Library Rock's Backpages

Mick Brown

Mick Brown

Born in 1950, Mick Brown is a freelance writer and broadcaster who has written on music and other cultural affairs for a wide variety of publications including the SUNDAY TIMES, the GUARDIAN, the OBSERVER, the SUNDAY CORRESPONDENT, ROLLING STONE and CRAWDADDY. He is now a regular contributor to the TELEGRAPH magazine and the DAILY TELEGRAPH newspaper in London. Mick is the author of six books: Richard Branson: The Inside Story; American Heartbeat: A Musical Journey Across America from Woodstock to San Jose; Performance - a study of the cult film; The Spiritual Tourist: A Personal Odyssey through the Outer Reaches of Belief; The Dance of 17 Lives - the true story of Tibet's 17th Karmapa; and Tearing Down The Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector.

Mick Brown on the RBP podcast

203 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Percy Sledge — An Exciting New Soul Star

Profile by Mick Brown, Soulbeat, Summer 1966

IF NOTHING else 1966 has certainly, so far, been a time of exciting new changes and discoveries in the ever-expanding R&B world. At last people ...

David Bowie: Lindsay Kemp: The Man Who Taught Bowie His Moves

Interview by Mick Brown, Crawdaddy!, September 1974

LONDON — Lindsey Kemp doesn’t converse. He orates. Words spill out, like wine from a jug, in a long, liquid flow; pictures spring to life, ...

Bruce Johnston

Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 2 January 1975

THAT BRUCE JOHNSTON should have chosen an old Beach Boys hit for the group California Music's first release on his (and Terry Melcher's) Equinox label, ...

Patti Smith: Part Woman, Part Black, Part Genius, Part Idiot...

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 26 April 1975

PATTI SMITH might have been a star last year, but the top side of her first single seemed to have the word 'piss' in every ...

Ronnie Lane: All Roads Lead To The Big Top

Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 26 April 1975

As Ronnie Lane prepares to take his Passing Show back on the road, Mick Brown reports ...

John Cale, Nico: John Cale: Fear (Island); Nico: The End (Island)

Review by Mick Brown, Crawdaddy!, May 1975

ALONG WITH Lou Reed, John Cale and Nico were members of the first – and definitive – incarnation of the Velvet Underground. ...

Captain Beefheart, Linda Lewis, Pink Floyd, Roy Harper, Steve Miller: Pink Floyd, Steve Miller, Captain Beefheart, Roy Harper, Linda Lewis: Knebworth Park, Hertfordshire

Live Review by Mick Brown, Sounds, 12 July 1975

Floyd fly high with support ...

Chris Farlowe: Farlowe's Back In Time

Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 16 August 1975

IT WAS, says Chris Farlowe, bloody fantastic. The Marquee Club packed to the limit; sweat staining the walls. A barrage of vintage blues-shouting from Farlowe ...

Rory Gallagher: Rory's full of nitty gritty

Report and Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 23 August 1975

After their recent success at the Montreux Festival, the Rory Gallagher band moved on to new ground, Finland. ...

Mahavishnu Orchestra: Visions Of The Ever Changing Mahavishnu

Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 13 September 1975

The Mahavishnu Orchestra is now a quartet. The frequent structural alterations to the Orchestra may be bewildering to some but to John McLaughlin it's all ...

David Bowie: Lindsay Kemp: Camp? No — Kemp

Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 20 September 1975

Lindsay Kemp says it with Flowers. He also aided and abetted the transformation of David Bowie into Ziggy Stardust. Mick Brown reports. ...

Dr. John: Dr John's Minstrel Trip

Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 29 November 1975

WHEN DR John was coming off heroin some time ago, it was suggested that a visit to a faith-healing meeting might help in the cure. ...

Tom Waits: Nighthawks At The Diner (Asylum Import) *****

Review by Mick Brown, Sounds, 6 December 1975

Waits: poet of the streets and bars ...

Cat Stevens

Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 13 December 1975

"I reckon I lost my way somewhere along the line. The whole thing was too regimented. It was getting really silly". It was perhaps ...

Dr. John: Dr John: Hollywood Be Thy Name (United Artists)

Review by Mick Brown, Sounds, 13 December 1975

WHEN DOCTOR John failed to deliver a hit single (and album) to follow the success of 'In The Right Place' Atlantic promptly ditched him. That's ...

J. Geils Band: Backroom Stuff From J. Geils' Peter Wolf

Interview by Mick Brown, Street Life, 10 January 1976

PETER WOLF lopes across his Savoy Hotel Suite to a tape-deck and slots in a cassette of Arthur Conley singing 'Sweet Soul Music'. "That opening ...

Rory Gallagher... And The Grain Grafts On

Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 17 January 1976

"I USED to know the assistant manager at the Hammersmith Odeon when the Beatles played there. He'd deliver their fan mail and hang around while ...

Emmylou Harris: Elite Hotel

Review by Mick Brown, Street Life, 24 January 1976

AFTER JUST one album (two and a half if you count her collaborations with Gram Parsons a couple of years back) Emmylou Harris' name is ...

Gene Clark: The Soulful Return Of Gene Clark

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 24 January 1976

WHILE ROGER McGuinn plays with his electronic toys in his Hollywood mansion and makes records that are mere shadows of his past work; while David ...

Gil Scott-Heron: "You Will Not Be Able To Plug In, Turn On, Cop Out"

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Street Life, 7 February 1976

IT'S A mystifying truism that perhaps the most surprising thing about Gil Scott-Heron is that he is still standing very much in the shadows as ...

