Chuck Berry
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Profile by Charlie Gillett, The Alternative, 1 October 1970
AT THE TIME of his greatest popularity, 1955-59, there were several other singers who had more hits, were more often copied, and commanded higher fees ...
Audio interviews
Interview by Ira Robbins, Rock's Backpages audio, 19 September 1988
Keith opens by criticising Mick Jagger as a solo artist, then goes on to talk about being in the Rolling Stones; talks about the art of rhythm guitar; making the Chuck Berry movie; the great players on his first solo album Talk is Cheap; the Stones' future and how a band can grow old; the recent CD reissues of the group's catalogue; the "fragile monster" that was Brian Jones; their evolution as songwriters; the establishment's hounding of them; his drug use... and being in the public eye.
File format: mp3; file size: 89.3mb, interview length: 1h 33' 04" sound quality: ***½
List of articles in the library
Profile by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 20 April 1963
THE PROOF of the pudding is in the eating, they say. But the proof of the R&B pudding is in the after effects. How many ...
Chuck Berry: At Last it's the Real Thing!
Profile by June Harris, Disc, 27 July 1963
CHUCK BERRY, THE WILD MAN OF BEAT MUSIC, GETS HIS BIG CHANCE ...
Although He Crashes Into The Charts With Three Discs In One Week, Chuck Won't Be Here Yet!
Profile by Guy Stevens, Record Mirror, 5 October 1963
CHUCK BERRY, born on October 18th, 1931, has now become an almost legendary figure to many people in this country. ...
Chuck Berry: He's Running an Amusement Park in Missouri!
Interview by June Harris, Disc, 9 November 1963
IT'S ALL happening for Chuck Berry! He's come hurtling back in the British charts with 'Memphis, Tennessee', and now he's all set for his debut ...
Chuck Berry: I Can't Wait To Meet My Friends In Britain
Interview by Guy Stevens, Record Mirror, 30 November 1963
THE RECORD MIRROR TELEPHONES CHUCK BERRY IN MISSOURI ...
Chuck and Bo May Tour Here Together in March
Report by June Harris, Disc, 7 December 1963
WHAT DO you think of having Chock Berry and Bo Diddley headline a rhythm and blues package in England? Promoter Don Arden, just back from ...
Report by uncredited writer, Pop Star Pictorial, 1964
The latest and greatest on the Beat Scene? — Yes, it's R&B groups like the Rolling Stones ...
Chuck Berry: New Discs From Chuck
Report by Guy Stevens, Record Mirror, 1 February 1964
SENSATIONAL news for all R & B fans is that Chuck Berry's new record 'Nadine' is to be released over here on February 4th, prior ...
Chuck Berry Tells Guy Stevens About "How I Write My Songs"
Report and Interview by Guy Stevens, Record Mirror, 4 April 1964
MY FIRST MEETING with Chuck Berry proved to be as exciting and interesting as I had expected. I met him in the offices of Chess ...
Report by Guy Stevens, Record Mirror, 25 April 1964
THE STORY OF CHUCK'S CAREER AND COMEBACK, BY GUY STEVENS ...
Live Review by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 16 May 1964
CHUCK'S HERE AT LAST ...
Chuck Berry: Hammersmith Odeon, London, May 10th
Live Review by John Broven, Blues Unlimited, July 1964
THE LONG-AWAITED visit of Chuck Berry to these islands came reality when he opened his tour at the Finsbury Empire on May 9th; I caught ...
From Pop Singers To Rock Bands
Essay by Geoffrey Cannon, unpublished, 1965
Update, March 2019: I KNOW exactly when I wrote the piece below, where I was, and why I withdrew it from publication. It was January ...
Chuck Berry, the Moody Blues, Graham Bond Organisation, Simon Scott: Lewisham Odeon, London
Live Review by Ian Dove, New Musical Express, 15 January 1965
Olé, it's Chuck 'Crazylegs' now! Ian Dove covers latest Berry tour ...
