Mark Paytress
Mark Paytress is a journalist, author and broadcaster. A regular contributor to MOJO magazine, his work has also appeared in numerous publications including The Guardian, Radio Times, Q, Rolling Stone, Crawdaddy, Maxim, La Repubblica and Record Collector.
His books include Bolan: The Rise & Fall Of A 20th Century Superstar (Omnibus Press), Break It Up: Patti Smith’s Horses And The Remaking Of Rock’n’Roll (Piatkus), I Was There: The Gigs That Changed The World (Cassell), BowieStyle (Omnibus Press), The Rolling Stones Files (Quadrillion), The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars (Schirmer), Siouxsie & The Banshees: The Authorised Biography, Vicious: The Art Of Dying Young and critical guides to the work of The Rolling Stones, Radiohead, Nirvana and the Sex Pistols.
Mark has contributed to various television and radio programmes (Night Waves, Front Row), and in winter 2008/09, researched and presented two documentaries for BBC Radio 4, Here’s Kenny (about DJ Kenny Everett) and Stash: The Dandy Aesthete Of Swinging London.
20th Century Album: Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band
20th Century Artist: Jimi Hendrix
20th Century Cult Hero: Scott Walker
21st Century Saviour: Joanna Newsom
47 articles
List of articles in the library
Patti Smith: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Live Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, December 2006
A night of remembrance — and a night to remember, gasps Mark Paytress. ...
Marianne Faithfull: Before The Poison (Naïve)
Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, October 2004
IT TAKES two seconds to realise this is gonna be a bit special. Three songs in and thoughts turn to album of the year. Just ...
The Move: Hello Goodbye: Ace Kefford and the Move
Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, February 2004
Hello: October 1965 ...
Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, February 2008
Four years in the making, In Rainbows is both tortured and triumphant… Here, for the first time, is the unexpurgated inside story of the album ...
Retrospective and Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, February 2013
Armed with "a license to cause mayhem", they created an "'orrible" speedball of a debut album. Before losing control…. Thirty five years on, all four founder ...
Radiohead's In Rainbows: Jonny Greenwood speaks
Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, January 2008
Radiohead have made the album of the year. No one is more surprised than them. Guitarist Jonny Greenwood talks to Mark Paytress. ...
Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, April 2013
Here he is, not quite dying. The new Bowie is alive and well and mildly exasperated, says Mark Paytress. ...
Sonic Youth: NYC Ghosts & Flowers (Geffen)/Screaming Fields Of Sonic Love (Blast First)
Review by Mark Paytress, Record Collector, August 2000
HAVEN'T WE heard enough Sonic Youth records? On the evidence of the band's latest, NYC Ghosts & Flowers, I'd fly in the face of other ...
Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, June 2006
The most extraordinary changeling in pop's 11-year-itch is more twisted, tormented and thrilling than ever. ...
The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: Brian Wilson: Smile
Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, October 2004
It was expected to surpass Sgt. Pepper as the greatest album of all time. But was the reconstruction of the fable worth the 37-year wait? ...
Paul Kantner/Jefferson Starship: Blows Against The Empire
Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, February 2006
ACID BLEW HIS mind, but that was never enough for Paul Kantner, Jefferson Airplane's chief songwriter and a sci-fi buff since he'd been in short ...
Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, November 2001
He has a spectacularly nice country pad, owns his own airstrip, keeps horses and doesn't like doing interviews. Mark Paytress declines some aerobatic action with ...
The Fall: Mark E. Smith: An Interview
Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, February 2006
Heading: Hates "school prefect" Blair and punk. But after 30 years of booze, wives and 28 studio albums, has the Fall frontman finally found redemption? ...
Cream: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, July 2005
Cleaned-up rock aristos reward jewellery-rattling crowd with first show in 37 years. ...
The Sex Pistols: Sex Pistols: The Filth, The Fury, The Fun!
Report and Interview by Mark Paytress, Record Collector, May 2000
Director Julien Temple discusses the new Pistols film with Mark Paytress. ...
Acid Mothers Temple: The Spitz, London
Live Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, December 2001
Japan's self-styled "freak-out group for the 21 st century" prompt synaptic meltdown in east London. ...
Television: Marquee Moon/Adventure
Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, November 2003
FEW BANDS can claim to be lithe, literate and musically gifted, but for a brief moment Television blended all three to perfection. ...
Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, November 2015
Freak-folk Cinderella follows acclaimed 2010 triple with an album of erudite pop and deepening moods. Mark Paytress takes the plunge. ...
The Rolling Stones: Norman Jopling: Shake It Up Baby! Notes From A Pop Music Reporter 1961-1972
Book Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, May 2015
ON MAY 8,1963, an issue of New Record Mirror hit the London streets with a lead story that had enormous unforeseen consequences. ...
Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, February 2004
Played last year's 24-hour marathon box set to death? Worry not. Here's another 10 hours' worth of in-concert industrial uproar. Tense? Nervous? Headache? Read on... ...
The Faces, Ian McLagan, The Small Faces: The Mojo Interview: Ian McLagan
Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, August 2011
How do you survive "unbelievable" acid trips in the Small Faces, being Don Arden's meal ticket or acting like "drunken bastards" in the Faces? It's ...
Retrospective by Mark Paytress, MOJO, January 2004
The avant-garde post-'77 post-punk sound was a revolutionary amalgam of funk, punk, disco and reggae. Mark Paytress explains the battle plan. ...
The Kinks: Tales of Ordinary Madness
Retrospective and Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, March 2006
It ain't easy being Ray Davies — the eternal malcontent, "control freak" and genius behind The Kinks. On the eve of a barnstorming solo comeback, ...
