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Cynthia Rose

Cynthia Rose

1995 to present Film, writing, Web design, content and consultancies; staff reporter, The Seattle Times, 1995-2000; film and radio work: BBC-TV, BBC Radio Four and BBC Five Live, MTV Europe News, National Public Radio. Archived writing online from autumn 2001 at www.rocksbackpages.com; selections from 1996-2000 at www.seattletimes.com. Independent producer of arts coverage via film, print and Web content.

Books "TRADE SECRETS: Young British Talents Talk Business", Thames & Hudson (Dec, 1999); "DESIGN AFTER DARK: The Story of Dancefloor Style" (Thames & Hudson, UK & US, 1994-present); "LIVING IN AMERICA: The Soul Saga of James Brown" (Serpent's Tail, UK & US, 1992-present); Contributor to: "SNEAKERS: Size Isn't Everything" (Milk/Booth-Clibborn Editions, 1999); "COOL CATS 25 Years of Rock & Roll Style" (Eel Pie/St Martin's); "Anatomy of the Movies" (Macmillan); "TIME OUT GUIDE to the Cinema" (1989-yearly).

Mucha Creative

124 articles

List of articles in the library

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Brian Eno, David Bowie, Iggy Pop: Oblique Strategies

Essay by Cynthia Rose, Harpers & Queen, 1979

Cynthia Rose looks at artist/musicians David Bowie, Brian Eno and Iggy Pop (touring Britain this month) and the risks they are taking with electronics, Expressionism ...

King Crimson, Robert Fripp: A Chat with Mr. Fripp

Interview by Cynthia Rose, Viz, 1980

ROBERT FRIPP is a musician, theoretician, theologian and, as his colleague David Bowie (referred by Fripp as "Mr. B") points out, "probably the man with ...

Iggy Pop

Interview by Cynthia Rose, Viz, 1980

Some Facts About Madness, Rape, Zombies, And Other Intense Human Behaviour ...

Patti Smith: Ivan Kral

Profile and Interview by Cynthia Rose, Viz, 1980

GENERALLY there exists a dichotomy between pioneering artists and their audiences – the potetial appreciator is apt to be surprised, disturbed, or simply unaccustomed to ...

The B-52s: They Came From Behind The Luncheonette Counter!!!

Interview by Cynthia Rose, Viz, 1980

The B52’s, of Athens, Georgia, are the first cult band who look like surviving the transition into a new decade – their music is individual ...

The Frontier Ethic of Anti-Fashion

Overview by Cynthia Rose, The Virgin Yearbook, 1980

THOUGH THE dictionary defines it as "the prevailing customs and usages of upper-class society, especially in dress", fashion is really a way to re-spell thievery. ...

The Tourists: Overcoming A Bad Press

Interview by Cynthia Rose, A.M., 1980

THE TOURISTS ARE A BAND WHO feel they’ve proved that pressures to conform and problems of access needn’t be insuperable barriers. They were founded two ...

Brian Eno: Into The Spirit World

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 26 July 1980

The White Man's Grave Look to Africa ...

Led Zeppelin: Bonzo's Last Bash – Is It The End For Zeppelin Too?

Report by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 4 October 1980

EARLY LAST Thursday afternoon Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones went up to one of the guest bedrooms in Jimmy Page's £900,000 Windsor house, where ...

The Ramones: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 11 October 1980

"Despair of nothing you would attain, Unwearied diligence your point will gain!" – Men Who Have Risen, John Hogg, 1847. ...

Neil Young: Hawks & Doves

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 15 November 1980

SOME TIME ago. Neil Young produced American Stars And Bars – originally intended as a concept album which would offer one set of songs about ...

Blondie: Autoamerican

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 22 November 1980

IT WAS late in the '30s when New York cemented its claim as America's most energetic and insistent symbol of urban eroticism and urbane careerism. ...

The Sweetheart Years: The Dilemmas Of Sex And Romance In Fifties Rock

Essay by Cynthia Rose, The History of Rock, 1981

The screen door slams/Mary's dress waves/Like a vision she dances across the porch/As the radio plays/Roy Orbison singin' for the lonely/That's me and I love ...

