Fred Dellar
The late Fred Dellar couldn't remember a time when he wasn’t involved in music. As a teenager he saw Billie Holiday in a club date and caught Hoagy Carmichael, the Nicholas Brothers, Josh White, Lena Horne and other personal heroes on live dates. He became something of a youth club DJ, also embarking on series of lectures, usually involving popular music history. A jazz and R&B maniac, Fred ran a jazz club while in the RAF and promoted a concert by a 20-piece big band that warranted a front-page headline in Melody Maker. Employed in a factory machine shop for several years, he nevertheless ran a fanzine dedicated to Frank Sinatra, Dick Haymes, Mark Murphy, Peggy Lee etc, attending Sinatra’s only UK recording sessions. During the late ‘60s, he began writing in a part-time capacity, reviewing for Hi-Fi News and other magazines also providing an array of album sleevenotes, the first of which was for Dizzy Gillespie’s Jambo Caribe.
Redundancy from a warehouse job in 1972 found him applying for a job at NME, where he became a freelance and, during the next 24 years, contributed various reviews, features and columns, becoming known as "Fred Fact", his page receiving its own number in the Factory catalogue. During this time too, he wrote for Smash Hits, Vox and Loaded, also briefly editing a country music magazine Up Country. Author or co-author of several books, including The NME Guide To Rock Cinema, Where Did You Go To My Lovely?, The Illustrated Country Music Encyclopedia, The Hip, Sinatra- His Life And Times, Sinatra- Night And Day, The Essential Guide To Rock Records etc. he additionally contributed music and film crosswords to numerous publications.
After 1996 he was mainly employed at MOJO, a magazine he loved, fashioning the Time Machine, Enlightenment and Ask Fred pages. Meanwhile his tally of sleeve notes reached epic proportions, spanning artists ranging from the 101 Strings through to Piano Red and Sugar Chile Robinson.
Fred’s greatest boast was that he remembered the complete lyric to ‘When The War Breaks Out In Mexico (I’m Gonna Go To Montreal)’, a song he once warbled while part of a street skiffle group. He passed away in May 2021.
RBP contributors pay homage to Fred
113 articles
List of articles in the library
Frank Sinatra: The Sinatra Fans Hit Back
Readers' Letters by Fred Dellar, Record Mirror, 28 April 1962
ALTHOUGH there is a fair amount of truth in Peter Jones's article "Standard Slipping, Mr. Sinatra?" I'm afraid be is in the position of a ...
Stevie Wonder, Bags Of Chips And Clapton
Report and Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 17 February 1972
NME calls in at all-night recording session ...
Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 24 June 1972
IN TOWN TO RECORD HURRICANE'S HIT, AND KNOCKED AND ROBBED IN A LONDON STORE, MAMA CASS TALKS TO FRED DELLAR ...
Al Stewart: Of Simon, Seers And Ages Past
Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 3 November 1973
IF YOU'RE in New York at the end of the seventies, don't drink any water – because it's liable to be poisoned. ...
Scott Joplin: The Great Pianoforte In The Sky
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 25 May 1974
IT WAS ALMOST as hard as getting to Dylan – but, eventually aided by an agent called Godwin, who knew everybody worth knowing, I was ...
Tangerine Dream: Exclusiv interview mit Tangerine Dream
Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 29 June 1974
They were in Oxfordshire, mixing it at the Manor and sunbathing with scantily clad ladies in the presence of fully clad FRED DELLAR, who here ...
Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 13 July 1974
FRED DELLAR. Nothing strange about that name is there? It's sort of, well, homely, Comforting. And he lives in Badger's Walk, too. A far cry ...
Gryphon: Medieval Knight Jousts At Rock Press Knaves
Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 10 August 1974
RAY HARRYHAUSEN, as anyone who's seen The Golden Voyage of Sinbad will attest, knows all about strange creatures. So if he says that a Gryphon ...
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 21 September 1974
WE HAD IT ALL is the country album Walker's been planning for sometime. And it's country the Walker way, sophisticated and on velvet. Del Newman ...
Mick Greenwood: Midnight Dreamer
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 5 October 1974
THERE ARE a large number of musicians who make music that's always eminently listenable though hardly likely to send record companies' sales-graphs climbing like a ...
Doug Sahm: Groover's Paradise (Warner Bros.)
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 19 October 1974
OL' UNCLE Doug sure is a goodtimer. Take a whole chunk of that Johnny Rivers Boogie Band feel, dilute with a touch of pure Mike ...
