Adam Sweeting
Once upon a time, Adam Sweeting was the features editor of Melody Maker, and wrote for Q in its early days. Currently, he writes regularly for The Guardian and Uncut magazine, and also contributes to The Times Saturday magazine, the Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Independent on Sunday. He is a partner in the TV production company VTVC, who made the series Mr Rock'n'Roll (about rock managers) for Channel 4. VTVC is currently working on a major documentary about Luciano Pavarotti for BBC2.
425 articles
List of articles in the library
Rory Gallagher: Gallagher: The Rory Details
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Beat Instrumental, March 1979
I LOST COUNT of the number of times men in check shirts spilt beer down me. Elderly blues and rock and roll music thundered over ...
Elvis Costello & The Attractions: Ten Bloody Marys & Ten How's Your Fathers (Imp)
Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 1980
COSTELLO BUFFS will undoubtedly be familiar with this generously-stuffed collection of His Master's Voices from its previous existence on cassette. On the other hand, they ...
B.B. King: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, April 1980
A SLY old dog who knows all the tricks, B. B. King is capable of making you realise that the blues is rather more than ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, New Musical Express, 19 April 1980
THE 1980 FACTORY ACT ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 1981
IT'S AN IRONIC twist of fate that Pere Ubu's latest visit to the UK should be prefaced by Rough Trade's reissue of the band's debut ...
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Trouser Press, May 1981
"NOISE IS A big part of Motorhead mania" says the stark black lettering inside one of the band's tour brochures. Immediately below it is a ...
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers: Tom Petty (1981)
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, June 1981
The head Heartbreaker talks at length about, among many other things, songwriting and lyrics; his first album; working with Stevie Nicks; bandmates Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench; his Hard Promises album; Roger McGuinn's cover of 'American Girl'; Duck Dunn and John Fogerty; the MCA lawsuit and Denny Cordell; visiting Europe, and his relationship with producer Jimmy Iovine.
File format: mp3; file size: 86.6mb, interview length: 1h 30' 13" sound quality: ***
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers: Tom Petty: Tuning up the criminal kind
Report and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 13 June 1981
BENMONT TENCH remembers the day well. "It was April Fool's Day 1974 when we drove to L.A.," he recalls. At the time, keyboardsman Tench, guitarist ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 13 June 1981
THEY'D JUST FLOWN IN from the States, seen Springsteen the previous night, and gave Aylesbury a taste of what it's like to be totally wired ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 20 June 1981
PRESENTING upwardly mobile uptown jazz/funk from New York, Defunkt are a sharp six-piece fronted by the ever-cool Joe Bowie, who plays trombone, conducts the band ...
Killing Joke: What's THIS For...! (EG Records EGMD5.50)
Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 20 June 1981
THIS UNLISTENABLE record has very little going for it apart from the spaces between the tracks. This may sound harsh, but let me explain... ...
Blondie, Chic, Debbie Harry: Debbie Harry: First Lady of Chic
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 27 June 1981
Amateur gumshoe Adam Sweeting grills DEBBIE HARRY in New York ...
Elvis Costello & the Attractions: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 2 January 1982
Main Attraction ...
Orange Juice: The Venue, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 30 January 1982
L.O.V.E. Juices ...
The Bluebells, Haircut 100: Haircut 100, the Bluebells: National Club, Kilburn, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 6 February 1982
Today's blow wave? ...
Altered Images, The Human League: Martin Rushent: The Genetic Method
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 6 February 1982
Studio Svengali MARTIN RUSHENT earbashes hungry hack Adam Sweeting. ...
The Higsons: Lost but not lonely
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Sounds, 27 March 1982
THE HIGSONS go "Waap" to Adam Sweeting. ...
Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 3 April 1982
DESIGNED BY computer, hand-built by robots...Completely calculated, thoroughly contemptible, Asia is very bit as hollow, shallow and nasty as anyone had a right to expect. ...
Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 3 April 1982
THERE'S SOMETHING invisible about the Mothmen. Oh yes, they've included a picture of themselves here and their names are all written down for inspection...but the ...
Squeeze: Sweets From A Stranger (A&M)
Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 8 May 1982
CELEBRATED FOR their willingness to look the slings and arrows straight in the eye, Squeeze return with more observations and scars from the battle zone. ...
Gang of Four: Songs Of The Free (EMI)
Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 22 May 1982
AND SO the most highly-evolved piss artists in "rock" came to release their third LP. ...
A Flock Of Seagulls: Beaks On Broadway
Report and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 19 June 1982
"AND THAT was a Flock with 'Space Age Love Song' here on K-ROQ Los Angeles. For those of you who don't know yet, that's A ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 26 June 1982
"THERE'S 70 million people on earth." "Where are they hiding?" ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 10 July 1982
THE AIRPORT at Minneapolis is surprisingly big, considering the town itself is hidden away up towards Canada in the big blank heart of the mid-West. ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 31 July 1982
UNDER THE nuclear shadow, something stirs. Looking west, it decides to reject the old men's fear and guilt. If the sands of time are turning ...
Culture Club: Kissing To Be Clever (Virgin V2232)
Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 9 October 1982
The lust patrol ...
Sisters of Mercy: The Sisters Of Mercy: The Devils Floorshow
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 15 January 1983
Adam Sweeting unravels the stream of consciousness gushing forth from the SISTERS OF MERCY. ...
Robert Wyatt: Diving for Pearls
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 4 June 1983
Adam Sweeting talks to ROBERT WYATT about shipbuilding, pop music, the Eurovision song contest, and revolutionary ideologies. ...
Howard Devoto, The Smiths, SPK: Howard Devoto, SPK, the Smiths: The Lyceum, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 7 August 1983
WELL, YOU can always hope, can't yer? Fat lot of good that'll do you on a night like this. ...
Elvis Costello And The Attractions: Punch The Clock (F Beat)
Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 1 September 1983
PHEW, for a moment there I thought the penny wasn't going to drop in time. Luckily, after a further batch of circumnavigations of the turntable, ...
The Armoury Show: A thriving passion
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 8 October 1983
Stars of this year's Futurama festival, THE ARMOURY SHOW Still don't have a deal, but definitely aren't short of ideas. A progress report on the ...
Toyah Willcox: Toyah: In the Arms of the Law
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 5 November 1983
The increasingly extraordinary Adam Sweeting tackles the several personalities of the small but determined TOYAH. ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 19 November 1983
Location: Brighton. Subject of adoration: EURYTHMICS. Impressed correspondent: Adam Sweeting. ...
Tears For Fears: Talking in Riddles
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 26 November 1983
Adam Sweeting tolerates the serious posturings of TEARS FOR FEARS. ...
U2: Under A Blood Red Sky (Island Mini LP IMA3)
Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 26 November 1983
IT WAS only a matter of time before U2 released a live disc of some sort, since gruelling road-work has earned them a firm base ...
New Order: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 10 December 1983
BLUE COOL ...
Spear of Destiny: Spear & Loathing
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 21 January 1984
SPEAR OF DESTINY'S KIRK BRANDON bares his soul to Adam Sweeting ...
The Redskins: Keeping On And On
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 11 February 1984
Adam Sweeting weathers a storm of political invective from THE REDSKINS ...
Thomas Dolby: The Flat Earth (Parlophone)
Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 11 February 1984
ANYBODY WHO'D put Magnus Pyke in one of their videos has to be a gimmick merchant, right? Though Thomas Dolby scored a hit in all ...
Julian Cope: World Shut Your Mouth (Mercury MERL 37)
Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 18 February 1984
LIVING IN a wiggly world! Spanning the sublime and the ridiculous with the ease of the truly uncritical, Julian Cope flies on (among other things) ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 3 March 1984
Adam Sweeting gets all smoochy with Eighties Renaissance Man THOMAS DOLBY. ...
Prefab Sprout: Swoon (Kitchenware KWLP1)
Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 10 March 1984
SPROUT MASK REPLICAS ...
Daryl Hall & John Oates: Hall & Oates: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 17 March 1984
SWEET SOUL MUSIC ...
Kate Garner, Haysi Fantayzee: Kate Garner: Woman's Own
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 17 March 1984
KATE GARNER used to be known for taking her clothes off. Now she's keeping them on, even in the face of Adam Sweeting. ...
Culture Club, Steve Levine: Steve Levine: Before and After Science
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 31 March 1984
Culture Club's producer STEVE LEVINE blinds an inquisitive Adam Sweeting with the new science of recording technology, and explains why he's embarked on his own ...
Was (Not Was): (The Woodwork) Squeaks (Ze Records IMA 10)
Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 7 April 1984
ALIAS A mini-LP commemorating the finest moments of the (St) Was Bros, the saboteurs of funk. My advice would be to wheel it out, soon. ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 14 April 1984
Suddenly, yesterday's men Dead Or Alive are pop Stars. Here, flamboyant PETE BURNS tells Adam Sweeting about fame and dressing up. ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 5 May 1984
HOT NIGHTS IN GEORGIA ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 26 May 1984
SHOUT AT THE DEVIL ...
Jason & The Scorchers: Jason and the Scorchers: Fervor
Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 28 July 1984
WITH MUCH contemporary sound becoming more than a tad anaemic (they know who they are), we must turn our eyes to the West for a ...
Let's Active: Cypress (IRS IRSA 7047)
Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 15 September 1984
ACTIVATE ...
The Style Council, Wham!: Wham! Style Council: Miners' Benefit, Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 15 September 1984
Pit-Head Ballet ...
The Dream Syndicate: Dingwalls, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 22 September 1984
AN OFFER YOU CAN'T REFUSE ...
Aztec Camera: Knife (WEA 240 483-1)
Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 29 September 1984
RAZOR SHARP ...
U2: The Unforgettable Fire (Island U25)
Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 6 October 1984
AT THE HOMECOMING ...
The Smiths: Hatful of Hollow — Empty Promises
Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 17 November 1984
THE EMINENTLY QUOTABLE Morrissey said it himself. On the subject of Lloyd Cole, he told Ian Pye: "Lloyd is a tremendously nice person, much more ...
David Bowie, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, Sex Pistols: Julien Temple: The Inner Temple
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 1 December 1984
Wordsmith and sedentary snapper Adam Sweeting interrogates filmmaker and promo video master JULIEN TEMPLE... ...
