The Band
181 articles
Free articles
The Band: A Melody Maker Band Breakdown
Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 29 May 1971
FEW ROCK AND ROLL concerts can have been so eagerly awaited as those which The Band are due to play at London's Royal Albert Hall ...
Audio interviews
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, 9 July 1991
The Hawk recalls rockin' out of Canada with his teenage Hawks - road stories, show business sharks and wild times, taking in Roulette's Morris Levy, Bob Dylan, John Lennon and, of course, ex-Hawks The Band.
File format: mp3; file size: 84.9mb, interview length: 1h 28' 23" sound quality: ***
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, 10 August 1991
Hired and fired by the New York Post; having "total phoney" Andy Warhol steal the Velvets from him; running with Dylan and, extensively, his dealings with The Band – "blacklisted journalist" Al Aronowitz vents his not-inconsiderable spleen.
File format: mp3; total file sizes: 73.8meg, interview length: 1h 16' 53" sound quality: ***
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, 13 August 1991
The great rock photographer remembers his time working with The Band, from Woodstock and Big Pink to Los Angeles and The Band sessions.
File format: mp3; file size: 48.9mb, interview length: 50' 57" sound quality: ****
Bill Graham on The Band (1991)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, 18 August 1991
Über-promoter Bill Graham talks about his relationship with The Band, from their Winterland debut to The Last Waltz, via Watkins Glen and the 1974 Dylan mega-tour
File format: mp3 File size: 28.3mb Interview length: 30 minutes 56 seconds Sound quality: ****
The Band's Robbie Robertson (1991)
Interview by Tony Scherman, Rock's Backpages Audio, Fall 1991
Robbie looks back at his days as a teenage guitar-slinger with Ronnie Hawkins: why Ronnie hired him; the dreadful gigs they played; fitting in down south; his mother's Indian roots; holding up a craps game; learning from Levon; not being allowed girlfriends; rousted by the cops with Sonny Boy Williamson; the genius of Garth Hudson, and much more...
File format: mp3; file size: 56.9mb, interview length: 59' 14" sound quality: ***
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, 21 November 1995
A fascinating interview with Rick Danko about living in Woodstock, the Big Pink ("actually magenta") , and working in the Basement with Bob Dylan.
File format: mp3 File size: 28.5mb Interview length: 31 minutes 13 seconds Sound quality: ****
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, 12 November 1998
The Band's drummer takes us from West Memphis nightclubs to The Hawks to Dylan to Big Pink to Muddy Waters, and along the way touches on his break with Robbie Robertson and the death of Richard Manuel
File format: mp3; file size: 85.1meg, interview length: 1h 28' 40" sound quality: **
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, April 2014
The film director revisits making Bob Dylan movie Dont Look Back; working with Albert and Sally Grossman; Dylan's wife Sara; the post-motorcycle accident Dylan in Woodstock; the 1966 tour film; shooting Otis Redding at Monterey... and playing Billie Holiday to Janis Joplin.
File format: mp3; file size: 69.9mb, interview length: 1h 12' 50" sound quality: ****
List of articles in the library
Bob Dylan & the Hawks: Adelphi Cinema, Dublin
Live Review by uncredited writer, Disc and Music Echo, 14 May 1966
THE LEAN and wiry Bob Dylan, hair longer and more unruly than ever, left behind 2,500 frustrated fans after the opening date of his 13-concert ...
Bob Dylan: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 11 June 1966
With A Mixture Of Folk, Rock And Comedy, Dylan Shows He Can Take Every Insult But Not A Compliment ...
Review by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 9 December 1967
Ten New Songs (RBP Editor's note: these songs would later be bootlegged, then released, as The Basement Tapes) ...
The Band: Country Soul from Bob's Backup Band
Profile and Interview by Al Aronowitz, LIFE, 26 July 1968
BIG PINK IS one of those middle-class ranch houses you would expect to find in suburbia rather than on a mountain top in rustic Woodstock, ...
The Band: Music From Big Pink (Capitol SKAO 2995)
Review by Richard Goldstein, The New York Times, 4 August 1968
Big Pink Is Just a Home in Saugerties ...
Review by Al Kooper, Rolling Stone, 10 August 1968
EVERY YEAR since 1963 we have all singled out one album to sum up what happened that year. It was usually the Beatles with their ...
Interview by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 11 August 1968
SEVERAL WEEKS ago I reviewed an outstanding album titled Music From Big Pink (Capitol SKAO 2955) and identified the group playing as the Band, formerly ...
The Band: Friends and Neighbours Just Call Us The Band
Profile and Interview by Al Aronowitz, Rolling Stone, 24 August 1968
NEW YORK: Big Pink is one of those middle class ranch houses of the type that you would expect to find in development row in ...
Review by Paul Nelson, Hullabaloo, October 1968
HERE WE are, talking to ourselves again, still waiting for the new releases by the Rolling Stones, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Doors, the Byrds, ...
