Rock's Backpages: Search Results

Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 20 June 1981

PRESENTING upwardly mobile uptown jazz/funk from New York, Defunkt are a sharp six-piece fronted by the ever-cool Joe Bowie, who plays trombone, conducts the band ...

The Skids: The Absolute Game

Review by Chris Bohn, NME, 20 September 1980

BUBBLEGUM'S BACK and it sounds wonderful. In contemporary terms the Skids are to The Clash and the post-modernists what Sweet were to Slade and Bowie: ...

Hall & Oates: A Mutant Romance

Interview by Ian Birch, Sounds, 12 June 1976

Daryl Hall & John Oates – boy, if you think Dave Bowie had the Philly Soul enigma variations bag sown up with 'TVC 15' you're ...

Lou Reed: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Ian Fortnam, bol.com, 18 May 2000

THE PREMIER PARAGON OF subterranean New York cool’s post-Velvet Underground career has never been anything other than unpredictable. For every Berlin there’s been a Metal ...

Hawksley Workman: Hawksley's Moxie

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 21 April 2001

IS HAWKSLEY WORKMAN too good to be true? At 26, the Canadian singer-songwriter has already drawn comparisons to figures like David Bowie and Tom Waits ...

Gary Numan: The Pleasure Principle

Review by Danny Baker, NME, 8 September 1979

AND PEOPLE seethe at the Golden Boy. Let's forget the threadbare rock'n'roll bitch that it's all been done before by 'proper' artists — Bowie this, ...

David Bowie: Bowie's Birthday Blastoff: Madison Square Garden, NYC

Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 11 January 1997

NEW YORK – "It's not much of a tribute, in a way," said David Bowie before the 50th-birthday celebratory show he and a bunch of ...

Nik Cohn: Rock Dreamer

Interview by Jon Wilde, Uncut, January 2006

He inspired Townshend and Bowie to create Tommy and Ziggy Stardust, wrote the article that became Saturday Night Fever and penned the greatest pop book ...

King Crimson, Pete Sinfield: Pete Sinfield Has A Nose For Success

Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 13 May 1973

PETE SINFIELD is a poet, and such men do not abound on the music scene. There is Pete Brown of course, and many a lyricist ...

Brian Eno: "So Why Are We Doing This?"

Interview by Andy Gill, MOJO, May 2001

IT WOULD HAVE BEEN DIFFICULT, observing Brian Eno's early career as furnisher of funny noises to the original Roxy Music, to predict that three decades ...

Happy Mondays: Thieves Like Us (and so do the police)

Interview by Jack Barron, New Musical Express, 16 September 1989

Just back from their first trip (sic) into the Satan-worshippin' heart of Amerika, HAPPY MONDAYS tell JACK BARRON how they proved more than a match ...

Arcade Fire: Spontaneous Combustion - The Return Of Arcade Fire

Profile by Andy Gill, The Independent, 23 July 2010

Arcade Fire's first album catapulted the unconventional Canadian outfit into the rock stratosphere, drawing eulogies from Springsteen, Bowie, Byrne and more. Six years later, their ...

Boz Scaggs: Scaggs In Silk

Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 15 May 1976

LOUNGING IN HIS suite at the Pierre Hotel, an opulent home for the wealthy, once owned by Paul Getty, Boz Scaggs completes a picture of ...

The Cardigans, The Concretes, Fever Ray: Sweden: State-sponsored Rock Valhalla

Overview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 24 July 2009

IN POP MUSIC at least, Britain still imagines it rules the world. The Beatles, Kinks, Bowie and Blur are looked on as an unassailable heritage ...

Suede: Generation of Swine

Retrospective and Interview by Martin Aston, MOJO, June 2011

Four pale, skinny suburban fops, inspired by Bowie and The Smiths, at the start of 1994 SUEDE were British pop saviours, poised for greatness. But ...

Marc Bolan, T. Rex: Tony Visconti on Marc Bolan (1981)

Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages Audio, September 1981

Producer Visconti talks about the newly released T. Rex in Concert: the original stereo recordings, and what he did to improve them; on first meeting Marc in hippie club Middle Earth; why they stopped working together; the definitive version of T. Rex; Bolan vs. Bowie; Marc's charisma and arrogance; the 'Children of Rarn' demos; Bolan's ongoing legacy and the meaning of 'Metal Guru'.

File format: mp3; file size: 18.4mb, interview length: 19' 09" sound quality: ****

Queen, Brian May: Queen's Brian May (1982)

Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages Audio, May 1982

The poodle-headed plank-spanker talks about the making of Queen's latest album Hot Space: its slightly torturous recording process; the influence of black music and the Isley Brothers in particular; the failure of 'Body Language' as a UK single; their success in Argentina at the time of the Falklands War; the abuse suffered by support act Bow Wow Wow from Queen fans on tour; making 'Under Pressure' with David Bowie, and their upcoming plans.

File format: mp3; file size: 32.7mb, interview length: 34' 02" sound quality: *****

Motels, The: The Motels' Martha Davis (2001)

Interview by Steve Roeser, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1 February 2001

On the release of the Anthologyland compilation, Martha talks about how she maintains a musical career, then looks back: her influences, from folk through soul and the Beatles to Bowie; the first Motels moving from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and creating their own scene; her mother's death, and raising two kids; reforming the Motels with Jeff Jourard, and getting signed; her love of the process: playing, rehearsing, videos etc.; putting together the anthology, and the future of the Motels.

File format: mp3; file size: 39.8mb, interview length: 41' 29" sound quality: ** (phoner)

Louis Jordan: Going For The Long Jump!

Retrospective by Fred Dellar, NME, 6 August 1983

The last of the swingers, the first of the rockers, altoist Louis Jordan's influence stretches through BB King and David Bowie to the '80s jive ...

Mott The Hoople: The Complete History of Mott The Hoople

Profile by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, February 1973

IN THE WAKE of their first hit single, Mott The Hoople have begun to generate a publicity splash of sorts. It hasn't hurt that rock ...