Bob Woffinden
Duncan Campbell's Guardian obituary
83 articles
List of articles in the library
Marvin Gaye: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Cliff White, Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 2 October 1976
WELL, IT finally happened. After much speculation, confusion and gnashing of teeth, the rehirsuted one arrived in Britain for the first time in 12 years, ...
Cat Stevens: A Cat Stevens Spiritual Tours Vacation
Interview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 10 January 1976
RONALD BIGGS, the last of the Great Train Robbers still not in captivity, was finally run to ground by the Daily Express in a Rio ...
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 2 February 1974
COME TO THINK about it, I always did rate Gladys Knight very highly. Take Me In Your Arms and Love Me especially was one of ...
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 23 March 1974
Seven years in the shadow of Diana Ross ...
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 2 February 1974
THE COVER of this album has real style. Bonnie Raitt is photographed in one of those cavernous early-twentieth century railway stations, slumped in a large ...
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 19 January 1974
WHATEVER REASON you might tender to explain the artistic atrophy that has overtaken Dylan, it's beginning to seem as though his old cronies, The Band, ...
Don McLean: One Of Mammy's Boys
Interview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 3 November 1973
DON McLEAN on the traumas of 'instant' success and the virtues of Al Jolson's act...not to mention, of course the incredible Perry Como and Bing ...
Judy Collins: In Through The Other Door
Interview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 29 September 1973
TRANSATLANTIC phone calls can be a precarious undertaking at the best of times. But on this grey Wednesday afternoon, as successive international operators tried vainly ...
Don McLean: Playin' Favourites
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 27 October 1973
AN ALBUM of other people's songs from someone who's written a few celebrated ones of his own? Yes, this is Don McLean laying bare his ...
Steeleye Span: Making Sense Of Original Sin...
Report and Interview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 20 December 1975
IN BRITAIN we voted to stay in. In Eire and Denmark they voted to go in. In Norway the public answered the call to European ...
Steeleye Span: The Universalisation Of Steeleye Span
Report and Interview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 13 November 1976
SALLY JEAN IS DARK, demure and very attractive. Though well-dressed, well-spoken and well-meaning, she is alas also well dull. For over two hours now she ...
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 23 November 1974
CAN AL GREEN recover his credibility and save the world after all?, is the theme of today's programme. ...
Richard Thompson, Richard and Linda Thompson: Richard and Linda Thompson: Life without Fairport
Interview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 15 June 1974
RICHARD THOMPSON wrote 'Meet On The Ledge', in case you'd forgotten. On that basis alone the man would be due a certain portion of immortality. ...
Lorraine Ellison: Lorraine Ellison
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 7 September 1974
THE STORY so far: in 1966 Lorraine Ellison made one vast contribution to popular mythology with 'Stay With Me, Baby', unquestionably a classic (maybe this ...
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 21 September 1974
THE LATEST saga in the Great American Singer/Songwriter Conspiracy, Jewish Division, in which Cohen and King are chief protagonists. ...
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 29 June 1974
WHY DO people make albums? There are probably three reasons: ...
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, September 1973
I COULDN'T find the name 'Dobie Gray' in any of the rock encyclopaedias. Presumably after 'The In Crowd' he became one of those half-forgotten names ...
Kiki Dee: The Life Story Of A Hot Girl
Interview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 5 October 1974
I'LL SHOOT you a few names. Dusty Springfield okay on that one? Susan Maughan yeah? Then how about The Caravelles? Louise Cordet? Ethna ...
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 21 December 1974
THERE'S NOTHING more disappointing than finding one's teenage heroes crumbling ineluctably into middle-aged mediocrity. Hari Georgeson (as he often refers to himself) is on a ...
Maria Muldaur: Waitress In A Donut Shop
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 16 November 1974
MARIA MULDAUR'S got class no argument about it. It may have been a long, hard climb, but she is now receiving the attention she ...
Kiki Dee: I've Got Music in Me
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 11 January 1975
THIS ALBUM RIDES out with a crescendo of powerful, robust rock, as the band and Kiki pull out all the stops. The song in question, ...
