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Ian Winwood

Ian Winwood

Ian is a music journalist of almost 30 years' standing. Over the course of an imbalanced career, his work has appeared in The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, Kerrang!, Rolling Stone, Q, MOJO, Revolver, The Daily Mirror, NME, and more. He is the author of three books, while his fourth will be published by Faber & Faber in 2022. He lives in Camden Town with his fiancée and their two cats. A proud citizen of the People’s Republic of South Yorkshire, for his sins he supports Barnsley Football Club.

43 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Papa Roach: Oi! We want a word…

Interview by Ian Winwood, Kerrang!, 14 April 2001

With album sales of three million behind them, life is peachy for Papa Roach right now. Or it would be if they hadn't just got ...

Bad Religion: The Process of Belief

Review by Ian Winwood, Kerrang!, 19 January 2002

Bad Religion reform for belief-affirming 12th album ...

P.O.D.: The Garage, London

Live Review by Ian Winwood, Kerrang!, 19 January 2002

The Nu Testament: P.O.D. convert London town ...

Bad Religion, Black Flag, The Offspring, Social Distortion, X: The violence. The drugs. The death. From Black Flag and Social Distortion to Bad Religion and The Offspring, this is the story of 20 years of LA punk.

Retrospective by Ian Winwood, Kerrang!, 19 January 2002

On the long, straight drive from Los Angeles airport, down a curving freeway, past oil wells and gas stations, diners and office supply stores, onto ...

Randy: Combat Rock

Profile and Interview by Ian Winwood, Kerrang!, 26 January 2002

Four men from northern Sweden are giving The Hives a run for their money in the incendiary rock 'n' roll stakes. But selling records is ...

Idlewild: Wet & Wild

Interview by Ian Winwood, Kerrang!, 29 June 2002

With their third album, The Remote Part, Idlewild’s time has arrived. Roddy Woomble will reflect upon this once he’s revealed the secrets of serving milk… ...

Queens of the Stone Age: Mean Fiddler, London

Live Review by Ian Winwood, Kerrang!, 6 July 2002

THERE ARE people everywhere. Crowded at the front of the stage, clogging the bar, hanging on the stair rails, queuing for the toilets. The room ...

Green Day: Get in the van

Interview by Ian Winwood, Kerrang!, 13 July 2002

For the past nine weeks, Green Day have been blasting across America on the Pop Disaster tour… Their mission: "To reclaim our throne as the most ...

Tenacious D: Astoria, London

Live Review by Ian Winwood, Kerrang!, 20 July 2002

OUTSIDE THE Astoria, on the Charing Cross Road, "Filthy Phil The Preacher" is holding a Bible and a broken megaphone. ...

Hundred Reasons: A Cut Above

Interview by Ian Winwood, Kerrang!, 8 November 2003

Hundred Reasons make terrible rock stars. They do, however, make fantastic rock albums. This despite being crippled by panic attacks, chronic geekyness and rampant alcohol ...

Foo Fighters: "Us or Nirvana? I'm prouder of us!"

Interview by Ian Winwood, New Musical Express, May 2005

DAVE GROHL IS SITTING in a spacious room with his band the Foo Fighters. They're seated in a ragged semi-circle, and at the moment the ...

Nickelback: My five-year feud with Nickelback

Essay by Ian Winwood, The Guardian, 5 March 2008

The band sent me flowers for my funeral, then challenged me to a fight. None of it caused me as much pain as their music. ...

The Astoria: Share your beer-stained memories

Report by Ian Winwood, The Guardian, 13 January 2009

YOU CAN ALWAYS tell when a gig at the Astoria has just finished because you'll be greeted with the sight of 2,000 people spilling out ...

Rammstein: Rock's most dangerous band: why Rammstein's incendiary retelling of history terrifies Germany

Report and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 1 July 2019

Playing with fire ...

Tool's Fear Inoculum is finally here: why did it take so long?

Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 30 August 2019

EARLIER THIS MONTH, Tool joined the modern world. After manning the virtual-picket line since 2001, the Californian cult rock quartet finally relented and allowed their ...

Billy Bragg interview: "I can't watch Question Time anymore — it's like the Coliseum"

Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 18 September 2019

ON THE SONG 'Old Clash Fan Fight Song', a bash-em-out deep cut from the Fight Songs album of 2011, Billy Bragg sings of "a mate ...

Wilco's Jeff Tweedy on clashing with Billy Bragg, being insulted by Diddy, and why bands don't need record labels

Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 14 October 2019

IN 2001, WILCO fired the first shot in a war against an industry that had done them wrong. When Reprise Records rejected their fourth album, ...

Sex Pistols, The Stranglers: The true punk confessions of Stuart Pearce

Retrospective and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 6 November 2019

ON THE MORNING of the 23rd of June 1996, Stuart Pearce was the most famous person in the country. The previous afternoon, England had beaten ...

Slayer: A requiem for Slayer: The poignant, pulverising end of "the band that terrorised the world"

Report by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 29 November 2019

AT 23:00 Pacific Coast Time on Saturday 30th November, the world of metal will enter a period of mourning. At this time, onstage at the ...

Tal Wilkenfeld: Queen of the Bass: Why Tal Wilkenfeld is every rock star's secret weapon

Profile and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 16 December 2019

Adored by Prince, Jeff Beck and the Who, thirtysomething jazz prodigy Tal Wilkenfeld is one of the most in-demand musicians in the world. And it's ...

Rush didn't chase fame, hits or groupies — yet there will never be a better rock band

Retrospective by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 14 January 2020

SUCH WAS the secret appeal of Rush that in the summer of 2008 the band's three members were invited onto American television for only the ...

Aerosmith: How Aerosmith are still rocking after 49 years: "We did drugs, drugs - and more drugs"

Retrospective and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 28 January 2020

IN THE AUTUMN of 1972, Aerosmith's Joey Kramer was walking in the group's adopted home-city of Boston. With work finished on the quintet's eponymous debut ...

Marc Almond: "The Royal Family are the one continuous thread that holds Britain together"

Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 13 February 2020

The non-stop Soft Cell singer on his confrontational past, Twitter troubles, and why he doesn't mind being part of "the establishment". ...

Extreme Noise Terror, The KLF: When the KLF and Extreme Noise Terror outgunned the Brits: what happened next?

Retrospective and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 18 February 2020

TONIGHT, THE 02 Arena in London will host the 40th edition of the BRIT Awards. Presented by Jack Whitehall and featuring appearances from Rod Stewart ...

Ice-T: "I don't hate cops – I hate racists"

Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 13 March 2020

ON SEPTEMBER 30th, 1992, Ice-T performed a concert with his metal band Body Count at the Jack Adams Stadium in San Diego. On a bill ...

Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel: "You still have us": how Peter Gabriel's 'Don’t Give Up' became a lifeline for the lonely

Retrospective by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 27 March 2020

IT IS ALMOST eight years since the video clip for 'Don't Give Up' first appeared on YouTube. Written and sung by Peter Gabriel, and featuring ...

AC/DC, The Band, James Brown, Kate Bush, Johnny Cash, Cheap Trick, Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, Peter Frampton, Aretha Franklin, Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob Marley & the Wailers, MC5, Metallica, Joni Mitchell, Motörhead, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, The Ramones, Simon & Garfunkel, Bruce Springsteen, Supertramp, Talking Heads, Thin Lizzy, U2, The Who, Wilco, Bill Withers: The 30 best live concert albums of all time

Guide by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 22 April 2020

LAST WEEK, A STORY appeared in the New York Times that predicted that live music would not return to the world's stages until the autumn ...

The Beastie Boys: "We became idiot caricatures": how the Beastie Boys grew up without becoming boring

Retrospective by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 24 April 2020

ONE OF MY favourite memories of a life spent loitering in the company of musicians is of the time the Beastie Boys danced for me. ...

