Punk and Hardcore
1,316 articles
MC5: An Interview with Rob Tyner
Interview by John Sinclair, The Warren-Forest Sun, May 1967
The following interview with ROBIN TYNER, the lead singer of the MC5, the major Detroit avant-rock band, was recorded by JOHN SINCLAIR in the first ...
The Stooges: The Stooges (Elektra)
Review by Lenny Kaye, Fusion, 19 September 1969
I WAS ONCE thinking of doing a piece on Blue Cheer where I wanted to show, through all sorts of diagrams and convoluted logic, that ...
The Stooges: The Very New "Iggy" Approach To Rock Music
Interview by Mike Gormley, Detroit Free Press, 21 September 1969
"On Saturday, Iggy appeared onstage wearing only sneakers and dungarees cut down to shorts. Iggy, who was a high school valedictorian back home, seeks to ...
The Velvet Underground c/o New York, NY
Report and Interview by Robert Greenfield, Fusion, 6 March 1970
NONE OF THIS concerns anything except maybe the back room at Max's Kansas City, which is on Union Square in Manhattan but not worth finding ...
Iggy Pop, The Stooges: Night of the Iggy
Report and Interview by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 12 February 1972
WHO IS IT who smashes a microphone in his teeth, tears flesh from his bare chest, leaps into the audience busting bones in all directions, ...
Iggy Pop, The Stooges: Iggy & The Stooges: Kingsound (King's Cross Cinema), London
Live Review by Rosalind Russell, Disc, 22 July 1972
IGGY AND the Stooges made their first performance in over a year on Saturday night, Sunday morning. Despite the event happening in the dead of ...
Iggy Pop, The Stooges: An Initiation Into Iggy Pop
Profile by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 29 July 1972
For those who think Bowie a trifle lame... ...
Iggy Pop, The Stooges: Iggy and the Stooges: Raw Power (Columbia KC 32111).
Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 3 June 1973
The Genuine Depravity of Iggy ...
Mike Oldfield, The Stooges: Mike Oldfield: Tubular Bells; Iggy And The Stooges: Raw Power
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, August 1973
SOME RECORDS GET so much critical attention that I can’t listen to them blind, can’t ignore other opinions. So, according to John Peel Tubular Bells ...
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 6 July 1974
— that's how the Americans describe those freaky New York bands like Wayne County and Teenage Lust. Chris Charlesworth, guided by photographer Bob Gruen, takes ...
Overview by uncredited writer, Shakin' Street Gazette, 7 November 1974
THIS IS YOUR BIG CHANCE! Yes, it’s all coming back. Following the rock & roll revival, the surf music revival, and the reggae revival, the ...
The Stooges: Iggy And The Stooges: Metallic K.O. (Skydog) ****
Review by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 18 September 1975
Crass, conceited, vulgar and unpleasant. Also quite unique. ...
Report by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 8 November 1975
"BEAT ON the brat, beat on the brat, beat on the brat with a baseball bat..." ...
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. ...
Patti Smith: Art for Art's Sake
Profile by Gary Kenton, Phonograph Record, December 1975
I WAS ON the telephone to one of New York's successful management firms last week and, like all successful New York firms, they put me ...
Patti Smith: Somewhere, Over the Rimbaud
Profile and Interview by Susin Shapiro, Crawdaddy!, December 1975
NEW YORK – IT'S 8:30 a.m. on a fog-soup Friday, an indecent hour to be conducting an interview, much less making a record. ...
The 101'ers, The Clash, Sex Pistols: The 101'ers — 1976
Special Feature by Ira Robbins, Peter Silverton, unpublished, 1976
September 21, 2021 introduction by Ira Robbins (www.trouserpress.com) ...
Interview by Mary Harron, Punk, January 1976
RIGHT NOW I am sitting by the stage where Joey Ramone has wrapped his tall languorous body and his long long hands around the microphone ...
Bob Dylan, Bob Marley & the Wailers, Bruce Springsteen: Is Rock 'N' Roll Ready For 1976?
Comment by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 3 January 1976
What has all this to do with all this? Does anyone care? MICK FARREN'S IS THE VOICE FROM THE GALLERY ...
The Ramones, Talking Heads, Television: Punk Rock: Its Day Will Come
Report by Wayne Robins, Newsday, 25 January 1976
IF YOU thought Jefferson Airplane was a weird name, let some of these drop off your tongue. Talking Heads. Tuff Darts. Ramones. Planets. Heartbreakers. Shirts. ...
Essay by Alan Betrock, New York Rocker, February 1976
WHEN I THINK back a few years, I'm really amazed at how well certain records sold. I'm talking about basic rock 'n' roll records, or ...
Report by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 27 March 1976
In downtown Manhattan the rock 'n' roll war rages on as potential crown princes of Punkdom battle for recognition.. NICK KENT interprets the action ...
Sex Pistols: El Paradise Club, London
Live Review by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 10 April 1976
SOHO'S EL Paradise Club is to become a Sunday residency for the Sex Pistols and London is all the better off for it. It's about ...
Sex Pistols: The Sex Pistols are four months old...
Report and Interview by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 24 April 1976
THE SEX PISTOLS are four months old, so tuned in to the present that it's hard to find a place to play. Yet they already ...
Interview by Lisa Jane Persky, New York Rocker, May 1976
Suicide Note: "The thought of suicide is a great consolation; with the help of it, one has got through many a bad night."– F. Nietzsche ...
Sex Pistols: Terrorise Your Fans The Pistol Way
Readers' Letters by Neil Tennant, uncredited writer, New Musical Express, 8 May 1976
GOSH, BLIMEY, what's going on ere? Relax, it's just a friendly Friday night down at the local — the Nashville, Kensington to be precise — ...
Patti Smith Group: The Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 22 May 1976
Energy is back in fashion ...
Patti Smith: At Last, The Lower Manhattan Show
Report and Interview by Miles, New Musical Express, 22 May 1976
Patti Smith at the Roundhouse, facing fans, friends, fungoids and straightforward weirdos – Britain's first live chance of checking out the 'legend'. MILES went as ...
Patti Smith, The Stranglers: Patti Smith: The Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 22 May 1976
Patti Smith: poet cornered ...
The Sex Pistols: 100 Club, London
Live Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, June 1976
LONDON, THE TREND centre of last decade’s mod rebellion, has been running a poor second, if not third, this time around. ...
The Sex Pistols: Sex Pistols: 100 Club, London
Live Review by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 5 June 1976
BUT FIRST a few words about support group Dogwatch. At first they sounded exactly like It's A Beautiful Day circa 1968, but this rapidly gave ...
Essay by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 19 June 1976
AS YOU CAN all quite well-imagine, the letters that get themselves printed in Gasbag (or Dogbag or Ratbag or Scumbag or whatever jiveass name we've ...
The Ramones: Grins and Groans with the Ramones
Profile and Interview by Susin Shapiro, Sounds, 26 June 1976
Everyone in New York has got the Ramones bug. Some people like the punks, others hate them but they sure don't ignore them. Nor will ...
The Ramones: Ramones (Sire Import)
Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, July 1976
PHEW, WHAT A scorcher! From the opening call to action of 'Blitzkrieg Bop' to the last strung-out powerchord of 'Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World', ...
The Ramones: Why the Ramones Are Great (I Think)
Comment by Paul Nelson, Circus, 6 July 1976
RAMONES (SIRE) may or may not be the best album so far this year, but its fate — good or bad — is going to ...
Live Review by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 10 July 1976
Whadya want, good diction or good music? Giovanni Dadomo sees da Ramones an' da Groovies an' gets some good an' some bad a' both. ...
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 10 July 1976
MAYBE IT WAS no accident that the hottest, steamiest, dirtiest night of the year was reserved for July 4. It's not every day that we ...
The Ramones: Ramones (Sire SASD-7520)
Review by Paul Nelson, Rolling Stone, 29 July 1976
IF TODAY'S Rolling Stone were the Cahiers du Cinema of the late Fifties, a band of outsiders as deliberately crude and basic as the Ramones ...
Live Review by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 31 July 1976
ABOVE MANCHESTER'S Free Trade Hall is a little known auditorium, capable of holding some 400, cunningly named the Lesser Hall. Until the Sex Pistols discovered ...
The Sex Pistols: Punk Rock: Rebels Against the System
Report and Interview by Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, 7 August 1976
JOHNNY ROTTEN looks bored. The emphasis is on the word "looks" rather than, as Johnny would have you believe, the word "bored". His clothes, held ...
The Clash: Rehearsal Rehearsals, Chalk Farm, London
Live Review by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 21 August 1976
The first band to come along who'll really frighten the Sex Pistols ...
The Ramones: Are the Ramones, or Is the Ramone?
Interview by Lisa Jane Persky, New York Rocker, September 1976
PUNK IS A word described in many dictionaries as that which is used to light fireworks; and in this case it is. Eager to pin ...
Television: Symbolist Coffee Break: A Dream Date With T.V.
Interview by Wesley Strick, Gig, September 1976
IF IT CAN boast nothing more, Television bears the distinction of being Manhattan's most written-up, unrecorded band. Given the availability of press hype, you don't ...
Report by Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, 4 September 1976
Special report from the first European Punk Rock Festival in the South of France by CAROLINE COON ...
Live Review by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 11 September 1976
A STRANGE affair, this. And then some. ...
The Clash, The Kursaal Flyers: The Kursaal Flyers/Crazy Cavan/Clash: Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, 11 September 1976
JOE STRUMMER'S Clash — the best new band of the year? Well, some would claim as much. At least you can guarantee that any band ...
Live Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 11 September 1976
Our Islington correspondent mingles with the Sex Pistols' portable audience looking for Johnny Rotten's toof. It's incisive stuff… ...
The Sex Pistols: Club De Chalet Du Lac, Paris
Live Review by Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, 11 September 1976
PARIS: The Sex Pistols believed the myth that it all happens in Paris. The fans who drove over specially to see the band's first appearance ...
The Ramones: Short Hairs: Ramones
Profile and Interview by Wesley Strick, Blast, October 1976
IF THE BAY City Rollers were weaned on Manhattan Clam Chowder instead of Scotch Broth, they'd be the Ramones. Oh, yeah? ...
Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, October 1976
Kris Needs, a rather weird creature whose brain has the capacity to appreciate talents as diverse as those of Tom Rapp and the Runaways, decides ...
Report by Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, 2 October 1976
THE 600-STRONG line, which last Monday straggled across two blocks outside London's 100 Club in Oxford Street, waiting for the Punk Rock Festival to start, ...
Buzzcocks, Eater: The Buzzcocks, Eater: Holdsworth Hall, Manchester
Live Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 2 October 1976
YOU CAN count on Manchester to be 48 months behind apparent national trends. Like, reggae is largely frowned upon: crunching hard rock bands employing predictable ...
Live Review by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 2 October 1976
High dummy count flunks punks ...
Sex Pistols: The Sex Pistols: The 100 Club, London
Live Review by Ed Jones, New Society, 7 October 1976
A STEAM ENGINE IN LABOUR ...
The Sex Pistols, Siouxsie & The Banshees: The (?) Rock Special (#2): The Audience
Report and Interview by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 9 October 1976
"I didn't even know the Summer of Love was happening. I was too busy playing with my Action Man."— Sid Vicious ...
The Sex Pistols: The (?) Rock Special (#3): Sex Pistols
Report and Interview by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 9 October 1976
John Rotten (vocals), Steve Jones (guitar), Glen Matlock (bass), Paul Cook (drums). ...
The (?) Rock Special (#4): Mark P
Profile and Interview by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 9 October 1976
"I may be sounding dramatic but I wanna go out and hear the sounds that I like every night, I wanna have to choose what ...
Profile by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 9 October 1976
"I don't understand why people think it's so difficult to learn to play the guitar. I found it incredibly easy. You just pick a chord ...
Overview by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 9 October 1976
Johnny Rotten, the Clash, the Damned and a committed cast of hundreds of new music makers give the finger to the old farts ...
The Clash: Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
Live Review by Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, 30 October 1976
THE ICA, that home of lively experiment in London's Mall, is fast becoming the badly needed workshop-cum-watering hole for the growing number of jolly ravers ...
Profile by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 30 October 1976
Whatever, Giovanni Dadomo should know. He's been keeping "tabs" on these "psychedelic" Stranglers and he's hip to their "trip" ...
The Dictators, The Ramones, Television: The Punk Rock Machine
Report and Interview by Lester Bangs, Screw, November 1976
IT'S A WARM New York night in the spring of 1976, and there are a lot of places that the press moguls who publish, edit, ...
Profile and Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, November 1976
AMONG THE hordes of bands currently playing London's pub and club circuit, the Stranglers are leading contenders to break out and hit unsuspecting mass audiences ...
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 ...
Live Review by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 6 November 1976
THIS ONE takes place in Fulham Town Hall and a glance tells you whoever designed this place had his sights firmly set on Cummerbund City. ...
The Clash, Suburban Studs: Barbarella's, Birmingham
Live Review by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 13 November 1976
WEDNESDAY HAD been booked as Punk Night at Barbarellas, an excuse, if nothing else, for the club deejay to fall in love with the sound ...
The Clash: Barbarellas, Birmingham
Live Review by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 13 November 1976
WEDNESDAY HAD been booked as Punk Night at Barbarellas, an excuse, if nothing else, for the club deejay to fall in love with the sound ...
The Clash: Down And Out And Proud
Interview by Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, 13 November 1976
THREE WEEKS AGO at London's ICA, Jane and Shane, regulars on the new-wave punk rock scene, were sprawled at the edge of the stage. Blood ...
Buzzcocks: Band on the Wall, Electric Circus, Manchester
Live Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 27 November 1976
MANCHESTER MADMEN ...
Profile and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 27 November 1976
MEET MALCOLM McLAREN. He runs a shop called "SEX". He manages a group called THE SEX PISTOLS. He sincerely believes that he and his band ...
The Clash, Sex Pistols, Throbbing Gristle, The Vibrators: Punk and the Sex Pistols
Essay by Ed Jones, The Spectator, 27 November 1976
BEWARE! WHEN Britain's biggest record company, EMI, and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, the citadel of the self-regarding avant-garde, unite behind a single idea within ...
The Sex Pistols: Sex Pistols: Rotten To The Core
Interview by Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, 27 November 1976
"I had absolutely no interest in singing. I was more interested in being obnoxious." ...
The Clash: Nag's Head, High Wycombe
Live Review by Kris Needs, Sounds, 27 November 1976
THE CLASH gave the provincial nightmare of High Wycombe an electric shock it won't soon forget last Thursday night. ...
The Damned: In The Pub Across The Road With The Damned
Interview by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 27 November 1976
1. Point Of Information This isn't, as one might have been lead to expect from the blurb in last week's paper, an 'In The Road' ...
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 27 November 1976
YOU KNOW what these albums remind me of: The This Is Mersey Beat collections that Oriole put out after the first wave of Liverpool bands had gotten ...
The Clash, Tapper Zukie: London/The Clash
Profile and Interview by Kris Needs, New York Rocker, December 1976
"WE'RE ONE up the arse for the rich, established groups... There's so many useless bands around it's not even worth naming any." ...
Live Review by Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, 11 December 1976
Punk! On stage! ...
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 11 December 1976
Palmolive, drums; Kate Korus, rhythm guitar; Suzi Gutsy, bass; Arianna Forster, lead vocals ...
The Clash: Eighteen Flight Rock...
Interview by Miles, New Musical Express, 11 December 1976
...AND THE SOUND OF THE WESTWAY ...
Sex Pistols: The Sex Pistols: Great Moments In Rock Part 4336 — It's Those F***ing Punks Again!
Report by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 11 December 1976
Thousands outraged by four-letter words ...
Sex Pistols: The Sex Pistols: Johnny knows he's not mad. Can you say that?
Interview by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 11 December 1976
Barry Cain talks to the band everyone's talking about, the Sex Pistols ...
Generation X: Central London College of Art and Design
Live Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 18 December 1976
WITH SIOUXSIE and the Banshees not playing because "they couldn't get it together" and the remaining support act, Eater, being a band that I wouldn't ...
Live Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 18 December 1976
The Sex Pistols/The Clash/The Heartbreakers /The Buzzcocks: Electric Circus, Manchester ...
The Sex Pistols: U.K. Sex Pistols Fire a Controversy
Report by Peter Jones, Billboard, 18 December 1976
LONDON — A live televised shouting match between interviewer Bill Grundy and the EMI punk rock band, Sex Pistols, in which four-letter words flew fast ...
Live Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 25 December 1976
THREE DANCE bands playing the Electric Circus for the second time in ten days. They're back because the Circus is one of the very few ...
Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, 1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion, 1977
THE SEX PISTOLS made their debut at St Martins School of Art on Friday 6th of November 1975. The irate social secretary cut the power ...
Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, 1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion, 1977
"I want more bands like us. I want people to go out and start something, to see us and start something, or else I'm just ...
Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, '1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion', 1977
Monday, September 20th: The Sex Pistols, the Clash, Subway Sect, Siouxsie and the Banshees. Tuesday, September 21st: The Damned, Chris Spedding and the Vibrators, the ...
Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, '1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion', 1977
WHEN I FIRST interviewed the Clash in their barrack like studio in Chalk Farm, they had yet to sign a record contract, although they were ...
Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, '1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion', 1977
IN OCTOBER 1976 Nick Lowe produced the single 'New Rose' in an eight-track recording studio. It was the first U.K. punk sound on vinyl, preceeding ...
The Damned: The First European Punk Rock Festival
Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, 1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion', (Omnibus), 1977
VERY LITTLE ABOUT the festival turned out as planned. Initially the Heartdrops (now the Clash), Richard Hell, the Sex Pistols and Graham Parker and the ...
Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, '1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion', 1977
THE RECORD INDUSTRY is waking up. In October there were rumours about huge deals on the horizon, and Polydor look set to be the first ...
Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, '1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion', 1977
THE STRANGLERS slogged through over four hundred gigs in two years building up an ever-increasing following. They did not jump on the punk bandwagon but ...
Chelsea, The Stranglers: The Stranglers, Chelsea: Nashville, London
Live Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, 8 January 1977
BASS MAN Jean Jacques Burned now sports a torn t-shirt and black eye liner. If it wasn't for the big Fender Precision slung round his ...
Blondie: Blondie (Private Stock PS2023, Import)**
Review by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 22 January 1977
This gentleman doesn't prefer Blondie ...
The Damned, The Sex Pistols: U.K. Report: Sex Pistols And Beyond
Report and Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 27 January 1977
LONDON – So this is how legends are born. Not with a song, or even a death, but with an expletive. ...
Generation X: The Band of the Book
Profile and Interview by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 29 January 1977
IT BEGAN with a street whisper. ...
The Ramones, Talking Heads: Ramones & Heads: Punk Art?
Report and Interview by Toby Goldstein, Crawdaddy!, February 1977
NEW YORK — The glittered frenzy of recent years has receded into a brooding severity of black and grays. The punk-rockers, newest manifestations of media ...
Buzzcocks: Teen Rebel Scores £250 From Dad
Profile by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 5 February 1977
This feature bears the New Wave Seal of Quality ...
Generation X, Sex Pistols: Just Dropped Intuh Tha Fun House: Impressions Of The Roxy
Report by Jane Suck, Sounds, 12 February 1977
I CAME to see Generation X and to look for prospective musicians as I had been assured that the floor was knee deep in 'em ...
The Damned: Damned Damned Damned (Stiff SEEZ 1)
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 19 February 1977
Damned with faint praise ...
The Damned: Damned, Damned, Damned (Stiff Records)
Review by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 19 February 1977
LADIES AND Gentlemen — welcome to the world's first 78 rpm album. At last, a recording that gives credence to the claim that punk does ...
The Damned: Damned, Damned, Damned (Stiff Seez 1)*****
Review by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 19 February 1977
Fast, crazy, dangerous and Damned ...
Live Review by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 26 February 1977
FUNNY WHAT rave reviews can do. ...
Iggy Pop, The Stooges: Iggy Pop on the Stooges (1977) [transcript]
Audio transcript of interview by Stuart Grundy, Rock's Backpages transcripts, March 1977
This is a transcript of Stuart's audio interview with Iggy. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers: Italians Define Rock 'N' Roll
Report and Interview by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 5 March 1977
"YOU ITALIAN? You look Italian," says Johnny Thunders when we're introduced. ...
American Grandstand: Hey Rocky, what's a punk?
Comment by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 10 March 1977
AS ROLLING Stone has developed a nonrock readership, columnists from William Buckley to Russell Baker have been confused by some of the more arcane rock ...
Interview by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 10 March 1977
"Nobody wants to see Punk grow up" ...
Live Review by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 12 March 1977
Run with the pack as ace reporter Joe Varnish checks out Iggy Pop, The Heartbreakers, Cherry Vanilla, Wayne County and one or two local boys ...
Television: Marquee Moon (Elektra K52046) *****
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 12 March 1977
Do Not Adjust Your Set ...
The Saints: (I'm) Stranded (EMI Import EMC 2870 Code 304)
Review by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 12 March 1977
St. Stranded ...
Mumps, New York Dolls, The Ramones, Talking Heads: The Ramones: Punk City Night
Interview by Gary Kenton, Circus, 17 March 1977
The Ramones Leave Home While Talking Heads and Mumps Play the Bowery ...
The Damned, T. Rex: T. Rex and The Damned: The Beautiful and The Damned
Report by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 19 March 1977
T Rex and The Damned on tour together... will the boppers say nix to the new wave? Will Bolan get blown off the stage? Captain ...
Buzzcocks, The Clash, The Slits, The Subway Sect: The Clash etc: Harlesden's Burning
Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 19 March 1977
The Clash/The Buzzcocks/The Subway Sect/The Slits: Harlesden Colosseum, London ...
Live Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 19 March 1977
NICK KENT comes out of hiding to offer himself as a 'punk' sacrifice to the ritualistic 'beat' of THE CLASH, THE BUZZCOCKS, THE SUBWAY SECT ...
The Clash: Coliseum, Harlesden, London
Live Review by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 19 March 1977
THE CLASH Somewhere west of Karachi ...
Review by Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, 19 March 1977
The Clash: there's a riot goin' on... ...
Report and Interview by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 19 March 1977
THE KID IN THE PUB doesn't believe I'm me. "You a roadie?" "I'm a writer." "Yeah?" He's already dubious. "Who do you write for then?" ...
Lou Reed, The Sex Pistols: The Sex Pistols: Lou Reed Joins Pistols Furore
Report and Interview by uncredited writer, Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, 26 March 1977
LOU REED claims he has been banned from the London Palladium because of the continuing controversy surrounding the Sex Pistols and punk rock. ...
Sex Pistols: The Sex Pistols: Notre Dame Hall, London
Live Review by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 26 March 1977
CRUCIFIED! High priest Rotten takes up the cloth ...
The Clash, The Damned, Sex Pistols: Punk Is Just Another Word for Nothin' Left To Lose
Essay by Mary Harron, The Village Voice, 28 March 1977
The worst insult in the English punks' vocabulary is "poser". These are working-class kids who resent it when the middle classes ape their style. ...
Interview by Radio Pete, Rocky Mountain Musical Express, April 1977
At the conclusion of a wildly successful Western tour which took them from L.A. to Seattle, San Jose to Aberdine, The Ramones descended upon Denver ...
Report by Kris Needs, ZigZag, April 1977
Well, we got through to the second issue despite opposition from the hippies. Anyway, here we are...and it's about time we went Over The Top ...
The Clash, Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers: A Storm Is Coming
Interview by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, April 1977
Last week Clash jumped 60 places in the chart and Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers packed out London's Marquee. New Wave is now Big Wave. ...
Report and Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, April 1977
AT THE MOMENT there isn't a group in the New Wave that comes within spitting distance of The Clash, live or on record. Within a ...
Comment by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 2 April 1977
'STAY TUNED for further developments,' John Ingham said at the end of his 'Rock Special' in SOUNDS October 9, 1976. As he forward-thinkingly observed even ...
Live Review by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 2 April 1977
OBVIOUS BAND for the slag-off merchants this. ...
The Clash: The Clash (CBS 82000)
Review by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 9 April 1977
Clash lead black vinyl riot ...
Sex Pistols, The Slits: The Sex Pistols, the Slits: Screen on the Green, Islington, London
Live Review by Sandy Robertson, Record Mirror, 9 April 1977
LIKE THE Pistols' last gig. this was an unpublicised, word-of-mouth affair where you just had to turn up at the door and take your chances. ...
Sex Pistols: The Sex Pistols: The Screen on the Green, London
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 9 April 1977
IN WHICH IT must be conceded that Malcolm McLaren has a first-class media brain with a perfect instinct for theatre. ...
Live Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 9 April 1977
These young chaps have an album out soon. It would be strange if they didn't ...
Buzzcocks, Johnny Moped, Wire, X-Ray Spex: Buzzcocks/X-Ray Spex/Wire etc.: Running with the Ratpack
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 16 April 1977
ROXY RATPACK, Saturday nite. Find a friend and stick close: sink or swim. Tony and Julie were right: a club full of 'Wild Boys' outtakes ...
Generation X: The Marquee, London
Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 16 April 1977
THE QUEUE outside looked promising. Over two months since Gen-X had played a London date (barring the infamous Noreik fiasco). As soon as you forced ...
The Stranglers: IV Rattus Norvegicus (United Artists)****
Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, 16 April 1977
I THINK this album will surprise a lot of people. After all (by chance, coincidence and a spot of media manipulation, no less) the Stranglers ...
The Damned: the Starwood, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 20 April 1977
THE DAMNED, the first representative from England's Blank Generation of punk-rockers to reach America, proved more harmless Monday at the Starwood than dispatches from abroad ...
The Boys, John Cale, Generation X: John Cale, Generation X, The Boys: Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 23 April 1977
WILD WELSH ROCK: Lush valleys and terrifying peaks ...
Richard Hell: The Jaws of Hell
Report and Interview by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 23 April 1977
"RICHARD HELL is always a little bit WORSE than everybody else." ...
The Damned, The Dead Boys: The Damned: The Fantastic Four versus the Big Apple
Report by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 23 April 1977
The story so far: Barry Cain and The Damned have journeyed to New York in pursuit of the evil CBGB... ...
Live Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 23 April 1977
THE JAM WERE scarcely halfway through their set at half past six when the geezer at the door of the Roundhouse told the 300-plus still ...
The Adverts, The Damned, Motorhead: The Damned/The Adverts/Motorhead: The Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 30 April 1977
I FIRST saw the Damned at the Roundhouse last November. Shortly after the release of 'New Rose'. Although the 45 had been successful the set ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1977
A monthly blindfold test by those masters of Slander Rock, Mark Volman & Howard Kaylan ...
The Damned, The Dead Boys: CBGB, New York NY
Live Review by Joe Sasfy, Unicorn Times, May 1977
I SawThe Damned And The Dead Boys And Am Alive And Not Angry By Joe Sasfy, Doctor of Rockology ...
The Ramones: Leave Home (Sire)
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, May 1977
ROCK CRITIC or not, your reviewer resides in the Midwest, and doesn't make it up to Noo Yawk any too often (last such trek occurring ...
The Stranglers: IV Rattus Norvegicus
Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, May 1977
HERE COME the Stranglers with forty minutes of brain-rapingly original spewings like you ain't gonna hear anywhere else. ...
What The New Wave's Thrown Up — Punk Press Report
Overview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, May 1977
THE RECENT deluge of New Wave fanzines can only be a good thing... they're written and created by fans for the fans, with no sign ...
Blondie, Debbie Harry: Blondie's Debbie Harry & Chris Stein (1977) [transcript]
Audio transcript of interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 1 May 1977
This is a transcript of John's audio interview with Blondie's Debbie and Chris. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Eddie & The Hot Rods: Eddie and the Hot Rods: Teenage Depression (Island ILPS 9457)
Review by Simon Frith, Rolling Stone, 5 May 1977
THE REASON HISTORY can't repeat itself is because we know too much, and the reason that most of the punk bands currently plaguing Britain aren't ...
The Clash, The Subway Sect: The Clash, Subway Sect: Palais des Glaces, Paris
Live Review by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 7 May 1977
Beware Les Français: C'est la Guerre! The Clash return to the scene of the May 68 riots and whip up a storm. Barry Cain reports... ...
The Clash: Palais des Glaces, Paris
Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 7 May 1977
THE AUDIENCE at the Palais des Glaces, a sleazy 30's flea-pit with odd nooks where Parisians indulged in the bourgeois old-wave habit of getting high ...
Buzzcocks, The Clash, The Slits, The Subway Sect: The Front Line: On The Road With The Clash
Report by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 14 May 1977
JOE STRUMMER says he'll smash my face in if I so much as print a syllable of what's said in the dressing room of the ...
The Saints: Would You Let These Men Tie Your Kangaroo Down?
Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 14 May 1977
Watch out, sport, the Saints are coming. PETE SILVERTON gets a buzz from 'em. ...
The Subway Sect: Subway Sect (1977)
Interview by Ian Ravendale, Rock's Backpages audio, 20 May 1977
"The blankest of the blank generation": the pioneering punks attempt to answer the question, what is punk, why punk had to happen, the importance of lyrics and the anger at the heart of it all.
File format: mp3; file size: 10mb, interview length: 10' 54" sound quality: *****
Interview by Ian Ravendale, Rock's Backpages audio, 20 May 1977
The lanky plank-spanker in a wide-ranging conversation about politics, phlegm and – after Don Letts drops in – white reggae.
File format: mp3; file size: 14.3mb, interview length: 15' 37" sound quality: ****
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 21 May 1977
"TURN OFF the music – we want to play," R the bassist yelled at the DJ and, before you had time to chuckle at the ...
X-Ray Spex: Man In The Moon, Chelsea
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 21 May 1977
A SMALLISH basement room, low-ceilinged, with a bar along one wall, and quite plush – tonite healthily full with about 100 people, A stopgap scene ...
Live Review by Jane Suck, Sounds, 28 May 1977
Getting those (Chinese) rocks off ...
Interview by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 28 May 1977
WOKING CLASS heroes with Union J-J Jack tenacity. The J-J-Jam. ...
The Ramones, Talking Heads: The Ramones: Gabba Gabba Hey In The UK
Live Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, 28 May 1977
The Ramones/Talking Heads: Eric's, Liverpool ...
The Ramones: The Incredible Four-Headed Transplant
Interview by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 28 May 1977
A chat with those Very Special People from NYC, The Ramones, conducted by the shabbily nondescript Giovanni Dadomo of King's Cross. ...
The Vibrators: Winning Post, Twickenham
Live Review by Tim Lott, Sounds, 28 May 1977
OUT IN Twickenham, they haven't really made up their mind. ...
The Sex Pistols, Television: Pimp-Rock?
Comment by Lisa Jane Persky, New York Rocker, June 1977
EVERYTHING happens to us all so quickly these days that even before something is completed, it is dated, labels must be attached for definition and ...
The Sex Pistols: Sex Pistols: Silver Jubilation
Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, June 1977
A Jubilee special from the ever-patriotic Zigzag team in the form of an almost-exclusive interview with those lovable crop-tops from Shepherd's Bush, the Sex Pistols. ...
The Stranglers: IV Rattus Norvegicus (United Artists)
Review by John Tobler, ZigZag, June 1977
THERE'S LITTLE DOUBT that while the first batch of British new wave albums were by the more outrageous elements, and somehow seemed to rely on ...
Gloria Mundi: Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
Profile and Interview by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, 4 June 1977
AND WHAT did Gloria Mundi's Eddie Maelov get for the courage of his, convictions? ...
The Sex Pistols: Rotten Is Mum's Boy Shock
Report by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 4 June 1977
NO MATTER how much criticism a young boy incites by his allegedly outrageous behaviour there's always somebody who will lovingly stand by him. His mum. ...
Wayne County & The Electric Chairs: Marquee, London
Live Review by Jane Suck, Sounds, 4 June 1977
AT NINE years of age I decapitated my dolls and donated a life to rock'n'roll. Nights like tonight I understand just why. (Gasp) it was ...
Sex Pistols, Rick Wakeman: Rick Wakeman Denies Press Rumors In Sex Pistols Controversy
Interview by Jim Farber, Circus, 9 June 1977
LONDON: The furor over the Sex Pistols' firing by A&M Records still rages in the British Press. Punk rock is more controversial than ever. Circus ...
Sex Pistols: The Sex Pistols: Enemies of the World
Interview by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 11 June 1977
• FACT. Simply by stating 'No Future' the Pistols are creating one • FACT. Their music outshines, outflanks and outclasses much of the jetlagged ineptitude ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 11 June 1977
MMM. PSYCHO daisies. Hid her wid de axe/you better relax. More zoop bop cartoon funnies – this time the movie's speeded up. Laugh this one ...
Malcolm McLaren, The Sex Pistols: A Non-Interview With Malcolm McLaren
Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 18 June 1977
I VISITED THE office of Glitterbest (Sex Pistols management) recently, accompanied by Tony D. (editor of Ripped & Torn fanzine) to try and arrange an ...
Live Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 18 June 1977
THERE IS undoubtedly a great deal of refining and cleaning to be done on Buzzcocks' material before the album they can so definitely record comes ...
The Sex Pistols: What Did You Do On The Jubilee? The Pistols on the Thames
Report by Jon Savage, Sounds, 18 June 1977
BEFORE THE POLICE came, it was a great party. Make that a capital G. ...
Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers: Bring a freezer, you're gonna need it
Report by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 25 June 1977
THE HEARTBREAKERS (make that THE JUNKIES), St Albans and Birmingham ...
The Saints: Saints or sinners?
Interview by Rosalind Russell, Record Mirror, 25 June 1977
THINK OF Australia. Think of Bondai Beach. Think of Fosters lager. Think of big butch lifeguards sunbathing on their surf boards. Ned Kelly. Botany Bay, ...