Supertramp: Crime Of The Century (A&M)
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 26 October 1974
OWN UP – you'd written Supertramp off, hadn't you? ...
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 26 October 1974
THE COMMODORES, a sextet who compare roughly with Kool And The Gang and the Ohio Players, appeal to me in a limited way. ...
Thelma Houston: Sunshower (ABC)
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 7 December 1974
IF I REMEMBER correctly, this is the third time that Sunshower has appeared in this country — not that I'm complaining, I just think it's ...
Billy Swan: I Can Help (Monument)
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 18 January 1975
CRUNCH. THAT'S my pick-up going down for the hundredth time on 'Don't Be Cruel', unbelievably placed second track in on side two — a killer ...
Dave Cartwright: And Now, Half An Hour Of Masochism
Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 18 January 1975
BY THE TIME this article gets into print, Dave Cartwright will have bitten his fingers down to the knuckle or gone prematurely grey. He worries, ...
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 18 January 1975
HERE'S A NICE fresh pizza, straight from our favourite Italian baking firm, manufactured live and steaming at gigs in Toronto and New York, last August. ...
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 18 January 1975
HERE'S A NICE fresh pizza, straight from our favourite Italian baking firm, manufactured live and steaming at gigs in Toronto and New York, last August. ...
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 18 January 1975
HMMM...NOT BAD. Quite a jazz lady actually – mind you she's got her sights on that kind of bluesy, folksy, nostalgia-filled hinterland that's proved so ...
Bob Pegg: The Strains Of The Life Of A Non-Superstar
Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 1 February 1975
IN 1972 Bob and Carol Pegg parted company and their band, Mr. Fox, one of the most individual folk-rock outfits, terminated its existence. ...
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 1 February 1975
IF YOU'RE a pal of Babbling Barry's you gotta have a Theme. Love Unlimited have got one — so has Gene Page — and Jay ...
Mike Oldfield: Tom Newman: The Man Who Taped the Tubular Bells
Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 8 February 1975
WHEN IT COMES to tape, who better to talk to than the guy who did the 2,000 over-dubs on Tubular Bells, engineer Tom Newman? ...
Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 8 March 1975
"STEELEYE ARE A jumped-up lot – we've had a standing challenge with them for six months now and they've never taken it up." ...
The Chieftains: How to record 4 albums in 18 years, and still sell out the Albert Hall
Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 22 March 1975
"HE'S LIKE ONE of the little folk – a lovely, lively leprachaun, with an enormous musical talent and sense of humour to match." ...
Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 5 April 1975
"WHAT DO YOU think of the new album then?" ...
Decameron: On The Eve Of A New Album
Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 26 July 1975
DECAMERON lyricist and front-man Dave Bell is articulate but quietly spoken. ...
Report and Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 30 August 1975
LEO KOTTKE'S come a long way from St. Louis – now he's got more stories to tell than British Rail has stale rolls... ...
Frank Sinatra: The Reprise Years
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 13 September 1975
YEARS IS JUST one enormous sampler really – a fifty-track, four album, boxed set containing cuts from nearly every album Sinatra's made for Reprise since ...
Budgie, Hobo: County Rock, Northampton
Live Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 20 September 1975
NORTHAMPTON DOESN'T exactly welcome poster prolificacy. Here and there you might spot one that extols the virtues of the latest production at the Rep, but ...
Live Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 27 September 1975
ONSTAGE ARE FUNGUS, five beards in search, of folk-rock fame... and they're singing in Dutch. ...
Esther Phillips: Laissez-Faire in Bouffant Hair
Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 11 October 1975
ESTHER PHILLIPS doesn't get too knocked out when she scores with a hit single. ...
Bert Jansch: 'Bert Jansch? Not Still Going, Is He?'
Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 18 October 1975
Certainly he is, still alive and well and producing records; rumours of his retirement have been exaggerated. ...
Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 15 November 1975
FRESHERS' WEEK IS a great time to visit Dublin's Trinity College. ...
Profile by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 27 December 1975
THERE WAS A time when the Dutch folk scene just mirror-imaged that of Britain. For every traddie rendering 'Lord Randall' or 'Twa Corbies' at Loughborough ...
Ian A. Anderson: The Curse of the Lone Grinner
Profile and Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 24 January 1976
IF YOU bought a copy of a 1969 Island sampler called You Can All Join In, you'll probably remember the cover shot, which depicted most ...