Commander Cody: Lost Planet Airman Finds Lone Star, Starts Drinking

Report and Interview by Mick Brown, Street Life, 21 February 1976

THEY DIDN’T ask Commander Cody if they could use his face to advertise Lone Star beer, but he’s the first to admit it fits. "Country ...

Buck Owens: You Don’t Buck The Rules On The Bus: Buck Owens

Report and Interview by Mick Brown, Street Life, 21 February 1976

IT’S LIKE Tom Wolfe said: you’re either on the bus or you’re off the bus. No three ways about it. ...

Brinsley Schwarz, Curved Air, The Moody Blues, Bruce Springsteen: Finally... The World Is Ready For Mick Brown's History Of Hype

Report by Mick Brown, Sounds, 6 March 1976

IF YOU'RE looking for a definition, forget it. The word is an abbreviation of 'hyperbole', which the dictionary defines as 'rhetorical exaggeration', but in the ...

Emmylou Harris: Sincerity in Sin City

Interview by Mick Brown, Street Life, 20 March 1976

OF COURSE, Emmylou Harris has to be staying in an elite hotel. Large, rambling, fin-de-siecle. The author J. P. Donleavy stays here when he's in ...

Bobby Womack Sings Through Clenched Teeth

Interview by Mick Brown, Street Life, 3 April 1976

IT PROMISED to be, in that time-honoured cliche of showbusiness hyperbole, a 'star-studded occasion'. His publicist said Bobby Womack would be dropping off in the ...

Robin Trower: Once More With Feeling

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Street Life, 1 May 1976

THERE ARE THREE kinds of limousine driver in America. There are the elder men who used to be accountants or clerks, until the recession forced ...

Dolly Parton: Parton's Creative Country

Interview by Mick Brown, Street Life, 15 May 1976

Heard the one about the Heathrow cowboy with Dolly tattooed from neck to backside? ...

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band at Newcastle

Report by Mick Brown, Sounds, 15 May 1976

I WAS going to say fascism, but as the man said, how could anyone take Hitler seriously without his moustache? What a moustache! Clipped, sharp, ...

Streetwalkers: Red Card (Vertigo) *****

Review by Mick Brown, Sounds, 29 May 1976

RED CARD is the album I thought Streetwalkers last promenade, Downtown Flyers would be. I had mixed feelings about that one. Good to see Roger ...

Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show: Dr Hook: Act Naturally

Interview by Mick Brown, Street Life, 12 June 1976

THE REPORTERS from the provincial press had gathered in the room where the press conference was to be held and were guzzling record- company wine, ...

Tom Waits: Warm Beer, Cold Women

Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 12 June 1976

TOM WAITS rocks backwards and forwards in his chair, pulls at a cigarette, draws deep, then turns his face out of the smoke, back into ...

Leonard Cohen: The Return of Leonard Cohen

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 3 July 1976

THE POSTER outside the Colston Hall, Bristol announced the appearance that evening of "The Poet of Rock and Roll". ...

Bobby "Blue" Bland, B.B. King: Bobby Bland & B.B. King: Together Again... Live (Impulse IMPL-8027) ***

Review by Mick Brown, Sounds, 28 August 1976

BOBBY BLAND and B.B. King's last collaborative recording posed the question "When is a live album not a live album?" The answer is when it's ...

Marianne Faithfull, Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page: Hollywood Anger

Interview by Mick Brown, Crawdaddy!, September 1976

The gossip-monger who exposed Babylon, created Scorpio Rising and inspired 'Sympathy for the Devil', turns to Magick and the ascending Lucifer. ...

Rory Gallagher: Calling Card (Chrysalis) ****

Review by Mick Brown, Sounds, 9 October 1976

FOR RORY GALLAGHER to start making any radical departures from established style at this stage in the game would not only be out of character ...

Steve Hillage: Watch Out There's A Concept About

Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 9 October 1976

IT WAS instant karma out to get me. The sound of one hand clapping – so fast you can't even hear it. We had been ...

Elton John: Blue Moves (Rocket) ****

Review by Mick Brown, Sounds, 23 October 1976

EVEN BEFORE I'd heard one note of Blue Moves I had divined that this album was going to be the Big One. ...

Mike Oldfield: Boxed (Virgin) *****

Review by Mick Brown, Sounds, 6 November 1976

ONE LAVISHLY illustrated and highly informative booklet, four albums, two hours 40 minutes plus of music – Boxed is the almost complete Mike Oldfield. ...

Brian Jackson, Gil Scott-Heron: Gil Scott-Heron And Brian Jackson: It's Your World (Arista) ****

Review by Mick Brown, Sounds, 13 November 1976

WITH IT'S Your World – his fourth English but sixth American album – Gil Scott-Heron takes another step in carving out his singular niche as ...

Santana: Carlos Santana: T-Shirts And Sympathy

Report and Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 20 November 1976

What you been doing with yourself? How come you only got one guy left from last year's band? What's it like working with the third ...

Rory Gallagher

Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 4 December 1976

WE ARE going to the University to do a radio interview. Correction; we were going to the University to do a radio interview, but with ...

Santana: Festival (CBS)****

Review by Mick Brown, Sounds, 4 December 1976

THIS ONE'S difficult. From the material previewed on Santana's recent UK tour and from the excitement on the part of the band and particularly Carlos ...

Robin Trower: Why Robin Trower’s Not Appreciated At Home

Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 30 December 1976

LONDON– "IN America we’re important; when we hit a town it’s boy..." Robin Trower snaps his fingers and smiles, "it’s that kind of feeling. But ...

