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Rob Chapman

Rob Chapman

Former singer/lyricist with Bristol based avant-punksters Glaxo Babies, Rob's chequered c.v. also includes managing a turf accountants at 19, a three-year stretch teaching remedial English in a psychiatric borstal, and broadcasting with Radios One, Two, Four and Five where he was a regular guest on Danny Baker’s Morning Edition.

Apart from contributing to a few fanzines over the years, most notably early issues of the Syd Barrett fanzine Terrapin, and the Manchester-based dance mag Jockey Slut in the early 1990's, Rob only drifted into full-time music journalism in 1995 when he began contributing to Mojo. "I sent in a letter to Jeff Dexter correcting a few errors and omissions in an article about the Hyde Park Free Concerts, almost all of which I attended. Then I thought ‘I remember all this stuff. I was there. About time I started start writing about it.’ After 8 years of writing for Mojo, including classic cover stories on Brian Jones, Keith Moon, Massive Attack and Brian Wilson’s Smile album, Rob moved to Uncut at the tail end of 2003. But like Suzie Creamcheese going back to her Mothers he returned to the EMAP fold in August 2006 just on time to write the Mojo obituary of his hero Syd Barrett. He has also contributed music related features and reviews to The Times, Guardian, and the Independent On Sunday. He is the author of two books, a history of offshore pirate radio, Selling The Sixties (Routledge, 1992) and an alternative history of the record sleeve, The Vinyl Junkyard, (Booth Clibbon 1997.)

Two Glaxo Babies compilations have recently been released on Cherry Red, Dreams Interrupted in 2006, and The Porlock Factor in 2007. Rob's debut novel, Dusk Music, was published by Flambard Press in April 2008. His Syd Barrett biography A Very Irregular Head was published by Faber in May 2010. Rob is represented by the Sarah Such Literary Agency.

45 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Air, Sean Lennon: Air/Sean Lennon: Ritz, Manchester

Live Review by Rob Chapman, MOJO, January 1999

SOMEONE ONCE said of Dylan's Renaldo & Clara that, while it didn't convince you that he was a great film-maker, it did confirm that he ...

Pete Atkin: Reissues

Review and Interview by Jim Irvin, Rob Chapman, MOJO, April 1998

IF YOU spent the early '70s worshipping false idols with feet of clay when you could have been listening to these finely crafted records then ...

Caravan, Kevin Ayers: Caravan/Kevin Ayers: London, Astoria

Essay by Rob Chapman, MOJO, November 1997

IT'S THE gathering of the Canterbury faithful. The main event is the original — as near as dammit — Caravan line-up. That other former Wilde ...

Syd Barrett: Wouldn't You Miss Me? The Best Of Syd Barrett

Review by Rob Chapman, MOJO, May 2001

FIRST THINGS first. It's great. The long-lost 'Bob Dylan Blues', I mean. Lampooning the conformity of the folk-protest movement as much as it lampoons its ...

Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett: Syd Barrett

Obituary by Rob Chapman, MOJO, September 2006

This is the full version of a piece that appeared in Mojo, September 2006 ...

The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: Brian Wilson: Unfinished Symphony

Retrospective and Interview by Rob Chapman, MOJO, February 2002

While his bandmates toured the surfin' hits around the world, Brian Wilson was holed up in Hollywood creating an ambitious symphonic paean to God and ...

Blossom Toes: "Get in there and experiment!": Blossom Toes: We Are Ever So Clean

Retrospective and Interview by Rob Chapman, MOJO, February 1998

Thus the instructions to four young men as they were handed the keys to a King's Road '60s communal pad… ...

Marc Bolan, T. Rex, Tyrannosaurus Rex: Marc Bolan: The Jurassic Years

Retrospective and Interview by Rob Chapman, MOJO, September 2002

IN DECEMBER 1967 The Observer devoted a large portion of its Sunday Colour Supplement to the London Underground. Complete with obligatory hip-speak glossary (an "A ...

The Edgar Broughton Band: Out Demons Out

Review and Interview by Rob Chapman, MOJO, June 2001

IT'S 1970. The EBB are playing their final number, a Fugs-derived exorcism, and the mutton-chopped guitarist invites the assembled ranks of hippies, grebos and suedeheads ...

Jack Bruce: Songs For A Tailor/Harmony Row

Review by Rob Chapman, MOJO, April 2003

SEVERAL BLUE moons ago us MOJO contributors were asked to provide the mag with a list of our 30 all-time favourite LPs. My only real ...

