Women in Music, Feminism
1,266 articles
Brenda Lee — Only Fifteen but They Want Her for Hollywood
Profile by June Harris, Disc, 28 May 1960
"SHE'S DYNAMIC. For her age she's ridiculously adult, she knows exactly what she wants and goes all out to get it." This is Wham! producer Jack Good ...
Connie Francis: Connie Will Rock For Britain!
Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 10 August 1962
THERE'LL BE no more weepie-weepie songs from Connie Francis once her current hit 'Vacation' leaves the charts... for Connie is to record special future releases ...
Brenda Lee: The Strain Of Being Brenda Lee
Report and Interview by Ian Dove, Record Mirror, 29 September 1962
TWICE ILL IN HOSPITAL! FATIGUE AND COLLAPSE! ELVIS FILM TURNED DOWN ...
Helen Shapiro: She's Full of her New Home
Interview by June Harris, Disc, 22 December 1962
Big party plans ...
Helen Shapiro: There's Going to be a Brand New Me says Helen Shapiro
Interview by June Harris, Disc, 30 March 1963
"IT'LL TAKE a little time," said Helen Shapiro, as we chatted during a BBC rehearsal, "but I've decided there's going to be a new me." ...
Brenda Lee: A Brenda Bargain – Re-Issue Collection on Ace of Hearts
Report by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 17 August 1963
LITTLE MISS NEWLY-MARRIED has had, believe it or not, no less than SEVEN years in the music business. And that's seven years making discs too. ...
Brenda Lee: Her Marriage and Career...
Profile and Interview by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 25 January 1964
Brenda Lee is back in the charts again. Her mother talks about Brenda and marriage. ...
Cilla Black, Lulu, Sandie Shaw: Cathy McGowan, Sandie Shaw, Cilla Black, Lulu: Screening the Girls
Interview by Sylvia Stephen, Fabulous, 21 February 1964
SHE WANDERED into my office looking a bit vague — a tall, slender girl, with long, straight dark hair. Tinted glasses hid her lovely blue-grey ...
Report by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 16 May 1964
PETER JONES TAKES A LOOK AT THE SUDDEN INFLUX OF THE BIG HIT GIRLS ...
Marianne Faithfull: Teledate with Marianne Faithfull
Interview by Sylvia Stephens, Fabulous, 12 December 1964
When Marianne Faithfull rang me up, we talked at first about the things all girls talk about when they natter on the 'phone. Then I asked the question ...
Sandie Shaw: Girl in a Girl's World: To Make Sandie Sure...
Interview by Jean-Marie, Rave, February 1965
Beginning a new rave series spotlighting each month a different girl star and the special world in which she lives. ...
Marianne Faithfull, The Nashville Teens: Marianne Faithfull: The Battle Over A Bird
Interview by David Griffiths, Record Mirror, 8 April 1965
SAID MARIANNE: "The trouble with having a record called 'The Little Bird' is that I don't like birds. I'm being involved in publicity situations where ...
Marianne Faithfull: Girl in Love in a Girl's World...
Interview by Jean-Marie, Rave, June 1965
Our Girl in A Girl's World series takes a look at a little bird who's sitting pretty in the charts right now — Marianne Faithfull. ...
Marianne Faithfull: Fairy Tales Can Come True — Look at Marianne Faithfull
Interview by Louise Criscione, KRLA Beat, 31 July 1965
WELL HERE we go again. This time we're off to an exclusive interview with a girl who looks like a refugee from a fairy tale ...
Dusty Springfield: Sunday Paper Scared off Dusty's Man
Report and Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 15 October 1965
THE DELECTABLE Miss Dusty Springfield was in candid mood when I spoke to her this week — about wigs, her nose . . . and ...
Dusty Springfield: Life + Laughs = Dusty Springfield
Interview by Louise Criscione, KRLA Beat, 27 November 1965
DUSTY SPRINGFIELD'S voice came over the house phone: "Why don't you come on up to my manager's room? I'll be up in a few minutes. ...
Interview by Ann Moses, New Musical Express, 11 February 1966
HER BOOTS may have been made for walkin'! But Nancy Sinatra's 'Boots' also jumped, ran and scrambled up the pop charts in both America and ...
Our Nancy's Life Abroad — with Those British Pop Stars
Profile and Interview by Loraine Alterman, Detroit Free Press, 13 February 1966
The telegram came from Interpop. It read "ARRIVING IN DETROIT FROM LONDON ON PANAM FLIGHT 57 TUESDAY 3:20 PM IS YOUNG LADY OF POSSIBLE INTEREST ...
Barbra Streisand: No Second Hand Roses
Profile by Carol Deck, KRLA Beat, 19 February 1966
A LOT OF words have been used to describe Barbra Streisand but the one that pops up most often is unique. ...
Cilla Black: Cilla on Marriage
Interview by Penny Valentine, Disc and Music Echo, 23 April 1966
'THE QUEEN HASN'T DONE TOO BADLY BUT IT'S NOT YET FOR ME!' ...
Cilla Black: The Girl Behind The Giggle
Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express Annual, 1967
SHE'S EITHER LOVED OR HATED ...
Sandy Posey: Sandy's a Single Girl who goes for R&B
Interview by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 25 February 1967
"SHE'S DIFFICULT to interview — she's very quiet and she's only interested in music and people concerned with music." That was the advice I was ...
Janis Ian: Musical Psychologist: Janis The Voice Of Mini-Hippies
Profile by Mike Gormley, The Ottawa Journal, 21 July 1967
HERE WE go again. Another great song-writer is upon us. ...
Dionne Warwick: Learning To Take Her Time
Interview by Eden, KRLA Beat, 2 December 1967
DIONNE WARWICK has been acclaimed by fans and critics the world over as one of the greatest and most distinctive song stylists in the music ...
The First Edition, Jefferson Airplane, Spanky & Our Gang: The Ladies Infiltrate Pop Music
Report and Interview by Louise Criscione, KRLA Beat, 4 April 1968
POP MUSIC is a male medium... owing, perhaps, to the long-held belief that females buy the large majority of records. But at last it appears ...
Rosetta Hightower, Joe E. Young & the Toniks: Vicki Wickham: Leap to Toast
Interview by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 22 June 1968
VICKI WICKHAM, back in the days of Ready, Steady Go, had to keep at least one finger on the pulse of the pop-music scene. The programme ...
Big Brother & The Holding Company, Janis Joplin: Janis Joplin: Singer With The Bordello Voice
Profile and Interview by Al Aronowitz, LIFE, 20 September 1968
IF YOU HAVEN'T heard of Big Brother and the Holding Company by now, you're going to miss your chance. ...
Joni Mitchell: Joni, The Seagull From Saskatoon
Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 28 September 1968
TALKING TO Joni Mitchell about her songs is rather like talking to someone you just met about the most intimate secrets of her life. Like ...
Dusty Springfield: Five Great Years of Dusty
Interview by Penny Valentine, Disc and Music Echo, 2 November 1968
ON NOVEMBER 5, 1968, Dusty Springfield celebrates five years as a solo star. ...
Julie Driscoll: Girl Talk with Julie Driscoll
Interview by Dawn James, Rave, December 1968
When two girls get together anything can happen. When they are Julie Driscoll and Rave's Dawn James, everything does! ...
Big Brother & The Holding Company, Janis Joplin: Suddenly… Janis Joplin!
Profile and Interview by uncredited writer, Flip, December 1968
A YEAR AGO, Flip's Hollywood Editor (Carol Deck) and Flip's London Editor (Keith Altham) met at the now legendary Monterey Pop Festival. It was the ...
Profile and Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, Rolling Stone, 17 May 1969
FOLK MUSIC, which pushed rock and roll into the arena of the serious with protest lyrics and blendings of Dylan and the Byrds back in ...
Karen Dalton: Bi•og'ra•phy: Karen Dalton
Press Release by uncredited writer, Capitol Records, September 1969
ALL KAREN DALTON has to do to create her own legend is sing. When she does, in a voice that belongs to no specific time ...
Nina Simone: God Bless The Child
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, September 1969
NINA SIMONE was born Eunice Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina, the sixth of eight children. Her mother worked as a housekeeper and her father was ...
Big Mama Thornton: Stronger Than Dirt (Mercury)
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 1 November 1969
ANYBODY WHO has ever seen Big Mama Thornton perform will vouch for the fact that she is a consummate entertainer. So good, in fact, that ...
Anne Nightingale: "I don't intend to start screaming 'Hello darling' down the microphone"
Report and Interview by uncredited writer, Record Mirror, 24 January 1970
TO BE the first anything is exciting. So it is not at all surprising that Anne Nightingale looked extremely nervous at her Press conference this ...
The GTOs: Permanent Damage (Straight/CBS)
Review by Miles, International Times, 27 February 1970
IT'S NOT TOO difficult to reject the spectacle of Hollywood, to drop out, find yourself, re-evalue your ideas, unless you LIVE in Hollywood. What if ...
Julie Felix: One Small Miss Felix
Profile and Interview by Tom McWilliams, Playdate, May 1970
A STRANGER NAMED Julie Felix confesses, "I hide behind my guitar". With no guitar to hide behind she meets the press. Hides behind the questions? ...
Christine Perfect/McVie: For Christine, Hard Work Hasn't Made Perfect
Interview by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 30 May 1970
HARD WORK is not always rewarded, as Christine Perfect is unfortunately finding out. Since leaving Chicken Shack to spend more time with her husband, Fleetwood ...
Overview by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, 27 June 1970
I'M NOT sure why, but I'm more often moved by men singing than by women. Somehow I can identify with a much larger range of ...
Janis Joplin’s Full-tilt Boogie Ride
Report and Interview by David Dalton, Rolling Stone, 6 August 1970
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky – Janis Joplin and her newly-formed band, Janis Joplin Full-Tilt Boogie, debuted here June 12th, their first gig since they started rehearsing together ...
Janis Joplin: Remembering Janis
Obituary by Vernon Gibbs, Columbia Daily Spectator, 6 October 1970
JANIS JOPLIN used to stand on stage at the Fillmore and wring out evil, catastrophic blues numbers, agony-wracked protests cloaked in Southern Comfort elegance. It ...
Profile by Richard Williams, The Times, 5 January 1971
THE CURRENT STATE of pop music allows its performers to make the most naked personal statements. Only an artist with considerable character, though, can keep ...
Germaine Greer: A Groupie in Women's Lib
Report and Interview by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 7 January 1971
LONDON — ON a crazy Sunday afternoon in London, Germaine Greer lolls in the corner of a crowded room with a silver knit flapper's hat ...
Rita Coolidge: Now The Delta Lady Is Out On Her Own
Interview by Jacoba Atlas, Melody Maker, 1 May 1971
DURING THE Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour, Joe Cocker each night would take the microphone and announce "Here she is, our own Delta Lady, Rita ...
Nina Simone: Carnegie Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Vicki Wickham, Melody Maker, 22 May 1971
Nina the leader ...
Carol Hall, Carole King, Carly Simon, Ronnie Spector: New Albums from Carole King, Carly Simon et al
Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 29 May 1971
King and friends Carole King: Tapestry (A&M AMLS 2025); Carly Simon: Carly Simon (Elektra EKS-74082); Carol Hall: If I Be Your Lady (Elektra EKS-7407R); Ronnie Spector: ...
Fanny: Fillmore East, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 30 May 1971
Fanny, a Four-Girl Rock Group, Poses a Challenge to Male Ego ...
Helen Reddy: Helen now a star in demand
Profile by Lillian Roxon, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 27 June 1971
THEY invited 20 people for a quiet little get together back at their Hilltop home after her show closed — and 280 turned up. ...
Loretta Lynn: Everybody's Got a Soul and a Heart
Interview by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 12 July 1971
(RBP editor's note: the intro to this article was written by Paul Connah, the interview undertaken primarily by Gene Guerrero) ...
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 14 October 1971
WELL, LET'S SEE...first there was Goldie and the Gingerbreads and the UFO's. Then Cake, who were merely New York's answer to the Ronettes, and the ...
Goldie & The Gingerbreads, Genya Ravan, Ten Wheel Drive: Genya Ravan: Goldie Zelkovich Breaks Loose
Profile and Interview by Mike Jahn, Baltimore Sun, 17 October 1971
COLUMBIA RECORDS just bought Goldie Zelkovich away from Polydor Records, which makes Goldie very happy. ...
Press Release by uncredited writer, RCA Records, November 1971
THE SUMMER IS probably the best time to go down there, to the far reaches of the west West village. It's really calm, quiet and ...
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Creem, November 1971
SEEING FANNY live after hearing Charity Ball leaves two possibilities: either the group doesn't know the first thing about recording or Richard Perry is a ...
Essay by Jacoba Atlas, Billboard, 6 November 1971
WHEN I mentioned to Nicky Barclay of the first successful all-girl rock band Fanny that I was working on an article dealing with women in ...
Interview by uncredited writer, The Great Speckled Bird, 22 November 1971
IT ALL started Wednesday at the royal coach inn with Viva. The inn is some architect's nightmare of Lancelot and Arthur's court, wooden chandeliers and ...
Aretha Franklin: Greatest Hits – on Atlantic and Columbia
Review by Pete Wingfield, Cream, December 1971
ON ATLANTIC: Greatest Hits illustrates the power that fourteen condensed, concise, definitive musical statements can exert – particularly in the soul/R&B field, totally geared until ...
Labelle, Dusty Springfield: Vicki Wickham: The Secretary That Roared
Interview by Toby Mamis, Phonograph Record, December 1971
I'D CONSIDERED doing this piece since mid-June. So, frankly, when the time came, I was thoroughly prepared. Prior to my interview with Vicki Wickham, I'd ...
"Mama" Cass Elliot: Cass Elliot: Cass Elliot (RCA)
Review by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 29 January 1972
CASS'S FIRST SOLO ALBUM for her new company shows that the lady has always had much more to offer in terms of phrasing and feel ...
Helen Reddy: Weekend Ever Reddy
Interview by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 5 February 1972
A VERY HEAVY American biography on Helen Reddy comes on with excessive amounts of material on the supernatural, her beliefs in ESP and parapsychology* until ...
Interview by Jacoba Atlas, Melody Maker, 12 February 1972
"I STARTED singing my own songs because no one else was saying what I wanted to say," explains Helen Reddy, the Australian born singer who ...
Fanny: Fanny Hill (Reprise 2058)
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, The Rag, 13 March 1972
FANNY HAVE put out a totally consistent album that captures the spirit of 1964-5 rock coupled with the White Album Beatles/middle-period Badfinger instrumental sound. Considering ...
Judee Sill: A Sill-y Story: Judee Sill
Interview by Rosalind Russell, Disc, 8 April 1972
JUDEE SILL is quite a remarkable woman. When you consider her past it becomes apparent just how remarkable. She lost both her parents and her ...
Interview by James Johnson, New Musical Express, 8 April 1972
ACCORDING to Judee Sill: "Out of the mud grows a lotus". In other words something beautiful comes from something unpleasant. The phrase applies well to ...
Fanny: Fanny Hill (Reprise 2058)
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Rolling Stone, 13 April 1972
FANNY HAVE finally made it: their new album is full of the best mainstream rock and roll I've heard so far this year. As well ...
Joni Mitchell: An Interview (part 1)
Interview by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 3 June 1972
THE LADY WHO walks on eggs is sitting in her hotel suite overlooking St. James' Park with her legs tucked up, her chin resting on ...
Joni Mitchell: An Interview (part 2)
Interview by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 10 June 1972
LAST WEEK Joni Mitchell spoke for the first time in over two years about why she virtually "retired" from the music scene during a period ...
Labelle: Nona Hendryx of Liberated Labelle
Profile and Interview by Lillian Roxon, New York Sunday News, 2 July 1972
SOUL! NONA Hendryx of Labelle, a group of three young black women that has been together more than 10 years, gets this sweet look on ...
Martha Reeves & The Vandellas: Martha Reeves Goes Solo
Report and Interview by Phil Symes, Disc, 8 July 1972
MARTHA REEVES is going solo. After 10 years fronting one of Motown's most successful groups, Martha and the Vandellas, Miss Reeves is stepping out alone. ...
Birtha, "Mama" Cass Elliot, Labelle: Birtha and Mama Cass: The Right On Sound Called Liberated Rock
Report by Lillian Roxon, New York Sunday News, 17 September 1972
I WAS interested to read in one of those glossy magazines that the coming trend in music for the fall is "rock 'n' rouge," because ...
Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 25 November 1972
DRIVING OUT of London in his sparkling red Citroen, bound for Manor Studios, Oxfordshire, John McCoy talked about his girl Claire Hamill in a manner ...
Millie Jackson: Millie's Mojo Soul
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, New Musical Express, 9 December 1972
AMONG THE better girl artists to emerge from America's R&B charts of late is Millie Jackson, who's been creating no small action over here in ...
Dory Previn: Surviving All Odds: Dory Previn
Interview by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 16 December 1972
WHEN DORY Previn wrote: "I no longer plead with heaven or go rummaging in books for the answers to the questions life contains", she had ...
Joni Mitchell: A Tender Dignity
Guide by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 6 January 1973
ONE DAY, many years ago, Al Kooper went home with a blonde Canadian chick who used to hang out with the Blues Project. In the ...
Millie Jackson: Millie Jackson (Mojo Select 2918.005 £2.00)
Review by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 16 February 1973
'If This Is Love'; 'I Ain't Giving Up'; 'I Miss You Baby'; 'A Child Of God'; 'Ask Me What You Want'; 'My Man A Sweet Man'; ...
Bette Midler: Trying To Be Free
Interview by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 17 February 1973
THE DIVINE MISS M. sparkles and shines like a great glossy cake trimmed up with rich icing. On stage, word has it, she is superbly ...
Fanny: The Crossroads Are Where Fanny Are At
Interview by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 24 February 1973
ALL RIGHT. So Fanny can play with due competence, can pull in and please the crowds, make chunky representative albums and they've got over the ...
Interview by David Rensin, Crawdaddy!, March 1973
LOS ANGELES – Bonnie Raitt is by nature a purposeful woman. On a personal level, she is attempting to forge a new ethic reaching beyond ...
Dory Previn: Madness, Fear and the Demons Inside
Interview by James Johnson, New Musical Express, 5 May 1973
AT THE END of the Dory Previn concert at Carnegie Hall, a couple of New Yorkers are standing near the exit, one whispering to the ...
Carly Simon, Dory Previn, Mary Travers: Record World Forum: Three Artists on the New Consciousness
Interview by Loraine Alterman, Record World, 19 May 1973
Carly Simon, Dory Previn and Mary Travers are three major artists whose work and lives exemplify the independent role women are assuming in society. As ...
Report and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 2 June 1973
LEON WANTED US TO LIVE IN HIS HOUSE...WE WEREN'T INTERESTED NEEDLESS TO SAY ...
Anne Murray: Canada's Sweetheart Stays Put
Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 7 June 1973
LOS ANGELES — "Canada has never had a star in the real sense of the word. They've had people big in Canada and nowhere else, ...
Review by Loraine Alterman, The New York Times, 15 July 1973
A Bland Carole King ...
Essra Mohawk: Just Baiting for Laura Nyro
Interview by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 8 September 1973
THIS IS a slightly strange situation to be in. Over there, in the corner of the room, Sherry Bo Berry, a member of the Cockettes-derived ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: Yoko: How I Rescued John from Chauvinism
Interview by Loraine Alterman, Melody Maker, 22 September 1973
DATELINE NEW YORK: A rare interview with a much maligned singer with a fine new album... ...
Yoko Ono: Yoko's A No-No: Yoko Ono: Kenny's Castaways, New York
Live Review by Vicki Wickham, Melody Maker, 3 November 1973
NEW YORK: I still haven't figured out what is "inside" everyone that makes them not only want to sing, but to so firmly believe they ...
Bette Midler, Yoko Ono: Bette Midler: Bette Midler (Atlantic); Yoko Ono: Feeling The Space (Apple)
Review by Loraine Alterman, The New York Times, 4 November 1973
No Torches for Bette and Yoko ...
Isis: Eight-Piece, All-Woman Band in Musical No-Man's Land
Report and Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Rolling Stone, 8 November 1973
NEW YORK An all-woman rock band, one that really cooks, seems to be both a contradiction in terms and a lousy pun. They've come ...
Sarah Vaughan: Searching For That Natural Soul Sound
Interview by Max Jones, Melody Maker, 17 November 1973
MARSHALL FISHER, Sarah Vaughan's husband and personal manager, indicated that if I were to call round at the Mayfair Hotel an hour or so before ...
Suzi Quatro: The Girl in the Gang
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1974
A SEPARATE dressing-room had been provided upstairs, but Suzi Quatro preferred to use the same one as her band. It was large, clean, grey and ...
Yoko Ono: The Whole World Is My Mother-In-Law
Profile and Interview by Caroline Coon, unpublished, 1974
2012 NOTE: Tidying through my papers some days ago I found, at last, an interview I did with Yoko Ono at home in New York ...
Suzi Quatro: Suzi Q: Expatriate Rockerette
Interview by Toby Mamis, Zoo World, 3 January 1974
N.Y. — "I DIDN'T want to play with girls anymore," she told me via transatlantic phone conversation, from her manager's office in London. ...
Joni Mitchell: Court and Spark (Asylum)
Review by Loraine Alterman, The New York Times, 6 January 1974
Joni's Songs Are For Everyone ...
Report and Interview by Stephen Demorest, Circus, February 1974
Being a rock star has its advantages, but the spotlight is usually only big enough for one person. Circus took a behind stage look at ...
Toni Brown, Chi Coltrane, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon: Albums from Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell et al
Review by j. poet, The Berkeley Barb, 22 February 1974
j poet advertizes fer joni: male groopie wanted ...
Suzi Quatro: A Rap In The Loo With Suzi Q.
Interview by Chrissie Hynde, New Musical Express, 23 February 1974
CHRISSIE HYND, who's got this thing about black leather, snuggles up to SUZI QUATRO for an intimate girl-to-girl tête-à-tête in the Ladies' toilet ...
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 May 1974
NEW YORK: Fanny have gone glitter! Eyeshadow, legs, fancy hair, satins, black tights, the lot. They're now a female New York Dolls, and although the ...
Joni Mitchell: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, June 1974
WHEN JONI MITCHELL sang in a cinema next to Victoria Station, her entire audience fell in love with her three nights running. For weeks afterwards ...
Ellen McIlwaine: Honky Tonk Angel
Interview by Robin Katz, Sounds, 1 June 1974
ELLEN McILWAINE is probably the finest female guitarist to emerge in ages, says ROBIN KATZ. She handles her guitar with the expertise of a super-cool ...
Laura Nyro: The Five-Year, Five-Album Span Of High-Pressure Creativity
Overview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 29 June 1974
"Nights in New York street angels running down steps into the echoes of the train station to sing..." ...
Interview by Barbara Charone, New Musical Express, 6 July 1974
ALL THE New York City rockers had come down to the Bottom Line to check out Rocket Records' latest entry, Kiki Dee. Elton John and ...
Annette Peacock: Primitive Bird Tries New Thing
Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 7 September 1974
ANNETTE PEACOCK, erstwhile prisoner in the Bowie/DeFries camp, reveals big plans for what you've all been waiting for... Yes folks, it's THE NEW MUSIC. Here ...
Dory Previn: Dory Previn (Warner Bros.)
Review by Loraine Alterman, The New York Times, 8 September 1974
The Perceptive Songs Of Dory Previn ...
Suzi Quatro: Elvis as Virgin Queen
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, November 1974
"I STILL USE laundromats, and one day I was walking to one carrying a bag of laundry. I had a hat on and sunglasses because ...
Fanny: Unnnghhh! Grunt, Slurp…
Report and Interview by Jonh Ingham, New Musical Express, 30 November 1974
LETS BE SEXIST for a coupla paragraphs. ...
Maria Muldaur: The Muldaur Mystique
Interview by Barbara Charone, Hit Parader, December 1974
MARIA MULDAUR is a tease. That sexy helplessness she exudes by asking 'Won't You Feel My Leg' is only half the story. She'll turn the ...
Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, 'In Their Own Words' (Collier Books), 1975
BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE came to prominence during the folk era, hoisted to underground approval on the virtue of her classic Universal Soldier and her first album ...
Interview by Michael Gross, Gallery, 1975
WITH ALL THE noise, convulsions, legal maneuverings, and groundbreaking advances made by feminists in the last few years, women remain the underdog minority in the ...
Essay by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 11 January 1975
Question: what well-known biped possesses an upper-register vocalic system, is pleasant to look upon, and is almost universally misunderstood and/or patronised? Answer: any Rock 'n ...
Kiki Dee: More Than Opening For Elton
Profile and Interview by Michael Gross, Crawdaddy!, March 1975
NEW YORK The first time Kiki Dee came to New York City, she was showcased by her newest record company, Rocket Records, at the ...
Review by Phil Hardy, Let It Rock, April 1975
OVER RECENT months those familiar figures, the singer/songwriter and the solo artist have made their reappearance on the scene. But if you cast your eyes ...
Tammy Wynette: Truckers' Choice
Interview by Rob Partridge, Melody Maker, 19 April 1975
No-one captures the ideals of Middle America quite like Tammy Wynette. And she's got the hits to prove it — an astounding 24 Number Ones. ...
Ella Fitzgerald: Queen of Song
Interview by Max Jones, Melody Maker, 3 May 1975
Ella Fitzgerald — who has just completed a week at London's Ronnie Scott club — talks to MAX JONES ...
Candi Staton, Bettye Swann: Candi Staton and Bettye Swann: Broken Hearts, Do Right Women
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, New Musical Express, 14 June 1975
EVERY TIME I hear Bettye Swann's pained 'Don't You Ever Get Tired Of Hurting Me' I'm so moved I want to go and punch that ...
Report and Interview by Robin Katz, Let It Rock, July 1975
1. 'What Can I Do For You?' PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania. November 1974. Breakfast time (10:30). Patti LaBelle, Sarah Dash and Nona Hendryx are sitting in one corner of ...
Lesley Gore: They Don't Own Her
Report by Dave Marsh, Let It Rock, July 1975
IN 1964, A seventeen-year-old freshman named Lesley Gore put out her first record, 'It's My Party (And I'll Cry If I Want To)'. It was ...
Bonnie Raitt: Bonnie Comes Marching Home
Report and Interview by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 12 July 1975
When Bonnie Raitt comes marching home to pack Carnegie Hall, Penny Valentine is there to talk to "the one woman who is a pure musician ...
Rufus: Chaka: I Feel Sexless on Stage
Interview by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, 12 July 1975
CHAKA KHAN is a bit like a furry golly. She flops in front of the telly, cheering for Connors at Wimbledon, giggling and proudly displaying ...
Profile and Interview by Penny Valentine, Let It Rock, August 1975
WHEN SHE SINGS 15 year old girls run out of the audience, down the auditorium, arms raised in a two fisted salute. What they are ...
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 5 August 1975
IT'S FUNNY how some women are genteel yet others may be quite the opposite – yet still manage to retain their femininity. ...
Betty Davis: Game is her Middle Name
Interview by Robin Katz, Sounds, 27 September 1975
Betty Davis hits Britain next month and she's BAAAAD, brother. Robin Katz checks out the lady who makes Tina Turner look like the Singing Nun... ...
Betty Davis: Ronnie Scott's, London
Live Review by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 25 October 1975
WITH THE Viking Warrior Case fresh in every mind, punters packed Ronnie's for the Betty Davis exposure. A threat to the moral health of the ...
Profile and Interview by Rob Partridge, Melody Maker, 1 November 1975
THE CHOCOLATE-smothered Rice Krispies cup cake lay half-eaten on the plate, neglected after the first bite. Tanya, it seemed, was not in the best of ...
Patti Smith: La belle dame sans merci: Patti Smith: Horses (Arista Import) *****
Review by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 20 November 1975
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I give you the record of the year. Or the record of 1976, since it won't be released here until January. ...
Interview by Robin Katz, Sounds, 13 December 1975
PATTI SMITH cannot compromise. She functions on her very own level of stratosphere, creating poetry, writing songs, lapping up the more elusive statics of life. ...
The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, Grace Slick: Grace Slick (1976)
Interview by Jim Esposito, Rock's Backpages audio, 1976
Interviewed at the Airplane house in San Francisco, the chanteuse of psychedelia rambles in splendid style on her early days in the Great Society, writing White Rabbit, drugs and drink and much more.
File format: mp3; file size: 77.2mb, total interview length: 1h 24' 21" sound quality: ***
Joni Mitchell: Hostess Twinkies for Your Dreams
Live Review by Michael Gross, Swank, 1976
Joni Mitchell: Nassau Coliseum ...
Laura Nyro: Five Years of Silence
Essay by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, January 1976
BORN LAURA Nigro, she was fated to sing the blues. Though her solitary visions weren't attuned to the pop pulse of the movement-minded sixties, she ...
Pan's People: I Was A Pan's People (And Lived)
Report and Interview by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 24 January 1976
Unwitting girls in White Slavery? Sex objects exploited for male fantasies? The best thing on Top Of The Pops? ...
Review by Chas de Whalley, New Musical Express, 14 February 1976
RONEE BLAKLEY was the star of Robert Altman's Nashville, if you remember, the film that was universally condemned by the inhabitants of Music City U.S.A. ...
Comment by Penny Valentine, Street Life, 21 February 1976
THERE ARE three women writers on Street Life. We are generally treated with the same 'respect' as our male colleagues. In other words, if there's no ...
Overview by Penny Valentine, Street Life, 6 March 1976
THE NUMBER of women working in British music is pitifully small. You can count them on one hand. Why? ...
Phoebe Snow Has No Regrets...Yet
Interview by Susin Shapiro, The Village Voice, 15 March 1976
'Which will prove more important, keeping open the WATS line to her career or being the best possible mother, in a first-person plural world?' ...
Profile and Interview by Robin Katz, Sounds, 27 March 1976
Bonnie Raitt (talking and singing 2000 words a minute) and Robin Katz (just talking 2500 words a minute) discuss men, music and the pursuit of happiness. ...
Gladys Knight and the Pips: Gladys Knight: Things happen when you're a disciple of Buddah...
Interview by Cliff White, New Musical Express, 8 May 1976
... but it helps if you're GLADYS KNIGHT AND THE PIPS. Here's how things are going, as told to CLIFF WHITE. ...
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? ...
Profile and Interview by Stephen K. Peeples, Circus, June 1976
SHE'S ON THE Midnight Special stage wearing a Happy Days T-shirt given her by Anson Williams, leaning into Dennis Linde's 'Burnin' Love' with so much ...
Janis Ian: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Robin Katz, Sounds, 12 June 1976
TO EVEN the artist's surprise, the concert was sold out. Standing room was also sold out. The New Victoria audience once more displayed knowledgable enthusiasm ...
Report by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 15 July 1976
LONDON — Patti Smith prompts some strong opinions here. New Musical Express drooled that Horses, her debut Arista album, was "better than... the first Beatles ...
Interview by Robin Katz, Black Echoes, 25 September 1976
Suddenly England has a lady singer songwriter to vie with America's greatest. Robin Katz talks to Joan Armatrading ...
Bonnie Bramlett: Kicking Out The Jams
Interview by Kris DiLorenzo, The Aquarian Weekly, 27 October 1976
Lunching with Bonnie Bramlett (a.k.a. "Holler Mouth") is no ordinary trip to the coffeeshop. In fact, an afternoon with Bonnie Bramlett is more like a ...
Patti Smith: The Field Marshall on Portobello Road
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 6 November 1976
"THIS ALBUM is I think much more feminine than the first album...the rhythm, it's more like ocean. The cuts that I love the best are ...
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 11 December 1976
Palmolive, drums; Kate Korus, rhythm guitar; Suzi Gutsy, bass; Arianna Forster, lead vocals ...
Dana Gillespie: Dingwalls, London
Live Review by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 25 December 1976
THIS DANA is certainly no fairtytale. ...
Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, Fall 1976
Ms Ronstadt talks about being brought up surrounded by music; moving from Tucson to Los Angeles and forming the Stone Poneys; the hit she didn't like, 'Different Drum'; her struggles with managers and producers making her first solo albums; meeting the future Eagles at the Troubadour; the move from Capitol to Asylum; getting together with producer Peter Asher, and strongly identifying with fellow women singers like Emmylou, Dolly and Bonnie Raitt.
File format: mp3; file size: 44.2mb; Interview length: 46' 01"; sound quality: *****
Linda Ronstadt (1976) [transcript]
Audio transcript of interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages transcripts, Fall 1976
This is a transcript of John's audio interview with Linda. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Interview by Karl Dallas, Rock's Backpages audio, 1977
The Queen of English Folk-Rock talks about going back on the road (the repertoire, the musicians and the nerves), about her recent split from Island Records, and about her new baby Georgia.
File format: mp3 File size: 9.5mb Interview length: 10' 23"; Sound quality: ****
Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, '1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion', 1977
ONE OF THE arguments trotted out to minimize punk rock was that however good or bad the sound was live, it would be impossible to ...
Review by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, May 1977
THIS IS THE ALBUM we have been waiting for since Sandy left Fairport Convention for the second time at the end of 1975. Over six ...
Report and Interview by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, 16 July 1977
SANDY DENNY looked radiant. Yes, one is always supposed to say that about ladies when they're pregnant, but in this case it was true. She ...
Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, 28 July 1977
The singer/slide-guitarist talks about how she got into blues; about her albums from her first to her most recent, Sweet Forgiveness, via Takin' My Time and Home Plate; about producers John Hall and Jerry Ragovoy; about politics, feminism and women in music; and about the process of finding songs and not writing anymore. Read a transcript of this interview.
File format: mp3; file size: 30.2mb, interview length: 31' 30" sound quality: *****
Lena Zavaroni: A Jackie Pop Special on Lena Zavaroni: I Just Got This Idea That I Was Too Fat...