U2: At The Homecoming: U2’s Unforgettable Fire
Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 1985
THIS HAS BEEN a long time coming, and there have been signs of strain. War, U2's last album of new material, was released more than ...
Report and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 5 January 1985
When Adam Sweeting interviewed U2 in France in November, BONO felt he'd left a few things unsaid. So he suggested a rematch in America during ...
The Bangles: Dingwalls, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 23 February 1985
CALIFORNIA DREAMING ...
Report and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 2 March 1985
IF IT'S TUESDAY, this must be Paris. How about Europe so far, girls? ...
Los Lobos: Lords of the Barrio
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 20 April 1985
Suddenly, LOS LOBOS are shaping up to be stars with their LP How Will The Wolf Survive and scorching single 'Don't Worry Baby'. Adam Sweeting ...
Eurythmics: Be Yourself Tonight (RCA)
Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 4 May 1985
AMONG their assimilations, borrowings and treatments, Eurythmics remain outsiders. "I'm a looker, a viewer of things," said Annie Lennox. Their Sweet Dreams album nailed the ...
Eurythmics: The Ministry Of Truth
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 4 May 1985
AMONG THE CRASH of crockery and the hubbub of tea-slurping customers, Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox sit unobtrusively at a table in the Waldorf Hotel. ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 7 May 1985
Adam Sweeting on the changing mood of a musical odd couple ...
The Style Council: Our Favourite Shop (Polydor)
Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 25 May 1985
Shopping spree ...
Scritti Politti: The Politics of Green Land
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 6 July 1985
Adam Sweeting meets Scritti Politti's radical singer-songwriter ...
R.E.M.: On the Southern Frontier
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 12 July 1985
Adam Sweeting meets one of the bands pioneering the new American rock ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, August 1985
Over the course of almost two hours, Neil talks about world politics, the state of America today, his philosophical outlook, his current country-music tour and his love of that music; and about the transition from 'Heart of Gold' to Tonight's the Night, drugs and David Crosby, meeting Charles Manson... and the event that became Farm Aid.
File format: mp3; file size: 101.2mb, interview length: 1h 45' 24" sound quality: ***
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, September 1985
The old Crosby, Stills and Nash hippie has taken on a new redneck colouration with firm roots in country music. Adam Sweeting looks back from ...
Report and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 2 September 1985
ADAM SWEETING investigates the selling of a pop star package ...
Neil Young: Legend Of A Loner (part 1)
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 7 September 1985
NEIL YOUNG is one of rock's most enduring heroes. From Buffalo Springfield to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young to his own brilliant, if erratic, solo ...
Neil Young: Legend Of A Loner (part 2)
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 14 September 1985
He's back! In part two of Adam Sweeting's definitive epic, NEIL YOUNG explains the gentle art of growing old gracefully. ...
Alex Chilton: Mean Fiddler, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 21 October 1985
Back on top ...
New Order: Hammersmith Palais, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 12 November 1985
SLOWLY BUT surely, New Order have amassed a huge following, seized a corner of the market, which is distinctively theirs and developed an inimitable sound. ...
The Jesus & Mary Chain: Psychocandy (Warners)
Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 23 November 1985
THE NEGATIVE VIBES ...
The Style Council: Style Council: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 12 December 1985
THE STYLE Council has grown inexorably from being Paul Weller's bedroom version of soul into a force in the land. With more than a dozen ...
Joni Mitchell: Dog Day Afternoon: Joni Mitchell
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 4 January 1986
THEY'VE ALL all been coming out of the woodwork this past year, the artists who'd never deign to speak to anyone - ole Neil, Dylan ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 11 January 1986
With last year's album Low-life, NEW ORDER finally laid the ghost of Joy Division and emerged as one of this nation's saving graces with a ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 8 February 1986
John Lydon, a cartoon character no longer, is back with a single which looks like being a bit of a hit, and an album called ...
Masquerade: Morgan Khan: The groovy side of the street
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 14 February 1986
The entrepreneurial one-man band Morgan Khan talks to Adam Sweeting ...
David Bowie, Elvis Costello, Working Week: Absolute Beginners
Special Feature by Brian Case, Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 22 March 1986
AT LONG last, it's almost here. Poor old JULIEN TEMPLE has been working on his movie of Colin MacInnes' novel Absolute Beginners apparently since the ...
Big Country: Seer with feet on the ground
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 11 April 1986
Adam Sweeting catches Big Country as they are threatened with superstardom ...
The Cure, The Waterboys: Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 28 April 1986
THE CURE stepped boldly from the shadows to close the series of Sound Waves For Greenpeace shows with a towering set which lasted nearly two ...
Thrashing Doves: Marquee, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 27 June 1986
YOU KNOW something's wrong when people insist that the Housemartins write "great pop songs," Dr. & The Medics lodge at No.1 for weeks, and the ...
Wham!: Wembley Stadium, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 30 June 1986
George's time to go-go: Adam Sweeting on Wham!'s farewell concert at Wembley ...
Keith Jarrett, Wayne Shorter: Capital Jazz Parade, Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 21 July 1986
Winning sets ...
Chic, Nile Rodgers: Source of the Nile
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 22 August 1986
Funk guitar specialist Nile Rodgers is also one of the world's great producers. Adam Sweeting reports ...
Lionel Richie: Dancing On the Ceiling
Review by Adam Sweeting, Q, October 1986
IT IS SAID THAT Lionel Richie's previous solo album, Can't Slow Down, sold an unthinkable 15 million copies, the kind of statistic that can cause ...
Report by Adam Sweeting, Q, October 1986
THE CONNAUGHT ROOMS in London, WC2, are used to Lord Mayors, masonic gatherings and businessmen full of brandy, but on a grey August Monday the ...
David Bowie, Chic, Duran Duran, Nile Rodgers: Nile Rodgers: Man of the Moment
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 4 October 1986
Buddies with Bowie, big pals with Duran, mate of Al Jarreau, is there no-one NILE RODGERS doesn't know? Adam Sweeting charts the changing life and ...
B.B. King: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 17 October 1986
AFTER 30-ODD years in the trade, in which he's travelled millions of miles and used up lord knows how many sets of guitar strings, it's ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 22 October 1986
Heads in the clouds ...
Julian Cope: No tears for Julian
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 24 October 1986
After stunning success with The Teardrop Explodes, Julian Cope blew up. He's back with a new hit. Adam Sweeting reports ...
Robert Palmer: How to Run the Riptide With Style
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 7 November 1986
Adam Sweeting on the rise of Robert Palmer ...
Eurythmics: "I Am Not The Androgynous Annie Lennox. I Never Was. I Used It For Something Else"
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 26 November 1986
The Eurythmics Leading lady talks to Adam Sweeting about her life, her music and her image. ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Q, December 1986
THESE ARE MY favourite 10, and not in any particular order. For instance, I do think Billie Holiday was better than Peter Cox, the singer ...
Elvis Costello & the Attractions: Royalty Theatre, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 1 December 1986
Elvis on the loose: Adam Sweeting sees a master in peak form. ...
Review by Adam Sweeting, Q, 1987
IN ONE SENSE, Tom Verlaine has the most consistent output of any of rock's guiding lights. Since Television's spellbindingly wonderful Marquee Moon a decade ago, ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 23 January 1987
Adam Sweeting meets Rosie Vela, the former cover-girl now looking for success as a singer-songwriter ...
George Benson: "If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It"
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Q, February 1987
KEN FRITZ, the slim, obsessively neat half of George Benson's management team Fritz & Turner, was worried that he may have caught a chill while ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Q, February 1987
MADNESS ALWAYS called him Uncle Ian, and there's still that avuncular earthiness about Ian Dury. "They always say, we are entertainers," he notes, "and I'll ...
Dave Stewart, Eurythmics: The Man Most Likely To: Dave Stewart
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Q, February 1987
THE MATCHING PAIR of black and white Mercedes limousines nose, cautiously down the narrow street, unearthly craft looking for a landing space in the Milan ...
Annie Lennox: The Right Stuff: Annie Lennox on Singers
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Q, February 1987
I NEVER HAD enough money to have a record player, so I never got into the habit ol buying records, and so my only real ...
Comment by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 2 February 1987
As London prepares for more streamlined sophistication, Adam Sweeting wonders what happened to the sweat and suffering ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 3 February 1987
HOW DIFFERENT one's life might have been if one's mother had been Naomi Judd. One might have been a cowboy, the local sheriff, or better ...
Luther Vandross: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 6 February 1987
Deluxe on his side: Adam Sweeting on Luther Vandross's uptown sounds ...
The Psychedelic Furs: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 21 February 1987
Shabby fur ...
Cyndi Lauper: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 26 February 1987
FUNNY GIRL! Cyndi Lauper is equal parts Shirley Temple, Rickie Lee Jones and Bugs Bunny, a fruitcake in a musical doll's house wearing cartoon clothes, ...
The Beatles, Happy Mondays, New Order: CDs: The Slipped Disc
Report by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 27 February 1987
Compact Disc has brought the second coming of The Beatles and the promise of a revolution in the rock industry. But is it a sound ...
Lionel Richie: Crossing the Square
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 17 March 1987
The saintly Lionel Richie's co-writer is the Lord. Adam Sweeting reports ...
Nanci Griffith, Lyle Lovett, Ricky Skaggs, Randy Travis: New Country: Banjoing the Roy Rogers Image
Report and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 27 March 1987
It may have had a hard time persuading people to take it seriously but, as Adam Sweeting reports, country music is winning ...
Erasure: Central Hall, Westminster, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 11 April 1987
THANKS MOSTLY to the glittering Andy Bell, Erasure manage not to be the cold stew of circuits and digital read-outs decried by some. Certainly, much ...
Millie Jackson: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 21 April 1987
Dirty work: Adam Sweeting sees Millie Jackson strut her smut at Hammersmith Odeon ...
Tom Jones: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 21 May 1987
Mock macho ...
Lionel Richie: This Charming Man
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Q, June 1987
Deep in the heart of showbiz, there is one name that's on every guest list. One person — firm of handshake, even of keel — ...
