Politics, Race, Religion and Society
887 articles
Screaming Lord Sutch: Two Sides Of Sutch
Report and Interview by David Griffiths, Record Mirror, 23 March 1963
ROCK SINGING, horror, comedy – and now politics. Such are the interests, professional and personal, of Screamin' Lord Sutch. ...
The arts in society: You're Sick, Daddy
Essay by Geoffrey Cannon, New Society, 25 April 1963
2018 author's note: My very first published piece, written for New Society, of which I was a founder-member of staff as the sub-editor and production ...
Anita Bryant, Brenda Lee: Teenage Marriage... Are You Ready For It? By Anita Bryant
Comment by uncredited writer, 16 Magazine, September 1963
WHICH OF THESE THREE ALL-IMPORTANT CATEGORIES OF TEENAGE ROMANCE DO YOU FALL INTO? ONLY ONE OUT OF THE THREE OPENS THE DOOR TO A HAPPY ...
The Rolling Stones: This Horrible Lot – Not Quite What They Seem
Report and Interview by Maureen Cleave, Evening Standard, The, 21 March 1964
"BUT WOULD YOU LIKE your daughter to marry one?" is what you ask yourself about the Rolling Stones. They've done terrible things to the musical ...
Dusty Springfield: Dusty — There Were Threats
Report by uncredited writer, Record Mirror, 26 December 1964
DUSTY SPRINGFIELD flew home on Friday morning to a heroine's welcome. Half of Fleet Street waited at London Airport to greet her on her return ...
Report by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 9 July 1965
HOW MANY people thought that Joan Baez would be seen back in the NME Chart again, once 'We Shall Overcome' had faded into the distance? Not many, ...
Joan Baez, Donovan: It's School-Marm Joan Baez Now!
Profile by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 13 August 1965
JOAN BAEZ has turned school-marm. In a Californian town she has started an unusual "School For Non-Violence", where children turn up to sit in silence. ...
Interview by Jane Heil, Hit Parader, January 1966
AS EVERYONE already knows, folk songs have come off the back porch and out of the pads, and are now very big business. Everybody listens ...
Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler: Barry Sadler Sings Of War Without Protest
Profile by Carol Deck, KRLA Beat, 26 February 1966
ON THE POP charts right now are songs by attractive young men and women about love and the loss of it, about silence and stomachs ...
The Beatles, John Lennon: How Does a Beatle Live? John Lennon
Profile and Interview by Maureen Cleave, Evening Standard, The, 4 March 1966
IT WAS THIS TIME three years ago that The Beatles first grew famous. Ever since then, observers have anxiously tried to gauge whether their fame ...
Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler: Ballads: Of Men And Green Berets
Comment by uncredited writer, KRLA Beat, 26 March 1966
THE "GREEN BERETS" are a special group within the Army who carry out special missions beyond the scope of regular troops. ...
The Association: Vietnam: War!
Comment by Louise Criscione, KRLA Beat, 16 April 1966
THERE IS A war going on in Vietnam and whether the United States has officially declared war or not – it is there, it's happening. ...
Barry McGuire, Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler: Teen Panel Discussion: Green Berets and Barry McGuire
Interview by uncredited writer, KRLA Beat, 30 April 1966
THE ARTICLE you're about to read is the first in a series of teen discussions which will be sponsored and published in The BEAT. ...
Otis Redding: Local Girl Joins Otis Redding Show at the Apollo Theater
Interview by uncredited writer, KRLA Beat, 9 July 1966
AN ATTRACTIVE 23-year-old blond dancer from Hollywood is currently appearing at the Apollo Theater in New York with the fantastic Otis Redding Show. ...
Phil Ochs: Phil Ochs In Concert (Elektra EKL 310)
Review by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 20 August 1966
Vicious, brilliant dynamite from Phil ...
The Beatles: Beatles 'Ban-Wagon' Rolls!
Report by uncredited writer, KRLA Beat, 27 August 1966
Epstein Fears Security Dangers During U.S. Tour ...
Cliff Richard: Double Double Vision Vision
Interview by Dawn James, Rave, September 1966
Rave's Dawn James sees Cliff and gets double vision! Cliff the Christian who wants to quit the pop world, and Cliff the film star... ...
The Beatles, John Lennon: Letters to the Editor: Lennon Vs. Christianity
Readers' Letters by Various Writers, KRLA Beat, 10 September 1966
(Ed. NOTE: The BEAT has received hundreds of letters, both pro and con, concerning John Lennon's remarks about Christianity. Unfortunately, we do not have nearly ...
Sir Douglas Quintet: "Adults Resent Groups"
Interview by uncredited writer, KRLA Beat, 10 September 1966
SOME ENGLISH performers, it seems, have done nothing recently but knock America: the people, their attitudes, their way of life. ...
Janis Ian, Jimmy Ruffin, The Supremes: Who Else but the Supremes Would Pedal a Rickshaw?
Report and Interview by Loraine Alterman, Detroit Free Press, 30 September 1966
IMAGINE DIANA Ross, Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard in Taipei, pedalling rickshaws and letting the regular drivers ride in the seat. Picture Mary falling off ...
Cliff Richard: Empire Theatre, Liverpool
Live Review by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 4 November 1966
ON HIS LATEST TOUR CLIFF CHANGES DYLAN'S WORDS ...
Report by Mike Tuck, KRLA Beat, 17 December 1966
Teens Demonstrate For Dance Rights ...
Riots on Sunset Strip: Strip Of No Man's Land
Comment by uncredited writer, KRLA Beat, 31 December 1966
The following is the first half of an opinion poll where teenagers give their views on the Sunset Strip controversy. Part II of this series ...
Report and Interview by Rochelle Reed, KRLA Beat, 14 January 1967
WHEN THE curtains draw back and the spotlight silhouettes her against an empty stage, it's difficult to believe that slight, dark-haired Joan Baez is standing ...
Riots on Sunset Strip: Strip Of No Man's Land (part 2)
Comment by uncredited writer, KRLA Beat, 14 January 1967
This is the second half of The BEAT'S opinion poll where teens express their feelings about the Sunset Strip controversy. Part I appeared in the ...
Marvin Gaye: "The Music Really Saves Me"
Interview by Eden, KRLA Beat, 28 January 1967
THERE ARE some performers who succeed in escaping the boundaries and restrictions normally imposed upon their profession. They somehow manage to go "above and beyond ...
Teen Panel: The Use Of Drugs By American Teens
Interview by uncredited writer, KRLA Beat, 28 January 1967
In this issue, The BEAT's Teen Panel discusses another of the hottest subjects of the day – the use of drugs by teenagers. ...
The Rolling Stones: Sex, Stones & Sullivan
Comment by Tony Barrow, KRLA Beat, 11 February 1967
"I'M NOT superstitious" remarked Mick Jagger at London Airport on Friday January 13. And to prove his point he marched jauntily beneath a couple of ...
Teen Panel: Teenagers And Drugs, Part II
Interview by uncredited writer, KRLA Beat, 11 February 1967
This is the second half of The BEAT'S Teen Panel discussion on the subject of "drugs," Part One appeared in the last issue. ...
War Between the Generations: 'This Thing Can't Be Stopped'
Report by uncredited writer, KRLA Beat, 11 February 1967
Or Beware The Postage Stamps You Lick! ...
Hippies take over from the Beatniks
Report by Lillian Roxon, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 4 March 1967
A new youth grouping, the Hippies, has sprung up in San Francisco and promises to spread over America and to Europe. Hippies are still way-out, ...
MC5: An Interview with Rob Tyner
Interview by John Sinclair, Warren-Forest Sun, The, May 1967
The following interview with ROBIN TYNER, the lead singer of the MC5, the major Detroit avant-rock band, was recorded by JOHN SINCLAIR in the first ...
The Beach Boys: Beach Boy Defies Draft, Would Rather Go To Jail
Report by uncredited writer, KRLA Beat, 20 May 1967
CARL WILSON of the Beach Boys has decided to risk jail rather than report for induction into the Army. ...
The Flower Children and How They Grow
Essay by Richard Goldstein, Los Angeles Times, 28 May 1967
Richard Goldstein is a young writer with a special view of the Flower Children and their contribution to modern American culture. He has been called ...
MC5: 'Aid, Comfort For Parents Of Hippies'
Readers' Letters by uncredited writer, Detroit Free Press, 2 June 1967
In response to the story on the parents of hippies which appeared in the Free Press Women's Section last Sunday, and the two stories about ...
The Rolling Stones: Pop In The Police State
Comment by Mick Farren, International Times, 2 June 1967
"People try to put us down just because we get around."The Who – 'My Generation' ...
The Rolling Stones, The Who: The Rolling Stones drugs bust: Time Is On Our Side
Report by uncredited writer, International Times, 28 July 1967
THE SUN isn't known to have two faces, only the moon, but in England we have the lunatic Sun (a newspaper it thinks) with as ...
The Mothers Of Invention, Frank Zappa: Frank Zappa: Meet the Boss Mother, Sussing Out Britain...
Interview by Nick Jones, Melody Maker, 26 August 1967
IF AFFLUENCE and power is the Great American Dream, Frank Zappa is the Great American Nightmare. ...
The Beatles, Mick Jagger: Beatles And A Stone To Wales With Mystic
Report by Tony Barrow, KRLA Beat, 23 September 1967
ANY GOOD groupie and, indeed, any teenybopper of average intellect would assure you that one of the least likely places top pop people are to ...
Interview by uncredited writer, KRLA Beat, 7 October 1967
BUFFY SAINTE-Maric is one of the most unique performers around. Possessing an almost incredible voice which ranges from the deep blues tones to the pure ...
The Supremes: The Smell Of Flower Power
Readers' Letters by uncredited writer, KRLA Beat, 21 October 1967
Dear BEAT: ...
The Beatles: Harrison & Lennon Discuss Religion
Interview by Tony Barrow, KRLA Beat, 4 November 1967
BEFORE DEPARTING for India and the beginning of a two to three month meditation study course under the guidance of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Beatles John ...
The Beatles, George Harrison: Beatle George And Where He's At
Interview by Nick Jones, Melody Maker, 16 December 1967
For many people, the Beatles have long passed the stage where they are merely a pop group. The first indication of this development was probably ...
The Beach Boys: 1968 Will See Better Things From The Beach Boys
Interview by Keith Altham, New Musical Express, 30 December 1967
DESPITE THE fact that the Beach Boys new single, 'Wild Honey' is having a sticky time in the charts, the group is still able to ...
Dusty Springfield, Mickie Most, P.J. Proby, Spencer Davis Group: Right Then, Who's Backing Britain?
Comment by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 20 January 1968
IF BRITAIN is going to the dogs, it is obvious a large section of the (older) community are convinced that sinful pop stars are prime ...
Report from swinging London town
Report by Miles, Los Angeles Free Press, 26 January 1968
LITTLE HAS happened since winter came upon us and forced London's underground underground. The organisation called RELEASE has become one of the most valuable community ...
The Beach Boys: The Maharishi, The Beach Boys and the Heathens
Report by Loraine Alterman, New York Magazine, 6 March 1968
"IN BALTIMORE last night in the middle of the Maharishi's talk, a kid got up and yelled 'Maharishi, you're full of it'." Beach Boy Bruce ...
The Foundations: Foundation Clem Reveals Popland's 'Black Spots'
Interview by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 9 March 1968
MENTION SCOTLAND to Clem Curtis and he grimaces. Mention Ireland and you get an "Oh man" reply, with an anguished expression. But mention Amsterdam and ...
Report and Interview by Mike Jahn, Pop Scene Service, 23 March 1968
"OURS IS THE politics of ecstasy," said Abbie Hoffman, the New York Digger leader, for whom ecstasy is as much a public as a private ...
The Beach Boys: A Brave New World – Through Pop
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 6 April 1968
IT'S GOING to be a Brave New World through pop. That's the hope of men like George Harrison, Donovan and Mike Love, bearded, humourous hell-raiser ...
The Fugs: Dirty Words Are Hurled At Public
Comment by Mike Jahn, Pop Scene Service, 14 June 1968
DESPITE THE fact that it is almost impossible to shock people anymore, the bad-word business flourishes. ...
Interview by Dave Godin, Blues & Soul, July 1968
ONE IS always apprehensive about meeting artists for whom one has a great admiration or burning passion – I deliberately avoided meeting the one and ...
O.C. Smith Fights For Poor People
Interview by Alan Walsh, Melody Maker, 6 July 1968
THERE was a familiar face at the head of last week's Poor People's March in Washington, USA,the protest on behalf of America's underprivileged classes led ...
Report by John Sinclair, Fifth Estate, 18 July 1968
IN THE past two weeks since the last issue of this paper a bunch of new developments have taken place: Almost every job for the ...
MC5, John Sinclair: Flash! July 26th, 1968: MC5 Attacked By Police On Job
Report by uncredited writer, Warren-Forest Sun, The, 26 July 1968
JOHN SINCLAIR, FRED SMITH BEATEN, MACED, ARRESTED — CHARGED WITH ASSAULTING POLICE OFFICERS ...
Press Release by uncredited writer, Warren-Forest Sun, The, 26 July 1968
WHAT FOLLOWS is a deposition written by Rob Tyner, Wayne Kramer and Dennis Thompson of the MC5 upon their return from the Loft and the ...
Phil Ochs: The War Isn't Over for Phil Ochs Yet
Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 27 July 1968
WHEN PHIL OCHS arrived in England on his recent visit the immigration people almost didn't let him in. "They asked me did I want to ...
Report by John Sinclair, Fifth Estate, 1 August 1968
Poet-MC5 manager John Sinclair and MC5 guitarist Fred Smith were brutally assaulted, beaten, MACEd, and arrested by members of the National Security Police, the Oakland ...
Essay by John Sinclair, Warren-Forest Sun, The, 1 November 1968
FIRST I MUST say that this statement, like all statements is bullshit without an active program to back it up. We have a program which ...
The Deviants: Revolution — With Guitars, Not Bullets
Interview by Hugh Nolan, Disc and Music Echo, 2 November 1968
FOR MICK FARREN, magnificently hairy leader of the (formerly Social) Deviants, the underground is a very definite force against the establishment, blind authority and the ...
The Deviants: From the Underground: The Deviants
Profile and Interview by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, 23 November 1968
IT'S BEEN SAID of the Deviants that they are the only real underground group. Like roots of the underground perhaps – because Mick Farren, first ...
Diana Ross, The Supremes: Diana Ross: A Talking Instead Of Just A Walking Doll
Report and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 30 November 1968
DIANA ROSS is a living doll. But as an all-talking living doll, her new image came as quite a surprise to the pop scene last ...
Poetry is Revolution: Underground Radio
Essay by John Sinclair, Ann Arbor Argus, 13 February 1969
"In a modern telecommunications society, the radio station is one of the real seats of authority; its seizure the seal of a successful revolution." — ...
Comment by Gene Guerrero, Great Speckled Bird, The, 17 March 1969
IT WAS COUNTRY Music Week in Nashville, Tennessee, during the fall of 1966. Several of us from the Southern Student Organizing Committee were in town ...
MC5: The MC5: Kick Out the Jams (Elektra)
Review by Miller Francis jr., Great Speckled Bird, The, 17 March 1969
"Works of art which lack artistic quality have no force, however progressive they are politically. Therefore, we oppose both works of art with a wrong ...
MC5: The Story Of The MC5 On The West Coast In March Part One
Report by John Sinclair, Ann Arbor Argus, 28 March 1969
John Sinclair, Minister of Information, White Panther Party ...
Nina Simone: Nina's The Medium For The Message
Interview by Royston Eldridge, Melody Maker, 19 April 1969
NINA SIMONE, the artist, is the High Priestess of Soul, the blues singer and the jazz pianist. Nina Simone, the person, is compelling, formidable, and ...
Profile and Interview by Lita Eliscu, East Village Other, 14 May 1969
ROCKET ROCKET ROCKET to the — YEAHHHHH the — Fuckit yeah yeah sheeeeit baby Get. Down. On. It. Cmon mothahfuckahs CMON MOTHAH-FUCKAHS MAKE FUCK A ...
Allman Brothers Band: The Allman Brothers Band
Special Feature by Miller Francis, Great Speckled Bird, The, 19 May 1969
Upon first seeing the Allman Brothers Band, an interracial rock and roll band from the heart of segregated, reactionary Georgia not only calling themselves brothers, ...
Country Joe & The Fish, Dr. John, Flying Burrito Brothers, The Fugs: Rocking into religion
Essay by Geoffrey Cannon, Guardian, The, 27 May 1969
Gods, bishops, priests and worshippers ...
Interview by uncredited writer, Flip, June 1969
Sometimes you meet a person you can be happy just grooving with...rapping back and forth about how life should be lived and what's wrong and ...
Canned Heat, Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter: The Blues
Essay by Miller Francis Jr., Great Speckled Bird, The, 16 June 1969
"All new technologies bring on the cultural blues, just as the old ones evoke phantom pain after they have disappeared." — Marshall McLuhan, War and ...
Atlanta International Pop Festival
Comment by Miller Francis jr., Great Speckled Bird, The, 30 June 1969
"If you want to come up with a singular, most important trend in this new music, I think it has to be something like: it ...
The Beach Boys, Charles Manson, Dennis Wilson: The Continuing Story Of Beach Boy Dennis Wilson
Interview by Lon Goddard, Record Mirror, 5 July 1969
...and his house of seventeen women. RM'S Lon Goddard reports from the loo!!! ...
The Beach Boys: Beach Boy Mike Would Love To Convert You
Interview by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 26 July 1969
Richard Green Tries A Spot Of Meditation ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: John and Yoko: Can YOU Afford To Laugh At Them?
Interview by Tony Norman, Top Pops, 9 August 1969
In Vietnam, young men are killing each other every day. In Biafra, young children are dying of starvation. Across the Continents of the world there ...
Interview by Mark Williams, International Times, 26 September 1969
I'D NEVER seen Mick Abrahams in a suit before. In fact, he'd confessed to me that he'd never bought a suit in his life. He'd ...
Interview by Mark Williams, International Times, 26 September 1969
AS ALL OF us who diligently study the music press will know, Graham Bond is back in Britain after nearly 2 years in America and ...
The Supremes, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder: Motowners have Racial Problems
Report by Ann Moses, New Musical Express, 27 September 1969
SINCE SO many Motown artists are currently in the British charts, I thought I might pass on some things about them that have been circulating ...
Jane Birkin, Serge Gainsbourg: Jane Birkin: That Was The Week That Was...
Report by uncredited writer, Record Mirror, 18 October 1969
JANE BIRKIN: the inside story of what happened when the BBC found her at Number One... and the BBC-TV programme that played the record with ...
Report and Interview by Miller Francis jr., Great Speckled Bird, The, 20 October 1969
OURS IS AN age of reluctant ambivalence. The impact of the new is devastatingly real, but the clinging corpse of what has been and what ...
Radha Krishna Temple, London: Are You Getting Krishna's Message?
Report and Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 25 October 1969
...wonders ALAN SMITH ...
Press Release by John Sinclair, Countdown, 1970
THERE IS NO way to get at the music without taking the whole context of the music too – there is no separation. We say ...
Chairmen Of The Board, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Yoko Ono: John and Yoko Envisage Super Jam
Report by Mike Gormley, Detroit Free Press, 2 January 1970
IT'S A WELL known fact that John and Yoko Lennon were in Toronto and Ottawa recently to talk about their Peace Festival to be held ...
Carry That Weight: Music In The ‘60s
Overview by Lenny Kaye, Fusion, 20 January 1970
THE WAY IT WORKS is that someone picks up the torch and carries it for a while, and when they get tired, or irrelevant, or ...
Live Review by Mike Jahn, New York Times, The, 29 January 1970
Garden Thronged for Songfest In Aid of Vietnam Moratorium ...
Comment by Gene Guerrero, Great Speckled Bird, The, 16 March 1970
IF MERLE Haggard wasn't one of the two or three most creative persons in country music, it would be easy to dismiss him as just ...
Report by Miller Francis Jr., Great Speckled Bird, The, 30 March 1970
SANTANA AND the Allman Brothers Band flew right into a hornet's nest last week when they showed up to play at the Municipal Auditorium: there ...
Zabriskie Point (dir. Michelangelo Antonioni)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Miller Francis Jr., Great Speckled Bird, The, 2 April 1970
"I understand man, with his faults and his virtues; those of many men I know, and no doubt my own as well. But what I ...
Essay by Miller Francis Jr., Great Speckled Bird, The, 4 May 1970
Part 1 WOODSTOCK IS AN amazing piece of technology, one of the most important films ever made. We have long been accustomed to experiencing films as ...
Woodstock producer Bob Maurice
Interview by Miller Francis Jr., Great Speckled Bird, The, 4 May 1970
(The following dialogue with Bob Maurice, producer of the Woodstock film, is an edited version of a long interview taped last week at the Marriott.) ...
Is Pop Music Putting The Boot In For Bovver?
Overview by Rob Partridge, Record Mirror, 9 May 1970
Robert Partridge argues that violence has taken on a different meaning ...
The Who: Woodstock: Talking About My Generation
Essay by Miller Francis Jr., Great Speckled Bird, The, 15 June 1970
"I'm looking for me, You're looking for you We're looking at each other and we don't know what to do." — 'The Seeker' by the Who ...
Country Joe & The Fish, Jefferson Airplane: Kent Aftermath: Teen Turmoil Poison At B.O.
Report and Interview by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 25 June 1970
SAN FRANCISCO — Lou Rhode, a student at San Francisco City College, is a clerk at Tower Records, and wears an "Out Now" peace button ...
The Up: New Political Rock Group: The Up Begins Where the MC5 Left Off
Profile by Mike Gormley, Detroit Free Press, 3 July 1970
ABOVE AND beyond his highly publicized political life, John Sinclair had a great interest in the rock 'n roll world. His band, the MC5, attained ...
Steppenwolf: On Politics and Pop
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 11 July 1970
FOR YEARS popular rhythm artists have expressed often in fairly heated fashion, or occasionally with affected languor, political opinions. ...
Comment by Mick Farren, Melody Maker, 3 October 1970
WHEN I first brought home Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry albums my parents didn't much like it. They made the mistake of thinking rock was ...
The Last Poets: Thoughts... and Music: The Last Poets
Comment by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 9 October 1970
AS EDITOR of Blues & Soul, I have always done my personal utmost to concentrate on the musical content of our music and the artists ...
Anthony Wedgwood Benn: Listening To The New Generation
Essay by uncredited writer, Melody Maker, 24 October 1970
Former Technology Minister Anthony Wedgwood Benn replies to Mick Farren's analysis of Rock as a political force. ...
Mike Curb Congregation, John Sebastian: Mike Curb: Record Boss Keeps Mum
Report and Interview by Mike Gormley, Detroit Free Press, 6 December 1970
The 'Curb 18' Still Unidentified ...
Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Charles Manson: The Maggot in the Rose
Comment by Geoffrey Cannon, unpublished, 1971
Author's note, 2018: Nobody talked about flower power or summers of love or fun, fun, fun after the Manson and the Altamont murders, followed by ...
Caroline Coon: The Underground Angel Of Mercy...
Interview by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 30 January 1971
Michael Watts talks to CAROLINE COON of Release ...
Charles Manson: The Girls On The Corner
Readers' Letters by uncredited writer, Great Speckled Bird, The, 8 February 1971
(This letter in defense of Charles Manson and the Family was sent to The Great Speckled Bird and other underground papers by Family member Sandra Good ...
Report by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1971
ALGIERS, Algeria (UPS) — Timothy Leary has once again spent some time in jail — and this time his jailer was none less than Eldridge ...
Live Review by Gene Guerrero, Great Speckled Bird, The, 15 March 1971
FROM TOP TO bottom, the Shower of Stars last Saturday night was really fine. The sound system was much improved and the sound it carried ...
James Brown: The Cassius Clay of Music
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 20 March 1971
JAMES BROWN — broad and stocky — America's Soul Brother Supreme, with a warm smile etched deep into his granite face — perhaps the very ...
Report and Interview by Vernon Gibbs, Columbia Daily Spectator, 22 April 1971
WE'RE SITTING there rapping just before camera time. This evening James Brown is taping the Johnny Carson Show and he is in a good mood, having just ...
Elephant's Memory: Take It To The Streets (Metromedia)
Review by Toby Mamis, Creem, June 1971
NEW YORK City has no readily identifiable musical identity, as, say, San Francisco or the Ann Arbor/Detroit regions. But the Big Apple does have a ...
Marvin Gaye: A Study of Marvin Gaye's Liberation
Interview by Phil Symes, Disc and Music Echo, 12 June 1971
MARVIN GAYE is a mystery man. Most people know him as the singer who made the biggest-selling Motown record ever – 'I Heard It Through ...
Profile and Interview by uncredited writer, Hit Parader, July 1971
There's a new, young breed of black singers coming up — a breed that is aware of the roots but doesn't get into the funky-jive-fingerpop-boogaloo ...
The Oz Obscenity Trial: Guilty
Report by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 2 September 1971
LONDON — Great Britain no longer need envy America its Chicago Conspiracy Trial. They've come up with a pretty good one of their own and ...
Spirit in Flesh: God Crazed Hippies Reap Boffo B.O.
Report by Nick Tosches, Creem, November 1971
HENNY YOUNGMAN SMASHES HIGHEST ENERGY FORCE IN UNIVERSE ...