Interview by Robin Katz, Jackie, 30 July 1977
LENA ZAVARONI'S just turned thirteen — and she's already been a star for over four years! You might think that instant success at nine years ...
Report and Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, August 1977
THERE ARE FEW groups I'd rather go and see at the moment than The Slits. They've only been going a few months in their present ...
Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 20 August 1977
LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE GIRLS Snatch it while you can ...
Interview by Robin Katz, Sounds, 10 September 1977
Laid-back hippy cries from the Heart. Nancy Wilson talks to Robin Katz ...
Joan Armatrading: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Cliff White, New Musical Express, 12 November 1977
AS ANY regular user of London's Underground rail network can testify, not all of the strolling troubadours who jostled for recognition in the balmy '60s ...
Sandy Denny: Sandy Fights Back
Report and Interview by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, 12 November 1977
"IF I HAVE TO SING 'Matty Groves' one more time, I'll throw myself out of a window... I'll be doing a lot of stuff from ...
Report and Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 12 November 1977
THE HOUR OF MY VINDICATION is at hand. I'm sitting in the lobby of a London hotel waiting for the Runaways to descend from their ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 3 December 1977
PREMISE: Record company executives have been skipping the brandy on their expense account lunches in their eagerness to sign up any band that can loosely ...
Linda Ronstadt: All Linda Ronstadt Needs Is The Lurv Of A Good Man
Interview by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 7 January 1978
JUST AFTER midnight a large coach pulls up outside a respectable New York City Hotel, precariously perched on the right side of Central Park. Assorted ...
Millie Jackson: In Tune With The People
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 17 January 1978
Soul's upfront lady makes sure she stays on target by taking time and trouble to talk to the people and staying in touch with what's ...
The Ramones, The Runaways: The Ramones/The Runaways: Santa Monica Civic, Los Angeles
Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 18 February 1978
RAMONES: singing about sun and surf while their home town suffered blizzards. 'Obladi-oblada' for the blank generation ...
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 ...
Interview by Howie Klein, Rock's Backpages audio, 14 May 1978
Ms Smith regales the listeners to KSAN, San Francisco, with stories about Tina Turner, Sandy Pearlman and the Clash; sings the praises of Fred 'Sonic Smith and Tom Verlaine; gives respect to Bill Graham. She also makes Public Service announcements, and comments on the commercials!
File format: mp3; file size: 81.9mb, interview length: 1h 29' 27" sound quality: ***
Kate Bush: The Shape of Things To Come: Kate Bush
Column by Simon Frith, Creem, July 1978
NOTE: This formed part of Simon's monthly Creem column "Letter from Britain". ...
Etta James (1978) [transcript]
Audio transcript of interview by Cliff White, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 12 July 1978
This is a transcription of Cliff's audio interview with Etta. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Patti Smith: The Patti Smith Group: The Palladium, New York NY
Live Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1978
Patti comes home a hero ...
Live Review by Cliff White, New Musical Express, 22 July 1978
THEY PROBABLY don't realise it but The Who once dedicated an album to Etta James. Meaty, Beaty, Big And Bouncy it was called, and by ...
Etta James' long search for stardom
Interview by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 10 August 1978
IT IS A cruel irony that had she not been a junkie for thirteen of her forty years, Etta James would probably still be working ...
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 19 August 1978
BUFFY SAINTE MARIE used to have this song called 'I'm Gonna Be A Country Girl Again', but you won't find Elizabeth Barraclough or Carlene Carter ...
Aretha Franklin: The Aretha Franklin Interview...
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 29 August 1978
In one of the very rare interviews she grants, Lady Soul gave this in-depth story to B&S' David Nathan at her beautiful Encino, California home. ...
Kate Bush: Bringing It Back Home
Interview by James Johnson, The Evening Standard, 26 September 1978
THE feverish quality of the pop world barely intrudes into the calm atmosphere of the large comfortable family house on the edge of the Kent ...
Annie Nightingale Joins The Old Grey Whistle Test
Profile and Interview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 30 September 1978
WHY THE BBC MAKES YOUNG WOMEN CARRY OUT THIS HIDEOUS ANCIENT RITUAL ...
The Slits: Girl Trouble with The Slits
Profile and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 7 October 1978
NICK KENT on the wildest waifs in town ...
Interview by Tim Lott, Record Mirror, 7 October 1978
The rock and roll business usually brings up its fair share of prima donnas, ready to grab what they can and cast off their friends ...
Joan Armatrading: Perrier Water and Privacy: Joan Armatrading
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 14 October 1978
"LOOOK this way pet, wooood you dear," said the photographer in a voice fusing Andy Stewart and Larry Grayson. "Please pet". Fussing, fussing. ...
Heart Gets Back on the Right Beat
Interview by Wesley Strick, Rolling Stone, 30 November 1978
Legal battles behind them ...
15, 16, 17: Living For The Weekend
Profile and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, 20 January 1979
15, 16, 17 are the best-known of British reggae's new crop of female vocal trios. ...
The Runaways: And Now…The Runaways (Mercury)
Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 20 January 1979
THE TERMS are at once familiar and bizarre, charged with meaning and strangely vacuous: 'street,' 'action,' 'hungry and hot,' 'rock 'n' roll,' 'teenage,' 'weekend,' 'queen.' ...
Linda Ronstadt: America's Sex Valentine
Profile by Al Aronowitz, Gallery, February 1979
I KNOW AN eighteen-year-old genius named Jimmy Dunbar who thinks the ultimate prize in the ultimate contest would be a weekend with Linda Ronstadt. Not ...
Amanda Lear: The Secret Life of Amanda Lear
Interview by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, February 1979
SHE'S BEEN called everything from the Renee Richards of Rock to Miss Before and After Science of 1984. And although she's sold millions of albums ...
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 ...
Joan Jett: Keep On Running: Joan Jett And The Hollywood Dream
Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 31 March 1979
...She decided she had the potential to become a Vocalist... she cut her first demonstration record. The record was sent to several companies and resulted ...
Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 5 April 1979
NEW YORK — "I can read your thoughts right now, every one from A to Z," sings Chaka Khan in her current hit, 'I'm Every ...
Kate Bush: The Perfumed Garden Of Good And Evil
Live Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 14 April 1979
DID YOU EVER visit some distant relative for tea and cakes, and as a postscript have to sit through the "party piece" of their little ...
Rachel Sweet: What Rachel Did Next
Report and Interview by Penny Valentine, Melody Maker, 14 April 1979
Rachel Sweet may follow Tanya Tucker's career with particular interest, but she really wants to be Bruce Springsteen. PENNY VALENTINE followed her on a tour ...
Nina Hagen: The Euro Woman Cometh
Profile and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 9 June 1979
THE LOBBY OF Blake's Hotel in Kensington is a hive of useless activity. As I walk through the open glass doors with the just-so scrolling ...
Profile and Interview by Paul Sexton, Record Mirror, 14 July 1979
SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN the hype and the hit, when the noise has died down before it lives again, there's a spell of anticipation when 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 Mo-dettes: Fast, Loud, Pretty
Profile and Interview by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 18 August 1979
MET THEM ON A Monday, the Coca Cola spilt over the tape machine, and my MRX2 Oxide 45 mins each side @ 1 7/8 i.p.s. ...
The Slits: One Day, All Girls Will Be Made This Way: The Slits: Cut (Island) *****
Review by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 1 September 1979
SLACK JAW, warm hearts: Cuts is astoundingly good. ...
Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 1 September 1979
AS THE Slits sing-song: don't take it seriously. ...
The Slits: Awkward in Interviews, Awkward in Life
Report and Interview by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 22 September 1979
DAVE McCULLOUGH CONFRONTS THE SLITS ...
Nina Simone: Lady Trashes The Blues
Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 29 September 1979
Nina Simone's concerts are almost as nerve-racking as her turbulent personal life, which makes it easy to see her as a weird, tragic mixture of Billie Holiday and Judy Garland. KARL ...
Live Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 29 September 1979
THE LAST time I talked about the Slits was centred around a disorientating weekend in Liverpool at the beginning of this year — a shaky ...
Kate Bush: "Wow, Wow, Wow, Amazing, Amazing, Ama—"
Interview by Danny Baker, New Musical Express, 20 October 1979
EMI: THREE LETTERS that have come to represent "the enemy" in rock'n'roll's war games. EMI House rambles like a country home with a thousand warrens ...
Girlschool: Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's … Girlschool
Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 3 November 1979
I MET GIRLSCHOOL in a pub called the Leather Bottle, which was appropriate because leather is what they wear and bottle is what they've got ...
Marianne Faithfull: Broken English (Island)
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 10 November 1979
BEFORE WE get started on the music... ...
Marianne Faithfull: Broken English (Island Ml) ***½
Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 17 November 1979
NOT SO much a comeback as a c-c-c-comeback. Marianne Faithfull has restarted her career more times than Frank Sinatra's retired. ...
Annette Peacock: A British Rail Breakfast With The Artbreak Kid
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 1 December 1979
TIMING: a while ago someone asked Bob Geldof — famous vocalist and composer with the extremely well-known Boomtown Rats pop group — for his definition ...
The Raincoats: New Raincoats Don't Let You Down
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, 1 December 1979
Following the sun, Palmolive washed her hands of the Raincoats. But they're back on the road, singing and playing. VIVIEN GOLDMAN took a long time ...
Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Marseille, Squeeze, Whitesnake: Are You A Whore For Rock 'N' Roll?
Report by Rosalind Russell, Record Mirror, 20 December 1979
ROSALIND RUSSELL thinks most of you are ...
Au Pairs: The Au Pairs: Battle of the Sexes
Profile and Interview by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 5 January 1980
I REMEMBER I got a letter some time ago from Ali of Another Tuneless Racket fanzine from Scotland, in which the author questioned the reasoning ...
Interview by Rosalind Russell, Record Mirror, 2 February 1980
Now we can get back to those sexist headlines. Debbie Harry knows you need that to front a band, but don't forget the music and ...
Interview by Deanne Pearson, New Musical Express, 29 March 1980
Exploited for the last two decades as dumb but pretty decorations in rock, some girls now demand and deserve musical respect — but some girls ...
The Go-Go's: Ready Steady Go-Go's
Profile and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 12 April 1980
GO-GO'S: 1. Bouncing entertainment; choreographed Happy Pill; females showing a hell of a lot for little reward. 2. Hollywood pink-punk band; all of the above ...
Marianne Faithfull: Rave Girl To Brave Girl: True Confessions Of Marianne Faithful
Report and Interview by Toby Goldstein, Creem, May 1980
"GOOD LORD, why?" rasps Marianne Faithfull, as she sinks into the hotel's rumpled bedding. "It's so strange, why would you be a fan of somebody ...
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 10 May 1980
AT 21, JOAN Jett is a five-year rock veteran. She was a 15-year-old San Fernando Valley high schooler when L.A. entrepreneur Kim Fowley recruited her ...
Joan Armatrading: Me Myself I (A&M)
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 17 May 1980
JUST TO put new readers of my ongoing review of Joan Armatrading's work in the picture I should mention that I rather like this lady. ...
Girlschool: Girls At Their Best
Report by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 7 June 1980
THESE SCHOOL-TYPES WILL MAKE THE ORCHIDS WILT, SEZ PETE MAKOWSKI ...
Moe Tucker, The Velvet Underground: Maureen Tucker: "Quiet, Mommy's Recording"
Interview by Byron Coley, New York Rocker, July 1980
I GUESS THERE must be people out there who aren't aware of who Mo Tucker is. If you're one of them, listen up: MAUREEN TUCKER ...
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 26 July 1980
JIVE OF THE JADED ...
Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 26 July 1980
IN THE STRANGE WAY it has at certain phases of your life, time is running backwards for Joan Armatrading. She's growing younger. To prove it ...
Delta 5: The Delta Of Venus: Delta 5
Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 2 August 1980
"DEL-TA-5! DEL-TA-5!" is good to chant. It feels as good as "Up-Starts! Up-starts!" or "A-C-D-C! A-C-D-C!" What might surprise you is that Delta 5 — ...
Review by Byron Coley, New York Rocker, September 1980
WHAT WE HAVE here are two sets of women arriving at (arguably) the same place by (unarguably) dissimilar routes. The place in question is Primitivesville ...
Grace Jones: This Year's Model
Interview by Mary Harron, Smash Hits, 4 September 1980
Mary Harron meets The Height Of Fashion ...
Interview by Kris Needs, Rock's Backpages audio, 19 September 1980
Ms Bush talks about her recent (and only) tour – the practice, pleasures and fears of performing live; about her new (third) album Never For Ever; the 'paedophilia' allegations surrounding the song 'The Infant Kiss'; and ruminates on the pressures of success.
File format: mp3; file size: 28.6mb, interview length: 31' 16" sound quality: **
Phil Spector, Ronnie Spector: 'I Wasn't Even a Housewife': Ronnie Spector's true confessions
Report and Interview by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 27 September 1980
SHE WAS supposed to be promoting her album, but Ronnie Spectors first solo album isnt the kind of thing thats about to stop the world ...
Lester Bangs, Blondie: Blondie by Lester Bangs (Fireside/Simon and Schuster)
Book Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, October 1980
Lester Bangs One Out ...
Bush Tetras: Sons and Daughters of No New York: Bush Tetras
Interview by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, October 1980
PAT PLACE: Guitar. Age 26. Born and raised in Chicago. Arrived in New York in 1975. "I was a visual art student... I came here ...
Carly Simon: Come Upstairs (Warner Bros.)
Review by James Hunter, The Village Voice, 1 October 1980
Carly Simon Yells and Screams ...
Kate Bush: Paranoia and Passion of the Kate Inside
Report and Interview by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, 4 October 1980
Kate Bush talks to Colin Irwin in Munich... ...
Pat Benatar: A Piece Of the Rock: The Pat Benatar Band Has Finally Got It
Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 8 October 1980
"FOR THE past five days I can't go to a restaurant without somebody coming up to me and saying 'Aren't you Pat Benatar?' That's the ...
Poly Styrene: Poly Unsaturates
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 25 October 1980
Dazed and crumpled in the tumble-drier of fame. Poly Styrene has now ironed out the creases of her frayed psyche. Is she still hung-up? Is ...
The Roches: Revenge Of the Roches
Profile and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 11 November 1980
Lacerating Lyrics of The New Wave Heroines ...
The Slits: And Lo, "Three Wise Slits Take Their Temple To The West"
Report and Interview by Vivien Goldman, New Musical Express, 20 December 1980
GAMES ON TRAINS ...
Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 24 December 1980
A STILL SWEATING Joan Jett sits in a dressing room at the Channel after her Saturday gig and tugs on her black skintight pants. "This ...
Brenda Lee, Connie Francis: Venus: The Role Of Women In Fifties Music
Overview by John Pidgeon, The History of Rock, 1981
APART FROM the amiable and avuncular Bill Haley, the most memorable figures of the first years of rock'n'roll presented an aggressively sexual, flamboyant, even threatening ...
Sheena Easton: Take My Time (EMI EMC 33 54) *
Review by Betty Page, Sounds, 17 January 1981
Pipe and slippers at the ready ...
Interview by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 7 February 1981
SATURDAY NIGHT ended at seven o'clock on Sunday morning with one last bottle of Veuve Cliquot and Sunday began at four in the afternoon with ...
Interview by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, Rag In Chains, April 1981
Shredder: Tell me what it’s like being the number one band around. ...
Hazel O'Connor: What Katy Did Next
Interview by Peter Silverton, Smash Hits, 16 April 1981
"I get letters saying, 'Did you change your name to Hazel O'Connor for stage work? Is your name really Kate?' They won't even let you ...
Dolly Mixture: These Are The Dollies Who Mixed It With The Macho Music Biz And Lost
Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 2 May 1981
Cynthia Rose meets some '80s girls who've suffered rock sexploitation. ...
Girlschool: Hit and Miss? Yeah, right...
Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 16 May 1981
GARRY "Mr. Nasty" BUSHELL has a few reservations about Girlschool ...
Au Pairs: The Au Pairs: Spot The Differents
Interview by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 6 June 1981
DAVE McCULLOUGH gets on the AU PAIRS platform ...
David Bowie: Bowie For Breakfast: Angie Bowie’s Free Spirit
Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 4 July 1981
Davids golden years get shredded as Angie spills half baked beans. ...
Grace Jones: In Between The Bumpers
Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 25 July 1981
Chris Salewicz goes behind the public face of Grace to discover that in the tall, exotic frame of a former model there's a little girl ...
Interview by Peter Silverton, Smash Hits, 20 August 1981
"I must be the most boring person in the world..." sighs Chrissie Hynde. "What on earth is she on abut?" wonders Pete Silverton. ...
Pat Benatar: Hot L Baltimore's (Not Just) For Children: Nice Girl Finishes First & Demands Recount
Report by Richard Riegel, Creem, November 1981
COLUMBIA, MARYLAND, is a "planned community" nestled among scads of functional greenery, midway between Baltimore and Washington D.C. Columbia was laid out according to the ...
The Slits: Return Of The Giant Slits
Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, November 1981
IN 1977 THE Slits were a noisy, thrashing pupa, slashing at complacent sitcom existences and establishing themselves as an anarchistic, table-turning force. ...
The Slits: Return Of The Giant Slits (CBS 85269)
Review by Chas de Whalley, Record Mirror, 14 November 1981
LONG TERM Slits fans can relax. Just because the girls' latest album appears on the CBS label doesn't mean they've sold out, gone soft or ...
Dolly Mixture: DMs Put The Boot In
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 19 December 1981
Dolly Mixture get (slightly) bitter. Garry Bushell gets (light and) bitter ...
Nico, Velvet Underground: In The Nico Time
Interview by Chris Bohn, New Musical Express, Spring 1981
HEY-HO, is it really that time of the decade already? Once again Nico has surreptitiously floated into the public consciousness just when she was ...
Interview by John Hutchinson, unpublished, 1982
JH: Emmylou, were you always interested in country music? ...
Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks: Fleetwood Mac: Stevie Nicks, Macramé Goddess
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, 1982
TO STEAL from Groucho Marx (after all we're talking nicks), the trouble with doing interviews is having to sit down next to someone you don't ...
Rhoda Dakar: Being Boiled – Rhoda Dakar
Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 23 January 1982
2-Tone's follow up to 'Ghost Town' is equally timely and a good deal more controversial. The single is 'The Boiler' and its subject is rape. ...
Marianne Faithfull: Ses Liaisons Dangereuses
Interview by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, February 1982
"I'VE ALWAYS KNOWN who I was," she says in a raspy, Bette Davis voice. "Whether I could achieve to express that to everyone else was ...
Interview by Toby Goldstein, Musician, March 1982
Joan Jett, explosive rock 'n' roll contact hitter, leads her hordes of Joan clones into a fight to be themselves. ...
Sheena Easton: Through Sheena's Eyes Only
Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 22 April 1982
POP SINGER DOESN'T USE LYRICS TO DELIVER ANY MESSAGES ...
Au Pairs: Equal Shares For The Au Pairs
Interview by Iman Lababedi, Creem, May 1982
"He works the car, she the sink She's not here to think Sits with the paper, discuss the news She doesn't have political views" 'Diet' ...
Interview by Iman Lababedi, Creem, June 1982
The Public's Vindication of an Ex-Runaway ...
The Bay City Rollers: Androgynous Heartthrobs
Essay by Sheryl Garratt, Collusion, June 1982
Rifling through her mid-70s scrapbooks, Sheryl Garratt reassesses a formative obsession and finds that the standard socio-rock explanations just don't add up. Blanded-out pop music ...
Stevie Nicks: 20 Questions: Stevie Nicks
Interview by David Rensin, Playboy, July 1982
Ladies and Gentlemen, the reigning queen of rock – on recklessness, relationships and reincarnation. Contributing Editor David Rensin met with Stevie Nicks (whose album Bella ...
Live Review by Phil Bell, Sounds, 24 July 1982
BOING, boing, boing, boing… Cor what a pair! ...
Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 7 August 1982
MARK COOPER puts a fatherly arm round ANNABELLA'S shoulders ...
Retrospective and Interview by Martin Hawkins, The History of Rock, September 1982
BORN BRENDA MAE TARPLEY in Atlanta, Georgia, on 11 December 1944, Brenda Lee is rumoured to have taken to the road with a singing group ...
Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 11 September 1982
Mick Brown meets the singer with a new album out on Monday ...
Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, November 1982
IN A BUSINESS where women singers are a dime a dozen these days (and trite women singers the norm), Lydia Lunch can be proud of ...
Joni Mitchell: Wild Things Run Fast
Review by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, 27 November 1982
I LISTEN TO Joni Mitchell's voice these days with a fleeting pang of nostalgia. Flitting from one plaintive note to another, fluttering up and down ...
The Go-Go's: Go-Go's Of Your Dreams
Report and Interview by Susan Whitall, Creem, December 1982
DEEP IN THE soul of every writer lies a secret: what does the writer do to avoid writing? I'll empty my brain pan now: I ...
Dolly Parton: Ask a Dirty Question, and you Don't Get Any Answers
Profile and Interview by Mary Harron, The Guardian, 29 March 1983
Dolly Parton smiles, and giggles, and parodies herself, but she's really not that kind of girl at all. Not any longer, reports Mary Harron. ...
Grace Jones: Are You Ready For A Brand New (Disco) Beat?
Interview by Iman Lababedi, Creem, April 1983
IF I WAS writing in Australia for Tie Yer Kangaroo Down rock mag, or in Germany for Ach Tung – Der March Goes On, or ...
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 ...
The Raincoats: An Old Raincoat Will Never Let You Down
Profile and Interview by Iman Lababedi, Creem, May 1983
NEW YORK — After the interview is over, Ana da Silva gives me a crash course on Portugese politics. Portugal is her homeland and she ...
Bonnie Tyler: Total Eclipse of the Chart
Interview by Chas de Whalley, Kerrang!, 5 May 1983
... but BONNIE TYLER'S a rocker at heart, sez CHAS DE WHALLEY ...
Joan Jett: Treading Her Turf — JOAN JETT Gets Some Respect (FINALLY!)
Interview by Toby Goldstein, Creem, July 1983
SUBURBAN RECORDING studios always look the same. They're tucked into inconspicuous blocky gray industrial parks or office buildings or shopping centers — identified by barely ...
Eurythmics, Annie Lennox: Eurythmics' Annie Lennox (1983)
Interview by Max Bell, Rock's Backpages audio, August 1983
The Eurythmics' front woman covers subjects from veganism to feminism, via marriage, class, the nature of success, and anything else she can think of.
File format: mp3; file size: 24.9mb, interview length: 27' 12" sound quality: ****
Lita Ford: From Runaway To Metal Goddess: Lita Ford's Got BLOOD If You Want It!
Profile and Interview by Iman Lababedi, Creem, August 1983
Out Of The Blue (Stepping Out) ...
Lita Ford: Out for Blood (Phonogram)
Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 6 August 1983
LADY ROCKERS who hurl the epithet "sweet thang" at their listeners do everything for me that over-friendly taxi drivers accomplish — or Chrissie Hynde live ...
Connie Francis: One From the Heart: the Connie Francis Interview
Interview by Mary Harron, Collusion, September 1983
When the '60s British Invasion of the American charts began, Connie Francis' songs of teenage life and love were hits all over America. But the ...
Interview by Jane Solanas, New Musical Express, 15 October 1983
Kate Bush has moulded herself in an icon of pop erotica — so much that suburban couples claim her breasts stimulate their love making. Yet ...
Carly Simon: Free, White, & Pushing 40
Interview by Nick Tosches, Creem, January 1984
"Maybe It Was My Big Mouth" ...
The Pretenders: Leather Wears Better Than Dreams
Profile and Interview by Lesley White, The Face, February 1984
In the last two turbulent years, Chrissie Hynde has had a baby by the man who once personified for her the rock and roll myth, ...
Bananarama: We All Broke Down And Cried
Interview by Ian Birch, Smash Hits, 15 March 1984
The last eight months have been a "nightmare" for Bananarama. Ian Birch finds out what went wrong. ...
Kate Garner, Haysi Fantayzee: Kate Garner: Woman's Own
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 17 March 1984
KATE GARNER used to be known for taking her clothes off. Now she's keeping them on, even in the face of Adam Sweeting. ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 14 April 1984
MOST EVERY year now Ms Jamesetta Hawkins – Etta to you – will at the behest of Dingwalls Boss (Goodman, that is) fly over ...
Linda Ronstadt: Performing Is Not My Gift
Report and Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, TV Guide, May 1984
SHE LOOKS SO darling, standing there on a Santa Barbara, Cal., stage in front of Nelson Riddle and his 43-piece orchestra, ready for the first ...
Girlschool: Staying After Girlschool
Report and Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, May 1984
GIRLSCHOOL MEMBERS Kim McAuliffe and Gil Weston flash me quick smiles as we're introduced in their road manager's hotel room, and I'm relieved to note ...
Joan Baez: The Folk Heroine Mellows With Age
Interview by Mary Harron, The Guardian, 22 June 1984
IN 1959 JOAN BAEZ walked out on stage at the Newport Folk Festival and touched off a wave of adulation that was to reach almost ...
Sade: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Max Bell, The Times, 2 August 1984
SADE IS CURRENTLY the hottest new voice in town. Her Diamond Life album has been highly praised and her jazz diva's image, allied to a ...
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 8 September 1984
CRISTINA may live in luxury, but she's no pampered butterfly, as Helen FitzGerald finds out ...
Janet Kay: Do Actors Sing Better Lovers?
Interview by Paul Bradshaw, New Musical Express, 3 November 1984
JANET KAY comes offstage to talk to PAUL BRADSHAW ...
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts: Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth (Blackheart/MCA)
Review by J.D. Considine, Record, December 1984
IN SOME WAYS, the worst mistake Joan Jett ever made was recording 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll'. Sure, it was a great record, an instant ...
Rickie Lee Jones: The World According to Rickie Lee Jones
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 12 December 1984
RICKIE LEE JONES is telling a story on the radio: "In the dreamscape where you write, there are people who shadow you. Like I have ...
Interview by David A. Keeps, Rock's Backpages audio, Fall 1984
La Ciccone talks about making Desperately Seeking Susan: wanting the part; the producers Orion's doubts; screen tests etc., and getting the part; on not being an overnight success; her next single, 'Like a Virgin', and its video, including an encounter with a lion; her plans for the next year, including touring; aspects of her personality: eroticism, vulnerability, snottiness, and how she can be wooed.
File format: mp3; file size: 40.3mb, interview length: 41' 57" sound quality: ** (background noise)
Madonna: "I always acted like a star even before I was one!"
Interview by David A. Keeps, Smash Hits, 17 January 1985
And that time has certainly come. She's had massive hits both sides of the ocean, and she's started making movies and claiming she'd "like to ...
The Bangles: Yesterday and Today
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, Sounds, 2 February 1985
THE 'HOUSE full' sign was proudly on display outside Boston's Paradise Theatre, a local haunt that had, so I was informed, fallen from favour by ...
Report and Interview by Cath Carroll, New Musical Express, 23 February 1985
CATH CARROLL tweaks the growing muscles of Ludus' LINDER and learns about the joy of weight training for women. ...
Madonna: Maybe She's Good: 10 Theories On How Madonna Got "It"
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Record, March 1985
Usually it takes a while for a pop star to earn heavyweight hatred from a significant percentage of the press and public. But like everything ...
Report and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 2 March 1985
IF IT'S TUESDAY, this must be Paris. How about Europe so far, girls? ...
Report by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 21 April 1985
IF THE reports from her first concert in Seattle are any indication, you can expect Madonna to ask San Francisco, early in her show at ...
Madonna Milks Sexy, Savvy Image
Profile and Interview by Laura Fissinger, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 10 May 1985
USUALLY IT takes a while for a pop star to earn heavyweight hatred from a significant percentage of the press and public. But, like everything ...
Samantha Fox: The Best Girls Are Always In The Maker!
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Melody Maker, 20 July 1985
Dumb blonde or shrewd businesswoman? Whatever your viewpoint, you've got to envy Sun Page Three girl SAMANTHA FOX. Still a teenager, she stands to earn ...
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Melody Maker, 24 August 1985
At last AMAZULU have a hit. But can they hang on to their sanity? Caroline Sullivan talks to Claire and Nardo ...
Kate Bush: What Kate Bush Did Next
Interview by Max Bell, Sunday Express, Fall 1985
INQUIRIES ABOUT why Kate Bush has been off the recording scene for three years–an age, in pop–met with a chilly and defensive response from her ...
Madonna: 'Bruce Springsteen Was Born To Run, I Was Born To Flirt...'
Essay by Richard Cook, Sounds, 15 February 1986
RICHARD COOK takes a manly look at the pop tart goddess, MADONNA, who has put sleaze and safety back into pop stardom ...
We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Gonna Use It: Big Fuzz From The Jungle
Interview by Neil Taylor, New Musical Express, 1 March 1986
We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Gonna Use It. What more can you say? Neil Taylor gets a word or two in edgeways. ...
Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 5 June 1986
HERE WE ARE on a nice drive down Cahuenga Boulevard — the journalist's rental wreck following Madonna's forty-plus-grand midnight-blue Mercedes sports coupe — and the ...
Interview by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, 21 June 1986
No more Sammy's tits on page three! Unthinkable! More Sammy songs on Top Of The Pops! Even more unthinkable! While the world wrings its hands ...
The Go-Go's' Charlotte Caffey (1986)
Interview by Gerrie Lim, Rock's Backpages audio, 30 July 1986
The former Go-Go talks about the breakup of the band; about writing for and touring with the newly-solo Belinda Carlisle; about changes in her lifestyle in her 30s; and about how she was influenced by Debbie Harry and in turn influenced new women in pop. Plus she discovers that Belinda's solo album is in the Billboard charts with three bullets...
File format: mp3; file size: 30.4mb, interview length: 31' 39" sound quality: ***
Interview by Karen Schlosberg, Creem, October 1986
"YOU PICKED AN interesting time to visit." Michael J. Fox has his tongue planted firmly in cheek as he stands in the backyard of a ...
Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders: The Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde (1986)
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, October 1986
The Pretenders' frontwoman opines on everything from animal rights to capital punishment. She also talks about music once or twice.
File format: mp3; file size: 84.7mb, interview length: 1h 32' 30" sound quality: ***
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, ...
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, November 1986
The girls and boys on commune upbringings, parental marriages, women in rock, male v female sensibilities, Newport and Boston, having children and much more.
File format: mp3; file size: 50.9mb, interview length: 55' 35" sound quality: **½
We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use It
Interview by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, 15 November 1986
They sing! They dance! They make jokes! They play with bar-bells! They dye their hair! They talk in Brummy accents! They've got a new single ...
Review by John McCready, New Musical Express, 22 November 1986
IT WAS Mark Smith of top pop group The Fall who, in a typical broadcast of dedicated anti-trendiness, announced that vegetarianism helped one leave the ...
Eurythmics: "I Am Not The Androgynous Annie Lennox. I Never Was. I Used It For Something Else"
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 26 November 1986
The Eurythmics Leading lady talks to Adam Sweeting about her life, her music and her image. ...
Sandy Denny: Who Knows Where The Time Goes (Island)
Review by Nick Coleman, New Musical Express, Summer 1986
WHEN SHE DIED I was still preoccupied with the politics of holey jeans and why the Ramones were the perfect emblem of the beast Modern ...
Muriel Gray: Don't Touch That Dial, Sassenach!
Interview by Lucy O'Brien, New Musical Express, 3 January 1987
Sick of Jools? Fed up with Paula? Well, the only saviour for you on The Tube must be MURIEL GRAY, who's now branching out into ...
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Melody Maker, 31 January 1987
ANITA BAKER, the new queen of soul, discusses the dos and dont's of the bigtime with a sympathetic Caroline Sullivan. ...
Grace Jones: Inside Grace Jones
Interview by Gene Santoro, Pulse!, February 1987
A Story About Film, Fashion and Fresh New Sounds. ...
Annie Lennox: The Right Stuff: Annie Lennox on Singers
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Q, February 1987
I NEVER HAD enough money to have a record player, so I never got into the habit ol buying records, and so my only real ...
Cyndi Lauper: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 26 February 1987
FUNNY GIRL! Cyndi Lauper is equal parts Shirley Temple, Rickie Lee Jones and Bugs Bunny, a fruitcake in a musical doll's house wearing cartoon clothes, ...
Nona Hendryx: Let's get metaphysical
Interview by Lucy O'Brien, New Musical Express, 20 June 1987
NONA HENDRYX, ex of Labelle, has called her new LP Female Trouble — but LUCY O'BRIEN finds she's now a "big gun" having "big fun", ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 16 July 1987
The Girl Bros. talk about their time as part of Prince's Revolution, and their then-new career as recording artists in their own right.
File format: mp3; file size: 28.6mb; Interview length: 31' 15"; sound quality: **
We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use It: Girls Just Wanna Have Fuzz
Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, August 1987
Face it. If the four women in Fuzzbox had called their album We've Got a MIDI-compatible Digital Sampling Device and We're Gonna Use It, it ...
Sinitta: "Hello, I'm Sinitta and..."
Interview by William Shaw, Smash Hits, 12 August 1987
'TOY BOY' IS ABOUT MY 18 YEAR OLD LOVER ...
Roxanne Shanté: The Queen Rocks On
Interview by Lucy O'Brien, New Musical Express, 15 August 1987
B-boys beware! ROXANNE SHANTÉ has returned from bambino bearing with a hit 'Have A Nice Day'. LUCY O'BRIEN meets the Queen Bee. ...
The Judds: Harmonious Relations
Interview by Robin Katz, Over 21, 21 August 1987
Country singing duo The Judds are keeping their success in the family. Mother and daughter talk to Robin Katz. ...
Interview by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 14 November 1987
JAPANESE TOURISTS frantically snapping photographs of each other is a recurring scenario common to the lobbies of Europe's grandest hotels. Today is different. Stepping from ...
Girlschool: Nightmare at Maple Cross (GWR)
Review by Deborah Frost, The Village Voice, 17 November 1987
MOST ALL-GIRL BANDS are pretty stupid And not always for the same reasons most all-guy bands are – too much attitude, too little attitude, too ...
