Jon Savage
Born in the Chinese year of the water snake, Jon Savage (pictured in 1975) self-published the punk fanzine London's Outrage in late 1976 before being snapped up by Sounds a few months later. His first task was to do Wire's first-ever press interview. After writing about all matters Punk and Electronic for 18 months, he jumped ship to Melody Maker and then, in early 1980, to The Face, where he remained for eight years. At the same time, he wrote for New Society and the New Statesman about pop culture and ran the Observer's first pop music page.
At the end of the 1980's, he turned inward to write England's Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock, the award-winning and still definitive history of UK Punk. The television programme based on the book, "Punk and the Pistols", aired on BBC2's Arena in 1995, directed by Paul Tickell. England's Dreaming has remained in print constantly since 1991, with a revised edition published in 2001. It will be republished again by Faber and Faber this spring. A CD based around the book, England's Dreaming: Before During and After Punk, was issued by Trikont Records, Germany, in autumn 2004, and is still in print.
During the 1990s, Jon Savage published a collection of journalism from 1977 to 1995, called Time Travel: from Sex Pistols to Nirvana. He worked as writer on the BAFTA award-winning BBC2 Arena documentaries The Brian Epstein Story (transmitted 1998). He still writes about music for MOJO and his Meridian 1970: Protest, Sorrow, Hobos, Folk and Blues – a compilation of psych rock break beats and acid folk – was released by Heavenly Records/ EMI.
Savage's most recent books are 1966: The Year the Decade Exploded (Faber, 2015), The Searing Light, the Sun & Everything Else (Faber, 2019) – an oral history of Joy Division – and The Secret Public: How LGBTQ Resistance Shaped Popular Culture (1955-1979) (Faber, 2024).
Richard North's 1988 interview with Savage
246 articles
List of articles in the library
Sex Pistols: The Sex Pistols: The Screen on the Green, London
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 9 April 1977
IN WHICH IT must be conceded that Malcolm McLaren has a first-class media brain with a perfect instinct for theatre. ...
Buzzcocks, Johnny Moped, Wire, X-Ray Spex: Buzzcocks/X-Ray Spex/Wire etc.: Running with the Ratpack
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 16 April 1977
ROXY RATPACK, Saturday nite. Find a friend and stick close: sink or swim. Tony and Julie were right: a club full of 'Wild Boys' outtakes ...
The Adverts, The Damned, Motorhead: The Damned/The Adverts/Motorhead: The Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 30 April 1977
I FIRST saw the Damned at the Roundhouse last November. Shortly after the release of 'New Rose'. Although the 45 had been successful the set ...
Buzzcocks, The Clash, The Jam: The Clash, The Jam, The Buzzcocks: The Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 21 May 1977
Rock ‘n’ roll can be one of the few honest things left in this world.Yes.An event, a gathering of the clans.Yes.But it was all down ...
X-Ray Spex: Man In The Moon, Chelsea
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 21 May 1977
A SMALLISH basement room, low-ceilinged, with a bar along one wall, and quite plush – tonite healthily full with about 100 people, A stopgap scene ...
The Outsiders [UK punk]: The Outsiders: Calling on Youth
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, June 1977
THE OUTSIDERS are all 19, and have played a few gigs at new wave venues. The Roxy hated them for their clothes (they didn't conform) ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 11 June 1977
MMM. PSYCHO daisies. Hid her wid de axe/you better relax. More zoop bop cartoon funnies – this time the movie's speeded up. Laugh this one ...
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 18 June 1977
AND I'M supposed to be objective about these guys when I've lived with their first album for 15 months? When that was one of last ...
The Sex Pistols: What Did You Do On The Jubilee? The Pistols on the Thames
Report by Jon Savage, Sounds, 18 June 1977
BEFORE THE POLICE came, it was a great party. Make that a capital G. ...
Various: The Roxy London WC2 (Jan-Apr 77) (Harvest)
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 25 June 1977
AN APPROXIMATE Warhol dictum: ‘In the future, everybody will be famous for 15 minutes.’ We never had a proper Warhol scene over here, did we? ...
Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 16 July 1977
GENERATION X. In the 60's: a book wherein 'youth speaks about itself'. In the 70's: a 'new wave' band which does the same, on the ...
Alternative TV: Sniffin' Glue…
Report and Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 23 July 1977
NOW: THE ROXY these days is not what it was – whatever shrill camera-lens sense of event there was in the Andy Czezowski days has ...
Roky Erickson, 13th Floor Elevators: Roky Erickson: One Flew Out Of The Cuckoo's Nest
Retrospective by Jon Savage, Sounds, 23 July 1977
'After you trip, life opens up – you start doing what you wanna do...c'mon, C'MON let it happen to you...' – 'Roller Coaster', 13th Floor ...
Just a few thousand words in your ear: A history of the rock press
Retrospective by Giovanni Dadomo, Jon Savage, Sounds, 20 August 1977
... Is this communicating? (Arthur Lee, 1968) ...
Jonathan Richman: Johnathan Richman: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 24 September 1977
CONTRADICTION. (I don't wanna grow up; there's too much...) ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 24 September 1977
"FROZEN WARNINGS close to mine, close to the frozen borderline......" ...
The Stranglers: No More Heroes
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 24 September 1977
AHHH – BUT these are testing times...now the very real euphoria has subsided, the scales have fallen from my eyes: not recantation, but re-evaluation. Timely ...
Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers: Billy, Walter and Johnny: The Heartbreakers
Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 1 October 1977
INTERVIEW TAKES place on a second floor flat, a stone’s throw away from the Thames. Present are: Walter Lure and Billy Rath, singer/guitarist and bassist ...
Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers: The Heartbreakers: L.A.M.F.
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 1 October 1977
'Living in the jungle, it ain't so hard/But livin' in the city, it can eat out, eat out your heart...' ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 15 October 1977
I DON'T know what I expected, but I thought it would be good (I mean credentials: Roxy Music/ Eno/'Diamond Head/’Tomorrow Never Knows'/Nico/etc.) but this wasn't ...
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 15 October 1977
Prime Manchester venue closes... Power cut at the Electric Circus ...
The Sex Pistols: Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 5 November 1977
Here am I – there are you – here's the Sex Pistols. ...
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 19 November 1977
Magazine: The Electric Circus, Manchester ...
