Robert Parker: Shakespeare Hotel, Woolwich, London
Live Review by Bill Millar, Soul Music Monthly, January 1967
THE NUMBER OF blues and blues-based artistes touring the UK in the autumn months is quite absurd and not everybody will have the time or the ...

Solomon Burke: The Marquee, London, 18th July 1966
Live Review by Bill Millar, Soul Music Monthly, February 1967
Just over a year ago, Solomon Burke made his first appearance at the Marquee and was greeted with incredible scenes of enthusiasm. Before he had sung ...

Garnet Mimms: Whisky A Go Go, London
Live Review by Bill Millar, Soul Music, April 1967
MANY ENTHUSIASTS feel that Garnet Mimms is the best of the current crop of soul-ballad vocalists and if we pretend that "soul" is an idiom separate ...

Otis Redding et al.:
Live Review by Bill Millar, Soul Music, April 1967
It was perfectly clear that every performer on the Stax show was going to receive the most sympathetic applause should he or she subsequently turn out ...

The Ike And Tina Turner Revue: Streatham Locarno, London
Live Review by Bill Millar, Soul Music Monthly, April 1968
IN SEPTEMBER 1966, some seven thousand people saw the Rolling Stones and like & Tina Turner at the Royal Albert Hall and – judging by audience ...

Aretha Franklin: Lady Soul in London
Live Review by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, May 1968
FRIDAY, MAY 10th, marked the long overdue arrival in Britain of America's first Lady of Soul, the remarkable Miss Aretha Franklin: an event which soul fans ...

Aretha Franklin: Aretha's Artistry
Profile by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, May 1968
THE YOUNG lady who has probably had more effect on the r&b scene in the U.S.A. than anyone else during the past year, who has always ...

Nina Simone
Interview by Dave Godin, Blues & Soul, July 1968
ONE IS always apprehensive about meeting artists for whom one has a great admiration or burning passion – I deliberately avoided meeting the one and only ...

Ike & Tina Turner: River Deep-Mountain High; Outta Season
Review by Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone, May 1969
IKE AND TINA TURNER have been packing suitcases and riding buses for years, playing the Sportmen's Clubs and the Showcase Lounges, sometimes making it into the ...

Made in New Orleans: Record Production Techniques and the Land Of Dreams
Overview by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, May 1969
THERE WAS a time, not so long ago, when almost all the writing about popular music was descriptive or informative. ...

Chuck Willis: I Remember Chuck Willis
Review by Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone, August 1969
EVERY ONCE IN a while something happens that reminds one of the incalculable contribution Atlantic Records has made to rock and roll and rhythm and blues.. ...

James Brown: Telling The Natural Truth
Interview by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, September 1969
'SAY IT LOUD – I'm Black and I'm Proud' sold 20,000 copies in Britain, although the BBC played it only once. Is James Brown surprised? ...

Percy Sledge: The Best Of Percy Sledge
Interview by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, December 1969
PERCY SLEDGE is here for a three-week tour, and to coincide with it Atlantic have released a single, 'True Love Travels On A Gravel Road', and ...

The Temptations: The Talk Of The Town, London
Live Review by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, January 1970
ON ENTERING the exclusive surroundings of London's most popular dinner and entertainment club, my mind was engaged on the description that most journalists from the other ...

The Temptations Came, Saw And Almost Conquered
Report and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, January 1970
AND SO, it's all over. The Temptations, first ambassadors of Soul and Motown have been and gone again. The question now is whether it was all ...

Arthur Conley: Albert Hall, London
Live Review by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, February 1970
IT STARTED out as a most exciting way to start the 70's for every British Soul lover. But after three weeks on the road it all ...

Doris Troy: Dave Godin Meets Mother Soul
Interview by Dave Godin, Blues & Soul, February 1970
WHEN EDITOR John Abbey asked me if I would do a feature interview with Doris Troy to coincide with her forthcoming single release on Apple, I ...

Booker T And The MGs/Blue Mink/Jimmy Ruffin: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, March 1970
THE HAMMERSMITH Odeon has been the scene of great jubilation and triumph for many top r&b/soul artists in the last few years and soul fans have ...

Richie Havens: Stonehenge (Stormy Forest)
Review by Ben Edmonds, Fusion, March 1970
THE SUBJECT OF Richie Havens is always sure to provoke an argument. Those who tend to dislike him do so with a great deal of fervor, ...

Dionne Warwick: The Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Dave Godin, Blues & Soul, May 1970
THE "PRINCE Albert Hall" (as Dionne so charmingly referred to it) is the most peculiar venue in London for a recording artist to play. ...

Isaac Hayes: The Most Important Soul Man Of Today
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, June 1970
JA: How did you first get together with David Porter, in the very beginning? ...

Bobby Womack
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, August 1970
OUTSIDE OF the States, Bobby Womack does not really mean a great deal. On listening to his current American album, My Prescription, this is indeed a ...

Clarence Carter & Candi Staton: Clarence and Candi and Rick Hall
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, August 1970
WHEN WE heard the good news of Clarence Carter's impending marriage to his protege, Candi Staton, we felt we had to get in touch with him ...

Aretha Franklin: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, August 1970
WHEN THE second house of Aretha's only London date started half an hour late, it did at first appear a bad sign. However, since the opening ...

The Voices of East Harlem: The Black Pride Of 13 Hip Kids
Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, August 1970
BLACK PRIDE, as a kind of more inner-directed companion to Black Power, is rapidly becoming a force in our musical world. "Black Is Beautiful" was a ...

Curtis Mayfield: No Longer An Impression
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, September 1970
AS EXCLUSIVELY reported in Blues & Soul some 4 months ago, Curtis Mayfield has officially left the Impressions after 12 years. When we finally tracked him ...

Curtis Mayfield: Curtis; The Impressions: Check Out Your Mind
Review by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, September 1970
Curtis Mayfield: Curtis (Curtom) ...

Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band: Express Yourself
Profile by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, September 1970
THOUGH THE Watts 103rd St. Band are not yet a big act in Britain, they have established themselves as one of the top attractions in their ...

The Isley Brothers
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, September 1970
The Isley Brothers, Ronnie, Rudolph and O'Kelly, have spent well over a decade at the top. Their success culminated in the formation of their own T. ...

The Memphis Horns
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, October 1970
HOW MANY of you have listened to the Memphis records and thought to yourself how great the brass is? Every Sam & Dave record, or Otis, ...

The Voices Of East Harlem/Estha Marrow: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, October 1970
The Voices That Raised The Roof ...

Sly & The Family Stone: Lyceum Ballroom, London
Live Review by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, October 1970
THE APPEARANCE in London of the much-heralded exponents and instigators of psychedelic soul – only their second ever British date; the first being at the Isle ...

Clarence Carter: Am I A Bit Of A Fraud?
Interview by David Hughes, Disc and Music Echo, October 1970
CLARENCE CARTER is beginning to think perhaps he's a bit of a fraud! So many people are rushing out to buy his first British hit 'Patches' ...

Ray Charles and The Raelets In Concert
Live Review by Dave Godin, Blues & Soul, November 1970
THE ANNUAL concert featuring Ray Charles, his Orchestra and The Raelets is an event which usually draws S.R.O. crowds and this year was no exception. The ...

Reflections On Garnet Mimms
Overview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, December 1970
NEW YORK SOUL '64 TO '67 ...

AUDIO: Dr. John (1971)
Interview by Charlie Gillett, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1971
From scuffling in the clubs and studios of late-'50s New Orleans, to his reinvention as Dr. John in mid-'60s L.A., Mac Rebennack tells the whole story ...

James Brown: Mister Messiah
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, Sunday Times, 1971
JAMES BROWN will die on the stage one night, on the moving staircase of his own feet in front of a thirty-piece band; and then who ...

Jerry Wexler: Aretha, She's Just Unbelievable
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, January 1971
JERRY WEXLER is without doubt, one of the great producers who revolutionised Rhythm and Blues music in the 50's and 60's. ...

Carol Woods
Profile by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, January 1971
CAROL WOODS made her British debut recently on the Ember label with 'If I Let You' and, whilst this particular record has been unable to achieve ...

Nine Simone: Super Star For 1971
Report by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, January 1971
AS HAS been noted by her many fans and soul people generally, there has been a marked silence from the High Priestess of Soul for some ...

Gladys Knight
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, February 1971
"'If I Were Your Woman' is the long awaited follow up to 'Grapevine'" says Gladys ...

Ike & Tina Turner: Deutches Museum Hall, Munich
Live Review by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, February 1971
TO WITNESS the Ike & Tina Turner Revue is an experience in itself but, to make certain that a revue of the show got into this ...

Ike & Tina Turner: Workin' Together #1
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, February 1971
Part One ...

James Brown: The Sugar Shack Club, Boston
Live Review by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, February 1971
The Greatest Showman In Soul ...

Curtis Mayfield: The Bitter End, NYC
Live Review by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, February 1971
Curtis Mayfield's Solo Debut ...

Ike & Tina Turner: Workin' Together #2
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, March 1971
Part Two: The Ike Turner Story ...

Joe Simon
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, March 1971
WITH JOE Simon's signature, Spring Records have gained their first real entry into the super-star league. Joe's first for the label, 'Your Time To Cry', his ...

Chairman of the Board: In Session (Invictus)
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1971
THIS IS REPUTEDLY a live set, recorded in Harlem at the Apollo but I doubt that. But regardless of that little caveat emptor, the Chairmen of ...

Sam Cooke: This Is Sam Cooke
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1971
SAM COOKE HAS always seemed, to me at least, the most underrated (or simply ignored – you don't really rate these people) of all the great ...

James Brown: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, March 1971
IF ARETHA is the Queen of Soul and Otis was the King of Soul, James Brown must qualify as the Super-King of Funk! On the evidence ...

Rozetta Johnson
Profile by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, April 1971
WHEN IT comes to female Soul singers, you've got to look south of the Mason-Dixon line. It's in the South that you'll find the girls with ...

Funkadelic
Profile by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, April 1971
IT'S RARE that a tour by an American R&B group can cause controversy that makes headlines in the more general pop music papers. But that's just ...

Baby Huey: The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, April 1971
BABY HUEY never made it; not really. At his peak, when he was the stellar attraction of a rhythm and blues circuit that stretched from New ...

The Stars Behind The Stars: The Raelets
Profile by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, April 1971
THE ART of vocal back up work – the vocal accompaniment which so often complements and assists the names out front to obtain the exact sound ...

The Sweet Soul Of The Sweet Inspirations
Profile by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, April 1971
IN THE first part of this short series, we covered the role of The Raelets. In this article, the work of the most important group in ...

Parliament/Funkadelic: A Parliafunkadelicment Thang
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, May 1971
RARELY DOES an R&B act cause any controversy or speculation prior to making a British tour. But the one exception in recent years is Funkadelic, an ...

Wilson Pickett: In Philadelphia (Atlantic) and If You Need Me (Joy)
Review by Charlie Gillett, Cream, May 1971
IT SEEMS AS if Wilson Pickett's been the number two soul singer ever since the term was coined. Ray Charles, James Brown, Otis Redding, and now ...

Lee Dorsey: Yes We Can (Polydor)
Review by Charlie Gillett, Cream, May 1971
LEE DORSEY's one of the easiest singers to underestimate: he seems to be completely unassuming, apparently equally prepared to sing good blues like 'Get Out of ...

Freda Payne: Freda Speak
Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, May 1971
IT'S NOT been all peaches and cream for Freda Payne since she had a worldwide hit with 'Band Of Gold'. As she says: "Until recently I ...

The Chambers Brothers: New Generation
Review by Ben Edmonds, Rolling Stone, May 1971
AT THE OUTSET, the Chambers Brothers were a warmly exciting gospel act (catalogued on a series of fine albums released by Vault), but they apparently caught ...

Arthur Conley
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, June 1971
ALTHOUGH ARTHUR Conley is acknowledged as being one of the finest young entertainers on today's Soul scene, it's quite a while since his last really successful ...

The Dixie Flyers: The Guys Behind The Hits
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, June 1971
THE FIRST real opportunity that R&B fans had to know of Dixie Flyers collectively was when they turned up on Aretha's Spirit In The Dark/Don't Play ...

Funkadelic: When The Circus Hit Town
Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, June 1971
FUNKADELIC man George Clinton casually made the understatement of the year. There they were, the five front men of the year's most outrageous band, dressed in ...

A Study of Marvin Gaye's Liberation
Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, June 1971
MARVIN GAYE is a mystery man. Most people know him as the singer who made the biggest-selling Motown record ever – 'I Heard It Through The ...

The Fascinations
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, July 1971
IT'S ONE of the strange things about the music world when a record that is five years old and is making its third bid for success ...

Curtis Mayfield: The Speakeasy, London
Live Review by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, July 1971
THE ALL-too-brief, spur-of-the-moment appearance of Curtis Mayfield at London's Speakeasy club must surely rank as a historic event in the history of soul music in this ...

King Curtis
Obituary by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, August 1971
CURTIS OUSELEY – known the world over as King Curtis – was fatally wounded and died on Friday, August 13 only a few yards away from ...

Slippin' Away With Clarence Carter
Interview by Joel Selvin, Rolling Stone, August 1971
SAN FRANCISCO – Clarence Carter leaves his Holiday Inn room on the arm of his road manager, who looks familiar. It's Rodgers Redding, and it's a ...

Dionne Warwicke: Is She The Same Girl?
Comment by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, August 1971
THE RELEASE of four Dionne Warwicke albums by Decca – Soulful, Motion Picture Hits, Promises Promises and Very Dionne has sparked off some renewed interest in ...

Tam Lynn's Debut Album
Review by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, August 1971
IT IS very difficult to analyse a debut album from any artist, since an artist's potential is often judged on their first album as opposed to ...

Al Green - Superstar
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, September 1971
THE LAST time I talked to Al Green, he was riding high with his adaptation of the Temptations' 'I Can't Get Next To You'. Now, just ...

Curtis Mayfield
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, September 1971
IT IS, indeed, very rare for an American artist to make a short visit to this country and immediately score a hit single in the national ...

Kool And The Gang
Profile by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, September 1971
CONSIDERING THAT Kool & The Gang have only ever had one British release they have an incredible following. That release – well over a year ago ...

Sonny Til and the Orioles: Sonny Til and the Orioles (RCA)
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, September 1971
BACK IN THE FIFTIES there was something called The New York Sound. It was classed as R&B, but unlike the tough, electrified R&B of Ike & ...

Diana Ross
Review by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, October 1971
MOTOWN'S MUCH-heralded first independent production centred on Diana Ross, proved to be all it was cracked out to be – and more! Screened on B.B.C. 2 ...

Booker T and M.G.'s
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, October 1971
DONALD 'DUCK' Dunn, best known in R&B circles for his invaluable contribution to our music via Booker T. & The M.G.'s, was recently in London as ...

Detroit Emeralds
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, October 1971
IF EVER there was a record destined to become an in-demand oldie, it is the Detroit Emeralds' 'Do Me Right', which somehow managed to avoid becoming ...

Leroy Hutson
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, October 1971
IN ALL honesty, it was strange to see Fred Cash and Sam Gooden flanking a new "leader" and central figure of The Impressions. Sadly, the most ...

8th Day
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, October 1971
WITHIN EVERY Invictus and Hot Wax group there is a winner. General Johnson showed up with the Chairmen, Steve Mancha turned up singing lead for 100 ...

Lecherous, Indolent, Stupid…and Comical: The Coasters
Retrospective by Bill Millar, Record Mirror, October 1971
THERE IS A passage in the Coasters' 'Sweet Georgia Brown' where the lead baritone flies off on the immortal line "she gotta walk that make a ...

Al Green: Now Green Smashes The Big Memphis Monopoly
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, October 1971
MEMPHIS HAS long been accepted as capital city of rock 'n' soul, but to the casual fan this means just Elvis on the rock side and ...

Clyde McPhatter: Welcome Home
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, November 1971
CLYDE MCPHATTER is one of the best singers to come out of the early 50s vocal group tradition. After a stint with Billy Ward and His ...

Doin' That Hand Jive With His Feet
Interview by John Morthland, Creem, November 1971
When the Johnny Otis Show appears on stage, it brings years and years of rhythm and blues history with it. ...

Ann Peebles
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, November 1971
ALREADY BEING tipped as a potential giant R&B record in this country is Ann Peebles version of 'Slipped, Tripped And Fell In Love'. The only hindrance ...

Valerie Simpson: Underexposed
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, November 1971
WITHOUT DOUBT, Valerie Simpson is one of the most important talents to emerge this year. Her debut album, Exposed made some considerable impression on both the ...

Al Green: The Soul Story
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, Beat Instrumental, December 1971
WITH AL Green's 'Tired Of Being Alone' Decca's subsidiary London label has notched its first chart entry in more than 18 months. It's quite a chastening ...

Etta James: Peaches
Review by Pete Wingfield, Cream, December 1971
THIS DOUBLE ALBUM set of Etta James' hits from Chess seems uncharacteristically enlightened, despite a commercially suicidal price-tag (£3.99, enough to make even ardent soul collectors ...

The Supremes: Soulfully Supreme
Report and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, December 1971
2008 introduction: The Supremes were in the UK for their first post-Diana Ross tour with Jean Terrell as the group's new lead singer and Motown had ...

Curtis Mayfield: Soul Music's Elusive Dynamo
Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, December 1971
CURTIS MAYFIELD is a hard man to catch these days. If he's not locked away in a studio all night recording himself, the Impressions, or some ...

Doris Troy: This Little Lady Is Miss Troy
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, West Indian World, December 1971
Doris Troy is one helluva woman. Almost, she's the ultimate soul sister, big, bouncing, warm-hearted, sincere and certainly talented. ...

The Magnificent Seven Live: The Supremes and the Four Tops live at the Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, December 1971
DUE TO lack of publicity, the International Children's Aid Charity concert on Tuesday November 30 at the Royal Albert Hall was not as well attended as ...

Ann Peebles: Will Princess Ann Be Queen
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, 1972
ON THE distaff side, soul music has produced a long run of superb girl singers and these soul sisters have found it far easier to emulate ...