Chuck Berry, Moody Blues, Graham Bond Organisation: Lewisham Odeon, London
Live Review by uncredited writer, Record Mirror, 16 January 1965
Chuck goes down a bomb on R & B tour ...
Marshall Chess: End of the road for the Howlin' Wolfs, Muddies and Sonny Boys
Interview by Maureen Cleave, The Evening Standard, 27 February 1965
FROM NOW ON, many of your favourite American rhythm and blues records will appear under a label called Chess. This is owned by two brothers ...
Tempo: R&B and Jazz Album Reviews
Review by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, November 1966
FOR SOME reason, recordings of live rock and roll shows are selling very well. You can hardly hear the music above the enthusiastic audience response ...
Chuck Berry, Del Shannon: Saville Theatre, London
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 25 February 1967
FREAK OUTS forget — it's rock riots yet! Those smashing days of the fifties are back, and for evidence see the pile of broken seats ...
Report by uncredited writer, Record Mirror, 25 February 1967
OVER 1,000 Teddy Boys wearing their 1950 zoot suits, winkle pickers and beetle crushers (we are told) rioted last Sunday at the Saville Theatre in ...
Interview by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 4 March 1967
...especially it seems, at the Saville. Chuck Berry talks to RM's Norman Jopling for this in-depth interview ...
Chuck Berry: Saville Theatre, London
Live Review by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 4 March 1967
Rockers Dominate Saville Again ...
Chuck Berry: Saville Theatre, London
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 4 March 1967
NO RIOTS, but plenty of good music were provided at London's Saville Theatre on Sunday night when Chuck Berry made a return appearance. ...
Boos, Jeers Greet Two Beatles At Berry Show
Report by uncredited writer, KRLA Beat, 25 March 1967
LONDON — JOHN Lennon, Ringo Starr and their manager, Brian Epstein, were the object of booing and jeering from the audience at the Epstein owned ...
Chuck Berry... "A Legend In His Own Time"
Interview by Kevin Swift, Beat Instrumental, April 1967
CHUCK BERRY, one of the very few "classic" names. "A legend in his own time!" That, of course, is a well-worn phrase, but there isn't ...
Chuck Berry: Streatham Locarno, London
Live Review by Bill Millar, Soul Music Monthly, April 1967
I WOULD HAVE LIKED to have reviewed Chuck at the Savile Theatre, where initial audience reaction was such that his short-lived performance reached an all-time ...
Loraine Alterman on Pop Records: The Shattering Impact of the Doors
Review by Loraine Alterman, Detroit Free Press, 5 November 1967
THE DOORS, with Jim Morrison singing lead in his urgent, compelling voice, lead you into the strange world of their music after the freaky album ...
20 Revolutionary Singles, as requested
Letter by Geoffrey Cannon, unpublished, 28 October 1968
25 FLORENCE TERRACE, FALMOUTH, CORNWALL TELEPHONE: FALMOUTH 1840 23rd October 1968 ...
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, January 1969
JOHNNIE JOHNSON, FIRST PIANIST WITH CHUCK BERRY As Told To Jim Delehant ...
The Rolling Stones: Hyde Park, London; The Who, Chuck Berry, Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Ray Connolly, The Evening Standard, 7 July 1969
The Jagger magic is still there ...
Live Review by Lon Goddard, Record Mirror, 12 July 1969
ALL THE HAPPENINGS REVIEWED... ...
Chuck Berry, Elvin Bishop, John Mayall: Fillmore East, New York NY
Live Review by Ian Dove, Billboard, 18 October 1969
Berry, Bishop — Musical Brothers ...
What Have They Done To My Roots, Ma? Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley
Comment by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 30 October 1971
WHEN JOHN LENNON ended a recent epistle to Mailbag with a line saying "LP Winner: I’d like Chuck Berry, please," he wasn’t joking. Modern rock ...
Live Review by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 12 February 1972
ONE OF THE MOST ADVENTUROUS BILLS EVER ...