David Bowie: Serious twilight — David Bowie: Wembley Stadium, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 22 June 1987
Adam Sweeting finds David Bowie losing his way at Wembley ...
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Spin, July 1987
Robert Smith grew up like any other alienated boy from the suburbs. Then he grew down and became one of pop music's great eccentrics. ...
Miles Davis: A little loving goes Miles and miles. Miles Davis: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 1 July 1987
Adam Sweeting finds one of Jazz's greatest innovators in masterful form at the Festival Hall ...
Billy Joel: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 11 July 1987
Bout with an uptown boy: Adam Sweeting on a roistering evening with Billy Joel at Wembley ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Q, August 1987
HE HAS HEARD the big music, and he'll never be the same. "At the end of the day we are a hell of a noise," ...
The Jesus & Mary Chain: Ah, Showbusiness...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Q, October 1987
...the roar of the crowd, the smell of the greasepaint, the reverberating thud of boot through amplifer. Live sets lasting nine whole minutes. A riot ...
John Hiatt: Return of the Demon Conqueror
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 9 October 1987
Singer-songwriter John Hiatt is back — at his best — from the drugs-and-booze brink. Adam Sweeting reports ...
Aztec Camera, Roddy Frame: Aztec Camera: Cameraman Has Got The Picture
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 16 October 1987
At 23, Roddy Frame of Aztec Camera has an old head on his shoulders, and as Adam Sweeting found out, his new LP benefits from ...
George Michael, Wham!: George Michael (1987)
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, November 1987
On the release of his solo debut Faith, George Michael talks about his complex relationship with the press; his split from Simon Napier-Bell's management; his confidence from an early age and what excited him starting out; his run-in with miners' leader Arthur Scargill, the miners' benefit debacle and his personal politics; the crazy Wham! fame days; Boy George's attempts to out him as gay; the new album and its songs, including 'I Want Your Sex'... and his general outlook on life.
File format: mp3; file size: 59.5mb, total interview length: 1h 02' 00" sound quality: ***
George Michael: By George, he's really got it
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 9 November 1987
Rich, talented, and politically aware, George Michael skilfully charts the tricky waters of superstardom. ...
The Proclaimers: Right-on in Auchtermuchty
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 13 November 1987
Adam Sweeting finds two reasons for feeling cheerful about alternatives to pop blandness — Scotland's The Proclaimers ...
Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Holly Johnson: Frankie goes to Litigation
Report and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 18 January 1988
Holly of Frankie Goes To Hollywood takes his label to court today. Adam Sweeting reports ...
The Clash, Joe Strummer: Joe Strummer (1988)
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, February 1988
The former Clash front-man on recording the soundtrack to Permanent Record; his musical and acting participation in Walker and Straight to Hell; on the Clash compilation Story of the Clash Vol. 1; how touring with the Who led to the end of the Clash; playing with the Pogues, and his hatred of being spat at onstage; on Reagan and Thatcher; his (now) dislike of drugs; on his diplomat father; forming the 101ers, and the Rude Boy movie.
File format: mp3; file size: 83.8mb, interview length: 1h 27' 20" sound quality: *** (background noise)
Afrika Bambaataa: The Funky Cassandra
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 19 February 1988
Adam Sweeting spreads Bambaataa's word for Planet Earth ...
Lyle Lovett: Lovett and Leave It
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 4 March 1988
Lyle Lovett is top of the country charts but the laid back Texan has no intentions, he tells Adam Sweeting, of ending up on the treadmill ...
Thomas Dolby: Town & Country Club, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 27 April 1988
Cruising in the slow lane ...
Nanci Griffith: Country Rose of Texas
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 29 April 1988
Nanci Griffith's music may live happily in bedsit or honky-tonk but she tells anecdotes onstage to stop her audience fist-fighting, reports Adam Sweeting ...
Whitney Houston: NEC, Birmingham
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 3 May 1988
Adam Sweeting marvels at a mega-star in action at the Birmingham NEC ...
David Sylvian: Teatro Smeraldo, Milan
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 13 May 1988
A touch of velvet — Adam Sweeting in Milan finds David Sylvian in mellifluous form ...
The Sugarcubes: Astoria, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 23 May 1988
WITH FRAIL old people packing out Wembley and the charts stuffed with the dross that even Eurovision couldn't stomach (yobbish novelty records, the pitiable Wet ...
Herman Leonard: Then was the time
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 4 June 1988
Herman Leonard caught the mood of the bebop era just by being there. He tells Adam Sweeting how ...
Scritti Politti: Pretension and polish
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 10 June 1988
Adam Sweeting drops in on one of the pop world's top name-droppers ...
George Michael: Earls Court, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 14 June 1988
Right-on George in shape for the 90s Adam Sweeting sees a superstar work out ...
Prince: Sign O' The Times (Dir. Prince; Paisley Park Films)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 7 July 1988
Let the good times rock — Adam Sweeting finds brilliance abounds in Prince's latest film ...
Bob Dylan: Pennebaker Looks Back
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 15 July 1988
Adam Sweeting turns the tables on the man who documented the young Dylan ...
Michael Jackson: The Greatest Showman — Michael Jackson: Wembley Stadium, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 15 July 1988
Adam Sweeting on the dazzling Michael Jackson at Wembley ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 21 July 1988
The singer-songwriter discusses the soundtracks to the movie Heartburn (and current project Working Girl); plus Reagan, Dukakis and Jessie Jackson, and American politics in general; growing up in the illustrious Simon (& Schuster) family; the pros and cons of Live Aid; drugs and her generation; working with Clive Davis at Arista... and her reluctance to play live.
File format: mp3; file size: 40.3mb, interview length: 41' 59" sound quality: ***
Nico, The Velvet Underground: Nico: A Baleful Dark Brown Voice
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 23 July 1988
NICO, THE baleful Teutonic queen of sixties New York, has died in Ibiza after a cerebral haemorrhage suffered while cycling in intense mid-day heat. She ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 26 July 1988
MINNEAPOLIS COMES to Broadway! Even in the wake of Wacko, Prince's latest show is something of an eyeball-popper. The 64-inch-high prodigy materialises from a gleaming ...
Carly Simon: Free as a liberal prude
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 30 July 1988
Carly Simon is back after years of artistic famine. She tells Adam Sweeting about life beyond the emotional bumps ...
Salt-N-Pepa: Salt 'N Pepa: Shakin' Seasons
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 31 August 1988
It's hard being a woman rapper in a man's world, but Salt 'N Pepa have made it. Adam Sweeting found them in Oklahoma City. ...
Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club: Tom Tom Club: The Byrne Issue
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 14 October 1988
Adam Sweeting on Talking Heads, the Tom Tom Club, and the great divide between the two ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 21 October 1988
To celebrate Cameo's thirteenth album Adam Sweeting joins Larry Blackmon for a wholemeal bagel in downtown New York. ...
Sandie Shaw: University of London Union, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 26 November 1988
Sandie's sure thing Adam Sweeting welcomes Sandie Shaw back to live gigs. ...
Steve Earle & the Dukes: Town & Country Club, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 1 December 1988
When more means less ...
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 2 December 1988
Adam Sweeting meets Bon Jovi, the hard-rockers turned chart phenomenc ...
The Proclaimers: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 5 December 1988
The doublevision: Adam Sweeting savours the Proclaimers at Hammersmith Odeon ...
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 ...
Report and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 16 December 1988
Adam Sweeting watches the label boom and fears a future of repackaged rock, candyfloss music and 'low-stress' hard sell ...
Diesel Park West: Diesels firing on all cylinders
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 20 January 1989
Adam Sweeting in Hamburg meets some lads from Leicester whose time has finally arrived ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 25 January 1989
With his version of 'Kiss' riding the charts, the kid from Pontypridd looks at where he's got to: changing labels and musical direction; being managed by his son Mark after the death of mentor Gordon Mills; the sexuality of his performance; his slightly tricky love life; getting advice from Elvis, and fighting Jerry Lee Lewis; growing up listening to the BBC; memories of the '60s, and much more.
File format: mp3; file size: 97.6mb, interview length: 1h 41' 41" sound quality: *****
Transcript of audio interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 25 January 1989
This is a transcript of Adam's audio interview with Tom. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 10 February 1989
The Judds' story is worthy of a country song. Adam Sweeting on the long road from Morrill, Kentucky, to the Dominion, London. ...
The Waterboys: Kilburn National, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 22 February 1989
The incredible Galway gypsies ...
David Crosby: A Hippy out of Hell
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 3 March 1989
David Crosby is back with an album and autobiography. He talks to Adam Sweeting ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 17 March 1989
The Man in Black on the controversy surrounding the 'Til Things Are Brighter tribute album; being threatened by the Klan for hugging Charley Pride; his friendship with Roy Orbison; the state of current country, and his Scottish roots. He also shows Sweeting his coin, gun and guitar collection!
File format: mp3; file size: 30.9mb, interview length: 32' 11" sound quality: ***
Cowboy Junkies: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 27 March 1989
Cowpoking explorers: one of the newest names in New Country and an all-out thrash attack ...
Luther Vandross: A night with the fat controller — Luther Vandross: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 1 April 1989
Adam Sweeting finds the rich fare of Luther Vandross a mixed blessing at Wembley Arena ...
Roachford: Town & Country, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 5 April 1989
IT MAY ONLY be rock 'n' roll, but Andrew Roachford and his band kick up the kind of excitement from an audience that has been ...
Green On Red: Town & Country, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 10 April 1989
IT WAS one of those nights. "Poor old Dan," wailed Dan Stuart, leading the new-look Green On Red into waters apparently uncharted by much rehearsal. ...
The Triffids: Shaw Theatre, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 14 April 1989
The way of the Triffids ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 20 April 1989
Come to the cabaret, old chums. Adam Sweeting gets a kick out of Liza, Sammy and a revitalised Frank Sinatra at the Albert Hall. ...
Diana Ross: The Queen of Muzak — Diana Ross: NEC, Birmingham
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 1 May 1989
Adam Sweeting finds the Birmingham crowd more entertaining than Diana Ross ...
Tom Jones: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 11 May 1989
Jones the joker ...