Soul on Fire
Report by Philip Norman, Sunday Times Magazine, 1972
STEVIE WONDER crosses the hotel lobby, resting on the elbows of two other people. That he is blind, has been blind from birth, is nonetheless difficult ...

Isaac Hayes and The Platinum Pirates
Report by Roger St. Pierre, Record Collector, January 1972
BOOTLEG RECORDS have become a familiar part of the music scene in the past few years but a far more serious problem for record companies and ...

Millie Jackson
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, January 1972
MILLIE JACKSON has had one of the most meaningful songs of 1971 in her current hit, 'A Child Of God (It's hard To Believe)'. Not only ...

Billy Preston: The Troubadour, Los Angeles
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, January 1972
IT'S NOT EASY to be uncompromisingly religious in a den of drugs, drink and iniquity like the Troubadour, but Billy Preston has both the Power of ...

The Chi-Lites Step Out Of The Shadows
Profile and Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, January 1972
THANK heaven for the Chi-Lites. This four-man Chicago-based outfit has brought back to soul music two elements missing from it for too long – good old ...

Bloodstone: The Bloodstone Sound Spectrum
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, January 1972
THERE'S BEEN a growing flood of black American artists to these shores over the past few years, and more and more of them have decided to ...

The Last Poets
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, February 1972
THE LAST Poets have enjoyed success in the States via two albums, The Last Poets and This Is Madness, both on the Douglas label. However, in ...

Stevie Wonder: A Little Too Far Out?
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, February 1972
ALL IN ALL, 1971 was not a big year for Stevie Wonder in this country, and his appearances in the chart were, in fact, few and ...

Billy Preston: Working The Way God Planned It!
Report and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, February 1972
BILLY PRESTON has been here all the time, yet he's only just arrived; and after many years of building his way up the bumpy road of ...

Wilson Pickett, Jackie Moore: Copacabana, NYC
Live Review by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, March 1972
CAN YOU imagine seeing Wilson Pickett at the Talk of the Town in London, complete with middle-aged folks having a night out, coach parties from little ...

Betty Wright
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, March 1972
WHEN ATLANTIC recommences battle in this country following the switch from Polydor to Kinney's distribution, one of the records that will receive maximum support is Betty ...

Don Gardner
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, March 1972
IT'S FUNNY the way that you run into people by surprise. On planning a quick interview with Curtis Mayfield, I discovered that his road manager was ...

The Persuasions: Streetcorner Music
Profile by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, March 1972
THE MUSIC-BUYING public (which has something – how much or how little is a matter of opinion – to do with determining the trends) can be ...

Michael Jackson: The One Who Got Away
Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, March 1972
THE MOST amazing thing about little Michael Jackson's solo success is how calmly he's taking it all. "I think it's great," is all he says talking ...

Ben E. King Why Ben Stopped Drifting
Interview by Caroline Boucher, Disc and Music Echo, March 1972
KEEPING abreast of the times, says Ben E. King, is one of the most important and difficult jobs for a singer. He's been singing and writing ...

Temptations Special: Damon Harris and Richard Street
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, April 1972
Rappin' with Damon Harris... ...

Temptations Special: Dennis Edwards
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, April 1972
THE PAST year has seen some traumatic changes for the Temptations, changes that would certainly have wrecked any normal group's career to the point where it ...

Donny Hathaway: Aiming High
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, April 1972
AS WAS written in the Bill Withers feature in the last issue of B&S, there have been a handful of new talents in the 70's who ...

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles: From The Beginning…
Report and Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1972
SMOKEY IS LEAVING the Miracles. This may mean more to those of us in Detroit, who've watched the Miracles almost, but never quite, make the break ...

The Jackson 5: Greatest Hits
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1972
MOTOWN HAS ALWAYS been known for its little ones more than its big ones, and the Jackson Five are no exception. This is undoubtedly their best ...

Denise La Salle: Trapped By A Thing Called Love
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, May 1972
IF THIS ISN'T THE best soul album this year, someone is going to have to come up with something really amazing. Denise La Salle is incredible: ...

Frederick Knight: Success From Out Of Left Field
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, June 1972
REGULAR READERS of B&S will already be more than aware of how we occasionally jump on a record right from when it becomes available in the ...

Willie John: A Soul Who Died In Jail
Retrospective by Bill Millar, Record Mirror, June 1972
THE DEATH of Little Willie John is chronicled in the June 8th 1968 edition of Billboard. Datelined Walla Walla, Washington, May 27th, the notice reads: ...

The Staple Singers: Soft Sounds That Burn Deep
Profile by Roger St. Pierre, NME, June 1972
JAMAICAN SINGERS have yet to follow up their undoubted success in Britain with a similar impact in the States but neverthelless reggae is making a steadily ...

Gladys Knight: Gladys and Her British Problem
Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, June 1972
"UNDERRATED" is a fond word of Press agents and record companies to explain away lack of success for their artists. So when someone uses the word ...

The Jimmy Castor Bunch
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, July 1972
"YOU KNOW, we recorded the album for Columbia but they just did not want it. They were too busy with Sly and Chicago; Santana and Blood, ...

Esther Phillips: Twenty-Five Years A Star
Profile by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, July 1972
A MORE apt title could surely not have been found for the initial Kudu set by Miss Esther Phillips. From A Whisper To A Scream just ...

Echoes: Richard Berry
Retrospective by Bill Millar, Record Mirror, July 1972
"They took me to see that friend of mine
yeah District court-room two-twenty-nine
the judge said 'your payments are way behind'
I said 'Don't worry Daddy it won't happen ...

Bill Withers: Leanin' On Bill Withers
Profile and Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, August 1972
THAT OLD saying "never too late" is certainly true in the case of Bill Withers. Withers is just about the hottest male singer in America right ...

Wattstax
Live Review by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, September 1972
THE whole idea of WATTSTAX '72 was splendid. It enabled more than 100,000 people to attend a seven hour concert at the Los Angeles Coliseum for ...

Curtis Mayfield: Where He's Been And Where He's Going
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, Let It Rock, October 1972
AFTER SUCH COMMITTED, socially conscious compositions as 'This Is My Country', 'Mighty Mighty, Spade and Whitey' and 'Choice Of Colours' Curtis Mayfield believes the time has ...

Jackie Wilson: The Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, October 1972
THERE ARE very few performers whose career can span a good fifteen years and continue to be chart names and still draw crowds, particularly in the ...

Jerry Butler and Allen Toussaint: The Spice Of Life
Profile by Roger St. Pierre, NME, October 1972
IT'S NOT so long since soul albums were merely collections of singles, plus a few make-weight tracks. ...

Cornelius Brothers And Sister Rose (United Artists)
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, November 1972
BASICALLY, THERE ARE two Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose (CB&SR) sounds. One is the basic, upbeat piano sound layered with tight, spiraling harmony, as in ‘Treat ...

The Stylistics: The Sound Of Sweet Soul
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, November 1972
PERHAPS ONE of the most significant 'happenings' this year has been the much-deserved chart success of the sweet-soul-sounding Stylistics who have undoubtedly been hailed as a ...

Junior Walker
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, November 1972
CURRENTLY enjoying very considerable success with his very cleverly put together maxi-single of 'Walk In The Night', 'Right On Brothers And Sisters' and 'Gotta Hold On ...

Ray Charles
Live Review by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, November 1972
TO QUOTE the title of one of his famous Atlantic recordings, a virtually guaranteed event is the annual visit of the Ray Charles revue with The ...

Gladys Knight: Soul Perfection In Person
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, November 1972
IT'S A VERY rare treat to meet an artist whose work you admire and whose in-person appearances you find exciting and who on top of all ...

The Jackson 5, Junior Walker, The Sisters Love: Empire Pool, Wembley
Live Review by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, December 1972
THE FIRST ever visit of Motown's Jackson Five is something which numerous people won't forget in a hurry: the staff at the hotels that the group ...

Bill Withers/Fontella Bass: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, December 1972
IN THESE days when it's applied with alarming frequency to practically every new talent that emerges, the word "genius" as with so many other superlatives is ...

The Jackson Five: Five Pranksters Puppets
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, December 1972
TAUNTS THAT the Jackson Five are nothing more than carefully manipulated puppets just aren't borne out by the facts. Five minutes in the company of Michael ...

Esther Phillips
Review and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, December 1972
IT'S ALWAYS a very gratifying and rewarding experience to see an artist in whom you have particular faith and in who you strongly believe, finally begin ...

Merry Clayton: The Triumphant Acid Queen
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, December 1972
MERRY CLAYTON is the girl who stopped the show at the London Rainbow performance of Pete Townshend's rock opera Tommy earlier this month. Even the orchestra ...

Isaac Hayes: Live At The Sahara Tahoe
Review by Bob Fisher, Cream, 1973
IGNORING the Shaft soundtrack, Isaac Hayes blew it with the Black Moses double set. This followed three good and original albums, although you could still make ...

Stevie Wonder: Man Of Today And Tomorrow
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, January 1973
ONE OF THE most rewarding and exciting aspects of taking any serious interest in any field of music is observing the artistic development and progress of ...

Gamble-Huff, Thom Bell and the Philly Groove
Overview by Pete Wingfield, Let It Rock, January 1973
On a balmy night in the late summer of ’67, while the world was wearing flowers in its hair, I was sinking into my seat, trying ...

Understanding Bobby Womack
Interview by Steven Rosen, LA Free Press, February 1973
TWELVE YEARS AGO Bobby Womack migrated to California, looking for the riches that he thought were there. "I came out here like the pioneers searching for ...

Martha Reeves: A Lady With A Big Future
Report and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, February 1973
IT WOULD surely be true to say that every fan must have one or two records that they will always treasure – the special one or ...

Eddie Kendricks: Holding On
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, February 1973
2008 intro: Eddie Kendricks had enjoyed critical acclaim with his groundbreaking 1972 People, Hold On album. The former Temptation had to experience a commercial mainstream breakthrough ...

Valerie Simpson
Report by Pete Wingfield, Let It Rock, March 1973
THE NAMES Ashford and Simpson should ring a bell with anybody that reads the small print on Motown records: Nicholas and Valerie have chalked up an ...

Billy Paul
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, March 1973
IT'S EASY TO detect a strong jazz influence in Billy Paul's vocal on 'Me And Mrs. Jones'. The reason is simple enough. Paul, now 35, has ...

James Brown: He Ain't Slowing Down
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, March 1973
SOUL BROTHER Number One leaned back in his chair, adjusted his robe, and expounded: "Back in 1969 King Records didn't want to know. They said I ...

Isaac Hayes: A Man Of The People
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, Beat Instrumental, April 1973
ISAAC HAYES certainly lives up to his 'Super-star' title. During his recent British visit the Black Moses spent £38,000 on jewellery and another £30,000 on a ...

Bobby Womack: Gettin' To It
Profile and Interview by Steven Rosen, Music World, April 1973
BOBBY WOMACK HAS been making music for twenty long years, an odyssey that carried him from the working quarters of Cleveland to the rocking corners of ...

Marvin Gaye: Trouble Man (Motown); Diana Ross (And Others): Lady Sings the Blues (Motown)
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1973
SOCIOLOGISTS LIKE TO talk about black people mimicking whites, and I suppose that it is inherent in the presumptions most of us make about black culture ...

Sylvester: Stardom as Lifestyle
Profile by Richard Cromelin, Music World, April 1973
Of course, there's nothing more ancient or honorable than the old shamanistic transvestite that we see running up and down Greenwich Avenue. There's something very ancient ...

Roberta Flack And All That Jazz
Interview by Danny Holloway, NME, April 1973
DANNY HOLLOWAY talks, in New York, to the lady who made the big transition from jazz to mass acclaim. ...

Black Music
Comment by Dave Marsh, Let It Rock, May 1973
SOMETIME LAST fall, John Percy Boyd, Mark Bethune and Michael Brown, a trio of black college students in Detroit, decided to put an end to that ...

Leon Haywood: The Good Times, The Bad Times And The Times In Between
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, May 1973
IN OUR quest to track down the select band of artistes who are always there in the background but never seem to get the right break, ...

Breaking the rules: Timmy Thomas
Report and Interview by Pete Wingfield, Let It Rock, May 1973
IN THE American record business, like any other, it’s the biggies with the bread that rule the roost. But every so often, an obscure record by ...

Bloodstone: Natural High
Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, June 1973
THE MORE I listen, the less I understand. A year ago Bloodstone was just one of any number of black groups who could excite a receptive ...

War: The Battle Against 'Unlove'
Interview by Keith Altham, NME, July 1973
THIS IS the story of war declared but not yet unilaterally. Approximately two years ago, when the American 'jazz-rock-blues-soul' band appeared in the U.K. with their ...

The Pointer Sisters: The Pointer Sisters
Review by Ian MacDonald, NME, July 1973
ANITA, RUTH, JUNE and Bonnie Pointer come to us with the fervent recommendations of seemingly everybody in America. But with the best will in the world, ...

Sly & The Family Stone: White City, London
Live Review by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, August 1973
"SLY STONE to appear at White City Festival". After reading various articles concerning Sly Stone, you imagine the feeling of reading this headline. ...

Stevie Wonder: Innervisions
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, August 1973
WHEN APPRAISING an artist of the stature of Stevie Wonder, there seems nothing worse than to hark back to previous triumphs and make ...

Hot Chocolate: Chocolate Brown
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, August 1973
THERE IS absolutely no getting away from the fact that it was an excessively hot and sticky afternoon. Sweaterama incarnate. Clothing stuck unpleasantly to the anatomy ...

Talking With Diana Ross
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, September 1973
PRE-CONCEIVED notions are always hard to forget and when one has been continually conditioned to a particular notion, time makes it that much harder to break ...

Donny Hathaway: Reassessing His Musical Life
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, September 1973
2008 intro: Donny Hathaway was in London on vacation after completing work on a new album, Extensions Of A Man and took a brief time for ...

Aretha Franklin: Hey Now Hey (Atlantic)
Review by Bob Fisher, Cream, September 1973
IT'S BEEN HIP for mainstream rock critics to knock Miss Franklin for some time now, in much the same way the current vogue is to confess ...

Dobie Gray: Drift Away
Review by Bob Woffinden, NME, September 1973
I COULDN'T find the name 'Dobie Gray' in any of the rock encyclopaedias. Presumably after 'The In Crowd' he became one of those half-forgotten names that ...

Howard Tate and Lou Courtney: The Blues and Dance Men
Profile by Roger St. Pierre, NME, September 1973
TWO ARTISTS of widely different appeal, Howard Tate and Lou Courtney both deserve inclusion in this series because although only modestly successful even in the States, ...

Candi Staton: Foxy Lady Of Soul
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, September 1973
RIGHT FROM the days when Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Ida Cox and later the ladies Holliday, Vaughan, Fitzgerald and Washington ruled the blues/jazz roost there has ...

Billy Preston: God Planned It Good
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, September 1973
AFTER YEARS spent as a session man for an astonishing roster of star names the Beatles, the Stones, Barbra Steisand, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Sam Cooke, ...

Stevie Wonder: Innervisions
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, September 1973
THE GREENING OF MOTOWN continues apace, with performers who once flourished under the company's autocratic guidelines (the Four Tops, Gladys Knight) seeking success elsewhere while others ...

Soul Foundations: Twenty Essential Soul Records
Guide by Pete Wingfield, Let It Rock, October 1973
OH LORD – I'M GONNA GET SHOT down for this. ...

Dionne Warwicke: Just Being Herself
Report and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, November 1973
THAT CERTAIN entertainers decline or prefer not to give interviews is an incomprehensible fact that frequently puzzles both journalists and the public. ...

Sly & The Family Stone: The Palladium, Los Angeles
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, November 1973
HOLLYWOOD: Will he? Won't he? Will he? Won't he? Sly Stone's reputation is too firmly etched for these questions not to be asked when he's advertised ...

The O'Jays, Billy Paul, The Intruders – Philadelphia International Tour: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, December 1973
MOST INITIAL comments that I overheard on my way out from the Philly Package concert at London's Hammersmith Odeon theatre were slightly tinged with disappointment. Whilst ...

Aretha: Supersoulstar
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, December 1973
2008 introduction: Aretha Franklin had just enjoyed major success with the Stevie Wonder composition 'Until You Come Back To Me'. She was in contract re-negotiations with ...

Ashford & Simpson: Really Somethin' Else!
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, December 1973
OVER THE last five years, the emergence of producers-turned performers has been a phenomenon which brought into the limelight some of the finest creative forces at ...

Otis Redding
Essay by Dave Marsh, Let It Rock, January 1974
LET'S GET one thing straight. Otis Redding's posthumous rise to the Kingship of soul is highly suspect. He earned the accolade a little too easily for ...

Stevie Wonder: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, February 1974
IT'S BEEN said before but it's got to be said again: Stevie Wonder is, firstly, one of the most creative talents in the musical world today; ...

Gladys Knight: Imagination
Review by Bob Woffinden, NME, February 1974
COME TO THINK about it, I always did rate Gladys Knight very highly. ‘Take Me In Your Arms and Love Me’ especially was one of the ...

The Isley Brothers: 3+3 (Epic)
Review by Bob Fisher, NME, February 1974
BLACK MUSIC is currently well entrenched in the process of mixing recent rock forms into the standard sound of soul, a process in which the Isley ...

Gloria Jones: Sharing Her Soul
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, March 1974
HOW MANY times, I wonder, do we hear that old worn out cliché from visiting Americans about how much they dig this country and how great ...

The Supremes
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, March 1974
PERHAPS MORE than any other female group around today, The Supremes have undergone what seem like almost regular personnel changes and to my mind, it's quite ...

Gladys Knight: Anthology
Review by Bob Woffinden, NME, March 1974
Seven years in the shadow of Diana Ross ...

Doris Troy: Stretchin' Out and Gettin' Ahead
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, April 1974
AS WE promised in the last 'TALA', we're gonna be checking out a few of the American artists who have decided to make their home on ...

