Johnny Cigarettes
Johnny Cigarettes is a pseudonym for Johnny Sharp
55 articles
List of articles in the library
Throwing Muses: Leicester University, Leicester
Live Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 19 September 1992
IT MAY BE a tad predictable to criticise Throwing Muses for not being so good without Tanya Donelly, but there's something missing from their sound ...
Radiohead, Strangelove: Leicester University
Live Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 22 May 1993
GUITAR VERY MUCH! ...
The Chameleons: Dali's Picture/Auffuhrung In Berlin
Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 3 July 1993
IT NEVER quite happened for The Chameleons. While such kindred angsty spirits as Echo & The Bunnymen had the lips, the charisma and the odd ...
Live Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 25 September 1993
STEREOLAB ARE now just about the perfect indie art rock band. That's not necessarily a compliment. It means they don't sell millions of records, you ...
Oasis, Saint Etienne: St Etienne, Oasis: Birmingham Institute
Live Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 11 December 1993
HIP POP... HOORAY! ...
S*M*A*S*H: Family Club, Welwyn Garden City
Live Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, February 1994
WELWYN GARDEN CITY. Always sounded horrible. Not as horrible sounding as Bletchley, Goole or Grimethorpe, admittedly, but more representative of the respectable blandist terrorism that ...
Charlatans, The (UK): The Charlatans: Melkweg, Amsterdam
Live Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 5 March 1994
IT'S VALENTINE'S weekend in Amsterdam, love is in the air (and indeed, in the area), made all the more blissful by the dizzying aroma of ...
Saint Etienne: Cats Eyes and Legless
Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 30 April 1994
You know Saint Etienne as the flop band living within the pages of Kay's Catalogue and fronted by Emma Peel's understudy. But their pals reckon ...
The Beastie Boys: Beastie Boys: Rough Trade Shop, Covent Garden, London
Live Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 18 June 1994
'SECRET GIG' — Arf! Despite premature talk of fan mayhem and rioting in the plazas of Covent Garden this is a secret gig that isn't ...
Glastonbury: Three-Day Passout
Report by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 2 July 1994
Glasters — a total experience for mind and body… and awesome fun besides. JOHNNY CIGARETTES folds his tent and steals away to the outer extremities ...
Report and Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 9 July 1994
"AAAARGH! F*** YOU ASSHOLE! GET OUT MY FACE!" ...errrrrrk!..."YEAH I'M DOIN' A F***IN' U-TURN – WHAT'S THE GODDAMN PROBLEM?!" errrrrrrk! "Oh jeeezuuus! We've been past ...
Beck: Water Rats, King's Cross, London
Live Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 10 December 1994
WOOLLY HATS off at the door, please. Now, put out that spliff and stand up straight, you silly people. This is Beck, and he's too ...
Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 4 February 1995
The meteoric rise of SLEEPER is matched only by the meteoric speed of singer LOUISE WENER's gob. Anti-feminism, anti-PC, anti-voting but pro shagging, drinking and ...
The Boo Radleys: Zeleste 2, Barcelona
Live Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, May 1995
IT IS 4.42 AM. Martin Carr and Bob Cieka of the Boo Radleys are, um, "relaxing" at the Hotel Sol in Barcelona after a suitably ...
Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 10 June 1995
Suede, Blur, Oasis… all have slumped at the Breakthrough Bar, unable to make it big in America. So what makes ELASTICA think they will succeed? ...
Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 24 June 1995
Can't make it to Glastonbury this year? Mum wouldn't allow you near the place, huh, or is it, as you've told your friends, you were ...
Whigfield: Whigfield (Systematic/All formats)
Review by Johnny Cigarettes, No Depression, 24 June 1995
FIRST RULE of kitsch: Have some standards, please. Otherwise you'll end up looking like Bonnie Langford auditioning for Godspell and sounding like Jive Bunny's PR ...
Kyuss: ...And The Circus Leaves Town (Elektra/All formats)
Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 15 July 1995
FOR THOSE about to rock, we salute them round these parts, and no-one rocks heavier than Kyuss, the thinking mammoth's metal muthas. ...