Sinead O'Connor: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 2 January 1988
SO, NINA SIMONE'S 'My Baby Just Cares For Me' – the clubland secret, the cult trophy – went High Street provincial, Top Ten Top Shop. ...
Sinead O'Connor: Skinhead And Scum-Stampers; A Short Sharp Shock
Interview by Neil Perry, Sounds, 2 January 1988
That's how emancipated Irish singer SINEAD O'CONNOR dealt with a record company suggestion that she should 'tart herself up'. NEIL PERRY comes to terms with ...
Throwing Muses: Storm Troupers
Interview by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 19 March 1988
THROWING MUSES' REBUILDING OF POP'S DARK SIDE IS WINNING THEM LOTS OF NEW FRIENDS. PAUL MATHUR AMBLED ACROSS THE ATLANTIC TO TALK TO SINGER KRISTIN ...
T'Pau: Crystal Tipps, Kicks to Kill
Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 19 March 1988
All hail t'purveyors of t'power and t'glory that is T'PAU. STEVEN WELLS meets up with Caz Decker in Berlin. Swoon. ...
Eighth Wonder: Lookin' The Way You Like And Likin' The Way You Look
Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 23 March 1988
... the Patsy Kensit way (i.e. wrestling with bits of steel "piping", scoffing plenty of bubble-gum (?) and being booted out of the school netball ...
Salt 'n' Pepa: Look Ma Top Of The World
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 26 March 1988
SALT 'N' PEPA WILL DO ANYTHING TO HAVE EVERYTHING. WITH THEIR NEW SINGLE, 'PUSH IT', ACCELERATING UP THE AMERICAN CHARTS IT LOOKS AS THOUGH THEIR ...
Voice Of The Beehive: Where Angels Fear to Tread
Interview by Barbara Ellen, New Musical Express, 26 March 1988
Walking the earth, stalking the fringes of the chart, VOICE OF THE BEEHIVE go five rounds with a Beaujolais-addled BARBARA ELLEN on the set of ...
Tracy Chapman: Tracy Chapman (Elektra)
Review by Len Brown, New Musical Express, April 1988
SHE COMES from the wilderness, as prophesised, with a voice like molasses, hair like an ink blot and a heartful of tears. She comes with ...
10,000 Maniacs, Natalie Merchant: 10,000 Maniacs: Merchant Banquet
Interview by Jon Wilde, Melody Maker, 23 April 1988
WHILE 10,000 MANIACS ARE UP, UP, AND AWAY, SINGER NATALIE MERCHANT IS IMMERSED IN SOME GRAND DIVERSIONS OF HER OWN. SHE TAKES A SPRINGY STEP OFF THE UP ESCALATOR TO ...
Joni Mitchell: Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, May 1988
She's danced to the beat of her own drum all the way from Laurel Canyon to uptown Los Angeles. Joni Mitchell talks about her life, ...
Throwing Muses: Vivien Goldman catches up with the Throwing Muses
Interview by Vivien Goldman, The Observer, 8 May 1988
WITH MUCH TALK about the late-1980s being the day of the post-feminist woman, it is natural to ask: if feminist battles are won, why are ...
Cindy Lee Berryhill: She's Got (Almost) Everything
Profile and Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, June 1988
EIGHTEEN REASONS WHY CINDY LEE BERRYHILL IS NEAT: ...
Sinead O'Connor: Dominion Theatre, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 11 June 1988
PRIVATE CONFLICTS ...
Live Review by Don Waller, Los Angeles Times, 18 July 1988
Three Women, One Fine Show ...
Interview by Holly Gleason, Spin, August 1988
IT'S A SLOW night at the Redwood Room, a shot-and-beer North Hollywood hole in the wall where blue collar types, in heavy work boots and ...
Everything But The Girl, Tracey Thorn: Tracey Thorn: Doctorate feelgood
Interview by Lucy O'Brien, The Guardian, 10 August 1988
A daughter of punk, Tracey Thorn is riding high in the pop charts. But academia looms just as large in her life. ...
Profile and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 27 August 1988
DETROIT – "I'm still shaky from this," says Patti Smith, who's been driven by her husband, Fred Smith, through a hellish rainstorm and rush-hour traffic ...
Björk, The Sugarcubes: Rock From Reykjavik: Behold Bjork and her Sugarcubes
Interview by Gerrie Lim, Exposure, September 1988
THEY COME FROM a land of ice and snow, where volcanic peaks and photogenic glaciers surround settlements given to fish factories and sundry cottage industries, ...
Interview by David Stubbs, Melody Maker, 1 October 1988
Harry Crews are an all-woman band featuring Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and Lydia Lunch. They're destined to "combust after the next three days". But ...
Toni Childs: Looking On The Morning Light: Toni Childs, A New Voice And A New Beginning
Interview by Gerrie Lim, Playboy, December 1988
A LONE VOICE of incandescent beauty amid a wilderness of disposable pop music. That's how I saw Toni Childs. ...
Yazz: The Benetton Skeleton Gets It On
Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 3 December 1988
Who is this seaweed munching ex-clothes-horse YAZZ person? And why am I covered in bark? asks STEVEN WELLS. ...
Interview by John McCready, The Face, 1989
"ASK ME what you want, John. I can take it. I mean, what are you going to do — spank me?" ...
Neneh Cherry: A Gap in the Rap
Interview by Lucy O'Brien, The Guardian, 25 January 1989
Neneh Cherry is one of many women invading the hip hop scene ...
Sheena Easton: The Prime of Miss Sheena Easton
Interview by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 28 January 1989
A star in the States and yet either a twee girlie singer or second-string Prince collaborator in her home country, SHEENA EASTON, courtesy of that ...
Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians: The Marquee, London
Live Review by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 4 February 1989
THE MESSY BEAT Angels were well and truly bushed after a week of post-Dali wassailing, but the sight of Edie Brickell's band was as startling ...
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 ...
Essay by Paul Mathur, Spin, April 1989
Success and failure are both difficult to endure. Along with success come drugs, divorce, fornication, bullying, travel, medication, depression, neurosis and suicide. With failure comes ...
Bonnie Raitt: Nick Of Time (Capitol LP/Cassette/CD)
Review by Simon Witter, New Musical Express, 6 May 1989
NICK OF Time, the LA slide blues songstress' 10th album, is a peach and a half. Ripened to perfection through years of cultivation. There is ...
Interview by Sean O'Hagan, New Musical Express, 13 May 1989
CHAKA KHAN, the smooth voice of early '70s soul, has been thrust back into the limelight with a new dance cut of her hits I'm ...
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 30 June 1989
WELCOME TO the Griffith Park Pony Rides. Assorted toddlers, most of them 2- or 3-something, are circling a dusty track, strapped onto tired ponies. Not ...
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, July 1989
The mould-breaking Chicago groupie on her life from being a star-struck kid to pulling out Jimi's pubes, via being snogged by Andrew Loog Oldham, her discovery of the "hampton", and her ingenious way with dental plaster. Features a "cast" of thousands!
File format: mp3; file size: 56.9mb, interview length: 1h 02' 08" sound quality: ** (background noise)
Patsy Cline: The Last Sessions, 12 Greatest Hits. Live at The Opry
Review by Clinton Walker, New Woman, August 1989
PATSY CLINE is a country singer who's almost universally loved. Young and old, men, women, even people who don't usually like country music like Patsy. ...
Wendy And Lisa: Wendy & Lisa: Satisfy Yourself
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Melody Maker, 5 August 1989
AFTER THEIR JUICY FRUIT AT THE BOTTOM LP GOT THE ECSTATIC REVIEWS IT SO RICHLY DESERVED, IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE WENDY AND LISA ...
Report and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, September 1989
The highway to hell is a merciless thoroughfare for the all-girl heavy metal band. Male counterparts regard you with deep suspicion, record companies run a ...
Kate Bush: In The Realm Of The Senses
Interview by Len Brown, New Musical Express, 7 October 1989
The essence of sensuality and child-like wonder or screeching wood nymph? KATE BUSH steps back into the spotlight after four years of reclusive recording and ...
Roxanne Shanté: 'I Have Never Seen A Man Talk To An Ugly Woman. Never.'
Interview by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 7 October 1989
There is nothing that ROXANNE SHANTE won't rap about and no limit to who she disses. Here she talks to PAOLO HEWITT about men, music ...
Rickie Lee Jones: Keeping Her Cool
Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, The Guardian, 25 October 1989
Shot to stardom 10 years ago, Rickie Lee Jones has fought her way back no less cool but much more confident. Mark Cooper reports ...
The Creatures, Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie Sioux: Mellowing of a Banshee
Interview by Lucy O'Brien, The Guardian, 25 October 1989
Lucy O'Brien on Siouxsie Sioux's new Creature comforts and lasting spirit ...
Michelle Shocked: Culture Shocked
Interview by Lucy O'Brien, The Guardian, 8 November 1989
Feminist fans may be outraged by her apparent change of image, but it's no sell-out, as Michelle Shocked tells Lucy O'Brien ...
Belinda Carlisle, The Go-Go's: Belinda Carlisle: From Go Go to Solo
Interview by Lucy O'Brien, The Guardian, 22 November 1989
She's come through the live-fast, look-bad, almost die-young scene to a beautiful future. Belinda Carlisle tells Lucy O'Brien how she did it ...
Joan Jett: Motorcycle Slut With The Mystic Cross: Joan Jett roars up the alley in Singapore
Report and Interview by Gerrie Lim, unpublished, December 1989
JOAN JETT is sitting in a dressing room a long, long way from home, and the perceptible sliver of anxiety in her voice suggests that ...
Neneh Cherry: Send In The Clowns
Interview by Barbara Ellen, New Musical Express, 9 December 1989
After the huge trans-Atlantic success of 'Buffalo Stance', NENEH CHERRY has established herself as one of the Pop world's most creative and exciting mainstream acts. ...
Interview by Martin Aston, Rock's Backpages audio, Winter 1989
The morning after a London performance, Ms Lunch discusses herself as a spoken word performer and artist: being censored; confronting issues such as abuse of women; her pleasure at being on the margins; other spoken word performers like Henry Rollins and Karen Finley; how she came to music via lyrics, and about the confrontational nature of audiences.
File format: mp3; total file size: 45.5mb, total interview length: 47' 21" sound quality: ****
Lydia Lunch (1989) [transcript]
Audio transcript of interview by Martin Aston, Rock's Backpages transcripts, Winter 1989
This is a transcript of Martin's interview with Lydia. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Lucinda Williams: Annadale Hotel, Sydney
Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 6 January 1990
MICK FROM Weddings Parties Anything and Jon from Paul Kelly's Messengers are The Indigo Boys, the support act, and something I miss entirely except for ...
Mel & Kim: Mel Appleby: The Bravery Lying Behind All That Fun, Love & Money
Obituary by Lucy O'Brien, The Guardian, 31 January 1990
Lucy O'Brien finds the pop world full of praise for the courage of Mel Appleby of the bubbly duo Mel and Kim, who this month lost ...
Linda Ronstadt: Ronstadt's Rainstorm Of Emotion
Interview by Holly Gleason, CD Review, March 1990
LINDA RONSTADT enters the press room at a trade magazine's office in Los Angeles with her five-person entourage, and immediately manages to find familiar territory ...
Sinead O'Connor: I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got (Ensign LP/Cassette/CD)
Review by David Quantick, New Musical Express, 10 March 1990
THE FIRST ONE had O'Connor screaming in a storm of icy blue. This one has a sleeve that looks like a Phil Collins album, all ...
The Roches: Dominion Theatre, London
Live Review by Michele Kirsch, New Musical Express, 24 March 1990
YOU HAVE to understand, weird was not always marketable. Here we have three sisters from New Jersey who've been standing on a stage with acoustic ...
Grace Jones: "Born To F*** — I should get a tee-shirt saying that"
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Melody Maker, 7 April 1990
THE ICE QUEEN MAY BE MAKING A CONSCIOUS EFFORT TO MELT HER IMAGE AND BECOME MORE FEMININE, BUT SHE WAS STILL HARD ENOUGH TO BURY ...
Suzanne Vega: Godmother Of New Age
Interview by Len Brown, New Musical Express, 14 April 1990
Suzanne Vega was brought up as a Puerto Rican, attended the neo-legendary New York School Of Performing Arts and went on to become the sensitive ...
Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Interview, June 1990
I INTERVIEWED Madonna at the Disney Studios, of all places, where she was rehearsing her Blond Ambition tour. It's not really so odd that she ...
Marianne Faithfull: Keeping The Faith
Interview by Ethlie Ann Vare, Elle, July 1990
MARIANNE FAITHFULL WAS ONE OF THE MOST RAVISHING ICONS OF THE SIXTIES AND A CELEBRATED ROCK CASUALTY OF THE SEVENTIES. NOW, AT 43, SHE IS ...
The Breeders: A New Breed of Women in Rock
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 1 July 1990
TAKE A PIXIE, add a Muse, throw in a Perfect Disaster and you've got the Breeders. ...
Sinead O'Connor: Great Woods Center for the Performing Arts
Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 15 August 1990
MANSFIELD – The last time Sinead O'Connor hit town, in May at the Orpheum, her star was rapidly ascending, and she took the stage with ...
Salt-N-Pepa: Salt 'N' Pepa: Shakin' Sweet
Report and Interview by Barbara Ellen, New Musical Express, 25 August 1990
Is this the end of rap's top pumptresses SALT 'N' PEPA? Bored with making millions and being reviled by all the hard rappin' 'bitches' they ...
Interview by Everett True, Melody Maker, 1 December 1990
Are L7 really Californian white trash bitches from hell or is EVERETT TRUE just having another wet dream? It's best you read on... ...
Whitney Houston: An Interview with Whitney Houston
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 1991
SO MUCH HAS BEEN written and said about Whitney Houston since she burst on to the recording scene in 1985 with 'You Give Good Love', ...
Babes in Toyland: Angry Young Women
Essay by Barney Hoskyns, Vogue, 1991
ROCK AND ROLL is being hijacked by angry girls with electric guitars. Tired of playing airbrushed pop dollies for salivating male voyeurs, women on ...
Edie Brickell: Nice 'N' Edie Does It
Interview by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 12 January 1991
EDIE BRICKELL doesn't look like a tough Texan, but don't be fooled by her sweet smile and soft drawl, she's one mean rockin' mama. PAUL ...
Maria McKee: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
Interview by Barbara Ellen, New Musical Express, 12 January 1991
Written off by the LA rock cattlemarket following the demise of neo-Country nearly men Lone Justice, MARIA MCKEE was left licking her wounds amongst famous ...
Eurythmics, Annie Lennox: Annie Lennox: Who's That Girl?
Profile and Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Select, February 1991
Never afraid to experiment and shock, Annie Lennox has paraded a succession of challenging images during the last decade — from androgynous hedonist to caring ...
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. ...
Transvision Vamp: Whatever Happened To Baby James?
Interview by Betty Page, Vox, March 1991
Exploiter or exploited? Rock Bitch or just bitched at? Either way Wendy James just lurrves the attention and the dosh. Betty Page probes for ...
Joni Mitchell: Joni Rides Home
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Vox, April 1991
JONI MITCHELL MAY HAVE CUT HER MUSICAL TEETH DURING THE ERA OF LOVE AND PEACE BUT SHE TAKES NONE TOO KINDLY TO COMPARISONS WITH TODAY'S ...
Nikki D, Yo Yo: Yo-Yo and Nikki D: Bum Rush the Locker Room
Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Musician, May 1991
Yo-Yo and Nikki D turn the turntables on sexist homies ...
Bananarama: Sisters Undie The Skin
Interview by Betty Page, New Musical Express, 4 May 1991
After the gold-disc rush of SAW, BANANARAMA are doing the Dobbie, rediscovering Youth, preparing for their tenth anniversary as The Greatest British All Girl Group ...
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 7 May 1991
In the precious and profitable world of pop, how you look, it seems, is more important than how you sound, Caroline Sullivan reports ...
Babes in Toyland: Mean Fiddler, London
Live Review by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 22 June 1991
AS YET ANOTHER lame-brain shuffles nervously before taking the plunge, the anti-stage-diving lobby have a point for once. In the context of Babes In Toyland's ...
Kirsty MacColl: Kirsty In Control
Interview by Mark Cooper, Daily Telegraph, 22 June 1991
Mark Cooper watches as Kirsty MacColl reluctantly prepares to meet the world ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 27 June 1991
TO HER CREDIT, Pat Benatar has never been a purist. From the beginning, this opera-trained mom has not cared whether you classified her as a ...
Throwing Muses: The Real Ramona (Sire) ***½
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 27 June 1991
AS THROWING Muses has developed, so have the band's imperatives. On the Muses' first album, Kristin Hersh and Tayna Donelly, the group's two singer-songwriters, were ...
Babes in Toyland: Wench Warfare
Interview by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 29 June 1991
Championed by Sonic Youth and John Peel, hot-blooded all-girl 'foxcore' grunge-rockers BABES IN TOYLAND are coming to your house, sneezing explosively, dissing moms and men ...
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, July 1991
THE 'NICK OF Time' baby has arrived. "Everyone thought I was singing that song about me," Bonnie Raitt is saying. "But it was happening to ...
Salt-N-Pepa: Salt 'N' Pepa: My Condiments To The Chef
Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 27 July 1991
The most successful female rap group ever, SALT 'N' PEPA have come a long way since the cartoon innuendo of 'Push It'. Now they're busy ...
Review by Tom Graves, Rock & Roll Disc, August 1991
SOME PEOPLE are labouring under the mistaken notion that Pat Benatar is a rock vocalist. What she really is is a music video ...
Interview by Andy Gill, Q, September 1991
Collectors of happy endings, look no further. Bonnie Raitt's career was dumper-bound until a P45 from her record company inspired her to rediscover her musical ...
Hole: Pretty on the Inside (Caroline)
Review by Robert Gordon, Spin, October 1991
THE WEATHERVANE continues turning, from R.E.M. to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and now, perhaps, to Sonic Youth. Coproduced by SY's Kim Gordon and Don ...
Comment by Betty Page, Vox, October 1991
YOU EXPECT IT FROM HEAVY METAL, BUT NOW RAP AND INDIE HAVE JOINED THE SEXIST ASSAULT ON women: LYRICS, SLEEVES, and lecherous behaviour at gigs. ...
Madonna: The Billion Dollar Lady's New Deal
Comment by Barney Hoskyns, The Times, 13 November 1991
THE NEWS THAT Madonna has just clinched a deal making her the highest-paid performer in the history of the pop industry only confirms what we ...
Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 23 November 1991
From out of Nowhere, California, to topping the English independent charts and headlining London, HOLE have been one of the year's most talked-about bands. A laughable hangover of the post-Sub Pop ...
Tori Amos: Stranger in a Strange Land
Report and Interview by Mark Cooper, Daily Telegraph, December 1991
THE LIGHT IS falling in Tori Amos's Kensington flat and she is packing for a Christmas visit to her parents back in the USA. Amos ...
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, Fall 1991
From taking the morning train to having the look, Mat Snow probes Sheena Easton about her life in music, Esther Rantzen, Kenny Rogers, Prince and all.
File format: mp3; file size: 56.9mb, interview length: 1h 02' 09" sound quality: ***
Babes In Toyland: The Astoria, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 11 January 1992
IF WE'RE TO have anger in rock, then let it boil like this. Babes In Toyland's fury is intimidating. They were never more than a ...
Cookie Crew, Salt-N-Pepa, Sister Souljah: Sisters Are Rapping It For Themselves
Report and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 16 January 1992
In the misogynistic world of rap, anybody who's not one of the boys is a whore or more genially a bitch. But even the female ...
Profile and Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, 22 January 1992
Some songwriters wash their dirty linen in public. Tori Amos dries hers there as well. Nick Coleman dodges the rows of hanging knickers to meet ...
Live Review by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 8 February 1992
LAST NIGHT A PJ SAVED MY LIFE ...
PJ Harvey: Sex and Bile and Rock and Roll
Interview by Jim Arundel, Melody Maker, 8 February 1992
IT'S SUNDAY AFTERNOON, grey and bitter and it looks like rain. Your flatmate, Lisa, and her gangly boyfriend, Ben, are in her room. They're burning ...
Hole: Belting Out That Most Unfeminine Emotion
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 9 February 1992
SUSAN FALUDI, the author of Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, said recently in a magazine interview that "anger is not something that's an ...
PJ Harvey: Scrumpy's Trusted Nut
Interview by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 15 February 1992
Way out West Country! Cut off from television, newspapers and all your favourite bands, PJ HARVEY is brewing up an intense, sexual storm that's set ...
Daisy Chainsaw, The Nymphs, Shakespears Sister: Rock's Savage Sorority
Report and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 27 February 1992
Caroline Sullivan on how women are using music to cope with rape, abortion, drugs. ...
Babes in Toyland, Daisy Chainsaw, Hole, The Nymphs: Scream with the She-Rebels
Overview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 15 March 1992
WHILE ROCK'N'ROLL abounds with angry young men, female rage has always been a scarce commodity. There's been the gleeful anarchy of the Slits, Patti Smith's ...
Interview by James Brown, New Musical Express, 21 March 1992
Destined to rock the bones of the hard rock circuit, THE NYMPHS have already made a name for themselves in America by pissing on desks ...
Groupies: Stars In Their Thighs
Report and Interview by Steven Wells, David Quantick, New Musical Express, 28 March 1992
NME'S LOOK AT THE THINGS THAT GO HUMP IN THE NIGHT ...
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 11 April 1992
L7: THE FIRST artistically-credible female heavy metalists, or rock vixens with more decibels than sense? The question divided the electorate at Thursday's sold out show. ...
Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Q, May 1992
...But for how much longer? Q accepts an invitation to Cher's bedroom and finds a woman who is troubled with doubt. "I'm not sure where ...
Report and Interview by Paul Zollo, Musician, May 1992
"IT ALL COMES from the centre," she says, pointing to her navel. Tori Amos is explaining where her songs are conceived. "It's like a constant ...
Babes in Toyland, Curve, Daisy Chainsaw, PJ Harvey, Lush, Silverfish: The Witch Report
Report and Interview by Betty Page, New Musical Express, 9 May 1992
HIPS, LIPS, TITS, POWER! Meet the new breed of enchantress, the spell-binding women who are taking the male bastille and giving it some earthily female ...
Report and Interview by Sally Margaret Joy, Melody Maker, 16 May 1992
To get on L7's shitlist, all you have to do is be a member of the Moral Majority or dis women. To get off the ...
Bikini Kill: Revolution Girl Style Now (Bikini Kill)
Review by Everett True, Melody Maker, 30 May 1992
"Stop the j-word jealousy from killing girl love/Encourage in the face of insecurity." (Bikini Kill) ...
Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 30 May 1992
Ranting, shouting, swearing, spilling conspiracy theories, spitting food in faces — L7, that is, not STEVEN WELLS (for once)! Gag, vom and die laughing as ...
Carleen Anderson, Brand New Heavies, DaYeene, M People, Joey Negro, Young Disciples: Girls on Song
Report and Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Mixmag, June 1992
"IT'S JUST tinkly pianos and wailing slags," was how 808 State once summed up the contribution of female vocalists to house music. If it wasn't ...
Interview by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 16 June 1992
When Phyllis Hyman opens her heart, it opens all the way, with no holds barred. In a totally frank and, candid interview, the B&S best female vocalist ...
Kylie Minogue: She Came, She S.A.W., She Conquered
Interview by Stuart Maconie, New Musical Express, 22 August 1992
In the great theme park that is the British Popular Experience, KYLIE MINOGUE represents a national treasure, which is not bad going for an Australian. ...
Interview by Cathi Unsworth, Melody Maker, 29 August 1992
In last week's Great Metal Debate, L7 just couldn't f***en believe there are people out there so moronic that they can't tell these gals from ...
Sinead O'Connor: Am I Not Your Girl? (Ensign/All formats)
Review by Betty Page, New Musical Express, 12 September 1992
TORCHED BY YOUR PRESENCE, DEAR ...
Babes in Toyland: Year of the Kat
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 15 November 1992
Kat Bjelland's penchant for purging her emotions brings Babes in Toyland to the brink of alternative rock stardom ...
Etta James: The Time Of Her Life
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, Blues & Soul, 17 November 1992
With her new Jerry Wexler-produced The Right Time album showcasing Etta James at the pinnacle of soul creativity, the lady talks to Roger St. Pierre ...
Shonen Knife: Naughty But Knife
Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, 18 November 1992
Their songs have titles like 'Flying Jelly Attack' but Shonen Knife claim it's all serious stuff. As London succumbs to a Japanese arts invasion, Nick ...
Interview by Mark Petracca, Entertainment Weekly, 1993
THE LAST PERSON you'd expect pumping the stair master at your local "Y" would be Tori Amos, but lo and behold, there she was in ...
Seven Year Bitch, Tribe 8: Seven Year Bitch: Sick 'Em (C/Z); Tribe 8: Pig Bitch (EP Harp)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, January 1993
THANKS TO the Riot Grrrl revolution, perhaps, or just maybe the fact that indie labels have been sprouting up quicker than McDonald's franchises, women rockers ...
Sinead O'Connor: Crazy Baldhead
Comment by Adrian Deevoy, Q, January 1993
IT'S A PHILOSOPHICAL agenda that would make David Icke vibrate with envy. Consider Sinead O'Connor's current take on the state of play: 96 per cent ...
Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love: Kurt and Courtney: Love and hate and the whole damned thing
Interview by Everett True, Melody Maker, 2 January 1993
In the concluding part of our exclusive interview, Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love attempt to explain the truth behind their controversial relationship and how distorted ...
David Bowie: Angie Bowie cuts into the spotlight
Retrospective and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 20 January 1993
WE WERE AT Turner Fisheries – Angela Bowie, David Bowie's famous ex, and I. I nursed two drinks. She ate half a seafood dinner, sent ...
Bikini Kill: Bikini Kill EP (Kill Rock Stars) **½
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 4 February 1993
ANY DECENT PARENT would be proud of a daughter who staked her claim as a "riot grrrl" these days. ...
Wendy James: This Year's Model: The Second Coming of Wendy James
Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 6 February 1993
The last time we spoke to WENDY JAMES, she made a lot of typically outrageous claims for herself. She would be the biggest name in ...
Interview by Simon Witter, The Sunday Times Magazine, 21 February 1993
A brief interview piece from early '93, just before her album Debut came out. Nobody, least of all her, had any idea how huge it ...
Comment by Everett True, Melody Maker, 27 February 1993
Ever since HUGGY BEAR released their debut EP, Rubbing The Impossible To Burst, the band have been educating, irritating and agitating with their confrontational "girl ...
Blood Sausage, Huggy Bear, Linus: Huggy Bear: Will Not Be Televised!
Report by Sally Margaret Joy, Melody Maker, 27 February 1993
friday 9.40pm: one of the herd at The Word ...
Annie Lennox, Eurythmics: Annie Lennox: Front Woman
Interview by Mac Randall, Musician, March 1993
CONGRATULATIONS ON your Grammy nominations. Are you making any bets on how you'll do? ...
Profile and Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Spin, March 1993
Former Throwing Muse Tanya Donelly is up her Belly with highly imaginary tales of a very real world. ...
Where Are They Now? Pan's People
Interview by Martin Aston, Q, March 1993
BEFORE POP video, before the miscegenetic raunch of Hot Gossip, before we knew better, there was Pan's People. They were Top Of The Pops' resident ...
Debbie Gibson: Deborah Gibson: Body Mind Soul
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 4 March 1993
USED TO BE the most risqué thing about Debbie Gibson was how in 'Lost in Your Eyes' you could hear her sing "I get weak ...
Bikini Kill, Huggy Bear: Huggy Bear/Bikini Kill: Our Troubled Youth/Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! (Catcall)
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 6 March 1993
REBEL GRRRLS ...
Special Feature by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 6 March 1993
You've seen HUGGY BEAR smash up mainstream complacency on The Word, you've been baffled by a load of biased ranting on some kind of new ...
Bikini Kill, Huggy Bear: University of London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 16 March 1993
RIOT GRRRL, a radical feminist frock movement originating in Washington state, is generating much controversy in the US. Even the New York Times has published a chin-stroking ...
Bikini Kill, Huggy Bear: Riot Grrrl: The Riot Girls And Bender Boys Tour
Profile and Interview by Sally Margaret Joy, Melody Maker, 20 March 1993
It really is happening! The Daily Star said so! Yup, one year after The Maker first reported on this new phenomenon, the whole world has ...
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 24 March 1993
Take the in-yer-face spirit of punk, add a dash of Mom's best feminist cant. Born in the USA, now raising hell here, Riot Grrrls are ...
Interview by Mac Randall, Musician, April 1993
"WE'VE HAD a joke going recently," Aimee Mann says, "that the new album has three themes: despair, defeat and revenge." ...
k.d. lang: k.d. Sings The Blues
Profile and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, April 1993
She’s a genre-hopping pantheist, Lesbian, vegetarian, big-mouthed aromatherapist. In big boots. Yet despite unpromising ingredients, k.d. lang’s multi-layered cake continues to rise quite beautifully and ...
Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Chia Pet, Tsunami: Who are the Riot Grrrls?
Report by Susan Corrigan, i-D, April 1993
Riot Grrrl is an American network of feminist punk bands, angry, personal fanzines and women's discussion groups dedicated to 'girl-positive' action. We visited Riot Grrrls ...
Review by Betty Page, New Musical Express, 24 April 1993
THE FIRST time, it gave me third degree burns. I was driving when the title track's soft murmur exploded into a rocket-thrusted motorcycle roar and ...
Dr. Dre: Ain't nothing but a gender thang?
Interview by Amy Linden, Request, May 1993
Dr. Dre and writer Amy Linden go one-on-one on sexism and The Chronic. Nobody wins. ...
PJ Harvey: Platter du Jour — PJ Harvey: Rid of Me (Island/PLG)
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Spin, May 1993
POLLY JEAN Harvey knows that women in positions of power or prestige quickly get demonized. So on Rid of Me, the second album by her ...
Gallon Drunk, PJ Harvey: PJ Harvey, Gallon Drunk: Rock City, Nottingham
Live Review by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 22 May 1993
LIKE IGGY said, all aboard for Fun Time. The pat preconceptions hanging around this inspired pairing suggest that chuckles will be thin on the ground. ...
Essay by Stephen Dalton, Vox, June 1993
Ever since Woody Guthrie scratched "This Guitar Kills Fascists" on his six-string, musicians have exploited rock's confrontational possibilities, from anti-racism to sexual revolution, in a ...
Monie Love: In a Word or 2 (Warner Bros.)
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1993
MONIE LOVE is a good storyteller, an adept rapper and a mediocre songwriter. Her lyrics flow and flow, but on In a Word or 2, ...
Whitney Houston: Down and Dirty
Interview by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1993
YOU'RE EXPECTING her to float delicately into the room, but Whitney Houston strides in with a purposeful air. She's dressed way down in purple stretch ...
Sonny Til & The Orioles: Is This The Woman Who Invented Rock & Roll?: The Deborah Chessler Story
Retrospective and Interview by Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone, 24 June 1993
IN AN EARLY EPISODE of Homicide: Life on the Street, Barry Levinson's recent TV series about a team of Baltimore cops, the detective played by ...
Gallon Drunk, PJ Harvey: PJ Harvey: The Academy, New York NY
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 10 July 1993
FROM GRUNGE'S "castration blues" to the glutinous gloom of Come/Red House Painters/Mazzy Star to tonight's support band Gallon Drunk (with their cliché-encrusted homage to Nick ...
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 17 July 1993
...but what's it all about? SIMON PRICE listens as COURTNEY LOVE fills him in on the (w)Hole picture. ...
Blood Sausage, Skinned Teen: Skinned Teen, Blood Sausage: The Dome, London
Live Review by Ngaire Ruth, Melody Maker, 17 July 1993
NEW KIDS IN TOWN ...
Film/DVD/TV Review by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 20 July 1993
Tina: a legend in her own time ...
SWV: It's About Time (RCA/BMG 07863 66074)
Review by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 20 July 1993
IT'S ABOUT Time is a pretty applicable title for this group's release in the UK which has been long overdue. Into their umpteenth hit single ...
Babes In Toyland: Rock And Roll Babes
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, August 1993
Deposit your 'feminist rock' preconceptions at the door, pigeonhole fans. Babes In Toyland were playing raucous licks long before the Riot Grrrls left finishing school... ...
Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa: Patti Scialfa: Red-Headed Woman
Profile and Interview by Ian Birch, Q, August 1993
ABOUT AN HOUR and a half from New York going south down the New Jersey Turnpike and then east on the Garden State Parkway is ...
Jane Siberry: Songs in a Brave New Key
Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 9 August 1993
MOST PERFORMERS would call getting booed during a concert their worst nightmare. Not Jane Siberry. Although she suffered that fate last year, at the height ...
Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Musician, September 1993
STROLL INTO the Dayton, Ohio, house shared by twins Kim and Kelley Deal on a muggy summer afternoon and step over a clutter of CDs, ...
Profile and Interview by Martin Aston, The Independent Catalogue, September 1993
IT'S FOUR IN the afternoon, and Liz Phair is itching to go jogging. But there's plenty of time; this is her first bout of UK ...
Huggy Bear: Taking The Rough With The Smooch (Wiiija/All formats)
Review by John Harris, New Musical Express, 18 September 1993
PUCKER LIPS NOW ...
Live Review by Andrew Smith, The Guardian, 29 September 1993
A FEW years back, with acid house at its peak and video games beginning to bite into record sales, there emerged a theory that rock ...
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 30 September 1993
PICTURE a punk rocker: Ian MacKaye and Emma Goldman are her heroes. She reads Maximum Rock 'n Roll and plays 'Holidays In The Sun' on ...