Sly Stone: Super Sly
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, June 1974
HE EXTENDED A hand but looked elsewhere. Who could tell where his eyes focused beneath those silver shades? He gripped and I felt pain through the ...

Rufus & Chaka Khan: Tellin' Something Good
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, July 1974
2008 introduction: The group Rufus had released its first album on ABC in 1973; by the following year, the Chicago-based team was on its second LP ...

The Supremes: Anthology
Review by Ian MacDonald, NME, July 1974
I NEVER COULD understand why so many Rock Critics (sic) couldn't stomach The Supremes. ...

George McCrae's Last Chance – A Smash
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, July 1974
STRANGE how chance plays its part in the record business. If George McCrae hadn't decided to have one last try at making a hit record after ...

War: A Street Rod on the Boulevard of Soul
Report and Interview by Barbara Charone, Rolling Stone, July 1974
"SOMETIMES I TELL myself: I'm B.B. Dickerson and I'm in War so I'm going to pull up in front of the Continental Hyatt House in my ...

Viola Wills: Struggling For The Truth
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, August 1974
IT CAME as something of a surprise to the lady to learn that her name was already familiar to a hard core following of fans via ...

The Jackson 5: Madison Square Garden, NYC
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, August 1974
NEW YORK: There's something about Michael Jackson that is almost frightening to behold. How can it be possible for a kid that age to be so ...

Syreeta: Spinnin' To The Top
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, September 1974
LIVING IN the footsteps is a problem which daunts performers from time to time when they come from a successful musical family – we all know ...

Lorraine Ellison: Lorraine Ellison
Review by Bob Woffinden, NME, September 1974
THE STORY so far: in 1966 Lorraine Ellison made one vast contribution to popular mythology with 'Stay With Me, Baby', unquestionably a classic (maybe this is ...

KC & Sunshine Band: Let The Sunshine In
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, September 1974
ALTHOUGH it has yet to register in the US Top 100, 'Queen Of Clubs' by K. C. and the Sunshine Band represents the second big British ...

Jimmy Castor: The Everything Man
Review by Chris Salewicz, NME, September 1974
SUBTLE ONE, that title. See, in the centre of the sleeve there's a picture of the dude who is presumably Jimmy Castor wearing a standard super-spade ...

Lorraine Ellison: Heart And Soul
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, October 1974
David Nathan talks to the 'Stay With Me' lady, who's set to unleash her talents and become much more than just a singers' singer ...

Ann Peebles: Sweet and Soulful
Report and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, October 1974
David Nathan reports on Ann Peebles' London gigs and talks shop with the delectable lady. ...

The Drifters
Retrospective and Interview by Cliff White, Black Music, October 1974
WHEN is a Drifter not a Drifter? That is the question. ...

LaBelle: Tomorrow's Brightest Stars
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, October 1974
2008 introduction: In person interview conducted by David Nathan in the kitchen of Vicki Wickham's apartment in midtown Manhattan. Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash ...

Millie Jackson: Sayin' What Comes Naturally
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, October 1974
IF THERE is truly any justice, 1974 will see the final emergence of the magnificent Mille Jackson right at the top of her field, where she ...

Minnie Riperton: S'Wonderlove
Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, October 1974
LOS ANGELES – Along with many of the stars and hopefuls at Chicago's 1971 Black Expo, Minnie Riperton waited patiently backstage to approach the blind musician ...

The Meters: Funk From The Crescent City
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, October 1974
THERE'S ALWAYS been something unique about New Orleans music, whether it's the jazz of Louis Armstong, the boogie-woogie blues of Champion Jack Dupree, the lopping rock ...

Sly Stone: Small Talk
Review by Pete Wingfield, Let It Rock, November 1974
BY SLY'S SLUGGISH standards, it's not that long since the last album, Fresh; maybe married life has given him a creative surge. ...

Bobby Bland: Dreamer
Review by Bob Fisher, NME, November 1974
ONE DAY last week I tuned into Noel Edmunds and I heard it – and fell back into bed. ...

Stevie Wonder: Further Fulfillingness
Interview by Wayne Robins, Melody Maker, November 1974
STEVIE WONDER had to know: should he, could he, release part two of Fulfillingness' First Finale at the end of November? ...

Al Green: Explores Your Mind
Review by Bob Woffinden, NME, November 1974
CAN AL GREEN recover his credibility and save the world after all?, is the theme of today's programme. ...

The Miracles: Miracles Never Cease…
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Melody Maker, November 1974
LOS ANGELES: "I really loved touring with the English groups, back in 1963 and 1964. We used to tour with the Rolling Stones and people like ...

The Delfonics: Developments In The Delfonic Dilemma
Profile and Interview by Bob Fisher, NME, November 1974
MENTION THE Philly sound, and people will start thinking about The O'Jays, Billy Paul, The Intruders or The Three Degrees. ...

Barry White
Profile by Bob Fisher, NME, December 1974
Some things turn me on...like the way you might say a word or the way you wear your hair and have a certain smile on your ...

Otis Redding: A Legend During His Lifetime, Or Only After His Death
Retrospective by Roger St. Pierre, NME, December 1974
The former, argues ROGER ST. PIERRE, in this appreciation of OTIS REDDING, who died seven years ago this month – the Boss Man soul music never ...

The Solomon Burke Story
Retrospective by Cliff White, Black Music, 1975
IT'S ALWAYS good to see neglected talent straighten up and fly right after seemingly falling by the wayside, especially when the talent is as undeniable as ...

Gil Scott-Heron: Survival Kits on Wax
Profile and Interview by Sheila Weller, Rolling Stone, January 1975
NEW YORK – At the age of 25, he has to his credit two published novels, one published collection of poetry and four albums of original ...

Gladys Knight: I Feel a Song
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, January 1975
TWO YEARS AGO, while working for another magazine, I rejected a rambling interview between black poet Nikki Giovanni and singer Gladys Knight. The interview wasn't that ...

LaBelle: It Happened In Hollywood
Report by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, January 1975
IT HAPPENED in Hollywood.
To be precise it happened on The Cher Show. ...

The Righteous Brothers - Give it to the People
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, January 1975
ANOTHER ILLUSION ...

Gladys Knight: I Feel a Song
Review by Bob Fisher, NME, January 1975
RELUCTANTLY, ONE MUST admit that Aretha Franklin has now lost her crown as America's top female singer to Miss Knight. Gladys and her Pips have managed ...

Soul (Style): Baggy Trousers Will Not Be Admitted
Report by Bob Fisher, NME, January 1975
THE STYLISTIC rivalry between soul fans in the North and South of England has been well publicised. But what magazine odes to regional soul tend to ...

Larry Graham: Platform For Station
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, January 1975
OAKLAND: Few people can ever have listened to a Sly Stone record without experiencing a gut feeling as the bass guitar runs through its paces, putting ...

Tower Of Power
Profile by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, January 1975
BY FAR THE biggest ensemble to be visiting Europe on the Warners tour is Tower of Power, the Oakland based blues and soul outfit whose membership ...

Little Beaver: Beaver's Blues
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, January 1975
STUDENTS OF the currently emergent Miami Sound will have noticed the proliferation of album credits, both as writer and musician, for one Willie Hale. ...

Ashford and Simpson: Nick and Val
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, February 1975
IT'S PRETTY hard to believe that the young, unassuming couple seated comfortably in their smart New York apartment-and-office are the masterminds behind a whole string of ...

Syl Johnson: Barbarella's, Birmingham
Live Review by Bob Fisher, NME, February 1975
MOST OF the soul artists who do the one-nighter round of the UK and USAF bases have some kind of hit going for them, or at ...

Ohio Players: Fiery, Freaky and Funky
Profile by Bob Fisher, NME, February 1975
CURRENTLY THE HOTTEST item on Billboard's album chart is The Ohio Players Fire (Mercury). Phonogram must have burnt their fingers in the rush get it into ...

Johnny Otis, Platters, Jackie Wilson Reissue Albums
Review by Bob Fisher, Cream, February 1975
Johnny Otis: Pioneers of Rock: Vol. 2
The Platters: The Best of the Platters
Jackie Wilson: Greatest Hits ...

Don Covay: Hot Blood
Review by Bob Fisher, NME, February 1975
THE BIGGEST MISTAKE Don Covay made with this album was in making 'It's Better To Have' track one, side ...

Don Covay: Hot Blood
Review by Rob Partridge, Melody Maker, February 1975
DON COVAY'S resurrection as an artist was one of the brightest events of last year. His 'It's Better To Have' made number 21 in the British ...

The Chi-Lites
Interview by Bob Fisher, NME, February 1975
IT'S A SOMEWHAT perplexed Chi-Lites who recently embarked on their second and most extensive UK tour of Clubs and ...

Bobby Womack: I Can Understand It
Review by Bob Fisher, NME, February 1975
CALLED IN America Greatest Hits, this album simply illustrates the unsatisfactory position that Bobby Womack finds himself in in England. ...

Dionne Warwick: Best Of
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, February 1975
ONLY ONE OBJECTION to this album, so let's put it right up ...

Kokomo: Kokomo
Review by Ian MacDonald, NME, February 1975
THE AVERAGE WHITES broke the ice with their second album and Kokomo will be the first of the beneficiaries. ...

Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions: Big Sixteen
Review by Bob Fisher, NME, March 1975
IT'S PLEASING to see Anchor pushing out this classic compilation, as it's been unavailable for several years. It was originally issued on the old HMV label ...

Betty Wright: Do Me Wright
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, March 1975
BETTY WRIGHT IS, as they say, a lot more than just a pretty face. She's also got a voice that's stacked with burning southern soul, a ...

Average White Band
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, March 1975
AIN'T IT just like the February sunshine to play tricks with the mind? Here I am, sat aboard the Long Island Railroad Express, rattling out of ...

LaBelle: Voulez-Vous Coucher Avec Moi Ce Soir?
Report and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, March 1975
"THE RE-VO-LU-SHUN...will not be televaaaaaazed," declaims Patti LaBelle, staring into the audience from the stage of the Congressgebouwe in the Hague. ...

LaBelle: Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London
Live Review by Ian MacDonald, NME, March 1975
THE PROVERBIAL BREATH of fresh air. ...

Shirley & Co. and The Moments: The Carpenters Are My Real Faves
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, March 1975
Al Goodman, A & R man for All Platinum label. So what are you doing on the Soul page with Shirley & Co., Al? ...

Dee Dee Warwick
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, April 1975
IT'S BEEN more than a while since we heard from one young lady whose consistently good records seemed to never hit quite as big as they ...

Sister Sledge
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, April 1975
THE TRULY amazing dynamism of the four lovely ladies who make up Philadelphia's own SISTER SLEDGE are finally getting the kind of recognition which their sensational ...

Revelation
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, April 1975
"POSITIVE THINKING and a high energy level" are, according to Benny Diggs, what make Revelation what they are. If you ever feel that you want some ...

Walter Heath
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, April 1975
TALKING WITH Mr. Walter Heath midway during his recent stay in New York on the bill at the Uris Theatre with Seals & Crofts is an ...

Al Green: Love, Happiness And Convictions
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, April 1975
2008 introduction: Known as the "Prince Of Soul," Al Green had built up a strong audience thanks to a string of hit singles and best-selling albums. ...

Melba Moore: Soulful Sophistication
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, April 1975
LIKE MOST everyone else, you're probably under the impression that the name Melba Moore is more synonymous with Broadway, Las Vegas, supper clubs and Hollywood than ...

The Chi-Lites: (For God's Sake) Give More Power To The People/Greatest Hits/A Lonely Man/A Letter To Myself/Toby
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, April 1975
I'D BETTER DECLARE myself: I like Philly Sound, the Stylistics, Barry White even (or, rather, sometimes); I don't think Norman Whitfield mangled Motown: I do believe ...

James Brown: Reality and Breakin' Bread
Review by Bob Fisher, NME, April 1975
A WORD OF advice. Never attempt to review James Brown product whilst the records are actually playing. It's impossible either to write or type when your ...

Swamp Dogg
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, April 1975
"WHERE ELSE BUT in America could a person own a Rolls-Royce, an Eldorado Mark IV, a Mercedes limousine, an estate in Long Island, an apartment in ...

Minnie Riperton
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, April 1975
MINNIE RIPERTON is as fizzy as a soda bottle shaken on a hot summer day. Life, it is reassuring to know, can be enjoyed even in ...

Sister Sledge; Jimmy Castor; Ben E. King; The Spinners: Return of the Soul Package
Report and Interview by Bob Fisher, Roger St. Pierre, NME, April 1975
From the great lost soul label of Atlantic it came, writhing with synchronized funk, its many black heads chanting and wailing. Nothing like it had been ...

J. J. Barnes: The Groovesville Masters
Review by Bob Fisher, NME, April 1975
DESPITE A couple of very successful tours of the Midlands and the North, JJ seems dogged by bad ...

Al Green: Eaten Something Funny Al?
Interview by Bob Fisher, NME, April 1975
"L.O.V.E. SPELLS LOVE," says Al Green on his current NME chart rider of the same name, while according to Jimmy Witherspoon's current US hit, it's also ...

Syl Johnson: A Whole Lot Of Whiplashes And Scars…
Interview by Bob Fisher, NME, April 1975
NOT MANY artists hot on the US Soul charts have had the apprenticeship of Syl Johnson. ...

Allen Toussaint: Southern Nights
Review by Ian MacDonald, NME, April 1975
IF ALLEN TOUSSAINT ever wants to make the great album he's obviously capable of, he'd be best advised to first take a year's sabbatical from his ...

Johnny Bristol and Allen Toussaint: Producers 'N' Performers
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, May 1975
IT SEEMS that it's an increasingly notable fact that more and more producers, after scoring successfully in that field, are turning their attention to the studio ...

Tamiko Jones
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, May 1975
IF SHEER beauty could ensure a hit record, then Ms. Tamiko Jones would simply never yield the top spot. However, as well as having something that ...

Jimmy Jones: Timin' Is The Thing
Retrospective by Penny Reel, Let It Rock, May 1975
What would have happened if you and I
Hadn't just happened to meet?
We might have spent the rest of our lives
Walking down misery ...

Chairmen of the Board
Interview by Bob Fisher, NME, May 1975
IT WAS THE Chairmen of the Board's umpteenth tour of the UK, but this time round, the venues were a little classier, with week long cabaret ...

Earth, Wind and Fire
Profile by Bob Fisher, NME, May 1975
LIKE EVERY OTHER sub genre of soul seems to do, the current blockbuster – jazz-funk, bump-funk, party street-dance, or whatever you care to tag it – ...

Barry White: Villa Park, Birmingham
Live Review by Bob Fisher, NME, May 1975
THERE'S BEEN some controversy about the prices on Barry White's English gigs – £5 was the top price at Birmingham. ...

Average White Band: Winterland, San Francisco
Live Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, June 1975
THERE ARE THOSE who have had Average White Band pegged from the start as the best blue-eyed soul band since the Young Rascals, and these admirers ...

Natalie Cole
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, June 1975
BEING THE daughter of such an internationally famous man as the late Nat King Cole could conceivably pose a problem for any budding star. After all, ...

Barbara Mason: This Girl Is A Woman Now
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, June 1975
YOUR IMPRESSIONS of Ms. Barbara Mason may well be restricted to the young girl of the tender age of 16 singing her own composition, 'Yes I'm ...

The Exciters - Dark Clouds Over the Black Country
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, June 1975
INTERNAL DISSENSION IS the bane of any cult, and though the Northern Sounds soul movement might seem healthy from the outside, in reality it's torn by ...

Candi Staton and Bettye Swann: Broken Hearts, Do Right Women
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, June 1975
EVERY TIME I hear Bettye Swann's pained 'Don't You Ever Get Tired Of Hurting Me' I'm so moved I want to go and punch that mean-assed ...

Curtis Mayfield: America Today
Review by Ian MacDonald, NME, June 1975
THREE YEARS AGO, Curtis Mayfield was one of the golden boys of New Wave soul, having broken with marketing formats (The Impressions) and joined the likes ...

Stax - The Stax Story - Volumes I & II
Review by Ian MacDonald, NME, June 1975
SINCE THE 32 tracks collected here were cut after the 1968 Stax/Atlantic split it would be unwise to take the over-all title of this two-record set ...

Earth, Wind & Fire: A Creative Explosion
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, July 1975
TO UNDERSTAND the true power of Earth, Wind & Fire, you have to understand that these are nine people with a message. A universal message which ...

Shirley Goodman: Good Times Roll Again
Profile and Interview by Bill Millar, Let It Rock, July 1975
JET-BLACK RINGLETS and bra-busting cuddliness; nothing about Shirley Goodman tells you that she used to resemble the waif-like teenager on the front of those old blue ...

Linda Carr
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, July 1975
ACTUALLY, ALTHOUGH we are acclaiming Ms. Linda Carr as a "B&S Debut Feature", we are being technically incorrect because Linda was featured way back in 1966, ...

The Impressions
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, July 1975
WITHOUT OVERSTATING the fact, you could justifiably say that The Impressions have come a long way! ...

Thelma Houston
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, July 1975
IT SEEMS that there will always be that small coterie of artists you will always find falling under that elusive category, "the singer's singer". ...

Worries of the Warwicke sisters
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, July 1975
WE'RE A LONG way on from 1964 and 'Walk On By' but, despite the profusion of instantly forgetable records Dionne Warwicke has turned out since her ...

Average White Band: Cut The Cake (Atlantic)
Review by Rob Partridge, Melody Maker, July 1975
Hamish Stuart (guitar, vocals), Alan Gorrie (bass, vocals), Onnie Mclntyre (guitar), Roger Ball (keyboards, alto and baritone saxophones), Malcolm Duncan (tenor saxophone), Stephen Ferrone (drums, percussion), ...

The Righteous Brothers - Sons of Mrs. Righteous
Review by Mick Farren, NME, July 1975
IT REALLY DOES seem that the greater part of the Righteous Brothers was their uncle Phil ...

