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WELCOME BACK the musically credible and eminently excellent Average White Band with this defiant poke in the ear for all those people who seven months ...

Sylvester: No Business Like Show Business

Essay by Simon Frith, Melody Maker, 7 July 1979

ON HIS RECORD sleeves, Sylvester is definitely svelte. A pink shirt and a red rose. Spectacles and a cool look, like Arthur Ashe. My favourite ...

Defunkt: Trax, New York

Live Review by Roy Trakin, Melody Maker, 9 February 1980

EVEN THE decidedly old-wave, uptown industry water-hole Trax has caught the Funk Flu that's hit this borough like an epidemic. People are dancing to progressive, ...

Defunkt: Embassy Club, London

Live Review by Ian Penman, NME, 6 June 1981

Make my funk the D-funkt ...

Junior Giscombe: Secret Life of a Streatham Soul-Boy

Interview by Paolo Hewitt, Melody Maker, 8 May 1982

Paolo Hewitt rides the Soul Train to L.A. with Junior Giscombe ...

Defunkt: Too Fierce For Radioland

Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, June 1982

Joe Bowie, singer-songwriter-trombonist-leader talked to Kris Needs and Killing Joke bassist Youth. ...

Defunkt: This Defunkt Life

Interview by Lesley White, The Face, August 1982

According to Joe Bowie, only his trombone and his funk-jazz band Defunkt stand between him and the imminent nuclear apocalypse. LESLEY WHITE talks to the ...

Michael Jackson: The Biggest Selling Solo Artist Of All Time

Report by Ian Birch, Smash Hits, 1 March 1984

Quiet out there. Michael Jackson's record company is throwing a party and Ian Birch has got an invite. A few famous folk, dancers in top ...

Luther Vandross: What A World For The Lonely Kind: Luther Vandross

Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, The Times, 28 March 1989

LUTHER VANDROSS is the pre-eminent mainstream soul performer of the 1980s. As a singer, songwriter and producer he is – with the possible exception of ...

Luther Vandross: Battle Of The Bulge

Interview by Mark Cooper, Q, August 1991

ON THE HOSPITALITY TABLE OF Luther Vandross's suite at Hollywood's Four Seasons Hotel, four untouched plates of king prawns lie waiting next to a half-demolished ...

Prince: Birmingham National Indoor Arena

Live Review by Paul Moody, NME, 7 August 1993

THE TINY FIGURE in silky lemon and black trouser-suit and Spanish heels is talking. ...

Chic: Bernard Edwards 1952-1996

Obituary by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 4 May 1996

BERNARD EDWARDS of CHIC died last week. Paul Lester celebrates the life and work of a massively influential musician, producer and songwriter ...

Lewis Taylor: Sweet Insanity

Profile and Interview by Paul Lester, Uncut, July 1997

"I'M FASCINATED WITH THE IDEA OF ART born of a disintegrated mind," says Lewis Taylor, all coal-black curls and kohl-kissed eyes, crouched in the semi-darkness ...

Prince: The Artist Formerly Known As Successful

Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, September 1998

He wriggled away From Warners and the quality control went West. He swopped Prince for Victor for Slave for O(+>) and the fans just couldn't ...

Chic: The Very Best Of Chic

Review by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, June 2000

Another Chic anthology — why buy? An intelligent sleevenote with participation from Nile Rodgers, full-length album cuts where applicable. La musique elle-meme. ...

Luther Vandross

Obituary by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, September 2005

THERE WAS SOMETHING special about Luther Vandross (who died 1st July). Free of the brashness of the other male soul performers of the 80s; here ...

Buddy Miles 1947-2008

Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 29 February 2008

Rock drummer who graced the stage with Hendrix in his heyday ...

Dusty Springfield: The Legacy of Dusty Springfield

Retrospective by Bob Stanley, The Times, 3 April 2009

The greatest girl singer of the Sixties would be 70 this month, but her legacy is evergreen ...