Profile and Interview by Al Aronowitz, Hullabaloo, October 1968
BIG PINK IS ONE of those middle-class ranch houses of the type that you would expect to find in development row in the heart of ...
The Band: Music From Big Pink (EMI Capitol C015559)
Review by Lon Goddard, Record Mirror, 5 October 1968
AT LAST, THE BAND ...
The Band: Music From Big Pink (Capitol)
Review by uncredited writer, Disc, 9 November 1968
Dylan's Band is a cool rave... ...
Overview by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 24 December 1968
"AN ELECTRIC caterwauling of power... burning it, flashing it, whirling it down some arc of consciousness, the sound screaming up to a climax of vibrations ...
Canned Heat: Livin' The Blues (Liberty) The Band: Music From Big Pink (Capitol)
Review by Charlie Gillett, Times Educational Supplement, 14 March 1969
IF YOU'RE A young white man who digs the blues and who likes to make music, what do you do about it? Your decision used ...
The Band, Sons of Champlin, Ace of Cups: Winterland, San Francisco SF
Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 18 April 1969
The Band — Too Little, Too Late ...
The Band Breathes Fresh Country Air Over Fillmore East
Live Review by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 12 May 1969
THE BAND, WHICH was first known as Bob Dylan's back-up group, spent Friday and Saturday coolly circulating mountain air through the Fillmore East, 105 Second ...
The Band: We Can Talk About It Now
Report by Greil Marcus, Good Times, 15 August 1969
THE BAND has been together the best part of a decade, almost nine years. Little Richard has been Little Richard for about double that, but ...
Live Review by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 18 August 1969
Rock Audience Moves to Dusk-to-Dawn Rhythms ...
Profile by Lon Goddard, Record Mirror, 30 August 1969
LON GODDARD SPOTLIGHTS DYLAN'S BACKING GROUP ...
Bob Dylan, The Band: Isle of Wight Festival
Live Review by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 2 September 1969
The gospel according to Dylan ...
Bob Dylan & the Band: Isle of Wight Festival
Live Review by Lon Goddard, Wesley Laine, Record Mirror, 6 September 1969
Love is all there is...Wesley Laine & Lon Goddard report from the Isle of Wight ...
Bob Dylan et al: Isle of Wight Festival
Live Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 6 September 1969
200,000 roar approval including John, George, Ringo and wives! But Dylan didn't quite sink Isle of Wight, reports Richard Green ...
Bob Dylan, The Band: Isle of Wight Festival
Live Review by Miles, International Times, 12 September 1969
VISITORS to the 2nd Isle of Wight Music Festival at Godshill near Ryde more than doubled the population of the Island, outnumbered the 130 local ...
Interview by Lon Goddard, Record Mirror, 13 September 1969
JAMIE ROBBIE Robertson, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson and Rick Danko are privileged to be five of the closest people to Bob Dylan. They ...
Dylan at Wight: A New Voice and a New Style
Essay by Geoffrey Cannon, Los Angeles Times, 14 September 1969
THE TRAIN carrying us from Waterloo station in London to Portsmouth and the ferry across to the Isle of Wight Festival was full of newly ...
From Stud to Star: Ronnie Hawkins
Interview by Ritchie Yorke, Rolling Stone, 20 September 1969
TORONTO — Ronnie Hawkins, the Arkansas rock and roller now living on a farm near Toronto, has signed a long-term contract with Atlantic Records. Hawkins, ...
Review by Mike Jahn, Pop Scene Service, 11 October 1969
The Band Does It Again ...
"It's Great Growing Up": The Hard Hawks Became The Relaxed Band
Interview by Mike Gormley, Detroit Free Press, 28 November 1969
THE BAND. Free-flowing, graceful, country-spiced music from an ex-hard, hard rock band. ...
Ronnie Hawkins: Preaching Rock-A-Billy
Interview by Larry LeBlanc, Hit Parader, December 1969
LIFE ON Yonge St. in Toronto, is a crackerjack maze of flickering neon lights, honking car horns and fast people. ...
Keith Richard on Mick, Beatles, Led, Faith, Tull, Gees
Interview by Ritchie Yorke, New Musical Express, 6 December 1969
THE NEWS that the Rolling Stones have resumed personal appearances must have gladdened the hearts of pop fans everywhere. The Stones always were the most ...
Mass Music: The Band, Allman Brothers, Tony Williams and Miles Davis
Review by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 8 December 1969
EACH OF the record albums discussed here could be termed a masterpiece worthy of a full-length "rave." But the Review format can often be nothing ...
The Band: Felt Forum, New York NY; The New York Rock & Roll Ensemble: Carnegie Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 29 December 1969
'The Band' Rocks With Hillbilly Ease ...
Rompin' Ronnie Hawkins Is Suddenly a Star
Interview by Mike Gormley, Detroit Free Press, 23 January 1970
SUDDENLY THE world is hearing about Ronnie Hawkins. And all because John Lennon made him an international figure by staying at Ronnie's Canadian home for ...
Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 2 February 1970
A Sold-Out Night for Fine Pop ...
The Band: Civic Auditorium, Pasadena CA
Live Review by Jacoba Atlas, Melody Maker, 7 February 1970
LOS ANGELES, Tuesday: The Band, rapidly reaching the pinnacle of respect enjoyed by only a handful of groups in America, performed two sold-out concerts in ...
The Band: Municipal Auditorium, Long Beach CA
Live Review by Ann Moses, New Musical Express, 14 February 1970
MAGNIFICENT BAND ...
Ronnie Hawkins: Arkansas Rock Pile (Roulette mono RCP 1003, 19s. 11d.)
Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 21 February 1970
Rockin' Ronnie ...
Essay by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 10 October 1970
A NUMBER OF rock music bands have been celebrated, in the past three years, not just as "supergroups," but as bands composed of superlative musicians, ...
Supergroups: A Matter of Context
Essay by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 10 October 1970
A NUMBER OF ROCK music bands have been celebrated, in the past three years, not just as "supergroups" but as bands composed of superlative musicians. ...
The Band: Stage Fright (Capitol)
Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, 10 October 1970
WHEN YOU hear the term country/rock, you immediately think of Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko and Levon Helm, collectively The Band. For ...
The Week's Singles: Laura Nyro, James Taylor, Eric Clapton, The Band et al
Review by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 10 October 1970
Magnificent, dynamic Nyro ...
Live Review by Nick Tosches, New Haven Rock Press, Fall 1970
ON THE night of June 29, The Band played to the biggest crowd in the four-year history of the now-traditional Central Park Summer Beer Festival ...
The Band – Or When The Booing Ended
Interview by Caroline Boucher, Disc and Music Echo, 29 May 1971
NOBODY SEEMS to know much about the Band. That they're a living legend is a fact, a household name, true, but few people could enlighten ...
Bob Dylan: Bob Dylan and the Hawks Live At Albert Hall, 1966
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, June 1971
IT IS THE MOST supremely elegant piece of rock'n'roll music I've ever heard. ...
Bob, The Band and basement bootleg
Interview by Lon Goddard, Record Mirror, 5 June 1971
A VERY strange thing happened in a basement somewhere in North America; Bob Dylan recorded with the Band — on a home tape recorder. ...
Report and Interview by Geoffrey Cannon, Melody Maker, 5 June 1971
NO DIFFICULTY KNOWING when you've just finished hearing a great rock concert. Because you'll be in the middle of a great crowd of people standing ...
Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, July 1971
The Band have probably become the most highly respected group among groups since their first album was released three years ago. ...
Van Morrison: Tupelo Honey; The Band: Cahoots; The Beach Boys: Surf's Up
Review by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 29 October 1971
Out of the city ...
The Band Comes Back to California
Live Review by uncredited writer, Los Angeles Times, 30 November 1971
SAN FRANCISCO -- It was exactly 9:30 p.m. Saturday when Bill Graham, far more relaxed than in his intense Fillmore days, walked on stage at ...
Review by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, December 1971
WELL, IT'S DIFFERENT. ...
'There's Still Togetherness': The Band
Report and Interview by Nick Logan, Hit Parader, December 1971
The Band – now down to playing 10 to 15 gigs a year over four or five weekends...a couple of tours a year the rest ...
The Band: Cahoots (Capitol SMAS-651)
Review by Mark Leviton, Coast, February 1972
THE FIRST five times I played Cahoots I liked it — perhaps because I considered Stage Fright such a drought, and the new LP was ...
The Band: Cahoots (Capitol SMAS-651)
Review by Mark Leviton, Coast, February 1972
THE FIRST FIVE times I played Cahoots I liked it – perhaps because I considered Stage Fright such a drought, and the new LP was ...
Runt the Magic Rabbit: Todd Rundgren's Search for the Ultimate Riff
Special Feature by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 13 April 1972
WORD HAS filtered down to Allen Klein's New York office that George Harrison wants to get in touch with Todd Rundgren, the all-around rock and ...
Raving Over The Runt, Alias Todd Rundgren: Rock Whiz-Kid
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 29 April 1972
THE NAME Todd Rundgren may sound more like a catarrhal growl than the monicker of an aspiring 23-year-old young musical whiz-kid. ...
Ronnie Hawkins: Plugging Along The Publicity Route, But...?
Interview by Mike Jahn, New York Times Special Features Syndication, 2 September 1972
THE HAWK blew into town recently, spewing one-liners and hoping that his big mouth would bring him fame instead of trouble this time. ...
The Band: Rock of Ages (Capitol SABB- 11045) *Import
Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, 9 September 1972
THOSE NEW Year Academy Concerts may have heralded in the new year but as the Band crossed the great divide between 1971 and 1972 onstage ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, November 1972
ON A GREAT NIGHT, the Band grab and mesmerize, so that neither your eyes nor your thoughts can be on anything else. It helps that ...