Bobby Womack - I Don't Know What The World Is Coming To
Review by Ian MacDonald, NME, July 1975
FROM 1964, FOLLOWING the death of his mentor Sam Cooke, to 1969, when he finally began to record under his own name, Bobby Womack was a ...

Hot Chocolate: Choc's Away
Interview by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, July 1975
A CLUTCH of nubile girls are usefully spending their school holidays hanging around outside the Bell Record Company offices in the hope of a glimpse of ...

Wilson Pickett - Join Me and Let's Be Free
Review by Cliff White, NME, July 1975
FIRST OF ALL you have to picture the scene. There he stands, up to his elbows in stagnant water, a faraway look in his eyes, a ...

The Stylistics: Sing, Baby, Sing!
Profile and Interview by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, August 1975
ABUSE COMES too easily. The Stylistics are the masters of sweet soul, the kings of lush sentiment, and the lords of overstated romance. Even their fans ...

Betty Davis: Filthy But Funky
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, August 1975
IT'S FUNNY how some women are genteel yet others may be quite the opposite – yet still manage to retain their femininity. ...

James Brown: Sex Machine Today, Hamilton Bohannon: Insides Out, The Commodores: Caught in the Act
Review by Ian MacDonald, NME, August 1975
"WHITE ROCK", OBSERVED CSM last week in his Wailers review, "lays its beat on you; the Wailers' music allows you to find your own rhythm within ...

Tamla albums round-up
Review by Cliff White, NME, August 1975
FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS. The Supremes' new LP is a ...

Junior Walker
Interview by Cliff White, NME, August 1975
CONSIDERING THAT THEY'D only checked in at 4 a.m. that morning – that they hadn't been notified of our appointment for an interview – and that ...

Ben E. King - The Ben E. King Story
Review by Cliff White, NME, August 1975
ATLANTIC, YOU'RE NOT fooling ...

James Brown - Live at the Apollo Vol.1
Review by Cliff White, NME, August 1975
EVERY SO OFTEN an album comes along that is more than just another good, bad, or indifferent release from the artist ...

The Supremes: The Supremes (Tamla Motown) (32.16)
Review by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, August 1975
SIX PRODUCERS on one record? Is this some kind of a joke? I've heard of Rick Derringer dreaming of a different producer for each song on ...

Stevie Wonder - Blind, Gifted and Loaded
Report by Bob Woffinden, NME, August 1975
THERE HAS BEEN an official silence about Stevie Wonder's plans since he publicly announced in March last year that he was to retire in 1976 to ...

Smokey Robinson: A Quiet Storm
Review by Pete Wingfield, Let It Rock, September 1975
COULD THIS BE Smokey's What's Going On – the album to elevate him, like Marvin Gaye, from a singles-orientated soul veteran to an across-the-board contemporary album ...

The Fatback Band: Yum Yum
Review by Bob Fisher, NME, September 1975
"MY NAME is Yum Yum, Gimme some!" ...

The Chi-Lites: Half a Love and The Moments: Sharp
Review by Ian MacDonald, NME, September 1975
IF IT WERE ONLY for All Platinum's second certifiable classic – The Moments' 'Dolly My Love' – this group's new album would need to be looked ...

Joe Simon - Get Down
Review by Cliff White, NME, September 1975
LEAPING ONTO THE dance floor of American's all-pervasive disco, Simon recovered from a slump in popularity by intoning "Get down, get down" about fifty-nine times over ...

Johnny Nash: Tears On My Pillow
Review by Cliff White, NME, September 1975
ANYONE WHO CAN cheerfully sing "be careful how you hold her, please don't even scold her, she's my cream puff" either deserves a hefty kick up ...

The Chi-Lites at Hammersmith Odeon
Live Review by Cliff White, NME, September 1975
AFTER AN HOUR or so of the kind of entertainment that tempts freeloading reviewers to demand their non-existent money back, any halfway-decent act is a blessed ...

Orchestral Soul: So When Was the Last Time You Saw a Black Cello Player?
Overview by Cliff White, NME, September 1975
SOUL: the emotional part of man's nature, or the seat of the feelings or sentiments.
SOULFUL: of, or expressive of, deep feeling or ...

The Supremes at Hammersmith Odeon
Live Review by Vivien Goldman, NME, September 1975
NEXT TIME YOU have the opportunity, check out Motown's Anthology of Diana Ross and the Supremes' Greatest Hits. Unless you're an avid fan whose every day ...

Labelle - Phoenix
Live Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, September 1975
FOR ALL PRACTICAL purposes, Phoenix is Labelle's third album. Forget anything prior to Pressure Cookin': those albums were by some other people and are of little ...

The Ohio Players - Honey
Review by Cliff White, NME, September 1975
EARLIER THIS YEAR Ralph 'Pee Wee' Middlebrook, trumpeter with The Players, admitted in an interview "now we've made it after all that scuffling I suppose we ...

Van McCoy: The Real McCoy
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, October 1975
Although 'Van McCoy: The Artist' has really only just arrived in terms of commercial acceptance, Van's creative influence has played a major role within the framework ...

Isley Brothers: Heat's Still On Isleys
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Melody Maker, October 1975
LOS ANGELES: The Isleys' latest album, The Heat Is On, recently hit number one in America, but for as long as there's been rock and roll ...

Tina Turner: Acid Queen
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Melody Maker, October 1975
"WE TOURED FOR years with all the English groups and I always liked what they were singing about. ...

Al Green: Al Green Is Love
Review by Cliff White, NME, October 1975
REMEMBER WHEN YOU were young, listening to Radio Luxembourg under the bedclothes by ...

The Temptations: Moving With The Times
Interview by Kevin Allen, Record Mirror, October 1975
IT'S SURE tough work being a Temptation. Before replacing Damon Harris in soul music's top fivesome, Glenn Leonard not only had to learn the group's songs ...

Ike and Tina Turner: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Chris Salewicz, NME, November 1975
WELL, TO BE quite frank I thought they were fairly ...

Betty Davis: Nasty Gal
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, November 1975
THIS IS IT funk y'all
This is it right here
This is it do ya hear me girls
And well they can't do it for
ya no nastier than ...

The Temptations: House Party
Review by Cliff White, NME, November 1975
IT'S COMFORTING TO have a few acts that you can rely on to keep supplying the goods, and The Temps certainly do ...

Rufus: Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan (ABC)
Review by Penny Valentine, Street Life, November 1975
AMERICAN BLACK music (that which is loosely termed 'soul') has been going through a disturbing period. It continues to do so. Where once the arm of ...

Darrow Fletcher
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, December 1975
WE OFTEN hear tell of child prodogies – those rare breed that begin their careers at some more than tender age! Frequently, in the crazy world ...

Rufus' Chaka Khan: Golden Lady
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, December 1975
IT'S DIFFICULT to believe that much of the power, strength and soul that you hear when you hear Rufus stems from anyone as petite and almost ...

Tamiko Jones
Profile by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, December 1975
IT'S AMAZING how many of today's super-soulstars can be traced back to the Ric Tic-Golden World family for their very first step into showbiz. The list ...

Kool and the Gang: Spirit Of The Boogie; Ohio Players: Honey
Review by Richard Williams, Let It Rock, December 1975
OCCUPYING ROUGHLY the same area in the impressively wide spectrum of contemporary Black music, these two orchestras both play for dancers but nevertheless perform entirely different ...

The Staple Singers: Let's Do It Again
Review by Cliff White, NME, December 1975
IF MAYFIELD'S lyrics are anything to go by, this film must be whole lots of scenes of funky loving in which they do it again and ...

The Miracles: City Of Angels
Review by Cliff White, NME, December 1975
WHAT A ...

Betty Davis: Nasty Gal
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, December 1975
ON HER FIRST two albums, Betty Davis staked out a peculiar brand of kinky, tongue-in-cheek funk that garnered her a cult following in Philadelphia and a ...

Bobby Womack: Safety First
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, December 1975
BOBBY WOMACK is the kind of guy who lights up a room when he enters, and this suite in the Plaza Hotel is no exception. Sunday ...

Stephanie Mills: The Wiz Kid!
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 1976
"This young lady has gusto, tenderness, sweetness, and Soul... all the qualities to make her more that just another singer – a Star!" David Nathan goes ...

David Ruffin: Who I Am
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, January 1976
THIS IS AN encouraging album. After a celebrated re-signing with Motown last year, the ponderous Norman Whitfield-produced Me 'n Rock 'n Roll Are Here to Stay ...

Johnny Guitar Watson: Beware The Guitar Gangster
Profile and Interview by Kevin Allen, Record Mirror, January 1976
SUPERSTAR? MAYBE not. But despite a lack of any major hits, Johnny 'Guitar' Watson has long been acknowledged as a super-talent of the black American music ...

Sheer Elegance
Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, January 1976
From obscurity to a hit in two moves...just luck? Not true, Sheer Elegance tell HARRY DOHERTY ...

Earth Wind and Fire: Signs Rise for Shining Stars
Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, January 1976
LOS ANGELES – "Music is a sacred thing and we take it very seriously," Earth Wind & Fire founder/percussionist Maurice White offers during a rehearsal break. ...

Lamont Dozier: Stretchin' Out
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, February 1976
WHEN THE time comes to chronicle the names of some of the top producers and songwriters of the sixties and seventies, there is no question that ...

D.J. Rogers: Songs Of Love And Hope
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, February 1976
A young man whose West Coast reputation is spreading fast. ...

Jean Plum
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, February 1976
MAKING HER debut in the British soul charts this week is vivacious Jean Plum, whose London release of 'Look At The Boy' has been hotly tipped ...

Donna Summer
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, February 1976
GETTING A record banned by the dear of BBC is as surefire a way of getting a hit as I know of and it's a route ...

Earth Wind & Fire: Gratitude
Review by Cliff White, NME, February 1976
PROOF AT LAST that EWF deserve all the acclaim that's been heaped on them in the last couple of ...

Kokomo: Grown Some Funk Of Our Own
Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, February 1976
THE SUBDUED shufflings of a hotel chambermaid were gradually coaxing Alan Spenner, Kokomo's friendly grizzly bear of a bass payer, out of sweet slumber. ...

The Isley Brothers: Twist And Shout, Super Hits
Review by Cliff White, NME, February 1976
SOME RECORDINGS CRY out to be reissued. In fact they never should have been deleted in the first place. Others should never even have been released ...

Gladys Knight: The Best Of…, A Little Knight Music, Gladys Knight And The Pips
Review by Bob Woffinden, NME, February 1976
DON'T BE MISLED – The Best Of... actually refers to the best of Gladys and the 'Pips' Buddah output, but such is the strength of the ...

The Future Of Rock 'N' Soul
Comment by Kevin Allen, Record Mirror, February 1976
JUST ONE glance at the pop charts over the past decade is sufficient to indicate the domination of black music in general and soul music in ...

Gil Scott-Heron: London
Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, February 1976
"HEY, BRIAN, it's sold out – there's a line in front of the theatre!" That's one of the Midnight Band's glamorous female entourage calling out in ...

The O'Jays: Family Reunion (Philadelphia International)***
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, February 1976
THERE'S A HIT on this record, in case you're interested – 'I Love Music'. I needn't elaborate on that one, as if you're reading this you're ...

Ann Peebles: Tellin' It
Review by Cliff White, NME, February 1976
IN 1968 IN Memphis, Tennessee, Willie Mitchell succeeded to the board of an ailing record company called ...

Kokomo/Kursaal Flyers: Guildford
Live Review by John Tobler, NME, February 1976
A VERY strange billing, Kokomo as support to the Kursaal Flyers. Now that seems to say something about relative popularity and the length of time it ...

KC and Sunshine Band
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, March 1976
"I'd just put out the George McCrae album, and I kept hearing one of my tunes come busting through the wall up there." H.W. Casey – ...

Bobby Womack
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, March 1976
ROOT-RAPPIN? Whassat? Well, it's like this...John Abbey got to talking with Bobby and the conversation drifted to his very early days – his ...

Barbara Pennington
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, March 1976
ACTUALLY, I must confess that when you ask me about hat-tricks from Blackpool, the first name to spring to mind would be Stanley Mortenson. But the ...

Dobie Gray: Capricorn Rising
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, March 1976
IT IS, I GUESS, the third time around for Dobie Gray who, at the present moment, is stretched out full length on a bed on the ...

Gladys Knight & the Pips: Gladys Knight and the Pips (DJM)
Review by Simon Frith, Street Life, March 1976
SHE'S JUST GONNA have to get used to it. When you're the greatest pop singer in the world (and she is) and have been together with ...

The Discreet Charm Of the Black Bourgeoisie: Barry White and Company
Review by Penny Valentine, Street Life, March 1976
WHEN YOUNG American blacks threw off their jeans, gave them to the white kids, and emerged supercool in their three-piece suits, brogues and cashmere sweaters the ...

Bobby Womack: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, March 1976
THIS MUST Rank as the most Perplexing gig I've ever seen. All I was left with at the end was a burning desire to rush off ...

Bobby Womack: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Cliff White, NME, March 1976
POLE-AXED BY SKIN-CRAWLING hot and cold flushes, with a head full of demented panel-beaters, the last thing I wanted to do was travel 50 miles to ...

Bobby Womack: Safety Zone
Review by Cliff White, NME, March 1976
IF YOU WANT to do Bobby Womack a favour, you'll ignore this ...

California Soul Hits The Big Apple
Live Review by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, April 1976
A special report by David Nathan on the on-stage and behind-the-scenes activities at Warner Brothers' special "California Soul" series of concerts during end of February at ...

The Staple Singers
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, April 1976
ONE OF the most welcome sights of recent months has been the re-appearance in the pop and R&B charts of that much-loved and extra-soulful family known ...

Al Green: Full Of Fire (London) ****
Review by Barbara Charone, Sounds, April 1976
AL GREEN stands in the middle of the ring, caught in combat between an elastic rhythm section and a resilient horn section. Producer/engineer Willie Mitchell is ...

Archie Bell and the Drells Still Dance All Night
Profile and Interview by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, April 1976
NEW YORK – Archie Bell interrupts his rushed, businesslike replies for a moment and works up the faintest trace of a smile: "I didn't know what ...

A Walk On War's Wild Side
Interview by Steven Rosen, Sounds, April 1976
FAR OUT Productions, besides being War's Hollywood headquarters, seems to be a favourite hangout for streetwalkers. They seem to think that all the black gentlemen frequently ...

Al Jarreau: Jarreau Gig At La Coupole Goes Molto Bene
Report and Interview by Cliff White, NME, April 1976
"THERE'S NO reason for my deserving this interview any more than the man out there pouring drinks, except that I try to say something through music ...

Ike & Tina Turner: Her Man, His Woman
Review by Cliff White, NME, April 1976
RECORDED AND FIRST released as the Get It, Get It L.P. on the L.A. Cenco label circa 1965, this album was snapped up by Capitol when ...

Johnnie Taylor: Eargasm
Review by Cliff White, NME, April 1976
THAT THIS ALBUM has already been such an overwhelming success in America must surely be due to US Columbia's marketing techniques rather than the music, for ...

Brook Benton: This Is Brook Benton
Review by Cliff White, NME, April 1976
THIS MONTH'S MIND-BLOWER: The Benton basement tapes surface after 18 years in the can and turn out to be a bag of fun for all 50s ...

Diana Ross: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, April 1976
WHEN WILL THE real Diana Ross sing up and be counted? ...

Smokey Robinson: Smokey's Family Robinson (Tamla Motown) *****
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, April 1976
"A VOICE on the stereo singing softly, Describing what I feel about you, The singer seems to know all about it, Seems like the writer must, ...

Edwin Starr
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, May 1976
YESSIREEBOB, VENUS and Mars are alright tonight! The past year has been relatively quiet for Edwin Starr but he seems happier than at any time before. ...

Marvin Gaye: I Want You (Tamla Motown) ****
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, May 1976
MARVIN GAYE is in the fortunate or unfortunate position of being regarded as a prophet-cum-saviour. ...

Al Jarreau: A Man And His Laundry
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, May 1976
"IT DON'T make no moth a fugging difference what happens to me, Going to be there in my own time, in my own way..."
– Al Jarreau, ...

Gladys Knight and the Pips: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, May 1976
HAVING BEEN privileged to see two out-of-London sets of G. K. and the P's, I was rather more picky than most of the London audience. ...

Gladys Knight & the Pips: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Cliff White, NME, May 1976
HORACE SILVER to Brain Case, NME, May 1st 1976. "I'd prefer just reports on concerts rather than a critique." Quite right too, Horace. O.K. then. No ...

The Temptations: Wings Of Love (Tamala Motown)****
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, May 1976
VERY NEAT structure to the new Temps release. Side one has all the funk, all the dancers, and Side two has what you could call either ...

Soul Albums Reviewed
Review by Simon Frith, Street Life, May 1976
Temptations: Wings of Love
Marvin Gaye: I Want You
Lee Garrett: Heat For The Feets

EVEN SOUL musicians grow old and, though black music has never been ...

Average White Band: Edinburgh, Scotland
Live Review by Barbara Charone, Sounds, May 1976
"I'VE GOT an announcement to make," Alan Gorrie told a sold out Edinburgh audience the night after Scotland had beaten England. "If there's any dodgy singin' ...

Lee Garrett: Born A Loser
Profile and Interview by Cliff White, NME, May 1976
Meet the man who put dues-paying into the big league: LEE GARRETT. Born blind into a poor family and a drifter by his teens, Garrett has ...

Average White Band: Young Rascals Searching For Your Soul
Interview by Barbara Charone, Sounds, May 1976
Barbara Charone talks to Scotland's most famous sons, the Average White Band

'I'm sure people will put us down...I hope they don't put us down but I'm ...

Bootsy Collins
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, June 1976
"SAY MAN, do you think these shades make me look just a little like Bootsy Collins? ...

Archie Bell & The Drells
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, June 1976
ITS AN old saying that you can't keep a good man down, right? Well, that saying has never been better proven than by our old friends, ...

Al Wilson
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, June 1976
ANY LONG-TERM reader of B&S will know what I mean by a "backbone of our music singer". They are the artists who don't attain superstar status ...