The Damned, The Sex Pistols: U.K. Report: Sex Pistols And Beyond

Report and Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 27 January 1977

LONDON – So this is how legends are born. Not with a song, or even a death, but with an expletive. ...

Rory Gallagher: Hammersmith Odeon, Lindon

Live Review by Mick Brown, Sounds, 29 January 1977

NOBODY PLAYS the blues anymore – not unless they're black and old. The blues tradition among young blacks has all but vanished in the mad ...

Frank Zappa: Hot Rats

Overview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 12 February 1977

A long look back at F. Vincent Zappa and his very special bands from LA (and other places) ...

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band: The Monsters in Alex Harvey

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 24 February 1977

BRUSSELS — Alex Harvey has a special way of saying hello. His body, which normally moves with the easy, rolling gait of the dancer and ...

Demis Roussos: Demis the menace

Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 24 March 1977

His trembly voice has sold 25 million records ...

Queen: Fit to be Crowned: Queen's Mercury Rising

Report and Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 5 May 1977

NEW YORK — Queen's Freddie Mercury just loves to be pampered. He says it conserves his energies for more important things. And, anyway, he likes ...

Brand X: Marquee Club, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, Sounds, 7 May 1977

"THIS IS our first gig for a while," joked Phil Collins, "so we celebrated by rehearsing this morning." ...

Tom Waits: Small Change

Review by Mick Brown, Sounds, 14 May 1977

ANOTHER ALBUM From Tom Waits, his fourth, belatedly released here to tie in with a recent one-off performance in London. ...

John Peel's Perfumed Garden

Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 21 May 1977

THERE IS no need to ask where John Peel was in the summer of love. Anybody with enough brain-cells left to recall the era will ...

Roger Daltrey, The Who: Who's Still Angry? Roger Daltrey Is

Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 2 June 1977

LONDON — "If I wanted to get anything out of this business," Roger Daltrey says, "it was never to have to go back and work ...

Elton John: Elton's Royal Return

Report and Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 30 June 1977

LONDON — "IT WAS so good to play in front of real people," Elton John said in his dressing room, looking tired but exultant after ...

Sex Pistols, The Stranglers, The Vibrators: Punk: something Rotten in England

Report by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 11 August 1977

LONDON — British member of Parliament Marcus Lipton told his constituents that if punk rock was going to be used to destroy Britain's established institutions, ...

The Vibrators: The Punks Who Came In From The Cold

Report and Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 24 September 1977

"I think I ought to make it clear", says Knox, arms waving like flags in a stiff breeze, "that when we first started we were ...

Santana: Moonflower

Review by Mick Brown, Sounds, 15 October 1977

THIS IS THE album that should have been called 'A Period of Transition'. Not that it has anything to do with Van Morrison, but it ...

Alan Parsons: when producer becomes star

Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 20 October 1977

LONDON — The question of mistaken identity still weighs heavily on Alan Parsons' mind, even though he's had two hit albums, Tales of Mystery and ...

The Rolling Stones, Mick Taylor: Mick Taylor: The Stone who got away

Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 3 November 1977

LONDON — "WHAT have I missed most not playing with the Stones? I've missed the scandals, the court cases, the drugs and the busts, that's ...

Allman and Woman: Cher & Gregg Allman: Rainbow Theatre, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 26 November 1977

ON THE FACE of it, Cher and Gregg Allman are one of music's most unlikely couples; she a star of television spectacular and gossip column ...

Linda Lewis: Ronnie Scott's, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 3 December 1977

THE CAREER of Linda Lewis presents the classic case of an artist caught on the horns of a dilemma between commercial success and artistic worth. ...

Tom Robinson Band: The Tom Robinson Band: Lyceum, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 8 December 1977

IT WAS ONLY A matter of time before the new wave explosion brought forth a performer like Tom Robinson, articulate enough to put into coherent ...

Joan Armatrading shows some motion

Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 29 December 1977

GIVEN THE option of two leather sofas and a comfortable armchair, Joan Armatrading chooses instead to sit on the window ledge, bathed in the pale ...

Ray Charles: Renaissance (London)

Review by Mick Brown, New Musical Express, 1978

TO SEE a Ray Charles album on the London label is to experience a flash of nostalgia. For in his greatest hour – the mid-1950s ...

Professor Longhair: Late Riser

Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 22 March 1978

Mick Brown talks to a survivor ...

Alexis Korner: Korner in Blues

Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 21 April 1978

IT IS WHOLLY fitting that the guest-list for Alexis Korner's 50th birthday party this week at Pinewood Studios should have read like a Who's Who ...

Thin Lizzy: The Male Mystique

Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 21 September 1978

LONDON — Although Phil Lynott isn't well-known yet in America, Thin Lizzy's singer/bass player is already something of a sex symbol in England: the super-stud ...

Dolly Parton: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 21 November 1978

THE FIXATION on Dolly Parton's buxom outrageousness has evidently become so acute that nowadays even Ms Parton feels obliged to use it as a butt ...

Tina Turner: The Willpower Way From Square One

Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 14 March 1979

Tina Turner, now singing alone, is back in Britain. She talks to Mick Brown ...

Richard and Linda Thompson, Richard Thompson: Richard and Linda Thompson's Flight From Convention

Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 5 April 1979

"IF I DON'T seem a part of the recording industry, it's probably because I don't feel a part of it," says Richard Thompson, the guitarist/songwriter/singer ...

George Harrison: A Conversation with George Harrison

Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 19 April 1979

UP FOR THE DAY FROM HIS HOME IN OXFORDSHIRE, some 30 miles from London, George Harrison had spent the morning in the recording studio with ...

