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Jon Savage

Jon Savage

Born in the Chinese year of the water snake, Jon Savage (pictured in 1975) self-published the punk fanzine London's Outrage in late 1976 before being snapped up by Sounds a few months later. His first task was to do Wire's first-ever press interview. After writing about all matters Punk and Electronic for 18 months, he jumped ship to Melody Maker and then, in early 1980, to The Face, where he remained for eight years. At the same time, he wrote for New Society and the New Statesman about pop culture and ran the Observer's first pop music page.

At the end of the 1980's, he turned inward to write England's Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock, the award-winning and still definitive history of UK Punk. The television programme based on the book, "Punk and the Pistols", aired on BBC2's Arena in 1995, directed by Paul Tickell. England's Dreaming has remained in print constantly since 1991, with a revised edition published in 2001. It will be republished again by Faber and Faber this spring. A CD based around the book, England's Dreaming: Before During and After Punk, was issued by Trikont Records, Germany, in autumn 2004, and is still in print.

During the 1990s, Jon Savage published a collection of journalism from 1977 to 1995, called Time Travel: from Sex Pistols to Nirvana. He worked as writer on the BAFTA award-winning BBC2 Arena documentaries The Brian Epstein Story (transmitted 1998). He still writes about music for MOJO and his Meridian 1970: Protest, Sorrow, Hobos, Folk and Blues – a compilation of psych rock break beats and acid folk – was released by Heavenly Records/ EMI.

Savage's most recent books are 1966: The Year the Decade Exploded (Faber, 2015) and The Searing Light, the Sun & Everything Else (Faber, 2019), an oral history of Joy Division.

Richard North's 1988 interview with Savage

Jon Savage on the RBP podcast

242 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Sex Pistols: The Sex Pistols: The Screen on the Green, London

Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 9 April 1977

IN WHICH IT must be conceded that Malcolm McLaren has a first-class media brain with a perfect instinct for theatre. ...

Buzzcocks, Johnny Moped, Wire, X-Ray Spex: Buzzcocks/X-Ray Spex/Wire etc.: Running with the Ratpack

Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 16 April 1977

ROXY RATPACK, Saturday nite. Find a friend and stick close: sink or swim. Tony and Julie were right: a club full of 'Wild Boys' outtakes ...

The Adverts, The Damned, Motorhead: The Damned/The Adverts/Motorhead: The Roundhouse, London

Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 30 April 1977

I FIRST saw the Damned at the Roundhouse last November. Shortly after the release of 'New Rose'. Although the 45 had been successful the set ...

Buzzcocks, The Clash, The Jam: The Clash, The Jam, The Buzzcocks: The Rainbow Theatre, London

Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 21 May 1977

Rock ‘n’ roll can be one of the few honest things left in this world.Yes.An event, a gathering of the clans.Yes.But it was all down ...

X-Ray Spex: Man In The Moon, Chelsea

Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 21 May 1977

A SMALLISH basement room, low-ceilinged, with a bar along one wall, and quite plush – tonite healthily full with about 100 people, A stopgap scene ...

The Vibrators: Pure Mania

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 11 June 1977

MMM. PSYCHO daisies. Hid her wid de axe/you better relax. More zoop bop cartoon funnies – this time the movie's speeded up. Laugh this one ...

The Ramones, The Saints, Talking Heads: The Ramones, Talking Heads, The Saints: The Roundhouse, London

Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 18 June 1977

AND I'M supposed to be objective about these guys when I've lived with their first album for 15 months? When that was one of last ...

The Sex Pistols: What Did You Do On The Jubilee? The Pistols on the Thames

Report by Jon Savage, Sounds, 18 June 1977

BEFORE THE POLICE came, it was a great party. Make that a capital G. ...

Various: The Roxy London WC2 (Jan-Apr 77) (Harvest)

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 25 June 1977

AN APPROXIMATE Warhol dictum: ‘In the future, everybody will be famous for 15 minutes.’ We never had a proper Warhol scene over here, did we? ...

Generation X Put The Boot In

Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 16 July 1977

GENERATION X. In the 60's: a book wherein 'youth speaks about itself'. In the 70's: a 'new wave' band which does the same, on the ...

Alternative TV: Sniffin' Glue…

Report and Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 23 July 1977

NOW: THE ROXY these days is not what it was – whatever shrill camera-lens sense of event there was in the Andy Czezowski days has ...

Roky Erickson, 13th Floor Elevators: Roky Erickson: One Flew Out Of The Cuckoo's Nest

Retrospective by Jon Savage, Sounds, 23 July 1977

'After you trip, life opens up – you start doing what you wanna do...c'mon, C'MON let it happen to you...' – 'Roller Coaster', 13th Floor ...

Just a few thousand words in your ear: A history of the rock press

Retrospective by Giovanni Dadomo, Jon Savage, Sounds, 20 August 1977

... Is this communicating? (Arthur Lee, 1968) ...

Jonathan Richman: Johnathan Richman: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 24 September 1977

CONTRADICTION. (I don't wanna grow up; there's too much...) ...

Nico: The Marble Index

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 24 September 1977

"FROZEN WARNINGS close to mine, close to the frozen borderline......" ...

The Stranglers: No More Heroes

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 24 September 1977

AHHH – BUT these are testing times...now the very real euphoria has subsided, the scales have fallen from my eyes: not recantation, but re-evaluation. Timely ...

Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers: Billy, Walter and Johnny: The Heartbreakers

Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 1 October 1977

INTERVIEW TAKES place on a second floor flat, a stone’s throw away from the Thames. Present are: Walter Lure and Billy Rath, singer/guitarist and bassist ...

Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers: The Heartbreakers: L.A.M.F.

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 1 October 1977

'Living in the jungle, it ain't so hard/But livin' in the city, it can eat out, eat out your heart...' ...

801: Listen Now (Island)

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 15 October 1977

I DON'T know what I expected, but I thought it would be good (I mean credentials: Roxy Music/ Eno/'Diamond Head/’Tomorrow Never Knows'/Nico/etc.) but this wasn't ...

Buzzcocks, John Cooper Clarke, The Fall, Joy Division, Magazine, The Negatives, The Prefects, The Worst: Buzzcocks/Magazine/John Cooper Clarke/The Worst/The Fall/The Prefects/The Negatives/Warsaw: Electric Circus, Manchester

Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 15 October 1977

Prime Manchester venue closes... Power cut at the Electric Circus ...

The Sex Pistols: Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 5 November 1977

Here am I – there are you – here's the Sex Pistols. ...

Magazine: Love And Devotion

Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 19 November 1977

Magazine: The Electric Circus, Manchester ...

New Musick

Comment by Jon Savage, Jane Suck, Sounds, 26 November 1977

FOR LIFE ON REWIND/FAST FORWARD/PLAY/RECORD/STOP/..... ...