Luther Are Good For The Soul
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, June 1976
2008 introduction: "Luther are three girls and two guys whose debut single for Cotillion is attracting a lot of attention. They are not headliners yet, but ...

Millie Jackson: Free And In Love
Review by Cliff White, NME, June 1976
OOWEE, LORD HAVE mercy. This girl just turns me to jelly every time she opens her ...

Natalie Cole: Natalie (Capitol) 35 mins ***
Essay by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, June 1976
IF YOU get right down to it I suppose pop/rock is composed of a set of quite different musical idioms within which almost everyone sounds exactly ...

The Emotions: Happiness Is…
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, July 1976
Happy days are here again for Wanda, Jeanette and Sheila. They learned a lot from the quiet times and that knowledge is serving them well now ...

Millie Jackson: Free And In Love (Spring/Polydor) ****
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, July 1976
MILLIE JACKSON has purchased a slinky new catsuit for the sleeve of this album, suitable for a liberated courtesan. And she can afford it too, seeing ...

Crusaders: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Max Bell, NME, July 1976
THE HELL WITH it, let's be dogmatic and lay down a truth that was already manifest before their historic visit. When it comes to pumping out ...

Sam Cooke: Twistin' The Night Away
Review by Cliff White, NME, August 1976
BETWEEN 1960 and 1963 more Twist albums hit the market than the total spinoff products from Elvis, The Beatles and Jaws. ...

The Real Thing
Interview by Cliff White, NME, September 1976
THE REAL THING seems to be an apt name for a trio who are determined to succeed on their own merits and not as a homegrown ...

The Emotions: Flowers
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, September 1976
SALVAGED FROM THE debris of the Stax bankruptcy, the Emotions have reemerged with one of the year's most refreshing soul albums. Producer Maurice White, who was ...

Johnny Guitar Watson
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, September 1976
I WAS SUFFERING an unprecedented fit of nerves as I stood clutching my dime by the pay phones in Little Lucy's El Adobe Restaurant in downtown ...

Moon: Is This The Dark Side Of The Moon?
Interview by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, October 1976
"ARE YOU using Memorex?" asked Moon's Noel McCalla, leaning quizzically over my cassette machine. "You gotta use Memorex for us, you know. Only the best, ...

The Meters: Trick Bag
Review by Cliff White, NME, October 1976
DAY ONE: can't get past the third track. Before reaching it, 4.08 mins of 'Disco Is The Thing Today' revealed a commercial, characterless leap onto an ...

Stevie Wonder: Songs In The Key Of Life
Review by Bob Woffinden, NME, October 1976
RUMOURS THAT the New Musical Express has deliberately pursued a course of hostility towards Stevie Wonder are, of course, utterly without foundation; but (even at the ...

Marvin Gaye: Soul Searching
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, October 1976
MARVIN GAYE's chosen an interesting stage of his career to re-visit these shores after a 12-year absence. ...

Marvin Gaye: Cool Soul Genius Wows Albert
Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, October 1976
Marvin Gaye: Royal Albert Hall, London

THERE HAS to be a reason for hiring the Albert Hall. It's true that information sometimes gets lost over the Atlantic, ...

Aretha Franklin: Sparkle (Atlantic)****
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, October 1976
SUBTITLED 'Music From The Motion Picture', Sparkle is a soundtrack album, that plays like a record. It doesn't, unlike most of the genre, hang limply like ...

Gil Scott-Heron And Brian Jackson: It's Your World (Arista) ****
Review by Mick Brown, Sounds, November 1976
WITH IT'S Your World – his fourth English but sixth American album – Gil Scott-Heron takes another step in carving out his singular niche as jazz ...

Johnny Guitar Watson: Newcastle Polytechnic
Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, November 1976
THE GIG at Newcastle Poly was Johnny Guitar Watson's first British date for a ...

Curtis Mayfield: The Creative Mastermind
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, December 1976
TO TRY and describe Curtis Mayfield's enormous contribution to the music world would take far more adjectives than we have at our disposal. ...

O'Jays: Message in the Music
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, December 1976
NOW THAT the Staples are unabashed sex merchants, the O'Jays are pop's foremost message mongerers. But the O'Jays don't write or produce their albums, so their ...

Bobby Womack: Home Is Where The Heart Is (Columbia)****
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, December 1976
WHEN BOBBY's excursion into country'n'western finally made it into the racks this summer, his long-cherished project met with mixed reviews. ...

Ike and Tina Turner
Profile by Bob Woffinden, NME, December 1976
THAT THE Tina Turner-Phil Spector combination should have produced one isolated tour-de-force 45 was perhaps not surprising; after all, Tina more than anyone else was the ...

Return of the Wicked Pickett
Report and Interview by Michael Lydon, unpublished, 1977
"I’VE ALWAYS WANTED to be a star," said Wilson Pickett. He clapped his hands and fell back into a deck chair behind his house in Englewood, ...

Tower Of Power: Ain't Nothin' Stoppin' Us Now
Review by Max Bell, NME, January 1977
THIS IS essentially transitional meat from Oakland, Soul City's finest. ...

The Average White Band: Person To Person
Review by Tony Stewart, NME, January 1977
WELCOME BACK the musically credible and eminently excellent Average White Band with this defiant poke in the ear for all those people who seven months ago ...

Gladys Knight & The Pips: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Cliff White, NME, January 1977
THERE IS AN unwritten guarantee with every ticket for a Gladys Knight & The Pips concert. A guarantee of aural, visual and emotional satisfaction. I've never ...

In A Changing World, There's Always Gladys Knight
Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, January 1977
Gladys Knight and The Pips: New Victoria, London ...

Al Green: Have a Good Time
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, January 1977
IF HIS RECORDS ARE ANY indication, Al Green is a troubled, no, haunted man. ...

Gladys Knight And The Pips: The Family That Eats Together Hits Together
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, January 1977
Since their last visit eight months ago, nothing much has changed for Gladys Knight and the Pips. ...

Kokomo: The Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, January 1977
WELL, JOE Cocker wasn't there. At least I don't think he was. After a very hard weekend of various rock 'n' roll activities the strain began ...

The Sylvers: Something Special
Review by Lester Bangs, Circus, January 1977
WHAT'S WRONG with disco music? All my friends hate it, so I know there must be something good about it. They say it's inhuman; I've always ...

Phyllis Hyman: This Lady's Got Star Karma
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, March 1977
"This lady's got star karma...The buzz about Phyllis Hyman started amongst the superstar elite. It hasn't taken long for the word to get ...

Ronnie Spector: Hi There, Big Boy! Wanna "Interview" Me?
Interview by Cliff White, NME, April 1977
Mmm-mm. Eighty-eight pounds of compact yumminess on parade for all you heavy guys out there. CLIFF WHITE, hot from New York, on delectable RONNIE SPECTOR's sizzling ...

AUDIO: Wilson Pickett (1977)
Interview by Michael Lydon, Rock's Backpages Audio, May 1977
After Michael Lydon's swift intro, an avuncular Wilson Pickett talks about his gospel roots, The Falcons, hooking up with Atlantic and working in Memphis and Muscle ...

The Chi-Lites: Theatre Royal, London
Live Review by Paul Rambali, NME, May 1977
THE HOUSE LIGHTS dimmed and the musicians took their places. There was a buzz of activity on the darkened stage for a minute or so and ...

Joe Tex: The Soul Of An Underdog
Profile and Interview by Joe McEwen, Boston Phoenix, May 1977
THE SHOW was held at South Philadelphia's Spectrum, still a brand-new facility in 1969, but it could well have been the fare at North Philly's rattier, ...

Parliament: Live: The P-Funk Earth Tour
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, June 1977
"THEY SAY the bigger the headache the bigger the pill!" Dr. Funkenstein shouts. ...

George Benson: It's A Man's Man's Man's Man's World
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, June 1977
"YOU'RE SAYING that women are equal to men and all that crazy stuff!" George Benson laughed in astonishment.

Hold on a second I must be hallucinating this. ...

Ben E. King/Average White Band: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Cliff White, NME, July 1977
THIS ISN'T an original thought but it bears repeating: Ben E. King is an excellent singer, and highly individual with it – unmistakeable in a blindfold ...

The Gap Band: The Gap Band
Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, August 1977
SO I PICKED through the albums lying in Master Barton's dusty drawer and there, amongst the dross, was a name I recognised. The Gap Band. ...

The Miami Transfer: Florida Soul
Review by Cliff White, NME, August 1977
AFTER SEVERAL year's of British release through President Records, earlier this year Henry Stone's Miami-based TK conglomerate switched outlets to RCA who have already ...

Rose Royce Find Success The Norman Whitfield Way
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, October 1977
"IT'S KJLH, the station of Kindness, Joy, Love and Happiness," the deejay smoulders on the car radio, and goshdarn if you couldn't almost believe all that ...

Deniece Williams / Lenny Williams: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Cliff White, NME, October 1977
REGULAR PATRONS of theatre gigs in Britain have become so wary, not to say weary, of suffering rent-a-stooge warm-up acts that many now don't bother to ...

Brothers Johnson: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Cliff White, NME, October 1977
AS BONES OF contention go, there is currently none more fat and juicy than the one being wrestled between the main pack of legit music journalists ...

Shirley Brown: Shirley Brown
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, October 1977
IF IT was Clive Davis, head of Arista, who's responsible for the release of Shirley Brown, I'd like to invite him to hold his next barmitzvah ...

Millie Jackson: Feelin' Bitchy
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, October 1977
HEY, MILLIE? This is Vivien.
I'm writing to you 'cos I dig the way you move onstage. I saw you foolin' round with that guy onstage at ...

Scifi Funkiness: Triple Threat Guitar From Funkadelic
Interview by Steven Rosen, Guitar Player, December 1977
ALMOST 20 YEARS AGO, a group of singers organized themselves from a rather large barbershop group into a pop/soul conglomeration called Parliament. They moved from record ...

Millie Jackson: Odeons Birmingham And Hammersmth
Live Review by Cliff White, NME, February 1978
Millie's preoccupations, said The Guardian, are sex, sex and more sex; can't argue with that. ...

Mille Jackson: The Primal Scream Therapist Of Soul
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, February 1978
MILLIE JACKSON yanked me over to her side of the fence the first moment I heard her belting out some juicy slice of angst on Caught ...

Millie Jackson: Another Day, Another Dollar
Report and Interview by Cliff White, NME, February 1978
A COLLEAGUE FROM another paper and I were swopping reactions about Millie Jackson. He'd interviewed her in London; I'd caught up with her a couple of ...

Hot Chocolate: City Hall, Newcastle
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, April 1978
IT WAS the funniest ending to a concert I've ever seen. Hot Chocolate said their goodbyes, walked off and, I imagine, stood in the wings awaiting ...

The Manhattans: There’s No Good In Goodbye; It Feels So Good
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, May 1978
IN A FIELD ONCE glutted with heavyweights, lightweights and pretenders, the Manhattans stand almost alone, a throwback to an era when an orange sharkskin suit, white ...

Bootsy Collins: 'Don't Leave Home Without Your F.U.N.K!'
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, June 1978
"I WANNA PLAY with the kids", Bootsy Collins said, yearning. Walking down the gravel path winding past the white neo-Classical pillars of Kenwood House, Highgate, Bootsy ...

Bootsy's Rubber Band: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Cliff White, NME, June 1978
A MESSAGE from the Mothership: "If you ain't gonna get it on, take your dead ass home." Some did...some of those dead asses...they couldn't cope with ...

Boney M: By The Rivers (well…sands, beaches, coves, quays and bays) Of Babbacombe
Report by Penny Reel, NME, July 1978
TORBAY OR NOT Torbay – that is the question! I am standing at the barrier of Platform 2, Paddington, one chilly Saturday morning expressing Brandoesque mutterance ...

Etta James: Payin' The Cost
Profile and Interview by Bill Millar, Melody Maker, September 1978
YOU CAN ENJOY Etta James as a throwback to the rockin' Fifties. You can admire her as the apotheosis of Sixties soul performing ghetto clubs while ...

KC & the Sunshine Band
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, October 1978
WHENEVER you think of the Miama Sound, the name of K.C. & the Sunshine Band immediately springs to mind. Via a long string of golden hits, ...

The Crusaders: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Cliff White, NME, October 1978
ON STAGE, as on record, The Crusaders an elusive synthesis of assorted musical elements which, although generally bonded in a cohesive sound that is unmistakably Crusaders, ...

Rose Royce, Stargard: Odeon, Birmingham
Live Review by Cliff White, NME, October 1978
IT SURE WUZ A GREAT PAAAARTY... ...

Rose Royce: Socio/Political Conscience? Waal, Ah'm Rilly Into Chutney
Interview by Danny Baker, NME, October 1978
"SO HOWS about up at number two, we have the one and only Rose Royce with 'Love Don't Live Here Anymore'...goodness gracious yes..." ...

Ray Charles: Love And Peace
Review by Penny Valentine, Melody Maker, October 1978
IT'S RARE FOR any artist to re-emerge successfully from a long period of musical sterility. Harder still, somehow, for black musicians, whose problems – brought about ...

Isaac Hayes: Chronicle/For The Sake Of Love
Review by Pete Wingfield, Melody Maker, November 1978
IT'S MY CONTENTION that, whatever bizarre circumstances caused the flurry of lawsuits circulating round Isaac Hayes prior to the demise of Stax Records, and the subsequent ...

P-Funk: Bernie Worrell, The Keyboard King
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, December 1978
THE LATEST Parliafunkadelicment member to shoot solo shots is Bernie Worrell, the keyboard king of Funkadelia. Entitled All The Woo In the World, the album is ...

The Brides Of Funkenstein: The Solo Talents Within The Parliafunkadelicment Thang…
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, December 1978
AS ONE would imagine, monogamy isn't in keeping with Dr. Funkenstein's image and so I guess it was only natural that when he launched his chosen ...

P-Funk: Mike Hampton – Kid Funkadelic
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, December 1978
REPRESENTING the younger generation of Funkadelicans is Mike Hampton, a long-haired extrovert who plays perhaps the meanest guitar within our musical sphere. "I am not a ...

George Clinton
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, December 1978
Coinciding with the arrival of the whole Parliafunk-adelicment entourage in Britain for concert dates, B&S concludes its exclusive interview with the mastermind of the whole Thang... ...

The Jacksons: Destiny
Review by Pete Wingfield, Melody Maker, December 1978
THIS IS AN important album for the Jacksons – now five again, with a small letter at least, Jermaine's defection having been balanced by lil' bro' ...

Chic: C'est Chic
Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, December 1978
DISCO, THE People's Music, is the modern blues: the truest expression of a generation's thoughts, bitter sweetness with a backbeat. The old blues celebrated the things ...

Parliament/Funkadelic/Parlet/Brides Of Funkenstein: Bellevue Kings Hall, Manchester
Live Review by Mick Middles, Sounds, December 1978
THE WORLD funk extravaganza circus comes to Manchester. ...

The Brides of Funkenstein: Funk Or Walk; Parliament: Motor Booty Affair
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, December 1978
IF ROCK stars had the kind of union that insisted on overtime bans and frowned on over-productivity, George Clinton would undoubtedly be the subject of some ...

Heatwave
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, January 1979
LONDON, England, is hardly renowned for its temperate climate but it can boast one long and consistent Heatwave because it is – and probably always will ...

Hot Chocolate: Everyone's a Moneyspinner
Profile and Interview by Davitt Sigerson, Melody Maker, January 1979
GREAT POPULAR music is generally not a cynical or synthetic product, but something personal to one individual that many, many others find appealing. ...

War: Youngblood (MCA)
Review by Davitt Sigerson, Melody Maker, January 1979
WAR WAS a multi-platinum album act in America with such classic Top 40 streetfunk singles as 'All Day Music', 'Cisco Kid', 'The World Is A Ghetto' ...

Marvin Gaye: Here, My Dear
Review by Davitt Sigerson, Melody Maker, January 1979
EDITOR'S NOTE: A couple of weeks ago, Vivien Goldman trashed Marvin Gaye's new album in these columns. A dissenting voice pleads to be heard – ...

Sister Sledge: We Are Family (Cotillion U.S. import)
Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, March 1979
I WAIT for new work by Chic's Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers in the way that I once waited for the latest items from Phil Spector ...

Earth, Wind & Fire: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Pete Wingfield, Melody Maker, March 1979
PITY THE poor reviewer covering a show of the astonishing calibre of Earth, Wind & Fire's weekend extravaganza at the Empire Pool. ...

Earth, Wind & Fire: Maurice White's Band of Hope
Report and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, March 1979
There's more to America's biggest soul band than bread and circuses. VIVIEN GOLDMAN followed them to Staffordshire to talk about the Bible, spinal fluid, reincarnation, levitation ...

Tavares: Madame Butterfly (Capitol)
Review by Simon Frith, Melody Maker, April 1979
MADAME Butterfly opens with the familiar dance floor sounds – brass riff, flowing strings punched out guitars, tightly strung percussion – but this isn't really a ...

Percy Sledge: The Venue, London
Live Review by John Pidgeon, Melody Maker, April 1979
THE SIMPLISTIC idea that the fundamental difference between country and soul in the Sixties was that one music was made by poor whites in the Southern ...

Bobby Womack: Roads Of Life (Arista)
Review by Pete Wingfield, Melody Maker, May 1979
THE FORTUNES of gravel-voiced soul vet Bobby Womack have taken a dip of late. ...

Patti LaBelle: It's Alright With Me (Epic)
Review by Pete Wingfield, Melody Maker, June 1979
I GUESS it's all of eighteen years since I first heard 'Down The Aisle' by Patti Labelle and the Bluebelles – and when I put it ...

Minnie Riperton
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, June 1979
2008 introduction:This interview was David's second face-to-face conversation with Minnie; at the time, she was dealing with health challenges – in 1976, she had been diagnosed ...

The Isley Brothers: Winner Takes All
Review by Davitt Sigerson, Melody Maker, June 1979
3 + 3 DON'T MIND they just keep on jamming. Strings and horns? Uh-uh. They just go up to Bearsville. Ernie puts down the drums with ...

