Vox
Vox was a British music magazine, first issued in October 1990. It was published by IPC Media and was later billed as a monthly sister-magazine to IPC's music weekly, the New Musical Express. Its final issue was in June 1998
330 articles
List of articles in the library
Adamski: Dr Adamski's Musical Pharmacy
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, November 1990
THE IMPISH PETER PAN of dance-pop, Adam Tinley is like that toddler in the Fisher Price ad feeling his way around the knobs and switches ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1993
PIOTR FIJALKOWSKI'S gloomy, doomed romantics are rock revisionists from the old school. Obviously inspired by the likes of Echo And The Bunnymen and The House ...
Aerosmith: A Question of Snort: Walk This Way by Aerosmith with Stephen Davis (Virgin) *****
Book Review by Ian Fortnam, Vox, March 1998
Underage girls, serial drug abuse. How far is too far? The Toxic Twins show the way. ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, May 1993
THE 'SMITH'S CONTINUED RENAISSANCE is so perfectly realised on Get A Grip you start to wonder what preservatives they put in their drugs. Giving up ...
Aerosmith: Tigers of Wang Twang: Aerosmith: Pandora's Box (Columbia)
Review by Paul Elliott, Vox, February 1992
"THERE ARE JUST a very few bands that wang my twang like Aerosmith," conceded the deer-stalkin' wild man of rock, Ted Nugent, in one of ...
Alisha's Attic: All About Eaves: Alisha's Attic: Alisha Rules The World (Mercury)
Review by Johnny Cigarettes, Vox, December 1996
IN THE '50s AND '60s, people would often pursue a pop career as a stepping stone to becoming a "family entertainer", hoping, in the long ...
Allman Brothers Band: The Allman Brothers: Seven Turns
Review by Edwin Pouncey, Vox, October 1990
LAST YEAR'S EPIC DREAMS boxed set satisfactorily covered the full history of these good ol' Southern boys and their particular brand of rock 'n' blues. ...
All Saints: They Know Where It's At
Interview by Angus Batey, Vox, March 1998
And finally we have lift-off. Yes, 'Never Ever' may have taken its time getting there, but Britain's finest all-girl band have hit Number One, and ...
Interview by Betty Page, Vox, December 1991
Marc Almond may be mellowing in middle age, but who's he trying to kid that he's the Englebert Humperdinck of the '90s? Betty Page meets ...
Shola Ama: The Next Generation: Shola Ama
Interview by Dele Fadele, Vox, January 1998
An 18-year-old with attitude who thinks global and acts loco ...
American Music Club, Mark Eitzel: Mark Eitzel: Tortured Soul
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, June 1991
MARK EITZEL, founding member of the American Music Club, stands before us accused of being "a melancholy angel of doom", a manic depressive with a ...
Report and Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Vox, April 1994
Singing hairdos? Not any longer. Britain's new breed of single black females are feisty, independent and take no prisoners ...
Review by Edwin Pouncey, Vox, October 1990
THIS TIME NEW YORK moshers Anthrax sound like they're really pissed off….at least, that's what they'd like you to believe as they hurl their third ...
Ash: Turn Up, Check In, Rock Out!
Report by Steven Wells, Vox, December 1995
These days, most teenagers leave school and sign on. But not ASH – they play loud punk rock, trash hotels and party till they puke. ...
Rick Astley: Never Gonna Give Who Up?
Report and Interview by David Quantick, Vox, March 1991
Tear down your glossy posters. For the days of teen idolism are over — according to the improved, longer-lasting Rick Astley. A new album and ...
Babes In Toyland: Rock And Roll Babes
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, August 1993
Deposit your 'feminist rock' preconceptions at the door, pigeonhole fans. Babes In Toyland were playing raucous licks long before the Riot Grrrls left finishing school... ...
Angelo Badalamenti, Julee Cruise: Angelo Badalamenti: Music From Twin Peaks (Warner Bros.)
Review by Betty Page, Vox, January 1991
A PEAK EXPERIENCE ...
The Beastie Boys: Beastie Boys: Ill Communication (Capitol/Grand Royal EFP222 9)
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, July 1994
BEARING A blatant allusion to their monstrous 1986 debut Licensed To Ill and a clutch of guitar-mayhem tracks recorded back in their native NYC, the ...
The Beautiful South: Sneaking Beauties
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, May 1991
PAUL HEATON GLOWERS like Mister Punch's suicidally depressed uncle with a killer migraine and inflamed piles. He is not a happy man. ...
Profile and Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, June 1994
How can Beck be a Loser? He's ridiculed MTV, yet it still gives heavy rotation to this Kansas runt and his band of OAPs. ...
Guide by Stephen Dalton, Vox, August 1994
Back in 1985, one seemingly harmless song led a woman to take unprecedented action against the American recording industry. Thanks to her moral crusade, albums ...
Donald Fagen, Steely Dan, Walter Becker: Steely Dan: Desperate For Dan
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, January 1991
No, there won't be a Steely Dan reunion. But the good news for those still checked in at the Hotel California is that songwriting partners ...
Review by Edwin Pouncey, Vox, October 1990
DRUMMER BOB BERT once slammed skins for such New York underground rock superstars as Sonic Youth and Pussy Galore. Now he has decided to try ...
Big Audio Dynamite II: The Globe
Review by Max Bell, Vox, July 1991
WORD IS THAT BAD II and Sony Music Entertainment are about to part company so I approached The Globe expecting to hear a contract-filling finale ...
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, June 1993
With Icelandic indie stadium-fillers The Sugarcubes on seemingly permanent hold, singer Bjork Gudmundsdottir launches her solo career this month with a single, ‘Human Behaviour’. She ...
Interview by Graham Reid, Vox, April 1994
From earthquakes in LA to cyclones Down Under, wherever Björk walks, mesmerized crowds and natural disasters follow ...
Björk: Call Of The Wild: Bjork
Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Vox, October 1995
Bjork hasn’t let two years of critical kudos and VIP bullshit go to her head. As she heads out on a major world tour, VOX ...
Black Grape: It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah! (Radioactive)
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, September 1995
YOU KNOW the story. Just over two years ago, it all went pear-shaped for Shaun Ryder. Smack addiction, bitter infighting and musical stagnation finished off ...
Black Grape: Spills 'n' Thrills and Jelly Aches
Report and Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, Vox, November 1995
After breaking and entering the album charts at Number One, BLACK GRAPE decided to drag their scuzzy, 24-hour party on the road. VOX gets over-friendly ...
The Black Crowes: Nod's As Good As A Wink To A Black Crowe
Report and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, September 1991
Currently America's hottest new Faces, The Black Crowes have made a huge name for themselves with just one ass-kickin' LP, mucho slagging off of "the ...
The Black Crowes: The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion (Def American 512 263-2)
Review by Paul Elliott, Vox, June 1992
ONE DAY, maybe soon, The Black Crowes will be the biggest rock'n'roll band in Atlanta, Georgia — and following that, the world. Their debut LP ...
Black Grape, Happy Mondays: Black Grape: Forget It All For An Instant
Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, July 1995
After all the pills, thrills and bellyaches, Shaun Ryder felt peckish — so he nipped off to Kentucky Fried Chicken. It took him three years ...
Black Grape, Happy Mondays: Shaun Ryder: Sleazy Ryder
Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, October 1995
In the first of a series never, ever to be continued, Shaun Ryder presents his passport to the land of a thousand karma sutra babes. ...
Mary J. Blige: Mary J Blige: Material World
Interview by Angus Batey, Vox, June 1997
WHAT'S THE most embarrassing item of clothing you've ever bought? ...
Blue Cheer: Highlights And Lowlives (Nielbung); Blitzkrieg Over Nuremburg (Thunderbolt)
Review by Edwin Pouncey, Vox, January 1991
BLUE CHEER were once championed as being the loudest band in the world. By today's standards of mega-volume Blue Cheer may sound pretty tame, but ...
Blur: Who needs a used Merc, anyway?
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, November 1994
Mr Cholmondley-Warner may not have rated Blur good enough for the Mercury Music Prize, but Damon Albarn isn't losing sleep over it — hit singles, ...
Blur: Can't Fight This Fleeing: Blur: The Great Escape (Parlophone)
Review by Paul Moody, Vox, November 1995
"I'm not walking out of this/I want to stay this way forever" — Blur, 'Blue Jeans', 1993 ...
Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, March 1992
Food Records' charity knees-up included tasty appetisers of Diesel Park West, an entrée of Blur and the piece de resistance, Jesus Jones. Stephen Dalton tucked ...
Bon Jovi: These Days (Mercury 5282482)
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, August 1995
RETURNING FROM their minor flirtation with funky modernity and relatively short hair on Keep The Faith, Jon and the boys swing back into classic Jovi ...
Report by Angus Batey, Vox, August 1995
Snoop and Dr Dre's tales of the 'hoods of South Central may have redirected the media's fickle attention to the West Coast, but New York ...
David Bowie: Best Of 1974/1979 (EMI)
Review by Ian Fortnam, Vox, June 1998
Where the first instalment of this condensed collection of Bowie's "best" work covered the formative innocence of the man's glam rock period, 1974/1979 finds the ...
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, February 1991
After the unexpected and phenomenal success of her debut LP, Edie Brickell reinvented herself for Rolling Stone magazine but ultimately had to tell the truth. ...
British Electric Foundation: The Soul World In His Hands
Interview by Bruce Dessau, Vox, October 1991
It's taken Martyn Ware nine years and a good lawyer to make The British Electronic Foundation's second album, a compilation of soul classics "interpreted" by ...
Buffalo Tom — Buffalo Stampede
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, December 1993
AS GRUNGE BECOMES the kind of monster the genre once rallied against, Buffalo Tom's old-fashioned ideals keep them on a back-breaking tour of America's Badlands. ...
Buffalo Tom: Sleepy Eyed (Beggars Banquet BB0177)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, August 1995
"SHE'S A tangerine, made in California. She's a sunny day." Bill Janovitz surely knows how to set a scene and now that Buffalo Tom mirrors ...
Kate Bush: Shake Your Booties: Kate Bush: The Red Shoes (EMI)
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, November 1993
THINK OF THE most unlikely pop collaborators you can imagine. Now double them. Forget it, because Ms Bush got there before you: Lenny Henry, Prince, ...
Bernard Butler, Suede: Bernard Butler: Gentleman And Player
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, July 1994
When his father died last year, Bernard Butler used his guitar to assuage his grief. Now Britain's most important guitar hero since Johnny Marr has ...
Butthole Surfers: Independent Worm Saloon (Capitol)
Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, April 1993
WITH THEIR last album, 1991's half-hearted Pioughd, the Butthole Surfers appeared to be relying on a well-cultivated knack for elaborate in-jokes, almost to the exclusion ...
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, March 1992
If you should bump into David Byrne on his forthcoming world tour, for God's sake don't mention the word "renaissance". Talking Heads are no more, ...
David Byrne: More Songs About Psychos: David Byrne: Uh-Oh (Luaka Bop/Sire)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1992
DAVID BYRNE has always enjoyed looking at the globe from the most unusual perspectives. He used to draw ephemeral pictures of the States on an ...
David Byrne, Morcheeba: Morcheeba: Calm before the storm
Interview by Jack Barron, Vox, April 1998
They were quietly successful with their dark, hip-hop textures and Skye-scraping vocals. Now, with their genre-defying second LP, Big Calm, MORCHEEBA are quietly heading for ...
Belinda Carlisle: Christmas Crackers
Interview by David Quantick, Vox, January 1992
It may be Christmas but it's the season of no fun for Belinda Carlisle. VOX found her heavy with child, enslaved by her hormones and ...
Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine: At Home With Carter
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, April 1992
Carter can't seem to stay out of the headlines – but they're valiantly resisting the pressures of fame. Stephen Dalton toured Fruitbat's new house. ...
Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine: From Cardboard City To Celebrity Central
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, September 1991
A Top 20 Single in Britain, feted in the USA and Japan...Suddenly Carter are hot. But it's been a long, hard haul for this duo ...
Charlatans, The (UK): The Charlatans: Return to Madchester
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, March 1994
After a few indiscretions, Manchester's adopted sons The Charlatans are keeping their motor running with the help of Ambient hippy Steve Hillage... ...
Charlatans, The (UK): The Charlatans: First Charlatango In Paris
Interview by James Brown, Vox, January 1991
The story so far… Completely unknown nine months ago and still reeling from a Number One hit album. The Charlatans have just made their first ...
Review by Edwin Pouncey, Vox, October 1990
CHEAP TRICK ARE THE champions of the FM pop/rock ditty, a position they have proudly hung onto, through the great American punk apocalypse right to ...
The Chemical Brothers: Exit Planet Dust (Junior Boys Own XOUSTCD1)
Review by Lisa Verrico, Vox, August 1995
Guerrillas in the chemist ...
The Chemical Brothers: Chemical Abuse
Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, August 1995
Last year, the Chemical Brothers were just a couple of DJs with a legendary reputation for drug taking. Now they're almost as famous as the ...
Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, July 1995
Trip-hop is now part of pop's international language — but the pioneers of Britain's most successful musical export in years refuse to admit it exists... ...
Review by Paul Elliott, Vox, July 1991
INEVITABLY, THE title song is a cover of the Everly Brothers standard, as covered previously by journeyman Brit rockers Nazareth. A pub singer staple, 'Love ...
Cher, Sonny & Cher: Cher: Self Made Woman
Interview by Mal Peachey, Vox, August 1991
CHER'S FAME USED TO BE BY PROXY, THAT OF HER PARTNERS. BUT A DAZZLING MOVIE CAREER PASSED THE REINS OF FORTUNE INTO HER OWN HANDS. ...
Chickasaw Mudd Puppies: 8 Track Stomp (Wing)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1991
WE'VE GOT a weird one here. The Chickasaw Mudd Puppies, for those who don't know, take their name from a river running through Alabama, though ...
Chickasaw Mudd Puppies: The Chickasaw Mudd Puppies: Puppy Love
Profile and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, May 1991
Pull the straw out of your teeth and take your pardners for a new kind of dance. The Chickasaw Mudd Puppies are here and they're ...
Chrissie Hynde: "Guys in bands are pussies"
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, October 1994
Should Kurt Cobain have unplugged his fax or Evan Dando blabbed about crack? Should Brian Jones have smoked in public? Chrissie Hynde has the answers ...
Chuck D, Tricky: Chuck D and Tricky: Conversation Terrorists
Interview by Dele Fadele, Vox, December 1996
It was a most unlikely summit meeting when Chuck D, Public Enemy's motormouth mainspring and founding father of political rap, met Bristol maverick Tricky, hip-hop's ...
Kurt Cobain, Nirvana: Kurt Cobain: I'm Not Gonna Crack!
Profile and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Vox, July 1992
Poisoned by the chalice of instant success, bedridden with road-rash after a ton of amp-smashingly intense gigs – what's happened to Nirvana's tortured singer and ...
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, October 1993
Three years after their split from spiritual home 4AD Records, the Cocteau Twins return with a new album, Four Calendar Cafe, looking to eclipse the ...
Leonard Cohen: The Future (Columbia)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, January 1993
A PRESIDENTIAL term of office in the making, Leonard Cohen's The Future is designed to see all those buggers out. It will captivate those who ...
Interview by Bruce Dessau, Vox, September 1991
Lloyd's Cole's new album has more strings on it than an episode of Thunderbirds. In an Irish TV studio, as an orchestra tunes up, Bruce ...
Interview by Angus Batey, Vox, March 1995
Ice-T, Ice Cube, LL Cool J... The West Coast of America is famous for its frozen rappers. Now cometh the latest million-selling iceman: Coolio ...
Coolio: To Live and Thrive in LA
Interview by Gavin Martin, Vox, September 1997
Since 'Gangsta's Paradise' took over the world's radio-waves last year, untold riches and COOLIO have been close bedfellows. But does it make him happy? Despite ...
Julian Cope: A Rune With A View
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, September 1992
Powerful things, ley lines. They can make Julian Cope commune with rocks, and cause his old boss Bill Drummond to break the silence he's kept ...
Book Review by Fred Dellar, Vox, September 1995
County crows ...
Cowboy Junkies: Black-Eyed Man
Review by Max Bell, Vox, March 1992
TORONTO'S CELEBRATED Cowboy Junkies have never seemed to pay fashionable music much attention. Back in '86 they recorded an extraordinary set of bluesy covers called ...
Cowboy Junkies: Whites Off Earth Now!!
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, April 1991
PICTURE THE SCENE in 1986. The Junkies are lurking in their garage with a two-track machine and single microphone, ready for a jam session. But ...