The Scorpions: Can a power ballad change the world?

Retrospective and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 20 May 2020

A hit podcast investigates the theory that the German rockers' global smash was written by the CIA. But the truth is even more incredible. ...

Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel: Simon & Garfunkel and the battle of Central Park: Inside the concert that tore them apart

Retrospective by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 3 June 2020

IN THE SUMMER of 1981, Paul Simon received a call from the Long Island concert promoter Ron Delsener. The 44-year-old Tri-State impresario was speaking on ...

Paul Simon: How Graceland saved Paul Simon — and offended the anti-apartheid world

Retrospective by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 10 June 2020

Forged in South Africa, the 1986 masterpiece drew accusations of 'cultural appropriation', offence and theft. What were Simon's intentions? ...

Lamb of God: Metal's moral backbone: the uncompromising, righteous rise of Lamb Of God

Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 23 June 2020

AS A YOUNGER man, D. Randall Blythe conducted social experiments with bleach. As jocks in passing cars screamed insults, the singer with the metal band ...

Farewell to Kerrang!

Comment by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 8 July 2020

IN THE FIRST decade of the 21st Century, the British rock magazine Kerrang! ran a small weekly item called "Stimulants". Secreted away at the bottom ...

Public Enemy: Chuck D: "The presidency aged Obama – what will it do to Biden?"

Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 13 July 2020

The hip-hop pioneer talks about the ongoing protests in America, the forthcoming presidential election and how to face down the KKK. ...

Def Leppard: "We never wanted to smoke weed and stick two fingers up to The Man"

Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 21 July 2020

ON THE FIRST day of December 1987, Def Leppard arrived for a concert at the Tacoma Dome in Washington state. Embarked on the initial North ...

Frank Turner: Live rock returns, from a distance: inside Frank Turner's "government-endorsed" pilot concert

Review by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 29 July 2020

AT FOUR PM on Tuesday 28th July, the English singer Frank Turner leans over a table in a small room in South West London and ...

Peter Gabriel, Genesis: The shambolic Genesis reunion that saved Peter Gabriel from financial ruin

Retrospective by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 6 August 2020

Womad crippled Peter Gabriel, so his former bandmates offered to keep the bailiffs away. If only they could remember how to play together…  ...

Biffy Clyro: "We wanted to be the opposite of Oasis"

Profile and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 19 August 2020

IN THE AUTUMN of 2004, Biffy Clyro offered me a job as a roadie. It was an unpaid short-term position that consisted of just one ...

Tommy Lee, Mötley Crüe: Tommy Lee: "Back then, there were no consequences – excess was a daily thing"

Retrospective and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 16 October 2020

IN THE SUMMER of 1987, Mötley Crüe embarked on a tour of the largest indoors venues in North America. Travelling aboard a private jet, the ...

James Taylor: "I took legal heroin – it's the safest way to be an addict"

Retrospective and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 7 December 2020

ON THE AFTERNOON of 7th December 1980, James Taylor was accosted by a stranger who knew his name. As the singer-songwriter battled his way home ...

Chumbawamba: How 'Tubthumping' shook the world

Retrospective by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 15 February 2021

IN 1997, OUT OF NOWHERE the English anarchist punk band Chumbawamba sold more than five million albums. In attaining triple-platinum status, in the United States ...

The Beatles, Billy Preston: The blazing talent – and heartbreaking decline – of "fifth Beatle" Billy Preston

Retrospective by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 26 November 2021

The revered keyboardist saved Let It Be and put his fingerprints on countless rock classics. But he kept his true self hidden to the end. ...

Alice Cooper, Lemmy: A Walk on the Wild Side of Sunset: Remembering Lemmy and the Hollywood Vampires

Book Excerpt by Ian Winwood, 'Bodies' (Faber & Faber), April 2022

This is an excerpt from Ian's new book Bodies: Life and Death in Music, published by Faber on April 21. ...

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