Comment by Jon Savage, Jane Suck, Sounds, 26 November 1977
FOR LIFE ON REWIND/FAST FORWARD/PLAY/RECORD/STOP/..... ...
Devo: New Musick: Devo Look Into The Future!
Profile by Jon Savage, Sounds, 26 November 1977
DEVO/DEVOID/VOID/DEVOTED/DEVOLUTION: Savage attempts a discrete distillation. Devout. Things are not as they seem, nor as they have been reported.... 'The cities are our major source ...
The Residents: New Musick: The Residents — 'Beyond The Valley Of A Day In the Life'
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 26 November 1977
TO THE RESIDENTS, nothing is sacred, least of all themselves. Whether you love/hate the Residents, whether you've heard of them, don't care, matters not at ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 26 November 1977
NO MORE shock tactics. Just arrow-straight at your teenage hearts....Wuz wrong! Thought they wanted to be the Byrds (those haircuts, see....); now know they want ...
Black Sabbath: Greatest Hits (Vertigo)
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 10 December 1977
ENGLAND CAN be depressing to the point of insanity...grey oozing days for months on end...rows of mean streets, pinched people...clausterphobic scrapyard vistas of country turned ...
Various Artists: Live At The Vortex
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 10 December 1977
HA. ANOTHER sledge-hammer blow pulping revolt into style...At least might someone have the good grace and honesty to stick 'Punk (a/k/a 'New/Wave') Sampler' on the ...
Penetration: The Future Is Female
Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 17 December 1977
ACCELERATION DON'T go to my head...London – a module, self-contained, trapped in an ever-accelerating time/style warp: a week seems like a month in our brave ...
The Residents: Residents: Meet the Residents *****; Third Reich 'N' Roll *****; Finger Prince *****
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 31 December 1977
NOT FOR the faint-hearted. Be warned. Residents specialise in cultural sabotage, sonic rearrangement, cryptic capers. They are (at the same time) very funny and vary ...
The Jam: London Hammersmith Odeon
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 31 December 1977
FRAGMENTATION STRIKES DEEP... as punk "culture" is guided firmly into several easily categorizable (and therefore easier controlled)/marketable segments(divided we consume), it's clean teen night. ...
Elvis Costello: This Year’s Model
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 1978
THE INSULT that made a man out of Mac(manus). As runs the hype: get sand kicked in your face (or whatever), keep on punching your ...
Throbbing Gristle: Rat Club, London
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 7 January 1978
THE RETURN of Tesco disco — another noise (industrial) in a different supermarket... ...
Fanzines: Pure Pop Art For Now People
Overview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 14 January 1978
"THEY are vital, audacious, reckless insofar as they represent an extreme view adopted in a broad popular m way, and they have a curious brave ...
Tapper Zukie: Tapper Zuckie: Man Ah Warrior
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 14 January 1978
AN ALBUM full of dignity, grandeur and pride: Smokey swirls intertwining to form a chord of steel... ...
The Ramones: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 14 January 1978
VERMILION, AFTERWARDS (taking in with a sweep of her arm the splendid rococo-deco vastness of the Rainbow gallery): "Rock'n'roll belongs in the pits, not here". ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 21 January 1978
SO, NO RAW POWER retreads – it's only possible to live that once – but afterburn: the Ig goes right TO THE EDGE; LOSES CONTRACT/band/sanity/life ...
The Soft Boys: Red Cow, London
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 21 January 1978
AAAH, SOFT Boys. 'Soft Machine' and 'Wild Boys'? Maybe. Specialise in surreal shaggy dog stories/parodies laid over a solid rock base. Recently out from Cambridge, ...
Elvis Costello, The Soft Boys, Whirlwind: Elvis Costello, Whirlwind, Soft Boys: Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 28 January 1978
The rise and rise of the perennial wimp ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 4 February 1978
SUICIDE? PERHAPS; rather life at one remove, through a one-way mirror. Or wilful withdrawal from the sea of impossibility... ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 11 February 1978
Dance to a Modern RomanceDirections: Fast and asymmetrical… ...
Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 11 February 1978
THE WORST THEN. The name? Aha an apt trap. Illustrating at once the extreme that they are, yet at the same time to ...
Power Pop part 2: The C&A Generation In The Land Of The Bland
Comment by Jon Savage, Sounds, 18 February 1978
TICK TOCK f – the clock/the pendulum swings...Oh it's so inevitable in post-punk letdown – the Pistols' 'split': sooooo symbolic – that attempts would be ...
Iggy Pop, The Stooges: James Williamson: Real Time Musician From Kill City
Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 25 February 1978
A PHONE CONSERVATION with James Williamson at his present home in Claremont, half-an-hour outside Los Angeles. Mainly to talk about the newly released 1975 Pop/Williamson ...
Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 4 March 1978
THE FIRST THING you notice on arrival at Koln airport is the modernity and organization. No baggage queues. No pre-fab ramshackle buildings. ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 11 March 1978
WHAT DO you expect from someone who's been playing rock'n'roll for nearly 15 years, in a business where age is to be feared rather than ...
Interview by Jon Savage, New York Rocker, April 1978
"Well I say what I mean/I say what comes to my mind" – 'Boredom' "Whatever makes me tick/It takes away my concentration" – 'Breakdown' ...
Cabaret Voltaire: Something strange is going on in Sheffield tonight
Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 15 April 1978
INSIDE THE HOUSE, an hour to kill before going into town. Hungover. Sit on the sofa and watch TV with the sound off. A tape ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 29 April 1978
SEE THE record cover. See the four men in red shirts and black ties. See them stand in line. See them in profile in the ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 29 April 1978
In which Sounds scribes bring long ignored or deleted albums to your attention. No star rating necessary – naturally, they're all Very Important Platters ...
Profile and Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 6 May 1978
PATTI PALLADIN and JUDY NYLON came to Britain last year, made 3 remarkable singles (one with Eno) then split. Or did they? JON SAVAGE steps ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees: Music Machine, London
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 13 May 1978
SWEET SIOUXSIE and her boys in black play loud, angular, claustrophobic. Batter batter into submission: make you want to do bad things... ...
David Bowie: Peter And The Wolf
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 27 May 1978
THE RELEVANCE of this classical record to the 'rock marketplace' is quite frankly marginal but evidently heavily counted upon by RCA in their wisdom. ...