Crash Test Dummies: Things that make you go mmm...
Interview by Craig McLean, Vox, 1994
Crash Test Dummies smile and say "cheesy" in a desperate bid to avoid rock'n'roll pretentiousness. So why is frontman Brad Roberts still so serious? ...
Crazy Horse, Neil Young: Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Ragged Glory
Review by Edwin Pouncey, Vox, October 1990
LIKE BOB DYLAN (his closest creative counterpart) Neil Young likes to keep his audience on its toes. For every critically acclaimed 'classic' that is punched ...
Interview by Betty Page, Vox, December 1990
If Disintegration led to just that for self-confessed 'English werewolf in Crawley' Robert Smith, what on earth will happen to him with the release of ...
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, July 1991
Zitty, teenaged and fresh from a garage they are not; as for being indie, ask Dave Stewart. Stephen Dalton sees what it takes to lurve ...
Evan Dando, The Lemonheads: Evan Dando
Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, Vox, November 1996
I HAVE REASON to believe that Evan Dando has been drinking. It's not so much his appearance – grimy T-shirt, flared polyester trousers crudely cut ...
Terence Trent D'Arby: Symphony For The D'Evil: Terence Trent D'Arby: Symphony Or Damn (Columbia)
Review by Chas de Whalley, Vox, June 1993
BY RIGHTS, of course, Terence Trent D'Arby should have achieved superstar status years ago. That he hasn't is entirely his own fault. ...
Del Amitri: Hangin' With The Del Boys
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, May 1992
Fashion? Del Amitri – the most polite boot-wearing, outsize sideboard-toting popsters in the Northern Hemisphere – couldn't give a Flying Scotsman ...
Cathy Dennis, D Mob: Cathy Dennis: Cathy Comes Home
Interview by Betty Page, Vox, July 1991
Currently the UK's biggest female success Stateside, "D Mob Diva" Cathy Dennis returns to her native Norwich only to be met with a resounding... who ...
Dinosaur Jr.: Dinosaur Jr: Where You Been
Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, February 1993
WITH SCRUFFY, laid-back dudish-ness currently the viable rockin' role model for today's young unemployables, the time is right for the return of the man who ...
Dinosaur Jr: Doin' The Dinosaur
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, Vox, March 1991
Will Dinosaur Jr go monster now they're signed with the corporate might of Warners? Edwin Pouncey says Oi! to the band who claim The 4-Skins ...
Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth: Dinosaur Jr.: Walk The Dinosaur
Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, March 1993
J. MASCIS IS a grunge fashion guru; all others turn to his band Dinosaur Jr. for inspiration. Indeed, the Seattle scene all but sprang from ...
Dire Straits: On Every Street (Vertigo)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, November 1991
AND ON EVERY CD player...they wish. ...
Review by Lisa Verrico, Vox, September 1997
TOKYO! BUM RUSH THE SHOW ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, June 1993
DODGY HAVE BEEN TAGGED prime contenders in '93, and even if that prophecy proves a kiss of death, their debut album certainly makes lots of ...
The Dogs D'Amour: The Dogs D' Amour: More Unchartered Heights Of Disgrace
Review by Chas de Whalley, Vox, June 1993
IT'S HARD TO RESIST the immediate temptation to write The Dogs D'Amour off as relics of that late-'80s sleazeball revolution that threw up Guns N' ...
The Dogs D'Amour: Straight??!!
Review by David Quantick, Vox, October 1990
I REMEMBER THIS LOT when they were impeccably authentic New York Dolls copyists, with Arthur Kane barnets and Johnny Thunders riffs and excess onstage falling-over. ...
Jason Donovan: Identitiy: Jason Donovan — What's Your Problem?
Interview by Mal Peachey, Vox, January 1993
Jason Donovan was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1968. Neighbours made him a teeny idol in 1986, and SAW made him a pop star. He ...
Dream Command: Fire On The Moon
Review by Stuart Maconie, Vox, October 1990
DREAM COMMAND HAVE evolved, at least in part, from The Comsat Angels, and this is a fact you are not likely to forget as Fire ...
Profile and Interview by Gavin Martin, Vox, December 1996
THE TWO self-proclaimed Zen masters speed through the lush and leafy lanes of England's green and pleasant land to meet us at the train station. ...
Duran Duran: The Wedding Album
Review by Chas de Whalley, Vox, April 1993
NEARLY 12 YEARS ON, and Messrs Le Bon, Taylor and Rhodes are still peddling the same kind of prosaic pop which was their calling card ...
Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991 (Columbia)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, May 1991
Sign Of The Times ...
Report by Nick Kent, Vox, October 1990
HIS HOUSE IS FALLING DOWN, HE FREAKS OUT HIS BANDS MAKING UP SONGS MID-GIG, AND HE SPORTS A NICE LINE IN HOODED ANORAKS. BUT WHEN ...
Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, February 1994
Elastica may look rough, but their impoverished image is all part of the game. Inspired by such bands as The Buzzcocks and Wire, and pursuing ...
Elastica: Things that make you go URGGHHH!
Interview by Andrew Mueller, Vox, December 1994
JUSTINE FRISCHMANN sings and plays guitar with Elastica, a band whose cool balance of ingenuousness and ingenuity should shortly eclipse her other claims to fame as ...
Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, July 1991
IT'S THE DREAM ticket – two prime movers from the two most significant British pop groups of the '80s unite to form a unique presidential ...
Electronic: Return of the Supergroup
Interview by Betty Page, Vox, June 1991
Supercharged sex monsters or battery-fuelled dinos? Either way, Electronic are having none of it. But Betty Page did have a top day out ...
Interview by Gavin Martin, Vox, February 1991
Joe Ely hocked all he owned to get his latest album released, making him the loan star of the Lone Star state. Gavin Martin meets ...
EMF: An Unbelievable Rise To Fame
Profile and Interview by Betty Page, Vox, February 1991
EMF ARE YOUNG, GOOD-LOOKING, LOUD AND HAVE BAD ATTITUDES. THEY ARE ALSO AMAZINGLY SUCCESSFUL. IS IT DOWN TO HYPE OR TALENT? BETTY PAGE INVESTIGATES. ...
Erasure: Gdansk for the Memories
Report and Interview by David Quantick, Vox, November 1991
East-West relations continue to thaw, and what better cultural emissaries to Poland than Erasure's sparky popsters Andy Bell and Vince Clarke? On a recent jaunt ...
Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, September 1993
From the tranquillity of their rural recording location, "Nirvana's favourite band" Eugenius bemoan the very events which triggered their meteoric rise to stardom. ...
Donald Fagen: Kamakiriad (WEA 9362452302)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, July 1993
BEYOND THE STEELY DOME ...
Faith No More: Angel Dust (Slash 828 321-2)
Review by Paul Elliott, Vox, July 1992
IN THE '90s, rock Is changing — or at least, public tastes are changing. Nirvana's Nevermind has topped the US album chart and is now ...
Faith No More: 33 Gleibe Freiheit, Hamburg
Live Review by Neil Kulkarni, Vox, January 1998
The Fifth Element ...
The Fall: Mark E Smith: Not Falling, Soaring
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, June 1991
MARK E SMITH'S REPUTATION precedes him like massed stormtroopers on the horizon. Fourteen years on, the Fall frontman still sets everyone on edge, either in ...
The Fall: Mark E. Smith: What's Your Problem? Hippies
Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, March 1994
Inspired by the title of an Albert Camus novel, Mark E Smith formed The Fall in Manchester in 1977. Smith's snarling vocal style and sharply ...
The Fall: The Infotainment Scan
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, May 1993
FALLWATCHERS might have expected serious new directions after the band's recent severance from Polydor, but their Permanent debut finds human word-processor Mark E Smith digging ...
Comment by Dave Marsh, Vox, November 1990
WHEN SINEAD O'Connor refused to allow 'The Star Spangled Banner' to be performed at her late August concert at the Garden State Arts Center in ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Vox, October 1994
Managerial divorce, marital problems, writer's block… times have been hard for Bryan Ferry, but the "artist who makes records" has entered his Arabic period with ...
Foo Fighters, Nirvana: Foo Fighters: Happy Dave Is Here Again
Interview by Stuart Bailie, Vox, June 1997
Dodgy facial furniture aside, Dave Grohl is, without doubt, the most well-adjusted man in rock as he prepares to lead Foo Fighters onto further glory ...