Siouxsie & the Banshees: Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment
Profile by Jane Suck, Sounds, 25 June 1977
Outrage is the game, Siouxsie and the Banshees is the name ...
Various: The Roxy London WC2 (Jan-Apr 77) (Harvest)
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 25 June 1977
AN APPROXIMATE Warhol dictum: ‘In the future, everybody will be famous for 15 minutes.’ We never had a proper Warhol scene over here, did we? ...
Generation X: We're Not Into The Mindless Drone
Report and Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, July 1977
GENERATION X are half way through their soundcheck, and there's a "what shall we play next?" lull in the proceedings. ...
Review by Howard Wuelfing, Unicorn Times, July 1977
REMEMBER "PUNK ROCK?" For a while there it was the supreme hip misconception — a much abused catch-all referring in general to any sort of ...
Essay by Alan Betrock, ZigZag, July 1977
2:39 Richard Hell and the Voidoids glide into take one of 'The Plan', a quirky composition, supported by subtle mood changes. At 2:43 it's finished. ...
The Sex Pistols: Sex Pistols Squirt Flood Gush
Interview by Kris Needs, New York Rocker, July 1977
AFTER MONTHS of concentrated opposition from about every form of authority under the sun, The Sex Pistols are finally winning. Everybody from record companies to ...
999, The Saints: The Saints, 999: The Nashville, London
Live Review by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 2 July 1977
THERE IS A TEMPTATION to regard The Saints as comic. This stems from a number of idiosyncratic things about them, not least of which is ...
The Doors, MC5, The Ramones, Jonathan Richman, The Stooges: Danny Fields: The Fields Connection
Interview by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 9 July 1977
The Doors, MC5, Iggy & The Stooges, John Cale, Lou Reed, Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers and The Ramones — without them the last ten years of ...
The Bay City Rollers, The Sex Pistols: GLC v Punk: Move Over, Sid Vicious
Report and Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 9 July 1977
GLC Tory jumps on "Good Kickin'" bandwagon ...
Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 16 July 1977
GENERATION X. In the 60's: a book wherein 'youth speaks about itself'. In the 70's: a 'new wave' band which does the same, on the ...
John Lydon, Sex Pistols: A Punk And His Music: An Evening With John Rotten
Interview by uncredited writer, Sounds, 23 July 1977
JOHNNY ROTTEN digs reggae and soul. That was one of the more interesting facets of his personality that emerged when he was interviewed by DJ ...
Alternative TV: Sniffin' Glue…
Report and Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 23 July 1977
NOW: THE ROXY these days is not what it was – whatever shrill camera-lens sense of event there was in the Andy Czezowski days has ...
The Lurkers: Attack Of The Distortion People
Profile and Interview by Jeremy Gluck, Sounds, 23 July 1977
ALLOW ME TO present The Lurkers, whose enlightened adherence to the golden rule of "Three Chords, Three Verses, Three Minutes" definitely fingers them as the ...
The Sex Pistols on Top of the Pops (BBC1)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 23 July 1977
Out to Lunch ...
Generation X, The Lurkers: Generation X/The Lurkers: The Marquee, London
Live Review by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 30 July 1977
YOU KNOW THAT immense sense of relief that hits you when you get through the one album in every twenty or so that you might ...
Buzzcocks, Howard Devoto, The Fall: Manchester: They Mean It Maaanchester
Overview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 30 July 1977
MANCHESTER as a Rock and Roll town just didn't use to exist. It fed dutifully off London, and there were frequent visits from groups to ...
The Sex Pistols: Sex Pistols Trigger Punk Rock Invasion
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 31 July 1977
DESPITE ENORMOUS media attention, the U.S. music industry has maintained a hands-off policy toward new wave or punk-rock music, probably hoping that it will go ...
The Sex Pistols: Sex Pistols Trigger Punk Rock Invasion
Report and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 31 July 1977
DESPITE ENORMOUS media attention, the U.S. music industry has maintained a hands-off policy toward new wave or punk-rock music, probably hoping that it will go ...
The Ramones: A Night At The Ramones
Report and Interview by Gary Pig Gold, The Pig Paper, August 1977
IF YOU weren't square, you weren't there, or something. In other words, the gasping legions of Canadian punkdom filled the aptly-named New Yorker Theatre in ...
Profile and Interview by Gary Pig Gold, The Pig Paper, August 1977
DID YOU know that there's a punk band in Australia? Well, there are punk bands in Toronto, so nothing should surprise you. ...
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 ...
Generation X: This Canadian Geyser Come to London and Saw Generation X
Report by Jeremy Gluck, Sniffin' Glue, August 1977
"YOUTH, YOUTH, YOUTH". I heard that chorus on a tape just once and spent the whole week mentally playing it over and over. Then I ...
The Adverts: Reading The Adverts
Profile and Interview by Ian Birch, Melody Maker, 6 August 1977
THE NEW WAVE scythe has brought about a dual personality in programming for a lot of the more established clubs. ...
The Sex Pistols: The Social Rehabilitation of the Sex Pistols
Report and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 6 August 1977
THE PROSPEROUS CYBORGS at the next table in the backroom of this expensive Stockholm eating-place are sloshing down their coffee as fast as they possibly ...
The Vibrators: Marquee, London
Live Review by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 6 August 1977
THE TWO-FINGER salute put in a surprise appearance at The Vibrators' gig on Sunday. Whether the dozen pairs of arms frantically waving V signs were ...
Wayne County & The Electric Chairs: Wayne County: Electric Circus, Manchester
Live Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 6 August 1977
UPSTAIRS IN THE tiny Electric Circus dressing room Wayne County fussily fumbles and fidgets; he's got to look just right. He's wearing a crisp fawn ...
Sex Pistols, The Stranglers, The Vibrators: Punk: something Rotten in England
Report by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 11 August 1977
LONDON — British member of Parliament Marcus Lipton told his constituents that if punk rock was going to be used to destroy Britain's established institutions, ...
The Sex Pistols: Sex Pistols: 'Jooh-Nee! Jooh-Nee! Jooh-Nee!'
Report by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 13 August 1977
Swedes plead, Pistols perform, and Dadomo, the lone wop, reports on the second leg of their Scandinavian tour ...
The Clash, The Damned: Clash In Euro-Rock Horror
Report by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 20 August 1977
'Bilzen? more like Belsen' Clash, Damned: Bilzen Festival, Belgium ...
The Sex Pistols: On The Road With The Pistols Part 101: Inside Rotten's Wardrobe
Report by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 20 August 1977
And other Swedish delights. By GIOVANNI DADOMO ...
Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 20 August 1977
LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE GIRLS Snatch it while you can ...
MC5, New York Dolls, The Sex Pistols: The Sex Pistols: Kick out the jams
Comment by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 25 August 1977
IT CONTRAVENES logic, but there is little doubt in my mind that the most important record of the past year is the Sex Pistols' 'God ...
Boomtown Rats: The Boomtown Rats (Ensign)
Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 27 August 1977
OH CHRIST, what will we label them? Rock 'n' Roll, Rhythm & Blues, Pop/New Wave? All tags apply. But no one alone totally fits the ...
The Sex Pistols: Sex Pistols: The Rotten Interview
Interview by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 27 August 1977
In Sweden With The Pistols Part 194 ...
The Slits, Steel Pulse: Slits, Steel Pulse: Clouds, Brixton, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 27 August 1977
Once more the NME asks the question on the lips of thousands: Is this woman a prat? Yup, 'fraid so says PENNY REEL ...
Profile and Interview by Mary Harron, Sounds, 27 August 1977
THE DEAD BOYS are part of anew generation at CBGB's, a generation that has finally succeeded in erasing that fine line that divides the cool ...
The Runaways, The Weirdos: Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 29 August 1977
Jett, Ford Grab Runaways' Reins ...
The Clash: Belgium's Burning! The Clash in Europe
Report by Robin Banks, ZigZag, September 1977
"Be not the first by whom the new are tried/Nor yet the last to lay the old aside." ...
Interview by Danny Baker, ZigZag, September 1977
THE ROXY CLUB. Week one. The band bottom of the three playing that night played the night's most exciting set to about 20 people. ...
The Clash, Generation X: Only in ZigZag! The New Clash Single!
Review by Robin Banks, ZigZag, September 1977
THE CLASH: 'Complete Control'/'The City of the Dead' (CBS) ...
The Clash: The Clash (CBS 82000)
Review by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, September 1977
TO PARAPHRASE (and soft-peddle) the kind of language that greeted Patti Smith's Horses, this Clash album is a tremendous debut. Of all the new wave bands ...
Review by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, September 1977
BACK IN nineteen-sixty-something, when an earlier new wave was proudly unfurling, several Live at the Star Club LPs appeared, scooping up some of the bands ...
The Clash: God, What A Bummer! Stuck Here With Joe Strummer!
Report and Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 3 September 1977
THE CLASH AT BELSEN... 'ALL JOURNALISTS ARE SWINE' BY CHRIS SALEWICZ, WHO DUCKS AND RUNS. ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie And The Banshees: Vortex, London
Live Review by Jane Suck, Sounds, 3 September 1977
"I DON'T know what it is, but it isn't rock 'n' roll." The Banshees quote Glen Matlock's response to their last Vortex gig with pride. ...
Buzzcocks: Rafters, Manchester
Live Review by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 10 September 1977
BUZZCOCKS — a Manchester miasma causing GBH to the nostrils? Or one of the best damned bands the rainy city has ever produced? ...
Live Review by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 10 September 1977
SHAZAM 77! The antediluvian ideals of the pig-gutted swirl are in the process of a distortion that any bleach-eyed chameleon would be proud of. Like ...
The Rich Kids: Back With A Bullet
Profile and Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 10 September 1977
COMING DOWN from the Harrow Road by bus, Steve New's getting the rise taken out of him by a bunch of kids because he's wearing ...
Review by Tim Lott, Rosalind Russell, Record Mirror, 17 September 1977
He says there are... ...
The Jam: The Nashville, London
Live Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 17 September 1977
THE NEW WAVE scene is arguably more interesting now than ever, as the big five or six bands are being forced to consolidate their first ...
Report and Interview by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, 17 September 1977
TW STUDIOS are tucked away behind a drab shopfront off London's Fulham Palace Road. To gain entry you have to go round the side, through ...
Buzzcocks: Whatever Happened To The Buzzcocks?
Interview by Caroline Coon, Sounds, 17 September 1977
Now there's nothing behind meAnd I'm already a has-beenMy future ain't what it wasI think I know the words that I meanYou know me – ...
Live Review by Tim Lott, Record Mirror, 24 September 1977
And we don't careThe message: punk's now a business ...
Adam & The Ants: The Ants: Nashville, London
Live Review by Jane Suck, Sounds, 24 September 1977
avAntgarde ...
The Stranglers: No More Heroes
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 24 September 1977
AHHH – BUT these are testing times...now the very real euphoria has subsided, the scales have fallen from my eyes: not recantation, but re-evaluation. Timely ...
The Vibrators: The Punks Who Came In From The Cold
Report and Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 24 September 1977
"I think I ought to make it clear", says Knox, arms waving like flags in a stiff breeze, "that when we first started we were ...
The Sex Pistols: Punk Rock and the Sex Pistols
Overview by Stephen Demorest, Hit Parader, October 1977
Hey, said my name is called disturbance. I'll shout and scream, I'll kill the king,I'll rail at all his servants.–(Rolling Stones, 1968) ...
Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers: The Heartbreakers: LAMF
Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, October 1977
THE HEARBREAKERS are one of my fave live bands. For sheer ecstatic raunch you can't beat 'em. This album has been a long time coming. ...
Overview by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, October 1977
After A Glorious Year, British Punks Are Now Absorbed Into The Music Biz Money-go-round ...
The Sex Pistols: Not So Rotten After All
Profile and Interview by Giovanni Dadomo, Trouser Press, October 1977
RIGHT NOW in London, late August 1977, there's not a single sliver of doubt about it: this is the year of ...the Sex Pistols. They ...
Comment by Peter Silverton, Trouser Press, October 1977
EXTREME REACTIONS to the Stranglers are not unusual. Take the case of a mate (well, acquaintance) of mine, Dick O'Dell, tour/road manager for Alex Harvey. ...
Essay by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, October 1977
IT MAY COME as a bit of a shock, especially if you were just getting used to the idea, but Britain's new wave movement is ...
Alternative TV: Rat Club, London
Live Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 1 October 1977
ATV — FIRST gig with permanent drummer Chris/multi-cultural type crowd with heavy star attendance/sweating/Throbbing Gristle tapes/'Some kind of fanny show' (?)/drag queen movie (I missed ...
Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers: Billy, Walter and Johnny: The Heartbreakers
Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 1 October 1977
INTERVIEW TAKES place on a second floor flat, a stone’s throw away from the Thames. Present are: Walter Lure and Billy Rath, singer/guitarist and bassist ...
999, The Adverts, Motorhead: Is Gaye Well Equipped? Will These Boys Show You Their Equipment?
Report and Interview by Rosalind Russell, Record Mirror, 1 October 1977
How easy is it to start your own band? How much does it cost? Rosalind Russell looks at 999's equipment and goes round the shops ...
Report by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 1 October 1977
AFTER A WEEK of cloud-sealed gloom the sun shone down on London on Friday pushing the lunchtime temperature to 63 degrees. The vibes seemed auspicious ...
Live Review by Tim Lott, Record Mirror, 1 October 1977
Tell Laura I love her ...
Generation X: The Marquee, London
Live Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 8 October 1977
ROCK ON Indeed.I've finally figured out, after all this time, why, despite the fact that lots of people whose opinions I respect hate them, I ...
Richard Hell & The Voidoids: Blank Generation (Sire, Import)*****
Review by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 8 October 1977
IT'S THE voice you hear first and foremost here. ...
The Slits, The Subway Sect: Subway Sect, Slits: Music Machine, London
Live Review by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 8 October 1977
Some-of-us-take-this-seriously Productions present: THE CAVORTINGS OF CREATIVE PEOPLE ...
The Slits, The Subway Sect: Subway Sect/The Slits: Music Machine, Camden, London
Live Review by Jane Suck, Sounds, 8 October 1977
Sect stumble. Slits excite ...
Profile and Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 8 October 1977
IF I'D KNOWN what I was letting myself in for when I went to see John Cale at the Roundhouse this Easter, I think I'd ...
The Stranglers: Brunel University, Middlesex
Live Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, 8 October 1977
OF COURSE, what with all those bad reviews the Stranglers have picked up since the release of the new album No More Heroes, you might ...
Richard Hell: To Hell and Back: Richard Hell
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 8 October 1977
"I'M GLAD my name's Hell, because at least those people at the radio stations are gonna have some idea what to expect. I intend to ...
The Ramones, Sex Pistols, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Television: The Possibilities of Punk
Comment by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 10 October 1977
UP UNTIL about six months ago, CBGB's was the only rock bar I ever felt comfortable in. All you needed was a long scarf and ...
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 15 October 1977
Prime Manchester venue closes... Power cut at the Electric Circus ...
Devo, the Weirdos: Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 15 October 1977
Avant-Garde Devo at Whisky ...
Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers: L.A.M.F. (Track 2409 218)
Review by Ian Birch, Melody Maker, 15 October 1977
LET'S DISPENSE with some inevitables. One. Heartbreakers Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan were originally part of, the New York Dolls and, of course, we all ...
The Clash: Who's In Love With Janie Jones?
Interview by Caroline Coon, Sounds, 15 October 1977
DURING THE hot summer of 1976, a No. 31 bus jolts through Notting Hill Gate. On the top deck is Mick Jones, humming a riff. ...
The Saints: Music Machine, London
Live Review by Rosalind Russell, Record Mirror, 15 October 1977
THE SAINTS opened their new British tour at the Camden Music Machine — that was their first and I hope only mistake. It's fine booking ...
The Damned: Top Drummers Get Itchy Feet Dept.: Why I Quit The Damned by Rat Scabies
Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 15 October 1977
IT'S COMMON knowledge that all drummers are certifiable nutters but I must admit that when somebody whispered in my ear the other Sunday that the ...
Interview by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 15 October 1977
WHEN IS A Heartbreaker not a Heartbreaker? It may sound like the first half of a funny story but the sad truth is it's no ...
Richard Hell & The Void-Oids: Blank Generation (Sire SR 6037)
Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 20 October 1977
RICHARD HELL HAS been touted as an underground genius for nearly three years, and this debut album boldly tries to document him as such. The ...
X-Ray Spex: Oh Bondage! Up Yours!
Interview by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, 22 October 1977
"IF SOMEBODY said I was a sex symbol, I'd shave me'ead tomorrer," cackled Poly Styrene. "'Oh Bondage Up Yours' ain't about sex particularly. In fact ...
The Clash, Sex Pistols: Beyond the Dole Queue: The Politics of Punk
Essay by Simon Frith, The Village Voice, 24 October 1977
The Clash and the Pistols have established social realism as an essential part of punk ideology, but this does not make their music the "direct ...
The Clash: Clash in the City of the Dead
Report and Interview by Caroline Coon, Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 29 October 1977
NO FUN IN BELFAST AND LONDONby GIOVANNI DADOMO & CAROLINE COON ...
Report by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 29 October 1977
BARRY CAIN gets struck down by the crazy past and present of THE HEARTBREAKERS ...
The Sex Pistols: Sex Pistols: Spunk Rock
Report by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, 29 October 1977
FOR A MOMENT there I thought I'd stumbled into a dream I just wasn't equipped to handle. All change for Edge City. The punk behind ...
Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 29 October 1977
"I'M NOT stupid. I know, however successful I get to be right now, that in two, three, maybe four if I'm lucky, years' time, I'll ...
Overview by Robert Duncan, Creem, November 1977
A Consumer Guide To Rock's Last Drag by Robert Drizzle Duncan ...
Profile and Interview by Howie Klein, New York Rocker, November 1977
LAST MONTH the Jam travelled to America for a short promotional tour, playing dates in established new wave centers, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and ...
The Sex Pistols: Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols
Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, November 1977
THE TITLE SAYS it all really. Ignore the press hysteria, dopey articles in Rolling Stone and cross-country panic/fear/loathing over "those foul-mouthed Sex Pistols". This album ...
Iggy Pop, The Ramones: Iggy Pop: Cobo Arena, Detroit
Live Review by Lester Bangs, New Musical Express, 5 November 1977
Iggy suffers metallic KO, Ramones rule OK? ...
Adam & The Ants, Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie & the Banshees, Adam & the Ants: Vortex, London
Live Review by Jane Suck, Record Mirror, 5 November 1977
"WE ARE not human..." Support band The Ants are bizarre. More at home on Mars than the bondage mag they look like they just fell ...
Sex Pistols Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten (1977)
Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, 11 November 1977
Amidst a litany of Sid Vicious' belches (and demands for cigs and tea), he and Johnny Rotten are hilariously rude about... well, almost everyone: fellow Pistol Steve Jones; ex-Pistol Glen Matlock; the Bromley Contingent; Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood; Iggy Pop; the Clash; the taxman; the press; Freddie Mercury... and each other!
File format: mp3; file size: 46.9mb, interview length: 48' 52" sound quality: *****
John Lydon, Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious: Sex Pistols' Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten (1977) [transcript]
Audio transcript of interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 11 November 1977
This is a transcript of John's audio interview with Sid and Johnny. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Report by Tim Lott, Record Mirror, 12 November 1977
TIM LOTT battles with Joe Strummer's boys and comes out dazed. ...
Report and Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 12 November 1977
JIMMY PURSEY bursts upon you. He is a natural. A natural natural. Distortion in the media can colour reputations wrongly, especially the reputation of fulsome ...
X-Ray Spex: Poly Puts The Kettle On!
Interview by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 12 November 1977
IT WAS just another press conference. Poly Styrene looked surprisingly radiant, showing no signs of the traumas she had suffered over recent months. ...
Behind the growth of punk rock
Comment by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 13 November 1977
THE UNPRECEDENTED attention being lavished on what is called "punk rock" by record companies, trade papers, publicity houses and international media is clear indication that ...
The Hollywood Binliner: L.A. Punk
Report by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 19 November 1977
THERE ARE 70 PUNKS IN L.A. – HERE'S MOST OF 'EM... ...
Live Review by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 26 November 1977
THERE IS something about the Music Machine in Camden Town that severely dulls one's capacity for enjoyment of an evening of live rock. ...
The Damned: Music For Pleasure
Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 26 November 1977
CATCHING SIGHT of the title in a news column, I wondered. 'Music For Pleasure'? Have the dervish-like Damned decided to junk all this credibility rubbish, ...
The Vibrators: The New Yorker, Toronto
Live Review by Dave Schulps, Sounds, 26 November 1977
Vibrators victorious: Canucks crumble ...
Alternative TV: ATV: Is As Wonderful
Profile and Interview by Danny Baker, ZigZag, December 1977
I WAS AT ONE of Steve Mick's bi-annual parties, (baffling, rambling affairs – you want to find your long-lost aunt? Come in and prowl around, ...
Overview by Jack Basher, Creem, December 1977
CREEM's Punk Guides Stagger On... ...
Talking Heads: Talking Heads: 77 (Sire)
Review by Richard C. Walls, Creem, December 1977
AFTER WRITING reviews for eight years, one learns to ignore the press releases that accompany promo copies or at least to read them with a ...
The Clash, Lester Bangs: The Clash: Clash City Rockers On Tour
Report by Kris Needs, ZigZag, December 1977
DERBY KING'S HALL. The thickset geezer with the appearance of a frustrated rugby player – too short to make the scrum but just as tough ...
Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, December 1977
WHO DOESN'T LIKE the Ramones? Nobody, that's who – unless they're dead or M. Black of Norwich or something. I've had this LP for three ...
Review by Howard Wuelfing, Unicorn Times, December 1977
The Life-Affirming, Entropy-Baiting Ramones and Sex Pistols ...
The Saints: (I'm) Stranded (Sire)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, December 1977
READY-MADE HYPOTHETICAL PUNK BAND, 1977 MODEL ...
The Stranglers: No More Heroes
Comment by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, December 1977
IT'S SO HARD to decode the Stranglers. After you've gone through the easy observations about Dave Greenfield's keyboard sound and its relationship to Ray Manzarek, ...
Penetration, Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers: London, Vortex
Live Review by Jane Suck, Sounds, 3 December 1977
No more heroes ...
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 ...
Sex Pistols: The Sex Pistols: "Money doesn't talk, it swears" — official
Report by Caroline Coon, Sounds, 3 December 1977
Pistols album not guilty ...
Interview by Rosalind Russell, Record Mirror, 3 December 1977
...Are The Damned splitting up? Why is Captain Sensible embarrassed? What's the name of Rat's new band? All this and more is revealed by ROSALIND RUSSELL ...
Adam & The Ants: Whip In My Valise
Profile by Jane Suck, Sounds, 10 December 1977
'The angel Ga-briel sent me to give you a little bit of sympathy...' ('Plastic Surgery') ...
Live Review by Rosalind Russell, Record Mirror, 10 December 1977
Gen Xcellent ...
Generation X: Roundhouse, Chalk Farm
Live Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 10 December 1977
THE FIRST TIME I encountered Generation X (or at least their lead singer/figurehead Billy Idol) it left an unpleasant taste in my mouth. ...
The Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious: The Sid Vicious Guide To London Hotels
Report by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 10 December 1977
IT WAS AT THE A&M Sex Pistols press conference, convened early this year, that newly appointed group bassist Sid Vicious gave his brusque views on ...
Various Artists: Live At The Vortex
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 10 December 1977
HA. ANOTHER sledge-hammer blow pulping revolt into style...At least might someone have the good grace and honesty to stick 'Punk (a/k/a 'New/Wave') Sampler' on the ...
The Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious: Never Mind The Sex Pistols, Here Comes The Wrath Of Sid!
Report and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 17 December 1977
IT WAS the last day in November when the whole ugly mess finally exploded. Sid Vicious, the bass player of The Sex Pistols, had once ...
Penetration: The Future Is Female
Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 17 December 1977
ACCELERATION DON'T go to my head...London – a module, self-contained, trapped in an ever-accelerating time/style warp: a week seems like a month in our brave ...
The Ramones, The Sex Pistols: American Grandstand: Punk Inc.
Comment by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 29 December 1977
PETER RUDGE, who manages the Rolling Stones' American tours and likes to speculate about rock & roll almost as much as I do, suggested recently ...
The Lous have a message for the women of Britain in 1978... "Groupies must become musicians"
Interview by Caroline Coon, Sounds, 31 December 1977
(to be read in a French accent. — Ed) ...
Interview by Ian Ravendale, Rock's Backpages audio, 1978
The Punk Poet talks about comic writing vs. being a comedian; about writing poetry; about putting his words to music; and about his place in the music business.
File format: mp3; file size: 8.2mb, interview length: 9' 00" sound quality: ****
Eleganza: It's Manic Panic In The Apple
Interview by Toby Goldstein, Creem, January 1978
GINA, SNOOKY and Tish didn't know what to expect when they opened Manic Panic, but they sure found out fast. First, there was the phone terrorist. ...
The Sex Pistols: Sex Pistols: Few Waves Made During Tour Of U.S.
Report by Susan Compo, Santa Ana Register, January 1978
IT'S NOT SURPRISING that Britain's punk rockers, the Sex Pistols, found San Francisco "boring". The city that was to be the last stop on the ...
The Sex Pistols: Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Review by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, January 1978
HO HUM, ANOTHER album from the Pistols. No, seriously, this is it. After all the controversy, bannings, bullshit and speculation, the Pistols finally have something ...
The Slits: Holland Park School, London
Live Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, January 1978
I BURBLED MY feelings about The Slits for four pages in ZZ75 last July, and happily that resulted in crazed Radio One producer and Zigzag ...
Report by Wesley Strick, Circus, 5 January 1978
Will Their Punk Madness Spread to the States? ...
Sex Pistols: The Sex Pistols: Great SouthEast Music Hall, Atlanta GA
Live Review by Wayne Robins, Newsday, 7 January 1978
More heat than raunch in Sex Pistols debut ...
The Damned: The Torments of The Damned
Report by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 7 January 1978
(a somewhat sobering cautionary tale of our time)Charles Shaar Murray asks, is that a light at the end of the tunnel – or another oncoming ...
Sex Pistols: 'I hear you like Dolly Parton down here... are you still celebrating Elvis' birthday?'
Report by Dave Schulps, Sounds, 14 January 1978
...or how to win friends and influence people i Memphis, Johnny Rotten style. The Sex Pistols hit America and DAVE SCHULPS gives an American's-eye view ...
Sex Pistols: The Great South-East Music Hall, Atlanta, GA
Live Review by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 14 January 1978
Johnny leaves his heart in Finsbury Park Barry Cain reports on the start of the Sex Pistols' American tour ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees: A World Domination By 1984 Special
Profile and Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 14 January 1978
This is Siouxsie and the Banshees/They are patient/They will win/In the end. ...
The Ramones: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 14 January 1978
VERMILION, AFTERWARDS (taking in with a sweep of her arm the splendid rococo-deco vastness of the Rainbow gallery): "Rock'n'roll belongs in the pits, not here". ...
The Ramones: The Group That Sowed the Seeds of Punk
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 15 January 1978
BEFORE THE Sex Pistols, there was the Ramones. With its supercharged rock sound, comically demented lyrics and stylized, street-tough image, the foursome emerged from Forest ...
Sex Pistols: The Sex Pistols: Winterland, San Francisco CA
Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 16 January 1978
Sex Pistols end U.S. offensive bored but richer ...
Sex Pistols: America Learns to Loathe the Pistols
Report and Interview by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 21 January 1978
Michael Watts reports on the Memphis hotel set-up (was it the CIA?); the two suspicious cowboys (were they big-time dope dealers?); the sociologists' poll (where ...
The Sex Pistols: Goodbye — and Good Riddance: The Sex Pistols, Winterland, San Francisco
Live Review by Harvey Kubernik, Melody Maker, 21 January 1978
Harvey Kubernik's personal view of the Pistols' last U.S. gig at Winterland in San Francisco ...
Slaughter and the Dogs: Slaughter & the Dogs: Stop spitting, punks
Report by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 21 January 1978
SLAUGHTER AND the Dogs are not one of the great groups of our time, even by the light of punk rock. But they deserve better ...
Slaughter and the Dogs: Marquee Club, London
Live Review by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 21 January 1978
NINTEEN seventy-seven happened pretty fast. ...
Sex Pistols: The Sex Pistols: Magical mystery tour
Report by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 21 January 1978
BARRY CAIN goes to America to say hullo to the Pistols. They say hullo back ...
The Viletones: The Four Viletones Of The Apocalypse
Profile by Jeremy Gluck, Sounds, 21 January 1978
FORGET NEW York, Give London a pass. Come instead to Toronto, Canada's fun city. Join the revellers at David's where, on certain choice nights, you ...
The Sex Pistols: Sex Pistols: This Could Be The Last Time
Report by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 28 January 1978
HYSTERIA! Disgust! Bemusement! Perplexity! The hip, FM radio dj still can't believe it. The Sex Pistols in San Francisco – heavee, man! Back in Hollywood, ...
Sex Pistols: The Sex Pistols: Winterland, San Francisco
Live Review by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 28 January 1978
London's pride take over USA – The Pistols' last gig? ...
The Ramones, the Runaways: Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica CA
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 30 January 1978
THE RECENT Sex Pistols tour threatened, among other things, the Ramones' standing as rock's premiere punk band. But while the Ramones is a bit lightweight ...
Don Letts: Cramp and Paralize Them and Those Who Worship Babylon
Interview by Robin Banks, ZigZag, February 1978
DON LETTS shares a comfortable flat in Forest Hill with three Rastafarian friends, a ferret named Brian, and various other permanent or transient guests. The ...
The Sex Pistols: Sex Pistols: Tour Notes
Report by Howie Klein, New York Rocker, February 1978
In case you were incommunicado for the last month, the much-ballyhooed Sex Pistols American tour has come and gone. ...
The Clash, Joe Strummer: The Clash's Joe Strummer (1978)
Interview by Howie Klein, Rock's Backpages audio, February 1978
A typically splendid Strummer interview: He explains Ska! He digs Steve Miller! He prefers the Sun to the Guardian! He's in hospital with hepatitis! Plus stuff on gobbing, politics, the upcoming 2nd Clash album etc.
File format: mp3; file size: 25mb, interview length: 27' 17" sound quality: ***
The Nuns: Whisky a Go Go, L.A.
Live Review by Howie Klein, New York Rocker, February 1978
SOMEHOW THE NUNS manage to transcend the traditionally (like in "traditionally moronic") rivalry between San Francisco and LA. Perhaps that’s because the Nuns are as ...
The Sex Pistols: Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols (Warner Bros. BSK 3147)
Review by Toby Goldstein, Crawdaddy!, February 1978
BOLLOCKS OR BULLETS? ...
Richard Hell: To Hell and Back: Richard Hell
Interview by John Tobler, ZigZag, February 1978
RICHARD HELL had just got up, and one of the first things he focused on was John Tobler, looming over him with a tape recorder. ...
Live Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 4 February 1978
Leicester bangs, Gaye Explodes ...
The Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious: An Evening with Sid and Nancy – The Odd Couple Behind Closed Doors.
Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 4 February 1978
SWAYING CRAZILY, Sid Vicious clambers up off the bed. He manages the three or four steps to where, obeying live-in-lover Nancy's instructions, he removes the ...
Penetration: The Canteen, Newcastle
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 4 February 1978
PENETRATION MIGHT have been a flicker of inspiration, a couple of months of excitement refracted through a bunch of provincial Johnny Rotten fans. Might have ...
The Clash's Paul Simonon (1978)
Interview by Howie Klein, Rock's Backpages audio, 4 February 1978
The Clash's bassman talks about his life pre-Clash; the Clash's politics (personal and public); his development as a musician and a showman, and a whole lot more.
File format: mp3; file size: 53.4mb, interview length: 58' 16" sound quality: ***
Adam & The Ants: Marquee Club, London
Live Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 11 February 1978
Termites devour part of New Wave ...
The Adverts: Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts (Anchor)*****
Review by Jane Suck, Sounds, 11 February 1978
One Chord Wonders: no blunders ...
Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 11 February 1978
THE WORST THEN. The name? Aha an apt trap. Illustrating at once the extreme that they are, yet at the same time to ...
Live Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 18 February 1978
999 ARE A heavy-pop quartet signed favourably to United Artists. They are, in effect, on the verge of some kind of breakthrough. A likeable bunch ...
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 ...
The Adverts: Vicarious Thrills + Pol-A-Ticks: Crossing The Irish Sea With The Adverts
Report and Interview by Jane Suck, Sounds, 18 February 1978
ACTUALLY, WE didn't swim across, we flew in a chartered taxi-cab with Rosalind Russell (Record Mirror) on the wing and a two-hour vomiting session courtesy ...
Sham 69: Sham v Them. Referee: Barry Cain
Report and Interview by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 25 February 1978
JIMMY PURSEY talks. Jimmy Pursey talks corks out of bottles. Talks forks out of mouths. Talks porks out of pigs. Talks hawks out ...
The Adverts: Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 25 February 1978
ONCE UPON a time, the fastest way of revealing yourself as an Old Fart Who Didn't Understand The New Wave was to allege – in ...
Interview by Robin Katz, Daily Star, 27 February 1978
"MY AGE group is relearning rock 'n' roll, trying to find the essence of it. We're struggling to learn." ...
Sex Pistols: Letter From Britain: Winter Wasteland
Comment by Simon Frith, Creem, March 1978
I HATE WINTER, even in cosy old Britain, so I certainly don't know what I'm doing here, sitting in a motel room in Birmingham, Michigan, ...