Devo: New Musick: Devo Look Into The Future!

Profile by Jon Savage, Sounds, 26 November 1977

DEVO/DEVOID/VOID/DEVOTED/DEVOLUTION: Savage attempts a discrete distillation. Devout. Things are not as they seem, nor as they have been reported.... 'The cities are our major source ...

The Residents: New Musick: The Residents — 'Beyond The Valley Of A Day In the Life'

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 26 November 1977

TO THE RESIDENTS, nothing is sacred, least of all themselves. Whether you love/hate the Residents, whether you've heard of them, don't care, matters not at ...

The Ramones: Rocket to Russia

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 26 November 1977

NO MORE shock tactics. Just arrow-straight at your teenage hearts....Wuz wrong! Thought they wanted to be the Byrds (those haircuts, see....); now know they want ...

Black Sabbath: Greatest Hits (Vertigo)

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 10 December 1977

ENGLAND CAN be depressing to the point of insanity...grey oozing days for months on end...rows of mean streets, pinched people...clausterphobic scrapyard vistas of country turned ...

Various Artists: Live At The Vortex

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 10 December 1977

HA. ANOTHER sledge-hammer blow pulping revolt into style...At least might someone have the good grace and honesty to stick 'Punk (a/k/a 'New/Wave') Sampler' on the ...

Penetration: The Future Is Female

Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 17 December 1977

ACCELERATION DON'T go to my head...London – a module, self-contained, trapped in an ever-accelerating time/style warp: a week seems like a month in our brave ...

The Residents: Residents: Meet the Residents *****; Third Reich 'N' Roll *****; Finger Prince *****

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 31 December 1977

NOT FOR the faint-hearted. Be warned. Residents specialise in cultural sabotage, sonic rearrangement, cryptic capers. They are (at the same time) very funny and vary ...

The Jam: London Hammersmith Odeon

Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 31 December 1977

FRAGMENTATION STRIKES DEEP... as punk "culture" is guided firmly into several easily categorizable (and therefore easier controlled)/marketable segments(divided we consume), it's clean teen night. ...

Elvis Costello: This Year’s Model

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 1978

THE INSULT that made a man out of Mac(manus). As runs the hype: get sand kicked in your face (or whatever), keep on punching your ...

Throbbing Gristle: Rat Club, London

Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 7 January 1978

THE RETURN of Tesco disco — another noise (industrial) in a different supermarket... ...

Fanzines: Pure Pop Art For Now People

Overview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 14 January 1978

"THEY are vital, audacious, reckless insofar as they represent an extreme view adopted in a broad popular m way, and they have a curious brave ...

Tapper Zukie: Tapper Zuckie: Man Ah Warrior

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 14 January 1978

AN ALBUM full of dignity, grandeur and pride: Smokey swirls intertwining to form a chord of steel... ...

The Ramones: Rainbow Theatre, London

Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 14 January 1978

VERMILION, AFTERWARDS (taking in with a sweep of her arm the splendid rococo-deco vastness of the Rainbow gallery): "Rock'n'roll belongs in the pits, not here". ...

Iggy Pop: Kill City

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 21 January 1978

SO, NO RAW POWER retreads – it's only possible to live that once – but afterburn: the Ig goes right TO THE EDGE; LOSES CONTRACT/band/sanity/life ...

The Soft Boys: Red Cow, London

Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 21 January 1978

AAAH, SOFT Boys. 'Soft Machine' and 'Wild Boys'? Maybe. Specialise in surreal shaggy dog stories/parodies laid over a solid rock base. Recently out from Cambridge, ...

Elvis Costello, The Soft Boys, Whirlwind: Elvis Costello, Whirlwind, Soft Boys: Roundhouse, London

Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 28 January 1978

The rise and rise of the perennial wimp ...

Suicide: Suicide

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 4 February 1978

SUICIDE? PERHAPS; rather life at one remove, through a one-way mirror. Or wilful withdrawal from the sea of impossibility... ...

Pere Ubu: The Modern Dance

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 11 February 1978

Dance to a Modern RomanceDirections: Fast and asymmetrical… ...

The Worst

Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 11 February 1978

THE WORST THEN. The name? Aha an apt trap. Illustrating at once the extreme that they are, yet at the same time to ...

Power Pop part 2: The C&A Generation In The Land Of The Bland

Comment by Jon Savage, Sounds, 18 February 1978

TICK TOCK f – the clock/the pendulum swings...Oh it's so inevitable in post-punk letdown – the Pistols' 'split': sooooo symbolic – that attempts would be ...

Iggy Pop, The Stooges: James Williamson: Real Time Musician From Kill City

Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 25 February 1978

A PHONE CONSERVATION with James Williamson at his present home in Claremont, half-an-hour outside Los Angeles. Mainly to talk about the newly released 1975 Pop/Williamson ...

Devo: Are We Not Ready?

Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 4 March 1978

THE FIRST THING you notice on arrival at Koln airport is the modernity and organization. No baggage queues. No pre-fab ramshackle buildings. ...

Lou Reed: Street Hassle

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 11 March 1978

WHAT DO you expect from someone who's been playing rock'n'roll for nearly 15 years, in a business where age is to be feared rather than ...

Magazine Article!

Interview by Jon Savage, New York Rocker, April 1978

"Well I say what I mean/I say what comes to my mind" – 'Boredom' "Whatever makes me tick/It takes away my concentration" – 'Breakdown' ...

Cabaret Voltaire: Something strange is going on in Sheffield tonight

Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 15 April 1978

INSIDE THE HOUSE, an hour to kill before going into town. Hungover. Sit on the sofa and watch TV with the sound off. A tape ...

Kraftwerk: The Man Machine

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 29 April 1978

SEE THE record cover. See the four men in red shirts and black ties. See them stand in line. See them in profile in the ...

The Seeds: Merlin's Music Box

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 29 April 1978

In which Sounds scribes bring long ignored or deleted albums to your attention. No star rating necessary – naturally, they're all Very Important Platters ...

Snatch

Profile and Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 6 May 1978

PATTI PALLADIN and JUDY NYLON came to Britain last year, made 3 remarkable singles (one with Eno) then split. Or did they? JON SAVAGE steps ...

Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees: Music Machine, London

Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 13 May 1978

SWEET SIOUXSIE and her boys in black play loud, angular, claustrophobic. Batter batter into submission: make you want to do bad things... ...

David Bowie: Peter And The Wolf

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 27 May 1978

THE RELEVANCE of this classical record to the 'rock marketplace' is quite frankly marginal but evidently heavily counted upon by RCA in their wisdom. ...

Throbbing Gristle: Industrial Paranoia: The Very Dangerous Visions Of Throbbing Gristle

Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 3 June 1978

'All art aspires to the condition of musak.' 'Most of the people who disapprove of musak... but we are doing it for your own good!' ...