4 Non Blondes: Non Blonde Ambition
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, October 1993
Less than a year ago no-one had heard of San Francisco's 4 Non Blondes; now, sales of their debut LP are going crazy. Is there ...
Review and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, August 1992
The Eagles are up there with rock's all-time greats. Over the years they've sold some 80 million records, thanks largely to that polished Western fantasy ...
Fun Lovin' Criminals: Fun Lovin’ Criminals: The Illegals Have Landed
Interview by Ian Fortnam, Vox, September 1996
Tonight there's gonna be a jailbreak somewhere in, er, Denmark, as those Fun Lovin' Criminals unload their arsenal of jazz, blues and hip-hop on 90,000 ...
Interview by Steven Wells, Vox, April 1996
SAN FRANCISCO: Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas is being projected onto the fire curtain while the stage is being prepared for Garbage. The soundless ...
Genesis: We Can't Dance (Virgin)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, December 1991
GENESIS'S 17TH album arrives some five years after Invisible Touch. As befits these sedate Home Counties chaps, We Can't Dance is the product of modest ...
Grateful Dead: Bring Out Your Dead
Report and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, November 1990
Hey, man. Whatever happened to the summer of love? It’s taking dedication a bit far when in a year, three fans die at Grateful Dead ...
Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead: Without A Net
Review by Edwin Pouncey, Vox, November 1990
THE GRATEFUL DEAD are the kind of rocking teenage combo who are at their very best when they're playing wild and free in front of ...
Report and Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, December 1994
Californian group Green Day have sped through the past year, with more than a little help from their friends Billy Whizz and Bob Hope. And ...
Guns N' Roses: Welcome To My Nightmare
Interview by Nick Kent, Vox, October 1991
Guns N' Roses are undoubtably the biggest noises in rock. But for how long? Would you buy two simultaneously released LPs at full price? Will ...
Guns N' Roses: Use Your Illusion 1; Use Your Illusion 2 (Geffen)
Review by Paul Elliott, Vox, November 1991
THE BAND'S ex-manager Alan Niven described Use Your Illusion I and II as "Pink Floyd's The Wall meets Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti." Niven was on ...
Woody Guthrie, Curtis Mayfield, Sinead O'Connor: 'The Star Spangled Banner'
Comment by Dave Marsh, Vox, November 1990
WHEN SINEAD O'CONNOR refused to allow 'The Star Spangled Banner' to be performed at her late August concert at the Garden State Arts Center in ...
Happy Mondays: Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyaches (Factory)
Review by Betty Page, Vox, December 1990
IT MAY TAKE a while for the nation to be convinced of Happy Mondays' worth, to believe that they're not drug-dealing lowlife scum pissing around ...
Happy Mondays: Ryders On A Storm: Happy Mondays in The Altered States of America
Report and Interview by Betty Page, Vox, October 1990
"GET THAT THING off, man... get that dangerous f***ingmotherf***ing thing off!" Shaun Ryder has just had the tip of my sleek black Olympus micro-cassette machine ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, October 1992
HAPPY MONDAYS' fourth album arrives in a cloud. The nest of vipers stirred by Shaun Ryder's interview with the NME last year is one factor ...
PJ Harvey: To Bring You My Love (Island)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1995
POLLY JEAN HARVEY has never been afraid to let the masculine side of her personality underscore her feminine traits. The shock of the new most ...
PJ Harvey: Harvey's Frisco Dream
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, November 1992
PJ Harvey hit the states for a lightening tour and took it by storm. "It's like a film," says Polly. "I think they're a bit ...
Havana 3am — Our Man In Havana
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, March 1991
Ex-Clash man Paul Simonon doffs his skid-lid and steers his Harley onto the hard-rock shoulder for a bit of a chin about his new band, ...
The High Llamas, Stereolab: Stereolab, The High Llamas: 9.30 Club, Washington DC
Live Review by David Stubbs, Vox, February 1998
WASHINGTON DC encapsulates all America's contrasts in extremis. Up on Capitol Hill, they're running the country. Over at the White House, he's running the world. ...
The High Llamas: Apricots (Plastic Records)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, March 1992
SEAN O'HAGAN, formerly of the admirable Microdisney but now pursuing a solo path with the latter's rhythm section in tow, is a man with much ...
Susanna Hoffs: When You're A Boy
Review by Betty Page, Vox, April 1991
AS THE BANGLES' chief vocalist and front-person, Susanna Hoffs played a key part in creating some fine, off-the-wall pop songs and soaring ballads. In their ...
The House Of Love: Burning Down The House
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, November 1990
The House Of Love became a house of ill repute as they binged, boozed and vindalooed their way through the tour that never ended, burning ...
Report by Betty Page, Vox, December 1990
THE MUTANT HERO TURTLES HAVEN'T HIT JAPAN YET, BUT FOR THE MOMENT THE LOCALS ARE OBSESSED WITH A DAFT LITTLE COW WITH SPIRALLY EYES. WE ...
INXS: Michael Hutchence 1960-1997
Obituary by Andrew Mueller, Vox, January 1998
THAT MICHAEL HUTCHENCE should fail to reach his 40th birthday is, perhaps, no surprise in itself – his career was distinguished by a wholehearted subscription ...
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, January 1992
Blending cosmopolitan pretension, uptempo dance rock and smart media moves, Michael Hutchence has managed the impossible — to make INXS a world famous, high grossing ...
Janet Jackson: The Jackson Fave: Janet Jackson: Ahoy, Rotterdam
Live Review by Angus Batey, Vox, June 1998
"When I was 17 I did what people told me Did what my father said and let my mother mould me But that was ...
Mick Jagger: Wandering Spirit (Atlantic)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, March 1993
REMEMBER THAT SCENE in Performance, where James Fox's Chas tells Mick Jagger's Turner: "You'll look funny when you're 40"? Well, the rock'n'roller's fear of that ...
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, December 1991
It's taken eight years for Manchester pop princes James to become a BIG DEAL. But before the stadia of the world are rocked, there's that ...
James: First We Take Manhattan
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Vox, August 1992
And then we take — Alton Towers? In preparation for their Fourth of July bash at the noted Midlands leisure resort, James have been touring ...
Jamiroquai: Jay Kay, What's Your Problem? Not Being Black?
Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, July 1994
JAMIROQUAI'S 24-year-old Jason Kay (aka Jay Kay) was brought up in Ealing, West London, by his jazz-singer mother, Karen Kay. Inspired by the likes of ...
Jane's Addiction: The Shocking Truth
Interview by Paul Elliott, Vox, June 1991
"Okay, so we do music from time to time. But we can control it..." Jane's Addiction have cleaned up their habits of late, but just ...
Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, May 1992
SINCE THEIR last album, 1989's impressive but thinly spread Automatic, a host of fledgling noise outfits have weighed in with claims for the Mary Chain's ...
The Jesus & Mary Chain, Oasis, Primal Scream: Creation Records: Creative Accounting
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, April 1994
Primal Scream, Jesus And Mary Chain, Boo Radleys... Creation has nurtured a family of provocative rock rebels. Alan McGee looks back on the first ten ...
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, April 1991
NOT YOUR AVERAGE ROCK'N'ROLLER – THAT'S MIKE EDWARDS, PRIME PROPHET OF JESUS JONES, WHO SHUNS SEX'N'DRUGS AND READS MACHIAVELLI ON TOUR. STEPHEN DALTON SOAKED UP ...
George Jones: High-Tech Redneck (MCA MCAD 10910)
Review by Fred Dellar, Vox, June 1994
AT LEAST George hasn't lost his sense of humour. The album sleeve depicts him leaning on a car that sports the numberplate IDOSHOW. Which kinda ...
Review by Edwin Pouncey, Vox, November 1990
HOT ON THE heels of their recent court victory (where Judas Priest were found not guilty of causing the deaths of two young men through ...
Kula Shaker: Cool, karma & collected
Interview by Chris Roberts, Vox, May 1998
Those mystical'n'magical types, KULA SHAKER are back, and this time they're watching what they say. Which is no surprise after their last round of foot-in-mouth ...
Kyuss: ...And The Circus Leaves Town (WCA 7559-618112)
Review by Neil Perry, Vox, August 1995
STONED CALIFORNIA bass freaks Kyuss have done it again: they've created an album that's as different from last year's Sky Valley as that was from ...