Janis Ian: Protest and Survive
Profile and Interview by Andy Gill, Q, October 1993
AT THE age of 42, Janis Ian is making a comeback (her second, or is it third?), which would be unexceptional save for the fact ...
PJ Harvey: Good golly, Ms Polly
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 1 October 1993
Screeching harridan? Feminist heroine? One thing's certain: Polly Jean Harvey's tortured song-tantrums are a far cry from Captain Beefheart. ...
Babes In Toyland: Forum, London
Live Review by Ngaire Ruth, Melody Maker, 2 October 1993
TOYS R U.S. ...
The Breeders: The real new deal
Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 28 October 1993
The BREEDERS get wet and wild as they dive back into action on "Last Splash" ...
Profile and Interview by Kodwo Eshun, i-D, November 1993
Carleen Anderson was a member of James Brown's band. Then she sang with the Young Disciples. This month she releases her passionate solo debut — ...
Kirsty MacColl: Singer Kirsty MacColl: Wry with a Twist of Laughter
Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 12 November 1993
DEPRESSION AND despair have their place in pop music, especially in English pop. In recent years, it's come through most tellingly in the shimmering sadness ...
PJ Harvey: P.J. Harvey: 4-Track Demos
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 25 November 1993
THE POP INDUSTRY loves to simulate authenticity, a trick that, like the manufacturing of fake antiques, puts demands on the consumer. It's hard to tell ...
10,000 Maniacs, Natalie Merchant: Natalie Merchant: Little Sister Syndrome
Interview by Andy Gill, MOJO, December 1993
MOJO: YOU'VE BEEN described as "interminably serious". Is that accurate? ...
Interview by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 18 December 1993
From girls to women, SALT-N-PEPA have moved on from their Svengali-led days to create their own agenda of single motherhood, sex and answering back to ...
Tori Amos: The Keys to Success
Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 16 January 1994
Tori Amos, the piano's Nigel Kennedy with a prettier face, has swapped America and her classical training for Britain and its pop. ROBERT SANDALL meets ...
Live Review by Ian Watson, Melody Maker, 22 January 1994
HALFWAY THROUGH this supposedly low-key warm up for Elastica's appearance on The Word, Justine apologises for the amount of coverage the band have been getting. ...
Hole, Courtney Love, Nirvana: Courtney Love: Hole in One
Interview by Caitlin Moran, Melody Maker, 19 February 1994
Hole are, to all intents and purposes, Courtney Love. And Courtney Love is a one-woman spite factory, spewing out bile and savaging anyone who dares ...
Kirsty MacColl: Raging Against the Machine
Interview by Paul Sexton, The Times, 25 February 1994
There are many ways to describe Kirsty MacColl, but "female singer-songwriter" is not one of them, she tells Paul Sexton ...
Janis Joplin: Janis (Columbia/Legacy)
Review by Mark Cooper, MOJO, March 1994
DYLAN FELL OFF his motorcycle, The Beatles broke up and Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin paid the full price of 60s rock stardom ...
Voodoo Queens: Voodod Queens: Chocolate Revenge
Review by Ben Thompson, MOJO, March 1994
UNREPENTANT BAD GIRLS with a taste for culinary and bibulous excess, the Voodoo Queens have cannily put their career back on track with a debut ...
Joan Jett: The Original Riot Grrrl
Interview by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 24 March 1994
Joan Jett lives up to her bad reputation ...
Report and Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Vox, April 1994
Singing hairdos? Not any longer. Britain's new breed of single black females are feisty, independent and take no prisoners ...
The Raincoats: Raincoats prove that there's life after punk
Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 5 April 1994
CAMBRIDGE – Backstage before their first American gig in 12 years – hey, only their fourth gig period in that time – Raincoats bassist/guitarist/singer Gina ...
Hole: Live Through This (City Slang/All formats)
Review by Barbara Ellen, New Musical Express, 9 April 1994
HOLE ON THE RAGE ...
Interview by Ian Ravendale, Rock's Backpages audio, 18 April 1994
Ms. Mann talks about her first band Til Tuesday; record company indifference; songwriting collaborations past and future (but not Ray Davies!); and working with Jon Brion on Whatever.
File format: mp3; file size: 18mb, interview length: 19' 41" sound quality: ****
Tori Amos, Björk, PJ Harvey: PJ Harvey, Björk, and Tori Amos: Hips. Lips. Tits. Power.
Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Q, May 1994
Well, would you spill their pint? In the last 18 months, Polly Harvey, Björk, and Tori Amos have rogered the charts with their special brew ...
Bikini Kill: Bikini Kill/Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah (Kill Rock Stars KRS204)
Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 6 May 1994
THE BIGGEST act on this Washington label is these founding riot grrrls, whose first two mini-albums are re-released as a single tape/CD. The 32-minute running ...
Interview by Dave Simpson, Melody Maker, 14 May 1994
PC is shite! The The NWONW bands just need a good shag! Meat-eating is cool! Meet LOUISE WENER of fizzy power-poppers SLEEPER, who tells DAVE ...
Sleeper: Kipping Against The Pricks
Interview by John Harris, New Musical Express, 21 May 1994
Tired of being safe? Fed up with worrying about the ozone layer? Bored with modern life? Then you need SLEEPER. The last of the dirty, ...
Review by Ian Birch, MOJO, June 1994
"I love Dusty Springfield. I wanted to name our daughter Dusty but I knew we couldn't because, I mean, Dusty Springsteen...She had a nice big, ...
Laurie Anderson: The Nerve Of Her
Interview by Gillian G. Gaar, Rolling Stone, 16 June 1994
THE GENERAL PUBLIC MAY HAVE heard little from performance artist Laurie Anderson in recent years. But that's certain to change in 1994, a hectic year ...
Live Review by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 25 June 1994
SANITARY CONFINEMENT ...
Liz Phair: Sexual Perversity in Chicago
Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Details, July 1994
Where and when did you write the famous line "I want to be your blowjob queen"? ...
Interview by Stuart Maconie, Select, August 1994
Glamour! Sex! Unlimited platinum credit accounts at Top Shop! Insurrectionist teenage punkettes Shampoo want all of these things and more. Is there a Svengali in ...
Luscious Jackson: Girls Just Want to Have Funk
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 21 August 1994
Luscious Jackson's four females play the game their way, incorporating New York's vibrant soundtrack of punk and hip-hop, jazz and soul. ...
Sheryl Crow: The Education of Sheryl Crow
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Musician, September 1994
The long strange trip of an overnight success ...
Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 6 September 1994
From wholesome soap star to scantily clad sex kitten — Kylie Minogue has changed her image more times than she might care to remember. But ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 14 September 1994
The First Lady of the Canyon looks at her past and present, from her Canadian youth through the Canyon days, the nightmare of the '80s and to her place in 1994. Songs, places, lovers, friends, gender and politics. Oh, and Bob Dylan's bad breath.
File format: mp3; file size: 116.9mb, total interview length: 2h 1' 46" sound quality: ***
Joan Jett: The Original Riot Grrrl
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Creative Loafing, 24 September 1994
"YOU'VE CAUGHT ME on a philosophical night," Joan Jett says over the phone in a late-evening interview. The gravelly voice on the other end of ...
Review by Susan Compo, MOJO, October 1994
AS NORMAN MAILER ONCE SAID, "ALL blondes are natural blondes." Look it up in any book of pop quotes and you'll probably find a picture ...
Chrissie Hynde: "Guys in bands are pussies"
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, October 1994
Should Kurt Cobain have unplugged his fax or Evan Dando blabbed about crack? Should Brian Jones have smoked in public? Chrissie Hynde has the answers ...
Luscious Jackson: Homecoming Queens
Interview by Kodwo Eshun, i-D, October 1994
Luscious Jackson embody New York's old school cool. They're more than just a female version of The Beastie Boys — and they're going to be even bigger. ...
Marianne Faithfull Springs Eternal
Interview by Deborah Frost, BAM, 7 October 1994
"Since AIDS, I've changed my attitude. Now I'm honored. I want to be part of the gay community and I am." ...
Elastica: From Hype To Eternity
Interview by Everett True, Melody Maker, 8 October 1994
ELASTICA were voted Best New Band in our Readers' Poll almost before the band had released a note. Why? Because you could tell just by ...
Joni Mitchell: Lady of the Canyon
Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 31 October 1994
FOR JONI MITCHELL, fame has been a fickle lover. In the 1970s, it lavished her with sold-out tours and numerous magazine covers. She was the ...
Report and Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, November 1994
NATURAL INGREDIENTS, the first full-length album from female New York four-piece Luscious Jackson, is the follow-up to World Clique that Deee-Lite never made – funky, ...
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, November 1994
Promoting her autobiography, la Faithfull talks at length about, well, just about everything really: writing the book with David Dalton; being called a witch by the Catholic Church; the aesthetics of sex, and the Rolling Stones and the Redlands bust.
File format: mp3; file size: 62.4mb, interview length: 1h 08' 10" sound quality: ***
Elastica: Things that make you go URGGHHH!
Interview by Andrew Mueller, Vox, December 1994
JUSTINE FRISCHMANN sings and plays guitar with Elastica, a band whose cool balance of ingenuousness and ingenuity should shortly eclipse her other claims to fame as ...
Review by John Robb, Melody Maker, 3 December 1994
Forget the Riot Grrrl politics — if you must. Huggy Bear are/were a brilliantly confrontational punk rock band, much-maligned and misunderstood. Much like JOHN ROBB, ...
Profile and Interview by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 15 December 1994
"IT DOESN'T FEEL good to be stuck," Lisa Germano says, as she surveys the opening of a dark tunnel that cuts a 30-foot passageway through ...
Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 29 December 1994
WHAT A DIFFERENCE a year makes. Twelve months ago bassist and band leader Me'Shell NdegeOcello's debut album, Plantation Lullabies, had just been released by Maverick. ...
Report and Interview by Paul Gorman, Music Week, 1995
CHER'S NEW ALBUM It's A Man's World may well have the most apt, albeit ironically stated, title of the year. For her first project for ...
Sheryl Crow: As Sheryl Crow Flies
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, January 1995
EIGHT YEARS BACK, a young music teacher from Kennett, a tiny Bible Belt town ("Twin Peaks. Three stop lights, one police station, one high school.") ...
Lisa Germano, Sarah McLachlan, Saint Etienne: Stalkers: Ever-Present Possessive
Report by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 16 January 1995
Business is booming in the protection business. Now many of those being protected are women pop stars targeted by dangerous stalkers ...
Laura Nyro: Union Chapel, Islington, London
Live Review by Rob Steen, MOJO, February 1995
WHEN LAURA PLAYED MONTEREY, nerves and rushed rehearsals saw her flounder as the hairies waited for Hendrix. Tonight there are enough baldies in the pews ...
Richard Hell: Victor Bockris presents Susan Sontag & Richard Hell, New York City, 1978
Interview by Victor Bockris, The Poetry Project, February 1995
IT WAS THE EVENING of the fifteen-foot snow blizzard and SUSAN SONTAG was due at my Greenwich Village apartment from her 107th Street penthouse at ...
Alanis Morissette: Adventures of Alanis in Wonderland
Profile by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 1 February 1995
SHE IS THE newest cover girl for "alternative" rock, a populist answer to Courtney Love. Fans and critics throughout North America have embraced Ottawa native ...
Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 4 February 1995
The meteoric rise of SLEEPER is matched only by the meteoric speed of singer LOUISE WENER's gob. Anti-feminism, anti-PC, anti-voting but pro shagging, drinking and ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 7 February 1995
The First Lady of Counry Rock on a life in music: from Tuscon to LA; the Troubadour scene; hanging out with Jim Morrison and Gram Parsons; exploring standards and Mexican music; singing, production and producers.
File format: mp3; file size: 152.1mb, interview length: 2h 28' 27" sound quality: ***
Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 20 February 1995
A GREAT song and a video are no guarantee of credible pop success. It helps to have a Talking Point as well. No-one understands this ...
Interview by Susan Corrigan, i-D, March 1995
Sexy, sassy and certainly not afraid of shocking, Sleeper's Louise Wener is a guitar goddess with no need to compromise on her way to the ...
Linda Ronstadt: Ronstadt Proves She Can Go Home Again
Profile and Interview by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, 19 March 1995
LINDA RONSTADT settled comfortably into a couch in her record company offices. The cream-colored ensemble she was wearing emphasized her preternaturally translucent skin. She has ...
Linda Ronstadt: Homecoming Queen: Linda Ronstadt
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, April 1995
Thirty years ago Linda Ronstadt left Tucson for the folk-rock Mecca of Los Angeles. Now the first lady of softly streamlined country returns to the ...
Profile and Interview by Carol Cooper, Rolling Stone, 6 April 1995
ON 'BABY', THE second single from her platinum-album debut, Brandy, sweet, petite Brandy Norwood latches on to the song's skeletal groove and rides it as ...
Interview by Andrew Smith, Ray Gun, May 1995
HER HOUSE IS set back from the street, on a wide avenue in Maida Vale. A pair of imposing, wrought iron security gates shield it ...
Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 6 May 1995
IF YOU KNOW one thing about Nancy Sinatra, it's her signature song — and may we suggest it's one of The Signature Songs of All ...
PJ Harvey: Harvey's New Hooks, Persona
Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 26 May 1995
POLLY JEAN HARVEY has become, of late, a very public face. Last month's cover of Spin, a recent Tower Pulse, the current issue of Request. ...
Babes In Toyland: The Boardwalk, Manchester
Live Review by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, 27 May 1995
I MISS Ligament cos (I was gonna come up with an excuse as contrived as my mate, who was late for school one day cos ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, June 1995
POP IS BACK, rock is dead (again). That, at any rate, is one conclusion we could draw from the success of Bjork Gudmundsdottir. ...
PJ Harvey: Queen of the Night: P.J. Harvey
Profile by Lucy O'Brien, The Guardian, 12 June 1995
SHE’S TAKING America by storm. She’s very fashionable at the moment. She’s hipper than hip. That’s what Paul McGuinness says; he’s the manager of U2 ...
Sarah McLachlan: Front and Centre Stage
Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 28 July 1995
SARAH MCLACHLAN was lounging in her air-conditioned trailer, exhausted but exhilarated after a day spent fielding media questions and a night spent singing, strumming and ...
Shania Twain: Country Princess
Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 28 August 1995
IT IS THE AUGUST holiday weekend, but there is no rest for Shania Twain. New country music's hottest new sensation is busy paying her dues ...
Alanis Morissette: Jagged Little Pill
Review by Geoffrey Himes, Request, September 1995
IT'S AS IF Annette Funicello had grown up and become Janis Joplin. Just 11 years ago, Alanis Morissette was a cute, 10-year-old actress on Nickelodeon's ...
Jane Siberry: The Woman Who Scared Herself
Interview by Jim Irvin, MOJO, September 1995
Your new LP, Maria, sounds very different to your other albums. I gather it was recorded fairly spontaneously. ...
Interview by Susan Corrigan, i-D, September 1995
POLLY JEAN HARVEY IS AN ICONOCLAST WHOSE MUSIC INSPIRES ADULATION WHILE HER IMAGE INSPIRES SPECULATION. LESSER SINGERS HAVE CRUMBLED UNDER SUCH SCRUTINY. BUT IS PJ ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 7 September 1995
MARTYRED MEXICAN-American superstar Selena, shot to death by her ex-fan club president outside a Corpus Christi, Texas, motel this past March, loved dressing skimpily onstage ...
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 11 November 1995
Controversial New Jill megastars TLC are one of the biggest bands on the planet right now... and they're bankrupt. It's a long story, but SIMON ...
Madonna: Meanwhile Back at the Raunch
Interview by Barbara Ellen, New Musical Express, 2 December 1995
Phew!!! Hold on to your seats because MADONNA is about to reveal all... NOOOOOO!!! she's not stripping off again, but she IS telling all to ...
Profile and Interview by Pete Paphides, Time Out, 20 December 1995
SOMETIMES IT'S hard to know where the marketing stops and the music begins. When Tori Amos's record company launched her first album, Little Earthquakes in ...
Aaliyah talks about her One In a Million album & more
Interview by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 1996
Just 17 but already something of a music biz veteran with a million selling debut album and dues-paying road activities behind her, the sweetly seductive ...
Bikini Kill: Stars and Gripes: Bikini Kill: Reject All American (Kill Rock Stars)
Review by Everett True, Melody Maker, 6 April 1996
BIKINI KILL. Prime movers in 1992's Riot Grrrl scene. Agitators, manipulators, punk rockers, irritants. They're back! And EVERETT TRUE still loves 'em ...
Emmylou Harris: Singing With a Voice That's Always True to Her Heart
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 11 April 1996
EVEN WHEN Emmylou Harris was a fixture on the country charts for a decade starting in 1975, her music was marked by an uncommon sense ...
Interview by Holly George-Warren, Option, May 1996
"I was feeling sensations in no dictionary He was less than a breath of shimmer and smoke The life in his fingers unwound ...
Interview by Susan Corrigan, i-D, June 1996
Sleeper's leading lady has more to offer than big boots and a big mouth. Susan Corrigan examines the true colours of a lass with sass ...
Claire Martin: Mojo Rising: Claire Martin
Profile and Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, June 1996
CLAIRE MARTIN may well be the best British jazz singer for a generation, but she drives like a maniac. "Nervous?" she cackles, slamming into third, ...
Comment by Evelyn McDonnell, The New York Times, 2 June 1996
AT THE HEART of feminism lies the belief in self-determination: women should define their own identities. One recent expression of that tenet can be found ...
Alanis Morissette: Bruised: Alanis Morissette: Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Review and Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Q, July 1996
Alanis Morissette: she's got the whole world in her hands. ...
Live Review by David Bennun, Melody Maker, 13 July 1996
COULD I just get this out of the way? I mean, Kenickie are wonderful for what they are, not what they aren't, but I'd just ...
Interview by Paul Moody, New Musical Express, 24 August 1996
CONTEMPORARY FEMALE singer-songwriters, then: fiercely independent, forever marketed as several colours short of a full palette and ever-prone to massive crossover success care of the ...
Interview by Cliff Jones, The Face, September 1996
FIONA APPLE is a Manhattan teenager ablaze with songs of love, loss, anger and pain. "Given my way, I'd tie all shrinks together and burn the fuckers!" ...
Garbage: Modern Life is Rubbish
Interview by Steven Daly, The Face, September 1996
ONCE SHE WAS just another washed-up indie singer from Edinburgh. Then fate, MTV and three American rock musos intervened, and now Shirley Manson finds the ...
Profile and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, November 1996
Turning tears on her pillow into pearls ...
Kenickie: Kamikaze! Karaoke! Kenickie!
Interview by Caitlin Moran, Melody Maker, 9 November 1996
KENICKIE may barnstorm through life like kamikaze karaoke kids, but there's sadness in their madness ...
Joni Mitchell: Hits and Misses
Review by Susan Whitall, Houston Press, 26 December 1996
IN A POP WORLD where female musicians are designed, micromanaged and as carefully positioned in the marketplace as a new brand of air freshener, how ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, unpublished, 1997
FEW WOMEN HAVE expanded the vocabulary of rock as bewitchingly as Kate Bush; among male stars, only Prince may have taken as many risks. Hounds ...
Foxy Brown, Lil' Kim: Lil' Kim & Foxy Brown: Mack Divas
Report and Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, The Source, February 1997
What demons lie beneath the excessive glam and the in-yo face sexuality? The Source gets hip close and personal with hip-hop's twin testaments to divahood: ...
Comment by Caitlin Moran, The Face, February 1997
New Madonna, new danger? Groomed, elegant — the Material Girl has matured with good grace. Will her fans wish she hadn't bothered, asks Caitlin Moran ...
Dorothy Moore: Giving It Straight To You
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Carpenter, Goldmine, 14 March 1997
MISSISSIPPI HAS probably been trashed more than any other darn state in the union. It's been called the poorest state (which sho' ain't a crime, ...
Sleater-Kinney: An All-Grrrl Band at Heart
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 16 March 1997
In true, independent Riot Grrrl fashion, the Sleater-Kinney trio is getting heard far and wide (No. 3 in Village Voice) without abandoning its community. ...
Courtney Love: Love's Labor Lost
Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 3 April 1997
How Courtney blew her fight for an Oscar nomination as the junkie wife of a porn king in The People vs. Larry Flynt ...
Laura Nyro: Stoned Soul Picnic: The Best Of Laura Nyro
Review by Paul Lester, Uncut, June 1997
AT THE age of 21, she was the most sought-after writer in America, a one-woman hit factory, providing songs for everyone from Sinatra to Aretha. ...
Sleater-Kinney: There's a Riot Goin' On
Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 12 June 1997
SLEATER-KINNEY want to bring feminist punk rock to the mainstream ...
Interview by David Quantick, Q, July 1997
They are the quite spicy girls. A long time ago, they were manufactured by a pair of svengalis. Since then, they've had lorryloads of hits, ...
No Doubt: Ska-Spangled Banter!
Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 5 July 1997
Why has Beavis & Butt-head country gone mad for NO DOUBT's peculiar brand of ska-pop-funk-type-thing? And how has singer Gwen ended up as a feminist ...
Spice Girls: Too Hot to Handle
Interview by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 10 July 1997
How five British pop tarts built their own world empire ...
Tracy Chapman, Sarah McLachlan, Kinnie Starr, Suzanne Vega: Songs of the Sirens: Lilith Fair
Report by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 28 July 1997
THEY READ tarot cards on the grass in the afternoon sun and danced under the moon to the sounds of Tracy Chapman. And before they ...
Meredith Brooks: Claws-out Bitchin' Pop
Profile and Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 9 August 1997
MEREDITH BROOKS talks a lot. She lives in LA. She doesn't do sugar, cigarettes, alcohol or drugs. ...
Spice Girls: The Spice Girls: The Notorious Zig-A-Zig-Ah!
Profile by David Stubbs, Melody Maker, 16 August 1997
THERE'S NO ducking it. The Spice Girls are undoubtedly the most successful British teenypop act. Their album, Spice, has sold over seven million albums in ...
All Saints: Post Spice Hip-Hop
Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 23 August 1997
THERE ARE certain things in life you can be sure of. Rain on Bank Holidays, never having enough money, Alan Shearer getting injured when it ...
Foxy Brown, Lil' Kim: Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown: Nasty Girls
Essay by Bethan Cole, i-D, September 1997
Sisters with voices? Or Ladies with an attitude? Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown are just as nasty as they wanna be ...
Live Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Spin, September 1997
"JUST A SECOND, just a second now," said Canadian performer Kinnie Starr as she abruptly swung her electric guitar down and stepped off the tiny ...
The Geraldine Fibbers: Blood on the Tracks
Interview by RJ Smith, Spin, September 1997
The Geraldine Fibbers' new album, Butch, is a wonder, a violent, uncompromising sprawl of a rock record, a punch to the heart. But, worries RJ Smith, if ...
Interview by Ian Watson, Melody Maker, 13 September 1997
No Doubt have went from garage band to worldwide stardom. But is it the end of the band as we know it? We join them ...
Hole: My Body The Hand Grenade (City Slang)
Review by Everett True, Melody Maker, 11 October 1997
COURTNEY LOVE reigned supreme in 1995 and didn't we know she knew it. Now, with the release off a new album, well, it's all ...
Billie Holiday: How to Buy Billie Holiday
Guide by Fred Dellar, MOJO, November 1997
TIME WAS when Billie Holiday records were hard to come by. But Motown's filmed version of her life, based on a dubious autobiography to which ...
Björk: Who the Hell Does Björk Think She Is?
Interview by Paul Elliott, Q, November 1997
She does weird, waily pop diva. Her producers do the rest. Often they do even more than that. Which leaves her free to turn on ...
Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders: Chrissie Hynde
Interview by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1997
IN 1978, CHRISSIE Hynde, an Akron, Ohio, native living in London, formed the Pretenders. The hand's 1980 debut, The Pretenders, featuring guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, bassist ...
Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1997
FIONA APPLE is 20 years and one album old, and already she knows the bipolar swings of stardom. Thanks to one fortuitously placed demo tape, ...
Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1997
IN 1976, JOAN Jett was a black-leather-wearing 16-year-old living across the street from Los Angeles' notorious Whisky-a-Go-Go and writing songs like the classic fox anthem ...
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1997
UNITING GENERATIONS with her twin allegiances to R&B and rap, Mary J. Blige delivers emotional intimacy packaged in a luxurious voice. ...
Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1997
ONE WAY to control your career is to declare yourself sovereign. When 19-year-old Dana Owens came rapping out of Newark, N.J., in 1989, she assumed ...
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1997
AT AGE 30, Sinead O'Connor seems to be experiencing a rebirth with her critically acclaimed new EP, Gospel Oak, and the ecstatic reception to her ...
Mary J. Blige: Mary J Blige: From the Bronx to the Big Time
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 18 November 1997
Caroline Sullivan has an audience with Mary J Blige, queen of hip hop soul ...
Interview by Andy Crysell, New Musical Express, 6 December 1997
She writes Number Ones! Makes "wacky" videos! Is, like, totally fly! And MISSY "MISDEMEANOR" ELLIOTT, rap's brightest new talent, has come to save us… ...
Salt-N-Pepa: Condiment-al as Anything
Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 13 December 1997
And you thought Girl Power was a new thang? Oh no, SALT-N-PEPA invented it a decade ago. The Maker catches up with the trio in ...
Origin of the Spices: From Riot Grrrl to Girl Power
Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Seven Years of Plenty (Victor Gollancz) , 1998
The riot grrrl/girl power liaison: from a whisper to a screen near you ...
Queen Latifah: From Here to Royalty
Interview by Amy Linden, The Source, 1998
Y'all know Lah: She's our number one sister, our Queen for life. Ladies first and all. But y'all cats be wonderin'. Wantin' to know if ...
Profile and Interview by Bethan Cole, i-D, January 1998
AT THIS moment she's so far out, floating in her own self-programmed audiogalactic, that no one else in hip hop or R&B can touch her. ...
Ani DiFranco: Just an Old Fashioned Girl (with Blue Hair)
Interview by Jeff Apter, nyrock.com, February 1998
JUST WHO is Ani DiFranco anyway? Doc Martin-clad punk-poet icon, do-it-yourself business guru, feminist folksinger: there are so many sides to this Buffalo girl from ...
All Saints: They Know Where It's At
Interview by Angus Batey, Vox, March 1998
And finally we have lift-off. Yes, 'Never Ever' may have taken its time getting there, but Britain's finest all-girl band have hit Number One, and ...
Report and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Harper's Bazaar, April 1998
Scratch an epic rock god and you'll usually find a cool, inspiring woman who supplied him with lyrics, contacts and style. Now that girl power ...
Jewel, Sarah McLachlan: Lady’s Day: Lilith Fair
Report and Interview by Edward Helmore, MOJO, April 1998
AT RISK OF PROVOKING EITHER THE TRADITIONAL yawn or a punch in the face whenever it is suggested that this is the year of women ...
Martina McBride: Singer, Producer, Mother & Wife
Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Country Music, April 1998
Taking a hands-on approach to all she does makes Martina's world a bit hectic, but she wouldn't have it any other way. ...
Interview by Barbara Ellen, The Observer, 24 May 1998
"The more comfortable I get with my sexuality, the less it leaks all over the place" ...
Profile and Interview by Dan Gennoe, Making Music, June 1998
7PM AND THE West London pub where Making Music is currently propping up the bar is starting to fill up in anticipation of the Italy ...
Linda Ronstadt: The Linda Ronstadt Interview: Tucson, Arizona, 17 June 1998
Interview by Debbie Kruger, unpublished, June 1998
DK: You are a performer who has covered the most diverse range of genres in popular music, and they are all listed on your bio ...
Tori Amos: From The Choirgirl Hotel (East West)
Review by Kit Aiken, Uncut, June 1998
Fourth album from singer/songwriter with a fan base of two million. ...
Interview by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 25 June 1998
With a little help from her faeries, she is doing more than just getting by ...
Review by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, July 1998
Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty/Where Am I Going/Songbooks Three more re-releases from the undisputed Queen of UK pop-soul ...
Linda Ronstadt: Everlasting Linda
Profile and Interview by Debbie Kruger, Weekend Australian, 18 July 1998
IT'S SUMMER IN TUCSON, around 38° C, and Linda Ronstadt is sanguine about the waterlilies sprouting in her pond. The rest of the grounds are ...
Mr. Airplane Man: Mississippi Queens: Mr. Airplane Man's Delta dreams
Profile and Interview by Ted Drozdowski, The Boston Phoenix, 31 August 1998
A RAIN’S PEELED the edge off a steamy August night in the Mississippi Delta. But a two-piece jukehouse band are roaring on stage in Clarksdale's ...
Sinead O'Connor: Eyewitness October 1992: America Slays Sinead O'Connor
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Q, September 1998
Two weeks after tearing up a picture of the pope on Saturday Night Live and receiving a lifetime ban from the US TV show, Sinead ...
Live Review by RJ Smith, Spin, September 1998
BEFORE ANYTHING else is said about the opening night of the 57-date Lilith Fair, let's note the nice: The climate at Portland's Civic Stadium was ...
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 17 September 1998
Courtney Love and Hole make a fiery, flowery return ...
Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Q, October 1998
She hasn't taken heroin and she won't gossip about Eric Clapton, so what will she do? "People have needs," she tells Adrian Deevoy, darkly. ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 2 November 1998
Ms Williams talks about the often-torturous gestation of her magnificent Car Wheels On A Gravel Road album, and about her roots and influences, musical and literary.
File format: mp3; file size: 29.8mb, interview length: 32' 29" sound quality: ** (phoner)
Interview by Terry Staunton, Uncut, December 1998
"IT'S THE teachers who are to blame, if you ask me. Probably more so than parents, because they're kinda paid to shape young minds — ...
Review by Stuart Maconie, Q, December 1998
How do you follow a 28-million seller? Simple, pretend you're Sylvia Plath ...
Interview by Precious Williams, The Big Issue, December 1998
NINA SIMONE is furious that there is no alcohol left in the house. It's not even 11 o'clock in the morning and yet the 65-year-old ...
Rock’n’Role: Are Singers The New Feminist Icons?
Overview by Lucy O'Brien, The Guardian, 21 December 1998
IN THE US, they call it the Third Wave – a new feminism for a new generation. It is fuelled by popular culture in general ...
Ronnie Spector: Life Club, New York City
Live Review by Evelyn McDonnell, The Village Voice, 29 December 1998
"BRIAN WILSON wrote this song for me," Ronnie Spector said on Wednesday at her annual holiday party at Life, "but because of publishing and contracts ...
The Rolling Stones: Anita Pallenberg (1998)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, Summer 1998
The one-time consort to Keith Richards talks about the place of the women behind the men in rock'n'roll: the blondes the men went and still go for; the lack of equality in the relationships; feelings of uselessness and lack of support systems, and about Marianne Faithfull, Courtney Love and Yoko Ono.
File format: mp3; file size: 17.8mb, interview length: 18' 30" sound quality: ** (phoner)
Marianne Faithfull, Courtney Love, Oasis, The Rolling Stones: Anita Pallenberg (1998) [transcript]
Audio transcript of interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages transcripts, Summer 1998
This is a transcription of a phone interview. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Marianne Faithfull: An Interview
Interview by Will Self, Independent on Sunday, 1999
THERE'S NOTHING much crasser in life than being told by someone, shortly after you've met them: "You really remind me of so-and-so..." It's bad enough ...
Sheryl Crow: Not Much To Crow About: Sheryl Crow's Rockin The Globe Live (A&M DVD)
Review by Rick McGrath, Culture Court, 1999
IVE GOT GOOD news and bad news for Sheryl Crow fans. The good news is Sheryls in fine voice on this live concert DVD. The ...
Interview by Everett True, Melody Maker, 30 January 1999
It's million-selling records, a 24-hour media circus and a limo in every city for HOLE, but does Courtney Love want even more success? Oh yes... ...
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, The Village Voice, 2 February 1999
FOX ON THE RUN ...
Dusty Springfield: You Started Something: Dusty Springfield
Profile and Interview by Lucy O'Brien, The Observer, 21 February 1999
Dusty Springfield, now battling with cancer, is finally being recognized as the first queen of Britpop after 40 years in the business. ...
Hole: Courtney Love vs. Everett True
Interview by Everett True, The Stranger, 25 February 1999
THE FOLLOWING are excerpts from a conversation that took place in a hotel room in Seattle, last December after the Hole concert at KeyArena. No ...
Britney Spears: Baby One More Time (Jive)
Review by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, 6 March 1999
I WOULDN'T, actually. Jailbait. Pastels. Popsox. Mall rat. Sure, all the obvious jokes cover up the fact that this is a document of pure venality. ...
Dusty Springfield: My Date with Dusty
Memoir by Sean O'Hagan, The Observer, 7 March 1999
Britain's first lady of soul had chosen us to make what was to be her last video. We'd found the perfect location, we'd borrowed a ...
Kelly Willis: Just Walk Away: Kelly Willis' What I Deserve
Review by RJ Smith, The Village Voice, 13 April 1999
KELLY WILLIS HAS the most uncomfortable-making way of saying "thank you". Live a few weekends ago I heard her say it at least a dozen ...
Sleater-Kinney: The Roxy, Los Angeles
Live Review by Marc Weingarten, Rolling Stone, 15 April 1999
THE THRIFT-shop slummers and the baby-T cutie-pies who crammed the Roxy for Sleater-Kinney's L.A. performance only drove home what's become painfully obvious: This Olympia, Washington, ...
All Saints: Saints Preserve Us
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 23 April 1999
All Saints keep marching on as Girl Power's most credible models. They talk to Caroline Sullivan about the good side of being bad ...
Missy Elliott: Missy In Action: The Divine Ms. Elliott
Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, May 1999
MISSY "MISDEMEANOR" Elliott is an infamously snappy dresser, so when she emerges from a discreet recess in her LA hotel room wearing nothing more elaborate ...
Karen Dalton: Who Loves You The Best Now?
Retrospective by Max Bell, Sunday Telegraph, 8 May 1999
Karen Dalton was a chronic recluse who died in obscurity. But now she's being hailed as one of the most original folk singers of the ...