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 12 May 1989
The Man in Black is back fighting the good fight. Adam Sweeting catches up with Johnny Cash, travelling troubadour, in Cambridge ...
Elton John: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 24 May 1989
Battered and upright ...
R.E.M.: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 1 June 1989
The green line over Georgia Adam Sweeting at Hammersmith Odeon on the homespun charms of R.E.M. ...
Bobby Brown: Soul's Carnal Cruiser: Bobby Brown, Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 26 June 1989
He came, they saw, he conquered... Adam Sweeting on Bobby Brown at the Wembley Arena ...
Pere Ubu, The Pixies: Pixies, Pere Ubu: Kilburn National, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 7 July 1989
SUPPORT FOR The Pixies, Boston's finest, came from Pere Ubu, born again (and again) as cortex-tickling popsters via the Cloudland album. Vocalist David Thomas, a sweating balloon ...
Pet Shop Boys: The Pet Shop Boys: NEC Arena, Birmingham
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 17 July 1989
All good guilty fun. Adam Sweeting watches the Pet Shop Boys come to life ...
Liza Minnelli, Pet Shop Boys: All Eyes Are On Liza
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 14 August 1989
"My whole life I've sung songs that were written before I was born." But no longer. Liza Minnelli, Oscar-winning superstar, talks to Adam Sweeting about ...
Del Amitri, Diesel Park West: Del Amitri, Diesel Dark West: Astoria, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 15 August 1989
THIS WAS a fine example of the technology gap which now yawns between live performance and the studio. Unless you're able to invest incalculable sums ...
Keith Richards, The Rolling Stones: Keith Richards: Sealed with a disc
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 25 August 1989
Keith Richards bridles at the suggestion that rock is a young man's game. Spruced up, rifts with Mick Jagger all forgotten, he and the Stones ...
Terence Trent D'Arby: D'Arby has his day
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 7 September 1989
Terence Trent D'Arby has a new album on the way. He also has a clearer idea of his role in the world, as Adam Sweeting ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 4 October 1989
Ol' Slowhand on the perils and pressures of success; on drinking and addiction; on blues; on his romance and emotional immaturity; on those endless Albert Hall shows; on his love of the Band, Little Feat, the Stones and Jimi Hendrix; on punk rock and cricket; and on voting for Thatcher and why he still thinks racist demagogue Enoch Powell had a point...
File format: mp3; file size: 80.5mb, interview length: 1h 23' 53" sound quality: ***
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 12 October 1989
THE WOMAN pouring tea in a hotel near EMI records has a wide, warm smile and speaks with such endearing openness that you wonder if ...
Cat Glover, Prince: Cat Glover: Cat goes for the cream
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 21 December 1989
Adam Sweeting on why Prince's dancing sensation is aiming for stardom — without him ...
Terence Trent D'Arby: The Marquee, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 10 January 1990
IT'S ALWAYS a lark to be able to see major-ish artists in small settings, and perhaps we should be grateful to all the people who ...
Simply Red: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 11 January 1990
Slightly Red: Adam Sweeting on Hucknall and co — skilful but loutish at Wembley ...
Daniel Lanois: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 10 February 1990
BEST KNOWN for producing U2's The Joshua Tree and whipping up a little dust-storm of hipness around Dylan's Oh Mercy, Daniel Lanois is also a ...
Del Shannon: Pop Before the Beatles
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 10 February 1990
THE APPARENT suicide of Del Shannon at his home in California puts the final tragic twist to a story which began well with a string ...
Grace Jones: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 30 March 1990
THE GRACE Jones Experience could be described as long-awaited. The chap pressed up to the front of the stage certainly thought so. "Waiting three hours ...
Del Amitri: The down-to-earth Del boys
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 12 April 1990
'Ancient', honest and confused — Del Amitri are not a typical overnight sensation, Adam Sweeting reports ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 18 April 1990
The other Nelson jumps genres ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 28 May 1990
Signing stetsons and killing time ...
Report by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 2 June 1990
Adam Sweeting looks at a new round of paper wars ...
Pet Shop Boys, Dusty Springfield: Lusty Springfield
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 7 June 1990
Adam Sweeting speaks to the '60s icon who has risen from pop's graveyard to breathe new life into the charts. ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 21 June 1990
The Prince's new clothes ...
Little Feat: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 2 July 1990
THERE'S A song on Little Feat's 1988 album, Let It Roll, called 'Hangin' On To The Good Times'. It's a syrupy, self-romanticising look back at ...
Madonna: Wembley Stadium, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 21 July 1990
Madonna Inc in tireless and tiresome spectacle ...
Living Colour: Rocking the Boat
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 23 August 1990
Establishment America says rock is a white man's prerogative. Adam Sweeting on why Living Colour think otherwise ...
Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 13 September 1990
Aged Young still wild at heart ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 18 December 1990
Herod and the grey suits ...
Def Leppard: Obituary: Steve Clark — Hard Rock Hero
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 10 January 1991
THE DEATH of Def Leppard's guitarist Steve Clark, aged 30, on Tuesday morning was the latest disaster to strike the Sheffield group. On New Year's ...
George Michael: NEC, Birmingham
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 17 January 1991
"THE MOST constructive thing I can do now is to try to be a great songwriter," says George Michael. ...
Joni Mitchell: They paint paradise
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 14 February 1991
Now Joni Mitchell's more at ease at her easel, reports Adam Sweeting ...
Chickasaw Mudd Puppies, Jane's Addiction: Jane's Addiction, Chickasaw Mudd Puppies: Marquee, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 6 March 1991
THEY'RE ALREADY hacking a broad swathe through the Americas, and Jane's Addiction's appearance for this "secret" show turned the Marquee into a vile, heaving sweat-box. ...
Overview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 8 March 1991
Dim, manic, noisy, and rarely women. But drummers aren't all troll-like, says Adam Sweeting ...
Joni Mitchell: Joni Rides Home
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Vox, April 1991
JONI MITCHELL MAY HAVE CUT HER MUSICAL TEETH DURING THE ERA OF LOVE AND PEACE BUT SHE TAKES NONE TOO KINDLY TO COMPARISONS WITH TODAY'S ...
Gloria Estefan: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 10 April 1991
THE SMALL but dynamic Gloria Estefan does not look like someone only recently recovered from a major back injury sustained in a road accident. ...
Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 25 April 1991
Massive unfinished sympathy ...
Sting: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 26 April 1991
IT SEEMS unlikely that Sting has been paying attention to his critics, but with his new stripped-down band and a show sprinkled with The Police's ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 30 April 1991
JOHNNY THUNDERS had long been a by-word for self-destruction through drugs and hard living. In 1981, Trouser Press magazine cynically declared Thunders "legally dead" alongside a cartoon ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 4 May 1991
Hammered home: Adam Sweeting sees MC Hammer let the rap rip at the Birmingham NEC on a night of music and moralising ...
MC Hammer: Me, Jesus and the President
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 7 May 1991
Adam Sweeting is privy to a generous 15 minutes of MC Hammer's hard-earned fame ...
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers: Tom Petty: Petty Larceny
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Vox, September 1991
HEIR TO DYLAN or Bel Air airhead? Sometime Wilbury Tom Petty is 40 with kids, and even though his new album with the Heartbreakers is ...
Donald Fagen, Steely Dan: Donald Fagen (1991)
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 13 November 1991
The former Dan man talks about the New York Rock & Soul Revue; Steely Dan's influence on UK groups; the serious process of recording Dan albums; his forthcoming album Kamakiriad; The Nightfly, 'IGY' and "mock sentimentality"; writer's block and psychotherapy; Walter Becker's drug problem, and being reunited with him; his childhood, his parents and Jewishness; meeting Walter at Bard College; on '60s soul; on Prince, hip hop, and De La Soul sampling 'Peg', and on the Dan members, and catalogue reissues.
File format: mp3; total file size: 51.6mb, interview length: 53' 43" sound quality: ** (phoner)
Sonic Youth: Here Come The Noise Terrorists: Sonic Youth
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 21 July 1992
THUNDEROUS mantra-grooves and jagged fanfares of atonal brass boom across the parched grass of New York's Central Park, though it could equally well be Monterey ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 27 July 1992
Gabriel talks about his Real World studios and record label and its association with WOMAD; his recording methods and his new album Us; being in therapy, his marriage breakup, and his children... and Rosanna Arquette; his early love of soul, and seeing Otis Redding; surviving punk; his dislike of the "World music" tag, and records soundtracks for films such as The Last Temptation of Christ.
File format: mp3; file size: 90.6mb, interview length: 1h 34' 21" sound quality: ** (wind and trains)
Peter Gabriel (1992) [Transcript]
Transcript of audio interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 27 July 1992
This is a transcript of Adam's interview with Gabriel. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
James: First We Take Manhattan
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Vox, August 1992
And then we take — Alton Towers? In preparation for their Fourth of July bash at the noted Midlands leisure resort, James have been touring ...
Bruce Springsteen: Talking To The Boss
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Vox, September 1992
FOLKLORE TELLS us there was a time, about 25 years ago, when meeting the stars was a simple matter. You just had to hang out ...
Tom Waits: A Mellower Prince Of Melancholy
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 15 September 1992
HE MIGHT STILL dress as though he staggers around sniffing under dustbin lids, but now the self styled Oddball Kid refuses to play his old ...
Ministry: The Man From Ministry
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Vox, December 1992
AFTER A promising start, Ministry headman Al Jourgensen put his career into reverse, burying the band in a hideous dark noise which has transformed them ...
Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel: Paul Simon (1993)
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 1993
In the context of his retrospective box set Paul Simon 1964/1993, the veteran singer-songwriter looks back over his relationship with Art Garfunkel; 'Bridge Over Troubled Water'; his artistic evolution in the shadow of the Beatles and Dylan; his black NYC influences; Graceland's success and controversy; accusations of cultural appropriation; his longevity and place in the world.
File format: mp3; file size: 59.7mb, interview length: 1h 02' 19" sound quality: ****
Paul Simon (1993) [transcript]
Transcript of audio interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 1993
This is a transcript of Adam Sweeting's interview. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music: Bryan Ferry (1993)
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 4 March 1993
The old smoothie talks about "lost" album Horoscope; his new covers album Taxi and the joys of interpretation; the pleasures of working with Robin Trower and the perils of 48-track recording; his work ethic; being a family man; owning his own studio, and his lifelong interest in art.