David Bowie: Having The Time Of His Life: David Bowie: 'hours…' (Virgin)
Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, November 1999
His new album coincides with the umpteenth reissue of 17 studio albums from Space Oddity to Tin Machine, this time without extra tracks. (And no ...
The Electric Prunes: California Dreamin': The Electric Prunes: Too Much To Dream (Rhino) ***
Review and Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, April 2007
They trod an awkward career path, says Mark Paytress, but The Electric Prunes had moments of proto-psych wizardry. ...
Book Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, April 2007
A life in music, rich in chemical romances, bickering stars and some wonderful work, is recounted with great dignity, says Mark Paytress ...
Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, December 2005
Leading a band of blood-thirsty long-haired crazies, Alice Cooper ruled '70s rock'n'roll, surviving hangings and electrocution, before booze, madness and global fame destroyed the beast. ...
Lou Reed: Back On The Road At 68
Interview by Mark Paytress, The Times, 10 April 2010
In a rare interview, the rock icon is as challenging as the album he is re-releasing. ...
Smiley Culture: Mark Paytress Meets Smiley Culture On The Cusp Of Fame, 1984
Interview by Mark Paytress, Rock's Backpages, March 2011
AS BRITAIN'S first successful MC, whose fast, fluid style had more in common with rap than reggae, Smiley Culture's place in history is assured. He ...
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: Trout Mask Replica (Straight, 1969)
Retrospective and Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, March 2005
A disciplinarian visionary and his inspired acolytes create genuine Outsider Art. ...
Elvis Presley: Today Tomorrow & Forever
Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, July 2002
LET'S BE honest: this, once again, is Elvis Presley '56-'77 squeezed into five exhilarating, and at times exasperating hours. There are two major differences this ...
Interview by Mark Paytress, The Guardian, 7 October 2006
WHEN PSYCHIC TV's Genesis P-Orridge walks out on stage at the Astoria this evening, on a rare visit to London, those who've followed the career ...
Patti Smith: The Lady's For Returning
Interview by Mark Paytress, The Guardian, 9 September 2006
PATTI SMITH knows a thing or two about rock'n'roll heroes. Emerging in a blaze of controversy with her epochal 1975 debut album, Horses, she wrapped ...
Profile and Interview by Mark Paytress, Record Collector, March 1994
KIRSTY MACCOLL first came to prominence as a solo artist during the early 80s, scoring Top 20 hits with 'There's a Guy Works Down The ...
Elvis Presley: Live In Las Vegas
Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, August 2001
ELVIS PRESLEY wasn't always the Clown Prince of Las Vegas. Back in 1956, he secured a two-week booking at the Venus Room in the city's ...
Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, November 2001
THERE ARE winners and losers in the shifting sands of rock fashion and, much as it hurts to write it, Jefferson Airplane seem like losers. ...
John's Children, Marc Bolan: John's Children
Retrospective and Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, September 2002
IT'S BEEN SAID THAT IN 1967 MANAGER SIMON Napier-Bell served Marc Bolan with an ultimatum: join The Yardbirds or John's Children. The very idea of ...
David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust: The Album That Killed The Sixties
Retrospective by Mark Paytress, Record Collector, June 1998
Bowie's Ziggy Stardust redefined the meaning of rock artistry. ...
The Creatures, Siouxsie & The Banshees: The Creatures
Interview by Mark Paytress, Record Collector, August 1999
SIOUXSIE AND THE Banshees have carried the can for all manner of goth-related crimes, from walking-corpse fashions to minor chord musical misanthropy. It's a wonder ...
Retrospective and Interview by Mark Paytress, Record Collector, August 1989
MANY OF THE ACTS at Woodstock were already well established names, but if anyone can claim to have been broken by the festival, it must ...
The Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious: Sid Vicious: Threw a Glass Darkly
Book Excerpt by Mark Paytress, 'Vicious: The Art of Dying Young', Sanctuary Books, 2004
SID did it. Didn’t he? ...
Butthole Surfers: The Butthole Surfers
Guide by Mark Paytress, Record Collector, February 1989
Mark Paytress Unravels the Career of the Cult American Band ...
Scott Walker: It Don't Come Easy: Scott Walker’s Five Easy Pieces (Universal)
Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, 2004
Idiosyncratic. Inspired. Perplexing. Well, how else would you want your multi-disc "Godlike Genius" retrospective served? ...
Jeff Buckley: Keeper of the Flame: Jeff Buckley's Mum
Report and Interview by Mark Paytress, The Guardian, 30 October 2002
IT IS FIVE YEARS since Jeff Buckley took his final, mid-evening stroll into the Wolf River, a sleepy tourist spot on the outskirts of Memphis, ...
Jefferson Airplane: High Priestess: Grace Slick and ‘White Rabbit’
Retrospective and Interview by Mark Paytress, The Guardian, 15 November 2002
White Rabbit has just come out top in a poll to find the finest drug song ever. Mark Paytress discovers that its writer/singer Grace Slick ...
Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett: Syd Barrett
Retrospective by Mark Paytress, Record Collector, 1993
IN COMMON with Brian Wilson, Captain Beefheart and Phil Spector, Syd Barrett is a musician whose work is often overshadowed by the myths that surround ...
Book Excerpt by Mark Paytress, Omnibus Books, 2002
An extract from Bolan: The Rise And Fall Of A 20th Century Superstar by Mark Paytress, first published by Omnibus Press in 2002. (378pp, currently ...
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