Magazine: Real Life

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 3 June 1978

'I'm faking an extravagant journey, also it seems to me...' ...

Chrome: Alien Soundtracks

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 24 June 1978

REMEMBERING THAT electricity comes from other planets... ...

Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie And The Banshees: The Unacceptable Face Of '78

Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 24 June 1978

'Overground – from abnormalityOverboard – for identityOverground – for normalityOverboard – on identity'– 'Overground' ...

Devo, Jane Aire & The Belvederes, Rachel Sweet, The Waitresses: Various Artists: The Akron Compilation (Stiff); Short Circuit — Live at the Electric Circus (Virgin)

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 24 June 1978

OH JESUS! After Devo, the (marketing) deluge. ...

The Subway Sect: Subway Sect: Life Underground

Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 1 July 1978

Everyone's a prostituteSinging in the song in prisonMoral standards the wallpaperThe wall's a bad religionMedia teach me what to speakTake my decisionsIt's how to find ...

The Ramones: Road To Ruin

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 16 September 1978

JOEY RAMONE sips tea, strikes Janet Street Porter pose... ...

Buzzcocks: Love Bites

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 23 September 1978

VULNERABILITY MEANS never having to say you're sorry... ...

David Bowie: Stage

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 30 September 1978

SO: THE next stage. The ending of one, the beginning of another? But of course, all the world's a stage. Aaaaaaah... ...

Penetration: Moving Targets (Virgin)****

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 14 October 1978

WE'RE NOT the same, you're not the same, they're not the same. ...

13th Floor Elevators, Red Krayola: Thirteenth Floor Elevators: Psychedelic Sounds Of.../Red Krayola: Parable Of Arable Land

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 21 October 1978

THESE ALBUMS are famous, if at all, for not being famous. Now that the all too seductive veil of obscurity has been lifted (and therefore ...

Pere Ubu: Dub Housing

Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 4 November 1978

A week is a month and you could be forgiven for thinking that the times would catch up with Pere Ubu (and overtake them) as ...

The Clash: Give 'Em Enough Rope (CBS 82431)

Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 11 November 1978

The Clash: War 'n' pizza ...

The Sex Pistols: Bootleg Albums

Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 18 November 1978

The Sex Pistols: Gun Control/Live at the Rodeo ...

X-Ray Spex: Germ Free Adolescents

Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 18 November 1978

"I WANNA BE A FROZEN PEA!" Does Poly Styrene finally make it? Will she really dehydrate? Does she turn into a Teasmade? Will she... ...

Cabaret Voltaire, pragVEC, Red Crayola, Scritti Politti: Red Crayola, Cabaret Voltaire, Scritti Politti, pragVEC: Acklam Hall, London

Live Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 2 December 1978

IN THE collapse of trends, movements — individuals: when they combine, all the stronger. Tonight four bands moving forward, confidently or haltingly, but all with ...

Judas Priest: Killing Machine

Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 9 December 1978

THE LEAD SINGER sweats redly, tuffness of the strategic stud decorations unable to blind the look of uncertainty in his eye for the camera as ...

Throbbing Gristle: D.O.A. (Industrial)

Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 23 December 1978

THE UNDERGROWTH OF pop...Take the mechanics of the situation as being something like this: you have a multi-million dollar industry, which has established channels whereby ...

Snatch Says: "Morons Are Running The Media!"

Interview by Jon Savage, Search & Destroy, Spring 1978

JON SAVAGE interviewed PAT PALLADIN in London a while ago... ...

The Screamers

Profile and Interview by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 6 January 1979

IT’S a truism to say that you have to decide which is real – you or Los Angeles – but like most truisms, it has ...

The Sex Pistols: The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle

Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 24 February 1979

"WHAT NEEDS UNDERSTANDING is the state of paralysis everyone is in..." ...

Tom Robinson Band: The Tom Robinson Band: TRB Two (EMI)

Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 10 March 1979

Just Easing The Liberal Guilt ...

Crass, Poison Girls, The Wall: Acklam Hall, London

Live Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 7 April 1979

A SPARSELY attended benefit for the Anarchist Black Cross Cienfuegos Press; a slow night — both the cause and its supporting groups (safely) out of ...

Iggy Pop: The Factory, Manchester

Live Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 28 April 1979

THE RETURN of the simian from oblivion: a club tour, much heralded by local media, ensures a leisure factory stretched to the limit of its ...

Red Krayola: Red Crayola: Soldier-Talk (Radar)

Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 28 April 1979

IN A CURRENT context of confusion, Soldier-Talk appears to be a good idea. ...

Lou Reed: The Bells (Arista)

Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 5 May 1979

WHAT DO you buy when you buy Lou Reed, and do you still need to buy him? ...

David Bowie: Lodger

Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 26 May 1979

ANOTHER YEAR, another record. Like Burroughs, David Jones, rootless, looks for unconventional commitment: Burroughs found it in junk, control-systems and predatory homosexuality; Jones found it ...

Public Image Ltd.: The Factory, Manchester

Live Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 18 June 1979

A Quick One While No-One's Thinking ...

The B-52s: B-52s (Island)

Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 30 June 1979

Yesterday's Sound Tomorrow ...

Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures

Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 21 July 1979

"To talk of life today is like talking of rope in the house of a hanged man." Where will it end? ...

Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie And The Banshees: Join Hands (Polydor)

Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 1 September 1979

(IT'S MY party and) I'll mystify if I want to! ...

A Certain Ratio, The Distractions, Echo & The Bunnymen, Joy Division, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, The Teardrop Explodes: Joy Division/Echo & The Bunnymen/OMD/Teardrop Explodes/The Distractions/ACR: Leigh Valley Festival, Lancashire

Live Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 8 September 1979

Angst in an East Lancs wasteland ...

Gary Numan: Apollo Theatre, Glasgow

Live Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 29 September 1979

THE FACE of '79 doesn't belong to a mod, punk, or to anyone so sectarian, but to Gary Numan, and it's time we faced up ...

Wire: 154 (Harvest)

Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 29 September 1979

WRAPPED IN an abstract minimal geo-deco sleeve (all straight lines and waves, pastel shades), with its own label and a "free" 45, the third Wire ...

Gang of Four: Entertainment (EMI)

Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 6 October 1979

THE Four are ambitious; and so they accept the process. ...

Gary Numan: Playing To The Aliens

Interview by Jon Savage, Smash Hits, 15 November 1979

John Savage finds out what success means to Gary Numan. ...

James Chance: The Contortions: Buy — The Contortions (ZE ZEA 33-002. U.S. import)

Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 5 January 1980

Let's twist ourselves ...

Flying Lizards: The Flying Lizards: The Flying Lizards (Virgin)

Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 2 February 1980

WHY DID THE hit maker make an LP? Because it was expected of him. Slips down easy. ...

Joy Division: From Safety To Where?