The B-52s: The B-52’s: Hair Today Gone Tomorrow?

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 3 January 1981

The Bouffants That Broke The Box Office: A Boffo Success Story by Cynthia Rose ...

Jim Carroll: The Jim Carroll Band: Catholic Boy (Atco)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 31 January 1981

BLOND, FLESHLY-FACED and 30 years old, Jim Carroll was slated for status as a rock poet back in '71. Meant to be the other half ...

Postmark: Austin, Texas — The Demise of the Armadillo and the Rise of Garagelend Punk

Report by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 7 March 1981

IF YOU PAID to survive The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and saw it as anything other than a blackly anarchic polemic in favour of vegetarianism, then ...

Eurythmics: We're Not Tourists, We Live Here

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 7 March 1981

HUNCHED OVER scrambled eggs in his mother's airy flat, Dave Stewart looks more like the late John Lennon than the D'Artagnan-style dandy familiar from The ...

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers: Hard Promises (MCA)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 23 March 1981

WITH THE release of 'American Girl' back in '76, Tom Petty asserted that ability to articulate a native territory – both inherited and imagined – ...

Dolly Mixture: These Are The Dollies Who Mixed It With The Macho Music Biz And Lost

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 2 May 1981

Cynthia Rose meets some '80s girls who've suffered rock sexploitation. ...

Van Halen: Fair Warning

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 20 June 1981

The worst thing about labels is their sticky side. But the next worst thing about them is that they attract flies, and that can put ...

David Bowie: Bowie For Breakfast: Angie Bowie’s Free Spirit

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 4 July 1981

David’s golden years get shredded as Angie spills half baked beans. ...

The Ramones: Pleasant Dreams

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 11 July 1981

It's been a long, long wait since the Fab Four from Forest Hills foolishly put their genius into the mono-maniacal hands of noted has-been Phil ...

Iggy Pop: Iggy: Always a Sucker for a Good Party

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 18 July 1981

IGGY POP, American entertainer and war poet, has just issued an eleventh album, and the day we met he'd weathered ten promotional interviews. "So much ...

Marianne Faithfull: Dangerous Acquaintances (Island)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 26 September 1981

FAST COMPANY, slow daze... Marianne Faithfull was once merely an incandescent 'inspiration' to the men and the merchandisers of rock. Now she has become one ...

Invasion Of The Walkmen People

Report by Cynthia Rose, City Limits, 16 October 1981

It was was back in 1964 when Andy Warhol married his cassette machine. "The acquisition of my tape recorder" he revealed eleven years later, "really ...

The Ramones: The Thinking Men of Pop

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 21 November 1981

NO TEMPO FUGIT FOR THE FOUR RAMONES — JUST BUSINESS UNUSUAL AS USUAL "Four tickets to the Ray-mones is it, dear?" enquires the little lady ...

How Music Changed The Look Of American Youth

Essay by Cynthia Rose, The History of Rock, 1982

BY 1962, ROCK'N'ROLL was no longer the pressing issue it had appeared in the days of Teddy Boys and juvenile delinquency. Music had given way ...

Peppermint Pop: Music, Art And The New York ‘In-Crowd’

Retrospective by Cynthia Rose, The History of Rock, 1982

The Twist was a phenomenon of a commercial musical culture which, ever since its early boom in the mid-Fifties, had been looked down upon by ...

Rock’s Death Songs

Retrospective by Cynthia Rose, The History of Rock, 1982

ON 16 FEBRUARY 1979, Elvis Costello and the Attractions performed Leon Payne’s 1974 country anomaly ‘Psycho’ at Hollywood’s Palomino Club and, late in 1981, the ...

The Blank Generation — How Rock Moved From Political Opposition to Sheer Nihilism

Essay by Cynthia Rose, The History of Rock, 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, The History of Rock, 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 ...

Van Halen: Diver Down (WEA)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 8 May 1982

HEAVY METAL has one of the longer and more honourable traditions as a "musical influence" in rock, yet its recent renaissance is by and large ...

