Bill Graham Revisited
Comment by Greg Shaw, Mojo Navigator, August 1966
From our rather strongly-worded editorial in the last issue, many have drawn the conclusion that we are totally against Bill Graham. Nothing, of course, could be ...

The Golden Road: A Report on San Francisco
Overview by Paul Williams, Crawdaddy!, June 1967
SITTING IN THE window. Sixth Avenue, Greenwich Village, flirting with the girls going by, the Grateful Dead very loud on 4X speakers somewhere in the room ...

UFO Is Dead – Long Live UFO
Report by Miles, International Times, April 1968
The UFO idea first began in February 1966 when Steve Stollman (front the ESP avant-garde jazz record label in New York – then still in its ...

From Rock to Acid Rock
Essay by Michael Gray, International Times, October 1968
FROM ROCK to Acid Rock is first a ride to freedom, second an illusion. Rock, the kind of music for which Rosko still does extravagant PR ...

Column: Around About, And Then Some
Report by Anne Moore, World Countdown News, June 1969
I HAVE JUST attended a happening, one that in a year or less will become another legend in the cycle of Jim Morrison. The event was ...

Various Artists: Fillmore – The Last Days
Review by Jon Tiven, Fusion, October 1972
NO PART OF this review is meant as a slur against the names of Bill Graham, Fillmore Records, or Columbia Records. I realize that the release ...

The Philadelphia Story, Early Sixties Style: What It Was, Was Pud
Retrospective by Greg Shaw, Fusion, October 1972
It all started in 1959, perhaps rock 'n' roll's bleakest year. Buddy Holly had gone down in flames over N. Dakota, Little Richard had gone off ...

Detroit's Rock Culture
Overview by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, December 1972
DETROIT, FOUNDED in 1736 by a turncoat (to both sides) halfbreed Indian named Quazimodo from the Kuitee tribe which dwelled circa 1670-1777 on the shores of ...

Dr John aka Mac Rebennack
Overview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, July 1973
THE STORY OF NEW ORLEANS ROCK 'N' ROLL ...

Various: New York New Wave
Report by Dave Marsh, Melody Maker, October 1973
GREAT WHITE ROCK has not often come from New York City and its surrounding boroughs, even though – or perhaps because the American music business is ...

The Who’s Mod Generation: Quadrophenia Through The Years
Overview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, December 1973
If I could somehow live my teenage years over again, I think I would choose to live them as a Mod. What it must have been ...

Live in Las Vegas: Dawn and Glen Campbell
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, December 1973
"HANG ON tight," said the man in the next seat on the Western Airlines jet. "Landings in Las Vegas are the roughest in the world." ...

San Francisco: Who needs music when we've got the Zebra?
Report by Mick Farren, NME, June 1974
IT WAS A bad times for San Francisco. It was spring, but whereas in most places this is greeted with some joy – with snows melting, ...

Down In The Scuzz With The Heavy Cult Figures
Report by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, June 1975
C.B.G.B. is a toilet. An impossibly scuzzy little club buried somewhere in the sections of the Village that the cab-drivers don't like to drive ...

The Road To Wigan Casino
Report by Vivien Goldman, NME, October 1975
Up T’NORTH, they don’t like London journalists snooping about. Still, this was a special occasion at the shrine of the " Northern Soul Scene." So it ...

New York: The Sound Of '75
Report by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, November 1975
"BEAT ON the brat, beat on the brat, beat on the brat with a baseball bat..." ...

Rock in Ireland: Rock in the Dark Ages
Report and Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, May 1976
IF OXFAM WERE to adopt the same stategy towards rock starvation as they do towards the plight of the world's hungry, then one of the first ...

America: The Titanic Might Be Sinking, But There Are Plenty Of Lifeboats Left
Essay by Max Bell, NME, July 1976
BACK IN this very spot, Mick Farren pulled out his critical cudgels and delivered a sorely needed attack on the current state of rock'n'roll. ...

Nashville
Report by Mick Farren, NME, November 1976
An Englishman's adventures in the city of the rhinestone kings. Mick Farren was that Englishman. ...

Nashville - Part Two
Report by Mick Farren, NME, November 1976
In which Mick Farren doesn't talk to Chet Atkins, visits Opryland, views the tourist spots from the OAP's bus and, (quiver, quiver....), converses with Dolly Parton ...

CBGBs, Max's etc: Underground Overground
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, November 1976
"PUNK ROCK? What's that supposed to mean? The bands that play at my club aren't punks. They might wear leather jackets, chew gum and try to ...