Comment by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 14 June 1980

ABOUT MIDDAY on Sunday, May 18, Ian Curtis was found dead by his wife in the kitchen of his house in Macclesfield. Although the exact ...

Bow Wow Wow: Sun, Sea & Piracy

Interview by Jon Savage, The Face, October 1980

POP, THAT disposable distraction, is mostly about transience: it’s the order of the perpetual child, the moment! Not that those last long these days. Most ...

David Bowie: The Gender Bender

Comment by Jon Savage, The Face, November 1980

"WHAT DO YOU want to be when you grow up, David?" ...

Throbbing Gristle: The Tape Decays: Throbbing Gristle

Sleeve notes by Jon Savage, , 1981

CUT UP END incantations. Click. Machines hum. Silence clears. Slowly, the tape recorders start to spin: the vortex is set in motion. IBM computer tape: ...

Vivienne Westwood: Rich pickings at the World's End

Interview by Jon Savage, The Face, January 1981

Let It Rock, Sex, Seditionaries...Anarchy t-shirts and bondage straps. VIVIENNE WESTWOOD’S new collection is called World’s End. She talked about it to JON SAVAGE. ...

Brave New Twirl

Essay by Jon Savage, The Face, April 1981

Jon Savage went to the People's Palace and watched Blitz Culture go public. FLASH! ...

Public Image Ltd: Public Image Limited: The Flowers Of Romance (Virgin)

Review by Jon Savage, The Face, April 1981

A typically caustic, sardonic title: the thorn in the rose. If much of the current chart has much of the grace and flow of 1966 ...

Punk Five Years On. A Pogo Down Memory Lane...

Overview by Jon Savage, The Face, November 1981

Sept 20/21, 1976: The two-day Punk Festival at London's 100 Club showcases the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Damned, Buzzcocks, Subway Sect, and the debut ...

Soft Cell: Marc Almond: The Whip Hand

Interview by Jon Savage, The Face, January 1982

…and who holds it? The pop process, alienation and sexuality discussed with Marc Almond. By JON SAVAGE. ...

Goodbye Young Lovers (wherever you are)

Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Face, March 1982

Jon Savage laments the Sixties attitudes still stubbornly enshrined in television's coverage of pop: "Boom Time is over and its children must shape up." ...

Patti Palladin: Snatches: Patti Palladin almost interviewed by Jon Savage

Interview by Jon Savage, The Face, May 1982

Patti Palladin... ...

Sex Pistols: Jamie Reid

Interview by Jon Savage, The Face, October 1983

FOR SOMEONE whose work has graced millions of record sleeves and influenced a whole generation, Jamie Reid’s personal profile is not the highest. This is ...

ABC: Past Imperfect, Future Tense

Interview by Jon Savage, The Face, January 1984

On the dreamstage of a pop-music fantasy, ABC were cast as the perfection of a glossy ideal. But their irony was misread, their clothes misconstrued. ...

The Smiths: Deliberately

Interview by Jon Savage, The Sunday Times, 8 January 1984

THESE ARE EXCITING times for the Smiths. A top 20 record with only their second single, ‘This Charming Man’; a non-stop stream of interviews that ...

The Smiths

Profile by Jon Savage, Spin, June 1985

They aren't teen idols, but have a number-one album thanks mainly to Morrissey, their asexual, charismatic singer-writer. ...

Savage Cool

Overview by Jon Savage, i-D, February 1986

Jon Savage is one of the arch voices of our time, a blithe spirit with a vicious tongue and a wicked pen: dedicated, deadly and ...

Radio 1: Pleasing All The People

Report and Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 23 February 1986

Pop station or pap station? The head of Radio 1 talks to JON SAVAGE ...

John Lydon, Malcolm McLaren, The Sex Pistols: Lydon vs McLaren: The End of the Affair

Report by Jon Savage, Spin, April 1986

EARLY IN 1976, the Sex Pistols were a good idea trying to get started, gate-crashing other people's concerts — with instruments allegedly stolen from rich ...

Boy George, Culture Club: Boy George: Chasing the Dragon

Report by Jon Savage, The Observer, 13 July 1986

JON SAVAGE reports on the rise and fall of Boy George ...

Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders: Chrissie Hynde: Still spikey after baby

Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 19 October 1986

"PEOPLE OFTEN say to me in interviews: 'You aren't very prolific are you?' The answer is, no I'm not! I could step up my output, ...

Dire Straits, Pet Shop Boys, Spandau Ballet: BPI Awards: Middle-age Spread

Report by Jon Savage, The Observer, 15 February 1987

JON SAVAGE takes a sceptical look at the BPI Awards ...

Boy George, Culture Club: Boy George: Flying nun back on the runway

Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 22 February 1987

Boy George talks exclusively to JON SAVAGE about heroin, cold turkey and death ...

Pink Floyd, Roger Waters: Roger Waters: He's Got The Technology

Profile and Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 12 July 1987

Roger Waters talks to JON SAVAGE about life after Pink Floyd ...

Bruce Springsteen: Dave Marsh: Glory Days: A Biography of Bruce Springsteen (Sidgwick & Jackson)

Book Review by Jon Savage, The Observer, August 1987

Sucking up to the boss ...

T. Graham Brown: Like It Used To Be

Profile and Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 30 August 1987

Rising Country star T. Graham Brown makes conversation with JON SAVAGE ...

That Petrol Emotion: Emotional Rescue

Interview by Jon Savage, Spin, September 1987

That Petrol Emotion ignite post-punk rock with incendiary politics. And they're putting out the fire with gasoline. Article by Jon Savage ...

Home Taping: Off the Record

Report by Simon Frith, Jon Savage, The Observer, 11 October 1987

SIMON FRITH and JON SAVAGE on the home-taping controversy ...

Eric B. & Rakim, The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu, M/A/R/R/S, Stock Aitken Waterman: Sampling the Sounds

Report by Simon Frith, Jon Savage, The Observer, 18 October 1987

SIMON FRITH and JON SAVAGE on more copyright complexities ...

The 101'ers, The Clash, Sex Pistols, Joe Strummer: Joe Strummer

Interview by Jon Savage, unpublished, 30 May 1988

This interview was for Jon Savage's classic punk book England's Dreaming, and is published here in its entirity for the first time. ...

Lester Bangs: Psychotic Reactions And Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs, edited by Greil Marcus (Heinemann £9.95)

Book Review by Jon Savage, The Observer, 10 July 1988

Inside outsider ...

Jive Turkey

Report and Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 13 October 1988

IT'S 8.45 ON A typically crisp Friday evening in Sheffield. The queue is already beginning to lengthen, even though the doors to the City Hall ...

Saint Etienne: Foxbase Alpha

Sleeve notes by Jon Savage, Mantra Records, 1989

There are still plenty of real Londoners who sleep the night in London as well as work the day there – some in love, some ...