Steeleye Span: Commoner's Crown
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 1 February 1975
STEELEYE SPAN ALWAYS deliver on time. Commoner's Crown is the fourth offering from the Mk. III line-up in a little over three years, and they've ...
Live Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 8 March 1975
THIS WAS THE one that mattered for the Kiki Dee Band, and they made sure it counted. ...
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 26 April 1975
JUDY COLLINS HAS recently completed a movie about a female symphony conductor. ...
Emmylou Harris: Pieces of the Sky
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 3 May 1975
THIS IS AN album that has been quite eagerly anticipated, mainly because of the reputation Emmylou Harris built for herself with her participation as co-vocalist ...
Steeleye Span at Hammersmith Odeon
Live Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 3 May 1975
THIS WAS STEELEYE'S loudest gig, a fact which may or may not indicate the shape of things to come. ...
Live Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 24 May 1975
WHY SHOULD DON McLean have chosen to open his Albert Hall-concert – and with it his first British tour for eighteen months – with his ...
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 28 June 1975
THIS ALBUM REPRESENTS Joan Baez's volte-face; after the years of diatribe and tireless dissemination of political views by every available channel, her records included, she's ...
Stevie Wonder - Blind, Gifted and Loaded
Report by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 23 August 1975
THERE HAS BEEN an official silence about Stevie Wonder's plans since he publicly announced in March last year that he was to retire in 1976 ...
Paul Simon: Still Crazy After All These Years
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 4 October 1975
INSTANT OPINION: BLOOD On The Tracks apart, Still Crazy is the best album you're likely to hear all year. ...
Anne Murray: Victoria Palace, London
Live Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 26 April 1975
THE DIFFICULTY OF categorising Anne Murray as a singer is she pop, country, soul or strictly MOR? was probably the main reason for ...
Gay and Terry Woods: Backwoods
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 21 June 1975
AFTER BEING INITIATORS in the early development of English folk/rock a period which culminated in their helping to form the Steeleye Span's first cup-winning ...
Claire Hamill: Stage Door Johnnies (Anchor)
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 1 March 1975
CLAIRE HAMILL'S AGED 24 if you take notice of the inaccurate bumf from Anchor Records, but considerably younger than that – about 20 – if ...
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 4 January 1975
SCAFELL PIKE ARE a four-piece, three guitars and piano, who confine themselves to British traditional song and seem to specialise in sea shanties. Given that, ...
Emmylou Harris: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 22 November 1975
THE OTHER ROLLING thunder revue stole into town last week. ...
Live Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 20 December 1975
LAST TIME PAUL Simon toured in Summer '73, he used a South American group, Urubamba, and an American gospel quartet, the Jessy Dixon Singers (Jessy ...
Ringo Starr: Blast From Your Past
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 3 January 1976
THE REASONS WHY Ringo has chosen this moment to release a Greatest Hits album are perhaps two-fold: ...
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 7 February 1976
LAST AUTUMN, IN a move that marked a complete departure from previous practice, Joan Baez went out on the road in the States with a ...
Gladys Knight: The Best Of…, A Little Knight Music, Gladys Knight And The Pips
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 14 February 1976
DON'T BE MISLED – The Best Of... actually refers to the best of Gladys and the 'Pips' Buddah output, but such is the strength of ...
Stevie Wonder: Songs In The Key Of Life
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 9 October 1976
RUMOURS THAT the New Musical Express has deliberately pursued a course of hostility towards Stevie Wonder are, of course, utterly without foundation; but (even at ...
Kate & Anna McGarrigle: Dancer With Bruises
Interview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 9 April 1977
THERE ARE three sisters altogether. Jane, the eldest, who sometimes plays organ on her sisters' records, lives a happily married life in California, and the ...
Ringo Starr: Everyone One Of Us Has All We Need…
Interview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 12 April 1975
SOMETIMES your friendly neighbourhood interviewer is allowed to conduct his interview in a small room with only the interviewee and a tape, recorder for company. ...
