Rockabilly, Rock'n'Roll
600 articles
Fats Domino, Big Joe Turner: The Alan Freed "Rock-n-Roll" Ball: St. Nicholas Arena, New York NY
Live Review by uncredited writer, Cash Box, 29 January 1955
THE ALAN Freed "Rock-n-Roll" Ball held at the St. Nicholas Arena, New York, on Friday and Saturday nights, January 14 and 15, had to be ...
Report by Tony Brown, Melody Maker, 9 February 1957
AT 2.55PM on Tuesday, the organised and highly publicised reception for Bill Haley looked like being a flop. A few couples, exhorted by precariously perched ...
Gene Vincent: They All Want Gene Vincent
Profile by June Harris, Disc, 5 December 1959
RADIO AND TV, STAGE SHOWS IN BRITAIN AND FRANCE, A GERMAN TOUR, MORE STAGE SHOWS HERE ...
Johnny Kidd & The Pirates: Cover Personality: Johnny Kidd — Johnny Has Hopes of a U.S. Trip
Profile and Interview by June Harris, Disc, 19 December 1959
A CHANCE meeting with top American radio personality, Rene Morell, put Johnny Kidd's version of 'If You Were The Only Girl In The World' in ...
Fats Domino: Cover Personality — No Change, Fats is Still at the Top
Profile by June Harris, Disc, 9 January 1960
ROCK MAY not be dead, but it certainly has changed, and so have most of the singers. They change to try to be different but ...
Johnny and The Hurricanes: Johnny & The Hurricanes: They're Wild, Man, Like Crazy
Comment by June Harris, Disc, 30 January 1960
JUNE HARRIS examines that rocking phenomenon JOHNNY & THE HURRICANES ...
Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent: Eddie Cochran Tragedy — Body Flown to States
Report by uncredited writer, Disc, 23 April 1960
Gene Vincent's injuries are not serious ...
Brenda Lee — Only Fifteen but They Want Her for Hollywood
Profile by June Harris, Disc, 28 May 1960
"SHE'S DYNAMIC. For her age she's ridiculously adult, she knows exactly what she wants and goes all out to get it." This is Wham! producer Jack Good ...
Billy Fury: Fury Plans to Sing Blues
Interview by June Harris, Disc, 4 June 1960
BILLY FURY, the 19-year-old rock singer from Liverpool, enthused: "I must be Britain's number one fan of the blues." And he added: "In time, I ...
Jess Conrad, Gene Vincent: Gene Vincent, Jess Conrad: East Ham Granada, London
Live Review by June Harris, Disc, 18 February 1961
GENE VINCENT and Jess Conrad, heading the latest all-star rock package, are a knockout! ...
Live Review by June Harris, Disc, 15 April 1961
CLIFF, SHADOWS TOPS IN BEAT SHOW ...
Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers: New to You: Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers
Interview by June Harris, Disc, 1 July 1961
'You've Got What I Like' ...
Shane Fenton & the Fentones: Shane Fenton: Leyton, Kane And Now Shane
Profile by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 7 October 1961
I'M NOT BOASTING BUT I SPOT A NEW BOY ...
Brenda Lee: Little Miss Lee keeps up with her school work
Report and Interview by Maureen Cleave, The Evening Standard, 31 March 1962
PRODUCING CHILD prodigies is something the Americans are exceedingly good at. They have them in every field. ...
Gene Vincent: The Secret Fear of Gene Vincent
Comment by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 31 March 1962
GENE VINCENT flies back to London on March 28. Great news for his myriad fans, including me, who regard him as a truly great rock ...
Johnny Burnette: Already Dead Keen to Come Back
Interview by June Harris, Disc, 21 April 1962
JOHNNY BURNETTE arrived in Britain at the end of last week for his tour with U.S. Bonds and Gene McDaniels, which opens in Glasgow on ...
Rick Nelson: Ricky Nelson: Now Ricky's Name Change Is Official!
Profile and Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 27 April 1962
'YOUNG WORLD' is probably the last disc by Ricky Nelson you'll see in the NME Charts – but don't panic. At 21 Ricky has no ...
Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers, Jerry Lee Lewis: 'Dig My Killer Hair?' — Asked Jerry Lee Lewis
Interview by uncredited writer, Record Mirror, 12 May 1962
THE TIME BOMB WITH THE FOUR YEAR OLD FUSE ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: No Sneering — This Mr. Lewis Is Simply Great!
Interview by Maureen Cleave, The Evening Standard, 12 May 1962
FOUR YEARS ago, Jerry Lee Lewis was booted out of this country with an extraordinary display of righteous nastiness. ...
The Crickets: Crickets May Have To Tour Without Jerry Allison
Interview by June Harris, Disc, 28 July 1962
JERRY ALLISON, longest-serving member of the Crickets, whose 'Don't Ever Change' is still climbing our Top Twenty, may not be able to get to England ...
Vince Taylor: The Black Leather Suits Controversy: Vince Taylor as Elvis!!
Report and Interview by Ian Dove, Record Mirror, 28 July 1962
IT COULD HAPPEN, SAYS THE ROCK SINGER BRITAIN DIDN'T WANT ...
Brenda Lee: The Strain Of Being Brenda Lee
Report and Interview by Ian Dove, Record Mirror, 29 September 1962
TWICE ILL IN HOSPITAL! FATIGUE AND COLLAPSE! ELVIS FILM TURNED DOWN ...
Little Richard: Well, look who's back — it's Little Richard
Profile and Interview by Maureen Cleave, The Evening Standard, 6 October 1962
BOBOBALOOMBA Abimbamboom all Rootti Tutti Frutti. With this gnomic verse about ice-cream and a shriek of masochistic ecstasy, Little Richard exploded before a wondering world ...
The Everly Brothers, Phil Everly: Maybe Mr. Everly can't spell — but he sure can sing
Interview by Maureen Cleave, The Evening Standard, 13 October 1962
LIKE FALLING off a log, cried all the little boys up and down the country when they first heard the Everly Brothers six years ago. ...
The Crickets: Our first tour and we're glad it's in England
Interview by June Harris, Disc, 27 October 1962
I'VE JUST received a nine page letter from the Crickets, who arrive tomorrow (Friday) for their tour with Bobby Vee, which opens on November 3, ...
The Everly Brothers: Phil Everly: He Can't Spell But He Can Sing Like A Million Dollars
Interview by Maureen Cleave, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 11 November 1962
From MAUREEN CLEAVE in London ...
The Everly Brothers, Phil Everly: Phil Everly says Thanks
Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 16 November 1962
PALE AND drawn after his four week tour of Britain without brother Don, Phil Everly slumped into a deep armchair in his dressing room at ...
Freddy Cannon, Alexis Korner: Freddy Cannon Raves over OUR R & B music!
Interview by June Harris, Disc, 8 December 1962
STRICTLY NON-working hours for Freddy Cannon whenever he visits Britain are spent, whenever possible, at London's Marquee jazz club, watching Alexis Korner at work. As ...
Fats Domino: The Man Who Sang Rock Before Haley
Report by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 12 January 1963
HIS first million-seller was named after himself. Until last year he had more million-sellers than Elvis, who finally caught up with him after a hard ...
Johnny and The Hurricanes: Gaumont State Ballroom, Kilburn, London
Live Review by Ian Dove, New Musical Express, 18 January 1963
HURRICANES IMPRESS ...
Elvis Presley: Is Elvis Becoming a Hermit?
Comment by Wesley Laine, Record Mirror, 16 February 1963
WESLEY LAINE takes a look at the continued non-appearance of Elvis... both in Britain and in the States... ...
Joe Brown: Shakespeare Helped Pen Joe's New Disc!
Interview by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 16 February 1963
THE LATEST chapter in the crazy life of Joe Brown started with him whistling to me across busy Shaftesbury Avenue, in London's West End. He ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Rockin' Split Personality
Profile by uncredited writer, Record Mirror, 9 March 1963
SHY JERRY LEE LEWIS GOES WILD... ON STAGE ...
Overview by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 23 March 1963
EVERYONE IS talking about the Rhythm and Blues revival that's going on. But we wondered whether in fact there was a revival. ...
Buddy Knox: The Great Unknowns No. 2: Buddy Knox
Profile by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 23 March 1963
SEVERAL MONTHS ago a disc entered the top fifty by an artist who hadn't seen the light of the charts for many years. It was ...
Bo Diddley: The Man With A Hundred Guitars... Diddley the Great
Retrospective by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 20 April 1963
ABOUT EIGHT years ago, a sound called Rock and Roll started to penetrate the music scene in a big big way, taking over completely from ...
Chuck Berry: When Chuck Shocked Jazz Fans
Profile by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 20 April 1963
THE PROOF of the pudding is in the eating, they say. But the proof of the R&B pudding is in the after effects. How many ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Beaty Welcome for Jerry Lee Lewis
Report by Ian Dove, New Musical Express, 3 May 1963
JERRY LEE LEWIS looks like getting a wild welcome when he arrives to start his British tour at Birmingham Town Hall on May 6. At ...
Eddie Cochran: Fans Prove Label Wrong About Cochran
Report by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 10 May 1963
EDDIE COCHRAN'S chart entry 'My Way' is only one of several previously unissued discs the U.S. star left behind after his death in April, 1960. ...
Heinz, Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent: Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent, Heinz: Town Hall, Birmingham
Live Review by uncredited writer, New Musical Express, 10 May 1963
Two 'houses' shouted 'We want Jerry'! ...
Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly: Buddy Holly Scores Fourth 'Bo' Hit!
Report by Ian Dove, New Musical Express, 14 June 1963
ONCE AGAIN, 'Bo Diddley' is a hit — the fourth time it has been in the pop music charts, this time steered there by the ...
The Everly Brothers: Phil And Don Everly Put Up A Fight
Report and Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 21 June 1963
NOBODY could say the fortunes of the Everly Brothers have been at their highest just lately, but the boys are determined to put up a ...
Billy Fury: My Top Ten by Billy Fury
Interview by uncredited writer, New Musical Express, 12 July 1963
'DESTINY' by Johnnie Ray. — Before the days of rock 'n' roll, I was a great Johnnie Ray fan, following his career and records closely. ...
Gene Vincent: The original man in the black leather suit
Profile and Interview by Maureen Cleave, The Evening Standard, 13 July 1963
THEY USED to call Gene Vincent The Screaming End. He started the others wearing black leather, he started them hollering and diving about the stage. ...
Chuck Berry: At Last it's the Real Thing!
Profile by June Harris, Disc, 27 July 1963
CHUCK BERRY, THE WILD MAN OF BEAT MUSIC, GETS HIS BIG CHANCE ...
Chubby Checker: Dance Crazes? "They're Out" Says Chubby Checker
Interview by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 17 August 1963
CHUBBY CHECKER emerged from the bathroom in his London hotel. He'd showered and shaved. Light blue shirt, dark mohair slacks, open sandals. And a limp. ...
Lonnie Mack: The Instrumental Influence and Hit Star
Profile by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 24 August 1963
BEAT instrumentals are probably at a higher degree of popularity in the States than ever before. Discs like 'Wipeout', 'Tips Of My Fingers', 'Pipeline', 'Hot ...
Profile by Guy Stevens, Record Mirror, 5 October 1963
CHUCK BERRY, born on October 18th, 1931, has now become an almost legendary figure to many people in this country. ...
Live Review by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 12 October 1963
WHEN LARRY Parnes puts out a touring show, he puts out a big 'un. He slams in plenty of acts, plenty of variety, plenty of ...
Bo Diddley: So Ethel Mae stayed — and so did the guitar
Interview by Maureen Cleave, The Evening Standard, 12 October 1963
'THE BIGGER THE CLOWN YOU ARE, THE MORE RECOGNITION YOU GET,' SAYS BO. 'WE DO EVERYTHING EXCEPT STAND ON OUR HEADS.' ...
Del Shannon on The British Scene
Interview by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 12 October 1963
PETER JONES TALKS TO DEL SHANNON AND GETS SOME INTERESTING VIEWS ...
Little Richard: Gaumont Theatre, Watford
Live Review by June Harris, Disc, 12 October 1963
RICHARD IS DYNAMIC ...
Chuck Berry: He's Running an Amusement Park in Missouri!
Interview by June Harris, Disc, 9 November 1963
IT'S ALL happening for Chuck Berry! He's come hurtling back in the British charts with 'Memphis, Tennessee', and now he's all set for his debut ...
Johnny Burnette: 'No Dance Discs From Me'
Interview by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 9 November 1963
THE MAN who has had many U.S. and British top 20 hits is over here again in Britain — and no-one seems to know anything ...
Billy Fury, The Tornados: It Took All Day — It Was Fantastic
Interview by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 16 November 1963
WE WANT BILLY! IS BILLY FURY SINGING THE SONGS HE LIKES TO SING ...
Live Review by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 16 November 1963
THE OPENING night of the Duane Eddy/Little Richard/Shirelles tour was a lot better than most people expected at the Regal Edmonton, 2nd performance on Saturday. ...
Chuck Berry: I Can't Wait To Meet My Friends In Britain
Interview by Guy Stevens, Record Mirror, 30 November 1963
THE RECORD MIRROR TELEPHONES CHUCK BERRY IN MISSOURI ...
Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley: Chuck and Bo May Tour Here Together in March
Report by June Harris, Disc, 7 December 1963
WHAT DO you think of having Chock Berry and Bo Diddley headline a rhythm and blues package in England? Promoter Don Arden, just back from ...
Chuck Berry: New Discs From Chuck
Report by Guy Stevens, Record Mirror, 1 February 1964
SENSATIONAL news for all R & B fans is that Chuck Berry's new record 'Nadine' is to be released over here on February 4th, prior ...
Chuck Berry, Little Walter: Chuck Berry Tells Guy Stevens About "How I Write My Songs"
Report and Interview by Guy Stevens, Record Mirror, 4 April 1964
MY FIRST MEETING with Chuck Berry proved to be as exciting and interesting as I had expected. I met him in the offices of Chess ...
Larry Williams: Heir To Little Richard
Profile by Guy Stevens, Record Mirror, 4 April 1964
IN OCTOBER 1958, Little Richard decided, in the words of the late Chuck Willis, to "Hang up his rock'n'roll shoes" and enter the Church. Many ...
Chuck Berry: Chuck — King of Beat
Report by Guy Stevens, Record Mirror, 25 April 1964
THE STORY OF CHUCK'S CAREER AND COMEBACK, BY GUY STEVENS ...
Live Review by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 16 May 1964
CHUCK'S HERE AT LAST ...
Carl Perkins: Here's the man to set you patting your blue suedes
Profile and Interview by Maureen Cleave, The Evening Standard, 6 June 1964
CARL PERKINS has a place of his own at the very beginning of the rock 'n' roll story. On January 1, 1956, he recorded a ...
Chuck Berry: Hammersmith Odeon, London, May 10th
Live Review by John Broven, Blues Unlimited, July 1964
THE LONG-AWAITED visit of Chuck Berry to these islands came reality when he opened his tour at the Finsbury Empire on May 9th; I caught ...
Roy Orbison: The Unlikely Mr. Orbison flies into London
Profile and Interview by Maureen Cleave, The Evening Standard, 14 October 1964
ROY ORBISON, the only American we tolerate at the top of our native hit parade, flew into London this morning wearing dark glasses and black ...
Brenda Lee: The man who'd barely heard of Brenda Lee (she married him)
Interview by Maureen Cleave, The Evening Standard, 14 November 1964
BRENDA LEE turned professional when she was six; she had actually been singing for two years before that. She appeared on the Steve Allen show ...
Brenda Lee: Brenda And Her Baby
Interview by Keith Matthews, Record Mirror, 28 November 1964
WHEN SHE isn't rocking up a storm "on stage", Mrs. Charles Shacklett nee Brenda Lee — or Miss Dynamite if you prefer, is rocking the ...
Live Review by Ian Dove, New Musical Express, 15 January 1965
Olé, it's Chuck 'Crazylegs' now! Ian Dove covers latest Berry tour ...
Live Review by uncredited writer, Record Mirror, 16 January 1965
Chuck goes down a bomb on R & B tour ...
Johnny Rivers Tries His Rhythm Here
Interview by David Griffiths, Record Mirror, 27 February 1965
AFTER EIGHT years in and out of show business, Johnny Rivers has finally struck gold – In USA. During the last year he's been packing ...
The Everly Brothers: Rock 'n' Soul (Warner Bros. WM 8171); Gone, Gone, Gone (Warner Bros. WM 8169)
Review by Peter Jones, Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 1 May 1965
2 wild albums from Everlys ...
