Library Rock's Backpages

David Burke

David Burke

David Burke began writing about music as a staffer on local newspapers in his native Ireland, before decamping to London in 1990. He spent six years working in print, audio and television as part of the World Entertainment News Network. His features appeared in the UK's red tops and international publications such as Esquire (Japan) and Pop Rocky (Germany). David is a regular contributor to Classic Pop, Vintage Rock, Country Music and RNR magazines, and to the All About Jazz website. He has authored four books – Crisis in the Community: The African Caribbean Experience of Mental Health (Chipmunka), Heart of Darkness: Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska (Cherry Red), A Sense of Wonder: Van Morrison's Ireland (Jawbone) and Singing Out: A Folk Narrative of Maddy Prior, June Tabor and Linda Thompson (Soundcheck).

145 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Fats Domino

Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, Spring 2013

WHEN HURRICANE KATRINA devastated New Orleans in 2005, resulting in the deaths of some 1,833 people and causing property damage estimated at £1,300 billion, a ...

Gillian Welch: Air Miles: A Transatlantic Conversation with Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, Fall 2011

MOBILE PHONES, don't you just hate them? I know that to most of the Earth's populace they're as essential as a limb these days, but ...

Pop Staples, The Staple Singers: Freedom Song

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2008

David Burke talks to the indefatigable Mavis Staples ...

Rick Nelson: Ricky Nelson: Tragic Teen Idol And Rockabilly Tearaway

Profile by David Burke, Vintage Rock, Summer 2012

FOR SOMEONE who, in his pomp between 1957 and 1963, was almost as big as Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson appeared neither comfortable with or conscious ...

David Gray: "I was ready to throw off the past"

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2009

YOU'D THINK having three number one UK albums and two that charted in the US top 20, not to mention the biggest selling Irish album ...

Sinead O'Connor: Faith and Courage

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2009

TRUTH WILL always out in the end. And the truth-sayers will be vindicated where once they were vilified. ...

The Handsome Family: Handsome is as Handsome does

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, August 2009

WHAT DO YOU GET when you cross the Platters with 19th century Romanticism? Why, the new album from the Handsome Family, of course. ...

Alison Krauss: Flight Plan

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2011

IF I WERE TO tell you that Alison Krauss has won more Grammy Awards than any other female artist, and is third on the all-time ...

Rosanne Cash

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2009

THERE COMES A time in every young man or woman's life when dad mounts the pulpit and delivers a homily on the kind of music ...

Lyle Lovett

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2009

DAMN THAT Lyle Lovett, he sure is one elegant gent. While this R2 writer, in a Prada or Armani suit, would look plain guilty, Lovett ...

Eels: E is for Eels

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2008

MARK OLIVER EVERETT, alias E, alias Eels, is a respectful though reserved interviewee. ...

Aimee Mann: Boxing Clever

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2007

AIMEE MANN reckons she could take Bob Dylan in a boxing bout. It would be a close run thing but age and height advantage would, ...

John Hiatt: Tune-up: John Hiatt

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2008

JOHN HIATT WAS a complete fuck-up. The year was 1984 and his addiction to booze and cocaine induced what he referred to as "a semi-blackout ...

American Music Club: The Golden Age of American Music Club

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2008

MARK EITZEL sounds very chipper – not at all the lugubrious character that comes across in his songs. With the release of American Music Club's ...

Suzanne Vega: Blue Notes

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2007

THE SONG 'Bound' on Suzanne Vega's quite brilliant new album, Beauty & Crime, finds her wondering "if you might still want me". ...

Steve Earle: Alive and Kicking: Steve Earle

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2011

STEVE EARLE IS, as his fellow Americans are wont to say, in a good place. "I'm pretty happy. I've got a new little boy, a ...

Corinne Bailey Rae : Corinne Bailey Rae: Faith, Hope And Charity

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2010

NOT EVERY do-gooding celebrity is like Bono, you know. There are those among the nouveau riche who'd rather eschew the kind of attention the U2 ...

Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan: Dishing the Dirt: Isobel Campbell

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, December 2008

ISOBEL CAMPBELL has just killed a bluebottle, a crime of muscacide for which she carries absolutely no remorse.  ...

Eliza Carthy: Strange Folk

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2010

WHEN Christian Koch wrote in The Guardian earlier this year that British National Party (BNP) leader Nick Griffin was a big fan of "that most ...