Underground Press An Important Promotion Outlet
Overview by Lon Goddard, Billboard, 13 November 1971
THE BRITISH underground press, or experimental press serves the budding supporters of the "Alternative Society" in a manner that is easily digestible; from a literary ...
Interview by uncredited writer, Great Speckled Bird, The, 22 November 1971
IT ALL started Wednesday at the royal coach inn with Viva. The inn is some architect's nightmare of Lancelot and Arthur's court, wooden chandeliers and ...
Charles Manson, Ed Sanders: Charles Manson: Stalking Manson – The Sanders Saga
Essay by Nick Tosches, Fusion, 24 December 1971
Ed Sanders spent the summer of the Tate-LaBianca murders yodeling the ditties that were to come to comprise Sanders Truckstop into an overhead mike at ...
David Bowie: Oh, You Pretty Thing: David Bowie
Profile and Interview by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 22 January 1972
DAVID BOWIE, rock's swishiest outrage; a self-confessed lover of effeminate clothes, Bowie, who has hardly performed in public since his 'Space Oddity' hit of three ...
Essay by Dave Marsh, Creem, February 1972
PICKS OF THE WEEK: BOB DYLAN, 'GEORGE JACKSON' (Ram's Horn, BMI). Bringing it all back home, the ever-relevant Dylan, who watched the river flow for ...
Interview by Mark Plummer, Melody Maker, 12 February 1972
THE MC5 don't want to be stars, if you can dig that. They reason that they are there with you to fill the air with ...
Interview by James Johnson, New Musical Express, 19 February 1972
OF ALL THE groups who have dabbled in politics over the last few years, the MC5 seem to have gained the reputation as one of ...
Report by uncredited writer, Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1972
The new Plastic Ono Band comes to Ann Arbor to Free John Sinclair – Starring David Peel, Archie Shepp, Ed Sanders, Stevie Wonder, Commander Cody, ...
Review by Sheila Weller, Fusion, May 1972
THE BLACK cultural tradition has always depended for its survival on oral, rather than written, communication: from the chants of tribal Africa to the folk-tales ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: Lennon-Ono: Deporting The Great Swan
Report by Jonathon Green, International Times, 2 November 1972
NEW YORK: 'It is with great pleasure that we wish to add PEN American Center's great Roc's voice to the vast chorus of poetic larks and ...
The Jackson 5 et al: Saving the Children
Report by Robin Katz, Record Mirror, 15 December 1972
AS I MENTIONED last week, the Jackson Five are currently appearing in a movie in the States. They're not the stars, and the film is ...
Stevie Wonder: The New Wonder Ingredient
Interview by Tony Norman, New Musical Express, 17 February 1973
BLACK AND PROUD, MUSIC FROM THE SOUL ...
David Bowie: Gay Guerillas & Private Movies
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 24 February 1973
ALRIGHT, SO you're a rock singer out of Beckenham, Kent called David Bowie and you're hotter than a stolen atom bomb packed with pictures of ...
John Sinclair: Guitar Army (Douglas)
Book Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1973
TO MOST people, John Sinclair looks like just another mutant dinosaur relic of the First Golden Age of Psychedelic Apocalypse. But that's not any more ...
The Incredible String Band #2: Scientology and the Incredibles
Interview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 17 March 1973
MacDONALD: Was there any consistent philosophical or spiritual attitude behind the group's work during the Elektra period, or were you just tossing in anything you ...
Henry Cow: Just Happy Playing Their Music
Interview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 7 April 1973
HENRY COW, a quintet formed at Cambridge University five years ago, are probably best known — though the group themselves would rather forget it — ...
Gil Scott-Heron: Pieces Of A Man (Philips 6369 415)
Review by Roger St. Pierre, New Musical Express, 12 May 1973
Heron, with the sound of the black revolution ...
Mahavishnu Orchestra, John McLaughlin: John McLaughlin: Gimme Dat 11/8 Time Religion
Overview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 14 July 1973
PART 2: IAN MacDONALD ON THE SPIRITUAL McLAUGHLIN ...
The Osmonds: Br-r-r-ring... Hi, this is Alan Osmond
Interview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 4 August 1973
WIMP ROCK AND WEIRD CITY. IT'S THE OSMONDS GROWING UP. IAN MacDONALD REPORTS ...
Plastic, paper and petrol famine shakes the whole music scene — ROCK CRISIS!
Report by Colin Irwin, Rob Partridge, Melody Maker, 1 December 1973
ROCK MUSIC is reaching a crisis point. The worldwide energy shortage threatens the future of the entire music industry while rock itself faces a ban ...
Interview by Mick Gold, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1974
Country Joe talks about being brought up by communist parents, his current musical and political interests, the Paris Sessions album, songwriting, the Beats, jazz and... Bowie!
File format: mp3; file size: 81mb, interview length: 1h 28' 27" sound quality: ***
John McLaughlin, Santana: John McLaughlin and Carlos Santana: Cruisin' With The Guru
Interview by David Rensin, Creem, March 1974
The backseat revelations of Carlos Santana & Mahavishnu John McLaughlin ...
Overview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 16 March 1974
Is it time to shut the closet door? OUR HERO SEES THROUGH THE SEE-THROUGHS AND COMES TO THE CONCLUSION THAT ELEGANCE IS MORE THAN A LIMP ...
Todd Rundgren, Utopia: Todd. Wizard? Or Silly Sod?
Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 14 September 1974
Genius is paid — and none more highly than T. Rundgren, ace gelding of the New York Production Stud. Count his teeth! Hear him neigh! ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: Bob Marley: Lively Up Yourself
Overview by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, December 1974
Idris Walters on the music, the history and the Rasta background of Bob Marley and The Wailers. ...
Utopia: Todd Rundgren: Out of the Mainstream, Into the Mystic
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 26 January 1975
City in my head/Utopia/Heaven in my body/Utopia/It's time for me/For me to go — Todd Rundgren's 'Utopia' ...
The Kids Are Not Necessarily Alright
Essay by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 1 March 1975
Or how the '70s has seen a limp-wristed sell-out of the ideals of the 60s. MICK FARREN discusses the way the Uncle Toms of Teendom ...
God is Alive and Well and Living Off Rock'n'Roll...
Essay by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 22 March 1975
Unfurling his roadmaps for the soul, MICK FARREN, Bachelor of Divinity of this parish, slumps grimly over his flea-ridden Olivetti to bang out the sandwich-luncher's ...
Dollar Brand/Abdullah Ibrahim: Dollar Brand: Improvisations on Life
Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 29 March 1975
DOLLAR BRAND don't take music lightly. No sir! So fasten your seat-belts please for a guided tour of Allah, the meaning of life, Africa, the ...
Tammy Wynette: Truckers' Choice
Interview by Rob Partridge, Melody Maker, 19 April 1975
No-one captures the ideals of Middle America quite like Tammy Wynette. And she's got the hits to prove it — an astounding 24 Number Ones. ...
Gil Scott-Heron: Black Interpreter
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 17 May 1975
NEW YORK: "I hear they're asking Rockefeller to investigate the CIA. Well now, in my opinion that's stupid. Asking Rockefeller what's wrong with the CIA ...
Frank Zappa: What Did You Do In The Revolution, Dada?
Essay by Karl Dallas, Let It Rock, June 1975
Karl Dallas asks the pertinent questions... ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: Bob Marley (1975)
Interview by Karl Dallas, Rock's Backpages Audio, 19 July 1975
The day after his legendary Lyceum show, Marley expounds on Babylon, Rastafari, Jamaica, his universal message, and the meaning of 'I Shot The Sheriff'.
File format: mp3; file size: 11.5mb, interview length: 25' 01" sound quality: ****
David Bowie: Watch Out Mate! Hitler’s On His Way Back
Interview by Anthony O'Grady, New Musical Express, August 1975
"WE THINK WE'VE got an audience," says the spokesperson in the Bowie suite. "We're pretty sure the operator will be listening in." ...
Review by Tony Cummings, Black Music, September 1975
THE REVOLUTION will not be televised... but then, neither will it be recorded. Gil Scott-Heron, the singer/composer/poet whose angry eloquence has gradually found the attentive ...
Report and Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 4 October 1975
VICTOR JARA sang songs for the people of Chile. In 1973, in the Santiago boxing stadium, a soldier cut off Jara's fingers before six thousand ...
Joan Baez: Slack Time For The Revolution
Interview by Penny Valentine, Let It Rock, December 1975
JOAN BAEZ PUTS it bluntly: "If I'd done another political album at this point, I'd have been bankrupt. I had no money left. So I ...
Interview by Cliff White, Rock's Backpages Audio, February 1976
The soulful polemicist talks about his and Brian Jackson's Midnight Band; his diverse influences and the Spirit of the Drum; being a successful musician while doing other work; how he started writing prose as a kid; how black artists and writers are not recognised in the USA; 'Johannesburg' and apartheid; the value of correct information, and 'We Almost Lost Detroit'; writing his first novel and starting to record; 'The Bottle' as message and dance groove, and finally he and Brian Jackson explain how they write together...
File format: mp3; file size: 61.8mb, interview length: 1h 02' 01" sound quality: ****
Gil Scott-Heron: Good Evening, Here Is The News
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, February 1976
The 'Jo'burg' man has a reputation for telling it like it is. However, John Abbey had his pre conceived notions of Gil completely and pleasantly ...
10cc, Donna Summer, Jane Birkin, Max Romeo, Serge Gainsbourg: Banned — Why?: What Turns Censors On…
Report by uncredited writer, Melody Maker, 21 February 1976
It's Donna Summer at the moment, but the Beatles, Stones even Lena Horne have all run into radio censorship. So this week, MM examines that ...
Gil Scott-Heron: Manchester University, Manchester
Live Review by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 28 February 1976
Gil's the word! ...
Sex, Drugs And Violence In Rock: The Sexual Language Of Rock Part 1
Essay by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 28 February 1976
"Eddie please write me one line,Tell me your love is only mine,Please Eddie, don't make me wait so long,You left me last September,To return to ...
Sex, Drugs And Violence In Rock: The Sexual Language Of Rock Part 2
Essay by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 6 March 1976
"I'm gonna pick you up nowAnd carry you away,So you'd better pack up now, baby,Packin' up today,Here I come, just a big bad man,When I ...
Gil Scott-Heron: You Won't Be Able to Tune In, Turn On and Cop Out...
Interview by Davitt Sigerson, Black Music, April 1976
Davitt Sigerson goes to New York to rap with the angry poet of revolution, Gil Scott-Heron ...
Gil Scott-Heron: The Fire This Time
Interview by Vernon Gibbs, Playboy, July 1976
Gil Scott-Heron has been called the black Bob Dylan. He doesn't appreciate it. ...
Santana: The Ice Cream Man Cometh
Interview by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, July 1976
LACROSSE, WISC – "Everything OK with the Dip?" ...
Clarence Reid (aka Blowfly): Sex and the Single
Comment by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 26 August 1976
TEN YEARS ago, the Kingsmen used to launch, full tilt, into their biggest hit, 'Louie Louie', then stop. "Hey, these guys never heard this song ...
Letters by uncredited writer, Sounds, 28 August 1976
WHEN I READ about Eric Clapton's Birmingham concert when he urged support for Enoch Powell I nearly puked. ...
Eric Clapton: Farther On Up The Road
Interview by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 9 October 1976
DROUGHT? What drought? The green green grass of Surrey looks so healthy you'd think the local farmers had been secretly pumping chlorophyl injections into the ...
Allman Brothers Band: Elected! Rock and US Politics
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 13 November 1976
After Jimmy Carter's victory in the U.S. Presidential elections, Chris Charlesworth in New York investigates the role of rock in American politics... ...
Interview by Cliff White, Rock's Backpages Audio, April 1977
The trilling songthrush talks about playing Las Vegas; about live arrangements; about her collaborators; her stage background; on relationships and self-awareness; on songwriting, and at some length on her struggle with breast cancer, and winning the American Cancer Society's Courage Award.
File format: mp3; file size: 42.1mb, interview length: 44' 54" sound quality: ***
The Sex Pistols: What Did You Do On The Jubilee? The Pistols on the Thames
Report by Jon Savage, Sounds, 18 June 1977
BEFORE THE POLICE came, it was a great party. Make that a capital G. ...
The Bay City Rollers, The Sex Pistols: GLC v Punk: Move Over, Sid Vicious
Report and Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 9 July 1977
GLC Tory jumps on "Good Kickin'" bandwagon ...
The Clash: Who's In Love With Janie Jones?
Interview by Caroline Coon, Sounds, 15 October 1977
DURING THE hot summer of 1976, a No. 31 bus jolts through Notting Hill Gate. On the top deck is Mick Jones, humming a riff. ...
Overview by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 29 October 1977
THE MUTANTS, the dwarfs and the all night girls (that's right, the ones who still brag about escapades out on the D train, despite the ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers, Judy Mowatt: Judy Mowatt: The Grateful Dread
Profile and Interview by Susin Shapiro, Viva, November 1977
IN CORNERS cut off from the rude-boy violence in poor black Jamaican communities, reggae music took seed, an offshoot of calypso, ska, R&B, and, further ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: Marley Beats the Devil
Report and Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 17 November 1977
A Rasta recovery ...
Tom Robinson Band: Tom Robinson: Rock Voice Of '78?
Profile and Interview by James Johnson, Evening News, London, December 1977
MUSIC WITH a hard-core political bias could soon become a regular feature of the Top ten if a singer called Tom Robinson continues his sudden ...
Tom Robinson Band: The Tom Robinson Band: Lyceum, London
Live Review by Mick Brown, Guardian, The, 8 December 1977
IT WAS ONLY A matter of time before the new wave explosion brought forth a performer like Tom Robinson, articulate enough to put into coherent ...
The Last Poets: Wake Up Limeys, The Last Poets Are Among You
Profile and Interview by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 14 January 1978
"Wheat's characteristics and nature make it wheat. It differs from barley because of its nature. Wheat perpetuates its own characteristics just as the white race ...
Tom Robinson Band: Tom Robinson: Happy The Way He Is
Profile by Paul Rambali, Trouser Press, February 1978
SOME PEOPLE are worried that the next few years in Britain will see the rise of extreme right wing sentiments turning the country into an ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: Bob Marley: A Lickle Love An' T'ing
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 18 February 1978
Interview CHARLES SHAAR MURRAY. From the Court of the Ranking Dread. ...
Jacob Miller, Tapper Zukie: Jamaica: Peace Conference In A Western Kingston
Report by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 11 March 1978
ON JANUARY 10 of this year, Samuel Dreckett — JLP (Jamaica Labour Party) Councillor for the Western Kingston district of Tivoli Gardens — entered the ...
It Can't Happen Here: The Man Who Would Be Führer
Interview by Caroline Coon, Sounds, 25 March 1978
Martin Webster: National Activities Organiser of the National Front ...
Eric Clapton: Return Of The Reluctant Hero
Interview by John Pidgeon, Creem, April 1978
THERE WAS once a movie actor who, having made his name as a heavy, took to playing the romantic lead. But no matter how often ...
Harry Chapin: Singing for the World's Supper
Report and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 6 April 1978
THE MORNING OF February 3rd, singer/ songwriter Harry Chapin flew to Washington D.C. from Ontario. He'd just done a concert and, having slept on the ...
Report by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 6 May 1978
AS HE STOOD at the top of Whitehall at 10.35 last Sunday morning gazing impassively towards Nelson's Column, the optimism of Commander Walker of Scotland ...
The Buzzcocks: Rock Against Racism's Carnival Of The North: Chaos & Concern
Report by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 22 July 1978
THE ANTI-NAZI LEAGUE and Rock Against Racism were formed specifically as a reaction against racism. ...
R. D. Laing: Vinyl Head Shrinker Tells Of Life Before Death…
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 21 October 1978
R. D. LAING – psychologist, psychiatrist, author, lecturer, institutional therapist and now rock star? ...
The Clash: Give 'Em Enough Rope (CBS)
Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 11 November 1978
White Punks On Rope ...
Mike Oldfield: This Is The Year Of The Expanding Man...
Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 25 November 1978
What Scientology did for Chick Corea (and John Travolta), Exegesis is doing for mild, retiring Mike Oldfield. He puts the stare on KARL DALLAS ...
Eric Clapton: Portrait Of The Artist As A Working Man
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 9 December 1978
IT HAS OFTEN been said that one of Eric Clapton's major problems over the years has been to find his own identity, a role in ...
Stiff Little Fingers: Inflammable Material (Rough Trade)*****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 10 February 1979
POOR OLD Stiff Little Fingers. They stormed across the Irish Sea last year and confused most people by talking loudly about being Ulster Boys without ...
Tom Robinson Band: The Tom Robinson Band: TRB Two (EMI)
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 10 March 1979
Just Easing The Liberal Guilt ...
The Pop Group: First Steps In The Primal Skank
Report and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 24 March 1979
Tribal customs live on, even in the era of Afterpunk. RICHARD WILLIAMS investigates The Pop Group. ...
The Pop Group: We Know There’s Something Wrong Somewhere: The Pop Group
Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 24 March 1979
This and other astute observations on life, art and the consumer society in THE POP GROUP interview. ...
Crass, Poison Girls, The Wall: Acklam Hall, London
Live Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 7 April 1979
A SPARSELY attended benefit for the Anarchist Black Cross Cienfuegos Press; a slow night — both the cause and its supporting groups (safely) out of ...
Linton Kwesi Johnson: Roots Inna Inglan?
Report and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, 7 April 1979
Linton Kwesi Johnson, black poet and activist, sees the Rasta dream of Ethiopian exodus as irrelevant ganja-talk. His life and his art deal with reality: ...
Misty In Roots: The Price Of Hate
Report by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, 5 May 1979
Among the casualties of last week's confrontation between the police and anti-racist demonstrators in Southall was the Peoples Unite Centre, a haven for local musicians, ...
The Black Music Association Movement Of Jah People
Report by Carol Cooper, SoHo Weekly News, 28 June 1979
DURING A DEFINITIVE rendition of ‘Exodus’ which capped an hour-long show by the Wailers, Stevie Wonder joined Bob Marley on stage and moved 2,000 members ...
Elvis Costello: He'd Rather Be Anywhere Else But Here Today...
Report by Susan Whitall, Creem, July 1979
NEW YORK — By now, everybody but Bonnie Bramlett's dog have given their side of the Columbus, Ohio brawl between the forces of Stills and ...
Stiff Little Fingers: (F)Ireland Rockers
Interview by Garry Bushell, Trouser Press, July 1979
"TAKE A LOOK where you're living/You got the army on your street/ And the RUC dog of repression is barking at your feet..." Jake Burns ...
Angelic Upstarts: Someone Else's Fight
Report and Interview by Chris Bohn, Melody Maker, 18 August 1979
INTOLERANCE FALLS like a heavy pall over the Angelic Upstarts – only they won't lie still and let it settle. Follow them round for a ...
Madness: Nice Band, Shame About The Fans
Report and Interview by Deanne Pearson, New Musical Express, 24 November 1979
Deanne Pearson puts the cat among the pigeons and scotches some nasty rumours. ...
Poison Girls: Old People Can Be Rebels Too: Poison Girls
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 24 November 1979
LOOK AT Poison Girls on stage and you see a straight line of straight faces, clothes all red and black in front of a red ...
Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Marseille, Squeeze, Whitesnake: Are You A Whore For Rock 'N' Roll?
Report by Rosalind Russell, Record Mirror, 20 December 1979
ROSALIND RUSSELL thinks most of you are ...
Comment by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 2 February 1980
IT SEEMS, at the present at any rate, there's no escaping The Crass Phenomenon. The "alternative charts" (the accurate few at that!) see them emerging ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie And The Bitter Pill
Interview by Rosalind Russell, Record Mirror, 23 February 1980
Siouxsie isn't just concerned about being a rock musician, she has strong feelings on other matters as well. Interview by ROSALIND RUSSELL ...
Linton Kwesi Johnson: Hour Of The Electric Rebel
Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, May 1980
Muzik of blood Black reared Pain rooted Heart geared('Bass Culture' by Linton Kwesi Johnson) ...
Linton Kwesi Johnson: All The Way With LKJ
Interview by Deanne Pearson, Face, The, July 1980
Whenever it rains/I think of you And I always remember that day in May When I saw you walking in the rain I know not what it was nor why For ...
Interview by Rosalind Russell, Record Mirror, 16 August 1980
BLONDIE will head for the hills if there's a nuclear attack. ROSALIND RUSSELL will whitewash the windows and wrap her head in a towel. What ...
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, October 1980
I NEVER bothered buying Bob Dylan's landmark albums when they were released, in the frantic 1960s. All my friends then already had all the albums, ...
Interview by David Rensin, Playboy, October 1980
Ted Nugent on life, love, firearms, the coming holocaust and his own unique lifestyle. ...
John Lennon: Ghoulish Beatlemania
Essay by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 22 January 1981
WHEN A ROCK star dies in a plane crash or from an overdose of drugs and alcohol, the accident may seem tragic or repulsive, but ...
Bruce Springsteen: The Man Who Would Save Rock And Roll
Essay by Greil Marcus, New West, February 1981
LAST OCTOBER Bruce Springsteen released his fifth album, The River, which went swiftly to number one in the States, and began a tour that will ...
Gang of Four: Outside the Bands Don't Toe the Line: Gang of Four Makes Music Their Way
Interview by Jon Young, Trouser Press, February 1981
WOULD YOU like your rock with politics or without? Today pop music offers a wide variety of choices: from the violent invective of stereotypic punk ...
Gang of Four, Sector 27: Gang of Four: Gang of Four (Warner Bros. EP); Tom Robinson: Sector 27 (IRS)
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, April 1981
THE LAST twitches of the dying Left or the first angular thrusts of the New Right? It's your Move. The Gang of Four's solemn Marxist ...
Sam Charters: Chains that Gave Birth to the Blues
Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Guardian, The, 6 June 1981
Mick Brown reports how the musicologist Sam Charters learned to stop feeling guilty about slavery ...
Essay by Geoffrey Himes, Baltimore Sun, 14 June 1981
ON SATURDAY nights in 1956, transistor radios in the hands of eager teenagers all over America shuddered with the sensual sound of Elvis Presley's 'Hound ...
The Specials: English Music Scene Like a 'Ghost Town'
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 15 August 1981
This town coming like a ghost town... Bands won't play no more — Too much fighting on the dance floor... Why must ...
Scritti Politti: Where Radical Meets Chic: Scritti Politti
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 31 October 1981
"SCRITTI POLITTI" – didn't you always wonder where their "political writings" were? I did. I always wondered whether their hearts were in their music or ...
Profile and Interview by Richard Grabel, New York Rocker, November 1981
SEE BLOOD! ...
Dead Kennedys: Let Them Eat Jello Beings
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 5 December 1981
Garry Bushell exhumes a living Dead Kennedy ...
Devo: Sixties Idealists or Nazis and Clowns?
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 10 December 1981
LOS ANGELES — "Someone wanted to know where your home is," the waitress said to Mark Mothersbaugh. "I don't have a home," Mothersbaugh replied softly, peering at ...
Retrospective by Dave Laing, History of Rock, The, 1982
Pete Seeger spread the word throughout America ...
The Blank Generation — How Rock Moved From Political Opposition to Sheer Nihilism
Essay by Cynthia Rose, History of Rock, The, 1982
ROCK HAS ALWAYS been about cultural and social conflict, ever since its birth in the Memphis-style boogie (over-amplified 'jump' tunes whose driving rhythms kept country ...
The Dilemmas of Sex and Romance in Fifties Rock
Essay by Cynthia Rose, History of Rock, The, 1982
The screen door slamsMary's dress wavesLike a vision she dances across the porchAs the radio playsRoy Orbison singin' for the lonelyThat's me and I love ...
Rhoda Dakar: Being Boiled – Rhoda Dakar
Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 23 January 1982
2-Tone's follow up to 'Ghost Town' is equally timely and a good deal more controversial. The single is 'The Boiler' and its subject is rape. ...
The Beach Boys, Charles Manson: Surfin' Death Valley USA
Essay by David Toop, Collusion, February 1982
"WE'LL GET THE ROUGHEST AND THE TOUGHEST INITIATION WE CAN FIND."from Our Car Club (Brian Wilson/Mile Love) Beach Boys, 1963 What were the connections between Beach ...
Bob Dylan: More Of An Outlaw Than You Ever Were? (Hold The Mayo On The Golden Globe Awards)
Essay by Richard Riegel, Creem, March 1982
During the '70s, Dylan got swept up into those overblown, superstarred ships of fools which claimed so many promising prophets from the '60s. ...
Special Feature by Nick Tosches, Penthouse, March 1982
IT WAS 3 O'CLOCK in the morning and the master bedroom of Graceland was still. Elvis Presley lay in his blue cotton pajamas dreaming. ...
Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 6 March 1982
RIGHT TO Work Marchers, like punks, skins and soccer herberts, are apparently fair game for any Old Bill trying to keep his 'nick-nick' quota up ...
Gil Scott-Heron: The Homeland Is Where The Hatred Is
Interview by Lloyd Bradley, New Musical Express, 13 March 1982
JUST ONE CHANGE of buses, and the sound stages of Century City, Ca., where platinum-plated cowboys bite the props department dust, are replaced by the ...
UB40: "UB40 is just a normal bunch of blokes. But people ask us heavy political questions"
Interview by Lesley White, Sounds, 20 March 1982
LESLEY WHITE is one of them ...