Review by Chris Rowley, International Times, 17 November 1972
A WHILE BACK I was leaning up against the pinball machine in our favourite hostelry when one of the company remarked to me that the ...
Special Feature by Jonathan Singer, Hit Parader, December 1972
TWENTY MINUTES after midnight, January 1, 1972, a baggy blue-jeaned figure strode center stage to New York's Academy of Music. He was unannounced, but not ...
The Band: Rock of Ages (Capitol E-STSP 11)
Review by Karl Dallas, Let It Rock, February 1973
IT IS WHAT The Band leave out as much as what they include that makes them impressive. Among all the welter of ego-tripping pyrotechnicians which ...
Allman Brothers Band, the Band, the Grateful Dead: Summer Jam at Watkins Glen, Watkins Glen, NY
Live Review by John Swenson, The Village Voice, 9 August 1973
It was about music too ...
Interview by Loraine Alterman, Melody Maker, 3 November 1973
EVEN THOUGH everyone involved is tremendously excited about the Band/Dylan tour (reported on page one), 1973 still has some time left and The Band have ...
The Band: Moondog Matinee (Capitol)
Review by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 24 November 1973
Band of hope and glory ...
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 3 January 1974
UNDER NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES this would be a fairly disappointing album for the Band, coming as it does on the year-old heels of a live set ...
The Band: Moondog Matinee (Capitol SW-11214)
Review by Arthur Levy, Zoo World, 3 January 1974
OF ALL THE generative US music strains that contributed to what became known in the 60's as Rock, none has been so overlooked and forgotten ...
Bob Dylan & The Band: Night of the Zimmerman
Report by Barbara Charone, New Musical Express, 19 January 1974
CHICAGO, ILLINIOS – land of Lincoln, booming metropolis of the Mid-West, heart of Middle America. Not as sophisticated as New York, nor as small as ...
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 19 January 1974
WHATEVER REASON you might tender to explain the artistic atrophy that has overtaken Dylan, it's beginning to seem as though his old cronies, The Band, ...
Bob Dylan: Planet Waves (Island)
Review by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 26 January 1974
ANY NEW Bob Dylan album induces a somewhat unnerving emotional response in the reviewer, but the very latest record from Dylan, to be released here ...
Bob Dylan & The Band: Knocking On Heaven's Door
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 9 February 1974
THEY CHEERED and clapped and waved for fifteen minutes even though the house lights were up and 'Greensleeves' was playing through the PA system and ...
Bob Dylan & the Band: Oakland Coliseum, Oakland CA
Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 12 February 1974
The memory, if not much melody, lingers on ...
Bob Dylan & the Band: Hollywood Sportatorium, Pembroke Pines, Fla.
Live Review by Arthur Levy, Zoo World, 28 February 1974
"The White-suited Mystic Rescues His Flock" ...
Dylan and The Band Return with Planet Waves
Report by John Swenson, Circus, April 1974
When Dylan took the lid off the box he was hiding in, he made the conditions for peeping in very difficult. Now Bob Dylan doesn't ...
Profile by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, April 1974
THE LEGEND runs that in the summer of 1965 the Hawks (also known as the Crackers) were playing a night club in the seashore resort ...
Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 29 June 1974
AN APPOSITE QUOTE from Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles (the town preacher talking): "Oh Lord, can we truly accomplish this great task – or are we ...
Eric Clapton: A Hero Comes To Town
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 20 July 1974
PITTSBURGH, PA. – The tint on the TV screen gave the newscaster a peculiarly reddish face, almost as if he was genuinely quite excited about ...
Bob Dylan & The Band: Before The Flood (Asylum AB-201)
Review by Arthur Levy, Zoo World, 29 August 1974
"THERE'S A flood out in California, and up north it's freezing cold/and this living off o' the road — it's gettin' pretty old." John Phillip ...
Bob Dylan/The Band: Before The Flood (Asylum)
Review by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 29 August 1974
THROUGHOUT BOB DYLAN'S performances on this in-concert album there is evident an effort to match the material – nearly all from much earlier in his ...
The Band: Selling Talent Short for Cheap Cheers
Comment by Dave Marsh, Newsday, 15 September 1974
THE BAND, out on its own again after two albums and a tour with mentor Bob Dylan, didn't have an ordinary dressing room for a ...
Bob Dylan & The Band: The Basement Tapes (CBS)
Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 12 July 1975
A drunkard's dream (Nos. 13 & 35) EIGHT years after they were first recorded with The Band in Woodstock, Bob Dylan's "lost" basement tapes have finally ...
Bob Dylan & The Band: The Basement Tapes
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1975
WHAT WE HAVE here is the most enjoyable Dylan album yet released. ...
