Rock's Backpages: Search Results

Retrospective by Johnny Black, Q, February 1997

THE TWIST WAS the most remarkable dance phenomenon in the history of the rock era. Here's the story of how it happened in the words ...

Sweet: The Sweet: As Sweet As It Was

Retrospective by Dave Thompson, Goldmine, 28 February 1997

FEW BANDS ever led a life full of as many personalities as The Sweet. In their British homeland, they were as unfashionable as last year's ...

Manic Street Preachers: Richey Edwards: Missing street preacher

Retrospective by Andy Beckett, The Independent, 2 March 1997

LATE LAST MONDAY night, near the weary end of the televised blare called the Brits Awards, three dressed-down Welshmen — two small, one awkwardly tall ...

The Supremes: 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 ...

The Associates, Billy Mackenzie: The Bizarre Life And Lonely Death Of Billy Mackenzie

Retrospective by Paul Lester, Uncut, June 1997

TOP OF THE POPS, MARCH 3, 1982. A relatively unknown band from north of the border are about to do what David Bowie, Roxy Music ...

The Smiths' Backpages

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 ...

Tommy Edwards: It's All In The Record Game: Tommy Edwards

Retrospective by Pete Grendysa, DISCoveries, August 1997

HERE'S AN UNLIKELY recipe for a hit record: take one melody written in 1912 by the Vice President of the United States, add some 1951 ...

Jeff Buckley: River's Edge

Retrospective by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 7 August 1997

On May 29, just as he was to begin recording the follow-up to his acclaimed album, Grace, JEFF BUCKLEY decided to take a swim in ...

Elvis Presley: Eyewitness: The day I met Elvis

Retrospective by Johnny Black, Q, September 1997

He didn't get out much (of America, anyway), yet Elvis Presley touched millions of lives. Twenty years after his death, some of those who actually ...

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 ...

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 ...

Michael Jackson, Lisa Marie Presley: Eyewitness: Michael Jackson's Wedding

Retrospective by Johnny Black, Q, February 1998

After a 16-week romance, Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley boarded a Sony Records jet and flew to the Domincan Republic to embark on a ...

Verve, The: The Verve: Follow The Yellow Brick Road

Retrospective by Martin Aston, Select, March 1998

The Verve's astonishing eight-year pilgrimage has been littered with drugs, dehydration, mental breakdown and six-month lasagne binges. Now, somewhere over the rainbow, the world belongs ...

George Michael: My High Times with Gay George

Retrospective by Fiona Russell Powell, Punch, March 1998

George Michael made £50 million as the music businesses ultimate pin-up. It wouldn't do to compromise that by coming out as gay. But his carefully ...

The Bay City Rollers

Retrospective by Ian Fortnam, Uncut, May 1998

Ahh, those much-mimicked hedgehogian coxcombs; those calf-chafing, tartan-trimmed trews with half a yard of surplus flapping flare to spare; those cheery, cheeky chipmunk grins and ...

Sandy Denny, Fairport Convention, Fotheringay: Angel Of Avalon: Sandy Denny

Retrospective by Jim Irvin, MOJO, June 1998

Revered by everyone from Frank Zappa to The Spice Girls. Led Zeppelin's one and only guest star. One of Britain's greatest singers. Yet her true ...

Gram Parsons: The Good Ol’ Boy

Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, July 1998

ON A WARM fall night in the tie-dyed rock’n’roll town of Woodstock, with the maple leaves turning to gold and purple on the mountains that ...

Waylon Jennings: Honky Tonk Heroes

Retrospective by Gavin Martin, Uncut, September 1998

FOR WAYLON Jennings – born into a dirt poor cotton-picking West Texas family – the wanderlust began as far back as he could remember. ...

Rory Gallagher: Ballad of a Thin Man

Retrospective by Colin Harper, MOJO, October 1998

"HE SUFFERED A LOT. His health was bad. He had a problem with drink. His relationships with women were all messed up because of his ...

Brian Jones, Rolling Stones, The: Brian Jones: The Bittersweet Symphony

Retrospective by Rob Chapman, MOJO, July 1999

Rolling Stones founder, Rolling Stones reject; ruthless controller, helpless passenger; blues obsessive, dabler in the exotic; countercultural networker, paranoid recluse; adored Prince Charming, vicious heartbreaker; ...