Alabama Shakes: Shakin' All Over: Alabama Shakes

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, Summer 2012

They've already created more buzz than a swarm of angry bees and, good news, they're returning to the UK later this year. Brittany Howard of ...

Jackie Wilson

Profile by David Burke, Vintage Rock, Winter 2013

LISTEN TO The Million Dollar Quartet Sessions, the seminal 1956 recording of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash jamming at Sun ...

Joan Armatrading: Joan As Blueswoman

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2008

EARLIER THIS YEAR a new album by one of Britain's most enduring singer-songwriters debuted at the top of Billboard magazine's blues chart in the United ...

Kris Kristofferson

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2013

HUMILITY can be a deceptive character trait. Those who profess it are not always quite as humble as they seem. Like Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, "He ...

Seasick Steve: Lucky Charm

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2012

His is a remarkable success story but, Seasick Steve tells David Burke, he takes nothing for granted ...

Bill Haley

Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, Summer 2013

BILL HALEY was an unlikely pioneer of the rock'n'roll revolution. Even in his pomp he looked like your dad. ...

Christy Moore

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2014

LOOKING BACK often means you can no longer be arsed looking forward. That you'd much rather retrace your footprints on the road behind than make ...

Jackie Leven: Outside In

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2009

In a frank conversation, Jackie Leven recalls his difficult early years, his experience with heroin, and how he can come up with four albums a ...

Rodrigo y Gabriela: Natural Acoustics: Rodrigo y Gabriela

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2010

YOU'D THINK a pair of former thrash-metal heads from Mexico City would have the kind of backstage rider that was a hedonistic Eden. Not a ...

Johnny Horton

Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, 2014

THE ANNALS OF rock 'n' roll are littered with tragic narratives of lives cut short in their prime, whether it be Eddie Cochran's death in ...

Jake Bugg

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2014

JAKE BUGG is giving me the run around. He has already postponed our interview twice at short notice, and now here he goes again, evading ...

Sonny Burgess

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Vintage Rock, May 2014

"YOU FOLKS KEPT us alive, thank goodness. If it wasn't for you all over there, a lot of us wouldn't still be playing," says Sonny ...

The Delines: Willy Vlautin's New Band

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, December 2014

ON RICHMOND FONTAINE'S last tour, Willy Vlautin used to dream about being in a country soul band with support act Amy Boone. Then one night, ...

Eric Bibb

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2014

DR JOY DEGRUY coined the term Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome to describe the multi-generational trauma experienced by African Americans as a consequence of slavery. In ...

Lucinda Williams

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2014

HARD TO BELIEVE now, given her adulatory reputation among commentators and contemporaries alike, but when Lucinda Williams was hawking her songs around, looking for a ...

Clannad

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2013

"PEOPLE ALWAYS say that we broke up. We never broke up – we're a family," says Moya Brennan of Clannad's return to the studio for ...

The Stray Cats

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Vintage Rock, September 2014

IT WAS 1979. Year Zero had been and gone, though the confrontational, contrary spirit of punk was manifest in the new wave, while its emphasis ...

John Hammond

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2007

TOM WAITS owes it all to his wife, Kathleen Brennan. The one-time raggedy man and barfly, a sartorial amalgam of Frank Sinatra's Capitol covers, Be-Bop ...

Shelby Lynne: Suiting Herself

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2010

"I ALWAYS COME off to cats like you as negative, but it's not that way. I'm just honest." Shelby Lynne's been explaining what it is ...

Bonnie Raitt: Slipstream Effect: Bonnie Raitt

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, June 2012

IT'S BEEN A TOUGH seven years for Bonnie Raitt since the release of her last studio album, Souls Alike. She lost both her parents, Broadway ...

Julie Fowlis: Gael Force: Julie Fowlis

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2008

JULIE FOWLIS spends a lot of time singing to people who, on the whole, haven't got a clue what she's singing about. But it makes ...

Carolina Chocolate Drops: Sweet Sounds: Rhiannon Giddens and Carolina Chocolate Drops

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, June 2012

RHIANNON GIDDENS'S birthday back in February was a bittersweet occasion. The Carolina Chocolate Drops co-founder-member's celebrations were tempered by her grief upon learning of the ...

The Blues Band, Paul Jones, Manfred Mann: Paul Jones

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2009

SELDOM HAS the descriptive shorthand "long-awaited" been more apposite than in the case of Starting All Over Again, a rare Paul Jones solo album released ...

