Chris Campion
A long-term contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Observer, Chris Campion never wanted to be a music journalist and has been trying his utmost to sabotage his career since the late '90s.
Drawn to the extremes of popular culture, as well as its beating heart, he has written feature articles that include a lengthy treatise on the bizarre fan-led metaculture surrounding girl groups and boy bands in the Japanese pop industry, a sympathetic portrait of the personalities who drove the chaotic and oft-times violent emergence of Norwegian black metal, and an exploration of the extraordinary spirit and defiance of folk music produced by embattled Sami peoples living in the Scandinavian Arctic Circle. These have appeared alongside profiles of mainstream pop acts, celebrities, artists and outsiders, and also true crime stories, in publications such as The Guardian, The Times, Rolling Stone, The Wire, Dazed & Confused and Bizarre.
His first book, a notorious 2010 anti-biography of the Police, Walking on the Moon: the Untold Story of the Police and the rise of New Wave Rock (Aurum Press), set the rise of the popular white reggae band (dubbed "the world's first Thatcherite pop group") against a backdrop of Cold War politics and the neoconservative triumphalism of the American music industry. Along the way, it also tackled the obscene posturing underpinning the '80s fad for charity rock and the strange phenomenon of gay Police fan fiction.
The book polarised readers, fans and reviewers alike. Unhappy Police fans derided the book as "brutally negative and mean-spirited" and "one man's crusade to destroy the Police and their legacy". Critics praised it as "a sharpened pin to the bloated balloon of mythmaking", an antipathetic biography in the vein of Barry Miles' Frank Zappa and Victor Bockris' Keith Richards that was "pungent but nonetheless serious". Sting did not pass comment.
In 2010, frustrated with the lack of opportunities to write about the music he loves at length, he also started a record label, Saint Cecilia Knows (after the patron saint of musicians) as a roundabout way of writing liner notes for a planned series of reissues of unheralded musical geniuses. The first release, a deluxe box set of seminal albums by Mickey Newbury (entitled An American Trilogy), was acclaimed by all quarters as a long overdue monument to one of America's most brilliant and overlooked songwriters.
Chris is currently at work on an authorised biography of Papa John Phillips, founder and creative force behind the Mamas and the Papas.
Chris Campion on the RBP podcast
62 articles
List of articles in the library
Future Sound of London: Beauty/Paranoia at the Flick of a Pixel
Interview by Chris Campion, Mondo 2000, Summer 1994
EMITTING ELECTRONIC effluvia across a liquid sky. Broadcasting their alienation out to the world. Future Sound Of London's music and pronouncements contain viral strains of ...
Overview by Chris Campion, URB, 1995
NEW MUSIC is born of the old. Hip-hop and Rock 'n' Roll can be traced back through Delta Blues, field and slave songs back to ...
Report by Chris Campion, The Wire, March 1996
ALIGHTING FROM the famed Marrakech Express, Frank Rynne, Joe Ambrose and myself were hustled into an illegal taxi. It careered along Boulevard Mohamed V, the ...
Report by Chris Campion, The Village Voice, April 1996
A LONG-RUNNING saga of legitimacy has embroiled the Last Poets in a situation that is rapidly echoing the sentiments of one of their own poems, ...
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Ray Gun, 1998
THE BETA BAND are an awkward bunch of ne'er-do-wells. It takes roughly thirty seconds after sitting down with the acclaimed London-based four-piece to discover this. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Chris Campion, Ray Gun, 1998
FROM ITS ACUTELY localised inception, the influence of Bristol's Wild Bunch has spread far and wide. The sound system that spawned Massive Attack, Tricky and ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Dazed & Confused, 2000
DEAN AND GENE Ween look disconsolate. Last night, they played a rollicking three-hour set to a 200-strong baying crowd in their hometown of New Hope, ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, URB, June 2000
FOR LEGENDARY MC, Divine Styler, music is recorded mindstate. The modulated wail of the muezzin that initiates Word Power 2: Directrix, his opus dei, is ...