Dusty Springfield: Brand New Dusty

Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 12 February 1989

She was the beehive who buzzed to the top of the Sixties pops and faded into the California sunset in the Seventies. The Press proved ...

Men in Vogue, House Style

Report and Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 26 February 1989

Ritualised violence, style and beauty make up the male world of Voguing: the new dance from New York's ghettos. ...

Depeche Mode: Modernists à la Mode

Profile and Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 12 March 1989

JON SAVAGE enters the futuristic visions of Depeche Mode, where androgyny meets electro-pop ...

R.E.M.: Post-Yuppie Pop

Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 21 May 1989

"I COULD TURN YOU inside out! But I choose not to!" R.E.M.’s singer Michael Stipe, back arched, is bellowing into a megaphone. Five songs into ...

The Stone Roses: Flaring Up: The Stone Roses at Spike Island

Report and Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 8 July 1990

YOU CAN see them all over the North-West, drifting through Manchester’s arcades, doing the swim-dance in the high-tech Hacienda, travelling en masse to tribal events ...

Pere Ubu: Heart of Darkness

Interview by Jon Savage, Spin, July 1991

Pere Ubu remains one of the most influential, innovative groups to emerge from the mid-'70s American punk-new wave movement. JON SAVAGE listens to some pearls ...

My Bloody Valentine: Feedback to the Future: My Bloody Valentine

Interview by Jon Savage, 20/20, Spring 1991

THERE MAY BE A HALF-FORMED thought in your head, buzzing vaguely like low-level background noise, that the language we use to talk about music – ...

Joy Division: An Interview with Martin Hannett, 29th May 1989

Interview by Jon Savage, Touch-Vagabond, 1992

JS: How did you come across Joy Division? ...

Nick Cave, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: A Lighter Shade of Cave

Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 15 March 1992

JON SAVAGE MEETS THE SINGER KNOWN AS THE PUNK MESSIAH ...

The Beatles, Sex Pistols: Pointing Pistols at the throne

Essay by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 2 June 1993

There is something Rotten in the state of England. Republicanism is emerging as an option even for Tory meritocrats — thanks to the punk's subversiveness ...

Kurt Cobain, Nirvana: Kurt Cobain (1993)

Interview by Jon Savage, Rock's Backpages audio, 22 July 1993

Childhood in Aberdeen WA; 'Teen Spirit' and making it; Courtney Love and marriage; drugs and the stresses of success; Vig vs Albini; that notorious MTV Awards incident – it's pretty much all here.

File format: mp3; file size: 96.7mb, interview length: 1h 45' 35" sound quality: ****

Nirvana: Sounds Dirty: The Truth About Nirvana

Report and Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 15 August 1993

SITUATED ON 51st Street and Broadway, in the heart of the old entertainment area, Roseland is a New York institution. In the 1920s it was ...

Leftfield, L.F.O., Andrew Weatherall: Techno: The Sound Warp

Overview by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 22 October 1993

Let me take you on a journey... After the drugs and the digital-industrial dreamscapes, just what is the secret of the mega-successful Techno white dance ...

Moby Grape: Vintage: The Very Best Of Moby Grape

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, November 1993

MOBY GRAPE BEGAN IN 1966, arguably the decade's peak; they fell apart in 1969, a time of madness, desolation, dread. Between the optimism of ‘Hey ...

Pop: March of the Modes

Comment by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 23 November 1993

THEY'RE AT it again. Yes, even here in the Guardian, the thirtysomething zombies, with their litany: Pop isn't what it used to be, there are ...

Brian Eno: Eno's No Bounds

Interview by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 26 November 1993

Brian Eno used to wear leopard skin and make the synthesised squeaks and honks for Roxy Music. Now he's the venerable intellectual of pop ...

Aphex Twin: Machine Soul: A History Of Techno

Overview by Jon Savage, The Village Voice, Summer 1993

Oooh oooh Techno cityHope you enjoy your stayWelcome to Techno cityYou will never want to go away– Cybotron, 'Techno City' (1984) ...

Seefeel: Quique

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, January 1994

MUSIC ALWAYS SEEKS TO BREAK THE BOUNDS of language: indeed, the language of words is often inadequate to describe what music does as it enters ...

Suede: Dream On

Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, January 1994

They were suburban loners who saw the potential for beauty inside the tawdry and extravagant. Together they won attention and success. As Suede step into ...

Joy Division: Someone Take These Dreams Away

Retrospective and Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, July 1994

HERE ARE THE young men, a weight on their shouldersHere are the young men, well where have they been?We knocked on the doors of hell's ...

The Who: 30 Years Of Maximum R&B

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, July 1994

APART FROM THE BARRON KNIGHTS AT BERTRAM MILLS Circus, the first group I ever saw live was The Who: It could have been Spooky Tooth, ...

Nirvana: The Death of Kurt Cobain

Report by Jon Savage, The Observer, 24 July 1994

DEPENDING ON your view of the afterlife, suicide may or may not be the solution to a life that has become unbearable. For ...

Gender vendors

Comment by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 2 September 1994

From Pink Floyd to the pink pound, pop has provided a lifeline for the young to find heroes often denied a voice elsewhere ...

Blur, M People, Shara Nelson, Michael Nyman, The Prodigy, Pulp, Take That, Therapy?, Paul Weller: Now the Mercury rises

Report by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 16 September 1994

Jon Savage sees the north take its regional revenge ...

Bryan Ferry

Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, October 1994

BRYAN FERRY SHOULD NEED LITTLE introduction. The first five Roxy Music albums – Roxy Music, For Your Pleasure, Stranded, Country Life and Siren – defined ...

Elvis Presley: Love Him Tender, Love Him True

Book Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, December 1994

Peter Guralnick: Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley ...

Blur: Lads and asses

Essay by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 16 December 1994

The media's love affair with football has spawned a huge culture industry. But is it to blame for the return of loutishness? ...

The Beatles: Live At The BBC

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, January 1995

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS on from their demise, The Beatles continue to exercise a hypnotic spell as the ur-myth of modernist pop culture. As befits the group ...

Hank Marvin, The Shadows: Four-Eyes, One Vision: The Shadows

Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 1995

BRIAN RANKIN GREW UP IN NEWCASTLE: WHEN he was 16, in 1957, he travelled to London with his school friend Bruce Welch "in an attempt ...

Helen Shapiro: Cloud 95

Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 1995

HELEN SHAPIRO WAS BRITAIN'S FIRST TEENAGE FEMALE pop star. Born in 1946, she made her first record at the age of 14, for Norrie Paramor ...

Move It! The British Rock 'n' Roll Explosion

Overview by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 1995

FOR MOST PEOPLE OF 40 AND UNDER, British pop begins with The Beatles: this is the view that has been encouraged by rock writers ever ...

