomerang
Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Guardian, 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 the ...

ABBA: The Story
Retrospective and Interview by Jim Irvin, Mojo, May 1999
THEY HAD a dream.
It was November 1970, and the greatest pop group of the decade was about to get off to a very inauspicious start. ...

ABBA: The Interview
Interview by Jim Irvin, unpublished, May 1999
Here a full transcript of the interview conducted with Bjorn Ulvaeus for a MOJO feature published in 1999 to mark the opening of Mamma Mia!. The ...

Britney Spears: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Ian Fortnam, bol.com, October 2000
IN CERTAIN SOCIAL CIRCLES it’s entirely acceptable, if not positively compulsory, for gentlemen rock journos of a certain age to swan about like leather-clad rutting bucks ...

Britney Spears: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by David Sinclair, The Times, October 2000
ROBBIE WILLIAMS may believe he has no competition. But the day after he began his latest tour, the American superstar Britney Spears arrived to play her ...

Daphne and Celeste
Report and Interview by Ben Thompson, ES, November 2000
ELVIS HAD The Ed Sullivan Show, The Sex Pistols had the Silver Jubilee boat trip. But for acid-tongued trans-Atlantic playground pop sensations Daphne and Celeste, the ...

The Box Tops
Sleevenotes by Colin Escott, unpublished, September 2001
IN THESE trivia-obsessed times, it's probably worth knowing that the first Number One hit recorded in Memphis by a Memphis act was 'The Letter'. It was ...

AUDIO: Sugababes (2002)
Interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages Audio, 2002
The First Ladies of the British pop charts talk about fame, boys, UK Garage, the Angels With Dirty Faces album and each other. ...

Avril Lavigne: Let Go
Review by Dan Gennoe, Q, 2002
A 17-YEAR-OLD skate chick with the face of a rebellious angel and attitude to match, singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne should be the answer to every record label's ...

It’s All Just hear’say
Comment by Mark Sinker, Freaky Trigger, February 2002
HE SAID TRUST ME I’LL MAKE YOU A STAR SO I BIT MY TONGUE UNTIL HE’D ...

Various Artists: Electric (Telstar)
Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, April 2002
THE OLDEST track on this 34-track compilation dates from 1974 – and Sparks’ 'This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both of Us' still sounds startling. ...

Abba: Supertroupers
Interview by Pete Paphides, The Guardian, June 2002
People were often a bit sneery about Abba, born of Eurovision, duded out in satin and feathers, quintessentially pop. Only years after the group broke up ...

Like Rock Never Happened!
Report by John Mendelsohn, Rock's Backpages, June 2002
Pop Idols for Tibet... or Greenpeace... whatever ...

The Carpenters' 'Superstar'
Retrospective by Johnny Black, Blender, September 2002
PERFORMERS: Karen Carpenter, lead vocals; Richard Carpenter, piano, vocals; Hal Blaine, drums; Joe Osborne, bass; Jim Horn, wind instruments; Bob Messenger, bass and wind; Doug Strawn, ...

Hear'Say, Gone Tomorrow
Comment by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, October 2002
In it for the fame, the manufactured popstars didn't have so much as a slogan to fall back on when the going got tough. Caroline Sullivan ...

The Here And Now Tour: Many Happy Returns
Report and Interview by Pete Paphides, The Guardian, March 2003
To some, the Here And Now Tour is a has-beens cabaret, to others it's a harmless trip down memory lane. Peter Paphides reports from the party ...

Little Eva 1943-2003
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, April 2003
SINGER LITTLE EVA (59) died of cervical cancer at a hospital in Kinston, North Carolina on April 10. She was born Eva Narcissus Boyd on June ...

You Are So Busted!
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, May 2003
THE WORDS ARE TALL, luridly colourful and carefully stitched onto a bed sheet, and the sentiment is unambiguous. As Busted guitarist Matt Jay’s eyes alight on ...

Victoria Beckham: Keepin’ It Real
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rock's Backpages, August 2003
YOU COULD HARDLY blame the ridicule-mongers for nearly swooning with delight a couple of months ago when Victoria Beckham revealed that she would soon begin recording ...

Q Icons: Robbie Williams
Profile by Ian Gittins, Q, 2004
EVERY BRITISH comprehensive school class has its in-house clown. Tirelessly hyperactive and compulsively subversive, he (and it always is a he) leaves at 16 in a ...

Madonna : Manchester Evening News Arena
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, August 2004
PARTS OF MANCHESTER almost ground to a halt this weekend as the European wing of Madonna’s Reinvention Tour opened with two nights at the city’s largest ...

Natasha Bedingfield: Unwritten
Review by Dan Gennoe, dotmusic.co.uk, September 2004
SO IT'S OFFICIAL. Natasha Bedingfield is no longer just Daniel's little sister. That 'These Words' going to No.1 made chart history – making her and Daniel ...

One Hit Chunder
Essay by David Stubbs, The Guardian, October 2004
THE ONE AND Only, a hardback celebration of one-hit wonders by Tom Bromley, is a touch too self-satisfied a stocking filler, inviting us, not for the ...

Xmas LPs: Worst Christmas On Record
Essay by David Stubbs, The Guardian, December 2004
THE CHRISTMAS SINGLE is a thing of thudding familiarity - brace yourself again for Jona Lewie to make his annual re-emergence, bludgeoning you like a giant ...

Hanson: Boys To Men
Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, January 2005
Hanson want to be taken seriously as an alt-rock band. But will anyone forgive their teeny-bop past? By Caroline Sullivan ...

Adam Ant: Adam And The Fall
Interview by Paul Lester, Daily Telegraph, April 2005
STUART GODDARD is one of the most gifted – and most troubled – pop stars this country has ever produced. ...

Andrew Sandoval: The Monkees – The Day-to-Day Story of the '60s TV Pop Sensation (Thunder Bay Press)
Book Review by Bill Wasserzieher, Ugly Things, Summer 2005
IF SOCRATES, the George Carlin of his day, was right that "the unexamined life is not worth living," then The Monkees have nothing to worry about. ...

Stand And Deliver by Adam Ant (Sidgwick & Jackson)
Book Review by Bob Stanley, The Times, September 2006
STUART GODDARD attempted suicide, aged 21, in 1975. He woke up in Friern Barnet hospital and discharged himself. When he got home to his wife in ...

Pink: I’m Not Dead
Review by Dan Gennoe, Q, Spring 2006
AFTER INSTIGATING the '80s rock revival currently sweeping the hit factories of US pop, it's only fair that Pink should now get to be its elder ...

Mika
Profile and Interview by Robin Eggar, Sunday Times, May 2007
MIKA MAKES Marmite pop music. Back in January, when 'Grace Kelly' first leapt out of the radio, people rushed to instant judgment. Indifference was not an ...

ABBA
Essay by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, October 2008
FOR MANY years now I have been a closet Abba fan. This was not always the case. ...

Tony Christie: Cadogan Hall, London
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, November 2008
THIS HAS BEEN a vintage year for triumphant comebacks by veteran singers, from Leonard Cohen to Neil Diamond. Now Tony Christie, who turned 65 in April, ...