The Bothy Band: Guinness Brigade in Nescafé experiment
Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 10 April 1976
FOR SOME considerable time now, a new "underground" music situation has been developing. Not one concerned with any aspect of rock, but rather one that's ...
Magna Carta: Funky Folk Deliver Body Blow To Public Transport
Profile and Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 24 April 1976
IT WAS late, pretty late. And it was in an era where public transport seems loathe to operate when darkness falls. ...
Tom Waits: Would you say this man was attempting to convey an impression of sordid Bohemianism?
Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 5 June 1976
I CAME IN on the southbound flyer, then hoofed it halfway across town to see Tom. From a nearby window drifted the sound of Billie ...
Tom Waits: Ronnie Scott's, London
Live Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 12 June 1976
HE TAKES the stage with what he describes as his don't care-a-shit shuffle. Very apt ...
Alan Parsons: Tales Of Mystery And Imagination
Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 10 July 1976
A bearded, disembodied head appeared in the darkness. My blood ran cold. It was PARSONS I saw... ...
Twiggy: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 24 July 1976
I GUESS they popped the champers at Phonogram after this glitzy shindig at the Home of Fest. For hadn't Mike Harding, had 'em clutching at ...
June Tabor: Sensuous Librarian Reveals All
Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 2 October 1976
SUDDENLY MY HEART STARTED TO POUND. ...
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 6 August 1977
BACK IN 71, it seemed that the Sweet Baby was every body's favourite. He'd already had a massive hit with 'Fire And Rain', while a ...
Gong: Magik Brother, Mystic Sister; Gong Est Mort — Vive Gong!
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 12 November 1977
TWO CHAPTERS in the life of Daevid Allen, space dingo and nomad of nonsense. ...
Ben Sidran: The Doctor Is In (Arista)
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 19 November 1977
IN SOME ways Sidran is an anachronism. Though he's got something of a rock pedigree after paying his dues as side man with Steve Miller, ...
Joe Ely: Honky Tonk Masquerade
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 25 March 1978
'T FOR Texas, T for Tennessee' sang Jimmie Rodgers back in '28, cementing the blues alongside country music, thus helping himself to a million-seller. ...
David Bowie, Elton John: The Producers: Gus Dudgeon
Interview by Fred Dellar, Sound International, May 1978
The producer's job is possibly one of the least-understood and most under-rated in the entire recording business. One usually thinks of a producer as providing ...
Curtis Mayfield: Heartbeat (RSO)
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 1 September 1979
IT'S ALWAYS been my contention that Curtis Mayfield doesn't really sing but rather squeezes his voice out over a song. And because I'm a squeeze ...
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 5 January 1980
FIRST THE vital question — has marriage cheered up our ever-ailing heroine and caused her to cease spilling teardrops on the Steinway? On the evidence ...
Mike Oldfield: Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Mike Oldfield Finds Out That Success Has Its Problems
Interview by Fred Dellar, Smash Hits, 10 January 1980
MIKE OLDFIELD strokes the tabby cat that sits on his lap. Though in the comfort of his own home, he's uneasy, unsure. It's a bad ...
Interview by Fred Dellar, Smash Hits, 21 February 1980
GEOFF DOWNES is the one with 20/20 vision. Trevor Horn is the one with the go-go goggles. Together they're the Buggles, purveyors of clean-machine pop, ...
Live Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 8 March 1980
THEY BOP, they hop, they bounce like rampaging 'roos. They sing songs bearing titles as profound as 'She's My Baby, She's My Girl' and 'Do ...
Live Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 19 April 1980
MONDAY AT Wembley. Contemporary country night, give or take a few lower-order stetson-tilters. ...
The Korgis: Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime
Interview by Fred Dellar, Smash Hits, 24 July 1980
WE'VE BEEN out and about on a photo session. It’s involved a wander round to the local skateboard park, now a decrepit slab of bumpy ...
The Beach Boys: The Capitol Years (World Records)
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 7 March 1981
LET'S NOT kick around the sand-dunes: this boxed set is, quite simply, the finest Beach Boys offering ever released. ...
Marmalade: Sweet Sounds And Sticky Patches
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, The History of Rock, 1982
The Marmalade were an archetypal UK pop group who had the misfortune to operate in an era of progressive rock. ...