Can: The Albums

Review by Rob Chapman, MOJO, August 1997

A considerable portion of the German experimentalists’ output re-released on CD and limited issue vinyl: 24 albums spanning 1968-1994, including original issues, anthologies, compilations, and ...

Can: Hildegard Schmidt and Wolf Kampmann: Can Box: Book

Review by Rob Chapman, MOJO, February 1999

IN 1968 CAN walled themselves up in a Cologne studio and, give or take the odd defection, stayed there for the next nine years making ...

Julian Cope: Head On/Reposessed

Review by Rob Chapman, MOJO, November 1999

RICHARD HELL once claimed that he first noticed the schism between himself and Tom Verlaine when they were on acid. Hell wanted to play the ...

Cream: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Rob Chapman, Uncut, July 2005

ONE OF THE most fascinating spectator sports these past few years has been watching rock music finally coming to terms with its sense of legacy. ...

Holger Czukay: No Borders Here: Holger Czukay’s Movies and On The Way To Peak Of Normal

Review and Interview by Rob Chapman, MOJO, March 1998

Mute’s admirable disinterring of the entire Can-related catalogue reaches Holger The Bassman’s first two solo albums. ...

De La Soul: Bar Cuba, Macclesfield

Live Review by Rob Chapman, MOJO, 1998

As part of a British mini-tour ahead of an album set for September, America’s most innovative hip hop outfit came to a small, friendly club ...

Faust: The Wumme Years 1970-1973

Review by Rob Chapman, MOJO, November 2000

A 5-CD BOX SET comprising the band’s first two Polydor LPs, Faust and So Far, and two further compilations of rarely heard material, BBC Sessions ...

Faust: Faust IV

Review by Rob Chapman, The Wire, May 2006

IN DECEMBER 1972, when the late Ian MacDonald wrote the first authoritative, and still near-definitive, guide to German experimental rock for NME he sorted the ...

Fleetwood Mac: The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions 1967-1969

Review by Rob Chapman, MOJO, October 1999

They Flew the Flag for Homegrown R&B ...

Ian Hunter, Mott The Hoople: The Gentleman Of The Road

Review and Interview by Rob Chapman, MOJO, October 1996

Ian Hunter: Diary Of A Rock And Roll Star ...

Brian Jones, The Rolling Stones: Brian Jones: The Bittersweet Symphony

Retrospective by Rob Chapman, MOJO, July 1999

Rolling Stones founder, Rolling Stones reject; ruthless controller, helpless passenger; blues obsessive, dabler in the exotic; countercultural networker, paranoid recluse; adored Prince Charming, vicious heartbreaker; ...

Arthur Lee, Love: Arthur Lee: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Rob Chapman, MOJO, March 2003

AS ICONIC gestures go, Arthur Lee raising a tambourine above his head, arms angled like he's cradling an invisible water pitcher, is up there with ...

Massive Attack: Dark Side of the Spliff: Massive Attack

Interview by Rob Chapman, MOJO, July 1998

"ME AND ANGELO, our guitarist, got stuck in a cave in Padstow," says Massive Attack’s Robert ‘3D’ Del Naja, talking about one particularly eventful sojourn ...

Massive Attack: Mezzanine

Review by Rob Chapman, MOJO, May 1998

Eagerly-anticipated follow-up to 1994’s Protection, 64 minutes of guitar-driven downbeats, featuring the toppermost tonsils of Horace Andy and the angelic ambience of Liz Fraser on ...

Keith Moon: Patent British Exploding Drummer

Profile and Interview by Rob Chapman, MOJO, September 1998

BOY, HOW WE CHERISH ROCK'S foundation myths. The idea that merchant seamen brought back rare R&B records to Liverpool docks and fuelled the Merseybeat ...

Ennio Morricone: How to Buy Ennio Morricone

Guide by Rob Chapman, MOJO, March 1999

ENNIO MORRICONE single-handedly redefined our musical definition of the Western. Nobody can make jew’s harp and whistling sound more awe inspiring or one duck-call and ...

The Move: Movements

Review and Interview by Rob Chapman, MOJO, December 1997

TO ANYONE who never saw Tony Secunda's little scam-mongerers in their psychpop pomp, the clip of The Move that turned up on VH1's Beat Beat ...

P.J. Proby: That's Torn It! The Story of P.J. Proby

Interview by Rob Chapman, MOJO, May 1997

P J. PROBY, SURVIVOR OF 30 YEARS OF fame, purgatory, and sporadic redemption, is holding court on one of his favourite subjects. "From Graceland to ...