Gil Scott-Heron: The Venue, London
Live Review by Mick Brown, Guardian, The, 10 April 1982
THERE CAN surely be few performances in London this year which for intelligence, authority, musical expertise, and sheer style can hope to equal this by ...
Fun Boy Three, The Jam, The Special AKA: Letter From Britain: Jammed Up, Jelly Tight
Comment by Penny Valentine, Creem, June 1982
Struggle after struggleYear after yearThe atmosphere's a fine blend of ice.I'm almost stone cold deadIn a town called malice.— 'Town Called Malice', the Jam. ...
The Weavers: The Warp and Woof of the Weavers' Decade
Profile and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 24 June 1982
THE QUARTET came out of nowhere early in the decade and turned popular music around, taking over the Top 10 with a fresh sound that ...
Jimmy Page, Genesis P-Orridge, Throbbing Gristle: Mister Crowley
Retrospective by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 17 July 1982
Who the Hell is ALEISTER CROWLEY and why do pop people keep saying weird things about him? asks Sandy Robertson. ...
Solomon Burke, Little Richard: Little Richard and Solomon Burke: Sex & God & Rock & Roll
Report and Interview by Vernon Gibbs, Village Voice, The, 10 August 1982
THE FIRST time I encountered Little Richard, his face was plastered against a Bedford-Stuyvesant wall — the poster advertised a show at the Breevort Theater. ...
Michael (Mikey) Smith, Mutabaruka, Oku Onuora: Dub Poets Of The Eighties
Interview by Paul Bradshaw, New Musical Express, 30 October 1982
Jamaica '82: the DJs rule the nation's charts and hearts but alternative voices are making themselves heard in the roots poetry of artists like MUTABARUKA and MICHAEL SMITH. PAUL ...
Angelic Upstarts, Cockney Rejects, Splodgenessabounds, UK Subs: Oi! and Skinheads: Coming a Cropper
Comment by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 6 November 1982
A passionate defence of skinhead culture by GARRY BUSHELL. ...
Interview by Iman Lababedi, Creem, December 1982
ON A hot Wednesday evening I'm playing flick-yer-bic with the dial on my television, you know: flick — Three's Company — flick — Masterpiece Theatre ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis: The New Deal Origins of Rock 'n' Roll
Essay by Dave Marsh, Musician, December 1982
EACH YEAR, on August 16, the anniversary of Elvis Presley's death, Memphis State University hosts a memorial service and seminar in his honor. ...
Report by Michael Goldberg, San Francisco Examiner, The, 8 March 1983
WHEN BLACK superstar Rick James, who has sold more than 10 million albums during the past four years, first heard about MTV, he was enthusiastic. ...
Al Green: Sanctity & Sexuality on a Higher Plane
Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Musician, April 1983
LISTENING TO Al Green's three gospel albums for Myrrh Records is a disorienting experience. The songs are traditional hymns that have been sung in black ...
Robert Wyatt: Diving for Pearls
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 4 June 1983
Adam Sweeting talks to ROBERT WYATT about shipbuilding, pop music, the Eurovision song contest, and revolutionary ideologies. ...
The Impressions, Curtis Mayfield: Curtis Mayfield: So Proud — The Moral Standard of Soul
Interview by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 9 July 1983
Regarded by many people as the first conscience of American Black music, CURTIS MAYFIELD's illustrious career now spans 20 years — from being a teenager ...
Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger: Seeger and Guthrie: A Tradition Continues
Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Baltimore Sun, 22 July 1983
WHEN ARLO Guthrie and Pete Seeger performed together at Wolf Trap three summers ago, they managed to convince the sell-out crowd that they weren't really ...
Michael (Mikey) Smith: Dub Poet Michael Smith Murdered
Report by Paul Bradshaw, New Musical Express, 27 August 1983
MICHAEL SMITH, Jamaica's foremost dub poet, was murdered last week, stoned to death by thugs suspected of being activists from the ruling Jamaica Labour Party ...
Fela Kuti: Fela: Return of the Afrobeat Rebel
Profile by Randall Grass, Musician, October 1983
KANO, NIGERIA, 1974: Sitting in the midst of a spacious, immaculate patio surrounded by manicured shrubbery and the graceful curved stone-and-glass walls of a post-modern restaurant, ...
Fela Kuti: The Republic Of Kuti
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 3 December 1983
FELA KUTI gives Lynden Barber a lecture in African culture. ...
Husker Du, Omega Tribe: Omega Tribe: No Love Lost (Corpus Cristi)/Hüsker Dü: Metal Circus (SST)
Review by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 17 December 1983
"People talk about anarchy / and taking up a fight / Well I'm afraid of hings like that / I lock my doors at night" ...
T-Bone Burnett: Just Plain Folks
Interview by David Gans, Record, January 1984
T-Bone Burnett makes a case for himself as a regular guy ...
The Beach Boys, Charles Manson, Dennis Wilson: Manson and Drugs — A Beach Boy's Troubled Life
Retrospective by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, 8 January 1984
DENNIS WILSON, the Beach Boy who drowned a week ago last Wednesday, never got that many headlines in life. He may have been the most ...
Live Review by Paul Bradshaw, New Musical Express, 14 January 1984
...THE POWER... THE GLORY... THE RED HARRINGTON!!! ...
The Redskins: Keeping On And On
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 11 February 1984
Adam Sweeting weathers a storm of political invective from THE REDSKINS ...
T-Bone Burnett: Proof Through The Night (Warner Bros.)
Review by RJ Smith, Creem, March 1984
LIKE A DUST devil rolling across the arid nothing of Texas, T-Bone Burnett was recently barnstorming the nation. Though he's long been a moralizing rock ...
Gil Scott-Heron, John Cooper Clarke: Gil Scott-Heron/John Cooper Clarke: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 24 March 1984
SCOTT-HERON OF THE ANTARCTIC ...
Keith LeBlanc: X Marks the Spot
Interview by Chris Roberts, Sounds, 14 April 1984
"You only get action as a black man if you are regarded by the white man as irresponsible." (from The Autobiography of Malcolm X) ...
Report and Interview by Carol Cooper, Face, The, June 1984
In 1981 Stevie Wonder led the first of three marches in Washington D.C. calling for the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, the black civil ...
Joan Baez: The Folk Heroine Mellows With Age
Interview by Mary Harron, Guardian, The, 22 June 1984
IN 1959 JOAN BAEZ walked out on stage at the Newport Folk Festival and touched off a wave of adulation that was to reach almost ...
Aswad, Jimmy Cliff: Jimmy Cliff, Aswad: Crystal Palace Bowl, London
Live Review by Mary Harron, Guardian, The, 30 July 1984
THE ANNUAL Nelson Mandela festival was held in perfect sunlight in the secluded grassy amphitheatre at Crystal Palace. Unfortunately one reason why it was so ...
The Last Poets: The Last Poets (Celluloid)
Review by Sean O'Hagan, New Musical Express, 11 August 1984
THEY CAME, SORE... ...
Heaven 17: The Heaven 17 Manifesto
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 1 September 1984
Once upon a time, Heaven 17 presented themselves as the dynamic young businessmen of pop. But now they've crossed sides to support the miners, the Labour ...
The Style Council, Wham!: Wham! Style Council: Miners' Benefit, Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 15 September 1984
Pit-Head Ballet ...
Live Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 22 September 1984
SLAG! ...
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 13 October 1984
Kidnapped heiress Patti Hearst is said to have listened to him incessantly during her captivity and the hip-hop crowd regard him as a guru. His ...
The Last Poets: Last Poets: The First And Lost Poets Of Rap
Retrospective by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 14 October 1984
Group: The Last Poets. Record: The Last Poets (Celluloid 6101). Personnel: Abiodun Oyewole, Alafia Pudim, Omar Ben Hassen, vocals. Nilaja, percussion. ...
Steven Van Zandt: Little Steven: Threat or Menace?
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Creem, November 1984
ONCE UPON a time the Federal Bureau of Investigation was more talked about than Michael Jackson is now. Seems that lots of folks got disrespectful ...
Interview by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 10 November 1984
SUNDAY, 'ROUND about lunchtime, and Jimi Bronski is scurrying around his small council flat in a vain attempt to clean up the mess. I stand ...
Wham!: The Bigger They Come, The Harder They Bite
Interview by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, 17 November 1984
In an historic encounter, Colin Irwin confronts WHAM! on such burning issues as sexism, politics, wallyism and taking your shirt off in public. ...
Everything But The Girl: Take The Melancholy Strain
Interview by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 1 December 1984
PUT SIMPLY, I wanted more than just a musical chit chat. ...
The Redskins: Red On Arrival: The Redskins
Report and Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 8 December 1984
"TUC LEADER Norman Willis tells Arthur Scargill a few home truths," they said on Channel 4 news last night (and this is the Left Wing ...
Thomas Mapfumo: The Lion of Zimbabwe
Profile and Interview by Vivien Goldman, New Musical Express, 5 January 1985
Inspiration to freedom fighters and creator of the Zimbabwean sound, THOMAS MAPFUMO is ready to conquer the world. VIVIEN GOLDMAN talks to Africa's Bob Marley. ...
Interview by Jack Barron, Sounds, 19 January 1985
JERRY DAMMERS cut himself with a razor this morning. A short tear of paper covers the wound just below his equally brief right sideburn. ...
The Special AKA: Memoirs of a Survivor
Interview by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, 19 January 1985
Few artists are entitled to hold their heads as high as JERRY DAMMERS. He hasn't yet managed to free Nelson Mandela, but Dammers has managed ...
Profile and Interview by Jack Barron, Sounds, 29 January 1985
"LAYDEEZ AND gentlemen, will you please take your seats for Dick Whittington now, the show starts in five minutes," wheezes a voice from the Tannoy ...
Fela Kuti: Music Is the Weapon
Film/DVD/TV Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 23 February 1985
THE IDEA of combining music with a strong political message is a romantic notion to many young musicians, but the concept is a harsh reality ...
Interview by Ira Robbins, Rock's Backpages Audio, 6 March 1985
The erstwhile Fujiyama Mama talks about combining singing rock'n'roll with her deeply held religious beliefs; considers cover versions of her hits, and recording her recent rockabilly album in Sweden!
File format: mp3; file size: 18mb, interview length: 19' 38" sound quality: * (phoner)
Little Richard: Even God can do better with Little Richard on his side
Interview by Maureen Cleave, London Express Service, 24 March 1985
GOD ALWAYS addresses Little Richard by name — it was the same with Moses and the prophet Samuel and St. Paul. ...
Interview by Sean O'Hagan, New Musical Express, 13 April 1985
THE LAST POETS were the first rappers — the voice of ghetto anger and fiery jazzoetry. Their "exile" over, they're back with a new LP ...
Special Feature by Randall Grass, Spin, May 1985
The King of Afrobeat enjoyed a reign of sex, hemp, jazz and rock 'n' roll — then the empire struck back, trumping up charges to ...
Profile by Jon Savage, Spin, June 1985
They aren't teen idols, but have a number-one album thanks mainly to Morrissey, their asexual, charismatic singer-writer. ...
Gil Scott-Heron: Ronnie Scott's, London
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, 4 June 1985
ALTHOUGH HE does not like being labelled, particularly as a "protest singer", Gil Scott-Heron may fairly be described as a radical black poet and jazz-funk ...
The Redskins: The Insanity Clause
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 29 June 1985
Back on the road and with their new single 'Bring It Down' receiving accolades from all directions, THE REDSKINS are demonstrating that there's still life ...
The Communards: Heaven, London
Live Review by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 6 July 1985
GAY'S THE WORD ...
The Redskins: * William Shaw Sympathises With... The Redskins
Interview by William Shaw, Smash Hits, 17 July 1985
* They think Live Aid is sickening* They reckon the Queen must feel a complete wally"* They want to bring down "post-war consumer capitalism"* They're ...
Bob Geldof: Life After Live Aid? Keeping Pop's Conscience In Focus
Comment by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 20 July 1985
Can Live Aid really be more than a cosmetic exercise, a massive sop to the conscience of the West, or at best a temporary solution ...
Bob Geldof: Live Aid: Transmission Of Mercy
Comment by Don Watson, New Musical Express, 20 July 1985
JUST ABOUT the time that the 70,000 in the centre of the mediarena were filing, as instructed, towards the exits, I was emerging from the ...
Mutabaruka: Reggae Star Is More Than A Poet
Report and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 26 July 1985
"I DON'T LIKE being classified as a dub poet because dub poetry is a limit to one's expression," Mutabaruka declares. "It's like saying that you're ...
Review by J. Kordosh, Creem, August 1985
OUCHLESS BAND-AID ...
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 4 August 1985
SOLOMON BURKE looked more like Don Corleone surveying his domain in The Godfather than a preacher preparing to conduct a recent late-afternoon service. ...
Bob Geldof: Live Aid take may hit $60 million
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 29 August 1985
As many as 2 billion people watched the event ...
Midnight Oil: The Only Band That Really Matters
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, September 1985
THERE'S A TV commercial running on television stations in Sydney that explains a lot about modern-day Australia. The ad is for McDonald's, and seeks to ...
The Style Council: Internationalists (Geffen)
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Musician, September 1985
LEADING THE Jam, Paul Weller was usually eloquent about the ineloquence of youth. Now he's an adult, and he's learned all about monetarism (it's bad) ...
J.G. Ballard: Closely Observed Trains
Profile and Interview by Don Watson, New Musical Express, 26 October 1985
He never listens to music but he inspired the writing of 'Warm Leatherette' and Magazine's 'Motorcade', his trilogy of Crash, High Rise and Concrete Island ...
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Smash Hits, 4 December 1985
"I SUPPOSE many of the young rock fans who are always looking for something new and exciting find me terribly boring. But if you think about ...
Alan Hull: Hull's Teeth: An Interview with Alan Hull
Interview by Len Brown, New Musical Express, 14 December 1985
HARD TIMES on Tyneside. So what's new, pussycats? There's snow storms, there's no jobs (30% unemployment), and worst of all, the by-election bigwigs – Brittan, ...
Stevie Wonder: Ever Decreasing Circles
Interview by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 21 December 1985
Is STEVIE WONDER's giant talent exhausted or just sleeping? GAVIN MARTIN seeks the truth, but finds the man cocooned from the nitty gritty by an ...
The Redskins: Central Polytechnic, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 4 January 1986
THE ONLY soul we got tonight was the pre-gig tape, sublime Seventies slices of Billy Paul, Fontella Bass, Womack... Personally, I was grateful — I ...
Little Steven & The Disciples Of Soul: Q&A: Little Steven
Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 16 January 1986
LITTLE STEVEN Van Zandt, to his simultaneous worriment and gratification, has become the symbol of the antiapartheid movement outside of South Africa. It's not surprising ...
Interview by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 18 January 1986
Can RED WEDGE kick new life into old Labour? Will our lovable lefty pop heroes transform Kinnock's party into a stylish outfit prepared for government? ...
Interview by Jack Barron, Sounds, 18 January 1986
Kicking and screaming into '86 against injustices to the oppressed and themselves come THE REDSKINS. JACK BARRON explores the left side of their collective brain ...
Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 25 January 1986
StreetSounds supremo and entrepreneur of the modern dance MORGAN KHAN thinks the Welfare State sucks, that charity begins at home and that the Union Jack ...
Billy Bragg, Junior Giscombe, Spandau Ballet, The Style Council: Red Wedge
Report and Interview by William Shaw, Smash Hits, 12 February 1986
"It's no good just complaining in your beer about things — you've got to come out and say it..." So says Spandau Ballet's Gary Kemp. ...
The Smiths: Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool
Live Review by Betty Page, Record Mirror, 22 February 1986
"FROM MANCHESTER WITH LOVE", it was billed. But love was the last thing in the air on this freezing cold Saturday night at Liverpool's Royal ...
Fela Kuti: Zombie, No Agreement, Shuffering And Shmlling (Celluloid)
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 13 March 1986
ALTHOUGH HE is virtually unknown in the United States, Fela Kuti of Nigeria is the most dangerous musician in the world. For two decades, Fela ...
Live Review by Len Brown, New Musical Express, 15 March 1986
A WORKING-CLASS hero is something to be; it gets more difficult by the day. Under a Government that puts Profit and Progress before People (don't ...
Betty Wright: Getting It Wright
Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 15 March 1986
BETTY WRIGHT is back with 'Pain', but she doesn't feel any because she's got religion. Frank Owen is in two minds. ...
Report and Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 22 March 1986
Soaraway Sun scribe GARRY BUSHELL finds himself on the other side of the fantastic fact-finding fence. STEVEN 'Scoop' WELLS digs a grave. ...
Interview by William Shaw, Smash Hits, 26 March 1986
Were they wrong to play in Sun City? Did the cash in on Live Aid with their single 'One Vision'? At last their gracious majesties ...
Sweet Honey in the Rock: Sting in the Tale
Profile and Interview by Sean O'Hagan, New Musical Express, 19 April 1986
SEAN O'HAGAN makes a journey to the land of SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK where heavenly voices have their say. ...
Test Dept.: Freedom is Frightening
Interview by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 19 April 1986
On the abandoned building sites of Britain, a new life is stirring. TEST DEPT. sound the charge on scrap metal and bugle, waging a war ...
Jackson Browne: Lives In The Balance (Asylum)
Review by Jon Young, Musician, May 1986
JACKSON BROWNE is mad as hell. He's also a gentleman, which removes the sting from his expressions of outrage on Lives In The Balance. Although ...
Garry Bushell: The Most Evil Man In Pop
Interview by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, 10 May 1986
Scourge of the Looney Left, creator of Oi and prime exponent of the dreaded 'Sunspeak', GARRY BUSHELL makes a clean breast of it to Prof ...
Live Review by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 1 July 1986
Amnesty's rock & roll roadshow All-star lineup gives America the message ...
Gil Scott-Heron: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 5 July 1986
NORMALLY, I HATE protest pop, especially the born-again Methodism of the likes of Bragg and Moore with that heavy evangelical tone. So why do I ...
Gil Scott-Heron: Word War Fighter
Report by Len Brown, New Musical Express, 19 July 1986
Prophet, poet and rap pioneer GIL SCOTT-HERON was calling for sanctions against South Africa a decade ago in his hit ‘Johannesburg’. Currently due to appear ...
Interview by Larry Jaffee, Rock's Backpages Audio, August 1986
Scott-Heron talks about music and politics, Reron and B Movie, Sun City, Clive Davis and Arista/RCA, and ruminates on favourites old and new.
File format: mp3; file size: 18.1mb, interview length: 19' 42" sound quality: * (phoner)
The Fall: Watching The City Hobgoblins: The Fall
Profile and Interview by Mark Sinker, Wire, The, August 1986
Author's 2005 note: In which I find my voice? In between all the "important rock does this" droning. ...
Stevie Wonder: Pop Music Or Politics, He Sings Out And Speaks Up For His Beliefs
Interview by Jim Sullivan, Boston Globe, The, 14 August 1986
P.W. BOTHA was on television Tuesday afternoon and Stevie Wonder was steamed Tuesday night. Wonder had been listening to the South African president on a ...
Dead Kennedys: The Dead Kennedys: Goodnight, Democracy
Report by Chuck Eddy, Spin, September 1986
Sure, the Dead Kennedys are offensive, but obscene? It must be Jello, because jam don't shock like that. ...
LL Cool J, Run DMC, Schoolly D: Yo Boys: Boys Keep Killing
Report by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 13 September 1986
The pervasive sound of hip hop becomes punctuated by an altogether more sinister noise — the bark of hand-guns — as, on the streets of ...
Fela Kuti: Africa's Cult Musician: Fela Anikulapo Kuti
Report by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 13 October 1986
WHEN ONE OF Africa's most celebrated musicians receives visitors at his home in the Nigerian capital of Lagos, he lounges in little more than a ...
Interview by Hugh Fielder, Neil Perry, Sounds, 25 October 1986
Two years ago CRASS couldn't decide whether to blow up the country or grow cabbages — fortunately for the Tory Tyrants, they chose the latter. ...
Peter Guralnick's Soul Hits Sweet Spot
Interview by Don Waller, Los Angeles Times, 9 November 1986
DO YA LIKE good music? (Yeah, yeah.) Then Peter Guralnick's new book Sweet Soul Music (Harper & Row) is right down your alley, two steps ...
Report and Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 15 November 1986
Hard core rapper JUST ICE is out on bail following a murder charge. Frank Owen talks to him and investigates the background to the case ...
What's Missing: On Pop's Eternal Dilemma
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Monitor, Summer 1986
SOMETHING'S WRONG. Everyone knows this, acknowledges it, but it's still hard to point out, precisely, what's supposed to have slipped into abeyance, eluded us in ...
Report and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Mega Metal Kerrang!, 1987
Would you regard this issue off Mega Metal Kerrang! as 'subversive', 'pornographic' or 'objectionable'? No, of course you wouldn't – 'harmless fun' is a term ...
Jackson Browne: "A Dixie Cup of Nuclear Waste Could Kill the Planet"
Interview by Steve Turner, Q, January 1987
Jackson Browne used to hang his head and weep when he considered the folly of Man. These days he doesn't bother. These days he gets ...
Public Enemy: Hip Hop Wig Out '87: Public Enemy – Def Not Dumb
Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 21 March 1987
In the first of a series of reports from New York, Frank Owen steals the rhythm of the moment as he surveys hip hop's newest ...
The Margaret Thatcher Interview!!?
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Smash Hits, 25 March 1987
Come with us, why don't you, inside the hallowed portals of Number 10 Downing Street where the so-called "Iron Lady" awaits your "pleasure"... ...
Charlie Haden Recalls Lessons Of Cuba Visit
Report and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 27 March 1987
CUBA IS A RARE tour stopover for any American, artist, but Charlie Haden’s appearance in Havana last month fulfilled a dream the eminent bassist had ...
Paul Simon: The Boy in the Boycott
Report by Mark Sinker, Terry Staunton, New Musical Express, 4 April 1987
Is PAUL SIMON "a genius and a loathsome coward"? Does the lack of anti-apartheid statements on Graceland amount to condonation of Botha's regime? Or has ...
Interview by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 18 April 1987
Nazi apologists or naive dickheads? Either way, SLAYER are the foulest, most provocative and probably the best speed metal band yet. But have they gone ...
Interview by Lucy O'Brien, New Musical Express, 2 May 1987
LABI SIFFRE is off his stool and back on the charts, singing against apartheid. LUCY O'BRIEN joins him on the fence. ...
Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 2 May 1987
OK, SLAYER. So you're the world's top death-metal thrash outfit, and you're playing to thousands all over Britain. But now you must justify your appalling ...
Public Enemy: The Enemy Without
Interview by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 16 May 1987
PUBLIC ENEMY are the latest hard rap attack from Def Jam's box of tricks, but very different from all that's gone before. Toting Uzi machine ...
Chumbawamba, Crass, Flux of Pink Indians, Poison Girls: Veg Wedge
Overview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 23 May 1987
With Crass, Poison Girls and Flux in either retirement or a state of change, and Conflict in trouble, the anarcho-punk movement is in tatters. STEVEN ...
Interview by Colin Irwin, Spin, June 1987
With a platinum-bound LP and sell-out tour, U2 have finally conquered America. But first they had to conquer the problem of being a political band ...
Eastie Boys: Real Life in London's East End
Report by Paul Wellings, Evening Standard, The, 24 July 1987
IT IS A HOT day in London’s East End. I’m sitting in my home of Stepney, sipping an ice-cool lager outside the infamous Blind ...
The Christians: Rock On Commie: The Christians In East Berlin
Report and Interview by Len Brown, New Musical Express, 1 August 1987
WHERE AM I? The hotel receptionist says, "Have a nice day". There's Gershwin muzak in the lift. There's Sade on the radio. There's no bugging ...
Terence Trent D'Arby, Prince: Terence Trent D'Arby: Storm in a T-Shirt; Prince: Prince of Darkness
Report by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 1 August 1987
"RACIST" D'ARBY T-SHIRT ROW... DEMONIC PRINCE IS "SATAN'S TOOL"... STEVEN WELLS INVESTIGATES ...
Cliff Richard: The World According to Cliff
Interview by Jon Wilde, Blitz, September 1987
EXACTLY THIRTY YEARS AGO, Harry Rodger Webb was stripped of his prefect's badge for playing truant from school and going to a cinema in Edmonton ...
Hugh Masekela, Paul Simon: Hugh Masekela: Grazing in Graceland
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, October 1987
HUGH MASEKELA hasn't been back to South Africa since he left his homeland 27 years ago to study trumpet in London and New York, but ...
What's The Matter With Kids Today?
Comment by John Mendelsohn, Creem, October 1987
THERE ARE lots of wide open spaces around where I live. In the late spring, I can gaze out from the window of my study ...
Public Enemy: Rebels With a Cause
Interview by Sean O'Hagan, New Musical Express, 10 October 1987
They understand Malcolm X and they dig James Brown. Right now PUBLIC ENEMY are making all the noise and SEAN O'HAGAN is ready to take the rap. ...
Public Enemy: Strength to Strength
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 17 October 1987
PUBLIC ENEMY PLAY BRITAIN IN NOVEMBER AND SIMON REYNOLDS TAKES A LONG HARD LOOK AT THE SURVIVALIST PHILOSOPHY BEHIND SOME OF THE TOUGHEST NOISE OF ...
