John Harris
John Harris is a British journalist, writer and critic. He is the author of The Last Party: Britpop, Blair and the Demise of English Rock (2003); So Now Who Do We Vote For?, which examined the 2005 UK general election; a 2006 behind-the-scenes look at the production of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon; and Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll (2009). His articles have appeared in Select, Q, Mojo, Shindig!, Rolling Stone, Classic Rock, The Independent, the New Statesman, The Times and The Guardian.
42 articles
List of articles in the library by artist
Report by John Harris, New Musical Express, 27 August 1994
Take 250,000 hippy children (Please! — Ed) and baby boomers reliving the 'glories' of the '60s, stick them in a sea of mud and charge ...
The Auteurs: Auteur Magic For The People
Interview by John Harris, New Musical Express, 20 February 1993
Fed up of noisy, brutish Brit bands ripping off tired ideas from the Yanks? Nothing to excite you in the modern, cutting-edge of music? Then ...
The Beatles and Astrid Kirchherr: They Loved Stu Yeah Yeah Yeah
Report and Interview by John Harris, New Musical Express, 2 April 1994
They weren't always old men owning half of Scotland and giving all their money to spiritual motor racing gurus. On the eve of a Beatles ...
Belly: The Exploding Gastric Inevitable
Interview by John Harris, Melody Maker, 12 June 1993
Indie sex kitten, superstar, classic songwriter, gender traitor, fairy tale princess — these are just some of the inevitable praises and insults levelled at TANYA ...
Interview by John Harris, New Musical Express, 10 July 1993
It's the most exciting and important tour to take place this year. In the last six months, politics has roared back onto the musical agenda ...
Blur, Elastica, Oasis, Pulp, Sleeper, Suede, Supergrass: Britpop: Modern Life Is... Brilliant!
Overview by John Harris, New Musical Express, 7 January 1995
It was the year grunge died, the year of jungle... arses. It was the year that BRITISH POP found its feet again, and what's more, ...
Blur, Oasis: Britpop: Remember the first time
Retrospective and Interview by John Harris, The Guardian, 12 August 2005
Without Britpop, would we have had hit guitar groups, stadium anthems or rock stars on Newsnight? Ten years on, John Harris looks back on how ...
The Boo Radleys, Oasis, Ride: Creation Records: Rehabsolutely Fabulous
Interview by John Harris, Ted Kessler, New Musical Express, 9 June 1994
A decade on from its inception, Creation rules the British rock underground. The 'Undrugged' party at the Royal Albert Hall, and the random singing of ...
Buffalo Tom, Kurt Cobain, The Lemonheads: The Lemonheads: Come On Feel The Suedehead
Report and Interview by John Harris, New Musical Express, 7 May 1994
EVAN DANDO has been marketed as teen sex symbol, scagged out hippy doper and serious artiste, but now THE LEMONHEADS' main squeeze is trying to ...
Retrospective by John Harris, New Music News, 16 October 1993
ON APRIL 16, 1990, a proud man who'd spent 27 years in the custody of a vicious racist regime arrived in London. He'd come to ...
Cornershop: This Sitar Kills Fascists
Interview by John Harris, New Musical Express, 16 January 1993
Out to smash Asian stereotypes, shit on racists and slaughter every half-assed predictable indie band on the planet — CORNERSHOP might not be able to ...
Fairport Convention: "There was a manic feeling in the air"
Retrospective and Interview by John Harris, The Guardian, 3 August 2007
In 1969, reeling from the shock of a tragic car crash, Fairport Convention recorded an album that would change British folk for ever. John Harris ...
PJ Harvey: New Boots & Panties
Report and Interview by John Harris, Q, January 2001
Loud guitars, PVC, bit of leg — Polly puts the metal on… ...
PJ Harvey: Songs of innocence and experience
Interview by John Harris, The Guardian, 28 September 2007
PJ Harvey sings like a child on her new, stripped-down album, but it's full of grim subject matter. John Harris hears how the elusive singer-songwriter ...
Hole: Oxford Street Virgin Megastore, London
Live Review by John Harris, New Musical Express, 6 May 1995
PETTY ON THE OUTSIDE ...
Michael Jackson: HIStory (Epic/all formats)
Review by John Harris, New Musical Express, 17 June 1995
HISTERICAL! ...
The Jam, Paul Weller: Paul Weller: "The Jam? They were a way of life."
Retrospective by John Harris, The Guardian, 3 February 2006
As Paul Weller prepares to receive a Lifetime Achievement Brit, John Harris salutes a giant. ...
Kaiser Chiefs: Back to the Future in Kaiserworld?
Comment by John Harris, The Guardian, 19 January 2007
The backlash has begun for the Kaiser Chiefs, and their new song has no 'la la las'. But there's still a strong case for cheering ...
Kraftwerk: Ralf Hütter: "I got a new head, and I'm fine"
Interview by John Harris, The Guardian, 19 June 2009
The bikes ... the robots ... the dream of man and machine in perfect harmony. How is the Kraftwerk vision of the future shaping up? ...