The Police: the case of the bleached blonds

Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 3 May 1979

'Roxanne' arrests America ...

John Fahey: The Venue, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 16 July 1979

WATCHING the American guitarist, John Fahey, one is reminded of the occasion when Ravi Shankar performed at the famous concert for Bangladesh. Taking to the ...

Lena Horne: One Way to Raise a Roof

Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 21 July 1979

Mick Brown meets the new-fangled Lena Horne ...

The Pretenders: Lyceum, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 31 July 1979

LESS THAN a year after formation, the Pretenders are already shaping up as one of the most interesting new British bands. Led by Chrissie Hynde, ...

Ian Dury & the Blockheads: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 8 August 1979

ONE OF IAN Dury's most endearing mannerisms on stage is to extend the length of his microphone stand two feet above his head, accentuating his ...

Lene Lovich: The Bits and Myths of Lene Lovich

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 9 August 1979

A VISION IN black, even her gingerbread pigtails decorated with a wedding cake of black lace, Lene Lovich sits in the unassuming offices of Stiff ...

Kevin Coyne, Dagmar Krause: Kevin Coyne: Babble, Oval House, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 24 August 1979

HAVING ALREADY seen Babble banned from one London theatre as the result of a sensationalist and grossly misrepresentative newspaper story, Kevin Coyne found it necessary ...

Led Zeppelin: The Songs Remain The Same: Led Zeppelin at Knebworth Park

Live Review by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 4 October 1979

...

Ian Gomm: Pop’s Happy Amateur

Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 1 November 1979

"POP IS A MEANINGLESS term," Ian Gomm says as he takes a sip of beer in his manager’s London home. "But I’ve got a vested ...

Linton Kwesi Johnson: a poet turns to reggae

Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 7 February 1980

Summoning Forces of Victory in Britain ...

Wings: Rainbow Theatre, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 7 February 1980

Wings in London: Taking the spotlight off McCartney ...

Jerry Lee Lewis: Killer's Gospel

Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 16 February 1980

Jerry Lee Lewis closes his current British tour in London at the Rainbow tonight. Mick Brown reports ...

Shirley Bassey: Apollo, Victoria, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 16 September 1980

TWO BOUTS of middle-aged hysteria within the space of seven days is surely almost more than the body can decently stand. Still shell-shocked from religious ...

Airto Moreira: the Venue, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 23 September 1980

THAT SOUTH American music should have been the source of vitality and inspiration in jazz that it has over the past decade is due in ...

Led Zeppelin: Zeppelin Drummer Found Dead

Report by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 26 September 1980

JOHN BONHAM, the drummer with Led Zeppelin rock group, was found dead yesterday in bed at the house of the group's lead guitarist, Jimmy Page, ...

George Melly: The Venue, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 3 October 1980

ONE CAN think of few people other than George Melly who could spend the early part of an evening speaking eloquently on a television literary ...

Pat Benatar: Dominion, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 20 October 1980

AN EVENING with Pat Benatar is an instructive experience in the nature of the huge and seemingly unbridgeable gulf which now separates contemporary rock music ...

Ry Cooder: Vinyl Choice: Ry Cooder

Interview by Mick Brown, The Sunday Times Magazine, November 1980

RY COODER was once described as a "curator of American music". A fair assessment, but it hardly captures the joy and affection of his modern ...

Robert Palmer: Dominion Theatre, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 10 November 1980

YORKSHIRE BORN Robert Palmer first achieved recognition partnering Elkie Brooks in the group Vinegar Joe in the early Seventies, but it took a move to ...

Aretha Franklin: Once More With Feeling

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 18 November 1980

Mick Brown on Aretha Franklin's return after years of soul searching ...

Talking Heads: Hammersmith Palais, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 3 December 1980

DESPITE HAVING sold barely enough records in Britain in the past to cover printing costs, and despite their live performances sometimes resembling a well-kept secret, ...

Rev. James Cleveland: Pastor Cleveland, Superstar

Report by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 24 December 1980

Well manicured and mohair-suited, America's most successful gospel performer leads an hour of electrifying Worship on ITV this Sunday. Mick Brown reports ...

Bert Jansch: The Venue, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 22 January 1981

WITH THE audience for folk music in a state of steady and seemingly irreversible decline, appearances by Bert Jansch seem to have become ever fewer ...

Marvin Gaye: Star in the Remaking

Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 21 February 1981

Marvin Gaye was Motown's blue-eyed boy of the '60s. Then, he fell dramatically. Mick Brown describes a soul man's self-searching. ...

Tom Waits: He's a Coppola Swell: Tom Waits

Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, March 1981

THE FIRST TIME Tom Waits visited London, in 1976, he earned the dubious distinction of being thrown out of the club were he had been ...

Jeff Beck: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 10 March 1981

OVER THE past few years Jeff Beck has given the impression of someone wilfully squandering a brilliant career. Having established himself as one of the ...

Robert Fripp, The Lounge Lizards: Robert Fripp's Discipline, the Lounge Lizards: Her Majesty's Theatre, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 11 May 1981

THE PAIRING of the guitarist, Robert Fripp's newest venture Discipline with the New York group the Lounge Lizards — offered two examples of radical sensibilities ...

John Martyn: Making Tracks to the Top

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 23 May 1981

John Martyn, in concert in London tonight, has been a cult figure for far too long. Now he plans to change all that, as Mick ...

Stanley Clarke, George Duke: George Duke & Stanley Clarke: Apollo Victoria, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 26 May 1981

HAVING TAKEN root in the early Seventies, flourished brightly for a few years and then appeared to wither into a state of atrophy, jazz-rock did ...