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages Audio, November 1987
Art vs. commerce; pop and politics; materialism; the Second World War – the Bard of Barking on all of that and more.
File format: mp3; file size: 59.8mb, interview length: 1h 02' 14" sound quality: ***
The Beastie Boys: The Beastie Bit
Report by John McCready, New Musical Express, 21 November 1987
JOHN McCREADY on the Beastie Boys court case... ...
The Fall, Madness, The Smiths: England: Look Back In Anguish
Essay by Mark Sinker, New Musical Express, 2 January 1988
"Oh, grassy dale and lowland scene/Come see, come hear the English Scheme!" (The Fall)"You might sleep, but you will never dream/Oh, Manchester! So much to ...
The Cure: Race and Gender: Thisism, Thatism
Comment by Iman Lababedi, Creem, February 1988
IN 1981 I interviewed the Cure for CREEM. That was three years after they'd released their paean to Albert Camus's superb existentialist novel, The Stranger. ...
Afrika Bambaataa: The Funky Cassandra
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, 19 February 1988
Adam Sweeting spreads Bambaataa's word for Planet Earth ...
KRS-One: KRS-1: View From The Bridge
Interview by Michele Kirsch, New Musical Express, 21 May 1988
KRS-1, tough turned thinker, raps for condoms and chillin' against crack and killin'. And yet he's seen toting a gun and posing a la Black ...
Public Enemy: Too Black Too Strong
Interview by Jack Barron, James Brown, New Musical Express, 21 May 1988
PUBLIC ENEMY — simply the most creative rappers around? Or a dangerous game with the politics of race? JAMES BROWN and JACK BARRON lay it ...
Ted Nugent: Crime and Punishment: The Ted Nugent Interview
Interview by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, June 1988
IF ANYONE deserves the title of Hardest Working Man In Rock 'n' Roll, Ted Nugent does. It's a reputation that dates back to 1963 and ...
Scritti Politti: Pretension and polish
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, 10 June 1988
Adam Sweeting drops in on one of the pop world's top name-droppers ...
Nelson George: The Death Of Rhythm & Blues (Pantheon, 256 pages, $18.95 hardcover)
Book Review by Mark Dery, LA Weekly, 28 July 1988
SOLD BROTHERS ...
Joe Strummer: Your Money Or Your Life!
Report and Interview by Robin Gibson, Sounds, 6 August 1988
For over a month, JOE STRUMMER has blazed a trail of passionate, powerful, politico rock across the UK with his LATINO ROCKABILLY WAR. ROBIN GIBSON ...
Psychic TV: The Genesis P-Orridge stitch up — Is This Man Sick?
Report and Interview by Neil Perry, Sounds, 13 August 1988
NEIL PERRY goes behind enemy lines to discover the truth behind The People's expose off Psychic TV's GENESIS P-ORRIDGE ...
Profile and Interview by Jim Sullivan, Boston Globe, The, 27 August 1988
DETROIT – "I'm still shaky from this," says Patti Smith, who's been driven by her husband, Fred Smith, through a hellish rainstorm and rush-hour traffic ...
Tipper Gore and the PMRC: Not In Front Of The Parents
Report and Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, 10 September 1988
The PMRC scored major brownie points recently when its chief, Tipper Gore, appeared on MTV. RALPH TRAITOR hears the woman who Guns N' Roses' Slash ...
Public Enemy: Rockin' The Joint
Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 22 September 1988
The incendiary rappers preach black self-sufficiency at New York's Riker's Island. But are they prisoners of their own racist doctrine? By Michael Azerrad ...
Michelle Shocked: Shock Tactics
Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, 1 October 1988
With her synthesis of folk and hardcore, Michelle Shocked has successfully created a new vehicle for political pop. Ralph Traitor tunes into the voice of ...
Midnight Oil Burns With Activist Fervor
Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, Boston Globe, The, 6 October 1988
PETER GARRETT, outspoken singer of Midnight Oil, is on the phone, ticking off things the Australian rock 'n' roll group is not. ...
Jon Savage: Cool and the Crazy
Interview by Richard North, Offbeat, November 1988
Richard North tackles post-punk pessimist, writer, dreamer and rebel without a cause – Jon Savage ...
Run DMC: Concert Violence: Who's to Blame?
Report by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 3 November 1988
Action needed in the wake of recent deaths at rap and metal shows ...
Acid Crackdown: Get Right Off One Chummy
Report by Paolo Hewitt, Sean O'Hagan, Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 19 November 1988
With the hysteria now reaching fever pitch and questions being asked in the (non-Acid) House, NME calls a time out to assess the damage in the tab-mad ...
Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1989
The manager/artist/impresario bemoans the state of the music business today: the conservative corporate culture; the equally conservative artists; the inability to create new Gods; becoming an artists himself, and the manager as artist; his ambitions and predictions; how England hates artists, and his optimism for Europe.
File format: mp3; file size: 26.8meg, interview length: 27' 57" sound quality: *****
Dusty Springfield: Scandal In The Wind: Dusty Springfield
Report and Interview by Len Brown, New Musical Express, 1989
As the sex-in-high-places Profumo Scandal returns to this nation's screens, Dusty Springfield (with the Pet Shop Boys) brings us the single soundtrack. Len Brown met ...
Report and Interview by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 7 January 1989
And the kids keep dying. Armed with only a Sony Walkman and a pen, PAOLO HEWITT goes looking for the solution to Rap's vicious side, ...
Diamanda Galás: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 14 January 1989
DIAMANDA GALAS' AIDS trilogy Masque Of The Red Death draws a mixed bunch to the Queen Elizabeth Hall on New Year's Day — 50 per ...
Interview by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 14 January 1989
As a columnist for Billboard and The Village Voice, Nelson George has been America's most incisive commentator on the changing face of black music culture. ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages Audio, 17 March 1989
The Man in Black on the controversy surrounding the 'Til Things Are Brighter tribute album; being threatened by the Klan for hugging Charley Pride; his friendship with Roy Orbison; the state of current country, and his Scottish roots. He also shows Sweeting his coin, gun and guitar collection!
File format: mp3; file size: 30.9mb, interview length: 32' 11" sound quality: ***
Cat Stevens: Fundamentally Speaking: Cat Stevens vs. Salman Rushdie
Comment by Penny Reel, Sounds, 25 March 1989
AN ASPECT of the Salman Rushdie episode that particularly intrigues is the way passions have been so readily aroused. It is as if the text ...
The Jungle Brothers: Pure Righteousness
Interview by Sean O'Hagan, New Musical Express, 1 April 1989
Can the creators of powerful positive Afro-rap THE JUNGLE BROTHERS also be true believers of Islamic fundamentalist, black separatist Louis Farrakhan? SEAN O'HAGAN explores the ...
Stevie Wonder: Breaking The Square Circle
Interview by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 22 April 1989
Perhaps the most innovative musician of the '70s, STEVIE WONDER has enjoyed mixed fortunes in the '80s, dividing his time between duets with Dionne Warwick ...
Big Daddy Kane: Raw Like Sushi
Interview by Sean O'Hagan, New Musical Express, 6 May 1989
Christened The Grasshopper Of Rap for his black belt lyrics, Big Daddy Kane is a hero to rap's hard core followers. With hits for Roxanne ...
Boogie Down Productions, KRS-One: KRS-1: We Are 1
Interview by Jack Barron, New Musical Express, 22 July 1989
Metaphysics... conspiracy theories...the harmony of the Universe...and YOU thought KRS-1 was just a hot rapper! JACK BARRON gets philosophical with the boss of Boogie Down. ...
Interview by Push, Melody Maker, 5 August 1989
Just when you thought Public Enemy had pushed as far as it could go, just when you thought rap outrage had peaked, along come N.W.A. ...
Report by Jack Barron, New Musical Express, 25 November 1989
In search of Die Neue Deutsche Tanz (New German Dance) JACK BARRON travelled to Berlin to meet the artists behind the Teutonic Beats label — ...
Jello Biafra, Lydia Lunch, Henry Rollins: Spoken Word: Jello Biafria, Lydia Lunch, Henry Rollins
Report and Interview by Martin Aston, Independent, The, Winter 1989
ONCE UPON a time, people took to the stage without the blast of music behind them, and people would take them seriously. Poetry and the ...
Report by Frank Owen, Spin, January 1990
Ecology is the greatest thing on a lot of rock stars' minds these days. But what about all the plastic wrap on their albums? ...
Report and Interview by Jack Barron, New Musical Express, 10 February 1990
Rave promoters gathered with Dance fans in London's Trafalgar Square last week to protest against proposed legislation to outlaw all-night parties. JACK BARRON joined the ...
Public Enemy: Public Service: Public Enemy
Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, March 1990
With their third album, Fear of a Black Planet, about to be released, Public Enemy proclaims the death of European predominance. Pop goes Afrocentric for ...
Report by RJ Smith, LA Weekly, 8 March 1990
The LAPD drops in on Public Enemy at the PALACE ...
Guns N' Roses, Frankie Knuckles, Tone Lōc: Friend or Phobic?
Comment by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 17 March 1990
STEVEN WELLS investigates American rock's backlash against gays ...
Professor Griff: 100 Per Cent Prof.
Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 31 March 1990
Accused of anti-Semitism, dissing the President, condoning Idi Amin and generally being a bit of a foam-flecked Rottweiler, Public Enemy's Minister Of Information PROFESSOR GRIFF ...
Ice Cube, N.W.A.: NWA: Hanging Tough
Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, April 1990
Hounded by the FBI and acclaimed as the new, new Sex Pistols, NWA's rise has been rapid and sensational. But now that chief spokesman and ...
The Jungle Brothers, KRS-One, Public Enemy: Rapped in Black
Report and Interview by Mark Cooper, Guardian, The, 5 April 1990
An Africa-shaped pendant has become the new badge of honour for American rappers, reports Mark Cooper ...
The Jungle Brothers, KRS-One, Public Enemy: Rapped in Black
Report and Interview by Mark Cooper, Guardian, The, 5 April 1990
An Africa-shaped pendant has become the new badge of honour for American rappers, reports Mark Cooper ...
Public Enemy: Fear of a Black Planet (Def Jam/Columbia)
Review by Tim Riley, Boston Phoenix, The, 22 April 1990
Their Own Worst Enemy? Fear of a Black Planet; seductive music, muddled message ...
Interview by Larry Jaffee, Rock's Backpages Audio, May 1990
The Bard of Barking talks about being politicised, the Miners' Strike, experiences of racism in the Army, his new album The Internationale... and rather a lot about Margaret Thatcher.
File format: mp3; file size: 30.1mb, interview length: 32' 54" sound quality: ****
Guns N' Roses, N.W.A.: At a Loss for Words
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 31 May 1990
Record-industry acceptance of stickering is already having a chilling effect ...
Lee Atwater: Chairman of the Blues
Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, June 1990
Twenty years ago, a young down-home Southern white boy fell in love with black music and became a hot R&B guitarist, backing the likes of ...
N.W.A.: Some Muthas Do 'Ave 'Em
Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 2 June 1990
Rubbing white America's nose in its own racism or blagging big bucks by glorifying gangsterism, NWA are not the FBI-pigs' favourite people. STEVEN 'Wild West' ...
Steve Earle: And Justice For All
Interview by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 23 June 1990
Having had a severe brush with the law himself, Steve Earle is well placed to judge the American law. On his new LP, The Hard Way, he ...
Comment by Tim Riley, Boston Phoenix, The, 27 July 1990
DEFENDING 2 LIVE Crew's right to party feels more like a chore than a privilege. Graphic slapstick writ large, As Nasty As They Wanna Be ...
2 Live Crew: Fear Of A Black Penis
Report and Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, September 1990
A media moral panic about their alleged obscenity has catapulted Miami rappers 2 Live Crew to national notoriety. FRANK OWEN reports from Florida. ...
Geto Boys: Censorship Isn't Def American
Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, November 1990
Sexually explicit and graphically violent, the Geto Boys are Rick Rubin's latest rap signing. Now Geffen won't release their album. FRANK OWEN reports. ...
Woody Guthrie, Curtis Mayfield, Sinead O'Connor: 'The Star Spangled Banner'
Comment by Dave Marsh, Vox, November 1990
WHEN SINEAD O'CONNOR refused to allow 'The Star Spangled Banner' to be performed at her late August concert at the Garden State Arts Center in ...
Professor Griff, Public Enemy: Professor Griff: Putting America On Trial
Interview by Push, Melody Maker, 3 November 1990
In the past year, Professor Griff has been thrown out of PUBLIC ENEMY, accused of being a racist, a Jew-hater and an American-basher. PUSH talks ...
Public Enemy: Black Appeal in the Hour of Power
Report and Interview by James Brown, New Musical Express, 3 November 1990
JAMES BROWN catches PUBLIC ENEMY'S spectacular show in San Diego and speaks to CHUCK D. ...
A Tribe Called Quest: Why Are You Being So Treasonable Now?
Interview by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 15 December 1990
Our reigning monarch scores as highly on the diss-o-meter as pop rapper Vanilla Ice for hip-hop hotheads A TRIBE CALLED QUEST. But a spot of ...
Manic Street Preachers: Manic On The Streets Of London
Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 5 January 1991
"SMASH HITS is more effective in polluting minds than Goebbels ever was…" ...
A Tribe Called Quest: Storm Warnings
Interview by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 2 February 1991
Besides achieving Top 20 success with their new single, 'Can I Kick It?, A Tribe Called Quest have also been heavily involved with the re-recording ...
Interview by James Brown, New Musical Express, 9 February 1991
Pop music isn't all lying around the pool with GUNS N'ROSES, frugging with PRINCE and getting pissed (on) with the MONDAYS. Except, that is, in ...
Retrospective by Steven Wells, Vox, March 1991
From protest to punk, rock'n'roll has provided the soundtrack to every conflict since World War II. Reaching its climax in Vietnam. Steven Wells gets up ...
Boogie Down Productions, KRS-One: KRS-One: Wisdom From The Street
Profile and Interview by Alan Light, Rolling Stone, 30 May 1991
Kris Parker once lived in the subways and shelters of New York. Now the rapper known as KRS-One is hip-hop's righteous voice — and one ...
Professor Griff: Kao's II Wiz 7 Dome (Luke/All formats)
Review by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 10 August 1991
GRIFF IS the liberal's worst nightmare. A young black radical who is something of a lyrical and musical whiz and who's made anti-Semitic and anti-white ...
Robert Wyatt: Wheelie Saying Something
Report and Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 21 September 1991
Beardy-weirdy radical ROBERT WYATT may have ended up in a wheelchair pursuing rock 'n' roll Nirvana with '70s experimental cases Soft Machine, but he refuses ...
Billy Bragg: Who The Hell Does Billy Bragg Think He Is?
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, October 1991
Here he comes again: "pop's political conscience" in his dilapidated trousers and sensible shoes, worthily correcting the unenlightened and uplifting the downtrodden with his unsubtle ...
The Bhundu Boys Take Up Whistle-Blowing
Interview by Len Brown, Independent, The, 27 November 1991
David Mankaba, of Africa's best-known band, decided to tell the whole continent he was dying of AIDS. It was his challenge to ignorance and apathy, ...
Report and Interview by David Toop, Face, The, February 1992
Rap music has become less experimental, but on America's West Coast, groups like The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy and New World Rhythm are trying to ...
Horace Andy, Massive Attack: Keep on Runnings
Report by Sean O'Hagan, Guardian, The, 15 February 1992
Bob Marley's music is not the young music in Kingston today. Ragga not reggae is king. And that took the British group Massive Attack to ...
Report and Interview by David Quantick, New Musical Express, 7 March 1992
OH DEAR. I am going to marry Billy Bragg. It's like this; Billy and I are in a tacky sort of '50s retro gift shop ...
The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy: Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy: Telly It Like It Is
Report and Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 18 April 1992
Prime your remote controls for the anger and eloquence of powerful San Franciscan panthers of polemic rap, THE DISPOSABLE HEROES OF HIPHOPRISY, telling it like ...
The 25th of May: Praise The Barricades
Report and Interview by Richard North, Siren, May 1992
"IN A WAY it's beyond words. I've got so much respect for the way he lifted himself above the surroundings, that he was brought up ...
Live Review by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 2 May 1992
IT'S, UH, KINDA TRAGIC ...
Fun-Da-Mental: Turban Warriors
Report and Interview by Push, Melody Maker, 9 May 1992
"FORGET THE IMAGE of Asians as passive, happy people," begins Prince Haq, MC with Fun-Da-Mental, a Bradford group who are fast making a name for ...
The Levellers: An Honest Crust
Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, June 1992
The Levellers have a reputation for being anarcho-veggie activists, thanks to folksy songs about travellers and police oppression. Yet their Crass-for-the-'90s image is not strictly ...
Profile and Interview by Kodwo Eshun, i-D, August 1992
Five years on, the Black Panthers of rap are still in your face. They've lost none of their controversial power, as their recent argument with US presidential ...
Throwing Muses: Kristin Hersh: Tortured by the Muse
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, 10 September 1992
Caroline Sullivan on the nightmare illness which drives singer-songwriter Kristin Hersh ...
Sister Souljah: Empire, Liverpool
Live Review by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 12 September 1992
DEMOCRAT CANDIDATE Bill Clinton wants to be President of the world's only superpower — a nation capable of swatting any other off the globe at ...
The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy: Axe of Faith
Interview by Everett True, Melody Maker, 26 September 1992
THE DISPOSABLE HEROES OF HIPHOPRISY don't piss about like most groups who claim to be 'political'. The Disposables just get on down and do something ...
Pet Shop Boys: Hate: Neil Tennant on the Power of Negative Thinking
Comment by Neil Tennant, Select, October 1992
IF NOT FOR hatred, I wouldn't be doing what I do now. I became a pop star because I hated football at school. I hated ...
Sinead O'Connor: The Enemy Within Sinead O'Connor
Interview by Mal Peachey, Mail On Sunday, 11 October 1992
Revealed ... the childhood terrors that drove one of our hottest female pop stars to tear up a photo of the Pope live on American ...
Interview by Andy Gill, Rock's Backpages Audio, November 1992
The Queen of Folk on her stage repertoire; on the definition of folk; on the end of the Vietnam War; on her political activism – and letting it go; on her new album Play Me Backwards... and not paying taxes for weapons!
File format: mp3; total file size: 41.3mb, interview length: 42' 58" sound quality: ***
Ice Cube: Cube Missive Crisis: Ice Cube: The Predator (4th & Broadway)
Review by Angus Batey, New Musical Express, 21 November 1992
YOU ARE NOT going to believe this. ...
Leonard Cohen: The Loneliness of the Long-Suffering Folkie: Leonard Cohen
Interview by Wayne Robins, Newsday, 22 November 1992
ON HIS NEW ALBUM The Future (Columbia), Leonard Cohen views history's changing currents with more than a little bit of wariness. "Give me back the ...
Overview by Kodwo Eshun, Wire, The, December 1992
Kodwo Eshun digs up the history of Clubland UK, from Boodles to Style Wars to all-day nights on the Cybernet. * ...
Nazi Noises: Right-Wing Rock in Europe
Report by Dave Rimmer, Select, Fall 1992
NOTE: This piece about Nazi rock music in Germany was commissioned and published by UK music magazine Select in autumn (I think) of 1992. It ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1993
In the context of his retrospective box set Paul Simon 1964/1993, the veteran singer-songwriter looks back over his relationship with Art Garfunkel; 'Bridge Over Troubled Water'; his artistic evolution in the shadow of the Beatles and Dylan; his black NYC influences; Graceland's success and controversy; accusations of cultural appropriation; his longevity and place in the world.
File format: mp3; file size: 59.7mb, interview length: 1h 02' 19" sound quality: ****
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, January 1993
LET'S BEGIN with Ice-T'S Top Seven reasons for pulling 'Cop Killer' off the shelves: ...
Jason Donovan: Identitiy: Jason Donovan — What's Your Problem?
Interview by Mal Peachey, Vox, January 1993
Jason Donovan was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1968. Neighbours made him a teeny idol in 1986, and SAW made him a pop star. He ...
The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy: Michael Franti: Hero of Hiphoprisy
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, January 1993
"ONE THING I try to do when I perform a song is go back to where I was in my mind when I wrote it," ...
Spiral Tribe: You Can't Beat The System!
Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 9 January 1993
Back to the future! SPIRAL TRIBE set out on the road to Stonehenge two years ago and never came back, lost in a world of ...
Gil Scott-Heron: Jazz poet shuns rap spotlight
Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Toronto Star, 28 January 1993
HE HAS BEEN called the godfather of rap, but Gil Scott-Heron steadfastly refuses to bask in any hip hop glory. ...
Rage Against the Machine: Rage Against The Machine: Rage Against The Machine (Epic/All formats)
Review by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 6 February 1993
THE RAP-rock crossover is a long-cherished ideal that has invariably tarnished the credentials of its various practitioners and collaborators. Just as Run DMC were consigned ...
Rage Against the Machine: Rage Against The Machine: Livid In The Material World
Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 13 February 1993
From Comershop to Consolidated, politics is most emphatically back on the pop agenda. And throwing up the high-wire act between semtex and spandex to beat ...
Nirvana: Never Mind The Bullets
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, New Musical Express, 27 February 1993
Deep in the woods of Minnesota, a sleepy CHRIS NOVOSELIC is just finishing a major magazine article on the Bosnian/Croatian conflict, while Steve Albini helps ...
Ice-T: 'Bring Me The Head of Charlton Heston'
Interview by Angus Batey, New Musical Express, 13 March 1993
America's most wanted... public enemy one... ICE-T's reputation is just about as real as he wants it to get right now. Ever since the 'Cop ...
Dismember, N.W.A.: Art on Trial
Comment by David Toop, Wire, The, April 1993
By downplaying or ridiculing the potential impact of extreme artforms such as death metal and hardcore HipHop, do the defences in censorship trials call into ...
Buju Banton, Shabba Ranks: "Using Guns. That's Nothing To Do With Any Sort Of Music."
Report and Interview by Lloyd Bradley, Independent, The, 17 April 1993
A man was hurt in a shooting at a ragga concert. Is violence taking over? Lloyd Bradley looks for some answers ...
Elvis Presley, Sex Pistols: Greil Marcus: A Surfer on the Zeitgeist
Profile and Interview by Andy Beckett, Independent, The, 23 May 1993
This isn't exactly life on the edge: Greil Marcus is married, nearly 50, and lives in a nice big house in northern California. But he ...
Essay by Stephen Dalton, Vox, June 1993
Ever since Woody Guthrie scratched "This Guitar Kills Fascists" on his six-string, musicians have exploited rock's confrontational possibilities, from anti-racism to sexual revolution, in a ...
The Beatles, Sex Pistols: Pointing Pistols at the throne
Essay by Jon Savage, Guardian, The, 2 June 1993
There is something Rotten in the state of England. Republicanism is emerging as an option even for Tory meritocrats — thanks to the punk's subversiveness ...
The Undertones: Sounding Out Stroke City
Interview by Sean O'Hagan, Observer, The, 11 July 1993
The pop star's tale: Michael Bradley has lived most of his life in the thick of the Troubles — but he has not let them ...
Burzum, Mayhem: Euronymous Murdered!
Report by Paul Elliott, Tore Øien, Kerrang!, 21 August 1993
Black Metal 'Godfather' stabbed to death; rival Swedish Satanists suspected! ...
Janis Ian: Protest and Survive
Profile and Interview by Andy Gill, Q, October 1993
AT THE age of 42, Janis Ian is making a comeback (her second, or is it third?), which would be unexceptional save for the fact ...
Letter Of The Week: The Beauty of Words
Readers' Letters by Neil Kulkarni, Cathi Unsworth, Melody Maker, 9 October 1993
Letter of the Week ...
Michael Jackson: An Abuse of Trust: Michael Jackson Defends His Honor
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 14 October 1993
FOR MICHAEL Jackson, a man who has spent an enormous amount or time and millions of dollars helping underprivileged, sick and disabled children, it was ...
Rage Against the Machine: Cross: Rage Against The Machine: Élysée Montmartre, Paris
Live Review by Stuart Maconie, Q, November 1993
Grrrr! It's Rage Against The Machine. ...
Guide by Mat Snow, Johnny Black, Q, November 1993
... and the law, being an all-powerful customer, usually won. Johnny Black and Mat Snow investigate the link between the crazy, hot-headed outlaws of rock ...
Comment by Jon Savage, Guardian, The, 23 November 1993
THEY'RE AT it again. Yes, even here in the Guardian, the thirtysomething zombies, with their litany: Pop isn't what it used to be, there are ...
Essay by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 15 January 1994
Is the current wave of Little Englandism just a mask for the fact that Brit rock is becoming increasingly irrelevant? STEVEN WELLS looks at the ...
Snoop (Doggy) Dogg: Snoop Doggy Dogg: A Dogg's Tale
Interview by Steven Daly, Face, The, February 1994
Snoop Doggy Dogg is currently America's top rap star. He's also due to be tried later this year as an accessory to murder. In his ...
Country Joe & The Fish: Country Joe McDonald
Interview by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, March 1994
ONE FIGURE straddles the two polar events of the '60s – Woodstock and the Vietnam War – and that's Country Joe McDonald. In fact, such ...
Body Count, Ice-T: Ice-T: Sold on Ice
Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, GQ, March 1994
Never at a loss for words, gangsta rapper Ice-T has taken the literary plunge and produced a provocative manifesto, modestly titled The Ice Opinion ...