Report and Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 12 February 1972
RON WOOD would have swept the floor of Pye's No. 2 studio as he boogied round during the Chuck Berry super-session during Saturday. He saw ...
Big Red Cars, Little White Chicks And The Chuck Berry Lick
Live Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Cream, March 1972
It was singalong night at the Coventry Locarno. Difference was that it was Chuck Berry we were singing along with. The Brown Eyed Handsome Man ...
Keep On Rockin': Interview with film director D. A. Pennebaker
Report and Interview by John Pidgeon, New Musical Express, 30 September 1972
KEEP ON ROCKIN' is in town, and so is the rock film revolutionary who created this celluloid spectacle of Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck ...
Chuck Berry: Green's Playhouse, Glasgow
Live Review by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 20 January 1973
TONY STEWART REPORTS FROM GLASGOW OH THE FIRST BERRY CONCERT ...
Interview by Martin Hayman, Sounds, 17 February 1973
AFTER THE success of 'My Ding-a-Ling' and the arguments about its making people go blind endlessly aired in the national press, everybody will have heard ...
Report and Interview by Charlie Gillett, New Musical Express, 17 February 1973
CHUCK BERRY. To a fan, the name sparks off a warm smile. After that depending on how old he or she is, the first song ...
Chuck Berry part 2: How Many Comebacks?
Interview by Charlie Gillett, New Musical Express, 24 February 1973
AS WE TALKED, Berry looked over a copy of Golden Decade Vol. 2 and ran his eye down the sleeve discography, commenting on some of ...
Chuck Berry and those who influenced him
Essay by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, April 1973
ONE THING everybody agrees about: the 'forties was a bad time for music. The big bands of the thirties got sweeter and sweeter before falling ...
Chuck Berry's Influence on the UK R & B Scene
Essay by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, April 1973
'DING-A-LING' gave Chuck Berry his only British No 1 seventeen years after his first record release, 'Maybellene'. He had five Top Ten hits in the ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, November 1973
IT'S NO SURPRISE that Chuck Berry has managed to slip gracefully into middle age without changing his music or his image to any great extent. ...
Rancid and Smutty (Apologists Only)
Live Review by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 1 March 1975
Chuck Berry: Lewisham Odeon, London ...
Chuck Berry: Chuck Has Been Leaving The Stage For 20 Years
Report by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 8 March 1975
They weren't complaining – they were awestruck ...
Chuck Berry: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1976
IT IS MORE than 20 years since the world first laid startled eyes on a young man with a crouching gait and a skinny guitar ...
Chuck Berry, 49, Denies Knowledge of the Previous 48
Interview by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 29 May 1976
Chuck (Crazy Legs) Berry, top ten contender for the title "King of rock and roll", has been referred to as the greatest black folk poet ...
Sha Na Na: Madison Square Garden Rock & Roll Spectacular, New York City
Live Review by Steve Turner, New Musical Express, 27 November 1976
THERE ARE some memories we have which are straightforward memories, but then there are other memories which are more like memories of memories and we're ...
Chuck Berry: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 14 May 1977
THERE'S NO BETTER indication of the pervasive and thorough influence of Chuck Berry than the fact that he could go almost anywhere and the chances ...
Paul Gayten: I knew Leonard at the Macomba...
Retrospective and Interview by John Broven, Blues Unlimited, May 1978
Paul Gayten from an interview by John Broven ...
Muddy Waters, BB King, Chuck Berry: Woke Up This Mornin'…
Report and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 28 July 1979
...Blues Giants All Round My Bed. NICK KENT meets the Three Wise Men of the Blues. ...
Willie Mitchell (1985) [transcript]
Transcript of audio interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 1985
This is a transcript of Barney's audio interview with Willie. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Who The Hell Does Chuck Berry Think He Is?
Report and Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, May 1988
They called him The Inventor Of Rock 'n' Roll. And this, apparently, gave him the right to ride roughshod over all of them for 30 ...
