Search Results

Living Colour's Vernon Reid (1988)

Interview by Mark Sinker, Rock's Backpages audio, April 1988

Vernon Reid talks about Living Colour signing to Epic Records; about his other projects and producing other acts; the state of Black music in America; the life and death of disco; the importance of Prince; his early days with Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society and Defunkt; the Black Rock Coalition; negative energy, drugs and racism; and the clichéd perceptions of African-Americans.

File format: mp3; file size: 78.9mb, interview length: 1h 22' 12" sound quality: ***

Marshall Jefferson (1999)

Interview by Frank Broughton, Rock's Backpages audio, 22 February 1999

The House music pioneer on the founding fathers of the music; DJs like Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles; the clubs — the Music Box, the Warehouse, the Power Plant; starting making tracks; key songs like 'I've Lost Control' and 'Move Your Body'; the Trax Records rip-offs, and Marshall's own definition of House.

File format: mp3; file size: 75.2mb, interview length: 1h 22' 08" sound quality: ****

Shirley Collins (1991)

Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, 17 May 1991

Brit-folk doyenne Shirley Collins revisists her 1971 No Roses album track by track and discusses how the songs were chosen – and the move away from folk tradition. Collins also talks about 10,000 Maniacs' cover of 'Just as the Tide was a-Flowing'; working with Maddy Prior and Fairport Convention; the Albion Country Band... and about the state of folk today.

File format: mp3; file size: 55.1mb, interview length: 57' 22" sound quality: *****

Black Flag, Henry Rollins: Henry Rollins (1994)

Interview by Andy Gill, Rock's Backpages audio, May 1994

Henry reflects on Kurt Cobain's recent death; Black Flag's influence on the new bands; his disapproval of slackers and his ascetic lifestyle; his disciplinarian father; violence in America; what he likes and loathes about England; his youthful fondness for Ted Nugent, and '70s hard rock in general; the difference between Black Flag and his Rollins Band; music vs. spoken word; his literary influences, including Nietzsche; his mother's record collection; being knocked out by punk rock; his gym work... and his relationship with his fans.

File format: mp3; file size: 79.5mb, interview length: 1h 22' 46" sound quality: ****

Norah Jones: Come Away With Me (EMI Capitol)

Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, February 2002

NORAH JONES may not be up there with Wolf J Flywheel in the memorable moniker stakes, but mark it well. Produced by Arif Mardin, this ...

J. Geils Band: The Morning After (Atlantic)

Review by Nick Tosches, Phonograph Record, January 1972

GOOD HARD fast kool kat musick is the best kind. Anything without any metaphysical pretentions and with a lot of rebop raunch. ...

Disclosure: Settle

Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 3 June 2013

CLUBLAND HAS been polarised between two dispiriting extremes for close on a decade now. If the DJ isn't playing twitchy, edgy, introspective grime or dubstep, ...

Housemartins, The: The Housemartins: London 0 Hull 4

Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, 24 May 2009

LIKE THE all-conquering Madness during the first half of the '80s, the Housemartins pulled off the admirable trick of shoehorning well-considered social comment into the ...

Carina Round: Elbow Room, London

Live Review by Max Bell, The Evening Standard, 6 August 2001

Sweetness rules in the pool hall ...

Vejtables, The: Vejtables Growing in San Francisco

Profile and Interview by Carol Deck, KRLA Beat, 1 January 1966

THE LAST thing on anybody's mind would be to call themself a vegetable, but five young San Franciscans have gone one step farther and call ...

Chocolate Syrup: Introducing Chocolate Syrup

Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 7 January 1972

1971 HAS been a remarkable year for group's names and none has been more imaginative than Chocolate Syrup, five young men who are currently enjoying ...

Billy Preston: Billy's a Natural

Profile by Richard Green, NME, 12 July 1969

IF EVER there was a "natural" for the charts, Billy Preston's 'That's The Way God Planned It' — which enters this week at No. 19 ...

Bobby Bland, John Lee Hooker: John Lee Hooker: John Lee Hooker Plays And Sings The Blues (Chess CRL4500); Bobby Bland: Here's The Man (Vocalion VA-PS041)

Review by Max Jones, Melody Maker, 15 January 1966

HOOKER RECORDS abound, but the latest from Chess, John Lee Hooker Plays And Sings The Blues (CRL4500) is a more than usually satisfying set. ...

Bruce Springsteen: Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ (CBS 65480, £2)

Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 14 April 1973

Springsteen is special ...

Mickie Most: Newcomer to the Charts: Mickie Most Goes Right Back...

Profile by Ian Dove, New Musical Express, 19 July 1963

MICKIE MOST may be a newcomer to the NME Top 30 with 'Mr. Porter', but he's had one of the longest careers in beat music ...

Gerry & The Pacemakers: New to the Charts: Gerry, Pacemakers from Beatle-land!

Profile by Alan Smith, NME, 22 March 1963

CRASHING into the NME Chart this week comes another beat name from Beatle-land, Liverpool's Gerry and the Pacemakers. Gerry is featured vocalist on 'How Do ...

Cat Mother & the All-Night Newsboys, Smokestack Lightnin': Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by John Mendelssohn, Los Angeles Times, 31 January 1970

Lightnin', Cat Mother Share Musical Billing ...

Kate Nash: Village Underground, London

Live Review by Rick Pearson, The Evening Standard, 23 April 2010

Growing up and away from Lily ...

Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids: Flash Cadillac: Sons of the Beaches

Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, January 1976

What lame-o group is finally going to win the distinction of recording The Last ‘Fifties’ Song of the Seventies? Just when I thought the sub-genre ...

Kraftwerk: Autobahn

Review by Simon Witter, NME, 6 July 1985

THOUGH NOT a patch on their four subsequent albums, Autobahn has enormous historical significance as the album that introduced the world to Kraftwerk, one of ...