Review by Neil Perry, Vox, August 1994
HAILING FROM THE golf-crazed, blue-collar Californian oasis of Palm Springs, the almost surreally heavy Kyuss apparently honed their ferociously stoned metallic vibe with "generator parties", ...
k.d. lang: Ingénue (WEA 26840)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1992
POPULAR OPINION has had it that, on her latest album Ingénue, k.d. lang has skirted the Country style as if it were an unpleasant cesspit ...
Daniel Lanois, U2: Daniel Lanois and U2: Five Men and Achtung Baby
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, December 1991
The new U2 album — released on November 18 — is "rougher and harder-hitting than anything we've done before" …Producer Daniel Lanois talks to Max ...
Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin: Jimmy Page
Interview by Nick Kent, Vox, December 1990
In days of yore, communication breakdowns with the press suggested Jimmy Page was a dazed and confused prince of heavy metal. With Zeppelin reissues breaking ...
The Lemonheads: I Get The Feeling I'm Being Bullshitted
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, August 1994
IT'S A SHAME about Evan. Maybe we have a case of wrong time, wrong place, but dark moods are written all over his scowling, handsome, ...
Annie Lennox: Beaten By The Curve Ball: Annie Lennox: Diva (RCA)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, May 1992
SOMETIMES you come home and they've moved the furniture. ...
Interview by Bruce Dessau, Vox, April 1991
Lenny Kravitz doesn't want an image. It's music that matters. He'd rather be in a studio and miserable than outside having fun. Bruce Dessau tracked ...
The Levellers: An Honest Crust
Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, June 1992
The Levellers have a reputation for being anarcho-veggie activists, thanks to folksy songs about travellers and police oppression. Yet their Crass-for-the-'90s image is not strictly ...
Little Village: Little Village
Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1992
INITIAL REACTION to Little Village — a sort of super-ish group-type thing — leads one to ponder the question: why? Was this summit meeting of ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1993
VERNON REID'S POSITION at the forefront of the Black Rock Coalition gave Living Colour's first two albums, Vivid and Time's Up, a biting, satirical edge, ...
Interview by Paul Elliott, Vox, July 1991
So Elvis is the King of rock'n'roll, huh? Well he don't mean shit to Living Colour as they rap with Paul Elliot about the roots ...
LL Cool J: Tellin' it like it is
Interview by Angus Batey, Vox, January 1998
Million-selling rap king, actor, ladies' man and now a no-holds-barred autobiographer… who in their right minds could resist LL COOL J? ...
Review by Andy Crysell, Vox, June 1998
Violently impressive debut from the new pop/funk/rap/punk/techno/everything else heroes ...
Nils Lofgren, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young: Nils Lofgren: Nils' Desperados
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, June 1991
A lovely guy, Nils Lofgren. Ask Bruce, Neil, Bob, Lou or Keef. Rock's shortest top sidekick tells Max Bell about life with the E Street ...
Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, April 1993
ASK LOVECRAFT to describe themselves, and they'll tell you they're a London-based, five-piece rock'n'roll band. In the flesh, they're a gorgeous, sexily-clad, cosmopolitan collection of ...
Report and Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, November 1994
NATURAL INGREDIENTS, the first full-length album from female New York four-piece Luscious Jackson, is the follow-up to World Clique that Deee-Lite never made – funky, ...
The Pogues, Shane MacGowan: Shane MacGowan: It's A Long Way From Tipperary
Retrospective by Ian Fortnam, Vox, January 1998
AS PUNK PASSION dissipated and died, choking on its own irrelevance, a generation of serial venters were suddenly deprived of its primal, therapeutic effect. The ...
Shane MacGowan, The Pogues: Shane MacGowan: Dark Side of the Hooligan
Profile and Interview by Sean O'Hagan, Vox, November 1990
Shane MacGowan has not been a happy man since the 'natural living' days of punk. Now he's disillusioned with the Pogues and a recent medical ...
Madonna: Immaculate Projection: Madonna: Ray Of Light (Maverick/WEA) *****
Review by Angus Batey, Vox, April 1998
Music, motherhood and much, much more: real revelation from the world's most famous single parent ...
Madonna: Erotica (Maverick/Sire)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, December 1992
NOW WE'VE ALL been in bed with Madonna, and studied her Sex, this Erotica business seems determined to encourage a few mind-games with the intent ...
Madonna: Mother of Reinvention
Retrospective by Gavin Martin, Vox, April 1998
With a new image and a new album MADONNA comes to 1998 in bullish form. Here, we assess the Material Girl's metamorphosis from disco diva ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, August 1991
TAJ MAHAL HASN'T BEEN HEARD in such a pristine setting since his Columbia heyday, and after too many years of his slogging for well-meaning but ...
Taj Mahal: Playing The Cosmic Blues
Retrospective and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, December 1991
BACK IN THE '60S when he was fronting the Rising Sons with Ry Cooder, they used to call Taj Mahal a cosmic intellectual blues player. ...
Manic Street Preachers: Gold Against The Soul
Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, August 1993
ONCE IT HAD BECOME OBVIOUS that MI5 had nothing to fear from four mascara'd bedroom situationists fond of carving lumps out of their own flesh ...
Manic Street Preachers: Dead End Street?
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, August 1993
The revolution will not be… stretched to a second album, they once proclaimed. However, their initial dreams of world domination unrealized, what the Manic Street ...
Massive Attack: The Next Level: Massive Attack: Mezzanine (Virgin) *****
Review by Andy Crysell, Vox, May 1998
Storming comeback from the Bristol sound system innovators ...
Kathy Mattea: Walking Away A Winner (Phonogram)
Review by Michele Kirsch, Vox, June 1994
THE TITLE speaks volumes for Mattea's earthy alto, which swells with cola-commercial can-do positivity, even on the sad songs. While this is a vocal quality ...
Report and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, February 1992
THE recent reissue of MC5's incendiary live album Kick Out The Jams, with the contentious "motherfuckers" rap reinstated in place of the toned down "brothers ...
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, April 1995
When record companies went window-shopping last year, they all wanted to buy Menswear. Without even releasing a single, the band's reputation stands more upon the ...
George Michael: Listen Without Prejudice Vol 1 (Epic)
Review by David Quantick, Vox, October 1990
"I WAS EVERY little hungry schoolgirl's pride and joy and I guess that was enough for me" burbles George on 'Freedom '90', a tune about ...
Ministry: The Man From Ministry
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Vox, December 1992
AFTER A promising start, Ministry headman Al Jourgensen put his career into reverse, burying the band in a hideous dark noise which has transformed them ...
Joni Mitchell: Joni Rides Home
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Vox, April 1991
JONI MITCHELL MAY HAVE CUT HER MUSICAL TEETH DURING THE ERA OF LOVE AND PEACE BUT SHE TAKES NONE TOO KINDLY TO COMPARISONS WITH TODAY'S ...
Joni Mitchell: Night Ride Home
Review by Betty Page, Vox, March 1991
IT'S HARD not to be daunted the sheer quality of Joni Mitchell's back catalogue. Her recorded output stands behind her like a set of carved ...
Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, March 1995
Intelligent Techno god or the world's next fascist dictator? Moby likes to piss people off, and he's very good at it... ...
Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, September 1991
AS THE MUSICAL coffers of the '60s increasingly come to resemble a stretch of what used to be the South American rain forests, a band ...
The Mock Turtles: Heroes On A Hard Sell
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, August 1991
MUTANT NINJA? NO WAY, DUDE. These turtles dig artistic respect more than pizza. And though main-man Coogan was once a computer boffin. there's no scope ...
Money Mark: Mark's Keyboard Repair (Mo'Wax)
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, November 1995
Boys To Man ...
Alanis Morissette: Jagged Little Pill (Maverick)
Review by Lucy O'Brien, Vox, September 1995
THE LATEST signing to Madonna's stable, this debut is striking in its maturity. ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, November 1990
VAN MORRISON HAS TWO SONGS THESE DAYS. There is the casually crafted one which often climaxes with Van reciting the litany of great soul artistes ...
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, April 1991
"I DON'T WANT to be judged any more... I would rather be just blindly loved". Alas, those days are long gone, and Morrissey knows better ...
Interview by Len Brown, Vox, November 1990
Morrissey could probably have done without the last year, and there's a been a few none too kind hacks and hackettes who say we could ...
Morrissey: This Bloke Isn't Funny Anymore: Morrissey: Maladjusted (Island)
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, September 1997
ANOTHER YEAR, another Morrissey album. His ninth, incredibly, though you'd be hard-pressed to name the whole lot, never mind recommend them. Which, in itself, is ...