Throbbing Gristle: Industrial Paranoia: The Very Dangerous Visions Of Throbbing Gristle
Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 3 June 1978
'All art aspires to the condition of musak.' 'Most of the people who disapprove of musak... but we are doing it for your own good!' ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 3 June 1978
'I'm faking an extravagant journey, also it seems to me...' ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 24 June 1978
REMEMBERING THAT electricity comes from other planets... ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie And The Banshees: The Unacceptable Face Of '78
Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 24 June 1978
'Overground – from abnormalityOverboard – for identityOverground – for normalityOverboard – on identity'– 'Overground' ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 24 June 1978
OH JESUS! After Devo, the (marketing) deluge. ...
The Subway Sect: Subway Sect: Life Underground
Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 1 July 1978
Everyone's a prostituteSinging in the song in prisonMoral standards the wallpaperThe wall's a bad religionMedia teach me what to speakTake my decisionsIt's how to find ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 16 September 1978
JOEY RAMONE sips tea, strikes Janet Street Porter pose... ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 23 September 1978
VULNERABILITY MEANS never having to say you're sorry... ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 30 September 1978
SO: THE next stage. The ending of one, the beginning of another? But of course, all the world's a stage. Aaaaaaah... ...
Penetration: Moving Targets (Virgin)****
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 14 October 1978
WE'RE NOT the same, you're not the same, they're not the same. ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 21 October 1978
THESE ALBUMS are famous, if at all, for not being famous. Now that the all too seductive veil of obscurity has been lifted (and therefore ...
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 4 November 1978
A week is a month and you could be forgiven for thinking that the times would catch up with Pere Ubu (and overtake them) as ...
The Clash: Give 'Em Enough Rope (CBS 82431)
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 11 November 1978
The Clash: War 'n' pizza ...
The Sex Pistols: Bootleg Albums
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 18 November 1978
The Sex Pistols: Gun Control/Live at the Rodeo ...
X-Ray Spex: Germ Free Adolescents
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 18 November 1978
"I WANNA BE A FROZEN PEA!" Does Poly Styrene finally make it? Will she really dehydrate? Does she turn into a Teasmade? Will she... ...
Live Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 2 December 1978
IN THE collapse of trends, movements — individuals: when they combine, all the stronger. Tonight four bands moving forward, confidently or haltingly, but all with ...
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 9 December 1978
THE LEAD SINGER sweats redly, tuffness of the strategic stud decorations unable to blind the look of uncertainty in his eye for the camera as ...
Throbbing Gristle: D.O.A. (Industrial)
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 23 December 1978
THE UNDERGROWTH OF pop...Take the mechanics of the situation as being something like this: you have a multi-million dollar industry, which has established channels whereby ...
Snatch Says: "Morons Are Running The Media!"
Interview by Jon Savage, Search & Destroy, Spring 1978
JON SAVAGE interviewed PAT PALLADIN in London a while ago... ...
Profile and Interview by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 6 January 1979
IT’S a truism to say that you have to decide which is real – you or Los Angeles – but like most truisms, it has ...
The Sex Pistols: The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 24 February 1979
"WHAT NEEDS UNDERSTANDING is the state of paralysis everyone is in..." ...
Tom Robinson Band: The Tom Robinson Band: TRB Two (EMI)
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 10 March 1979
Just Easing The Liberal Guilt ...
Crass, Poison Girls, The Wall: Acklam Hall, London
Live Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 7 April 1979
A SPARSELY attended benefit for the Anarchist Black Cross Cienfuegos Press; a slow night — both the cause and its supporting groups (safely) out of ...
Iggy Pop: The Factory, Manchester
Live Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 28 April 1979
THE RETURN of the simian from oblivion: a club tour, much heralded by local media, ensures a leisure factory stretched to the limit of its ...
Red Krayola: Red Crayola: Soldier-Talk (Radar)
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 28 April 1979
IN A CURRENT context of confusion, Soldier-Talk appears to be a good idea. ...
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 5 May 1979
WHAT DO you buy when you buy Lou Reed, and do you still need to buy him? ...
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 26 May 1979
ANOTHER YEAR, another record. Like Burroughs, David Jones, rootless, looks for unconventional commitment: Burroughs found it in junk, control-systems and predatory homosexuality; Jones found it ...
Public Image Ltd.: The Factory, Manchester
Live Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 18 June 1979
A Quick One While No-One's Thinking ...
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 30 June 1979
Yesterday's Sound Tomorrow ...
Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 21 July 1979
"To talk of life today is like talking of rope in the house of a hanged man." Where will it end? ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie And The Banshees: Join Hands (Polydor)
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 1 September 1979
(IT'S MY party and) I'll mystify if I want to! ...
Live Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 8 September 1979
Angst in an East Lancs wasteland ...
Gary Numan: Apollo Theatre, Glasgow
Live Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 29 September 1979
THE FACE of '79 doesn't belong to a mod, punk, or to anyone so sectarian, but to Gary Numan, and it's time we faced up ...
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 29 September 1979
WRAPPED IN an abstract minimal geo-deco sleeve (all straight lines and waves, pastel shades), with its own label and a "free" 45, the third Wire ...
Gang of Four: Entertainment (EMI)
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 6 October 1979
THE Four are ambitious; and so they accept the process. ...
Gary Numan: Playing To The Aliens
Interview by Jon Savage, Smash Hits, 15 November 1979
John Savage finds out what success means to Gary Numan. ...
James Chance: The Contortions: Buy — The Contortions (ZE ZEA 33-002. U.S. import)
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 5 January 1980
Let's twist ourselves ...
Flying Lizards: The Flying Lizards: The Flying Lizards (Virgin)
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 2 February 1980
WHY DID THE hit maker make an LP? Because it was expected of him. Slips down easy. ...
Joy Division: From Safety To Where?
Comment by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 14 June 1980
ABOUT MIDDAY on Sunday, May 18, Ian Curtis was found dead by his wife in the kitchen of his house in Macclesfield. Although the exact ...
Bow Wow Wow: Sun, Sea & Piracy
Interview by Jon Savage, The Face, October 1980
POP, THAT disposable distraction, is mostly about transience: it’s the order of the perpetual child, the moment! Not that those last long these days. Most ...
David Bowie: The Gender Bender
Comment by Jon Savage, The Face, November 1980
"WHAT DO YOU want to be when you grow up, David?" ...