The Walker Brothers: Harmony and rivalry from the Walkers
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, The History of Rock, 1982
In the mid sixties, just as every worthwhile group in Britain seemed to be setting up tours in the States, Scott Noel Engel, John Joseph ...
Fun Boy Three, The Specials: Fun Boy Three: Why?
Report by Fred Dellar, Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 16 January 1982
FRED DELLAR and ANDREW TYLER report on the vicious race attack that put Lynval Golding in hospital ...
Fad Gadget: It's A Fad Fad Fad World
Interview by Fred Dellar, Smash Hits, 18 February 1982
By day he's mild-mannered Frank Tovey. But at night he dons disguise and becomes the fearsome Fad Gadget. Fred Dellar talks to both. ...
Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels: Mitch Ryder: From The Detroit To The Top Ten
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, The History of Rock, 1983
Mitch Ryder meant guts, sweat, bump 'n' grind. His skin was white but he sounded black. He came from Detroit and he should have worked ...
Julie London: Cry Me A Cult Figure
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 5 March 1983
ONCE THERE was a girl, a bass and a guitar. Together they made a record called 'Cry Me A River', which turned the singer into ...
Louis Jordan: Going For The Long Jump!
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 6 August 1983
The last of the swingers, the first of the rockers, altoist Louis Jordan's influence stretches through BB King and David Bowie to the '80s jive ...
The Beach Boys, Dennis Wilson: Dennis Wilson
Obituary by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 7 January 1984
THE OFTEN tempestuous career of Dennis Wilson ended last Wednesday, when the Beach Boys drummer drowned in the waters of LA's Marina del Rey. ...
Obituary by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 25 August 1984
ESTHER PHILLIPS died on 7 August. I read this somewhere in the small print of a national newspaper. "LOS ANGELES – Blues and jazz singer ...
The Everly Brothers: Roger White: Walk Right Back – The Everly Brothers (Plexus Books)
Book Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 6 December 1984
THANKFULLY THIS is not as I had feared – yet another yawn-provoking paste-up job, fashioned merely to cash in on the Everlys’ recent reunion tour, ...
Obituary by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 23 March 1985
ROCK LOST another legendary face-moulder on 9 March, when Robert "Bumps" Blackwell died at his home in Hacienda Heights, near LA. ...
Annette Peacock: Colour Tails: Annette Peacock: I Have No Feelings (Ironic)
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 20 February 1986
NOTHING YOU CAN pin down here. Nothing you safely stick a label on and file for easy access. ...
Johnny Cash: The Johnny Cash Show: Country Festival, Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 12 April 1986
THE PILL POPPIN' POPE OF POP ...
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 5 March 1988
ARISTA'S SWING Street hails the return of Bazza the jazzer. The man who once put more bums on the grass at Blenheim than Churchill had ...
Steely Dan: A Dan for all Seasons
Discography by Fred Dellar, Record Hunter, December 1990
One more glance through the rock files to evaluate the deeds and doings of Steely Dan. Flicking the pages – Fred Dellar ...
Christy Moore: Smoke And Strong Whiskey (Newberry/All formats)
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 4 May 1991
"WELCOME TO the cabaret", chortles Moore, as he ladles out a poteen made from pure booze, vitriol and the tears of centuries. "Your wife says, ...
Miles Davis: Miles Dewey Davis III (1926-1991)
Obituary by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 12 October 1991
"Jazz is ignored because the white man likes to win everything. White people like to see other white people win – and they can't win ...
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 2 April 1994
TIM BUCKLEY died at 28. He never had a Top 40 album. But two recent live album releases and the emergence of his son, Jeff, ...
George Jones: High-Tech Redneck (MCA MCAD 10910)
Review by Fred Dellar, Vox, June 1994
AT LEAST George hasn't lost his sense of humour. The album sleeve depicts him leaning on a car that sports the numberplate IDOSHOW. Which kinda ...
Book Review by Fred Dellar, Vox, September 1995
County crows ...
Guide by Fred Dellar, MOJO, March 1997
Every month we navigate the highwater marks, rapids and stagnant ponds of a prolific artist’s CD output, so you don’t have to. We begin with... ...
Pink Floyd: Alexandra Palace 1967: Syd Barrett Wasn’t Feeling At All Well...
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, MOJO, April 1997
He was seeing things that others only eyed in kaleidoscopes. But he was aware that Roger Waters was dragging him on-stage; dawn was breaking and ...