Review by Howard Wuelfing, Unicorn Times, March 1978
AMONG OUTSIDERS, the paramount issues of the punk/new wave movement revolve around stuff like clothing styles, politics, and the effect of massive success on a ...
The Sex Pistols: Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (Warner Bros.)
Review by Wesley Strick, Circus, 2 March 1978
Johnny Rotten Assaults Rock & Roll ...
Angelic Upstarts: Bolingbroke Hall, South Shields
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 4 March 1978
I WAS starting to think the whole thing had gone down the toilet. All the energy and the anger. Suddenly smart suits and cash register ...
John Lydon, The Sex Pistols: John Lydon: Man A Warrior – The Interview part 1
Report and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 4 March 1978
There's only one place to be late at night in Jamaica – tuned in to radio JBC, the man Michael Campbell, the man they call ...
Buzzcocks: The Buzzcocks: Another Music In A Different Kitchen (United Artists UAG 30519)*****
Review by Jane Suck, Sounds, 4 March 1978
A real kitchen sink drama ...
The Subway Sect: Bernard Rhodes Great Unknowns Payola Special
Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 4 March 1978
SUBWAY SECT have been together in some form or another since the semi-legendary 100 Club punk festival in September 1976. The line-up on that date ...
Buzzcocks, The Slits: Thames Polytechnic,Woolwich, London
Live Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 11 March 1978
Buzzcocks turn pro ...
John Lydon, The Sex Pistols: John Lydon: Man A Warrior, part 2
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 11 March 1978
CYNICS AMONG the SOUNDS readership may have been wondering why/how our Johnny Rotten underwent such a speedy transformation into this new-fangled character called Johnny Cool, ...
Elton John, The Ramones, Sex Pistols: Mr. Ramone, Meet Mr. Rotten
Report by Fred Schruers, Circus, 16 March 1978
CIRCUS Invades Britain for a Classic Punk Clash ...
John Lydon, The Sex Pistols: The Poolside Pronouncements Of Johnny 'No-Tan' Rotten
Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 18 March 1978
JOHN ROTTEN likes dressing up. Seeing him stuck away under a parasol by the side of the Olympic-sized pool of the Kingston Sheraton at eleven ...
Buzzcocks, Penetration, The Slits: The Buzzcocks: Another Movie In A Different Cinema
Report and Interview by Jane Suck, Sounds, 25 March 1978
I SMOKE TOO much. I drink too much. I do drugs and don't get off, and, according to Dead Fingers Talk's manager and all the ...
Generation X: X Cert For A Teenage Opera
Report and Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, April 1978
GENERATION X ARE pissed. Legless. Tony James is sprawled in a dressing room armchair, cradling his bass with a glazed-silly grin spread across the face ...
The Sex Pistols: Johnny On The Split: "I'm A Free Man!"
Interview by Susan Whitall, Creem, April 1978
JUST AS we were going to press, pasting up pictures of Messrs. Rotten, Vicious, Jones and Cook, the news broke. The band had broken up ...
The Subway Sect: Subway Sect: An Eiffel of the Subways in Paris
Report by Robin Banks, ZigZag, April 1978
THE METRO is crowded. Looking strangely at home amidst the Parisian hordes, Vic Goddard reclines in his seat, leisurely drawing on a Gauloise cigarette. The ...
Interview by Gary Pig Gold, The Pig Paper, April 1978
GARY AND JOHNNY PIG IN A PIGSCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH NAZI DOG AND FREDDY POMPEII ...
Review by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, April 1978
AS THE FALLOUT from new wave continues to turn up on plastic, a few gangs of rockers have chosen (wisely I suppose) to see how ...
999: Briefing For Direct Action
Report and Interview by Jeremy Gluck, Sounds, 1 April 1978
I WOULD HAVE LAUGHED at you for saying as much to me before, but Liverpool, with all its cool, uninspiring streets and grey sky has ...
Angelic Upstarts: What's Going On 'Ere, Then?
Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 1 April 1978
"WHO KILLED Liddle?" On stage a tall young man wearing a police hat, white shirt, trousers and jackboots is down on his hands and knees. ...
Review by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 1 April 1978
ON PAPER Generation X have their credentials for being The Now Sensation all present and correct. They've had them for a long time too. ...
Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 1 April 1978
"DID YA hear that bit on the news about Charlie Chaplin's body. The IRA claim they took it and now they want ransom for it." ...
Report by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 1 April 1978
...take it from Sue and Sandra ...
Generation X: Generation Rock & Roll Soul
Profile and Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 8 April 1978
MIDNIGHT IN THE basement console room at Advision Studios, London W1. As Generation X bassist Tony James avidly demands of producer Martin Rushent that he ...
Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious: Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen: Sex, Drugs and Rock 'N' Roll
Interview by Rosalind Russell, Record Mirror, 8 April 1978
When SID VICIOUS was at the height of fame with the Sex Pistols, be was supporting an £80 a day heroin habit. His fix cost ...
Wayne County & The Electric Chairs: Wayne County: County Counsel
Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 8 April 1978
WHEN WAYNE COUNTY left his native state of Georgia, "because it was icky, and I got shot at", he meant to take a trip down ...
Devo, The Dickies, The Heaters, The Screamers, The Zippers: Punk Bands: Some Do, Some Don't
Report by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 15 April 1978
THE DICKIES and the Heaters have it. The Runaways and the Quick did, but not anymore. Venus & the Razorblades had it for an instant, ...
The Damned: Final Spotlight On The Damned
Report by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 15 April 1978
"OOOOOOOOO CAPTAIN," says Helen from Headingley, "you're so cool these days. That jacket" – indicating his sombre black tuxedo affair and matching multi-colour polka-dotted tie ...
Generation X: 'You Can't Help Selling Out'
Report and Interview by Jeremy Gluck, Sounds, 22 April 1978
"MY FRIEND was bawling her eyes out. She asked Billy to kiss her and he did. She just about fainted!" ...
The Saints: Tiffany's, Edinburgh
Live Review by Ronnie Gurr, Record Mirror, 22 April 1978
THE SAINTS GROW HORNS ...
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 22 April 1978
NO MORE GOOD GUYS ...
Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 29 April 1978
SO THERE I was with photographer Harry Murlowski, dozing and half-listening to his interminable, politically-orienated conversation with a couple of hard-core Sham 69 followers in ...
Generation X, Billy Idol: Generation X's Billy Idol (1978)
Interview by Howie Klein, Rock's Backpages audio, May 1978
The Generation X frontman talks about the evolution and nature of the band, and extemporises about the nature of punk rock and the power of rock'n'roll.
File format: mp3; file size: 46.6mb, interview length: 50' 54" sound quality: ***
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 4 May 1978
Five Punk Bands on Bill at Whisky ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees: Music Machine, London
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 13 May 1978
SWEET SIOUXSIE and her boys in black play loud, angular, claustrophobic. Batter batter into submission: make you want to do bad things... ...
X-Ray Spex: Poly Styrene Is Still Strictly Roots
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 13 May 1978
SUNDAY NIGHT in Croydon, and Poly Styrene's voice is shot. Flu goes for the throat like a cornered rat: when the victim's a singer, the ...
Adam & The Ants, X-Ray Spex: X-Ray Spex, Adam & The Ants, The Automatics: The Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 20 May 1978
AS MS. POLY'S strychnine air-raid voice shreds the encore and all present, the audience front-line snaps. ...
Plastic Bertrand: "My Bird Has Thrown Up..."
Report and Interview by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 27 May 1978
The French produce Punk's Greatest Hit (eat your heart out, Pistols!) ...
Review by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, June 1978
FROM THE VERY start of their recording career, it was obvious that Generation X had some rather unparochial ideas about their role as a punk ...
Review by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, June 1978
THERE HAVE BEEN quite a few new wave bands who have a strong relationship with their audience, but not a one can compete with Sham ...
Sham 69: If The Kids Are United…
Report and Interview by Caroline Coon, Sounds, 3 June 1978
JIMMY PURSEY'S very baggy grey flannels are held up by a brand new pair of white braces. His striped shirt is as clean as five ...
The Sex Pistols Shoot To The Top
Report by Susan Compo, Santa Ana Register, 12 June 1978
WHEN 'GOD SAVE THE QUEEN', a song by British punk-rockers the Sex Pistols, hit the top of the English charts several months ago, it was ...
The Clash: The 'Serious In-Depth Interview' You've Been Waiting For!
Report and Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 17 June 1978
"AAAWOOOEEEUUUOOO, PETE...'ear you bin to the States...how wazzit?" ...
Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 24 June 1978
FEELING RUTHLESS, you could divide the entire spectrum of pop and rock'n'roll into two. ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 24 June 1978
REMEMBERING THAT electricity comes from other planets... ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie And The Banshees: The Unacceptable Face Of '78
Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 24 June 1978
'Overground – from abnormalityOverboard – for identityOverground – for normalityOverboard – on identity'– 'Overground' ...
Alternative TV: The World At Once…Dateline: Stonehenge
Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 29 June 1978
I FOUND myself re-reading Colin Wilsons' prodigal slice of philosophical mythmaking The Outsider the other week. During the time I spent submerging myself gleefully into ...
Slaughter and the Dogs: Do It Dog Style
Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 29 June 1978
UNFORTUNATELY, A posthumous debut album. Quite something, not even the anti-Christ (Sex Pistols) managed to pull that off. But it is a rather sad, inevitably ...
Alternative TV: The Image Has Cracked
Review by Danny Baker, ZigZag, July 1978
YOU KNOW them "artists" and "reviewers", they ain't never gonna stop. ...
Generation X: Idol With The Golden Head: Generation X's Billy Idol
Interview by Richard Grabel, New York Rocker, July 1978
RG: What did you do last night? BI: Oh, I went to some disco thing. ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie And The Banshees
Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, July 1978
"I CAN'T WAIT to get into Polydor and run wild 'round the secretaries and throw all their typewriting paper and get their ribbons twisted. They ...
The Idols, New York Dolls, Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers: The Jerry Nolan Story!!
Interview by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, July 1978
JERRY NOLAN is 32 years old. He has been in the New York Dolls and the Heartbreakers. He has made three albums which did not ...
The Clash, The Specials: The Clash/The Specials: Friar's, Aylesbury
Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 8 July 1978
FOR PEOPLE who like to put things in neat little pecking orders – and because of our conditioning there's a lot of them – the ...
The Undertones: Queen's University, Belfast
Live Review by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 8 July 1978
ON A NIGHT when one of the world's top bands, Ireland's favourite sons Thin Lizzy, were packing them in at the Ulster Hall, it was ...
Generation X Idolizes Rock & Roll
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1978
LONDON — ANYONE WHO calls Elton John a "bald cunt" is risking the wrath of the rock & roll mainstream, but Billy Idol of Generation ...
Generation X: Idol of the Generation
Interview by Robin Katz, Jackie, 15 July 1978
A Jackie Pop Special On Generation X ...
Report and Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 15 July 1978
IT'S AS IF THE Clash's 'Police And Thieves' stage backdrop has suddenly transmogrified into moving 3-D. ...
The Prefects, The Subway Sect: The Prefects, Subway Sect: A Tale Of Two Bands
Profile by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 15 July 1978
TWO GROUPS, both of whom have to some extent followed their instincts. Prefects have always been aware of the area they were aiming for; Subway ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Banshees Make The Breakthrough: Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 29 July 1978
IF PUNKS ARE currently being brushed off by "official sources" as a speedily-becoming-extinct species, why then is it damn near impossible to find a comfortable ...
Stiff Little Fingers: The Harp Bar, Belfast
Live Review by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 29 July 1978
THE HARP Bar is packed for the return of Ulster's most popular and notorious modern rock band, Stiff Little Fingers. ...
The Clash, Suicide: Music Machine, London
Live Review by Ian Birch, Melody Maker, 29 July 1978
NO TWO ways about it. All I can do is echo and re-emphasise Chris Brazier's sentiments in MM of two issues ago: the Clash are ...
Malcolm McLaren, The Sex Pistols: The Great Pistols Movies Fiasco
Report and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 29 July 1978
VIVIEN GOLDMAN ON THE 'OFFICIAL' MOVIE WHICH STILL ISN'T FINISHED — AND THE BRILLIANT ONE MALCOLM WONT LET YOU SEE ...
Generation X: Why Generation X Are The Best Group In The World
Interview by Jeremy Gluck, The Pig Paper, August 1978
KEEP THE Sex Pistols (someone is going to have to now), keep The Clash and someone take The Stranglers, please. I've got a group on ...
Sham 69: Pursey's Down The Dogtrack
Report and Interview by Danny Baker, New Musical Express, 5 August 1978
Sham 69's leader blows his wages, ponders his role, and has a few larfs. DANNY BAKER goes to see an old mate about a dog. ...
The Adverts: The Marquee, London
Live Review by Miles, New Musical Express, 5 August 1978
Gobba Gobba On Gaye ...
The Clash, Suicide: The Music Machine, London
Live Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 5 August 1978
TIME HAS come today. Third of four Music Machine gigs and – surprise! – the ritual bottling of Suicide appears to have been omitted for ...
The Sex Pistols Interview: The Life & Crimes Of Two Simpleton Workin' Class Tossers
Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 19 August 1978
THE SCENE: A modern four roomed flat situated somewhere near the Edgware Road. Its two inhabitants, Messrs Paul Cook and Steve Jones, are holding forth ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Bansheed! What's In An Image?
Profile and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 26 August 1978
JOHN MCKAY, the Banshees' guitarist, has a pale, ashen look constantly playing about his features and talks in measured, serious tones. ...
New Wave Goodbye? Some Thoughts On The Economic State Of The New Wave Industry In America
Overview by Greg Shaw, New York Rocker, September 1978
LET ME BEGIN by saying that I’ve written many articles on New Wave, most of which have dealt with the exciting possibilities of making permanent ...
Report and Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, September 1978
LOVE BITES can be: The vice-like heart-grasp of new love: Embarrassing marks on the neck; Romance with a sting in the tail; THE NEW BUZZCOCKS ...
Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers: Max's Kansas City, New York NY
Live Review by Susin Shapiro, The Village Voice, 4 September 1978
Johnny Thunders: D.O.A., L.A.M.F. ...
John Cooper Clarke: Just Another Ex-Gravedigger Poet Into Dada and the TV
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 9 September 1978
GARRY BUSHELL GOES PUNK-SURREAL ...
The Stranglers: Really Nice Guys
Report and Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 9 September 1978
So why are they banned from Top of the Pops? ...
Blondie, Debbie Harry: Blondie's Debbie Harry (1978) [transcript]
Audio transcript of interview by Ian Ravendale, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 12 September 1978
This is a transcript of Ian's interview with Debbie. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Stiff Little Fingers: Electric Ballroom, London
Live Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 16 September 1978
Let's give the Fingers a big hand ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 23 September 1978
VULNERABILITY MEANS never having to say you're sorry... ...
The Ramones: Ramones Go Depresso
Interview by Lester Bangs, New Musical Express, 23 September 1978
Hanging out on Second Avenue Eating chicken vindaloo Hanging out all by myself Cause I don't want to be with anybody else I just want ...
Interview by Ian Ravendale, Rock's Backpages audio, 28 September 1978
Johnny, Joey, Tommy and Dee Dee talk about what got them together; making records; being "Ramones"; playing live, and the true meaning of Gabba Gabba Hey!
File format: mp3; file size: 11.9mb, interview length: 12' 58" sound quality: *****
The Undertones: 'Teenage Kicks' Is The Undertones' EP
Interview by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 30 September 1978
DAVE McCULLOUGH FINDS PURE PUNK IN DARKEST DERRY ...
Buzzcocks: The Buzzcocks: Pete Shelley is a Sensitive Artist... and Buzzcocks Have no Guilt
Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 30 September 1978
Every successful new wave band experiences a backlash, and Buzzcockes are no exception. HARRY DOHERTY sympathises ...
Buzzcocks: The Buzzcocks: Love Bites
Review by Simon Frith, Melody Maker, 30 September 1978
UMMMMM, ON THE cover of their new album the Buzzcocks look yummy enough to wrap up and take home. Love Bites, it's called, but no ...
The Ramones: Ulster Hall, Belfast
Live Review by Ian Birch, Melody Maker, 30 September 1978
IT WAS A TRICKY confrontation. John Ramone stepped out of the hotel lift and after a brief moptop nod of recognition dived into the obvious ...
Generation X: Generation X (Chrysalis)
Review by Stephen Demorest, Rock Scene, October 1978
ALL THE girls love blond Billy Idol (he pouts like Brando), and Generation X seem to have the right attitude. "No Session Musicians" it says ...
The Ramones: Ramones: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by David Hancock, Evening News, London, 3 October 1978
Pow! It's the punk kings. ...
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 ...
Profile and Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 7 October 1978
IF MY FIRST sight of Jake Burns had been while keeping myself occupied on a bus by speculating on the lives of the other passengers, ...
The Skids: No Comedy, No Intellect, No Politics, No Punk
Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 7 October 1978
GARRY BUSHELL INTERVIEWS THE SKIDS AND GETS CONFUSED (AGAIN). AN EVERYDAY STORY OF SCOTTISH LADS IN A POP GROUP. ...
Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 14 October 1978
AND YES, this unfortunately is where it separates. 999's second album – always a fateful thing – and the illusory packaging hides a regression. ...
Penetration: Moving Targets (Virgin)
Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 14 October 1978
THIS YEAR A LINE formed. At one end Penetration, and from there through Joy Division, The Mekons, The Slits, The Fall, The Passage, The Pop ...
Penetration: Moving Targets (Virgin)****
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 14 October 1978
WE'RE NOT the same, you're not the same, they're not the same. ...
Sid Vicious: Max's Kansas City, NYC
Live Review by Ira Robbins, New Musical Express, 14 October 1978
ON AN unusually busy New York rock night, the attraction of an ex-Pistol was apparently sufficient to pack Max's out for a couple of sets ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: The Scream
Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 14 October 1978
NO MATTER what anyone may say or think, the success of 'Hong Kong Garden' was neither predicted nor predictable. Despite its obvious instantness (primarily, of ...
Wayne County & The Electric Chairs: Music Machine, Camden Town, London
Live Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 14 October 1978
OCTOBER SEES the inevitable recognition of two of the greatest rock'n'roll performers of all time — Bette Midler and Wayne County who, even before Wayne ...
Johnny Thunders: Nothing Is Forever
Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 21 October 1978
Maybe you sneered at the New York Dolls; so maybe you missed a Distant Early Warning of the new wave. Johnny Thunders is back in ...
The Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious: Sid and Nancy: Life In The Vicious Circle
Report by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 21 October 1978
SID VICIOUS (born John Simon Ritchie — though his mother's remarried name is Mrs. Ann Beverley) may hold the all-time record for building up an ...
Buzzcocks: The Buzzcocks: Top Rank, Shefield
Live Review by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 21 October 1978
Who, exactly, is gobbing on whom? ...
The Clash: Queens University, Belfast
Live Review by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 21 October 1978
THE LAST time The Clash tried to play The Ulster Hall a combination of big business insurance moguls and local bureaucratic bullshit caused the gig ...
John Cooper Clarke: Disguise In Love (CBS 83132)
Review by Tim Lott, Record Mirror, 28 October 1978
Disguise in sane ...
The Sex Pistols: Sex Pistols Bootlegs
Review by Ian Birch, Melody Maker, 28 October 1978
Sex Pistols: Indecent Exposure (It's A Dirty Business) (Rotten Records – bootleg album)'Anarchy In The U.S.A.'/'Belsen Was A Gas' (Rotten Role – bootleg single). ...
The Lurkers: Strange Daze In Sheffield (Or Maybe Halifax)
Report and Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 28 October 1978
SOMEONE MUST have been spreading lies about me, for without doing anything wrong I was told to write a feature about The Lurkers. The Man ...
The Rich Kids: Music Machine, London
Live Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 28 October 1978
UNTIL THE RICH KIDS get a few things into perspective – the rather misbegotten and amusing attitude, for instance, that their music goes above the ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees, Siouxsie: Siouxsie & The Banshees (1978)
Interview by Ian Ravendale, Rock's Backpages audio, 30 October 1978
Messrs Severin, Morris, McKay and Soux slag off their contemporaries, whinge about their record company, dismiss half their fans and generally have a good old moan.
File format: mp3; file size: 14.7mb, interview length: 16' 04" sound quality: *****
Review by Howard Wuelfing, Unicorn Times, November 1978
IN EXAMINING Talking Heads' latest release, More Songs About Buildings and Food (Sire, SRK 6058), we encounter a disturbing new twist upon several crucial new ...
Interview by Richard Grabel, New York Rocker, November 1978
CHRIS SPEDDING — the name that launched a thousand session credits. He's played guitar for everyone from John Cale to the Wombles, including Bryan Ferry, ...
Profile and Interview by Michael Goldberg, New York Rocker, November 1978
SAN FRANCISCO – The girl in the black leather jacket with the safety pin through the collar, the tight black jeans, silver pumps, crewcut, and ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees: The Scream
Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, November 1978
FIRST DAY I got it I stunned a full room with this magnificent record...and you should have seen me three hours and four more plays ...
Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 4 November 1978
JIMMY PURSEY'S Ulysses – a day in the life of 'a working class kid'. A shrug of the shoulders. ...
The Clash: Black'n White Drop Outasite
Live Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 4 November 1978
The Clash: Roxy Theatre, Harlesden ...
John Cooper Clarke: This Year's Esperanto
Profile and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 11 November 1978
JOHN COOPER-CLARKE, the poet who came in from the cold ...
Report and Interview by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 11 November 1978
"Every night before I go to sleep/Find a ticket, win a lottery/Scoop the pearls up from the sea/Cash them in and..." ...
The Clash: Give 'Em Enough Rope (CBS 82431)
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 11 November 1978
The Clash: War 'n' pizza ...
The Clash: Give 'Em Enough Rope (CBS)
Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 11 November 1978
White Punks On Rope ...
Boomtown Rats: This Feature Is Guaranteed Free From Bob Geldof
Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 18 November 1978
...THAT'S THE PETE SILVERTON PLEDGE ...
X-Ray Spex: Maturity Is Next: X-Ray Spex: Germ Free Adolescents (EMI)
Review by Tim Lott, Record Mirror, 18 November 1978
SOUNDS FOR sophisticated head-bangers, noises for Nembuthal nights. X-Ray Spex carry the standard of 1977 (which reads fun) on the flagpole of 1979 (constructed from ...
The Cimarons, Sham 69: Sham 69 & The Cimarons: The West Country Invasion Starts Here
Report and Interview by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 18 November 1978
IT WOULD appear that someone's got it in for Jimmy Pursey and Sham 69. You see they're planting stories in the press to the effect ...
The Sex Pistols: Bootleg Albums
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 18 November 1978
The Sex Pistols: Gun Control/Live at the Rodeo ...
X-Ray Spex: Germ Free Adolescents
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 18 November 1978
"I WANNA BE A FROZEN PEA!" Does Poly Styrene finally make it? Will she really dehydrate? Does she turn into a Teasmade? Will she... ...
X-Ray Spex: X-Ray-Spex: Germ Free Adolescents
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 18 November 1978
SMASH THE barriers and the truth shall make you free (as long as stocks last, anyway): barriers between humans and objects, between the natural (sic) ...
Pure Hell: Just Another Bunch Of Middle Class Kids With Silly Names And Spiky Haircuts: Pure Hell
Report and Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 25 November 1978
"H-E-E-EYY..." Pure Hell drummer Spider Blaze tousles his Rita Hayworth red crop and slaps his right palm down on mine, giving me one of those ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees: The Most Elitist Band In The World
Report and Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 25 November 1978
'A gig is often an exaggeration of what we feel every day and therefore it can probably seem a bit ridiculous at times maybe. It ...
The Clash: Town Hall, Middlesbrough
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 25 November 1978
PERSPECTIVE. THE Clash are heroes (but not mine). ...
Report and Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, December 1978
AND YOU ALL thought, or have been led to believe, that Siouxsie and the Banshees were nothing but grim-faced, black-clad warriors of doom and disorder, ...
The Clash, The Slits: The Clash/The Slits: Village Bowl, Bournemouth
Live Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, December 1978
IT'S 5.30 in the morning and for some reason I'm stuck on a ledge halfway down a several hundred foot cliff overhanging Bournemouth beach... And ...
The Clash: Give 'em Enough Rope (CBS 82431)
Review by Robin Banks, ZigZag, December 1978
A TRIUMPHANT roar of battles won. This album is a paean to victory than demands instant recognition and then leaves one gasping for breath, exhausted ...
Report and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 2 December 1978
What, THEM again? Fraid so. No apologies... On The Road Fax by NICK KENT: Biro & Quiz ...
The Clash, Joe Strummer: The Clash's Joe Strummer (1978)
Interview by Ian Ravendale, Rock's Backpages audio, 2 December 1978
Backstage at Newcastle Polytechnic, the Clash's frontman on the problems surrounding that night's gig; becoming part of the "rock establishment" and selling out; the production of Give 'Em Enough Rope; and Sid Vicious and the coincidence of 'Drug Stabbing Time'.
File format: mp3; file size: 5.8mb, interview length: 14' 27" sound quality: *****
The Clash's Joe Strummer (1978) [transcript]
Audio transcript of interview by Ian Ravendale, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 2 December 1978
This is a transcription of Ian's audio interview with Joe. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
The Subway Sect: The Northern Soul of Vic Godard
Interview by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 2 December 1978
A SUBWAY SECT INTERVIEW concerning John Travolta, Françoise Hardy, Les Dawson, Zola, Nosmo King, Abba and other street heroes. By DAVE McCULLOUGH ...
Public Image Ltd: Public Image (Virgin)
Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 9 December 1978
AND THE BOY looked at Johnny. And he shouted: "Look, ma, the Emperor's got no clothes." ...
John Cooper Clarke: The Salford Surrealist
Report and Interview by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 16 December 1978
A poet and his roots ...
The Clash: Give 'Em Enough Rope (Epic JE 35543)
Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 17 December 1978
A PUNK BAND NOT TO BE SNEERED AT ...
Patti Smith (1978) [transcript]
Audio transcript of interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages transcripts, Spring 1978
This is a transcript of John's interview with Patti. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious: Sid Vicious (1978)
Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, Spring 1978
The former Pistols "bass player" (one uses the term advisedly) talks about his version of 'My Way'; the break up of the band; The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle film; Ronald Biggs; planning a band with Johnny Thunders; being managed by girlfriend Nancy Spungen, and keeping his name.
File format: mp3; file size: 12.6mb, interview length: 13' 05" sound quality: *****
Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious: Sid Vicious (1978) [transcript]
Audio transcript of interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages transcripts, Spring 1978
This is a transcription of John's audio interview with Sid. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Snatch Says: "Morons Are Running The Media!"
Interview by Jon Savage, Search & Destroy, Spring 1978
JON SAVAGE interviewed PAT PALLADIN in London a while ago... ...
The Angry Samoans, Vom: The Metal Mike Saunders Interview
Interview by Gary Sperrazza!, Big Star, Spring 1978
In the early '70s, Mike Saunders was one of the leading and best writers around, especially when he was writing about the topics most near ...
Profile and Interview by Joe Sasfy, Unicorn Times, 1979
CONFIDENTIAL REPORT BY JOE SASFY ...
Devo: Where the Rubber met the Road
Report by Byron Coley, New York Rocker, January 1979
"Louis bided his time, isolating Spain diplomatically, and acquainting his fellow rulers with the term devolution." — Encyclopedia Britannica Vol. VI, p. 1093 ...
Penetration: Moving Targets (Virgin V 2109)
Review by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, January 1979
IT'S ONLY slightly difficult to take a record pressed on glow-in-the-dark plastic seriously, but such is the level of total foolishness that the British record ...
Report by Larry Jaffee, Imagine, January 1979
SID VICIOUS, bass player for the now-defunct, notorious punk rock band, the Sex Pistols, pleaded not guilty on November 21; at his arraignment to the ...
The Clash: Give 'Em Enough Rope
Review by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, January 1979
THE CLASH HAVE been through a lot since they last released an album, almost 19 months ago, and so has the scene that they emerged ...
The Clash: Give 'Em Enough Rope (Epic)
Review by Alan Betrock, New York Rocker, January 1979
OKAY, SO I'M supposed to write this treatise on the new, long-delayed, Clash album — a task I'm quite looking forward to since I reckon ...
The Clash, The Slits: Music Machine, London
Live Review by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 6 January 1979
A love that burns ...
The Clash: Music Machine, London
Live Review by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 6 January 1979
LIKE THE few other rock bands that occasionally verge on genius – such at The Rolling Stones and the original Roxy Music – The Clash ...
The Ruts: support your local punk band
Profile and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 6 January 1979
FOR EXAMPLE, TAKE THE RUTS. PLEASE. (OI, I'LL DO THE JOKES — G. BUSHELL) ...
Generation X: All The Young Dudes
Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 13 January 1979
GLEAN WHAT you will from the shapes of things that came to pass during 1978, but one commodity that was rejected with an almighty vengeance ...
Richard Hell: The Return Of The Bug-Eyed Monster
Interview by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 13 January 1979
RICHARD HELL AND GIOVANNI DADOMO VISIT THE BOAT SHOW ...
Crass: The Spirit of '76 is Alive and Well and Living in Ongar (in a Commune)
Profile by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 20 January 1979
"YES THAT'S right, punk is dead/it's just another cheap product for the consumer's head/bubblegum rock on plastic transistors/schoolboy sedition backed by bigtime promoters/CBS promote the ...
The Alley Cats, The Screamers, X, The Zippers: L.A. Bands: Rocking Or Reeling?
Report by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 21 January 1979
A YEAR AGO, Pasadena's Van Halen was just a promising band on the L.A. scene. Its most stellar dates were in Glendora, Redondo Beach and ...
Buzzcocks, Fast Cars, V2: Buzzcocks, V2, Fast Cars: Manchester Polytechnic
Live Review by Mick Middles, Sounds, 27 January 1979
Still friends of mine ...
The Dead Boys: Dead Boys Tell No Tales (Under An Hour, That Is)
Report and Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, February 1979
FIVE MINUTES into my first-ever meeting with the Dead Boys, and already I have an angle, a metaphorical hook for my story on the band: ...
Generation X: Valley Of The Dolls (Chrysalis CHR 1193)
Review by Ian Birch, Melody Maker, 3 February 1979
Style into junk ...
Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious: Sid Vicious Dies of Overdose
Report by Wayne Robins, Newsday, 3 February 1979
NEW YORK — Sid Vicious joined his girlfriend Nancy in death yesterday. ...
Report by Kris Needs, New Musical Express, 10 February 1979
ON WEDNESDAY, January 31, Sham 69 played their last ever gig. ...
Stiff Little Fingers: Inflammable Material (Rough Trade)
Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 10 February 1979
I WAS HARDLY expecting it but...even more so than Never Mind The Bollocks – which turned out to be comedy – much more so than ...
Stiff Little Fingers: Inflammable Material (Rough Trade)*****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 10 February 1979
POOR OLD Stiff Little Fingers. They stormed across the Irish Sea last year and confused most people by talking loudly about being Ulster Boys without ...
The Dickies: The Incredible Shrinking Dickies
Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 10 February 1979
IN ESSENCE, The Dickies make silly music for silly people. Whereas other punk groups have slavishly copied the three-chord assault of The Ramones with deadpan ...
Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious: Sid Vicious: A Rocky Lifestyle Played Out to Its Extreme End
Obituary by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, 18 February 1979
EPITAPH FOR a punk: Even before his somehow not too surprising drug overdose death at age 21, Sid Vicious already scrawled his name indelibly in ...
Generation X: Just A Pretty Buncha Posers? Or is there more to Generation X?
Profile by David Hepworth, Smash Hits, 22 February 1979
MOST BANDS would waste no time in setting the dogs on you if you dared call them posers. Generation X, on the other hand, have ...
999, the Members: Lyceum, London
Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 24 February 1979
A state of emergency ...
John Lydon, Malcolm McLaren, Public Image Ltd, The Sex Pistols: Rotten v. McLaren: No Winner
Report by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 24 February 1979
AS JOHNNY Rotten savours his first victory in the Lydon-Glitterbest case, Public Image Ltd. prepare to record a second album with a new drummer, the ...
The Sex Pistols: The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 24 February 1979
"WHAT NEEDS UNDERSTANDING is the state of paralysis everyone is in..." ...
The Stranglers: The Stranglers Live (X Cert)
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 24 February 1979
A CHILL WIND blows down the grimy alley, hidden in shadows and overpacked with freshly stinking mounds of rotting vegetation left over from the neighbouring ...
Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, Sweet Potato, March 1979
"I don't understand every lyric on the album, I doubt that Mick or Topper or Paul understands what every single word is. But if you ...
The Clash: Give 'Em Enough Rope (Epic)
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, March 1979
FUTURE SHOCK NOW (If You Want It) ...
Vic Godard, The Subway Sect: Vic Godard: Down the Road on a Stick
Interview by Robin Banks, ZigZag, March 1979
ON THE 'WHITE Riot' tour of early '77, Vic Godard and his band the Subway Sect ('cos they always were his band) confronted the great ...
Alternative TV: Vibing Up The Senile Man (Deptford Fun City Records)
Review by Ian Birch, Melody Maker, 3 March 1979
WHEN MARK Perry gave up editing Sniffin' Glue, he started a band that has turned out to be a logical extension of the famous punkzine. ...
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 3 March 1979
MEDALS FOR bravery should be struck for Billy Idol and his mates in Generation X. Would you, dear reader, like to stand on a stage, ...
Crass: The Feeding Of The Five Thousand (Small Wonder, Weeny 2) **
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 24 March 1979
Obscene oaths do not the revolution make ...
