About Us Rock's Backpages

About Rock’s Backpages

Rock's Backpages is the largest archive of music journalism online, featuring almost 50,000 articles on thousands of artists from Aaliyah to ZZ Top. We've been going for over 20 years and work with hundreds of writers to archive their work for students, researchers and plain old music-lovers. Read more about RBP in our Press Room.

Anyone can register to read a selection of over 500 free articles, or subscribe and get full access to all the articles and audio interviews on the site for personal use. Each week, we add a minimum of 50 interviews and reviews from the pages of the best music publications since 1960. We also put together free features, spotlight the work of one of our contributors and pay tribute to notable figures on our weekly homepage and newsletter.

If that sounds good to you, find out more about subscribing here, or simply sign up for the RBP newsletter

If you're a librarian or media professional and would like to work with us, please head over to the institutional subscribers page or licensing page and get in touch.

 

The Rock’s Backpages team...

Barney Hoskyns Editorial Director

A writer and editor for over 30 years, RBP co-founder Hoskyns is also the author of many books, including Hotel California: Singer-Songwriters and Cocaine Cowboys in the LA Canyons, the Tom Waits biography Lowside of the RoadTrampled Under Foot, an oral history of Led Zeppelin, and Small Town Talk, a history of the music scene in Woodstock and Bearsville. A former U.S. correspondent for MOJO, Hoskyns has contributed to Vogue, GQ, Rolling Stone, Spin, Harper's Bazaar, Uncut and many other titles. Thoughts of Chairman Barney can be found (and books bought) at barneyhoskyns.com

Mark Pringle Chief Archivist and Production Director

RBP co-founder Pringle has a chequered past including a stint as a musician with mid-'80s retro soul outfit Hot House; graphic designer; portrait photographer. In 2003 he curated Yes Yes Y'all, an exhibition about the first decade of hip hop ('72-'83) and, these days, when he's not covered in 50-year-old newsprint (it never dries) he now plays Free Rock™ with drummer pal Tom Fenner.

Martin Colyer Art Director

RBP co-founder Colyer was until recently the Design Director of Reader's Digest in the UK. He has worked in magazines from hot metal to PDF/X-4 for the likes of Radio Times, The Listener, The Observer and The Sunday Times Magazine. He also helped launch the architecture magazine Blueprint. He is on the Editorial Board of the Association of Illustrators and author of the book Commissioning Illustration. He has written for the image magazine Varoom! and recently won a Parliamentary Jazz Award for his work on Goin' Home: The Uncompromising Life & Music of Ken Colyer, a large-scale biography of his uncle. His offbeat take on music in his life is at fivethingsseenandheard.com. He likes broken guitars, outré scents, Bob Dylan's boots and the writing of Joan Didion.

Tony Keys Non-Executive Director

Tony spent his working career in the City, latterly as finance director of a number of specialist insurance businesses. Music has, however, always been a vital passion, from playing piano in R & B and jazz outfits at university and shortly after, to the now more passive pleasure of listening to the music of the '60s and '70s.

Paul Kelly Global Sales Manager

Academic publisher and sales consultant Kelly has worked with – amongst other major academic publishing organisations – Oxford University Press, Credo Reference and JISC Collections. An avid music collector, he has a passion for weird and wonderful music from around the globe and a "healthy" obsession with Pink Floyd. Spare time is spent climbing cliffs and mountains or during rainy days still desperately learning to play that guitar.

Jasper Murison-Bowie Marketing & Communications Manager

Jasper has written about jazz, funk and electronic music for Under City Lights and The Playground. While studying philosophy at University College London, Jasper hosted a radio show, Making Waves, about the genre future bass, which ran for three years. As a saxophonist and pianist, Jasper has played in venues including the Adelphi Theatre, the Bishopsgate Institute and Camden People’s Theatre. In 2015, he held a residency at Tredwell’s restaurant in Covent Garden, playing jazz and freely improvised music. He has also spent some time behind the decks at clubs in Oxford and London. His photography, writing and music can be found at jasperbowie.com.

Iris Van Meurs Sales support executive

Originally from the Netherlands, Iris played in several bands and performed at local talent shows growing up. By the age of 18 she was studying journalism, when she decided to move to London to be a musician. She graduated from BIMM London, where she studied Professional Musicianship in Vocals, played several gigs around the city and finally released some of her songs after writing them since the age of 13. Iris writes, records and produces her music from her bedroom in London, which can be found on all streaming platforms under Iris Van Merse.

William Pike Editorial Assistant

A lifelong musician, William has played in several venues in London (such as Boisdale Mayfair and Tamesis dock), and Scotland while studying English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. Alongside his degree he worked for Wavejam: an innovative music recording app that catered for collaborative long-distance demo production. Since his studies, William has spent time working as a chef as well as gardening, tutoring and performing music in London — before settling at RBP full-time.

 

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