The Doors: Jim Morrison: An Hour For Magic

Book Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 12 June 1982

"BY THE TIME he left for Paris in March of 1971", Jim Morrison: An Hour for Magic tells us, "the friends he could depend on ...

Lene Lovich

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 14 August 1982

"You know who I've been digging a lot lately, not as a performer but as a singer? Lene Lovich. I really dig her music."— Iggy ...

Human Switchboard, Scientific Americans: Scientific Americans: Load And Go!; Human Switchboard: Coffee Break and other ROIR tapes

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 14 August 1982

TIME FOR another recharge from my choice in chutzpah-driven indies: Neil ‘Let’s Get This Party Started’ Cooper’s Reach Out International Records (ROIR). Former booking agent ...

Rod Stewart: Britt Ekland: True Britt

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 28 August 1982

WHAT BUT the magic of cassette (and the greed of the Decca Corp) could possibly bring you "True" Britt Ekland, Svedish accent und all, whispering ...

Billy Childish, The Milkshakes: Shake Some Action! The Milkshakes

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 2 October 1982

Cynthia Rose gets all shook up with the Milkshakes, as Wild Billy Childish puts the froth on the garageland daydream. ...

Blondie: Animal House: Chris Stein, Blondie, and Animal Records

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 13 November 1982

MUSICIAN/PHOTOGRAPHER Chris Stein has spent the last four years becoming what some Americans consider "a compulsive over-achiever", and others call 'an enthusiast'. ...

The Go-Go's: Go Agog A-GoGo!

Live Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 20 November 1982

The Go-Go's: Lyceum, London ...

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty

Interview by Cynthia Rose, City Limits, 3 December 1982

With his 1976 debut album, Tom Petty became a rock star. It seemed he was cast in the classic mould – a hip young American ...

Television: The Blow Up (ROIR)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 11 December 1982

BACK IN the mid-'70s then-rock journalist Patti Smith penned the following valentine to Tom Verlaine's Television: "Boycott rock and roll on TV – who wants ...

Del Shannon, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: 30 Years of Teardrops: from Del Shannon’s ‘Runaway’ to Tom Petty’s ‘Refugee’

Retrospective and Interview by Cynthia Rose, unpublished, 1983

THE SPACE inside our souls where real dreams arise is created by a particular breed of gambler: the emotional, sexually aware, desperately honest human who ...

Maria Muldaur: Ave Maria (And Three Hosannas!): Maria Muldaur at Ronnie Scott’s, London

Live Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 1983

FIVE YEARS ago New Year’s Eve, I watched Maria Muldaur seize a packed house at the closing of the gigantic Armadillo World Headquarters – last ...

The Meteors, The Morells: The Meteors: Wreckin’ Crew (I-D); The Morells: Shake And Push (Borrowed)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 1983

LIKE THE bourbon and Benzedrine which fuelled it, rockabilly never really fades from popularity despite its repressive formula, but it often seems to suffer the ...

The Ramones: Subterranean Jungle (Sire)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 1983

THE RAMONES have been responsible for two truly great albums (The Ramones and Rocket to Russia) and they have yet to produce a single longplayer ...

Nico: When The Peroxide Fades

Live Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 29 January 1983

Nico: The Venue, London ...

Eurythmics: Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 5 February 1983

WHEN ANNIE LENNOX and Dave Stewart opened for Roxy's 'comeback' as two-fifths of The Tourists, I thought there was definitely something there, but I never ...

Pat Benatar: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 12 February 1983

LIKE THE rest of the full house on Friday night, I was actually looking forward to seeing Pat Benatar, despite our previous encounters on vinyl. ...

Ric Ocasek : Richard Ocasek: Beatitude

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 19 February 1983

WITH THE Human League's American success, Soft Cell's 'Tainted Love' now the longest-lasting single in the history of Billboard's Hot Hundred, and MTV deluging the ...

Lene Lovich: Slav Siren To Play Mata Hari

Interview by Cynthia Rose, Creem, March 1983

MARLENE PREMILOVICH – professionally, Lene Lovich – has been out of the musical limelight for awhile, since the January 1980 release of Flex and a ...