Anita Ward: The Bell Rings and School's Out
Profile and Interview by Penny Valentine, Melody Maker, June 1979
THIS VERY day, 'Ring My Bell' has made it to number one in the British charts. The boys at TK records (who function from the old ...

Johnny 'Guitar' Watson: What The Hell Is This ****½
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, July 1979
THIS IS a real mutha for ya, from the first seconds of the title track which go for your vitals with a rivet gun of a ...

Bootsy's Rubber Band: This Boot Is Made For Fonk-n (Warners)
Review by Pete Wingfield, Melody Maker, July 1979
THE WORLD'S zaniest bass-player is back, whatever the truth of reports about a nervous breakdown; or, as he tells us himself: "I dug the concern when ...

Barry White: The Message Really Is Love
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, August 1979
IT'S an old criticism that so few people practice what they preach. But, in the case of Barry White, the title of his new album – ...

Earth Wind & Fire: I Am
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, August 1979
MAURICE WHITE, Earth, Wind and Fire's presiding genius, ranges across popular music like a robber baron, selecting only the tastiest artifacts for his collection. ...

Al Green: The Record Mogul In The Sky
Interview by Nick Kent, NME, August 1979
WHO CAN DENY that the Lord moves in mysterious ways? In this week of Mammon in hyperdrive – Quadrophenia, the rejuvenation of mods v. rockers in ...

Al Green: Tired Of Being Alone
Report and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, August 1979
Al Green's London concerts last week were a puzzling mixture of the brilliant and the banal – and VIVIEN GOLDMAN discovered that his verbals are even ...

Nina Simone: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Penny Valentine, Melody Maker, September 1979
NINA SIMONE has never been a comfortable musician to see live. A powerful performer, she is formidably dedicated to her art. It's hardly surprising, then, that ...

Gladys Knight & the Pips: Memories of the Way We Were (Buddah); 20 Golden Greats (Motown)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Melody Maker, October 1979
GLADYS KNIGHT has been turned into the spinster of soul. Her generous face seems to invite desertion. Yet with almost maternal dignity, she translates this loneliness ...

The Brothers Johnson
Interview by Steven Rosen, Guitar Player, November 1979
'PLATINUM' IS THE perfect word to precede 'record' when you’re a musician today. And with a three-for-three tally, the Brothers Johnson are decorating their walls with ...

James Brown: Get Up, I Feel Like Being A Rap Machine
Interview by Nick Kent, NME, November 1979
JAMES BROWN is late for our appointment. But then it would almost be heresy on his part were he not a regal 45 minutes behind schedule. ...

Prince: The Roxy, Los Angeles
Live Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, November 1979
IT MUST BE A daunting prospect for anyone to make his or her performing debut, save for a couple of hometown Minneapolis tuneups, before an industry-heavy ...

The Jacksons' Press Conference for Triumph
Report by Danny Baker, NME, 1980
I LOVE PRESS conferences. Nobody says anything for the first ten minutes and then, when someone does, questions fly about in little spurts. In the gaps, ...

AUDIO: Michael Jackson (1980)
Interview by John Pidgeon, Rock's Backpages Audio, January 1980
John Pidgeon, via a 13-year-old Janet, hears from the King of Pop about how he linked up with Motown, learned about the studio, how he sees ...

Smokey Robinson: Warm Thoughts
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, August 1980
"The fireside, the lamplight intimate and low, reverie with finger at the brow, and eyes that lose themselves in answering looks..."
– Paul Verlaine, ‘La Bonne Chanson’ ...

Earth Wind and Fire: Faces
Review by Danny Baker, NME, October 1980
ANY GROUP can only pack so much stuff. The stuff that oils and inspires their moves, greases songs, a magic stuff that flows through a succession ...

Marvin Gaye: In Our Lifetime (Motown)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, NME, February 1981
SOMEHOW ONE forgives the sermonising in Marvin Gaye that irritates in other soul stars. Visually he fits the bill – he might almost be the king ...

Marvin Gaye: For Once In A Lifetime
Interview by Paolo Hewitt, Melody Maker, February 1981
AFTER NEARLY two hours in that bedroom, Lydia finally gave up. By any standards she'd waited long enough for her Marvin Gaye interview – a month ...

ESG: No Guile or Wile, Just Wallop
Profile and Interview by Richard Grabel, NME, May 1981
THESE DAYS, a lot of bands glorify the appearance of being what they are not. ...

Prince: A Dirty Mind Comes Clean
Interview by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, June 1981
WHO IS THE REAL Prince, anyway? The flashy, high-energy black pop star with the Stratocaster wearing Iggy Pop's underwear? Or the pleasant, soft-spoken fellow who slumps ...

Prince: Strutting With The New Soul Monarch
Interview by Chris Salewicz, NME, June 1981
THIS FELLOW sitting across the table from me in an uptown Manhattan Holiday Inn room may be a Prince but he ain't no ...

Kid Creole & The Coconuts
Profile and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Musician, October 1981
Urban time warps and geomusical quantum leaps later, Kid Creole and his pal Sugar-Coated are washed up on a sandy Island with only their wits and ...

The Real Chic
Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, December 1981
TEAR A STRIP off the sucker. Suddenly everybody's selfconsciously diving for the dancefloor. Most groups have got their 'funky number', even if they're not funky. Cavorting ...

Stevie Wonder: Original Musiquarium I
Review by Lloyd Bradley, NME, 1982
FOUR MONTHS late, four sides long, only four tracks new but fortunately containing enough sterling old stuff to make it a realistic proposition (economicswise) comes the ...

Chic: Take It Off
Review by Glenn O'Brien, Interview, February 1982
IT'S BEEN ABOUT a year since the last CHIC album. Since then, half of the dance bag bands, in the world have come to resemble – ...

Four Tops Don't Walk Away Ever!
Interview by Gavin Martin, NME, February 1982
MY FIRST TASTE of Motown music was many summers ago as I mulled away my school holidays in a sort of passive ignorance, more interested in ...

Gil Scott-Heron: The Homeland Is Where The Hatred Is
Interview by Lloyd Bradley, NME, March 1982
JUST ONE CHANGE of buses, and the sound stages of Century City CA, where platinum plated cowboys bite the props department dust, are replaced by the ...

Earth Wind And Fire: Ecstasy At The Dawn Of Creation!
Live Review by Gavin Martin, NME, March 1982
Earth Wind And Fire: Wembley Arena, London ...

A Funk-Lite Labyrinth: Maze
Report and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, NME, March 1982
FRANKIE BEVERLY’S eight-man Maze could have come to Europe at any time in the last two years and met with the same phenomenal response they are ...

Rick James: Blowing Out Tinsel Town
Interview by Lloyd Bradley, NME, April 1982
Not So Long Ago:
THERE WAS a time when nearly everybody in the world owned a Motown record. Motown was like a baby's security blanket, warm, familiar, ...

The Imagination Master Class
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, NME, April 1982
LEEE: YOUR NAME'S Barney Rubble. How long have you been interviewing? A year? So you're young, a spring chicken?

BH: Why, do I look well-seasoned? ...

Defunkt: Too Fierce For Radioland
Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, June 1982
Joe Bowie, singer-songwriter-trombonist-leader talked to Kris Needs and Killing Joke bassist Youth. ...

The Pleasure of the Pain
Review by Barney Hoskyns, NME, June 1982
Various Artists: Lost Soul, Vols. 1-3 (Epic, import) ...

Donna Summer: Donna Summer
Review by Paolo Hewitt, Melody Maker, July 1982
IF THERE's one song that Donna Summer should be singing right now it's our current number one, 'Fame'. Tailor made for her, 'Fame' is glossy, excitingly ...

Larry Graham: The Sly Sound Of Success
Interview by Andy Gill, NME, August 1982
THE SOFA is sumptuous, the clothes casual; Larry Graham sits swathed in both, the epitome of affluent black America. We're in a hospitality suite in WEA's ...

The Four Tops: One More Mountain (Casablanca)
Review by Gavin Martin, NME, September 1982
WHEN MARVIN Gaye recorded What's Going On in the early '70s it was part of an important transition for the Motown label, its mixture of the ...

Gil Scott-Heron: Moving Target (Arista)
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, September 1982
GIL SCOTT-HERON is one of the most quietly effective performers currently working in popular music: his cool, firm underplaying makes the listener want to move towards ...

The Time: What Time Is It? (WEA)
Review by Lloyd Bradley, NME, October 1982
TIME IT WAS AND WHAT A TIME IT WAS ...

Millie Jackson: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Cliff White, NME, November 1982
VOICE: robust and versatile, unique among name entertainers for its dynamic revitalisation of R&B and soul intonations of yesteryear. Humour: sardonic, self-deprecating, ego-crushing, uplifting; more often ...

Luther Vandross
Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Musician, December 1982
LUTHER VANDROSS curled up in the stuffed arm chair with his Wizard-of-Oz red ruby shoes tucked under his massive bulk. When he described Dionne Warwick's singing, ...

Marvin Gaye: Mr Midnight In The City Of Angels
Interview by Gavin Martin, NME, December 1982
DON'T WALK along Sunset Boulevard, otherwise you'll end up as part of the freakshow on the sidewalk rather than a spectator at The Last Great Drive-In ...

George Clinton: Computer Games (Capitol)
Review by Lloyd Bradley, NME, December 1982
A GEORGE Clinton solo album? Not a bit of it. Right down to Pedro Bell's quirkily barbed sleeve artwork, this is a Funkadelic record. The name ...

Shalamar: The Second Time Around
Profile and Interview by Paolo Hewitt, Melody Maker, December 1982
LATE LAST March, under the advice of a close friend, Jeffrey Daniels, one third of a group called Shalamar, took a walk down the Kings Road. ...

Blue-eyed soul: Colour Me Soul
Overview by Bill Millar, The History of Rock, 1983
The phrase 'blue-eyed soul' was coined by Georgie Woods, a black disc jockey on the WDAS radio station in Philadelphia. One of the major personalities in ...

George Clinton: The Return Of Doctor Funkenstein
Interview by Lloyd Bradley, NME, January 1983
TWO YEARS AGO George Clinton was freeing the galactic ass at the head of an unparalleled funk troupe – Parliament, Funkadelic, Bootsy Collins, Sly Stone, Zapp, ...

Imagination: The Glam Gladiators Fight Back
Interview by Gavin Martin, NME, January 1983
AT THE BOTTOM end of London's Marylebone Road, going towards the station, you pass numerous beauty salons, the type of establishment that's emerged in many suburban ...

Arthur Alexander: A Shot Of Rhythm And Soul (Ace)
Review by Gavin Martin, NME, January 1983
THIS IS a welcome and important collection bringing together for the first time on one LP all the famous and not so famous songs recorded by ...

The Gap Band: Star Spangled & Starry-Eyed
Interview by Gavin Martin, NME, February 1983
Gavin Martin meets The Gap Band, three of America's fortunate sons who just want to party and make people happy. ...

Earth, Wind & Fire: Powerlight (CBS)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, NME, February 1983
I SAY, let's not groove tonight. Sometimes Earth, Wind & Fire get down on a groove and flashily mess it around. Sometimes they just lie down ...

The Gap Band/Yarbrough and Peoples: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Dave Rimmer, Smash Hits, February 1983
Intrepid fans shuffle past a regiment of niggly security men and into the Hammersmith Odeon. On stage a whole troupe of compères bounce on and off ...

In Search Of The L.A. Black Beat
Report by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, May 1983
LOS ANGELES IS the home of black music stars. Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Donna Summer, Lionel Richie, Dionne Warwick, Earth, Wind & Fire, Smokey ...

Prince: Someday Your Prince Will Come
Essay by Carol Cooper, The Face, June 1983
THE THING TO BEAR IN MIND is that Prince does not do interviews. He certainly didn't do this one, nor any of a dozen others when ...

Nile Rodgers: Adventures In The Land Of The Good Groove
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, July 1983
SINCE NILE RODGERS (A) is democratic enough to include Wall Street within the borders of good-groove land (see the map on the album cover), and (B) ...

George Clinton: Putting On The Atomic Dog
Interview by John Morthland, Creem, July 1983
GEORGE CLINTON hunkers down into the couch in the conference room of Capitol's Manhattan offices, pours himself a tall noontime glass of orange juice, and rubs ...

Smokey Robinson: Cruisin' with Smokey
Interview by Dave Marsh, Record Magazine, August 1983
In an exclusive interview, the master of the romantic vignette-in-song gets into some nuts-and-bolts talk about the creative process and gets down with some vintage tales ...

Rick James: Cold Blooded (Motown)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, NME, August 1983
IN THE freak funk stakes, high-livin’ devil-may-care Rick James rates as a bit of a clown. As you’ll know if you caught his Rockpalast TV ...

Level 42: Standing In The Light (Polydor)
Review by David Quantick, NME, September 1983
BRITFUNK... THERE'S a lot of it about. From the half-Bakered whine of 'AEIOU' to the anonymous disaster that is David Grant, these isles are responsible for ...

Big Jay McNeely, Young Jessie, Chuck Higgins, Willie Egan: Electric Ballroom, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, NME, September 1983
I DOUBT WHETHER I am sufficiently qualified to pronounce on the merits or otherwise of the foregoing concert, considering I involve a substantial proportion of this ...

Level 42: Living It Down
Profile and Interview by Chris Salewicz, The Face, November 1983
IN THE HITCHHIKERS Guide To The Galaxy the number 42 is revealed as the clue to The I Meaning Of Life. This is the origin of ...

James Jamerson: What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted?
Comment by Dave Marsh, Record Magazine, November 1983
"I walk in shadows, searching for light, Cold and alone, no comfort in sight. Hoping and praying for someone who'll care, Always moving and going nowhere." ...

Rick James' Perfection
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Musician, November 1983
THE FOUR women stood in the semi-dark recording studio. "Okay, let's go," said the producer. ...

Junior Walker: The Shotgun Sherriff Rides Again
Interview by Gavin Martin, NME, November 1983
A Motown soul veteran for all seasons, Junior Walker has taken his sax appeal from small American clubs in the '50s to the heart of the ...

Rick James: A Rant
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, NME, Fall 1983
WHY HAVE you never come to England? Are you trying to break Elvis' ...

Simply Red: Hammersmith Odeon
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, NME, 1984
IT HAS to be said that this plumpish, carrot-mopped bloke stomping around like a kid in a playpen hardly looks the part of STAR. And yet ...

Arthur Alexander
Sleevenotes by Bill Millar, Ace Records, 1984
DURING THE early '60s, Arthur Alexander wrote a famous clutch of compact, well-crafted country-soul songs. Stories of inconstant love and private gloom, they were covered by ...

Otis Redding: Otis Blue (Atco)
Review by Richard Cook, NME, 1984
AS WITH SUCH iconic records as Forever Changes and Anthem Of The Sun, time has eroded the stature of Otis ...

Thorns In Velvet: Fats Domino and Ray Charles at the Capital Jazz Festival
Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 1984
AMONG the collection of venerable antiques paraded for this year’s Capital Jazz Festival – couldn’t the organisers find anybody of note under the age of 35? ...

Marvin Gaye: Death Of A Midnight Lover – A Tribute To A Trouble Man
Obituary by Paolo Hewitt, NME, April 1984
The romantic spirit of rising young black America in the '60s, Marvin Gaye evolved into a radical voice testifying pleasure and protest. A brilliant artist, his ...

Etta James: Empress In Exile
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, NME, April 1984
MOST EVERY year now Ms Jamesetta Hawkins – Etta to you – will at the behest of Dingwalls Boss (Goodman, that is) fly over to ...

Mtume, Duke et al: Class Of '74 Pops Into The Mainstream
Report and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, June 1984
LOOK AT WHAT 10 years can do to jazz mavericks. A decade ago, George Duke, James Mtume, Reggie Lucas, Ndugu Chancler and Stanley Clarke were working ...

Tina Turner: Private Dancer (Capitol)
Review by Jack Barron, Sounds, June 1984
AM I the only person who thinks Tina Turner looks, um, more sensual when she's fully clothed rather than parading acres of well preserved flesh? The ...

Marvin Gaye: No-One Quite Like Him
Obituary by Dave Marsh, Record Magazine, July 1984
Blessed with a cool born of control rather than emotional distance or reserve, Marvin Gaye was the artist who best expressed Motown's mix of disparate musical ...

Chic: Believer (Atlantic Records) *½
Review by Jack Barron, Sounds, July 1984
ANYONE FOR aural necrophilia? Like all dead boring musical activities, there is little mutual satisfaction to be gained here. ...

Prince: Purple Rain
Review by Gavin Martin, NME, August 1984
THE PROBLEM with major league soul is not a lack of 'good' music. What has been lost is the ability, possibly the desire, to make records ...

Michael Jackson: Inside the Jackson Dream Machine
Essay by Mick Brown, Sunday Times, August 1984
IN THE Helmsley Palace Hotel, New York – an establishment whose style is best described as neo-Liberace – the lobby was filling up with Michael ...

Right Place, Right Time: The Return of Denise Lasalle
Report and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, September 1984
DENISE LASALLE THOUGHT her singing career was over three years ago. The blues-soul singer, who appears at the Long Beach Blues Festival Saturday, was a highly ...

Trouble Funk On A ‘Go-Go’
Report and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, September 1984
WASHINGTON – Ronald Reagan may preside over official Washington, but Trouble Funk rules the inner city surrounding ...

On The Road with Bobby Womack
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, NME, October 1984
I'M NERVOUS setting out here. Nervous because I'd like to reach some "heart" of Bobby Womack where I don't have to tell you how he cut ...

Chaka Khan: I Feel For You (Warner Bros.)
Review by Don Snowden, Boston Phoenix, November 1984
CHAKA KHAN'S quest to distance her solo work from Rufus' sly, slinky funk led her into an electronic embrace with producer Arif Mardin Two albums ago ...

AUDIO: David Porter
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1985
The man who co-wrote all those great hits with Isaac Hayes remembers Memphis, and Stax, from back in the ...