File format: mp3; file size: 58.2mb, interview length: 1h 00' 38" sound quality: *****
Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music: Bryan Ferry (1993) [transcript]
Transcript of audio interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 4 March 1993
This is a transcript of Adam's interview with the Roxy Music man. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 1 May 1993
Anthony Dominick Benedetto on his album of Sinatra covers, Perfectly Frank; on being an interpreter; his passion to sing and paint; being named Bennett by Bob Hope; the influence of Bing Crosby, and the American Songbook; his love of bebop; "concept" albums, and recording with Bill Evans; his friendship with David Hockney, and on painting; the Forty Years box set; the changes in the music business, and his nostalgia for the old Miami and Vegas.
File format: mp3; file size: 60.4mb, interview length: 1h 02' 58" sound quality: ****
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 18 June 1993
The former Led Zeppelin frontman on his current solo project: on his new band and their youthful enthusiasm; on the depth of his roots in the blues, and musical theft; how John Bonham's death meant the end of Zep; on the music that inspired his youth... and how old rockers like him can remain engaged with the present.
File format: mp3; file size: 38mb, interview length: 39' 36" sound quality: ****
Robert Plant (1993) [transcript]
Transcript of audio interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 18 June 1993
This is a transcript of Adam's audio interview with the former Zeppelin man. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Kurt Cobain, Nirvana: Kurt Cobain: Sound of silence
Comment by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 18 April 1994
Adam Sweeting explains how the media didn't react to the significance of Kurt Cobain's death. ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Vox, October 1994
Managerial divorce, marital problems, writer's block… times have been hard for Bryan Ferry, but the "artist who makes records" has entered his Arabic period with ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 1 April 1995
Mr. Eclectic talks about his new album of covers versions, Kojak Variety: about working with L.A. musicians Jerry Scheff, Jim Keltner and James Burton; about his reasons for choosing the songs and his connection to the originals. He also talks about curating London's forthcoming Meltdown festival, and touches on the upcoming Attractions album All This Useless Beauty. Lastly he discusses singing at London's Brixton Academy with Bob Dylan.
File format: mp3; file size: 60.2mb, total interview length: 1h 02' 45" sound quality: ****
Teenage Fanclub: Shepherd's Bush Empire
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 5 June 1995
YOU CAN tell a lot about a band from their choice of cover versions. As their tumultuous set rampaged to a close, Teenage Fanclub ripped ...
Joan Osborne: Borderline, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 23 January 1996
Meat and potato with little relish ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, April 1996
Fourteen months into sobriety, the country rebel discusses his multiple marriages; his anger at the press and ex-colleagues; his admiration for Bruce Springsteen; country radio and the Nashville establishment... and talks at length about addiction and recovery.
File format: mp3; file size: 76.3mb, interview length: 1h 19' 25" sound quality: ****
Metallica: Earl's Court, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 14 October 1996
Classic metal misfits spit out decibels of defiance at the venue from hell ...
Townes Van Zandt: Keeping Quiet For The Sake Of A Song: Townes Van Zandt 1944-1997
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, January 1997
OTHER MUSICIANS revered Texan song writer Townes Van Zandt who has died of a heart attack aged 52, but he made real efforts, helped by ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 20 October 1997
The master film composer talks about writing music for film; his dislike of pop songs in movies; Midnight Cowboy, and working with directors; the soundtrack for Swept from the Sea; doing the Bond movies as serious pieces, and his favorite Bond; the importance of thematic melody, and Dances with Wolves; his family background, with a cinema-owning father, and studying music; breaking into film work with Beat Girl; England being the right place and time in the '60s, and not doing 2001.
File format: mp3; file size: 56.4meg, interview length: 58' 47" sound quality: ****
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, Summer 1997
The former Creedence frontman looks back on the end of Creedence and his relations with the band; on Fantasy Records boss Saul Zaentz and being sued for "self-plagiarism"; on his tricky relationship with brother Tom; on not being psychedelic in San Francisco during the Summer of Love; on hearing the blues, Elvis and Bay Area R&B radio... and on life after Creedence and how much happier he is now.
File format: mp3; file size: 51mb; Interview length: 53' 07"; sound quality: ****½
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, July 1998
In Salzburg for her Seven Deadly Sins performance, the grand dame of British pop talks about her love of the Brecht/Weill canon; recording her new album Vagabond Ways; her self-destructive past and surviving it; writing Faithfull, her autobiography, with David Dalton; the '60s myths and legends about her... and not becoming a rich man's plaything.
File format: mp3; file size: 51.9mb, interview length: 54' 05" sound quality: ***
Burt Bacharach: Hal David (1999)
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 25 May 1999
In London to receive an Ivor Novello Award, the great lyricist recalls his days in Manhattan song factory the Brill Building with writing partner Burt Bacharach; hanging out with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller; writing for Frank Sinatra; Dionne Warwick's transformation from demo singer to star; 'Make It Easy On Yourself' and 'Anyone Who Had a Heart'; his favourite songwriters; riding the rock wave; and the revival of interest in his work.
File format: mp3; total file size: 57.5mb, total interview length: 59' 54" sound quality: ****
Steve Earle, The Del McCoury Band: Steve Earle And The Del McCoury Band: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 25 May 1999
MOST OF THE FIRST HALF of Steve Earle's three-hour performance was dedicated to the expert bluegrass voicings of the Del McCoury Band, who backed Earle ...
Kristin Hersh: Borderline, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 19 June 1999
IN THE SPHERE OF ROCK-AS-PSYCHOTHERAPY, Kristin Hersh has few peers. Now a decade and a half into her career, she first established herself with the ...
Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Stephen Stills, Neil Young: CSNY's Stephen Stills and Neil Young (1999)
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 18 October 1999
Together again to promote the new CSNY album Looking Forward, Messrs. Stills and Young enthuse about making the record, putting a band together to tour, the state of Crosby, and their relationship then and now. They also look back at their time together in Buffalo Springfield, spinning yarns and tall tales.
File format: mp3; file size: 37.9mb, interview length: 39' 29" sound quality: ****
Crosby Stills Nash & Young: "Deja Vu Again"
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 29 October 1999
THERE'S NO MISTAKING the portly middle-aged man with the walrus moustache beached on a sofa at the Dorchester hotel, plucking the chords of Neil Young's ...
The Mavericks: Hammersmith Palais, London - Let's do the timewarp
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 3 December 1999
THERE'S A NEW Best of the Mavericks compilation launched to commemorate the "first decade of Maverick music", which prompts the alarming thought that they may ...
Smashing Pumpkins: Dominion Theatre, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 26 January 2000
Heavy on the '70s metal ...
Ali Farka Touré: Barbican, London — Niger river delta blues
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 14 March 2000
IT HAS become increasingly difficult to prise Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré away from the rural life in his home village of Niafunke. ...
Report and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 4 April 2000
First Britpop, then drum'n'bass, now UK garage: behind every popular band are the A&R scouts, hunting for acts who might repeat that success. ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, May 2000
Taking tea in Soho's brand-new Sanderson Hotel, the great singer-songwriter talks about... well, almost everything: getting older; being perceived as a "dark" moralist; not being commercial; his good pal Jackson Browne; David Geffen; addiction, sobriety and therapy; his parents; plus songwriting and his diffidence in talking about it.
File format: mp3; total file size: 43.6mb, interview length: 45' 22" sound quality: ***
Kasey Chambers: Daughter of a preacher man
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 4 July 2000
One day you're trapping foxes in the Outback with your devout dad. The next, you're a country singer. Adam Sweeting meets Kasey Chambers. ...
Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty: John Fogerty: The saddest story in rock
Retrospective and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 11 July 2000
In 1988 John Fogerty was sued for plagiarising his own songs. Adam Sweeting talks to the Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman about 12 years of bitter ...
Lowell George: Time Loves a Hero: Lowell George
Retrospective by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 30 August 2000
THE EAGLES SOLD more records and Steely Dan went down better with intellectuals, but the best American band of the 1970s was Little Feat, led ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 5 October 2000
ALTHOUGH SHIVAREE is nominally a band, all interest is inevitably going to focus on vocalist Ambrosia Parsley (her real name, should you feel inclined to ...
Coldplay: Shepherd's Bush Empire
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 24 October 2000
The shambolically serious Coldplay. ...
U2: All That You Can't Leave Behind
Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 27 October 2000
PRISING THEMSELVES free from their mid-'90s fixations with irony and Las Vegas glitz, U2 have circled back to what they've always done best. That means ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 22 December 2000
Glamour and gutsiness — par for the Corrs ...
Ronnie Scott: Playing with fire
Report and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 5 February 2001
The Musicians' Union is accused of failing its members. ...
Comment by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 14 February 2001
It's been a bad week for music fans — but a good week for the industry. Adam Sweeting on why the CD swindle has to ...
Kristin Hersh: Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 28 April 2001
WITH HER NEW ALBUM, Sunny Border Blue, Kristin Hersh has done no harm whatsoever to her image as the Sylvia Plath of pop. While Hersh ...
Ryan Adams: Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 8 May 2001
AS FRONTMAN of quasi-legendary "alt-country" band Whiskeytown, Ryan Adams found excitable listeners likening him to Gram Parsons or even Bob Dylan. Comparisons like these have ...
Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 11 May 2001
THIS IS THE SECOND ALBUM REM have made since the departure of drummer Bill Berry, and (on disc at least) it finds them settling into ...
Anoushka Shankar: Daddy's Girl
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 30 May 2001
If anyone was born to play the sitar, it's Anoushka Shankar. Adam Sweeting asks her about life in Ravi's shadow. ...
The Eagles: You can break up any time you like, but you can never leave
Report by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 5 June 2001
"WHILE THE BAND did break up in 1980, our music continued without us," wrote Eagles founder member Glenn Frey last year. "It was becoming increasingly ...
Paco de Lucia: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 30 June 2001
DESPITE ALL the detours in Paco de Lucia's career, his current seven-piece ensemble maintains links with his past. Still present from the group's original 1981 ...