Mayhem: Black Metal: Bloody Hell!
Report by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, April 1994
Of course, it's all a right old laugh, Death Metal, isn't it? But in the long Scandinavian nights, some people have failed to see the ...
Report and Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Vox, April 1994
Singing hairdos? Not any longer. Britain's new breed of single black females are feisty, independent and take no prisoners ...
Interview by Eric Weisbard, Spin, May 1994
Broadcast cowboy, spends his Sunday nights hidden in the dark hills of Berkeley, California, illegally transmitting his version of alternative radio. Is he a transistor ...
Burzum, Mayhem: Black Metal Court Report: Blood, Fire, Death
Report by Tore Øien, Kerrang!, 7 May 1994
Heavy Metal has seen nothing like it before. In Norway's infamous Black Metal scene, murder and arson are rife. Emperor drummer Bard Eithun is already ...
Burzum, Mayhem: Black Metal Court Report: The Killer Cracks!
Report by Tore Øien, Kerrang!, 14 May 1994
Norwegian Black Metal star Varg Vikernes — aka Count Grishnackh — is charged with the murder of rival musician and Satanist Oystein Aarseth. Kerrang!'s exclusive ...
Burzum, Mayhem: Black Metal Court Report: Mass Slaughter!
Report by Tore Øien, Kerrang!, 21 May 1994
Black Metal star Varg Vikernes (aka Count Grishnackh) stands accused of the murder of rival Oystein Aarseth — but incredibly, he was planning a worse ...
Burzum, Mayhem: Black Metal Court Report: Guilty As Hell!
Report by Tore Øien, Kerrang!, 28 May 1994
The verdict is in — and Black Metal star Varg Vikernes, aka Count Grishnackh, has been found guilty of murdering rival Oystein Aarseth. The sentence ...
Live Review by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 28 May 1994
SHIRT UP AND DANCE ...
Rage Against the Machine: Marx Out Of Tension
Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 18 June 1994
All festival trails lead to Glastonbury. At least they do for RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, stall angry, still shouty and still not talking about their ...
Liz Phair: Sexual Perversity in Chicago
Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Details, July 1994
Where and when did you write the famous line "I want to be your blowjob queen"? ...
Public Enemy: White Light, Black Noise
Interview by Kodwo Eshun, i-D, September 1994
PUBLIC ENEMY USED TO BE THE BIGGEST, FIERCEST RAP ACT IN THE WORLD. THEN GANGSTA SILENCED THEIR RIGHTEOUS RANTS. NOW THEY'RE BACK WITH A STARTLING NEW ...
East 17, PJ & Duncan, Shampoo, Take That: The New Bottom Line
Report by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, 19 October 1994
There was a time when sex in pop meant a shuttlecock down the jeans. The days of innocence are over. The steam age has begun. ...
Sting: The South Will Rise Again
Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Q, January 1995
It is the biggest dilemma in the caring career of Pop's Very Own Captain Conscience. Sun City: should I stay or should I go? Sting ...
Gil Scott-Heron: A Frail Godfather
Profile and Interview by Mark Mordue, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 1 March 1995
GIL SCOTT-HERON greets me genially. He's slightly spidery in his dangled movements, surprisingly slight and aged. At 45 the man oft referred to as The ...
Interview by David Nathan, Rock's Backpages Audio, 21 March 1995
Mr Wonder talks about why he started to write socially conscious songs: the Vietnam War, inner city unrest and deprivation; being empowered by Marvin Gaye's What's Going On; his relationship with Motown; his new album Conversation Peace — its title, and key songs and on lyrics as poetry.
File format: mp3; file size: 47.8meg, interview length: 49' 47" sound quality: **½
Kurt Cobain, Manic Street Preachers: Is This Music To Die For?
Report by Andrew Smith, Guardian, The, 31 March 1995
AN ARTICLE in this week's Melody Maker describes some of the dozens of letters the paper has been receiving every week since Richey James's departure ...
Bound for Glory, Rahowa, Skrewdriver: Hate, Rattle & Roll
Report by William Shaw, Details, July 1995
For years, skinhead rock has remained safely in the lunatic fringe. But now, white-power outfits like Resistance Records are using the music to rally the ...
Report and Interview by Ian Watson, Melody Maker, 9 September 1995
IAN WATSON talks to the bands who are contributing to the Help album and how this project compares to pop's last major charity initiative, the ...
Blur, Oasis: The Marketing Of Britpop
Overview by Jon Savage, Artforum, October 1995
RECENTLY I returned from the US into a British news media dominated by a by-election in the North West of England. The point about the ...
KRS-One: KRS–1: 1 From The Heart
Interview by Sonia Poulton, Muzik, November 1995
KRS-1 the grand daddy of hip hop takes to the soap box for a speech on record labels, street cred and 'The Goddess Theory'. Listen ...
Billy Bragg, Paul Weller, Tom Robinson Band: Red Wedge
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Q, March 1996
Only one thing could possibly save us from vicious '80s Conservatism: the assembly of pop pinkos that made up the Labour-supporting Red Wedge organisation. Johnny ...
Report by Chris Campion, Village Voice, The, April 1996
A LONG-RUNNING saga of legitimacy has embroiled the Last Poets in a situation that is rapidly echoing the sentiments of one of their own poems, ...
Geto Boys: Southern Discomfort
Interview by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 25 May 1996
Deep in the heart of the redneck Bible Belt, squillion-selling rap supergroup GETO BOYS are living up to their paranoid bad-boy reputation. Bushwick Bill has ...
Johnny Clegg, Juluka, Savuka: Johnny Clegg: Scatterlings of Africa Regroup
Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Toronto Star, 18 July 1996
HIS TOUR BUS has broken down. His cellular phone is running low on batteries. But Johnny Clegg has faced far greater obstacles in his career. ...
Dodgy: What's So Funny About Peace, Love & Understanding?
Report and Interview by Ian Watson, Melody Maker, 24 August 1996
People thought DODGY were barking when they turned down an offer to play with Oasis at Loch Lomond and Knebworth. But they had more serious ...
Blur, Oasis, Pulp: The Nineties: Going for Bloke
Comment by Johnny Cigarettes, Face, The, September 1996
In the Nineties, we are all everyday people, says Johnny Cigarettes ...
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 28 September 1996
CHUCK D is back with a new solo album and a new mission — to destroy gangsta rap. The Maker listens in ...
Retrospective and Interview by Mark Cooper, MOJO, October 1996
IN THE GOOD old bad old days,Christy Moore was the Brendan Behan, the Shane MacGowan, of his generation. A wild troubadour lashing out at himself ...
Audio Adrenaline, DC Talk, Jars of Clay, Newsboys, Rebecca St. James: Jesus Rocks
Report and Interview by William Shaw, Details, October 1996
But does he mosh? William Shaw follows Jars of Clay to Creation '96 — the Godstock of Christian contemporary music — and pitches his tent ...
Rage Against the Machine: Red, Hot and Bothered
Report and Interview by RJ Smith, Spin, October 1996
Rage Against the Machine have scorched America with their Molotov cocktail or hip-hop, hardcore, and extreme politics. But are they too rad for Russia? RJ Smith ...
Obituary by Sonia Poulton, Muzik, November 1996
At the age of 25, TUPAC SHAKUR was gunned down and died six days later in a Las Vegas hospital. His death was inevitable, but ...
John Coltrane: Honk If You Love Jesus! The Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church
Report by James Maycock, MOJO, 1997
EVERY TUESDAY afternoon, Sister Deborah spreads Coltrane consciousness through the San Francisco airwaves. ...
The Beatles: The Sound of Acid
Overview by Jon Savage, Guardian, The, 31 January 1997
Hey man — it's time to beat that cosmic tabla and slap on a droning tape loop. Drug-infused psychedelia, says Jon Savage, never went away ...
Interview by Angus Batey, Vox, June 1997
The songTHE SECOND single to be taked from Primal Scream's forthcoming Vanishing Point LP, 'Star' finds Bobby Gillespie drawing on his personal vocabulary of revolutionary ...
Comment by Sean O'Hagan, Guardian, The, 13 June 1997
U2 are that rarity, a clever rock band. So why do the English press hate them? By Sean O'Hagan ...
Fela Kuti: Fela Anikulapo-Kuti 1938-1997
Obituary by Vivien Goldman, Rolling Stone, 18 September 1997
KING OF AFRO BEAT DEAD AT 58 ...
Drop The Dread, Honky: Why White Artists Wanna Be Black
Essay by James Maycock, Guardian, The, October 1997
IN 1959, JOHN Howard Griffin, a white journalist, dyed his skin black and travelled through the southern states of America. He found the experience ...
Bob Geldof, Michael Hutchence: Whatever Happened to Saint Bob?
Profile by Sean O'Hagan, Observer, The, 30 November 1997
He fed the world. Now the world is feeding on him... ...
Bob Dylan: Drop-kicked by Jesus: Bob Dylan's Conversion
Retrospective by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, December 1997
In which the eternal sceptic did a Damascus and managed an unlikely artistic rebirth. Phil Sutcliffe takes confession... ...
Cassius Clay: "Nobody is going to beat me": Cassius Clay's I Am The Greatest!
Sleeve and programme notes by Paul Gorman, Rev-Ola Records, 1998
AUTHOR'S 2016 NOTE: I was commissioned to write these sleeve-notes by Joe Foster for his label Rev-Ola's 1998 reissue of I Am The Greatest, the ...
Steve Earle's Politics and Prose
Report and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Washington Post, The, 6 February 1998
IT WAS the kind of night that could only take place in Nashville, a town with as many songwriters as Washington has bureaucrats. ...
Judas Priest: Eyewitness: Judas Priest on trial
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Q, March 1998
EVENT: The Trial of Judas Priest DATE: 23 Dec 1985 – 24 August 1990 LOCATION: Washoe County Courthouse, Reno, Nevada ...
Blur, Oasis: Labour's Love Lost
Comment by Sean O'Hagan, Guardian, The, 13 March 1998
According to this week's NME, the honeymoon between pop and the Government is well and truly over. Sean O'Hagan isn't surprised ...
Report and Interview by Sean O'Hagan, Observer, The, 24 May 1998
THE PHONE rings at 10.30 on a Monday night. It is Bono. "We're going to Belfast tomorrow night," he says, "and we're trying to come ...
Tupac Shakur: Afeni Shakur: The Kick Inside
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, 1 July 1998
It is two years since gangsta rapper Tupac Shakur's short life ended in a hail of bullets. Caroline Sullivan talks exclusively to his mother about ...
Billy Bragg, Woody Guthrie, Wilco: Songs For Woody: Billy Bragg & Wilco's Mermaid Avenue
Review by RJ Smith, Village Voice, The, 7 July 1998
WOODY GUTHRIE bequeathed us his jumble. Willing in life to play straight man for many right causes, in death he left a tangle of words ...
Sinead O'Connor: Eyewitness October 1992: America Slays Sinead O'Connor
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Q, September 1998
Two weeks after tearing up a picture of the pope on Saturday Night Live and receiving a lifetime ban from the US TV show, Sinead ...
David Bowie, T. Rex: Glad to be Glam!
Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Independent, The, 12 September 1998
What do the original devotees think of Ziggy, Bolan, platform boots and glitter 25 years on? Will the latest revival of '70s androgyny take off? ...
The Pop Group, Mark Stewart: The Pop Group: The Politics of Dancing
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, 29 October 1998
THE POP GROUP'S life was brief and fierce. Begun in 1978, collapsing in 1980, the Bristol teenagers' insertion of black funk, free jazz, dub and ...
Atari Teenage Riot: The Garage, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, 6 November 1998
The revolution has been postponed ...
Now That's What I Call Censorship!!
Essay by Phil Sutcliffe, Big Issue, The, 23 November 1998
WHAT DO THE SEX PISTOLS, ABBA AND FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD HAVE IN COMMON? THEY’VE ALL BEEN BANNED IN BRITAIN, THAT’S WHAT. PHIL SUTCLIFFE FINDS ...
Cradle of Filth: Cradle Of Filth: This Is My Uncouth
Report and Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 19 December 1998
It was a meeting made in hell — quite literally. A gathering of the forces of evil — namely Cradle Of Filth — and the ...
Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, 1999
IN THIS ISSUE of Q, Michael Stipe, whose public utterances have crept closer to coming out of late, finally does the deed in a cool ...
Report by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, 1999
There’s a knock at the front door. You open it. A slight young man standing there says, "Today I’m here to talk to you about ...
Grateful Dead: Carol Brightman: author of Sweet Chaos: The Grateful Dead's American Adventure
Interview by David Gans, Grateful Dead Hour, January 1999
Carol Brightman was an anti-war activist in the '60s and later the biographer of the writer Mary McCarthy. She sometimes wondered why so many of ...
Myth and the Mississippi: PBS explores the songs and heart of Middle America
Report and Interview by Ted Drozdowski, Boston Phoenix, The, 4 January 1999
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER covers a lot of history along its 2,350 miles. Sometimes literally. There are communities that have been washed under its high waters, ...
Everlast: the Neverending's Story
Interview by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 13 February 1999
EVERLAST, THE former lead rapper in House Of Pain, has never seemed more humble. The arrogant extrovert on the Irish-American crew's worldwide Number One pop ...
Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 20 February 1999
ROBERT WYATT has been a ghostly presence in progressive British pop for the last 30 years. ...
Kurt Cobain, Nirvana: Kurt's Gone. So What?
Comment by Tom Cox, Guardian Unlimited, 5 April 1999
ROCK KILLS. The list of victims is too long and depressing to print here. We still raise an eyebrow when another tortured Narcissus bites the ...
Ol' Dirty Bastard, Wu-Tang Clan: Ol' Dirty Bastard: America's Most Wanted
Report by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 10 April 1999
Ol' Dirty Bastard's rap sheet pisses on Mark Morrison's. But are the cops really out to get him? Are gangstas gunning for him? Or is ...
Marilyn Manson Blamed For Tragic High School Murders
Report by uncredited writer, Kerrang!, 1 May 1999
Manson speaks out over the tragedy as the world's media condemns him ...
The Rolling Stones: White Men Sing The Blues: The Rolling Stones and Black Culture
Essay by James Maycock, Independent, The, June 1999
IN JULY 1972, at the end of another chaotic, decadent but also highly profitable Rolling Stones tour, a sumptuous party was thrown on the roof ...
The Fugees, Lauryn Hill: Miss Education: Lauryn Hill
Interview by Simon Witter, Times, The, 19 June 1999
With five Grammies on her mantelpiece, two children and a charity to her name, singer Lauryn Hill has achieved an awful lot at the tender ...
Report by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 26 June 1999
When the Glasto Green Field vibes work their magic, we all come over a bit hippy. But for the good folk of Glastonbury, being a ...
Generation Ex: Some Get A Decade; We Get A Moment
Essay by Eric Weisbard, Village Voice, The, 7 July 1999
THIS TIME IT'S personal. High school student Reese Witherspoon leaves teacher Matthew Broderick cursing his so-called life in Election. No shocker; couldn't be a teen ...
Tim Westwood: White Lies, Black Truth
Comment by Barbara Ellen, Observer, The, 25 July 1999
A FRIEND OF mine was at the Notting Hill carnival a couple of years ago, and happened to catch Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood in ...
Live Review by Colin Harper, Independent, The, 5 August 1999
God plays a mean guitar ...
Marilyn Manson: Moral Minority
Interview by Steffan Chirazi, launch.com, 1 September 1999
IF YOU DIDN'T see Marilyn Manson at some point in 1997, you either spent 12 months in a commune in the Canadian wilderness, or it's ...
The Dixie Chicks, Shedaisy: Dixie Chicks: Fly; Shedaisy: The Whole Shebang
Review by Eric Weisbard, Village Voice, The, 15 September 1999
EVERYONE IN NASHVILLE understands that the New Country formula-slick production with a seamless touch of roots and updated suburban family values-isn't enough anymore. ...
Funkapolitan: Bish, Bash, Posh: Class and British Pop
Essay by Barney Hoskyns, Guardian, The, 1 October 1999
As Tony Blair calls for a classless society, he might be surprised to learn that the world of pop music is riddled with toffs. Self-confessed ...
Rage Against the Machine: Hello, Hello...It's Good To Be Back: Rage Against the Machine
Report and Interview by Ben Myers, Kerrang!, 16 October 1999
Humourless revolutionaries. Po-faced militants. Volatile insurrectionists permanently on the verge of splitting. RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE have been called all of these and more. Which ...
Jimi Hendrix: Street Fighting: Jimi Hendrix
Essay by Charles Shaar Murray, MOJO, November 1999
Your starter for ten: what do Jimi Hendrix and George Orwell have in common? ...
Nina Simone: Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Retrospective by James Maycock, Independent, The, 10 November 1999
In the Sixties, Nina Simone's music radically espoused black civil rights. But by the turn of the decade she had rejected politics. Why? ...
System Of A Down: It's The End Of The World As We Know It…
Interview by Ian Fortnam, Kerrang!, 18 December 1999
…and SYSTEM OF A DOWN feel fine. But then, this is the band who will celebrate the new millennium by attempting to drug the Backstreet ...
Norman Jay: Good Times: The Stately Sound of London
Sleeve and programme notes by Frank Broughton, Nuphonic Records, 2000
"IT'S VERY SIMPLE," says Norman Jay behind his shades, as we drive round the hallowed sites of the Notting Hill Carnival. "Good Times is about… ...
Tupac Shakur: Life and Death in South Central LA
Book Excerpt by William Shaw, Observer, The, 9 January 2000
South Central Los Angeles is notorious both for its violent gang warfare and for the gangsta rap that celebrates it, yet the media rarely ventures ...
Mos Def: Are You Def Or Somefink?
Interview by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 20 January 2000
Er, yes, actually. Mos Def, Brooklyn rapper, dontcha know… ...
The Notorious B.I.G.: New Allegations Link Suge Knight to Murder of the Notorious B.I.G.
Report by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 20 January 2000
DEATH ROW RECORDS HEAD Marion "Suge" Knight, currently serving time for a parole violation at California's Mule Creek State Prison, has again been named as ...
Primal Scream: "I Am A Drug Addict"
Profile and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Select, February 2000
Primal Scream are off the smack (but not the speed, coke and E) and on a mission – kill Sporty Spice, kick the shit out ...
Dave Haslam: Manchester, England – The Story of the Pop Cult City (Fourth Estate)
Book Review by Andy Beckett, London Review of Books, 17 February 2000
ON TIB STREET in the centre of Manchester, in the part of the city keen to promote itself as the Northern Quarter, a new delicatessen ...
Rage Against the Machine: Machine Talk: The Tumultous Career of Rage Against The Machine
Profile by Joel McIver, Record Collector, April 2000
NO BAND HAS stuck to a purely political agenda as closely as California's Rage Against The Machine, formed in 1991. ...
Book Review by Ian Penman, Wire, The, May 2000
HIP HOP NEEDS its users' manuals. How many of the millions who bought their in-vogue Fugees CD, say, could untangle the dialectic that daisychains together ...
Three Lions: Fat Les and 'Jerusalem'
Report and Interview by Andrew Smith, Observer Music Monthly, 21 May 2000
After scoring with their World Cup hit 'Vindaloo', Damien Hirst, Keith Allen and Alex James are back with the official song for Euro 2000. But ...
Wu-Tang Clan is Sumthing ta Fuck Wit
Report by Frank Owen, Village Voice, The, 23 May 2000
The world-famous Staten Island hip-hop collective has a government informer working within its ranks; at the same time, the group is being investigated by the ...
Cat Stevens, Yusuf: Cat Stevens: Time to Make a Change
Profile and Interview by Colin Irwin, MOJO, June 2000
It's one of music's most overdue reconciliations. Yusuf Islam has made peace with Cat Stevens. ...
Caroline Coon: Still fighting the bad guys
Profile and Interview by Barbara Ellen, Observer, The, 30 July 2000
In the '60s, Caroline Coon was famous for helping people caught in drugs busts. In the '90s she defended her right to paint penises. Now, ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Dazed & Confused, September 2000
ANTICHRIST. MESSIAH. Celebrity. Pariah. Marilyn Manson, the celebrity death cult leader everyone loves to hate, is a dark star whether the religious right like it ...
The Clash, King Tubby, Bob Marley & the Wailers, Lee 'Scratch' Perry: Reggae: Back to the Roots
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Wire, The, September 2000
According to the remixologists' gospel, the dub virus was so successful, it took out the word and eradicated its reggae song hosts. Simon Reynolds rediscovers ...
Craig Werner: A Change Is Gonna Come – Music, Race & the Soul Of America
Book Review by Gavin Martin, Uncut, October 2000
Potent history of black American music, from Gospel-fuelled Civil Rights-era freedom marches, through Motown, Monterey, The Million Man March and much, much more. ...
Part-Time Writer: Tom Smucker Keeps Us Hangin' By the Telephone
Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, October 2000
TOM SMUCKER writes about music when he wants to. I wish he would "want to" more than he does. ...
Proxy Music: Electing the Pop Star in Chief
Essay by Eric Weisbard, Village Voice, The, 25 October 2000
IN 1822, NOAH Ludlow dressed himself in a buckskin hunting shirt and leggings, donned moccasins and an old slouch hat, put a rifle on his ...
Profile and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, November 2000
From Brixton jail to fragrant Hell's Angels bunfight: a weekend with Alabama 3 is one worth "tooling up" for. So hide your shiv in a ...
Merle Haggard: Workin' Man Blues
Profile and Interview by RJ Smith, Spin, November 2000
MERLE HAGGARD'S DONE MORE TIME THAN OL' DIRTY BASTARD AND HAS BEEN MAKING HARDCORE COUNTRY RECORDS SINCE BEFORE YOU WERE BORN. AT 63, HE'S GOT ...
Elvis Presley: Presley/Clinton: Bill Has Left The Building
Book Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, 4 November 2000
Double Trouble: Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley in the land of no alternatives by Greil Marcus (Faber & Faber, £9.99, 248pp) ...
Rage Against the Machine: Zac De La Rocha: "Every song I've ever written is a love song!"
Report by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 11 November 2000
…but now that Zack De La Rocha has penned his last for legendary polemic rockers Rage Against The Machine, will anyone fill the hole in ...
Marilyn Manson: "I suffered for Columbine, but everyone's responsible"
Interview by Everett True, Melody Maker, 20 November 2000
No stranger to guns, Marilyn Manson tells us about Columbine, Courtney and Holy Wood in the Melody Maker interview ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. Charles Edward Haden, 6 August 1937, Shenandoah, Iowa, USA ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Tim Commerford, b. Irvine, California, USA; Tom Morello, b. 30 May 1964, New York; Zach de la Rocha, b. 1967, Irvine, California; Brad Wilk, b. ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. 2 May 1924, Vienna, Austria ...
Comment by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, January 2001
Fans of European football (soccer to all you Americanos out there) will already know that Italian maestro Roberto Baggio – he of the Buddhist beliefs ...
Richard Pryor: ...And It's Deep Too! – The Complete Warner Bros Recordings (1968-1992)
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, MOJO, January 2001
A 9-CD box showcase for the greatest stand-up comic who ever lived... and it's funny, too! ...
Visions of the Seventies: The Rise And Fall of a Cultural Challenge
Retrospective by Victor Bockris, Gadfly, January 2001
The 1970s were America's low tide. Not since the Depression had the country been so wracked with woe. Never—not even during the Depression—had America's pride ...
Manic Street Preachers: Our Manics in Havana: Manic Street Preachers
Report and Interview by Andrew Smith, Observer, The, 18 March 2001
THURSDAY MORNING and the short journey to the national radio station affords a first look at Havana, which turns out to be exactly what I ...
Profile and Interview by Tim Cooper, Observer, The, 25 March 2001
He was on stage by five, on tour by eight and receiving 50,000 fan letters a week by 13. But behind his success lay loneliness, ...
Review by Jim Irvin, MOJO, May 2001
SOME YEARS ago I interviewed Paul Buchanan of The Blue Nile for MOJO. A musician known for his restless lifestyle, I asked him if there ...
Ice-T: Iceberg Slim: The Best-Selling Pimp Remembered By His Widow
Retrospective and Interview by James Maycock, Pride, June 2001
"YOU SEE, pimping's big business," growled an experienced pimp to Goldie, his aspiring protégé in the classic 1970's film, The Mack. Concluding his informal lecture, the ...
Björk: Alone in the Dark: Björk on Vespertine
Interview by David Toop, Wire, The, September 2001
Björk's eerie night songs are infused with the mythological landscapes of her native Iceland and the concrete fjords of Manhattan. She tells David Toop about ...
Apocalypse Now: Reeling from the terrorist attack on America
Comment by Michael Goldberg, Neumu, 15 September 2001
"THIS WICKED TONGUE says, 'God is a million miles away'," sings P.J. Harvey on her latest album. ...
War Within War: Black Americans And The Vietnam Conflict
Retrospective by James Maycock, Guardian, The, 15 September 2001
The Vietnam war saw countless numbers of America's young men – both black and white – thrown into combat. They were there to fight the ...
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, November 2001
He stole hearts and sought refuge in Hydra, bagged a celebrity fiancée, then disappeared to a monastery. Sylvie Simmons talks through the many lives of ...