Profile and Interview by Maureen Cleave, The Evening Standard, 8 May 1965
THERE'S ONE thing the Everly Brothers are really good at and that's survival. Quite soon they will celebrate their silver anniversary of 25 years in ...
The Everly Brothers: The Everlys and Those Anti-Pop People
Interview by David Griffiths, Record Mirror, 15 May 1965
I WAS SITTING in the hotel lobby reading some holiday travel brochures when Don Everly joined me. "Hey — where's that?" he exclaimed. "Corsica? Sure ...
Larry Williams: The Return of Rock
Report by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 15 May 1965
SUDDENLY, ROCK 'N' ROLL isn't a dirty phrase any more. ...
Elvis Presley: David Griffiths recalls Elvis' days as the King of Western Bop
Retrospective by David Griffiths, Record Mirror, 5 June 1965
PARDON US while we do a little boasting but, after all, it IS the RM's birthday and we HAVE got something to celebrate. For we ...
The Everly Brothers: Everlys Thrilled Over British Tour
Interview by Tracy Thomas, New Musical Express, 9 July 1965
"WE'RE looking so much forward to going back to Britain," exclaimed Don Everly on the phone from Decorah, Iowa, to my office in California. "We're ...
Brenda Lee: Brenda Really Means Those Sad Love Songs
Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 3 September 1965
MARRIAGE CAN be a dodgy business when you're a pop star — as I found when a sad-voiced Brenda Lee phoned me from Nashville, Tennessee. ...
Billy Fury: Billy's New Outlook
Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 10 September 1965
HE WORE a small-brimmed leather trilby and a dark grey jacket, and in the palm of his hand he flicked a king-sized cigarette lighter. Like ...
Cilla Black, The Everly Brothers: The Everly Brothers, Cilla Black: Finsbury Park Astoria, London
Live Review by Nick Jones, Melody Maker, 16 October 1965
THAT GREAT US duo, the Everly Brothers, made their first London appearance last Saturday, at the Finsbury Park Astoria. In black evening dress the Everlys ...
Freddy Cannon: Freddy's Dedicating Songs To Everyone
Profile by Carol Deck, KRLA Beat, 12 March 1966
FREDDY CANNON took us 'Where The Action Is' and now he's back dedicating songs to everyone in town. ...
Little Richard: A Living Legend In His Time
Interview by Eden, KRLA Beat, 28 May 1966
"THEY'RE THE greatest guys I ever worked with in my life... they're down to earth! People haven't really heard the Beatles yet. They are one ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Marimba, Middlesbrough
Live Review by Alan Walsh, Melody Maker, 5 November 1966
HE'S 31 AND, off stage just what you would imagine a Southern gentleman to be. But on stage, you'd better watch out because Jerry Lee ...
Elvis Presley: A Word Picture Of Elvis
Interview by Tracy Thomas, New Musical Express, 18 February 1967
His girl friend lives with his granny in here ► says next-door neighbour ...
Chuck Berry, Del Shannon: Saville Theatre, London
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 25 February 1967
FREAK OUTS forget — it's rock riots yet! Those smashing days of the fifties are back, and for evidence see the pile of broken seats ...
The Beatles, Chuck Berry: Saville Riots Row
Report by uncredited writer, Record Mirror, 25 February 1967
OVER 1,000 Teddy Boys wearing their 1950 zoot suits, winkle pickers and beetle crushers (we are told) rioted last Sunday at the Saville Theatre in ...
Interview by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 4 March 1967
...especially it seems, at the Saville. Chuck Berry talks to RM's Norman Jopling for this in-depth interview ...
Chuck Berry: Saville Theatre, London
Live Review by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 4 March 1967
Rockers Dominate Saville Again ...
Chuck Berry: Saville Theatre, London
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 4 March 1967
NO RIOTS, but plenty of good music were provided at London's Saville Theatre on Sunday night when Chuck Berry made a return appearance. ...
Live Review by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 18 March 1967
ANY DR. ZHIVAGO "gear" seen in the Savllle last Sunday was not due to a 'fab fad' but to the nippy draughts which whistled through ...
Duane Eddy: Saville Theatre, London
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 18 March 1967
DUANE EDDY and a band of faithful followers generated 'Some Kinda Earthquake' at the Saville London on Sunday. Not quite the enormous earthquake that was ...
Chuck Berry... "A Legend In His Own Time"
Interview by Kevin Swift, Beat Instrumental, April 1967
CHUCK BERRY, one of the very few "classic" names. "A legend in his own time!" That, of course, is a well-worn phrase, but there isn't ...
Chuck Berry: Streatham Locarno, London
Live Review by Bill Millar, Soul Music Monthly, April 1967
I WOULD HAVE LIKED to have reviewed Chuck at the Savile Theatre, where initial audience reaction was such that his short-lived performance reached an all-time ...
Fats Domino, Gerry & the Pacemakers: Saville Theatre, London
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 1 April 1967
FATS HAS 'EM JIVING IN THE AISLES! ...
Fats Domino: Fats: Man From New Orleans
Interview by Max Jones, Melody Maker, 8 April 1967
DOMINO BRINGS A MISSISSIPPI TANG TO BRITAIN ...
Live Review by Penny Valentine, Disc and Music Echo, 22 April 1967
BO and BEN: the rock-soul truce men! ...
Little Richard: The Explosive Little Richard (OKeh 14117)
Review by Jim Payne, Crawdaddy!, May 1967
Little Richard: Ripping it up, Past and Present ...
Fats Domino & His Orchestra: Saville Theatre, London
Live Review by John Broven, Blues Unlimited, 1 May 1967
LEGENDS ARE built with comparative ease in the anonymity of a recording studio. And how easily such myths are destroyed in the harsh reality of ...
Report and Interview by Michael Lydon, Rolling Stone, 9 November 1967
THERE HE WAS, Wild Bill Haley, fifteen years older but not showing a day of it, his spit curl firmly in place on the forehead ...
Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison: Roy Orbison's Own Rock History #1
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, December 1967
As told to Jim Delehant ...
Roy Orbison's Own Rock History #2
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, January 1968
THE MUSIC business is a little better now because there are more attractive deals for the artists. Some record companies offer 10% deals, where the ...
Roy Orbison's Own Rock History #3
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, February 1968
PRACTICALLY everything that's happening in music now, came from Memphis. I'd say it would have to be just chance because that's where the studios were, ...
Live Review by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 11 May 1968
The Great Leap Backwards! ...
Review by Peter Jones, Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 18 May 1968
Loads of R&B albums including Otis' great Dock Of The Bay LP ...
Elvis Presley: In TV-Film Show With Elvis!
Report by Ann Moses, New Musical Express, 20 July 1968
On steps five feet from him ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis Takes Off Tiny Tim And Richard Harris
Report by Ann Moses, New Musical Express, 27 July 1968
The continuing story of ELVIS and ANN MOSES (Editor of Tiger Beat) ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Country, Cabaret, and Rock — It's The New Look Jerry Lee Lewis
Interview by Alan Walsh, Melody Maker, 17 August 1968
THE MAN who rivals Little Richard as rock and roll's King of Excitement arrived back in London last week for a fleeting visit. Jerry Lee ...
Elvis Presley to Make Personal Appearances
Report by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 4 December 1968
ELVIS PRESLEY, with one eye to the increasing interest in old-style rock and the other to his decreasing income from movie roles, is making plans ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis (NBC, Dir. Steve Binder)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Robert Shelton, The New York Times, 4 December 1968
Rock Star's Explosive Blues Have Vintage Quality ...
Elvis Presley: A Comeback? Elvis Never Went Away!
Interview by Ivor Davis, Daily Express, 5 December 1968
HIS WELL-OILED black hair is combed into the perennial duck's tail, his sideburns are long, but vintage '50s rather than '68 style, his nasal sounds, ...
Interview by Michael Lydon, Rolling Stone, 7 December 1968
"IF IT WEREN'T FOR the rocks in its bed, the stream would have no song," said Carl Perkins with a comic dolefulness. He had just ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis (NBC Television Special)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 13 December 1968
If you're lookin' for trouble, you came to the right place If you're lookin' for trouble, just look right in my face... ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis (NBC Television Special)
Film/DVD/TV Review by June Harris, New Musical Express, 14 December 1968
Elvis television triumph ...
Buddy Holly, Buddy Knox: Buddy Holly and Buddy Knox: Texas Buddies
Discography by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, 1969
LIKE THE rest of society, pop music isn't fair. The most successful singers earn more than they know what to do with, and the majority ...
Chuck Berry, Johnnie Johnson: Tempo: Johnnie Johnson
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, January 1969
JOHNNIE JOHNSON, FIRST PIANIST WITH CHUCK BERRY As Told To Jim Delehant ...
Fats Domino: Antoine Fats Domino: Fats Is Back (Reprise RS 6304)
Review by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 24 January 1969
ROCK ENTHUSIASTS sometimes like to quibble over just which rock and roll song started the whole thing: in the liner notes for this album producer ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: What a Fave Rave in Othello!
Interview by Alan Walsh, Melody Maker, 8 March 1969
JERRY LEE LEWIS, one of the legenary rock names of the past decade, is true to his image. ...
Roy Orbison: "You Just Can't Work Here For The Money Alone"
Interview by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 17 May 1969
ROY ORBISON is in the throes of his twelfth visit to Britain. His umpteenth chart record is making progress — 'My Friend', a song with ...
Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley: Sun Records: Country Meets Rock
Retrospective by Guy Stevens, International Times, 23 May 1969
An occasional series which looks into pop music and its antecedents is the latest plot to swell our readership figures, thereby making the fuzz look ...
The Who: Born to Sing The Blues
Comment by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, 14 June 1969
COLLECTORS of rhythm and blues music are doomed to perpetual frustration, as they witness one white singer after another plundering the culture they love. Occasionally, ...
Overview by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, 28 June 1969
ROCK AND roll was the victory of regional locality over the world, of precise beliefs over general theory, of particular feelings over universal philosophies. ...
Interview by Mike Quigley, Rock's Backpages audio, July 1969
The Chicago gunslinger talks about his stage show; about being ahead of his time; about how, influenced by Joe Louis, he avoids being boastful, and his message to the people.
File format: mp3; file size: 1.5mb, interview length: 12' 12" sound quality: **
Jerry Lee Lewis: Schaefer Music Festival, Central Park, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 3 July 1969
Jerry Lee Lewis Mixes Rock Styles In Schaefer Concert ...
Live Review by Ray Connolly, The Evening Standard, 7 July 1969
The Jagger magic is still there ...
Little Richard: Schaefer Music Festival, Central Park, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, New York Post, 7 August 1969
Little Richard Rouses Crowd At Central Park Rock Concert ...
Elvis Presley, the Sweet Inspirations: International Hotel, Las Vegas NV
Live Review by Ann Moses, New Musical Express, 9 August 1969
SENSATIONAL LIVE SHOW COMEBACK! ...
Ronnie Hawkins: Ronnie Hawkins and Mr. Dynamo
Review by Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone, 9 August 1969
RONNIE HAWKINS came down out of the Ozarks, and after gigging with Carl Perkins and Harold Jenkins (later Conway Twitty), he decided he wanted to ...
Little Richard: "He's Forgotten Me" — Little Richard Raps James Brown
Interview by Mike Gormley, Detroit Free Press, 2 September 1969
LITTLE RICHARD is coming to Detroit along with Jerry Lee Lewis. They'll be at Cobo Hall Sept. 6. ...
Elvis Presley: International Hotel, Las Vegas NV
Live Review by Ann Moses, New Musical Express, 13 September 1969
SECOND LOOK AT ELVIS ...
Chuck Berry, Elvin Bishop, John Mayall: Fillmore East, New York NY
Live Review by Ian Dove, Billboard, 18 October 1969
Berry, Bishop — Musical Brothers ...
Johnny Kidd & The Pirates: Johnny Kidd: 3 Years Ago This Month
Retrospective by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 18 October 1969
HE WAS BORN plain Fred Heath. He changed his name to Johnny Kidd and became one of our finest rock 'n' rollers. And he was ...
John Hartford, Elvis Presley: Felton Jarvis: Nashville Producer
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, November 1969
HP: HOW OLD are you? ...
Interview by Joel Selvin, Rock's Backpages audio, November 1969
The Bronze Liberace looks back at songs like 'Tutti Frutti' and 'Good Golly Miss Molly'; the Beatles' cover of 'Long Tall Sally'; recording in New Orleans; Miss Ann Johnson and her Tik Tok club in Macon, Ga.; touring in the '50s and his outrageous stage act; appearing in movies such as The Girl Can't Help It; finding God in '57; returning to rock'n'roll in '62 and befriending the Beatles; on why young black audiences aren't interested in him; the Black Panthers, Black Muslims and racism, and his long experiences of police harassment...
File format: mp3; file size: 36.5mb, interview length: 38' 04" sound quality: **
Sha Na Na: Sha-Na-Na: Sha-Na-Na (Buddah)
Review by Lenny Kaye, Fusion, 14 November 1969
SHA-NA-NA has a cute stage show. They come out, dressed fit to kill in an assortment of gold lamé, black pants, white socks, t-shirts, etc., ...
Gene Vincent: Vincent, The Great Rock And Roller is Back
Interview by Royston Eldridge, Melody Maker, 15 November 1969
...
The Nashville Teens, Gene Vincent: Gene Vincent, Nashville Teens: Palladium, London
Live Review by Royston Eldridge, Melody Maker, 29 November 1969
GENE VINCENT COULD DO NO WRONG ...
Gene Vincent, The Wild Angels: Gene Vincent, Wild Angels, the Nashville Teens: Palladium, London
Live Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 29 November 1969
BACK 12 YEARS WITH ROCKER GENE VINCENT ...
The Band, Ronnie Hawkins: Ronnie Hawkins: Preaching Rock-A-Billy
Interview by Larry LeBlanc, Hit Parader, December 1969
LIFE ON Yonge St. in Toronto, is a crackerjack maze of flickering neon lights, honking car horns and fast people. ...
Elvis Presley: From Memphis to Vegas/From Vegas to Memphis (RCA)
Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 6 December 1969
PRESLEY FANS WANT TO SPEED UP ISSUE OF THIS ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: The Start of It All
Comment by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, 1970
I PLAYED 'Great Balls Of Fire' to some college students last week. And while it played, and while they listened, I closed my eyes and ...
Interview by Ann Moses, New Musical Express, 3 January 1970
Special QUESTION-TIME conducted by ANN MOSES IN HOLLYWOOD ...
Ronnie Hawkins: Ronnie Hawkins (Cotillion Records)
Review by Mike Gormley, Detroit Free Press, 16 January 1970
IT'S A CRAZY album. If anybody remembers the '50s, they are thinking of a man who came out with some of the best hard rock ...
The Band, Ronnie Hawkins: Rompin' Ronnie Hawkins Is Suddenly a Star
Interview by Mike Gormley, Detroit Free Press, 23 January 1970
SUDDENLY THE world is hearing about Ronnie Hawkins. And all because John Lennon made him an international figure by staying at Ronnie's Canadian home for ...
Buddy Holly, Tom Jones: 11 Years After, Buddy Holly Still Vital to Rock Music
Report by Mike Gormley, Detroit Free Press, 3 February 1970
THE TRAGEDY OF all tragedies in the rock world took place 11 years ego, Feb. 3, 1959. A plane, carrying Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper ...
Elvis Presley: International Showroom, Las Vegas
Live Review by Ann Moses, New Musical Express, 7 February 1970
KING ELVIS RULES VEGAS AGAIN. New songs and old in his act after his first night including 'Proud Mary', 'Walk A Mile In My Shoes', ...
Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, 18 February 1970
BOTH PIANO-PLAYING singers who started out singing rock and roll with Sam Phillips in Memphis and who have since moved into country and western, Jerry ...
Elvis Presley: Wagging His Tail In Las Vegas
Live Review by David Dalton, Rolling Stone, 21 February 1970
ELVIS WAS SUPERNATURAL, his own resurrection, at the Showroom Internationale in Las Vegas last August. ...
Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 21 February 1970
Rockin' Ronnie ...
Ronnie Hawkins: Mid-Rock Man Hawkins Found John & Yoko Silent Guests
Interview by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 28 February 1970
JOHN LENNON spent several days as a guest at Ronnie Hawkins' secluded country house in Canada prior to, during and following the peace concert. Yoko ...
Gene Vincent: Gene Vincent’s Greatest (Capitol); I’m Back And I’m Proud (Dandelion) and more
Review by Simon Frith, Rolling Stone, 7 March 1970
GENE VINCENT was the most tortured of the Fifties rock stars. I only saw him in concert once and that was weird. He was in ...