The Beatles and Hamburg

Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, Winter 2012

THE BEATLES may have come from Liverpool, England – but they were made in Hamburg, Germany. That, at least, is the view of Allan Williams, ...

The Clancy Brothers: Liam Clancy: The Last Man Standing

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2008

JOHNNY CASH TOOK Trent Reznor's 'Hurt', a lacerating hymn about heroin addiction, and recast it as a profound meditation on his own mortality. But equally ...

Courtney Pine: Common Cause: Courtney Pine is making all the right connections

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2011

IF THE JAZZ police, those self-appointed protectors of a genre that's about freedom of expression (the irony is obviously lost on them), didn't know what ...

Ruby Turner: The Gospel according to Ruby

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, October 2009

"THEY CAN KEEP their big record deals. Gone are the days when I'm going to be told what to do. I can go to bed ...

Mary Gauthier: Liberty Belle

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2008

Singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier was something of a late starter – but once she picked up that pen she certainly had plenty to write about. Having ...

Mary Chapin Carpenter: Modern Miracles: Mary Chapin Carpenter

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2010

Having successfully overcome a major health scare, and now with a UK tour imminent – her latest album finding favour with fans and critics alike, ...

Sheryl Crow

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2014

SHERYL CROW'S made a country album, they said. She's living down there in Nashville, hanging out with Vince Gill and Brad Paisley, going to church ...

Joan Osborne: Between the Covers

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2008

SOME ARTISTS are indelibly associated with one piece of work their whole lives. What once was a gift in terms of eliciting public acceptance can ...

Holly Williams

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2014

HOLLY WILLIAMS carries her lineage lightly. Which can't be easy when your grandfather was Hank Williams Sr, the beating heart and tortured soul of country ...

Buffy Sainte-Marie

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2015

DON'T TELL THE wife, but I've fallen for Buffy Sainte-Marie. She probably doesn't feel the same way about me, but then being well-versed in the ...

Charlie Gracie

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Vintage Rock, March 2015

"TO SURVIVE without a hit record for 63 years and make a good living – that's the success of Charlie Gracie," says the rock'n'roll pioneer ...

Don McLean

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2015

THE OBJECTS OF pop culture iconography never grow old. Elvis Presley is forever framed as the hip-thrusting, kiss-curled, impossibly beautiful boy king, just as Bob ...

Joss Stone: Water for Joss Stone's Soul

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2015

"PEOPLE WOULD SAY, 'So, who do you think you are singing these soul music songs when you are 16 and you're white and you're from ...

Elvis Presley's gospel music

Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, 1 October 2015

LEGENDARY AMERICAN producer Bob Johnston once suggested of Bob Dylan that he was "filled with the holy spirit". The same could have been said of ...

Redbone: Redbone

Sleeve notes by David Burke, Repertoire Records, 2016

THEY WERE Native American culture in vivid sound and colour, contemporary scions of a proud people, renewing primordial rhythms and imagery, making them new again ...

Loretta Lynn

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2016

THE WORD "legend" has been devalued by misappropriation in modern linguistic currency. These days it is increasingly (and stupidly) used as a synonym for "star" ...

The Corrs

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, February 2016

IT'S BEEN A long hiatus, punctuated by the joy of nativity, the sorrow of bereavement and the pursuit of singular ambition, but the Corrs – ...

The Fireballs

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Vintage Rock, July 2015

THEY WERE acclaimed as pioneers of the surf sound alongside Dick Dale, Link Wray and the Ventures, but the Fireballs, who enjoyed a US chart ...

Elvis Presley: Elvis and Black Music

Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, October 2015

SO THE STORY goes that Elvis stole black music, exploited the influences he absorbed while growing up on the blurred edges of the coloured line ...

Ben Harper

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, June 2016

WHEN BEN HARPER reunited with his band, the Innocent Criminals, for a sold-out four-night run at San Francisco's Fillmore in March, 2015, seven years after ...

Dolores Keane

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2015

DOLORES KEANE has been through the mill. Conspicuous by her absence from Irish folk song this century, she spent most of those wilderness years inveterately ...

Ryan Bingham

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2015

RYAN BINGHAM'S IN a more hopeful place these days. And though his humility wouldn't countenance my or anyone else saying so, it makes you glad ...

Donnie Fritts

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2016

DONNIE FRITTS MAY be an alumnus of Muscle Shoals, the Alabama mecca of southern soul, and a renowned songwriter and recording artist in his own ...