Frankie Miller: The Everything's-Coming-Up-Roses-For-Frankie Miller Headline
Report and Interview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 16 July 1977
ONLY SOMEONE as talented as Frankie Miller could have afforded to be so profligate with his gifts. He's a survivor, sure, but it's been a ...
Richard and Linda Thompson: Do You Wanna Be A Star?
Interview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 8 March 1975
IT WAS ONE of those large Edwardian houses in London's Hampstead, just off the main road. Like most of the others, it had been converted ...
Judy Collins: Easy Times Come Hard
Interview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 20 October 1973
JUDY COLLINS TALKS TO BOB WOFFINDEN ON MUSIC, FILMS, PEACE AND THE POSSIBILITY OF FURTHER POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT ...
Billy Swan, Eddy Mitchell, The Jordanaires: Eddy Mitchell/Billy Swan/The Jordanaires: Olympia, Paris
Report and Interview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 14 June 1975
Vegas on 8 cheeseburgers a day...or a bitch-in with Nashville's men of steel in Gay Paree. Which would you prefer? ...
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 20 November 1976
How they made a billion while still in their twentiesWITH THE POP MUSIC OF TODAY ...
Chuck Berry: Chuck Has Been Leaving The Stage For 20 Years
Report by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 8 March 1975
They weren't complaining – they were awestruck ...
Annie Nightingale Joins The Old Grey Whistle Test
Profile and Interview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 30 September 1978
WHY THE BBC MAKES YOUNG WOMEN CARRY OUT THIS HIDEOUS ANCIENT RITUAL ...
Kate & Anna McGarrigle: Dancer With Bruised Knees (Warner Bros.)
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 12 February 1977
THE DIFFICULTIES of following an album not simply outstanding but universally acclaimed as such are only too apparent. Even a demonstrably first-class work could not ...
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 13 November 1976
RY COODER isn't the only person using a Mariachi band at the moment. ...
Ike & Tina Turner, Phil Spector: Ike and Tina Turner
Profile by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 25 December 1976
THAT THE Tina Turner-Phil Spector combination should have produced one isolated tour-de-force 45 was perhaps not surprising; after all, Tina more than anyone else was ...
George Harrison: Thirty-three & 1/3
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 27 November 1976
WHEN I tell you that the first line of the song with the most memorable hook on the album is. "I was so young when ...
Fairport Convention: Nine (Island)
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 6 October 1973
I'VE BEEN trying for some time not to like a Fairport Convention album. After the endless catalogue of disaster and misfortune, it seemed vaguely unnatural ...
Overview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 27 December 1975
We kid you not.What else happened?Remarkably little actually. ...
Jimmy Cliff: Skanking In Exile
Interview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 7 September 1974
I'VE BEEN living in Stoke Newington for about six months. The area's one of the most cosmopolitan in North-East London, with an immigrant population that ...
Report and Interview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 28 September 1974
Sickness and diseases may bring you down, and FAIRPORT CONVENTION have had more than their share, but they always come back for more. BOB WOFFINDEN ...
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 26 March 1977
IT IS no accident that The Band have been the most bearded outfit in the rock business. They entered the public arena, when at all, ...
Steeleye Span: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 7 December 1974
IT WAS not one of Steeleye's better gigs perhaps the Rainbow doesn't suit them. ...
Kate & Anna McGarrigle: Victoria Palace, London
Live Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 31 July 1976
And yet more folksiness as Kate & Anna McGarrigle BLITZ OVER LONDON ...
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 24 January 1976
In which BOBBY BARE, country singer of the '60's re-emerges with a bunch of Shel Silverstein songs and a socialism as potent as Keir Hardie's; ...
The Charts and the 12-inch Limited Edition Single
Comment by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 26 August 1978
NME's LAST chart-hyping piece concluded with a statement to the effect that the twin threat of both exposure in the press and the greater number ...