Phil Ochs: Bringing It All Back Home
Comment by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, 9 November 2001
"WHILE THE Movement died a natural death, the music died by hanging," Esquire's headline said when the protest singer Phil Ochs committed suicide in 1976. ...
So Solid Crew: Ghetto Blasters: So Solid Crew
Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, Observer Music Monthly, 25 November 2001
SHOTS RANG OUT and a man collapsed in a heap near the dance floor. Another lay slumped, bleeding profusely, in a doorway near the toilet. ...
Emmett Miller: Nick Tosches: Where Dead Voices Gather
Book Review by David Dalton, Gadfly, 10 December 2001
MINSTRELSY (1843-1928): the mere mention of the word is politically incorrect. You know, white performers blackening their faces with burnt cork and performing skits and ...
From Hard Rock to Rock of Ages: Former Hit Parader Writer, Father Charley Crespo
Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, February 2002
BACK IN THE '70s and '80s, Charley Crespo frequented the rock clubs of New York and New Jersey gathering info for his fan-obsessed dispatches for ...
Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, March 2002
Star-Spangled Bummer: Record of benefit concert/telethon for victims of September 11 ...
Hey, It's OK To Think About Rock Too!
Comment by Michael Goldberg, Neumu, 19 April 2002
When journalists and academics met in Seattle for a pop music conference, they learned that you can think about the music and and feel it ...
John Denver, Twisted Sister: Let Freedom Sing: Tipper Gore versus Twisted Sister
Retrospective by Jason Cohen, TV Guide, 20 April 2002
TIPPER GORE is showing way too much leg. The future second lady shimmies on both knees across a conference table, chest out, hips on a ...
Billy Bragg: I Smell the Blood of a Half-Englishman: Billy Bragg
Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Harp, May 2002
What does it mean to be an Englishman? Billy Bragg explains it to Geoffrey Himes. ...
The Coup: Working Through His Anger
Profile and Interview by Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 2 May 2002
Boots Riley of the rap group the Coup lashes out against the war in Afghanistan and the corporate co-opting of hip-hop music. ...
The Notorious B.I.G., Tupac Shakur: Director's Cut: Nick Broomfield on Biggie & Tupac
Interview by Neil Kulkarni, Uncut, June 2002
THE DIRECTOR OF KURT & COURTNEY ON HIS BRILLIANT NEW DOCUMENTARY INVESTIGATING THE MURDERS OF RAP SUPERSTARS TUPAC SHAKUR AND BIGGIE SMALLS. ...
The Rolling Stones: The Maysles Brothers' Gimme Shelter (Criterion DVD)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Rick McGrath, Culture Court, June 2002
Directed by David Maysles, Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin ...
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Blender, July 2002
Performers: Eddie Vedder: vocals Jeff Ament: bass Mike McCready: guitar Stone Gossard: guitar Dave Krusen: drums Rick Parashar: keyboards Producer: Rick Parashar Released: September 1992 Highest chart position: 79 ...
George Michael: Who's a Cheeky Boy?
Comment by Charles Shaar Murray, Observer, The, 7 July 2002
'WITH THE RELEASE of his George Bush and Cherie Blair-referencing new single,' snickers the Popbitch website, 'we would like to commiserate with George Michael on ...
The Polyphonic Spree: Polyphonic Spree: Songs Of Praise
Interview by Ian Watson, New Musical Express, 27 July 2002
LAST MONTH, London was invaded by the strangest musical gathering the capital has ever seen. ...
The Pink Fairies: Neverneverland;What A Bunch Of Sweeties; Kings Of Oblivion
Review by Carol Clerk, Uncut, August 2002
First three albums by heroes of early '70s UK underground. ...
Bruce Springsteen: Hey, He's Bruce
Essay by Gene Santoro, Nation, The, 29 August 2002
WHEN BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN and the E Street Band, reunited to tour behind The Rising, came to Madison Square Garden on August 12, they juxtaposed '41 ...
Steve Earle: The Dissent Of Man
Report and Interview by Andy Gill, Independent, The, 20 September 2002
Forget Springsteen's posturing and the redneck mentality of Toby Keith; it's Steve Earle's response to September 11 that has been causing a stir in the ...
The Ohio Players, Sly & The Family Stone: In Pursuit Of The Pimp Mobile
Essay by James Maycock, Nine, October 2002
A look at how black pimp culture has crossed into black popular culture, for which I interviewed Antonio Fargas. I refer to Miles Davis, the ...
Musica Della Mafia: Omerta Onuri E Sangu
Report and Interview by Graeme Thomson, Herald, The, October 2002
IT SAYS MUCH for the myth-making powers of Hollywood and beyond that the mere mention of the mafia tends to conjure up images of sharp-suited, ...
Steve Earle: John Walker Sings His Own Blues
Essay by Tony Fletcher, iJamming.net, 5 October 2002
STEVE EARLE'S decision to write from the perspective of the 'American Taliban' in the controversial song 'John Walker's Blues' appears to have stemmed from the ...
Interview by Bill Brewster, Rock's Backpages Audio, 15 October 2002
The Equals' guitarist/writer/producer remembers his first impressions of London on arrival from Guyana in 1960; the epiphany of seeing Chuck Berry live in '64; forming the Equals at school; the London black music scene; getting signed and having hits; his heart attack and the end of the band, and getting his studio.
File format: mp3; file size: 134.6mb, interview length: 2h 20' 13" sound quality: *****
Comment by RJ Smith, Village Voice, The, 5 November 2002
IN THE money scene of 8 Mile, the young white Detroit rapper Rabbit Smith (played by young white Detroit rapper Eminem) battles a series of ...
Ani DiFranco: Blowin' in a New Wind
Essay by Gene Santoro, Nation, The, 26 November 2002
AS THE 2002 election results came in, I surfed through 100 cable channels with nothing on and hit an infomercial hosted by John Sebastian for ...
Steve Earle: Country Maverick Steve Earle vs. The Nashville Machine
Report and Interview by Michael Simmons, LA Weekly, 20 December 2002
"LATELY I FEEL like the loneliest man in America," writes Steve Earle in the liner notes of his most recent album, Jerusalem (Artemis). ...
Sweet Soul Music: Gerald Posner's Motown – Music, Money, Sex, and Power
Essay by Gene Santoro, Nation, The, 23 December 2002
As Trent Lott struggled to "repudiate" segregation fifty years after it was outlawed, about the only point he left out of his incoherent counterattack is ...
Comment by Andrew Mueller, Guardian, The, 18 January 2003
A FEW WEEKS ago, a nationwide leap in gun crime was lent grim focus by the murder of two young women at a party in ...
Asian Dub Foundation: Rappers With A Cause: Asian Dub Foundation
Report and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, 24 January 2003
They helped secure the release of the warehouse worker Satpal Ram from prison. Now they're tackling domestic violence, asylum, the war on terror and the ...
Asian Dub Foundation: Foundation Course
Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, unpublished, February 2003
JOHN PANDIT is hopping mad. We were supposed to be discussing the latest album by Pandit's multi-cultural protest-pop collective Asian Dub Foundation, but our interview ...
Josh T. Pearson: Josh Pearson: Upstairs At The Spitz, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, February 2003
The real fired-up deal — Lift To Experience frontman's acoustic solo debut ...
Steve Earle: The Progressive Interview
Interview by Michael Simmons, Progressive, The, February 2003
"LATELY I FEEL like the loneliest man in America," writes Steve Earle in the liner notes of his most recent album, Jerusalem (Artemis). ...
Report by Phil Sutcliffe, Los Angeles Times, 22 February 2003
Celebrity dissent grows during U.K.'s music awards, as Coldplay's singer and Ms Dynamite protest an Iraq war. ...
Comment by Michael Goldberg, Neumu, March 2003
Michael Goldberg finds comfort in music as the war rages. ...
Why Great Footballers Like Really Crap Music
Essay by Steven Wells, Guardian Unlimited, March 2003
WITH ALL THE current hoo-hah about how all gun crime in the UK is obviously caused by listening to gangsta chaps rapping about ho's and ...
Now Ain't The Time For Your Tears
Comment by Mick Farren, Rock's Backpages, April 2003
Where are the dissident voices in Bush's gung-ho Amerika? MICK FARREN writes in fury not sorrow. ...
Neil Young: "Will I be deported?"
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, 22 May 2003
IT IS DIFFICULT to find supportive things to say about George Bush unless your construction company is rebuilding Iraq, but it would be a droll ...
The Dixie Chicks: I Shall Be Free: The Blacklisting of Dixie Chicks
Comment by Dave Marsh, Harp, June 2003
IN CHRIS BUHALIS'S 'Talkin' Sounds Just Like Joe McCarthy Blues', John Ashcroft declares questioning him un-American, to which the singer replies, "It's called a democracy. ...
Nina Simone: Always Searching for a Key
Obituary by Ian Penman, Wire, The, June 2003
The realisation that she was black in a country run by whites, a woman in a world run by men, turned Nina Simone into the ...
James Brown: Death Or Glory: James Brown In Vietnam
Retrospective by James Maycock, MOJO, July 2003
JUNE, 1968. Seven US Army lieutenant colonels - six Afro-Americans and one Caucasian - are collected from Tan Son Nhut, Saigon’s international airport, and ...
Review by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, July 2003
THE SINCERE generational belief in the socially transformative powers of love and peace which marked the peak of the high '60s had, by 1974, dissipated ...
Review and Interview by Mike Barnes, Jim Irvin, MOJO, October 2003
Wyatt's first album for six years features guest appearances by Annie Whitehead, Brian Eno, Phil Manzanera, David Gilmour and Paul Weller. By Jim Irvin. ...
The Dixie Chicks: Weapons Of Mass Destruction
Interview by Andria Lisle, MOJO, October 2003
When they criticised President Bush's war, the Dixie Chicks went from being new country darlings to enemies of the state. Now they’re unlikely keepers of ...
Isaac Hayes: Various Artists: Music From The Wattstax Festival & Film
Review by James Maycock, MOJO, November 2003
ON 20TH AUGUST, 1972, Isaac Hayes was celebrating his 30th birthday. But Ike wasn't chilling at his gilded Memphis mansion ripping into a skyscraper pile ...
Michael Jackson: Can You Remember?
Comment by Mark Anthony Neal, PopMatters, 11 December 2003
Can You Remember when we were babies? — Michael Jackson (Age 11) ...
Profile by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 18 December 2003
THE ONLY thing that tops hearing 'Succexy' — the shit-kicking superpop social commentary that is an instant calling card for Metric's debut Old World Underground, ...
Michelle McManus: The stars in our eyes
Comment by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, 30 December 2003
Pop Idol winner Michelle McManus may claim to be happy with her size, but pop's obsession with image could well put an end to that, ...
Charles Manson: Charlie Don’t Surf
Retrospective by Jim Yoakum, unpublished, 2004
THE NIGHT THAT the four members of the infamous Manson Family drove out to a secluded Benedict Canyon mansion and brutally butchered Sharon Tate, Abigail ...
Johnny Cash at San Quentin was my idea
Memoir by Geoffrey Cannon, unpublished, 2004
2018 note: Steve Turner emailed me in 2004 and said he was working on the official biography of Johnny Cash, and had been told that ...
Book Excerpt by Gene Santoro, 'Highway 61 Revisited...', 2004
ON APRIL 16, 1944, a slight, wiry-haired man with a guitar and harmonica wandered into Moe Asch's little recording studio on West 46 Street off ...
Retrospective by Danny Baker, Word, The, February 2004
"The Seventies' attitudes, cultures and repercussions are almost too incredible for a modern youth to imagine" By Danny Baker ...
Retrospective by Chrissie Hynde, Word, The, February 2004
"In the Sixties our motto was: never trust anyone over 30. It was all about youth — and youth was a huge threat", by Chrissie ...
Comment by Andrew Mueller, Guardian, The, 21 February 2004
YOU MAY HAVE heard this yarn – it's one of those things people email each other, that they might share a chuckle at the foibles ...
Outkast: It's a Double Standard, Kemosabe
Comment by Kandia Crazy Horse, africana.com, 25 February 2004
Whatever led André to think that even an inkling of "redface" would be any more acceptable than blackface minstrelsy has been to Americans of African ...
Special Feature by Phil Mershon, Hackwriters, March 2004
When we come to the place where the road and the sky collide Run me over the edge and let my spirit glide They told ...
Steve Earle: Proud to be an American
Interview by Graham Reid, New Zealand Herald, The, 16 April 2004
STEVE EARLE'S career has been one of the most extraordinary in American music. He crashed into country music with his 1986 classic rockin' country album ...
Elijah Wald: Escaping The Delta: Robert Johnson And The Invention Of The Blues
Book Review by Tony Russell, New Humanist, May 2004
FOR A MUSIC that has always been resolutely secular, the blues has attracted a remarkable crowd of hierarchs and hierophants. Scholars, musicians, record collectors and ...
Hugh Masekela and D. Michael Cheers: Still Grazing – The Musical Journey of Hugh Masekela
Book Review by Eric Weisbard, New York Times Book Review, The, 13 June 2004
IN THE MID-1950s, as Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and all the rest were leading a rock 'n' roll revolution across America, Hugh Masekela found himself ...
Comment by Andrew Mueller, Guardian, The, 10 July 2004
THERE IS NO PERSON more deluded than he or she who has a song programmed into their mobile phone. ...
Manic Street Preachers: Just Another Manic Day
Interview by Ian Watson, Scotsman, The, 30 October 2004
WHEN Nicky Wire was at school, as soon as someone he hated got into his favourite band he went off them. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, November 2004
A year on, the world is still reeling from the death of Johnny Cash, the speed-crazed rock'n'roller who became America's defining voice. From tragedy to ...
The Rise and Rise of the Casual: Football and Music
Book Excerpt by Paul Wellings, 'Spend it Like Beckham', 2005
THE BEST FANZINES in the mid 80’s were The End (from Liverpool, written by Pete Hooton, lead singer of The Farm, whose single ‘Altogether Now’ ...
Tim Booth: The iJAMMING! Interview: Tim Booth
Interview by Tony Fletcher, iJamming.net, January 2005
I HAVE AN instinctive aversion to conducting phone interviews. The medium is fine for quick research, or immediate answers to pressing questions, but when it ...
Bright Eyes: Burning Like Fire
Report and Interview by James Medd, Esquire, February 2005
Bright Eyes, the sharpest act in the US today, turns his gaze from his navel to the world. ...
Jessica Vale: Symphony for Moans and Rampant Rabbit
Report and Interview by Caitlin Moran, Times, The, 28 February 2005
Jessica Vale's album is made up entirely of samples of people having sex. So what exactly was that sound? Or that one? ...
Konono No. 1: Konono No 1: Congotronics
Review by Rob Young, Wire, The, March 2005
IN AFRICA, corrupt and irresponsible governance has led some of the continent's most prominent modern musicians to cast themselves as surrogate leader figures — think ...
Bruce Springsteen: Devils & Dust
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, June 2005
The E Street Band stand down again. So more for fans of Nebraska and The Ghost Of Tom Joad as Bruce leaves politics for the ...
Comment by Pete Paphides, Times, The, 11 June 2005
Songs about conflict and warfare are guaranteed to destroy a musician's credibility ...
Ry Cooder: Ode to a lost shangri-la
Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 11 June 2005
After the Buena Vista phenomenon, Ry Cooder has made an album about his home town of LA. He talks to Robert Sandall. ...
Yoko Ono: Profile: Yoko Ono, 70, New York City, N.Y.
Profile and Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Harp, July 2005
YOKO ONO is diminutive in size, but huge in spirit. A fearless avatar, she will attempt anything whether it’s topping the Billboard charts as a ...
Coldplay, Bob Geldof: Live8: Less global jukebox, more local radio
Live Review by Kathryn Flett, Observer, The, 3 July 2005
AS THE LIVE8 afternoon shift got under way, it was soon clear that, although the BBC must have been rubbing their hands at the prospect ...
Curtis Mayfield: Soul Brother No. 1
Retrospective by Nick Hasted, Uncut, August 2005
Ghetto-funk pioneer, civil rights activist, blaxploitation soundtrack master — the late Curits Mayfield is one of the all-time soul greats ...
Coldplay: My Travels With Oxfam: Chris Martin's Ghana Diary
Report by Sheryl Garratt, GQ, August 2005
Day 1: Accra ...
Paul Robeson: Pride & Prejudice: Paul Robeson by Martin Duberman (New Press) *****
Book Review by Fred Dellar, MOJO, October 2005
From child prodigy to civil rights activist and outcast, the rise and fall of America's highest-paid concert singer is both touching and tragic, says Fred ...
Retrospective by RJ Smith, Village Voice, The, 18 October 2005
August 23, 1988 ...
Burt Bacharach: At This Time: Burt Bacharach
Report and Interview by Gene Sculatti, ICE, November 2005
AFTER 40-PLUS YEARS, one of America's greatest songwriters finally has something to say. Which is not to suggest that songs like 'Close to You' or ...
Santana: Carlos Santana: Many hippie returns
Interview by Robert Sandall, Sunday Times, The, 6 November 2005
He played at Woodstock while out of his brain on LSD. But at 58, Carlos Santana isn't just a 1960s relic: stars like Beyoncé and ...
P. F. Sloan: P.F. Sloan Reveals the Jewish Origins of 'Eve of Destruction'
Retrospective and Interview by Steven Rosen, Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, 2006
'EVE OF DESTRUCTION', the famous folk-rock-protest hit record from 1965, isn't usually regarded as a specifically Jewish song. Or even a religious one, for that ...
Dave Matthews Band: Dave Matthews: Gospel according to Matthews
Profile and Interview by Tim Cooper, Independent, The, 20 January 2006
He's the biggest music star in the USA, but probably couldn't get arrested here. Tim Cooper meets a man for whom success means having the ...
Comment by Mark Anthony Neal, PopMatters, 1 February 2006
By making public his struggles with living a devout life, Kanye West makes such a lifestyle so much more accessible and valuable to the very ...
Dominic Sandbrook: Never Had It So Good – A History of Britain from Suez to the Beatles
Book Review by Nicky Charlish, Culture Wars, 8 February 2006
WE THINK WE know the basics about the '60s and the social changes that they ushered in. Against a background of mini-skirts, mods and rockers, ...
John Robb: Punk Rock – An Oral History (Ebury Press)
Book Review by Robert Sandall, Sunday Times, The, 19 March 2006
WHAT IS THERE still to say, really, about the British punk rock movement? As this year marks the 30th anniversary of its uproarious debut in ...
Blues In The Bottle: American Vernacular Music and the Medicine Show
Book Review by Tony Russell, Catalyst, May 2006
A review of the compilation Good For What Ails You: Music of the Medicine Shows, 1926-1937 (Old Hat Records) ...
Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen: Bruce Springsteen: We Shall Overcome – The Seeger Sessions
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, June 2006
What Bruce did next: a hoedown gospel blues klezmer-zydeco celebration of Pete Seeger. Obviously, says Phil Sutcliffe. ...
The Dixie Chicks: Dixie Chicks: How The Chicks Survived Their Scrap With Bush
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 15 June 2006
Adam Sweeting assesses how the Dixie Chicks have weathered a political storm ...
Paul McCartney: Lady Madonna: In defence of Heather Mills-McCartney
Comment by Caitlin Moran, Times, The, 15 June 2006
IN THE WEEK in which Lady McCartney has been accused of being, quite literally, a lying whore, I hope it is of some small comfort ...
Don't Mention The War – Unless You're Over 50
Comment by Andrew Purcell, Guardian, The, 23 June 2006
NEIL YOUNG'S latest album, Living With War, was supposed to be more than a collection of protest songs. To optimistic critics of the occupation of ...
Review by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, July 2006
A "metal folk protest album", says Neil. Made in 10 days, and remarkably good too. ...
Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, 7 July 2006
MIX THE rudest bits of Madonna, Goldfrapp, Pink, Lil’ Kim and Princess Superstar and — arguably — you get Peaches. ...
The Spice Girls: It Was a Power Trip
Retrospective by Caitlin Moran, Times, The, 14 July 2006
Ten years after the release of the first Spice Girls album, our writer argues that the social legacy of "girl power" is still with us. ...
Michael Franti: "The troops thought: this guy's got balls"
Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, 26 July 2006
IT'S ALL VERY well to sing anti-war songs in California — but in Baghdad? To American soldiers? Michael Franti tells Dorian Lynskey why he took ...
Crosby Stills Nash & Young: Still politically outspoken, CSNY brings its message to L.A.
Report and Interview by Fred Shuster, Los Angeles Daily News, 26 July 2006
AGE IS SUPPOSED to make you more accepting. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young apparently didn't get the memo. ...
Dominic Sandbrook: White Heat – A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties
Book Review by Nicky Charlish, Culture Wars, 5 September 2006
THE IDEA OF the '60s as an era of exciting change for everyone has remained more or less the accepted orthodoxy – until now. Few ...
Howard Sounes: Seventies – The Sights, Sounds and Ideas of a Brilliant Decade
Book Review by Nicky Charlish, Culture Wars, 21 September 2006
AMUSINGLY STUPID, vulgar, a time of endearingly foolish fashions. These views – according to the book's author – represent the consensus thinking of cultural pundits ...
The Dixie Chicks: Dixie Chicks: United Centre, Chicago
Live Review by Bob Mehr, MOJO, November 2006
President-baiting Texans gain new fans but lose musical momentum. ...
Madonna tackles her critics head on
Comment by Caitlin Moran, Times, The, 2 November 2006
HAD ONE CONSIDERED, five years ago, which controversy Madonna would next be embroiled in, it is unlikely that many of us would have guessed "something ...
The Cultural Politics Of 'Pop': Hanif Kureishi's Life In Popular Culture
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, 13 November 2006
THIS ESSAY IS on the cultural politics of Pop. It situates an emblematic writer, Hanif Kureishi, in the context of post-war Pop art and culture ...
The Dixie Chicks: The Playboy Interview
Interview by Alan Light, Playboy, December 2006
IT IS MARCH 10, 2003. The Dixie Chicks – Natalie Maines, Emily Robison and Martie Maguire – are playing an SRO show in London at ...
Douglas Wolk… Dean of American Comics Critics
Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, 2007
THAT TITLE WAS not self-proclaimed by Douglas Wolk. I came up with the unofficial designation as soon as I finished the last page of Wolk's ...
James Brown: The Last Soul Brother: James Brown (1933-2006)
Retrospective by Mark Anthony Neal, PopMatters, 2 January 2007
JAMES BROWN was of a generation of black men—mythological in many ways—who helped define the contours of freedom and possibility for black folk in the ...
Bright Eyes: That Vision Thing
Interview by Stevie Chick, MOJO, April 2007
As Bright Eyes he's spent half his 27 years as the boozy Dylan of disaffected youth. On the eve of a new album, Stevie Chick ...
Elvis Costello, Robert Wyatt: The lasting legacy of 'Shipbuilding'
Retrospective by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 5 April 2007
During the Falklands war, Elvis Costello wrote a passionate elegy for a lost way of life that still resonates today, says Robert Sandall. ...
Wayne Kramer, MC5, John Sinclair: MC5: The making of Kick Out The Jams
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Uncut, May 2007
How Wayne Kramer and his Detroit proto punks turned a stage heckle into a battle cry to herald the death of the hippy dream ...
Interview by Alan Light, eMusic.com, July 2007
IT WAS PERHAPS the most shocking crash and burn in pop music history. With her 1987 debut, The Lion and the Cobra, 20-year-old Sinead O'Connor ...
The Boys Next Door, Radio Birdman, The Saints, The Scientists: Come the Revolution: Oz punk
Retrospective and Interview by Keith Cameron, Guardian, The, 20 July 2007
You thought punks in the UK had things to be angry about? Over in Australia, bands had a real fight on their hands, says Keith ...
Retrospective by Will Hermes, Village Voice, The, 31 July 2007
OH YES, it was wicked cool: getting jacked at machete-point on the subway after a night of clubbing, and at bayonet-point outside of high school. ...
Report and Interview by William Shaw, Word, The, August 2007
In years to come, will the picture on the right be as unacceptable as the one above? The music business has a green problem, and ...
Retrospective and Interview by Ian Fortnam, Classic Rock, August 2007
Rock Against Racism: Tom Robinson thinks of it as "the punk Woodstock" and it was the moment that punk went overground and people's band the ...
Mark Ronson, Amy Winehouse: Mark Ronson: Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
Interview by Alan Light, Guilt & Pleasure, September 2007
Shedding the mantle of socialite DJ to become a critically successful producer, Mark Ronson is Jewtastic. ...
Kula Shaker: Crispian Mills: Big Mouth Strikes Again
Profile and Interview by Tim Cooper, Independent, The, 24 September 2007
Ten years ago, Kula Shaker's Crispian Mills revealed an admiration for the swastika, and the band imploded. Now they're back, and the lead singer is ...
Harry Connick Jr: Renewing New Orleans
Report and Interview by Angus Batey, Daily Telegraph, 30 September 2007
Hurricane Katrina almost killed the New Orleans music scene. Now many of its players are coming back – to a musicians' village in the heart ...
Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Inside Entertainment, October 2007
WHEN I FIRST met her, she spoke in a whisper, protecting the gold-plated vocal cords that had made Eurythmics one of the top musical acts ...
The Specials: The Making of 'Ghost Town'
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, October 2007
Spring 1981: the Coventry boys' eerily funky hymn to their home city nailed the spirit of the times, and remains the best piece of political ...