Live Review by Howie Klein, New York Rocker, April 1979
EXCEPT FOR the fact that they're probably the best performing band around, there's something almost superfluous to Clashness about the band's shows. Wait a minute ...
The Clash, Bo Diddley: The Palladium, New York NY
Live Review by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, April 1979
DON'T EXPECT the back-Clash to start here. Since the Clash's smashingly successful Palladium debut, I have had some second thoughts, but none of these contradict ...
The Clash: The Fillmore, San Francisco
Live Review by Howie Klein, New York Rocker, April 1979
EXCEPT FOR THE fact that they're probably the best performing band around, there's something almost superfluous to Clashness about the band's shows. Wait a minute ...
Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, April 1979
THE SLITS AND me in an Interview Situation, eh? Well, hardly. We just chat away (it was better when the cassette was off but I ...
Crass, Poison Girls, The Wall: Acklam Hall, London
Live Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 7 April 1979
A SPARSELY attended benefit for the Anarchist Black Cross Cienfuegos Press; a slow night — both the cause and its supporting groups (safely) out of ...
Sham 69: Jimmy Pursey: The People's Champ
Interview by John Pidgeon, Melody Maker, 7 April 1979
JIM POPS down the betting shop to bung twenty quid on a 10-1 shot in the 3.10 at Newbury, so I give his records the ...
Siouxsie & the Banshees: (Stair) Case History
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 7 April 1979
BUSHELL'S BRIEF BANSHEES BANTER ...
Buzzcocks: The Buzzcocks: Inside the Hit Factory
Report and Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 7 April 1979
(PETE SHELLEY'S BACK PARLOUR IN GOSPORT, ACTUALLY, REVEALS PETE SILVERTON) ...
Buzzcocks: The Buzzcocks: Inside The Hit Factory
Report and Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 7 April 1979
"It's really amazing. I can just sit there and go dee-da-dee-da-dee, da-dee-da-dee, put some words to it, teach the other three how to play it, ...
The Members: At The Chelsea Nightclub (Virgin)*****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 7 April 1979
BEFORE WE start let something be said: if lesser papers want to slag off Sounds they're quite welcome to try, but per-lease don't use the ...
Angelic Upstarts: Gonna Be A Prison Break-In
Report by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 21 April 1979
THE BAND THE POLICE LOVE TO HATE INVITED TO DO A PRISON GIG? ...
The Damned, The Specials, UK Subs: The Damned/UK Subs/The Specials: The Lyceum, London
Live Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 21 April 1979
WITH ENOUGH police grouped manacingly outside in coaches, in squad cars and standing around to supervise a couple of Manchester United away fixtures, I suppose ...
Generation X: Valley Of The Dolls (Chrysalis)
Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 29 April 1979
MOST NEW-WAVE bands decry the jet-set life styles of established rock stars, but it's a safe bet to assume many were attracted to rock by ...
Generation X: Valley of the Dolls (Chrysalis CHR 1193)
Review by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, May 1979
THIS, GEN X's second outing, is not very good compared to their first, but it does serve a useful function by pointing out two phenomena ...
Report by uncredited writer, Creem, May 1979
IT MIGHT seem that just about everything's been said about Sid's death on February 2, of a heroin overdose. The newspapers reported every detail with ...
Buzzcocks: The Buzzcocks: The Other One Speaks!
Interview by Michael Gray, ZigZag, May 1979
WHEN YOU GO and see Buzzcocks, there are four of them. Up at the back, as high on his rostrum as an Old Bailey judge, ...
Report and Interview by Stephen Demorest, Creem, May 1979
DURING THE ten days between February 7 and 17, 1979, the people of Iran toppled the Shah; the American ambassador was assassinated in Afghanistan; President ...
Penetration: Mountford Hall, Liverpool
Live Review by Penny Kiley, Melody Maker, 5 May 1979
Pauline in the safety zone ...
Penetration: Movement Is The Message
Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 5 May 1979
THE PENETRATION EXPLANATION BY PHIL SUTCLIFFE ...
The Undertones: The Undertones (Sire SRK 6070)*****
Review by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 5 May 1979
Teenage dreamland ...
The Ramones: Joey finally gets the girl
Report by Ira Robbins, New Musical Express, 12 May 1979
The Ramones' first feature film, Rock'n'Roll High School, had its world premier last week at a Texas drive-in. Will a touching tale of teen romance ...
Wayne County & the Electric Chairs: Things Your Mother Never Told You (Safari GOOD 2) *****
Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 12 May 1979
More songs about toilets and marines ...
Penetration in Five Easy Stages
Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 19 May 1979
ONCE UPON a time there was an impetuous eight-year-old girl living in a dark Durham corner and influenced greatly by the fashionable doings of a ...
Nips, The (aka The Nipple Erectors): The Nips: Death To Art Rock!
Interview by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 19 May 1979
DAVE McCULLOUGH GETS HIP TO THE NIPS ...
The Undertones: The Reluctant Debutantes
Report and Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 26 May 1979
"When the group first started I suppose it's like a phase, y'know, ye want to be a fireman or ye want to be a policeman. ...
The Boy Looked At Johnny by Tony Parsons and Julie Burchill (Pluto Press)
Book Review by Byron Coley, New York Rocker, June 1979
"Hell hath no snapping fury like an angry chipmunk." —Jesus The Good Book "I live on hate more than noodles." —Louis Ferdinand Celine Castle To Castle ...
999: Feelin' Alright With the Crew
Profile and Interview by Jon Young, Trouser Press, June 1979
ANYONE WHO SEES more than one rock show a year knows that a lot of the glitter wears off after the first few times. Which ...
The Lurkers, The Wall: Wirrina, Peterborough
Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 2 June 1979
Lurkers out in the dark ...
Report and Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 9 June 1979
THE PARTY was catered for two hundred or so guests. You could tell no expense had been spared — there were real bits of shell ...
Judy Nylon, Penetration: Penetration, Judy Nylon: Hurrah, New York NY
Live Review by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, 9 June 1979
PAULINE KEEPS having her sentences completed for her. She'll say, "This is our current single in England, it's called..." and someone in the audience will ...
Stiff Little Fingers: Apollo, Manchester
Live Review by Mick Middles, Sounds, 9 June 1979
STIFF LITTLE Fingers are all about movement, aggression, passion and action. All these qualities lie in the band's lyrics and the way in which these ...
Iggy Pop, UK Subs: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Chris Bohn, Melody Maker, 16 June 1979
GIVE IGGY Pop a sense of occasion and he'll rise to it — magnificently. The difference between Friday's concert and the first London appearance of ...
Retrospective and Interview by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 16 June 1979
The Man Who Sold The World ...
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 16 June 1979
IT WAS ALL going so well too, that was the point. So everyone assumed it was part of the act. I must admit I was ...
Retrospective and Interview by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 23 June 1979
EARLY IN July, 1978, the office of Glitterbest Ltd. at 90/98 Shaftesbury Avenue, which is the centre of London's Theatreland, received the following letter. ...
Punk Attack: 'The Obituary of Rock and Roll'
Book Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 28 June 1979
Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons: The Boy Looked at Johnny (Pluto Press) ...
The Clash: Yes It's Strummer In The City
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 30 June 1979
HOT TOWN! Strummer in the city: walks into the Kings Road pub that serves as his temporary local while he's staying in Fulham dead on ...
Retrospective and Interview by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 30 June 1979
WHEN HE WAS LYING, HE WAS MORE INTERESTING THAN MANY MEN TELLING A STORY TRULY. ...
Interview by Richard Grabel, New York Rocker, July 1979
AS I SET out to cover Penetration, the omens were auspicious. ...
Stiff Little Fingers: (F)Ireland Rockers
Interview by Garry Bushell, Trouser Press, July 1979
"TAKE A LOOK where you're living/You got the army on your street/ And the RUC dog of repression is barking at your feet..." Jake Burns ...
The Sex Pistols, Sham 69: Goodbye Sham 69
Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 7 July 1979
"WE WANT SHUM! WE WANT SHUM! WE WANT SHUM!" Friday night in Glasgow The Apollo is packed to capacity and if you want understatements the ...
Penetration: The Whisky, Los Angeles
Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 7 July 1979
I'D SEEN the name around several times, but I'd never seen the band until tonight. Strange how your luck can change. ...
Sham 69, the Valves: Apollo, Glasgow
Live Review by Ronnie Gurr, Record Mirror, 7 July 1979
The Cockney Cowboys ride again ...
The Ramones: Rock'n'Roll High School (Sire Import) ****
Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 7 July 1979
THE ERA of the compilation is upon us, and this soundtrack album of smarties and arties is another rapid fire job, featuring the next best ...
Report and Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 14 July 1979
IT'S OUT of the blue and into the black. A place is left somewhere behind where the front pages of the daily newspapers comment hysterically ...
The Sex Pistols: Sex Pistols: Some Product: Carri On Sex Pistols (Virgin)
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 28 July 1979
THIS IS getting silly. ...
Cockney Rejects and the Rise of New Punk
Interview by Garry Bushell, Dave McCullough, Sounds, 4 August 1979
'I WANNA go back to where it all began/I wanna do a gig in my back garden/I wanna have a laugh before the press get ...
Angelic Upstarts: Teenage Warning
Review by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 11 August 1979
HOW MANY p's in oppression? Aww, what can you say? Contrary no doubt to opinions expressed elsewhere on the subject, Teenage Warning is not an ...
Angelic Upstarts: Teenage Warning (Warner Brothers)
Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 11 August 1979
NEWCASTLE'S Upstarts are already, for obvious and not so obvious reasons, being prepared by the vulture voyeurs as the successors to Sham. I'm not sure ...
Angelic Upstarts: Someone Else's Fight
Report and Interview by Chris Bohn, Melody Maker, 18 August 1979
INTOLERANCE FALLS like a heavy pall over the Angelic Upstarts – only they won't lie still and let it settle. Follow them round for a ...
Angelic Upstarts: The Nashville, London
Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 18 August 1979
THE MUSIC Press is a middle class toy, perpetually pampered, easily bored, easily bought off. It's too easy to sit pretty in your safe mortgaged ...
UK Subs: No Change For UK Subs
Interview by Chris Bohn, Melody Maker, 18 August 1979
Finding that tribal punk is still alive...and kicking ...
Siouxsie & the Banshees: The Scream (Polydor)
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, September 1979
SIOUXSIE OF the Banshees was a tantalizing pledge of the coming New Wave Millennium, when her photo began appearing in U.S. fanzines in early 1977. ...
The Dead Boys, Stiv Bators: The Resurrection of Stiv Bators
Report and Interview by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, September 1979
STIV BATORS is just about the easiest interviewee I've ever met. Just push "Record" and he'll talk for hours about anything that might make good ...
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. ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie And The Banshees: Join Hands
Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 1 September 1979
WHADDA YA MEAN, is it extreme? Can you honestly imagine the Banshees doing anything —whether it be throwing shapes for a camera, getting dressed for ...
Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 1 September 1979
AHH, EXCUSE me a modicum of nostalgia but I still remember as if they were only last year, those chaotic '78 Ruts days, and thankfully ...
Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 1 September 1979
AS THE Slits sing-song: don't take it seriously. ...
Buzzcocks, Gang of Four: Buzzcocks/Gang Of Four: Club 57, New York, NY
Live Review by Van Gosse, Melody Maker, 8 September 1979
THIS IS the year that the New Wave, or at least its more retrograde element, has finally hit the U.S. charts. Everybody English and short-haired, ...
Sham 69: The Adventures Of Hersham Boys (Polydor)***
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 8 September 1979
WHAT DID Sham mean to you? I don't really give a monkey's cos to me and a lot of my mates they were the business. ...
UK Subs: Another Kind Of Blues (Gem)*****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 8 September 1979
THIS REVIEW lasts 180 seconds and reads 1-2-3-4. It starts with a loud guitar burst, then bass and drums explode and your voice roars 'GARAGELAND' ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: In Aberdeen...No-one Can Hear You Scream
Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 15 September 1979
THE GEEZER standing next to me in the urinal said "Hey, have you heard the rumour? Two of the Banshees have run off. They're not ...
Overview by Mark Williams, Melody Maker, 20 September 1979
If Los Angeles is the future, how come its bands all sound so backdated? MARK WILLIAMS puts the case for the defence ...
Penetration: Coming Up For Air (Virgin) ****
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 22 September 1979
UP! THAT'S what Penetration are. Such stimulation. A Japanese masseuse on speciality-of-the-house rates could hardly have tickled more of a tingle into every nerve-end from ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: There Was I Waiting At The Church
Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 22 September 1979
NICK KENT feels the wrath of Siouxsie Sioux and Steve Severin ...
Slaughter and the Dogs: The Boot Boys Are Back In Town
Profile and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 22 September 1979
"PUNK IS BACK, PUNK IS BACK, WO-AH, WO-AH!" ...
Buzzcocks, Gang of Four: The Buzzcocks, Gang of Four: Club 57, New York NY
Live Review by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, 22 September 1979
THIS IS AN interesting juxtaposition: Buzzcocks work on a high energy formula, a formula that works; Gang Of Four work away from formula – they ...
The Clash, Sam and Dave, the Undertones: Orpheum Theater, Boston
Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 22 September 1979
Clash makes the sparks fly. ...
The Slits: Awkward in Interviews, Awkward in Life
Report and Interview by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 22 September 1979
DAVE McCULLOUGH CONFRONTS THE SLITS ...
Patti Smith: Walking Down The Kings Road With Lenny Kaye...
Report and Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 22 September 1979
...can be a disagreeable experience. Sandy Robertson gives the Patti Smith Group the elbow. ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: "Humourless? Us?" - Siouxsie & the Banshees
Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 29 September 1979
"...Thy Kingdom come / They will be done / In Earth as it is in Heaven / Amen... Knock, knocking on Heaven’s door / Let ...
John Cooper Clarke: Cool for Catholics
Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 29 September 1979
John Cooper Clarke makes a good confession to Pete Silverton (lapsed) ...
Interview by Ian Ravendale, Rock's Backpages audio, October 1979
Pauline Murray and Robert Blamire announce the band's split, and the reasons behind it: the relentless pressures of touring and recording and consequent internal tensions.
File format: mp3; file size: 23.9mb, interview length: 26' 03" sound quality: *****
Siouxsie & the Banshees (1979)
Interview by Ian Ravendale, Rock's Backpages audio, October 1979
With Siouxsie just back from hospital with what transpired to be hepatitis, Steve Severin and stand-in drummer Budgie talk about the hasty departure of drummer Kenny Morris, and guitarist John McKay. Budgie talks about leaving the Slits, and depping for Morris in the Banshees. Severin talks about the stand-in guitarist, the Cure's Robert Smith, then talks about the German version of ‘Metal Postcard’ single, and use of Nazi imagery.
File format: mp3 File size: 7.9mb Interview length: 08' 14" Sound quality: ****
The Clash, Screamin' Jay Hawkins: Ritchie Coliseum, College Park MD
Live Review by Joe Sasfy, The Washington Post, 1 October 1979
ENGLAND'S CLASH brought their version of rock's civil war to Ritchie Coliseum Saturday night. By the time they ended their second encore, a hypersonic invitation ...
Buzzcocks: Hey Mac Are You Some Kind Of Limey Pop Star?
Report and Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 6 October 1979
SAT RANDOMLY around a small table are four young men each with dark hair. When they grin, their faces show they see things differently. ...
The Clash: Clash in NYC - Waiting for Ivan
Report and Interview by Mary Harron, Melody Maker, 6 October 1979
ACCORDING TO reports, it was a hot, dead, airless summer in New York City. With nothing much happening on the local music scene, excitement centred ...
Buzzcocks: Sex, Fast Cars and a Different Kind of Buzzcock
Interview by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 6 October 1979
The spiritual awakening of Steve Diggle. ...
Buzzcocks: The Buzzcocks: City Hall, Newcastle
Live Review by Ian Ravendale, Sounds, 13 October 1979
Same old rubbish in a different theatre ...
Report and Interview by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 13 October 1979
Dave McCullough hits the Sardine trail to the Portuguese outback for a knees-up with the Stranglers ...
The Freshies, The Undertones: The Undertones, The Freshies: Apollo, Manchester
Live Review by Mick Middles, Sounds, 13 October 1979
CASUALLY, NERVOUSLY, Manchester's newest wonderpoppers, The Freshies, hobble onto their first major venue stage. Chris Sievey tries hard to appear relaxed as he attempts to ...
Penetration: Coitus Interruptus
Report and Interview by Ian Ravendale, Sounds, 20 October 1979
THE DREAM is over. Penetration are breaking up. From the stage of the City Hail in Newcastle, the town where they played their first gig, ...
Richard Hell & the Voidoids: CBGBs, New York NY
Live Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 20 October 1979
THEY SAY that Richard Hell is damaged, and it doesn't surprise me. After quitting the spartan discipline of Television, fans of rock's elite expected the ...
Interview by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 20 October 1979
JIMMY PURSEY talks about sex, Mod, the Pope, Christmas, Scum and stuff like that... GIOVANNI DADOMO listens and listens and listens and ...
Review by Phast Phreddie Patterson, L.A. Weekly, 26 October 1979
TWO YEARS ago, when the Germs first hit the struggling L.A. punk circuit, this writer figured they would soon give up and return to the ...
The Jam: The Revolution Will Start When Paul Weller Has Supped His Pint
Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 3 November 1979
"I WOULDN'T say I'm a very articulate person, but I seem to be able to articulate when I write lyrics..." ...
Report by David Hepworth, Smash Hits, 15 November 1979
David Hepworth goes on the road with THE UNDERTONES ...
Poison Girls: Old People Can Be Rebels Too: Poison Girls
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 24 November 1979
LOOK AT Poison Girls on stage and you see a straight line of straight faces, clothes all red and black in front of a red ...
The Clash: London Calling (Epic)
Review by Kris Needs, New York Rocker, December 1979
A DOUBLE album from the Clash, two discs for the price of one — but that's not the only surprise. Because the speed-rush buzzsaw roar ...
Adam & The Ants: Adam and the Ants: Dirk Wears White Sox (Do-It RIDE 3)**
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 8 December 1979
DIRK MAY well wear white sox but the berk, aka Adam the Grade 'A' ham, wears his pretentions on his sleeve with his hand in ...
The Clash: London Calling (CBS) **
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 15 December 1979
Give 'em enough rope... and watch 'em turn into the Rolling Stones ...
Interview by Cynthia Rose, Viz, 1980
Some Facts About Madness, Rape, Zombies, And Other Intense Human Behaviour ...
Chelsea, The Dickies: The Dickies, Chelsea: City Hall, Newcastle
Live Review by Ian Ravendale, Sounds, 5 January 1980
Dickie Chavvy ...
The Ramones: End Of The Century (Sire)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 5 January 1980
1-9-9-9 Phil 'N' Da Brudders Do Just Fine ...
Adam & The Ants: Ants Out Of Bondage
Interview by Paolo Hewitt, Melody Maker, 12 January 1980
In which Adam and the Ants reconcile their apparent predilection for S/M with their desire to succeed as musicians without grovelling. PAULO HEWITT passes judgement. ...
Dead Kennedys, Sham 69: Sham 69, Dead Kennedys: Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 12 January 1980
SOME PEOPLE join a band to get out of the crowd. Jello Biafra, I'm convinced, joined the Dead Kennedys to guarantee a space in the ...
The Clash: London Calling (Epic Records)
Review by Michael Goldberg, San Francisco Chronicle, 13 January 1980
SINCE THIS English foursome first emerged in London in 1976, they have been at the very forefront of rock and roll. Their debut album, The ...
Comment by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 2 February 1980
IT SEEMS, at the present at any rate, there's no escaping The Crass Phenomenon. The "alternative charts" (the accurate few at that!) see them emerging ...
Splodgenessabounds: Help Stamp Out Splodgeness!
Profile by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 2 February 1980
MANY DISTRESSED Sounds readers have written to us about the alarming outbreaks of 'Splodgenessabounds' currently sweeping through lower class areas of South East London. This ...
Nips, The (aka The Nipple Erectors): The Nips: Ain't That a Shane?
Interview by Paolo Hewitt, Melody Maker, 2 February 1980
"ROCK 'N' ROLL is just a load of boring old rubbish. The people who play it think it's so fucking important and it's not. it ...
The Sex Pistols: The Very Best Of
Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 2 February 1980
THE PERFECT contradiction: The Japs offer such fine pressings, this album'll cost you about £9 if you want it…and I'm reviewing it as usual on ...
The Ramones: Wanchewfreefor!!!
Interview by David Hepworth, Smash Hits, 7 February 1980
David Hepworth catches up with Da Ramones, y'know? ...
The Sex Pistols: Flogging A Dead Horse (Virgin V2142)
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 9 February 1980
THIS RECORD gets no stars at all 'cos it's totally worthless, all the tracks included are still readily available elsewhere, Pistols fans will have them ...
Iggy Pop: I Can't Stand to be Alone
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 23 February 1980
TO OPEN A DOOR and find Iggy Pop behind it is like opening a well shaken-up can of lager unawares. ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie And The Bitter Pill
Interview by Rosalind Russell, Record Mirror, 23 February 1980
Siouxsie isn't just concerned about being a rock musician, she has strong feelings on other matters as well. Interview by ROSALIND RUSSELL ...
UK Subs: Live Kicks (Stiff) **
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 23 February 1980
POGO? I thought I'd never start. ...
Review by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, March 1980
PIL'S METAL BOX: THE TIN CAN HAS A HEART ...
The Clash: Six Days On The Road And 16 Tons Of Fun…
Report by Kris Needs, ZigZag, March 1980
THE QUEST GOES ON, HIT THE DECK! ...
Cockney Rejects: Greatest Hits Vol 1
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 1 March 1980
WHEN I first met Micky Geggus and Stinky Turner and heard their tape I knew there was something about it and them that said they ...
Stiff Little Fingers: The Voice Squad
Interview by Mick Middles, Sounds, 1 March 1980
'WE'RE GONNA BLOW UP IN THEIR FACE' ...
The Vibrators live in Newcastle
Live Review by Ian Ravendale, Sounds, 15 March 1980
BACK WHEN the world was young, punk was an expression of individuality, rather than a life style followed by those who feel so insecure that ...
Penetration: Coming Up for Air (Virgin International)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 20 March 1980
HEY, THE echo switch has been rediscovered! Not to mention other stuff within reach of a bargain-basement studio console. Producer Steve Lillywhite seems to have ...
The Clash: Rude Boy: Directed by Jack Hazan; Starring Ray Gange and The Clash; Cert X
Film/DVD/TV Review by Robin Banks, ZigZag, April 1980
RUDE BOY CAN FAIL ...
8-Eyed Spy, Albert Ayler, James Chance & the Contortions, Miles Davis: Free Jazz/Punk Rock
Essay by Lester Bangs, Musician, April 1980
IN A New York City nightclub, a skinny little Caucasian whose waterfall hairstyle and set of snout and lips make him look like a sullen ...
Penetration: Going Underground
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 5 April 1980
SO YOU'RE learning to write music, Pauline – how's it done then? ...
Slaughter and the Dogs: Slaughter: Get Ready To Do Ruck Steady
Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 5 April 1980
THREE MONTHS into the weighty Eighties and pop paper medics decide it's time for Slaughter's funeral. ...
UK Subs: Brand New Age (GEM)*****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 5 April 1980
WHEN I was at school we used to have a big fat Scottish Geography teacher who was forever clotting you round the head and saying ...
The Dickies: Dickiemania: Threat or Menace?
Profile and Interview by Davin Seay, BAM, 18 April 1980
LOS ANGELES — That's right America; pretend it doesn't exist and maybe it will go away. When will you ever learn? Wake up before it's ...
Fatal Microbes, Honey Bane: Fatal Microbes: Femme Fatale
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 19 April 1980
A BOOZER IN beautiful down-town Stepney is the rendezvous and despite London Transport I manage to arrive at the right time on the right day ...
The Members: 1980 — The Choice Is Yours (Virgin)****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 19 April 1980
Members 'not has-beens' debate ...
Sham 69: Jimmy Pursey: People Try To Put Me Down...
Interview by Mike Stand, The Face, May 1980
"PEOPLE PUT me down as a loudmouth. Well, I've got a lot to talk about," said Jimmy Pursey and proved it at once by descending ...
Report by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, May 1980
THE DILS, ONE of California's premier new wave bands, have broken up for keeps after three years together. ...
The Ramones: An Interview With Joey Ramone — A Teenage Lobotomy Speaks His Mind
Interview by Bill Holdship, Michigan State News, 9 May 1980
THE RAMONES have become something of an American rock 'n roll institution. The band formed in 1974, and became part of an underground East Coast ...
The Clash Clamp Down on Detroit
Report and Interview by Susan Whitall, Creem, June 1980
Or: Give 'Em Enough Wisniowka ...
Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 7 June 1980
NO DISRESPECT to Dave 'half-a-shandy' McCullough but, myself, I get no pleasure from records that sound like tin baths falling down coal chutes. Witless soul ...
UK Subs: The Masters Of Pure Pogomatic Power Pound On (Part 86).
Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 7 June 1980
NO DISRESPECT to Dave 'half-a-shandy' McCullough but, myself, I get no pleasure from records that sound like tin baths falling down coal chutes. Witless soul ...
The Angry Samoans: Comers: Angry Samoans
Profile by Mark Leviton, L.A. Weekly, 13 June 1980
PEOPLE GET upset by the Angry Samoans. It's not just that this feisty five-piece group trashes every cherished ideal of the middle class in language ...
The Clash, Holly & the Italians: Hammersmith Palais, London
Live Review by Chris Bohn, New Musical Express, 28 June 1980
Myth Man In The Hammersmith Palais ...
X: Beyond the Valley of the Doors
Profile and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 28 June 1980
HOLLYWOOD PUNK. Sounds about as real and desirable as cocktail-lounge muzak. If there's anything genuine or worthwhile in there it certainly isn't easy to find. ...
The Clash, Tymon Dogg: Clash At The Crossroads
Interview by Richard Grabel, New York Rocker, July 1980
OUTSIDE ON Eighth Street, among the pizza parlors and shoe stores, it's early evening. Inside Electric Lady studios, the house that Jimi built, it could ...
Cockney Rejects: Have They Bitten Off More Than They Can Chew?
Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 5 July 1980
"THIS IS A once in a generation band. The sort of band who'll either be massive in eighteen months or dead or both." ...
Peter and the Test Tube Babies: Peter & the Test Tube Babies: Beano Bop Beano Bop Beano Bop
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 5 July 1980
The inexorable tide of Punk Pathetique sweeps GARRY 'Beano Boy' BUSHELL to Brighton, home of Peter And The Test Tube Babies... ...
The Exploited: I Still Believe In Anarchy
Profile and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 9 August 1980
SOMETIMES I wish my mind and body were under the same management. Anyone with half an eye on the dictates of fashion and media double-think ...
Profile and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 16 August 1980
AT THE risk of getting into a this week's big thing situation, I've got this feeling in my bones that Tenpole Tudor are gonna be ...
The Professionals: Diary Of A Man Who Likes To Stay In
Profile and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 16 August 1980
THE PROFESSIONALS' debut single 'Just Another Dream' is about twenty bus stops down the road from 'Anarchy In The UK' if you're using words like ...
Interview by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, September 1980
EN ROUTE to London, X stopped over in New York in June for a round of interviews and two live performances, at the '80s and ...
Dead Kennedys, UK Subs: Dead Kennedys: Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables; UK Subs: Crash Course
Review by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 27 September 1980
SPOT THE DIFFERENCEStudy these two pictures carefully. At first sight they may seem identical, but there are at least twelve small but significant differences between ...
Dead Kennedys: The Dead Kennedys: Anarchy American Style
Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 27 September 1980
On the eve of the Dead Kennedys British tour MARK COOPER talks to Jello Biafra who says: "Our live shows are basically ways of torturing ...
Interview by Howard Wuelfing, New York Rocker, October 1980
SINCE THEIR performing debut here last year supporting the Clash, the Undertones have cleared a whole mess of professional and personal hurdles. ...
Buzzcocks: A problem in communication
Interview by Penny Kiley, Melody Maker, 4 October 1980
PENNY KILEY talks to the Buzzcocks ...
The Ruts: Ruts: Grin And Bear It (Virgin)
Review by Chris Bohn, New Musical Express, 11 October 1980
AT THEIR best The Ruts embodied the virtues of second division punk without resorting to the Bash Street antics of third generation comics like the ...
The Stranglers: "We're kind of out of context here," admit Stranglers
Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 16 October 1980
"WE'RE KIND OF out of context here," admits Stranglers' bassist Jean Jacques Burnel. "We write the things that we know and we don't really know ...
The Clash: Rude Boy Produced and directed by Jack Hazan and David Mingay (Atlantic Releasing Corp.)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Toby Goldstein, Creem, November 1980
Booed, Rude And Tattooed ...
Report by Don Snowden, New York Rocker, November 1980
LOS ANGELES — Rumors have been running rampant about the imminent demise of Slash magazine. A forthcoming issue may indeed be its swansong... but then ...
Review by Don Waller, New York Rocker, November 1980
THIS IS The Rap on The Rap, Part I: On the day you're born the doctor smacks your butt, then you start to rappin' and ...
Public Image Ltd: Image Publique S.A.: Paris Au Printemps (Virgin)
Review by Vivien Goldman, New Musical Express, 15 November 1980
Lydon says he hates live albums. Paris Au Printemps – PAP – the best of two nights recorded in Paris this spring, is a consumer ...
The Plasmatics: Rock's Smashing Success: The Plasmatics & Their New Wave of Destruction
Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 22 November 1980
WHEN THE Plasmatics say "Dynamite," they're not talking about their music. ...
Angelic Upstarts, Jimmy Pursey: Jimmy Pursey: The Cockney Kid Is Innocent
Report and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 6 December 1980
So who are you gonna be today then, Jim? The new Messiah or the little boy lost? Robespierre or the Urban Spaceman? An all-round good ...
Dead Kennedys: A Talent To Annoy
Profile and Interview by Deanne Pearson, Smash Hits, 11 December 1980
"I JUST couldn't believe it. I just kinda stood there with a blank stare on my face, thinking oh God — it really happened!" ...
The Clash: Joe Strummer Answers The Call-Up
Interview by Paolo Hewitt, Melody Maker, 13 December 1980
WORKING ON THE theory that if you give him enough rope he'll either hang or save himself, the following pages are left basically for the ...
Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 13 December 1980
OK, OK, they're a jolly prolific bunch always about to give their audience more than their money's worth, but – Christ, let's not mince words ...
The Clash: Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
Interview by David Hepworth, Smash Hits, 25 December 1980
Joe Strummer don't. Neither do The Clash. They just wanna make triple albums. David Hepworth raps (ouch!) ...
Dead Kennedys: Punk Rot Is Here To Stay
Interview by Deanne Pearson, The Face, January 1981
THIS IS THE hardcore faction. Spiked hair, leather jackets, the backs emblazoned with the logos of Crass, UK Subs, Adam & The Ants. Hordes of ...
Vivienne Westwood: Rich pickings at the World's End
Interview by Jon Savage, The Face, January 1981
Let It Rock, Sex, Seditionaries...Anarchy t-shirts and bondage straps. VIVIENNE WESTWOOD’S new collection is called World’s End. She talked about it to JON SAVAGE. ...
The Stranglers: Well They Said Anything Could Happen...
Profile and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 10 January 1981
Duff equipment, Close Encounters and bog-wall poetry… The Stranglers in America ...
Review by Van Gosse, The Village Voice, 14 January 1981
CONFRONTING THE Clash's epic monstrosity Sandinista! is like being a teacher (which I once was) and having one of your favorite little buggers show up ...
The Adolescents, Circle Jerks: The Adolescents/Circle Jerks: The Starwood, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Mark Leviton, BAM, 16 January 1981
A PACKED house and a dance floor that demanded knee pads and crash helmets provided the Black Hole of Calcutta ambiance for an evening of ...
Generation X: Gen X: Kiss Me Deadly (Chrysalis CHR 1327) ****
Review by Betty Page, Sounds, 17 January 1981
A young girl's fancy ...
Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 17 January 1981
Let there be ruck ...
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 24 January 1981
...once again we bring together the finest minds of our generation. This week: New Punk/Skin music. Refereed by GARRY BUSHELL ...
Splodgenessabounds: Woolwich Tramshed, London
Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 31 January 1981
The Splodge is dead, long live the Splodge ...
Report and Interview by Chris Salewicz, The Face, February 1981
PAUL SIMONON lives in a modest two-room Notting Hill basement flat just north of Ladbroke Grove tube station. ...
The Dictators: Back From The Bronx
Report by Gary Sperrazza!, New York Rocker, February 1981
NEW YORK– "You know how Teddy Pendergrass only lets women into his concerts? Next time we play here, we're only gonna allow 300 Ib. men ...
Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 14 February 1981
A LOT OF people rabbit on about a punk "legacy" but they just don't seem capable of realising that Punk ain't and could never be ...
Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 28 February 1981
Chaos is the rule ...
Cockney Rejects: Have the Rejects dumped Oi for HM?
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 28 February 1981
Garry Bushell in the troubled waters of London's punk/metal crossover ...
Circle Jerks: Group Sex (Frontier)
Review by Byron Coley, New York Rocker, March 1981
ONE OF THE real top great beauties of Anglo punk, the early, was that there was never a lyric sheet. Singers sang breakneck as they ...
The Jam: Sound Affects (Polydor)
Review by Don Snowden, New York Rocker, March 1981
SOUND AFFECTS finds the Jam stretching out, once again successfully staying off the (seemingly) inherent limitations of a three-piece lineup. ...
Interview by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, Rag In Chains, April 1981
Shredder: Tell me what it’s like being the number one band around. ...