Cliff Richard, The Shadows: Move it! The Butch Rock 'n' Roll Explosion

Retrospective by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 1995

FOR MOST PEOPLE OF 40 AND UNDER, British pop begins with The Beatles: this is the view that has been encouraged by rock writers ever ...

Marty Wilde: The Blackheath Jungle

Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 1995

MARTY WILDE WAS, ALONG WITH CLIFF, BRITAIN'S BIGGEST ROCK star from 1958 through 1960: there was even a girl's comic named after him. Born Reginald ...

Cliff Richard: The Great Pretender

Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 1995

CLIFF IS THE ARCHETYPAL BRITISH POP STAR. Born in 1940, his extraordinary career began with the release of his first record, 'Move It', in autumn ...

Odysseys and Oddities: Jon Savage compiles the definitive Space-Rock Tape

Guide by Jon Savage, MOJO, March 1995

MUSIC AND THE cosmos have a special relationship, bound by mathematics, spirituality and that basic human need to get out there. Just as important as ...

Tricky: Maxinquaye

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, March 1995

THIS IS A brilliant record: densely layered, full of barely controlled nervous energy, paranoid under surveillance, at times more intimate than you’d wish – like ...

Björk: The Always Uncjorked Björk

Interview by Jon Savage, Interview, June 1995

POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS in a studio high above Covent Garden, Björk is exactly like her image – a little taller, perhaps, but everything else is ...

The Sex Pistols: Never Mind the TV Bollocks

Report by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 11 August 1995

Jon Savage mulls over the four-year struggle to put his definitive study of Punk, England's Dreaming, on television ...

Gorky's Zygotic Mynci: Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci: Aberconwy Centre, Llandudno

Live Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, October 1995

WITH ITS BARDS, novelists and massed choirs, the Eisteddfod is the central event in the Welsh cultural and social calendar: what is less well known ...

Blur, Oasis: The Marketing Of Britpop

Overview by Jon Savage, Artforum, October 1995

RECENTLY I returned from the US into a British news media dominated by a by-election in the North West of England. The point about the ...

The Beatles: The Outtakes

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, November 1995

Behind every great Beatles track is a version not quite so good. But not necessarily less interesting... Jon Savage listens to the outtakes. ...

Grateful Dead, John Oswald: The Grateful Dead: Europe ’72, Hundred Year Hall, Grayfolded 1969-1996 (with John Oswald)

Review and Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, December 1995

Far out, too much: people still sneer at The Grateful Dead, using these phrases as a kind of sardonic shorthand to dismiss high-‘60s ideals. But ...

Manic Street Preachers: A Design For The Future: Manic Street Preachers

Interview by Jon Savage, Dazed & Confused, 1996

What follows is a transcript of an interview Jon Savage did with Nicky Wire in February 1996, during which Nicky agreed to talk frankly and ...

Jungle Pirate Radio

Essay by Jon Savage, Artforum, May 1996

BUILT IN a clay basin, London promotes claustrophobia as a way of life: but then, something can happen that lets the air in, that makes ...

The Sex Pistols: A Seance in Finsbury Park: The Sex Pistols Reunite

Live Review by Jon Savage, Spin, August 1996

JUST BEFORE the Sex Pistols take the stage in the waning light, a curious hush falls on the boisterous punk crowd. A myth is to ...

Charlatans, The (US): The Charlatans: The Amazing Charlatans (Big Beat CDWIKD 138)

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, November 1996

First legitimate release of much-bootlegged material by the first San Franciscan psychedelic group. Features album recorded for Karma Sutra in 1966, plus demos from late ...

The Subway Sect: Leaders Of The Opposition

Review and Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, December 1996

Subway Sect: We Oppose All Rock & Roll (Overground) Jon Savage listens to Subway Sect's brief recorded legacy, and talks to frontman Vic Godard. ...

Nirvana, Oasis, Pulp, Sex Pistols: True Brits

Interview by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 20 December 1996

A young New York painter looks like becoming "the first artist of Britpop". Jon Savage on how Elizabeth Peyton's portraits of Jarvis, Liam and Noel ...

Giorgio Moroder

Retrospective by Jon Savage, Request, 1997

SO YOU THINK Giorgio Moroder and you think of Donna Summer's pornographic 'Love To Love You Baby' and all that followed, but there's more to ...

Iggy Pop, The Stooges: Iggy & The Stooges: Raw Power

Retrospective by Jon Savage, Dazed & Confused, 1997

ONE HUGE problem with 1997 is not that rock groups are everywhere but that they are almost without exception over-promoted, overindulged and half-baked. ...

Kurt Cobain, Nirvana: Kurt Cobain: The Lost Interview

Interview by Jon Savage, Guitar World, 1997

In July of 1993, Kurt Cobain gave a dramatically candid interview to respected British rock journalist Jon Savage. Freely discussed were such controversial topics as ...

The Beatles: The Sound of Acid

Overview by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 31 January 1997

Hey man — it's time to beat that cosmic tabla and slap on a droning tape loop. Drug-infused psychedelia, says Jon Savage, never went away ...

Nico, The Velvet Underground: Name Game: Billy Name

Interview by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 25 April 1997

At Andy Warhol's Factory everybody wanted to be a star. Everyone except Billy Name. He designed the Factory, curated it, soothed the egos of Warhol's ...

Psychedelia: The 100 Greatest Classics

Guide by Jon Savage, MOJO, June 1997

Back by public demand, and even more mind-expanding, Jon Savage takes a trip through psychedelia’s golden years to compile the ultimate six-hour flashback. ...

Blur, Oasis, The Stone Roses, Paul Weller: Brit Pop: The Boys Club

Essay by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 4 July 1997

Pop music is booming, right? British bands are taking over the world, right? Wrong. The yobbish lads of Brit rock are about to hit the ...

Dave Godin: He's a Soul Man

Profile and Interview by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 12 September 1997

Dave Godin rubbed shoulders with Motown's greats and brought us black American music. But, says Jon Savage, his great achievement was creating northern soul ...

Cornershop: When I Was Born for the 7th Time

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, Fall 1997

THIS IS A GOOD party record: loose, funny, warm – exemplary genre-trashing by musicians who have a great recollection (as they chant on 'Brimful ...

Gene Clark: Flying High (Polydor)

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, 1998

UNTIL RECENTLY, Gene Clark has been one of rock's best kept secrets. Harassed by his Byrd colleagues, ignored as the real inventor of country rock ...

Jefferson Airplane: Surrealistic Pillow/Crown Of Creation/Volunteers

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, March 1998

Straight mid-price reissues of the Airplane's second, fourth and sixth albums – first time in the UK for Surrealistic Pillow ...

The Electric Eels: The Eyeball Of Hell

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, May 1998

THE ELECTRIC Eels operated in a no-man's land that now seems fascinating: that mid-'70s moment between glitter and punk rock. It wasn't as though they ...