A Guy Called Gerald: Essence of Gerald
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, URB, August 2000
TWO YEARS AGO, A Guy Called Gerald walked away from his London-based label Juicebox and into a new life. He took his studio and his ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Dazed & Confused, September 2000
ANTICHRIST. MESSIAH. Celebrity. Pariah. Marilyn Manson, the celebrity death cult leader everyone loves to hate, is a dark star whether the religious right like it ...
Interview by Chris Campion, Dazed & Confused, Winter 2000
MAVERICK PRODUCER and bassist Bill Laswell is on a mission to collapse musical boundaries by any means necessary. With a resolutely pioneering spirit, a typical ...
Interview by Chris Campion, URB, January 2001
TEN YEARS AGO, rave spawned a monster. The Prodigy, a bastard progeny spat out screaming from a dirt chamber of sound. This twisted British mutation ...
Serge Gainsbourg: Intoxicated Man: The Life and Times of Serge Gainsbourg
Retrospective by Chris Campion, Dazed & Confused, March 2001
AN ARTISTIC DEMAGOGUE flaunting a reputation that was an unholy cross between Warhol, Dylan and the Marquis De Sade, Serge Gainsbourg performed a decadent waltz ...
John Frusciante: The Return of John Frusciante
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Dazed & Confused, April 2001
MOST ROCK STARS have "lost weekends". John Frusciante had "lost years", specifically the period between 1992 and 1997. At the height of the Red Chilli ...
Aphex Twin: Rephlex Records at 10
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, URB, June 2001
PART MALL, part Moroccan Souk, Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre is a dilapidated mish-mash of late '60s brutalist architecture that contains a bustling marketplace. It's ...
Sigur Rós: Cool Band from a Cool Place
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 10 2002
THE MUSIC OF Iceland has a presence on the world stage that far outstrips its influence as a country, a phenomenon of which the country's ...
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Bizarre, March 2002
WITH AN ARREST record that's more extensive than his discography, it's a wonder that Ol' Dirty Bastard (aka Big Baby Jesus, Dirtdog, Osiris and plain ...
DJ Shadow: King of the Vinyl Junkies
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 6 June 2002
DJ Shadow revolutionised hip hop with his first album and toured the world with Radiohead, but he is still regarded as a record-collecting nerd, he ...
Interview by Chris Campion, Dazed & Confused, July 2002
IT'S TAKEN 30 years for Alan Vega to make the transition from surly street punk and art world agitator to New York institution. Better known ...
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, New Musical Express, 13 July 2002
EYE YAMANTAKA, founder and creative visionary of Japan's Boredoms, is one of rock's great eccentrics. His band churn out a cosmic slop for kids with ...
Arthur Lee: The Singing Cowboy
Retrospective and Interview by Chris Campion, Dazed & Confused, August 2002
ARTHUR LEE IS rock's almost-ran, never-was but could have been. A musical chameleon whose mythical personae have imprinted themselves on music history. He was the ...
The Germs: St. Anger: Darby Crash
Retrospective by Chris Campion, Dazed & Confused, November 2002
HE WAS Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious rolled into one. A befuddled punk prophet with a brilliant mind whose rise was as shocking as his ...
Film/DVD/TV Review by Chris Campion, Tartan Films, 2003
MORE THAN JUST a nostalgic character study, George Hickenlooper's Mayor Of Sunset Strip is an artfully-constructed meditation on fame that scratches at the surface world ...
Interview by Chris Campion, Dazed & Confused, April 2003
The influence of the crush grooves produced by Def Jam and American Recordings founder, Rick Rubin, are stronger than ever. ...
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Dazed & Confused, June 2003
Let me introduce the band to you. On the cymbal… left foot. Over here on the bass drum, we've got right foot. Shut up! My left hand does ...
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 12 June 2003
THE US ARMY'S Psychological Operations Company recently revealed that it has been playing Metallica's 'Enter Sandman' repeatedly to Iraqi prisoners as a pre-interrogation routine. In ...