Bob Dylan and the Band: The Basement Tapes
Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, September 1975
On Blonde on Blonde, Dylan gave us his metaphysical, amphetamine dreams from some smoke-filled apartment in midtown Manhattan. On John Wesley Harding, he synthesized a ...
The Band: Northern Lights — Southern Cross (Capitol ST-11440)
Review by Sam Sutherland, Phonograph Record, December 1975
THE BAND'S NORTHERN LIGHTS: AN UNEVEN EXPERIMENT IN EVOLUTION ...
The Band: Northern Lights — Southern Cross
Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 6 December 1975
I'M UP AGAINST a deadline on this one, having to hurry – which is bad enough without having to respond fairly to a group operating ...
The Band: Northern Lights — Southern Cross (Capitol St— 11440)
Review by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 20 December 1975
The Band is back — almost ...
The Band: Northern Lights, Southern Cross (Capitol)
Review by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 20 December 1975
THE BAND don't rush things – this is their first album of original material in four years – and to review this after having listened ...
The Band's Robbie Robertson: "The Struggle Has Gone"
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Melody Maker, 3 January 1976
ROBBIE ROBERTSON: "We'd been around so long that we couldn't take a name seriously. So we made the first album and we called ourselves the ...
Across The Great Divide with Robbie Robertson
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Crawdaddy!, March 1976
A Portrait of the Artist as a Mystery Man ...
The Band: Northern Lights - Southern Cross
Review by Greil Marcus, Creem, March 1976
A RECENT nation-wide telephone poll on Northern Lights-Southern Cross, the Band's first collection of new songs in four years, has produced a solid consensus. All ...
The Band: Northern Lights — Southern Cross (Capitol ST 11440)
Review by Mike Jahn, High Fidelity, March 1976
THIS RECORDING is easily the Band's best since Music from Big Pink was issued in 1968. And since the latter may be considered one of ...
...Mounties, Maple Syrup: The Band at the Greek Theatre, Los Angeles
Live Review by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 25 September 1976
RUMOURS HAD BEEN circulating (the way rumours always do) for some months. They claimed that there was some kind of rift between The Band and ...
The Band: The Best Of The Band
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 25 September 1976
ANYTHING THAT allows The Band to maintain their self-imposed torpor should be actively discouraged, and it is with this sentiment in mind that I proposed ...
Rick Danko: Solo, But Not Alone
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 2 October 1976
WITH THE possible exception of Robbie Robertson, the individual members of the Band have enjoyed a remarkable anonymity that belies their status as one of ...
And The Band Played On... The Band's Last Waltz
Live Review by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, 27 November 1976
IT WAS UNDOUBTEDLY the single biggest collection of rock stars ever to perform on one stage: 17 musicians played Bob Dylan's ‘I Shall Be Released’, ...
The Band's "Last Waltz": Winterland, San Francisco CA
Live Review by Stephen M H Braitman, Phonograph Record, December 1976
WHEN THE announcement came, 5,000 tickets at $25 each were sold out almost immediately. This was the final show, "The Last Waltz." The Band — ...
Live Review by Harvey Kubernik, Melody Maker, 11 December 1976
IT WASN'T easy to book a plane from Los Angeles airport on Thanksgiving to fly up to San Francisco for the Band's farewell live concert ...
Review by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 26 March 1977
IT IS no accident that The Band have been the most bearded outfit in the rock business. They entered the public arena, when at all, ...
The Band: Islands (Capitol SO-11602)
Review by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, April 1977
A FRIEND OF mine called me one night last summer and told me he had an extra ticket to the Band concert that night and ...
Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, April 1977
WHEN Isaac Hayes was at the peak of his success, some five or six years ago, he told me of his great ambition to write ...
Review by Andy Childs, ZigZag, May 1977
EVER SINCE I first heard the magnificent 'Acadian Driftwood' and marvelled in particular at Garth Hudson's tasteful use of synthesiser, it has always been a ...
Review by Bruce Malamut, Circus, 12 May 1977
The Band Relax on Untroubled Islands ...
Interview with Rick Danko, December 21, 1977
Interview by Peter Stone Brown, unpublished, 21 December 1977
I WAS A RICK Danko fan from the first note of the first song he sang on Music From Big Pink, 'Caledonia Mission'. There was ...
The Band’s All-Star Farewell Banquet
Report and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Waxpaper, 1978
"FOR THE FILM, first of all, you have to do a thing which is called pre-dubbing, which is where you take your 24 tracks and ...
The Weight: The Band's Anthology
Review by Dave Marsh, The Boston Phoenix, 1978
IT'S NOT HARD to understand the release of Anthology, the second repackaging of Band material in two years. The group made only eight albums (one ...
Danko: Happy With His Band — And The Band
Report and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Unicorn Times, February 1978
THE LIGHTS went down at the Cellar Door and the disembodied voice purred: "Please welcome to our stage, Arista recording artists the Rick Danko Group." ...