Ian Brown, The Stone Roses: Ian Brown: Stone crazy

Report by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 14 May 1998

Ian Brown, former singer in the Stone Roses, has caused a storm in the music press by comparing homosexuals to Nazis. Jon Savage wants to ...

David Bowie, Gary Glitter, Roxy Music, Sweet, T. Rex: Divine Decadence: Memories Of Glam

Retrospective by Jon Savage, Gadfly, October 1998

GLAM — or as it was originally called in the UK, Glitter Rock — flourished from early summer 1972 to summer 1974: shorter than Hippie, ...

Kiss & Make-Up: The Perfect Glam Rock Soundtrack

Guide by Jon Savage, MOJO, November 1998

IN THE OPENING minutes of todd Haynes's Velvet Goldmine, a gaggle of lads hurtle down a drab city street, tottering in their platforms, clad in ...

The Beatles: "No one else had the flair, the panache, the wit that Brian had," says Paul McCartney. So why did he die miserably and alone?

Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 18 December 1998

Jon Savage describes how Brian Epstein fell victim to drugs and the pressures of being a secret homosexual. ...

Skip Spence : Alexander Spence: Oar (Sundazed)

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, 1999

THE PASSING OF TIME has edged some psych esoterica into the mainstream, and Oar is a shining example. At once individual confession, generational narrative, and ...

Disco-Tex and His Sex-O-Lettes: Get Dancin'

Sleeve notes by Jon Savage, Castle Records, 1999

It's all about wonder the power to be like thunderexpressing electricity It's the greatest show with the best effectssince Disco Tex and the SexolettesPet Shop ...

Kak: Kak-Ola (Big Beat/Ace)

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, 1999

KAK'S ONE and only album – released in the US during January 1969 – captures the Bay Area boom at its furthest outreach. ...

The Olivia Tremor Control: Olivia Tremor Control: Black Foliage (Blue Rose/ V2)

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, 1999

THE GOOD NEWS is that this double album maintains the high quality of OTC's Dusk At Cubist Castle, which updated the methodology of classic psychedelia ...

Roger Eagle 1942-1999

Obituary by Jon Savage, MOJO, 1999

ROGER EAGLE was an unsung hero of British pop, with ground-level involvement in successive youth/ musical subcultures from the Twisted Wheel and Northern Soul in ...

Donna Summer: Saturday Night Forever: The Story of Disco by Alan Jones & Jussi Kantonen (Mainstream Publishing PB £9.99)

Book Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, June 1999

Party like it's 1977. In the depressed 1970s, one musical movement dared to say (mirror)balls to despondency. Don't get down, get down! urges Jon Savage. ...

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band: Grow Fins

Review and Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, June 1999

"That’s right, the Mascara Snake." And even if it isn’t, someone will put it in a box set one day. A feast of leftover Beefheart ...

The Chemical Brothers: Chemical Brothers: Heeeere we go!

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, July 1999

The Chemical Brothers: Surrender First album since 1997's chart-topping Dig Your Own Hole features guest vocals from Noel Gallagher, Hope Sandoval, Jonathan Donahue and Bernard ...

MC5: The MC5: The Big Bang (Rhino)

Review by Jon Savage, Dave DiMartino, MOJO, February 2000

First overall retrospective of seminal late ‘60s/early ‘70s rabble rousers: includes material from all stages of their career. ...

John Lennon: Imagine (Apple/EMI)

Review and Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, April 2000

Straight reissue of classic album, with digital remastering treatment. ...

Sniffin' Glue: The Essential Punk Accessory

Retrospective and Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, August 2000

WHEN THE FIRST Ramones album appeared in London, during the spring of 1976, it changed everything: not only the tempo and the look of rock, ...

The Saints: Wild About You (Raven/Hot)

Review and Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, December 2000

First stellar collection of the Aussie garage punks’ late ‘70s triumphs: two CDs, 47 tracks, sleevenotes, unseen photos and discography. ...

The Middle Class, The Negative Trend, The Weirdos: America’s Dreaming: California Punk, 1978

Book Excerpt by Jon Savage, England's Dreaming, 2001

25.8.78: This is my first visit to the U.S., let alone the West Coast, and I know that I’m on another planet, especially when, at ...

"The Agora of the Wayward": A Quarter Century of Rough Trade

Sleeve notes by Jon Savage, Mute Records, March 2001

"I USED TO buy my records in a shop in Trafalgar Road, and the man there was quite avant-garde for his day. Whenever I bought ...

Love: Forever Changes

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, March 2001

ONE OF the most persistent canards about the mid-'60 – propagated by baby boomer marketing and right-wing journalism – is that the hippies were hopelessly ...

The Kinks: The Kinks BBC Sessions

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, April 2001

NO DOUBT it's their sheer longevity, but The Kinks remain curiously undervalued: often cited as a key neo-Mod/Britpop inspiration – as if that's anything to ...

Bob Dylan: The End Of Innocence

Retrospective by Jon Savage, MOJO, June 2001

WHAT AFFECTS you in your early teens goes very deep. By the time that you're 18, identity construction is already advanced, but at 11 you're ...

Various: Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, July 2001

WITHIN THE rabid isolationism of the Bush regime, this is a remarkably generous statement: a monster collection aimed at the American market featuring aver a ...

Creedence Clearwater Revival: Creedence Clearwater Revival

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, December 2001

FOR A FEW SEASONS as the '60s turned into the '70s, Creedence Clearwater Revival were the biggest band in the world, with their incredible US ...

Grateful Dead: The Golden Road (1965-1973)

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, January 2002

Mammoth 12-CD overview of Haight-Ashbury's finest, featuring improved sound, thorough annotation, extra tracks and hidden bonuses. All together: "Shall we go, you and I, while ...

Gene Clark: White Light

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, August 2002

"THERE WAS so much I was told that was not real," Gene Clark croons on the haunting 'With Tomorrow', "so many things I could not ...

The Who: My Generation

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, September 2002

The first legitimate CD release of The Who's epoch-making debut album, plus 18 tracks cut with their producer, Shel Talmy, in 1965 and early 1966. ...

The Rolling Stones: Remasters Series

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, November 2002

IN A ROCK ERA where back catalogue is king, The Rolling Stones have hitherto been ill-served by their servants. Their one-time peers The Beatles have ...

The Kinks: The New Naturalists: The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (Sanctuary)

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, September 2004

Definitive 3-CD upgrade of the Kinks' 1968 classic, with the original album in mono/stereo, and a third disc of unreleased and/or hard-to-find material. Includes Mick ...

Sid Vicious: "Nothing can hurt him anymore"

Retrospective by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 2005

Sid's mother Anne Beverley died of a heroin overdose in 1996, but not before sharing her side of Sid's story. As told to Jon Savage. ...

