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Idris Walters

Idris Walters

Born in 1948 (Pisces, no cusp) to top of the range, hardcore Welsh parents, I was brought up in the Midlands, educated at Stafford Grammar School and Oxford School of Architecture. Notwithstanding two corrosive attacks of gainful corporate employ in '70s London and '80s Leeds have generally been fulltime self-employed as an artist and graphic designer.

Having drifted briefly into rock writing – Let It Rock, Street Life, Melody Maker, Sounds, Black Music – by way of architectural journalism as an incidental unplanned occurence in a lifelong search for Quality and Character in art, music, letters and ideas, I now find myself becalmed if not bewildered amongst the Pennine moorlands above Skipton where the East Lancashire and West Yorkshire borders meet in a mutually suspicious fashion.

As Head of the School of Hermitology at the Diasporic University of Celtic Fury, I now listen to all sorts of music. An irreparable Deadhead and Bob Dylan fanatic I also listen in these days to J S Bach, Miles Davis, The Fall, Palestrina, Tom Waits, John Coltrane, Delius, Keith Jarrett, Let’s Eat Grandma, Sun Ra, David Gilmour and Eric Satie, along with, of course, the vague hiss and din of time passing.

Idris Walters' art

28 articles

List of articles in the library

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Eric Clapton: There's One In Every Crowd (RSO)

Review by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, May 1975

Acupuncture is healing by means of the manipulation of energy centres on the surface of the body. Patti Boyd used to hang out with George ...

Bad Company: Run With The Pack (Island)

Review by Idris Walters, Street Life, 7 February 1976

SOMEWHERE DEEP inside the mix on Bad Company's first album was a little shimmer of Oriental Rock. Not much. Just enough to suggest the germ ...

Robin Trower: City Hall, Newcastle

Live Review by Idris Walters, Street Life, 6 March 1976

THIS WAS a Sunday, all day long. ...

Rory Gallagher: Newcastle City Hall

Live Review by Idris Walters, Street Life, 10 January 1976

RORY GALLAGHER is a Conservationist. He preserves various traditions – the old blues, 'British' rhythm and blues, the anti-star guitarist mood and the Celtic will ...

John Lennon, Yoko Ono: Plastic Ono Band: The End Of Another Dream

Essay by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, February 1975

Idris Walters describes the strange marriage of rock'n'roll and conceptual art which produced some of the most arresting sounds of the last few years and ...

Pink Floyd: Walters, Gilmour, Wright and Mason RIBA

Essay by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, September 1975

99. THERE ARE only three interesting things about Stevenage New Town. One is that there is a Museum there. (!) A Museum? Another is that ...

Bad Company: The Way They Choose

Essay by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, March 1975

IT LOOKS AS though Bad Company is a popular band: everybody's into Bad Company. ...

Joan Armatrading: Apollo Theatre, Manchester

Live Review by Idris Walters, Melody Maker, 10 March 1979

HER PEOPLE should market a badge that says, "JA From JA Is For Everyone". The hack was expecting the worst – high feminism on parade, ...

Bob Marley & the Wailers: Bob Marley: Marley On The Mount

Interview by Idris Walters, Sounds, 16 August 1975

Last week you got the low-down on Bob Marley, King of the Rastafarians. But it goes a little deeper than that. For a start the ...

Eric Clapton, G.T. Moore & The Reggae Guitars, Judge Dread, Keith Richards: They All Tried To Play Reggae

Overview by Idris Walters, Sounds, 31 May 1975

...but can white rock and rollers sing the palm tree? wonders IDRIS WALTERS ...

Arthur Lee, Love: Love: A Good Day at Black Rock

Essay by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, August 1975

Starring: Arthur Lee; Script by: Idris Walters ...

Chaka Khan, Rufus: Rufus, featuring Chaka Khan: Rufusized (ABC Dunhill)

Review by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, March 1975

RUFUS DATE back to 1968. They were called the American Breed. They had 'Bend Me Shape Me' for a hit record. The American Breed became ...