The Beatles: When Acid Reigned
Retrospective by Harry Shapiro, MOJO, Summer 2007
Hippies tripped, tabloids raged and police cheered as Engelbert Humperdinck's Jan '67 hit, 'Release Me' became the real theme tune for the Summer of Love. ...
Craig David: A Star Called David
Profile and Interview by Paul Lester, Jewish Chronicle, The, 31 January 2008
He is a black soul singer with a reputation as a ladies' man. So how come Craig David seems like such a nice Jewish boy? ...
The Levellers: Radical heroes: The Levellers are celebrating 20 years together
Retrospective and Interview by Gavin Martin, Daily Mirror, 29 February 2008
INSPIRED BY PUNK and folk, and named after a radical 17th-Century collective, the Levellers became synonymous with a huge underground anti-authority movement, supporting green issues ...
Joe Jackson: Still Looking Sharp
Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2008
David Burke catches a rare sighting of pop music's invisible man. ...
Review by David Quantick, Word, The, March 2008
There's a lot of Morrissey's newer, louder, less subtle music on his latest greatest hits. David Quantick finds his patience is at an end. ...
American Music Club: The Golden Age of American Music Club
Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2008
MARK EITZEL sounds very chipper – not at all the lugubrious character that comes across in his songs. With the release of American Music Club's ...
The Hot 8 Brass Band: Basin Street Boogie
Profile and Interview by Jude Rogers, Word, The, March 2008
The Hot 8 Brass Band are the missing link between traditional New Orleans jazz and hip hop. But three members have been shot dead along ...
Interview by Jude Rogers, New Statesman, 27 March 2008
Independence Day: Björk's cry of "Tibet, Tibet" at a recent concert in Shanghai pre-empted the riots in Lhasa and outraged the Chinese authorities. It was ...
Ed Sanders: The American Bard Takes On Katrina
Essay by Michael Simmons, Huffington Post, 1 April 2008
THERE IS A GIANT in our midst and his name is Edward Sanders. Ed was born in 1939 in Kansas City, Missouri. He moved to ...
Pop Staples, The Staple Singers: Freedom Song
Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2008
David Burke talks to the indefatigable Mavis Staples ...
Joan Osborne: Between the Covers
Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2008
SOME ARTISTS are indelibly associated with one piece of work their whole lives. What once was a gift in terms of eliciting public acceptance can ...
Neil Young: Deja Viewed: Neil Young on CSNY and Living with War
Interview by Stephen Dalton, unpublished, June 2008
NEIL YOUNG IS in mischievous mood this morning. Sinking into his plush hotel armchair, the veteran Canadian rocker keeps his distance behind mirror shades and ...
Neil Young's anti-war documentary
Report and Interview by Tim Cooper, Sunday Times, The, 29 June 2008
The singer has fire in his belly — with a film about his antiwar tour — but his passion is a hybrid car he thinks ...
Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, August 2008
Back with a blinder after almost a decade. ...
Review by Alan Light, MSN.com, September 2008
"THIS IS OUR twenty-third Farm Aid," said John Mellencamp, "and when we started this thing, we were naïve enough that we thought we'd have this ...
DJ Kool Herc: D.J. Kool Herc: The Holy House of Hip-hop
Report and Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, New York Magazine, 28 September 2008
On August 11, 1973, D.J. Kool Herc didn't know he was revolutionizing pop music – he was just trying to keep people dancing. The rec ...
Crosby Stills Nash & Young: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: Déjà Vu Live
Review by Jaan Uhelszki, Uncut, October 2008
Military madness! Live album, to accompany documentary film. ...
Estelle, John Legend: John Legend: Why His Name Is Legend
Interview by Jude Rogers, Observer, The, 19 October 2008
Barack Obama is a fan of soul star John Legend, and Estelle was his protégée. Jude Rogers speaks to him in the UK for the ...
Wilco: Ahead of the Curve: Jeff Tweedy on Barack Obama, 9 May 2005
Interview by Bud Scoppa, Rock's Backpages, 5 November 2008
I FIRST POSTED the following in February, but the occasion demands that I pull it out of the archives and put it up again. What ...
Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, Word, The, January 2009
The cold wind of recession is already freezing record companies — but what will it mean for the kind of music that artists want to ...
The OZ trial: John Mortimer's finest hour
Memoir by Felix Dennis, Week, The, 19 January 2009
The great barrister, novelist and playwright – who died last Friday aged 85 – stood up to and beat the British establishment, recalls a grateful ...
Bikini Kill, Huggy Bear: Grrrl Power
Retrospective and Interview by Laura Barton, Guardian, The, 4 March 2009
The Riot Grrrl scene brought feminism to alternative rock in the '90s. Fifteen years on, the aftershocks are still making waves, says Laura Barton. ...
MC5: Memoirs of rock mentor John Sinclair
Profile and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, Sunday Times, The, 29 March 2009
Poet, activist, entrepreneur, critic, journalist, manager of MC5 and kingpin of US punk scene still performing and writing. ...
Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, April 2009
CHOOSING THE soundtrack for your own funeral is every modern music fan's dilemma. How much simpler things used to be when religious and classical pieces ...
Pete Seeger: The Voice Of America
Comment by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, April 2009
WHEN PETE SEEGER, the man Bruce Springsteen calls "the father of American folk music", walks on stage at Madison Square Garden on May 3 for ...
The Fields Of Annie Road: Song For The 96
Comment by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, April 2009
ANFIELD ROAD, or 'Annie Road' (Allt, 2005), is the opposite 'end' to Liverpool's Kop at their world famous football stadium of Anfield. ...
Billie Holiday: 'Strange Fruit' At 70
Retrospective by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, May 2009
SEVENTY YEARS AGO this month Billie Holiday released 'Strange Fruit'; man's inhumanity to man made manifest in precisely three minutes, 12 scalding lines, inspired by ...
Report and Interview by Pat Long, Guardian, The, 2 May 2009
New wave oddballs Devo used to warn that consumerism was crumbling. Now they're back to say we told you so. Pat Long tips his funny ...
Recession Rock: How the credit crunch will make Britannia cool again
Comment by Dan Gennoe, Rock's Backpages, 26 May 2009
MONEY. IT'S NOT everything. It's a lot. But not everything. In music, it's actually more curse than blessing. Commerce is an essential element in any ...
Steven Wells 1960-2009: A Tribute
Memoir by John Doran, Andrew Mueller, John Robb, Terry Staunton, David Stubbs, Quietus, The, 29 June 2009
David Stubbs ...
The Demise of Vibe and the Future of Criticism
Comment by Mark Anthony Neal, PopMatters, 23 July 2009
THERE'S NO SMALL irony to the fact that the announcement of the folding of Vibe magazine occurred the day after the death of Michael Jackson. ...
U2: Ego Warriors: U2 Speak Out On Rock-Star Hypocrisy
Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, 30 July 2009
Over the years, U2 have taken many a kicking. But the band believe they're unjustly maligned for their unique brand of "stadium activism" ...
Blur, Oasis: Look Back In Anger: Britpop
Retrospective by Jude Rogers, New Statesman, 13 August 2009
Fifteen years ago, a teenage Jude Rogers was enchanted by a new pop sound and a new politics, both of which promised to change the ...
Jello Biafra Of The Dead Kennedys Interview
Interview by Alex Ogg, Quietus, The, 20 August 2009
Biafra's back — and this time he's packing a "real" band. The former Dead Kennedys frontman is re-energised by fronting a new group, The Guantanamo ...
Sinead O'Connor: Faith and Courage
Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2009
TRUTH WILL always out in the end. And the truth-sayers will be vindicated where once they were vilified. ...
The Magazine Explosion: UK Pop Publications in the '60s
Retrospective by Jon Savage, Observer, The, 6 September 2009
IT'S FEBRUARY 1963. The Beatles are No 2 in the charts with 'Please Please Me' and it's time to meet the press. An anonymous reporter ...
Bikini Kill, Huggy Bear: The 10 Myths of Riot Grrrl
Comment by Everett True, Guardian, The, 14 September 2009
YOU READ a lot of stuff about Riot Grrrl, most of which isn't true. Things such as ... ...
Gang of Four: Andy Gill meets Andy Gill
Profile and Interview by Andy Gill, Independent, The, 17 September 2009
After 30 years of being mistaken for him, The Independent's music critic Andy Gill meets the Gang of Four's Andy Gill to discuss a shared ...
Noir Désir: Bertrand Cantat: Rock Idol Kills Lover
Report by Paul Moody, Q, November 2009
In 2003 Bertrand Cantat was France's biggest rock star. Then his girlfriend, actress Marie Trintignant, was found dead in his hotel room. ...
Louis Armstrong: Terry Teachout: Pops – The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong (JR Books)
Book Review by Robert Sandall, Sunday Times, The, 22 November 2009
AS TERRY Teachout makes clear in this terrific biography, the world that Louis Armstrong inhabited was anything but wonderful. It was, for most of his ...
David McAlmont, Michael Nyman: This Just In: David McAlmont and Michael Nyman
Report and Interview by Kate Mossman, Word, The, December 2009
A bizarre collaboration between David McAlmont and Michael Nyman revives the dying art of the topical news story in song. ...
Retrospective by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, December 2009
THE SMALL, GRIZZLED man in the check shirt indicated he'd like a cigarette. The small, curly-haired, young man sitting opposite handed him a Raleigh. The ...
Book Review by Leyla Sanai, Rock's Backpages, 26 January 2010
FATHER OF hip–hop, granddaddy of rap, articulate polemicist and early pioneer of the fusion of black politics with poetry and music, Gil Scott–Heron has been ...
The Chieftains: Hail to the Chief: Paddy Moloney
Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2010
Paddy Moloney talks to David Burke about the band's latest album, a collection highlighting a "forgotten" chapter in the history of neighbouring Mexico and America. ...
Interview by Larry Jaffee, Shindig, March 2010
Note: The interview with Joey and Dee Dee Ramone took place in July 1985 at their favourite East Village dive. "The world knew in '76 ...
Various Artists: Gastonia Gallop – Cotton Mill Songs & Hillbilly Blues
Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, March 2010
Piedmont Textile Workers On Record, Gaston County, North Carolina 1927–1931 ...
Rage Against the Machine: Finsbury Park, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, 7 June 2010
LAST CHRISTMAS a Facebook campaign powered Californian rap-metal veterans Rage Against the Machine to the top of the singles chart, pipping The X Factor victor ...
Brad Paisley: A Different Kind of Cowboy
Interview by Angus Batey, Guardian, The, 10 June 2010
Brad Paisley is not your usual Nashville country star. He talks about how Obama made him proud to be American – and why he dreams ...
Devo: You Say You Want A De-Evolution
Retrospective and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, August 2010
Well, you know, Devo changed the world. Uncut hears the story of Ohio's plantpot-hatted chroniclers of human absurdity. Or: how five snarky art-rockers consorted with ...
Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga: Is Lady Gaga Corrupting Our Kids?
Comment by Pete Paphides, Times, The, 12 August 2010
Modern pop stars are corrupting the young, says the pop veteran. But isn't that what they've always done? ...
The Last Poets: After The Party: Music and the Black Panthers
Retrospective and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, 2 September 2010
ONE DAY LAST DECEMBER, Umar Bin Hassan of the Last Poets attended a gathering in Chicago to commemorate local Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton, ...
Bikini Kill: Sara Marcus: Girls to the Front
Book Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 10 October 2010
BROOKLYN-BASED writer and musician Sara Marcus deserves a medal just for daring to write a book about Riot Grrrl, the fiercely uncompromising feminist movement of ...
John Legend, The Roots: John Legend and the Roots: Hearts, Minds and Soul
Report and Interview by Angus Batey, Guardian, The, 19 October 2010
John Legend and the Roots' album of '60s and '70s protest songs is no mere history lesson – it's an open letter to a divided ...
Bobby Jameson rages against the Vietnam war
Retrospective by Jon Savage, Guardian, The, 10 November 2010
A FANFARE OF slow, church organ chords – straight out of a horror film – resolves into a brutal Bo Diddley beat. A few blasts of ...
Wyclef Jean: "Fans are calling me the new Dylan"
Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, 5 December 2010
WHAT SCUPPERED Wyclef Jean's bid to be president of Haiti? Well, it wasn't modesty. On the eve of the election result, the rapper talks death ...
Charlie Louvin: The Battles Rage On
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, January 2011
Old stager returns to his post for military-decorated album ...
Gang of Four: Old punks, new Content
Profile and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, 20 January 2011
Post-punk masterminds Gang of Four are back with their first new recorded material since their 2004 return to action. But why does it come packaged ...
The Edgar Broughton Band: The Harvest Years 1969-1973
Review and Interview by Rob Young, Uncut, February 2011
Out, hippies, out! Four CD set captures the righteous, blues-rocking anger of Warwickshire's counterculture warriors. ...
Review by John Doran, Quietus, The, 11 February 2011
THE SPANISH PAINTER Francisco Goya was in an ideal position to comment on The Peninsula War of 1804-1808. ...
Lady Gaga, Valentino: Lady Gaga's New Gay Anthem
Comment by Jon Savage, Guardian, The, 14 February 2011
Has Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way' got what it takes to be a classic gay anthem? Jon Savage on the debt she owes to a ...
Maggoty Lamb goes behind the barricades in Rock Writers' Class War
Comment by Ben Thompson, Guardian, The, 23 February 2011
Journalists would have us believe it's public-school leavers v the salt of the earth in the battle of the charts. Is that really the case? ...
Review by James Medd, Word, The, March 2011
PJ Harvey is "a human being affected by politics" in an absorbing new record suffused with imagery from wars past and present. And they said ...
Bob Dylan: In Concert: Brandeis University 1963
Review by Steven R Rosen, Blurt, 8 April 2011
WHILE LIBRARIES are filled with books about what's been gained from Dylan going electric, it's worth taking a couple minutes – maybe while listening to ...
PJ Harvey: Polly Harvey reflects on a career marked by exploration and taking chances
Report and Interview by Gavin Martin, Daily Mirror, 15 April 2011
SAT IN THE ornate lounge room of a salubrious London hotel, Polly Jean Harvey apologises that she's finishing off a mouthful of nuts. With her ...
PJ Harvey: "I feel things deeply. I get angry, I shout at the TV, I feel sick."
Profile and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Observer, The, 24 April 2011
Polly Harvey opens up to Dorian Lynskey about 20 years in music and the emotions behind her latest dark masterpiece. ...
Profile by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, June 2011
SIGNIFICANTLY OR NOT, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's best known product/gift to the world, Transcendental Meditation, was trademarked — and "TM" is a TM too, along with ...
PJ Harvey: Polly Harvey: An Interview
Interview by James Medd, Word, The, June 2011
SHE'S SO ON-BRAND, it's like 20 years never passed: a black sleeveless vest top over a physique suggesting food is not an interest, the black ...
The Plastic People Of The Universe: The Plastic People of the Universe
Retrospective and Interview by Archie Patterson, Eurock, 10 June 2011
"When modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the state always change with them." (Plato) ...
Gil Scott-Heron: Growing Up With Gil Scott-Heron: In Loving Memory
Memoir by Danny Goldberg, AlterNet, 11 June 2011
GIL SCOTT-HERON'S death last week at the age of 62 stimulated a wave of appreciation from critics and the jazz and hip hop communities who ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages Audio, 22 June 2011
The Who frontman on touring Tommy as a solo artist; on Cousin Kevin, Uncle Ernie and paedophilia; on Prince Charles; on CSI using Who songs as title music, appearing in that show, and his acting career in general. He then, at great length, airs his frequently reactionary political opinions.
File format: mp3; file size: 64.5mb, interview length: 1h 07' 09" sound quality: *****
Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Beyond the Pleasuredome: Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Liverpool
Retrospective by Wyndham Wallace, Quietus, The, 4 July 2011
Wyndham Wallace follows last year's celebration of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's landmark album, Welcome to the Pleasuredome, with a look at its neglected follow-up, Liverpool, ...
TV On The Radio As Soundtrack To Bush & Obama's America
Essay by John Calvert, Quietus, The, 3 August 2011
Don't Let The Devil In: John Calvert takes a look at the work of TV On The Radio through the prism of a turbulent decade ...
Comment by Simon Reynolds, New York Times, The, 12 August 2011
1: 'NOW' POP WILL REPEAT ITSELF Museums, Reunions, Rock Docs, Re-enactments ...
Retrospective by Michael A. Gonzales, Wax Poetics, September 2011
"White people had Judy Garland. We had Nina." — Richard Pryor ...
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, October 2011
"NOBODY'S EVER known what to call me," says Harry Belafonte. "Was I a folk singer, jazz, pop? Or was I even a singer at all? ...
Chrissie Hynde, The Slits, X-Ray Spex: Lasses of the Mohicans
Retrospective by Vivien Goldman, New Statesman, 31 October 2011
Vivien Goldman charts the history of Britain’s rebellious female punks. ...
The Fugs Levitate the Pentagon
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Classic Rock, November 2011
NOT IN HIS wildest imagination could David Copperfield have dreamed this one up. Levitate the Pentagon, America's stark and forbidding Defense HQ, 300 feet skyward, ...
The Chitlin' Circuit: Celebrating a Secret History of American Music
Book Review by John Morthland, Wondering Sound, 1 November 2011
FOR YEARS, the Chitlin' Circuit — the network of mostly-Southern, mostly-rural clubs where black artists performed from the 1930s into the '60s — has been ...
Andrew Bird's sonic arboretum reminds me of the natural music we are losing
Report and Interview by Laura Barton, Guardian, The, 24 November 2011
IN CHICAGO'S MUSEUM of Contemporary Art this December, there will sprout up a peculiar kind of forest: 50 horned speakers, each standing between 19 and ...
The Last Poets: Waiting For The Revolution
Retrospective and Interview by Graeme Thomson, Uncut, December 2011
From the volatile streets of Harlem in the late '60s, THE LAST POETS were among the earliest voices of radical black youth in America. With ...
Lily Allen, Billy Bragg, Elton John: Britain in song
Essay by John Lewis, Do Not Disturb, Summer 2011
How do the British address their cities in song? With bathos, pathos and a large helping of silliness, says John Lewis ...
Childish Gambino: The Basement at the Camp, EC1
Live Review by David Sinclair, Times, The, 27 January 2012
IT IS ABOUT time someone challenged the "get rich or die trying" stereotype that has dominated hip-hop music on its journey from ghetto art to ...
Review by John Calvert, Quietus, The, 16 February 2012
COMEDY RAP act or conceptual art project? Whatever your opinion on rave-rappers Die Antwoord, their new album is a rare treat — South African pop ...
Bruce Springsteen: Wrecking Ball
Review by Peter Stone Brown, CounterPunch, 24 February 2012
IN 1944, WRITING a script for a radio show Woody Guthrie wrote: "I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any ...
Retrospective and Interview by Sean O'Hagan, Observer, The, 25 March 2012
Dennis Morris is celebrated for his iconic photographs of the Sex Pistols and Bob Marley. But few knew that in that pivotal era he was ...
Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd: Alabama Shakes: The Saga of Southern Rock
Comment by Barney Hoskyns, Guardian, The, 6 April 2012
IT WAS ONLY a matter of time before BBC4 green-lit a Friday night documentary about the sub-genre Southern Rock. The subject is irresistible to connoisseurs ...
Joan Baez: "Don't re-live the sixties"
Interview by Jude Rogers, Word, The, May 2012
Martin Luther King support act, first folk superstar, Downton Abbey obsessive — Joan Baez offers a little steely-voice sagacity ...
Live Review by Carol Cooper, Village Voice, The, 4 June 2012
Better Than: Being sad that Alice Coltrane and Cesaria Evora are dead and that Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill don't make albums together. ...
Frank Ocean Comes Out: A Brave Move In The Exaggeratedly Heterosexual World Of Hip Hop
Comment by Dorian Lynskey, New Statesman, 4 July 2012
What it means to be the first out gay star in urban music. ...
Damon Albarn, Afel Bocoum: Damon Albarn in Mali
Report and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Seven, 23 July 2012
Between staging an opera and preparing for Blur's Olympic show, Damon Albarn travelled to Mali to spend quality time with an old friend. But Islamic ...
Interview by Kate Mossman, Word, The, August 2012
ANTONY HEGARTY is a very persuasive man. He rarely smiles, he doesn't crack jokes, but there's something about that whisper, which at first sounds cool ...
Pussy Riot: The Riot Girls' Style
Comment by Vivien Goldman, New York Times magazine blogs, 8 August 2012
IT HAS BEEN a shock to see the bravely smiling faces of three girls from the Russian punk collective Pussy Riot locked in a glass ...
Pussy Riot and the Politics of Grrrl Punk
Comment by Evelyn McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 13 September 2012
I WONDER, as they sit in their separate cells, what songs the three jailed members of Pussy Riot sing to themselves to keep their spirits ...
Chely Wright's Rediscovered Country
Profile by Charles Bermant, No Depression, 24 September 2012
WE ALL HOLD our own set of prejudices and preconceptions, with clear ideas about politics and religion, tolerance and hatred for country music singers and ...
Jimmy Savile: Young girls were just another victim of the rock'n'roll years
Comment by David Hepworth, Independent, The, 2 October 2012
THE MUSIC INDUSTRY has always been awash with salacious rumours about the sexual tastes of its more prominent figures, particularly when they look as though ...
Hurray for the Riff Raff: Protest and Survive
Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2012
MUSIC AS AN instrument of change – remember that concept? It may seem a little naïve at a time when even the mighty have fallen ...
Jimmy Savile: DJ Originator Or More Smoke And Mirrors?
Comment by Greg Wilson, Rock's Backpages, November 2012
JUST OVER 12 MONTHS AGO, on October 29th 2011, the TV and radio personality Sir Jimmy Savile died two days before his 85th birthday (he ...
Report and Interview by Frank Broughton, GQ, 8 November 2012
As the fallout from the Jimmy Savile abuse allegations continues, dance music historian Frank Broughton asks whether the next revelations may be his connections to ...
Comment by Mark Kemp, Creative Loafing, 14 November 2012
WHEN MADONNA drolly announced to fans packed into the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 24, that "we have a black Muslim in the ...
Pussy Riot: Activists, not Pin-ups
Comment by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, 20 December 2012
Clever, committed and courageous, Pussy Riot are the only band that mattered in 2012. They have used their year in the spotlight to expose injustice. ...
Report and Interview by Colin Irwin, Observer, The, 27 January 2013
The folk scene is changing – there are songs about police shootings, Occupy London and rape. Colin Irwin meets the singers who are shaking things ...
Steve Mason: "I don't think rioting is the answer any more"
Profile and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Observer, The, 10 March 2013
Former Beta Band frontman Steve Mason explains why not everything on his new solo album is political. ...
Barry McGuire's Living Room Anthems
Profile and Interview by Charles Bermant, No Depression, 23 March 2013
BARRY MCGUIRE was around in the 1960s, and remembers them well enough to present a historical narrative of songs and stories for the benefit of ...
Retrospective and Interview by Amy Linden, Red Bull Academy Magazine, April 2013
IT'S DIFFICULT for a generation raised on Carrie and the girls, luxury condos and cabs that have no problem taking you to Brooklyn to wrap ...
Yip Harburg and the Story of 'Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead'
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, Rock's Backpages, April 2013
THOUGH I HAVE tremendous sympathy for those who lost their jobs, their dignity and sometimes their lives, following the pit closures and ensuing strike of ...
Profile and Interview by Sean O'Hagan, Observer, The, 2 June 2013
Last year, the multi-millionaire publishing mogul and drug-addled dissolute Felix Dennis was diagnosed with throat cancer. But don't count him out yet, he tells Sean ...
Sinead O'Connor: Institutionalised: The Faith and Courage of Sinead O'Connor
Interview by Wyndham Wallace, Quietus, The, 5 June 2013
Though her personal life has often overshadowed her career, Sinead O'Connor remains a treasured musical force. Belatedly back on the road to promote her most ...
Massive Attack meet Adam Curtis: The Unlikely Double Act
Report and Interview by Sean O'Hagan, Observer, The, 30 June 2013
At July's Manchester festival, the boundary-breaking band and radical film-maker will tackle the perilous state of democracy in a show that redefines the notion of ...
Mick Farren: You Say You Want A Revolution: Mick Farren Looks Back
Book Excerpt by Paul Moody, 'Search For The Lost Chord', July 2013
RBP contributor Paul Moody interviewed Mick earlier this year while researching his new book Search For The Lost Chord: Looking For The Spirit Of Rock'n'Roll. We're ...
Lynyrd Skynyrd: On Lynyrd Skynyrd's Ed King, and Trayvon Martin
Letters by Mark Kemp, Rock and Rap Confidential, 17 July 2013
JUST WANTED to let you folks at RRC know that Ed King, ostensibly one of the more enlightened original members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, and a former member ...
The Deviants, Mick Farren: Goodbye, Mick Farren, activist, rabble-rousing rocker and NME journalist
Memoir by Charles Shaar Murray, Guardian, The, 29 July 2013
Mick Farren, who died onstage in London on Saturday, was a "living banner for the psychedelic left". He was also a friend who joined me ...
Memoir by Paul Gorman, Rock's Backpages, 31 July 2013
GROWING UP IN London in the '60s and '70s with an interest in the counterculture, music and street politics meant that the shaggy-headed figure of ...