Joe Ely: The Venue, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 1 June 1981

AMONG AN older generation alienated by the bleak and joyless fare offered up by so much of the British rock music that purports to be ...

Sam Charters: Chains that Gave Birth to the Blues

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 6 June 1981

Mick Brown reports how the musicologist Sam Charters learned to stop feeling guilty about slavery ...

Earth, Wind & Fire: Earth, Wind and Fire: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 11 March 1982

IN THE last 10 years, black music in America has moved steadily away from raw, personal expression towards a more sophisticated presentation which acknowledges show ...

Gil Scott-Heron: The Venue, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 10 April 1982

THERE CAN surely be few performances in London this year which for intelligence, authority, musical expertise, and sheer style can hope to equal this by ...

Ry Cooder: All-American Music Man: Ry Cooder

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, The Sunday Times, May 1982

IT WAS THE MEXICANS that did it. The violent hue of his shirt notwithstanding, the tall, taciturn figure in the centre of the stage looked ...

Richard and Linda Thompson: Dominion, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 7 May 1982

LOOSELY SPEAKING, Richard Thompson is the sole practising legatee of the British folk-rock tradition which he was instrumental in establishing 14 years ago as a ...

Willie Nelson: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 9 June 1982

IT IS TRUE what they say about things being bigger in Texas. You could wrap up a jumbo jet in the flag of the Lone ...

Sun Ra: The Venue, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 29 July 1982

FOR HERMAN Blount, life has never been the same since he decided to change his name. A former big-band piano player, Herman metamorphosed into Sun ...

Hot Chocolate: Monday Night Fever

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 31 July 1982

As Hot Chocolate ride high in the charts again, Mick Brown meets Errol Brown, Britain's most successful black song writer, the toast of Mickie Most's ...

Light of the World: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 2 August 1982

HAVING COME and gone among the first wave of black British funk bands when the genre was but a trickle, Light of the World have ...

The Undertones: Kilburn National, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 18 August 1982

FOLLOWERS OF the Undertones will be reassured to learn that after a 12-month leave of absence back in their native Ireland, one thing remains unchanged: ...

Dollar Brand/Abdullah Ibrahim: Dollar Brand: Albany, Deptford, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 3 September 1982

IT IS ONE of the most extraordinary aspects of the work of Abdullah Ibrahim, also known as Dollar Brand, that for a South African pianist ...

Blue Rondo a la Turk: Camden Palace, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 8 September 1982

THE CAREER of Blue Rondo a la Turk illustrates vividly the perils of too close an association with style. Maligned by critics for the cut ...

Kate Bush: Kate Takes Charge

Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 11 September 1982

Mick Brown meets the singer with a new album out on Monday ...

William Burroughs: The Beat Guru Loaded For Bear

Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 1 October 1982

Burroughs is in Britain for a series of readings. Mick Brown reports. ...

The Gun Club: The Venue, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 7 October 1982

WHILE THE new guard of British pop cultivate sophistication, artifice and detachment, the American avant garde continue to celebrate the more basic virtues of rawness ...

Kid Creole & the Coconuts: Lyceum, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 13 October 1982

IT SEEMS only fitting that when August Darnell, a.k.a. Kid Creole, finishes this British tour which celebrates his transition from exotic cult figure to top ...

Philip Glass: Sadler's Wells, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 26 October 1982

IT IS EASY to see why Phil Glass, long recognised as being in the vanguard of American avant-garde composers should have suddenly found himself lionised ...

The Roches: Dominion Theatre, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 9 November 1982

FIRST THE McGarrigles and now, a fortnight later, the Roches. How many more sets of slightly kooky sisters does the American folk circuit have for ...

Shalamar: Dominion, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 23 November 1982

SURPRISING AS it may seem, the hottest ticket in town at present is not for ABC, Yazoo or any other of the leading lights of ...

Billy Fury: One of the First to Rock

Obituary by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 29 January 1983

Mick Brown pays tribute to the talents and the achievements of Billy Fury ...

The Thompson Twins: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 2 March 1983

WITH THEIR tribal drumming, anti-nuke benefits, funny clothes and shambolically exuberant performance, the Thompson Twins once personified a charming, if somewhat loopy strand of idealistic ...

Pigbag: Dominion, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 7 March 1983

PIGBAG surprised everybody, not least themselves, by climbing into the American charts and subsequently the British ones in 1981 with 'Papa's Got A Brand New ...

Dennis Bovell: Heaven, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 30 March 1983

FOR A MAN who is both producer, writer, performer and engineer, Dennis Bovell's career progresses at a frustrating and slow pace. As producer he seems ...

Joan Armatrading: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 9 April 1983

THERE IS about Joan Armatrading a quality of self-containment, resolution and a complete absence of any suggestion of faddishness, artifice or compromise which is enormously ...

Joni Mitchell: Happy Talkin' Joni

Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 22 April 1983

IT WOULD BE an exaggeration to describe Larry Klein as a hated man; but, face it, there must have been times when he has felt ...

Paco de Lucia, Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin: McLaughlin/Di Meola/De Lucia: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 20 June 1983

A COMBINATION of John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola and Paco De Lucia — three guitarists in the world heavyweight class — promises a multitude of ...

Nick Heyward: Dominion, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 5 July 1983

ONE ALMOST fears for today's teenagers when someone as apparently anodyne as Nick Heyward becomes a teen idol. Whatever happened to insurrection, rebellion, young lust, ...

James Blood Ulmer: Ace, Brixton, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 9 July 1983

A PROTÉGÉ of Ornette Coleman and disciple of Coleman's theory of harmolodics — a musical system of such devious complexity that possible only Coleman and ...