Throbbing Gristle: The Tape Decays: Throbbing Gristle
Sleeve notes by Jon Savage, , 1981
CUT UP END incantations. Click. Machines hum. Silence clears. Slowly, the tape recorders start to spin: the vortex is set in motion. IBM computer tape: ...
Vivienne Westwood: Rich pickings at the World's End
Interview by Jon Savage, The Face, January 1981
Let It Rock, Sex, Seditionaries...Anarchy t-shirts and bondage straps. VIVIENNE WESTWOOD’S new collection is called World’s End. She talked about it to JON SAVAGE. ...
Essay by Jon Savage, The Face, April 1981
Jon Savage went to the People's Palace and watched Blitz Culture go public. FLASH! ...
Public Image Ltd: Public Image Limited: The Flowers Of Romance (Virgin)
Review by Jon Savage, The Face, April 1981
A typically caustic, sardonic title: the thorn in the rose. If much of the current chart has much of the grace and flow of 1966 ...
Punk Five Years On. A Pogo Down Memory Lane...
Overview by Jon Savage, The Face, November 1981
Sept 20/21, 1976: The two-day Punk Festival at London's 100 Club showcases the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Damned, Buzzcocks, Subway Sect, and the debut ...
Soft Cell: Marc Almond: The Whip Hand
Interview by Jon Savage, The Face, January 1982
…and who holds it? The pop process, alienation and sexuality discussed with Marc Almond. By JON SAVAGE. ...
Goodbye Young Lovers (wherever you are)
Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Face, March 1982
Jon Savage laments the Sixties attitudes still stubbornly enshrined in television's coverage of pop: "Boom Time is over and its children must shape up." ...
Patti Palladin: Snatches: Patti Palladin almost interviewed by Jon Savage
Interview by Jon Savage, The Face, May 1982
Patti Palladin... ...
Interview by Jon Savage, The Face, October 1983
FOR SOMEONE whose work has graced millions of record sleeves and influenced a whole generation, Jamie Reid’s personal profile is not the highest. This is ...
ABC: Past Imperfect, Future Tense
Interview by Jon Savage, The Face, January 1984
On the dreamstage of a pop-music fantasy, ABC were cast as the perfection of a glossy ideal. But their irony was misread, their clothes misconstrued. ...
Interview by Jon Savage, The Sunday Times, 8 January 1984
THESE ARE EXCITING times for the Smiths. A top 20 record with only their second single, ‘This Charming Man’; a non-stop stream of interviews that ...
Profile by Jon Savage, Spin, June 1985
They aren't teen idols, but have a number-one album thanks mainly to Morrissey, their asexual, charismatic singer-writer. ...
Overview by Jon Savage, i-D, February 1986
Jon Savage is one of the arch voices of our time, a blithe spirit with a vicious tongue and a wicked pen: dedicated, deadly and ...
Radio 1: Pleasing All The People
Report and Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 23 February 1986
Pop station or pap station? The head of Radio 1 talks to JON SAVAGE ...
John Lydon, Malcolm McLaren, The Sex Pistols: Lydon vs McLaren: The End of the Affair
Report by Jon Savage, Spin, April 1986
EARLY IN 1976, the Sex Pistols were a good idea trying to get started, gate-crashing other people's concerts — with instruments allegedly stolen from rich ...
Boy George, Culture Club: Boy George: Chasing the Dragon
Report by Jon Savage, The Observer, 13 July 1986
JON SAVAGE reports on the rise and fall of Boy George ...
Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders: Chrissie Hynde: Still spikey after baby
Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 19 October 1986
"PEOPLE OFTEN say to me in interviews: 'You aren't very prolific are you?' The answer is, no I'm not! I could step up my output, ...
Dire Straits, Pet Shop Boys, Spandau Ballet: BPI Awards: Middle-age Spread
Report by Jon Savage, The Observer, 15 February 1987
JON SAVAGE takes a sceptical look at the BPI Awards ...
Boy George, Culture Club: Boy George: Flying nun back on the runway
Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 22 February 1987
Boy George talks exclusively to JON SAVAGE about heroin, cold turkey and death ...
Pink Floyd, Roger Waters: Roger Waters: He's Got The Technology
Profile and Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 12 July 1987
Roger Waters talks to JON SAVAGE about life after Pink Floyd ...
Bruce Springsteen: Dave Marsh: Glory Days: A Biography of Bruce Springsteen (Sidgwick & Jackson)
Book Review by Jon Savage, The Observer, August 1987
Sucking up to the boss ...
T. Graham Brown: Like It Used To Be
Profile and Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 30 August 1987
Rising Country star T. Graham Brown makes conversation with JON SAVAGE ...
That Petrol Emotion: Emotional Rescue
Interview by Jon Savage, Spin, September 1987
That Petrol Emotion ignite post-punk rock with incendiary politics. And they're putting out the fire with gasoline. Article by Jon Savage ...
Report by Simon Frith, Jon Savage, The Observer, 11 October 1987
SIMON FRITH and JON SAVAGE on the home-taping controversy ...
Report by Simon Frith, Jon Savage, The Observer, 18 October 1987
SIMON FRITH and JON SAVAGE on more copyright complexities ...
The 101'ers, The Clash, Sex Pistols, Joe Strummer: Joe Strummer
Interview by Jon Savage, unpublished, 30 May 1988
This interview was for Jon Savage's classic punk book England's Dreaming, and is published here in its entirity for the first time. ...
Book Review by Jon Savage, The Observer, 10 July 1988
Inside outsider ...
Report and Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 13 October 1988
IT'S 8.45 ON A typically crisp Friday evening in Sheffield. The queue is already beginning to lengthen, even though the doors to the City Hall ...
Sleeve notes by Jon Savage, Mantra Records, 1989
There are still plenty of real Londoners who sleep the night in London as well as work the day there – some in love, some ...
Dusty Springfield: Brand New Dusty
Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 12 February 1989
She was the beehive who buzzed to the top of the Sixties pops and faded into the California sunset in the Seventies. The Press proved ...
Report and Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 26 February 1989
Ritualised violence, style and beauty make up the male world of Voguing: the new dance from New York's ghettos. ...
Depeche Mode: Modernists à la Mode
Profile and Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 12 March 1989
JON SAVAGE enters the futuristic visions of Depeche Mode, where androgyny meets electro-pop ...
Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 21 May 1989
"I COULD TURN YOU inside out! But I choose not to!" R.E.M.’s singer Michael Stipe, back arched, is bellowing into a megaphone. Five songs into ...
The Stone Roses: Flaring Up: The Stone Roses at Spike Island
Report and Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 8 July 1990
YOU CAN see them all over the North-West, drifting through Manchester’s arcades, doing the swim-dance in the high-tech Hacienda, travelling en masse to tribal events ...
Interview by Jon Savage, Spin, July 1991
Pere Ubu remains one of the most influential, innovative groups to emerge from the mid-'70s American punk-new wave movement. JON SAVAGE listens to some pearls ...
My Bloody Valentine: Feedback to the Future: My Bloody Valentine
Interview by Jon Savage, 20/20, Spring 1991
THERE MAY BE A HALF-FORMED thought in your head, buzzing vaguely like low-level background noise, that the language we use to talk about music – ...
Joy Division: An Interview with Martin Hannett, 29th May 1989
Interview by Jon Savage, Touch-Vagabond, 1992
JS: How did you come across Joy Division? ...
Nick Cave, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: A Lighter Shade of Cave
Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 15 March 1992
JON SAVAGE MEETS THE SINGER KNOWN AS THE PUNK MESSIAH ...
The Beatles, Sex Pistols: Pointing Pistols at the throne
Essay by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 2 June 1993
There is something Rotten in the state of England. Republicanism is emerging as an option even for Tory meritocrats — thanks to the punk's subversiveness ...
Kurt Cobain, Nirvana: Kurt Cobain (1993)
Interview by Jon Savage, Rock's Backpages audio, 22 July 1993
Childhood in Aberdeen WA; 'Teen Spirit' and making it; Courtney Love and marriage; drugs and the stresses of success; Vig vs Albini; that notorious MTV Awards incident – it's pretty much all here.
File format: mp3; file size: 96.7mb, interview length: 1h 45' 35" sound quality: ****
Nirvana: Sounds Dirty: The Truth About Nirvana
Report and Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 15 August 1993
SITUATED ON 51st Street and Broadway, in the heart of the old entertainment area, Roseland is a New York institution. In the 1920s it was ...
Leftfield, L.F.O., Andrew Weatherall: Techno: The Sound Warp
Overview by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 22 October 1993
Let me take you on a journey... After the drugs and the digital-industrial dreamscapes, just what is the secret of the mega-successful Techno white dance ...
Moby Grape: Vintage: The Very Best Of Moby Grape
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, November 1993
MOBY GRAPE BEGAN IN 1966, arguably the decade's peak; they fell apart in 1969, a time of madness, desolation, dread. Between the optimism of ‘Hey ...
Comment by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 23 November 1993
THEY'RE AT it again. Yes, even here in the Guardian, the thirtysomething zombies, with their litany: Pop isn't what it used to be, there are ...
Interview by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 26 November 1993
Brian Eno used to wear leopard skin and make the synthesised squeaks and honks for Roxy Music. Now he's the venerable intellectual of pop ...
Aphex Twin: Machine Soul: A History Of Techno
Overview by Jon Savage, The Village Voice, Summer 1993
Oooh oooh Techno cityHope you enjoy your stayWelcome to Techno cityYou will never want to go away– Cybotron, 'Techno City' (1984) ...
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, January 1994
MUSIC ALWAYS SEEKS TO BREAK THE BOUNDS of language: indeed, the language of words is often inadequate to describe what music does as it enters ...
Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, January 1994
They were suburban loners who saw the potential for beauty inside the tawdry and extravagant. Together they won attention and success. As Suede step into ...
Joy Division: Someone Take These Dreams Away
Retrospective and Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, July 1994
HERE ARE THE young men, a weight on their shouldersHere are the young men, well where have they been?We knocked on the doors of hell's ...
The Who: 30 Years Of Maximum R&B
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, July 1994
APART FROM THE BARRON KNIGHTS AT BERTRAM MILLS Circus, the first group I ever saw live was The Who: It could have been Spooky Tooth, ...
Nirvana: The Death of Kurt Cobain
Report by Jon Savage, The Observer, 24 July 1994
DEPENDING ON your view of the afterlife, suicide may or may not be the solution to a life that has become unbearable. For ...
Comment by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 2 September 1994
From Pink Floyd to the pink pound, pop has provided a lifeline for the young to find heroes often denied a voice elsewhere ...
Report by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 16 September 1994
Jon Savage sees the north take its regional revenge ...
Bryan Ferry: Keeping busy? Bryan Ferry
Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, October 1994
Last time Bryan Ferry put out an album of original material, Fulham were in the First Division, manned spaced flight was a distant dream, flappers ...
Elvis Presley: Love Him Tender, Love Him True
Book Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, December 1994
Peter Guralnick: Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley ...
Essay by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 16 December 1994
The media's love affair with football has spawned a huge culture industry. But is it to blame for the return of loutishness? ...
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, January 1995
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS on from their demise, The Beatles continue to exercise a hypnotic spell as the ur-myth of modernist pop culture. As befits the group ...
Hank Marvin, The Shadows: Four-Eyes, One Vision: The Shadows
Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 1995
BRIAN RANKIN GREW UP IN NEWCASTLE: WHEN he was 16, in 1957, he travelled to London with his school friend Bruce Welch "in an attempt ...
Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 1995
HELEN SHAPIRO WAS BRITAIN'S FIRST TEENAGE FEMALE pop star. Born in 1946, she made her first record at the age of 14, for Norrie Paramor ...
Move It! The British Rock 'n' Roll Explosion
Overview by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 1995
FOR MOST PEOPLE OF 40 AND UNDER, British pop begins with The Beatles: this is the view that has been encouraged by rock writers ever ...
Cliff Richard, The Shadows: Move it! The Butch Rock 'n' Roll Explosion
Retrospective by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 1995
FOR MOST PEOPLE OF 40 AND UNDER, British pop begins with The Beatles: this is the view that has been encouraged by rock writers ever ...
Marty Wilde: The Blackheath Jungle
Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 1995
MARTY WILDE WAS, ALONG WITH CLIFF, BRITAIN'S BIGGEST ROCK star from 1958 through 1960: there was even a girl's comic named after him. Born Reginald ...
Cliff Richard: The Great Pretender
Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 1995
CLIFF IS THE ARCHETYPAL BRITISH POP STAR. Born in 1940, his extraordinary career began with the release of his first record, 'Move It', in autumn ...