Brujeria: This Is Jarcor: Brujeria
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Dazed & Confused, July 2003
Mexican Death metal band Brujeria are the white man's nightmare. Striking mortal fear into the populace both north and south of the border for over ...
Daniel Johnston: An Outsider's Songs of Pain and Longing: Daniel Johnston
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 3 July 2003
LOCKED ON his own in an Xfm recording booth, Daniel Johnston casually flips through the weathered ring binder that holds his songbook and begins to ...
Damon Dash: Dash it, says Posh Damon
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 9 August 2003
Dash — a man who wears a new pair of shoes every day — has given Victoria Beckham a hip-hop makeover. Chris Campion met him ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Observer Music Monthly, 22 February 2004
Outkast are a rap act like no other - as interested in Kate Bush as in hardcore hip hop, and as likely to be found ...
Vincent Gallo: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, April 2004
OPINION IS polarised around the work of actor-musician Vincent Gallo, whose art is inseperable from his ego. His film Brown Bunny was given a drubbing ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Observer Music Monthly, 23 May 2004
FRIDAY NIGHT AT Pals Bar & Brasserie in Croydon. An idolatrous battle cry curls through the venue. "You doan wanna war wid whoo? War wid ...
Dan Penn: Muscle Shoals: Soul of the South
Retrospective and Interview by Chris Campion, unpublished, September 2004
Muscle Shoals and Fame Studios are synonymous with the golden era of soul music. But the musicians who wrote and played on the songs that ...
Kanye West: "Arrogant? Not me. I just knew I was going to win…"
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Telegraph Magazine, 11 September 2004
OHIO STATE University is marching to the beat of a college dropout. Not just any college dropout mind, but rapper and producer Kanye West, who ...
Meat Loaf: Is Meat Loaf Just A Great Big Ham?
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 30 October 2004
INSIDE THE garage of Meat Loaf's California home there is a photograph of him lying comatose on stage surrounded by paramedics, part of a framed ...
Interview by Chris Campion, The Observer, 14 November 2004
In the troubled ganglands of Compton, Los Angeles, Chris Campion meets the new future of hip hop. ...
Snoop (Doggy) Dogg: Snoop Dogg: The Dogg's Still Hot
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 2 December 2004
HIGH IN THE Hollywood Hills, at a barbecue held to celebrate the release of his latest album, Snoop Dogg is deep in conference with his ...
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 11 December 2004
What happens when veteran soul drummers and top hip-hop DJs improvise together? Chris Campion reports. ...
Einstürzende Neubauten: Postbahnhof, Berlin
Live Review by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 1 April 2005
THIS YEAR Einstürzende Neubauten, the German godfathers of Industrial Rock, celebrate a quarter century of existence. One suspects that the irony of this is not ...
Turbonegro: Clowns Of Evil Go on the Rampage
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Observer Music Monthly, May 2005
THE STREETS OF Hamburg are awash with piss and broken bottles and cock-eyed sailor boys with queer intentions. A two thousand-strong army of Turbonegro fans ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Observer Music Monthly, 21 August 2005
He's the top-selling artist in the world, his life story is being filmed by an Oscar-nominated director and he's moved on from being a rap ...
The Knife: A Curious Exoticism
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 13 April 2006
YOU MIGHT NOT have heard of the Swedish brother-sister duo the Knife, but there's a fair chance you've heard their music. ...
Current 93: Waiting for the Apocalypse in a Hastings back garden
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 16 June 2006
Chris Campion meets David Tibet of the industrial folk band Current 93. ...
Kool Keith: Welcome to the weird world of Kool Keith, rap's kookiest star
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 31 August 2006
CALL HIM Black Elvis, Dr Dooom, Mr Gerbik or just plain Matthew. Kool Keith (real name Keith Thornton) responds to all of them. ...
Tiny Tim: Hello Stranger: Tiny Tim
Retrospective by Chris Campion, Observer Music Monthly, September 2006
HE WAS A GOTHIC APPARITION in a grey plaid jacket, a mane of wiry black hair spilling over the shoulders. His face, powdered and blotchy, ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Telegraph Magazine, September 2006
EVERY TIME Joanna Newsom walks into her house she has cause to reflect on the ways that nature encroaches on human affairs. "I think there ...