Defunkt: Albany Empire, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 15 July 1983

DEFUNKT ARE in the anomalous position of being an American band playing in a singularly American style who find themselves prophets without honour — or ...

Queen Ida: Dingwalls, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 28 July 1983

IDA GUILLORY is the nearest thing Louisiana has to offer to a housewife superstar. A 55-year-old grandmother, Queen Ida had spent almost her entire life ...

Wanted: a Rock Valhalla for the Golden Oldies

Comment by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 4 August 1983

Up and down the country sweet little sixteens have just about half a million signed autographs. In fact, all the best rock 'n' roll memorabilia ...

Michael (Mikey) Smith: Michael Smith: Jamaica Killing

Report by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 26 August 1983

MICHAEL SMITH, internationally acclaimed as Jamaica's foremost "dub" poet, was murdered last week, apparently a victim of Jamaica's turbulent and violent political climate. Smith, who ...

Gary Numan: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 18 October 1983

EVEN IF you are undecided about his music, you have to give Gary Numan credit for his nerve and the mysterious hold which his meagre ...

Atlantic Records

Essay by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 1984

Atlantic and other classic R&B issues are at last being reprinted — in Britain. Mick Brown reports ...

Berry Gordy: The Man in the Middle

Interview by Mick Brown, The Sunday Times, 1984

Surrounded by the stars he created – Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Diana Ross – stands Berry Gordy, the man who 25 years ago founded ...

Eric Clapton: Live At Wembley

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 1984

ONE HAS ALWAYS suspected that Eric Clapton's worst enemy was his own reputation. Few people live with – much less live up to – the ...

The Neville Brothers: Live At The Shaw Theatre, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 1984

THE NEVILLE Brothers are an institution whose time would seem to have come. Four brothers from New Orleans, their contribution to Crescent City music over ...

Van Halen: The Secret of Van Halen’s Excess

Interview by Mick Brown, The Sunday Times, 1984

IT IS another perfect day in paradise, and David Lee Roth has decided to go for a drive down Hollywood Boulevard. ...

Fats Domino, Ray Charles: Thorns In Velvet: Fats Domino and Ray Charles at the Capital Jazz Festival

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 1984

AMONG the collection of venerable antiques paraded for this year’s Capital Jazz Festival – couldn’t the organisers find anybody of note under the age of ...

Alexis Korner: Man of the Blues

Obituary by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 2 January 1984

THE DEATH of Alexis Korner at the age of 55 from cancer marks the closing of a chapter in British music. Korner's role as one ...

Marillion: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 13 March 1984

A NIGHT out for the lower sixth, dungeons and dragons players and the "progressive" rock fans time forgot. ...

Marvin Gaye: Heart and Soul

Obituary by Mick Brown, The Guardian, April 1984

MARVIN GAYE, who was so shockingly killed in Los Angeles on Sunday, one day before his 45th birthday, was not only a consummate soul music ...

Roger Daltrey, The Who: The Who's Breakup Shatters Roger Daltrey's Illusions About the Power of Rock & Roll

Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 24 May 1984

LONDON — WITH the release of Parting Should Be Painless, his first solo album since the demise of the Who, Roger Daltrey is clearly a ...

Mary Wells: Albany, Deptford, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 31 May 1984

MARY WELLS made one mistake in her career almost 20 years ago and has been paying for it ever since. Wells was Motown's first international ...

Bob Dylan: "Jesus, Who's Got Time to Keep Up with the Times?"

Interview by Mick Brown, The Sunday Times, 1 July 1984

This week Bob Dylan comes to Britain. The folksinger-cum-folk hero of the 1960s has not always had a good reception here. In 1965 purists attacked ...

Michael Jackson: Inside the Jackson Dream Machine

Essay by Mick Brown, The Sunday Times, 5 August 1984

IN THE Helmsley Palace Hotel, New York – an establishment whose style is best described as neo-Liberace – the lobby was filling up with Michael ...

Sisters Of Mercy: Lyceum, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 2 November 1984

THERE WAS a time when the Sisters of Mercy would have provided not so much a performance in themselves as an excuse for the audience ...

Mötley Crüe: Dominion, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 21 November 1984

A GOOD night for London Transport. The fans had poured off the bus and Tube to this one squeezed into satin pants, war paint, and ...

Al Jarreau: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, Guardian Unlimited, 28 November 1984

IF YOU are surprised to learn that Al Jarreau — who only a few years ago could comfortably accommodate his following in Ronnie Scott's — ...

Bob Geldof: The Rat And The Band Aid "Saint"

Report and Interview by Mick Brown, The Sunday Times, 23 December 1984

BOB GELDOF has been transformed from fading Boomtown Rat to charity superstar behind Christmas’s biggest pop hit, helping Ethiopian famine victims. Mick Brown reports. ...

Bob Dylan (1984)

Interview by Mick Brown, Rock's Backpages audio, Summer 1984

On how he won't be understood for 100 years, always moving on, Woodstock and wisdom.

File format: mp3; file size: 3.8mb, interview length: 04' 11" sound quality: ***

Notes That Are Music To His Ears: Clive Davis

Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 1985

What do Barry Manilow, Donovan, Janis Joplin, and Springsteen have in common? They owe a lot of their success to Arista Records’ boss Clive Davis. ...

Pete Townshend: A Musician’s Rocky Road To Bloomsbury

Interview by Mick Brown, The Sunday Times, 1985

THERE IS about Pete Townshend nowadays a sense of balance which is hard to equate with the Pete Townshend the pop music audience came to ...