Willie Nelson: How To Buy Willie Nelson
Guide by Fred Dellar, MOJO, May 1997
TWO THINGS. Willie Nelson is not a country singer but a singer who just happens to fit neatly in the country section for those of ...
Aretha Franklin: How to Buy Aretha Franklin
Discography by Fred Dellar, MOJO, July 1997
DURING 1956, a 14-year-old Aretha, daughter of gospel superstar the Reverend C.L. Franklin, sang and played piano before an enthusiastic congregation at her father's new ...
The Beach Boys: How to Buy The Beach Boys
Discography by Fred Dellar, MOJO, September 1997
THE GOOD NEWS is that the racks are full of Beach Boys CDs. The bad news is that many of them are not the ...
Johnny Cash: How To Buy Johnny Cash
Guide by Fred Dellar, MOJO, October 1997
COLLECTING ALBUMS by Arkansas' Man In Black is a doddle. For starters, he's never made any really bad ones. And most of the ...
Billie Holiday: How to Buy Billie Holiday
Guide by Fred Dellar, MOJO, November 1997
TIME WAS when Billie Holiday records were hard to come by. But Motown's filmed version of her life, based on a dubious autobiography to which ...
Guide by Fred Dellar, MOJO, January 1998
Every month we navigate the high-water marks, rapids and stagnant ponds of a prolific artist’s output, so you don’t have to. We continue with... ...
B.B. King: How to buy B.B. King
Guide by Fred Dellar, MOJO, March 1998
HE’S FILED under ‘Blues’. Which is convenient. But Riley ‘Blues Boy’ King can be anything you want him to be — king of the juke ...
Nina Simone: How To Buy Nina Simone
Guide by Fred Dellar, MOJO, April 1998
IN SOME WAYS, things haven't changed overmuch since Eunice Waymon opted to change her name to Nina Simone so that her mother wouldn't find out ...
Rod Stewart: How to Buy Rod Stewart
Guide by Fred Dellar, MOJO, May 1998
"A WHITE person can sing the blues with just as much conviction as a negro. All these negro singers singing about 'walking down the railroad ...
Tammy Wynette: First Lady Of Country
Obituary by Fred Dellar, MOJO, June 1998
TAMMY always stood by her fans. Often at the end of a gig, she'd just sit around signing autographs. Once, when her life was threatened, ...
Ry Cooder: How to Buy Ry Cooder
Guide by Fred Dellar, MOJO, August 1998
BETTER KNOWN for bottleneck than even the M25, Ryland Cooder remains a cult figure despite appearing on records by the Rolling Stones, the Monkees, Johnny ...
How to Buy Greenwich Village Folk
Guide by Fred Dellar, MOJO, November 1998
TOM PAXTON recalls that he, along with Dylan, Dave Van Ronk, David Blue, Eric Andersen, Pat Sky and Phil Ochs, once called the Village home. ...
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, MOJO, December 1998
He couldn't read. He couldn't write. He couldn't stop screwing up. Yet Hank Williams is a giant of popular music without whom rock'n'roll might never ...
Book Review by Fred Dellar, MOJO, January 1999
IT WAS during the '50s and early '60s that a young trumpet-player from York – ambitious, steeped in jazz tradition but possessing a unique pop ...
Steve Earle, The Del McCoury Band: Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band: The Mountain
Review by Fred Dellar, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, May 1999
PREDICTABLY FOR the unpredictable Earle, his tribute to bluegrass mainman Bill Monroe contains no material actually penned by Monroe. ...
Guide by Fred Dellar, MOJO, June 1999
Every month we navigate the high-water marks, rapids and stagnant ponds of a prolific artist’s output, so you don’t have to. We continue with... ...
Merle Haggard: If I Could Only Fly (Anti-Inc)
Review and Interview by Fred Dellar, MOJO, December 2000
A country music cornerstone tells it how it was. ...
Obituary by Fred Dellar, MOJO, September 2001
HE WASN'T the most accomplished guitarist in country music. There were those in Nashville who could fashion half a dozen great licks in the time ...
Guide by Fred Dellar, MOJO, May 2002
A PERFORMER who personifies rock'n'roll, Louisiana's Jerry Lee is 'The Killer' – the wildman of the piano and the provider of a zillion headlines. ...
Pink Floyd: So Wrong, Yank Floyd Alight
Retrospective and Interview by Fred Dellar, MOJO, February 2004
"OHMIGAWD! IT just missed Roger!" Another piece of burning drape — ignited by a stray firework — fluttered into the audience. Some cheered, mistaking it ...