Retrospective by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, July 2001
GENE CLARK'S NO OTHER IS ONE OF THE GREAT LOST ALBUMS. ...
Wyclef Jean: Brixton Academy, London **
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 10 July 2001
...
Review by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, August 2001
MAC LADS' four-CD retrospective ...
David Krakauer, Roby Lakatos: An Evening of Klezmer/Gypsy Music: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 17 August 2001
THIS was a late-night dip into "the music of the diaspora and of the dispossessed", as the Proms brochure melodramatically put it. ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 27 August 2001
The least driven man in rhythm and blues has somehow produced another album. Adam Sweeting gets the lowdown ...
Ryan Adams: "I'm not a star to myself. I just make records"
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 19 September 2001
THE YOUNG BOB DYLAN once said that the only way for an aspiring songwriter to develop was to write 10 songs every day, then throw ...
The Beatles, George Harrison: George Harrison: All Things Must Pass
Comment by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 30 November 2001
For those who grew up in the 60s, George Harrison's death further compounds the feeling that popular culture will never be as good again. ...
Little Feat: Snakes On Everything
Retrospective by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, December 2001
FOR A FEW moments, it sounded just like old times. Little Feat were rolling unhurriedly through 'Day Or Night', embellishing it with their traditional lopsided ...
Let's talk about me: Paul Gorman's In Their Own Write
Book Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 8 December 2001
The music industry is full of pompous bores – and that's just the writers. ...
Ryan Adams: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, January 2002
I SAW rock'n'roll's future and its name is… all right, calm down everybody. ...
The Miles Hunt Club: Borderline, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 11 January 2002
MODESTY WAS never regarded as one of Miles Hunt's attributes, and although his stadium-size years with the Wonder Stuff have receded into posterity's rear-view mirror, ...
Manassas: The Feast Of Stephen
Retrospective by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, February 2002
ADAM SWEETING ON MANASSAS, STEPHEN STILLS' GROUNDBREAKING 1972 MIX OF COUNTRY AND ROCK ...
Melissa Etheridge: Dominion Theatre, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 5 February 2002
IT’S NOT every performer who could fill a theatre the size of the Dominion with just their voice and a guitar, but Melissa Etheridge pulled ...
Yann Tiersen: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 8 February 2002
BOOSTED BY the success of the rose-tinted flick Amelie, Yann Tiersen's fluffy and whimsical music is enjoying a surge of cultish popularity. ...
Menlo Park: Borderline, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 19 February 2002
THE FREAKISH Menlo Park suggests the sort of many-headed monstrosity you would be left with in the aftermath of a nuclear Armageddon. ...
Joan Jeanrenaud: No strings: Joan Jeanrenaud
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 28 February 2002
Joan Jeanrenaud had the classical world at her feet as cellist with the Kronos Quartet. She tells Adam Sweeting how she finds life on her ...
Charlatans, The (UK): The Charlatans: "Everyone has their share of bad luck don't they?"
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 15 March 2002
Their accountant ran off with £350,000, a keyboard player died on them, and now the lead singer has moved to LA. So what keeps the ...
Tony Wilson: Home entertainment: Tony Wilson on Factory Records
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 29 March 2002
The man behind Manchester's chaotic Factory Records, Joy Division and Happy Mondays takes us through his own back catalogue ...
Dead Men Walking: Camden Underworld, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 30 March 2002
"THE RESISTANCE starts here!" according to a manifesto penned by Pete "Wah!" Wylie. "It's about the return of rock'n'roll... real songs, not manufactured pap that's ...
Howard Devoto, Pete Shelley: Shelley-Devoto: The Odd Couple
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, April 2002
YOU HAVE BEEN parachuted into the middle of 1976. Text messaging, Hear'Say and Osama Bin Laden belong to an unknowable future, but The Sex Pistols ...
Retrospective by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, April 2002
HOW STEVE EARLE'S GUITAR TOWN BROUGHT A NEW ATTITUDE TO NASHVILLE. ...
XTC: A Coat Of Many Cupboards (Virgin) ****
Review by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, April 2002
FOUR-CD box set offers alternative history of quintessentially English pop group. ...
Coil, Mouse On Mars, Plaid: Mouse on Mars, Plaid and Coil: Barbican, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 29 April 2002
THE FINAL CONCERT in the Barbican's Only Connect series sought to explore "the inspiration of the computer game on electronic music", or so it said ...
A. R. Rahman, Andrew Lloyd Webber: Bollywood by numbers
Report and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 30 May 2002
When Lloyd Webber wanted a composer for his Indian musical, it had to be AR Rahman. ...
Television: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 21 June 2002
IT WAS SOMETHING of a coup to recruit Television for David Bowie's Meltdown festival. The glacial new-wavers made rock history with their 1977 debut album, ...
Charles Mingus, Eric Mingus: Eric Mingus: The big brand
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 4 July 2002
There's the Mingus Big Band, the Mingus Orchestra... and then there's Eric Mingus. He talks to Adam Sweeting about life in a jazz dynasty ...
Beth Orton: Electric Ballroom, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 11 July 2002
WITH A NEW album, Daybreaker, due at the end of the month, this one-off show was an opportunity for Beth Orton to shake down the ...
Keith Richards, The Rolling Stones: Keith Richards (2002)
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 14 August 2002
The Human Riff looks back on a life in rock'n'roll: the people — Allen Klein, Andrew Oldham, Jimmy Miller, Gram Parsons and, of course, his old mucker Mick; on the '60s music business; on starting to write, on riffs and tunings; and on his Toronto bust.
File format: mp3; file size: 106.2mb, interview length: 1h 50' 38" sound quality: ***
Senor Coconut y su Conjunto: El Baile Aleman (New State Recordings)
Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 16 August 2002
DESPITE HIS name, his album title and the fact that his introduction is in Spanish, Senor Coconut is a German called Uwe Schmidt who fronts ...
Book Review by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, September 2002
MOST ROCK stars realise they need to plug the new album and stir up column inches when concert tickets go on sale, but eventually it ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, September 2002
IF ALL YOU'VE ever seen of New Jersey is Newark airport or the bits they show you in the opening sequence of The Sopranos, you ...
Wayne Shorter: After the storm
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 26 September 2002
Wayne Shorter made his name with saxophone pyrotechnics. But now it's all peace and tranquillity — unless you mention Wynton Marsalis ...
John Otway: All aboard the Otway express
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 3 October 2002
The one-hit wonder behind 'Really Free' is returning to the charts, with a bit of help from Chiltern Railways, Mystic Meg ... and Adam Sweeting ...
Norah Jones at Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 3 October 2002
At 23, Norah Jones is both old beyond her years and curiously insecure in front of an audience, even such a plainly partisan one as ...
Foo Fighters: One by One (Roswell/RCA)
Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 18 October 2002
THE RADAR seems to have gone awry in the track sequencing: after sitting through the opening tracks — the blunt metal grunt of 'All My ...
Sum 41: Does This Look Infected?
Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 22 November 2002
EAGERLY AWAITED by fans of infant metal, Does This Look Infected? is custom-built to cash in on the success of its predecessor, All Killer No ...
Keith Richards, The Rolling Stones: Keith Richards: The Human Riff
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, December 2002
For 40 years, KEITH RICHARDS has been the soul of The Rolling Stones, a band he wouldn't let die even when he seemed to be ...
Patty Griffin: Bush Hall, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 4 December 2002
AFTER COMPLETING A DOZEN DATES supporting Billy Bragg, who played his last gig of the tour at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, Patty Griffin moved around ...
Warren Zevon: Review of Genius – The Best Of Warren Zevon
Review by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, January 2003
FATE DECIDED IT should be the sound of The Eagles which travelled around the world and defined the popular clichés of 1970s California, but Warren ...
Dashboard Confessional: Metro, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 20 January 2003
CRAMMED INTO THE SMALL SPACE in front of the Metro's stage were about 150 people, and half of them seemed to know every word to ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 21 February 2003
BILLY CORGAN has been dreaming of Christina Aguilera, pop's best undressed woman. She was staying at the same London hotel as Corgan's new band, Zwan, ...
Review and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, March 2003
TAKE A TWIST of The Wild Bunch and some ghosts from The Alamo, wash down with tequila, then fall asleep on the back porch. That ...
Linkin Park: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 7 March 2003
WITH EACH successive press release, the sales figures for Linkin Park's debut album, Hybrid Theory, spiral upwards remorselessly — 13m, 14m, now apparently as many ...
Zwan: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, April 2003
MEET THE NEW BILLY, considerably more cheerful than the old Billy. The last time I saw The Smashing Pumpkins was in the chilly gloom of ...
Mull Historical Society: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 7 April 2003
ALTHOUGH COLIN MACINTYRE claims that there are no record shops on the isle of Mull, that doesn't appear to have prevented him from squeezing a ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 11 April 2003
BACK IN THE LATE 1980s, Andrew Roachford was signed to CBS and scored hits with the likes of 'Cuddly Toy', 'Family Man' and 'Kathleen'. Then ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 20 May 2003
YOU COULDN'T ACCUSE Kieran Hebden, alias Four Tet, of lack of ambition. Now 25, he has already made eight albums, four as Four Tet and ...
Macy Gray: Shepherds Bush Empire, London ***
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 21 May 2003
HER RECORD COMPANY had spent the day warning everybody that she would be on stage at 9pm, not 9.15pm as advertised, but in the end ...
Neil Young: "Will I be deported?"
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 22 May 2003
IT IS DIFFICULT to find supportive things to say about George Bush unless your construction company is rebuilding Iraq, but it would be a droll ...
Adam Masterson: Younger and wiser
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 27 May 2003
THE GLUT OF ARTISTS working in the alt-country and folk-rock areas might be a logical reaction against the treacly deluge of pubescent pop, but there ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 24 June 2003
THEY HAD A QUESTION about psychedelic California bands on University Challenge the other night, but the Seeds didn't get a mention. About all anybody can ...
Fun Lovin' Criminals: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 25 June 2003
THE NATURAL HABITAT of the Fun Lovin' Criminals is some sweat-soaked cavern like the Astoria, so the cool formality of the Festival Hall could easily ...
Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 25 July 2003
PROBABLY INSPIRED by the pea-brained rantings of George Bush and his Bible-bashing cronies, Cracker decided the only way forward in these difficult times was to ...
Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 25 July 2003
Probably inspired by the pea-brained rantings of George Bush and his Bible-bashing cronies, Cracker decided the only way forward in these difficult times was to ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 22 August 2003
ON TOUR LAST YEAR, Alien Ant Farm were involved in a bus crash in Spain, which left their driver dead and the band traumatised and ...
Review by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, September 2003
Narrative 10-song cycle about a fictional clan is Young's best work in a while. ...
Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 5 September 2003
FOR NEBRASKA-BORN, Nashville-dwelling Josh Rouse, the choice of title is simple: "It's the year I was born." It was also the year his favourite Telecaster ...
Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 12 September 2003
ERIN MCKEOWN is a singer-songwriter introvert who just happens to be partial to pop and a bit of jazz. She writes intriguing (if slightly fussy) ...
Neil Young: The Uncut Questionnaire: Neil Young
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, October 2003
UNCUT: When you played the songs from your new Greendale album in Europe, did you experience any anti-US hostility? ...
Review by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, November 2003
AMONG THE NUMEROUS highlights of Brian Wilson's extraordinary comeback concerts last year was his performance of 'Surf's Up' a track once destined for the mysterious ...
Michael Jackson: No more mileage in being Wacko
Comment by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 21 November 2003
MICHAEL JACKSON's efforts to maintain his self-proclaimed status as "the king of pop" are looking desperate as the passage of time and profound changes in ...
Nickelback: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 10 December 2003
MAYBE IT'S BECAUSE they're from Vancouver, but Nickelback are a different species from the current wave of fashionable US metal. Whereas the likes of Korn ...
Gogol Bordello: Garage, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 13 December 2003
GOGOL BORDELLO'S UKRAINIAN GYPSY lead singer, Eugene Hutz, calls his band "an orchestra of fucking immigrants, jamming in A minor". Hutz has the kind of ...
Elvis Costello: A Dream Comes True
Report and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Gramophone, 11 January 2004
A ballet from pop legend Elvis Costello based on Shakespeare? How did the musical changeling meet the challenge, asks Adam Sweeting ...
North Mississippi Allstars: Borderline, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 19 January 2004
THE NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS are the "best blues-rock band in the world", according to Barry, the Borderline's promoter, and he's probably right. The Allstars first ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 17 February 2004
IS SIA FURLER destined to join the roll-call of great Australians, up there with Kylie, Edna Everage and Mel Gibson? She is probably too self-effacing ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 20 February 2004
ALTHOUGH SHE was born in the Bronx, and first came to prominence in the US with her 1963 hit 'Just One Look', Doris Troy, who ...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Southern Accents
Retrospective by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, May 2004
IF YOU WERE COMPILING A LIST OF southern rock bands, you'd have The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and The North Mississippi All Stars pencilled in ...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Southern Accents
Review by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, May 2004
IF YOU WERE compiling a list of Southern Rock bands, you'd have the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the North Mississippi All Stars pencilled in ...
Calexico: World Drifts In: Live At The Barbican
Review and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, June 2004
Tucson's finest bring their unique compression of American musical styles to DVD with a London concert recording. DVD ALWAYS RUNS the risk of turning into a ...
Velvet Revolver's Slash (2004)
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, June 2004
The hairy guitar wrangler talks about his drug issues, his overdose, and being straightened out by having a child; his early influences; playing guitar with Izzy Stradlin and Dave Kushner; Duff McKagan's reinvention; getting Velvet Revolver together; Scott Weiland's drug and legal issues; the (first) end of Guns N' Roses... and much more.
File format: mp3; file size: 71mb, interview length: 1h 13' 58" sound quality: ****
Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver: Velvet Revolver's Slash (2004) [transcript]
Transcript of audio interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages transcripts, June 2004
This is a transcript of Adam's audio interview with Slash. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Slash, Velvet Revolver: Slash: "I died. I do remember that."
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 9 July 2004
When three battered ex-junkies from Guns N'Roses got together to form Velvet Revolver, the cynics got ready for a flop. Guitarist Slash tells Adam Sweeting ...
Burrito Deluxe: Borderline, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 15 July 2004
Veterans don't come more gnarled and whiskery than the cast of Burrito Deluxe, whose five members have been plying their trade for decades. In steel ...
Burrito Deluxe: Borderline, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 16 July 2004
VETERANS DON'T come more gnarled and whiskery than the cast of Burrito Deluxe, whose five members have been plying their trade for decades. In steel ...
Katie Melua: She's got them dancing in the aisles at Tesco
Comment by Adam Sweeting, The Independent, 1 August 2004
RECORD COMPANIES love her across-the-board appeal to music fans who buy from supermarkets. Attempts to package the teenage Georgian as the creator of a new ...
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings: Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 2 August 2004
"WE LOVE PLAYING HERE," Gillian Welch told us more than once, and since she and her musical soulmate David Rawlings were on for more than ...
Finn Brothers: The Finn Brothers: Everyone is Here
Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 6 August 2004
THANKS TO THEIR COLLECTIVE experience with Crowded House and Split Enz, Neil and Tim Finn ought to have learned a bit about this songwriting malarkey ...
Gretchen Wilson: "I'm a redneck and proud of it"
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 21 August 2004
A new, raw country music is sweeping the US, and no-nonsense singer Gretchen Wilson is its star. Adam Sweeting met her. ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 10 November 2004
DISAPPOINTINGLY for some of the boys in the crowd, the Corrs were one sister short, since drummer Caroline is recuperating after the birth of her ...
Alison Krauss and Union Station: Lonely Runs Both Ways
Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 19 November 2004
THIS IS KRAUSS'S first studio album for three years, though in the meantime she's delivered a bestselling live album, won three Grammy awards, and made ...
Mindy Smith: Dingwalls, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 3 February 2005
THERE ARE TIMES when every performer wishes that time could be spun into reverse, and particular performances erased. This was one of those occasions for ...
Hanson: Underneath (Cooking Vinyl)
Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 4 February 2005
THE YOUNGEST Hanson brother was aged just 11 when the Tulsa trio released the mighty 'Mmmbop' in 1997. Now they've leapt into a kind of ...
Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 11 February 2005
BAP KENNEDY used to front Energy Orchard, and then, with a bit of help from Steve Earle, he discovered the symbiotic qualities of Irish folk ...
Natasha Bedingfield: Colston Hall, Bristol
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 25 February 2005
SURFING ON a tide of hit singles and a monster debut album, Natasha Bedingfield has leapt to the head of the female singer-songwriter queue in ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 17 March 2005
AMONG MOBY’s many hats are producer, remixer, club DJ, techno-nerd and ambient maestro. For this one-off gig to mark the arrival of his new album, ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 24 March 2005
WITH A NEW ALBUM DUE IN APRIL, their debut for the Endeavour label after a stint with Chris Blackwell's Palm, Cousteau are hoping there's a ...
Chuck Prophet: Borderline, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 16 April 2005
IT'S BEEN 20 YEARS since Chuck Prophet found himself lumped in with LA's neo-psychedelic "Paisley Underground" during his tenure with Green on Red. But since ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 20 June 2005
HAVING BEEN A SUPERHERO of alt.rock with Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Corgan hasn't looked quite so sure of himself in his subsequent adventures. His potential new ...
Hayseed Dixie: Borderline, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 8 July 2005
"WE'RE YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE — educated rednecks," announces Hayseed Dixie's frontman Barley Scotch, taking a giant gulp from a bottle of Newcastle Brown ale. You ...
Richmond Fontaine: Borderline, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 21 July 2005
FOR MORE THAN A DECADE, Richmond Fontaine have been plying their trade in the American northwest, turning out a string of albums which have gathered ...
Chip Taylor: Lock 17, London ****
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 30 July 2005
EVEN BEFORE he met Carrie Rodriguez, Chip Taylor's life had the authentic ring of fiction about it. ...
Kate Bush: Return of the Recluse
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Independent on Sunday, 2 October 2005
PLENTY HAS HAPPENED in the twelve years since Kate Bush last released an album. Tory sleaze has morphed into New Labour; mobile phones and iPods ...
Willie Nelson: Graeme Thomson: Willie Nelson – The Outlaw
Book Review by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 9 March 2006
MANY RECORDING artists have flirted with cowboy-chic, from the Eagles with their "gunfighter" album Desperado to Jon Bon Jovi preposterously claiming to be "Wanted Dead ...
Dusty Springfield: The Invention of Dusty Springfield
Retrospective and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Independent, 26 March 2006
Mary O'Brien was born with the voice that would make her our greatest female pop singer, but everything else that went to make the icon ...
Scritti Politti's Green Gartside (2006)
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, May 2006
The Scritti Politti man talks about returning to live work with his band of part-timers; looks back at the early Rough Trade days, and the politics and theory; at his discovery of soul and funk, and going to America to make polished pop records; at struggling with promotion and flipping out; at the process of making records, mainly his new album White Bread Black Beer; at romance, nostalgia and (lack of) memory, working with Miles Davis, and his memories of Bernie Rhodes and Malcolm McLaren.
File format: mp3; file size: 78.8mb, interview length: 1h 01' 03" sound quality: ****
Scritti Politti's Green Gartside (2006) [transcript]
Transcript of audio interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages transcripts, May 2006
This is a transcript of Adam's audio interview with Green. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Scritti Politti: Green Gartside
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 8 June 2006
Scritti Politti's Green Gartside has returned with a new album buzzing with ideas and pop hooks, writes Adam Sweeting ...
The Dixie Chicks: Dixie Chicks: How The Chicks Survived Their Scrap With Bush
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 15 June 2006
Adam Sweeting assesses how the Dixie Chicks have weathered a political storm ...
Arthur Lee, Love: Arthur Lee 1945-2006
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 7 August 2006
Flower-power myth maker who captured the dark side of the summer of love ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, Richard Williams, The Guardian, 16 December 2006
A mogul who nurtured the careers of stars such as Ray Charles, Led Zeppelin, Aretha Franklin and Dusty Springfield ...