Report and Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 22 July 1995
Camera-shy SEAL is poised for pan-global success with his latest 'Bat' single and new album, but can he balance a beachball on his nose? JOHNNY ...
Björk: Venus As A Joy: Björk: SFX City Theatre, Dublin
Live Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 22 July 1995
"SIX YEARS AGO," gasps Björk in her decidedly over-affected five-year-old-geisha-girl voice, "I was here in this very room with Sugarcubes. Nostalgic but true. Thank you, ...
Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 9 September 1995
DON'T PRETEND you saw it coming. In fact, don't even bother going back and combing the grooves looking for it. ...
Menswear: Nuisance (Laurel/LP/CD)
Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 7 October 1995
IF YOU are over the age of 21 and read the NME, you should hate Menswear. And you should hate them, essentially, for being young, ...
Nick Cave, Kylie Minogue: Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue: The Devil and Miss Bones
Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 7 October 1995
Together at last — two great antipodean, pop phenomena who have, in their individual ways, made a unique contribution to the business called show. NICK ...
Black Grape: Spills 'n' Thrills and Jelly Aches
Report and Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, Vox, November 1995
After breaking and entering the album charts at Number One, BLACK GRAPE decided to drag their scuzzy, 24-hour party on the road. VOX gets over-friendly ...
Pulp: Sorted For Freezing Gigs!
Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 18 November 1995
Phew!!! It may be bloody cold outside (minus three degrees, actually) but in the frozen expanse that is Norway, things are definitely hotting up for ...
The Dandy Warhols: First Avenue, Minneapolis
Live Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 23 March 1996
IT MAY NOT BE entirely inappropriate that The Dandy Warhols (yes, dreadful name, I blame the parents) are performing tonight at the very venue where ...
The Prodigy: House Of The Razing Arson
Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 23 March 1996
The Prodigy, those Beztastic cartoon ravers with the bonkers tunes and child-scaring hairdos, are mutating! Yup, they are evolving, gulp, into a scary fire-snorting funky ...
Comment by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 6 April 1996
John Lennon thought The Beatles were bigger than IT, some people think Elvis is/was IT and Michael Jackson seems to think he is IT. So ...
The Stone Roses: The Rise and Fall of the Roses Empire
Retrospective by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 6 April 1996
They were the greatest band of a generation and seemed invincible. At the height of their powers, their downfall seemed an impossibility. But now that ...
Soundgarden: Down On The Upside
Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 18 May 1996
WHEN THEIR CHILDREN ask what they did in the grunge cred wars of the early '90s, Soundgarden will claim that they were conscientious objectors. ...
Blur, Oasis, Pulp: The Nineties: Going for Bloke
Comment by Johnny Cigarettes, The Face, September 1996
In the Nineties, we are all everyday people, says Johnny Cigarettes ...
Bobby Brown, New Edition: New Edition: Houston? We Have No Problem
Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 7 September 1996
The Rolling Stones? Pah! The Beatles? Forget it! They're nothing compared to NEW EDITION (remember '80s classic 'Candy Girl'?). Or so founder member Bobby Brown ...
Evan Dando, The Lemonheads: Evan Dando
Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, Vox, November 1996
I HAVE REASON to believe that Evan Dando has been drinking. It's not so much his appearance – grimy T-shirt, flared polyester trousers crudely cut ...
Tricky: Things That Go Bumpkin The Night
Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 9 November 1996
After his darker than dark period, West Country imp Tricky comes back from the other side with a new LP, Pre-Millennium Tension, proclaiming New York ...
Alisha's Attic: All About Eaves: Alisha's Attic: Alisha Rules The World (Mercury)
Review by Johnny Cigarettes, Vox, December 1996
IN THE '50s AND '60s, people would often pursue a pop career as a stepping stone to becoming a "family entertainer", hoping, in the long ...
Bush: Valise of the Dolts: Bush: Razorblade Suitcase (Interscope)
Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 18 January 1997
OK. WE ADMIT IT. We're shit. Culturally, politically, militarily, economically, morally, socially, athletically and aesthetically, Britain is rubbish. We can't win at cricket any more. ...