Moondog: Ain't Nothin' But A Moondog
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, MOJO, May 2004
DURING APRIL, 1953, US DJ Sid Gross was in England attempting to arrange for a British band to visit the States in exchange for an ...
Marvin Gaye: Time Machine June 1981: Marvin the Paranoid Singer
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, MOJO, June 2004
"MARVIN GAYE'S British tour is back on again," claimed a press report. "The dates originally announced were scrapped 48 hours later, on the grounds that ...
Retrospective and Interview by Fred Dellar, MOJO, October 2005
Today, Jimmy Scott is a legend, revered by Lou Reed and Madonna for his ethereal, unearthly soprano. But for years he languished in anonymity, battling ...
Paul Robeson: Pride & Prejudice: Paul Robeson by Martin Duberman (New Press) *****
Book Review by Fred Dellar, MOJO, October 2005
From child prodigy to civil rights activist and outcast, the rise and fall of America's highest-paid concert singer is both touching and tragic, says Fred ...
Bobby Bare: A Bird Named Yesterday/Talk Me Some Sense/Down & Dirty... Plus
Review by Fred Dellar, MOJO, February 2007
BARE'S A COUNTRY giant, up there alongside Cash, Haggard, Waylon'n'Willie. A one-time pop kid who toured with the likes of Bobby Darin, he notched a ...
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band: Time Machine: Alex Harvey Dies, 4 February 1982
Retrospective and Interview by Fred Dellar, MOJO, February 2007
TOMORROW I'LL be home, he thought. The tour had taken a lot out of him, but that was to be expected. After all, tomorrow he'd ...
Mel Tormé, Nina Simone: Gus Wildi's Bebopping Jazz Baby: Bethlehem Records
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, Rock's Backpages, March 2009
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1953. American TV companies were gearing up for the first programmes in colour, Playboy was cock-a-hoop about featuring Marilyn Monroe on the cover and ...
Sounds Of The Harlem Globetrotters
Retrospective and Interview by Fred Dellar, Rock's Backpages, 3 March 2009
JOHNNY DEPP WAS once asked if, in his early days, he really wanted to be a Harlem Globetrotter. "It's absolutely true," he mused "I went ...
Amanda Ambrose: Remembering Amanda Ambrose
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, Rock's Backpages, 23 March 2009
BECAUSE I'D BEEN an Amanda Ambrose fan since the '60s, during 2007 I nudged Poker Records into releasing an Ambrose album. ...
Liner Notes: Recollections of a Dying Art
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, Rock's Backpages, 17 April 2009
DURING THE LATE '60s I received a fee of seven pounds for supplying my first sleeve note – one that adorned Dizzy Gillespie's Jambo Caribe. ...
Sepian Thoughts: The Other Side of Copyright
Report and Interview by Fred Dellar, Rock's Backpages, 27 April 2009
RICHARD TAY'S OFFICE is an aural museum of the impressive kind. Many hundreds of old 78 rpm shellac discs plus vinyl long-players from the '50s ...
Dusty Springfield: Keeping The Faith: The making of Dusty's lost Atlantic album
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, MOJO, April 2011
IN JANUARY 1971, Dusty Springfield flew to New York to begin work on what was planned as her third album for Atlantic Records. Some of ...
Paul McCartney: Macca's Ration Book Romance: 'We Three'
Comment by Fred Dellar, Rock's Backpages, February 2012
PAUL MCCARTNEY'S latest album, Kisses On The Bottom, is, to a great extent, based around a number of songs his father once loved: age-old standards ...
Yip Harburg and the Story of 'Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead'
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, Rock's Backpages, April 2013
THOUGH I HAVE tremendous sympathy for those who lost their jobs, their dignity and sometimes their lives, following the pit closures and ensuing strike of ...
Rudy Van Gelder: Quality Guaranteed
Obituary by Fred Dellar, MOJO, November 2016
MAESTRO OF engineering Rudy Van Gelder – the man who shaped the sound of modern jazz – left us on August 25. ...
Cab Calloway, August Darnell, Gene Krupa: Time Machine: June 1943 – L.A.'s Zoot Suit Riots
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, unpublished, February 2020
CAB CALLOWAY was something of a superstar by 1943. A would-be Harlem Globetrotter, he'd had that possible career nixed by his big sister Blanche, who ...
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