Suzanne Vega: Live At The LSE, London.

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 1985

Chess metaphors, the myth of Odysseus and the woman he left behind, being a "small blue thing", and, possibly if you listen hard enough, love ...

Leonard Cohen: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 27 February 1985

FOR WHAT are undoubtedly all the wrong reasons, one has come to approach Leonard Cohen with suspicion. The air of long-suffering torture one associates with ...

James: Institute of Contemporary Art, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 21 March 1985

HIGH FLYING in the independent charts, the current darlings of the music press and publicly championed by Morrissey, lead singer with the Smiths — these ...

Ricky Skaggs: Dominion Theatre, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 20 May 1985

Mick Brown on Ricky Skaggs's county revival at the Dominion ...

Ashford & Simpson: Ashford and Simpson: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 22 May 1985

TIME HAS revealed Ashford and Simpson to be the most enduring, adaptable — arguably the greatest — of all the great Motown songwriting teams of ...

Diana Ross: Second Hand Emotion — Diana Ross: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 20 September 1985

Diana Ross's performance at the Albert Hall was a memorably touching experience — the only trouble was, reports Mick Brown, you couldn't believe a word ...

Bobby Womack: Testament of a preacher man

Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 12 October 1985

FOR ANYBODY remotely interested in black music, past and present; in the continuity between the halcyon days of rhythm and blues and church music and ...

George Benson: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 1 November 1985

AT LAST! A performer who has conquered the formidable problems of Wembley Arena and turned it to the service of a triumphant concert. ...

Joni Mitchell: The Travailer's Tale

Review and Interview by Mick Brown, The Times, 10 November 1985

AT 41, JONI MITCHELL remains, to all appearances, very much the idealistic woman who embodied an era of pop music at its most wistfully self-absorbed ...

Van Morrison

Interview by Mick Brown, promo for 'No Guru, No Method, No Teacher', 1986

Musical Roots ...

Sade Lady

Interview by Mick Brown, Vanity Fair, April 1988

THERE IS NO finer art in pop music than that of knowing when to disappear. ...

Joni Mitchell: Lookin' Good, Sister

Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 23 February 1991

THE HAIR still tumbles to the shoulders, sunshine blonde; the smile is as winsome as ever; the perfect bone-structure remains, well, perfect. ...

Rod Stewart: The Lad Himself

Interview by Mick Brown, MOJO, May 1995

THE WOMAN FROM ROD Stewart's management office suggests we should meet at her office in Beverly Hills; she would lead the way to Rod's house, ...

David Bowie: "I have done just about everything that it's possible to do"

Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 14 December 1996

THROUGHOUT THE '70s, David Bowie did not have fans. He had acolytes, disciples, obsessives; teens and twentysomethings who would buy every record, watch every move, ...

Nick Drake: The Sad Ballad of Nick Drake

Essay by Mick Brown, Sunday Telegraph, 12 July 1997

His records didn't sell while he lived. But since Nick Drake's untimely death he has become an icon. Mick Brown reports on a very English ...

Shane MacGowan, The Pogues: Shane MacGowan: One More For The Road

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 29 November 1997

THERE ARE THOSE who believe that Shane MacGowan is among the most gifted and singular singer-songwriters to have emerged in British music in the past ...

Tom Waits, Hobo Sapiens

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Telegraph Magazine, April 1999

TOM WAITS FIRST made his name by singing songs about that area of town marked out by the pawnbroker, the tattoo-parlour and the Greyhound bus ...

Dr. John: The Doctor and the Duke: A Night with Mac Rebennack

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 17 July 1999

ON A WARM Saturday afternoon, in a studio just off 5th Avenue, in the downtown section of New York, Dr John is recording an album ...

Rickie Lee Jones: Life On The Edge

Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 26 August 2000

"EVERYBODY," Rickie Lee Jones sang on her 1997 album Ghostyhead, "starts out pure, starts out ridiculous, starts out beautiful..." And then? And then, says Jones ...

The Beatles: Miles: John, Paul, George and… Barry

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 16 October 2002

IN 1965, A YOUNG bookseller named Barry Miles decided to throw a birthday party in his London flat for his friend, the beat poet Allen ...

Phil Spector: Pop's Lost Genius: Phil Spector

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Telegraph Magazine, 4 February 2003

Phil Spector produced some of the greatest pop hits of all time, from 'Be My Baby' to 'Imagine'. Notoriously eccentric in his heyday, his slow ...

Bon Jovi, Cher, KISS: Kiss and Cher: the minder reveals all

Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 3 September 2003

For 30 years, Michael Francis has been a bodyguard and fixer to some of rocks least controllable artists. He tells Mick Brown what it takes ...

Prince of Paradox

Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 12 June 2004

Though he has become a Jehovah's Witness, Prince's stage act remains sexually charged. Having bitterly spurned the record industry giants, he now has a deal ...

Brian Wilson - Beach Boy, Pop Visionary, Wounded Soul

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, GQ, November 2004

IN THE LATE SIXTIES, Brian Wilson used to practice Transcendental Meditation. There, in the purple and gold silk Arabian tent that he had installed in ...

David Bowie, Morrissey: Tony Visconti: Bolan, Bowie, Morrissey And Me

Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 23 March 2006

"WHAT A LOT of people don't realise about Morrissey," says the producer of his new album, Tony Visconti, "is that he has a sense of ...

Lou Reed: Iron Glove, Velvet Fist

Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 26 May 2007

The legendarily cantankerous Lou Reed's definition of abject misery is being interviewed by an English journalist. But get him on the right subject and he ...