The Chocolate Watchband: Melts In Your Brain Not On Your Wrist

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, June 2005

At last! The complete works of the legendary San Franciscan psych-punkers: Jon Savage satisfies his sweet tooth. ...

The Ramones: Weird Tales Of The Ramones

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, August 2005

NOTHING CAN recapture the impact of how The Ramones sounded in spring 1976. Listening to it now, it sounds slow, formal, almost sedate: the Superpop ...

The Beau Brummels: Bradley's Barn

Review and Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, November 2005

IF 1967 WAS the year that the torch passed from England back to America, from Swinging London to Haight-Ashbury, then 1968 was the year that ...

The Prefects: Live 1978: The Co-Op Suite, Birmingham

Sleeve notes by Jon Savage, Caroline True Records, 2006

This recollection of a March 1978 concert was revived nearly 30 years after the event for Caroline True's issue of a full Prefects live show ...

George Brigman, Todd Tamanend Clark: George Brigman: Jungle Rot/Todd Tamanend Clark: Nova Psychedelia

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, April 2006

Weird tales from Baltimore and Cleveland: two albums from the American rock underground from the year that time forgot, 1975. ...

Buzzcocks, Joy Division, Magazine: Various Artists: Zero - A Martin Hannett Story 1977-1991

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, May 2006

The post-punk Phil Spector lives on again on a (single CD) retrospective that reveals him to be a producer both before his time and ahead ...

The Byrds: There Is A Season

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, October 2006

They were there at the beginning. Now a 4-CD box set spans 1964-1990 in yet another career overview, Gene-Clark-heavy this time, with five unreleased tracks ...

Joy Division: The Eternal

Retrospective by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 2007

Jon Savage returns to the claustrophobic urban landscape of post-punk northern England to re-examine the soul-scorching singular vision of the band's late vocalist, Ian Curtis, ...

Arctic Monkeys: Favourite Worst Nightmare

Review by Jon Savage, The Observer, 22 April 2007

Don't be fooled by their common touch: the cheeky chimps are special. Jon Savage hears them make sense of the modern world ...

Black Mountain: In The Future

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 2008

Second full album as Vancouver heavy psychers turn up the heat with their dark magick. ...

Pre-Punk Rock

Retrospective by Jon Savage, Ugly Things, February 2008

NOTE: This was written as an introduction to a brilliant Ugly Things article by Johan Kugelberg called "No More Jubilees: Punk Before Punk", which aimed ...

Julian Cope: Stone me!

Interview by Jon Savage, Observer Music Monthly, 10 August 2008

Julian Cope believes in music made by outsiders for outsiders. Now 50, and still incandescent with his passions for Krautrock and stone circles, he tells ...

Rodriguez: Cold Fact

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, September 2008

Strange but true: Return of a 1970 proto-rap legend ...

The Magazine Explosion: UK Pop Publications in the '60s

Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Observer, 6 September 2009

IT'S FEBRUARY 1963. The Beatles are No 2 in the charts with 'Please Please Me' and it's time to meet the press. An anonymous reporter ...

Brendan Mullen Obituary

Obituary by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 2 November 2009

Nightclub owner who acted as a catalyst for the LA punk scene ...

Various Artists: Disco Discharge – Classic Disco, Euro Disco, Gay Disco, Disco Ladies

Review by Jon Savage, The Word, December 2009

AS IS THEIR wont, the Pet Shop Boys really summed it up on 'Can You Forgive Her?':"She's made you some kind of laughing stock/Because you ...

Fingers Inc.: Fingers, Inc: 'Mystery of Love' (Club Version)

Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 2 March 2010

FIRST RELEASED in 1985 (on Alleviated Records), then remixed by Larry Heard for a DJ International 12", 'Mystery of Love' seemed to come out of ...

At Large in the Black Hole of Punk L.A.

Sleeve notes by Jon Savage, 'Black Hole' (Domino Records), November 2010

NOTE: Adapted from Strange Things # 1, published spring 1988, this forms the first part of the liner notes for Black Hole: Jon Savage Presents ...

Bobby Jameson rages against the Vietnam war

Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 10 November 2010

A FANFARE OF slow, church organ chords – straight out of a horror film – resolves into a brutal Bo Diddley beat. A few blasts of ...

Ray Davies: A Dedicated Chronicler of Fashions

Profile and Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 28 November 2010

IN LATE 1965, Ray Davies threw a party. One of his guests was a clothes designer, and as Davies recalled: "I got pissed off with ...

Captain Beefheart: A tour through Captain Beefheart's back catalogue

Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 22 December 2010

Don Van Vliet shouldn't be seen as a "weirdo" – he had pop tricks up his sleeve and his most difficult music entered the top ...

Lady Gaga, Valentino: Lady Gaga's New Gay Anthem

Comment by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 14 February 2011

Has Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way' got what it takes to be a classic gay anthem? Jon Savage on the debt she owes to a ...

David Bowie, Kraftwerk: Taxi zum Klo's Berlin is a sexual playground

Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 21 April 2011

Bowie, Christiane F and Taxi zum Klo: these are the things that made Berlin so alluring to the British pop culture of the late '70s ...

The Smiths: "The Smiths and Morrissey changed our lives"

Comment by Jon Savage, The Observer, 2 October 2011

They might have split 24 years ago, but the Smiths remain as popular as ever, and not just among those who remember them first time ...

The Beatles: 80 years of Abbey Road

Report by Jon Savage, The Observer, 10 June 2012

It's the world's most famous studio and everyone from Edward Elgar to Ella Fitzgerald – and, of course, the Beatles – has made music there. ...

David Bowie: When Bowie met Burroughs

Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 9 March 2013

ON 28 FEBRUARY 1974, Rolling Stone magazine published a remarkable encounter between David Bowie and William Burroughs. Entitled "Beat Godfather Meets Glitter Mainman", the event had been hosted ...

Devo: Hardcore Vols. 1 and 2

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, September 2013

Reissue of '74-77 home demos by Ohio's deviant intellectuals: the true sound of the '70s underground. ...

Devo: Epiphanies: Devo

Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Wire, November 2015

The outsider electronics of Devo broke the Ramonic template of 1977 punk, says Jon Savage ...

The Beatles: Derek Taylor: The Fifth Beatle

Retrospective by Jon Savage, GQ, 20 May 2018

He was the proto multi-hyphenate, serving as press officer, PA and confidante to the Beatles while still finding time to master journalism, launch the Byrds, ...

Marianne Faithfull, Tom Jones, The Nashville Teens, The Rolling Stones, Them: Decca Records in 1964: The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Tom Jones and the British pop explosion

Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 3 July 2019

To celebrate 90 years of Decca Records, a new book about the label's history is being released. In this exclusive extract, renowned music critic Jon Savage ...

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