Sleater-Kinney: The Garage, London
Live Review by Everett True, Melody Maker, 8 May 1999
"BUT SHE sounds just like Cher," my companion beseeches me, as Sleater-Kinney run through the fine, staccato 'The End Of You' — Corin Tucker's voice ...
Hole, Courtney Love: The Lesson Of Love: Courtney's Got The Hole World In Her Hands
Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 14 May 1999
IT IS A STILL-SLEEPY Courtney Love whose familiar voice comes over the phone line early one morning from Cincinnati. It's the first day of her ...
Interview by Ian Watson, Melody Maker, 19 June 1999
"Psychoanalyse me, baby, one more time," she asked, and so it was that Britney Spears ended up on the Psychobabble couch ...
The Dixie Chicks: Dixie Chicks
Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Q, July 1999
Good heavens! It's the bottle-blonde, country Corrs. ...
Cher: The Beat Goes On: For the Fourth Decade in a Row, Cher Hits a High Note
Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 16 July 1999
CHER KNOWS WHAT it means to ride rock and roll's wild roller coaster. Over the years, she has zoomed to the top and plummeted to ...
Geri Halliwell: Pungent Spice: Geri Halliwell: Schizophonic (EMI) ***
Review by Stuart Maconie, Q, August 1999
She's covered all the bases. She hasn't covered them all well. ...
Alison Krauss, Me'Shell Ndegeocello: Sounds of Heartache: Alison Krauss and Me'Shell Ndegeocello
Essay by Geoffrey Himes, Baltimore City Paper, 18 August 1999
IT WOULD BE hard to think of two female singers more different than Alison Krauss and Me'Shell Ndegeocello. Krauss, a straight European-American from the Midwestern ...
Dusty Springfield: 'That Noise Is the Joy…'
Retrospective and Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, AllMusic.com, September 1999
IT WAS just one of those things. I interviewed Dusty Springfield for two hours in Beverly Hills one afternoon in May, 1973, for Rolling Stone. ...
Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 13 September 1999
IT'S MID-MORNING in a quiet hotel restaurant and Diana Krall is having a love affair with an artichoke. ...
The Dixie Chicks, Shedaisy: Dixie Chicks: Fly; Shedaisy: The Whole Shebang
Review by Eric Weisbard, The Village Voice, 15 September 1999
EVERYONE IN NASHVILLE understands that the New Country formula-slick production with a seamless touch of roots and updated suburban family values-isn't enough anymore. ...
Live Review by Evelyn McDonnell, The Village Voice, 28 September 1999
L7 Blow-Up in Brooklyn ...
Cher: Live At Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim, California, August 20th, 1999
Live Review by Erik Himmelsbach, Rolling Stone, 30 September 1999
BY EMBRACING her inner Studio 54, Cher recently landed the biggest hit of her four-decade career with the dance-house thumper Believe. Her mammoth stage show, ...
Chicks on Speed: Speed Queens!
Profile and Interview by Toby Manning, Jockey Slut, October 1999
MUNICH'S CHICKS ON SPEED: THEY CAN PAINT FAST! ...
Nina Simone: Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Retrospective by James Maycock, The Independent, 10 November 1999
In the Sixties, Nina Simone's music radically espoused black civil rights. But by the turn of the decade she had rejected politics. Why? ...
Obituary by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, December 1999
ELLA MAE MORSE, whose 1942 hit 'Cow-Cow Boogie' became the first million selling disc for Capitol Records, died on October 16th at the Western Arizona ...
Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Telegraph Magazine, Summer 1999
SKIN WALKS into her manager's house in St. John's Wood and immediately shows off her jeans. "I wanted a pair of trousers that go VROOM ...
Ronnie Spector Talks to Rainbows
Report and Interview by Dave Thompson, Alternative Press, Fall 1999
SHE WAS ONE of the voices of the American 60s, the purest element in Phil Spector's Wall Of Sound, the heartbeat of an entire generation's ...
Interview by j. poet, Stereotype, 2000
THE MUSIC BUSINESS IS FULL OF ironies and insane contradictions, and Dolly Parton – a savvy businesswoman as well as an all-round entertainer – is ...
Kim Fowley, The Runaways: King of the Nighttime World
Memoir by Kim Fowley, unpublished, 2000
Kim Fowley reveals how L.A. ultravixens the Runaways were formed – and how he helped give birth to Hollywood punk. ...
Samantha Mumba: Gotta Tell You
Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 2000
FOLLOW THE ANALOGY: Britney is to McDonald's as Christina is to Burger King, as Jessica is to Wendy's as Mandy is to Dunkin' Donuts or ...
Kelis Doesn't Get Mad, She Gets Even
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Rolling Stone, 9 March 2000
Hip-hop's current It Girl talks about her reputation, decision-making, and more ...
Kirsty MacColl: Tropical Brainstorm
Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 17 March 2000
Kirsty MacColl's first album since 1994 sees her flirting with Latin rhythms and cliched tourist-brochure lyrics. But, says Caroline Sullivan, it's better than you'd think ...
Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 13 April 2000
Bad grrls live forever ...
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 20 April 2000
GIRL POP has rarely been less prepossessing. The choices these days boil down to factory-farmed mannequins like Atomic Kitten or fourth-generation copies of Hole that ...
Heather Small: Proud/Jon Bon Jovi: Crush
Review by Barbara Ellen, The Times, 2 June 2000
On her first solo album since leaving M People, Heather Small proves a right little belter, while Jon Bon Jovi proves to be a poodle ...
Britney Spears: Dear Diary: Britney Spears
Comment by Metal Mike Saunders, The Village Voice, 6 June 2000
NOVEMBER 3, 1998, was the release date of the '... Baby One More Time' CD single and 12-inch (w/ 'Autumn Goodbye' on the B side). ...
Jane Bunnett: Our Gal in Havana
Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 26 June 2000
SHE'S BEEN CALLED "Havana Jane", and Canada's Jane Bunnett has certainly earned the title. The celebrated jazz flautist and soprano saxophonist has been a familiar ...
Sleater-Kinney: Cockpit, Leeds
Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 26 July 2000
IT’S HARD ENOUGH being a 21st-century, radical feminist post-punk band, but Sleater-Kinney have a further enemy in the sound system. "This is our fourth member," ...
Caroline Coon: Still fighting the bad guys
Profile and Interview by Barbara Ellen, The Observer, 30 July 2000
In the '60s, Caroline Coon was famous for helping people caught in drugs busts. In the '90s she defended her right to paint penises. Now, ...
The Carpenters: Karen Carpenter
Retrospective by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, August 2000
KAREN CARPENTER possesses such iconic value now — feminist totem, camp death-cult, Prozac Nation suffragette — it is increasingly difficult to assess her unique musical ...
Laura Nyro: Oh My Love-Trumpet Soul: Laura Nyro's New York Tendaberry
Retrospective by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, August 2000
AND A GREAT tenderness came forth from the unforgiving streets of the East Side. It's easy to dislike Laura Nyro. Your first requirement is to ...
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 ...
Report and Interview by Carol Cooper, Crawdaddy!, September 2000
As an acronym, the term A.S.E.A.N. has become the name of a small regional trade & tourism organization known as the "Association of South East ...
Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 2 September 2000
Daphne & Celeste — social commentators, teen girls bringing a breath of fresh air to the testosterone-charged air of the Carling Weekend. Of course not ...
Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 11 September 2000
THE FIRST TIME I turned on the radio and heard 'St. Theresa', (the opening track off Osborne's 1995 release, Relish) I felt branded for life. ...
Peaches: The Teaches Of Peaches (Kitty-Yo)
Review by Stevie Chick, New Musical Express, 16 September 2000
THE MUSIC — harsh shards of electronic fuzz, coupled with unforgiving whiplash beats — sounds like ATR's Alec Empire playing lounge music for a San ...
Emmylou Harris: Red hot and no sign of a cowboy
Interview by Tim Cooper, The Evening Standard, 11 October 2000
Forget all those whiney, lovesick singers. Emmylou Harris is the performer who makes country music respectable. Tim Cooper talks to her in New York as ...
Björk, PJ Harvey: Bjork: Selmasongs; PJ Harvey: Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
Review by Djuna Parnes, Rock's Backpages, December 2000
OUTSIDE OF Kid A, Thom Yorke made two significant cameo appearances in A.D. 2000. Both were on albums by dark, "difficult" women whove spearheaded change ...
Emmylou Harris: Ghosts and Angels
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, December 2000
The spectres of a war hero father and a doomed country troubador haunt her music. Emmylou Harris tells Phil Sutcliffe why she still hasn't found ...
PJ Harvey: Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea
Review by Ian Penman, Uncut, December 2000
Self-produced sixth album is curate's egg ...
Profile and Interview by Caitlin Moran, The Times, Spring 2000
One of our finest singers is also one of our finest writers, and has been for all of 21 years. Caitlin Moran meets the never ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. Gaynor Hopkins, 8 June 1951, Skewen, Wales ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001
b. Clementina Dinah Campbell, 27 October 1928, Middlesex, England ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001
b. Cynthia Anne Stephanie Lauper, 22 June 1953, Brooklyn, New York, USA ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. 25 October 1941, Melbourne, Australia ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. Jewel Kilcher, 23 May 1974, Payson, Utah, USA ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001
b. Frances Ethel Gumm, 10 June 1922, Grand Rapids, Minnesota, USA, d. 22 June 1969, London, England ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001
b. Norma Egstrom, 26 May 1920, Jamestown, North Dakota, USA ...
All Saints: When The Saints Go Marching Out
Retrospective by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 10 January 2001
THEY'VE BEEN on the verge of it before, but this time it looks as though All Saints are finally splitting up. Caroline Sullivan laments the ...
Profile and Interview by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 29 January 2001
LAST NOVEMBER, 29-year-old Dido Armstrong and her boyfriend Bob were discussing their day at work. Bob had gone to the office and relaxed with a ...
Laura Cantrell: Vulnerable, minimalist Manhattan country
Profile and Interview by Colin Irwin, MOJO, March 2001
NOBODY'S MORE surprised by the wealth of critical and public acclaim for Laura Cantrell than the gently self-deprecating artist herself. ...
Kylie Minogue: Camping with Kylie: Kylie Minogue: Manchester Apollo, Manchester
Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 9 March 2001
HAVING RECOVERED FROM the pretensions of duets with Nick Cave and songwriting with the Manic Street Preachers, Kylie has returned to the fluffy pop we ...
Gina Arnold in the Present Tense
Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, April 2001
LOVE HER OR hate her, rock critic Gina Arnold writes from her own point of view. For Arnold, when writing about music, objectivity is thrown ...
Laura Nyro: Songs in the Key of Life: Laura Nyro's Angel in the Dark
Review by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 6 April 2001
THIS ALBUM IS incomplete, but so was Laura Nyro's life. It is the project on which she was working when she died of ovarian cancer ...
Destiny's Child: The Joys Of Child-ish Behaviour
Interview by Precious Williams, The Evening Standard, 23 April 2001
THE SASSIEST girl group in the world are slumped on a sofa lamenting the "awfulness" of how they look. Destiny's Child – Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly ...
Goldfrapp: "The Mercury prize? Oh God, that would be great. I deserve something"
Profile and Interview by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 4 May 2001
Singing sensation Alison Goldfrapp tells Dave Simpson why her time has come. ...
Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Observer, 20 May 2001
Dido was always an outsider: the girl with ratatouille on rye packed lunches at school, who wished she'd been christened Claire. Now, thanks to an ...
Alanis Morissette: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by David Bennun, Mail On Sunday, June 2001
SAY WHAT YOU like about Alanis Morissette – and I intend to – there's no denying the girl can belt it out. Alone among the ...
Beverley Martyn, John and Beverley Martyn: Been Gone So Long: Beverley Martyn
Retrospective and Interview by Bob Stanley, MOJO, June 2001
After 30 years away from it all, Beverley Martyn is making music again. She speaks to Bob Stanley about her music, friends, enemies and looking ...
Missy Elliott: Rhymes & Misdemeanours: Missy Elliott Gets Her Freak On
Interview by Amy Linden, XXL, July 2001
The expression "It takes a village to raise a child" has quickly morphed from sage African proverb to the Have a Nice Day of social ...
Lil' Kim: Hello Nasty: Lil' Kim: Kentish Town Forum, London
Live Review by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 7 July 2001
THERE'S SUCH A thing as hip-hop time. It doesn't generally apply to gigs, more to long-suffering journalists kept waiting for hours on end for an ...
Björk: The Last Great Pop Star
Interview by Nick Coleman, The Independent, 9 August 2001
She thumps reporters, wears funny clothes and thinks she was born in the wrong century. Now she's made an album about her kitchen. Nick Coleman ...
Madonna: Serious artist, or celebrity hustler?
Comment by Evelyn McDonnell, Times Herald-Record, 25 August 2001
The great Madonna debate: Does she inspire or annoy you? ...
PJ Harvey: Hammerstein Ballroom, New York
Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 3 September 2001
APPARENTLY I'D HEARD correctly — and the critic was the gangling boy behind me, piping up shortly after lead singer Polly Jean Harvey joined her ...
Profile and Interview by Ian Watson, Sunday Herald, October 2001
SHE DOESN'T SHUT UP. Present Gabrielle with a simple query and her mouth goes into overdrive. She hits the ground sprinting, talking so quickly she ...
Le Tigre: Feminist Sweepstakes (Mr. Lady)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, November 2001
OFTEN RADICALS get so entrenched they even distrust their own sense of pleasure. But Kathleen Hanna is such a great rocker that at the very ...
Yoko Ono: Just imagine: Yoko Ono
Interview by Andrew Smith, The Observer, 4 November 2001
In the '60s, Yoko Ono married John Lennon and campaigned for peace in Vietnam. More than 30 years on, she's still irrevocably linked to her ...
Garbage: White Trash: Shirley Manson
Interview by Tim Cooper, The Evening Standard, 8 November 2001
Shirley Manson, pop's most famous redhead, has suddenly gone blonde. A new look to match her new outlook. ...
Macy Gray: It's a Macy, Macy world
Profile and Interview by Tim Cooper, The Observer, 18 November 2001
"She's phat, she's tight, she's outta control..." It was supposed to be a routine celebrity interview, but it ended in a jet-ski chase across the ...
Dusty Springfield: The Ultimate Collection
Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 3 December 2001
OH, POP MUSIC! One minute, it pushes the envelope wide-wide open, then the next seals it up tight as can be! Such a force it ...
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, AnOther Magazine, Fall 2001
ON THE TOP floor of a Georgian townhouse, a punt away from the Lansdowne Road rugby stadium, one of rock's greatest female icons bends down ...
The GTOs: Girl Together Outrageously: Pamela Des Barres
Interview by Ian Fortnam, Classic Rock, 2002
IN CASUAL DEFIANCE of the fact that her fifty-fifth birthday looms large, the Marchioness Des Barres positively radiates rude good health and an undeniably disarming ...
Retrospective and Interview by Colin Harper, Record Collector, 2002
"HOW CAN WE explain the phenomenon of Julie Felix?" mused Karl Dallas, Melody Maker's titan of folk, in a December 1965 concert review. "Clearly anyone ...
Audio transcript of interview by Steven Daly, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 2002
This is a transcript of Steven's audio interview with Madonna. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Nico and The Marble Index: A Conversation with Danny Fields
Interview by David Dalton, Gadfly, 2002
WHEN THE MARBLE Index appeared in 1969 it seemed unplaceable, flying out of some timeless place, as if we were hearing from a possessed medieval ...
Dee Dee Bridgewater: Sophisticated Lady: This Is Dee Dee Bridgewater
Interview by James Maycock, Pride, 2002
"DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER is very effervescent and very energetic and very optimistic and very positive," I'm informed. "Dee Dee Bridgewater has consumed my life." ...
Mary Chapin Carpenter/Anne Lamott: Royce Hall, UCLA
Live Review by Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 28 January 2002
THE PAIRING OF author and singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter at UCLA's Royce Hall on Saturday could have gone any number of ways. ...
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, February 2002
It's a long way from New York's 42nd Street to the 44th annual Grammy Awards. But after seven years of juggling Harlem street life, fractious ...
Kelly Hogan: Because It Feel Good
Review by j. poet, Country Music, February 2002
LET YOUR MIND wander back about years ago, to a recording studio noted for churning out reverb-drenched country, pop and rhythm and blues. ...
Review by Gavin Martin, Daily Mirror, 29 February 2002
DO YOU EVER get the feeling that the British music industry runs on a slightly unimaginative copycat pattern? ...
Marianne Faithfull: Rock Steady
Report and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Vogue, March 2002
ON A DAMP December afternoon in bucolic Buckinghamshire, a legendary female icon of the '60s is leading her Noughties counterpart down the garden path. Literally. ...
Charli Baltimore: No more drama
Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, XXL, April 2002
Refocused and full of determination, Charli says she's got what it takes to rock the mic right. B.I.G.'s former mistress, Ms. B-More, has returned to ...
The Creatures, Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie Sioux: An Interview
Interview by Paul Mathur, This is not Retro, May 2002
I GUESS THE OBVIOUS QUESTION IS WHY ARE THE BANSHEES BACK, AND HOW DID THAT COME ABOUT? ...
The Go-Go's: The Fab Femme Five
Retrospective and Interview by Paul Elliott, Q, May 2002
Long before girl-band conveyor-belt pop and mainstream stardom for their mucky singer Belinda Carlisle, there was "the world's best female band" The Go-Go's. Meet the ...
Pink: Go Ahead Pink, Make Our Day!
Comment by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 4 May 2002
Be afraid Britney, Gwen and Kylie: there's only one candidate to be the new Madonna ...
Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 8 May 2002
THERE'S A popular mythology out there that says that certain thingslike pop divas and Fortune 500 companiesnever die. ...
Le Tigre: King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow
Live Review by Simon Price, The Independent, 2 June 2002
LONG AGO, IN ANOTHER LIFE, I got into a spot of bother after beginning a review of Bikini Kill/Huggy Bear's shared album with the semi-humourously ...
Interview by Ted Kessler, The Observer, 14 July 2002
As a schoolgirl she drove the nuns crazy with her belly dancing, now she's got the world gyrating. Ted Kessler meets Shakira, the Colombian superstar ...
Linda Thompson: Miserable Old Sod Linda Thompson Returns as Exquisitely Sad as Ever
Interview by Mac Randall, New York Observer, 29 July 2002
THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE who say that Linda Thompson is the greatest female rock singer alive. I'm not one of them-partly because I think her ...
Review by John Aizlewood, The Guardian, 16 August 2002
THE RATHER inglorious tradition of shouty punk women began with the Slits, but trio Sleater-Kinney take their cue from long-forgotten compatriots Ut, whose celebration of ...
Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, September 2002
Third album from Norfolk singer-songwriter, featuring numerous collaborators. ...
Essay by Holly Gleason, Rock's Backpages, 16 September 2002
THERE IT WAS ONE DAY – propped against my doorway in West Hollywood – a plain brown cardboard box like so many others. Anonymous. Almost ...
Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 11 October 2002
BEFORE BOY BANDS began breeding it was singing soap stars who were the plankton of pop. ...
Björk: “In England they think I'm one of the Teletubbies”: Björk
Interview by Paul Lester, The Guardian, 25 October 2002
Björk looks back on two decades of music, fame and scrapping with the media. ...
Anoushka Shankar: Pleasing herself, as well as Dad
Interview by Kris Nicholson, Record, 8 November 2002
Anoushka Shankar, at 21, has had a life full of music ...
Christina Aguilera: Has Anyone Seen Christina?
Interview by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 14 November 2002
Because all we can find is Xtina, with her explosive beats, body piercings and broken glass. ...
Live Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 15 November 2002
THERE WERE TWO types of female fan at Pink's Brixton Academy gig. ...
Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 22 November 2002
Why settle for the pleasantly inoffensive tunes of Shania Twain when Missy Elliott and her posse are busy rewriting the hip-hop rulebook. ...
Ani DiFranco: Blowin' in a New Wind
Essay by Gene Santoro, The Nation, 26 November 2002
AS THE 2002 election results came in, I surfed through 100 cable channels with nothing on and hit an infomercial hosted by John Sebastian for ...
Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 29 November 2002
ON HER NEW album, Jennifer Lopezhas cannily mixed her real life romance with her music. So listening to This is Me… Then feels a little ...
Shania Twain: Up! Is A Direction: Shania Twain’s New CD(s)
Review by Rick McGrath, Culture Court, December 2002
More Of The Same Old, But I Give It A 10 For Marketing Moxie, Dick! ...
Retrospective by Andria Lisle, MOJO, December 2002
"SOMETHING TOLD ME IT WAS OVER/When I saw you and here talking/Something deep down in my soul said, 'Cry, girl'/When I saw you and that ...
Avril Lavigne, Pink: Riot Girls
Report and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 9 December 2002
Goodbye cheerleaders, hello snarling, smoking punks. Dorian Lynskey on how Pink! made teen pop grow up ...
Profile by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 14 December 2002
Shakira should forget the political posturing, says Lisa Verrico, and stick to what she does best — making music and looking good. ...
Shakira: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 17 December 2002
NO MATTER where you sat in Wembley Arena on Monday night, you were never far from open-mouthed men trying not to drool at this year's ...
Alicia Keys: Alicia in Wonderland
Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Inside Entertainment, Summer 2002
SHE HAS THE hooks and the looks – and depth and diversity too. Barely out of her teens, Alicia Keys may be the most sophisticated ...
The Runaways: Runaways: The Runaways/Queens Of Noise/Live In Japan/Waitin' For The Night
Review and Interview by Ian Fortnam, Classic Rock, 2003
UNTIL THE ADVENT of Sunset Strip cherry bombers The Runaways, all-girl rock bands were invariably self-consciously butch and hairy apparitions with names like Birtha and ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: Yoko Ono: A 1992 Interview
Book Excerpt by Paul Zollo, 'Songwriters on Songwriting' (rev. edn, Da Capo), 2003
IT WAS A SAD and a little spooky to walk into the Dakota on this dark and rainy winter night, an evening not unlike the ...
Fanny: First Time In A Long Time – The Reprise Records
Review by Gillian G. Gaar, MOJO, January 2003
First time on CD for all four studio albums in a set that finally heeds David Bowie's cry: "Revivify Fanny! And I will feel that ...
Queen Latifah: Queen of Hearts
Interview by Amy Linden, Heart & Soul, January 2003
As rap's first lady, small-screen trailblazer and emerging Hollywood star, Queen Latifah, anyone would admit, has opened doors where there were none. But here, in ...
Mira Calix, Vivian Green, Norah Jones, Terri Walker: After Norah
Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 10 March 2003
Norah Jones's Grammy-grabbing success has opened the floodgates for young, female singer-songwriters like Terri Walker, Vivian Green and Mira Calix ...
Interview by Carl Wiser, Songfacts, 14 March 2003
JANIS IAN released her first song, 'Society's Child', in 1967 when she was 15. The famous record producer Shadow Morton wasn't interested until Janis set ...
Avril Lavigne: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 30 March 2003
THE THINGS YOU hear on trains. There I was, upgraded to Weekend First a couple of years ago (eight quid, but it was a long ...
Macy Gray: Outlandish, outrageous and utterly original
Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Inside Entertainment, April 2003
THE HIGH PRIESTESS of Freak is looking suspiciously like a Volvo-Driving Soccer Mom. ...
Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Blender, April 2003
She was singing in bars at age eight. She lived for Supertramp. And she married the world's most successful hair-metal producer. So how on Earth ...
Lil' Kim: La Bella Mafia (Atlantic)
Review by Chris Roberts, Uncut, June 2003
Rapper-turned-actress hams her way through third album ...
Nina Simone: Always Searching for a Key
Obituary by Ian Penman, The Wire, June 2003
The realisation that she was black in a country run by whites, a woman in a world run by men, turned Nina Simone into the ...
Report and Interview by j. poet, Paste, 15 June 2003
"I'M NOT A militant female songwriter, and I wouldn't want to be considered some kind of new age uber-feminist," Rosanne Cash says. "But having said that, ...
Liz Phair: Ex-indie rock queen is back on the scene
Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Miami Herald, 22 June 2003
IT HAS BEEN 10 years since Liz Phair first shocked the prudish world of independent rock with the frank sexual confessions of her debut album, ...
Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Word, July 2003
"I LOVE HIM, I love him, I love him, I love him/ This time, I'm gonna keep it to myself." Björk is swaying as she ...
Obituary by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, July 2003
A country matriarch says goodbye. ...
Northern State: Dying in Stereo EP
Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 1 July 2003
THE FIRST THAT you'll read about Northern State in just about any review are their stats – these are three 20-something women who are from ...
Blondie, Debbie Harry: Blondie's Debbie Harry (2003)
Interview by Chris Roberts, Rock's Backpages audio, 7 July 2003
Elle ne regrette rien: La Harry on Blondie then and now, NYC then and now, on art and movies, on Chris Stein, and on the latest Blondie album The Curse of Blondie
File format: mp3; file size: 67.8meg, interview length: 1h 10' 40" sound quality: **
Mary J. Blige: The Ballad Of Mary J
Interview by Precious Williams, Scotland on Sunday, 31 August 2003
MARY J BLIGE'S daunting reputation as a volatile, prickly diva has always threatened to eclipse her extraordinary vocal talent. Legend has it that her record ...
Retrospective and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, September 2003
"SHE'LL BE BIGGER than Olivia Newton John!" That's what incandescent young A&R man Michael Rosenblatt told his boss, Sire Records founder-owner Seymour Stein back in ...
Interview by David Quantick, The Word, September 2003
DIDO LIVES in Islington, along with half the Labour Party, the entire cast of EastEnders and the late Arthur Mullard, who used to sit outside ...
Review by Todd L. Burns, Stylus, 1 September 2003
WHO WOULDA THUNK IT? Pink, much like Vitamin C, seemed to have one interesting portion to her image. The music was capable, but the lyrics ...
She Bop II: Rock Chicks Fight Back
Comment by Lucy O'Brien, The Guardian, 13 September 2003
Lucy O'Brien reflects on her monumental history of the music business ...
Report by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 25 September 2003
Juggling a baby and a career is difficult enough for anyone – but how do you manage it when you're a pop star? Caroline Sullivan ...
Mis-Teeq: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by Ian Watson, Yahoo! Music, October 2003
THE BEST bits, as with their often startling appearances on daytime radio, are when they mutate suddenly. ...
Tywanna Jo Baskette: A Profile
Profile and Interview by j. poet, Harp, October 2003
NASHVILLE-BASED Tywanna Jo Baskette lives the life she sings about. ...
Thea Gilmore: "It's sad the lengths girls go to, pouting on the cover of their CD"
Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 23 October 2003
Thea Gilmore has released five albums, received rave reviews and turned down endless offers from major labels. And she's still only 23. She talks to ...
Macy Gray, Mya: Macy Gray: The Trouble With Being Myself/Mya : Moodring
Review by Carol Cooper, The Village Voice, 24 October 2003
BOTH WOMEN crouch nearly nude on their album covers, gazing with feral yet somehow fetal reproach at potential consumers, like naughty fairy changelings who've had ...
Liz Phair's slick new sound has shocked her fans
Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 26 October 2003
IMAGINE PJ HARVEY recording with Pete Waterman, or Bjork co-writing songs with one of Simon Fuller's stable of top pop tunesmiths. Weird, and not in ...
Interview by Amy Linden, XXL, November 2003
She's the rare female MC who's known for her jaw-dropping lyrics — not the thing between her legs. That's why we love Digga, Digga … ...
Kylie Minogue: The Butt Stops Here
Comment by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 19 November 2003
So she's 35, but does that really mean Kylie should cover up, asks Caroline Sullivan ...
Pink: Killer Queen: Pink: Try This (Arista/BMG) ****
Review by Dan Gennoe, Q, December 2003
Come in, Madonna, your time is finally up ...
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, December 2003
POP RADIO is so appalling that even a modest charmer like Nelly Furtado's 'I'm Like a Bird' makes you kneel in gratitude. ...
Nelly Furtado: Looking back to go forward
Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 6 December 2003
Pressured by the expectations for her new album, Nelly Furtado dug into her Latin roots for inspiration, she tells Lisa Verrico. ...
Michelle McManus: The stars in our eyes
Comment by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 30 December 2003
Pop Idol winner Michelle McManus may claim to be happy with her size, but pop's obsession with image could well put an end to that, ...
Mary Lou Williams: Linda Dahl: Morning Glory – A Biography of Mary Lou Williams
Book Excerpt by Gene Santoro, 'Highway 61 Revisited...', 2004
MARY LOU WILLIAMS was the first girl who really made it into the boys' club that was (and mostly still is) jazz. Sure, girl singers ...
Dolly Parton: Mother's Pride: Various: Just Because I'm A Woman: Songs Of Dolly Parton ****
Review and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, January 2004
A dozen brilliant women with a stirring reminder that the beloved boob flaunter and wacky wig wearer is a truly great songwriter. ...
Rickie Lee Jones: The Devil in Miss Jones
Profile and Interview by Andy Gill, The Independent, 16 January 2004
Rickie Lee Jones has always had her demons - and now she's living in the America of George Bush and Jeffrey Dahmer. ...
The Distillers, Peaches: The Distillers and Peaches: When Brody met Peaches...
Interview by Ben Myers, Kerrang!, February 2004
THEY MAY have only met once before but within thirty second of being re-introduced backstage at London's Brixton Academy it's clear that Brody Dalle and ...
Beyoncé: The Solid Gold, Super Fly Destiny of Beyoncé
Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Inside Entertainment, February 2004
SHE'S YOUNG, GIFTED and black. She's also devout, hard-working and extremely fly. ...
Melissa Etheridge: Hitched, Happy, and On Tour
Interview by Bonnie J. Morris, Gay & Lesbian Review, The , March 2004
MELISSA ETHERIDGE has been a lesbian rock icon since 1988, when audiences who had not heard her at clubs and women's music festivals grabbed her ...
Interview by Ian Watson, The Evening Standard, 18 March 2004
She nearly killed herself with drugs, but now pop's wild child has cleaned up her act. As she prepares to play Wembley, Pink tells Ian ...
Interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages audio, 19 March 2004
The big-voiced gal talks about her joust with breast cancer, her friendship with Elton John, and her latest album Anastacia.
File format: mp3; total file size: 32.3mb, total interview length: 35' 18" sound quality: ****
Profile and Interview by Robin Eggar, The Sunday Times, 21 March 2004
Don't expect "goofy love songs" from Katy Rose: this 17-year-old Californian is proud to show her dark side. ...
Norah Jones: Don't Fence Me In
Profile and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, April 2004
Success Nearly Cost Norah Jones Her Sanity. Now She's Back – Stronger, Wiser And Ready To Do Things Her Way. ...
Interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages audio, May 2004
On relationships, lesbianism and androgyny, predatory older men, sex, fear of and desire for fame, anxiety attacks, therapy and medication, the whole nine yards.
File format: mp3; total file size: 32.8mb, total interview length: 35' 49" sound quality: ***
Profile and Interview by Ian Watson, Rolling Stone (Australia), May 2004
THE DAY PJ HARVEY turned thirty something clicked in her head. She spent her twenties fighting against herself, trying to quash the parts of her ...
Joanna Newsom: The Milk-Eyed Mender (Drag City)
Review by Richard Gehr, The Village Voice, 4 May 2004
THE INCREDIBLE String Band's cryptic whimsy and Vashti Bunyan's beautiful balladry have quietly resurfaced in a bushel of great new bands, and especially so, it seems, ...
Cher's Farewell Tour: Glasgow SECC
Live Review by Kathryn Flett, The Observer, 16 May 2004
"WILL IT START when all the people with tickets are in?" whispers the girl seated behind me at the Glasgow SECC, venue for the first ...
Amy Winehouse: Concorde 2, Brighton ****
Review and Interview by Paul Elliott, Q, July 2004
Meet the hotshot jazz chanteuse you couldn't take home to mum. ...
Review by Lucy O'Brien, MOJO, August 2004
Subtle licks and straight talking on the South Carolina neo-soul songstress's third solo album. ...
Carly Simon: Reflections – Carly Simon's Greatest Hits
Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, August 2004
THIS IS THE fifth Carly compilation in less than ten years (and, yes, one was imaginatively entitled Nobody Does It Better), during which time she ...
Obituary by Dave Laing, The Guardian, 31 August 2004
LAURA BRANIGAN, who has died of a brain aneurysm aged 47, was a powerful singer with a five-octave range who in an earlier generation would ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, September 2004
PRE-"YOURE SO Vain" and pre-marriage-to-James-Taylor, the leggy and large-mouthed Park Avenue Jewess made two pleasant 1971 albums of melodiously laid-back adult pop. LA-flavoured and sprinkled ...
Joanna Newsom: Daydream Believer
Profile and Interview by Frances Morgan, Plan B, September 2004
Joanna Newsom is a new kind of folk heroine, plucking out spells and lullabies on 46 thrumming strings. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Everett True, Plan B, September 2004
20 years ago, Marine Girls made two albums of beautifully minimal girly pop based round a shared love for flapjacks, Young Marble Giants and the ...
Estelle: "The only way I'm going on the cover of FHM is in a body bag"
Interview by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 27 September 2004
Estelle, the loudest new voice in hip-hop, talks to Dave Simpson ...
Melissa Auf Der Maur, Hole: Melissa Auf Der Maur
Interview by Ian Fortnam, Classic Rock, October 2004
The one-time Hole bass player and now solo performer talks about Courtney Love, Billy Corgan, her music, her musical upbringing, and where destiny has taken ...
Interview by Ken Scrudato, Filter, October 2004
SOME VELVET MORNING (or evening, perhaps) back in 1940, a child was born of a very, very famous father. SHE was doubtless a vision of ...
Review by Kathryn Flett, The Observer, 17 October 2004
IT'S OBVIOUSLY entirely unfair to treat the popular artistes Kylie Minogue and Britney Spears as conjoined twins, forcing them to share the same review (would ...