The Angry Samoans: Angry Samoans: Gazzarri's, Hollywood CA
Live Review by Mark Leviton, Music Connection, 3 April 1981
The Players: Todd Homer, bass; Billy Vockeroth, drums; Gregg Turner, guitar & vocals; Mike Saunders, guitar & vocals; P.J. Gallaghan, guitar. ...
Black Flag, Circle Jerks, The Germs, X: LA Punk
Report by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 11 April 1981
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA is always preceded by its own legend. There is no way you can avoid that legend if you grew up with the price ...
Dead Kennedys: The Channel, Boston MA
Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 13 April 1981
Exhilarating, disturbing... ...
The Clash: Heart & Mind: The Paul Simonon Interview
Interview by Iman Lababedi, Creem, May 1981
WHATEVER YOU think of the Clash — and I haven't much cared for them since 'White Man In Hammersmith Palais' — a couple of things ...
Bow Wow Wow, Malcolm McLaren, The Sex Pistols: Malcolm McLaren... the True Poison!
Interview by Chris Salewicz, The Face, May 1981
You're dealing with a very low level of creativity in the music business. The man who sits in his office marketing records is not a ...
Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 2 May 1981
'We've got to get out and we've got to fight back' is still the message from SLF and their commitment hasn't evaporated since the heady ...
Interview by Peter Silverton, Smash Hits, 14 May 1981
SHE CHOSE the name... "Because there is a very sweet side to me – Honey – and there's a really horrible side to me – ...
Tenpole Tudor: A King Without A Clown
Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 23 May 1981
Tenpole Tudor march into the heartland of England (well, Sheffield actually) carrying their proud banner of scruffy English eccentricity. MARK COOPER watches the march of ...
Dead Kennedys: Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (IRS SP70014)
Review by Jon Young, Trouser Press, June 1981
CHANCES ARE you have an opinion about the Dead Kennedys even if you've never heard their music. Provocation is the name of the game; a ...
Report and Interview by Paolo Hewitt, Melody Maker, 6 June 1981
STANDING BY the toilet door, the kid recognised him instantly. The hair piled up in a scraggy mess. The white leather jacket. The beautiful punkette ...
Tenpole Tudor: Men of a Thousand Swords
Report and Interview by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, 13 June 1981
Tenpole Tudor stun Colin Irwin. ...
Live Review by Edwin Pouncey, Sounds, 20 June 1981
Tea and Anarchy: Edwin Pouncey sees Crass in action ...
Crass, Poison Girls: 100 Club, London
Live Review by Chris Bohn, New Musical Express, 20 June 1981
JUST CRASS ...
Report and Interview by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 20 June 1981
The winner of NME's Flatter The Clash competition checks out the ramifications when an English band's world is at Bonds. ...
The Clash, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, The Mo-dettes: The Clash: The Foul-Up
Report and Interview by Julie Panebianco, Boston Rock, 25 June 1981
THE LIGHTS dimmed. Dramatic Spanish bolero music from Clint Eastwood's For a Few Dollars More came on over the speakers, and the spotlights roamed from ...
Review by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, July 1981
"Got a hole in my heart/Size of my heart/Is my fist" — 'The Once Over Twice' ...
Overview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 5 July 1981
BESIDES MAKING names for themselves in local rock clubs and in the hearts of the police and the media, the Southland's hard-core punk bands have ...
Black Flag, Minor Threat, Henry Rollins, State of Alert: Slamdancing in the Big City
Report and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 19 July 1981
THE PIT is ferocious and frightening: Young men's bodies slam into each other, arms and elbows out, fist flailing, like razor-edged Mexican jumping beans popping ...
The Clash: The Return of Native Paranoia
Report by Chris Salewicz, The Face, August 1981
IN HOT humid New York City, the eight Clash dates at Bonds discotheque had their number doubled following a first night raid by the Fire ...
The Ramones: Pleasant Dreams (Sire SRK 3571)
Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 8 August 1981
ANOTHER PIONEERING punk band that's broadened its base will be in town next weekend — the Ramones. The New York quartet also has a new ...
X Marks a New Rock Spot at the Greek Theater
Report and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 8 August 1981
X AT THE Greek Theater? ...
Black Flag, Circle Jerks, The Germs, X: The Decline of Western Civilization (Dir. Penelope Spheeris)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Don Waller, New York Rocker, September 1981
THE DECLINE of Western Civilization, Penelope Spheeris's documentary of the L.A. punk scene circa late '79/early '80, is by turns funny, provocative, pretentious, inspiring, boring, ...
Sleeve notes by Lester Bangs, ROIR Records, September 1981
OVER THE LAST few years there've been a whole lot of catch phrases bandied about to describe what folks kept insisting was "new" music unlike anything ...
The Germs: Germicide (Mohawk/Bomp)
Review by Byron Coley, New York Rocker, September 1981
THIS ALBUM'S a real pisser. If you've got a nose for noise and don't buy this slab, you're up Hell Creek without an asbestos wiener. ...
The Ramones Pump Iron: So This Is What They Call HARD ROCK
Interview by Toby Goldstein, Creem, September 1981
JOEY RAMONE is not my brother. For six years, people have been approaching me at Ramones gigs, giving my uncontrollable wavy hair, pale skin and ...
Review by Jon Young, Trouser Press, September 1981
THERE'S A BIG difference between playing crudely out of necessity and harnessing primitivism to say things that can't be said any other way. Rock thrives ...
Dead Kennedys' Jello Biafra and Klaus Flouride (1981)
Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, October 1981
Messrs. Biafra and Flouride discuss the differences between punk and new wave; talk about fellow Californians Flipper, D.O.A. and Black Flag; decry Nazi punks; talk about friend and ally Christian Lunch, as well as about Hüsker Dü and the Residents; mock the Plasmatics and Adam & the Ants... and declare their mission to civilize America.
File format: mp3; file size: 20.5mb, interview length: 21' 18" sound quality: *****
Everybody Needs Somebody To Hate: A History Of L.A. Punk Rock
Overview by Gene Sculatti, Creem, October 1981
"For God's sake, is that all you people in L.A. want to hear: aggressive lyrics and a raging guitar?!"– Chris Stein ...
The Boys, The Members: The Members, the Boys: Privates, New York NY
Live Review by Jim Green, Trouser Press, October 1981
MANAGERIAL problems, identity crises, record companies' loss of faith — not a pretty picture, but that's what both the Members and the Boys have faced ...
Punk Five Years On. A Pogo Down Memory Lane...
Overview by Jon Savage, The Face, November 1981
Sept 20/21, 1976: The two-day Punk Festival at London's 100 Club showcases the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Damned, Buzzcocks, Subway Sect, and the debut ...
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 ...
The Outcasts: Culture Shock Rock!
Report and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 28 November 1981
Barney Hoskyns and survives a night in Belfast with the town's longest surviving punk band, the Outcasts. ...
The Flesh Eaters: Flesh Eaters' Chris D.'s Carnal Knowledge
Essay by Byron Coley, New York Rocker, December 1981
IN MY OPINE, Chris Desjardins is the best goddamn singer/songwriter ('r "S/S" in classic Creemspeak) that's e'er poked his pate above the stiflin' smog that covers ...
Dead Kennedys: Let Them Eat Jello Beings
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 5 December 1981
Garry Bushell exhumes a living Dead Kennedy ...
Interview by Mick Sinclair, Sounds, 19 December 1981
Hot on the heels of the Dead Kennedys come L.A. punx Black Flag. ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 1982
QUITE WHY Fear have created such a stir on the L.A. punk scene is far from apparent from this Record. Smarter they may be than ...
Hüsker Dü: Land Speed Record (New Alliance)
Review by Byron Coley, New York Rocker, 1982
FRENCH REVOLUTIONARIES of the 19th century had an interestin' way of equippin' their "human bombs." ...
The Damned, UK Subs: Dreaming Of A Punk Christmas
Report by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, 2 January 1982
"COME HERE," cried an excited Captain Sensible from the corner of the backstage lounge. "I've just discovered what this is like! It's like the Generation ...
The Subway Sect: Subway Sect: Vic the Vague
Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 9 January 1982
A PIECE ON VIC GODARD BY PAUL MORLEY SAUCILY ENTITLED VIC THE VAGUE. Paul says: "I wish to be referred to at the heading of this ...
Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 23 January 1982
The grim face of reality (punk) ...
Black Flag: Damaged (SST Import)*****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 30 January 1982
Hardcore heaven ...
The 4-Skins: Danson Youth Centre, Bexleyheath, London
Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 30 January 1982
Hard as diamonds ...
Bow Wow Wow, Malcolm McLaren, The Sex Pistols: Malcolm McLaren
Interview by Johnny Black, unpublished, February 1982
This is the full transcript of the interview, a small (1500-word) version of which appeared in Over 21 magazine in May 1982. ...
The Angry Samoans: Back From Samoa (Bad Trip Records)
Review by Mark Leviton, Music Connection, 3 February 1982
THIS VENOMOUS collection of thirteen originals plus a nutty cover of 'Time Has Come Today' displays all the fury and sick humor of the band's ...
Profile and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 20 February 1982
'Five years on and you've still got nothing' ...
The Business: Minding Their Own
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 27 February 1982
'The winter of discontent is nearing/Thatcher's got trouble with her hearing/The voices of millions are going unheard/I'd try to laugh if it wasn't so absurd/This ...
Poison Girls, Rubella Ballet: Rubella Ballet: Pop! Go the measles
Interview by Mick Sinclair, Sounds, 13 March 1982
MICK SINCLAIR accepts a dinner date from Rubella Ballet ...
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 20 March 1982
"Oi has spoilt punk. I really hate the idea of the Oi thing even if some of the music's alright...if Oi and punk are the ...
Chelsea: Spring Time for October
Interview by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, 3 April 1982
I DON'T know why it had to happen to Chelsea. Clawed by the press, mauled by the dim-witted forces of fashion, the four-man disaster team ...
Angelic Upstarts: Still From The Heart (Zono)
Review by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, 10 April 1982
EXTRAORDINARY. Quite extraordinary. This has got to be the most astonishing thing I've heard in months; a shock so devastating that I'm shaking still. ...
Chron Gen: Chronic Generation (Secret)
Review by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, 10 April 1982
WELCOME TO the chronic generation, and a glimpse into the past, present and future of Chron-Gen on their debut album. ...
Anti-Nowhere League: We Are…The League (WXYZ)*****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 1 May 1982
ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, I give in. Let's face it, this just ain't the sort of music (?) to lend itself to sensitive in-depth philosophical probings. ...
Angelic Upstarts: Mensi's Marauders
Interview by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, 8 May 1982
"COME HERE you!" bellowed Mensi across a crowded and quite respectable lounge bar. The reverberations thundered over the heads of the lunchtime clientele, their salads ...
Anti-Nowhere League: We Are…The League
Review by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, 8 May 1982
THERE'S ONLY one League in my life. It's not the Human League, for sure. It's not the Ivy League either, or the League of Gentlemen. ...
Vice Squad: Stand Strong, Stand Proud (EMI/Riot City ZEM 104)****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 8 May 1982
THIS ISN'T a great album but it is a very good one. For Vice Squad it's a crucial show of strength because their first album ...
Flipper: Album Generic Flipper (Subterranean)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 15 May 1982
DOLPHINS IN ROCK (PART 6) ...
The Clash: Combat Rock (CBS) ***
Review by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 15 May 1982
Gonna write a Clashic ...
Report and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 15 May 1982
IS THE phonograph record on its deathbed? Neil Cooper, who runs a record company that doesn't sell records, thinks so. "Within five years, vinyl will ...
The Clash: Up The Hill Backwards
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 29 May 1982
HALF PAST ONE on Portobello Road. Past the chippy, opposite the bookshop, within earshot of a man with an amplified mouth-harp honking and scything through ...
Minor Threat: 9:30 Club, Washington DC
Live Review by Howard Wuelfing, Unicorn Times, June 1982
THEY RAGED; they soared; they conquered. In fact, the reformed Minor Threat very nearly surpassed the grotesquely high expectations everybody held for them on this, ...
X's Wild Los Angeles Gift: Sign On The Dotted Line, Please!
Interview by Richard Grabel, Creem, June 1982
X ARE FINALLY getting some respect. Their first album, Los Angeles, released in 1980 on the independent Slash label, sold some 80,000 copies, not bad ...
The Clash: Combat Rock (Epic FE 37689)
Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 6 June 1982
CLASH ON THE BATTLEFIELD ...
Circle Jerks: Wild In The Streets (Faulty Products)
Review by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, 19 June 1982
LOOK, here they come now, swaggering round the corner: mouthfuls of curses; knuckledusters; leathers scraped with the scars of street battle; chains in the pockets; ...
Cockney Rejects: The Wild Ones (NEMS pre-release)****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 19 June 1982
Flairs and riffers ...
Peter and the Test Tube Babies: More Bottle Than Brains
Report and Interview by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, 19 June 1982
Carol Clerk cracks a tube with PETER AND THE TEST TUBE BABIES ...
Profile and Interview by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, 26 June 1982
IT SEEMED like a good idea at the time. Meet The Business, knock back a pint or two, set off on a disco crawl...and find ...
The Exploited: Troops Of Tomorrow
Review by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 26 June 1982
APART FROM its marvellous cover, which depicts "an Escape From New York vision of a desolated city where punk can express its essential nature of ...
Fear: Not Just Another L.A. Send-up: the Flying of Fear
Report and Interview by J. Kordosh, Creem, July 1982
LIKE MOST people, I'm afraid of lots of things. High on my care-list are new Rush albums, pointy sticks, and my kids growing up to ...
The Clash: Highways To Hell: Clash Clampdown U.S.A.
Report by Julie Panebianco, Boston Rock, 7 July 1982
IT'S SUMMER and the Clash are back, not on Broadway but on the radio. 'Rock the Casbah' is blaring out of car windows not just ...
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 10 July 1982
THE BLOKE who spends his life writing things like 'Let's Lurk' and 'Lewisham Lurkers' over every available wall on my estate, and who's probably single-handedly ...
The Flesh Eaters: Chris D. On The Ways Of Flesh (And Spirit)
Interview by Don Waller, L.A. Weekly, 22 July 1982
"THE FLESH Eaters?... It's not some gory, horror-movie-title thing. The spirit is what's eating the flesh." ...
Profile and Interview by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, 24 July 1982
IT WAS in the winter of 1978 that vocalist Lee Drury had his first traumatic encounter with the cruel forces of fate. At the time, ...
The Clash: Doubt and desperation on the edge of town
Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 24 July 1982
From Garageland to hell with Joe Strummer of the Clash ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, August 1982
IF YOU THOUGHT Sandinistal's epic sprawl would be edited down to a solid, filler-free album this time, guess again. Combat Rock reflects that triple-record set's ...
Review by Jon Young, Trouser Press, August 1982
The Germs: Germicide (ROIR A108 cassette) Stimulators: Loud Fast Rules! (ROIR A109 cassette) Circle Jerks: Wild in the Streets (Faulty Products COPE3) Flipper: ...
Profile and Interview by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, 21 August 1982
Carol Clerk collars confident Blackpool punksters The Fits in a fact-packed foray ...
Profile and Interview by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, 28 August 1982
I'D JUST been thinking about Haircut 100 — lovely boys, polite as can be — making cheerful, playful music. But I'd had enough of candy, ...
The Damned: Strawberries (Polydor)
Review by Leyla Sanai, New Musical Express, September 1982
YOU DIDN'T really think they'd gone, did you? After all, it's only four years since their 'farewell' gig, and looking at Jimmy Pursey's Hams 69 ...
The Clash: Still Scruffy, But Now Rock Heroes
Profile by Geoffrey Himes, Baltimore Sun, 5 September 1982
NEW YORK — Four musicians sauntered onto New York's Pier 84 Tuesday. Tall, gangly, ragtag and scarred, they looked like the scruffy street fighters they ...
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 18 September 1982
THE VERY concept of a band like Coming Blood is about as shock-horror near-the-knuckle punky as you can get. Their name alone is a verbal ...
X: The Maturing of a Punk Band
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 30 September 1982
SAN FRANCISCO — a few minutes before doing a live interview at the University of San Francisco radio station, John Doe of X picked up a ...
Circle Jerks: Love The One You're With...
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, October 1982
THERE'S PEOPLE diving off the sides. A somersault – look! a bellyflop! – a couple of thrilling jack-knives. The one wearing the bathing cap – ...
Stiv Bators, The Dead Boys: Old Dead Boys Never Die, They Just Get Spayed Away
Report by Richard Riegel, Creem, October 1982
LONDON/NEW YORK — One-time Dead Boy vocalist/ scartissue-monger Stiv Bators married his beloved, one Anastasia, on May 1st in London, thus breaking the dog-collared hearts ...
X: Under The Big Black Sun (Elektra)
Review by Laura Fissinger, Creem, October 1982
X'S ALL-AMERICAN ANGST ...
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 9 October 1982
SLOPING OFF the Inter-City at Manchester Piccadilly, I was suddenly overcome by a torrid tinge of terror. ...
Blitz: Voice Of A Generation (No Future) *****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 16 October 1982
THIS REALLY is the big one, final proof if any were needed that the punk renewal of the last two years is more than just ...
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 16 October 1982
Garry Bushell comes to the Orange-aid of Peak District punksters The Violators ...
Richard Hell: Bottom Line, New York NY
Live Review by Toby Goldstein, Musician, November 1982
DURING NEW York City's early punk era. Richard Hell & the Voidoids were extremists bobbing on a sea of originals. Hell's agonized vocals whined his ...
Angelic Upstarts, Cockney Rejects, Splodgenessabounds, UK Subs: Oi! and Skinheads: Coming a Cropper
Comment by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 6 November 1982
A passionate defence of skinhead culture by GARRY BUSHELL. ...
Richard Hell: Rock poet Richard Hell finds some solace
Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 6 November 1982
ELVIS PRESLEY, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis defined the classic rock 'n' roll position — stake a claim for living life outside society's mainstream, ...
UK Subs, Urban Dogs, The Vibrators: Urban Dogs: Doggie Doings
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 13 November 1982
CHARLIE HARPER is late, Charlie's always late. Me and Knox sit in the office cracking the usual jokes about it being his pension day. Not ...
Cock Sparrer: Strictly For The Birds
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 20 November 1982
COCK SPARRER'S come-back couldn't have been better timed. Just as the street rock scene was getting staler than a Marie Celeste bread roll, the original ...
Profile and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Downbeat, December 1982
IT'S AN UGLY voice. Gruff, guttural, uncouth, barbaric at times. Joe Strummer can't sing, not like an Al Jarreau or a Joni Mitchell, anyway. Lyrics ...
Live Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 4 December 1982
IT'S AMUSING TO SEE just how much Oi/punk inevitably rides the rails of the trad rock curve on its way to hell and bucks. This ...
Retrospective by Chris Salewicz, The History of Rock, 1983
A nation watched aghast as punk reared its spiky head ...
Profile by Penny Valentine, The History of Rock, 1983
IF THERE WAS one band that successfully rose above punk’s swift and premature decline, it was the Clash. Although historically the Sex Pistols remain the ...
Book Excerpt by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, 'Hardcore California', 1983
IN 1978 THE suburbs of Los Angeles (Anaheim, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Redondo Beach etc.) were still a home for Disneyland, Movieland Wax Museum ...
The Clash, The Sex Pistols: Punk: 1977 - Two Sevens Clash
Essay by Chris Salewicz, The History of Rock, 1983
AS A REBEL MUSIC, punk rock had close affinities with reggae. When the punk movement found a focal point and place of worship in the ...
Retrospective by Tom Hibbert, The History of Rock, 1983
FROM 1970 ONWARDS, the US rock mainstream grew increasingly staid, predictable and unimaginative. On the surface, the American scene appeared to offer nothing but sleepy ...
Sex Gang Children, Southern Death Cult: Positive Punk: Blood And Roses
Overview by Richard North, New Musical Express, 19 February 1983
PART ONE "Don't dream it, be it." — Rocky Horror Show ...
The Angry Samoans: Angry Samoans: Back From Samoa (Bad Trip — US import)
Review by Chris Bohn, New Musical Express, 26 February 1983
SPLUTTER, SPLATTER SEX SHOCK HORROR ...
The Minutemen: Minutemen: What Makes A Man Start Fires? (SST)
Review by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 26 February 1983
GETTING BETTER BY THE MINUTE ...
The Minutemen: Through Time With The Minutemen
Profile by Byron Coley, L.A. Weekly, 25 March 1983
OFTEN THE mention of a band will bring a visual and/or sonic image to the tip of one's lobe. The words 'Mau Mau' are spake ...
The Lords Of The New Church: I Just Wanna Testify
Report by Richard Riegel, Creem, April 1983
IT'S LIKE a scene from a Lisa Robinson rock novel, here at Swingo's Hotel in downtown Cleveland. The lobby's a baroque mishmash of fake 18th-century ...
Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 29 April 1983
FLIPPER SUCCEEDS WITH EXCESS; WITH WILD STARES AND PANIXQUAD AT THE CHANNEL; WEDNESDAY NIGHT. ...
The Members: Members of Punk-Reggae Wedding Claim Not Always Bridesmaids
Profile and Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, May 1983
WE'RE DOWN in Bogart's new dressing room, a concrete-block bunker beneath the stage, and as I retrieve a Budweiser from the tub on the amenities ...
Review and Interview by Vernon Gibbs, Creem, May 1983
Smithereens: directed by Susan Seidelman (New Line Cinema) ...
The Clash, Allen Ginsberg: Ginsberg Finds Poetry in Punk
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 2 May 1983
WHEN THE Clash decided it wanted "the voice of God" in its last album, the group turned to Allen Ginsberg. The 56-year-old poet with the ...
Report and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 11 June 1983
MOST ROCK bands send out photos and press clippings with their records. But inside the new album Everything Went Black is a copy of a ...
Buzzcocks, Pete Shelley: Peter Shelley
Interview by Jim Green, Trouser Press, August 1983
Back when the much-saluted bywords of British punk were "rebellion," "relevance" and "gritty realism," Manchester's Buzzcocks brought something fresh, pithy and even humorous to their ...
Black Flag: The Truth about Black Flag
Profile and Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 12 August 1983
LET'S FACE IT – much of what passes for music in our country is, in fact, nothing more than product, the worthless, soulless result of ...
Bad Brains: Rock For Light (Abstract)
Review by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 20 August 1983
BAD BRAINS are an idea bursting full-tilt from a terminally fevered cortex. Rock For Light is the attempted rationalising of the notion, and it so ...
Live Review by Howard Wuelfing, The Washington Post, 26 September 1983
Punk & Funk ...
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 13 October 1983
Sixteen years after the Summer of Love, the bands that made the Fillmore famous are as mainstream as Tony Bennett. Meanwhile, a new generation of ...
Minor Threat: Hardcore Happiness
Profile and Interview by RJ Smith, Musician, November 1983
THE MUSIC of Minor Threat has great humor, an ultra-physical beat, and the pace of a ride in the front seat of a roller coaster. ...
The Cramps: Cramps Rocks 'N' Rolls Out Of An Early Grave
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 16 November 1983
A DISPUTE with their label kept them from releasing a record for more than two years. ...
Husker Du, Omega Tribe: Omega Tribe: No Love Lost (Corpus Cristi)/Hüsker Dü: Metal Circus (SST)
Review by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 17 December 1983
"People talk about anarchy / and taking up a fight / Well I'm afraid of hings like that / I lock my doors at night" ...
Interview by Blake Gumprecht, Alternative America, Winter 1983
FORMED IN MINNEAPOLIS in the Summer of 1979, Husker Dü ("Do you remember" in Danish) released their first 45, 'Statues', in 1980. After their extensive ...
Bob Segarini, The Diodes, Teenage Head: Teenage Head, Diodes, Segarini: Toronto Punk Albums
Review by Gary Sperrazza!, New York Rocker, January 1984
Teenage Head: Frantic CityDiodes: Action/Reaction Segarini: On The Radio ...
Hüsker Dü: Iron Tamers: Hüsker Dü send out distress signals
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 14 January 1984
HÜSKER DÜ, signed to Black Flag’s SST label, are one of America’s mightiest hardcore trios. From Minneapolis, aching heart of the Midwest, they’ve sent out ...
Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 14 January 1984
IT'S ALMOST like standing with my stilettoes planted on the very threshold of Club Yes. ...
The Clash: Long Beach Arena, Long Beach CA
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 26 January 1984
CLASH LEAVES A LOT OF QUESTIONS UNANSWERED ...
X Spots the Mark: Raw Chemicals With a Spoon
Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, February 1984
AS I ENTER Billy Zoom's Cincinnati motel room, I glance at the usual rockband-on-tour pile of black leather jackets, but I also take note of ...
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 10 February 1984
LOS ANGELES —"Music is a vehicle for ideas, and if the ideas suck and the music's good, it's still pretty bad music." The man at ...
The Clash: A Fired-up Joe Strummer Brings his New Clash to America
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 1 March 1984
Group gets back to its punk roots ...
The Clash: The Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 17 March 1984
ONCE UPON a time when we were a little more naive than we like to admit, The Clash seemed pretty important, like they were the ...
Review by Don Watson, New Musical Express, 31 March 1984
TO SAY that Black Flag's Damaged was the punk LP of 1981, is tantamount to (if I may be allowed to lapse for a moment ...
Live Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 31 March 1984
Smacked Bottoms ...
The Minutemen: Buzz Or Howl Under The Influence Of Heat (SST)
Review by RJ Smith, Creem, April 1984
CIVIL DEFENSE QUIZ: ARE YOU PREPARED?What should you do in case of a sudden dropping of a nuclear weapon on your neighborhood? A) Grab ...
X: Guitars Against The Golden State
Profile and Interview by Robin Eggar, The Face, April 1984
They've been called The Last American Rock Band. It's a tag they hate. ...
The Clash: I Call On Joe Strummer — And Live to Tell About It!
Interview by Jon Young, Boston Rock, 16 April 1984
WHAT BECOMES a legend most? In the case of the Clash, overcoming the obstacles and carrying on, head held high. If you've followed their inconstant ...
Shredder: Teen Scene from Belly of the Beast
Interview by Don Waller, Los Angeles Times, 13 May 1984
Now flip that teen coin and meet a breed of kiddies who are not going to dance clubs, who are not listening to floaty romantic ...
Black Flag: Wheel Me Out Flagging!: Black Flag: Marquee, London
Live Review by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 26 May 1984
"SEARCH AND DESTROY" is the tattoo emblazoned across the sweat-rivuleted, hawser-taut shoulders of Henry Rollins. ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, July 1984
WHAT HAPPENS to hardcore bands when they get old? They turn into Hawkwinds, that's what. Redondo Beach's finest have let their skinheads grow out and ...
Black Flag: The Flag Is Up For Henry Rollins
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 20 July 1984
SUNDAY AFTERNOON, Henry Rollins will work himself into a frenzy as he leads L.A. punk kingpins Black Flag in a special matinee performance at West ...
The Membranes: 1 in 12 Club, Bradford
Live Review by Susan Williams, New Musical Express, 11 August 1984
BULLSHIT DETECTOR! ...
Interview by Don Watson, New Musical Express, 15 September 1984
RUN! THIS can't be happening! The headlights of the car bearing down on Greg Ginn and Bill Stevenson capture two slack-jawed faces, stark with astonishment, ...
The Minutemen: Double Nickels On The Dime (SST double — US import)
Review by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, 29 September 1984
60 SECONDS THAT EMOTION ...
Alternative TV: Mark Perry: After The Storm
Interview by Richard Kick, ZigZag, October 1984
ONE SOMETIMES wonders what ever happened to the original punk rock generation of 1976? Obviously those who have managed to hold onto the limelight we ...
Joneses, The (punk), The Minutemen: The Minutemen, the Joneses: Music Machine, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 8 October 1984
Minutemen Surpass the Joneses With Engaging Mix of Rock, Jazz, Folk ...
The Stranglers: The Menin Straits
Interview by Richard North, ZigZag, November 1984
A BAND who, in 1977, I jumped up onstage with at the Queensway Hall Dunstable/I was drunk/I sobered up very quickly/ ...
Review by Bill Black, Sounds, 22 December 1984
"RICHARD HELL HAS been the most emotionally compelling, brilliant, innovative and influential rock 'n' roll performer of the past ten years. Unfortunately, these qualities are ...
The Ramones: Joey Ramone (1985)
Interview by Larry Jaffee, Rock's Backpages audio, 1985
Da Brudda gives us his Desert Island Discs and raps about record labels, producers and the musically and politically sterile 1980s.
File format: mp3; file size: 52.2mb, interview length: 57' 02" sound quality: ***
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, February 1985
Joey and Dee Dee talk about life for da brudders is the mid-'80s; Hardcore; chart success (or not); drugs; playing fast; New York City, and where they come from musically.
File format: mp3; file size: 45.3mb, interview length: 1h 02' 53" sound quality: ***
Gene Loves Jezebel, The Ramones: The Ramones/Gene Love Jezebel/Restless: Lyceum, London
Live Review by David Quantick, New Musical Express, 2 March 1985
HALF OF WESTERN CIVILISATION is here tonight; there are men in the toilet talking about Black Sabbath, there are Gary Holton and Rat Scabies and ...
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 29 March 1985
LOS ANGELES — Henry Rollins simply will not look at me. The Black Flag vocalist has been described as everything from Jim Morrison with Charlie ...
Hüsker Dü: Maxwell's, Hoboken, N.J.
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 8 June 1985
VERY RARELY does Maxwell's, the small club that has become something of a local mecca for the new roots-oriented American bands, sell out in advance. ...
Generation X, Billy Idol: Billy Idol: I was the clean punk
Interview by Graham K. Smith, Record Mirror, 6 July 1985
So pleads Billy Idol, latest bad boy of yank rock. Graham K. Smith listens to the curled lip and reckons the man is sincere ...
Report and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 18 July 1985
They don't sound like the Ramones, and they don't look like the Sex Pistols, but bands like Hüsker Dü, the Minutemen and the Meat Puppets ...
Black Flag: 9.30 Club, Washington DC
Live Review by Simon Witter, New Musical Express, 27 July 1985
THE INTENSE energy with which they maliciously rioted across the grooves of Damaged inevitably doomed them to an early burn out, and tonight's show was ...
The Membranes: Gift Of Life (Creation)
Review by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 14 September 1985
MORE SPUNKY misdemeanours from the oddest thing to have come out of Blackpool since the road to Morecambe. Newly signed to Creation, this trio seem ...
The Nightingales, The Prefects: Anti-Pop Songbirds: The Nightingales
Report and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Spin, October 1985
THE NIGHTINGALES ARE seasoned figures on the English independent scene, epitomizing the doggedly patient and uncompromising outsider. Five years old, they still play tiny clubs-above-pubs ...
Black Flag: Damaged (SST 007) ****/In My Head (SST 045) *****
Review by Neil Perry, Sounds, 16 November 1985
THE ELECTRIC box in the corner is getting as tedious as the night is getting chilly. Cold comfort indeed, and time to slip on something ...
Overview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, January 1986
TO PUT EVERYTHING INTO PERSPECTIVE, AS TO WHERE THE ORIGINALS FROM '76 HAVE GONE; BE IT A WAYSIDE DITCH OR A MAJOR RECORD COMPANY WATER ...
Review by Jon Young, Musician, January 1986
OUT OF THE ASHES: JOE STRUMMER ROCKS, MICK JONES SWINGS ...
Review by Byron Coley, Spin, February 1986
THE Circle Jerks and Dead Kennedys are two of a handfulla bands surviving in name and form from the first three waves of California-style pre-hardcore ...
Punk: I Fought The Biz And The Biz Won (How We Got Here From There)
Overview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 1 February 1986
PUNK: IT MADE OUR DAY...It's been ten bleak winters since...well, we look back in hunger at the years youth reclaimed rock and for a while ...
Punk and Reggae: Rip Bam Bam Bye Yeah
Retrospective by Sean O'Hagan, New Musical Express, 8 February 1986
"Black and white, unite and fight" was the call; The Clash sang of 'Police And Thieves', Johnny Rotten found he was 'Born For A Purpose'. ...
Simply Red: Punk in Manchester: Oh, How We Laughed
Essay by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 15 February 1986
BE OFF with you! Little Red, it is said, is not happy at the hollow allegations that suggest he has 'sold out' by leaping from ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees: The Howling
Retrospective by Don Watson, New Musical Express, 22 February 1986
SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES: "a great whirlpool of noise, pulling the future down." Many moons later DON WATSON recalls the dawn of the great Sioux ...
Husker Dü: Powerhouse, Birmingham
Live Review by Simon Frith, The Observer, 30 March 1986
The critics' choice: SIMON FRITH watches Husker Dü in Birmingham ...
John Lydon, Malcolm McLaren, The Sex Pistols: Lydon vs McLaren: The End of the Affair
Report by Jon Savage, Spin, April 1986
EARLY IN 1976, the Sex Pistols were a good idea trying to get started, gate-crashing other people's concerts — with instruments allegedly stolen from rich ...
The Minutemen: 3-Way Tie (For Last) (SST)
Review by Byron Coley, Spin, April 1986
FATE SUCKS. And this this is not meant to be read in the Bob Christgau suck-is-good meaning of the word either. ...
Black Flag: My War (Continued)
Report and Interview by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, 12 July 1986
FRIDAY NIGHT at New York's Irving Plaza, filled to the rafters with punks letting their freak flags fly. Tattered, dazed and confused kids line the ...
Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious: Sid And Nancy (Dir. Alex Cox; Palace Pictures, 18, 92 minutes)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 30 July 1986
ALEX COX, film director: "In 1980 I tried to write a screenplay called 'Too Kool To Die'. It was about an English rock 'n' roll ...
The Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious: Sid Vicious: Scum Also Rises
Retrospective by Nick Kent, The Face, August 1986
SID LIVES ON T-SHIRTS AND IN A NEW FILM, BUT MOSTLY HE JUST LIVES ON IN INFAMY ...
Big Black's Incendiary Devices
Profile by Byron Coley, L.A. Weekly, 15 August 1986
THERE ARE any number of questions that people ask about Big Black: Why does Steve Albini cut his hair with a saber saw? How do ...
Black Flag: SST Records: Working Muscles, Packaged Wallop
Report and Interview by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 5 September 1986
YOU COULD SAY this is the darkest Dark Age the music world has seen yet, what with commercial radio more dead than death itself and ...
Live Review by Abby Weissman, East Coast Rocker, 10 September 1986
THE JURY IS still out on the music of the '70s, but the smoke is starting to clear. It's easier to see who was truly ...
GG Allin: Cat Club, New York City
Live Review by RJ Smith, The Village Voice, 21 October 1986
ILLIN' ON 24 oz. Jolt October 6 only made it worse. G.G. Allin, this New Hampshire loser, appeared at the Cat Club, wearing only a ...
Interview by Hugh Fielder, Neil Perry, Sounds, 25 October 1986
Two years ago CRASS couldn't decide whether to blow up the country or grow cabbages — fortunately for the Tory Tyrants, they chose the latter. ...
The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious: "Poor Sid — You were a good guy, but..."
Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 7 November 1986
SID AND Nancy, Alex Cox's film about the life and death of the Sex Pistols' bassist, Sid Vicious, and his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, is a ...
The Ramones: The Ritz, New York
Live Review by Abby Weissman, East Coast Rocker, 26 November 1986
TEN YEARS AND 10 blocks north of CBGB's – the bar on the Bowery which first unleashed them onto an unsuspecting world – the Ramones ...
Black Flag, Gone, SWA: Ex-Black Flag Rockers Battle The Mainstream
Interview by Don Waller, Los Angeles Times, 27 November 1986
"WE WEREN'T a band that came out and played a lot of our old songs," reflects Black Flag founder/guitarist Greg Ginn in the wake of ...
The Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious: Sid And Nancy (Dir. Alex Cox; Samuel Goldwyn Co.)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Kris Needs, Creem, December 1986
LOVE IS A ROSE ...
The Meatmen: War Of The Superbikes (Homestead)
Review by Byron Coley, Forced Exposure, Winter 1986
TESCO VEE is a sick yake. ...
The Membranes: Love and Fury for Export
Report and Interview by The Legend!, New Musical Express, 10 January 1987
With the multinational dross-spreaders and the candyfloss radio stations celebrating another year with their boot-heel on the throat of popular music, THE MEMBRANES — godfathers ...
The Stupids: Stupidity Maketh The Men
Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 9 May 1987
Not dumb, maybe a little deaf by now...UK thrash stylists The Stupids step off their skatin’ wheels and entertain Cynthia Rose with tales of ordinary ...
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 16 May 1987
SLAM DANCE ...
Chumbawamba, Class War, Conflict, Crass, Flux of Pink Indians: Anarcho-Punk: Veg Wedge
Report by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 23 May 1987
With Crass, Poison Girls and Flux in either retirement or a state of change, and Conflict in trouble, the anarcho-punk movement is in tatters. STEVEN ...
Husker Du: Why Aren’t They Massive?
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 27 June 1987
IN ATLANTA, GEORGIA, the Replacements play me a tape of Husker Du’s live appearance on The Joan Rivers Show. It’s more than a little mindblowing. ...
Review by Jack Barron, Sounds, 18 July 1987
THE 'OFFICIAL bootleg' is an interesting development in deception. Several have already sneaked out from beneath the Mute umbrella but this pair, including Head Of ...
Suicidal Tendencies: Clarendon, London
Live Review by Roy Wilkinson, Sounds, 18 July 1987
IN FOR THE KILL ...
GG Allin: Underground: GG Allin
Guide by Byron Coley, Spin, August 1987
FIRST things first. Just as 1986 was the Year of the 'Steen, 1987 is gonna be the Year of GG Allin. ...
Billy Idol: I Am Still the Greatest Says Billy Idol
Interview by Chris Bourke, Rip It Up (New Zealand), September 1987
"At the age of 14, Johnny Angelo was a heartthrob. He had three-inch sideboards and he wore his hair swept high in a golden quiff. ...
Live Review by Gerrie Lim, L.A. Weekly, 11 September 1987
IN A BUCOLIC canyon were the faithful gathered, the black-garbed and the henna-haired and the anorexic trendoids baring their nightclub tans, all earnest supplicants at ...
Big Black: Songs About F****** (Blast First BFFP 19/CD)*****
Review by Neil Perry, Sounds, 12 September 1987
INTO THE BLACK HOLE ...
The Stranglers: Fey Bikers On Azur
Report and Interview by Simon Witter, New Musical Express, 17 October 1987
THE PHONE RANG. It was the chief. "Be at the airport tomorrow morning. The Stranglers. Marseilles. Bikers' convention. JJ Burnel burning up the track on ...
Profile and Interview by Chuck Eddy, Creem, December 1987
"THE PURPOSE of music as a reflection of the ever-changing nature of the world is to make everything you like seem silly five years later, ...
Bad Brains: An Interview with HR
Interview by Al Quint, Suburban Voice, Winter 1987
PROBABLY THE MOST unusual interview I've ever encountered in my 4 years of doing this 'zine. In a haze of marijuana smoke, surrounded by several ...
Meat Puppets: Call of the Wild: Meat Puppets
Profile and Interview by Mark Dery, Option, January 1988
IT AIN'T THE MEAT, as they say, it's the motion, and believe me, nothing beats a handful of animated hamburger racing around on your plate ...
Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, 16 January 1988
During 1987 the US indie underground began surfacing in much the same way as it had here a full decade earlier. BYRON COLEY, co-editor of ...
The Clash, Joe Strummer: Joe Strummer (1988)
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, February 1988
The former Clash front-man on recording the soundtrack to Permanent Record; his musical and acting participation in Walker and Straight to Hell; on the Clash compilation Story of the Clash Vol. 1; how touring with the Who led to the end of the Clash; playing with the Pogues, and his hatred of being spat at onstage; on Reagan and Thatcher; his (now) dislike of drugs; on his diplomat father; forming the 101ers, and the Rude Boy movie.
File format: mp3; file size: 83.8mb, interview length: 1h 27' 20" sound quality: *** (background noise)
fIREHOSE, Jerry Lee Lewis, X: X, Jerry Lee Lewis, fIREHOSE: Universal Ampitheatre, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Bill Holdship, Creem, April 1988
"WE GOT THE BULLS BY THE HORN..." ...
Penelope Spheeris: Last of the Mohawkans
Interview by Michele Kirsch, New Musical Express, 7 May 1988
PENELOPE SPHEERIS is the West Coast punk auteur whose movies have traced the decline and fall of hard core culture. Dudes completes her trilogy of ...
X: Live at the Whisky A Go Go on the Fabulous Sunset Strip
Review by Don Snowden, The Boston Phoenix, 27 May 1988
FOR ALL THE national accolades heaped on X throughout the '80s, the group never stopped viewing itself as an LA band stepped in the nitty-gritty ...
The 101'ers, The Clash, Sex Pistols, Joe Strummer: Joe Strummer
Interview by Jon Savage, unpublished, 30 May 1988
This interview was for Jon Savage's classic punk book England's Dreaming, and is published here in its entirity for the first time. ...
The Dickies, Metal MC, Pigmy Love Circus: Scream, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 29 July 1988
TEN YEARS of anything is a lot... usually too much. When I was younger, I worshiped the Dickies as the overlords of my conscience, wrote ...
Hüsker Dü, Bob Mould: Bob Mould's Quiet Life After Husker Du
Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 19 August 1988
FOR THE BETTER part of the 1980s, Husker Du was the leading light of the American rock 'n' roll underground. The Minneapolis-based trio came crashing ...
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 ...
The Ramones: Ramonesland: An Interview with the First Family of Punk
Interview by Abby Weissman, East Coast Rocker, 21 September 1988
IT'S NOT uncommon for strangers to come up to the Ramones to thank them for existing and to pay their respects. Sometimes it's just kids ...
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 ...
Henry Rollins: Mean Fiddler, London
Live Review by Edwin Pouncey, New Musical Express, 1 October 1988
THE GRAND old illustrated man of US hardcore grips the stage with his toes and hangs ten. Henry Rollins has just rolled into town again ...
Suicidal Tendencies: Calling the shots
Interview by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 3 November 1988
Punks prove their metal ...
Jonathan Richman: Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers
Review by Robert Sandall, Q, 1989
BESERKLEY HAVE re-issued their entire catalogue of Jonathan Richman albums but they should have stopped with this one, a brilliant piece of East Coast proto-punk ...
Malcolm McLaren (1989) [transcript]
Audio transcript of interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 1989
This is a transcript of John's audio interview with Malcolm. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Wipers: Turning the Sage: Boston says goodbye to the Wipers
Live Review by Tim Riley, The Boston Phoenix, 27 January 1989
THE WIPERS, a seasoned punk trio from Portland, Oregon, are headed up by singer/songwriter/guitarist Greg Sage, an electronics wizard offering yet more proof that techies ...
Review by Mat Snow, Q, June 1989
UNLIKE THE Sex Pistols, the other great London punk-rock group had ambitions beyond delivering the short, sharp shock to the system suggested by the sudden ...
Interview by Jon Wilde, Melody Maker, 8 July 1989
IN 1977, GREIL MARCUS PUBLISHED MYSTERY TRAIN, ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF ROCK CRITICISM EVER WRITTEN. HIS NEW BOOK, LIPSTICK TRACES: A SECRET ...
Malcolm McLaren, The Sex Pistols: Malcolm McLaren: Pernicious? Moi?
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, August 1989
IN THE "PIANO BAR" of a Mayfair hotel, portion of club sandwich in one hand, glass of fine red wine in the other, Malcolm McLaren ...
Review by Mark Cooper, Q, August 1989
BY RIGHTS, The Pogues should surely be dead by now, overcome by the drink or the enthusiasm of their fans. Yet somehow they've survived the ...
Jayne County: The Duchess Of York, Leeds
Live Review by Dave Simpson, Melody Maker, 2 September 1989
FLASHBACK TO 1977. Punk rock sets England ablaze and in a sweaty club somewhere near you a transvestite called Wayne County shrieks "If you don't ...
Buzzcocks: The Buzzcocks (1989)
Interview by Ira Robbins, Rock's Backpages audio, 11 November 1989
The punk pioneers discuss their reunion; talk about their previous solo activities; on why the band broke up originally; relearning the songs, and playing them slower; the coincidental release of box set Product; other punk bands reuniting; the Fine Young Cannibals' version of 'Ever Fallen In Love', and changes in music over the previous decade.
File format: mp3; file size: 46.7mb, interview length: 48' 41" sound quality: ***
Buzzcocks: The Buzzcocks: Product
Review by Martin Aston, Q, December 1989
LIKE MOST punk escapades, Buzzcocks started with Johnny Rotten, whose "We're not into music, we're into chaos" motto drew Bolton students Peter Shelley and Howard ...
Profile and Interview by Push, Melody Maker, 2 December 1989
"THIS IS TOTALLY weird," says drummer Brendan Canty, pointing to a photograph of himself that appeared in Melody Maker the last time Washington DC's Fugazi ...
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. ...
Die Kreuzen: Islington Powerhaus, London
Live Review by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 27 January 1990
PERHAPS IF more people knew about Die Kreuzen they wouldn't undergo such sweeping stylistic changes. From hardcore freaks to metal maniacs, from purveyors of soft ...
Review by Push, Melody Maker, 31 March 1990
IMPURITY AND impatience are two of the most obviously immediate characteristics of Repeater, Fugazi's third LP. Words drip with spit and guitar notes collide, the ...
Angry Anderson, Rose Tattoo: Angry Anderson
Interview by Steve Mascord, Hot Metal, July 1990
ANGRY ANDERSON is intently thumbing through an English heavy metal magazine. It's the one which described him, following the release of soppy 1988 Neighbours hit ...
24-7 Spyz, Primus: Hollywood Live, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Don Waller, Los Angeles Times, 27 July 1990
24-7 Spyz: A Blend of Idealism, Stage-Diving ...
John Lydon, Public Image Ltd, Sex Pistols: John Lydon (1990)
Interview by Steven Daly, Rock's Backpages audio, September 1990
John Lydon, eco-warrior, talks about — among many things — rap, NWA, and the Moral Majority; Malcolm McLaren and Bernie Rhodes; ex-bandmate Steve Jones; living in Los Angeles; punks becoming the new establishment; football and his beloved Arsenal; his take on fashion; liking Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour and offending Joni Mitchell; the current PiL and the band's previous members; on being involved in film... and being very rude about the Clash.
File format: mp3; file size: 104mb, interview length: 1h 48' 20" sound quality: ***
Napalm Death: The Wailing Ultimate
Interview by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 8 September 1990
Despite years off personnel traumas and line-up changes, NAPALM DEATH are still the same extreme noise terrorists they were in the mid-'80s. With their third, ...
Review by Martin Aston, Q, October 1990
IF ANY GROUP seem wholly inappropriate for CD repackaging, then Crass are it, being eight admitted non-musicians who used snarl-toothed punk music as a vehicle ...
Profile by Martin Aston, Q, October 1990
CRASS WERE BRITAIN'S seminal anarcho-punk band, whose communal life and own Crass label epitomised the movement's DIY ethic. Handling everything from mail order, promoting gigs ...
Blondie, The Ramones, Talking Heads: Meet The Family: Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads
Report and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, October 1990
There's Debbie, and there's Tina and, let's see, there's little Joey, hasn't he grown? Then there's and Chris and, uh, Chris... From the shadowy depths ...
L7: Smell The Magic (Glitterhouse)***½
Review by Roy Wilkinson, Sounds, 6 October 1990
THE FOXCORE tag may have been coined with tongues in cheeks but L7 prove the NWOAB (New Wave Of American Babes) has substance. Their second ...
Celebrity Skin: Rock 'n' Roll Disgrace
Profile and Interview by Bill Holdship, Spin, December 1990
ONLY LOS Angeles could produce a band like Celebrity Skin. In a city where celebrity is both religion and life-style, this group is a decadent ...
The Meatmen: Meatmen, The: Crippled Children Suck (Touch & Go)
Review by Byron Coley, Forced Exposure, 1991
…IT WOULD BE safe to say that the material on this LP (a reprise of the band's second EP + a variety of live seepage ...
Interview by Steven Daly, Interview, January 1991
RESPLENDENT IN a California combo of fluorescent shorts and suntan, and crowned by a thatch of blond hair, the former Johnny Rotten answers the door ...
Lunachicks: Mammary Weer All Crazee Now!
Interview by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 5 January 1991
Yowza! It's ladeeez night every night in the weird 'n' wunnerful world of American underground rock 'n' roll, with the totally outrageous LUNACHICKS leading a ...
Nine Inch Nails: Pretty Hate Machine (Island)
Review by Neil Perry, Select, March 1991
TWO YEARS ago, Trent Reznor locked himself in a studio and took a long, hard digitally-sequenced look into his soul. Pretty Hate Machine was the ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 30 April 1991
JOHNNY THUNDERS had long been a by-word for self-destruction through drugs and hard living. In 1981, Trouser Press magazine cynically declared Thunders "legally dead" alongside a cartoon ...
Profile by Martin Aston, Q, May 1991
FAMOUS – OR SHOULD that be infamous? – for their punk-era, terrace-anthem hits 'If The Kids Were United (They Would Never be Divided)' and 'Hurry ...
The Dead Boys: No Compromise, No Regrets
Obituary by Nina Antonia, Spiral Scratch, 11 June 1991
STIV BATORS, a man whose name read like an anagram, managed the rare feat of creative reincarnation, within the span of what was to be ...
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 ...
Bob Mould, Jello Biafra: Bob Mould and Jello Biafra: Two Faces of Punk
Interview by Mark Kemp, Option, July 1991
CLAWING THEIR WAY INTO THE '90S, BOB MOULD & JELLO BIAFRA EXPLORE THE PERSONAL & THE POLITICAL ...
Beat Happening, Fugazi, Thee Headcoats, L7: The Alternative Underground
Report by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 17 October 1991
Bands on the real cutting edge turn out for six-day Washington festival. ...
The Adverts, The Clash, Sex Pistols, X-Ray Spex: Jon Savage: "I Remember Punk Rock..."
Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 26 October 1991
He was a bored public schoolboy, then JON SAVAGE heard the Pistols and the Clash and the strings of his heart went ping. He's now ...
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 28 October 1991
A Potent 'Rock for Choice' at Palace ...
The Sex Pistols: Jon Savage: England's Dreaming
Book Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, November 1991
EVEN THOUGH 15 YEARS have passed since the release of 'Anarchy In The UK', there has never been a book which has satisfactorily documented Britain's ...
Black Flag: SST's Greg Ginn (1991)
Interview by Mark Sinker, Rock's Backpages audio, Spring 1991
The hardcore label boss talks about setting up SST in order to release Black Flag's recordings; about learning how to run a label and the importance of independent distribution; the perception of SST and its subsidiary labels New Alliance and Cruise; SST's audience(s), the reactionary fanzine scene, and the challenge of selling "out-there" non-rock music.
File format: mp3; file size: 28.4mb, interview length: 29' 38" sound quality: ***
The Pogues, Joe Strummer: The Pogues and Joe Strummer: Town & Country Club, London
Live Review by David Quantick, New Musical Express, 4 January 1992
THE EVENING starts, bizarrely enough. In a pub which is not only playing the whole of The Best of The Pogues but whose bar is ...
Johnny Thunders: Go, Johnny, Go: Thunders' So Alone
Sleeve notes by Ira Robbins, Sire Records, February 1992
AMONG THE LIFETIME residents of abyssville are those rock'n'rollers whose faith in the liberating rebellion of mangy guitar music gets crossed up into a personal ...
Retrospective by Dave Thompson, Goldmine, 7 February 1992
NO ONE could ever have predicted it, but the Damned are the great survivors of punk. ...
John Lydon, The Sex Pistols: John Lydon
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, March 1992
THE MAN IN THE ETHNIC-TEA-COSY-STYLED headwear and the unsightly puce satin ski pants lies back on my sofa, swigs lustily from a bottle of strong ...
Bad Religion, Dag Nasty: Bad Religion: Generator (Epitaph); Dag Nasty: Four on the Floor (Epitaph)
Review by Chuck Eddy, L.A. Weekly, 12 March 1992
HARDCORE PUNK happened more than 10 years ago, meant less than it wanted to then, and means less than nothing now. Bad Religion and Dag ...
Green Day: If Today Is Yesterday’s Tomorrow, Is Green Day Today’s Beatles?
Comment by Metal Mike Saunders, BAM, 15 May 1992
IF YOU BUY one album this coming year buy this one: Green Day’s Kerplunk! ...
Fugazi: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 23 May 1992
LIVE AND LET DIET! ...
Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 25 June 1992
ONE OF this country's few truly underground bands, Fugazi refuses to join a major label and adamantly avoids any promotion. The band members won't even ...
Review by Dave Thompson, Alternative Press, October 1992
Dear Mrs Ramone, Just a quick note to let you know how the boys are, these days. ...
Review by Mat Snow, Q, November 1992
NEARLY 15 YEARS after John Lydon quit the Sex Pistols, effectively ending them bar a few final pranks, his subsequent band, PiL, find themselves no ...
The Beastie Boys, Henry Rollins: The Beastie Boys, Rollins Band: Roseland Ballroom New York NY
Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 21 January 1993
THIS PAIRING wasn't as odd as it seemed, because the Beastie Boys have created ― or at least mobilized ― a new kind of fan. ...
The Stranglers: Leeds University
Live Review by Simon Warner, The Guardian, 8 February 1993
IN THE SUB-CULTURAL flow, punk rushed headlong in a bid to create the spontaneous, ephemeral and disposable. Some irony then, that 15 years on, the ...
Butthole Surfers: Independent Worm Saloon (Capitol)
Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, April 1993
WITH THEIR last album, 1991's half-hearted Pioughd, the Butthole Surfers appeared to be relying on a well-cultivated knack for elaborate in-jokes, almost to the exclusion ...
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 ...
Primus: Pork Soda (Interscope 7567922572) KKK
Review by Neil Perry, Kerrang!, 1 May 1993
THREE Ks, BUT a warning; hardened fans of what we shall call Traditional Metal would rather feed their family pets to Glen Benton than sit ...
Elvis Presley, Sex Pistols: Greil Marcus: A Surfer on the Zeitgeist
Profile and Interview by Andy Beckett, The Independent, 23 May 1993
This isn't exactly life on the edge: Greil Marcus is married, nearly 50, and lives in a nice big house in northern California. But he ...
The Beatles, Sex Pistols: Pointing Pistols at the throne
Essay by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 2 June 1993
There is something Rotten in the state of England. Republicanism is emerging as an option even for Tory meritocrats — thanks to the punk's subversiveness ...
The Undertones: Sounding Out Stroke City
Interview by Sean O'Hagan, The Observer, 11 July 1993
The pop star's tale: Michael Bradley has lived most of his life in the thick of the Troubles — but he has not let them ...
Huggy Bear: Taking The Rough With The Smooch (Wiiija/All formats)
Review by John Harris, New Musical Express, 18 September 1993
PUCKER LIPS NOW ...
Penelope Spheeris: See You at the Bank, Dude!
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Vogue, December 1993
Like the subjects of her forthcoming film The Beverly Hillbillies, she went from a poor Southern background to become a Hollywood hotshot. Barney Hoskyns meets ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees: A Kiss in the DreamHouse
Book Excerpt by Lucy O'Brien, 'Love is the Drug' (Penguin), 1994
ALTHOUGH SHE'D been one of punk's founding fathers, as it were, Siouxsie Sioux never really looked like she could last the distance. She's still here ...
Review and Interview by Metal Mike Saunders, BAM, 28 January 1994
Popcore Ascending? Or Is That Just The First Phase Of 'The Greatest Band In America'? ...
Henry Rollins: Rollins Band: Weight (Imago)
Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 10 April 1994
Rollins Finds a New Voice in Weight ...
Black Flag, Henry Rollins: Henry Rollins (1994)
Interview by Andy Gill, Rock's Backpages audio, May 1994
Henry reflects on Kurt Cobain's recent death; Black Flag's influence on the new bands; his disapproval of slackers and his ascetic lifestyle; his disciplinarian father; violence in America; what he likes and loathes about England; his youthful fondness for Ted Nugent, and '70s hard rock in general; the difference between Black Flag and his Rollins Band; music vs. spoken word; his literary influences, including Nietzsche; his mother's record collection; being knocked out by punk rock; his gym work... and his relationship with his fans.
File format: mp3; file size: 79.5mb, interview length: 1h 22' 46" sound quality: ****
Henry Rollins (1994) [transcript]
Audio transcript of interview by Andy Gill, Rock's Backpages transcripts, May 1994
This is a transcript of Andy's audio interview with Henry. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Green Day: Dookie (WEA 9362-45529-2 14 tks/40 mins/FP)
Review by Ian Watson, Melody Maker, 28 May 1994
LIKE A hardcore Hailey's Comet, Green Day have a habit of popping up every couple of summers with an LP stuffed with blazing guitars, bright ...
The Clash: Clash on Broadway (Legacy)
Review by Tom Hibbert, Q, June 1994
DID YOU know that The Clash's song, 'Career Opportunities', was written whilst the band feasted on potato croquettes from Kentucky Fried Chicken? ...
John Lydon, The Sex Pistols: Who the Hell Does John Lydon Think He Is?
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, June 1994
THE INTERVIEW, Q vs Lydon, should have taken place several months ago but when I turned up on his Fulham doorstep and rang his bell, ...
Green Day: Young, Loud, and Snotty
Interview by Eric Weisbard, Spin, September 1994
GREEN DAY's unexpected rise from Gilman Street punk urchins to MTV poster children has not come without a price. Eric Weisbard wonders if they can ...
Green Day: The Dookies Of Hazards
Interview by Paul Moody, New Musical Express, 3 September 1994
Smothered in mud, wrestling with bouncers, GREEN DAY are The Monkees, The Kinks, The Banana Splits and The Ramones in one handy million-selling punk rock ...
The Clash: Clash/Subway Sect/Slits/Prefects: Chancellor Hall, Chelmsford
Retrospective by Ian Fortnam, New Musical Express, October 1994
BORED TEENAGERS – SUBURBAN HICKS with soap-stiffened Sid Vicious barnets and bleeding earlobes gape in awestruck, whey-faced wonder. Chelmsford, anonymous epicentre of NOWHERE is playing ...
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 24 October 1994
US band Green Day sing of misery and hatred but, live at the Astoria, it's just one big party ...
Live Review by Paul Sexton, The Times, 26 October 1994
Let's go scurfin' USA — Punk strikes a power pop chord ...
Report and Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, December 1994
Californian group Green Day have sped through the past year, with more than a little help from their friends Billy Whizz and Bob Hope. And ...
Offspring: Go Ahead, Skate Punk…
Interview by Neil Perry, Vox, December 1994
A post-Grunge street revolution or just a flash in the pan? Either way, Offspring are the kids' choice... ...
Retrospective and Interview by Pat Blashill, unpublished, 1995
NOTE: I conducted these interviews and more for a magazine story that never ran. What follows is a rough, incomplete edit of the piece. I ...
Green Day: Nassau Coliseum, Long Island, NY
Live Review by Carol Cooper, Newsday, 1995
BY MATCHING the cheeky insouciance of the early Beatles with the amphetamine hooks of the Ramones in the late ‘80s, Green Day graduated rock and ...
Overview by Lucy O'Brien, Vox, April 1995
From models to mods, designer girlfriends to X Girl, it's a fine thread between fashion and rock 'n' roll. VOX explores the world of pop ...
Fugazi: Red Medicine (Dischord DIS90CD 13 tks/44 mins/FP)
Review by John Robb, Melody Maker, 6 May 1995
FUGAZI are the unsung heroes of the American underground, busting out of the Washington projects on a white hot punk rock tip in a straight ...
Bound for Glory, Rahowa, Skrewdriver: Hate, Rattle & Roll
Report by William Shaw, Details, July 1995
For years, skinhead rock has remained safely in the lunatic fringe. But now, white-power outfits like Resistance Records are using the music to rally the ...
Retrospective by Johnny Black, Q, July 1995
Summer, 1976. Punk, live punk, is about to explode in the capital. Tap rooms, Poly bars and sweaty clubs will host its unwashed greats. Johnny Black looks ...
Fugazi: Red Medicine (Dischord) ***½
Review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1995
FUGAZI HAVE never been quite as one-dimensional as their critics would have it. On their first full-length album, 1990's Repeater, the D.C. quartet reinvented the ...
Report and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 30 July 1995
IN THE LATE '70s, Washington's Bad Brains pioneered a style of speedy hard-core punk that is now a commercial juggernaut for young bands such as ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages audio, 9 August 1995
The young pups of punk nouveau phone in about their humungous success, vast wealth, and what it means to be a punk, twenty years after the fact.
File format: mp3 File size: 33.3mb Interview length: 36 minutes 24 seconds Sound quality: **
The Sex Pistols: Never Mind the TV Bollocks
Report by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 11 August 1995
Jon Savage mulls over the four-year struggle to put his definitive study of Punk, England's Dreaming, on television ...
Book Review by Fred Dellar, Vox, September 1995
County crows ...
Anti-Nowhere League: Mama Kin, Boston
Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 26 September 1995
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, for your listening and slam-dancing pleasure: Anti-Nowhere League, a scurrilous pack of London-based louts who began Sunday's show at Mama Kin with ...
The Sex Pistols Sign To A&M Records
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Q, October 1995
Early 1977, and following the inevitable bust-up with EMI, the Sex Pistols are about to release 'God Save The Queen' and embark on their shortest ...
Green Day: Insomniac (WEA/All formats)
Review by Paul Moody, New Musical Express, 7 October 1995
SLEEPY JOE ...
Green Day: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 7 October 1995
THEATRE OF MATES ...
Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 16 December 1995
Green Day's major label debut LP sold more than Nevermind, Vitalogy, Monster and Zooropa. Their new one isn't doing too badly, either. Andrew Mueller meets ...
Green Day, Operation Ivy, Rancid: Green Day and Rancid: Maximum Rock'n'Roll!
Report by Susan Corrigan, i-D, January 1996
With their technicolour mohicans and tattoos, Green Day and Rancid are bringing teen spirit to a generation of Americans who weren't even born when the ...
Report and Interview by RJ Smith, The New York Times, 28 January 1996
EVEN FOR A break-all-the-rules punk rock band, some rules still apply. It's 10 minutes to stage, and the members of Rancid are sitting in their ...
Joe Carducci's Rock and the Pop Narcotic
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Artforum, February 1996
WHEN Rock And The Pop Narcotic was first published in 1990, it incited a fair bit of controversy, startling many by the sheer aggression with ...
The Ramones: Gabba Gabba Sniffle: The Ramones at Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, The Independent, 9 February 1996
PUNK MAY not be dead, but the Ramones, it would seem, have finally bitten the dust – like the spaghetti western mercenaries to whom they ...
The Ramones' Last Tour: Rocket To Retirement
Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 10 February 1996
"I THINK we're leaving an historical legacy," says Joey Ramone. "We really changed rock 'n' roll. When we came out in '74, rock 'n' roll ...
Rage Against The Machine: Evil Empire (Epic)
Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 14 April 1996
RAGE AGAINST the Machine's second album barges into an alternative rock world where discontent is routinely channeled into introverted abstraction and metaphor rather than a ...
Presidents of the United States of America: The Presidents of the USA: Astoria, London
Live Review by David Sinclair, The Times, 17 April 1996
Monster raving loony party ...
Interview by John Robb, Melody Maker, 25 May 1996
The American ska-punk noise of RANCID is more intelligent than your average dumb thrash racket ...
Slayer: Confessions of a Teenage Punk Rocker
Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 25 May 1996
He dumped a cheerleader for punk rock, and he spent his teens boozing, brawling and smashing up cars. He's Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman, and he's ...
Profile and Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 8 June 1996
Punk's not dead, kids! Not real stinking-mohawk-gobbing punk rock anyway, because that's alive and spitting with RANCID, America's coolest (and richest) revolutionaries. So stuff yer ...
The Sex Pistols: Taking Another Shot
Interview by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, 9 June 1996
Prototypical punks the Sex Pistols are back together — so take cover ...
The Clash, Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious: Sid Vicious: Disgusting of Tunbridge Wells
Essay by Peter Silverton, The Observer, 23 June 1996
Pete Silverton was busy celebrating his 21st with aunties and uncles, and the promise of a pewter mug. Then who should turn up but Sid ...
Iggy Pop, Sex Pistols: Last of the Mohicans
Report by Susan Corrigan, The Guardian, 26 June 1996
On Sunday, the punks were rocking again. But what on earth were they wearing? ...
Dog Eat Dog (punk and rap): Dog Eat Dog: Astoria, London
Live Review by Ian Watson, Melody Maker, 27 July 1996
WHO DO you think is more punk rock? The committed mohawk who lives on a steady diet of superfast hardcore tunes and fronts a troupe ...
The Sultans of Ping FC: Le Zenith, Paris
Live Review by Paul Moody, New Musical Express, 27 July 1996
EEK! FOUR years from the end of the millennium and there's still hundreds of scrawny, scrag-haired boys in trouser-sized pipecleaner jeans wanting to be The ...
The Sex Pistols: A Seance in Finsbury Park: The Sex Pistols Reunite
Live Review by Jon Savage, Spin, August 1996
JUST BEFORE the Sex Pistols take the stage in the waning light, a curious hush falls on the boisterous punk crowd. A myth is to ...
The Sex Pistols: Never Mind Their Principles, Here's The Sex Pistols
Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 9 August 1996
FAIRFAX, Va. — Johnny Rotten is up to his old tricks. He's baiting the crowd — calling those seated in the loge "sissies" — and ...
The Sex Pistols: Filthy Lucre Live ***½
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 19 September 1996
PERRY FARRELL once titled a Jane's Addiction album Nothing's Shocking. He has since spent his entire career trying to prove otherwise. John Lydon — once ...
Rage Against the Machine: Red, Hot and Bothered
Report and Interview by RJ Smith, Spin, October 1996
Rage Against the Machine have scorched America with their Molotov cocktail or hip-hop, hardcore, and extreme politics. But are they too rad for Russia? RJ Smith ...
Report by Paul Elliott, Kerrang!, 26 October 1996
Used tampons, crap beer and blokes' naked arses. That'll be FLUFFY on the road, then. A debauched and filthy tale of backstage scuzz and stinking ...
The Queers: They're Here, They're the Queers and they're not what you think
Profile and Interview by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 14 November 1996
ONE OF the golden rules in the punk handbook is to confuse and irritate people at every opportunity. So naming a band of straight boys ...
Retrospective by Johnny Black, MOJO, December 1996
Twenty years ago this month, the Sex Pistols, Clash, Damned, Heartbreakers and Buzzcocks embarked upon the Anarchy Tour. What followed more than lived up to ...
Interview by Richie Unterberger, Perfect Sound Forever, 28 December 1996
THE SPIN Alternative Record Guide wrote that Crass were "probably the first rock band whose liner notes are not only indispensable, but often better reading ...