New York: Suddenly It's A Hell Of A Town Again…
Report by Mick Farren, NME, June 1977
And why? Because folks have got nothing to lose. Because it's happening, it's exciting, life is fun again and people aren't ashamed to have a good ...

Hilly Kristal (CBGBs)
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, March 1978
"CBGB & OMFUG" is what it says over the door of Hilly Kristal's rock and roll dive down on New York's Bowery. That's the club which ...

The American Midwest: Akron and Cleveland
Overview by Paul Rambali, NME, April 1978
Exploring alternative hives of industry in Akron, City of Rubber, and Cleveland, City of Steel. ...

Los Angeles
Report by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, September 1979
"On my first visit to Los Angeles I was conventionally prepared for almost anything except for what it really looked like – a quite beautiful place." ...

The LA Music Scene
Report by Steven X Rea, Oui, 1980
The City of Angels has become a Dada delight ...

Remember Those Fabulous Seventies? A Musical Stroll From Woodstock To Punk-rock
Overview by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, January 1980
The best characterization of rock'n'roll's third decade is that of 10 years spent revising, refining and recalling the music of the '60s. While '50s bands established ...

1967: The Year It All Came Together
Retrospective by Simon Frith, The History of Rock, 1981
Rock is Jimi Hendrix’s guitar introduction to ‘Hey Joe’; it is Mick Jagger strutting onstage; it is Bob Dylan singing ‘John Wesley Harding’; it is the ...

AUDIO: Gypsy Dave with The Beatles in India (1981)
Interview by Keith Altham, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1981
Travel with Donovan-acolyte Gypsy Dave to the ashram at Rishikesh to witness The Beatles meeting the Maharishi. Gypsy Dave is the cynic in the camp, and ...

Postmark: Austin, Texas — The Demise of the Armadillo and the Rise of Garagelend Punk
Report by Cynthia Rose, NME, March 1981
If you paid to survive The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and saw it as anything other than a blackly anarchic polemic in favour of vegetarianism, then you ...

Blitz Culture
Essay by Jon Savage, The Face, April 1981
In a corner opposite the entrance Richard Young, the photographer, has set up his stall. It has a simple backdrop of white cloth — this is, ...

Britain invades the world: Mid-Sixties British Music
Retrospective by Tom Hibbert, The History of Rock, 1982
Before 1964, the United States' worldwide domination of the pop music industry — and youth culture in general — was virtually total. Few British artists made ...

New York: Positively 4th Street
Retrospective by Lenny Kaye, The History of Rock, 1982
The music that came out of New York's melting pot ...

The Bowery Beat: CBGBs and All That
Retrospective by Tom Hibbert, The History of Rock, 1982
FROM 1970 ONWARDS, the US rock mainstream grew increasingly staid, predictable and unimaginative. On the surface, the American scene appeared to offer nothing but sleepy West ...

Grateful Dead: Dawn of the Deadheads
Report and Interview by David Gans, Headliner, August 1983
THE PSYCHEDELIC era is ancient history, and LSD is so far out of fashion that it probably doesn't even need to be illegal any more. But ...

Austin, Texas
Report by Cynthia Rose, Vogue, 1986
Aginners, glyphies, rednecks, rattlesnakes, conjunto, honky-tonk and wheatberry pancakes: Austin is the cultural nexus of ...

Deep Soul Mecca: Muscle Shoals, Alabama
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, unpublished, 1986
MUSCLE SHOALS: the very name suggests some grotesque image dreamt up by a surrealist painter. Shouldn't it be Mussel, you wonder... and yet this North Alabama ...

AUDIO: The Patti Smith Group's Lenny Kaye on NYC punk (1986)
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages Audio, January 1986
Musician and journalist Kaye on the CBGBs scene, the differences between US and UK Punk, Patti Smith and his seminal Nuggets ...

Punk in New York: Blitzkreig Bop
Retrospective and Interview by Mat Snow, NME, February 1986
"And one fine morning she turns on a New York-station / And doesn't believe what she hears at all / She started dancing to that fine ...

Billy & the Beaters et al: Bar Bands Make The Rounds
Report and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, December 1986
THE SATURDAY NIGHT crowd packed into At My Place in Santa Monica whooped it up as Billy & the Beaters kicked off their opening set with ...

Husker Du and The Replacements: Euphoric… Urgent... Raucous... Drunk
Profile and Interview by Andy Gill, Q, August 1987
MINNEAPOLIS: it must be something they put in the water. ...

The Dark Side Of The Mersey: Retro-Rock Scallies
Report and Interview by John McCready, The Face, 1988
A HIPPIE IS chased down a darkened street by a group of 16 year-old Casuals. In most parts of Britain, what follows is likely to test ...