Interview by Lois Wilson, Record Collector, November 2004
Lois Wilson meets the queen of X-rated soul ...
Sandie Shaw: Nothing Comes Easy (EMI)
Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, December 2004
AS STAGE GIMMICKS go, not wearing shoes is a pretty lame one, but it's what the tabloids of the '60s would inevitably focus on when ...
Judee Sill: Heart Food and Dark Peace: Judee Sill
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, The Observer, 12 December 2004
This is an expanded version of "The Lost Child", published in The Observer Music Monthly. ...
Profile and Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, XXL Hip Hop Soul, Spring 2004
She bodied the sophomore jinx in one week, proving that ALICIA KEYS ain't goin' nowhere no time soon. Walk with the New York songbird through ...
Retrospective by Dan Gennoe, Q Icons, Fall 2004
THE EXECUTIVES at MTV must have thought God himself was shining a light on them. In 1984, for the first Video Music Awards, they needed ...
Dolly Parton (2005) [transcript]
Audio transcript of interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 2005
This is a transcription of Gavin's audio interview with Dolly. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Mary J. Blige (2005) [transcript]
Audio transcript of interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 2005
This is a transcription of Gavin's audio interview with Mary J. Blige. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Audio transcript of interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 2005
This is a transcription of Gavin's audio interview with Shakira. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Marianne Faithfull: Marianne Faithful: Strong Poison
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Harp, January 2005
INITIALLY MORE infamous than famous, Marianne Faithfull was known more for her extraordinary beauty and her liaison with Mick Jagger than she was for her ...
Debbie Harry: Encounter with a Stiletto: Debbie Harry in 1974
Memoir by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, February 2005
EVERY TIME Bob Gruen called me hed open the conversation with "Whats happening, man?" Of course it was me who should have been posing the ...
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, February 2005
Wooed by Dylan, ripped off by Jagger, too hardcore for Burroughs. A drug addict who recovered to make grainy, dramatic music rife with sex and ...
Lydia Lunch: The Bottom Line: Everett True meets Lydia Lunch
Interview by Everett True, Plan B, February 2005
"I ALWAYS BRING my prophylactic along on touragainst other people's germs — the mic cover. If you smell mics, you know why. They're raunchy. When ...
The Slits: The Distaff Side of Punk - The Slits Re-Released at Last
Retrospective by Mac Randall, New York Observer, 14 February 2005
IF YOU ASK PEOPLE to name the most influential punk-rock bands of all time – even people who boast scarily high levels of pop-culture awareness ...
Retrospective by Jim Irvin, The Word, March 2005
NINE WAS A memorable age for Roberta Joan Anderson. Three things occurred that year, more than 50 years ago, which affect her to this day: ...
Françoise Hardy: What was the message Dylan sent Françoise Hardy halfway through his Paris concert?
Interview by Mark Ellen, The Word, March 2005
A BLUSTERY STROLL from the Champs Elysée, past the upscale delicatessens of 17ème District, across the deep-pile foyer of a high-security apartment block and you're ...
Avril Lavigne: O Sister, What Art Thou?
Interview by Tim Cooper, The Independent, 11 March 2005
Teenage girls can't resist Avril Lavigne's sulky-teen pose. So Tim Cooper decides to let his daughter interrogate the pop princess. ...
Dido, KT Tunstall: Dido et al: Music to Watch Girls Buy
Overview by Pete Paphides, The Times, 25 March 2005
Our correspondent casts a weather eye over the fleet of female singer-songwriters floating their sonic pedalos in the wake of Dido's mighty MOR steamship ...
Live Review by Sophie Heawood, The Guardian, 30 March 2005
THE PROBLEM with turning your life into your career is that you never get a day off. This irony dawns on Lady Sovereign tonight, as ...
Retrospective by Mick Houghton, Uncut, April 2005
UNTIL RECENTLY, Judee Sill and her two Asylum albums were all but forgotten. Her story is so tragic as to be nearly unbelievable, the antithesis ...
Laura Nyro: Lady Lightning: Laura Nyro
Retrospective by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 2 April 2005
"EXPERIENCED A catastrophe so profound that its effects would never quite fade" (Laura Nyro) ...
Interview by Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 22 April 2005
She's a revolutionary's daughter and her music oozes attitude. Dorian Lynskey meets MIA. ...
Kathryn Williams: Over Fly Over
Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 7 May 2005
KATHRYN WILLIAMS is one of those artists for whom a Mercury nomination – for her 2000 debut Little Black Numbers – brought a level of ...
Sleater-Kinney: The Power Of Three
Interview by Everett True, Plan B, June 2005
Seven albums in, trailblazing Olympia trio Sleater-Kinney still feel like punk rock ruffians. ...
Sleater-Kinney: The Gamblers: Sleater-Kinney Makes A Stab At Greatness With Its Ambitious New Album
Report and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Baltimore City Paper, 22 June 2005
RARE IS THE punk-rock band that makes its best music 11 years after starting. Few punk bands even make it to the 11-year mark and ...
Patti Smith's Horses at Meltdown: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Tim Cooper, The Independent, 27 June 2005
PATTI SMITH IS standing alone on the stage reciting the poem that describes her teenage dream to escape a blue-collar production line ("Inspecting pipe, 40 ...
Shannon McNally: No Bones About It
Profile and Interview by John Morthland, No Depression, 30 June 2005
THIS IS A STORY about new beginnings, or at least about keepin' on keepin' on. Or maybe it's about, as some really pissed-off wit once ...
Yoko Ono: Profile: Yoko Ono, 70, New York City, N.Y.
Profile and Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Harp, July 2005
YOKO ONO is diminutive in size, but huge in spirit. A fearless avatar, she will attempt anything whether its topping the Billboard charts as a ...
Lil' Kim: The Naked Truth (Atlantic)
Review by Dan Gennoe, dotmusic.co.uk, 29 September 2005
IF TIMING IS everything, Lil' Kim's couldn't be much worse. ...
Review by Ian Watson, Yahoo! Music, October 2005
WHEN MS DYNAMITE'S debut album was dismissed by some critics in 2002 as "tiresome finger-wagging", it seemed the erstwhile Niomi McLean-Daley was getting a rough ...
Live Review by Everett True, Plan B, October 2005
HOW COOL IS this intoxication? She struts onstage dressed like a goddamn old-fashioned rock'n'roll star in her man's jacket and dirty boots. She pirouettes a ...
Kate Bush: Return of the Recluse
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Independent on Sunday, 2 October 2005
PLENTY HAS HAPPENED in the twelve years since Kate Bush last released an album. Tory sleaze has morphed into New Labour; mobile phones and iPods ...
Liz Phair: Is All Phair In Rock 'N' Roll?
Interview by Bob Mehr, Harp, November 2005
THE PENINSULA HOTEL is an elegant, bordering on ostentatious, spot in the heart of Chicago's Magnificent Mile. As the concierge and desk staff scurry about ...
Liz Phair: Who Does Liz Phair Think She Is?
Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Blender, November 2005
TELL US ABOUT YOUR SELF-PORTRAIT. WHO IS PRINCESS SCRIBBLY? ...
Madonna: Famous for being more famous than famous: Madonna and other icons
Comment by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 4 November 2005
Our writer muses on the qualities that separate the icon from the merely great. ...
Corinne Bailey Rae : Corinne Bailey Rae: 'I Was Speechless, Just Squeaking!'
Interview by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 11 November 2005
Burt Bacharach thinks she's fabulous, and Jools Holland said her voice made him melt. Dave Simpson meets Corinne Bailey Rae, the singer they are calling ...
Madonna: Looks Good on the Dancefloor
Interview by Simon Garfield, Observer Music Monthly, 20 November 2005
With 'Hung Up' at number one and her new album also set to storm to the top of the charts, Madonna has taken back her ...
Live Review by Ian Watson, Yahoo! Music, December 2005
THE BLOKE in the audience isn't impressed. "Where's CocoRosie then?" he shouts. "Who the fuck are you?" Just about visible to the crowd on ground ...
Interview by Lois Wilson, Record Collector, December 2005
Kiki Dee on working with Motown, Elton John and Boots The Chemist. ...
Au Pairs: Stepping Out of Line
Retrospective and Interview by Kieron Tyler, MOJO, March 2006
THE MIDDLE OF the first decade of the 21st century has seen a reappraisal of the music which followed punk. Not an academic, clinical exercise, ...
Saffire – The Uppity Blues Women: Deluxe Edition
Review by Carol Cooper, The Village Voice, 24 March 2006
IF YOU BUY only one acoustic blues album this year, why not a best-of from a self-affirming trio of feisty females? ...
Dusty Springfield: The Invention of Dusty Springfield
Retrospective and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Independent, 26 March 2006
Mary O'Brien was born with the voice that would make her our greatest female pop singer, but everything else that went to make the icon ...
Candi Staton (2006) [transcript]
Audio transcript of interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages transcripts, April 2006
This is a transcript of Gavin's audio interview with Candi. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan: When Beauty Met the Beast
Profile and Interview by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 21 April 2006
What happened when Isobel Campbell teamed up with the wild man of rock, Mark Lanegan? The result, says Laura Barton, could make her Queen of ...
Martha Wainwright: Fire in her belly
Profile and Interview by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 22 May 2006
She grew up in one of folk's first families and tried to resist following them into a musical career. But then Martha Wainwright fell in ...
Jackie DeShannon: Jackie de Shannon: Majestic DeShannon
Retrospective and Interview by Kieron Tyler, MOJO, June 2006
Jackie Deshannon — Folk Rock Pioneer, Chart Artist and Songwriter of Renown ...
Shirley Bassey: Cardiff International Arena
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, June 2006
SHE MAY BE OLDER than John Prescott and camper than Liberace, but Dame Shirley Bassey's sold-out homecoming show in Cardiff on Tuesday was greeted with ...
Martha Wainwright: Bloomsbury Theatre, London
Live Review by Tim Cooper, The Independent, 1 June 2006
THIS WAS AN evening that lent fresh meaning to the term "intimate" – and, for that matter, "spontaneous". It made you feel like you'd been ...
Interview by Barbara Ellen, The Observer, 4 June 2006
"Opinionated" barely begins to cover it. Barbara Ellen meets the ballsy, bolshy pop star who has refreshingly barbed advice for Prince William, the Queen, shallow ...
Paul McCartney: Lady Madonna: In defence of Heather Mills-McCartney
Comment by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 15 June 2006
IN THE WEEK in which Lady McCartney has been accused of being, quite literally, a lying whore, I hope it is of some small comfort ...
Review by Will Hermes, Entertainment Weekly, 19 June 2006
POP STARS generally xerox other acts' looks and hooks — it's expedient, and it works. But Nelly Furtado's multiplatinum 2000 album, Whoa, Nelly! (which included ...
Lily Allen: The Sound Of The (Garden) Suburbs
Interview by Jude Rogers, The Word, July 2006
Lily Allen makes urban music with a difference — she's had a life she can't complain about. And via MySpace and a daily blog she's built ...
Spice Girls: The Spice Girls: It Was a Power Trip
Retrospective by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 14 July 2006
Ten years after the release of the first Spice Girls album, our writer argues that the social legacy of "girl power" is still with us. ...
Cerys Matthews: Ballad of the born-again pop star
Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 22 July 2006
Things got so bad for Cerys Matthews in the '90s that she broke down on stage. But a new life in rural Nashville has revitalised ...
Dusty Springfield: Complete As and Bs
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, August 2006
OF ALL THE overused terms that blight todays pop culture, "icon" surely grates the most. In these inane post-Warhol times, everybody is an icon and ...
Profile by Jason Gross, Creative Loafing, 3 August 2006
ARE THERE ANY active old-school divas that we can still look up to? Cher? Retired. Tina Turner? Retired. Barbara Streisand? Her too. Joni Mitchell? Yep. ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Telegraph Magazine, September 2006
EVERY TIME Joanna Newsom walks into her house she has cause to reflect on the ways that nature encroaches on human affairs. "I think there ...
Amy Winehouse: Back to Black (Island)*****
Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 27 October 2006
SHE'S A BRAVE lass, Amy Winehouse. It's rare to find any artist changing their approach between albums, and virtually unknown if their debut was a ...
The Dixie Chicks: Dixie Chicks: United Centre, Chicago
Live Review by Bob Mehr, MOJO, November 2006
President-baiting Texans gain new fans but lose musical momentum. ...
All Saints: Saintlier than thou
Interview by Barbara Ellen, The Observer, 5 November 2006
Older and wiser after their acrimonious split, Britain's bitchiest girl group are back together — as friends, mums and bandmates. ...
Profile and Interview by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 9 November 2006
Courtney Love was rejected by her parents at 9, raised in institutions and grew into the wild woman of rock. Our correspondent spent the weekend ...
Joanna Newsom: It's a Thin Line…
Profile and Interview by James Medd, Esquire, December 2006
From Bush to Bjork, pop's greatest women have always divided audiences. Joanna Newsom knows it – and she doesn't care. ...
The Dixie Chicks: The Playboy Interview
Interview by Alan Light, Playboy, December 2006
IT IS MARCH 10, 2003. The Dixie Chicks – Natalie Maines, Emily Robison and Martie Maguire – are playing an SRO show in London at ...
Lily Allen, Joanna Newsom, Amy Winehouse: Year Of The Woman
Overview by Jude Rogers, New Statesman, 11 December 2006
At the beginning of 2006, the prospects looked bleak for strong, idiosyncratic female pop acts. Jude Rogers meets three remarkable artists who changed all that ...
Judee Sill: A Brief Life, an Enduring Musical Impression
Retrospective by Tim Page, The Washington Post, 30 December 2006
ON THE DAY after Thanksgiving 1979, Judee Sill, a 35-year-old, deeply depressed and physically broken singer-songwriter, took an overdose of opiates and cocaine in her ...
Interview by Amy Linden, XXL, Summer 2006
Kelis is too raunchy! No, she's alternative. Then again, she's also a wife and stepmother. Listen, this colorful peacock has too much wingspan to be ...
Neko Case: The Singer and the Song
Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, SOCAN Words and Music, Summer 2006
FOR YEARS, Neko Case has been hailed as a siren, a honky-tonk angel with a stunning contralto described variously as "eerie," "luscious," "transcendent" and "the ...
Bobbie Gentry: Mystery Girl: The Forgotten Artistry of Bobbie Gentry
Retrospective by Holly George-Warren, 'Listen Again' (Duke University Press), 2007
SHE'S BEEN called the J.D. Salinger of rock & roll. Mississippi-born singer/songwriter/guitarist/producer Bobbie Gentry is every bit as mysterious as the steamy, Delta-flavored story-song she ...
Jessica Simpson: A Public Affair
Review by Dan Gennoe, dotmusic.co.uk, February 2007
IF WISHING MADE it so, Jessica Simpson would be the biggest pop star on the planet. ...
Everything But The Girl, Tracey Thorn: Tracey Thorn: Everything and More
Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 24 February 2007
Tracey Thorn is the voice of Everything But The Girl, one of pop's most enduring partnerships. Seven years after retreating from music to raise her ...
Natasha Bedingfield: NB (Sony)
Review by Dan Gennoe, dotmusic.co.uk, April 2007
THE GREATEST GIFT AN older sibling can give is the chance to learn from their mistakes. Natasha Bedingfield, formerly known as the younger sister of ...
Joni Mitchell: How Joni Mitchell Got Her Groove Back
Interview by Robin Eggar, Rolling Stone (Germany), May 2007
JONI MITCHELL is lost in her own music, eyes closed, head still, an American Spirit burning between her fingers. A scarcely sipped glass of red ...
Debbie Harry: Q&A: Debbie Harry
Interview by Stephen Dalton, Classic Rock, 7 May 2007
The Blondie frontwoman and figurehead reflects on personal survival, the 1970s New York scene at CBGB and how the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ...
Lily Allen, Joss Stone, Amy Winehouse: Digital Venuses: Lily Allen, Joss Stone, Amy Winehouse
Comment by Kandia Crazy Horse, San Francisco Bay Guardian, 8 May 2007
CALL THEM the new British bitch pack: barefoot soul shouter Joss Stone and her ascendant sistren, skankin' Lily Allen and torchy Amy Winehouse (Corinne Bailey ...
Interview by Amy Linden, XXL Hip Hop Soul, June 2007
UNDER LOS ANGELES' sparkly surface there lies a noir beauty, and nowhere is that gritty glamour more present than at the legendary Chateau Marmont. Nestled ...
Frankie Knuckles, David Mancuso, David Morales: Def Mix: The house that Judy built
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Brewster, Pacha, August 2007
AT THE CENTRE of every story is what philosopher Malcolm Gladwell calls a "connector". Connectors are people who know lots of other people. They are ...
Maria Muldaur: Sweet and Sassy, Bawdy and Blue
Profile and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Detroit Metro Times, 29 August 2007
WHEN SINGER Maria Muldaur takes the stage at this week's Detroit Jazz Festival, it will be a culmination of a chain of events that run ...
Lori McKenna: Dreams of an Everyday Housewife
Profile and Interview by Holly Gleason, No Depression, 31 August 2007
LORI MCKENNA has always loved the same boy. She first laid eyes on him in third grade. They started dating in their junior year, married ...
Judy Dyble, Fairport Convention: Judy Dyble
Retrospective and Interview by Richie Unterberger, Record Collector, September 2007
IMAGINE BEING the original woman singer in the most esteemed British folk-rock group of all – only to be replaced, after just one album, by ...
Legends of Songwriting: Diane Warren
Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, September 2007
ASKED WHETHER she could ever love a person as much as she loves songwriting, Diane Warren doesn't miss a beat in answering an emphatic "No." ...
Madonna: For the first time, her friends and lovers speak out
Retrospective by Lucy O'Brien, Independent on Sunday, 2 September 2007
How did a destitute dance student become the princess of pop? ...
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 ...
Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Inside Entertainment, October 2007
WHEN I FIRST met her, she spoke in a whisper, protecting the gold-plated vocal cords that had made Eurythmics one of the top musical acts ...
Siouxsie Sioux: Sans Banshees, Siouxsie Returns
Interview by Ken Scrudato, SOMA, October 2007
IT'S HARD TO recall a time when the scent of Armageddon has hung so heavy in the international air as it has during this, the ...
Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2007
AIMEE MANN reckons she could take Bob Dylan in a boxing bout. It would be a close run thing but age and height advantage would, ...
Marianne Faithfull: Come My Way
Sleeve notes by Tim Tooher, Rev-Ola Records, November 2007
THE ACCEPTED WISDOM regarding Marianne Faithfull is that in the 1960s she was the mere puppet of oft-considered shady, behind-the-scenes operators like Andrew Loog Oldham ...
Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2007
THE SONG 'Bound' on Suzanne Vega's quite brilliant new album, Beauty & Crime, finds her wondering "if you might still want me". ...
Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 23 November 2007
... and Lily, and Kate: there's a new star in town. Adele Adkins is only 19, but her voice has bewitched everyone from Jools Holland ...
Joan Jett, The Runaways: Joan Jett
Interview by Ian Fortnam, Classic Rock, December 2007
The punk-loving former Runaways hellraiser talks about being in the first girl rock band, her fondness for S&M clothes, her blurred sexuality and almost joining ...
Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse: I need a break, what shall I have: heroin or a baby?
Comment by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 20 December 2007
As Amy Winehouse's problems mount, and Lily Allen announces that she is pregnant, Caitlin Moran explains that the two young singers are under the same ...
Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, SOCAN Words and Music, Summer 2007
TORONTO'S MUSIC Gallery is housed in St. George the Martyr Church, on the edge of a park and a stone's throw from Queen Street West. ...
Amy Winehouse: Life Imitating Art...
Comment by Kate Mossman, The Word, January 2008
...imitating life. When did Amy Winehouse start to inhabit her songs, wonders KATE MOSSMAN. ...
Kate Nash: Singing oh oh on a Friday night
Interview by Scott McLennan, Rip It Up (Australia), January 2008
WHILE TOM MORELLO strums away in his Nightwatchman guise around the corner, British newcomer Kate Nash is sitting backstage in her dressing room at the ...
Retrospective and Interview by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 2 January 2008
SOMETHING PECULIAR happened at the dawn of the 21st century: eccentric folk music of the late 1960s became covetable again. ...
Spice Girls: The Spice Girls: Never Mind The Bum Notes
Live Review by Jude Rogers, New Statesman, 3 January 2008
The Spice Girls: O2 Arena, London ...
Adele, Duffy: Adele and Duffy are products of the age of X Factor
Comment by John Aizlewood, The Guardian, 4 January 2008
You can thank Simon Cowell for the results of the BBC's The Sound of 2008 poll. ...
Adele, Duffy, Laura Marling: Adele, Duffy et al: This Year's Vintage
Report by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 11 January 2008
Caroline Sullivan on 2008's big female voices ...
k.d. lang: The Second Coming of k.d. lang
Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 13 January 2008
When she came out 15 years ago, she became the poster girl of lesbian chic. Even Madonna courted her. Then the spotlight dimmed — until ...
Sheryl Crow: Why Sheryl Crow is starting over
Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 26 January 2008
Battling cancer and adopting a child led Sheryl Crow to reassess what is important in life. No longer concerned with what people think, she has ...
Laura Marling: "My songs are not pretty"
Interview by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 4 February 2008
IN A RECENT POSTING on a music website, one of Laura Marling's growing army of fans described her output as "pretty folk songs about boys". ...
Adele, Duffy: Who's better – Duffy or Adele?
Comment by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 4 February 2008
The national topic of conversation has shifted from speculating on the weather to a more pressing subject: the search for this year's Amy Winehouse. ...
Interview by Jude Rogers, The Lipster, March 2008
BACK IN OCTOBER last year, in the misty early days of The Lipster, I e-mailed Björk's publicist, telling him about the plans for our website, ...
k.d. lang: kd lang: Kravis Center, West Palm Beach, FL
Live Review by Holly Gleason, Harp, March 2008
KD LANG WALKED onstage, guitar on her back and glided effortlessly into 'Upstream', a song about the nature of life, the struggle of human nature ...
Dolly Parton: Backwoods Barbie **½
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone Online, 6 March 2008
NO MATTER how flamboyantly pop Dolly Parton's music became in the early Eighties, she was always a country girl at heart. ...
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Q, May 2008
Stevie Nicks is the epitome of California rock excess. While in Fleetwood Mac, she sold millions and snorted half of Colombia. Solo, she sold millions ...
Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons: The Ballad of Emmylou Harris
Retrospective and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 1 June 2008
At 61, Emmylou Harris is still the drop-dead-gorgeous queen of country rock. But behind closed doors the singer has sad secrets to reveal. ...
Grace Jones: Still a Slave to the Rhythm
Profile by Andy Gill, The Independent, 18 June 2008
She's belted Russell Harty, beaten James Bond and brought the house down with her fashion sense. Now the inimitable Grace Jones is back at Meltdown. ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 26 June 2008
LIKE FELLOW CROONERS Amy Winehouse and Kate Nash, Adele Adkins polished her skills at the Brit School in south London – as good a finishing ...
Dolly Parton: Warmth, Wonder and Wisdom: Dolly Parton, O2 Arena, London
Live Review by Jude Rogers, New Statesman, 17 July 2008
The superstar country singer proves her worth as a feminist icon. ...
BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Delia Derbyshire: In Praise of Delia Derbyshire
Profile by Jude Rogers, Guardian Unlimited, 20 July 2008
Last week's news that lots of Derbyshire tapes had been found and digitised marked the latest stage in her recovery as a musical, and feminist, ...
Rock, Roll, and Me: Writing the '60s
Memoir by Jane Heil, Forum of World Cultures, 20 July 2008
THE FIFTY or so articles I wrote for Hit Parader and other rock and country magazines are packed away on a high shelf in my apartment. I ...
Amy Winehouse: Can Amy Winehouse be saved?
Report by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 27 July 2008
Her phenomenal talent has been eclipsed by her terrifying ability to self-destruct. Can anything save Amy from herself? ...
X-Ray Spex: Germfree Adolescents (Deluxe Edition)
Sleeve notes by Kieron Tyler, Sanctuary Records, August 2008
ALTHOUGH X-RAY Spex split up close to thirty years ago, their music remains timeless and vividly fresh. The band might have been birthed during 1977's ...
Katy Perry: On Music: Katy Perry — Voice of No Angel
Comment by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 8 August 2008
IT'S BEEN quite a week for sex, music and me. Take last weekend. There I was at the Big Chill festival, hot-browed and clammy-palmed, watching ...
Joan As Policewoman: Goodbye and Hello: Joan as Policewoman
Profile and Interview by Mark Mordue, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 9 August 2008
BIRDS ARE SHRIEKING through the trees all over Rushcutter's Bay. It is as if something violent and tuneful is going on at once as we ...
Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2008
Singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier was something of a late starter – but once she picked up that pen she certainly had plenty to write about. Having ...
Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 7 September 2008
SUSAN, OR SUZE, Rotolo was Bob Dylan's first serious girlfriend, and unlike many other characters from his pre-iconic phase she has, up until now, revealed ...
Ladyhawke: Asperger's, allergies and aubergines
Interview by Paul Lester, The Guardian, 11 September 2008
Adored by Courtney and loved by Kylie, Ladyhawke is no ordinary pop star. The '80s throwback tells Paul Lester how music got her through a ...
Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, San Francisco Bay Guardian, 29 October 2008
A FEW weekends back, I rose at the crack of dawn to see Allen Toussaint perform at Joe's Pub in Manhattan for the venue's 10th ...
Lucinda Williams: Little Honey (Lost Highway)
Review by Graeme Thomson, The Word, November 2008
WHENEVER A MUSICIAN announces that their new offering is the "most eclectic album they've ever made", it's sure to be a rough ride. ...
Beyoncé: Shy Big Sister by Day, Wild Girl by Night
Interview by Pete Paphides, The Times, 14 November 2008
Her partner wowed Glastonbury, her music sells millions and her private life keeps everyone guessing. We talk to an unusually demure superstar. ...
La Roux: New Band of the Day: La Roux
Profile by Paul Lester, The Guardian, 19 November 2008
Make no mistake, today's new artist is a solo female synth star in waiting. ...
Poly Styrene, X-Ray Spex: The Return of Punk's First Lady: Poly Styrene
Profile and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 21 November 2008
Thirty years after singing of bondage and toothpaste, via a stay at a psychiatric hospital and motherhood, Poly Styrene is back on stage, without X-Ray ...
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan: Dishing the Dirt: Isobel Campbell
Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, December 2008
ISOBEL CAMPBELL has just killed a bluebottle, a crime of muscacide for which she carries absolutely no remorse. ...
The Mo-dettes: The Story So Far (Cherry Red)
Sleeve notes by Alex Ogg, Cherry Red, December 2008
THE MO-DETTES first emerged towards the end of 1978, after guitarist Kate Korus (aka Katherine Corris, formerly of the Slits) and drummer June Miles-Kingston met ...
Profile by Jude Rogers, The Observer, 4 December 2008
She inspired Dylan, was pals with Ella, and was due to play at Obama's inauguration: Jude Rogers on Odetta Holmes. ...
Mary Margaret O'Hara: Christmas wishes from Canada's psychic singer-songwriter
Interview by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 5 December 2008
DOWN THE WIRES from Canada comes Mary Margaret O'Hara, her voice as devastatingly delicate as shattering glass. ...
Lady Gaga, La Roux: Slaves To Synth
Report and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 17 December 2008
The male guitar band is dead. The future is electro, female, DIY – and very in your face. Caroline Sullivan talks to the solo acts ...
The Slits: An extract from Typical Girls; The Story Of The Slits
Book Excerpt by Zoë Street Howe, Omnibus Books, 2009
NOTE: Zoe Street Howe managed to interview all four original members of The Slits – Ari Up, Viv Albertine, Tessa Pollitt and Paloma 'Palmolive' Romero ...
Florence and the Machine, Lady Gaga: On Music: Lady GaGa and Florence Welch
Comment by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 16 January 2009
Lady GaGa and Florence Welch have been hailed as the new queens of pop. But why pretend they're anything more than cheap imitations? ...
Lily Allen: Celebrity: Lily Allen
Interview by James Medd, GQ (Australia), February 2009
She's released a new album and that string of expletives at Elton John at the UK Men of the Year Awards. So how will GQ ...
Candi Staton: How tragedy makes the diva
Retrospective and Interview by Pete Paphides, The Times, 13 February 2009
WHAT IS CANDI Staton doing on Valentine's Day? With hindsight, it seems an indiscreet question to ask a single 65-year-old woman. ...
Bikini Kill, Huggy Bear: Grrrl Power
Retrospective and Interview by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 4 March 2009
The Riot Grrrl scene brought feminism to alternative rock in the '90s. Fifteen years on, the aftershocks are still making waves, says Laura Barton. ...
Amanda Ambrose: Remembering Amanda Ambrose
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, Rock's Backpages, 23 March 2009
BECAUSE I'D BEEN an Amanda Ambrose fan since the '60s, during 2007 I nudged Poker Records into releasing an Ambrose album. ...
Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Interview, April 2009
TALKING TO MariaTALKING TO Marianne Faithfull over the day's first coffee is a bit like waking up for cocktails. She's alert and energetic, but chicly ...
Review by Dan Gennoe, dotmusic.co.uk, 6 April 2009
CONCEPT ALBUMS are always a bad idea. Fact. Concepts take over; lyrics, melodies, songs merely a way of fulfilling them. The concept of Natasha "Bat ...
Review by Alex Ogg, The Quietus, 6 April 2009
IF KATE BUSH was the most frequent comparison cited in reviews of Natasha Khan's 2006 debut album Fur And Gold, the debt is equally palpable ...
Profile and Interview by John Lewis, Hotline, June 2009
John Lewis talks to Wembley's grime-pop diva Lady Sovereign about that "difficult" second album. ...
The Dead Weather, Jack White: Q&A with Jack White, The Dead Weather
Interview by Kimberly Mack, Music Connection, June 2009
JACK WHITE HATES to wait. ...
The Slits: A Thousand Nights Of Confusion
Comment by Zoë Street Howe, Alex Ogg, Rock's Backpages, June 2009
Zoë Street Howe's new biography of punk's original bad girls, The Slits, is released in July through Omnibus. Alex Ogg tried to find out more about ...
Janelle Monáe: Flash forward: Janelle Monáe
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, The Observer, 14 June 2009
Introducing this month's hottest talent, the android-loving future of R&B. ...
Florence and the Machine: What's Haunting Florence and the Machine?
Report and Interview by Pete Paphides, The Times, 19 June 2009
Florence Welch, of Florence and the Machine, was a macabre child. Now she's haunted by other fears — of success, mainly. ...
Sunny War: Songstress-Musician Sunny War
Profile and Interview by Michael Simmons, L.A. Weekly, 15 July 2009
ON THE TINY YouTube screen is a close-up of a diminutive black woman who looks about 12 but is, in the video, 16. Her hair's ...
Liz Phair: Exile In Guyville (15th Anniversary Edition)
Review by Laura Barton, The Word, August 2009
All's Phair In Love And War: Raw, rude and "very 1993", Liz Phair led Girl Power's first offensive. ...
Laura Nyro: Dark Angel: The Stone Soul Genius of Laura Nyro
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, September 2009
Author's note: This is a "director's cut" version of the feature that ran in the January 2010 issue of Uncut. ...
Dolores O'Riordan: Travelling Light
Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2009
Dolores O'Riordan, former singer with the Cranberries, tells David Burke of her journey close to the edge during those heady days of pop stardom, and ...
Sinead O'Connor: Faith and Courage
Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2009
TRUTH WILL always out in the end. And the truth-sayers will be vindicated where once they were vilified. ...
Bat for Lashes: "She's not wicked, nor kooky. And don't tell her she's like Tori Amos…"
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Observer Music Monthly, 6 September 2009
NATASHA KHAN does not feel herself. She is standing in the living room of a cramped Brooklyn apartment on a frosty January morning. If first ...
Bikini Kill, Huggy Bear: The 10 Myths of Riot Grrrl
Comment by Everett True, The Guardian, 14 September 2009
YOU READ a lot of stuff about Riot Grrrl, most of which isn't true. Things such as ... ...
Peter, Paul & Mary, Mary Travers: Mary Travers obituary
Obituary by Dave Laing, The Guardian, 17 September 2009
PETER, PAUL AND MARY were the most successful vocal group of the American folk revival of the 1960s. In particular, they were responsible for bringing ...
Peter, Paul & Mary, Mary Travers: Mary Travers, 1936-2009
Obituary by Dave Laing, The Guardian, 17 September 2009
Singer with the 1960s hit-making American folk revival trio Peter, Paul and Mary. ...
Yoko Ono: Still Walking On Thin Ice
Retrospective and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 17 September 2009
After 40 years of being unfairly accused of breaking up the Beatles and harshly mocked for her avant garde art and pop music, Yoko Ono ...
Ruby Turner: The Gospel according to Ruby
Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, October 2009
"THEY CAN KEEP their big record deals. Gone are the days when I'm going to be told what to do. I can go to bed ...
Review by Everett True, bbc.co.uk, October 2009
This is as good as can be expected – and fortunately, that is pretty good. ...
Corinne Bailey Rae : Corinne Bailey Rae: "It happened to me. It could happen to anyone at any time."
Profile and Interview by Sean O'Hagan, The Observer, 4 October 2009
From out of the darkest place, following the sudden death of her husband, Corinne Bailey Rae is re-emerging with an extraordinarily intimate and impassioned album. ...
Miriam Makeba : Mama Afrika 1932-2008
Review by Colin Irwin, bbc.co.uk, 5 October 2009
Majestic recordings by a genuine world music pioneer. ...
Beyoncé: I Am… Yours: An Intimate Performance at Wynn Las Vegas (Columbia)
Review by Mike Diver, bbc.co.uk, November 2009
A greatest hits-style setlist performed with accomplished pizzazz ...