Ronnie Hawkins: Fillmore East, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 30 March 1970
Ronnie Hawkins on Fillmore Bill – Arkansan Shares Program With Stone the Crows ...
Jimmy Page, Screaming Lord Sutch: Screaming Lord Sutch: Heavy Friends Help The Lord's Comeback
Interview by Royston Eldridge, Melody Maker, 11 April 1970
LORD SUTCH is back! The perennial rocker has come screaming back on the rock scene, after two years of abdication in America, through the help ...
The Sir Douglas Quintet, Gene Vincent: Gene Vincent: He Sounded Like Maybe He Was Testifying
Report by Todd Everett, Rolling Stone, 28 May 1970
THE MUSICIANS had all arrived and were standing patiently by the door at two o'clock, Sunday afternoon, March 8th. Three were official members of the ...
Interview by David Dalton, Rolling Stone, 28 May 1970
I DIDN'T GET to see Little Richard at the Atlantic City Pop Festival where he followed Janis Joplin and revived his own legend, but when ...
Interview by Michael Lydon, Rock's Backpages audio, September 1970
When Bo's not being a boxer, truck driver, gunslinger, lumberjack etc. he's being A Man - a husband and father, dealing with life in the USA. The Gunslinger tells Michael Lydon of record company rip-offs, dealin' with the po-lice and the very meaning of life itself.
File format: mp3; total file size: 76.9meg, total interview length: 1h 20' 04" sound quality: **
Elvis Presley: Olympia Stadium, Detroit MI
Live Review by Mike Gormley, Detroit Free Press, 15 September 1970
CAPTURED 17,000 MINDS Legendary Elvis Frenzy Lives On ...
Little Richard: The Rill Thing
Review by Joel Selvin, Rolling Stone, 17 September 1970
AS INCREDIBLE AS IT may seem, Little Richard is as great as he says he is. His new album, the first in three years, is ...
Book Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 15 October 1970
CHARLIE GILLETT is a very likeable Englishman who recently released the most exhaustive study yet of rock and roll and the music industry. He's 28, ...
Review by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 30 October 1970
"'SINFUL MUSIC,' the townsfolk in Memphis said it was. Which never bothered me, I guess." Elvis Presley, interviewed in 1957. In the early 1950s, the ...
The Jones Girls, Little Richard: Little Richard: Music Hall Theater, Detroit MI
Live Review by Mike Gormley, Detroit Free Press, 9 November 1970
150 See Little Richard: Music Hall No 'Apollo' Yet ...
Little Richard: The Far-Out Little Richard
Interview by Mike Gormley, Detroit Free Press, 21 November 1970
'Bronze Liberace' Has Some Unusual Ideas About the State of Music — and the World ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Town Hall, Auckland NZ
Live Review by Tom McWilliams, Playdate, December 1970
"NEVER LET it be said that Jerry Lee didn't do his part o' the show..." ...
Little Richard: Electric Circus, New York NY
Live Review by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 21 January 1971
ST MARK'S PLACE, the high street of New York's East Village, hums with memories these days. Among them, at the new year, was little Richard, ...
Interview by James Johnson, New Musical Express, 20 February 1971
SIXTY-FIVE year old blues-man Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, whose songs 'That's Alright Mama' and 'My Baby Left Me' were hits for Elvis Presley back in ...
The Carter Family, Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, Carl Perkins: Cash
Report and Interview by Tom McWilliams, Playdate, May 1971
TALL, BROAD shouldered — Johnny Cash is a big man, bulky with a dignity weightier than his 39 years. Behind his black shirt front the ...
Bo Diddley: The Second Coming Of Bo Diddley
Special Feature by Michael Lydon, Ramparts, May 1971
"A person is an individual, and being an individual person is a gas. I have my own way of expressing my soulful feelings. I never ...
Overview by Martin Hawkins, Record Mirror, 1 May 1971
MUCH HAS been written recently about the influence of Sam Phillips' Memphis Sun label on rock 'n' roll, especially since its British releases of recent ...
Comment by Martin Hawkins, Record Mirror, 31 July 1971
"DID YOU EVER HEAR A TENOR SAX, SWINGING LIKE A RUSTY AXE?" ...
The Everly Brothers: Sing Me Back Home: Don, Phil and the Everly Brothers
Profile and Interview by Tom McWilliams, Playdate, August 1971
THERE ARE the Everly brothers, Don and Phil, and there is the Everly Brothers, institution. ...
Live Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 25 September 1971
THE LEGEND that has grown up around Johnny Cash got its first in-person airing in Britain for three years at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on ...
Obituary by Mick Farren, International Times, 21 October 1971
GENE VINCENT, after years of illhealth and injury, died this week of a perforated ulcer. ...
Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry: What Have They Done To My Roots, Ma? Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley
Comment by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 30 October 1971
WHEN JOHN LENNON ended a recent epistle to Mailbag with a line saying "LP Winner: I’d like Chuck Berry, please," he wasn’t joking. Modern rock ...
Elvis Presley, The Sweet Inspirations: Elvis Presley: Memorial Coliseum, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Live Review by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 4 November 1971
I WAS IN the eighth or ninth grade when I first heard Elvis Presley. A neighbor buddy and I had gone to the Saturday morning ...
Bo Diddley: Sounds of the Seventies: A Bo Diddley Revival
Profile and Interview by Mike Jahn, Baltimore Sun, 28 November 1971
LAST SUMMER at a Creedence Clearwater Revival concert there was an unannounced special, a warm-up band. Its leader was a middle-aged black man carrying a ...
Little Richard: King Of Rock 'n' Roll/Various Artists: This Is How It All Began
Review by Roger St. Pierre, New Musical Express, 25 December 1971
PERHAPS IT'S just that I'm a bit too fussy, but basically I don't like going to see live gigs of the artists I admire. Too ...
The Everly Brothers: Growing Apart
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1972
PHIL IS THE fastidious one. Don was happy to stay at another motel with a northern draught sweeping its gallery and cows grazing round the ...
Elvis Presley: Jerry Hopkins: Elvis – The Biography
Book Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, January 1972
THERE HAS never been an entertainer quite like Elvis Presley. His life and his contribution to rock 'n' roll have assumed such legendary proportions, which ...
Overview by Bill Millar, Record Mirror, 1 January 1972
THERE'S A HOT SEAT in my house. Right by the record player. Victims are required to sit in it and hazard a guess at the ...
Report and Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 12 February 1972
RON WOOD would have swept the floor of Pye's No. 2 studio as he boogied round during the Chuck Berry super-session during Saturday. He saw ...
Rick Nelson: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Roy Hollingworth, Melody Maker, 4 March 1972
RICK NELSON at London's Royal Albert Hall on Monday is going to go down as one of the more curious events of the year. Curious ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Echoes: Jerry Lee Lewis
Retrospective by Bill Millar, Record Mirror, 11 March 1972
ON 22nd MAY 1958, an immigration officer manning the desk for TWA flights from New York to London Airport North scratched his head, sighed, picked ...
Rick Nelson: The Dirty Rock & Roll Smile
Retrospective and Interview by Lon Goddard, Record Mirror, 11 March 1972
RICK NELSON tells how he grew from being America's cute kid brother to rock 'n' roll teenage rage... and what happened after that ...
The Everly Brothers: Back In Favour
Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 13 May 1972
JUST WHEN we were getting used to thinking of the Everly Brothers as a monument to a distant era they come up with Stories We ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: The Killer Rocks On
Review by Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone, 8 June 1972
THERE'S NOT TOO MANY of those greasy rockers still hanging around from their '50s heydaze good for much more than playing 50 tank towns a ...
Elvis Presley: Madison Square Garden, New York NY
Live Review by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 17 June 1972
Author's note, 2018: Yes, it started for me with Elvis, when in 1956 I heard a demo of his first RCA record 'Don't be cruel'/ ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: The Killer Rocks On
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, July 1972
YOU CAN TELL this one is special from the beginning. The strings come in, but all of a sudden, there's an insistent, pounding drum driving ...
Report by Colin Escott, Disc, 29 July 1972
Life-long Presley fan COLIN ESCOTT visits his Memphis mansion ...
Screaming Lord Sutch: Sutch is Life...
Profile and Interview by Caroline Boucher, Disc, 5 August 1972
SCREAMING Lord "Jack the Ripper" Sutch — as he now likes to be known — is currently wearing his grudge on his chest. He is ...
Little Richard: What Richard Said
Report by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 12 August 1972
"UH, HOWdo you do. Mr. Penniman, it's a great..." "HALLELUJAH BROTHER it's great to be here in your wunnerful country. I want y'all to know ...
Little Richard: The Georgia Peach
Report and Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 19 August 1972
OOOWEE, Lawd knows it was a bad night's work. According to the divine plan, the Wembley crowd should have been blowing kisses at the Georgia ...
Bo Diddley: Hey! Bo Diddley: The Man Whose Sexuality Was Too Much For America
Report by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 26 August 1972
Diddley Freak Charles Shaar Murray, in the presence of the main man... ...
Buddy Holly: A Rock & Roll Collection
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, September 1972
I DON'T LIKE to be made a fool of. Last January the folks at Decca told me of their plans for an elaborate Buddy Holly ...
Dorsey Burnette: Here and Now (Capitol 11094)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Fusion, November 1972
REMEMBER THE Burnette Brothers? Johnny and Dorsey, that is, out of Memphis in the Fifties doing 'The Train Kept A-Rollin'' and mucho ace rockabilly? No? ...
Rock and Roll Revival: Richard Nader's Lament
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, November 1972
UNLESS YOU'VE actually heard it, you just can't appreciate how strange phonetically and otherwise, it sounds to hear a nasal 'Mr. Didduly. Telephone for Mr. ...
Elvis Presley, the Sweet Inspirations: Oakland Coliseum, Oakland CA
Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 13 November 1972
Elvis' Groove May Be Wearing Into a Rut ...
Little Richard: A Bizarre Interview With The Amazing, Self-Styled King Of Rock 'N' Roll
Interview by Danny Holloway, New Musical Express, 18 November 1972
HE CALLS HIMSELF the Georgia Peach, the Bronze Liberace and the King of Rock and Roll. Little Richard calls himself a lot of things. Some ...
Elvis Presley: The Cobo Hall, Detroit, Michigan
Live Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, December 1972
I'M GETTING pretty sick of all this talk about what a gross Tom Jones imitation Elvis has become. Baby fat and other people’s songs, indeed. ...
Heinz, Joe Meek, The Tornados: Heinz: Just Like Eddie
Retrospective and Interview by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, December 1972
EVEN IF HE was born in Germany as the music papers said, we always suspected that Heinz's hair wasn't really that colour. It was his ...
Rick Nelson: You're Not A Kid Anymore!
Retrospective and Interview by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, December 1972
ROCK AND ROLL was here to stay. We knew it in 1957, and Danny and the Juniors put it into song in 1958. But what ...
Rick Nelson (1973) [transcript]
Transcript of audio interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 1973
This is a transcript of John's audio interview with Rick. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Chuck Berry: Green's Playhouse, Glasgow
Live Review by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 20 January 1973
TONY STEWART REPORTS FROM GLASGOW OH THE FIRST BERRY CONCERT ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: "You laughing at me, boy?"
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 20 January 1973
GOSFIELD STREET, LONDON, W1: Advision Studios is where Yes create their music and put it on record. ...
Scotty Moore, Elvis Presley: Scotty Moore: The Man Who Launched A Thousand Licks
Interview by Norman Jopling, New Musical Express, 27 January 1973
PEOPLE AROUND at the time Elvis first made it claim that guitarist Scotty Moore was the musician most responsible for "The Elvis Presley Sound". Moore ...
Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids, Fumble: Fumble and Flash Cadillac & The Continental Kids
Review by Greg Shaw, Music World, February 1973
THE ROCK & roll revival is sure getting to be a pain in the ass. That's a tough admission for me to make, as I ...
Interview by Martin Hayman, Sounds, 17 February 1973
AFTER THE success of 'My Ding-a-Ling' and the arguments about its making people go blind endlessly aired in the national press, everybody will have heard ...
Report and Interview by Charlie Gillett, New Musical Express, 17 February 1973
CHUCK BERRY. To a fan, the name sparks off a warm smile. After that depending on how old he or she is, the first song ...
Chuck Berry part 2: How Many Comebacks?
Interview by Charlie Gillett, New Musical Express, 24 February 1973
AS WE TALKED, Berry looked over a copy of Golden Decade Vol. 2 and ran his eye down the sleeve discography, commenting on some of ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: London Sessions (Mercury).
Review by Charlie Gillett, New Musical Express, 10 March 1973
IN SOME ways, it hardly matters what this record sounds like. It's the idea that counts. If everything works out more or less to plan, ...
Chuck Berry's Influence on the UK R & B Scene
Essay by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, April 1973
'DING-A-LING' gave Chuck Berry his only British No 1 seventeen years after his first record release, 'Maybellene'. He had five Top Ten hits in the ...
Heads Hands and Feet, Jerry Lee Lewis: Jerry Lee Lewis: The Session Men
Report and Interview by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, May 1973
"WHAT HAPPENS when some of today's great pop stars put a session together in London with a rock 'n' roll legend?" asks the ad for ...
Profile by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 21 May 1973
JERRY LEE Lewis is a self-made phenomenon. Remember a couple of years ago when he made it back on television after years of virtual obscurity? ...
Ruben and the Jets: Ruben & The Jets: For Real! (Mercury)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Music World, June 1973
AS DEBUTS GO, this is a competently performed, surely inoffensive first try, but it's not the oldies revamp its title implies. The problem is, it's ...
Charlie Feathers: The Minit-Stop
Report by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, July 1973
SO THERE WE were in Memphis, at the rock writers' convention. First morning there I was awakened by a phone call, "Hey, Charlie Feathers is ...
Bo Diddley: The London Sessions (Chess)
Review by Bob Fisher, Cream, September 1973
AFTER THE release of Golden Decade and Got Another Bag Of Tricks, which really put Bo in perspective, Chess undo all their sterling work by ...
Dale Hawkins: Oh Suzie: The Best Of Dale Hawkins
Review by Bob Fisher, Cream, September 1973
YET ANOTHER priceless bargain from Phonogram. The way in which the rock and roll collectors are being catered for this year is excellent, Polydor have ...
Brenda Lee: Mmmmm…Sweet Nuthin's
Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 6 October 1973
WESTCLIFF-ON-SEA, Monday: "To make the most of the things you were born with...Think Big." ...
Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, November 1973
The veteran rocker talks about his latest album — released under the name Robert Thomas Velline — Nothin' Like a Sunny Day, and his struggles with United Artists. He then looks back at the end of his first phase of popularity, touring the UK, and cutting Sings The New Sound From England! He talks about producer Snuff Garrett and how they cut his hits, and about his collaborations with the Ventures and Crickets. Finally, Bobby looks back at how Buddy Holly's death kick-started his career.
File format: mp3; file size: 39.9mb; Interview length: 41' 35"; sound quality: ****
Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids
Profile and Interview by Jim Esposito, Zoo World, 20 December 1973
YOU MIGHT FIND this hard to believe, but if it wasn't for a fifth of whiskey Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids probably wouldn't be ...
Book Excerpt by Michael Lydon, Boogie Lightning (Da Capo), 1974
Everything I know I taught myself.– Bo Diddley ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: The Killer Staggers On
Report by John Morthland, Creem, March 1974
THE MAN from Mercury is nervous, very nervous. You can see it easily enough as he paces around Steve Cropper's TMI Studios in Memphis. Up ...
Texas Rock & Roll Spectacular!
Overview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, March 1974
WHILE THE AUSTIN scene is the current focus of national attention on Texas, we mustn't forget how truly vast that state is, both in size ...
Elvis Presley: Revolt Into Style
Essay by Michael Gray, Melody Maker, 9 March 1974
ELVIS PRESLEY. The giant among giants, and yet also that strange kind of comic-book hero, Mr Reverso Man. ...
Rick Nelson & the Stone Canyon Band: Bottom Line, New York NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 13 April 1974
Nostalgic Nelson ...
Elvis Presley, the Sweet Inspirations: Inglewood Forum, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Steven Rosen, Sounds, 1 June 1974
PERHAPS AMERICA'S two most important musical artists took to the roads recently. Bob Dylan blazed a crosscountry tour which left followers and non-believers alike a ...
Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps: The Bop That Just Won't Stop
Review by Gene Sculatti, Zoo World, 1 August 1974
FOR THE MOST PART, the continuing "rock 'n roll revival" phenomenon we've been witnessing these past 5 years is a pretty shabby affair. What with ...