Smith And Mighty: Bristol Rising
Profile and Interview by John McCready, The Face, 1988
Coming from the same sound system roots as Soul II Soul, dance producers Smith And Mighty are at the centre of a thriving West Country scene ...

Grateful Dead: Deadheads!
Report and Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, February 1988
OUTSIDE THE LONG BEACH Arena, south of Los Angeles on the California coast, there is a massive field. Reserved for recreational activities throughout the rest of ...

Party Town: New Orleans
Overview by Simon Witter, unpublished, May 1988
2002 note: I went to New Orleans to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Dec 87, took a week's holiday there with photographer Chris Clunn, ...

The Soul of Scotland: Danny Wilson/The Blue Nile
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Sunday Correspondent, October 1989
"THE WHOLE Scottish scene is getting a little out of hand", admits Ronnie Gurr, an affable, affluent-looking Scotsman who, in his capacity as a roving A&R ...

Not Long Ago, But Far, Far Away: They Were There When L.A.'s Vital Club Scene Was Reborn
Retrospective and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, July 1990
IT WAS 1976 and they were five newcomers in three bands. Together, they helped stage 'Radio Free Hollywood' and opened the door for hundreds of rockers. ...

Meet The Family: Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads
Report and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, October 1990
There's Debbie, and there's Tina and, let's see, there's little Joey, hasn't he grown? Then there's and Chris and, uh, Chris... From the shadowy depths ...

A Special Time In Rock: 1966 On The Sunset Strip
Retrospective by Roy Trakin, Los Angeles Times, 1991
THE SUMMER of 1966 on L.A.'s Sunset Strip was a time when many young musicians thought anything was possible. A teenager from the San Fernando Valley ...

AUDIO: Kim Fowley (1993)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1993
A brief history of Hollywood (the Fowley version); growing up in L.A., and growing up fast; getting into the music biz, and the calamity that was ...

Woodstock
Report by Barney Hoskyns, Mojo, January 1994
Barney Hoskyns visits the idyllic Catskill mountain retreat colonized by The Band, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and fellow ...

Boulevard of Broken Dreams: A Trip Down the Sunset Strip
Guide by Barney Hoskyns, Mojo, January 1994
SUNSET BOULEVARD: the very name is synonymous with dreams, unrealities, tableaux of palm trees and convertibles in the golden light of southern California. Billy Wilder ...

Trip Don't Stop: Massive Attack and Portishead
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, September 1994
Imagine a cross between ambient and hip-hop. Imagine a Brit version of Cypress Hill or Gravediggaz's spooky Gothic Hop. Imagine the sound of 'bombs exploding in ...

Rock Before Beatles
Overview by Jon Savage, Mojo, February 1995
FOR MOST PEOPLE OF 40 AND UNDER, British pop begins with The Beatles: this is the view that has been encouraged by rock writers ever since ...

Four-Eyes, One Vision: The Shadows
Interview by Jon Savage, Mojo, February 1995
BRIAN RANKIN GREW UP IN NEWCASTLE: WHEN he was 16, in 1957, he travelled to London with his school friend Bruce Welch "in an attempt to ...

The Blackheath Jungle
Interview by Jon Savage, Mojo, February 1995
MARTY WILDE WAS, ALONG WITH CLIFF, BRITAIN'S BIGGEST ROCK star from 1958 through 1960: there was even a girl's comic named after him. Born Reginald Smith, ...

Helen Shapiro: Cloud 95
Interview by Jon Savage, Mojo, February 1995
HELEN SHAPIRO WAS BRITAIN'S FIRST TEENAGE FEMALE pop star. Born in 1946, she made her first record at the age of 14, for Norrie Paramor at ...

The Minneapolis Scene: Left Of The Dial
Overview by Marc Weingarten, Guitar World, August 1995
In the early Eighties, Hüsker Dü, The Replacements and a handful of other scruffy Minneapolis bands forged what is now known as indie rock. This is ...

Lubbock on Everything: The Best Little Neo-Country Town in Texas?
Retrospective and Interview by Richard Gehr, unpublished, 1996
In 1996, Richard Gehr went down to Texas to explore the history and mythology of Buddy Holly’s home town. This was his unpublished report for ...
To see an illustrated version of this article, click here

Phast Freddie's Hollywood (Circa 1973-1983)
Guide by Phast Phreddie Patterson, unpublished, October 1996
"There's a world where I can go and tell my secrets to...."* ...

The Troubadour
Retrospective by Johnny Black, Troubadour, 1997
WHEN THE SUN goes down over Santa Monica Boulevard, there's really only ever been one place to be and that's inside Doug Weston's legendary Troubadour Club. ...