Mansun: Attack Of The Grey Matter: Mansun: Kilburn National, London
Live Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 3 May 1997
FOUR SILHOUETTES stand perfectly still, statuesque, shrouded in red and blue light and strange, unearthly clouds of smoke. ...
No Doubt: Ska-Spangled Banter!
Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 5 July 1997
Why has Beavis & Butt-head country gone mad for NO DOUBT's peculiar brand of ska-pop-funk-type-thing? And how has singer Gwen ended up as a feminist ...
Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 30 August 1997
DOES ANYONE think it remotely strange, in an age when the biggest rock star in Britain goes for drinks at Number 10, and sings at ...
Robbie Williams: Just Williams: Robbie Williams: Life Thru A Lens (EMI)
Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 27 September 1997
RARE IS THE POP STAR who finds his true vocation. That's because they're a bunch of moaning, jealous malcontents who always want what everyone else ...
The Cure: Galore: The Singles 1987-1997
Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 1 November 1997
IN AN UNGUARDED moment, Mick Jagger once admitted that there came a point in the mid-'70s – once the Stones had made Exile On Main ...
Live Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 3 January 1998
SINGLE TRITE FEMALE ...
Insane Clown Posse: Greasepaint's The Word
Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 16 May 1998
Insane Clown Posse — it's the greatest show on earth (according to Beavis & Butt-heads across America). Featuring! Silly make-up! Fizzy pop! Two fellas with ...
The Lightning Seeds: Three Lions '98: They Shoot, They Roar!
Report and Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 16 May 1998
Eng-er-land, Eng-er-land, Eng-er-land! Oh yes, we're gonna win the World Cup. Why? Because FRANK SKINNER, DAVID BADDIEL & IAN BROUDIE have updated Three Lions' — ...
The Beastie Boys: Sonic Yo!: Beastie Boys: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 4 July 1998
THEY BOUND ONSTAGE in boiler suits — Ad-Rock and Yauch in industrial orange, Mike D in laboratory white with a tackily fashioned synthetic sheet on ...
Stereophonics: OK Composers: Stereophonics: Performance And Cocktails (V2)
Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 6 March 1999
WE NEED bands like Stereophonics. Or so the cynical consensus would have you believe. Because, even if you couldn't pick them out of a post-Britpop ...
Gay Dad: "All I'm Asking is for People to Trust Us, Let Go Of Your Cynicism, and Believe"
Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 29 May 1999
YOU JOIN us in the darkest depths of the Mississippi Delta, at the crossroads rumoured to be the very location upon which Robert Johnson, Godfather ...
Interview by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 28 August 1999
He's got no ears and is a fetching shade of yellow. Who cares?! Just one of his fuzzy little paws is more rock'n'roll than all ...
Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 18 September 1999
CALL IT PRE-MILLENNIAL psychosis, call it nervous exhaustion or call it self-pity, but you can count the pop people who haven't battled some kind of ...
Bernard Butler: Utterly Butlery: Bernard Butler: Zodiac, Oxford
Live Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 18 September 1999
IT'S BODY LANGUAGE that gives the game away as much as anything. The way he wears his fringe over his eyes, like he's saying "You ...
Stereolab: Cobra And Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night (Duophonic)
Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 25 September 1999
GANE OVER ...
Foo Fighters: There Is Nothing Left To Lose (Roswell/RCA)
Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 30 October 1999
NOTHING left to lose? Oh, I wouldn't say that. This reviewer for one wouldn't mind mislaying the notion that the artist formerly known as Grunge ...
Eminem: The Magic Cuss: Eminem: Academy, Manchster
Live Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 20 November 1999
"YOU ALL KNOW Dr Dre is one of the greatest MOTHERF—IN' producers in hip-hop, right?" asks the DJ warming up the crowd before the first ...
Spice Girls: Aromatic For The Little People: Spice Girls: Earl's Court, London
Live Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 8 January 2000
NEWS JUST IN: David Beckham has had a clause inserted in his contract with Manchester United which says he can become a free agent and ...
Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 17 August 2000
AMERICANS, EH? Need a good slap, if you ask me. They can't even make a chirpy, tuneful collection of three-minute pop songs without getting all ...
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