Retrospective by Martin Hawkins, Country Music People, October 1974
Martin Hawkins looks at the career of a little known but much in demand artiste by record collectors ...
Review by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 26 October 1974
IF YOU WANTED to be crass you could say that the main features that made Buddy Holly a legend were that, first, he was the ...
Fumble, Rock Bottom: King's Road Theatre, London
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 28 December 1974
ON SUNDAY, at the ratty end of Chelsea, the King's Road Theatre opened its doors for a double bill of rock'n'roll; pretty disastrous it was ...
Buddy Holly: Never Mind The Lubbocks, Here’s Buddy Holly & The Crickets : 20 Greatest Hits
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 1975
THE ROCK and roll of the ‘50s produced three incomparable all-rounders equally adept and influential as signers, composers and guitarists. ...
Retrospective by Martin Hawkins, Let It Rock, February 1975
And when I hear that double-eagle guitar Makes me think of Carl Perkins when he was a star,Makes me think I spent some of my ...
Elvis Presley: The Promised Land
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 8 February 1975
IT HAS ALWAYS been accepted as an article of faith by ladies and gentlemen in the critical profession that Elvis Presley is not dead. ...
Chuck Berry: Chuck Has Been Leaving The Stage For 20 Years
Report by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 8 March 1975
They weren't complaining – they were awestruck ...
Eddie Cochran: The Very Best of Eddie Cochran (15th Anniversary Album)
Review by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 14 June 1975
I SUPPOSE WITH Showaddywaddy up in the singles chart with 'Three Steps to Heaven', and the 17-year-old version of 'C'mon Everybody' once again bubbling under ...
Little Richard's Big Troubles, Part 1
Live Review by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 28 June 1975
Part 1: Lewisham "TURN THE BAND DOWN!" bawls a lady who may have been a teenager in the '50s. "Turn the bloody band down!" This, and ...
Little Richard's Big Troubles, Part 2
Report and Interview by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 5 July 1975
Part 2: Dunstable & the European Saga "IT'S NICE TO LET THEM KNOW that you are not IN THE WAY, that you ARE THE WAY, that ...
Little Richard: Lewisham Odeon, London
Live Review by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 12 July 1975
THE DEBUT DATE of Little Richard's UK tour at the half empty Lewisham Odeon was little short of a disaster. Possibly the person least to ...
Duane Eddy: Bailey's, Leicester
Live Review by Bob Fisher, New Musical Express, September 1975
YET ANOTHER rock 'n' roll legend is stalking the stages of the club circuit and on July 14 he trod the stage of Bailey's, Leicester. ...
Buddy Holly: The Legend Lives On
Retrospective by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 September 1975
"DEAR BUDDY, I have several records of yours and my favourite is 'Oh Boy'. Please send me a picture with your autograph." With the constant ...
Showaddywaddy: Not Just a Rock 'n' Roll Band
Interview by David Hancock, Record Mirror, 13 September 1975
MALCOLM ALLURED, also known as "The Duke" is looking for his band. ...
Review by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 11 October 1975
BUDDY HOLLY SO overshadowed The Crickets that one tends to forget that they went on to produce some very creditable work on their own after ...
Elvis Presley: Pictures Of Elvis
Review by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 6 December 1975
THERE CAN BE little doubt that the Elvis Presley Sun collection was a compilation of some of his finest work. ...
Bill Haley: A Piece of Gold in my Pocket
Profile by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1976
CLOSE TO his 50th birthday, Bill Haley seems to be in excellent repair. ...
Chuck Berry: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1976
IT IS MORE than 20 years since the world first laid startled eyes on a young man with a crouching gait and a skinny guitar ...
The Everly Brothers: Songs Our Daddy Taught Us
Review by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 6 March 1976
IN A QUIET sort of way, 1975 saw an Everly Brothers revival of sorts. Warner Brothers released their magnificent Walk Right Back With The Everlys, ...
Fats Domino: New Victoria Theatre, London
Live Review by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 10 April 1976
WHAT CAN I do? What can I say? How exactly can I prostrate myself? I guess there's no excuse for a rock critic who goes ...
Elvis Presley: Long Beach Arena, Los Angeles
Live Review by Harvey Kubernik, Melody Maker, 8 May 1976
DESPITE MEDICAL PROBLEMS Elvis Presley's show at the Long Beach Arena proved that he still has the voice and romantic quality that established him as ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis: Well, Bless-uh Muh Soul, What's-uh Wrong With Me?
Essay by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 22 May 1976
WHEN AN artist hasn't produced anything of note for something like 14 years, the world begins to judge him on just about anything but his ...
Chuck Berry, 49, Denies Knowledge of the Previous 48
Interview by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 29 May 1976
Chuck (Crazy Legs) Berry, top ten contender for the title "King of rock and roll", has been referred to as the greatest black folk poet ...
Billy Swan: Billy Swan (Monument PZ-34183)
Review by Nick Tosches, Rolling Stone, 17 June 1976
BILLY SWAN'S music is a baptism of rhythm. Two years ago, when America heaved morbidly beneath the weight of Watergate and encroaching poverty, Swan's 'I ...
Buddy Holly: Norman Petty: How We Cut the Golden Hits
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 September 1976
"I THINK," said Norman Petty, carefully selecting his words, "that if Buddy Holly was alive today, he would be on an equal basis with Elvis ...
Live Review by Steve Turner, New Musical Express, 27 November 1976
THERE ARE some memories we have which are straightforward memories, but then there are other memories which are more like memories of memories and we're ...
Retrospective by Bill Millar, New Kommotion, 1977
HE DIDN'T LOOK like one of rock 'n' roll's crucial stars. Small, wiry, nervous even. The spotty face on the cover of his first album ...
The Darts, Jerry Lee Lewis: Jerry Lee Lewis/The Darts: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Cliff White, New Musical Express, 5 March 1977
"WANKER" "RUBBISH", "R o c k 'n' ROLLL!!!!!" screamed the frustrated bopper just behind my right eardrum. He wasn't the only one. A distinct rumble ...
Dave Edmunds: Get It (Swan Song)
Review by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 9 April 1977
FOR SOME TIME NOW, Dave Edmunds has been nearly legendary. He started as the minor league guitar king of Love Sculpture's 'Sabre Dance' fame, then ...
Chuck Berry: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 14 May 1977
THERE'S NO BETTER indication of the pervasive and thorough influence of Chuck Berry than the fact that he could go almost anywhere and the chances ...
Elvis Presley: The King is Dead
Obituary by Philip Norman, The Times, August 1977
ELVIS PRESLEY will be remembered as the first and the greatest exponent of Rock and Roll music, whose recordings of 'Blue Suede Shoes', 'Hound Dog' ...
Obituary by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 27 August 1977
IT WAS ONE OF THE worst storms to hit London since God knows when. The thunder rolled, lightning flashed and the rain hammered into the ...
Elvis Presley: How Great Thou Art
Obituary by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 22 September 1977
ELVIS IN THE PROMISED LAND ...
Obituary by Martin Hawkins, Country Music Review, October 1977
WHILE NOT wishing to add to the enormous number of narratives, eulogies and gutter press 'exposes' which have appeared in print in recent weeks, it ...
Review by John Tobler, ZigZag, October 1977
THERE'S MORE similarity between these two albums than the fact that they've both got 'Red Hot' on 'em. They're the opposite ends of the rockabilly ...
Link Wray, Robert Gordon: Robert Gordon and Link Wray: Robert Gordon with Link Wray
Review by Jon Young, Trouser Press, October 1977
ROBERT GORDON with Link Wray recaptures the one elusive quality so often missing from music of the '70s: feeling. This is trickier than it seems ...
Link Wray, Robert Gordon: Robert Gordon: Robert Gordon With Link Wray
Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, 22 October 1977
FOR SOME odd reason Private Stock don't want you to know that Robert Gordon used to be with those CBGB specials Tuff Darts. Richard Robinson ...
Elvis Presley: The Rise Of Rockabilly
Retrospective by Nick Tosches, Country Music, December 1977
MONDAY, JULY 5th, 1954. The most popular albums in America are Jackie Gleason's Tawny on Capitol, Frank Sinatra's Songs for Young Lovers, also on Capitol, ...
Retrospective and Interview by John Morthland, Country Music, December 1977
Most of all, people remember him as a shy, generous man... ...
Mac Curtis: A History of Mac Curtis
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Millar, New Kommotion, 1978
ONE THING YOU should know straight away. It might look like it, but Mac Curtis, one of the better-known and best remembered rockabilly singers, ...
Link Wray, Robert Gordon: Robert Gordon with Link Wray: A Modern Elvis And The Missing Link
Report and Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 4 February 1978
LINK WRAY finishes off his instrumental street opera, 'Rumble', with an amphetamine-psychosis, note-tumbling-after-note run worthy of any guitar army hero, clambers up from his bent-knee, ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Loud Covenants: Jerry Lee Lewis, God's Garbage Man
Book Excerpt by Nick Tosches, Creem, March 1978
[The following is excerpted from the book, COUNTRY: The Biggest Music In America by Nick Tosches, published by Stein & Day Publishers.] ...
Review by Cliff White, New Musical Express, 25 March 1978
IN THEIR infinite wisdom, Chiswick first pressed five-sixths of this rocking package on a 10-inch album. ...
Chuck Berry, Paul Gayten, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters: Paul Gayten: I knew Leonard at the Macomba...
Retrospective and Interview by John Broven, Blues Unlimited, May 1978
Paul Gayten from an interview by John Broven ...
Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 6 May 1978
That was the title of one of the influential, flamboyant R'n'B man's hits, for you punks too young to remember. But nowadays, believe it or ...
The Darts: Gaumont Cinema, Southampton
Live Review by Cliff White, New Musical Express, 20 May 1978
CLIFF WHITE CRIPPLES THE STARS! (No. 3 in an exciting, if tasteless, new series) ...
Profile and Interview by John Tobler, ZigZag, September 1978
AS MENTIONED in fab Zigzag 85, this is a feature of their very own concerning Matchbox, who I dubbed the best British rock 'n' roll ...
Johnny Burnette & The Rock 'n Roll Trio: Tear It Up (Solid Smoke SS-8001)
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 7 September 1978
OF ALL THE raving rockabilly legends — men like Charlie Feathers and Sonny Burgess — who never gained a commercial foothold, Johnny Burnette was one ...
Mac Curtis, Matchbox: St. Helier Arms, Carshalton
Live Review by Cliff White, New Musical Express, 16 September 1978
TIME HAS seldom dealt lightly with '50s rock'n'rollers. Be they the white country-based variety or the black R 'n 'B guys, the majority of survivors ...
Rick Nelson: High Sierra Theater at the Sahara, Lake Tahoe
Live Review by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, 7 October 1978
THE CLUSTERS of signs reading "Rick Nelson Now" hanging in the Sahara Tahoe casino reveal the hand of Colonel Parker, the famed manager of Elvis ...
Ral Donner: The Great Pretender
Retrospective by Bill Millar, Melody Maker, 14 October 1978
Some say that Ral Donner sang in Elvis's post-army style better than Elvis did himself. BILL MILLAR unveils the man behind rock 'n roll's most ...
Carl Perkins: Interview: Carl Perkins, October 31, 1978 at the Bijou Café, Philadelphia, Pa.
Interview by Peter Stone Brown, unpublished, 31 October 1978
THIS INTERVIEW took place backstage at the Bijou Café right before Carl Perkins was to do his first show in Philadelphia in years with a ...
Fats Domino: Interview: Fats Domino, November 9, 1978, Palumbo's Restaurant, Philadelphia, Pa.
Interview by Peter Stone Brown, unpublished, 9 November 1978
IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE to escape Fats Domino's music growing up. 'Blueberry Hill', 'I'm Walkin'," and 'Walkin' To New Orleans' were staples of Top 40 radio. ...
Interview by Cliff White, Rock's Backpages audio, 9 November 1978
After 20 minutes of what-he's-up-to pablum, the Killer gets down to business: the sinfulness of rock'n'roll; how he's surely going to hell; drink, drugs and women (including cousin/ex-wife Myra). Then, after talking about his musical heroes, it's back to religion... jaw-dropping stuff.
ile format: mp3; file size: 86mb, interview length: 1h 29' 34" sound quality: ****
Jerry Lee Lewis (1978) [transcript]
Transcript of audio interview by Cliff White, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 9 November 1978
This is a transcript of Cliff's audio interview with Jerry. Hear the interview here ...
Duane Eddy, Jerry Lee Lewis: Jerry Lee Lewis, Duane Eddy: Live in Margate
Live Review by Cliff White, New Musical Express, 18 November 1978
WHEN A promoter carts a journalist and photographer off to the opening night of a European tour he obviously wants to get a suitably rave ...
Profile and Interview by Joe Sasfy, Unicorn Times, 1979
CONFIDENTIAL REPORT BY JOE SASFY ...
Mack Allen Smith: The Last Of The Great Unknowns
Profile by Martin Hawkins, Melody Maker, 20 January 1979
MARTIN HAWKINS searched the Mississippi delta and found Mack Allen Smith ...
Live Review by Pete Wingfield, Melody Maker, 17 March 1979
Diddley grandaddy ...
Ray Campi: Runaways schoolteacher meets biker acid heads at the grass roots of rockabilly
Interview by Hugh Fielder, Sounds, 24 March 1979
"I was raised in Central Texas/Where we played our guitars reckless/And we took our country music seriously/We loved the sound of Ole Hank Williams/Ernest Tubb ...
Conway Twitty: Rockabilly Brought On Conway's Country Success
Retrospective by Martin Hawkins, Country Music People, April 1979
ONCE, on a visit to America, I ate a cheeseburger in a Twitty Burger fast-food restaurant. The owner of this restaurant chain was Conway Twitty, ...
Bill Haley: The Guardian Of Rock 'N' Roll
Profile and Interview by Martin Hawkins, Melody Maker, 7 April 1979
MARCH 1979, and rock king Bill Haley's in town, almost a quarter of a century since he recorded 'Rock Around The Clock', and 22 years ...
Live Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 5 May 1979
Robert Gordon: The Roxy, Los Angeles ...
Sleepy LaBeef: Rockabilly's Tower Of Power
Profile and Interview by Martin Hawkins, Melody Maker, 5 May 1979
IF WALT DISNEY had decided to make an animated cartoon of the rock 'n' roll story he would have needed a rockabilly character, and I ...
Interview by Penny Kiley, Melody Maker, 9 June 1979
"To see in rock and roll something other than immediate obsolescence demands faith and patience." PENNY KILEY draws a bead on the Cramps, America's rockabilly ...
The Cramps: Rockabilly Retardation
Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 9 June 1979
THE SOUND OF SOUTHERN CULTURE FALLING APART IN A BLAZE OF PICKUPS ...
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 16 June 1979
Look Out! The bogey men are coming… ...
The Cramps: Tales Of American Gothick
Profile and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 23 June 1979
THE TITLE OF the film escapes me, but the scene itself has remained indelibly stained on my brainplate for all of nine years. A strange ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Jerry Lee Lewis (Elektra)
Review by Nick Tosches, Creem, July 1979
JERRY LEE'S STILL ROCKIN' HIS LIFE AWAY ...
Billy Lee Riley: Red Hot Riley
Profile and Interview by Martin Hawkins, Melody Maker, 21 July 1979
The volcanic music of Billy Lee Riley never quite erupted; Martin Hawkins tells how the talent remains hot. ...
Alex Chilton, The Cramps, Tav Falco's Panther Burns: The Cramps' Big Break
Report and Interview by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, September 1979
"Give Me Memphis, Tennessee..." ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis Still Dead Shock
Report by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 22 September 1979
Drugs Probe — Doc Probe ...
Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 22 September 1979
ROGER SCOTT, Britain's only disc-jockey (no, that's not a misprint – it's a fact) put this into what they call "heavy rotation" last week. It ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: The Gospel According to Jerry Lee
Interview by Nick Tosches, Country Music, October 1979
DRESSED LIKE A side-street gambler from the days when chrome was chrome, Jerry Lee Lewis sits in the dressing-room of the Palomino Club, holding loosely ...
The Cramps: Palladium, New York
Live Review by Susin Shapiro, The Village Voice, 12 November 1979
PUNK AND PUMPKINS at the Palladium, turned for a night into a seance for Houdini. Garish garb and glorious: the human Quaalude, a walking cassette ...
Buddy Holly: The Complete Buddy Holly
Review by Bill Millar, Melody Maker, 29 December 1979
NO PROBLEM here. Charly’s compendium of Ronnie Hawkins Toronto out-takes isn’t released until next month (I checked) and, however might the music, their oft-reissued Jerry ...