Thomas Dolby: Godfathers of Pop: Thomas Dolby

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, June 2016

BEFORE HE EMERGED as a pioneering figure of electronic music in the 1980s, Thomas Dolby wrote Lene Lovich's single, 'New Toy', appeared on the Thompson ...

ABBA: The Split

Retrospective by David Burke, Classic Pop, December 2016

WE CAN TALK about the ephemeral magic of pop music. About the quick fix, the instant buzz, about getting off or becoming blissed out on ...

Morcheeba, Skye|Ross: Skye | Ross

Profile and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, October 2016

Morcheeba, helmed by Paul Godfrey's immaculate production, Skye Edwards' ethereal vocals and Ross Godfrey's luminous guitar, mapped out their own singular sonic territory in the ...

Lisa Hannigan: Companion Piece

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2012

David Burke spends a little time with Lisa Hannigan and hears how her latest solo album, Passenger, is an altogether more relaxed affair. ...

Christy Moore

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2016

WHEN YOU THINK about it, email is only a truncated form of letter writing. The art of literary correspondence re-imagined. And every bit as revealing ...

Richmond Fontaine: Willy Vlautin: It's only rock'n'roll

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2010

Devotees of Richmond Fontaine can rest easy: frontman Willy Vlautin's burgeoning reputation as a novelist doesn't portend the demise of the Americana outfit – at ...

Ron Sexsmith: A spoonful of sugar

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2013

Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith's true-life confessions are easy to swallow, says David Burke. So why isn't he more widely prescribed? ...

Fionn Regan: Shadows and light

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2010

Fionn Regan has just released his much-anticipated second album. It was something of a long haul, as he explains to David Burke. ...

Ben Taylor: Sons and lovers: Ben Taylor

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, October 2007

David Burke talks to Ben Taylor about his dislike of folk music and his plans to shake it up a bit. And then there's the ...

Hurray for the Riff Raff: Protest and Survive

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2012

MUSIC AS AN instrument of change – remember that concept? It may seem a little naïve at a time when even the mighty have fallen ...

Mary Black: There's something about Mary Black

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2009

MARY BLACK wouldn't class herself as a dreamer, even though she's realised a few dreams others of us have maybe harboured. Playing London's Royal Albert ...

Lambchop: Damage Control: Lambchop's Kurt Wagner

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2008

LAMBCHOP DEVOTEES can rest easy: despite frontman Kurt Wagner's solo tour of Europe last autumn, the Nashville collective have not made their last elegantly sombre ...

Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris: Old Friends, New Record: Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2013

It was a long time coming but, as Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell explain to David Burke, their new album together was all a matter ...

Nanci Griffith: Blue Moons and True Believers

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2012

About to make a welcome return to our concert halls and with a new album imminent, Nanci Griffith is in conversation with R2's David Burke. ...

The Chieftains: Hail to the Chief: Paddy Moloney

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2010

Paddy Moloney talks to David Burke about the band's latest album, a collection highlighting a "forgotten" chapter in the history of neighbouring Mexico and America. ...

Fionn Regan: History Lesson: Fionn Regan

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2007

THE PRETENDERS and the one-trick-ponies are always found out in the end. The procession of new Dylans has been relentless – and mostly underwhelming – ...

Damien Dempsey: Dublin Boy: Damien Dempsey

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2007

Damien Dempsey has a few things he wants to get off his chest and finds a willing listener in David Burke. ...

Joe Jackson: Still Looking Sharp

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2008

David Burke catches a rare sighting of pop music's invisible man. ...

Dolores O'Riordan: Travelling Light

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2009

Dolores O'Riordan, former singer with the Cranberries, tells David Burke of her journey close to the edge during those heady days of pop stardom, and ...

Simone Felice: Beyond Thunderdome

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2012

Acclaimed singer-songwriter and sometime novelist Simone Felice talks life, love and near-death with fellow author – and R2 philosopher – David Burke. ...

Debbie Gibson: All-American Girl

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, November 2017

DEBBIE GIBSON feels as though she's in a Tina Turner moment at this stage of her career, on the precipice of a midlife renaissance. ...

Bruce Springsteen: E Street shuffle: Bruce Springsteen

Retrospective by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2008

The Boss is coming to town! David Burke looks at the career and impact of the man whose been described as "the Steinbeck of rock'n'roll". ...