AUDIO: Roosevelt Jamison on James Carr (and O.V. Wright)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1985
Roosevelt Jamison - friend, mentor and sometime manager - remembers arguably the greatest of deep soul singers, James Carr (and O.V. Wright too). ...

AUDIO: Rufus Thomas (1985)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1985
Rufus Thomas, between mouthfuls, talks about his youth in segregated Memphis, Minstrelsy, Ike and Tina Turner and his long involvement with Stax ...

The Dominoes
Sleevenotes by Bill Millar, Charly Records, 1985
BILLY WARD'S DOMINOES, from whose personnel Clyde McPhatter and Jackie Wilson later emerged as star soloists, were the founding fathers of gospel-oriented doowop with a liberated, ...

Big Jay McNeely
Sleevenotes by Bill Millar, Saxonograph Records sleevenote, 1985

IN AUGUST 1983 Big Jay McNeely flew to London for the R & B Jamboree at Camden 's Electric Ballroom where he topped a bill which ...

The Making Of Rhythm & Blues
Overview by Pete Grendysa, Collecting Magazine, 1985
IT WOULD BE HARD to imagine a stranger combination of factors than those that brought about the formation of rhythm & blues. Crucial to the ...

If It Don't Go, It Ain't Go-Go!
Report by Simon Witter, NME, February 1985
IT'S RARE FOR AN excellent musical style to remain unknown for long, yet Washington's Go-Go scene has done just that despite us running Richard Grabel's Trouble ...

Redds And The Boys: Groovin' To A Go Go
Profile and Interview by Simon Witter, NME, March 1985
CHUCK BERRY boogied on his finger, wiped it on the wall, and outraged America's upright ...

Luther Vandross: The Night I Fell In Love
Review by Barney Hoskyns, NME, March 1985
[2004 note: It makes me wince to look back and see my jejune critical self dismissing ‘The Other Side of the World’ as "tediously soupy". It ...

Nights For Trippin' With Dr. John At The Lingerie
Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, May 1985
DR. JOHN SHOULD feel right at home this weekend at the Lingerie in Hollywood. ...

Rick James: Glow (Motown)
Review by Simon Witter, NME, June 1985
POOR RICK has never been taken very seriously - a self-obsessed prima-donna of sophistifunk, as lascivious as Richard Pryor’s ear-screwing monkey. But the slick Dick has ...

Lee Dorsey: Holy Cow!
Review by Don Snowden, Boston Phoenix, August 1985
SOME PEOPLE MAY cherish Holy Cow! (Arista) for making readily available a single-volume collection of Lee Dorsey's irresistible, sublimely lazy '60s hits like ‘Ya Ya’ and ...

Bobby Womack: The Great Provider
Interview by Paolo Hewitt, NME, August 1985
"They call me a living legend/But I'm just a soldier who's been left behind/And now my heart can't take it/My feet won't make it/I'm the only ...

AUDIO: Dan Penn (1985)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, September 1985
A short chat with the country-soul legend, talking about writing 'Cry Like A Baby', producing the Box Tops, and on the sadly MIA Eddie ...

The Capital Gains Of Go-Go
Report by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, October 1985
IS WASHINGTON'S explosive Go-Go funk Style destined to follow New York's rap/scratch/hip-hop brigade into the pop mainstream? ...

Harlem’s Finest: The Apollo Theatre
Retrospective by Michael Lydon, unpublished, 1986
THROUGH A GAUZY silver curtain, multi-colored lights outline a band playing a mellow blues with a dancing beat. As the audience begins to cheer, the curtain ...

Dusty Springfield: Dusty In Memphis
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, 1986
ONE OF THE pleasures of the recent rerun series of Ready Steady Go Starring The Dave Clark Five was the opportunity to be reminded that Dusty ...

Tommy Tate: Singing For The Soul Of It
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, NME, January 1986
BARNEY HOSKYNS meets Mississippi soulman TOMMY TATE, whose 'What gives You The Right' is one of the "Sweetest, saddest black pop records of all time". ...

Stevie Wonder: In Square Circle
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, February 1986
IT BUBBLES, it gurgles, it coos. You were maybe expecting ‘Fingertips Part III’? In Square Circle is a seamless piece of synthetic aural gratification that sounds ...

Ruby Turner: Jewel In The Crown
Profile and Interview by Penny Reel, NME, February 1986
IT MIGHT be late to break nationally but in this man's town at least Ruby Turner's beefy update of 'If You're Ready (Come Go With Me)' ...

James Brown: He's So Good, He Says
Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, February 1986
JAMES BROWN is a litany of hit songs and personal titles. He's the Godfather of Soul, the King of Soul, the Living Legend of Soul, Mr. ...

'Shelter' from the Storm: Merry Clayton
Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, March 1986
MERRY CLAYTON'S spine-chilling vocal in the middle of ‘Gimme Shelter’ is one of the most electrifying moments in rock history but you couldn't blame Clayton if ...

Prince: Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles
Live Review by Mat Snow, NME, March 1986
GET A load of this guy. Five-foot-two in high heels, his tight black toreador pants stretch up to a fraction above his crack, hence a gleaming ...

George Clinton: Fried Brains To Go
Interview by Simon Witter, NME, April 1986
"GEORGE WILL be with you in a minute, he's just playing with a raygun." (Clintonesque PR person). ...

Sheila E
Interview by Gavin Martin, NME, April 1986
WHEN THE wheels of celebrity are set in motion the limousine windows are tainted; bystanders can see in but the star is blinded to life outside. ...

Prince Strips Down: Parade
Review by Davitt Sigerson, Rolling Stone, April 1986
WHO BUT PRINCE fills us today with the kind of anticipation we once reserved for new work by Bob Dylan, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones? ...

Solomon Burke: Soul Alive! (Rounder)
Review by Don Snowden, Boston Phoenix, May 1986
THE TRUE TRIUMPH of Solomon Burke's Soul Alive! (Rounder) was neither the spirited elan of performances that transcended mere revivalism nor the startling, albeit chart-invisible, 200,000-plus ...

George Clinton: Electric Spankatizer Yeah
Interview by Jack Barron, Sounds, August 1986
SPACE: THE FINAL FRONTIER OR THE GAP BETWEEN GREEN POINTY EARS? ...

Gwen Guthrie: Inflated Rent
Interview by Gavin Martin, NME, August 1986
"BIG? I WASN'T prepared for just how big Gwen Guthrie is. Unkempt too...hair straggly, dressed in just a white wraparound bathrobe, she's been bustled straight from ...

Parliament: Uncut Funk — The Bomb
Review by Barney Hoskyns, NME, September 1986
GEORGE CLINTON is one of the great people of the 20th century. Probably you know this already. He took the funk legacy of James Brown and ...

Janet Jackson
Profile and Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, October 1986
"THERE COMES A time in a kid's life when they have to take over. It's hard for the parents to let go – and I'm not ...

Lionel Richie: Dancing On the Ceiling
Review by Adam Sweeting, Q, October 1986
IT IS SAID THAT Lionel Richie's previous solo album, Can't Slow Down, sold an unthinkable 15 million copies, the kind of statistic that can cause upheavals ...

Cameo: Word Up! (Phonogram/Club Records)***2/3
Review by Jack Barron, Sounds, October 1986
WORDS UPSIDEDOWN: Because you're not the only one whose heart has been broken and Blackmon's approach will serve to remind you of this – and how ...

James Brown: Stay On The Scene Like An Answerin' Machine
Interview by Mark Sinker, NME, October 1986
MARK SINKER talks to God – alias JAMES BROWN – on the great black telephone. ...

Trouble Funk: Say What! Live In London
Review by Mat Snow, NME, November 1986
JUST THE other night I achieved a tiny slice of immortality when radio-jock Andy Kershaw played a 1960s Texan garage nugget of which he knows I'm ...

Patti Labelle: Labelle Of The Ball
Interview by Lucy O'Brien, NME, November 1986
"I LOVE Madonna. I do. I just don't like the way she stepped on my feet. We were at the American Music Awards, in the green ...

Jesse Johnson: "Prince Is An Asshole"
Interview by Simon Witter, NME, November 1986
OF ALL THIS last decade's superstar black bands, which do you think has spawned the most solo success stories? The Jacksons? Earth Wind & Fire? The ...

Cameo Wins Funk Fans With Sly Wit
Live Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, December 1986
Cameo: Santa Monica Civic, Santa Monica ...

AUDIO: Trouble Funk (1987)
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1987
The First Citizens of the Chocolate City talk about everything Go Go: the audiences, the live thing, getting energy from the people and the Washington DC ...

AUDIO: Hank Ballard (1987)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, 1987
From Alabama to Detroit, from The Royals to The Midnighters, the great Hank Ballard tells of Clyde McPhatter, Billy Ward, King Records and 'The Twist' and ...

Stateside Booty: ZZ Hill, Aaron Neville, Jimmy Holiday and Early Motown
Review by Barney Hoskyns, NME, 1987
THE FLOOD of soul reissues and compilations continues with four more from the vaults of EMI's Stateside subsidiary. First off, an album of mid-period (early '70s) ...

AUDIO: Patti LaBelle (1987)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1987
The gal with the Big Hair talks about hitting with 'On My Own', the making of her Winner In You album, and fondly remembers the old ...

Johnny Adams: The Tan Nightingale (Charly)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, NME, 1987
CHARLY FOLLOW-UP their 1978 reissue of Johnny's Heart And Soul album with a wider-ranging retrospective on the man also known as the Tan Canary. (Given the ...

On Her Own: Patti Labelle
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Vogue, 1987
PATTI LABELLE HAS seen it all – lived through every phase of black American pop from the doo-woppy girl groups of the early 1960s to the ...

George Benson: "If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It"
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Q, February 1987
KEN FRITZ, the slim, obsessively neat half of George Benson's management team Fritz & Turner, was worried that he may have caught a chill while out ...

Bobby Womack: The Mystery Man
Profile and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, March 1987
NEW YORK CITY 1985. The Rolling Stones are holed up in the studio cutting tracks for Dirty Work, their first album under their new deal with ...

Hot House: Staying Power
Profile and Interview by Kathryn Flett, i-D, April 1987
IN THE TWO weeks between i-D's attempt to organise an interview with Hot House and actually getting to do it they became – such is life ...

Maceo Parker: Hot Cross Fun
Interview by Gavin Martin, NME, May 1987
Years of sweating his butt off for The G.F.O.S. James Brown have told on Mr Maceo. And now that his own MACEO AND THE MACKS have ...

Prince: Sign O' The Times
Review by Paolo Hewitt, NME, June 1987
Prince isn't a star, he's an event. And so is the release of his new double LP. Paolo Hewitt is let to the subterranean bunker at ...

Whitney Houston: Whitney
Review by Lloyd Bradley, Q, July 1987
WHITNEY HOUSTON had a lot to live up to from the moment 'Saving All My Love For You' and its shiny video went public. Its unabashed ...

James Carr: At the Dark End of the Street (Blue Side)
Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, July 1987
Artist: James Carr.
Album: At the Dark End of the Street (Blue Side). ...

Diana Ross: Red Hot Rhythm And Blues
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, August 1987
Miss Ross: not exactly on the front burner, but cooking nonetheless. ...

Terence Trent D'Arby: Yeau!
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, September 1987
"I'M VERY, VERY self-critical. I'm very critical of others, but I'm also very critical of my own work and there's no-one that could possibly put more ...

Diana Ross: The Gospel According To Miss Ross
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, October 1987
"I'VE BEEN HERE so many times before," murmurs Diana Ross as she sweeps, surrounded by a clucking entourage, through the foyer of the EMI Records building ...

Michael Jackson: Bad
Review by Davitt Sigerson, Rolling Stone, October 1987
MICHAEL JACKSON is a man. Agreed, he is a young man, emotional age about thirteen, with a young man's interest in cars, girls, scary movies and ...

Faye Adams
Retrospective by Pete Grendysa, Goldmine, October 1987
SHE HAS A TRANSLUCENT, flawless complexion, and her facial features are doll-like, suffused with an inner glow. Barely over five-feet tall, she holds herself oddly erect, ...

Michael Jackson: Bad
Review by Tom Graves, Rock and Roll Disc, November 1987
IF MICHAEL JACKSON is not the most confusing entertainer of our time, you can't blame him for not trying. ...

Sam and Dave: The Best of Sam & Dave
Review by Tom Graves, Rock and Roll Disc, December 1987
DURING THE HEIGHT of the Blues Brothers craze, I went to a small club to see the re-formed Sam and Dave. The dance floor was ...

Roger Troutman: Unlimited! (Reprise)
Review by Don Snowden, Boston Phoenix, December 1987
THE DAYTON, Ohio-based Troutman clan that has given us Zapp and now Roger has developed perhaps the most schizoid personality in black ...

Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters
Sleevenotes by Pete Grendysa, Atlantic Records, 1988
FROM THE MOMENT the lights were dimmed in the old St. Nicholas Arena for Alan Freed's first New York Rock And Roll Show in January, 1955, ...

Stevie Wonder: Characters
Review by Lloyd Bradley, Q, January 1988
THE SINGLE, 'SKELETONS', made a couple of bold statements: its earthy, chunky bass synth lines proved Stevie Wonder to have recaptured the simple approach to a ...

Time On Her Side: Irma Thomas
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, February 1988
IRMA THOMAS' entrance into the music business is the kind of story rock dreams are made ...

Gladys Knight: All Our Love (MCA)
Review by Jack Barron, NME, February 1988
SINCE WINNING the Ted Mack Amateur Hour TV show at the age of eight and picking up $2000 for her rendition of Nat 'King' Cole's 'Too ...

Stevie Wonder: Characters
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, March 1988
THIS IS ALMOST as satisfying a return to form as Sugar Ray Leonard's victory over Marvelous Marvin Hagler and practically as much of an upset. ...

Joe Tex: The Clown Prince of Soul
Sleevenotes by Barney Hoskyns, 'The Very Best of Joe Tex' (Charly Records), May 1988
WHEN NASHVILLE publisher-producer Buddy Killen first met Joe Tex in 1961, the singer already had six years of recording and performing under his belt. They hadn’t ...

Quincy Jones
Interview by Robin Eggar, Time Out, June 1988
The Jackson and Jones alliance has seen the transformation of a bubble-gum singer into the greatest musical phenomenon of his era. ...

James Brown: I'm Real (Polydor)
Review by Mark Sinker, NME, June 1988
HE ISN'T, of course. He's Mr James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, the Funky President, the Original Disco Man. He's a numbing backbeat tightened to intolerable ...

“I May Be From Another Planet…”: Al Green
Interview by Simon Witter, NME, July 1988
2005 note: I was in New Orleans in April/May 1988, filming items for German TV, when I heard that Al Green would be playing at the ...

Prince/Michael Jackson/Luther Vandross: Live at the Capital Centre
Review by Geoffrey Himes, Columbia Flyer (Maryland), October 1988
BOTH PRINCE and Michael Jackson came to the Capital Centre last week for a showdown between the two reigning giants of rock'n'soul. Appearing in the same ...

40 Years of Genius: Ray Charles
Retrospective by Pete Grendysa, Record Collectors' Monthly, November 1988
YOU CAN RUN to the mountains and you can hide out in a dingy jazz club in SoHo, but you can't escape Ray Charles. Not ...

Doin’ It His Own Way: Bobby Womack
Sleevenotes by Barney Hoskyns, 'Womack Winners', 1989
WHEN BOBBY WOMACK called his seventeenth solo album The Last Soul Man and set out on 1987’s quasi-missionary tour of the same name, he was doing ...

Fishbone: Social Skank
Interview by Christine Natanael, Reflex, 1989
GRABBIN' AND RIFFIN', skankin' and ska – there's a revolution happenin'. Combining all the noises, making them all one, Fishbone leads the masses to have some ...

MCA Records: Strip Mining
Interview by Simon Witter, NME, January 1989
OVER THE PAST 12 months Universal City – the five square miles of North Hollywood dominated by the MCA/Universal studios – has yielded a crop of ...

AUDIO: Luther Vandross, part 2 (1989)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, March 1989
A master at work: Vandross talks to Barney Hoskyns about producing, recording and singing... and his privacy and sense of ...

AUDIO: Luther Vandross, part 1 (1989)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, March 1989
Luther Vandross talks about growing up in the Bronx and his early bands, his big break working on Bowie's 'Young Americans', meeting Marcus Miller and ...

What A World For The Lonely Kind: Luther Vandross
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, The Times, March 1989
LUTHER VANDROSS is the pre-eminent mainstream soul performer of the 1980s. As a singer, songwriter and producer he is – with the possible exception of Anita ...

The Neville Brothers: Yellow Moon
Review by Andy Gill, Q, May 1989
The Neville Brothers bring it all back home. ...

AUDIO: Johnnie Taylor (1989)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, July 1989
Soul legend Johnnie Taylor tells Barney Hoskyns about his background in gospel with the Highway QCs and the Soul Stirrers, Sam Cooke, Stax Records, having hits ...

AUDIO: Bobby 'Blue' Bland (1989)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, July 1989
Bobby Bland talks about his influences, including MOR men like Perry Como and Andy Williams, and about the ups and downs of his career. Oh, and ...

Malaco: Soul’s Retirement Home
Report and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, The Times, July 1989
Bobby Bland, Johnnie Taylor, Denise LaSalle: Hammersmith Odeon, London

"BLUES SINGERS don't retire", said the late Howlin' Wolf, and Bobby 'Blue' Bland might well ...

AUDIO: Etta James (1989)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, July 1989
Etta James tells Barney Hoskyns about her struggles with addiction, meeting Billie Holiday, making Seven Year Itch and staying ...

Bobby Brown: Casual But Smart
Report by Lloyd Bradley, Q, September 1989
AT 11 O'CLOCK on Friday June 30, shoppers in Oxford Street's HMV Records noticed a growing number of predominantly female teenagers filing into the store. ...

Janet Jackson: Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814
Review by Lloyd Bradley, Q, October 1989
IT'S ALMOST FOUR years since Janet Jackson's last album – Control The Remixes hardly counts – and nearly 12 months since she began recording this with ...