Review by Paul Elliott, Vox, September 1991
FIFTY-NINE MOTORTUNES in one three-CD package? Now that's overkill. Meltdown is near perfect both as an introduction to Motörhead and as a means of replacing ...
Bob Mould, Sugar: Ground Sugar
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, June 1993
After the candy-coated calm of Sugar’s Copper Blue comes the breeding, howling storm of Beaster. And the man at the helm, Bob Mould, ain’t about ...
M People: Bizarre Fruit (DeConstruction)
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, January 1995
Excess baggage ...
My Bloody Valentine: The Sound Of Violence
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, February 1992
My Bloody Valentine inspire purple journalistic prose and surreal interpretation. But live, they just enjoy inflicting pain. Reading covers its ears while Stephen Dalton shoegazes ...
Naughty By Nature: Naughty But Nice
Interview by Angus Batey, Vox, August 1995
Born in the ghetto, Naughty By Nature intend to stay there, despite the band's success ...
New Model Army: Clogged Up In Geneva
Report and Interview by David Quantick, Vox, July 1991
Are New Model Army really stupid bastards? How often do they change their underwear? What do people say in hairdressers? Is everyone in Switzerland cuckoo? ...
Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, January 1993
THE TITLE could be a swipe at the legions of bootleggers, whose unwelcome attention Nirvana attracted the moment they attained superstar status. In fact, this ...
Nirvana: Unplugged In New York (Geffen)
Review by Gavin Martin, Vox, December 1994
THE "unplugged" format, more often utilised to spring-clean a musty back-catalogue than carve out a way forward, provided Kurt Cobain with a much-needed window in ...
Nirvana: Winners Get Scars, Too
Book Excerpt by Michael Azerrad, Vox, October 1993
Nirvana's meteoric rise was a classic example of the American Dream in action — until heroin turned it into a nightmare for singer Kurt Cobain. ...
Nirvana, Pearl Jam: Pearl Jam: Reluctant Hero
Comment by Andrew Mueller, Vox, January 1995
After years of putting Eddie Vedder down, Kurt Cobain's final retribution was to pass him Grunge's crown of thorns. But will he be able to ...
Oasis: Here's Looking At You, Our Kid: Oasis: Be Here Now (Creation)
Review by Dele Fadele, Vox, September 1997
OASIS ARE CAUGHT in the eye of a hurricane. What a shitstorm the Gallagher brothers have been through at the hands of the tabloids and ...
Oasis: Man City Slickers: Oasis: The Haçienda, Manchester
Live Review by John Robb, Vox, November 1994
Having stormed into the album chart at Number One, Oasis return to Manchester's Haçienda — giving their hometown its greatest night since the height of The ...
Report and Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, August 1994
They rant against rock'n'rollers in leather keks, yet their hotel-trashing, drug-snorting lifestyle is becoming legendary. Are Oasis hypocrites or Britain's most sussed rock band? ...
Oasis: The Making of Definitely Maybe
Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, January 1995
From fourth on the bill at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut to the fastest-selling independent debut album in the UK, it's been a staggering year ...
Ocean Colour Scene: New Midland Talent: Ocean Colour Scene
Profile and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, February 1991
THE SAGA SO FAR: Manchester is out, Liverpool is in (again), Bristolians are as sore as ever and good London bands don't exist. Where this ...
Offspring: Go Ahead, Skate Punk…
Interview by Neil Perry, Vox, December 1994
A post-Grunge street revolution or just a flash in the pan? Either way, Offspring are the kids' choice... ...
Alexander O'Neal: Alexander O’Neal
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Vox, March 1991
WHATEVER happened to the black ladykiller, that oversized teddy bear in a Versace suit serenading womankind with a cordless microphone in one hand and a ...
The Orb: Live '93 (Island COO 8022)
Review by Lisa Verrico, Vox, January 1994
Q. WHAT'S THE difference between The Orb in concert and The Orb in the studio? A. An amazing light show, a revolving spiky symbol and ...
The Partridge Family: The Tragedy of Danny Bonaduce
Retrospective by Ian Fortnam, Vox, 1996
EVEN NOW, after almost three decades of relative sanity, it's utterly impossible to erase the excruciatingly impish image of Danny Bonaduce from the nation's collective ...
Pavement: Slanted And Enchanted (Matador)
Review and Interview by Keith Cameron, Vox, June 1992
Cracked Geniuses ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, November 1993
FACT: ROCK BANDS must find things to write about. Charting the righteous struggle between decency and depravity, the topic which seems to fuel Pearl Jam, ...
Pearl Jam, Neil Young: Neil Young: Mirror Ball (Reprise 9362 45934-2/4/1)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, August 1995
FIRST THINGS first. It's age before beauty. Young before youth. Finally, the worst kept secret in rock — that Neil Young was recording an album ...
Pet Shop Boys: Behaviour (Parlophone)
Review by Betty Page, Vox, November 1990
THE VEXED QUESTION is: what do we expect of The Pet Shop Boys? We expect, perhaps, in no particular order: excellent tunes, impossible-to-forget hooks; wry ...
Pet Shop Boys: Very (Parlophone)
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, November 1993
A BANG, a crash, a highbrow cultural reference – and the best Pet Shop Boys album yet drops in for cream tea and scurrilous gossip. ...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty: Into The Great Wide Open
Review by Max Bell, Vox, August 1991
NOW TOM PETTY has developed the taste, his second solo album finds him in experimental mood. The post-Byrds vein of downbeat romantic country pop is ...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty: Petty Larceny
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Vox, September 1991
HEIR TO DYLAN or Bel Air airhead? Sometime Wilbury Tom Petty is 40 with kids, and even though his new album with the Heartbreakers is ...
The Pixies: Pixies: Trompe Le Monde
Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, October 1991
WHEN SHAKEY WROTE the one about music being the food of love and wanting excess of it, little did he know that one Black Francis ...
The Pixies: Road To Gnomewhere
Interview by Bruce Dessau, Vox, July 1991
The Pixies are in L.A. Charles Michael Kitteridge Thompson IV is driving his dirty yellow caddy fast. With the stereo playing loud. Bruce Dessau thumbed ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, June 1993
FATE OF NATIONS is Robert Plant's seventh solo album. Must be some mystic significance there for you Zen and Manic Nirvana freaks. Robert too, judging ...
Interview by Angus Batey, Vox, June 1997
The songTHE SECOND single to be taked from Primal Scream's forthcoming Vanishing Point LP, 'Star' finds Bobby Gillespie drawing on his personal vocabulary of revolutionary ...
Primal Scream: Give Out But Don't Give Up (Creation CRE 146)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1994
Dancing with Mr G ...
Primal Scream: Politics of Ecstasy
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, November 1991
Bobby Gillespie met DJ Andy Weatherall on the road to Damascus (or was it Brighton?), and in a flash of blue light discovered a dance ...
Primal Scream, Andrew Weatherall: Andy Weatherall: Pick and Remix
Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, November 1994
Andy Weatherall twiddled the knobs that turned a Primals ditty into a House classic, and got himself a job for life. ...
Review by Gavin Martin, Vox, September 1994
THIS IS THE last ever album to be released by 'Prince' before he metamorphoses, full time, into a 'Symbol', and it reeks of salacious sex, ...
Review by Paul Elliott, Vox, December 1992
A SINGLE TITLED 'Sexy Motherfucker', and now a self-parodying rock soap opera with an androgynous sex symbol for a name? Clearly the new Vice President ...
Retrospective by Ian Fortnam, Vox, 1996
WITH INDIEDOM firmly in the grip of the inane and the insipid, the doleful delinquents of 1986 were in dire and desperate need of a ...
Public Enemy, U2: Public Enemy and U2: The Chuck and Bono Show
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, December 1992
When U2's tour brought Public Enemy to the Deep South, where segregation is still an issue, Chuck D did his best to pour napalm on ...
Pulp: Neuroses Grow On You: Pulp: This Is Hardcore (Island) ***
Review by Gavin Martin, Vox, May 1998
Gathering storm clouds, gruesome sex and self-flagellation: dim the lights for Pulp's very own horror movie ...
Pulp: Different Class (Island)
Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, December 1995
WHERE, ONE wonders, does he do the dishes? The pre-eminence gris of kitchen-sink drama has spent so long washing other people's dirty linen, the plumbing ...