Essay by John Harris, The Guardian, 20 July 2007
With lyrics like "Hotch-potch, hugger-mugger, bow-wow, hari-kiri, hoo-poo", how could anyone forget late 70s punk outfit Liliput? ...
Interview by John Harris, New Musical Express, 4 June 1994
Beneath the all-quaffing, lager-frenzied, dreamy-weamy indie muso LUSH there's a band bristling with resentment, heartbreak and anger. Visiting MIKI BERENYI's nightmare childhood and EMMA ANDERSON'S ...
Manic Street Preachers: From despair to... where?
Report by John Harris, New Musical Express, 25 February 1995
The disappearance of RICHEY EDWARDS has rekindled all sorts of fears and rumours, from the possibility of suicide to the seemingly inevitable split of the ...
Meat Puppets, Nirvana: Nirvana: Unplugged In New York (Geffen/All formats)
Review by John Harris, New Musical Express, 29 October 1994
WAKE OF FIRE ...
Interview by John Harris, New Musical Express, 10 December 1994
M PEOPLE make timeless pop songs, have a genuine cool soul singer and a classic album that won them the Mercury Music Award — and ...
Comment by John Harris, The Guardian, 15 May 2005
Oasis's sixth album is out at the end of the month. John Harris wonders whether it can really be the promised return to form ...
Interview by John Harris, New Musical Express, 23 April 1994
The Kinks did it. The Who did it. But no-one does it like OASIS, five lads who won't waste words when a punch will do, ...
Public Enemy: Flavor Flav: Coke Adds Strife
Interview by John Harris, New Musical Express, 13 August 1994
While PUBLIC ENEMY have been lying low for the past two years, errant rapper FLAVOR FLAV has been having very personal, and very public problems ...
Interview by John Harris, New Musical Express, 6 August 1994
PUBLIC ENEMY were once unerring occupiers of the moral high ground, but guns, drugs, liquor and arrests have shown them to be as fallible as ...
Live Review by John Harris, New Musical Express, 25 February 1995
"THIS SONG'S about Oxford, I s'pose," says Thom Yorke, managing to sound like a spiteful 25-year-old adolescent. Then he starts singing: "I can't afford to ...
Interview by John Harris, New Musical Express, 10 October 1992
Neurotic, paranoid, alienated, personally inadequate (sound familiar?) — RADIOHEAD's THOM YORKE could well be the new British lyricist to claim the King Of Glum's songwriting ...
Interview by John Harris, Melody Maker, 9 May 1992
Fresh outta Oxford come RADIOHEAD hoping to use the might of a major label to get their guitar squall onto the air-waves and squeeze out ...
The Rolling Stones: Why a Rolling Stones bootleg is one of my albums of the year
Comment by John Harris, The Guardian, 22 November 2011
Their recent reissues might be rubbish, but 1973 bootleg Brussels Affair shows the Stones at their onstage peak. ...
Simply Red: Here's to Mick Hucknall's amazing voice
Memoir by John Harris, The Guardian, 21 December 2011
Admitting I liked Simply Red didn't fit with the NME's Maoist indie conspiracy, but Hucknall's repertoire is studded with triumphs ...
Sleaford Mods: Grammar Wanker: Sleaford Mods 2007‑2014 by Jason Williamson (Bracketpress)
Book Review by John Harris, The Guardian, 18 March 2015
Drug comedowns and fist fights — an angry and uncompromising collection of lyrics. Who else in modern English music is doing anything quite like this? ...
Sleeper: Kipping Against The Pricks
Interview by John Harris, New Musical Express, 21 May 1994
Tired of being safe? Fed up with worrying about the ozone layer? Bored with modern life? Then you need SLEEPER. The last of the dirty, ...
The Stone Roses: Second Coming (Geffen/All formats)
Review by John Harris, New Musical Express, 10 December 1994
ANTI-CLIMAX BLUES BAND ...
The Stone Roses: Why I won't be going to see the Stone Roses
Comment by John Harris, The Guardian, 23 June 2012
Since their magical peak in 1990, the band has delivered only disappointment and disaster. So is their latest reunion a chance for them to finally ...
Suede: Dog Man Star (Nude/All formats)
Review by John Harris, New Musical Express, 1 October 1994
DIAMOND 'DOG'! ...
Suede: Fan Fare for the Common Room
Report and Interview by John Harris, New Musical Express, 6 November 1993
Recently returned from their second American tour, SUEDE have decided the US is their sort of place and they want out of cynical, self-consuming Britain. ...
Report and Interview by John Harris, New Musical Express, 14 January 1995
Has it all gone wrong for SUEDE? Dog Man Star not accorded the status they wished for, doubt over Richard Oakes' ability to better Bernard, ...
Suede: While My Guitarist Swiftly Leaves
Report by John Harris, New Musical Express, 30 July 1994
What a guffing idiot, eh readers? You're the genius guitarist in SUEDE, you've just finished your second album and then... you bugger off amid rumours ...
The Velvet Underground: Playhouse, Edinburgh
Live Review by John Harris, New Musical Express, 12 June 1993
WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HAIR ...
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