George Clinton: Tales Of Kidd Funkadelic
Interview by Kris Needs, Dance Music Report, October 1989
AT LAST it seems like George Clinton is getting some just recognition after about a quarter century of being funk's most colourful and innovative character. He ...

AUDIO: Aaron Neville (1989)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, October 1989
The giant of New Orleans singers looks back at his roots in the Crescent City: the hard times and the good times, being a Neville Brother, ...

Curtis Mayfield: The Palomino, Los Angeles
Live Review by Don Waller, Los Angeles Times, October 1989
Mayfield Performs Cream of His Crop of Hits ...

Terence Trent D'Arby: Neither Fish Nor Flesh
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, November 1989
"PEOPLE, LISTEN to me," announces Terence Trent D'Arby over the intro of 'I Don't Want To Bring The Gods Down', "this is not a film, this ...

Women Soul Singers
Essay by Barney Hoskyns, Vogue, 1990
FOR ALL THE LEGENDARY kings of soul music, the Sam Cookes and Otis Reddings and Marvin Gayes, the true spirit of this great black American art ...

Brook Benton: 40 Greatest Hits
Sleevenotes by Colin Escott, Polygram Records, 1990
BROOK BENTON'S music was a study in contrast. The lushness of the backings was juxtaposed against the contained passion in his voice. On much ...

Irma Thomas: Something Good: The Muscle Shoals Sessions
Sleevenotes by Don Snowden, Chess/MCA Records, 1990
CHESS WAS pre-eminently a blues label and Chess was most definitely a Chicago-based label but Chess was also a hit-seeking label and that fundamental fact took ...

Quincy Jones: Back On The Block
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, January 1990
ON THE FACE of it, this is where the man who was called 'Q' even before this magazine generously allows his address book to make its ...

Prince: Sleazy Grandeur
Overview by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, July 1990
He began making records as a control-fixated 18-year-old studio rat from Minneapolis. Ten albums later Prince had become the definitive pop icon of the '80s. Charles ...

Neville Brothers: The Mississippi Mafia
Profile and Interview by Andy Gill, Q, August 1990
THE NEW ORLEANS Jazz & Heritage Festival makes most British music festivals, even the Readings and Glastonburys, look a bit sick by comparison. It's not so ...

The Neville Brothers: Brother's Keeper
Review by Mark Cooper, Q, September 1990
AFTER SPENDING A decade producing four albums for as many labels, the four Nevilles finally got the bit between their teeth with the Daniel Lanois-produced Yellow ...

Chuck Jackson in Three Acts
Profile and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, LA Reader, November 1990
AN OFT-REPEATED myth about American popular music is that the early 1960s were a fallow period, dominated by greasy teen idols named Bobby. Supposedly, domestic pop ...

Allen Toussaint: The Collection
Sleevenotes by Don Snowden, Reprise Records, 1991
BY THE TIME Allen Toussaint released his first Warner Bros. album, Life, Love And Motion, in 1972, it was already impossible to look at New Orleans ...

Two Steps from the Blues: The Gospel According to Bobby "Blue" Bland
Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, From a Whisper to a Scream (Fontana Books), 1991
WHEN HOWLIN' WOLF left Memphis for Chicago in late 1952, Sun Records' Sam Phillips was left with a crop of younger blues singers who in time ...

The Clovers
Retrospective by Pete Grendysa, Goldmine, February 1991
"WE PAID OUR dues, singing on corners, at parties, driving all over the country, sleeping in cubbyholes where we had to take turns. We ...

Alexander O'Neal: All True Man
Review by Mark Cooper, Q, March 1991
ALEXANDER O'NEAL ONCE once remarked that he was successful because he helped "bring back masculinity to the black industry". ...

Dan Penn
Interview by John Pidgeon, Record Hunter, March 1991
DAN PENN WROTE his first hit ('Is A Bluebird Blue?' for Conway Twitty) at fourteen, and collaborated prolifically with Spooner Oldham, turning out mid '60s R&B ...

James Brown: Star Time
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, May 1991
AN ASSEMBLAGE of 71 tracks and slightly less than five hours of music, weighing in at four CDs or cassettes (committed vinylists are, unfortunately, totally out ...

Luther Vandross: Battle Of The Bulge
Interview by Mark Cooper, Q, August 1991
ON THE HOSPITALITY TABLE OF Luther Vandross's suite at Hollywood's Four Seasons Hotel, four untouched plates of king prawns lie waiting next to a half-demolished pizza. ...

Seal
Review by Andy Gill, Q, September 1991
"AAAH, IT'S JUST BEEN NON-STOP," says Seal of his virtual year-long bout of promotional chores. "I just wanna get out and play. I'm not interested in ...

Prince: Diamonds & Pearls
Review by Robert Sandall, Q, November 1991
THESE ARE TESTING times for little PR Nelson. His Graffiti Bridge movie, due out last autumn, has never been publicly shown, and the accompanying double album, ...

King Curtis: Blow Man, Blow! (Bear BCD 15670)
Sleevenotes by Pete Grendysa, Bear Family, 1992
"BLOW MAN, BLOW!" The big man with the glittering horn sent showers of squeals and shrieks out over the heads of his ecstatic shouting audience, feeding ...

Rapping with Ray Charles
Interview by Robert Gordon, Interview, 1992
IN THE 1950s, Frank Sinatra tagged Ray Charles "Genius," an appropriate nickname for one of American music's most innovative figures. Charles brought a sophistication to rhythm ...

Michael Jackson: Dangerous
Review by Mat Snow, Q, January 1992
Michael Jackson: hip hop and gospel, Slash and God, sublime and ridiculous. ...

Smokey Robinson
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, May 1992
THERE ARE worse jobs than being Smokey Robinson. He's 52, with 2,000 songs down the pike, and still writing as easily as falling out of bed. ...

Stevie Wonder: Re-issues
Retrospective and Interview by Andy Gill, Q, September 1992
STEVIE WONDER NEVER REALLY HAD a say in the matter: right from, his first album, he was Little Stevie Wonder, The 12-Year-Old Genius; an assessment which ...

Michael Jackson
Report by Lloyd Bradley, Q, September 1992
IT'S NEARLY 1 AM ON A SUNDAY MORNING IN June. The paying audience for the opening show of Michael Jackson's Dangerous World Tour have long since ...

A Life In The Day Of . . . Neneh Cherry
Interview by Simon Witter, Sunday Times, September 1992
Born of a West African father and a Swedish mother, Neneh Cherry, 28, takes her name from the American jazz trumpeter Don Cherry, whom her mother ...

James Carr: The Lost Voice Of Soul
Report and Interview by Robert Gordon, Q, October 1992
WHEN IT WAS BUILT IN THE 1950s, Memphis's Mid South Building was probably stylish and sleek. Today, the blocky turquoise exterior pales next to the snap ...

The Christians: Blood On The Tracks
Report and Interview by Andy Gill, Q, November 1992
Song-sequencing is a small yet significant element of what experts call "the album-making process". Could Revolver have started with anything other than 'Taxman?' Should 'Madame George' ...

Funkadelic: Doctor Funkenstein, I Presume
Report and Interview by Andy Gill, Q, December 1992
"Free your ass," he once advised the world, "and your mind will follow." Another song of his explored the fear of being eaten by a sandwich. ...

Tony Toni Toné: Sons of Soul
Report and Interview by Simon Witter, Sunday Times, December 1993
SAN FRANCISCO'S Oakland area has a history of producing great, energetic groups - from Sly & The Family Stone and The Pointer Sisters to Hammer and ...

George Clinton at 54
Retrospective and Interview by Frank Broughton, i-D, 1994
PARLIAMENT-FUNKADELIC, P-Funk, The P -- Specially designed afronauts capable of funketizing entire galaxies. Their mothership long ago made its terrestrial connection and they are amongst us ...

Prince: Birmingham National Indoor Arena
Live Review by Paul Moody, NME, 1994
THE TINY FIGURE in silky lemon and black trouser-suit and Spanish heels is ...

No Sad Songs For Curtis Mayfield
Report and Interview by Steven R Rosen, Denver Post, March 1994
ANYONE CAN HAVE a paralyzing, life-diminishing accident at anytime - bad things happen to good people just as often as good things. You just accept that ...

Southern Soul Rises Again : Dan Penn's Do Right Man Out on Top Label
Report and Interview by Steven R Rosen, Denver Post, July 1994
IF THE RACIAL history of the American South was a book, it would be a tragedy - but not without inspirational chapters about black and white ...

AUDIO: Percy Sledge (1994)
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages Audio, September 1994
The sould legend from the Quad-cities, Tri-states area on Otis, Bobby Womack, his love of country music, and the making of the National Anthem of North-West ...

Whaddya Mean, You've Never Heard Of... Sam Dees?
Guide by Barney Hoskyns, Mojo, 1995
AT SIX FOOT FOUR and two-hundred-plus pounds, Sam Dees is a soul giant in more ways than one. One of black America’s premier songsmiths, he also ...

Faith Evans: Faith
Review by Carol Cooper, Newsday, 1995
TWENTY-TWO-YEAR-OLD Faith Evans was already a successful songwriter before mini-mogul Sean "Puffy" Combs signed her as a solo act to his Bad Boy label. This is ...

Freddie Jackson: Private Party/Christopher Williams: Not a Perfect Man
Review by Carol Cooper, Newsday, 1995
FREDDIE JACKSON and Christopher Williams are mature, polished performers with superb voices. Both were signed to their respective labels at a time when each record company ...

Barry White: The Q 100 interview
Interview by Martin Aston, Q, January 1995
HOW THE devil are you?
I'm fine. I couldn't be happier. Everything is beautiful in my life. I got a hit album and hit single. I'm treated ...

The Soul Stirrer: Sam Cooke
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Mojo, January 1995
FEW ENTERTAINERS have fallen quite so far from grace as Sam Cooke did when he died, 30 years ago, at the Hacienda Motel in south-central Los ...

Darlene Love: Love Affair
Interview by Kirk Silsbee, LA Reader, February 1995
VOCALIST DARLENE Love's career is filled with ironies. She is most closely identified with Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" recordings, made in Los Angeles in the ...

Prince: Slave To The Rhythm
Report by Pete Paphides, Time Out, March 1995
Prince has always been a bit weird, but lately he seems to have lost it completely. He's changed his name to 0+>, declared war on his ...

That's Entertainment: Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
Retrospective by Bill Millar, Mojo, May 1995
Psst. Hey, bud, you want "cryptic tales of mojo-bones, constipation, the Mau Mau, cunnilingus and flannel lipped, bald-headed women"? You got it! Ladeez and gennelmen, please ...

Pretty Young Things
Interview by Carol Cooper, Rolling Stone, August 1995
The women of TLC stay cool under fire ...

Lenny Williams
Sleevenotes by David Nathan, Ichiban Soul Classics LP, September 1995
These liner notes were originally written for the now out-of-print 1995 Ichiban Soul Classics CD Lenny Williams: 'Cause I Love You: The Best of Lenny Williams ...

Pebbles: Straight From The Heart
Review by Carol Cooper, Fanfare, September 1995
PEBBLES IS one of the shrewdest women in show business. In 1987, this Bay area femme fatale exploded on the scene with the hit single 'Girlfriend', ...

Delivering the Ghetto: War
Review and Interview by Lloyd Bradley, Mojo, November 1995
GIVEN THE CHOICE that exists in the Golden Earring department, it's scandalous that we've been forced to wait this long to hear War on CD. These ...

In Praise of the Falsetto
Essay by Barney Hoskyns, The Independent, November 1995
The castrato may be dead, if temporarily exhumed in the film Farinelli, but men continue to sing like women. Barney Hoskyns reaches for the high ...

The Story Of The Funk: George Clinton
Retrospective and Interview by Peter Murphy, Hot Press, 1996
IN THE BEGINNING was the word, and the word was Funk. Deep in the prehistoric bog, two microbes rubbed together, caused some friction, got frisky and ...

The Braxtons' Right Risks: So Many Ways
Review by Carol Cooper, Newsday, 1996
THE STORY goes that The Braxtons originally were a quartet. Producers L.A. and Babyface pulled Toni Braxton out of the bunch, because, at the time, they ...

Clarence Carter: I Caught You Making Love: The ABC Years
Sleevenotes by Don Snowden, Ichiban Soul Classics//Sony Music, 1996
SELF-TAUGHT ON guitar, formally trained on piano, a gospel church-bred singer, Clarence Carter combined a bluesman's flair for storytelling with a frankly lusty take on the ...

Z.Z. Hill: Love Is Good When You're Stealing It
Sleevenotes by Don Snowden, Ichiban Soul Classics/Sony Music, 1996
Z.Z. HILL WORE many hats during a career that was cut tragically short by a heart attack in 1984. A songwriter who enjoyed early hits with ...

Curtis Mayfield: People Get Ready!
Review by Lloyd Bradley, Mojo, March 1996
THE LAST FIVE YEARS HAVE SEEN THE BOX-setting of James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Bob Marley and a fair few other giants of black American ...

Aretha Franklin: Return Of Soul Sister Number One
Comment by Carol Cooper, Pulse!, June 1996
ARETHA – a name so singularly musical that it rolls off the tongue like an incantation. Almost four decades after 1967’s ‘I Never Loved a ...

Prince
Interview by David Sinclair, The Times, July 1996
THE MAN WITH the most celebrated identity crisis in pop is installed on the 48th floor of a Manhattan hotel. The lift goes up so fast ...

The Rebirth of Soul
Essay by Barney Hoskyns, Mojo, December 1996
"WHAT IS Soul?" sang Ben E. King in 1967, a year that began with Aretha Franklin’s first Atlantic session and ended with the death of Otis ...

Curtis Mayfield: New World Order
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Request, December 1996
SIX YEARS AFTER the freak onstage accident that paralyzed him from the neck down, Curtis Mayfield, one of soul music's true titans, makes his debut as ...

Sam Cooke: Live at the Harlem Square Club
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, 1997
MOST OF SAM Cooke's pop hits were sugary, blanched affairs. This album was the real deal, giving us the church-reared R&B singer who liked to tear ...

Etta James
Sleevenotes by Pete Grendysa, MCA Records, 1997
Etta was just 21 years old when she came to Chess Records in 1960, but she was a seasoned show business veteran with six years on ...

Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown: Denver Show Starts Celebration of 50th-anniversary Recording
Report and Interview by Steven R Rosen, Denver Post, January 1997
THIS YEAR is Clarence 'Gatemouth'' Brown's 50th as a recording artist, and virtually everyone is preparing to honor the blues ...

Swamp Dogg
Interview by Richie Unterberger, Perfect Sound Forever, February 1997
"If you know the extension of the party with whom you wish to speak, dial it and stop wasting our time! If you have money due ...

Mary Wilson on The Supremes
Retrospective by Johnny Black, Mojo, April 1997
"ONE DAY IN mid-April we were all summoned to berry’s home on Outer Drive," remembers Mary Wilson of The Supremes. "As I drove there, I hoped ...

Mary J Blige: Material World
Interview by Angus Batey, Vox, June 1997
WHAT'S THE most embarrasing item of clothing you've ever bought? ...

Michael Jackson: Wembley Stadium, London
Live Review by Chris Roberts, Melody Maker, July 1997
All You Need Is Glove ...

Dr. John: Funky Business
Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, September 1997
FUNK IS one of those words, like cool or hip, that is difficult to define. In music, it's an amorphous thing, an attitude, a looseness, an ...

Michael Jackson: Don Valley Stadium, Sheffield
Live Review by Paul Lester, Uncut, September 1997
THE MOST FAMOUS performer on Earth has just been introduced, as per protocol, as "the King Of Pop", by the Chief Barker of the Variety Club ...

Dave Godin and Deep Soul Treasures
Profile and Interview by Jon Savage, The Guardian, September 1997
IN POP'S millenial time travel, the compilation has become an art form in itself: a highly practical method of mapping a history that is still up ...

Brave Heart: Janet Jackson's Velvet Rope
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, L.A. Weekly, November 1997
ACCORDING TO Ralph Ellison in Shadow and Act, no jazz musician struggled harder to escape the role of grinning minstrel than Charlie Parker, with the possible ...

Grace Jones: Private Life - The Compass Point Sessions (Island)
Review by Amy Linden, Fi, 1998
OF ALL THE words that are over and misused, diva is surely at the top of the heap. Once an adjective related to describing the truly ...

The Return Of The Native: A Conversation With Dr John, The Night Tripper
Interview by Joss Hutton, Bucketful of Brains, 1998
NEW ORLEANS-bred musician Mac Rebennack, better known as Dr John, has seen a lot hair-curling sights during his forty year career on the fringes. ...

Solomon Burke: Music To Make Love By
Sleevenotes by Colin Escott, Chess Records, 1998
SOLOMON BURKE'S ultimate triumph is that he's almost as great as he says he is, and has almost accomplished everything he says he has. He still ...

Isaac Hayes: Spread The Word
Retrospective by Chris Roberts, Uncut, February 1998
AN INSURANCE salesman, David Porter, visited a Memphis meat-packing factory in 1965. He tried to sell a policy to one of the meat-packers, a big man. ...

Bootsy Collins on Bootsy Collins
Interview by Marc Weingarten, Mojo, April 1998
‘Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine’
James Brown (King single, ...

Dr John: Voodoo Lounge
Interview by Gavin Martin, Uncut, July 1998
MAC REBENNACK, IS SLUMPED ON A chaise longue in an elegant London hotel suite, the ubiquitous walking cane by his side, a straw Homburg tilted just ...

Curtis Mayfield: Superfly (Two-CD Special Edition)
Review by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, September 1998
ORIGINALLY RELEASED in 1972, Curtis Mayfield's album of music for one of the most notorious blaxploitation films of the Seventies is typically compassionate, melancholic, and dryly ...

Brook Benton
Retrospective by Pete Grendysa, DISCoveries, October 1998
A MUSICAL SAGE once quipped, "If you write music, you're a composer. If you write words, you're a lyricist. If you do both, you're Cole Porter." ...