Betsy Sherman
Betsy Sherman is a Boston, Massachusetts-based writer who got her start in the early 1980s with the monthly Boston Rock, which covered the city’s vibrant punk/new wave scene, as well as out-of-town bands on tour. For Boston Rock, she wrote features, reviews, and an opinion column, Merit Badges. Her sometime pen name Betsy Badges was a reference to her vast collection of punk badges. This hobby grew into a business for which she designed and made badges and imported them from the UK, affording her a superb excuse to make trips to London to see her beloved British bands. Since then, she has written almost exclusively about the movies, for The Boston Globe (1987-2000), The Improper Bostonian (1995-1998), Art New England (1990s), WBUR Public Arts (2003-2006), The Boston Phoenix (2007-2013), and, currently, The Arts Fuse. She has a master’s degree in archives management from Simmons University; the best job she ever had was working on the Lenny Bruce Collection held at Brandeis University.
20 articles
List of articles in the library
Profile and Interview by Betsy Sherman, Boston Rock, 30 April 1981
DURING THEIR second set at the Rat, L.A. band Wall of Voodoo broke into a medley of soundtrack themes from classic spaghetti westerns, even including ...
Circle Jerks: The Circle Jerks: the Channel, Boston MA
Live Review by Betsy Sherman, Boston Rock, 6 August 1981
YOU KNOW what kind of a time you're in for when you see a twenty-song set list for a thirty minute set. LA punk: you ...
Report by Betsy Sherman, Boston Rock, 1 October 1981
Merit Badges Goes To Dianaland ...
The Fabulous Billygoons, The Specials: The Specials enjoy themselves
Report and Interview by Betsy Sherman, Boston Rock, 1 October 1981
YOU COULD'VE taken a seat in the Bradford Hotel lobby and gotten a pretty good show for free. Besides all manner of impatient fans milling ...
Report and Interview by Betsy Sherman, Boston Rock, 10 December 1981
HOW DO YOU TELL THE WORLD IT REALLY ONLY DESERVES POTATOES WHEN SOMEONE'S GOT IT CONVINCED IT SHOULD EXPECT STUFFING? ...
Grace Jones: Orpheum Theatre, Boston MA
Live Review by Betsy Sherman, Boston Rock, 21 January 1982
Amazing Grace ...
Pete Shelley: Never Mind The Buzzcocks
Interview by Betsy Sherman, Boston Rock, 21 January 1982
PETE SHELLEY last appeared in these pages just over a year ago, during the Buzzcocks' final tour. They recorded three singles which were to lead ...
Romeo Void, Way of the West: Paradise Rock Club, Boston MA
Live Review by Betsy Sherman, Boston Rock, 18 March 1982
SAN FRANCISCO'S Romeo Void rode into town on the swell of the enormous local success of their 'Never Say Never' EP. Their two-day stay saw ...
Review by Betsy Sherman, Boston Rock, 18 March 1982
AFTER SEVERAL weeks at the top of the British album charts, and buoyed by the club success of soap-operetta 'Don't You Want Me', Dare has ...
Profile and Interview by Betsy Sherman, Boston Rock, 20 May 1982
ONCE UPON a time in Sheffield, England, there were four men who called themselves the Human League. They made expressive synthesizer music with intriguing lyrics ...
Profile and Interview by Betsy Sherman, Boston Rock, 20 October 1982
WE CAN now exhale in relief — the Undertones are back and they've hardly changed. They've gotten some lines in their formerly cherubic faces since ...
Dexys Midnight Runners: Rambler in the Rye
Profile and Interview by Betsy Sherman, Boston Rock, 30 March 1983
AT LAST, a foot in the door! Dexys Midnight Runners: the name is finally getting around because of their brilliant, buoyant single 'Come On Eileen', ...
Report by Betsy Sherman, Boston Rock, 30 March 1983
IF YOU'RE keen to witness a major cultural capital in hibernation, try being in London the week between Christmas and New Years. Just about everything ...
Spandau Ballet: True (Chrysalis)
Review by Betsy Sherman, Boston Rock, 1 June 1983
UNABASHED HEDONISTS Spandau Ballet seem to have shifted their focus from the fast-lane London club scene to a langourous Club Med existence. The resultant product, ...
Live Review by Betsy Sherman, Boston Rock, 5 July 1983
Club New York Takes It On The Hip-Hop ...
Heaven 17: The Luxury Gap (Arista, LP)
Review by Betsy Sherman, Boston Rock, 5 July 1983
THE LUXURY Gap, the long-awaited second album by Heaven 17, is the best album of 1983 thus far. Here is an album so alive it ...
Simple Minds Dream A New Gold Dream
Interview by Betsy Sherman, Boston Rock, 5 July 1983
JIM KERR'S eyes light up. "I saw (the German film) Fitzcarraldo three weeks after our album was complete, and there was a subtitle in it ...
Eurythmics: Sweet Soul Music (Is Made of This)
Interview by Betsy Sherman, Boston Rock, 8 August 1983
"I SUPPOSE it's ironic, since I come from a place where you maybe see one black person a year, but I identify with soul music ...
Tom Tom Club: Close to the Bone (Sire)
Review by Betsy Sherman, Boston Rock, 6 September 1983
ANOTHER BAHAMIAN excursion for Talking Heads' Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth; another Tom Tom Club album. Chris and Tina, assorted sisters and brothers, producer Steven ...
Iggy Pop, The Stooges: Gimme Danger: A Fun House Story of the Stooges
Film/DVD/TV Review by Betsy Sherman, The Arts Fuse, 4 November 2016
The documentary is a highly enjoyable musical and social history of the group and its times, showing how the Stooges went against the grain of ...
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