Luke Haines: Godfathers of Pop: Luke Haines

Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, November 2017

LUKE HAINES has fronted the Auteurs, Baader Meinhof and Black Box Recorder, released 13 albums under his own name, composed the soundtrack for Paul Tickell's ...

Omar: Fighting His Corner

Profile and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, August 2017

HE WAS A pioneer of the British soul movement of the 1990s, alongside Brand New Heavies, Young Disciples and Jamiroquai, but Omar claims the genre's ...

Jim Lauderdale: Jim Changes Everything

Interview by David Burke, Country Music, February 2017

JIM LAUDERDALE knows his country music history – and he's very aware of his and his contemporaries' modest place in it compared to the iconic ...

Bobby Darin: Songs of Freedom

Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, March 2017

AMERICAN CULTURAL icon Dick Clark once described Bobby Darin as "a musical chameleon" who could effortlessly traverse a multiplicity of genres, from heavy duty rhythm ...

The Staple Singers: Working for the Lord

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Vintage Rock, March 2017

THE STAPLE SINGERS were Americana before the term was even coined. They may have emerged from the gospel tradition, but the Chicago family – father ...

Elvis Presley: Elvis & the Hustler: Colonel Tom Parker

Retrospective by David Burke, 'Vintage Rock – Elvis: A Celebration', 2017

NONE OF US will ever know if Elvis Presley would have become the king of rock'n'roll without the involvement of Colonel Tom Parker at the ...

Herbie Hancock, Omar, Courtney Pine: Courtney Pine

Profile and Interview by David Burke, All About Jazz, 16 October 2017

COURTNEY PINE didn't pick up his beloved tenor saxophone for more than a decade, until an album exploring the black British experience demanded it. The ...

Frankie Valli: Back in the High Life Again

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Vintage Rock, May 2017

IF IT WASN'T for music, Frankie Valli might have ended up in a life of crime – just like Rusty Millio, the character he played ...

Sharon Shannon for President

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2010

HERE'S A MAD IDEA – Sharon Shannon as Ireland's next President, replacing Mary McAleese and thus maintaining the recent tradition (established with the appointment of ...

Chuck Berry in Hail! Hail! Mr Rock & Roll

Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, 2017

CHUCK BERRY WAS "more complicated, more difficult, more diabolical" than any movie star, according to the man who directed him in Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll. Yet ...

Mike + the Mechanics: Engineering a New Future

Profile and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, April 2017

It may have begun as a side project away from Genesis while Phil Collins tried to sort out his marital difficulties, but Mike + the ...

Dolly Parton

Profile and Interview by David Burke, Country Music Legends, Summer 2017

SHE'S SOLD MORE than 100 million albums, chalked up twenty six number ones on the Billboard country charts, won nine Grammys and received the U.S. ...

The Beatles, Roy Orbison: Roy and the Boys: Roy Orbison and the Beatles On Tour

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Vintage Rock, 2017

PICTURE THE SCENE – Roy Orbison is at the back of the bus working on 'Oh, Pretty Woman', the song that would become his biggest ...

Chuck Berry: You Can't Catch Me: Chuck Berry's Final Years

Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, 2017

THE ARTIST IS immortalised in death as seldom in life. At least that's mostly the way of things. But not when it came to Chuck ...

Fionn Regan: History Lesson

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2007

THE PRETENDERS and the one-trick-ponies are always found out in the end. The procession of new Dylans has been relentless – and mostly underwhelming – ...

Denys Baptiste, John Coltrane: Denys Baptiste: Making the Late Trane Accessible

Profile and Interview by David Burke, All About Jazz, 10 October 2017

EVEN THE MOST avowed John Coltrane disciples among us would admit to grappling with some of the albums he released in the couple of years ...

Dionne Warwick: Birmingham Symphony Hall

Live Review by David Burke, Classic Pop, November 2018

THE VOICE MAY have withered with age – the range not so extensive, the lung capacity not so voluminous – but Dionne Warwick remains a ...

David Byrne: Symphony Hall, Birmingham

Live Review by David Burke, Classic Pop, August 2018

ALL THE SUPERLATIVES you've heard or read about David Byrne's American Utopia tour are true. ...

Big Mama Thornton: Big Mama's Blues

Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, November 2017

BIG MAMA THORNTON – alias Willie Mae Thornton – knew how it worked. Like her black R&B contemporaries, male and female (but especially female), she ...