Rank and File: Rank & File: Sundown (Slash Records)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 5 March 1983

RANK & FILE are a rather unusual four-piece: a Commie punk country band who've accrued a national reputation in America with record speed. Mind you, ...

Lou Reed: Legendary Hearts (RCA)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 19 March 1983

What made The Blue Mask Lou Reed’s watershed album was his choice of musicians, a new wave super-set of them – Fernando Saunders on bass, ...

Letter from Britain: The Beautiful And The Damned Hit Pay Dirt

Report by Cynthia Rose, Creem, April 1983

'RECESSION ROCK' on the radio (cf. 'My City Was Gone', 'Allentown' or 'Out of Work') may call forth condemnations from America's urban mayors — many, ...

Richard Hell

Interview by Cynthia Rose, City Limits, 1 April 1983

This week sees the opening of Smithereens, a low-budget feature film by Manhattan film school grad Susan Seidelman. Initially an experiment shot in 1980, it ...

The Ramones: Ramones: Subterranean Jungle

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 2 April 1983

THE RAMONES have been responsible for two truly great albums (Ramones and Rocket to Russia) and they've yet to produce a single longplayer that couldn't ...

Bush Tetras, The Raincoats, Johnny Thunders: The Raincoats: The Kitchen Tapes/The Bush Tetras: Wild Things!/Johnny Thunders: Too Much Monkey Business

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 9 April 1983

THE LATEST trio of ROIR cassettes expands the label's category of historical documentation – a division which offers some excuse for the fact that Reachout ...

The Ramones: Pal Joey

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 16 April 1983

Cynthia Rose Gabbas on the blower to the punk with subterranean Ramone (SIC!) blues. ...

David Bowie

Report and Interview by Cynthia Rose, City Limits, 3 June 1983

IN THE DAYS of Beau Brummell or even Baudelaire, to be a dandy was to be a true social outlaw – one whose fixed individuality ...

The B-52s: The B-52's

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 4 June 1983

Today's environment – a dizzying mélange of neon, advertisement, slum detritus and 'junk culture' – has fascinated artists and poets since the 1950s. But not ...

Glenn Branca: Riverside Studios, London

Live Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 18 June 1983

ACCORDING TO his UK press release, Glenn Branca's work "demands (and always receives) superlatives". Hyperbole would be more accurate, but given the avalanche of attention ...

The Blasters: Non-Fiction (Slash)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 16 July 1983

OVER THE past three years, white American music’s been getting a real recharge from several California couples: John Doe and Exene Cervenka of X, Chip ...

Lita Ford: Out for Blood (Phonogram)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 6 August 1983

LADY ROCKERS who hurl the epithet "sweet thang" at their listeners do everything for me that over-friendly taxi drivers accomplish — or Chrissie Hynde live ...

The Cramps: Zip Guns In The Junkyard!

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 13 August 1983

GEEK MAGGOT BINGO IS THE film that trade Bible Variety characterised a "one geek, few maggots and no bingo". A lot they know! ...

MC5: Babes In Arms (ROIR cassette)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 20 August 1983

IDEALLY VLADIMIR Mayakovsky should be sitting down to this review, because never before or since has there been a band quite like the MC5 – ...

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: Texas Flood (Epic)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 27 August 1983

DAVID BOWIE didn't discover Stevie Ray, the power blues specialist who by the sound of this solo LP was sorely tempered on Bowie's tepid Let's ...

The Ramones: If All Men Were Brudders

Interview by Cynthia Rose, Creem, September 1983

LONDON – The brothers Ramone – four schlepps whose schleppiness transmogrified the traumas of career adolescence into an entire art form – constitute America's greatest ...

Fab 5 Freddy: Wild Style! Director: Charlie Ahearn, Starring: Freddie Braithwaite, Patti Astor, Lee Quinones, Pink Pabares (ICA)

Film/DVD/TV Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 10 September 1983

HIPPITY HOP! ...

The Stray Cats: Stray Cats: Dingwalls, London

Live Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 10 September 1983

BACK FROM the fruited plains of America, where their wide wardrobe selection and the videos which enshrine it have snatched the preteen population from the ...