Charlie Gracie: Amazing Gracie
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Millar, New Kommotion, 1980
BY THE TIME I got into rock'n'roll, Charlie Gracie was already a folk memory dimly recalled from a performance on Stars From Blackpool and a ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Killer's Gospel
Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 16 February 1980
Jerry Lee Lewis closes his current British tour in London at the Rainbow tonight. Mick Brown reports ...
Eddie Cochran: 20th Anniversary Album (Liberty)**
Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 24 May 1980
PHIL SPECTOR, for one, is of the opinion that Colonel Parker used to hypnotise Elvis into singing rhinoceros shit like 'Viva Las Vegas' and 'Girls ...
The Cramps: Songs the Lord Taught Us (International Record Syndicate, Inc.)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 24 July 1980
WELCOME TO ART-rockabilly, a merger of the sensibilities and guitar styles of Link Wray and Lou Reed. Actually, this concoction — like fried grasshoppers and ...
The Stray Cats: Stray Cats: Dingwall's, London
Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 9 August 1980
SOMETIMES IT seems a shame that pop promoters long ago abandoned the old-fashioned style of rapid-fire package shows, in which seven or eight singers or ...
The Cramps: Songs The Lord Taught Us (IRS)
Review by Richard Grabel, New York Rocker, September 1980
TO TRASH THE trashiest, that was the Cramps' initial challenge to the burgeoning punk scene. Lux Interior threw down the gauntlet in 'Garbage Man', snarling ...
Elvis Costello, The Stray Cats: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 4 October 1980
Smile Elvis, you're in a frontlash situation ...
The Stray Cats: On The Tiles With The Stray Cats
Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 20 December 1980
Your storyteller: MARK COOPER (MA, DFC, VD and Private Bar) ...
Carl Perkins: 'Blue Suede Shoes'
Profile by Colin Escott, The History of Rock, 1981
One song rocketed Carl Perkins to stardom ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: How The Devil's Music Possessed Jerry Lee Lewis
Retrospective by Nick Tosches, The History of Rock, 1981
THERE HAVE been only two figures of mythic dimension in the history of rock'n'roll. First and foremost was Elvis Presley, the guileless star-god who rendered ...
In The Farms And On The Forecourts: The Short-Lived Heyday Of Rockabilly
Retrospective by Bill Millar, The History of Rock, 1981
THE FIRST RECORDED example of rockabilly proper can be traced to the moment in July 1954 when Elvis Presley cut an old blues by Arthur ...
Rockabilly: Was this the purest style in rock?
Retrospective by Bill Millar, The History of Rock, 1981
A DEFT, HARD-DRIVING BLEND of country, gospel and blues, rockabilly was performed mainly by white artists who traded legitimate country backgrounds for a short-lived but ...
The Sweetheart Years: The Dilemmas Of Sex And Romance In Fifties Rock
Essay by Cynthia Rose, The History of Rock, 1981
The screen door slams/Mary's dress waves/Like a vision she dances across the porch/As the radio plays/Roy Orbison singin' for the lonely/That's me and I love ...
The Polecats: Polecats: Odour-Free
Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 17 January 1981
Sandy Robertson says Stray Who ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Ritz, New York NY
Live Review by Jon Young, Trouser Press, May 1981
WHILE EACH new generation of upstarts spout the notion that rock is just for kids, it's easy to find aging veterans who hang in there ...
The Cramps: Psychedelic Jungle (IRS)
Review by David Hepworth, Smash Hits, 14 May 1981
FROM THE DEPTHS of the primeval rain forest they came, bathed in hideous blue light, muttering of voodoo and rotting bones and things that go ...
Rick Nelson: Lonesome Town Cheers Up
Interview by Susan Whitall, Creem, June 1981
Rick Nelson Goes Back On The Boards ...
Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis: The Million Dollar Quartet
Essay by Dave Marsh, Musician, June 1981
WE USUALLY think of Elvis Presley simply stepping into Sun Studios in Memphis, in answer to Sam Phillips' call, and walking out a few days ...
The Stray Cats: Bond Club, New York NY
Live Review by Karen Schlosberg, Trouser Press, June 1981
TALK ABOUT time warps. New York's ultra-cool, ultra-modern Bond rock club, decorated like something out of a bad science fiction movie, was invaded by girls ...
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, September 1981
ABUSIVE IS THE only word to describe the audience the last time Robert Gordon was in Detroit as part of a some-thought-smart/some-thought-not-so-smart double bill with ...
The Cramps: Psychedelic Jungle (IRS)
Review by Jim Farber, Creem, September 1981
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ADJUST YOUR STEREO ...
Retrospective by Don Waller, L.A. Weekly, 29 October 1981
RITCHIE VALENS, born Richard Valenzuela in Pacoima, California, on May 13, 1941, cut three hit records before he finished high school: 'Come On Let's Go', ...
The Stray Cats: Gonna Ball (Arista)
Review by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 21 November 1981
FOR A trio so preoccupied with a style summed up in a quiff. The Stray Cats can make a pretty mean music. With tough-baby roller ...
Elvis Presley: A Bad Year for Elvis Presley
Comment by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 24 December 1981
THOUGH ELVIS Presley died in 1977, he made more headlines in 1981 than any living rock star. The initial tremors were felt on July 31st, ...
Retrospective by Bill Millar, The History of Rock, 1982
TEX-MEX, A PHRASE commonly used to describe the rock’n’roll of such artists as Buddy Holly and Buddy Knox, has nothing whatever to do with Mexican ...
Interview by Jon Young, Trouser Press, 1982
THEIR LOOKS and their sound may strike some as a bit suspect, but there's no doubting the Stray Cats' affection for the classic rock 'n' ...
The Big Bopper: Big Bopper: The Singing Texas DJ Who Rocked Over The Airwaves
Retrospective by Martin Hawkins, The History of Rock, February 1982
J.P. RICHARDSON, the self-styled 'Big Bopper', was one of the true characters of Southern rock'n'roll. ...
Tav Falco's Panther Burns: Some Smoke Raises Burns Panther
Report and Interview by Byron Coley, New York Rocker, February 1982
A MEMPHIS BAND TAKES ROCKABILLY'S SKELETONS OUT OF THE CLOSET ...
Bo Diddley: University of East Anglia, Norwich
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 27 February 1982
BO DIDDLEY, as we all know, spans a 27 year career permutating a single riff to a sole conclusion: he is Bo Diddley! ...
Special Feature by Nick Tosches, Penthouse, March 1982
IT WAS 3 O'CLOCK in the morning and the master bedroom of Graceland was still. Elvis Presley lay in his blue cotton pajamas dreaming. ...
The Blasters: Blasters: The Blasters
Review by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, 8 May 1982
PLAY IT on mono and it could be 1956, just play it once and you could find yourself buying a gross of Brylcreem, a shipment ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: A comeback story
Profile and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 27 July 1982
"Jerry Lee Lewis is a sinner, lost an' undone, without God or His Son" — Jerry Lee Lewis as quoted by Nick Tosches in his ...
Solomon Burke, Little Richard: Little Richard and Solomon Burke: Sex & God & Rock & Roll
Report and Interview by Vernon Gibbs, The Village Voice, 10 August 1982
THE FIRST time I encountered Little Richard, his face was plastered against a Bedford-Stuyvesant wall — the poster advertised a show at the Breevort Theater. ...
The Stray Cats: Stray Cats: Cooneybilly
Live Review by Van Gosse, The Village Voice, 13 August 1982
Stray Cats: Roseland Ballroom, NYC ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis: The New Deal Origins of Rock 'n' Roll
Essay by Dave Marsh, Musician, December 1982
EACH YEAR, on August 16, the anniversary of Elvis Presley's death, Memphis State University hosts a memorial service and seminar in his honor. ...
Roy Orbison: The One With The Glasses
Profile and Interview by Martin Hawkins, Country Music Extra, Spring 1982
ROY ORBISON has a classic Country-music pedigree. He was born in Texas, lives near Nashville and formed his first Country band while still in his ...
The Everly Brothers, Phil Everly: Phil Everly (1983)
Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, 1983
Half of the great duo talks about his new solo album, Phil Everly: being produced by Stuart Coleman and working with players like Mark Knopfler and Pete Wingfield; working with Christine McVie, and memories of meeting her in the '60s. Then he talks about an upcoming Everly Brothers reunion after 10 years apart: how it'll work, his relationship with Don and possible plans.
File format: mp3; file size: 43mb, interview length: 28' 41" sound quality: *****
Elvis Presley, Scotty Moore: Scotty Moore
Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, 'The Guitar Greats' (BBC Books), 1983
THERE CAN BE few more graphic illustrations of the fact that rock'n'roll music is no longer some here-today-gone-tomorrow speck of lint in the wind than ...
The Meteors, The Morells: The Meteors: Wreckin’ Crew (I-D); The Morells: Shake And Push (Borrowed)
Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 1983
LIKE THE bourbon and Benzedrine which fuelled it, rockabilly never really fades from popularity despite its repressive formula, but it often seems to suffer the ...
The Stray Cats: The Complete History Of The Stray Cats, Part One
Interview by J. Kordosh, Creem, January 1983
ROCKABILLY PROPER started and ended in Sam Phillips' Sun Studio in Memphis. It was a short-lived and vaguely-defined phenomenon, revolving around dirt-poor Southern white musicians ...
Rank And File: A String Tie And Safety Pin Affair
Interview by Joe Sasfy, Unicorn Times, February 1983
I LIKED Rank And File's music from the moment I heard a demo tape of theirs in Joe Patoski's livingroom in Austin in mid-1981. I ...
Matchbox, Tammy Wynette: Tammy Wynette: Wembley Conference Centre, London
Live Review by Don Watson, New Musical Express, 16 April 1983
DANG MA POONS!* * Lit: Make mine a whiskey sour and a marriage on the rocks. ...
The Cramps: the Country Club, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Don Waller, Los Angeles Times, 3 May 1983
STIMULATING BREW FROM THE DREGS ...
The Blasters: Non-Fiction (Slash)
Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 16 July 1983
OVER THE past three years, white American music’s been getting a real recharge from several California couples: John Doe and Exene Cervenka of X, Chip ...
The Stray Cats: Rant 'n Rave (Arista)
Review by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 3 September 1983
THAT BRIAN Setzer and his Stray Cats set out to become the perfectly sculpted and exquisitely meaningless rockstar icons of their dreams could never be ...
The Stray Cats: Stray Cats: Dingwalls, London
Live Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 10 September 1983
BACK FROM the fruited plains of America, where their wide wardrobe selection and the videos which enshrine it have snatched the preteen population from the ...
Robert "Bumps" Blackwell (1983)
Interview by John Pidgeon, Rock's Backpages audio, 15 October 1983
Songwriter and producer 'Bumps' Blackwell looks back at his illustrious career in pop and R&B: on Sam Cooke and 'You Send Me', Specialty Records and the West Coast indie scene, and at great length about his major discovery Little Richard.
File format: mp3; file size: 41.3mb, interview length: 45' 08" sound quality: ****
Interview by Ellen Sander, Rock's Backpages audio, 27 October 1983
The 'Runaway' man on the trials and tribulations of being a still-creative musician on the "oldies" circuit; songwriting; working with Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and Dave Edmunds; and his insecurities and struggle with alcohol.
File format: mp3; file size: 50.5mb, interview length: 55' 11" sound quality: ***
Rick Nelson: The Irrepressible Ricky
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 27 October 1983
RICK NELSON is not an easily understood rock & roller, and even he's not sure why. Maybe it's because his initial prominence came from The ...
The Stray Cats: Stray Cats: Rant N' Rave With The Stray Cats (EMI America)
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, December 1983
SETZER, SETZER, LEND ME YOUR COMB ...
The Stray Cats: Out Of The Litter Box & Into The Fire!
Interview by Karen Schlosberg, Creem, December 1983
WHAT HAPPENS when you try to domesticate the Stray Cats? Example: A very sincere young girl writes "I Love You Brian" endlessly in neat, round ...
Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins: Chips Moman's Memphis Revival
Report and Interview by Joe Sasfy, Country Music, January 1984
Legendary stars, legendary producers, legendary backup singers and a pretty hefty studio band all got together for Chips Moman's new Memphis album. The veteran producer ...
Wanda Jackson: Unsung Heroes of Rock 'n' Roll: Wanda Jackson — Unlaced By The Lord
Retrospective by Nick Tosches, Creem, February 1984
WANDA LAVONNE Jackson was, simply and without contest, the greatest menstruating rock 'n' roll singer whom the world has ever known. Born in Maud, Oklahoma, ...
Roy Hall: Tracks of 'The Hound'
Profile by Martin Hawkins, Goldmine, 30 March 1984
IF YOU think Commander Cody invented the country-boogie piano solo as a filler for his albums, then you never heard Roy Hall. This man was ...
Profile by Joe Sasfy, Washington City Paper, 6 April 1984
THE "ANYONE can do it" amateurism that underlies the punk moment (circa 1976-1977) resulted in some of rock's most profound and explosive primitives. But an ...
Interview by Fiona Russell Powell, The Face, July 1984
Back from the mystery plane, where they witnessed a host of gore movies and much else besides, THE CRAMPS have come to reclaim their followers from the ...
The Long Ryders: Long-Haul Ryders
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 20 December 1984
IF ROCK & roll were baseball, the Long Ryders would surely receive the Most Improved Players award. Two years ago, the group was little more ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 5 March 1985
Little Richard on the demonic nature of Rock'n'Roll of which, nonetheless, he is King; on how he came out of the American South; on Otis Redding and much more. Hear him sing!
File format: mp3 File size: 50.3mb Interview length: 52' 23", sound quality: ****
Little Richard (1985) [transcript]
Transcript of audio interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 5 March 1985
This is a transcript of Barney's audio interview with Little Richard. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Interview by Ira Robbins, Rock's Backpages audio, 6 March 1985
The erstwhile Fujiyama Mama talks about combining singing rock'n'roll with her deeply held religious beliefs; considers cover versions of her hits, and recording her recent rockabilly album in Sweden!
File format: mp3; file size: 18mb, interview length: 19' 38" sound quality: * (phoner)
Little Richard: Even God can do better with Little Richard on his side
Interview by Maureen Cleave, London Express Service, 24 March 1985
GOD ALWAYS addresses Little Richard by name — it was the same with Moses and the prophet Samuel and St. Paul. ...
Wanda Jackson: Where Are They Now: Wanda Jackson
Interview by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 12 September 1985
The original 'Fujiyama Mama' wailed to the rockabilly beat — but now she's moved by a stronger power ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: No Sinner Like An Old 'Un
Interview by Jim Sullivan, New Musical Express, 14 September 1985
Not for JERRY LEE LEWIS the cosy trail from rocker to rocking chair. Last year a rollercoaster life and career hit a new low when ...
Interview by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 4 January 1986
HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD, Los Angeles, may well be the freakiest street in the Western World. ...
Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins: Sunrise In Memphis
Report and Interview by Joe Sasfy, Musician, February 1986
Nashville's Hottest Producer, Chips Moman Returns to the Birthplace of Rock ...
The Cramps: The Curse Of Elvis
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, Sounds, 1 February 1986
It's exploitation-a-go-go as THE CRAMPS surf back from the dead to keep a date with EDWIN POUNCEY in downtown Los Angeles. ...
Review by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 22 February 1986
THE CRAMPS' rampant gurning and soft-focus sleaze has been shaped into an institution of sorts. Transcending and fusing tribal instincts – goth's dumb brooding and ...
Interview by Martin Aston, Rock's Backpages audio, March 1986
Lux Interior and Poison Ivy on their obsession with all things Elvis; Ricky Nelson's weirdness; accusations of pastiche, and rockabilly vs. rock'n'roll; on Gravest Hits and producer Alex Chilton; being on stage; life in Los Angeles and their hatred of suntans; life in Glendale chez the Interiors... and owning paintings by serial killers.
File format: mp3; file size: 60.5mb, interview length: 1h 03' 01" sound quality: ***
The Cramps: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 22 March 1986
The Living Dead ...
The Cramps: Palladium, Hollywood CA
Live Review by Don Waller, Los Angeles Times, 14 July 1986
A DATE WITH CRAMPS ...
Howlin' Wilf & The Vee-Jays: Cry Wilf! (Big Beat)
Review by Penny Kiley, Melody Maker, 23 August 1986
YOU COULD be mistaken into thinking this record is a joke. From the name, the nearly-trendy old-fashioned line-up (guitar and skirt, stand-up bass and cap, ...
The Cramps, Screaming Blue Messiahs: The Ritz, New York NY
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 30 August 1986
THAT THE Cramps have managed to thrive for 10 years without a U.S. major label deal is testimony to their devoted cult following. And that ...