Interview by Richie Unterberger, Perfect Sound Forever, 28 December 1996
THE SPIN Alternative Record Guide wrote that Crass were "probably the first rock band whose liner notes are not only indispensable, but often better reading ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, unpublished, 1997
NEXT TO CBGBS peers like the Ramones and the Voidoids, Talking Heads barely sounded like a punk band. After the startlingly non-conformist ‘Love Building on ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, L.A. Weekly, 2 January 1997
Teen Machines ...
Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 11 January 1997
Feisty teen poppers SYMPOSIUM may've pelted NME with snowballs in the past, but we forgave them. Hey, we're professionals (stop sniggering!). So professional that we've ...
Offspring: The Offspring: Ixnay on the Hombre (Columbia)
Review by RJ Smith, Spin, February 1997
OF COURSE The Offspring hail from Orange County. They have to be from Orange County. Frontman Dexter Holland was a high school punk rocker who ...
Offspring: The Offspring: Ixnay on the Hombre (Columbia) ***½
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 6 February 1997
Primitive radio gods? ...
Manic Street Preachers: Richey Edwards: Missing street preacher
Retrospective by Andy Beckett, The Independent, 2 March 1997
LATE LAST MONDAY night, near the weary end of the televised blare called the Brits Awards, three dressed-down Welshmen — two small, one awkwardly tall ...
Iggy Pop: Iggy And The Stooges: Raw Power
Review by Paul Lester, Uncut, June 1997
LOOK OUT, honey, cos they're using technology. Or rather, remixer Iggy Pop is. ...
Interview by Paul Elliott, Kerrang!, 2 August 1997
Punks in the '90s are supposed to be straight-edge, ultra-PC and humour-free. Evidently, no one told THE OFFSPRING'S meat-eating, beer-drinking, scary chick-loving top geezer, Dexter ...
Retrospective and Interview by Dave Thompson, Goldmine, September 1997
ANYONE PAYING attention to the British music scene in recent years cannot help but have noticed T.V. Smith. Across three superlative albums, 1991's RIP: Everything ...
Green Day: Stick 'Em Up, Punks!
Interview by Ben Myers, Melody Maker, 4 October 1997
Those loveable American punk rockers GREEN DAY are back. We join them in Milan to find out if they're still punk at heart. Guess what? ...
Richard Hell, Robert Quine: Robert Quine
Interview by Jason Gross, Perfect Sound Forever, November 1997
WHO IS ROBERT Quine? According to him, he 'remains one of the most compelling, appalling and universally hated figures in music history.' ...
Review by Don Waller, L.A. Weekly, 4 December 1997
Green Day is maturing, like cheese ...
Interview by Neil Perry, Kerrang!, 24 January 1998
These days, when Billie Joe Armstrong's band do a hometown show, it's a triumphant, equipment-trashing affair for which all of San Francisco and its dog ...
The Sex Pistols: Sod Awf! The Sex Pistols And Other Pleasantries Of Punk
Retrospective by David Dalton, Gadfly, February 1998
A Short History of the NOW! ROCK EXISTS in the humming; now, an all-enveloping bubble of sound, energy and ecstasy. Like being at the flashpoint ...
Atari Teenage Riot: What's the Frequency, Alec?
Interview by RJ Smith, Spin, March 1998
The revolution is nigh, heralds radical German dude/Atari Teenage Rioter Alec Empire. RJ Smith learns it will all be in the mid-range. ...
Rancid: Plotting a Punky Reggae Party
Interview by Chuck Eddy, Spin, May 1998
TIM ARMSTRONG once sang about punk-rock squats and dirt-cheap crash pads. Now the Rancid singer/guitarist is giving the grand tour of his Los Angeles dream ...
Interview by David Stubbs, Uncut, May 1998
Before the Chemical Brothers, before Ministry, before even Soft Cell, there was SUICIDE, the original electro-duo. DAVID STUBBS meets the synth-terrorists whose noise still provokes ...
Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 1 May 1998
Still fast and loud, the proto-punks play it straighter and harder ...
The Plasmatics: Wendy O. Williams — Punk Dominatrix
Obituary by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, June 1998
"I LIKE THE sound of a gun, Wendy O. Williams once said. "It terrifies me. It makes the experience a little more intense." The gunshot ...
Fugazi: End Hits (Dischord SIS 110V)
Review by Paul Elliott, Q, July 1998
Fifth album of uneasy listening from right-on hardcore men. Not a compilation. ...
Absolute Kristal: CBGB's new punk rock label
Report and Interview by Ted Drozdowski, The Boston Phoenix, 6 July 1998
HILLY KRISTAL'S MAD AS HELL and he's not gonna take it anymore. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration. But the 66-year-old hipster who owns the New ...
The Sex Pistols: Nils Stevenson
Interview by Dave Thompson, Alternative Press, 1999
YOU'VE PROBABLY heard this before, but this time it's true. The best Punk book yet has just hit the streets, written by someone who were ...
Interview by Ian Fortnam, music365.com, 1999
SINCE THEIR initial formation, way back in 1976, Manchester’s Buzzcocks have attained a genuinely legendary status in the hearts and minds of both aficionados of ...
Retrospective by Philip Norman, Daily Mail, 1999
ON DECEMBER 1, 1976, Londoners tuned in to Thames TV's Today show, expecting the usual bland mix of metropolitan news and views appropriate for a ...
Green Day, Offspring: California Über Alles: US '90s Punk part1
Retrospective and Interview by Ian Fortnam, Kerrang!, 30 January 1999
In 1994, GREEN DAY and THE OFFSPRING released two albums which changed the face of American music. From Dookie and Smash to 'Pretty Fly (For ...
Green Day, Offspring, Rancid: California Über Alles: US '90s Punk part 2
Retrospective and Interview by Ian Fortnam, Kerrang!, 6 February 1999
After the huge success of GREEN DAY, THE OFFSPRING and RANCID came the inevitable wave of copy-cat bands and the backlash. Here, US punk's movers ...
Crass: Shibboleth: My Revolting Life by Penny Rimbaud aka J.J. Ratter (AK Press £6.95)
Book Review by Nick Hasted, Independent on Sunday, 21 March 1999
Incoherent, angry, incompetent and Crass ...
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, ...
The Donnas: Hot Style: The Donnas
Interview by Ben Myers, Kerrang!, 29 May 1999
ALL THE best bands look great. Whether it was the Sex Pistols in their safety pins or Kurt Cobain throwing on a plaid shirt and ...
The Clash, Joe Strummer: Joe Strummer (1999)
Interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages audio, 20 June 1999
From Tony Bennett to Tony Adams: Gavin Martin chats with the Mighty Strummer amidst liggers and drunken Finns about The Clash, The Mescaleros, Greil Marcus and why he hates Suede and the Manic Street Preachers.
File format: mp3; file sizes: 111.5mb, interview length: 1h 56' 09" sound quality: **
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 24 June 1999
File format: MP3 ; File size: 20.9mb; Interview length: 45 minutes; Sound quality: ***
The Offspring: Come Out & Spray
Report and Interview by Ben Myers, Kerrang!, 31 July 1999
July 1999, Orange County, California — THE OFFSPRING are about to play the two biggest gigs of their career in front of 14,000 rabid fans. ...
Johnny Thunders: Forewarned: Johnny Thunders
Book Excerpt by Nina Antonia, Cherry Red Books, August 1999
JOHNNY THUNDERS didn’t just flirt with death, he courted it. Even so, his eventual demise in New Orleans on 23rd April 1991 still came as ...
The Clash, Joe Strummer: Joe Strummer: Definitely Not Admitting Defeat Yet
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 24 September 1999
"I THINK GOOD manners will come back. In America, kids saw punk rock as a licence to be as rude as possible. I didn't like ...
Idlewild: Where the Idlewild Things Are
Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 2 October 1999
And where are Idlewild? In the bleedin' Orkneys, as far away from the cynical London music biz as possible, honing their new 'acoustic' direction in ...
Report and Interview by Ian Fortnam, Kerrang!, 9 October 1999
When it comes to smut, filth and all-round seedy behaviour, no one can touch San Diego oiks BLINK 182. This is, after all, a band ...
The Clash: From Here to Eternity
Review by Ira Robbins, salon.com, 19 October 1999
ON PAPER, the October 1982 pairing of the Clash and the Who at Shea Stadium in New York should have been historic. And maybe it ...
Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, 24 November 1999
Skate-punkers BLINK 182 come clean on snot, boobies and why they're not the bad boys of rock ...
Richard Hell: The Richard Hell Interview
Interview by Ian Fortnam, music365.com, 2000
RICHARD MEYERS, AKA Richard Hell, has more than made his mark on many areas of the media. Musically, he formed Television with Tom Verlaine, the ...
Retrospective and Interview by Kieron Tyler, Record Collector, March 2000
KIERON TYLER UNCOVERS THE STORY OF A PUNK BAND AT THE HEART OF THE KING'S ROAD EXPLOSION ...
Interview by Ian Penman, The Wire, March 2000
23 years after their art attack first outpaced punk audiences, Wire have sprung back into action. Ian Penman meets the group in rehearsal and finds ...
Richard Hell & The Voidoids: Blank Generation
Review and Interview by Johnny Black, MOJO, April 2000
New York punk classic originally released in 1977, now released with extra tracks. ...
Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 13 April 2000
Bad grrls live forever ...
Buzzcocks, Howard Devoto: Howard Devoto talks about Punk's Year Zero
Retrospective and Interview by Kieron Tyler, Record Collector, May 2000
"I'M TIRED OF noise and short of breath. I'm sick of having to address people out of breath and under my breath." That was how ...
The Sex Pistols: Sex Pistols: The Filth, The Fury, The Fun!
Report and Interview by Mark Paytress, Record Collector, May 2000
Director Julien Temple discusses the new Pistols film with Mark Paytress. ...
Sex Pistols: Sophie Richmond: Sid, Johnny, Malcolm & me
Retrospective and Interview by Robert Webb, The Independent, 10 May 2000
She paid Johnny Rotten his weekly wages, clashed with Sid Vicious and was arrested alter the Jubilee cruise gig. Sophie Richmond, Malcolm McLaren's former PA, ...
Retrospective by Gary Pig Gold, Cosmik Debris, June 2000
1. MALCOLM McLAREN Never before in the long and illustrious annals of popular music history has a man been handed so much raw talent atop a ...
John Lydon, The Sex Pistols: Johnny Rotten on the Sex Pistols' 20 Wildest Moments
Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, June 2000
With The Filth & The Fury coming your way, John Lydon AKA Johnny Rotten, recalls how the Sex Pistols became the most exciting band ever ...
John Lydon: Psychobabble: John Lydon
Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, June 2000
NOTE: When the Filth and the Fury film was released in 2000, Lydon agreed to do three press interviews, of which Melody Maker, for some ...
The Sex Pistols: Anarchy In The UK
Retrospective and Interview by Gavin Martin, Uncut, June 2000
THE EARLY SEVENTIES have been a golden age for the homegrown British pop single. The pan-stick and yob fraternity, which includes T-Rex, Sweet, Slade, Mott ...
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," ...
Interview by Jason Gross, Perfect Sound Forever, August 2000
AS ONE OF the first people who decided that rock and roll was something that could and should be something that could be seriously written ...
Jean-Jacques Burnel: Manchester University
Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 11 December 2000
JEAN-JACQUES BURNEL is one of rock's most notorious characters. In the Stranglers' authorised biography, No Mercy, 20 pages tackle the subject of "Burnel, violence". ...
The Middle Class, The Negative Trend, The Weirdos: America’s Dreaming: California Punk, 1978
Book Excerpt by Jon Savage, England's Dreaming, 2001
25.8.78: This is my first visit to the U.S., let alone the West Coast, and I know that I’m on another planet, especially when, at ...
Book Review by Barney Hoskyns, The Village Voice, 2001
IT'S KINDA IRONIC that the untold story of the Los Angeles punk scene should be officially told (tolled?) at a time when New York City ...
The Sex Pistols: Sex Pistols: History Is Punk
Retrospective and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 2001
More than 20 years after they committed high treason during the Queen's silver jubilee, the Sex Pistols are still the kings of rock rebellion. As ...
Review by Jeremy Gluck, MOJO, 2001
THESE OLD-SCHOOL rockers put punk on the musical map, opening the way, for better or worse, for two decades of divergent tunes and dissonant noise. ...
Alternative TV: The iJamming! Chat: Mark Perry
Interview by Tony Fletcher, iJamming.net, January 2001
AS THE FIRST sentence of my mission statement makes clear, Mark Perry was a major factor in my deciding to write about music – though, ...
Retrospective and Interview by Paul Morley, Uncut, February 2001
I AM A LITTLE nervous as I approach Viv Albertine's house. She was a Slit. For anybody of a certain age who has a penis ...
The Electric Eels, The Mirrors, The Styrenes: Electric City
Retrospective and Interview by Kieron Tyler, Record Collector, March 2001
The Cleveland punk scene exposed — starring the Electric Eels, the Styrenes and the Mirrors. ...
The Ramones: Joey Ramone, 1951-2001
Obituary by David Dalton, Gadfly, 19 April 2001
LAST SUNDAY Joey Ramone, lead singer of the Ramones, died of lymphoma, and so passed one of the originators of punk, the longest running fuck-you ...
The Ramones: In-a-Gadda-da-Gabba-Gabba-Hey: Remembering the Ramones
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, 21 April 2001
The former leader of Thee Precisions and editor of Back Door Man pays personal tribute... ...
The Ramones: Joey Ramone's 50th Birthday Bash: Hammerstein Ballroom, New York
Live Review by Michael Azerrad, The Boston Phoenix, 31 May 2001
IT'S FUNNY HOW memorials often take on the character of the person they honor. The sold-out "Life's a Gas – Joey Ramone's 50th Birthday Bash" ...
The Ramones: Joey Ramone: Hey Ho, Let's Go!
Retrospective and Interview by Carol Clerk, Classic Rock, July 2001
Long hair, shades, ripped denim — the Ramones were the epitome of early punk, and singer Joey the epitome of the Ramones. From his school ...
Review by Gary Pig Gold, In Music We Trust, July 2001
OK CLASS, READY? It's time to remember exactly WHAT (real) Punk Rock is (was). ...
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, September 2001
THE RESURGENCE of Destroy All Monsters, the Detroit artists' collective group made up of founder members Mike Kelley, Jim Shaw and Cary Loren, owes much ...
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 ...
Retrospective by Rob Hughes, Uncut, November 2001
Lightning strikes with Marquee Moon, Television opened the door to post-punk ...
The Nomads: The Garage, London
Review by Ian Fortnam, Kerrang!, 24 November 2001
Scandinavian garage rock legends make rare UK assault Saturday, November 3 Support: The X-Rays ...
Retrospective and Interview by Kieron Tyler, Ugly Things, 2002
ALTHOUGH EATER were at the centre of the great British punk rock storm of 1976, they've never been treated with the cap-doffing respect granted to ...
Book Review by Tim Footman, Tangents, 2002
THERE'S MORE THAN one way to string a Strat, and there are several ways to tell the story of a band. The most obvious is ...
Green Day: The Biggest Punk Rock Band in the World: Green Day
Retrospective by Ian Fortnam, unpublished, 2002
THE FACTS speak for themselves. With worldwide album sales currently in excess of 23 million, their Grammy Award winning, multi-platinum Dookie debut boasting an almost ...
Richard Hell: What Fresh Hell Is This?
Interview by David Dalton, Gadfly, 2002
RICHARD HELL was the primal Punk, the ur-Punk: the spiky-haired one. The torn t-shirts, the safety pins, the era-defining ‘Blank Generation’–much of the ...
Bad Religion: The Process of Belief
Review by Ian Winwood, Kerrang!, 19 January 2002
Bad Religion reform for belief-affirming 12th album ...
Retrospective by Ian Winwood, Kerrang!, 19 January 2002
On the long, straight drive from Los Angeles airport, down a curving freeway, past oil wells and gas stations, diners and office supply stores, onto ...
Profile and Interview by Ian Winwood, Kerrang!, 26 January 2002
Four men from northern Sweden are giving The Hives a run for their money in the incendiary rock 'n' roll stakes. But selling records is ...
Review by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, February 2002
Perverse selection – from New York Dolls to Gonads, Buzzcocks to Toy Dolls — misses chance to be definitive summary ...
Alien Ant Farm: Manchester Academy
Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 4 February 2002
EVERY POP movement worth its salt needs a bunch of pranksters. The hippies had Neil Innes's satirists the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, punk boasted the ...
Fugazi, Minor Threat: Ian MacKaye: Inventing Hardcore
Profile and Interview by Ben Myers, Careless Talk Costs Lives, March 2002
"These are our demands: we want control of our bodies. decisions will now be ours. you can carry out your noble actions, we will carry ...
Richard Hell: Hell Is Other People
Interview by Ben Myers, Careless Talk Costs Lives, March 2002
IN HOT And Cold, Richard Hell's new collection of three decades of writing, there's a photo of a young obscure poet called Theresa Stern. She ...
Buzzcocks: Part-time Punks: The Buzzcocks
Retrospective and Interview by Paul Lester, The Guardian, 1 March 2002
The Buzzcocks were one of punk's most influential bands. Now, 25 years on, Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto are recording together again. Paul Lester meets ...
Husker Du, Bob Mould: The Real Godfather of Grunge: Bob Mould's Modulate
Review by Geoffrey Himes, Baltimore City Paper, 20 March 2002
KURT COBAIN WAS a wonderful musician, but the combination of a best-selling record, a tabloid marriage and a lurid suicide inflated his reputation all out ...
Interview by Ben Myers, Kerrang!, 20 April 2002
Conor Oberst began his musical career as a 14-year-old singer-songwriter. Seven years later, he has formed the fiery Desaparecidos. His mission: to open America's eyes… ...
Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 30 April 2002
RICHARD HELL can walk down the street in New York City's East Village without being recognized. ...
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? ...
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Blender, May 2002
Song title: 'Train In Vain' Artist: The Clash Label: CBS Performers: Mick Jones – guitar/vocals Joe Strummer – guitar Paul Simenon – bass Topper ...
Report and Interview by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 3 June 2002
Why would anyone want to turn punk classics like 'Pretty Vacant' and 'White Riot' into kids' lullabies? Dave Simpson reports ...
Obituary by Gary Pig Gold, fufkin.com, July 2002
WITH THE DEATH of yet another Ramone, perhaps little really needs to be added at this point on how Dee Dee and his honorary brethren ...
Interview by Ian Winwood, Kerrang!, 13 July 2002
For the past nine weeks, Green Day have been blasting across America on the Pop Disaster tour… Their mission: "To reclaim our throne as the most ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees: Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 13 July 2002
IN 1975, POP'S womankind was still meekly 'Loving You' (it's easy, cos you're beautiful) and 'Standing By Your Man' (and showing the world you love ...
The Stranglers: Come and Join the Unruly Escapades
Retrospective and Interview by Keith Cameron, MOJO, August 2002
HANS WARMLING was fed up of life in the ice cream van. He'd come to England from his homeland of Sweden to play guitar and ...
The Sex Pistols: Crystal Palace Sports Centre, London
Live Review by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 6 August 2002
We Might As Well Be Proud Of Them ...
The Germs: St. Anger: Darby Crash
Retrospective by Chris Campion, Dazed & Confused, November 2002
HE WAS Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious rolled into one. A befuddled punk prophet with a brilliant mind whose rise was as shocking as his ...
Sum 41: Does This Look Infected?
Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 22 November 2002
EAGERLY AWAITED by fans of infant metal, Does This Look Infected? is custom-built to cash in on the success of its predecessor, All Killer No ...
The Clash, Joe Strummer: Less Rotten Than Reasonable: Joe Strummer and My Punk Damascus
Memoir by Simon Warner, PopMatters, 27 December 2002
ALTHOUGH I saw Joe Strummer in action many times, I only met him once and, embarrassingly, confused him with someone else. ...
The Clash, Joe Strummer: Up In Heaven: Joe Strummer, 1952-2002
Obituary by Fred Mills, Seattle Weekly, 8 January 2003
Why should we assume people get worse [with age]? I think you should just get on with it. Look at Paul Newman. And the Sufis ...
The Clash, Joe Strummer: Joe Strummer: Comrade, Goodbye
Memoir by Charles Shaar Murray, MOJO, March 2003
SOMETIME IN 1979, I WAS interviewing Joe Strummer for the NME in the Worlds End pub on the King's Road. As well as giving me ...
The Clash, Joe Strummer: Joe Strummer: Tougher Than Tough
Obituary by Vivien Goldman, Spin, April 2003
Joe Strummer was the soul-rebel idealist who gave punk a cause ...
Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 16 September 2003
ALTHOUGH PUNK ROCK is still reeling from the death of Clash icon Joe Strummer, the movement is probably in its healthiest commercial state for 25 ...
Good Charlotte: American Candyass, or: Why Good Charlotte Must Die
Comment by Metal Mike Saunders, Rock's Backpages, 22 September 2003
ARE YOU PEOPLE not understanding? Doesn't anyone learn anything from the lessons of the past? The tail end of poof metal's monstrous commercial ...
Television: Marquee Moon (Expanded); Adventure (Expanded) (Rhino)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, November 2003
BEFORE THE Sex Pistols there was New York's Lower East Side: trash aesthetes with short hair, kinky vixens in B-movie stilettos. Kids with minor drug ...
The Saints: I’m Stranded: Ed Kuepper on the Making of the Saints’ Classic Debut
Interview by Joe Matera, Australian Guitar, 2004
JM: You actually did two sessions for I’m Stranded. Did you use the same gear for both sessions? ...
Book Excerpt by Paul Wellings, 'I'm A Journalist...Get Me Out Of Here', 2004
UNLIKE MOST music journalists, I didn't want to be in a band. I'd signed a record deal a year before through the legendary dub producer ...
The Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious: Sid Vicious: Threw a Glass Darkly
Book Excerpt by Mark Paytress, 'Vicious: The Art of Dying Young', Sanctuary Books, 2004
SID did it. Didn’t he? ...
The Capri-Collared Shirt: King's Road and the birth of British punk in the late '70s
Memoir by Paul Gorman, 3ammagazine.com, 2004
IN 1973 ONE of my older brothers, Timothy, started work at a shop called Domidium in the Kings Road, just ahead of the curve of ...
Nirvana, Sid Vicious: Kurt Cobain and Sid Vicious: Death and Glory
Essay by Sean O'Hagan, The Observer, 1 February 2004
"Thank you all from the pit of my burning nauseous stomach." – Extract from Kurt Cobain's suicide note ...
John Holmstrom: Floating in a bottle of formaldehyde
Interview by Jeffrey Morgan, Detroit Metro Times, 4 February 2004
EVER SINCE R. F. Outcault's irreverent creation, The Yellow Kid, first appeared as an incidental character in Joseph Pulitzer's New York World on Feb. 16, ...
The Stranglers' Jean-Jacques Burnel
Report and Interview by Carol Clerk, Uncut, March 2004
BEST REMEMBERED for the harpsichord heroin eulogy 'Golden Brown' (which reached No 2 in the UK singles chart in January 1982), the Stranglers and their ...
Retrospective by Don Waller, MOJO, July 2004
Ignored by the major labels, hounded by cops, fuelled by booze and drugs, L.A. punk was born in a concrete basement in Hollywood known as ...
Retrospective by Kieron Tyler, MOJO, July 2004
Unearthed! The French punk bands that gave The Damned a run for their money. Kieron Tyler offers a belated "Salut!" ...
Patti Smith: The MOJO Interview: Patti Smith
Interview by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, July 2004
Working in a piss factory, breaking her neck on stage, the "horror" of her armpit hair. All this plus punk poetry, tragedy and "gentleman" Bill Burroughs in the amazing ...
New York Dolls: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Ian Fortnam, Classic Rock, September 2004
The best advice to bands that delight in near-mythic status is "let it lie". Can the reformed Lipstick Killers disprove the rule? ...
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Harp, September 2004
BY FRONTING her own rock band – issuing lyrical missives from the depths of her fertile unconscious that rivalled anything that Bob Dylan ever scribbled ...
The Clash: London Calling (25th Anniversary Legacy Edition)
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 22 September 2004
IN 1979, London Calling was sold with a sticker declaring that the Clash were the only band that matters, and they acted as if they ...
The Clash: Band at their Best: The Clash's London Calling
Retrospective and Interview by James Medd, Esquire, October 2004
In 1979, with punk reeling from the death of Sid Vicious, the Clash holed up in a small London studio under pressure to reignite the ...
The Clash: Going overground — The Clash: London Calling 25th Anniversary Edition
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, MOJO, October 2004
Last album of the '70s or first album of the '80s? The Clash's meisterwerk still sounds scarily fresh, says Charles Shaar Murray ...
The Clash: London Calling 25th Anniversary
Retrospective by Ben Myers, Record Collector, October 2004
BY EARLY 1979, to the outside world The Clash were coasting. In their three short years of existence they had signed to Sony for a ...
The Clash: The iJamming! Interview: Mick Jones
Interview by Tony Fletcher, iJamming.net, October 2004
I'VE SAID IT before and I'll say it again: I don't like doing phone interviews. But often times, it's the choice between talking long distance ...
Green Day: Irving Plaza, New York
Live Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 28 October 2004
GREEN DAY'S New York show, one of four small venue dates the band played before its fall arena tour, felt like it was shot out ...
The Ramones: Johnny Ramone: Johnny's Last Stand
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, MOJO, November 2004
The taciturn, stony-faced dictator behind the Ramones' three-chord punk masterplan, in one of his last-ever interviews, Johnny Ramone emerged as a man at peace with ...
The Clash: Paul Simonon: London's Most Handsome Man
Interview by Ben Myers, 3ammagazine.com, November 2004
IT'S ALL ABOUT poise. If you don't have poise – definition "balance; a dignified and self-assured manner" – in rock 'n' roll, you're nothing. Paul ...
Retrospective by Charles Shaar Murray, MOJO, November 2004
Johnny Ramone's death on September 15 marked the true passing of The Ramones. Charles Shaar Murray, recalls his landmark 1975 encounter with Da Brudders. ...
The Saints: It Came From Down Under
Retrospective by Kieron Tyler, MOJO, November 2004
The Saints were punk before punk, four Australian rebels with a paint-peeling sound and the ultimate screw-you attitude. Kieron Tyler charts their short, sharp startling ...
The Ramones: Ramones: We're Outta Here!
Film/DVD/TV Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, December 2004
RAMONES GIGS were always exciting rather than accomplished affairs, and if this disc featured only their shambolic 1996 Los Angeles swansong there would be little ...
Report and Interview by James Medd, Esquire, December 2004
The Ramones mixed pop cuteness with garage-band crudity and came up with punk. You'd think nothing could be more fun. You'd be wrong – very ...
The Damned, Sex Pistols: Citizen Punk
Retrospective by Jonh Ingham, Q, 2005
APRIL 1976: For me it began at the El Paradise strip club, where the Sex Pistols filled a tiny room with three-chord beat and Rotten ...
The Clash: Flogging A Dead Horse: The Clash's Cut the Crap
Retrospective by Kieron Tyler, MOJO Collectors' Series, 2005
Mick and Topper are gone. Bernie Rhodes is producing and penning songs. This was never going to be the sign-off the Clash deserved. ...
The 101'ers, The Clash, Joe Strummer: Joe Strummer: The Man Who Would Be King
Retrospective and Interview by Kieron Tyler, MOJO, 2005
The 101'ers were about to hit the big time. But then Joe Strummer found punk. ...
The Sex Pistols: Sex Pistol Glen Matlock (2005)
Interview by Nina Antonia, Rock's Backpages audio, January 2005
From shop boy to Sex Pistol: the Pistols' key songwriter talks about the genesis of the band, the role of McLaren, goin' down the Roxy and the 100 Club Punk Festival
File format: mp3; file size: 44.4meg, interview length: 46' 15" sound quality: **
Review by Yancey Strickler, Spin, January 2005
Seattle shriekers rage against the fleshbots ...
The Roxy London WC2 — A Live Punk Box Set
Sleeve notes by Kieron Tyler, Sanctuary Records, February 2005
Every musical movement has a club at its heart. Merseybeat had The Cavern. Mods gravitated towards The Scene and The Flamingo. British psychedelia will always ...
Sid Vicious: "Nothing can hurt him anymore"
Retrospective by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 2005
Sid's mother Anne Beverley died of a heroin overdose in 1996, but not before sharing her side of Sid's story. As told to Jon Savage. ...
The Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious: Sid Vicious: A Star Is Born!
Retrospective by David Dalton, MOJO, February 2005
When Sid Vicious joined the Sex Pistols in 1977 it was the end of the band and the beginning of his metamorphosis into mythic rock ...
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 and Interview by Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 17 February 2005
O.C. was the birthplace of surf music and the fabled, amped-up Fender guitar. So take that, L.A. ...
Retrospective by Nina Antonia, MOJO, March 2005
FOR THE GENERATION of kids who became punks, the New York Dolls' appearance on The Old Grey Whistle Test in November 1973 was an epiphany. ...
The Prodigy: Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned
Interview by Scott McLennan, Rip It Up (Australia), March 2005
AFTER A SEVEN year wait for the follow up to 1997's The Fat of the Land and more than a decade on from the career-transforming ...
The Slits: Girls Together Outrageously
Interview by Fred Mills, Harp, March 2005
"You haven't said yet how good I look on my Web site!" ...
Turbonegro: Clowns Of Evil Go on the Rampage
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Observer Music Monthly, May 2005
THE STREETS OF Hamburg are awash with piss and broken bottles and cock-eyed sailor boys with queer intentions. A two thousand-strong army of Turbonegro fans ...
The 101'ers: The 101ers: The Key to Joe's Art
Retrospective and Interview by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, June 2005
Punk pioneers the 101ers gave us Joe Strummer's earliest recordings. The band's drummer Richard Dudanski reminisces with Terry Staunton. ...
Interview by Richard Cabut, Rock's Backpages audio, 23 June 2005
The former Voidoid talks at length about his latest novel, Godlike: the provocative nature of the material; the politics of identity and political correctness, poetry. He also reflects on his '70s self; why he left music, and how his new compilation CD, Spurts: the Richard Hell Story, draws a line under his life as a musician.
File format: mp3; file size: 43.2mb, interview length: 47' 13" sound quality: ** (phoner)
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 ...
Foo Fighters, Nirvana: Dave Grohl
Interview by Stevie Chick, MOJO, July 2005
Grooving on Led Zep, dossing with mud-wrestlers, he joined the "fucking dark" world of Nirvana a goofy naif and left it a rock star. "I ...
The Ramones, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Television: Heaven or Las Vegas: CBGBs closes down
Report by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 8 July 2005
Laura Barton on what the closure of the world's most famous punk-rock club, CBGB's, says about the state of New York's live music scene. ...
The Sex Pistols: Ten Reasons Why The Sex Pistols Didn't (or Couldn't) Save Rock And Roll
Comment by Gary Pig Gold, In Music We Trust, August 2005
In honor of Julien Temple's great new film The Filth And The Fury Gary Pig Gold humbly submits to both punks and non-punks, old and ...
The Ramones: Weird Tales Of The Ramones
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, August 2005
NOTHING CAN recapture the impact of how The Ramones sounded in spring 1976. Listening to it now, it sounds slow, formal, almost sedate: the Superpop ...
Iggy Pop, The Stooges: The Stooges: Raw Power Revisited
Interview by Fred Mills, Detroit Metro Times, 10 August 2005
Warning: The following article does not constitute an endorsement of current phonographic products. – Editor ...
From The Velvets To The Voidoids: Clinton Heylin's The Birth Of American Punk Rock
Book Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, September 2005
Updated reprint of a highly regarded new wave dossier ...
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 ...
The Stooges: Heavy Liquid (Easy Action)
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, October 2005
ASSEMBLED FROM a back catalogue of previously released sessions, rehearsals and various recording ephemera circa (1972–74) from what many believed to be The Stooges' last ...
Rachid Taha: Raucous rocking in the casbah
Live Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 29 November 2005
SIGHTINGS OF BRIAN Eno playing music in public in Britain have been rare enough these past 30 years, and as for jigging excitedly around the ...
The Flamin' Groovies: Flame On
Retrospective and Interview by Fred Mills, Harp, December 2005
July 4, 1976: America is knee-deep in Bicentennial festivities, but across the pond in London a celebration of a different sort is underway. ...
The Members: At The Chelsea Nightclub
Sleeve notes by Alex Ogg, Captain Oi Records, December 2005
THE MEMBERS were punk's misfits, a little too lacking in personality disorders and raw ego to sit comfortably with the punk firestarters, a little too ...
The Clash, Sex Pistols: We're the daddies: Ladies and Gentlemen, We're the Fabulous Stains
Retrospective by Kieron Tyler, MOJO, Spring 2005
Anyone remember the legendary "lost" film featuring the Clash, Pistols and, erm, Ray Winstone? ...
Devo: We're The Pits, or Punk Comes to LA
Retrospective by John Mendelsohn, MOJO, Spring 2005
THREE YEARS AFTER my group Christopher Milk -- signed to Warner Bros. and produced, rather poorly, by a famous English producer -- agreed that we'd ...
Ian Rilen, Rose Tattoo, X (Australia): Ian Rilen, 1947-2006
Obituary by Clinton Walker, Rolling Stone (Australia), 2006
I play rock'n'roll for a livin', I ain't doin' all that well, I play rock'n'roll for a livin', as if you couldn't tell. I'm a ...
Slaughter and the Dogs: Leper Messiahs
Retrospective and Interview by Kieron Tyler, Q Classic, 2006
Formed by two young Bowie fans, Slaughter & the Dogs' bark was worse than their bite. But, as Kieron Tyler reveals, that was before they ...