Johnnie Johnson: From 'Johnny B. Goode' to Johnnie B. Bad
Profile and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 25 January 1992
LOTS OF musicians would consider it a career highlight to play with a musical legend, but pianist Johnnie Johnson has done it at opposite ends ...
Chuck Berry: The Poet of Rock'nRoll (Charly)
Review by David Sinclair, Q, September 1994
A colossally influential talent in his prime and a painful embarrassment in his decline, Chuck Berry has bequeathed a musical legacy that is like the ...
Hey Conductor You Must: Rock'n'Roll Iconoclasm In America
Essay by Richard Riegel, Loose Palace, Spring 2000
2006 Author's note: I wrote the following piece in the summer of 1993 on assignment for Rob O'Connor's Throat Culture magazine, after I had suggested ...
Essay by Jonh Ingham, Jonh Ingham's Blog, October 2007
"If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry."– John Lennon ...
Hoochie Coochie Men: Cadillac Records (dir. Darnell Martin)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Bill Holdship, Metro Times, 10 December 2008
Hollywood's version of the Chess Records story combines the best and worst of the classic rock 'n' roll biopic ...
The Early Days of the "Rock 'n' Roll Comeback" Album
Retrospective by Steven R Rosen, SonicBoomers.com, 2009
WHEN THE album-rock revolution hit full force in 1967, blues veterans were immediately in a great place to benefit. Revered by the new, young rock ...
Is Lady Gaga corrupting our kids?
Comment by Pete Paphides, The Times, 12 August 2010
Modern pop stars are corrupting the young, says pop veteran Mike Stock. But isn't that what they've always done? ...
Johnnie Allan's 'Promised Land'
Retrospective by Andy Gill, The Word, February 2011
ON 5th MARCH 1960, the same day that his rival Elvis Presley was being discharged from the army and welcomed back as an all-American icon, ...
Chuck Berry in Hail! Hail! Mr Rock & Roll
Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, 2017
CHUCK BERRY WAS "more complicated, more difficult, more diabolical" than any movie star, according to the man who directed him in Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll. Yet ...
Retrospective by Mitchell Cohen, Music Aficionado, 2017
WITH THEIR EXUBERANT three-part harmony, chiming guitar riffs, and keen sense of what makes a memorable hook, the Hollies created a signature sound. At first, ...
You Can't Catch Me: Chuck Berry's Final Years
Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, 2017
THE ARTIST IS immortalised in death as seldom in life. At least that's mostly the way of things. But not when it came to Chuck ...
Obituary by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, March 2017
THANKS TO HIS duck walk, the way he swung the neck of his guitar around and those nifty little bent-note licks that opened his songs, ...
Chuck Berry was not always a nice man, but his music stood the test of time
Comment by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 19 March 2017
He helped shake the world into looser, better ways, and explained the first real teenagers to themselves. ...
Retrospective by Caryn Rose, salon.com, 20 March 2017
Keith Richards worked like a dog to get Chuck Berry's 60th-birthday concert right and Berry treated him like one ...
The Complicated Truth About Chuck Berry
Memoir by Caryn Rose, MTV.com, 20 March 2017
How I figured out a way to love his music in spite of his often-unsavory story ...
Ronnie Wood: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 22 November 2019
Lulu and Imelda May bring powerhouse guest vocals but the Rolling Stone can't match up in this mediocre homage. ...
Rock'n'Roll and Race: One Nation Under a Beat
Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, December 2019
America was riven by racial conflict when rock'n'roll breached the colour line, uniting black and white youth in a precursor to the hard-won equalities of ...
Peter Guralnick Gets Lost in Profiles of Musical Giants
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 3 December 2020
PETER GURALNICK didn't set out to be a music journalist. The occupation didn't really exist at the time when a combination of luck and bluster ...
RJ Smith: Chuck Berry – An American Life (Omnibus)
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, November 2022
"HE DIDN'T have personal friends," says Dick Allen, a showbiz agent who worked with Chuck Berry for years. "I travelled all the time with him. ...
see also Johnnie Johnson
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