Ras Michael & The Sons Of Negus: Nyahbinghi (Trojan Trls 113)

Review by Idris Walters, Sounds, 3 May 1975

THERE IS a story on the sleeve — which makes a change. It tells how Haile Selassie was the last in a line of 323 ...

Tim Buckley Dies: He Put His Soul Where His Mouth Was

Obituary by Idris Walters, Sounds, 12 July 1975

TIM BUCKLEY died at his home in Santa Monica, California, after appearing at a concert on Sunday, June 29. The exact cause of death of ...

Tim Buckley: A Fleeting House: The Music of Tim Buckley

Retrospective by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, October 1975

LIFE AND DEATH are becoming indistinguishable. New biologies are beginning to prove that Death is just a change of state in the cycle of life. ...

Jimmy Cliff, Keith Hudson: Jimmy Cliff: Brave Warrior (EMI EMC 3078); Keith Hudson: Torch Of Freedom (Mamba 002)

Review by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, December 1975

DEAR MAILBAG, I would have expected these two titles to sail away, hand in hand, into a black sunset. But they don't. Yours SR Gibbs, ...

Bob Marley & The Wailers: The Lyceum, London

Live Review by Idris Walters, Sounds, 26 July 1975

Wailers join rogues gallery ...

Northern Soul: Fact, Fiction, Faction, Friction

Report by Idris Walters, Street Life, 15 November 1975

IS NORTHERN SOUL DYING ON ITS FEET? ...

LaBelle: Nightbirds (Epic EPC 80566)

Review by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, April 1975

PATTI LABELLE, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash. The Ordettes and Del Capris came together in the early sixties to form Patti LaBelle and the Bluebells ...

Arthur Lee, Love: Love With Arthur Lee: Reel To Real (RSO SO4804)

Review by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, April 1975

LOVE'S LAST British tour left a confusion of critical comment in its wake. It seemed to me he was better than ever. But then there ...

Rupie Edwards, King Tubby, Niney the Observer, Augustus Pablo: Dub: Reggae's Cutting Edge

Overview by Idris Walters, Street Life, 1 November 1975

RIGHT NOW, Dub is at the cutting edge of reggae. ...

The Beatles, Bob Marley & the Wailers: Is Natty Dread better than Sgt. Pepper?

Essay by Idris Walters, Sounds, 24 May 1975

It doesn't matter, says IDRIS WALTERS. Rock's big enough, and the WAILERS are making waves... ...

The Fania All Stars: Fania All Stars: Salsa Live (Island Help 21)

Review by Idris Walters, Street Life, 7 February 1976

THIS IS the third pioneering Salsa release from Island distributed, presumably, to coincide with the band's recent London Lyceum show. ...

Bob Marley & the Wailers: Bob Marley: Lively Up Yourself

Overview by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, December 1974

Idris Walters on the music, the history and the Rasta background of Bob Marley and The Wailers. ...

Bad Company: Run With The Pack (Island ILPS 9346)

Review by Idris Walters, Street Life, 7 February 1976

Bad Co's Style Of Stiffness ...

The Jimmy Castor Bunch, Ben E. King, Sister Sledge, The Spinners: The Spinners, the Jimmy Castor Bunch, Ben E. King, Sister Sledge: Manchester Opera House

Live Review by Idris Walters, Melody Maker, 12 April 1975

ATLANTIC'S Supersoul On-Tour '75 (direct descendant from the sixties' Stax/Volt Review) hit the Manchester Opera House after a successful opening night at the Liverpool Empire. ...

Ken Boothe: Straight Down the Middle

Interview by Idris Walters, Sounds, 9 November 1974

A RASTAFARIAN rising to number one on a cover version with a soft reggae back beat. 'Everything I Own' must have sold a lot of ...

The Silly Sisters: Playing Silly Sisters

Interview by Idris Walters, Street Life, 1 May 1976

There are seven in the song, but two on the road: Maddy Prior and June Tabor ...

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