Nils Lofgren: Wonderland

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 17 September 1983

This LP — Lofgren's first since 81 — sails off on a gritty, catchy duet with Edgar Winter, then slides into a loner ballad ('Into ...

Eurythmics

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 8 October 1983

Stroud Green Road is one of London's more depressing thoroughfares. Noisy, dirty and deprived, it looks as if the buildings which line this lead-perfumed thruway ...

The Dils, Rank and File: Life After Punk: Rank and File

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 29 October 1983

Rank and File’s Founders Chip and Tony Kinman walked out on hardcore punk stardom to take up their "white trash’ influences in country music. ...

Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Out In The Street: Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and the simple truths of blue-collar rock

Essay by Cynthia Rose, The History of Rock, 1984

In the heyday of Elvis, Chuck Berry or the Beatles, radio was revered. It constituted rock’n’roll’s channel to the teen heart, and it struck out ...

T Bone Burnett: T-Bone Steak, Rattle and Roll

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 7 January 1984

November 21. A cool, inky evening in Fort Worth, Texas – the kind of town where a lonesome moan from the Mystery Train still pierces ...

The Pretenders: Learning To Crawl

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 14 January 1984

...

X: Leader Of The Pack

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 14 January 1984

IT'S ALMOST like standing with my stilettoes planted on the very threshold of Club Yes. ...

The Sex Pistols: Nancy Spungen: If You Knew Nancy…

Book Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 21 January 1984

IF ANYTHING CAN PUT THE LID on the Romeo and Juliet myth that has enshrined Nancy Spungen in the post-punk hagiography, it will be a ...

Laurie Anderson: Mister Heartbreak (WEA)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 3 March 1984

Somewhere Over Gravity's Rainbow ...

Carmel: Smooch Don't Mooch

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 24 March 1984

Manchester trio Carmel claim the press hyped them into early cult status — as hangers-on in the torch song zone. Meanwhile, they have embarked on ...

Johnny Thunders, Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers, Patti Palladin : The Heartbreakers, Patti Palladin: Lyceum, London

Live Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 31 March 1984

Smacked Bottoms ...

Debbie Harry: Bottle Debbie Harry

Interview by Cynthia Rose, Creem, April 1984

They couldn't help but notice herShe was fatally beautiful;Ever since she was a girl,She was fatally beau-ti-ful.– T-Bone Burnett, ‘Fatally Beautiful’, 1983 ...

Marvin Gaye: Into the City of Angels

Report by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 14 April 1984

GAYE FUNERAL REPORT • FATHER CHARGED ...

Jason & The Scorchers: Jason and the Scorchers: Fervor

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 21 April 1984

EVEN ALLOWING for the Women's Wear Daily pop-corn which often passes as critical comparison in rock I can't help but loathe this catchall term "cowpunk". ...

Jason & The Scorchers: Rhinestone Ploughboys: Jason and the Scorchers

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 5 May 1984

Blues, country and heavy metal!...Can this really be the lethal cocktail that has gained The Scorchers Nashville respectability? CYNTHIA ROSE settles down to a ...

The Go-Go's: Talk Show (A&M)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 19 May 1984

WEIRD HOW male listeners have to go through this whole process of Coming To Terms with the GoGos' musically simplistic, sentimentally sophisticated hybrid of high ...

Boy George, Culture Club: Boy George: Bohemian!

Interview by Cynthia Rose, Creem, June 1984

Were they rebels? Were they artists? Were they outcasts from society? They were all of these. They were the Bohemians. These bohemians, Mr. and Mrs. ...

T Bone Burnett: Proof Thru The Night

Interview by Cynthia Rose, Creem, June 1984

ROCK MUSIC may know few true gentlemen. But those it does possess are liable to embody the best of that extraordinary flamboyance, imagination and hope ...

The Special AKA: In the Studio (2 Tone)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 4 August 1984

MOST LISTENERS who would snap up In the Studio own the majority of it already, as singles or B-sides. And with the release of its ...

Nashville Revisited

Report by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 11 August 1984

This summer an 82 year-old former boxer, shoeshine boy and burlesque costumier from Brooklyn died in Los Angeles. His name was Nudie Cohen and he ...

