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Music Week

Music Week

Music Week is a trade paper for the UK record industry. Founded in 1959 as Record Retailer, it adopted its present title in 1972. Music Week now also provides a website of daily news, features, record release listings and UK sales, airplay and club charts.

43 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

a-ha: Even Better than Spinal Tap

Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Music Week, September 2009

FOR 25 YEARS, Norway's pop gods have harboured a deep, dark secret that even the most dedicated News Of The World smut-sleuth would never have ...

The Beach Boys, Culture Club: Steve Levine

Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Music Week, June 2010

ACHIEVING THE perfect mix and getting the balance right are essential skills for any record producer but, with a glittering career which has spanned 35 ...

The Bee Gees: Fifty Years Of The Brothers Gibb

Retrospective by Johnny Black, Music Week, January 2010

ON DECEMBER 28, 1957, Manchester skiffle combo The Rattlesnakes first earned money from their ability to sing in harmony with a ten-minute slot at the ...

Björk: Post-Post: Bjork goes Homogenic

Interview by Paul Gorman, Music Week, 1997

"I LOVE MY job sometimes," cackles Bjork down the line from Miami. ...

Black Sabbath: None More Black: Black Sabbath

Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Music Week, March 2009

"IT'S BEEN described as the heavy metal Holy Grail," says Steve Hammonds, Catalogue Consultant for Universal Music, "and it's been a labour of love to ...

David Bowie on the Outside

Report and Interview by Paul Gorman, Music Week, 1995

THE CRITICAL AND commercial disappointment which has greeted David Bowie's output since the crossover success of 1983's Let's Dance would have forced a less adventurous ...

David Bowie: Happy Birthday, David Bowie!

Report and Interview by Paul Gorman, Music Week, January 1997

THERE'S NOTHING the media loves more than an anniversary and David Bowie's 50th birthday on January 8 offered ample opportunity for career retrospectives and dissections ...

James Brown: Cliff White, 1945-2018

Obituary by Paul Sexton, Music Week, 30 January 2018

CLIFF WHITE, one of the UK's leading journalistic authorities on soul music and a Grammy winner for his work on James Brown's Star Time box ...

Johnny Cash

Report and Interview by Paul Gorman, Music Week, 1995

HE’S BACK IN BLACK...again. And, as ever, he means business. Johnny Cash, the original rock'n'roll spectre lets loose the leashes with new album Unchained, covering ...

Catatonia: Welsh Pioneers Come Into Their Own

Report and Interview by Paul Gorman, Music Week, 1996

THESE DAYS, when it seems you can't throw a stick in the music industry without hitting a Welsh act, Catatonia are in the unusual position ...

Cher: Daring To Be Different

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 ...

Tony Christie

Report and Interview by Johnny Black, Music Week, February 2011

IN HIS 50TH YEAR in the music business, Tony Christie is at the top of his game. ...

Phil Collins Goes Back

Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Music Week, July 2010

"I CAN LOOK back now," reflects Phil Collins, "and see how annoying I must have been to people in the '80s and '90s." ...

Crowded House: In With The In-Crowd

Interview by Julian Henry, Music Week, 6 July 1987

THE ARRIVAL of Crowded House in the UK charts with their debut single, 'Don't Dream It's Over' (Capitol), comes three years after the demise of ...

The Cure, Oasis, Pulp, T. Rex: Top 5 Unforgettable Glastonbury Moments

Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Music Week, May 2007

1. 19-20 September 1970: The very first Glastonbury It was a triumph of faith over common sense. Having snuck in for free to the Bath Festival ...

Enya: Memory Of Enya

Report and Interview by Paul Gorman, Music Week, 1996

ENSCONCED INSIDE her specially built Aigle Studio in the swish Dublin suburb of Dalkey, Enya pauses to explain why she chose this particular location, with ...

Frankie Goes To Hollywood

Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Music Week, December 2009

SURELY, BY NOW, there should be a commemorative blue plaque on the central reservation of Princess Avenue in Liverpool's Toxteth. ...

Nick Heyward, Terry Hall: Godfathers of Britpop? Terry Hall and Nick Heyward

Report and Interview by Paul Gorman, Music Week, 1995

FOR ARTISTS WHO came to prominence during the early '80s boom in British music, the dramatic rise in popularity of the clutch of homegrown acts ...

Jon Hassell

Interview by Martin Aston, Music Week, 1990

IF BRIAN ENO, Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads, David Sylvian and Tears For Fears have anything in common, you wouldn't instantly think of American avant-garde composer/trumpeter ...