Odysseys and Oddities: Jon Savage compiles the definitive Space-Rock Tape
Guide by Jon Savage, MOJO, March 1995
MUSIC AND THE cosmos have a special relationship, bound by mathematics, spirituality and that basic human need to get out there. Just as important as ...
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, March 1995
THIS IS A brilliant record: densely layered, full of barely controlled nervous energy, paranoid under surveillance, at times more intimate than you’d wish – like ...
Björk: The Always Uncjorked Björk
Interview by Jon Savage, Interview, June 1995
POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS in a studio high above Covent Garden, Björk is exactly like her image – a little taller, perhaps, but everything else is ...
The Sex Pistols: Never Mind the TV Bollocks
Report by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 11 August 1995
Jon Savage mulls over the four-year struggle to put his definitive study of Punk, England's Dreaming, on television ...
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci: Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci: Aberconwy Centre, Llandudno
Live Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, October 1995
WITH ITS BARDS, novelists and massed choirs, the Eisteddfod is the central event in the Welsh cultural and social calendar: what is less well known ...
Blur, Oasis: The Marketing Of Britpop
Overview by Jon Savage, Artforum, October 1995
RECENTLY I returned from the US into a British news media dominated by a by-election in the North West of England. The point about the ...
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, November 1995
Behind every great Beatles track is a version not quite so good. But not necessarily less interesting... Jon Savage listens to the outtakes. ...
Review and Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, December 1995
Far out, too much: people still sneer at The Grateful Dead, using these phrases as a kind of sardonic shorthand to dismiss high-‘60s ideals. But ...
Manic Street Preachers: A Design For The Future: Manic Street Preachers
Interview by Jon Savage, Dazed & Confused, 1996
What follows is a transcript of an interview Jon Savage did with Nicky Wire in February 1996, during which Nicky agreed to talk frankly and ...
Essay by Jon Savage, Artforum, May 1996
BUILT IN a clay basin, London promotes claustrophobia as a way of life: but then, something can happen that lets the air in, that makes ...
The Sex Pistols: A Seance in Finsbury Park: The Sex Pistols Reunite
Live Review by Jon Savage, Spin, August 1996
JUST BEFORE the Sex Pistols take the stage in the waning light, a curious hush falls on the boisterous punk crowd. A myth is to ...
Charlatans, The (US): The Charlatans: The Amazing Charlatans (Big Beat CDWIKD 138)
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, November 1996
First legitimate release of much-bootlegged material by the first San Franciscan psychedelic group. Features album recorded for Karma Sutra in 1966, plus demos from late ...
The Subway Sect: Leaders Of The Opposition
Review and Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, December 1996
Subway Sect: We Oppose All Rock & Roll (Overground) Jon Savage listens to Subway Sect's brief recorded legacy, and talks to frontman Vic Godard. ...
Nirvana, Oasis, Pulp, Sex Pistols: True Brits
Interview by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 20 December 1996
A young New York painter looks like becoming "the first artist of Britpop". Jon Savage on how Elizabeth Peyton's portraits of Jarvis, Liam and Noel ...
Retrospective by Jon Savage, Request, 1997
SO YOU THINK Giorgio Moroder and you think of Donna Summer's pornographic 'Love To Love You Baby' and all that followed, but there's more to ...
Iggy Pop, The Stooges: Iggy & The Stooges: Raw Power
Retrospective by Jon Savage, Dazed & Confused, 1997
ONE HUGE problem with 1997 is not that rock groups are everywhere but that they are almost without exception over-promoted, overindulged and half-baked. ...
Kurt Cobain, Nirvana: Kurt Cobain: The Lost Interview
Interview by Jon Savage, Guitar World, 1997
In July of 1993, Kurt Cobain gave a dramatically candid interview to respected British rock journalist Jon Savage. Freely discussed were such controversial topics as ...
The Beatles: The Sound of Acid
Overview by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 31 January 1997
Hey man — it's time to beat that cosmic tabla and slap on a droning tape loop. Drug-infused psychedelia, says Jon Savage, never went away ...
Nico, The Velvet Underground: Name Game: Billy Name
Interview by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 25 April 1997
At Andy Warhol's Factory everybody wanted to be a star. Everyone except Billy Name. He designed the Factory, curated it, soothed the egos of Warhol's ...
Psychedelia: The 100 Greatest Classics
Guide by Jon Savage, MOJO, June 1997
Back by public demand, and even more mind-expanding, Jon Savage takes a trip through psychedelia’s golden years to compile the ultimate six-hour flashback. ...
Blur, Oasis, The Stone Roses, Paul Weller: Brit Pop: The Boys Club
Essay by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 4 July 1997
Pop music is booming, right? British bands are taking over the world, right? Wrong. The yobbish lads of Brit rock are about to hit the ...
Profile and Interview by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 12 September 1997
Dave Godin rubbed shoulders with Motown's greats and brought us black American music. But, says Jon Savage, his great achievement was creating northern soul ...
Cornershop: When I Was Born for the 7th Time
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, Fall 1997
THIS IS A GOOD party record: loose, funny, warm – exemplary genre-trashing by musicians who have a great recollection (as they chant on 'Brimful ...
Gene Clark: Flying High (Polydor)
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, 1998
UNTIL RECENTLY, Gene Clark has been one of rock's best kept secrets. Harassed by his Byrd colleagues, ignored as the real inventor of country rock ...
Jefferson Airplane: Surrealistic Pillow/Crown Of Creation/Volunteers
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, March 1998
Straight mid-price reissues of the Airplane's second, fourth and sixth albums – first time in the UK for Surrealistic Pillow ...
The Electric Eels: The Eyeball Of Hell
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, May 1998
THE ELECTRIC Eels operated in a no-man's land that now seems fascinating: that mid-'70s moment between glitter and punk rock. It wasn't as though they ...
Ian Brown, The Stone Roses: Ian Brown: Stone crazy
Report by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 14 May 1998
Ian Brown, former singer in the Stone Roses, has caused a storm in the music press by comparing homosexuals to Nazis. Jon Savage wants to ...
David Bowie, Gary Glitter, Roxy Music, Sweet, T. Rex: Divine Decadence: Memories Of Glam
Retrospective by Jon Savage, Gadfly, October 1998
GLAM — or as it was originally called in the UK, Glitter Rock — flourished from early summer 1972 to summer 1974: shorter than Hippie, ...
