Rock's Backpages: Search Results

Retrospective by Len Brown, Rock's Backpages, 22 May 2009

N.B. This is the full, unedited version of a piece published in The Guardian on 22 May 2009 ...

Buddy Holly: The Angel with the Devil's Music: Buddy Holly

Retrospective by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 30 January 2009

Fifty years ago, Buddy Holly's life was sadly cut short. Richard Williams salutes the clean-cut 22-year-old who came to Britain and showed a whole generation ...

Randy California, Spirit: Randy California

Retrospective by Johnny Black, MOJO, February 2004

Just turned 22, Spirit guitarist and figurehead Randy California stands on Chelsea Bridge, staring down into the grey waters of the River Thames. It's April 1973, ...

Eyewitness: The Twist

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 ...

Buddy Holly: Down the Line: Buddy Holly

Retrospective by Mark Kemp, Texas Music, January 2009

WHEN THE FIRST gentle notes ring from Buddy Holly's acoustic guitar on his cover of Mickey & Sylvia's 'Dearest', you could swear it was recorded ...

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 ...

Dennis Linde

Retrospective by Mick Houghton, MOJO, April 2007

The sound of the wildly original country cat who penned Elvis' 'Burning Love'. ...

Electric Prunes, The: The Electric Prunes: Too Much To Dream

Retrospective by Don Waller, LA Weekly, 15 June 2001

FROM THE "mind-expanding" flight of the 2,000-pound bumblebee opening to the liquid, screaming, droning guitars to the '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction'-derived drums, the Electric ...

Robert Johnson: Unravelling the Legend of Robert Johnson

Retrospective by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, 19 June 1971

JERRY GILBERT looks at Robert Johnson, greatest of the Delta bluesmen ...

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 ...

Ritchie Valens: The Young Singer Who Pioneered Chicano Rock

Retrospective by Martin Hawkins, The History of Rock, March 1982

WHEN ROCK'N'ROLL first stopped calling itself rhythm and blues in the mid Fifties, it became a young man's game. Teenage performers like Ritchie Valens began ...

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. ...

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 ...

Dazed and Infused: The Summer of Love

Retrospective by Miles, Vox, August 1992

"You had to be there" Barry Miles travels back in time. IT'S 25 years since the Summer of Love freaked its way into the ...

Rain Parade: Unsung Heroes: The Rain Parade

Retrospective by Terry Staunton, Uncut, February 2010

Pioneers of LA's '80s "Paisley Underground" — it's warring psych revivalists the Roback brothers! ...

Whitney Houston: The diva who had — and lost — it all

Retrospective by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 13 February 2012

From her rise as a fresh-faced teen to her sudden death in an LA hotel room at 48, Nick Hasted charts the highs and lows ...

Top 10 Hits from the '60s: Who Played on 'Em

Retrospective by Harold Bronson, Rock's Backpages, 14 January 2014

THE WRECKING CREW, a much-needed documentary about the behind-the-scenes elite crop of studio musicians who provided the instrumentation for many of the hits of the ...

Lowell George: Time Loves a Hero: Lowell George

Retrospective by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 30 August 2000

THE EAGLES SOLD more records and Steely Dan went down better with intellectuals, but the best American band of the 1970s was Little Feat, led ...

Aaliyah's Age Ain't Nothing but a Number Ages 20 Years

Retrospective by Michael A. Gonzales, Ebony, 27 May 2014

THE LATE SONGSTRESS'S DEBUT ALBUM DROPPED IN MAY 1994, LAUNCHING A TOO-BRIEF CAREER THAT'LL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN ...

Pink Floyd Tear Down Their Wall

Retrospective by Gavin Martin, Daily Mirror, 14 June 2005

IT IS THE rock reunion no one believed we would ever see – including the band members. Pink Floyd, who endured one of the most ...