Rock's Backpages: Search Results

Retrospective by Kris Needs, Record Collector, January 2015

"It is interesting to look back to the birth of the British blues scene when one man pioneered a sound that was to give incentive ...

Linda Jones: The Complete Turbo Recordings

Sleevenotes by Bob Fisher, unpublished, January 2015

"We used to stand backstage and watch that lady sing; even though she didn't have star charisma on stage, she would just stand there and ...

Canned Heat: The badass blues band that death couldn't kill

Retrospective and Interview by Max Bell, Classic Rock, January 2015

PICTURE THE SCENE: April 4, 1981, outside the World Famous Palomino Club in North Hollywood. The members of Canned Heat and their friends are smoking ...

Kim Fowley, 1939-2015

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 18 January 2015

FEW PEOPLE IN pop music spanned such a range as Kim Fowley, the record producer, songwriter and Sunset Strip svengali who has died aged 75. ...

Ramones, The: Marky Ramone Gabba Gabbas Away in New Memoir

Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 22 January 2015

IN HIS BAND of Bruddahs, Marky Ramone's primary role was that of drummer, the pounding heartbeat and engine of so many of the legendary punk-rock ...

Skip Spence: Dark Star: The Tragic Genius Of Skip Spence

Retrospective by Rob Hughes, Classic Rock, 23 January 2015

Moby Grape co-founder Skip Spence wrote his album Oar in a psychiatric ward after threatening his bandmates with an axe. Fifteen years after his death, artists ...

Chris Bell: He was the Cosmos: The Tragedy of Chris Bell

Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, February 2015

NOTE: This article is comprised of adapted excerpts from my big MOJO story written about Big Star and published in February 2000 – BH. ...

Dead Kennedys: Highway to Hell: My Life on the Road with the Dead Kennedys

Memoir by Amy Linden, Cuepoint, 3 February 2015

IN 1981, I MOVED back to New York City after spending four years in San Francisco. I was 22, and a childhood friend and I ...

Lulu: "I've had the most unbelievable life"

Retrospective and Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Event Magazine, 28 February 2015

POP STARDOM at 15. Two failed marriages – one to a hard-drinking Bee Gee. An "insane" affair with David Bowie. Turning down Frank Sinatra. Cheating ...

Raury: The ego has landed

Interview by Paul Lester, Sunday Times, 1 March 2015

Touted by Lorde and Kanye West, Raury has the nerve to live up to his billing ...

Radiohead: World Class: How Radiohead Gave Us The Bends

Memoir by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 3 March 2015

Though The Bends has since been overshadowed by what followed, its release 25 years ago found Radiohead on the cusp of stardom. Wyndham Wallace joins ...

Björk: "I couldn't just write a disco song"

Interview by Sophie Heawood, The Guardian, 12 March 2015

Björk's new album Vulnicura documents the mess and pain of a breakup, but she's not downhearted. She talks about the influence of British punk and ...

Kendrick Lamar Voices the Ferguson Era

Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, Ebony, 17 March 2015

WE CAN FINALLY take Black Messiah off repeat; masterpiece two has arrived. To Pimp a Butterfly, Kendrick Lamar's thematically and musically layered 16-track sophomore album, ...

Charli XCX: Concorde 2, Brighton

Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 25 March 2015

"BRIGHTON, put your fucking middle fingers up!" are Charli XCX's first words as she launches her first UK tour as headliner. Brighton needs no encouragement: ...

Nicki Minaj: O2 Arena, London

Live Review by Kate Allen, FMS, 30 March 2015

IT'S SAD but it's edifying: whilst one rap pretender, who shalt remain nameless, postpones an entire tour due to "production delays", Nicki Minaj presses on ...

Prince's Around the World in a Day at 30

Retrospective by Michael A. Gonzales, soulhead, 22 April 2015

IN THE SPRING of 1985, there were two types of Prince fans – those who boarded the violet-hued bandwagon years before Purple Rain (both the ...

Lionel Richie: "There was something seriously wrong with Michael Jackson. But this is Hollywood"

Profile and Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Event Magazine, 25 April 2015

The downside of marrying a model half his age. The day he discovered Michael Jackson was as mad as a snake. And why the Ku ...

Taylor Swift: Apple royalties U-turn: is Taylor Swift the most powerful woman in music?

Report by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 22 June 2015

Viewed as an advocate for artists and a game-changer, almost no other pop star could have made the corporate behemoth roll over. ...

James Bay

Profile and Interview by Laura Barton, Q, July 2015

IN TWO YEARS, THE YOUNG BRIT SINGER-SONGWRITER JAMES BAY HAS GONE FROM BARMAN TO CHART-TOPPING, AWARD-WINNING HEARTTHROB AND IS MOBBED WHEREVER HE TRAVELS. NO WONDER ...

Grateful Dead: Fare Thee Well — The Grateful Dead: Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara CA, 27 and 28 June, 2015

Live Review by Cary J Martin, Rock's Backpages, 2 July 2015

THE LONG Strange Trip is coming to an end. In January the four surviving members of the Grateful Dead announced that they would reunite in ...