The Band: The Last Waltz (Warner Brothers)
Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 22 April 1978
The second feeding of the 5000... And lo, the leftovers filled six sides of vinyl. And the people marveled. ...
A big-time goodbye for The Band
Interview by Wayne Robins, Newsday, 30 April 1978
THERE WAS nothing small-time about The Last Waltz. It was a concert held in San Francisco a year ago last Thanksgiving to mark the final ...
Ten Years of Stage Fright: The Life And Times Of Robbie Robertson & The Band
Retrospective and Interview by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 17 June 1978
ALTHOUGH AT the time individuals may tell you different, it's no big deal for a band to break up. It happens almost every week and, ...
Danko On The Loose! Rick Danko emerges as a solo artist after years with The Band
Interview by Radio Pete, Rocket, July 1978
Danko's on his own now with his own backup band, but he used to be an integral part of The Band since their beginning. Danko's ...
The Last Waltz: Time Gentlemen Please
Film/DVD/TV Review by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 5 August 1978
The Last Waltz (United Artists)Directed by Martin ScorseseStarring The Band, Bob Dylan etc. etc. ...
Robbie Robertson: Between Trains
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 6 May 1983
QUALITY IS something that Robbie Robertson definitely understands. ...
R.E.M. and Friends: Capitol Theater, Passaic, N.J.
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 30 June 1984
IT WAS A folk-rocker's fantasy: R.E.M. was videotaping a concert for MTV broadcast in July, for a new series called Influences. And so the IRS Records ...
The Other Side: Richard Manuel
Obituary by Peter Stone Brown, The Welcomat, 12 March 1986
IT WAS MANY YEARS ago, July. Psychedelic music was still happening. After Bathing at Baxter's. The Doors were huge. Hendrix alive. I brought home the ...
Obituary by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 13 March 1986
Managed Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and others ...
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 5 November 1987
TWENTY YEARS ago, you and the Band seemed to set yourselves apart from the whole psychedelic scene that was so popular at the time. ...
The Second Coming of Robbie Robertson
Special Feature by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 19 November 1987
Eleven, years ago, the enigmatic leader of the Band walked away from the rock world. Now, after some years of wild living, he's joined with ...
Essay by Jeff Tamarkin, Goldmine, 26 July 1991
THE QUINTET KNOWN as the Band never did get back together in that same, familiar aggregation. To this day, however, there is a band called ...
Robbing America for a storyline thread
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, The Times, 28 October 1991
ROBBIE ROBERTSON should be used to jetlag. He spent 16 years on the road as a member of The Band and knows only too well ...
Youngblood: The Wild Youth of Robbie Robertson
Interview by Tony Scherman, Musician, December 1991
Before Storyville, before the Band, a Toronto street punk headed down the Crazy River. ...
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, January 1994
MENTION THE BAND TO PEOPLE IN 1993 and the chances are they'll say: "What band?" So much for the enduring legacy of the finest group ...
Review by Richard C. Walls, Rolling Stone, 24 February 1994
THIS CURRENT EDITION of the Band consists of three of its original five members — drummer-vocalist Levon Helm, bassist-vocalist Rick Danko and keyboardist Garth Hudson ...
Woodstock II: Sodden Life Is Rubbish
Report by John Harris, New Musical Express, 27 August 1994
Take 250,000 hippy children (Please! — Ed) and baby boomers reliving the 'glories' of the '60s, stick them in a sea of mud and charge ...
The Story of Bobby Charles and Bearsville
Retrospective and Interview by Colin Escott, Stony Plain Records, September 1994
BOBBY CHARLES IS one of the great Louisiana records, and there have been a few. It doesn't matter that it was recorded in upstate New ...
Robbie Robertson: The Q 100 Interview
Interview by Andy Gill, Q, January 1995
How the devil are you? ...
The Band: Live at Watkins Glen
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, MOJO, June 1995
"They got their own thing together that takes you to a certain place. Takes you where they want to go... they play their things on ...
AUDIO: The Band's Rick Danko (1995)
Audio transcript of interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, 21 November 1995
This is a transcript of Barney's audio interview with Rick. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Review by Geoffrey Himes, New Country, June 1996
WHEN ROBBIE ROBERTSON and the rest of the Band split into two camps in the late '70s, who ever thought Robertson would get the worst ...
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, unpublished, 1998
LEVON HELM is perched on the arm of a carved wooden chair in his large house-cum-recording studio in Woodstock, N.Y., and he’s cackling his head ...
Robbie Robertson: The Underworld of Redboy
Interview by Steve Roeser, Goldmine, 28 August 1998
TWENTY YEARS ago, a Martin Scorsese film called The Last Waltz was released in theaters. As rock fans easily recall, this star-studded musical event – ...
Book Excerpt by David Dalton, Lenny Kaye, Rock 100, Cooper Square Books (reissue), 1999
THE BAND was once described as the only group who could warm up the crowd for Abraham Lincoln. When they first appeared late in 1968, ...
Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Live 1966 (The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert) (Columbia/Legacy)
Review by Mac Randall, Musician, January 1999
THIRTY-TWO years ago, Bob Dylan got into a little disagreement with his audience during a tour of England. A lot of his English fans at ...
Guide by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 29 January 1999
1 Nick Drake Bryter Layter (Island, 1970) ...
The Band's Rick Danko Dies At 56
Obituary by Frank Tortorici, sonicnet.com, 11 December 1999
RICK DANKO, whose high voice marked such roots-rock classics by The Band as 'The Weight' and 'Stage Fright', was found dead Friday morning (Dec. 10) ...
Dylan and The Band: Obviously Five Believers
Retrospective and Interview by Andy Gill, Q, October 2000
He took them round the world – to endless booing. They settled in Woodstock, separated, and then reunited for the highest grossing tour of the ...
Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Capitol Records, October 2000
IRONICALLY, after the release of Stage Fright in September 1970, The Band spent the ensuing three months touring America. "We had it set up pretty ...
Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Capitol Records, October 2000
IT ALL BEGAN with a house. An unremarkable ranch house sitting at the end of a long dirt driveway in the shadow of a mountain ...
Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Capitol Records, October 2000
THE BAND had good reason to call their third album Stage Fright. On the eve of their live debut at Bill Graham’s Winterland theater in ...
Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Capitol Records, October 2000
'TWAS IN the early summer of 1968 that legendary rock promoter Bill Graham drove up to the Catskill mountains to propose that The Band make ...
Retrospective and Interview by Andy Gill, MOJO, November 2000
Nestling beneath the forest-clad slopes of Overlook Mountain, a couple of hours drive north of New York City, the town of Woodstock has a sort ...
Rock’n’Roll Academy: Revisiting The Band’s Rock of Ages
Review by Martin Colyer, Rock's Backpages, 18 January 2001
TWO OF MY favourite live albums were recorded at either end of 1971. In February Taj Mahal added a horn section of four Tuba players ...
Band on the Rerun: Rowdy, haunting and resonant, The Band is the voice of a vanished America
Retrospective by Richard Gehr, My Generation, 3 February 2001
A GORGEOUS MELANCHOLY lies at the core of the music created by The Band, four Canadian rockers and an Arkansas drummer who, some argue, brought ...
Retrospective by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, September 2001
IN TERMS OF scale and impact, rock music was born during Dylan's 1965-6 world tour with a group called The Hawks. Dylan's rig was by ...
The Night They Put The Band To Rest: The Last Waltz Revisited
Review by The Rev. Al Friston, Rock's Backpages, 26 April 2002
"THE LAST WALTZ" was The Band's star-studded swansong, staged on Thanksgiving Day, 1976. Martin Scorsese made a timeless rockumentary about it, inspiring a hundred alt.roots-rockers ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, May 2002
SIXTEEN YEARS, man.....Five years backing the Hawk; two more backing Bob Dylan, for Chrissakes. And then almost a decade on their own, a Band with ...
Retrospective by Gene Santoro, The Nation, 16 May 2002
WHEN I FIRST saw The Last Waltz in 1978, I almost walked out, although I was a fan of both director Martin Scorsese and The ...
Million Dollar Bash: Dylan and The Band
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, Fall 2003
A LOT OF MUSICIANS have played with Bob Dylan over the last forty-odd years, but none of them has quite had the special relationship with ...
Guide by Nicholas Jennings, Inside Entertainment, September 2004
1. The Last Waltz THE BAND'S elegant swansong is the ultimate rock concert movie. Director Martin Scorsese's discreet camerawork and superb sound captures inspired performances from ...
Choo Choo Ch’Boogie: Festival Express 1970
Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, September 2004
IT WAS THE Lollapalooza of its day – a week-long, three-date circus of a rock and roll tour featuring The Band, Buddy Guy, Janis Joplin, ...
The Backpages Interview: Robbie Robertson
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, October 2005
RBP: A Musical History seems like a formidable undertaking. ...
Richard Bell: Dazzling keyboard artist found a place in rock 'n' roll history
Obituary by Nicholas Jennings, The Globe and Mail, 23 June 2007
AMONG BLUES-ROCK soloists and accompanists, he had few equals. An exceptional pianist, organist and accordion player, Richard Bell left his mark on more than 400 ...
Garth and Maud Hudson playing 'Blind Willie McTell': 100 Club, London, September 26
Live Review by Martin Colyer, Rock's Backpages, October 2007
SO THE CROWD parts to let Garth Hudson wheel his wife Maud to the stage, and Maud's dressed for a Woodstock winter, hat, scarves and ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, December 2007
LEVON HELM was the southern heart of that essentially Canadian group The Band, the drummer/singer/mandolinist who gave Robbie Robertson's songs their corn-starch authenticity. Helm it ...