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, May 1995
Jarvis Cocker, the only kid in his Sheffield classroom who wore lederhosen, didn't have a girlfriend till he was 19. Now he's a pin-up and ...
Retrospective by Edwin Pouncey, Vox, February 1991
The stomping ground for much of the action that took place during the "Psychedelic '60s" is usually considered to be San Francisco, where bands such ...
Radiohead: Pablo Honey (Parlophone)
Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, April 1993
JUDGING FROM THE debut by this Oxford four-piece, the post-Nirvana grunge fall-out would appear to have infiltrated even the well-mannered climes of English suburban guitar ...
Radiohead: The Bends (Parlophone TPS7372)
Review by Craig McLean, Vox, 1995
THIS TIME last year, there was abject fear in the Radiohead camp. The band were in Micky Most's Rak studios in London, in the middle ...
Radiohead: The Dour & The Glory
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, September 1997
You join us in Belgium where RADIOHEAD are currently entertaining a rather large festival crowd. So let's slip away with frontman THOM YORKE as he ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, August 1991
LIVERPOOL'S LIKELIEST LADS, Rain have been allowed to develop away from the parochial glare of current city-based hype, and their debut album is well hard ...
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, July 1991
RAIN ARE A CLASSIC POP GROUP in the tradition of Liverpool's finest — four boys who play rock'n'roll and aren't afraid to think big. And ...
The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Red Hot Chili Peppers: Ich Bin Ein Chiliburger
Report and Interview by David Quantick, Vox, April 1992
The Red Hot Chili Peppers' latest album BloodSugarSexMagik is powerful enough to blow anyone's socks off — so perhaps that's why David Quantick found them ...
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, February 1992
At the age of 48, Lou Reed is better disposed to write sedate six-string symphonies about mortality than feedback musings on the subject of scoring ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1991
THEY MUST have scratched their heads at Burbank when R.E.M. delivered Out Of Time. Far from capitalising on the success of Green, where America's most ...
R.E.M.: Automatic For The People (Warner Bros 9362-45055-2)
Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, November 1992
DESPITE THE crew's best attempts to shift course, the good ship R.E.M. appears to be heading inescapably towards that dreamland reserved for rock bands with ...
The Replacements: All Shook Down (Sire)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, November 1990
THE REPLACEMENTS were always Paul Westerberg's outfit and on All Shook Down one can't help but deduce that this is a solo album with the ...
Review by Chas de Whalley, Vox, March 1993
WHEN JONATHAN RICHMAN and The Modern Lovers first surfaced with Roadrunner, late in 1976, the studied '60s simplicity of their garage band arrangements and Richman's ...
Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, April 1992
GROWING UP in public is the unhappy lot of any semi-competent British indie band and, as probably the most able floppy-fringed wan-faced contenders of the ...
Tom Robinson Band: Tom Robinson: Living In A Boom Time
Review by Chas de Whalley, Vox, October 1992
ACROSS ELEVEN TRACKS, recorded live on tour in Ireland earlier this year, Tom Robinson reinvents himself as a solo folk singer. But where some faded ...
Senseless Things — Sense And Sensibility
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, April 1993
BEST KNOWN FOR RAUCOUS POP NUGGETS such as 'Too Much Kissing', young guns Senseless Things have toughened up, toting a beefed-up sound and an uncompromising ...
Senseless Things: Empire Of The Senseless
Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, April 1993
ALWAYS UNABASHED about their reverence for the work of those more intuitively gifted than themselves, the Senseless Things have hitherto struggled to sustain their workmanlike ...
The Shamen: En-Tact (One Little Indian)
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, November 1990
THE PHUTURE is now. The Shamen once riffed and jangled in anoraks, got into splintered hip-hop iconoclasm for the magnificent In Gorbachev We Trust album ...
Sheryl Crow: Natural Born Thriller
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, January 1995
Sheryl Crow's songs provided the soundtrack for a killer road trip in Kalifornia, but she's got mixed feelings about Hollywood's continuing shoot-to-be-hip violence. Happiness isn't ...
Paul Simon: Rhythm Of The Saints
Review by David Quantick, Vox, November 1990
FOUR YEARS AFTER GRACELAND and Paul Simon returns with another album of Third World inspired pop music, this time songs recorded with Brazilian musicians. Rhythm ...
Paul Simon: Across The Tracks: The Rhythm of the Saints
Interview by Gavin Martin, Vox, December 1990
'Obvious Child' "I THOUGHT IF anything was going to be a single it would be that. I thought that as soon as we recorded the drums, ...
Review by Dele Fadele, Vox, April 1998
IF THE YOUNG Jim Kerr; who fronted Johnny And The Self Abusers in the late '70s tailspin of punk, knew what fate had in store ...
Roni Size and Reprazent: Collective Consciousness
Report and Interview by David Stubbs, Vox, January 1998
Dust off your bus pass and get down with RONI SIZE and REPRAZENT. There's Bristol beats aplenty, Genghis Khan gets a look in, and skipping ...
Skunk Anansie: The Year Skunk Broke: Skunk Anansie
Report and Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Vox, September 1995
Two indie EPs have been enough to catapult Skunk Anansie from British cult status to the silver screens of Hollywood. VOX joins them for a ...
Sleeper: Tourbus Tales: Sleeper
Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, October 1995
Please give up this feature for people carrying children or heavy shopping... ...
Review by Ted Kessler, Vox, December 1995
WELL, COME ON IN, Mr Corgan. What will it be today? Let's see… Perhaps the whip-cracking, bitch-baiting, wrap-around metal thong? No? What about the cherubic ...
Interview by Gavin Martin, Vox, January 1998
PATTI SMITH, the cultural dynamo who claims to have "several decades left in me yet" is never one to court convention. With no plans to ...
Retrospective by Ian Fortnam, Vox, June 1997
They were the darlings of the '80s bedsit generation, a loner, a muso and their mates who created British Pop pretty much from scratch. Ten ...
Sneaker Pimps: Young Sole Rebels
Interview by Andy Crysell, Vox, September 1997
Having shaken off the trip-hop tag, SNEAKER PIMPS believe they could be, actually, a bit goth. They're having us on, right? VOX catches up with ...
Snoop (Doggy) Dogg: Snoop Doggy Dogg: What's Your Problem? Absent fathers
Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, April 1994
SNOOP DOGGY Dogg, born Calvin Broadus, was brought up by his mother in the working-class suburb of Long Beach, Los Angeles. From early adolescence, when ...
Soft Machine: Who Was That Masked Voice?
Report and Interview by Chas de Whalley, Vox, April 1993
So what if Elvis Presley isn't available for commercial breaks these days? Just get someone in who can impersonate him — the Hofmeister bear, for ...
Sonic Youth: Dirty Boots (DGC)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, June 1991
WALKING ON MUDDY WATERS: Sonic Youth attempt to produce an easy listening album and fail gloriously. ...
Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, August 1992
WHEN NIRVANA released their epoch-making Nevermind, their ambitions extended no further than selling as many copies as Sonic Youth's major label debut, Goo. As chance ...
Spacemen 3, Spiritualized: Spaceman 3: Two Into Three Won't Go
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, April 1991
...OR, WE TWO WERE THREE. THE SPACEMEN THREE, THAT IS. PETER AND JASON, TO BE PRECISE. BUT WHILE THIS PAIR OF SPACE CADETS WERE ONCE ...
Spice Girls: The Spice Girls: The Girls Can't Help It
Report and Interview by Jerry Thackray, Vox, May 1998
They were supposed to have sunk without a trace by now, but it seems that everyone still wants a piece of the SPICE GIRLS. Certainly ...
Spice Girls: What's The Piquancy…?: Spice Girls: Spice (Virgin)
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, December 1996
THEY'RE NOT MANUFACTURED! They're not the female Take That! They drink, swear, shag and write their own songs! They believe in "girl power" and use ...
Bruce Springsteen: Talking To The Boss
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Vox, September 1992
FOLKLORE TELLS us there was a time, about 25 years ago, when meeting the stars was a simple matter. You just had to hang out ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, September 1991
TEN YEARS AGO Squeeze released East Side Story, an album of obvious class and as English as the 'Go To Work On An Egg' slogan. ...
Stereophonics: The Stereophonics
Interview by Ian Fortnam, Vox, June 1998
"Only in America," postulates a booming Welsh baritone, "could they have a museum dedicated to a fucking soft drink." ...