Little Richard: This Man Invented Rock'n'roll
Interview by William Shaw, Smash Hits, 22 October 1986
Little Richard was wearing make-up and singing pervy songs and shocking audiences before Prince or Sid Vicious or Martin Degville were even born. "I'm a living legend!" ...
Little Richard: "I Am The Rill Thang!"
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, December 1986
GOOD GOSH A-MIGHTY...it's Little Richard. A little fuller in the face, a little thicker in the waist, but there he is in a Mayfair Hotel ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Killer Takes All: Jerry Lee Lewis Keeps On
Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, Creem, January 1987
"I THOUGHT [tonight's show] was the best damn show you ever seen in your whole life," Jerry Lee Lewis says to me, after a Boston ...
Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, April 1987
Pre-'Wicked Game', the proto-Americana icon talks about the process of recording; the current state of Jerry Lee Lewis, and his love of vintage rock'n'roll; working as a longshoreman; starting to play, and learning country from his brother; getting his band together; doing videos, and developing his raps; Gene Vincent and Bill Haley; meeting producer and manager Erik Jacobsen; his desire for hit records, and to get into films.
File format: mp3; total file size: 42.6mb, total interview length: 44' 25" sound quality: ****
The Blow Monkeys, Marianne Faithfull, Elvis Presley, U2: Elvis: The Million Dollar Bonanza
Report by Mat Snow, Sounds, 15 August 1987
On the tenth anniversary of ELVIS PRESLEY's death, MAT SNOW makes a pilgrimage to Graceland and reports on the thriving industry at rock 'n' roll's ...
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, November 1987
CLIFF IS PERPLEXED. He is attempting to curl his upper lip into a smouldering sneer but the flesh is not willing. "I can't do it." ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages audio, 18 November 1987
Little Richard, on the 'phone, talks about race, religion, Good Works, the original giants of rock'n'roll, and Prince and Michael Jackson
File format: mp3 File size: 20.3mb Interview length: 22 minutes 13 seconds Sound quality: **
Gene Vincent: Born To Be A Rolling Stone (Topline Records)
Review by Tom Graves, Rock & Roll Disc, December 1987
TO SEE JUST how far a former great rock and roller can sink, check out the 12 pieces of aural excrement that comprise Gene Vincent's ...
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..." ...
Chuck Berry: Who The Hell Does Chuck Berry Think He Is?
Report and Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, May 1988
They called him The Inventor Of Rock 'n' Roll. And this, apparently, gave him the right to ride roughshod over all of them for 30 ...
Roy Orbison: Singer of the lives of the lonely
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 8 December 1988
Yesterday, pop hero Roy Orbison died at the age of 52. Adam Sweeting records the legend of the broken-hearted balladeer, whose life was as tragic ...
Roy Orbison: The Big O 1936-1988
Obituary by Mark Cooper, The Observer, 18 December 1988
Chubby and shaded, Roy Orbison made a generation weep in pleasurable misery, says MARK COOPER ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Man on Fire: Going to Hell with Jerry Lee Lewis and Dennis Quaid
Special Feature by Nick Kent, The Face, May 1989
HE WAS trying to be courteous but you could tell almost at once that being courteous wasn't really part of his nature. "Wahl, ah looks ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Goodness Gracious
Interview by Gavin Martin, Spin, June 1989
If Elvis was rock's first celebrity, Jerry Lee Lewis, born in hellfire, was its first S.O.B. On the eve of Great Balls of Fire, a ...
Review by Tom Graves, Rock & Roll Disc, July 1989
BORN TO ROCK, the first album from rockabilly legend Carl Perkins in quite some time, is a respectable if not an especially remarkable work. ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 1 August 1989
New York great Dion DiMucci talks about the golden years, the sound of NYC, and addiction and recovery.
File format: mp3; file size: 33.8mb, interview length: 36' 57" sound quality: ***
Jerry Lee Lewis: Live At the Star Club (Bear Family)
Review by Tom Graves, Rock & Roll Disc, November 1989
WHAT IS IT about Jerry Lee Lewis that so fascinates us and makes us love a character so inherently unlovable? He only had a handful ...
Review by Mat Snow, Q, December 1989
Ten fingers, 88 keys, 569 days – the rise and fall of Jerry Lee Lewis. ...
The Crickets, Sonny Curtis: Sonny Curtis (1990)
Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, 1990
From Buddy Holly to the Clash: songwriter/guitarist Curtis talks about his time with Holly and his lengthy association with the Crickets; the number of mistakes in the movie The Buddy Holly Story; backing the Everly Brothers, plus their cover of his 'Walk Right Back'; writing 'I Fought The Law', the mystery of Bobby Fuller's death, and the Clash's version of his most famous song; hanging out with Eric Clapton; writing The Mary Tyler Moore Show theme tune, and jingles; his lengthy association with Waylon Jennings, and his return to Nashville.
File format: mp3; file size: 68.3mb, interview length: 1h 11' 10" sound quality: *****
The Cramps: Creatures From The Black Leather Lagoon
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, New Musical Express, 20 January 1990
Self-confessed "Norma Desmonds of rockabilly", THE CRAMPS are cheering the demise of a less-than-world-beating '80s and looking forward to a well-rockin' '90s. With their new LP ...
Little Richard: The Specialty Sessions
Review by Andy Gill, Q, February 1990
THOUGH HE RECORDED for several other labels in his career, the few years that Little Richard spent with Art Rupe's Specialty Records were to provide ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Who The Hell Does Jerry Lee Lewis Think He Is?
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, February 1990
The Killer is at large again, the firebrand ivory-thumper with the legendarily short fuse. And 30 years of bankruptcy, busts, mayhem-making and messy divorce have ...
Obituary by Bill Holdship, L.A. Weekly, 22 February 1990
THE MOST tragic thing would be for Del Shannon to be lumped with, as he sometimes was in the past, all the Bobbys and Frankies ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Killer: The Mercury Years
Review by Nick Tosches, Spin, March 1990
I'M SITTING there in Dennis Quaid's house, this white thing on La Sombra, last spring, a few months before that stiff Great Balls of Fire ...
The Cramps: Barrowlands, Glasgow
Live Review by Barbara Ellen, New Musical Express, 3 March 1990
I SHOULD BE SO LUXY ...
Bill Justis: Raunchy By Choice
Retrospective by Colin Escott, Goldmine, 15 June 1990
THE ONSLAUGHT of rock 'n' roll and its impact on the music scene brought forth some strange new converts. Few stranger than Bill Justis. Few ...
Esquerita: The First Wild Man of Rock'n'roll
Retrospective by Miriam Linna, Spin, August 1990
ONE OF THE truly enigmatic characters in rock'n'roll history, Eskew Reeder (AKA Esquerita) falls somewhere between the Phantom and Screamin' Jay Hawkins, although he could ...
Wanda Jackson: Rockin' in the Country (Rhino)
Review by Tom Graves, Rock & Roll Disc, August 1990
THE PROBLEM WITH Wanda Jackson is her conviction, or more precisely her lack of it. She was a died-in-the-wool country weeper until she met ...
Ronnie Hawkins: The Best of Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks (Rhino)
Review by Tom Graves, Rock & Roll Disc, September 1990
I’M CONVINCED that Ronnie Hawkins’ name has been kept alive in rock literature for over 30 years, not because of anything he actually did ...
Essay by RJ Smith, L.A. Weekly, 4 October 1990
RJ Smith on Living Colour and pop's buried history ...
Various Artists: The Sun Story Vols 1 & 2
Review by Johnny Black, Q, February 1991
Sun compiled. Historic and musically satisfying – even without Elvis. ...
Elvis Presley: Rock first rolled here
Guide by Steve Turner, The Independent, 13 April 1991
Thousands of worshippers still flock to Memphis, birthplace of Elvis. They should bypass Graceland. Rock first rolled here. ...
Bill Haley & His Comets: The Decca Years And More
Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Goldmine, 19 April 1991
TO A CONTEMPORARY listener already mystified by '50s rock 'n' roll. Bill Haley might be the greatest mystery of all. Elvis's success is easy to ...
Bill Haley: Indisputably The First
Retrospective by Colin Escott, Goldmine, 19 April 1991
It was, as writer Nick Tosches observed, "one of the first instances of a white boy really getting down to the art of hep." ...
Little Richard: Bumps Blackwell and Little Richard: 'Tutti Frutti'
Interview by John Pidgeon, Record Hunter, May 1991
Written by: Dorothy La Bostrie and Richard PennimanProduced by: Bumps BlackwellRecorded in: New Orleans in September 1955 ...
The Band, Ronnie Hawkins: Ronnie Hawkins (1991)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 9 July 1991
The Hawk recalls rockin' out of Canada with his teenage Hawks - road stories, show business sharks and wild times, taking in Roulette's Morris Levy, Bob Dylan, John Lennon and, of course, ex-Hawks The Band.
File format: mp3; file size: 84.9mb, interview length: 1h 28' 23" sound quality: ***
Danny Gatton: The Fastest Guitar in the East
Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 11 August 1991
The fastest guitar in the East. Or the West, or the South — or anywhere on the planet, really. A lot of people think Danny ...
Charlie Feathers: He Forgot To Remember To Forget
Interview by Robert Gordon, Q, November 1991
THE REBEL INN is on Highway 78, once a major thoroughfare linking Mississippi cottonland to the delta's big city of Memphis. The old motel's neon ...
Interview by Tony Scherman, Musician, December 1991
Before Storyville, before the Band, a Toronto street punk headed down the Crazy River. ...
The Band, Robbie Robertson: The Band's Robbie Robertson (1991)
Interview by Tony Scherman, Rock's Backpages audio, Fall 1991
Robbie looks back at his days as a teenage guitar-slinger with Ronnie Hawkins: why Ronnie hired him; the dreadful gigs they played; fitting in down south; his mother's Indian roots; holding up a craps game; learning from Levon; not being allowed girlfriends; rousted by the cops with Sonny Boy Williamson; the genius of Garth Hudson, and much more...
File format: mp3; file size: 56.9mb, interview length: 59' 14" sound quality: ***
Chuck Berry, Johnnie Johnson: Johnnie Johnson: From 'Johnny B. Goode' to Johnnie B. Bad
Profile and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 25 January 1992
LOTS OF musicians would consider it a career highlight to play with a musical legend, but pianist Johnnie Johnson has done it at opposite ends ...
Elvis Presley: The King Of Rock'n'Roll: The Complete '50s Masters
Review by Mat Snow, Q, August 1992
FROM US postage stamps to academic treatises like Greil Marcus's Dead Elvis which ponders how a rock singer ends up as apple-pie as Abe Lincoln, ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis - The 50s
Review by Mark Sinker, The Wire, September 1992
PERHAPS THE most unexpected thing about RCA/BMG's Presley-project is how unexpected so much of it is. ...
Elvis Presley: The god of rock, warts and all
Comment by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 13 February 1993
"Dead Elvis is the western world's new Christ figure" — discuss ...
Reverend Horton Heat: The Reverend Horton Heat: Lynn Eusan Park, Houston; Emo's Lounge, Houston
Live Review by Cathi Unsworth, Melody Maker, 15 May 1993
A DAY ON THE ROAD WITH… ...
The Everly Brothers: Walk Right Back: The Everly Brothers On Warner Bros.
Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Warner Bros., 14 September 1993
SUPPOSEDLY, it was the richest deal in the history of the record business when it was announced in November 1959. ...
Bo Diddley's Bar Mitzvah Beat Box
Report and Interview by Hank Bordowitz, Guitar Player, October 1993
BO DIDDLEY GETS into rap and even whips up tropical flavors on his first major-label release in 20 years, A Man Among Men. But he's ...
Billy Fury: Halfway to Paradise
Book Excerpt by Mick Houghton, 'Love is the Drug' (Penguin Books), 1994
BILLY FURY, Britain's only authentic rock'n'roll singer, wrote most of his own material but had his most outstanding commercial success with big ballads like 'Halfway ...
Interview by Dave Thompson, unpublished, 1994
TELL US HOW you became Cliff Richard… ...
Duane Eddy: Twangin' from Phoenix to L.A. (Bear Family)
Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Bear Family Records, 1994
LET'S NOT TALK about guitarists who can play circles around other guitarists, or about which famous picker influenced which other famous picker. ...
The 5.6.7.8's: Japanese Rockers in Australia
Profile and Interview by Clinton Walker, Juice, June 1994
UPSTAIRS AT the Lansdowne Hotel in Sydney, Japanese all-girl psychobilly band the 5.6.7.8's are geeing up in anticipation of a performance. They change into matching ...
Chuck Berry: The Poet of Rock'nRoll (Charly)
Review by David Sinclair, Q, September 1994
A colossally influential talent in his prime and a painful embarrassment in his decline, Chuck Berry has bequeathed a musical legacy that is like the ...
Reverend Horton Heat: Palace Theatre, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 1 October 1994
Rockabilly Power ...
Billy Fury: Breaking Down The Walls Of Heartache
Retrospective by Bob Stanley, MOJO, February 1995
"There's only ever been two English rock'n'roll singers – Johnny Rotten and Billy Fury." – Ian Dury, 1978 ...
Cliff Richard, The Shadows: Move it! The Butch Rock 'n' Roll Explosion
Retrospective by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 1995
FOR MOST PEOPLE OF 40 AND UNDER, British pop begins with The Beatles: this is the view that has been encouraged by rock writers ever ...
El Vez: Greetings From Graciasland: El Vez
Report and Interview by Paul Gorman, MOJO, May 1995
TAKE A LIBERAL DOSE of Chicano consciousness and apply it to fully-realised musical pastiche, and what do you have? El Vez, the Mexican Elvis, no ...
Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 15 May 1995
THE BEER WAS flowing freely as waitresses served platters of breaded shrimp, gourmet pizza and chicken wings. But it was not the regular hockey crowd ...
Interview by David Toop, The Face, June 1995
The lonesome cowboy of love on blue moods, little white clouds, private loss and public pain ...
Elvis Presley: Long Live The King!
Overview by Johnny Black, Q, June 1995
Most insist that Elvis Presley died on August 16 1977. Yet some say that not only is The Memphis Flash alive, but that they've seen ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Young Blood (Sire) ***½
Review by Ted Drozdowski, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1995
JERRY LEE LEWIS has had enough stomach trouble, gunplay and marriages to kill a man twice, but at 59 he still pounds the piano like ...
Book Excerpt by Colin Escott, 'Tattooed on their Tongues' (Schirmer), 1996
JAMES BURTON CRADLES a dark red 1953 Telecaster. The finish is cracked in a few places and the fretboard is worn, but it's got ...
Buddy Holly: Maria Elena Holly
Interview by Philip Norman, Daily Express, 1996
MARIA ELENA Holly was robbed of her shy, brilliant young husband by an Iowa snowstorm almost 42 years ago. But she believes he has never ...
Elvis Presley: Sweet Movements Of A Hillbilly Hellion
Essay by Robert Gordon, Cleveland Ballet Company (official program), 1996
THERE ARE CINDER block joints you can still go to in Memphis, wooden shacks in Mississippi, places that are out of the way and not ...
Bo Diddley: He's Fighting Mad and Mad That He Has to Fight
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 27 February 1996
Q&A with Bo Diddley ...
Book Review by Tom Graves, The Washington Post, 23 June 1996
RECORD PRODUCER Sam Phillips, who owned the tiny Sun record label in Memphis, has been hounded for years by journalists and biographers about his decision ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: New Daisy Theater, Memphis
Live Review by Robert Gordon, MOJO, December 1996
JERRY LEE LEWIS turned 61 and his seventh wife, Kerrie, threw him a party on Beale Street in his adopted hometown of Memphis. But Beale ...
Bo Diddley: His Best: The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection
Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, Chess/MCA Records, 1997
TO PARAPHRASE the titles of two of the 20 Bo Diddley nuggets contained on His Best: The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection , you can't judge ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Hot Tin Roof, Martha's Vineyard
Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 26 May 1997
WEST TISBURY – If you'd made a bet that Jerry Lee Lewis would make it through his entire life without playing the Hot Tin Roof ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis's first love: The King and I
Interview by Peter Silverton, The Observer, 6 July 1997
THE NIGHT before I met June Juanico, the woman Elvis Presley nearly married in 1957, I got talking to a man named Bayard in a ...
Jackie Brenston, Ike Turner, Ike & Tina Turner, Joe Louis Walker: Pop Quiz: Q & A With Ike Turner
Interview by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, 14 September 1997
ONLY A HANDFUL of ex-husbands have been as publicly vilified as Ike Turner, but what Tina Turner's undoubtedly justified public excoriations have obscured is the ...