Review by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, June 2007
TWELVE YEARS AGO, the five members of the National left their native Cincinnati and headed east for New York. As mid-westerners who can never think ...
Review by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, September 2007
As we await the comeback album, the Wiganites' third still soars. ...
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 1 November 2007
THE EAGLES became the ultimate '70s super-band, and their habitat was super-bowls and stadiums. Thus the opportunity to see them in the comparatively miniscule Indigo2 ...
Review by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, December 2007
Affecting all-star valediction from an American original. ...
Bruce Springsteen: Odyssey Arena, Belfast
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 17 December 2007
JUST AFTER everybody has published their list of the best gigs of 2007, along comes Bruce Springsteen to confound the pundits. ...
Review by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, February 2008
Harrowing '87 confessional enhanced by Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe and Jim Keltner. ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 29 February 2008
Rock drummer who graced the stage with Hendrix in his heyday ...
Martha Wainwright: "I like old guys cos they like me!"
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 10 May 2008
Singer Martha Wainwright tells Adam Sweeting about the soap opera of her family life ...
Roger Waters: O2 Arena, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 20 May 2008
Roger Waters continues to infuse his work with almost diabolical intensity, writes Adam Sweeting ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 2 June 2008
American pioneer of rock'n'roll who influenced the Beatles and the Rolling Stones ...
Walter Becker, Steely Dan: Walter Becker: Steely Dan man sees the light
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 17 July 2008
WALTER BECKER talks to Adam Sweeting about his adventurous new solo album and the rollicking return of the band that made him. ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 16 September 2008
Keyboard player and founder member of Pink Floyd ...
Review by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 11 October 2008
KEANE'S THIRD album arrives two years after its predecessor Under the Iron Sea, and in the wake of baby-faced vocalist Tom Chaplin's battle with drugs ...
Inara George, Van Dyke Parks: Inara George and Van Dyke Parks: Harmony born of legend
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 20 November 2008
The new album by Lowell George's daughter Inara shimmers with arrangements by Van Dyke Parks — one of her late father's best friends. They talk ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 6 February 2009
Co-founder of the Cramps, exponents of trash culture and 'psychobilly' music ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 20 March 2009
Alan Wendell Livingston, businessman, born 15 October 1917; died 13 March 2009 ...
Review by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, April 2009
RELEASED IN a year that also produced Steely Dan's Countdown to Ecstasy, The Eagles' Desperado and Jackson Browne's For Everyman, Little Feat's Dixie Chicken still ...
The Bay City Rollers: Tam Paton
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 10 April 2009
Bay City Rollers manager who was mired in scandal ...
Lily Allen: Somerset House, London ***
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 13 July 2009
The queen of MySpace and Twitter struggles to make herself heard in the real world. ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 16 August 2009
BEHIND EVERY star there is a great producer, musician or record company A&R man. Barry Beckett, who has died aged 66 after a series of ...
Rufus Wainwright: All Days Are Nights – Songs For Lulu
Review and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, May 2010
Just voice and piano. Not as simple as it sounds, says Adam Sweeting. ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 12 July 2010
Prolific Jamaican musician who was a pioneer of dancehall reggae ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 10 October 2010
ONE OF THE ALL-TIME GREAT American soul singers and songwriters, he scored a huge hit with 'Everybody Needs Somebody to Love'. ...
The Archies, The Monkees: Don Kirshner
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 20 January 2011
IT IRKED Don Kirshner, who has died of heart failure aged 76, that he was never inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 31 January 2011
Composer most closely associated with the golden age of James Bond but whose scores ranged from Midnight Cowboy to Dances With Wolves ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 22 June 2011
The Who frontman on touring Tommy as a solo artist; on Cousin Kevin, Uncle Ernie and paedophilia; on Prince Charles; on CSI using Who songs as title music, appearing in that show, and his acting career in general. He then, at great length, airs his frequently reactionary political opinions.
File format: mp3; file size: 64.5mb, interview length: 1h 07' 09" sound quality: *****
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 6 July 2011
Singer-songwriter famed for the 1970s chart hit 'Lonely Boy' ...
Heavy D. & the Boyz: Heavy D: obituary
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 9 November 2011
THE RAPPER HEAVY D, who has died suddenly aged 44, after collapsing at his home, was among a handful of hip-hop stars from the 1980s ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 17 March 2012
Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood tells Adam Sweeting about his new collaboration with his classical hero Krysztof Penderecki. ...
Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend: Jim Marshall, 1923-2012
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 5 April 2012
The "Father of Loud", he gave his name to the world-famous, ubiquitous amplifier. ...
Daryl Hall: The Net Widens For Hit-Maker Daryl Hall
Report and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 11 July 2012
The blonde half of Hall & Oates, Daryl Hall, is fast becoming quite the English gent, he tells Adam Sweeting . ...
Review by Adam Sweeting, The Arts Desk, 10 October 2012
Sly and sardonic new songs from the Steely Dan veteran ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 30 October 2012
FROM HIS BEGINNINGS in jazz, folk and soul music onwards, the singer and guitarist Terry Callier, who has died aged 67 after suffering from throat ...
Liza Minnelli: "Each song is a movie to me"
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 17 January 2013
Ahead of her show at the Royal Festival Hall, Liza Minnelli takes a break from rehearsals in New York to serenade Adam Sweeting. ...
Earth Wind and Fire: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Sunday Telegraph, 20 October 2013
Funk Pop's most durable act are still as interested in theatrics as music ...
Katharine Jenkins: Katherine Jenkins and the classical music stars who please our ears – and eyes
Report by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 21 January 2014
DRESSED IN something crimson and curve-enhancing by Stella McCartney, and teetering on Kurt Geiger heels, Katherine Jenkins has assured us that she's heading "back to ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 10 February 2014
The not-so-native New Yorker on her current album The River and the Thread; on rediscovering the American South, and the Tallahatchie Bridge; on being Johnny Cash's daughter; working with her husband and co-writer John Leventhal; on songwriting, and her sewing circle!
File format: mp3; file size: 57.9mb, interview length: 1h 00' 16" sound quality: ****
Destroy All Monsters, Sonic's Rendezvous Band, The Stooges: Scott Asheton, 1949-2014
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 17 March 2014
All-action drummer who was a mainstay of the Stooges both in their early years and during later reunions ...
Kasabian: Shepherd's Bush Empire
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 19 June 2014
EVEN THOUGH the Empire can only squeeze in a couple of thousand punters, it was impossible not to imagine Kasabian's thundering anthems rolling out across ...
Coldplay: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 2 July 2014
THE ALBERT HALL was besieged by Coldplay fans desperately seeking a ticket for this week's pair of sold-out shows. ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, November 2014
The singer/songwriter talks about his appreciation of the tribute album Looking Into You; on Los Angeles then and now — the cheap rents, and sharing with JD Souther and Glenn Frey, and the emergence of country rock; his new album Standing In The Breach, and avoiding writing political songs; modern American politics, school massacres and the NRA; the role of David Geffen, and his memories of his father.
File format: mp3; file size: 45.3mb, interview length: 47' 13" sound quality: ****
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 3 December 2014
Saxophone player for many of the greats of rock'n'roll, including the Rolling Stones ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 4 December 2014
MUSIC HISTORY has a special niche reserved for Ian McLagan, who has died aged 69 after suffering a stroke. ...
Daevid Allen, Gong, Soft Machine: Daevid Allen, 1938-2015
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 13 March 2015
Founder member of the psychedelic rock groups Soft Machine and Gong. ...
Cluster, Harmonia: Dieter Moebius, 1944-2015
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 22 July 2015
THOUGH BORN IN Switzerland, Dieter Moebius, who has died aged 71, was destined to become renowned as one of the pioneers of so-called Krautrock. ...
The Eagles, Glenn Frey: Glenn Frey obituary
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 19 January 2016
Singer and guitarist with the US rock band the Eagles, and co-writer of such memorable songs as 'Hotel California', 'New Kid in Town' and 'Heartache ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 31 January 2016
Leading light in Jefferson Airplane and San Francisco’s Summer of Love ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 8 March 2016
The ex-Hollie and CSN(Y) associate talks about his new album This Path Tonight; about seeing the Everlys in Manchester as a youth, harmony singing, the recent changes in his life; about Trump, religion and the state of the world, and his continuing love of photography; and about the tribulations of David Crosby and the health of old flame Joni Mitchell.
File format: mp3; file size: 49.5mb, interview length: 51' 35" sound quality: *****
Transcript of audio interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 8 March 2016
This is a transcription of Adam's audio interview with Graham. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 19 May 2016
GUY CLARK, who has died aged 74, once commented that his twin occupations of songwriting and guitar-building were "just a way to while away the ...
Katherine Jenkins: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Sunday Telegraph, 19 June 2016
Katherine Jenkins toasts the Queen with Albert Hall nostalgia-fest ...
Suicide, Alan Vega: Alan Vega, 1938-2016
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 18 July 2016
Co-founder and frontman of the confrontational electronic band Suicide ...
Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, N.W.A: Jerry Heller, 1940-2016
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 7 September 2016
Music manager who launched NWA and set up Ruthless Records with Eazy-E ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 20 November 2016
Powerful soul and funk singer with the Dap-Kings hailed for her stage presence. ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 8 December 2016
Key figure in 1970s prog rock as bass guitarist for Emerson, Lake & Palmer ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 24 September 2017
American soul singer and songwriter who found fame late in life ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 9 September 2018
American rapper and music producer who confronted his personal history of substance abuse in his lyrics ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 30 January 2019
WHEN HE topped the US singles chart in 1990 with 'I Don't Have the Heart', it was the first time James Ingram had scored a ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 18 February 2020
THE LIST OF ANDREW WEATHERALL'S achievements as DJ, musician, songwriter, producer and remixer could fill a hefty volume. His career took him from working as ...
Bonnie Pointer, The Pointer Sisters: Bonnie Pointer, 1950-2020
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 10 June 2020
"I'M THE KIND OF PERSON who likes to do adventurous, new things," said the singer Bonnie Pointer in 1979. "It's got to be a challenge ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 15 December 2021
Singer-songwriter whose four-octave vocal range made him one of the most sought after backing singers in American music ...
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