Ellie Greenwich: Leader Of The Pack
Obituary by Bob Stanley, MOJO, November 2009
BARRY MANN and Cynthia Weil were the social conscience, Gerry Goffin and Carole King the most tortured, but it was Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry ...
Florence and The Machine: Mental Machine Music
Interview by Ian Gittins, Wonderland, November 2009
POP SHOULD ALWAYS be poetic, not prosaic. ...
Profile and Interview by Johnny Black, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2009
DESPITE ALL HER best efforts to stick a spike in the wheel of success, Laura Marling is fast-becoming the most talked-about young singer-songwriter of recent ...
Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2009
THERE COMES A time in every young man or woman's life when dad mounts the pulpit and delivers a homily on the kind of music ...
Interview by Lois Wilson, MOJO, November 2009
Post-punk's dissonant game changers return to inspire again. ...
The Raincoats: The Raincoats (We ThRee)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, November 2009
THIS 1979 ROUGH TRADE album is a period piece and a sacred artefact, not least because of its subsequent endorsement by an "extremely unhappy, lonely ...
Ellie Goulding: First Sight: Ellie Goulding
Guide by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 5 November 2009
WHO IS SHE? The 21-year-old future of pop, if you believe the hype. Born in Hereford and brought up in rural Wales, she now makes ...
Cheryl Cole: Twist and pout: Cheryl Cole's new album cover
Essay by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 19 November 2009
If the pose seems vaguely familiar, it may be that side-on, over-the-shoulder look. Laura Barton has certainly seen it somewhere before. ...
Rickie Lee Jones: Album by Album: Rickie Lee Jones
Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, December 2009
THOUGH SHE will always carry the pop albatross that was her Top 5 hit 'Chuck E's in Love' (1979), Rickie Lee Jones remains one of ...
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, December 2009
THE FALL IS A PRETTY comprehensive break-up album. Norah Jones has broken up with Lee Alexander, for eight years her boyfriend and double-bassist and, on ...
Regina Spektor: Academy, Birmingham
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, December 2009
IT APPEARS REGINA SPEKTOR has finally crossed over from word-of-mouth cult to left-field star, judging by her rapturous reception at a packed Birmingham show on ...
Live Review by Pete Paphides, The Times, 16 December 2009
WHEN JIM MORRISON sang, "The men don't know but the little girls understand," on the Doors' 'Backdoor Man', whatever he had in mind all those ...
Laura Veirs: Mixed-Up Confusion
Interview by John Lewis, Hotline, January 2010
Laura Viers came to folk via punk, is geeky yet cool, young but experienced and both delicate and tough. John Lewis meets her. ...
Interview by David Nathan, SoulMusic.com, January 2010
Teena picks her favourite seven tracks from her own back catalogue, and selects three by other artists that mean the most to her.
File format: mp3; file size: 72mb; Interview length: 1h 18' 39"; sound quality: ***
Lady Gaga: Transvision Vamp: Lady Gaga
Comment by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, January 2010
THE POWER OF Lady Gaga has been one of the most scintillating features of 2009: three number one UK singles, a sprawling debut album and ...
Jenny Hval, rockettothesky: Jenny & the Jets: The Musical Universe of Rockettothesky
Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 12 January 2010
Rockettothesky's Jenny Hval may have made little impact outside of Scandinavia, but that needs to change. According to Wyndham Wallace, she's one of the most ...
Lonelady: Paul Morley's showing off … Lonelady
Profile and Interview by Paul Morley, The Guardian, 22 January 2010
Paul Morley meets Warp's new Mancunian signing Lonelady, who he would never tip as the next big thing, but might, for those missing a certain ...
Patti Smith: Promises Fulfilled: Patti Smith: Just Kids
Review and Interview by Bill Holdship, Metro Times, 17 February 2010
LOVE RELATIONSHIPS between great artists have inspired some fine literature throughout history, be it works the artists created for each other during their own lifetimes ...
Joan Jett, The Runaways: Joan Jett
Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Interview, 20 February 2010
IN THE FOUR years that they were together, the quintet of teenage girls that made up The Runaways cut a swath of hard rock, harder ...
Interview by Johnny Black, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2010
"I DON'T OWN MANY THINGS," Laura Veirs tells me. "I'm not a things person." ...
Patti Smith: On Mapplethorpe and more: Patti Smith
Profile and Interview by Edward Helmore, Vogue, March 2010
WITH THE POSSIBLE EXCEPTION of her hero Bob Dylan, no one has perfected the look of the downtown bohemian poet as comprehensively as Patti Smith. ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 1 March 2010
ELLIE GOULDING tripped into the public consciousness two weeks ago, as she stood knock-kneed and tongue-tied between Fearne Cotton, Geri Halliwell and Courtney Love at ...
The Runaways: Wild Thing — How Sandy West Was Lost
Retrospective by Evelyn McDonnell, L.A. Weekly, 18 March 2010
ON A SUMMER day in 1975, a 16-year-old girl carrying a Silvertone guitar took four public buses from Canoga Park to a two-story house in ...
Kim Fowley, The Runaways: Sex sells: The Girl Band That Changed Pop Forever
Retrospective by Chris Salewicz, The Independent, 19 March 2010
IN EARLY OCTOBER 1976, the Runaways, an all-girl five-piece from Los Angeles, played a sell-out show at London's Roundhouse, their debut date in the UK. ...
Joan Jett, Kristin Hersh, Le Tigre, Throwing Muses: What Happened To Angry Female Music Stars?
Comment by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 25 March 2010
Are there any angry women left in rock and pop? Joan Jett, riot grrrl figurehead Kathleen Hanna and others talk about where it went wrong ...
Cherie Currie, The Runaways: Cherie Currie recalls life as underage, underwear-wearing provocateur
Interview by Jim Sullivan, Boston Herald, 7 April 2010
WHETHER YOU WERE a rock fan in 1975 — or whether you weren't even conceived — you're going to want to take in The Runaways, ...
The Runaways: Queens of noise: The Runaways
Film/DVD/TV Review by Bill Holdship, Detroit Metro Times, 7 April 2010
Kristen Stewart's Joan Jett is one of many killer riffs that makes The Runaways. ...
Lady Gaga: Aladdin Sane Called, He Wants His Lightning Bolt Back: On Lady Gaga
Essay by Mark Dery, True/Slant, 20 April 2010
"HOW NOT DUMB is Gaga?" asked the New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones, in the first flush of Gagamania. Almost exactly a year later, his ...
Review by Everett True, BUST, 26 April 2010
HEY. GLAD YOU could make it. Thought we might want to establish a few rules before I get down to the actual reviewing. ...
Karen Elson: The Ghost Who Rocks
Interview by Ken Scrudato, BlackBook, May 2010
IT'S HARDLY likely you've ever had occasion to look it up, but there are, to be sure, no direct flights from Manchester to Nashville. But ...
Interview by Carl Wiser, Songfacts, May 2010
"LET WHITE FOLKS cross over to me..." An R&B star with a stunning voice, Millie Jackson was close to breaking into the mainstream like her ...
Envy, Kelis: Givin' It To The Homegirl: The Trouble With Kelis
Comment by Neil Kulkarni, The Quietus, 10 June 2010
With Neil Kulkarni finding something rotten in the state of girl-pop, he turns up his nose at Kelis' curdled Milkshake and explains why Brit Envy ...
Joan Jett: I Love Rock And Roll
Interview by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, August 2010
Joan Jett talks to Terry Staunton on the making of the Runaways movie, and life after the band split. ...
Interview by John Lewis, Hotline, August 2010
IT'S BEEN 25 years since the rappers we know and love as Salt-N-Pepa burst into our consciousness. They are now forty-something women, living in suburban ...
Indigo Girls, Sarah McLachlan, Cat Power, Suzanne Vega: The Lilith Fair Abides
Report by Maura Johnston, The Village Voice, 4 August 2010
A late-'90s fest returns with great ideas (the Lilipad!), throwback headliners, and terrible marketing. ...
Katy Perry: What Katy Perry did next
Comment by Sophie Heawood, The Times, 27 August 2010
For a moment Lady Gaga looked to have outgunned her, but the singer is back on top. We look at what drives her ...
Janelle Monáe: A New Pioneer Of Afrofuturism
Comment by John Calvert, The Quietus, 2 September 2010
Against a pop climate beset by fraudulent marketing plans on two shiny legs, John Calvert argues that Janelle Monáe brandishes the acetylene torch for radical ...
Bikini Kill: Sara Marcus: Girls to the Front
Book Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 10 October 2010
BROOKLYN-BASED writer and musician Sara Marcus deserves a medal just for daring to write a book about Riot Grrrl, the fiercely uncompromising feminist movement of ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, November 2010
THE LEVELS OF anticipation surrounding Nicki Minaj's debut album have been so delirious that you almost expect Pink Friday not to be delivered by digital ...
Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2010
"I ALWAYS COME off to cats like you as negative, but it's not that way. I'm just honest." Shelby Lynne's been explaining what it is ...
Marina and the Diamonds: Marina & the Diamonds
Interview by Scott McLennan, Rip It Up (Australia), 23 December 2010
One of the breakthrough acts of 2010, Marina and the Diamonds shone brightly this year via her debut album The Family Jewels and colourfully skewed ...
Comment by Jude Rogers, House, Spring 2010
They may be sneered at by serious music fans, but boy bands have provided a gateway into womanhood for generations of young females… ...
Review by James Medd, The Word, February 2011
Three records rich in charm and melancholy. Give it up for Mélanie Pain, Joan As Police Woman and Anna Calvi. ...
Memoir by Adam Blake, Rock's Backpages, February 2011
AT THE START OF September 2005 I moved into a new place: a rather Agatha Christie-esque 1930s apartment block at the posh end of Ladbroke ...
Profile and Interview by Pete Paphides, The Guardian, 10 February 2011
June Tabor's new album draws inspiration from the sea. But dogs, cows and a margarine ad also featured when Pete Paphides met her. ...
PJ Harvey: Let England Shake (Island)
Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 11 February 2011
ON WHAT MAY be her best album, Polly Harvey offers a portrait of her homeland as a country built on bloodshed and battle, not so ...
Viv Albertine: Self-Portrait: Viv Albertine
Interview by Martin Aston, MOJO, March 2011
I DESCRIBE MYSELF as… Vivacious. Vindictive [laughs]. Vain. Vociferous. Someone attempting to be honest but probably failing miserably. Mostly because of all the conditioning that ...
Beth Ditto: Winning The Fame Game With No Regrets
Interview by Luke Turner, The Quietus, 1 March 2011
As she prepares to release her new EP with Simian Mobile Disco, Luke Turner sits down with Beth Ditto and finds that, a million record ...
Live Review by Ben Thompson, Sunday Telegraph, 6 March 2011
ON THE LEFT of the Limehouse Troxy stage stands PJ Harvey – enrobed in one of her Belgian fashion confederate Ann Demeulemeester's trademark pristine, shroud-like ...
Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 15 April 2011
EVEN IF Adele Adkins's record-breaking 11 weeks at the top of the album chart ends on Sunday – and it looks like the Foo Fighters ...
PJ Harvey: "I feel things deeply. I get angry, I shout at the TV, I feel sick."
Profile and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, The Observer, 24 April 2011
Polly Harvey opens up to Dorian Lynskey about 20 years in music and the emotions behind her latest dark masterpiece. ...
Poly Styrene, X-Ray Spex: Poly Styrene
Obituary by Chris Salewicz, The Independent, 27 April 2011
Singer who blazed a trail for punk's feminist revolutionaries ...
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Word, May 2011
PAPARAZZI CAME to the Baglioni Hotel at Hyde Park Gate this morning to catch Debbie Harry, who's staying in Room Four. They went into bonus ...
Laura Cantrell: St. Bonaventure's, Bristol
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 4 May 2011
Moonlighting from her unlikely day job as a Wall Street consultant, the country-folk singer embarks on a low-key UK tour. ...
Ellen Willis: Out Of The Vinyl Deeps – Ellen Willis on Rock Music (University of Minnesota Press)
Book Review by Evelyn McDonnell, The New York Times, 10 June 2011
WOODSTOCK WAS A RIP-OFF. Creedence Clearwater Revival eclipsed the Rolling Stones. Bob Dylan struggled with identity. Janis Joplin "was not so much a victim as ...
Nicki Minaj, Britney Spears: Britney Spears, Nicki Minaj: Staples Center, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 21 June 2011
Haters Go Home: Britney Dominates L.A. Show ...
Poly Styrene, X-Ray Spex: Poly Styrene: A Life In Day-Glo
Obituary by Kris Needs, MOJO, July 2011
PUNK UNIQUE POLY STYRENE OF X-RAY SPEX DIED ON APRIL 25. KRIS NEEDS PAYS TRIBUTE TO AN UNFORGETTABLE TALENT ...
The World's Oldest Teenager: Remembering Jane Scott
Obituary by Holly Gleason, Los Angeles Times blogs, 4 July 2011
SHE WAS LIKE Andy Warhol: iconic blond hair set in a most determined pageboy that never moved. That, and red oversized glasses. You couldn't miss ...
Marianne Faithfull: Horses and High Heels
Review by Steven R Rosen, Blurt, 11 July 2011
MARIANNE FAITHFULL'S 1979 Broken English may be as influential an album to come out of Britain's punk revolution as any – and it isn't even ...
Obituary by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 23 July 2011
Singer with a soul-steeped voice whose instantly successful Back to Black album reflected her tormented experience of love ...
Dolly Parton: The Liberty Belle: Dolly Parton Speaks
Interview by Jude Rogers, The Quietus, 30 August 2011
Ever the showbiz professional, Dolly Parton leads Jude Rogers a merry dance during her allotted 20 minutes of chat about partners, Gaga, sexuality, The Lord ...
Review by Steven R Rosen, Blurt, 20 September 2011
ODD THAT TWO icons of dance music, Pet Shop Boys and Grace Jones, both had to wait years to get strong British albums released this ...
Grimes, Laurel Halo, Maria Minerva, Stellar OM Source: Breaking Through the Synth Barrier
Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 7 October 2011
SUDDENLY IT SEEMS there are a lot more women twiddling those knobs than ever before. ...
Bettye LaVette: One Difference Between Bettye LaVette and Susan Boyle
Profile and Interview by Steven R Rosen, Cincinnati CityBeat, 19 October 2011
BETTYE LAVETTE'S late-career success story is one of the music business' most remarkable. The powerful 65-year-old R&B singer/stylist first recorded in 1962 — 'My Man ...
Chrissie Hynde, The Slits, X-Ray Spex: Lasses of the Mohicans
Retrospective by Vivien Goldman, New Statesman, 31 October 2011
Vivien Goldman charts the history of Britain’s rebellious female punks. ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Uncut, November 2011
LESLIE FEIST'S career path has been a zigzag. The Nova Scotia-born, Toronto-based artist played guitar with rapper Peaches (who nicknamed her Bitch Lap Lap) and ...
Florence and the Machine: Ceremonials
Review by Kate Allen, idolmag.co.uk, November 2011
BROKEN-HEARTED women have made the three biggest pop albums, of the 21st century: Back To Black, Lungs and 21. And so it falls to Florence ...
Rickie Lee Jones: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Rob Steen, Rock's Backpages, November 2011
FIRST, A HEALTH WARNING: if you are prone to cringe, foam or rage at reviews that put emotion first and last, and make no attempt ...
Me'Shell Ndegeocello: Meshell Ndegeocello: Weather
Review by Carol Cooper, The Village Voice, 15 November 2011
'WEATHER' ISN'T the first Meshell Ndegeocello single to fall into the category of "freak folk," but the album of the same name is her first ...
Taylor Swift: Madison Square Garden, November 22nd, 2011
Live Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 24 November 2011
STANDING ON A PLATFORM in the middle of the Arena, Taylor Swift looked genuinely amazed. A young girl in the cheap seats randomly began to ...
Nico: Chelsea Mädchen: The Funny Side of Nico
Review by Larry Jaffee, Rock's Backpages, 25 November 2011
NICO NEVER STRUCK me as funny. Some of her more morose material, such as her even more gothic take on the Doors' 'The End', or the ...
Kylie Minogue: The Abbey Road Sessions
Review by Jude Rogers, The Quietus, 30 November 2011
IN 2006, while in recovery from cancer, Kylie Minogue talked to Another Magazine about her love of Grey Gardens. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Bruce Pollock, brucepollockthewriter.com, December 2011
ONE OF THE MOST enigmatic and evocative and emotionally intense songwriters ever to hit the Top 40, Laura Nyro's career survived numerous dips and bends. ...
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's women problem
Comment by Evelyn McDonnell, salon.com, 11 December 2011
DO THE MATH: Out of the 11 new members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class of 2012, one — Laura Nyro — ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 15 December 2011
Country singer whose biggest hit was 'Blanket on the Ground' ...
Profile and Interview by Jude Rogers, The Gentlewoman, Spring 2011
2011 saw a perfect start for Adele Adkins, a British singer with incredible international appeal. When her second album was released in January, it went ...
Bat for Lashes: The Haunted Man
Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, 2012
Ivor Novello Award winner takes things a little too seriously. ...
Lauryn Hill: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Review by Lloyd Bradley, bbc.co.uk, 2012
Hill’s multi-award-winning debut became part of the mainstream on its own terms. ...
Lisa Hannigan: Companion Piece
Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2012
David Burke spends a little time with Lisa Hannigan and hears how her latest solo album, Passenger, is an altogether more relaxed affair. ...
Nanci Griffith: Blue Moons and True Believers
Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2012
About to make a welcome return to our concert halls and with a new album imminent, Nanci Griffith is in conversation with R2's David Burke. ...
Obituary by Carol Cooper, Rock's Backpages, 3 January 2012
BURIED ON HER home island of São Vicente the Tuesday before Christmas amid nationwide mourning in her native Cape Verde, singer Cesária Évora enjoyed more ...
Report and Interview by Paul Lester, The Guardian, 5 January 2012
Watch out, Nicki Minaj, there's a host of feisty, eccentric female rappers on your trail – and not all of them are here to pay their ...
Ren Harvieu, Lana Del Rey: Far from Dusty: Ren Harvieu and Lana Del Rey
Review by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 23 January 2012
TWO GUYS ON a streetcar in 1940: "Say, have you heard about that horn player Louis Armstrong? He's so authentic! His mother was a prostitute, you ...
Dory Previn: Remembering Dory Previn
Memoir by Loraine Alterman, Rock's Backpages, February 2012
MY DEAR FRIEND of nearly 40 years, Dory Previn, died last week. She was a great songwriter who exposed her deep feelings about love ...
Adele, Whitney Houston, Taylor Swift: The Girls Most Likely
Comment by Mitchell Cohen, Rock's Backpages, February 2012
SHE WAS ANOINTED, for sure. Behind the curtain, all the machinery was being cranked up for her debut, all the fanfare that was possible back ...
Emeli Sandé: Her Version Of Events: Emeli Sandé Interviewed
Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 8 February 2012
Emeli Sandé discusses human brains, Virginia Woolf and Cher Lloyd with John Doran ...
Emeli Sandé: Our Version of Events
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 13 February 2012
SHE IS SET to be one of the pop faces of 2012 but Emeli Sandé is not yet the finished article. This doesn't mean she ...
Whitney Houston: The Greatest Voice Of Her Generation
Comment by Andy Gill, The Independent, 17 February 2012
Wannabes are rife, yet she was a singular talent, says Andy Gill ...
Adele: Why Adele Is The Pop Star We Need
Comment by Jude Rogers, The Quietus, 23 February 2012
Adele is a one woman cash vache! Get off her back losers, says Jude Rogers ...
Obituary by David Hepworth, The Word, March 2012
JOHNNY OTIS was relaxing in his San Francisco hotel room one afternoon in 1954 when his manager called from the lobby and said he was ...
Retrospective by Don Snowden, Rock's Backpages, March 2012
THE ORIGINAL TITLE for this piece was "Ticked Off at a Tick". The reason being that I spent more than a few years operating under ...
Keyshia Cole, Linda Jones: Bodies in Pain: The Redemptive Soul of Linda Jones and Keyshia Cole
Essay by Mark Anthony Neal, New Black Magazine, 8 March 2012
"The young lady who is the absolute personification of soul itself" – MC, January 1970 ...
Timi Yuro: That Time Of Yuro: Timi Yuro
Retrospective by Steven R Rosen, Blurt, 23 April 2012
ANY LIST OF proto-feminist Top 40 hits of the 1960s would have to include Timi Yuro's 1962 'What's A Matter Baby' along with Lesley Gore's ...
Carole King: A Natural Woman: A Memoir
Book Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 25 April 2012
MY FAVORITE SCENE in Carole King's long-awaited A Natural Woman comes near the beginning — appropriately, since the teen hitmaker was the epitome of an ...
Norah Jones: 10 Questions for Norah Jones
Interview by Graeme Thomson, The Arts Desk, 26 April 2012
NORAH JONES is back. New haircut, new sound, new producer. The first of these, while very nice, needn't concern us too much. The second, meanwhile, ...
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, June 2012
"TEA ANYONE?" says Rumer from the doorway of her beach hut. "Plenty of sandwiches left." Dazed by the mad March sun, her audience of biz ...
Bonnie Raitt: Slipstream Effect: Bonnie Raitt
Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, June 2012
IT'S BEEN A TOUGH seven years for Bonnie Raitt since the release of her last studio album, Souls Alike. She lost both her parents, Broadway ...
Carolina Chocolate Drops: Sweet Sounds: Rhiannon Giddens and Carolina Chocolate Drops
Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, June 2012
RHIANNON GIDDENS'S birthday back in February was a bittersweet occasion. The Carolina Chocolate Drops co-founder-member's celebrations were tempered by her grief upon learning of the ...
Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 4 June 2012
AFTER HER National Book Award-winning memoir Just Kids greatly expanded her audience, Patti Smith could have done the usual aging-rock-legend safety move: record an album ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 17 July 2012
The "Queen of Country Music" in the post-war era, she had her first hit with 'It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels'. ...
Palma Violets, Savages: Savages/Palma Violets: Liverpool Leaf
Live Review by Kate Mossman, The Observer, 29 July 2012
IT'S A BARGAIN, two for one, a post-punk bogof: the band they're calling the all-girl Joy Division, plus four boys named after perfumed sweets. Both ...
Pussy Riot: The Riot Girls' Style
Comment by Vivien Goldman, New York Times magazine blogs, 8 August 2012
IT HAS BEEN a shock to see the bravely smiling faces of three girls from the Russian punk collective Pussy Riot locked in a glass ...
Pussy Riot Sentenced To Two Year Jail Term
Report by John Doran, The Quietus, 17 August 2012
RUSSIAN PUNK BAND Pussy Riot have been sentenced to two years in jail each after being found guilty of hooliganism earlier in the day. ...
Aimee Mann: The Discreet Charm of Aimee Mann: An Interview
Interview by Martin Colyer, Rock's Backpages, September 2012
A freewheeling chat, taking in Mann's new Charmer, her talented collaborators, reality TV, turning up the treble, Laura Linney's focus, Jack Kerouac's drying-out and women's ...
Report and Interview by Sean O'Hagan, The Guardian, 6 September 2012
It's not easy for women to survive in the macho world of country. Some of those who did, such as Jean Shepard and Bonnie Guitar, ...
Madonna: Thoughts On Madonna's MDNA Tour in America
Live Review by Carol Cooper, Rock's Backpages, 9 September 2012
AS I WRITE THIS Thursday night, I can hear Madonna singing from Yankee Stadium through the window of my Harlem apartment. In fact, the sound ...
Pussy Riot and the Politics of Grrrl Punk
Comment by Evelyn McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 13 September 2012
I WONDER, as they sit in their separate cells, what songs the three jailed members of Pussy Riot sing to themselves to keep their spirits ...
Chely Wright's Rediscovered Country
Profile by Charles Bermant, No Depression, 24 September 2012
WE ALL HOLD our own set of prejudices and preconceptions, with clear ideas about politics and religion, tolerance and hatred for country music singers and ...
Lana Del Rey: An American Nightmare: Lana Del Rey Live
Live Review by John Calvert, The Quietus, 27 September 2012
I MET HER last year. She talked about loneliness and how she never had any time for religion, until she got into some trouble in ...
Comment by Ellen Sander, Rock's Backpages, October 2012
I WAS driving Stephen Stills to a CSN recording session, it must've been 1969, and the subject of Joni Mitchell came up. ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 8 October 2012
ELLIE GOULDING has been letting it be known that this follow-up to her three-million-selling debut album, Lights, is a far darker and more troubled record, ...
Angel Haze: Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, London
Live Review by John Calvert, The Quietus, 11 October 2012
In the latest Calvert Report, our man John Calvert starts to feel unusual as he sees Angel Haze live at Hoxton Bar & Kitchen. ...
Leslie Winer: "If I Hit You, You'd Feel It": Leslie Winer, Trip Hop's Forgotten Pioneer?
Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 29 October 2012
Some argue that Leslie Winer aka © invented trip hop in 1990 with her ill-fated album, Witch. Now she's back with &c, a retrospective compilation ...
Hurray for the Riff Raff: Protest and Survive
Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2012
MUSIC AS AN instrument of change – remember that concept? It may seem a little naïve at a time when even the mighty have fallen ...
Anna Meredith: Classical with a twist
Interview by Rob Fitzpatrick, The Sunday Times, 4 November 2012
How did the composer Anna Meredith go from the Last Night of the Proms to walloping dubstep? ...
Connie Smith: Honoring Connie Smith: 45 RPM at Douglas Corner, Nashville
Live Review by Holly Gleason, No Depression, 7 November 2012
FOR THOSE WHO believe real country music has fled Nashville, the recent CMA Awards would do little to ease your notion. Bombast, smoke, lasers and ...
Comment by Mark Kemp, Creative Loafing, 14 November 2012
WHEN MADONNA drolly announced to fans packed into the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 24, that "we have a black Muslim in the ...
Ke$ha: Dancing Up a Storm but Dying to Rock
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 23 November 2012
LOS ANGELES – At the Third Encore rehearsal studio in North Hollywood, there's a wall decorated with photographs of clients who've prepared there for tours, ...
Kylie Minogue: The mysterious popstar who can do no wrong
Report and Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 29 November 2012
As an album of "reimagined" Kylie songs emerges, Kate Mossman goes in search of the singer herself. ...
Interview by Jeff Apter, Rock's Backpages audio, 30 November 2012
The Australian icon on her hardscrabble early years in America; her friendships with journalist Lillian Roxon, Liza Minnelli and with songwriter Peter Allen; her first hit 'I Don't Know How to Love Him', and her massive 'I Am a Woman'; feminism and her Grammy speech; her retirement, and her fascination with hypnotism and spiritualism.
File format: mp3; file size: 45.1mb, interview length: 1h 36' 07" sound quality: ** (wind, background noise)
Martha Wainwright: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 3 December 2012
AMONG THE prodigal polymath musicians of the Wainwright-McGarrigle clan, Martha seems destined to come second to her brother Rufus. Among the prodigal polymath musicians of ...
Rosanne Cash: Union Chapel, London
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 3 December 2012
A HOST OF FACTORS, including brain surgery, have conspired to keep Rosanne Cash away from London for the last six years. Returning to a full ...
Laurie Spiegel: Resident Visitor: Laurie Spiegel's Machine Music
Retrospective and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 6 December 2012
The experimental pioneer's groundbreaking work with computers in the '70s and '80s helped lay the foundation for many of today's electronic noise makers. ...
Pussy Riot: Activists, not Pin-ups
Comment by Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 20 December 2012
Clever, committed and courageous, Pussy Riot are the only band that mattered in 2012. They have used their year in the spotlight to expose injustice. ...
Lianne La Havas: Effenaar, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Live Review by Jude Rogers, Q, February 2013
YOU'RE 23 AND released your first single a year ago. ...
Frank Zappa: Gail Zappa: Mother of Re-Invention
Comment by Mark Leviton, Rock's Backpages, 8 February 2013
I'M A HUGE admirer of Frank Zappa, and have been since the mid-'60s. As a music critic I've written about him extensively, and during my ...
Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 5 March 2013
Anaïs Mitchell, dubbed "the Queen of modern folk", tells Rob Hughes why she's inspired by centuries-old British ballads. ...
Cat Power: Her Majesty's Theatre, Adelaide
Live Review by Scott McLennan, Rip It Up (Australia), 7 March 2013
WHY DO CIGARETTE packet warnings have to always be such a downer? ...
Iggy Azalea: One to watch: Iggy Azalea
Report and Interview by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 24 March 2013
IGGY AZALEA has a highly developed sense of the absurd. She saw paparazzi outside her hotel this morning and felt obliged to put on dark ...
Lady Leshurr: Lady Lesshur: "The industry just doesn't know what to do with women"
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 20 April 2013
The Midlands-born MC on morals, inspiration and why the UK needs a female rap star ...
Live Review by Kate Allen, Classic Pop, June 2013
The Mrs Carter Show rolls into town, but does the queen of pop justify the hype? The answer is yes and no. ...
Sinéad O'Connor: Institutionalised: The Faith and Courage of Sinead O'Connor
Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 5 June 2013
Though her personal life has often overshadowed her career, Sinead O'Connor remains a treasured musical force. Belatedly back on the road to promote her most ...
The Riot Grrrl Collection by Lisa Darms (The Feminist Press)
Book Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 6 June 2013
The Riot Grrrl Collection spreads girl germs of the '90s movement ...
Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 6 June 2013
SOMETIMES, JUST sometimes, the good ones win out. Ask Bonnie Raitt. In a career now into its fifth decade, and which once appeared to be ...
Lorde: New Band Of The Week: Lorde
Profile by Paul Lester, The Guardian, 7 June 2013
THIS NZ TEEN is about to make a big splash beyond blog-land. Think Lily meets Lana, only cuter and more cutting. ...
Essay by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 27 June 2013
Six months ago Rihanna looked like she was losing it, and now she looks to be in complete control. ...
Janelle Monáe: "I'm a time traveller. I have been to lots of different places"
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 30 June 2013
She's an android-dating style queen who's been compared to Bowie. Is the R&B singer the saviour of pop? ...
Merry Clayton: That Background Sound: Merry Clayton
Retrospective by Mitchell Cohen, Rock's Backpages, 30 June 2013
BY THE TIME Merry Clayton got the call one night that got her out of bed and into the studio to unleash her window-rattling voice ...
Iggy Azalea: "I haven't got daddy issues!"
Interview by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 10 July 2013
IN 2004, A 14-year-old Australian white girl named Amethyst Kelly heard Tupac Shakur for the first time. Blown away by his poetic intensity, she resolved ...
Lil' Kim: The hip hop star is a little big woman in a man's world
Interview by John Lewis, Metro, 11 July 2013
"I'M A GIRLY GIRL," says Lil Kim. "I'm strong but I'm very timid. Very dainty." This, of course, is the same Lil Kim who wrote ...
Overview by Michael A. Gonzales, Ebony, 12 August 2013
BEGINNING IN THE early 1970s, a small army of female funk-rock performers that included Chaka Khan, Betty Davis, Labelle, Mother's Finest, Brides of Funkenstein, Parlet, ...
The Runaways: Evelyn McDonnell: Queens of Noise – The Real Story of the Runaways (Da Capo)
Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 21 August 2013
ANYONE WHO has seen either the Hollywood film The Runaways or the documentary Edgeplay may think they know the story of this band of five ...
Zola Jesus: A Zola Jesus Baker's Dozen: 13 LPs By Women Who Inspired Me To Sing
Interview by Luke Turner, The Quietus, 27 August 2013
Zola Jesus (Nika Rosa Danilova) gives us a special Baker's Dozen — 13 albums by female singers who inspired her to find her own voice ...
Neko Case: The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 3 September 2013
ONCE MERELY A third of the New Pornographers' indie-rock-Avengers front line and a solo act with country-rock leanings, ginormous pipes and comedy-club-stage banter, Neko Case ...
Jessie J: 'I'm A Hard Worker. I Want To Be Great At Everything I Do'
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Observer, 29 September 2013
Chart-topper, devoted daughter, role model for teenagers... how does Jessie J manage it all? ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 7 October 2013
BRITNEY, JUSTIN T, XTINA… Miley Cyrus is not the first former Disney starlet to chafe at her anodyne past and yearn to show us her ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 21 October 2013
KATY PERRY, the frivolous, hard-partying pop starlet, has an unfortunate Achilles heel – she wants to be taken seriously. ...
Girls Allowed? The Women On Top In The Music Industry
Report and Interview by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 26 October 2013
After Sinead O'Connor's open letter of concern to Miley Cyrus, sexism in the music business has never been more discussed. But what do the women ...
Celine Dion: "I am having my wild moment!"
Interview by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 8 November 2013
YOU DON'T GET to be the most successful female singer in history, selling more than 200 million albums, without looking after your voice. Thirty minutes ...
Review by Mike Diver, Clash, 13 November 2013
THE FIRST FOUR minutes of Stefani Germanotta's third album proper are completely fascinating. 'Aura', this set's opener, manages to be a multitude of songs at ...
Lorde: 'People Have Treated Me Like A Fascinating Toy'
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Observer, 24 November 2013
She's the pop phenomenon of 2013, chalking up No. 1s around the world, signing a £1.5m deal and hanging out with Bowie. How does it ...
St. Vincent: The Totally Original Sound of St. Vincent
Profile and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Smithsonian , December 2013
TO UNDERSTAND Annie Clark's inventiveness as a composer, it helps to listen more closely to the first single off her latest solo album, Strange Mercy. ...
Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 13 December 2013
UNUSUALLY FOR an industry fuelled by hype, it was the most well-kept secret since David Bowie's comeback album earlier this year, and all the more ...
The Runaways: Girl Power: The Birth of the Runaways
Book Excerpt by Evelyn McDonnell, 'Queens of Noise' (Da Capo), Summer 2013
Reprinted from Queens of Noise: The Real Story of the Runaways by Evelyn McDonnell. Available from Da Capo Press, a member of The Perseus Books ...