Big Mama Thornton: Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton 1926-1984

Obituary by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 18 August 1984

ONE OF the founding careers in rock and roll ended on Wednesday, July 25, when a heart attack took the life of Willie Mae ‘Big ...

Fred Maher, Robert Quine: Robert Quine and Fred Maher: Basic (Editions EG)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 25 August 1984

NOT LONG ago, someone asked me if the 'EG' in EG Records stood for Egghead and I foolishly told them no. Now Egghead Records have ...

Lizzy Mercier Descloux: Lizzy Mercier Descloux (CBS)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 1 September 1984

LIZ — BACK AND BOUNCY ...

Tom Verlaine: Cover (Virgin)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 1 September 1984

IN 1976 TOM Miller aka Verlaine ended a published poem with the line "I shall contrive an envy so strong that its object will disappear". ...

Spinal Tap: This Is Spinal Tap

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 8 September 1984

Director: Rob Reiner; Starring: Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer ...

Robert Wyatt: Mongrel Musics

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 8 September 1984

Nobody could have told me how Robert Wyatt's cover of Cuban pop star Pop star Pablo Milan´es' 'Yolanda' was going to capture my ear more ...

Spinal Tap: The Spinal Solution

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 8 September 1984

Cynthia Rose shares a wake-up cuppa with Derek Smalls, Nigel Tufnel and David St Hubbins, the unlikely rockers who made it from New York back ...

Aztec Camera: Knife (WEA)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 29 September 1984

RARELY IS the 'singer-songwriter' allowed any natural patience to heed the rushing waters of emotion and experience; and in the current singer-songwriter boom, it seems ...

The Cult: The Cultivation Of A Better Noise

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 6 October 1984

The tribal panavisuals of The Cult have rallied hordes. But CYNTHIA ROSE discovered the true extension chords lurking in the minds behind the war-paint. DEREK ...

Laurie Anderson: Missus Heartbreak

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 27 October 1984

CYNTHIA ROSE lends an ear to a jetlagged LAURIE ANDERSON and hears the call of the riled from a multi-media star whose fame has induced ...

The Ramones: Now I Wanna Play My Five-Iron!!

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 10 November 1984

It had to happen. The hardcore epidemic sweeping America has re-inspired punk godparents the Ramones to make a GENUINE BREAKTHROUGH ALBUM more original (and more ...

Madonna: Virgin On The Ridiculous: Madonna: Like A Virgin (Sire)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 17 November 1984

WATCHING A TALENT as genuine and grounded as that of Cyndi Lauper pull off those pop Partonisms necessitated by the nature of today's marketplace is ...

Doug Sahm, The Sir Douglas Quintet: Sahm Enchanted Evening: Sir Douglas Quintet at London’s Mean Fiddler

Live Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 1985

THE LONG Ryders, Lone Justice, Blasters and the rest? Forget ‘em! Sir Doug has returned to show these punks how good "rock and roll from ...

The Judds: Of Mums & Grammys: The Judds

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 20 April 1985

Part deep country and part cosmopolitan, this mom and daughter team have lived a Cinderella story which stood even Nashville on its ear. Now, No ...

Jason & The Scorchers: Jason And The Scorchers: Blazing Saddles

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 25 May 1985

"SEE, UP to this point – this record, this tour – I fought with the fact that I was 'a rock and roll singer'. ...

Madonna: Virgin Pruned!: Madonna: Convention Center, Dallas

Live Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 25 May 1985

MULTI-MEDIA SUCCESS has made Madonna America's first generic pop star — and her first foray into live performance brought forth a capacity house of young ...

The Judds: That John Deere Factor

Profile and Interview by Cynthia Rose, Creem, July 1985

DALLAS — AT age 18, Naomi Judd of Ashland, Kentucky, defaulted on her high school graduation: she was in a hospital giving birth to daughter ...

Bobby Womack: Live at the Dallas Arcadia

Live Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 21 September 1985

"BLACK MUSIC is being broken down. It's no longer black music. This is not a discussion or argument...what I'm saying is that it's a reaffirmation ...