The Cramps: Back from Badsville: The Cramps keep on with their psychobilly
Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, November 1997
IF IT AIN'T broke, don't fix it. In a nutshell-of-a-cliché, this is the Cramps' most polite response to skeptics and naysayers who might suggest that ...
Interview by Steve Roeser, Rock's Backpages audio, 15 November 1997
The lost prophet of heavy metal remembers his early days, his legendary hit 'Rumble', being ripped-off by his own brother and keepin' on rockin'.
File format: mp3; file size: 50.2mb, interview length: 52' 19" sound quality: * (phoner)
The Everly Brothers, Don Everly: An Everly Brother In Winter: Walkin' Right Back with Don Everly
Retrospective and Interview by Colin Escott, 'Tattoed on their Tongues' (Schirmer), 1998
WHEN ROCK 'N' ROLL ARRIVED, it triggered a three-alarm anxiety attack in Nashville. Many hoped that they would wake up one morning to find it ...
Eddie Cochran: Somethin' Else - The Fine Lookin' Hits of Eddie Cochran
Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Razor & Tie Records, 1998
EDDIE COCHRAN was truly Somethin' Else. He had the look. He had the talent. He had the attitude. He played guitar - really played guitar. ...
Jimmy Bowen and Jim Jerome: Rough Mix (Simon & Schuster)
Book Review by Ted Drozdowski, The Boston Phoenix, 5 January 1998
JIMMY BOWEN is the music-biz sharpie who made Nashville's country industry what it is today -- a multi-billion-dollar-generating machine. For that, he's both loved and ...
Obituary by Ted Drozdowski, The Boston Phoenix, 2 February 1998
CATS ARE SUPPOSED to have nine lives. Rockabilly cat Carl Perkins had at least three. The first got spent in '56. As Perkins was driving to ...
Obituary by Robert Gordon, Rolling Stone, 15 October 1998
ROCKABILLY PIONEER Charlie Feathers died in Memphis on August 29th of complications following a stroke. He was sixty-six. ...
Dale Hawkins: Rockabilly Hipster Dale Hawkins Returns
Report and Interview by Ted Drozdowski, The Boston Phoenix, 26 October 1998
DALE HAWKINS'S FIRST HIT launched two of the greatest careers in rootsy American rock. But not without a left-field nudge from famed record producer Jerry ...
Gene Vincent: A Record Collector's Guide To Gene Vincent
Retrospective by Dave Thompson, Goldmine, 1999
IT WAS IAN DURY, himself the creator of some of the greatest records of his era, who hit the nail on the head, in one ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis: He's Alive!
Guide by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 30 July 1999
It's 22 years since the King was found dead at Gracelands, but some people still refuse to believe he has gone. Tom Cox sifts through ...
Vince Taylor: The Leper Messiah
Retrospective by Kieron Tyler, MOJO, November 2000
Black leather, bike chains, orange make-up, a Christ complex: Vince Taylor was the ultimate nut rocker. Kieron Tyler tells the tragic tale of a '60s ...
Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley: Hey Conductor You Must: Rock'n'Roll Iconoclasm In America
Essay by Richard Riegel, Loose Palace, Spring 2000
2006 Author's note: I wrote the following piece in the summer of 1993 on assignment for Rob O'Connor's Throat Culture magazine, after I had suggested ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001
b. George Frayne, 19 July 1944, Boise, Idaho, USA ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Don 'Sugarcane' Harris, b. 18 June 1938, Pasadena, California, USA, d. 30 November 1999; Dewey Terry, b. 1938, Pasadena ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. Frederick Anthony Picariello, 4 December 1939, Revere, Massachusetts, USA ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. Gary Anderson, 6 June 1939, Jacksonville, Florida, USA ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. Jack Scafone, 28 January 1938, Windsor, Ontario, Canada ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. 2 September 1940, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. 25 March 1934, Memphis, Tennessee, USA, d. 14 August 1964, Clear Lake, California ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. 30 April 1927, Tyler, Texas, USA, d. 5 November 1960, Milano, Texas ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Johnny Kidd - b. Frederick Heath, 23 December 1939, Willesden, London, England, d. 7 October 1966, Lancashire ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. Reginald Leonard Smith, 15 April 1936, Blackheath, London, England ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. Marvin Percy, 2 July 1925, Wichita, Kansas, USA ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. 26 September 1923, Algona, Iowa, USA ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. Michael Barrett, 4 March 1948, Ely, Wales ...
The Crickets: In Style with the Crickets
Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Bear Family Records, 2001
IT WASN'T AN ORIGINAL name; there was another group called the Crickets that had dented the Rhythm 'n' Blues charts a few years earlier, but ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. Thomas Hicks, 17 December 1936, Bermondsey, London, England ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. 8 August 1926, nr West Monroe, Louisiana, USA, d. 24 February 1991, Nashville, Tennessee ...
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, March 2001
"I FIRST HEARD IT sitting in an armchair in our living room. 1957. I was 12. My sister Annetta, who's four years older, had bought ...
Elvis Presley: From Elvis In Memphis
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 10 July 2001
IN THE Elvis Presley mythology, 1968 marks the year of the TV Renaissance, when Presley delivered a mesmerizing, passionate performance on NBC, which regenerated his ...
Elvis Presley: The King and I: A Visit to Graceland
Report by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, 15 August 2001
KREATURE COMFORTS – "the Lowlife Guide to Memphis" – claims that Memphis can offer visitors "the best or worst of vacations: you could hit a ...
Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, 'Rockabilly Boogie' (Bear Family), 2002
IT'S STRANGE, THE TRICKS that history plays. Johnny Burnette, now dead almost forty years, would never have guessed that his legendary status would not be ...
The Blasters: Testament: The Complete Slash Recordings
Sleeve notes by Don Snowden, Rhino Records, 2002
CRUNCH THE NUMBERS, run the marketing templates and when you get down to it, it just doesn't compute that the six-year life span of the ...
Guide by Fred Dellar, MOJO, May 2002
A PERFORMER who personifies rock'n'roll, Louisiana's Jerry Lee is 'The Killer' – the wildman of the piano and the provider of a zillion headlines. ...
Junkie XL, Elvis Presley: Junkie XL: The King is dead cool
Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 17 June 2002
Elvis is back at No 1 with a soccer song. Lisa Verrico meets the DJ responsible ...
Elvis Presley: Today Tomorrow & Forever
Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, July 2002
LET'S BE honest: this, once again, is Elvis Presley '56-'77 squeezed into five exhilarating, and at times exasperating hours. There are two major differences this ...
Elvis Presley: He Made Old Men's Blues Sound Young: Remembering Elvis
Comment by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, 10 August 2002
WE REMEMBER his ignominious end, and the cavalcade of white Cadillacs driving through Memphis for his funeral 25 years ago this month, but mostly the ...
Retrospective by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 17 August 2002
He died 25 years ago this week, but after his recent residency at Number One it is clear that Elvis Presley will reign immortal as ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis 30 # 1 Hits (RCA)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Blender, Fall 2002
The King is gone, but he's not forgotten: Thirty classics from the best singer who ever lived. Period. ...
Retrospective by Bob Stanley, The Times, 20 January 2003
Billy Fury, who died 20 years ago, was a perfect but vulnerable pop star, says this lifelong fan. ...
Profile and Interview by Robin Eggar, The Times, March 2003
THERE IS something reassuringly dissolute about Johnny Hallyday. He may be 59, but he inhabits one of those undernourished frames, all angles and sharp edges, ...
Don & Dewey: Dewey Terry 1937-2003
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, May 2003
ROCK’N’ROLL PIONEER Dewey Terry (65) died of a brain tumor on May 11 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. He had been ...
Retrospective and Interview by Fred Mills, Harp, August 2003
IN THE early ’80s, some called Rank and File "cowpunks" – others called them just plain revolutionary. ...
Elvis Presley: Sam Phillips: Rock'n'Roll Evangelist
Obituary by Andria Lisle, MOJO, September 2003
For Sam Phillips rock'n'roll was a religion And, boy, did he spread the gospel. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Holdship, MOJO, September 2003
For the last 30 years The Cramps have remained the wildest rock'n'roll double act on the planet, a potent cocktail of lewd rockabilly, primeval fuzz ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis: 2nd To None
Review by Dan Gennoe, dotmusic.co.uk, October 2003
WHEN IS IT time to say no more, enough's enough? When does the careful reordering, repackaging and re-releasing of an icon's back catalogue become merciless ...
The Blasters: Dingwalls, London
Live Review by Gavin Martin, Uncut, October 2003
TONIGHT, DAVE ALVIN looks like a man out to settle an old score. With his gunslinger necktie and low-slung guitar, he fires off endless streams ...
Wanda Jackson: She's About a Mover
Retrospective and Interview by Holly George-Warren, No Depression, 31 October 2003
WANDA JACKSON is in trouble with the law. It was only a matter of time until the gal who's always done things her own way, ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis: The First Sun Sessions
Retrospective and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, January 2004
IT WAS A QUIET WEEK in Memphis. Monday, January 4, 1954. Everyone easing into the new year. Nobody paid any attention when, around lunchtime, a ...
Review by Gillian G. Gaar, Goldmine, 9 January 2004
THE UNDERLYING theme of 2nd To None, the 'sequel' to 2002's wildly successful 30 #1 Hits, is a bit hard to pin down. #1 Hits ...
Buddy Holly: Various Artists: Stay All Night – Buddy Holly's Country Roots
Review by Joe Nick Patoski, West Texas Roots, July 2004
BUDDY HOLLY took the world by storm when he broke out of Lubbock, Texas in 1957. His singing and playing was the freshest version of ...
Elvis Presley: What if Elvis had never been born?
Retrospective by Max Bell, The Independent, 4 July 2004
Rock'n'roll exploded into new life 50 years ago tomorrow, says Max Bell, when some hick recorded 'That's All Right' in Memphis, thereby detonating the Big ...
Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page: Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page: The Guv'nors
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, MOJO, August 2004
"Big loud chords, fuck-off guitar sound — we started it all. GOOD MORNING!" chimes Jeff Beck. "Now it's time to do something new and unexpected!" ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis: 50 Years Of Rock'n'Roll
Retrospective by Wayne Robins, Billboard, 18 September 2004
IN THE HEAT of the Memphis summer, every year, they come. Legions of Elvis Presley fans arrive in this city for Elvis Week every August ...
Retrospective by Greil Marcus, MOJO, October 2004
Buddy Holly was an ordinary Joe in the wild world of '50s rock'n'roll. But, says Greil Marcus, his magical songs and early, tragic death have ...
The Crickets, Buddy Holly: The Crickets: "We were the first ugly band!"
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Holdship, MOJO, October 2004
Author's note: This is the piece originally submitted to MOJO as a sidebar to Greil Marcus' Buddy Holly feature "The Lost Boy". ...
Screaming Headless Torsos: London Jazz Festival, Spitalfields, London
Review by John L. Walters, The Guardian, 17 November 2004
LOOKED AT BALDLY, the Screaming Headless Torsos are just another rock'n'roll band with chops; a power trio plus vocals and percussion. ...
Bill Monroe, Elvis Presley, Jim Reeves, Slim Whitman: Come On, Let's Go!: Elvis on the Hayride
Retrospective by Colin Escott, MOJO, December 2004
When Elvis joined the Louisiana Hayride in 1954, he changed music history forever. Colin Escott tells the wild, wild story. ...
Gene Vincent: Primitive Texas Rockabilly & Honky Tonk: Gene Vincent Cut Our Songs
Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, December 2004
Not quite the Crossroads Robert Johnson had in mind… ...
Al Kooper: Al’s Big Deal/Unclaimed Freight
Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, February 2005
Unsung hero's anthology of solo work and collaborations ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis Presley, Elvis, Loving You
Review by Tom Doyle, Q, February 2005
Return Of The King: Neither he, nor rock'n'roll, would ever be the same again. ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Natural Born Killer: Jerry Lee Lewis
Profile by Robert Gordon, Playboy, February 2005
IT'S A DECEMBER NIGHT and despite the chill, Jerry Lee Lewis wears flip flops, green and blue plaid pajama bottoms, and a loose nylon jacket ...
Bill Haley: Jim Dawson: Rock Around the Clock - The Record that Started the Rock Revolution
Book Review by Steven R Rosen, Denver Post, June 2005
DID HOLLYWOOD create rock 'n' roll? That sounds like a strange, ridiculous and even offensive question to anyone who likes rock and all its musical ...
Retrospective by Clinton Walker, Meanjin, 2006
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Extracted from the Meanjin Anthology, edited by Sally Heath and published by Melbourne University Press in 2012, after it was first published in Meanjin magazine in ...
Yesterday Once More: Digging the Fifties Revival in the 1970s
Retrospective by Gene Sculatti, Scram, 2006
ANY GOOD STUDENT of pop-music history knows what happened in the 1970s: The broken bricks from the aesthetic street-fights of the '60s were scooped up ...
Elvis Presley: Rediscovering the joy in the sad story of Elvis
Retrospective by Philip Norman, Daily Telegraph, 13 May 2006
NO POP ICON ever came to a sadder or less regal end than the once gorgeous, gaudy "King" of rock 'n' roll, Elvis Presley. When ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: PBS-TV Special
Review by John Broven, Now Dig This, November 2006
JERRY LEE LEWIS came to New York on September 28 and 29, 2006, with typical flourish and élan to film live performances for a PBS-TV ...
Essay by Tim Riley, Rock's Backpages, November 2006
LONG BEFORE "POST-MODERN" became pure jargon, Buddy Holly put quotes around his "normalcy" to disarm rock machismo. Holly, the "King of the Sixth Grade," hiccupped ...
Yesterday Once More: Digging the 1970s Fifties Revival
Comment by Gene Sculatti, Scram, 1 December 2006
ANY GOOD STUDENT of pop-music history knows what happened in the 1970s: The broken bricks from the aesthetic street-fights of the '60s were scooped up ...
Wanda Jackson: Hard-Headed Woman
Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Record Collector, February 2007
WANDA JACKSON was the original Riot Grrrl. In the late '50s, she shook, rattled and roared next to Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and boyfriend ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Last Wild Man Of Rock 'N Roll Standing
Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 4 February 2007
The six wives, the shootings, the arrests, the addictions – Jerry Lee Lewis was the original wild man of rock'n'roll. And at 71, he still ...
Bill Haley and His Comets: 'Rock Around The Clock'
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, backonthetracks.com, July 2007
12 April 1954: At Decca Records' Pythian Temple Studio, New York City, Bill Haley and His Comets record 'Rock Around The Clock' and 'Thirteen Women'. ...
Gene Vincent: Born To Be A Rollin' Stone The Challenge Sessions 1966-68
Sleeve notes by Tim Tooher, Rev-Ola Records, July 2007
SOMETIMES THE BEST things in life are the simplest things. Gene Vincent kept things simple. He had no airs and graces. No pretensions. He sang ...
Comment by Jonh Ingham, mog.com, 17 August 2007
EVERY YEAR a bunch of new noisy kids will tell you rock and roll is a young man's game. At 72 and still The King, ...
Book Review by Charles Shaar Murray, The Independent, 24 August 2007
OVER THE PASThalf-century, much derision has attached to the notion of the "White Negro", first codified in the 1950s by Norman Mailer and tortured to ...
Chuck Berry: Hail, Hail, Chuck Berry!
Essay by Jonh Ingham, Jonh Ingham's Blog, October 2007
"If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry."– John Lennon ...
Sleeve notes by Todd Everett, Bear Family Records, 2008
THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME – the list of performers, not the museum in Cleveland – has often generated its share of controversy; ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 2 June 2008
American pioneer of rock'n'roll who influenced the Beatles and the Rolling Stones ...
Bo Diddley and the Beat Surrender
Retrospective by Andy Gill, The Independent, 6 June 2008
Bo Diddley has shuffled off, but his trademark rhythm, and his part in the creation of rock'n'roll, will remain. ...
Bo Diddley: Bo Meets The Maker
Obituary by Neil Slaven, Blues & Rhythm, August 2008
Neil Slaven turns up the volume as his hero refuses to go quietly into the night. ...
Film/DVD/TV Review by Bill Holdship, Metro Times, 10 December 2008
Hollywood's version of the Chess Records story combines the best and worst of the classic rock 'n' roll biopic ...
Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Little Richard: The Early Days of the "Rock 'n' Roll Comeback" Album
Retrospective by Steven R Rosen, SonicBoomers.com, 2009
WHEN THE album-rock revolution hit full force in 1967, blues veterans were immediately in a great place to benefit. Revered by the new, young rock ...