Kiss & Make-Up: The Perfect Glam Rock Soundtrack
Guide by Jon Savage, MOJO, November 1998
IN THE OPENING minutes of todd Haynes's Velvet Goldmine, a gaggle of lads hurtle down a drab city street, tottering in their platforms, clad in ...
Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 18 December 1998
Jon Savage describes how Brian Epstein fell victim to drugs and the pressures of being a secret homosexual. ...
Skip Spence : Alexander Spence: Oar (Sundazed)
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, 1999
THE PASSING OF TIME has edged some psych esoterica into the mainstream, and Oar is a shining example. At once individual confession, generational narrative, and ...
Disco-Tex and His Sex-O-Lettes: Get Dancin'
Sleeve notes by Jon Savage, Castle Records, 1999
It's all about wonder the power to be like thunderexpressing electricity It's the greatest show with the best effectssince Disco Tex and the SexolettesPet Shop ...
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, 1999
KAK'S ONE and only album – released in the US during January 1969 – captures the Bay Area boom at its furthest outreach. ...
The Olivia Tremor Control: Olivia Tremor Control: Black Foliage (Blue Rose/ V2)
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, 1999
THE GOOD NEWS is that this double album maintains the high quality of OTC's Dusk At Cubist Castle, which updated the methodology of classic psychedelia ...
Obituary by Jon Savage, MOJO, 1999
ROGER EAGLE was an unsung hero of British pop, with ground-level involvement in successive youth/ musical subcultures from the Twisted Wheel and Northern Soul in ...
Book Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, June 1999
Party like it's 1977. In the depressed 1970s, one musical movement dared to say (mirror)balls to despondency. Don't get down, get down! urges Jon Savage. ...
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band: Grow Fins
Review and Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, June 1999
"That’s right, the Mascara Snake." And even if it isn’t, someone will put it in a box set one day. A feast of leftover Beefheart ...
The Chemical Brothers: Chemical Brothers: Heeeere we go!
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, July 1999
The Chemical Brothers: Surrender First album since 1997's chart-topping Dig Your Own Hole features guest vocals from Noel Gallagher, Hope Sandoval, Jonathan Donahue and Bernard ...
MC5: The MC5: The Big Bang (Rhino)
Review by Jon Savage, Dave DiMartino, MOJO, February 2000
First overall retrospective of seminal late ‘60s/early ‘70s rabble rousers: includes material from all stages of their career. ...
John Lennon: Imagine (Apple/EMI)
Review and Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, April 2000
Straight reissue of classic album, with digital remastering treatment. ...
Sniffin' Glue: The Essential Punk Accessory
Retrospective and Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, August 2000
WHEN THE FIRST Ramones album appeared in London, during the spring of 1976, it changed everything: not only the tempo and the look of rock, ...
The Saints: Wild About You (Raven/Hot)
Review and Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, December 2000
First stellar collection of the Aussie garage punks’ late ‘70s triumphs: two CDs, 47 tracks, sleevenotes, unseen photos and discography. ...
The Middle Class, The Negative Trend, The Weirdos: America’s Dreaming: California Punk, 1978
Book Excerpt by Jon Savage, England's Dreaming, 2001
25.8.78: This is my first visit to the U.S., let alone the West Coast, and I know that I’m on another planet, especially when, at ...
"The Agora of the Wayward": A Quarter Century of Rough Trade
Sleeve notes by Jon Savage, Mute Records, March 2001
"I USED TO buy my records in a shop in Trafalgar Road, and the man there was quite avant-garde for his day. Whenever I bought ...
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, March 2001
ONE OF the most persistent canards about the mid-'60 – propagated by baby boomer marketing and right-wing journalism – is that the hippies were hopelessly ...
The Kinks: The Kinks BBC Sessions
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, April 2001
NO DOUBT it's their sheer longevity, but The Kinks remain curiously undervalued: often cited as a key neo-Mod/Britpop inspiration – as if that's anything to ...
Bob Dylan: The End Of Innocence
Retrospective by Jon Savage, MOJO, June 2001
WHAT AFFECTS you in your early teens goes very deep. By the time that you're 18, identity construction is already advanced, but at 11 you're ...
Various: Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, July 2001
WITHIN THE rabid isolationism of the Bush regime, this is a remarkably generous statement: a monster collection aimed at the American market featuring aver a ...
Creedence Clearwater Revival: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, December 2001
FOR A FEW SEASONS as the '60s turned into the '70s, Creedence Clearwater Revival were the biggest band in the world, with their incredible US ...
Grateful Dead: The Golden Road (1965-1973)
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, January 2002
Mammoth 12-CD overview of Haight-Ashbury's finest, featuring improved sound, thorough annotation, extra tracks and hidden bonuses. All together: "Shall we go, you and I, while ...
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, August 2002
"THERE WAS so much I was told that was not real," Gene Clark croons on the haunting 'With Tomorrow', "so many things I could not ...
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, September 2002
The first legitimate CD release of The Who's epoch-making debut album, plus 18 tracks cut with their producer, Shel Talmy, in 1965 and early 1966. ...
The Rolling Stones: Remasters Series
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, November 2002
IN A ROCK ERA where back catalogue is king, The Rolling Stones have hitherto been ill-served by their servants. Their one-time peers The Beatles have ...
The Kinks: The New Naturalists: The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (Sanctuary)
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, September 2004
Definitive 3-CD upgrade of the Kinks' 1968 classic, with the original album in mono/stereo, and a third disc of unreleased and/or hard-to-find material. Includes Mick ...
Sid Vicious: "Nothing can hurt him anymore"
Retrospective by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 2005
Sid's mother Anne Beverley died of a heroin overdose in 1996, but not before sharing her side of Sid's story. As told to Jon Savage. ...
The Chocolate Watchband: Melts In Your Brain Not On Your Wrist
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, June 2005
At last! The complete works of the legendary San Franciscan psych-punkers: Jon Savage satisfies his sweet tooth. ...
The Ramones: Weird Tales Of The Ramones
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, August 2005
NOTHING CAN recapture the impact of how The Ramones sounded in spring 1976. Listening to it now, it sounds slow, formal, almost sedate: the Superpop ...