The Prefects: Live 1978: The Co-Op Suite, Birmingham
Sleeve notes by Jon Savage, Caroline True Records, 2006
This recollection of a March 1978 concert was revived nearly 30 years after the event for Caroline True's issue of a full Prefects live show ...
Richard Hell: CBGB: The Venue from Hell
Retrospective and Interview by Jenny Valentish, Inpress, January 2006
It seems like every other prepubescent has a CBGB T-shirt these days, but over in New York, the old guard are fighting a losing battle ...
Gogol Bordello: Careful with that act, Eugene
Interview by Pete Paphides, The Times, 10 March 2006
The name of Eugene Hütz's band is only part of his Ukrainian whimsy, Pete Paphides discovers ...
John Robb: Punk Rock – An Oral History (Ebury Press)
Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 19 March 2006
WHAT IS THERE still to say, really, about the British punk rock movement? As this year marks the 30th anniversary of its uproarious debut in ...
Retrospective by Chas de Whalley, Record Collector, April 2006
As Paul Weller polishes his award for his Outstanding Contribution to British Music at this year's Brits, Chas de Whalley looks back at the days ...
Book Review by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, May 2006
IN 1980 – following the triumphant release of the London Calling album and during the recording of what would become Sandinista! – the Clash had ...
Retrospective by Dave Thompson, Goldmine, 17 May 2006
THE ODD thing about the history of punk is, it's very easy to forget some of its best progenitors. ...
Johnny Thunders: In Cold Blood: The Death of Johnny Thunders
Retrospective by Kris Needs, MOJO, June 2006
How much do we know about the death of Johnny Thunders? That it was murder, says Kris Needs. ...
The Clash, The Damned, Sex Pistols, The Vibrators: Punk File #1: The First Anarchic Year
Retrospective and Interview by Kieron Tyler, MOJO, June 2006
'76 WAS PRETTY hairy. The anniversary headlines might read "1976, The Year Of Punk", but for most kids flares and long hair (still a sign ...
Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 7 July 2006
MIX THE rudest bits of Madonna, Goldfrapp, Pink, Lil’ Kim and Princess Superstar and — arguably — you get Peaches. ...
Fun-Da-Mental: Angry in the UK: Fun-da-mental
Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 4 August 2006
Fun-Da-Mental's new album gives voice to Muslim rage, says its creator Aki Nawaz ...
Iggy Pop: Where the Debris Meets the Sea: Iggy Pop and James Williamson in Kill City
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, eMusic.com, September 2006
IGGY POP remains rock’s ultimate protopunk – the "world’s forgotten boy" who took the menace of the MC5 and the demonic danger of the Rolling ...
Guide by Kieron Tyler, MOJO, December 2006
The revolutionary, still-smokin' independent. ...
Buzzcocks, Pete Shelley: The Buzzcocks' Pete Shelley (2007)
Interview by Mark Petracca, Rock's Backpages audio, 2007
The Buzzcocks' frontman looks back at the formation of the band with Howard Devoto, and at Devoto's subsequent exit; talks about himself as a songwriter and looks at his subsequent solo career.
File format: mp3; file size: 41.2mb, interview length: 44' 52" sound quality: *****
Buzzcocks, Pete Shelley: The Buzzcocks' Pete Shelley (2007) [transcript]
Audio transcript of interview by Mark Petracca, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 2007
This is a transcript of Mark's interview with Pete. Listen to the audio of the interview. ...
John Lydon: An Interview with John Lydon
Profile and Interview by Jon Wilde, Mail On Sunday, January 2007
JOHN LYDON CERTAINLY knows how to make an entrance. Within ten seconds of being introduced, he's already demonstrated his full armoury of trademark gestures. ...
Patti Smith Group: Radio Ethiopia
Review by Chris Roberts, Uncut, January 2007
SURE, HORSES was one tough act to follow. Smith's 1975 debut — one of the great, breathtaking, burn-it-down debuts — tore such a hole in ...
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, March 2007
BACKPOOL ROX II, issue 9, price £2, came out at the end of last year. You won't find it referred to in Babylon's Burning, the ...
Enter Shikari: Take to the Skies
Review by Mike Diver, Drowned in Sound, 2 April 2007
IT BEGINS with a shrill "SHIT!" and a choir of screams, but the thrill doesn't last: like riding even the most knuckle-whitening of rollercoasters, Enter ...
Wayne Kramer, MC5, John Sinclair: MC5: The making of Kick Out The Jams
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Uncut, May 2007
How Wayne Kramer and his Detroit proto punks turned a stage heckle into a battle cry to herald the death of the hippy dream ...
Retrospective and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, June 2007
JOE STRUMMER was a fascinating bunch of guys. The former Clash frontman was both romantic idealist and career opportunist, anarchist rebel and proud patriot, hippie ...
How I Took On The New York Dolls
Memoir by Mark Hudson, Daily Telegraph, 2 June 2007
As a new exhibition marks the 30th anniversary of punk, Mark Hudson, lead singer in a college band, recalls the once-in-a-lifetime feeling of the summer ...
The Boys Next Door, Radio Birdman, The Saints, The Scientists: Come the Revolution: Oz punk
Retrospective and Interview by Keith Cameron, The Guardian, 20 July 2007
You thought punks in the UK had things to be angry about? Over in Australia, bands had a real fight on their hands, says Keith ...
Essay by John Harris, The Guardian, 20 July 2007
With lyrics like "Hotch-potch, hugger-mugger, bow-wow, hari-kiri, hoo-poo", how could anyone forget late '70s punk outfit LiLiPUT? ...
Retrospective and Interview by Ian Fortnam, Classic Rock, August 2007
Rock Against Racism: Tom Robinson thinks of it as "the punk Woodstock" and it was the moment that punk went overground and people's band the ...
Retrospective and Interview by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, September 2007
Thirty years after the release of My Aim Is True, Elvis Costello is set to revisit his classic debut. Terry Staunton looks back at the ...
The Go-Go's, Jane Wiedlin: Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's
Interview by Carl Wiser, Songfacts, 22 October 2007
THE GO-GO'S emerged from the late '70s Los Angeles punk/New Wave scene to become pop sensations and MTV darlings. They write their own songs, which ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: 20 Minutes To 20 Years: The Banshees' Tale
Retrospective by Kris Needs, Record Collector, November 2007
As editor of legendary fanzine Zigzag, Kris Needs had a front row seat for the explosive rise of Siouxsie & the Banshees. ...
Review by Paul Moody, Uncut, November 2007
Punk Veterans Unite To Unleash Raw, Roaring, Back-To-Basics Debut. ...
Review by Stuart Maconie, The Word, December 2007
THE '70S BEGAN and ended in turmoil, with strikes, crises, terrorism, class war and new political orthodoxies on the march. ...
Black Flag and All That: Joe Carducci's Enter Naomi
Memoir by Barney Hoskyns, eMusic.com, Winter 2007
THE RECENT PUBLICATION of Joe Carducci's moving and fascinating Enter Naomi: SST, L.A. and All That... (Wyoming: Redoubt Press) takes me back 25 years to ...
Buzzcocks: Ageless Punk Rockers And The AARP
Interview by Jim Sullivan, Christian Science Monitor, 3 Fall 2007
I WAS WORKING in the home office the other day, and all of a sudden I heard the bright melody and chorus of a favorite ...
Retrospective by Joe Carducci, The New Vulgate, 2008
Author's note: All Tomorrow's Parties had the Meat Puppets playing their second album in 2008, and I was asked to write about that album for ...
Retrospective by Jon Savage, Ugly Things, February 2008
NOTE: This was written as an introduction to a brilliant Ugly Things article by Johan Kugelberg called "No More Jubilees: Punk Before Punk", which aimed ...
Buzzcocks: The Making of 'Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)'
Retrospective and Interview by Gavin Martin, Uncut, March 2008
Treasured by John Peel, the 1978 powerpop perennial by Manchester's melodic punks ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: The Making of 'Hong Kong Garden'
Retrospective and Interview by Carol Clerk, Uncut, May 2008
The oddly light debut smash that shoved punk's dark primitives out of the shadows ...
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 ...
Alejandro Escovedo, The Nuns: Alejandro Escovedo
Profile and Interview by Gavin Martin, Uncut, October 2008
The cowpunk who survived Sid Vicious and Hepatitis C to duet with Springsteen, and become a legend of Americana. ...
Suicide: How the Godfathers of Punk Kept The Faith
Interview by Paul Lester, Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, 10 October 2008
New Yorkers Alan Vega and Marty Rev were punks before punk was invented, known in the '70s for their violent gigs and raging synth rock. ...
The Undertones: Teenage Dreams, So Hard To Beat
Retrospective and Interview by Mick Houghton, Uncut, November 2008
For the Undertones, living the rock'n'roll dream meant visits to church and McDonald's, and adopting pigeons when they could've been partying with the Clash. But ...
John Foxx, Ultravox: John Foxx: The Quiet Man Speaks
Interview by Alex Ogg, The Quietus, 7 November 2008
John Foxx is perhaps one of the UK's most undersung musicians. Here he talks to Alex Ogg about Ultravox!, synth pop and nearly being in ...
The Stooges: "Come on, Ronnie, tell em' how I feel!"
Special Feature by Bill Holdship, Detroit Metro Times, 14 January 2009
IT WASN'T always this way. Years ago, TV commercials and film soundtracks didn't feature the guitar sound Ron Asheton pioneered with the Stooges. Even in ...
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, February 2009
THIS COMPREHENSIVE collection of Teenage Jesus And The Jerks recordings features 'Orphans' and 'Less Of Me', both sides of their debut single for Charles Ball’s ...
Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders: The Pretenders: Orpheum, Boston
Live Review by Jim Sullivan, Boston Herald, 6 February 2009
Pretenders the real deal ...
Captain Sensible, The Damned: The Damned's Captain Sensible
Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Phoenix, 3 March 2009
THE Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Jam — they get punk rock respect more than three decades down the pike, but their contemporaries the Damned ...
Green Day: 21st Century Breakdown
Review by Mike Diver, Clash, 23 April 2009
SKIPPING TO THE conclusion before the qualifying: 21st Century Breakdown is an abject failure, a hollow-sounding shadow of the zeitgeist-riding, multi-platinum American Idiot. ...
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 ...
Jello Biafra Of The Dead Kennedys Interview
Interview by Alex Ogg, The Quietus, 20 August 2009
Biafra's back — and this time he's packing a "real" band. The former Dead Kennedys frontman is re-energised by fronting a new group, The Guantanamo ...
Death Becomes Them: The World's First Black Punk Band Killed Naysayers With Power Chords
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Holdship, Detroit Metro Times, 23 September 2009
THE HISTORY of rock 'n' roll is littered with dozens of such stories — great bands discovered years after their initial obscurity has faded into ...
Dr. Feelgood: Dr Feelgood: Oil City Rockers
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, October 2009
A fierce, gritty riposte to early-'7Os excess, Dr Feelgood weren't just trailblazers for punk but, fleetingly, the biggest band in England. With a new Julien ...
Imperial Dogs: They Wanna Get Their Poodles In Your Noodles: Imperial Dogs
Retrospective and Interview by Dave Laing (Australia), Rock's Backpages, November 2009
IN RECENT YEARS, as I've hit an age where time fucking flies by, and an entire decade has passed by in what feels like ...
Obituary by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 2 November 2009
Nightclub owner who acted as a catalyst for the LA punk scene ...
The Clash: Spotlight On The Clash — London Calling
Memoir by Kris Needs, Clash, December 2009
IT DOESN'T seem 30 years since that night at Wessex Studios when The Clash were putting the finishing touches on London Calling. We'd been sitting ...
Patti Smith, Television: The Mapplethorpe Effect: Patti, Polaroids and Punk
Retrospective by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, 15 January 2010
IT WOULD NOT BE outrageous to propose that the two greatest albums of the punk tsunami featured cover images by arguably the most important post-war ...
John Lydon, Public Image Ltd, The Sex Pistols: John Lydon
Interview by John Doran, The Stool Pigeon, March 2010
IN CALIFORNIA WE MEET a traveller from an antique land. On two scrawny legs – KFC issue – he stands. He has a shattered look. ...
The Descendents: Frank Navetta and The Descendents
Retrospective by Joe Carducci, The New Vulgate, 17 March 2010
IN 1980 I wasn't aware of the first 45 by the Descendents, 'Ride the Wild'/'lt's a Hectic World' (Orca 001). It was recorded by Spot ...
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 ...
Retrospective by Don Waller, Detroit Metro Times, 7 April 2010
ON AUGUST 12th, 1975, the Runaways played their first gig — at Back Door Man fanzine founder Phast Phreddie Patterson's parents' house in north Torrance, ...
Obituary by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 9 April 2010
THE IMPRESARIO and iconoclast Malcolm McLaren, who has died aged 64 from the cancer mesothelioma, was one of the pivotal, yet most divisive influences on ...
Public Image Ltd: Dear John: Public Image Ltd
Interview by Ken Scrudato, Filter, May 2010
WAY BACK in 20th Century England, a gang of four insurrectionist-minded punk motherfuckers were to be found causing such an anarchic, subversive uproar as to ...
Thurston Moore, Sonic Youth: Byron Coley: An Interview
Interview by Jason Gross, Perfect Sound Forever, June 2010
SITTING ON A back porch in bucolic Western Massachusetts on a gorgeous summer's day, my friend’s adorable little daughter coyly asked, "Wanna see a picture ...
Iggy Pop, The Stooges: Iggy and the Stooges: Raw Power
Review and Interview by David Quantick, Jaan Uhelszki, Uncut, June 2010
Fine 3-CD reissue with live bootleg and much more ...
The Stranglers: The Making of 'No More Heroes'
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, July 2010
The "punk" outcasts' abrasive '77 classic: "Totally on the button for now, and it always has been," says former frontman Hugh Cornwell. ...
James Chance & the Contortions: James Chance: Twist Your Soul – The Definitive Collection
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, August 2010
Two-disc retrospective of scabrous No Wave figure’s searing jazz-punk contortions. ...
The Sex Pistols: When the Pistols Came to Memphis
Memoir by Tom Graves, Guerilla Monster Films, August 2010
WHEN THE SEX Pistols blitzed into Memphis on a very cold Friday night in January (the 6th) 1978, probably not one in ten people in ...
At Large in the Black Hole of Punk L.A.
Sleeve notes by Jon Savage, 'Black Hole' (Domino Records), November 2010
NOTE: Adapted from Strange Things # 1, published spring 1988, this forms the first part of the liner notes for Black Hole: Jon Savage Presents ...
Film/DVD/TV Review by Gary Pig Gold, Rock and Roll Report, 21 January 2011
A FULL DISCLOSURE right up front, one and all: Way back in the 1980 hey!day of my fanzine, The Pig Paper, a certain Kevin Michael ...
David Bowie, The Clash, Sex Pistols: Kate Simon: An Interview
Interview by Paul Gorman, Paul Gorman Is, 18 February 2011
THERE IS A portrait of David Bowie taken by Kate Simon at Olympic recording studios in Barnes, west London, on January 14, 1974. The photograph ...
Jello Biafra, Peter Hammill: Peter Hammill and Jello Biafra: Prog vs. Punk – Who Won?
Interview by Jim Irvin, The Word, March 2011
One was uncool but enduring, the other hip but short-lived. Two pioneers, Peter Hammill and Jello Biafra, fight their respective corners. ...
The Clash: Vinyl Icon: The Clash
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, May 2011
UNUSUALLY, FOR AN ALBUM awarded Vinyl Icon status, the "fi" of The Clash's eponymous debut is not of the highest. It is, however, an album ...
Review by John Calvert, The Quietus, 24 May 2011
"And every proton and neutron in every atom . . . swollen and throbbing, off-color, sick, with just no chance of throwing up to relieve ...
Bad Brains, Minor Threat: Ian Mackaye meets Bad Brains and invents hardcore
Retrospective by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 14 June 2011
NO MERE THREE-CHORD punk dullards, Washington DC's Bad Brains had chops to spare. They'd started as jazz-fusion quintet Mind Power, worshipping at the altar of ...
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 ...
Dead Kennedys: How I named "the Dead Kennedys"
Memoir by Mark Bliesener, Westword, 21 July 2011
IN MAY OF 1976, I quit my job in L.A. playing drums with ? and the Mysterians, and "retired" to Berthoud. The scheme was to ...
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. ...
The Minutemen: An Econo History Of The Minutemen
Retrospective by John Calvert, The Quietus, 11 January 2012
John Calvert throws open the doors onto the strange and frightening world of the Minutemen. ...
Stiff Little Fingers — The Making Of 'Alternative Ulster'
Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, March 2012
The sound of young Northern Ireland in '78 — a punk clarion call for peace in Belfast that led to death threats for the band. "THE ...
Review by John Calvert, The Quietus, 26 April 2012
THERE’S HIGH comedy afoot on the old web-machine these days. Press attempts to answer the question "What are Death Grips?" have taken a turn for ...
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 ...
Memoir by Jeff Slate, Examiner.com, 21 August 2012
JOE STRUMMER, the frontman of The Clash and all around "spokesman for a generation", would have been 60 today. He died tragically nearly 10 years ...
Retrospective by Don Snowden, Rock's Backpages, September 2012
GOD, THE AVENGERS were a great little band. And I say little band only because time and geography conspired against any possibility of them being ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, September 2012
A FULL QUARTER of a century into their career, the Californian pop-punks should really be churning out tired, formulaic albums or, more likely, contemplating splitting. ...
Death Grips: Pleasure in suffering? The problem with Death Grips live
Live Review by John Calvert, The Quietus, 13 November 2012
A scholar of Death Grips, John Calvert expected to prostrate himself before the menace of MC Ride and Zach Hill. But is this the punk ...
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. ...
Eddie & The Hot Rods: Eddie and the Hot Rods: Do Anything You Wanna Do – The Best Of
Sleeve notes by Daryl Easlea, Spectrum Records, Fall 2012
A personal recollection by Barrie Masters of Rochford, England, talking on 10th September, 2012,to Daryl Easlea… also of Rochford, England. ...
NOFX: 30th Anniversary Box Set
Review by Ben Myers, bbc.co.uk, 2013
Satirical Californian punks display cockroach-like endurance. ...
Band of Susans, Big Black, Butthole Surfers, Sonic Youth: Sonic Youth and the Blast First axis
Retrospective by David Stubbs, The Wire, February 2013
A previously unpublished essay by David Stubbs, on Paul Smith's Blast First label and Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon's Sonic Youth. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, February 2013
Armed with "a license to cause mayhem", they created an "'orrible" speedball of a debut album. Before losing control…. Thirty five years on, all four founder ...
Retrospective by Paul Gorman, Rock's Backpages, February 2013
MALCOLM MCLAREN'S adaptation of the infamous Tits t-shirt is one of punk's most familiar designs, as applied by he and Vivienne Westwood to shirts sold ...
Review by Ben Myers, bbc.co.uk, 19 February 2013
Young Danish punks create a beautiful noise for the worldwide disaffected. ...
Savages: Electric Ballroom, London
Live Review by Luke Turner, The Quietus, 22 February 2013
SO JUST A YEAR after their first gig down in a manky former theatre in Brighton, Savages are here in the Electric Ballroom for an NME awards ...
Bad Religion: No Assumption Safe with Punk Vets
Report and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 22 March 2013
THE TITLE OF the first single from Bad Religion's new album, True North, is unprintable in this newspaper, but the two-word expletive advises one to ...
Iggy Pop, The Stooges: Iggy and the Stooges: Ready To Die
Review by John Lewis, Metro, 26 April 2013
ONE MIGHT mock Iggy Pop for advertising car insurance, but the truth is that being a rock legend doesn't come with a guaranteed stipend: his ...
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 ...
Mick Farren: You Say You Want A Revolution: Mick Farren Looks Back
Book Excerpt by Paul Moody, 'Search For The Lost Chord', July 2013
RBP contributor Paul Moody interviewed Mick earlier this year while researching his new book Search For The Lost Chord: Looking For The Spirit Of Rock'n'Roll. We're ...
The Clash, Joe Strummer: Don Letts on the legacy of the Clash and the girl Joe Strummer Stole Away
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 29 August 2013
FILM AND VIDEO director Don Letts has a lengthy and varied resumé, but is most associated with the Clash. The new all-compassing band box set, ...
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, October 2013
WITH A WHIFF of revisionism about it, Sound System collects the Clash's output up tothe departure of guitarist Mick Jones,ignoring 1985's Cut The Crap but ...
Sex & Drugs & Herring rolls: Punk's Jewish Roots Revealed
Retrospective by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 26 February 2014
PUNK ROCK'S transatlantic fuse was lit when Malcolm McLaren saw Richard Hell in New York in 1975. McLaren, whose Jewish family background was in the ...
Retrospective by Vivien Goldman, The Guardian, 27 February 2014
Punk Svengalis Malcolm McLaren and Bernie Rhodes were Jewish, and the faith had an influence on UK labels and journalists. For Jewish kids, meanwhile, the ...
Jean-Jacques Burnel, The Stranglers: Mr Dojo Rising: JJ Burnel of The Stranglers interviewed
Interview by Julian Marszalek, The Quietus, 4 March 2014
Julian Marszalek looks beyond the ugliness, violence and "intellectual thuggery" to find punk's genuine outsiders. ...
The Stranglers on 40 years of fights, drugs, UFOs and "doing all the wrong things"
Retrospective and Interview by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 12 March 2014
Legend has it the Stranglers started a fight with the Clash, took heroin for a year, exploited strippers on stage, and incited a riot in ...
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 ...
The Ramones: Touchstone Tommy Ramone
Comment by Don Snowden, Rock's Backpages, July 2014
MAKE NO MISTAKE, Tommy Ramone was the touchstone for all things Ramone. ...
The Ramones: "Tommy Ramone's rock'n'roll legacy should not be underestimated"
Comment by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 14 July 2014
TOMMY RAMONE'S contribution to rock'n'roll was as brief and as fundamentally potent as his band's songs. Three albums, released over 17 months, were the sum ...
Live Review by Roy Trakin, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 July 2014
IT WILL BE 40 years in December, 2015, since the release of Patti Smith's Horses, on Clive Davis' Arista label, arguably the beginning of the ...
Bad Brains, Fishbone, Living Colour: Afropunk Before Afropunk
Retrospective by Michael A. Gonzales, Ebony, 29 August 2014
LAST WEEK, for the first time in years, I missed the Afropunk festival. The musical movement began as an extension of a 2003 documentary of ...
Sleaford Mods: Hairy Dog, Derby
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 1 September 2014
A BRACING BREATH of foul air from the rumbling guts of the East Midlands music scene, Sleaford Mods have graduated from obscure cult act to ...
The Ramones: Marky Ramone Gabba Gabbas Away in New Memoir
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 22 January 2015
IN HIS BAND of Bruddahs, Marky Ramone's primary role was that of drummer, the pounding heartbeat and engine of so many of the legendary punk-rock ...
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 ...
Parquet Courts: Live at Third Man Records
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 9 April 2015
Brooklyn rockers rip through a ferocious concert album ...
Suicide: Requiem For A Scream: Suicide's 'Punk Mass'
Live Review by John Calvert, The Quietus, 16 July 2015
IN HIS PRE-SHOW ADDRESS, frothy punk minotaur Henry Rollins is telling a story, which of course he's pretty good at. A formidable, not to mention ...
The Decline of Western Civilization: Parts I–III (dir. Penelophe Spheeris)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, 4 August 2015
Lauded LA trilogy finally gets its own boxset ...
Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Wire, November 2015
The outsider electronics of Devo broke the Ramonic template of 1977 punk, says Jon Savage ...
Report by Paul Rambali, Rock's Backpages, 19 November 2015
THE DICTATORS played in central Paris on Wednesday night and Handsome Dick Manitoba was in exhilarating Noo Yoik form. ...
The Ramones: The enduring appeal of the Ramones
Retrospective by Andrew Stafford, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 21 April 2016
MY FAVOURITE QUOTE about the Ramones comes from Richard Hell, the New York provocateur who, along with Tom Verlaine, formed the art-punk band Television in ...
The Sex Pistols, Patti Smith: Provincial Gains: Sex Pistols in the Early Summer of '76
Book Excerpt by Clinton Heylin, 'Anarchy in the Year Zero' (Route Books), May 2016
"The sound is a mean cacophony, not unreminiscent of Bowie's early Spiders, the material a mixture of Anglo-American teen punk classics – the Stooges' 'No ...
Sniffin' Glue: A fanzine that epitomized punk
Retrospective and Interview by Peter Silverton, The Independent, 10 May 2016
It's UK punk's 40th anniversary year – sort of – and among the work being celebrated is Sniffin' Glue, the photocopied publication that embodied the ...
Iggy Pop: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Julian Marszalek, The Quietus, 16 May 2016
Iggy Pop is bloodied but unbowed when he leaves the stage of the RAH says Julian Marszalek. ...
Suicide, Alan Vega: A King Has Passed: Alan Vega Remembered
Retrospective by Tim Cooper, The Quietus, 18 July 2016
BY THE SUMMER of 1978, punk rock had lost the power to shock. The revolution that had shot an amphetamine rush into a moribund music ...
Suicide, Alan Vega: Alan Vega, 1938-2016
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 18 July 2016
Co-founder and frontman of the confrontational electronic band Suicide ...
Alan Vega: Infinity Punk: A Career-Spanning Interview With Suicide's Alan Vega
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 19 July 2016
Following the musical iconoclast's death at age 78 – an in-depth conversation from 2002 that includes tales of dangerous old New York, what it meant ...
The Angry Samoans: Angry Samoans: An Interview with Gregg Turner
Interview by Jason Gross, Perfect Sound Forever, August 2016
PSF: WHAT WAS the local scene like before the group started? ...
Guide by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, August 2016
Channelling the magick of Aleister Crowley and the neo-paganism of witchcraft, occult rock is the sound of rock 'n' roll's secret society. Edwin Pouncey reads ...
Johnny Marr, The Sex Pistols: Steve Jones – Lonely Boy; Johnny Marr – Set The Boy Free
Book Review by Jude Rogers, The Observer, 20 November 2016
Contrasting memoirs of life in the Sex Pistols and the Smiths from two charismatic working-class guitarists. ...
Henry Rollins: Why Vinyl Matters: Henry Rollins
Book Excerpt by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike, 'Why Vinyl Matters' (ACC Editions), 2017
HENRY ROLLINS WAS barely out of his teens when he joined the legendary punk band Black Flag. Since parting with the band in 1986, Rollins ...
NOFX: Why Vinyl Matters: Fat Mike
Book Excerpt by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike, 'Why Vinyl Matters' (ACC Editions), January 2017
FAT MIKE, BORN Mike Burkett, is an American musician and producer. He is the bassist and lead vocalist for the punk rock band NOFX and ...
Andrew Czezowski and Susan Carrington: The Roxy, 14 December 1976 – 23 April 1977, Our Story
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, March 2017
ON DECEMBER 14, 1976, after a brief stint as the first in an endless stream of optimists who tried to manage the Damned, Andrew Czezowski, ...
John Lydon: Mr Rotten and the Weaponry of Words
Interview by Julian Marszalek, Gigwise, 6 March 2017
John Lydon opens up about 40 years of lyric writing ...
PWR BTTM: Rock BTTM: Why PWR BTTM Were Dropped So Fast
Comment by Pip Williams, Hiskind, 16 May 2017
Content warning: assault This Friday, rising queer punk duo PWR BTTM released their sophomore album, Pageant. What looked set to be a celebration of non-conformity and ...
Ed Kuepper, Laughing Clowns, The Saints: Saint Ed Kuepper to be honoured with renamed Brisbane park
Report and Interview by Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 9 July 2017
Push for Brisbane to further celebrate its second seminal band as Ed Kuepper Park named in city's south-west. ...
The Fall: The 100 Club, London
Live Review by Julian Marszalek, Gigwise, 27 July 2017
Less wonderful and more frightening than ever before ...
Bad Religion: O2 Academy, Bristol
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 4 August 2017
BAD RELIGION are living proof of the old adage that punk rockers never die, they just turn into greying, balding, bespectacled Vince Cable lookalikes. ...
Insane Clown Posse: Riverside, Newcastle
Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 15 November 2017
CONTROVERSY SEEMS to follow Insane Clown Posse around. The Detroit "horrorcore" duo have seen albums pulled from shelves and their army of fans, the Juggalos, ...
The Clash: Casbah Rock: A Death Threat against the Clash
Book Excerpt by Stuart Bailie, 'Trouble Songs' (Bloomfield), May 2018
Excerpted from Trouble Songs: Music and Conflict in Northern Ireland ...
Retrospective and Interview by Mark Kemp, Creative Loafing, 16 May 2018
THE SINGER AND guitarist for the Mighty Shamrocks was packing up his gear one night after an early-'80s pub gig in the Bogside neighborhood of ...
Retrospective by Erik Himmelsbach, Journal of Alta California, 28 May 2018
LIKE ITS New York counterpart the Velvet Underground, whose props as a fundamental rock and roll influence came only after years in oblivion, Los Angeles's ...
Toyah Willcox: Toyah: Forever Free
Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, September 2018
1977 and all that may have come and gone, but Toyah brought the punk aesthetic into '80s pop music with her radical sense of style ...
Live Review by Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 16 April 2019
Sydney Opera House: That supple physique can't move quite like it used to, but 71-year-old's voice is in unbelievably good shape ...
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 ...
Sex Pistols, The Stranglers: The true punk confessions of Stuart Pearce
Retrospective and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 6 November 2019
ON THE MORNING of the 23rd of June 1996, Stuart Pearce was the most famous person in the country. The previous afternoon, England had beaten ...
The Big Boys, Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid: Someday All the Adults Will Die!
Book Excerpt by Pat Blashill, 'Texas is the Reason' (Bazillion Points), February 2020
THE MISFITS had never been to Texas. They were just four lunkheads from Lodi, New Jersey, who had heard about punk. They had black leather ...
Book Excerpt by Paul Gorman, 'The Life & Times of Malcolm McLaren' (Constable), April 2020
IN 1975, THE regular customers at Sex – the fetish boutique operated at 430 King’s Road by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood – included David ...
Discharge, GBH: 'They made Sex Pistols sound like Take That': the fury of Midlands punk
Profile and Interview by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 21 April 2020
Discharge, GBH and other scrappy bands rose up out of a scene where gigs were like wars. Clay Records' leading lights recall how technique came ...
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 ...
The Flamin' Groovies, Kim Fowley, The Stooges: Farewell to Marc Zermati
Memoir by Nick Kent, unpublished, 15 June 2020
IT'S BEEN FIVE hours now since I received the news that Marc Zermati died in his sleep and — as with all deaths of those ...
"It's All Rebel Music": How Janette Beckman Documented The Early Days Of Def Jam
Retrospective and Interview by Ben Merlis, uDiscoverMusic, 19 June 2020
In Def Jam's docu-series 'Through The Lens', photographer Janette Beckman talks documenting the early days of hip-hop. ...
Iggy Pop, The Stooges: Between Fun House & 'Funtime': Iggy Pop in the '70s
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, TIDAL, 7 July 2020
Brilliantly out of step, the rock provocateur architected revolutionary sounds with the Stooges and Bowie. ...
John Doe, X: John Doe: How Antioch Prepared The X Co-Founder To Make Punk Rock History
Retrospective and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Antioch Alumni Magazine, Fall 2020
WHEN THE California quartet X released its first album in 1980, it upended everyone's assumptions about punk rock. The twin lead vocals from a man ...
Various Artists: Jon Savage's 1972-1976 – All Our Times Have Come
Review by Kieron Tyler, The Arts Desk, 28 March 2021
Tracking the route to punk without stating the obvious ...
The Clash, Sex Pistols: Jon Savage: A Conversation about England's Dreaming
Interview by Irina Shtreis, Louder Than War, 14 July 2021
The new edition of England's Dreaming is out now via Faber & Faber and Rough Trade as part of the bundle including two other pivotal ...
The Descendents: The Return of the Descendents
Retrospective and Interview by Irina Shtreis, Louder Than War, 21 July 2021
Pioneers of Californian pop-punk revisit their early material on the upcoming 9th & Walnut album. ...
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. ...
Patti Smith: Lenny Kaye: "Boom! I saw the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show and everything changed"
Interview by Sean O'Hagan, The Observer, 14 November 2021
As guitarist in the Patti Smith Group and compiler of psychedelic touchstone Nuggets, his place in music history is secured. His new book charts the ...
Sex Pistols, Johnny Thunders: Two Johnnies Get a Lift: Christmas Eve 1976
Memoir by Ed Jones, Rock's Backpages, December 2021
IT WAS 11.30 pm on Christmas Eve, 1976, at the height of the punk explosion. To the dismay of the entire nation, I had temporarily ...
Buzzcocks: Howard Devoto and Steve Diggle of Buzzcocks on Spiral Scratch
Retrospective and Interview by Irina Shtreis, Louder Than War, 29 January 2022
45 years ago, Buzzcocks released Spiral Scratch, the first independent punk record in the UK. The original Buzzcocks frontman Howard Devoto and original bass player ...
Comment by Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 11 April 2022
David Malouf said poetry could never occur in Brisbane in the '70s and '80s. The Saints proved otherwise – and revolutionised the music industry. ...
The Avengers: Watching the Avengers Absolutely Crush the Pistols
Book Excerpt by Michael Goldberg, 'Wicked Game' (HoZac Books), June 2022
NOTE: What follows is an excerpt from Michael Goldberg's new book Wicked Game: The True Story of Guitarist James Calvin Wilsey (HoZac Books). Goldberg is ...
The Damned: Great Hall, Cardiff University
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 3 April 2023
These punk pensioners need to loosen up ...
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