Tony Joe White: Audience With The Other Elvis
Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 30 December 2006
Tony Joe White, writer of 'Polk Salad Annie' and 'Rainy Night in Georgia', talks to Chris Campion about his mythic songs and his Louisiana childhood ...
CocoRosie: Dinner with pop's strangest sisters
Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 7 April 2007
Off-the-wall indie band CocoRosie spend the evening with Chris Campion. ...
The Young Gods: Super Ready/Fragmenté
Review by Chris Campion, The Observer, 20 May 2007
The influential Swiss trio stick to their simple, brutally effective principles on this ninth album ...
Sleeve notes by Chris Campion, Rev-Ola Records, August 2007
THREE TEENAGE girls are discovered singing along to records in a New York night club by two hotshot managers. They are rushed into a recording ...
Devendra Banhart: Stranger than Folk: Devendra Banhart
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Observer Music Monthly, 12 August 2007
IN A HOUSE on a hill, in a canyon near L.A., Devendra Banhart scatters popcorn on the earth like seed. "This is for the hairs," ...
The Police: Miles Copeland: Where's the Police chief?
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, The Observer, 2 September 2007
AS THE POLICE prepare to finally hit home turf on their reunion tour, one figure conspicuously absent from all the reappraisals of their career is ...
The Mamas and The Papas, John Phillips: King of the Wild Frontier: Papa John Phillips
Retrospective and Interview by Chris Campion, Observer Music Monthly, 15 March 2009
IN AUGUST 1977, John Phillips was supposed to be recording the album with Keith Richards that would mark his comeback. ...
Janelle Monáe: Flash forward: Janelle Monáe
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, The Observer, 14 June 2009
Introducing this month's hottest talent, the android-loving future of R&B. ...
Bat for Lashes: "She's not wicked, nor kooky. And don't tell her she's like Tori Amos…"
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Observer Music Monthly, 6 September 2009
NATASHA KHAN does not feel herself. She is standing in the living room of a cramped Brooklyn apartment on a frosty January morning. If first ...
Lightning Bolt: Earthly Delights
Review by Chris Campion, The Observer, 4 October 2009
IF ONE HAD TO SUM UP LIGHTNING BOLT in two words, "awkward" and "delirious" would be as good as any. The experimental bass and drums ...
Mickey Newbury: Guitars, Boats And Fairways: Mickey Newbury and Friends on Old Hickory Lake
Sleeve notes by Chris Campion, Saint Cecilia Knows Records, 2011
IT LOOKS, FROM ABOVE, like a snake arching through the brush. A series of long blind curves that begins at Hendersonville, the small community formed ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, The Guardian, 4 December 2014
Unclassifiable, esoteric and revered by the hip-hop cognoscenti, Divine Styler releases his first album in 14 years, Def Mask — a tour de force of ...
Elvis Presley: Next Train to Memphis: Peter Guralnick's Sam Phillips
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Rock's Backpages, 17 November 2015
AS THE PRE-EMINENT and passionate chronicler of music history, Peter Guralnick is in a league of his own, with a bibliography that not only — ...
Retrospective and Interview by Chris Campion, The Guardian, 8 September 2016
David Bowie is rumoured to have written a score to the sci-fi classic that's locked up in some vault. But the truth is much stranger ...
Obituary by Chris Campion, Los Angeles Times, 31 July 2020
MISS MERCY, the effervescent rock 'n' roll superfan who found fame as a member of Frank Zappa's "groupie" girl-group the GTOs (Girls Together Outrageously), died ...
Lithofayne Pridgon, a muse to musicians and likely inspiration for Jimi Hendrix's 'Foxy Lady', dies
Obituary by Chris Campion, Los Angeles Times, 20 July 2021
LITHOFAYNE PRIDGON, Jimi Hendrix's long-term girlfriend and the likely inspiration for one of his most popular and enduring songs, 'Foxy Lady', spent most of her ...
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