Paul Johnson: HMV Oxford Street, London

Live Review by Julian Henry, Music Week, 13 July 1987

HE'S BEEN called "the most promising new singer of the decade" by London listings mag Time Out and it's a description Paul Johnson's debut CBS ...

Brian Kennedy

Profile and Interview by Johnny Black, Music Week, June 2010

IN THE COURSE of twenty years in the music business, Brian Kennedy has been there and done that. He's won awards, published two best-selling novels, ...

Lydia Lunch: ULU, London

Live Review by Julian Henry, Music Week, 18 January 1988

Lunch Punch ...

Mike & The Mechanics: Mike and the Mechanics

Profile and Interview by Johnny Black, Music Week, April 2011

WHO CAN SAY what might have happened if mother nature had endowed Mike Rutherford with a voice as distinctive as his Genesis partners Phil Collins ...

Roy Orbison

Retrospective by Johnny Black, Music Week, October 2008

JUDGED BY A JURY of his peers, Roy Orbison would almost certainly be found unanimously guilty of being the greatest singer and live performer of ...

Iggy Pop: Doggie Style: Iggy Pop

Interview by Paul Gorman, Music Week, January 1996

IT’S BEEN SAID before but bears repeating once Iggy Pop is witnessed at the close quarters of his cramped bedroom in London’s Halcyon Hotel: If ...

Finley Quaye: Well-Connected Hopeful

Report and Interview by Paul Gorman, Music Week, 1996

HE'S JUST TURNED 23, he's talented and he's handsome. He claims that Tricky's his nephew, Iggy Pop visits him in the studio and A Guy ...

Cliff Richard: Cliffstory

Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Music Week, September 2008

CLIFF RICHARD has been the most constant companion of British pop fans since 1958, but he remains one of the most enigmatic and controversial figures ...

Ronnie Scott's at 50

Retrospective by Johnny Black, Music Week, 25 April 2009

IN THE WORDS of the jazz legend who founded it, Ronnie Scott's club has always been, "just like home … filthy and full of strangers." ...

Neil Sedaka Looks Back

Profile and Interview by Johnny Black, Music Week, June 2009

IT'S OBVIOUS to anyone with even a smattering of pop music suss that without Neil Sedaka there would be no 'Breaking Up Is Hard To ...

Sonic Youth Clean Up Their Act: Washing Machine

Review and Interview by Martin Aston, Music Week, 1995

TRUST A BUNCH of New York art-rockers to contemplate jeopardising their increasing popularity by changing their name to Washing Machine, but that's what Sonic Youth, ...

Spice Girls: Taking On The Britboys: Spice Girls

Report and Interview by Paul Gorman, Music Week, April 1996

JUST WHEN BOYS with guitars threaten to rule pop life – Damon's all over Smash Hits, Ash are big in Big! and Liam can't move ...

Bruce Springsteen's 'Dream'

Report and Interview by Johnny Black, Music Week, January 2009

THE FIRST PUBLIC airing of 'Working On A Dream', the title track from The Boss’s upcoming 24th album took place during Barack Obama’s massive rally ...

Alvin Stardust

Interview by Johnny Black, Music Week, April 2010

NECESSITY, THEY say, is the mother of invention, and no-one knows that better than Alvin Stardust. ...

Cat Stevens

Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Music Week, January 2010

ON A CLEAR DAY, from the roof of the Shaftesbury Theatre, you can gaze out over London's West End theatreland, and listen for the echoes ...

Super Cat: Puss In Boops

Interview by Penny Reel, Music Week, 14 January 1989

Penny Reel prowls Miller’s Terrace with Super Cat ...

Robbie Williams: True Brit

Report by Johnny Black, Music Week, June 2010

LESS THAN a year ago Robbie Williams was being written off by the nation's critics, but this month has seen him honoured with an Outstanding ...

Jah Wobble: Ex-Punk Turned Musical Innovator

Report and Interview by Paul Gorman, Music Week, 4 November 1995

AS HE POINTED out on the song 'Becoming Closer To God' last year, Jah Wobble is "far more than a long-lost anagram" these days. ...

Young MC: Rhymin' Reason

Interview by Julian Henry, Music Week, 9 December 1989

"IT TOOK me about 35 minutes to write the words to 'Wild Thing' and about an hour to write 'Funky Cold Medina'. It was easy." ...

Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction: Town & Country Club, London

Live Review by Julian Henry, Music Week, 18 July 1987

THE RECENT penetration of the top 30 by the debut Zodiac Mindwarp single, 'Prime Mover', was one of the more pleasing events in this year's ...

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