The Beatles: The Beatles: The Authorised Biography, Hunter Davies
Book Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 15 July 1978
FIRST PUBLISHED in 1968, Hunter Davies' official biography of The Beatles had just been reissued, for the most part in its entire, original form. ...
Johnny Bristol: Hang On In There, Baby
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 12 October 1974
HEY, THIS cat's a whole lot better than Barry White. ...
Don McLean: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 20 October 1973
AFTER RECEIVING one of the warmest receptions that it's possible for a sepulchral Albert Hall audience to give there can be no doubt about either ...
The Band: The Best Of The Band
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 25 September 1976
ANYTHING THAT allows The Band to maintain their self-imposed torpor should be actively discouraged, and it is with this sentiment in mind that I proposed ...
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 27 November 1976
THESE ARE heady days for Joan Baez. ...
Overview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 28 December 1974
Are Steeleye Span last year's thing? Is Alan Stivell just a Celtic showman? And where is Richard Thompson now that Bob Woffinden needs him most ...
Jimmy Buffett: Living And Dying In 3/4 Time
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 17 August 1974
JIMMY BUFFETT will never be a rock'n'roll star. ...
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 23 November 1974
ONE GOOD album deserves another, they say — but that's as maybe. What we have here is John Lennon's maxim of "never change a winning ...
Curtis Mayfield, Gladys Knight: Gladys Knight: Claudine (Original Soundtrack)
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 22 June 1974
IT MUST have seemed a good idea. Amalgamating the talents of Buddah stablemates Gladys Knight and Curtis Mayfield for the sound-track of Claudine. ...
Steeleye Span: Hark The Village Wait
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 5 October 1974
IN THE BEGINNING there was Ashley Hutchings, he of steadfast purpose, leaving Fairport to form a group dedicated to the preservation of English folk-song in ...
John Mayall: Empty Rooms/The Turning Point
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 7 September 1974
WHAT WE HAVE here is a shrewd exercise in marketing. Two deleted albums reissued as one double package for the apparently reasonable price of £2.99. ...
Karla Bonoff, Kate Bush: Kate Bush: The Kick Inside; Karla Bonoff: Karla Bonoff
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 25 February 1978
THOUGH ON the surface just another member of the incestuous West Coast singing/songwriting sisterhood, Karla Bonoff is different in one crucial respect — she isn't ...
Al Green: Call Me (London), Livin' For You (London)
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 23 February 1974
THESE TWO ALBUMS have been released here in the last three months, in uncomfortably close succession, mainly because Decca procrastinated over issuing Call Me by which time Livin' ...
ZZ Top: Tres Hombres (London, Import)
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 8 September 1973
THERE'S A huge spread of all-American grub dominating the sleeve of this album. ZZ Top are a three-piece Southern fried chicken band from Texas, and ...
Van Morrison: ...It's Too Late To Stop Now... (Warner and his wonderful Brothers)
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 9 March 1974
Hey, the caravan is on its way... ...
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 14 December 1974
UNEASY PREAMBLE: I don't really know what to make of this album. Bits of it seem to me very good, other bits leave me unconvinced, ...
Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones: Rolling Stones Dump On Rolling Stone
Report by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 14 October 1978
THE CHANGES which the imaginary magazine depicted in Between The Lines goes through — from radical underground to counter-culture to hip capitalist establishment — is ...
Curtis Mayfield: Sweet Exorcist (Buddah); Move On Up — The Best Of Curtis Mayfield (Buddah)
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 19 October 1974
IF CURTIS Mayfield had started out with the intention of riding squarely astride every bandwagon that was rolling he couldn't have done better than 'Sweet ...
Diana Ross: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 29 September 1973
ANYONE WHO doubts that Diana Ross is a star in the old-fashioned sense of the word should have been at the Albert Hall last Tuesday. ...
The Jacksons: The Jacksons (Epic/Philadelphia International); Joyful Jukebox Music (Tamla Motown)
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 15 January 1977
The red carpet, but no heat treatment ...
Steeleye Span: All Around My Hat (Chrysalis)
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 4 October 1975
Now Steeleye got a brand new bag ...
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