Kitchens of Distinction: An Accidental Comeback: Reassembling Kitchens of Distinction
Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, Quietus, The, 23 September 2013
The return of Kitchens of Distinction was unexpected, even for the band. Wyndham Wallace joins them for their first face-to-face interview together in almost two ...
Retrospective by Wyndham Wallace, Quietus, The, 10 December 2013
Band Aid raised awareness of a disastrous famine, as well as huge sums of money to try ease it. But, one year ahead of its ...
Lostprophets: Rock Music Isn't Evil — it's the rock star myth that creates men like Ian Watkins
Comment by Ben Myers, New Statesman, 18 December 2013
Music journalist and author Ben Myers has been doing some soul-searching on the day the former Lostprophets singer was sentenced to twenty-nine years' imprisonment plus ...
Book Excerpt by Charles Shaar Murray, 'Elvis Died For Somebody's Sins But Not Mine', Spring 2013
MICK FARREN IS a man of many parts, an impressive number of which are still working despite the natural wear and-tear incurred by decades of ...
Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2014
DR JOY DEGRUY coined the term Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome to describe the multi-generational trauma experienced by African Americans as a consequence of slavery. In ...
Pete Seeger: The road goes on for ever
Obituary by Richard Williams, Guardian, The, 28 January 2014
The folk singer believed in handing on the traditions he had done so much to save, so that others could carry them forward. It was ...
The Smiths: Life in Rough Trade: How Geoff Travis became a major player for indie bands
Profile and Interview by Paul Lester, Jewish Chronicle, The, 17 February 2014
AS FOUNDER of the Rough Trade record store, distribution company and label, Geoff Travis has done as much as anyone to promote indie music as ...
Microdisney: An Improbable History: Microdisney Interviewed
Interview by David McKenna, Quietus, The, 20 February 2014
David McKenna talks to Cathal Coughlan and Sean O'Hagan about the Rough Trade years. ...
Sex & Drugs & Herring rolls: Punk's Jewish Roots Revealed
Retrospective by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, 26 February 2014
PUNK ROCK'S transatlantic fuse was lit when Malcolm McLaren saw Richard Hell in New York in 1975. McLaren, whose Jewish family background was in the ...
Malcolm McLaren: Never Mind the Swastikas: The Secret History of the UK's "punky Jews"
Report and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Guardian, The, 27 February 2014
WHO PUT THE Oy in Oi? Surprise is the default reaction, and sometimes even disapproval, when I mention the Jews in Punk panel I am moderating ...
Satan's Scapegoat: The Daily Mail & Blaming Metal For Murder
Comment by Joel McIver, Quietus, The, 1 May 2014
The Daily Mail has once more blamed listening to heavy metal as in some way contributory to the tragic murder of Ann Maguire, and a recent teenage ...
Jay Z, Public Enemy: Still Smokin': 30 Years of Crack's Influence on Pop Culture
Essay by Michael A. Gonzales, Ebony, 2 May 2014
With Showtime announcing John Singleton's upcoming Snowfall series, crack cocaine's sway on pop culture continues to grow ...
Bob Dylan: Unlike a Rolling Stone
Comment by Robert Dean Lurie, American Conservative, The, 20 June 2014
Why Bob Dylan, troubadour of the revolution, turned homeward. ...
Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull: The Fast-Moving Mind (and Mouth) of Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 2 July 2014
IT SEEMS THAT Gerald Bostock, the noted writer and lyricist, is at it again. ...
Duke Ellington, Sun Ra: The secret history of the jazz greats who were freemasons
Essay by John Lewis, Guardian, The, 2 July 2014
Jazz and freemasonry are unlikely bedfellows, but in the 1950s, the secret society became a support network for musicians and the world's largest fraternity for ...
Black Sky Thinking: White Power And Black Pop: The Real Problem With 1Xtra's Power List
Comment by Neil Kulkarni, Quietus, The, 16 July 2014
Neil Kulkarni dissects the recent BBC 1Xtra Power List which featured three white acts in the top four... ...
Bad Brains, Fishbone, Living Colour: Afropunk Before Afropunk
Retrospective by Michael A. Gonzales, Ebony, 29 August 2014
LAST WEEK, for the first time in years, I missed the Afropunk festival. The musical movement began as an extension of a 2003 documentary of ...
U2: Songs Of Innocence: On U2, Tax & Hypocrisy
Comment by John Doran, Quietus, The, 10 September 2014
John Doran is singularly unimpressed by U2's invocation of William Blake's Songs Of Innocence. Shouldn't they stop cosying up to morally bankrupt corporations, banks, philosophers, ...
Kate Tempest: Poet, performer, novelist: the rise of the uncategorisable Kate Tempest
Report and Interview by Laura Barton, Guardian, The, 12 September 2014
Mercury nomination and place on prestigious list of poets are well-deserved accolades for bright young performer ...
Julian Casablancas: "I have nothing against gentrification"
Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, 9 October 2014
The Strokes singer on brunch and banks, dictatorship in the US and his Voidz protest album, Tyranny. ...
Leonard Cohen: Tea and Oranges on High Holy Days
Retrospective by Kirk Silsbee, Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, 17 October 2014
LIKE MANY OF us, author Harvey Kubernik first heard Leonard Cohen through his interpreters. Judy Collins recorded Cohen's obliquely lyrical 'Suzanne' and the sardonic suicide ...
Jackson Browne: Standing in the Breach
Review by Peter Stone Brown, CounterPunch, 21 October 2014
IN 1974, JACKSON BROWNE released his third album, his masterpiece Late For The Sky, a record that was brilliantly constructed in every way from the ...
Bruce Cockburn: Rumours of Glory
Sleeve and programme notes by Nicholas Jennings, True North Records, November 2014
IN HIS ILLUMINATING memoir, also called Rumours of Glory, Bruce Cockburn writes: "My songs are influenced by what I read, where I travel and what ...
Iggy Azalea, Jennifer Lopez, Nicki Minaj, Meghan Trainor: The Booty Myth
Report by Evelyn McDonnell, Cuepoint, 10 November 2014
Are female pop stars glorifying their bodies or objectifying them? Well, it's complicated. ...
The Beach Boys, The Eagles, Charles Manson: Charles Manson and the Death of the Californian Dream
Retrospective by Gavin Martin, Sabotage Times, 17 November 2014
The swinging '60s in the Golden State – California. A decade of sex, drink, drugs and debauchery soundtracked by the Beach Boys, the Eagles and ...
Gil Scott-Heron: Shut 'em Down: Reflections on Ferguson and Gil Scott-Heron
Essay by Michael A. Gonzales, soulhead, 2 December 2014
AFTER THE Michael Brown decision in Ferguson, Missouri last week, amid the expected disgust about the so-called fairness of a legal system that allowed murderous ...
Billie Holiday: Blood on the Leaves: Eric Garner and 'Strange Fruit'
Retrospective by Michael A. Gonzales, Ebony, 5 December 2014
"I CAN'T BREATHE," Eric Garner moaned moments before dying on a Staten Island street on July 17 of this summer. As one of millions who ...
Report and Interview by Laura Barton, Guardian, The, 1 January 2015
From the spirituals of the deep south to the White Stripes, it's a music that has constantly reimagined itself. But is anyone really ready for ...
Comment by Stuart Maconie, New Statesman, 4 February 2015
With school music spending down and the benefits system crippled, the voices of pop have lost their bite. ...
Gil Scott-Heron: The Revolution Lives On
Report and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, 22 February 2015
Political activist, rap pioneer and poet Gil Scott-Heron shaped the sound of today – from Talib Kweli and Kanye West to Kendrick Lamar. His friends ...
The Pop Group: Have the Pop Group finally become a pop group?
Retrospective and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, 26 February 2015
Bristol's post-punk provocateurs have released Citizen Zombie, their first album for 35 years. In 1975, they drew on dub, free-jazz and Baudrillard; 2015 finds singer ...
Umar Bin Hassan: Last Poet Umar Bin Hassan Returns for Revolution
Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, Ebony, 7 April 2015
Are We Trapped, the latest from the voice of the Last Poets, flaunts the original Black revolutionary spirit that still inspires the likes of Kendrick ...
Curtis Mayfield: Revisiting Curtis Mayfield's There's No Place Like America Today
Retrospective by David Bennun, Quietus, The, 16 April 2015
NOTE: This article was adapted by its author from a piece in the 1995 Melody Maker book Unknown Pleasures. ...
Book Review by Barney Hoskyns, Guardian, The, 23 May 2015
WHEN RICHARD GOLDSTEIN got married, Murray "the K" Kaufman – the famous New York disc jockey who'd anointed himself "the Fifth Beatle" in 1964 – ...
Kendrick Lamar: "I am Trayvon Martin. I'm all of these kids."
Profile and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Observer, The, 21 June 2015
LAST YEAR, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presented research demonstrating that "youth living in inner cities show a higher ...
Nina Simone: "Are you ready to burn buildings?"
Retrospective by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, 22 June 2015
From singing the soundtrack to the civil rights movement to living in self-imposed exile in Liberia, Nina Simone never chose the easy path. As a ...
Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2015
DON'T TELL THE wife, but I've fallen for Buffy Sainte-Marie. She probably doesn't feel the same way about me, but then being well-versed in the ...
Curtis Mayfield: 10 of the best
Guide by Stevie Chick, Guardian, The, 5 August 2015
Deploying sweet soul and blistering funk – and pouring his gorgeous, honeyed falsetto over it all – Curtis Mayfield veered between breezy optimism and hard-edged ...
Elton John, Mika: Is There a "Gay Aesthetic" to Pop Music?
Comment by Geoffrey Himes, Smithsonian , 12 August 2015
From Elton John to Mika, the "glam piano" genre may be as integral to the Gay American experience as hip-hop and the blues are to ...
Morrissey: Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith
Live Review by Kate Allen, Fashion Music Style, 21 September 2015
"THIS IS MY LIFE," are the words Morrissey welcomes the crowd with. And what a life it is at the moment: playing a large number ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis and Black Music
Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, October 2015
SO THE STORY goes that Elvis stole black music, exploited the influences he absorbed while growing up on the blurred edges of the coloured line ...
Ezra Furman: MOJO Rising: Ezra Furman
Profile and Interview by Kieron Tyler, MOJO, October 2015
The "gender-wobbly", weirdo Springsteen talks doo wop, fearlessness and Judaism. ...
Björk on Iceland: "We don't go to church, we go for a walk"
Interview by Laura Barton, Guardian, The, 16 November 2015
Björk used to walk across the tundra singing at the top of her lungs. John Grant left America for its rocky grandeur and Sigur Rós's ...
Report by Paul Rambali, Rock's Backpages, 19 November 2015
THE DICTATORS played in central Paris on Wednesday night and Handsome Dick Manitoba was in exhilarating Noo Yoik form. ...
Jon Savage: 1966 – The Year the Decade Exploded
Book Review by Bob Stanley, Guardian, The, 20 November 2015
THE POP MUSIC you hear in your teenage years affects you more deeply than at any other time in your life. People who don't go ...
Book Review by Robert Dean Lurie, National Review, 31 December 2015
WRITING ABOUT Bob Dylan's politics would seem to be a thankless task. The famously curmudgeonly songwriter claims to know and care little about the subject, ...
Sleeve and programme notes by David Burke, Repertoire Records, 2016
THEY WERE Native American culture in vivid sound and colour, contemporary scions of a proud people, renewing primordial rhythms and imagery, making them new again ...
P. F. Sloan: P.F. Sloan: Requiem For An Icon of Song
Retrospective by Kirk Silsbee, Glendale News-Press, 2 January 2016
SONGWRITER P.F. Sloan died in November of pancreatic cancer, at age 70. Though the general music audience has seldom known his name, among singers and tunesmiths ...
Panic! at the Disco: Brendon Urie on his new album, Death of a Bachelor
Interview by Pip Williams, Coup De Main, 22 February 2016
Hot on the heels of his new album release, we had a chat with Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco. Now we've had a ...
David Bowie: The Gender Politics of David Bowie
Essay by Larry Jaffee, Women Across Frontiers, 29 February 2016
DAVID BOWIE embodied the fictional character of Ziggy Stardust for only about 18 months circa 1972-1973. Yet it's usually an image of that garishly made ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages Audio, 8 March 2016
The ex-Hollie and CSN(Y) associate talks about his new album This Path Tonight; about seeing the Everlys in Manchester as a youth, harmony singing, the recent changes in his life; about Trump, religion and the state of the world, and his continuing love of photography; and about the tribulations of David Crosby and the health of old flame Joni Mitchell.
File format: mp3; file size: 49.5mb, interview length: 51' 35" sound quality: *****
Billy Bragg: English national anthem: Is 'Jerusalem' the hymn we've been looking for?
Comment by Peter Silverton, Independent, The, 10 March 2016
In its 100 years, the hymn 'Jerusalem' has been sung with feeling by those of all political colours, says Peter Silverton. ...
Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, June 2016
WHEN BEN HARPER reunited with his band, the Innocent Criminals, for a sold-out four-night run at San Francisco's Fillmore in March, 2015, seven years after ...
Prince: The Sexual Politics of Prince
Essay by Larry Jaffee, Women Across Frontiers, 15 June 2016
PRINCE'S UNEXPECTED passing on April 21, 2016, shook popular culture and resulted in the long-overdue recognition of his unique musical genius. Yet Prince enigmatically contradicted ...
Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2016
WHEN YOU THINK about it, email is only a truncated form of letter writing. The art of literary correspondence re-imagined. And every bit as revealing ...
"Landmark clubs are evidence of creativity and energy in a city": why Fabric's closure matters
Report and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, 8 September 2016
Britain's clubland is shrinking but the world-famous London venue had survived the trend – until now. What does its loss mean for the capital's cultural ...
Escape from Sanity: An Englishman in San Francisco in 1967
Memoir by Andrew Tyler, unpublished, October 2016
NOTE: This is an excerpt from an as-yet unpublished memoir by the former Disc/NME writer and Animal Aid activist, who very sadly died on 28 ...
PJ Harvey: O2 Academy Brixton, London
Live Review by David Bennun, Guardian, The, 31 October 2016
The musician brings her Hope Six Demolition Project on tour to rail against social ills, and confirm her status as a forceful commentator. ...
Jon Bon Jovi on Trump, Bono, Bieber — and the agony of his split with Richie Sambora
Profile and Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 1 November 2016
IT'S SOMETHING unheard of in the modern PR junket, but Jon Bon Jovi interviews are running early. Breaks have been built into his day but ...
Leonard Cohen and his eternal search for peace
Retrospective by Mick Brown, Sunday Telegraph, 13 November 2016
IN 1999 LEONARD COHEN travelled to India to see a spiritual teacher named Ramesh Balsekar. Cohen was a man in search, if not exactly of ...
Psychic TV's Genesis P-Orridge (2016)
Interview by Jim Sullivan, Boston Rock/Talk, 22 November 2016
The Psychic TV mainperson talks about the sonic evolution of PTV; collaboration and connectivity, fear and totalitarianism; the 1992 police raid and exile; the changing personnel, and about S/he, Lady Jaye and Pandrogeny.
File format: mp3; file size: 29mb, interview length: 31' 41" sound quality: ** (phoner)
Beyoncé, Drake, Amanda Ghost, Solange, Taylor Swift: Where are the political pop stars?
Report and Interview by Lisa Verrico, Sunday Times, The, 11 December 2016
Selfie-obsessed stars are selling out to the power of branding. ...
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, January 2017
WITH 2012's EP True – the wonderful lead single 'Losing You' in particular – Solange Knowles minted a melancholy kind of lilting soul; as in ...
The Impressions, Curtis Mayfield: Beautiful Brother: The Gentle Genius Of Curtis Mayfield, Part One
Retrospective by Kris Needs, Shindig, February 2017
How a poor boy from Chicago became the voice of the civil rights movement in soul's greatest vocal group, defined the black pride anthem and ...
Curtis Mayfield: Move On Up: Curtis Mayfield Part 2
Retrospective by Kris Needs, Shindig, March 2017
VASTLY EXCEEDING his hopes when it was released that September, Curtis was greeted as the most exciting soul album since Isaac Hayes' Hot Buttered Soul ...
Prefab Sprout: Why Prefab Sprout's return with 'America' is a whim and a wonder
Report by Pete Paphides, Guardian, The, 6 March 2017
Paddy McAloon surfaced on Friday with a new track that is heartbreaking in an entirely unexpected way. ...
PWR BTTM: Rock BTTM: Why PWR BTTM Were Dropped So Fast
Comment by Pip Williams, Hiskind, 16 May 2017
Content warning: assault This Friday, rising queer punk duo PWR BTTM released their sophomore album, Pageant. What looked set to be a celebration of non-conformity and ...
Retrospective and Interview by Holly Gleason, No Depression, 23 May 2017
IT WAS EARLY 2003. The Dixie Chicks were easily the biggest girl group in history — and also the biggest act in country music post–Garth ...
Report and Interview by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, 17 June 2017
The band's new album, Every Valley, chronicles the destruction of the Welsh coal industry and how its legacy still resonates in these uncertain times. ...
Morrissey: When did charming become cranky? Why a middle-aged Morrissey is so hard to love
Comment by Dorian Lynskey, Observer, The, 23 July 2017
As a new biopic England is Mine charts the Smiths singer's early life, fans speak of their disillusion at his increasingly outspoken views. ...
Feist: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, 28 July 2017
The Canadian indie-folk star transforms the sparse songs of recent album Pleasure into luminous ballads and splenetic blues-rock shredding. ...
Profile and Interview by Alan Light, MOJO, August 2017
IN JULY 1978, the members of Pink Floyd gathered at Britannia Row, their studio in London. It had been almost exactly a year since the ...
Soweto Kinch: A Singular Jazz Odyssey
Profile and Interview by David Burke, All About Jazz, 10 August 2017
SOWETO KINCH was a curious teenager when an encounter with Wynton Marsalis impelled him on his own jazz odyssey. An odyssey characterised by the creation ...
PJ Harvey: Playhouse, Edinburgh
Live Review by Graeme Thomson, Mail On Sunday, 13 August 2017
THERE'S NO NEED to ask how PJ Harvey takes her coffee. From the all-black dress code and shadowy stage lighting to the dense, dusky music, ...
Bruce Springsteen: Live In Belfast 1996 – The Ghost Of Tom Joad Revisited
Review by Rod Tootell, Rock's Backpages, October 2017
RUNNING THROUGH October and November, Bruce Springsteen will play a series of solo shows at the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway. It seems a fitting ...
Herbie Hancock, Omar, Courtney Pine: Courtney Pine
Profile and Interview by David Burke, All About Jazz, 16 October 2017
COURTNEY PINE didn't pick up his beloved tenor saxophone for more than a decade, until an album exploring the black British experience demanded it. The ...
Burial: Why Burial's Untrue Is the Most Important Electronic Album of the Century So Far
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 26 October 2017
Delving into the politics, emotion, and musical history behind the disquieting masterwork a decade after its release. ...
Big Mama Thornton: Big Mama's Blues
Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, November 2017
BIG MAMA THORNTON – alias Willie Mae Thornton – knew how it worked. Like her black R&B contemporaries, male and female (but especially female), she ...
The Eagles: Trouble in Paradise: The Eagles' Hotel California and mid-'70s Los Angeles
Retrospective by Ed Doheny, Rock's Backpages, November 2017
DON HENLEY once described the Eagles' 1976 album Hotel California as "our interpretation of the high life of Los Angeles", adding that the band had ...
Alice Coltrane: "It's like you're on top of the Alps": Alice Coltrane's spiritual jazz rediscovered
Retrospective by Jude Rogers, Guardian, The, 17 November 2017
This weekend sees a host of London jazz festival events revisit the work of Alice Coltrane, who broke the rules of jazz to blaze a ...
Retrospective by Geoffrey Himes, Paste, 21 November 2017
WHEN THE FOLLOWERS of Charles Manson murdered Sharon Tate, the pregnant movie-actress wife of movie director Roman Polanski, on Aug. 9, 1969, it was Plan ...
Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, 15 December 2017
THE MAIN THING that sets Eminem apart from virtually all other rappers is the conflicted nature of his character. Where most wallow in wearyingly cliched ...
Mary Gauthier: Rifles & Rosary Beads
Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, 25 January 2018
MARY GAUTHIER'S reputation as one of today's greatest songwriters, admired by peers such as Tom Waits and Bob Dylan, is rooted in her relentless commitment ...
Beck: "I miss people. I have a longing for connection and human contact": Life on Planet Beck
Profile and Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 30 January 2018
THE CHILSTON PARK Hotel in Lenham, Kent, was once owned by Judith and Martin Miller, the antiques stars of the '80s who wrote the Miller's ...
The Clash: Casbah Rock: A Death Threat against the Clash
Book Excerpt by Stuart Bailie, 'Trouble Songs' (Bloomfield), May 2018
Excerpted from Trouble Songs: Music and Conflict in Northern Ireland ...
Journey's Jonathan Cain: Still Believin' in Music and Other Higher Powers
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 1 May 2018
YOU COULD practically hear the piercing screams of millions of HBO viewers across the land on the night of June 10, 2007 as they were ...
Retrospective and Interview by Mark Kemp, Creative Loafing, 16 May 2018
THE SINGER AND guitarist for the Mighty Shamrocks was packing up his gear one night after an early-'80s pub gig in the Bogside neighborhood of ...
Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, June 2018
IT WAS A PARTY staged to express solidarity with the world's most famous political prisoner, while concurrently expressing vehement opposition to an overtly racist system ...
The Special AKA: When Pop Went Political: Nelson Mandela's 70th Birthday Tribute Concert
Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, June 2018
IT WAS A party staged to express solidarity with the world's most famous political prisoner, while concurrently expressing vehement opposition to an overtly racist system ...
Kamasi Washington: Heaven and Earth
Review by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, 20 June 2018
THE CHAIN REACTION from Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly was explosive enough to blow a hole in America's musical ghettos. Hip hop's newly anointed ...
Brian Eno: In the Hot Seat with Larry LeBlanc: Brian Eno, musician, artist, producer, thinker
Interview by Larry LeBlanc, Celebrity Access, July 2018
IT IS APPARENT that there's no measure in contemporary culture to absolutely gauge Brian Eno. His staggering command of several creative disciplines places him alongside ...
Wayne Kramer: MC5's Wayne Kramer Testifies about Music, Drugs, and Not Being "Revolutionary" Enough?
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 13 August 2018
IT'S HARD TO fathom today that the FBI would be interested in the daily activities of, say, the Foo Fighters, Imagine Dragons, or Fall Out ...
Charlie Daniels, Bob Dylan: In concert, Daniels doesn't mix politics with music
Interview by Jim Sullivan, Cape Cod Times, 16 August 2018
CHARLIE DANIELS is pretty clear about what you will hear and will not hear when he and his five-piece band take the stage Saturday night ...
Aretha Franklin: Aretha: The Voice of America
Obituary by Carol Cooper, Village Voice, The, 17 August 2018
IT MAY BE difficult for anyone born after 1980 to fully grasp how important Aretha Franklin has been to America. There is simply no longer ...
Report and Interview by Steven R Rosen, Cincinnati CityBeat, 23 October 2018
Kramer and members of Soundgarden, Faith No More and Fugazi perform MC5 classics at Bogart's on Oct. 25. ...
Joan Baez: Royce Hall, Los Angeles
Live Review by Michael Simmons, LA Weekly, 13 November 2018
ON SATURDAY, NOV. 10, Royce Hall at UCLA was sold out for Joan Baez's Fare Thee Well… Tour 2018. At the age of 77, the ...
A Top 40 Countdown & A Plea For a Mitzvah in the Streaming Age: The Best Music Journalism of 2018
Guide by Jason Gross, Rock's Backpages, December 2018
2018 WAS A really good year, just not politically, socially, psychologically and spiritually... well, there was plenty of good music, as Fader, Consequence of Sound ...
Manic Street Preachers: James Dean Bradfield
Interview by Henry Yates, Classic Rock, December 2018
The Manic Street Preachers frontman on fame, hecklers and getting beaten to UK#1 by the "fucking Greatest Showman…" ...
The Doubts Aired As Gags: Three Decades of Cross-Cultural Utopianism in UK Music-Writing
Book Excerpt by Mark Sinker, Strange Attractor Press, January 2019
Extract from Mark Sinker's introduction to A HIDDEN LANDSCAPE ONCE A WEEK: The Unruly Curiosity of the UK Music Press in the 1960s-80s, in the words ...
Wheatus: How We Made 'Teenage Dirtbag'
Interview by Henry Yates, Guardian, The, 22 May 2019
Author's note: This is the original version of the piece submitted to the Guardian. ...
The Kinks' Arthur: Its genius and its fate
Retrospective by Geoffrey Cannon, Rock's Backpages, October 2019
Arthur (the Decline and Fall of the British Empire), the Kinks's second song-cycle, was released half a century ago, in October 1969. It is now ...
Billy Bragg: BIlly Bragg: Best Of Billy Bragg at the BBC, 1983 -2019
Review by Tony Burke, Morning Star, 24 October 2019
The radical pedigree of Billy Bragg's latest compilation release shows why he's in danger of becoming a national treasure, says Tony Burke. ...
Cab Calloway, August Darnell, Gene Krupa: Time Machine: June 1943 – L.A.'s Zoot Suit Riots
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, unpublished, February 2020
CAB CALLOWAY was something of a superstar by 1943. A would-be Harlem Globetrotter, he'd had that possible career nixed by his big sister Blanche, who ...
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