Austin, Texas

Report by Cynthia Rose, Vogue, 1986

Aginners, glyphies, rednecks, rattlesnakes, conjunto, honky-tonk and wheatberry pancakes: Austin is the cultural nexus of Texas. ...

Debbie Harry and Andy Warhol: Parallel Lives

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 11 January 1986

FRANK TALK WITH DEBBIE ...

The Judds: Judds: Rockin' With The Rhythm (RCA)

Review by Cynthia Rose, Creem, April 1986

A LONG YEAR on the road has honed Wynonna Judd's voice into probably the finest female instrument of country music today. ...

Martyrs Of Elitism

Essay by Cynthia Rose, Creem, June 1986

ELITISM. DICTIONARIES call it "the sense of being part of a superior or privileged group." On the street, it's more familiar as hipnitude, or novelty. ...

Laurie Anderson: Home Of The Brave

Review by Cynthia Rose, Creem, August 1986

BOW WOW WOW ...

Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground: Another View

Review by Cynthia Rose, Creem, September 1986

INTO THE HANDS of today's waiting worshippers – and yet, the mystery remains. ...

X: Billy Zoom’s Out, But X Goes On

Report and Interview by Cynthia Rose, Dallas Observer, 28 November 1986

"THE ONE 'MESSAGE' X HAS AS A BAND," John Doe once told me, "is that whether you fit in or not, you can be ...

Dwight Yoakam: Hillbilly Hipster

Interview by Cynthia Rose, Mail On Sunday, 12 April 1987

DWIGHT YOAKAM was eight years old when he wrote his first song: an American lament patterned after those of 1940s blue mountain balladeers the Stanley ...

The Stupids: Stupidity Maketh The Men

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 9 May 1987

Not dumb, maybe a little deaf by now...UK thrash stylists The Stupids step off their skatin’ wheels and entertain Cynthia Rose with tales of ordinary ...

James Brown: James Brown By James Brown with Bruce Tucker (Sidgwick & Jackson, £12.95)

Book Review by Cynthia Rose, The Wire, November 1987

JAMES BROWN is the Andy Warhol of sound — it's just not possible to imagine modern music without him. Nor could there be a more ...

Soul II Soul: Jazzie B and the New Black Economy

Report and Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Statesman, 17 June 1988

A thriving underground enterprise culture has grown up around music – bootlegged vinyl, pirate radio, warehouse parties. It’s a black economy powered by black aesthetics ...

Dewey Groom: Longhorn Man

Profile and Interview by Cynthia Rose, Dallas Observer, 18 August 1988

"YOU KNOW HOW overrated this club business is, psychologically," Dewey Groom is saying, shaking his head. "People think it's a good-time job. They think it's ...

The Strange Odyssey Of Acid House

Report by Cynthia Rose, Dallas Observer, 23 February 1989

LONDON – On February 9, 1989, the mutant musical movement known as Acid House made it into The Dallas Morning News for the second time ...

Soul II Soul

Interview by Cynthia Rose, The Observer, October 1989

A mix of songs that paint pictures, with women and God driving the music and the marketing machine, have spawned a Soul II Soul empire. ...

A Hard Graff For A Piece Of The Action

Report and Interview by Cynthia Rose, The Observer, 22 April 1990

Cynthia Rose says in Europe they know the writing's on the wall. ...

KISS Pirate Enterprise

Report and Interview by Cynthia Rose, Sunday Correspondent, 29 April 1990

The duties of KISS pirate radio DJs once included rigging rooftop transmitters and guarding the door. Now Saatchi’s are telling them: "Your account is worth ...

James Brown: He’s Brown And He’s Proud

Profile and Interview by Cynthia Rose, The Observer, 16 September 1990

"NOT TOO MANY people can really set a precedent," James Brown told me. "But then, I was never too traditional about music." What an understatement. ...

Nirvana: Sub Pop: See Label For Details — An Interview with Bruce Pavitt

Interview by Cynthia Rose, Dazed & Confused, 1994

In 1979, when he was a college student, Bruce Pavitt started a fanzine called Subterranean Pop. Although the hipsters around him were pushing UK imports, ...

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