Haight-Ashbury
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Independent on Sunday, December 1997
The times they have a-changed, but not without a certain irony. Or a certain continuity, come to that. ...

Working on a Building of Love: The Great Days of the Haçienda
Retrospective by John McCready, The Face, Spring 1997
With Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People opening in the UK this weekend, we reprint Face writer John McCready's wonderful account of the club's rise, triumphs ...

That Memphis Sound!
Overview by Andria Lisle, Downtowner, July 1998
There’s an old saying that goes like so
Keep trying and you’ll get where you want to go
When things get rough, buckle down
Don’t give up – you ...

Lubbock on Everything: The Evocation of Place in Popular Music (A West Texas Example)
Essay by Blake Gumprecht, Journal of Cultural Geography, Fall 1998
Landscape into Art

The role of landscape and the importance of place in literature, poetry, the visual arts, even cinema and television, is well established and ...

The Graying of Indie Rock: What do you do for an encore after the spark is gone?
Essay by Eric Weisbard, Village Voice, March 1999
WHEN THE guy in Fuck announced his 37th birthday, people thought he was joking. The occasion was too cruddy: the rumpus-room attic of a gross bar ...

Smart, Lyrical, Even Genteel, But Is It Rock?
Essay by Eric Weisbard, New York Times, August 1999
FOR ONE breed of rock fan, last year's most important album was probably Lucinda Williams's Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, a dozen perfectly turned roots ...

Chicago: Indie City
Report and Interview by Eric Weisbard, Spin, September 2000
Sick of a world ruled by Britney and Backstreet? Visit Chicago: a salt-of-the-earth midwestern town where old-world pleasures like community, cheap rent, cheap beer, gritty alt-rock, ...

This Must Be The Place: The Importance of Coming From Somewhere
Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, from 'Ways Of Hearing', 2001
Newport, Bristol, Walthamstow, Colchester: everybody's talking about... the true significance of location in contemporary pop ...

Straight Edge
Report by Angus Batey, Dazed & Confused, March 2001
"I'm a person just like you
But I've got better things to do
Than sit around and fuck my head
Hang out with the living dead
Snort white shit up ...

Ten Canadian Records You Shouldn’t Live Without
Guide by Gary Pig Gold, Cosmik Debris (cosmik.com), April 2001
CULTURALLY, CANADA is without a doubt one of the most diverse nations on the planet, and with its record stores awash since the 1950's in both ...

Headin' South: Muscle Shoals '87
Memoir by Martin Colyer, Rock's Backpages, July 2001
Martin Colyer was a member of Hot House, the Brit deep-soul trio who ventured down to Muscle Shoals in 1987 to cut their first album South. ...
To see an illustrated version of this article, click here

Shine On, The Lights Of The Bowery: The Blank Generation Revisited
Retrospective and Interview by Peter Murphy, Hot Press, July 2002
ONE MORE MAN gone. A year after the passing of his brother in arms Joey, Dee Dee Ramone died from a narcotics overdose. ...

Memphis Still Sings The Blues
Report by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, August 2002
MEMPHIS IS ONLY technically in Tennessee. In psychic reality, it's the capital of Mississippi. Everyone who lives there knows it. What this 50 per cent black ...

Miles: John, Paul, George and… Barry
Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, October 2002
IN 1965, A YOUNG bookseller named Barry Miles decided to throw a birthday party in his London flat for his friend, the beat poet Allen Ginsberg, ...

Paul Du Noyer : Liverpool - Wondrous Place (Virgin Books)
Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, November 2002
THE FORMER EDITOR of Q magazine 's history of music in Liverpool hangs his tale on three venues – the Cavern, Eric's and Cream. In reality, ...

Notes Towards a Definition Of “Indie”
Essay by Tim Footman, Careless Talk Costs Lives, January 2003
From: Jerry Thackray. To: Contributors. Sent: 15 April 2002 08:21. Subject: From MOJO. "Opening with an editorial diatribe about the state of the music press, issue ...

Kalifornia Über Alles
Report by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, November 2003
On wildfires, Schwarzenegger and the suicide of a troubled genius – Barney Hoskyns’ diary of a month in Hollywood ...

Can't Forget The Motor City: Detroit from Hitsville to 8 Mile
Book Excerpt by Nick Hasted, Omnibus Books, Summer 2003
The Dark Story of Eminem is the first book by Nick Hasted, whose work has previously appeared in The Independent, the Guardian and Uncut magazine. In ...

Mod: The Essential Albums
Guide by Paul Gorman, Mojo, May 2004
MOD'S FASTIDIOUS nature dictates that the path between purism and pedantry is oft-trod. Were the Birds arty r&b enthusiasts, more allied to the scruffy Stones and ...