Dannii Minogue: Stepping Out of the Shadow

Profile and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, August 2018

Fifteen years ago, Dannii Minogue reinvented herself as a dance icon with Neon Nights, a classic of the genre which bears favourable comparison with big ...

Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Hymn to Her

Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, May 2018

THE GODMOTHER of Rock'n'Roll, the Original Soul Sister, the First Lady of Rock are just some of the epithets posthumously bestowed on Sister Rosetta Tharpe ...

Echo & the Bunnymen: Shooting from the Lip

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, January 2018

STEVE EARLE ONCE said he'd stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table and declare his mentor Townes Van Zandt the best songwriter he'd ever heard. ...

Anne Briggs, June Tabor: June Tabor: The Art Of Singing

Book Excerpt by David Burke, 'Singing Out' (Soundcheck), 2015

An excerpt from Singing Out: A Folk Narrative of Maddy Prior, June Tabor and Linda Thompson. ...

Toyah Willcox: Toyah: Forever Free

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, September 2018

1977 and all that may have come and gone, but Toyah brought the punk aesthetic into '80s pop music with her radical sense of style ...

Soweto Kinch: A Singular Jazz Odyssey

Profile and Interview by David Burke, All About Jazz, 10 August 2017

SOWETO KINCH was a curious teenager when an encounter with Wynton Marsalis impelled him on his own jazz odyssey. An odyssey characterised by the creation ...

Zara McFarlane: Embodying the Spirit of Jamaica

Profile and Interview by David Burke, All About Jazz, 13 January 2018

ZARA MCFARLANE may have been made in Britain, but she belongs to Jamaica. The land of her mother and father is written in her soul ...

The Special AKA: When Pop Went Political: Nelson Mandela's 70th Birthday Tribute Concert

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, June 2018

IT WAS A party staged to express solidarity with the world's most famous political prisoner, while concurrently expressing vehement opposition to an overtly racist system ...

Kim Wilde — Close Encounters of the Wilde Kind

Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, March 2018

"I always figured that the music world and my voice were connected and that was my destiny," says Kim Wilde. And she wasn't wrong. Now ...

Waylon Jennings: Best Friend of Mine: Waylon Jennings on Buddy Holly

Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, 2016

HE MAY BE renowned as a pioneer of outlaw country, but Waylon Jennings had a rock'n'roll past long before he caused apoplexy among the Nashville ...

Whitney Houston, Courtney Pine, Simple Minds, The Special AKA, Sting, Stevie Wonder: When Pop Went Political: Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, June 2018

IT WAS A PARTY staged to express solidarity with the world's most famous political prisoner, while concurrently expressing vehement opposition to an overtly racist system ...

Johnny Hates Jazz: Clark Datchler: The Jazz Singer

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, December 2018

"I SHOULD HAVE been more patient, but I just wanted to get on with the next thing," is how an older, wiser Clark Datchler reflects ...

Aswad, Smiley Culture, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Janet Kay, Matumbi, Misty In Roots, Musical Youth, Maxi Priest, Steel Pulse, Carroll Thompson, UB40: When British Reggae Was King

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, June 2019

Reggae may have been born in Jamaica, but it grew up in '80s Britain at a time of evolving multiculturalism, finding an unlikely ally in ...

Level 42: Next-Level Thinking

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, September 2018

Level 42 embark on a 19-date Eternity tour of the UK this autumn. But don't expect to hear anything new. "I'm as dry as granny's ...

Howard Jones: Breaking Down Barriers

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, December 2018

MUSIC HAS always been a tribal thing, and the music press – Classic Pop excepted, of course – has always derived a certain sadistic pleasure ...

Swing Out Sister: Pledging Their Allegiance

Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, July 2018

They broke the Top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic with 'Breakout' in 1986, recorded with Jimmy Webb and made it big Japan. Now ...

LaVern Baker, Chuck Berry, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, Elvis Presley: Rock'n'Roll and Race: One Nation Under a Beat

Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, December 2019

America was riven by racial conflict when rock'n'roll breached the colour line, uniting black and white youth in a precursor to the hard-won equalities of ...

Hank Ballard and the Midnighters: Hank Ballard: A Simple Twist of Fate

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Vintage Rock, November 2019

Chubby Checker may have become synonymous with 'The Twist', but that didn't bother the song's composer. "It was a blessing for me," said Hank Ballard ...

Jerry Lee Lewis: Lights, Camera, Action!

Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, 2019

THE YEAR WAS 1957, when Jerry Lee Lewis' parents finally caught up with much of America and bought a TV set. According to Rick Bragg, ...