Procol Harum: The Giant Shadow

Interview by Rob Chapman, MOJO, September 1995

What happens when the crowd invades the pitch in adulation just microseconds into the match? Nearly three decades after ‘Whiter Shade Of Pale’, Procol Harum ...

Biff Rose: Whaddya Mean You’ve Never Heard of Biff Rose?

Profile by Rob Chapman, MOJO, November 1997

IF YOU KNOW THE NAME at all it's probably for ‘Fill Your Heart’, the jaunty item that kicks off side two of David Bowie's Hunky ...

Roxy Music: They Came From Planet Bacofoil

Retrospective and Interview by Rob Chapman, MOJO, December 1995

Brought together by musical differences, they looked into the future — and it was dressed to kill. They were Roxy Music, and this is the ...

Todd Rundgren: Rundgren Reissued

Review and Interview by Rob Chapman, MOJO, March 1999

Remastered reissues of the original one-man band's first five Bearsville albums – Runt; The Ballad Of Todd Rundgren; Something/Anything?; A Wizard, A True Star; Todd; ...

Slade

Retrospective and Interview by Rob Chapman, unpublished, 2002

LET'S PLAY how to be hip. The rules go something like this. MC5 plus gritty urban Detroit plus White Panther polemic equals street cred and ...

Soft Machine

Retrospective and Interview by Rob Chapman, MOJO, June 1997

Oh what larks they had. Psychedelic poesy with a May Ball beat. Jolly Japes with Jimi Hendrix. Frolics with the Floyd. Soft Machine: a very ...

Sparks

Interview by Rob Chapman, unpublished, June 2004

SPARKS ARE IN London to play the Meltdown Festival at Morrissey's request. Outside in the stifling heat the capitol is experiencing its own 90 degree ...

Vivian Stanshall's Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead

Review by Rob Chapman, Uncut, June 2004

GENUINE ECCENTRICS don't fill out an application form to join the Eccentrics Club and then sit in wood-panelled drawing rooms trading well-honed anecdotes with fellow ...

Sun Ra: How to Buy Sun Ra

Review by Rob Chapman, MOJO, July 1998

LONG AFTER YOU AND I HAVE RETURNED to sub-atomic dust particles, Sun Ra will probably be acclaimed as the greatest composer of the 20th century. ...

Scott Walker: Scott; Scott2; Scott3; Scott4; Boy Child (Fontana/Mercury)

Review by Rob Chapman, MOJO, August 2000

Scott’s first four post-Walker Brothers solo outings plus a revamped ‘best of’. Originally issued between 1967 and 1969. They got better but sold less and ...

The Wilde Flowers: Wilde Flowers: Tales Of Canterbury: The Wilde Flowers Story (Voiceprint)

Essay by Rob Chapman, MOJO, April 1995

Caravan, Soft Machine, Kevin Ayers & The Whole World: all grew from the stem of the legendary Wilde Flowers. Rob Chapman tells their story. ...

Frank Zappa: I was a Teenage Moose Freak!

Report by Rob Chapman, MOJO, December 1998

FREE-FORM RADIO was one of the great innovations of the American Underground. From 1966, when the Federal Communications Commission freed up the FM band, to ...

List of genre pieces

I Feel Like I Win When I Lose: The Eurovision Song Contest

Retrospective by Rob Chapman, MOJO, May 1998

WHAT HAVE FRANCOISE HARDY, Esther Ofarim, and Ofra Haza got in common? Answer, they are all fine singers. But before they got such deserved reputations ...

Apres Nous Le Deluge: The Nouvelle Vague Of Pop Francaise

Report and Interview by Rob Chapman, MOJO, July 1998

"THERE’S NOTHING HAPPENING in England right now. It’s like 1975. Deep Purple for me are like The Prodigy. Led Zeppelin are Chemical Brothers." Daniel Auxerre, ...

David Toop: Exotica: Fabricated Soundscapes In A Real World

Review by Rob Chapman, MOJO, July 1999

IF EXOTICA is, to quote a much used definition, nostalgia for places you've never visited, then the term has potentially universal application. Bearing in mind ...

Glastonbury ‘98

Live Review by Rob Chapman, MOJO, August 1998

AFTER THE quagmire of 1997 it surely couldn’t be Pop Passchendaele II could it? Oh yes it could. Unlike last year, when the Glasto monsoon ...

Various Artists: The Immediate Single Collection

Essay by Rob Chapman, MOJO, June 2000

A 6-CD, 161-track box set of Oldham and Calder's '60s love-child. Billed as Happy To Be Part Of The Industry Of Human Happiness. ...

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