Buddy Holly: Down the Line: Buddy Holly
Retrospective by Mark Kemp, Texas Music, January 2009
WHEN THE FIRST gentle notes ring from Buddy Holly's acoustic guitar on his cover of Mickey & Sylvia's 'Dearest', you could swear it was recorded ...
Buddy Holly: Why Buddy Holly will never fade away
Retrospective by Philip Norman, Daily Telegraph, 30 January 2009
ON A BASIS OF simply counting heads, rock music surpasses even film as the 20th century's most influential art form. By that reckoning, there is ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 6 February 2009
Co-founder of the Cramps, exponents of trash culture and 'psychobilly' music ...
Freddy Cannon: Boom Boom Rock 'n' Roll – The Best of Freddy Cannon (Shout Factory)
Review by Steven R Rosen, Blurt, 22 February 2009
HERE'S THE MOST amazing music-trivia factoid in a long time, courtesy of the liner notes to Boom Boom 24-song greatest-hits collection: Mick Jagger acknowledges he ...
Comment by Bill Holdship, Detroit Metro Times, 25 February 2009
THE BIRTH OF Motown isn't the only 50th anniversary pop music is noting this year: 2009 also marks the 50th anniversary of Buddy Holly's death. ...
Retrospective by Bill Holdship, Metro Times, 25 February 2009
THE BIRTH OF Motown isn't the only 50th anniversary pop music is noting this year: 2009 also marks the 50th anniversary of Buddy Holly's death. ...
The Cramps: Lux Interior, 1946-2009
Obituary by David Hepworth, The Word, April 2009
SOMETIME IN THE mid-'70s, Erick Purkhiser of Stow, Ohio, exchanged his given name for words he found in an automobile catalogue. ...
Memoir by John Pidgeon, Rock's Backpages, 5 May 2009
I AM NINE years old, watching Don't Knock The Rock in High Wycombe's Rex cinema, when I make a connection between music and the way ...
Bobby Charles, the Inventor of Swamp Pop and Songwriter Supreme
Obituary by John Broven, Now Dig This, February 2010
WITH ROCK 'N' roll exploding in austerity-ridden England in the mid-1950s, there was one hip phrase that stood out from the rest: "See you later ...
Buddy Holly: Not Fade Away – The Complete Studio Recordings And More
Review by David Quantick, Uncut, March 2010
IN A 50-YEAR recording career, Buddy Holly, who died last Christmas at the age of 74, influenced everyone from the Beatles to Bob Dylan, and ...
Elvis Presley: The Return of the King
Retrospective by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 4 March 2010
Elvis Presley left the army 50 years ago this week, to suggestions that the music he pioneered had died in his absence. The truth turned ...
Interview by Johnny Black, Music Week, April 2010
NECESSITY, THEY say, is the mother of invention, and no-one knows that better than Alvin Stardust. ...
Wanda Jackson: You Know I'm So Good!
Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, April 2010
Elvis Presley, Jack White, Amy Winehouse... and the return of Wanda Jackson, first lady of rock'n'roll. ...
Retrospective and Interview by John Broven, Now Dig This, July 2010
WHEN BOBBY Charles recorded 'Later Alligator' for Chess at Cosimo Matassa's J. & M. Studio in New Orleans in autumn 1955, he was not only ...
Sleeve notes by Todd Everett, Bear Family Records, 2011
PAT BOONE, WHO GOT HIS START before rock and roll was invented, remarked in 2008 that he had issues with the fact that he hadn't ...
Buddy Holly, The Rolling Stones: Behind The Song: 'Not Fade Away'
Essay by Steven R Rosen, American Songwriter, 16 March 2011
AT THIS YEAR'S Grammys, 67-year-old Mick Jagger was out from the get-go to tell the audience how it was gonna be. He wasn't ceding anything ...
Flat Duo Jets: Dexter Romweber's Freedom of Night
Retrospective and Interview by Gary Pig Gold, Rock and Roll Report, 6 February 2012
VERY LATE ONE evening in the very late 1980s, my oldest pal Doug and I were dejectedly roaming the Canadian television airwaves when we suddenly ...
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Word, March 2012
Moon pies, Brylcreem, Elvis... Why has Chris Isaak been stuck in the '50s since the 1960s? ...
Elvis Presley, Orion: Not Elvis, BUT….
Retrospective by Gary Pig Gold, Rock's Backpages, 11 August 2012
FIRST, THERE WAS you-know-who. Or at least up until thirty-five years ago there was. ...
Tav Falco's Panther Burns: Tav Falco: Talking with a Panther
Retrospective and Interview by Kris Needs, Record Collector, 6 October 2012
FEW FIGURES to emerge from post-punk's anarchic musical battle-boudoir have charted such an intensely idiosyncratic or enigmatic path as Tav Falco, a.k.a. Panther Burns. Roaring ...
Rick Nelson: Ricky Nelson: Tragic Teen Idol And Rockabilly Tearaway
Profile by David Burke, Vintage Rock, Summer 2012
FOR SOMEONE who, in his pomp between 1957 and 1963, was almost as big as Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson appeared neither comfortable with or conscious ...
Larry Williams: That Larry Williams (Real Gone Music)
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Real Gone Music, 2013
IT'S NOT JUST because he has such a common name. A quick Google search turns up a Larry Williams who's "an American author and commodity ...
The Beatles, Buddy Holly: The Day the Music Died? Feb. 3, 1959 – Feb. 7, 1964
Comment by Mitchell Cohen, Rock's Backpages, 4 February 2013
THE WHOLE "Day The Music Died" mythology is a crackpot idea of rock history. Buddy Holly died for somebody's sins, but not to become a ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: A Ride In A Limo With The Killer
Interview by Jim Sullivan, JimSullivanInk.com, September 2013
N.B. This interview is taken from a 1985 story originally printed in the Boston Globe and later syndicated in other US papers, as well as ...
Retrospective by Jim Esposito, Classic Rock, September 2013
IN THE FUTURE the 1960s will be remembered as another Renaissance, an aesthetic revolution when art flourished. Only this time instead of white marble sculptures ...
Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, Spring 2013
WHEN HURRICANE KATRINA devastated New Orleans in 2005, resulting in the deaths of some 1,833 people and causing property damage estimated at £1,300 billion, a ...
Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, Summer 2013
BILL HALEY was an unlikely pioneer of the rock'n'roll revolution. Even in his pomp he looked like your dad. ...
Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, 2014
THE ANNALS OF rock 'n' roll are littered with tragic narratives of lives cut short in their prime, whether it be Eddie Cochran's death in ...
Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Vintage Rock, May 2014
"YOU FOLKS KEPT us alive, thank goodness. If it wasn't for you all over there, a lot of us wouldn't still be playing," says Sonny ...
Bill Haley: 'Rock Around the Clock' – the world's first rock anthem
Retrospective by Bob Stanley, The Guardian, 22 May 2014
The 1950s made stars of Elvis, Little Richard and Fats Domino, but Bill Haley & His Comets are rock'n'roll's forgotten pioneers. ...
Interview by Holger Petersen, Rock's Backpages audio, 28 June 2014
The veteran rocker talks about his Arkansas childhood; putting together his first Hawks; racism in the south; his friendship with Bo Diddley; recording with Henry Glover, and 'Who Do You Love'; on Hawks Robbie Robertson and Rick Danko; Morris Levy and Roulette Records; The Last Waltz; pulling a gun in defense of Jerry Lee Lewis, and a selection of tales from the road.
File format: mp3; file size: 46.8mb, interview length: 48' 44" sound quality: *****
Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Vintage Rock, September 2014
IT WAS 1979. Year Zero had been and gone, though the confrontational, contrary spirit of punk was manifest in the new wave, while its emphasis ...
Book Review by Ian Penman, London Review of Books, 25 September 2014
IN THE SPRING of 1965, on the road between Memphis and Hollywood, desert plains all around, his bloodstream torqued by a tinnital static of prescription ...
Book Excerpt by Harvey Kubernik, 'Turn Up The Radio! Pop!' (Santa Monica Press), October 2014
NO ONE IN the history of Los Angeles radio did more to promote the music throughout Southern California – and indeed, the world – than ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 3 December 2014
Saxophone player for many of the greats of rock'n'roll, including the Rolling Stones ...
Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Vintage Rock, March 2015
"TO SURVIVE without a hit record for 63 years and make a good living – that's the success of Charlie Gracie," says the rock'n'roll pioneer ...
Little Richard: Directly From My Heart – The Best Of The Specialty & Vee-Jay Years
Review by Bud Scoppa, Uncut, July 2015
Richard & Bumps had a baby and they called it rock'n'roll... ...
Keith Richards, The Rolling Stones: Black and Blue: Keith Richards interviewed
Interview by Julian Marszalek, The Quietus, 16 September 2015
Julian Marszalek meets the Rolling Stones guitarist and living legend to talk race, drugs and persistence. ...
Elvis Presley: Next Train to Memphis: Peter Guralnick's Sam Phillips
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Rock's Backpages, 17 November 2015
AS THE PRE-EMINENT and passionate chronicler of music history, Peter Guralnick is in a league of his own, with a bibliography that not only — ...
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 29 December 2015
WELL, AS Guralnick clarifies shortly into his foreword, if Sam Phillips didn't exactly "invent" rock and roll, he at least discovered it. Or so it ...
Waylon Jennings: Best Friend of Mine: Waylon Jennings on Buddy Holly
Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, 2016
HE MAY BE renowned as a pioneer of outlaw country, but Waylon Jennings had a rock'n'roll past long before he caused apoplexy among the Nashville ...
Book Excerpt by Everett True, '101 Albums You Should Die Before You Hear', 2016
TO THIS DAY, I am not sure why I was so attracted to Lennon as a surly teen. He was egotistical, sexist verging on misogynist, ...
Dion: The Wanderer Pens a New Love Letter to the Big Apple
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 19 January 2016
OFTEN, EARLY rock and roll artists were tied to a certain geographical area, becoming something of unofficial (and unelected) city representatives. Elvis meant Memphis. Buddy ...
Book Review by Peter Stone Brown, CounterPunch, 26 February 2016
SAM PHILLIPS, the man behind Sun Records was easily one of the most important figures in the history of American popular music. ...
Rick Nelson: Restless Kid: Rick Nelson at the Cusp of Country-Rock
Retrospective by Mitchell Cohen, Music Aficionado, September 2016
IT'S TOO BAD Rick Nelson recorded a top 5 single called 'Teen Age Idol', not just because the song is dreary fan-pandering, but because it ...
Chuck Berry in Hail! Hail! Mr Rock & Roll
Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, 2017
CHUCK BERRY WAS "more complicated, more difficult, more diabolical" than any movie star, according to the man who directed him in Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll. Yet ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis & the Hustler: Colonel Tom Parker
Retrospective by David Burke, 'Vintage Rock – Elvis: A Celebration', 2017
NONE OF US will ever know if Elvis Presley would have become the king of rock'n'roll without the involvement of Colonel Tom Parker at the ...
Chuck Berry: You Can't Catch Me: Chuck Berry's Final Years
Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, 2017
THE ARTIST IS immortalised in death as seldom in life. At least that's mostly the way of things. But not when it came to Chuck ...
Obituary by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, March 2017
THANKS TO HIS duck walk, the way he swung the neck of his guitar around and those nifty little bent-note licks that opened his songs, ...
Marty Wilde and the Wilde Cats: Epsom Playhouse
Live Review by Keith Altham, Rock's Backpages, March 2017
AN AVALANCHE of white hair and bald heads enthusiastically greeted the burly, bewigged figure of the genial Marty Wilde when he lumbered on stage at ...
Chuck Berry was not always a nice man, but his music stood the test of time
Comment by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 19 March 2017
He helped shake the world into looser, better ways, and explained the first real teenagers to themselves. ...
Retrospective by Caryn Rose, salon.com, 20 March 2017
Keith Richards worked like a dog to get Chuck Berry's 60th-birthday concert right and Berry treated him like one ...
Chuck Berry: The Complicated Truth About Chuck Berry
Memoir by Caryn Rose, MTV.com, 20 March 2017
How I figured out a way to love his music in spite of his often-unsavory story ...
Tav Falco's Panther Burns: Tav Falco
Book Excerpt by Robert Gordon, 'Memphis Rent Party' (Bloomsbury), June 2018
TAV LOOKED at me and said, "Our show was great. We cleared the room." A pal of mine was at the smallish San Francisco club ...
Tommy Steele: How Tommy Steele, Britain's biggest pin-up, was savaged by the teenage mob
Retrospective and Interview by Bob Stanley, The Times, 16 July 2018
Post-traumatic stress forced Tommy Steele to pass his rock'n'roll crown to Cliff Richard, he tells Bob Stanley. ...
Elvis Presley: D.J. Fontana, 1931-2018
Obituary by Tony Burke, Record Collector, August 2018
DOMINIC JOSEPH "D.J." Fontana died in Nashville on 13th June. He was aged 87 and was suffering from complications of a broken hip. From 1954 ...
Screamin' Jay Hawkins: Spellbound
Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, Summer 2018
FOR SOMEONE whose live performances involved climbing out of a coffin, it came as no surprise that Screamin' Jay Hawkins resurrected his career in the ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Lights, Camera, Action!
Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, 2019
THE YEAR WAS 1957, when Jerry Lee Lewis' parents finally caught up with much of America and bought a TV set. According to Rick Bragg, ...
Book Excerpt by Maud Berthomier, 'Encore Plus De Bruit' (Éditions Tristram), 2019
"Because in the end to me, even today, it's never entirely clear exactly what any interview is about. Sometimes, the most important thing in an ...
Bill Haley Jnr & Peter Benjaminson: Crazy Man Crazy – The Bill Haley Story
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, April 2019
IT WAS MY misfortune to see Bill Haley on stage for the first and only time in November 1979, about 15 months before he died, ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis Faces His Final Curtain
Retrospective by Mitchell Cohen, Music Aficionado, June 2019
THE ANNOUNCEMENT of Elvis Presley's shows at Madison Square Garden was startling. It was as though the media were reporting that aliens were about to ...
Chuck Berry, Lulu, Ronnie Wood: Ronnie Wood: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 22 November 2019
Lulu and Imelda May bring powerhouse guest vocals but the Rolling Stone can't match up in this mediocre homage. ...
Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, December 2019
America was riven by racial conflict when rock'n'roll breached the colour line, uniting black and white youth in a precursor to the hard-won equalities of ...
Jack Scott: Canada's forgotten rock 'n' roll star
Obituary by Nicholas Jennings, The Globe and Mail, 20 December 2019
IN THE LATE 1950s and early '60s, there were few bigger stars than Jack Scott. With his signature mix of snarling rockers and soothing ballads, ...
Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, March 2020
WAY BACK IN Blues & Rhythm 85 (published in January 1994), Tony Watson – in a special feature on the original Fats Domino Bear Family ...
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 ...
Retrospective by Jason King, Pitchfork, 11 May 2020
Remembering the undisputed architect of rock'n'roll ...
Sam Cooke, Little Richard, Roy Milton, Billy Vera: Specialty Records: An Interview with Billy Vera
Interview by Tony Burke, Record Collector, September 2021
As the Specialty label celebrates 75 years, Tony Burke talks to Billy Vera – singer, songwriter, and the author of Rip it Up: The Specialty ...
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 ...
Ronnie Hawkins: Rocker Ronnie Hawkins was also a mentor to iconic Canadian musical acts
Obituary by Nicholas Jennings, The Globe and Mail, 30 May 2022
HE WAS SUCH a good ol' boy, a teller of such tall tales and the master of so many self-deprecating one-liners it was often easy ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis — The Movie (dir. Baz Luhrmann)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, July 2022
ABOUT 45 minutes into this extravagant, fast-paced, acclamatory biopic of Elvis, the camera focuses in on its hero sat on a folding chair at an ...
Chuck Berry: RJ Smith: Chuck Berry – An American Life (Omnibus)
Book Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, November 2022
"HE DIDN'T have personal friends," says Dick Allen, a showbiz agent who worked with Chuck Berry for years. "I travelled all the time with him. ...
Let there be rock, and roll: An interview with Jim Dawson
Interview by Tony Burke, Record Collector, December 2022
There's perennial debate about what was the first rock 'n' roll record. Tony Burke asked music historian Jim Dawson for his new book's conclusion. ...
Elvis Presley, Ike Turner: Peter Guralnick: Here Comes The Sun
Interview by Tony Burke, Record Collector, February 2023
Peter Guralnick, co-author of the history of Sun Records, tells Tony Burke about the book. ...
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, TIDAL, 21 July 2023
For decades, Britain introduced one monumental rock and pop act after another and transformed global cultural history — all with a population about one-fourth the ...
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