Blind Willie McTell: Michael Gray: Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes: In Search of Blind Willie McTell (Bloomsbury)

Book Review by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 17 August 2007

AS MICHAEL Gray makes clear from the outset, Blind Willie McTell confounds every popular stereotype of the southern blues man. McTell was no "roaring primitive, ...

Stevie Nicks: A Survivor's Story

Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Telegraph Magazine, 8 September 2007

Thirty years after she sold her soul to the devil and, with Fleetwood Mac, set new records for rock'n'roll overindulgence, Stevie Nicks has somehow lived ...

Frank Zappa, Tom Waits: Frank Zappa's Manager: A Smile On His Lips, And A Pistol Under The Bar

Obituary by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 19 March 2010

Mick Brown pays tribute to Herb Cohen, who managed Frank Zappa while maintaining an enthusiasm for music, cheese, confectionery and armaments. ...

Captain Beefheart: A Surreal Singer in Pursuit of an Audience

Comment by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 20 December 2010

DON VAN VLIET, aka Captain Beefheart, who died last Friday, could be a difficult man. His idiosyncratic recordings – a bizarre goulash of delta blues, ...

Bobby "Blue" Bland: Charles Farley: Soul of the Man – Bobby "Blue" Bland

Book Review by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 22 July 2011

I HAVE TWO REASONS to vividly remember the first occasion I saw Bobby "Blue" Bland perform in a Los Angeles nightclub 35 years ago. ...

George Harrison: Fabbest of the Four?

Retrospective by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 30 September 2011

Martin Scorsese's new documentary about George Harrison makes a case for him as the equal – or even the superior – of Lennon and McCartney, ...

The Rolling Stones: True Adventures with the Rolling Stones: Stanley Booth

Retrospective and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 19 April 2012

Fifty years after the band was formed, Stanley Booth, who wrote a book about the infamous American tour of 1969, talks to Mick Brown. ...

The Rolling Stones: the greatest rock and roll band in the world? That's a bit rich

Comment by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 26 November 2012

Their latest shows prove the Rolling Stones can still work a crowd, but their music is of a time long gone ...

Burt Bacharach: What Was it All About?

Retrospective and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 1 June 2013

AT THE AGE OF 85, the man who has been described as the greatest songwriter of the 20th century cuts a surprisingly energetic and restive ...

Bobby Womack: Soul Survivor

Report and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 17 July 2013

Revered soul singer Bobby Womack has weathered a life filled with tragedy and misfortune. Ahead of his performance at Latitude Festival, he talks to Mick ...

Arthur Alexander, Clarence Carter, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Candi Staton: Deep Soul: How Muscle Shoals became music's most unlikely hit factory

Retrospective and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, October 2013

IN JANUARY 1967, a young singer named Aretha Franklin arrived in the small Alabama town of Muscle Shoals, her career hanging in the balance. ...

Is It All Over For The Album?

Comment by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 31 July 2014

Artists were the kings of vinyl. Now, everyone can create their own digital playlist – but Spotify will never be Pet Sounds. ...

Joe Bonamassa: He remembers opening for BB King in 1989

Memoir by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 26 September 2014

The guitarist recalls supporting the King of Blues at just twelve years old ...

Percy Sledge, 1940-2015

Obituary by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 14 April 2015

Percy Sledge's 'When A Man Loves A Woman' transcended time and place, says Mick Brown. ...

Various Artists: The Complete Stax Soul Singles

Review by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 25 May 2015

These two collections are a delight, full of familiar pleasures and obscure nuggets from Stax's large catalogue of soul singles, says Mick Brown. ...

Leonard Cohen and his eternal search for peace

Retrospective by Mick Brown, Sunday Telegraph, 13 November 2016

IN 1999 LEONARD COHEN travelled to India to see a spiritual teacher named Ramesh Balsekar.  Cohen was a man in search, if not exactly of ...

Joe Hagan: Sticky Fingers – The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine

Book Review by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 29 October 2017

This biography of Rolling Stone's  founder is a lurid and revelatory tale of drugs, sex — and power. ...

The Beatles: Derek Taylor: As Time Goes By (Faber)

Book Review by Mick Brown, Sunday Telegraph, 5 May 2018

ONE MAGICAL weekend in the summer of 1968, Derek Taylor, the press agent for the Beatles, took a trip with Paul McCartney and the singer ...

Rev. James Cleveland, Aretha Franklin: Amazing Grace: Inside the hellish struggle to release Aretha Franklin's heavenly concert movie

Retrospective and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 29 April 2019

IT MIGHT SEEM odd to suggest that the most enthralling film you are likely to see this year is not a thriller, a love story ...

Van Morrison: Electric Ballroom, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 6 September 2020

It's a sheer joy to watch live music again – and this was a vintage show from the 75-year-old legend as he rummaged in his ...

Laura Nyro: the Gothic genius who transformed Sixties pop — then quit

Retrospective by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 5 August 2021

The late songwriter, whose music is now being re-released, lent her tales of private agony to everyone from Barbra Streisand to Diana Ross. ...

Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Sid Vicious: Inside the Chelsea Hotel, New York's infamous house of pleasure and pain

Retrospective by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 18 August 2021

Bob Dylan has just been accused of a sexual assault there in 1965 - the latest in a long line of claims about the storied ...

The Beach Boys: Good vibrations: how the Beach Boys tuned in and turned on to Transcendental Meditation

Book Excerpt by Mick Brown, 'The Nirvana Express' (C. Hurst & Co.), September 2023

...

back to LIBRARY

COPYRIGHT NOTICE