The Sequence: Funk You Up – The Complete Sugarhill Recordings
Sleeve notes by Bob Fisher, unpublished, 2014
SUGARHILL RECORDS was formed in 1979 by Joe and Sylvia Robinson and by early 1980 had presented the world with a "new" music – rap. ...
Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry: New Skin
Comment by Dorian Lynskey, GQ, January 2014
Reinvention can make or break our pop princesses ...
Katharine Jenkins: Katherine Jenkins and the classical music stars who please our ears – and eyes
Report by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 21 January 2014
DRESSED IN something crimson and curve-enhancing by Stella McCartney, and teetering on Kurt Geiger heels, Katherine Jenkins has assured us that she's heading "back to ...
Matraca Berg: The Daughter of Music Row
Retrospective and Interview by Holly Gleason, Oxford American, 22 January 2014
A SLIGHT, YOUNG brunette stood alone in a navy Richard Tyler slip on the Opry House stage, backed by a pianist and a string quartet, ...
Kim Gordon, Sonic Youth: Kim Gordon: Life after Sonic Youth
Profile and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, The Observer, 16 February 2014
Artist, musician and style icon, Kim Gordon has been at the cutting edge of culture for more than 30 years. Dorian Lynskey meets the singer ...
Neneh Cherry: "People ask me where I've been for 18 years…"
Report and Interview by Kate Mossman, The Observer, 23 February 2014
On the cutting edge of pop in the '80s and '90s, the singer paved the way for today's sassy female stars. Now she's back with her ...
Live Review by Juliette Jagger, Exclaim!, 16 March 2014
A LONE SPOTLIGHT cut through the blackness in the room to reveal Lorde at centre stage, where her presence was immediately overwhelming. ...
Interview by Jude Rogers, New Statesman, 27 March 2014
Jude Rogers talks to the pop princess about gay best friends, life after breast cancer and why she spent New Year alone. ...
The State of the Rock Chick: Individual Style or Manufactured Fashion?
Comment by Rachel Felder, Vanity Fair, 10 April 2014
AS USUAL, this year's Coachella lineup includes a handful of female artists – like Haim, Lorde, and Lana Del Rey – who look as good ...
Profile and Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Event Magazine, 12 April 2014
She has single-handedly built the template for the modern female rock'n'roller: she has out-partied, out-married and, in many cases, outlived her contemporaries. ...
Kate Bush: Sonic Foam: Kate Bush
Essay by Ian Penman, London Review of Books, 17 April 2014
A DREAM, just before waking. It's a day or two after Kate Bush's unexpected announcement of her return to the concert stage for a series ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 21 April 2014
AZALEA IS certainly one of the most singular pop success stories of recent years. ...
Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 27 April 2014
LILY'S BACK, and this time it's personal. But then, it always has been: few modern pop stars have engaged with the sweet 'n' sour of ...
Lily Allen: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 28 April 2014
FIVE YEARS AGO Lily Allen retreated to the Cotswolds to get married and to start a family, and proclaimed that she was retiring from music. ...
Review by Lucy O'Brien, The Quietus, 29 April 2014
"WHEN THE SMOKE clears I'm the last bandit," Iggy Azalea raps optimistically on 'Walk The Line', a stand-out track on her long-awaited debut album. ...
Profile by John Lewis, Populous, May 2014
IF YOU WANT an embodiment of the contradictions that seem to define Beyoncé Knowles, just listen to her 2008 anthem 'Single Ladies'. Sonically, it's one ...
Beyoncé: Knowles' House Party: Beyoncé: The O2, London ****
Live Review by Jude Rogers, Q, May 2014
Pop superstar takes her Mrs Carter tour to the next level in London ...
Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2014
HARD TO BELIEVE now, given her adulatory reputation among commentators and contemporaries alike, but when Lucinda Williams was hawking her songs around, looking for a ...
Comment by Frances Morgan, The Wire, May 2014
Compiling by gender can expand rather than reduce sonic horizons. ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 5 May 2014
HAVING ANNOUNCED her "retirement" when she retreated to the countryside to start a family five years ago, Lily Allen affects to be nervous of her ...
Viv Albertine, The Slits: The Creative Life of Viv Albertine
Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 11 May 2014
She hung out with Sid Vicious, trashed hotel rooms and her album was blacklisted. So what's changed for the former punk Viv Albertine – apart ...
Hurray for the Riff Raff: Bard of the Big Easy
Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 31 May 2014
Alynda Lee Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff was living rough until New Orleans inspired her to sing. "I owe the city," she tells ...
Chrissie Hynde: Talker Of The Town: Chrissie Hynde
Interview by Simon Price, The Quietus, 10 June 2014
Chrissie Hynde is releasing her first-ever solo album. But never mind that. Just let her talk. Because the legendary Pretenders leader can talk for London, ...
Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2014
HOLLY WILLIAMS carries her lineage lightly. Which can't be easy when your grandfather was Hank Williams Sr, the beating heart and tortured soul of country ...
Live Review by Rick Pearson, The Evening Standard, 3 July 2014
IT'S BEEN five years since La Roux's Elly Jackson announced she was going in for the kill. The intervening period has seen the south Londoner ...
Interview by Jenny Valentish, Time Out Melbourne, 23 July 2014
Ferreira returns to Australia to show why the night time is her time ...
Review by Luke Turner, The Quietus, 15 August 2014
LEGION AND LAMENTABLE are the reviews of female artists written by male music critics in which their hands appear to have drifted away from the ...
Profile and Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Event Magazine, 23 August 2014
Jessie J reveals she's quitting Britain because she's fed up with gossip about her sex life... and she's heading to America "where they take me ...
Interview by Alan Light, Radio.com, October 2014
"EVERY RECORD, I've tried to challenge myself to make something different," says Taylor Swift. "Red was really experimental, so I ended up with a sound ...
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 2 October 2014
Is the surprise megahit really a dig at thinner women? No way, says the singer, it's about loving and rocking whatever you've got ...
Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 24 October 2014
Pop star shows "promising signs of maturity". But whether it's adolescent exaggeration or an attempt to bring more intriguing strategies into pop lyricism is debatable. ...
Courtney Barnett: El Rey Theatre, L.A.
Live Review by Roy Trakin, Addicted To Noise, 10 November 2014
ROCK 'N' ROLL may be on its last legs, but it is still capable of providing an epiphany along its death spiral. Thank god for ...
Iggy Azalea, Jennifer Lopez, Nicki Minaj, Meghan Trainor: The Booty Myth
Report by Evelyn McDonnell, Cuepoint, 10 November 2014
Are female pop stars glorifying their bodies or objectifying them? Well, it's complicated. ...
Barbara Lynn: How Barbara Lynn Changed The Blues Forever
Interview by John Morthland, Wondering Sound, 12 November 2014
BARBARA LYNN, who topped rhythm and blues charts in 1962 with 'You'll Lose a Good Thing', which also crossed over to the pop Top 10, ...
Interview by Alan Light, Billboard, 5 December 2014
TAYLOR SWIFT never doubted that her fifth album, 1989, would sell 1 million copies in its first week. But others were not so confident. ...
Report and Interview by Paul Lester, The Independent, 5 December 2014
They're not "super-girly", nor are they rabidly feminist. They just want to be in a band, the way men can just be musicians without having ...
Natalie Prass: The Lexington, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 29 January 2015
DURING A MOMENTARY delay between songs, Nashville singer-songwriter Natalie Prass looks to the audience and, with a genial awkwardness, says: "I feel like I should ...
Dead Kennedys: Highway to Hell: My Life on the Road with the Dead Kennedys
Memoir by Amy Linden, Cuepoint, 3 February 2015
IN 1981, I MOVED back to New York City after spending four years in San Francisco. I was 22, and a childhood friend and I ...
Obituary by Dave Laing, The Guardian, 17 February 2015
Singer whose passionate teen anthems of the '60s included 'It's My Party' and 'You Don't Own Me'. ...
Kim Gordon, Sonic Youth: Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon (Faber & Faber)
Book Review by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 19 February 2015
Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon reflects on the break-up of her marriage and the loss of New York's netherworld ...
Sandy Denny: Mick Houghton: I've Always Kept a Unicorn – The Biography of Sandy Denny
Book Review by Barney Hoskyns, The Guardian, 21 February 2015
WHAT, HYPOTHETICALLY, would have happened if Sandy Denny had tried out for The Voice UK? Would Rita and Ricky and Will.i.am and Sir Tom have ...
Lulu: "I've had the most unbelievable life"
Retrospective and Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Event Magazine, 28 February 2015
POP STARDOM at 15. Two failed marriages – one to a hard-drinking Bee Gee. An "insane" affair with David Bowie. Turning down Frank Sinatra. Cheating ...
Blondie, Debbie Harry: Debbie Harry on punk, refusing to retire and sex at 69
Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 1 March 2015
Forty years after Blondie found fame on the New York scene, Debbie Harry is still waving the flag for women in the music business – ...
Britney Spears: Why Did Britney Spears Quietly Drop an Album then Take it Down?
Report by Kate Allen, Rock's Backpages, April 2015
ARE WE ALL sick of "surprise" music releases yet? Are we supposed to feign excitement over Beyoncé serenading Jay Z via a Tidal-exclusive video (the ...
Bebe Rexha: Concrete, Shoreditch
Live Review by Kate Allen, FMS, 22 May 2015
WEDNESDAY NIGHT saw the debut London show of – we're saying it – our (and by extension, your) favourite new pop star, Bebe Rexha. ...
Shirley Collins: "When I sing I feel past generations standing behind me"
Retrospective and Interview by Jude Rogers, The Observer, 31 May 2015
LEWES, EAST SUSSEX, is a lovely, slyly rebellious town. Pretty shopfronts and streets mask its political history: Thomas Paine wrote his first pamphlet here demanding ...
Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2015
DON'T TELL THE wife, but I've fallen for Buffy Sainte-Marie. She probably doesn't feel the same way about me, but then being well-versed in the ...
Sly & the Family Stone: Still All the Way Live
Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, Ebony, 29 July 2015
BACK IN 1967, when funky trumpeter Cynthia Robinson joined forces with musical visionary Sly Stone, most "girls" in band units wore pretty dresses and harmonized ...
Obituary by Dave Laing, The Guardian, 3 August 2015
THE BRITISH POP revolution of the 1960s involved not only male guitar bands, but also several young female singing stars, including Cilla Black, who has ...
Marian McPartland, Kate Tempest: A Tale of Two British Women: Marian McPartland and Kate Tempest
Comment by Larry Jaffee, Women Across Frontiers, 25 August 2015
AMERICAN SINGER-SONGWRITER Aimee Mann once told me during an interview how male executives from major record labels always gave her problems when she wanted to ...
Fanny: The Untold Story of the original Queens of Noise
Retrospective and Interview by Geoff Barton, Classic Rock, September 2015
They may have been overshadowed by the Runaways, but nobody did it quite like Fanny, the original all-girl rock'n'roll band who blazed a trail through the ...
Miley Cyrus: Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz
Review by Kate Allen, Fashion Music Style, 2 September 2015
HOW MUCH of a surprise release is this, really? After a disappointingly unremarkable turn as the host of the MTV Video Music Awards – which ...
Lizzy Mercier Descloux: Rockfort: Remembering Lizzy Mercier Descloux
Retrospective by David McKenna, The Quietus, 10 September 2015
David McKenna looks back at the life of Parisian poet, painter and post punk musician, Lizzy Mercier Descloux. ...
Interview by Carl Wiser, Songfacts, 16 September 2015
The revered singer-songwriter talks inspiration and explains why she put a mahout in 'Drop the Pilot' ...
Book Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 17 September 2015
There's no pretending in Chrissie Hynde's spare, deft memoir Reckless ...
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. ...
Book Review by Larry Jaffee, Women Across Frontiers, 17 November 2015
MY FIRST REVELATORY encounter with Patti Smith was listening on the radio in the fall of 1975 around the time of the release of her ...
Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 18 November 2015
New album arrives to save the music industry ...
Sleater-Kinney: A Riot Grrrl Remembers: Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl: A Memoir by Carrie Brownstein
Book Review by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 29 December 2015
A complex and moving portrait of a coming of age in America ...
Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2016
THE WORD "legend" has been devalued by misappropriation in modern linguistic currency. These days it is increasingly (and stupidly) used as a synonym for "star" ...
Ke$ha, The Last Shadow Puppets: Sexism on repeat: how the music industry can break the cycle
Essay by Maura Johnston, The Guardian, 11 March 2016
From Kesha's case against Dr Luke to Miles Kane's objectification of a female journalist, the industry has to admit there's a problem before sexism is ...
The 1975, Taylor Swift: Matt Healy's comments about Taylor Swift were not the words of a misogynist
Comment by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 18 March 2016
The 1975 singer attracted controversy by saying that dating Taylor Swift would be emasculating. It was me he was speaking to, and I saw an ...
Beyoncé's Lemonade is an object lesson in collaboration
Comment by Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 28 April 2016
She's the centripetal force that marshals the likes of Robert Plant, Jack White, Kendrick Lamar and MNEK to craft exquisite pop music that transcends boundaries ...
Ani DiFranco: Righteous Babe: Ani DiFranco On Music, Politics, And Staying Independent
Interview by Mark Leviton, The Sun Magazine, May 2016
SINGER-SONGWRITER Ani DiFranco doesn't like her music to be labelled. Some have called it "folk-punk," but when asked to define what she does, DiFranco says, ...
Scarlet Fantastic: An Interview with Maggie K de Monde
Interview by Nicky Charlish, Spindle, 6 June 2016
VETERAN SINGERS who are forever new. That's not a contradiction in terms. Maggie K de Monde has been singing with her band Scarlet Fantastic – ...
Prince: The Sexual Politics of Prince
Essay by Larry Jaffee, Women Across Frontiers, 15 June 2016
PRINCE'S UNEXPECTED passing on April 21, 2016, shook popular culture and resulted in the long-overdue recognition of his unique musical genius. Yet Prince enigmatically contradicted ...
case/lang/veirs: case/lang/veirs (Anti-)
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, July 2016
WHILE A collaboration was first mooted several years ago, it was only when k.d. lang and Neko Case contributed to Laura Veirs' underrated 2013 album ...
Vivien Goldman: Do Everything Yourself: The Lessons Of Punk Renaissance Woman Vivien Goldman
Profile and Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Record, The (NPR), 21 July 2016
ON JUNE 29, 64 years after the day she was born in London to Jewish parents who had fled Nazi Germany, Vivien Goldman was back ...
Millie: An Interview with Millie Small
Interview by Tom Graves, Goldmine, August 2016
MILLIE SMALL, the diminutive Jamaican teen sensation who introduced the world to the sounds of ska with her worldwide smash hit 'My Boy Lollipop', is ...
Joanna Newsom: End of the Road festival, Wiltshire
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, September 2016
THERE AREN'T MANY contemporary musicians I'd stand in the pissing Wiltshire rain at summer's end to hear: I'm too ancient to care too much about ...
Live Review by Maura Johnston, The Boston Globe, 15 September 2016
THE CURRENT TREND of downcast pop – minor keys, lyrics drenched with bitterness, an overwhelming sense of despair – can be at least partially traced ...
Amy Winehouse's Back to Black: 10 Things You Didn't Know
Retrospective by Maura Johnston, Rolling Stone, 27 October 2016
How 'Rehab' came to be, which song Nas inspired and other behind-the-scenes facts about singer-songwriter's 2006 smash ...
Shirley Collins: With a guitar and a lipstick
Review by Jude Rogers, The Sunday Times, 6 November 2016
The radical folk pioneer has cut a bold new album – her first for 38 years. ...
Julia Holter: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 15 November 2016
The singer-songwriter cast a spell over the crowd with her cherished characters and carnival of sounds – but an industro-rock climax proved too much for ...
Gillian Welch: Boots No. 1 - The Official Revival Bootleg
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, 28 November 2016
THE ARRIVAL OF A new record from Gillian Welch and her partner Dave Rawlings is an eagerly anticipated event at Just Backdated. ...
Paula Cole: The Songfacts Interview
Interview by Carl Wiser, Songfacts, 22 December 2016
PAULA COLE NEVER watched the Grammys, which made it a little weird when she won the award for Best New Artist in 1997 (also weird, ...
Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson: The Girls of Rhythm Nation
Retrospective by Mitchell Cohen, Music Aficionado, 2017
THEY COULD have been rivals in a pop soap opera. Whitney Houston prim and buttoned-up, Janet Jackson frisky and up for anything. Whitney was a ...
Ella Fitzgerald: 100 Songs For a Centennial (Verve 2016-00957)
Sleeve notes by Kirk Silsbee, Verve Records, February 2017
AT FIRST BLUSH, a hundred songs from any artist seems like overkill. In the case of Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996), whose recordings number in the thousands, ...
Comment by Maura Johnston, The Guardian, 14 February 2017
After Perry's #wokepop at the Grammys, there's an argument about how subversive pop can be in 2017. History shows it will take more than hashtags. ...
Interview by Carl Wiser, Songfacts, 27 February 2017
Rickie Lee Jones on songwriting, social media, and how she's handling Trump. ...
Nelly Furtado: Canadian Bands You Should Know: Nelly Furtado
Profile and Interview by Juliette Jagger, nmc.ca, 24 March 2017
AT THE ONSET OF 1998, Nelly Furtado was a fresh-faced, bright-eyed, 19-year-old singer-songwriter from Victoria, BC, sharing a partitioned apartment at Yonge and Finch in ...
Retrospective and Interview by Holly Gleason, No Depression, 23 May 2017
IT WAS EARLY 2003. The Dixie Chicks were easily the biggest girl group in history — and also the biggest act in country music post–Garth ...
Lorde talks second albums and night-time energy on the eve of Australian tour
Profile and Interview by Andrew Stafford, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 16 June 2017
I'M TOLD I CAN call her Ella: Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor is quite a mouthful. The single-syllable name by which she is better known, though, ...
Feist: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 28 July 2017
The Canadian indie-folk star transforms the sparse songs of recent album Pleasure into luminous ballads and splenetic blues-rock shredding. ...
Feist: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Rick Pearson, The Evening Standard, 28 July 2017
JARVIS COCKER joined Feist on stage at the Empire, ambling on during 'Century' to ask: "How long is a century? Almost as long as a ...
Profile and Interview by Andrew Stafford, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 28 July 2017
A PIECE OF PAPER stuck to the entrance of the Coburg RSL in Melbourne reads "cash only (dark ages)". It's not much warmer inside than ...
Big Mama Thornton: Big Mama's Blues
Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, November 2017
BIG MAMA THORNTON – alias Willie Mae Thornton – knew how it worked. Like her black R&B contemporaries, male and female (but especially female), she ...
Debbie Gibson: All-American Girl
Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, November 2017
DEBBIE GIBSON feels as though she's in a Tina Turner moment at this stage of her career, on the precipice of a midlife renaissance. ...
Review by Tom Doyle, MOJO, November 2017
Heartache and nihilism meet sonic trickery in Annie Clark's troubled fifth. ...
Review by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 19 November 2017
DO PALOMA FAITH fans have a collective name? If not, they should adopt one Swiftie-ly. Palomarmy may be too much of a mouthful; Faithfuls would ...
Amanda Palmer: Union Chapel, London
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 21 November 2017
The mood at this show by the singer-songwriter was warm, communal and interactive, but the set was overstuffed with bloodless cover versions. ...
Ke$ha: Kesha: Brixton Electric, London
Live Review by Pip Williams, The Line of Best Fit, 22 November 2017
There are few secrets in California popstar Kesha's private life. Her battle with anorexia made headlines, whilst her lawsuit against producer and alleged abuser Dr. ...
Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks: Stephen Davis: Gold Dust Woman – The Biography of Stevie Nicks
Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 24 November 2017
Stand Back! New Bio on Stevie Nicks Has Plenty of Gold-and-Fairy Dust ...
Review by Pip Williams, The Line of Best Fit, 8 December 2017
DO YOU REMEMBER the first time you heard 'Boys'? On first listen it might not have seemed like anything special — perhaps a bit repetitive, ...
Angel Olsen, Sharon Van Etten: Angel Olsen: Phases/Sharon Van Etten: (it was) because i was in love
Review by Jon Young, Mother Jones, 9 December 2017
WHETHER PERFORMING stark acoustic folk or giving her confessional songs a jolt of electricity, Angel Olsen always sounds like she's one beat away from a ...
Film/DVD/TV Review by Neil Kulkarni, The Wire, March 2018
IN A MUSIC world in which no one disappears, and even the most negligible figures can be persuaded to break their post-fame incommunicado isolation if ...
The Breeders, The Pixies: Kim Deal: "Misogyny is the backbone of the music industry"
Interview by Barbara Ellen, The Observer, 3 March 2018
KIM DEAL, 56, sings and plays rhythm guitar with the Breeders, formed in 1989 as a side project with Throwing Muses' Tanya Donelly. The band's ...
Sampa the Great: After the Australian Music Prize, Sampa the Great wants to set her story straight
Interview by Jenny Valentish, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 5 April 2018
SAMPA THE GREAT didn't get the memo that artists should be of the tortured persuasion. She peppers her speech with gales of laughter. She wants ...
Live Review by Graeme Thomson, Mail On Sunday, 22 April 2018
Dua's great Lipa forward: the charismatic pop star du jour proves herself to the hangar born on the opening night of her first arena tour. ...
Courtney Barnett: Coping Mechanisms
Interview by Pip Williams, The Line of Best Fit, 15 May 2018
Ahead of her second album, Tell Me How You Really Feel, Courtney Barnett tells Pip Williams how she's embraced anxiety and used it as a ...
Courtney Barnett on coping with fame, homophobia – and thinking she still sucks
Profile and Interview by Jenny Valentish, The Guardian, 17 May 2018
The Australian musician has gone from indie darling to global star, but she's still uneasy in the limelight and wracked with self-doubt – even self-hate. ...
Tori Amos: An angry 40-year-old is a scary thing
Report and Interview by Bill DeYoung, The Stuart News, 23 June 2018
TORI AMOS recently celebrated her 40th birthday, and the singer/songwriter says it was no big deal. She'd already had her rites of passage. ...
Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders: Chrissie Hynde
Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Event Magazine, 4 August 2018
Still super-hip (and all lip) at 66, the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde tells Event why she swears at fans, enrages sex abuse victims… and has swapped ...
Aretha Franklin: Aretha: The Voice of America
Obituary by Carol Cooper, The Village Voice, 17 August 2018
IT MAY BE difficult for anyone born after 1980 to fully grasp how important Aretha Franklin has been to America. There is simply no longer ...
Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 26 August 2018
The teenage singer is storming up the charts without the help of a record label. Is this the future? ...
Ariana Grande: How Ariana Grande floated free
Comment by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 29 August 2018
Grande has lifted the weight of the Manchester terror attack with a collection of gloriously oddball, career-changing pop songs. ...
Beth Ditto: "I don't think I can act. I'm just really good at talking."
Profile and Interview by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 24 October 2018
The Gossip frontwoman has started acting, and her first role is a "redneck loud woman" in the new Gus Van Sant film. She talks about ...
Interview by Pip Williams, The Line of Best Fit, 26 October 2018
Her new album Forever Neverland may court eternal youth, but MØ won't allow herself the luxury of denial. Denmark's hottest export explains the paradoxical nostalgia ...
Book Review by Robert Dean Lurie, National Review, 12 November 2018
"A BOOK FOR the #MeToo and Times Up Movements," proclaims the PR one-sheet for Dorothy Carvello's new memoir. ...
Comment by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 28 November 2018
SHORTLY BEFORE THE end of her gig last week at the Hammersmith Apollo, Héloïse Letissier, in bra and trousers, ran from the upper circle back ...
A Top 40 Countdown & A Plea For a Mitzvah in the Streaming Age: The Best Music Journalism of 2018
Guide by Jason Gross, Rock's Backpages, December 2018
2018 WAS A really good year, just not politically, socially, psychologically and spiritually... well, there was plenty of good music, as Fader, Consequence of Sound ...
Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 5 December 2018
She has written hits for Rihanna, Cher and Christina Aguilera — and she's been dropped by a series of major labels. Is it finally time for ...
Billie Holiday: Lady Sings the Blues
Book Review by Nick Hornby, The Sunday Times, 9 December 2018
Unsparing in its portrayal of addiction, divorce and racism, Billie Holiday's memoir is now a Penguin Modern Classic. ...
Lily Allen: Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Rick Pearson, The Evening Standard, 18 December 2018
EYEBROWS WERE raised earlier this year when Lily Allen's latest album, No Shame, was nominated for the Mercury Prize but it fully deserved its place ...
Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love: Only Noise: In the Wake of Kurt's Suicide, Courtney Love Changed My Life
Memoir by Carla DeSantis Black, AudioFemme, 4 April 2019
ONLY NOISE explores music fandom with poignant personal essays that examine the ways we're shaped by our chosen soundtrack. This week, legendary ROCKRGRL editor Carla ...
Maren Morris, Kacey Musgraves: Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris and the Politics of Joy
Comment by Mitchell Cohen, Music Aficionado, July 2019
NOT MANY people in the audience at Irving Plaza in New York knew who Kacey Musgraves was when she opened there for Little Big Town ...
Retrospective and Interview by Liz Thomson, Tortoise, 21 July 2019
As Joan Baez prepares to give her final performance, Liz Thomson talks to her and traces a 60-year career filled with courage and conviction. ...
Linda Ronstadt: Why Linda Ronstadt is the Quintessential "Girl Singer"
Retrospective by Mitchell Cohen, Music Aficionado, September 2019
I FIRST SAW her at the Bitter End on Bleecker Street in the early '70s; I was in the second row, sipping on an ice ...
Breaking out of the galaith box: Women music journalists in America, 1920–1960
Retrospective by Don Armstrong, Music Journalism History, October 2019
Introduction In a gay, diminutive galaith box comes an indelible lip paste blended from the finest beautifiers, exuberantly youthful in color. 'Feminine Frills', Edita Miller Lenz (Billboard, ...
Blondie, Debbie Harry: Debbie Harry: Face It
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, October 2019
IT IS A popular misconception that – once they have tasted chart success and seen their faces in magazines – music stars like Debbie Harry ...
Little Simz: Mama Roux’s, Birmingham
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 24 October 2019
LAUNCHING HER latest nationwide tour with a cosy sold-out show in Birmingham, Little Simz radiated easy confidence, musical dexterity and enormous charm. ...
Retrospective by Steve Pafford, stevepafford.com, 26 November 2019
How a middle aged woman from Tennessee pulled off the greatest comeback in music history ...
Leonard Cohen: His Muses Were Many Women
Essay by Larry Jaffee, Record Collector, 3 December 2019
THE NEW DOCUMENTARY Leonard & Marianne: Words of Love, directed by Nick Broomfield, ostensibly is about the romance on the Greek island of Hydra in ...
Tal Wilkenfeld: Queen of the Bass: Why Tal Wilkenfeld is every rock star's secret weapon
Profile and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 16 December 2019
Adored by Prince, Jeff Beck and the Who, thirtysomething jazz prodigy Tal Wilkenfeld is one of the most in-demand musicians in the world. And it's ...
Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Event Magazine, 11 January 2020
"Touring with Bowie was a thrill. But I was on a high for weeks after winning gold at the Chelsea Flower Show": Kim Wilde on ...
Poppy, Selena Gomez: Selena Gomez: Rare, Poppy: I Disagree
Review by Alfred Soto, Humanizing the Vacuum, 23 January 2020
In my first reviews of new music since realizing I hadn't finished half my Xmas shopping, I examine a pair of albums by a star ...
Sleater-Kinney: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 27 February 2020
THEY STILL DO PUNK ROCK better than anyone, but the veteran US band have ably stepped into icy electronics, disco and offbeat pop. ...
Fiona Apple: Fetch the Bolt Cutters
Review by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 17 April 2020
The unhurried artist's first studio album in eight years is astonishing, intimate and demonstrates a refusal to be silenced ...
Retrospective by Edward Helmore, The Observer, 19 April 2020
There was a feminist outcry when the band used a tied-up model to promote their 1976 album. Is rock'n'roll more enlightened now? ...
Cher Lloyd is bigger than the bullshit
Interview by Pip Williams, The Line of Best Fit, 4 May 2020
Cher Lloyd cannot think of anything worse than taking up breadmaking in lockdown. ...
The Chicks: Gaslighter (Columbia)
Review by David Bennun, Metro, July 2020
THE CHICKS formerly known as Dixie haven't released a new studio album in 14 years, which makes Gaslighter a pretty big deal. ...
Interview by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 23 July 2020
The musician talks about missing Glastonbury, being inspired by Abigail's Party and turning the tables on music critics. ...
Obituary by Chris Campion, Los Angeles Times, 31 July 2020
MISS MERCY, the effervescent rock 'n' roll superfan who found fame as a member of Frank Zappa's "groupie" girl-group the GTOs (Girls Together Outrageously), died ...
Retrospective and Interview by Richie Unterberger, Please Kill Me!, 19 August 2020
Influenced by the punk scene centered at Mabuhay Gardens, and the fun, bohemian spirit of a city that was, back then, an affordable place to ...
Obituary by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 30 September 2020
Australian singer who enjoyed huge success with her 1972 feminist anthem 'I Am Woman' ...
Junglepussy: JP4 (Secretly Canadian)
Review by David Bennun, Metro, 22 October 2020
HOW MUCH fun is Shayna McHayle, more felicitously known as Junglepussy? More fun than a boxful of puppies with sharp little teeth and a bone ...
Pale Waves: A Different Kind of Love
Interview by Pip Williams, The Line of Best Fit, 23 February 2021
Heather Baron-Gracie reflects on the creative and personal freedom she found within Pale Waves as the band celebrate the release of new album Who Am ...
Lydia Lunch's Infinite Rebellion
Profile and Interview by Jim Farber, The New York Times, 28 June 2021
FOR NEARLY two hours on a recent afternoon, Lydia Lunch sat in her bright Brooklyn apartment and spoke with bracing speed, and at an alarming ...
Book Excerpt by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike, 'You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone' (Faber), July 2021
Excerpted from Jennifer Otter Bickerdike's You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone: The Biography of Nico, published this month by Faber ...
Orla Gartland: DIY 'til she dies
Interview by Pip Williams, The Line of Best Fit, 19 August 2021
Tomorrow, Orla Gartland releases her debut album, Woman On The Internet. In the decade since the Irish singer/songwriter began uploading tracks to YouTube as a ...
Amyl and the Sniffers: Comfort to Me
Review by Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 10 September 2021
Frontwoman Amy Taylor crackles like a live wire with too much current in Melbourne punk band's electric second album. ...
Sherry Rich: The Divine Crimson V
Review by Jeff Apter, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 17 September 2021
EVER SINCE she formed a high school band with a blonde Queensland up-and-comer named Keith Urban, good people have gravitated to Sherry Rich. ...
Martha Wainwright: Union Chapel, London
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Evening Standard, 21 September 2021
The singer songwriter was on perky form in a set that hinged on songs that explored her recent divorce ...
Little Simz: Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
Review by John Lewis, Uncut, October 2021
Epic fourth album by the award-winning north London rapper ...
Tina Turner: Regal, Fierce & Divine: Tina Turner Roars into the Rock Hall on her own terms
Retrospective and Interview by Holly Gleason, Pollstar, October 2021
TINA TURNER in a chain mail dress… Tina Turner in a black leather mini skirt, denim jacket, seam up the back of those legs… Tina Turner in ...
Dionne Warwick: For the Love of Dionne
Retrospective by Michael A. Gonzales, Oldster, 6 October 2021
A new documentary and an art exhibit put 80-year-old Dionne Warwick back in the spotlight. But as far as journalist and critic Michael A. Gonzales ...
Overlooked No More: Ruth Polsky, Who Shaped New York's Music Scene
Retrospective by Rachel Felder, The New York Times, 18 November 2021
She booked concerts at influential nightclubs in the 1980s, bringing exposure to up-and-coming artists like the Smiths and New Order. ...
Billie Eilish: "I've gotten a lot more proud of who I am"
Interview by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 4 December 2021
The pop superstar on her extraordinary year — the Bond theme, that Vogue cover, the success of her second album — and hosting Saturday Night ...
Vashti Bunyan: "My voice made me think of sorrow. I didn't even sing to my children"
Retrospective and Interview by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 18 March 2022
GROOMED TO BE A 60S POP STAR, the singer instead headed for the Hebrides in a horse-drawn cart and then withdrew from music for 30 ...
Interview by Laura Barton, The Independent, 24 April 2022
With her sister Nancy, Ann Wilson fronted the revolutionary, female-led hard rock outfit Heart. Laura Barton speaks to her on the cusp of a new ...
Olivia Rodrigo: Radio City Music Hall, New York City
Live Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 28 April 2022
LAST NIGHT at Radio City Music Hall, Olivia Rodrigo provided a whole lotta deja-vu as she performed her hugely successful debut album, Sour, as well ...
Zola Jesus on spirituality and overcoming the lone genius archetype
Interview by Pip Williams, The Line of Best Fit, 20 June 2022
Against a striking backdrop of towering ancient rock formations in Turkey, Zola Jesus filmed the video for recent single 'Lost'. Blanketed in snow, this landscape ...
Sophie Jamieson: St Pancras Old Church, London
Live Review by Irina Shtreis, Louder Than War, 23 February 2023
An evening of intensity with the London-based songwriter. ...
Fatouma Diawara: Songs of Experience
Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, June 2023
Escaping tragedy in her home country and beyond, Malian superstar has found respite reimagining her proud musical heritage in dynamic new ways. But with a ...
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Evening Standard, 19 June 2023
A MARATHON 30-song musical feast became a swashbuckling maritime adventure as SZA brought her SOS world tour to London for this, the second in an extended four-night ...
Bridget St John: Still Bridget St John
Retrospective by Mark Cooper, Rock's Backpages, November 2023
I CAN'T RECALL ever having seen Bridget St John before although I owned her first couple of albums as the '60s wobbled into the '70s. ...
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