Maxima Moralis: Relections from a Healing Mind – Cleveland, Independent Music, and the 1970s; Part 1
Essay by Michael Baker, Perfect Sound Forever, November 2004
In Memory of Robert Quine, Master of Beautiful Musical Expression, 12/30/1942 Akron, Ohio
5/30/2004 ...

Maxima Moralis: Relections from a Healing Mind – Cleveland, Independent Music, and the 1970s; Part 3
Essay by Michael Baker, Perfect Sound Forever, November 2004
V. The Pagans: Claustrophobia and Creation ...

Canyon of the Mind: Tall Tales of Topanga Rock
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Calabasas, Summer 2005
REMOVE THE WORD "Canyon" from the glossary of Southern California rock and you're left with a gaping hole. Canyons have been inseparable from LA's music scene ...

The Costa del Sol: Elvis Has Left The Cantina
Report by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, July 2006
ELVIS PRESLEY is having a grand time. He is cuddling up to tipsy girls and giving them individual verses of 'Return to Sender' as they blush, ...

Move Over 1976 – The Revolution Is Here And Now
Comment by Mark Pringle, Rock's Backpages, October 2006
ANYONE UNDER 30 reading this can piss off right now. This is for your mum and dad. You don't need the help, they do. The next ...

Where Were You In C86?
Retrospective by Bob Stanley, The Times, October 2006
THE EIGHTIES HAVE – like the stack-heeled Seventies before them – been repackaged and filed away as an era of Duran Duran, Dynasty and mobile phones ...

Rockin' on the Outskirts: S.F. Rock Beyond the Ballrooms
Sleevenotes by Gene Sculatti, Rhino, October 2006
Love Is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets box (Rhino) ...

They Think It's All Over? The Slight Return Of Football Hooligan Subcultures
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, 2007
ONCE AGAIN the book shelves are heaving, a few weeks before a new season, with football hooligan memoirs. One of the best of these 'histories' is ...

Salford Lads Club
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, August 2007
'YOU SALFORD NANCY Boy!' was a regular insult hurled from the wings at the late Anthony H. Wilson, educated at De La Salle College in Salford ...

New York Noise: Anarchy in the USA
Book Review by Simon Witter, Daily Telegraph, December 2007
PERUSING THE WEALTH of multi-disciplinary artistic talent beaming out of the 400 black and white images in New York Noise (Soul Jazz Publishing), it's hard to ...

George Harrison Visits Haight-Ashbury In Summer 1967
Retrospective by Richie Unterberger, Mojo, Summer 2007
UNCOMMON sightings were downright common in the Haight-Ashbury during the Summer of Love. But even in that colorful context, the visit of George Harrison to the ...

Culture's Coming Home? Liverpool And Pop
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, April 2008
LIVERPOOL ONE! The slogan for a new regenerated port city, European Capital of Culture, 2008. Liverpool One is the name for a retail project in Liverpool's ...

Love: Orange Skies Over the Castle
Retrospective by Kirk Silsbee, New Angeles Monthly, October 2008
"Love – featured tonight in the Diamond Mine! On display in the psychedelic department store!"
–Dave Diamond, KBLA, June 16, 1967 ...

New Order: Off the Hook – The Peter Hook Interview
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Scotland on Sunday, October 2008
Since his acrimonious split with New Order, Peter Hook has seldom been happier. Ahead of his memoir about the legendary Hacienda club, the pirate captain of ...

No Wave: Histories Along The Bowery
Interview by Olly Beck, Garageland, November 2008
The New York No Wave Movement: More Punk than Punk. Olly Beck talks to Thurston Moore ...

John Lennon: Give New York A Chance
Guide by Philip Norman, Daily Mail, December 2008
FEW EXILES have been so cherished by a city as John Lennon was by New York. Certainly, none has ever left such a legacy of grief ...

Manchester Studies: Reading John Robb's The North Will Rise Again
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, June 2009
The North Will Rise Again: Manchester Music City 1976-1996 John Robb (Aurum, 2009, £16.99) ...

Memories of the Flamingo Club
Memoir by John Pidgeon, Rock's Backpages, July 2009
ONE WARM SPRING Friday night in 1964, cooling off between sets outside the Ricky Tick club in Windsor, I share a match flame with a sharp-suited ...

Flailing and Railing: Brendan Mullen, 1949-2009
Memoir by Don Snowden, Rock's Backpages, October 2009
BEST KNOWN as a catalyst and chronicler of the late '70s L.A. punk scene centred around the Masque club, Brendan Mullen died suddenly of a massive ...