School of Rock: Monterey to Altamont
Guide by Barney Hoskyns, iTunes, 2008
BETWEEN 1966 and 1970, there was a seismic change in British and American pop. Within a few short years "pop" became "rock", and teenagers who'd ...
Overview by Nick Coleman, The Independent, 26 March 2008
AS THE VETERAN FILM-MAKER RELEASES HIS CONCERT MOVIE ON THE ROLLING STONES, NICK COLEMAN APPLAUDS A DIRECTOR WHO'S ALWAYS PUT MUSIC AT THE HEART OF ...
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, October 2009
IF LEVON HELM'S studios have a Green Room, then this must be it. A ramshackle den leading off a homely wooden kitchen, it's currently crawling ...
Robbie Robertson: The Man Who Knew Too Much
Retrospective and Interview by Hugh Fielder, Classic Rock, April 2012
SILLY ME. I assumed that I would be interviewing Robbie Robertson in the quaint Kensington mews flat that I had been sent to. But instead ...
Memoir by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, July 2012
"THE FIRST TIME I saw Levon in action was in Woodstock, Ontario, about thirty-five miles from London, where I grew up. Ronnie and the Hawks ...
Oh Brother Where Art Thou? The Night They Drove Ole Levon Down
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, July 2012
IN THE BACKWOODS gang that was The Band, Levon Helm was the lean and wiry chancer with one eye on the ladies and a voice ...
Love for Levon: Izod Center, New Jersey
Live Review by Alan Light, MSN.com, October 2012
LEVON HELM wasn't exactly a household name. But when the former drummer and vocalist for The Band died in April after a long battle with ...
This Must Be The Place: Holy Grails and Musical Meccas in Pop Culture
Essay by Barney Hoskyns, unpublished, Fall 2012
FOR TRAMPLED UNDER FOOT, my oral history of Led Zeppelin, one of the interviews I conducted was with Dave Bates, an almost-famous A&R man from ...
Ageless: The Band at the Academy of Music, 1971
Retrospective and Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, September 2013
DURING THE FINAL week of 1971, the Band played four legendary concerts at New York City's Academy Of Music, ushering in the New Year with ...
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, September 2013
ROBBIE ROBERTSON isn't exactly known for being prolific. In the almost 37 years since The Last Waltz marked his final show with The Band, he ...
Vinyl Icon: The Band's Music From Big Pink
Retrospective by Johnny Black, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, January 2014
IN 1965, BOB Dylan chose a hoary and somewhat grizzled rock'n'roll combo, the Hawks, as his backing group when he famously "went electric". ...
Retrospective by Clinton Heylin, Uncut, December 2014
Forty-seven years on from the fabled sessions in Woodstock, BOB DYLAN'S complete Basement Tapes finally see the light of day this month — all 138 ...
Ken Mansfield on Capitol Records and the Beatles
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, 2015
INTERVIEWER'S NOTE: Ken Mansfield is a former Capitol executive and was the U.S. Manager of Apple Records. He was on the rooftop at Savile Row ...
Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Capitol 75' (Taschen), 2016
NOTE: Herewith the full "director's cut" version of the historical essay I contributed to the spectacularly lavish Taschen book marking the 75th anniversary of West ...
Robbie Robertson: Testimony (Heineman)
Book Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, December 2016
ONE OF THE delightful aspects of The Last Waltz, Martin Scorsese's doc of The Band's goodbye hootenanny, are the scene-setting vignettes from the group that ...
Robbie Robertson: "I remember saying to Dylan, there's too many verses in this"
Interview by Michael Simmons, MOJO, January 2017
DECKED OUT IN an all-black suit, Robbie Robertson exudes elegance and a well-read intelligence – the latter all the more fascinating given his teenage education chicken- pickin' in honky-tonks ...
Book Review by Clinton Heylin, The Spectator, 21 January 2017
THE RECENT SPATE of rock memoirs has proved one of the less rewarding sub-genres in the post-digital Gutenberg galaxy. Obeying few rules of a good ...
John Niven's Music from Big Pink: A Foreword
Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Music from Big Pink' (Bloomsbury), July 2018
THE FACT THAT John Niven was just two years old in 1968 – the year in which The Band's Music from Big Pink was released ...
The 30 best live concert albums of all time
Guide by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 22 April 2020
LAST WEEK, A STORY appeared in the New York Times that predicted that live music would not return to the world's stages until the autumn ...
Elusive Harmony: Levon Helm, The Band, and the birth of Americana
Retrospective by Ian Penman, City Journal, Winter 2021
IN MAY 1900, an advert appeared out of Florida for "60 coloured performers… male, female and juvenile of every description, Novelty Acts, Headliners, etc. We ...
see also Rick Danko
see also Bob Dylan
see also Ronnie Hawkins
see also Levon Helm
see also Garth Hudson
see also Robbie Robertson
see also John Simon
see also Levon & the Hawks
back to LIBRARY