Five Star: And Then There Was One…

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, October 2019

At their '80s peak Five Star lived the high life in a Berkshire mansion and drove a fleet of supercars. But then the hits dried ...

Joe Jackson: Don't Look Back in Anger

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, February 2019

JOE JACKSON doesn't strike you as someone who's all that bothered about anniversaries, preferring to remain in the present rather than return to the past. ...

Screamin' Jay Hawkins: Spellbound

Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, Summer 2018

FOR SOMEONE whose live performances involved climbing out of a coffin, it came as no surprise that Screamin' Jay Hawkins resurrected his career in the ...

Junior Giscombe: The Godfathers of Pop: Junior Giscombe

Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, June 2019

JUNIOR GISCOMBE cut his teeth as a backing vocalist with Linx before enjoying success as a solo artist with 'Mama Used to Say', a 1982 ...

Martin Stephenson & The Daintees: The Godfather of Pop: Martin Stephenson

Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, October 2018

THE NOW-DEFUNCT Sounds magazine reckoned Martin Stephenson "one of the finest and grossly underrated singer-songwriters this country has given birth to". ...

Willy DeVille

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, 2008

The artist formally known as Mink demonstrates a direct and colourful use of language as he discusses his rich and varied career with David Burke. ...

Michael McDonald: The Godfather of Pop — Michael McDonald

Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, January 2018

In a career spanning more than 40 years, Michael McDonald has been a member of Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers, sang with Ray Charles, ...

Candi Staton: The Godmother of Pop: Candi Staton

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, September 2018

CANDI STATON is set to release Unstoppable, her 30th album of a 50-year career, and hoping to score a sixth hit in as many decades. ...

The Fatima Mansions: Fatima Mansions: The Evil That Men Do

Interview by David Burke, Irish in Britain News, 25 October 1991

Just when you thought it was safe to turn on your radio, Fatima Mansions are back with Bertie's Brochures, a bruiser of an EP – ...

Leyla McCalla

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2016

IF THE Haitian government wants to improve the international perception of its country, appointing Leyla McCalla as cultural ambassador with a roaming brief could be ...

Alexander O'Neal: The Resurrection of Alexander O'Neal

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, February 2018

He was sacked by Prince, only to find fame and lose it all in an orgy of decadence. Now adopted Mancunian Alexander O'Neal is back. ...

Bronski Beat: The Godfather of Pop: Steve Bronski

Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, June 2019

SEMINAL SYNTHPOP outfit Bronski Beat – Steve Bronski, Jimmy Somerville and Larry Steinbachek – unwittingly became a mouthpiece for gay issues with their 1984 debut ...

Declan Sinnott: All the right noises

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2012

Declan Sinnott's recently released solo record is cause for celebration, as David Burke reports. ...

Men at Work: Unfinished Business: Men Back At Work

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, June 2019

Fronted by a Scottish native who relocated down under in his teens, Men At Work glimpsed greatness before it all became a bit Spinal Tap. ...

Cliff Richard: Arise, Sir Cliff

Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, 2018

FOR SOMEONE who'd enjoyed a consistent run of success, not to mention the adulation of the public since 'Move It'launched him as Britain's answer to ...

The Beatles, The Quarrymen: The Quarrymen — A Legend is Born

Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock Presents The Beatles: The Early Years, 2022

"EVERYBODY WAS in a skiffle group," said George Harrison of the hep new craze that swept through Britain in 1956. ...

Gary Crosby: The Ultimate Warrior: Gary Crosby

Book Excerpt by David Burke, Giant Steps (Desert Hearts), 2021

(Excerpt from Giant Steps: Diverse Journeys in British Jazz, published by Desert Hearts 2021)   ...

Traveling Wilburys: Famous Five

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Vintage Rock, 2017

In the last year of his life, Roy Orbison enjoyed a renaissance in both his solo career and as part of a super group that ...

Stevie Wonder: Sound and Vision

Retrospective by David Burke, Classic Pop, October 2017

STEVIE WONDER had reached the summit with the wildly ambitious 1976 double album Songs in the Key of Life. It would become the best-selling and most ...

Little Richard: Great Gosh A'Mighty

Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, 2018

THE FIRST SIGN appeared on a flight from Melbourne to Sydney in 1957. Little Richard was travelling up country as part of a touring bill ...

back to LIBRARY

COPYRIGHT NOTICE