The Beau Brummels: Bradley's Barn
Review and Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, November 2005
IF 1967 WAS the year that the torch passed from England back to America, from Swinging London to Haight-Ashbury, then 1968 was the year that ...
The Prefects: Live 1978: The Co-Op Suite, Birmingham
Sleeve notes by Jon Savage, Caroline True Records, 2006
This recollection of a March 1978 concert was revived nearly 30 years after the event for Caroline True's issue of a full Prefects live show ...
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, April 2006
Weird tales from Baltimore and Cleveland: two albums from the American rock underground from the year that time forgot, 1975. ...
Buzzcocks, Joy Division, Magazine: Various Artists: Zero - A Martin Hannett Story 1977-1991
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, May 2006
The post-punk Phil Spector lives on again on a (single CD) retrospective that reveals him to be a producer both before his time and ahead ...
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, October 2006
They were there at the beginning. Now a 4-CD box set spans 1964-1990 in yet another career overview, Gene-Clark-heavy this time, with five unreleased tracks ...
Retrospective by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 2007
Jon Savage returns to the claustrophobic urban landscape of post-punk northern England to re-examine the soul-scorching singular vision of the band's late vocalist, Ian Curtis, ...
Arctic Monkeys: Favourite Worst Nightmare
Review by Jon Savage, The Observer, 22 April 2007
Don't be fooled by their common touch: the cheeky chimps are special. Jon Savage hears them make sense of the modern world ...
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 2008
Second full album as Vancouver heavy psychers turn up the heat with their dark magick. ...
Retrospective by Jon Savage, Ugly Things, February 2008
NOTE: This was written as an introduction to a brilliant Ugly Things article by Johan Kugelberg called "No More Jubilees: Punk Before Punk", which aimed ...
The Beach Boys, Dennis Wilson: Dennis Wilson: Pacific Ocean Blue
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, July 2008
The lonely surfer: The Beach Boy's late Cali masterwork finally on CD. Many extra include the unreleased, long-lost follow-up Bambu. Was is worth that wait? ...
Interview by Jon Savage, Observer Music Monthly, 10 August 2008
Julian Cope believes in music made by outsiders for outsiders. Now 50, and still incandescent with his passions for Krautrock and stone circles, he tells ...
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, September 2008
Strange but true: Return of a 1970 proto-rap legend ...
The Magazine Explosion: UK Pop Publications in the '60s
Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Observer, 6 September 2009
IT'S FEBRUARY 1963. The Beatles are No 2 in the charts with 'Please Please Me' and it's time to meet the press. An anonymous reporter ...
Obituary by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 2 November 2009
Nightclub owner who acted as a catalyst for the LA punk scene ...
Various Artists: Disco Discharge – Classic Disco, Euro Disco, Gay Disco, Disco Ladies
Review by Jon Savage, The Word, December 2009
AS IS THEIR wont, the Pet Shop Boys really summed it up on 'Can You Forgive Her?':"She's made you some kind of laughing stock/Because you ...
Fingers Inc.: Fingers, Inc: 'Mystery of Love' (Club Version)
Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 2 March 2010
FIRST RELEASED in 1985 (on Alleviated Records), then remixed by Larry Heard for a DJ International 12", 'Mystery of Love' seemed to come out of ...
At Large in the Black Hole of Punk L.A.
Sleeve notes by Jon Savage, 'Black Hole' (Domino Records), November 2010
NOTE: Adapted from Strange Things # 1, published spring 1988, this forms the first part of the liner notes for Black Hole: Jon Savage Presents ...
Bobby Jameson rages against the Vietnam war
Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 10 November 2010
A FANFARE OF slow, church organ chords – straight out of a horror film – resolves into a brutal Bo Diddley beat. A few blasts of ...
Ray Davies: A Dedicated Chronicler of Fashions
Profile and Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 28 November 2010
IN LATE 1965, Ray Davies threw a party. One of his guests was a clothes designer, and as Davies recalled: "I got pissed off with ...
Captain Beefheart: A tour through Captain Beefheart's back catalogue
Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 22 December 2010
Don Van Vliet shouldn't be seen as a "weirdo" – he had pop tricks up his sleeve and his most difficult music entered the top ...
Lady Gaga, Valentino: Lady Gaga's New Gay Anthem
Comment by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 14 February 2011
Has Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way' got what it takes to be a classic gay anthem? Jon Savage on the debt she owes to a ...
David Bowie, Kraftwerk: Taxi zum Klo's Berlin is a sexual playground
Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 21 April 2011
Bowie, Christiane F and Taxi zum Klo: these are the things that made Berlin so alluring to the British pop culture of the late '70s ...
The Smiths: "The Smiths and Morrissey changed our lives"
Comment by Jon Savage, The Observer, 2 October 2011
They might have split 24 years ago, but the Smiths remain as popular as ever, and not just among those who remember them first time ...
The Beatles: 80 years of Abbey Road
Report by Jon Savage, The Observer, 10 June 2012
It's the world's most famous studio and everyone from Edward Elgar to Ella Fitzgerald – and, of course, the Beatles – has made music there. ...
David Bowie: When Bowie met Burroughs
Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 9 March 2013
ON 28 FEBRUARY 1974, Rolling Stone magazine published a remarkable encounter between David Bowie and William Burroughs. Entitled "Beat Godfather Meets Glitter Mainman", the event had been hosted ...
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, September 2013
Reissue of '74-77 home demos by Ohio's deviant intellectuals: the true sound of the '70s underground. ...
Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 19 February 2014
Bob Casale, the guitarist of the American new wave pioneers, has died. In tribute, a longtime fan picks five key moments from his career ...
Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Wire, November 2015
The outsider electronics of Devo broke the Ramonic template of 1977 punk, says Jon Savage ...
The Rolling Stones: The real-life Jumpin' Jack Flash: how David Litvinoff shook the '60s
Book Review by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 19 January 2016
He inspired Mick Jagger, fought with Lucian Freud and shared lovers with Ronnie Kray. But David Litvinoff's taste for danger would take him into the ...
The Beatles: Derek Taylor: The Fifth Beatle
Retrospective by Jon Savage, GQ, 20 May 2018
He was the proto multi-hyphenate, serving as press officer, PA and confidante to the Beatles while still finding time to master journalism, launch the Byrds, ...
Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 3 July 2019
To celebrate 90 years of Decca Records, a new book about the label's history is being released. In this exclusive extract, renowned music critic Jon Savage ...
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