The Stone Roses: Second Coming (Geffen)
Review by Gavin Martin, Vox, February 1995
TIMING CAN count for a lot in the fickle world of pop. When they released their eponymous first album in 1989, just in time to ...
Stone Temple Pilots, Scott Weiland: Scott Weiland: No More Mr Vice Guy
Interview by Andrew Mueller, Vox, June 1998
As leader of the Stone Temple Pilots, he took lots of drugs, sold lots of records and was hated by the critics. Now he's off ...
Suede: Who Loves A Lad In Suede?
Report and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, May 1993
Suede were touted 'the best new band in Britain' before they even left the blocks, now, as they release their debut album, VOX delves behind ...
The Sugarcubes: Still Crazy after all these Beers
Report and Interview by Bruce Dessau, Vox, February 1992
IF IT'S 4.30 on a Friday afternoon, it must he Reykjavik. Actually, it turns out to be Keflavik, 40 minutes away from Iceland's capital city ...
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, Vox, March 1991
FOR THE NEXT BIG THING, avert your tired eyes from Manchester and focus instead on Wandsworth, South London, where Sun Dial sit, waiting to rise ...
The Sundays: They Do Like Sundays
Interview by Len Brown, Vox, January 1991
They do like the sundays in japan, where their three-rs album title was renamed for local pronunciation and they like 'em in the States. Despite ...
Interview by Betty Page, Vox, November 1991
Mark Hollis takes minimalism to its limit with a one-note solo on Talk Talk's new album, Laughing Stock. Still, a solo, like life, is what ...
Review by Betty Page, Vox, October 1991
BACK IN 1981, Talk Talk were a laughing stock. Branded "the new Duran Duran", their melancholy pop was largely ignored. They survived the '80s by ...
Review by Chas de Whalley, Vox, July 1993
THEY RULED THE WORLD... they ran the world. They sowed the seeds of love... they got divorced. Quite an achievement for a duo who released ...
Teenage Fanclub: Grand Prix (Creation CRE173)
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, July 1995
Top Gear! ...
Teenage Fanclub: I Was a Teenage Fannie
Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, November 1991
Has rock'n'roll gone soft? Live they sound like the outbreak of World War III, but off-stage Glasgow grungers Teenage Fanclub discuss new-world realpolitik and go ...
Teenage Fanclub: Sells like Spirit
Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, July 1993
From the budget-priced Bandwagonesque to best mates with Nirvana and Saturday Night Live — it was but a short Sunday drive for Teenage Fanclub in ...
Terry Callier: TimePeace (Talkin' Loud) ****
Review and Interview by Angus Batey, Vox, March 1998
Long-lost singer-songwriter's classy comeback ...
Therapy?: Infernal Love (A&M 540379)
Review by Lisa Verrico, Vox, August 1995
Tender loving Cairns ...
Interview by Keith Cameron, Vox, October 1991
IT'S A TRIBUTE to their dramatic way with all things guitarological that California's Thin White Rope are as well known for other people's songs as ...
Tanita Tikaram: All Grown Up with Nowhere to Go?
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, March 1991
TANITA TIKARAM DOESN'T think she is famous and can't bear to call herself a celebrity. ...
Tanita Tikaram: Everybody's Angel
Review by Max Bell, Vox, March 1991
WHETHER IT'S by design or by some happy accident, Tanita Tikaram's third album finds the oddball girl-in-woman's-clothing locating her real voice at last. ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, October 1991
FIRST THINGS first. Tin Machine now sound like an expensive hobby, though that may be what they are, since Bowie took his chums to Sydney ...
Transglobal Underground: International Times (LP/CD/MC NAT38)
Review by Lucy O'Brien, Vox, November 1994
World piece ...
Transvision Vamp: Whatever Happened To Baby James?
Interview by Betty Page, Vox, March 1991
Exploiter or exploited? Rock Bitch or just bitched at? Either way Wendy James just lurrves the attention – and the dosh. Betty Page probes for ...
Moe Tucker, Velvet Underground: Velvet Underground: No Moe Reunions
Report and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, February 1992
MAUREEN TUCKER, drummer and mother of five, has scotched rumours concerning any further Velvet Underground reunions. ...
Shania Twain: Shania Twain (Phonogram 514 422-2) 8
Review by Michele Kirsch, Vox, June 1994
HEAR MY TWAIN A-COMIN' ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, December 1991
BONO VOX once mentioned in passing that if and when he ever published a volume of his poetry, the title of said tome would be ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, August 1993
WHAT WOULD YOU GIVE in exchange for your soul? U2 bartered their time for a new album, made quickly. What started out as an impromptu ...
Van Halen: For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
Review by Paul Elliott, Vox, August 1991
IN DAVID LEE ROTH, Van Halen had — and lost — more than a singer. The all-Amerlcan rock hero and then some, Roth was the ...
Van Halen: Right Here, Right Now
Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1993
THERE'S A CHINESE PROVERB which says that you cannot eat a steamed bun in one mouthful. In other words, don't bite off more than you ...
Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground: "We Will Confront The Myth…"
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, July 1993
It was only rock'n'roll before The Velvet Underground brought potent drugs and pervy sex to the party. 25 years after their last live high, they've ...
Tom Waits: The Early Years Volume I (Edsel)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, September 1991
LONG BEFORE he became the rather self-conscious Harry Dean Stanton type he is today, Tom Waits used to intone straight-to-the-heart-of-the matter barroom blues, most of ...
Interview by Peter Silverton, Vox, October 1992
TOM WAITS is in Paris wrestling with the truth. As usual the truth is losing, but that's what happens when you're promoting your first album ...
Was (Not Was): Was it Good for You?
Interview by Gavin Martin, Vox, January 1991
Far-out funksters Don and David was have worked with all the greats: The Stones, Dylan, Madonna — and Jonathan Ross. Gavin Martin caught them relaxing ...
The Wedding Present: Hit Parade II
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, February 1993
IT WAS A BRILLIANT CONCEPT — and it worked. One single per month in 1992, breaking records and mocking the industry machine, as they clanged ...
The Wedding Present: Seamonsters (RCA)
Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, July 1991
BY NOT HI-jacking the groovy train in order to revive a flagging career, The Wedding Present now stand virtually alone amongst their mid-'80s indie contemporaries. ...
The Wedding Present: Wedding Sells
Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, January 1993
Twelve Top 30 hits into 1992, David Gedge tells VOX that indie giants the Wedding Present are "not fashionable any more". ...
Weezer: The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, April 1995
Weezer may have written a million-selling debut album full of sparkling punk-pop songs, but it means nothing to super-nerdy frontman Rivers Cuomo. He's 23; time ...
Wet Wet Wet: Sweat Sweat Sweat
Interview by Bruce Dessau, Vox, November 1991
Clydeside's best are not just Level 42 in kilts, as Bruce Dessau discovers. When their last album failed to go mega platinum, the band found ...
Interview by Dele Fadele, Vox, October 1990
DELE FADELE TALKS SOUL TO SOUL TO A WOMAN TAKING CONTROL OF HER LIFE ...
Interview by Keith Cameron, Vox, May 1997
THE WAITRESS next door to the Blue Note desperately wants to come, but she couldn't get the night off work. "Oh, it'll be fantastic!" she ...
Lucinda Williams: Sweet Old World
Review by Max Bell, Vox, December 1992
LUCINDA WILLIAMS may have suffered from the songwriter's identity crisis in recent years. Her early work for Folkways hinted at a desire to investigate Country ...
The Wonder Stuff: Never Loved Elvis
Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, July 1991
THE WONDER STUFF are turning into a Madness for the '90s. Both outlived most of their contemporaries to develop their root sound along the lines ...
XTC: Times They Are A Changin'
Interview by David Quantick, Vox, June 1992
Most XTC-ellent! After a three-year Bill and Ted-styled sojourn in history, pop's eccentric gurus have returned with a new LP, Nonsuch. Singer Andy Partridge waxes ...
Neil Young: This Young Will Run and Run
Interview by Nick Kent, Vox, November 1990
NEIL YOUNG'S manager Elliot Roberts told me: "He's doing interviews now because he's got things he wants to say. There's a lot of things going ...
Neil Young: Young's Winter Warmer
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, January 1993
Twenty years after Harvest, Neil Young has released Harvest Moon. But don't look for parallels — there aren't any, he says. ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, November 1990
THE TEXAS TWISTERS RETURN with a vengeance for Recycler, pursuing their scorched earth policy on a record that's so hot it'll burn your eyeballs out. ...
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