Helen Fitzgerald
Helen FitzGerald is from Dublin and began writing about music during the punk era in that city, notably for VOX fanzine, which covered most of the bands she admired. Moving to London in the early '80s she freelanced for Sounds and for Masterbag, a high-end fanzine of the day, covering the Birthday Party, The Fall, the Cocteau Twins, Foetus, the Virgin Prunes and more. In 1983 she joined Melody Maker as a staff journalist, interviewing and reviewing bands that took her fancy, and some that were assigned, for seven years. She recalls Michael Stipe and Brian Eno as her favourite interviewees and has a hamper of cuttings in her attic which she occasionally visits to indulge in some nostalgia.
40 articles
List of articles in the library
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Sounds, 11 September 1982
Helen Fitzgerald gets intoxicated by the exotic mixture of the Cocteau Twins. ...
The The: The Devil in Mr Johnson
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Sounds, 18 September 1982
THE ANTI-HIP CRUSADE STARTS HERE, MATT JOHNSON aka THE THE WARNS HELEN FITZGERALD ...
Kid Creole & The Coconuts: Lyceum, London
Live Review by Helen Fitzgerald, Sounds, 23 October 1982
ESCAPISM — a tendency to escape from realities of life into fantasy — is what I expected. Nothing real, nothing pertinent, inspiring or important. Escapism, ...
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 19 March 1983
LAST SEPTEMBER a very strange thing happened. Three unknown scruffy Scottish urchins took the indie charts by storm with, a debut album, called Garlands, an ...
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 24 September 1983
Helen FitzGerald attempts to make sense of THE FIXX — the British band unknown at home who are big news in the States ...
Howard Jones: Keeping Up with the Joneses
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 8 October 1983
Helen FitzGerald finds reasons to believe in the musical integrity of synth-pop wiz, HOWARD JONES ...
Bauhaus, Peter Murphy: Peter Murphy: Searching for Satori
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 8 October 1983
Almost two months after the Bauhaus split PETER MURPHY finally breaks his silence and lets his mask slip. Wounded but not beaten, he confides all ...
Report by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 5 November 1983
Helen FitzGerald has a nightmare... and finds herself at the first night of THE TUBE. ...
Marilyn: Gentle Men Prefer Blonds
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 5 November 1983
Friend of the stars MARILYN expounds on the delights of Chanel No. 5 and pink lipstick to Helen FitzGerald ...
Gardening By Moonlight: Gimme the Moonlight
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 19 November 1983
It's time to take GARDENING BY MOONLIGHT seriously, according to Helen FitzGerald ...
Live Review by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 26 November 1983
WHAM! TRAP! ...
Howard Jones: Civic Hall, Guildford
Live Review by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 7 January 1984
HOWARD JONES. The real thing or just another keyboard wizard with just enough talent to blaze a fiery but abruptly short trail through our memories ...
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 4 February 1984
Undeterred by the psychological disadvantages of being a one-man band and the subject of a national 'paper slur campaign', HOWARD JONES struggles on... to victory, ...
The Alarm: Declaration (IRS IRSA7044)
Review by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 18 February 1984
DECLARATIONS OF INDEPENDENCE ...
The Pale Fountains: Fountains of Youth
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 17 March 1984
Helen FitzGerald swoons in the company of THE PALE FOUNTAINS, back with a new album after a fruitless search for the ideal record producer. ...
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: New Junk for Old
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 28 April 1984
ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK emerge from the shadows with a new album, Junk Culture. Helen FitzGerald hops on the Sealink to Belgium for a ...
The Blue Nile: Source of the Nile
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 28 April 1984
Helen FitzGerald goes in search of paradise and finds... BLUE NILE ...
Kajagoogoo, Limahl: Limahl: I Me Mine
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 9 June 1984
LIMAHL and his ego hold court. Credulous report: Helen FltzGerald ...
Bronski Beat: St James' Church, London
Live Review by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 4 August 1984
SONGS OF PRAISE ...
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 8 September 1984
CRISTINA may live in luxury, but she's no pampered butterfly, as Helen FitzGerald finds out ...
Bronski Beat: Dark Side of the Beat
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 15 September 1984
After the haunting 'Smalltown Boy' BRONSKI BEAT take sexual politics right to the edge with their daring new single, 'Why'. In America completing their debut ...
The Go-Betweens: Go-Betweens: Spring Hill Fair (Sire K925179)
Review by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 29 September 1984
TO SUMMARISE the Go-Betweens' appeal would be a destructive exercise, because the core of their charm is a moveable feast. From the lush beauty of ...
Brian Eno, U2: The Life of Brian
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 29 September 1984
Helen FitzGerald, the Emerald Isle's most astonishing export, gets all mysterious with ambient whizz-kid BRIAN ENO, who talks about life after the bush of ghosts, ...
Live Review by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 24 November 1984
"YOU'RE SO UGLY honey, in fact I wouldn't even fuck you with his dick." ...
Live Review by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 15 December 1984
PIONEER SPIRITS ...
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 30 March 1985
PLAINTIFF: H. FITZGERALD DEFENDANTS: GO WEST THE CRIME: HYPE! HYPE! HYPE! ...
R.E.M.: Tales from the Black Mountain
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 27 April 1985
In which a rapt Helen FitzGerald hears stories from the background of MICHAEL STIPE of R.E.M., the Georgia boys who brought mystery back to music. ...
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 4 May 1985
Helen 'fat is a feminist issue' FitzGerald gets greedy with the FAT BOYS, who are turning rap into pap... or pop. ...
Duran Duran, Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Frankie Goes To Hollywood: Swiss Franks
Report and Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 25 May 1985
Finally, FRANKIE relaxed and invited Helen FitzGerald to chase them round picturesque Montreux. So what did happen in that brothel in Frankfurt? What do Frankie ...
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 ...
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 21 September 1985
Helen FitzGerald cancels several modelling assignments to meet Lesley Hornby, alias the delectable TWIGGY. Once the Sixties clothes-peg, she now has a new single, 'Feel ...
Simply Red: Hammersmith Palais, London
Live Review by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 30 November 1985
AND SO the controversy continues. Inflammatory statements rage about our ears as the Mancunian soul-revivalists stand their ground and weather the cries of derision that ...
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 7 December 1985
Helen FitzGerald charts the dogged progress and gradual rise of the two misfits CATHAL COUGHLAN and SEAN O'HAGAN, better known as the heart of MICRODISNEY. ...
Alice Cooper, Twisted Sister: Twisted Sister: New Year's Dee
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 4 January 1986
DEE SNIDER, fang-toothed leader of outrageous HM maniacs TWISTED SISTER lets his tongue gallop over a few topics suggested by Helen 'Tape-deck' FitzGerald. ...
Ray Parker Jr.: Sex & The Single Man
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 18 January 1986
As you might expect, RAY PARKER JNR made a huge fortune from his Ghostbusters film theme. But he hasn't given up on music. His new ...
My Bloody Valentine: The Clarendon, London
Live Review by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 16 August 1986
MY BLOODY Valentine are young and awkward and dear to the heart, their nervous system centred on Colm's ferocious rhythmic vigour as, embarrassed by having ...
Curiosity Killed The Cat: Heaven, London
Live Review by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 30 August 1986
CAT DANCERS ...
Microdisney: Crooked Mile (Virgin)
Review by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 3 January 1987
OR ... Camping It Up With The Cops, the Disney's third album, their first with a major label and the first to really wrap their ...
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 10 January 1987
Fed up with indie rigours and rituals, MICRODISNEY have signed to a major, but have they sold their souls? Helen Fitzgerald looks at a new ...
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