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Mark Paytress

Mark Paytress

Mark Paytress is a journalist, author and broadcaster. A regular contributor to MOJO magazine, his work has also appeared in numerous publications including The Guardian, Radio Times, Q, Rolling Stone, Crawdaddy, Maxim, La Repubblica and Record Collector.

His books include Bolan: The Rise & Fall Of A 20th Century Superstar (Omnibus Press), Break It Up: Patti Smith’s Horses And The Remaking Of Rock’n’Roll (Piatkus), I Was There: The Gigs That Changed The World (Cassell), BowieStyle (Omnibus Press), The Rolling Stones Files (Quadrillion), The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars (Schirmer), Siouxsie & The Banshees: The Authorised Biography, Vicious: The Art Of Dying Young and critical guides to the work of The Rolling Stones, Radiohead, Nirvana and the Sex Pistols.

Mark has contributed to various television and radio programmes (Night Waves, Front Row), and in winter 2008/09, researched and presented two documentaries for BBC Radio 4, Here’s Kenny (about DJ Kenny Everett) and Stash: The Dandy Aesthete Of Swinging London.

20th Century Single: 'Strawberry Fields Foreve'r by The Beatles
20th Century Album: Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band
20th Century Artist: Jimi Hendrix
20th Century Cult Hero: Scott Walker
21st Century Saviour: Joanna Newsom

47 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Butthole Surfers: The Butthole Surfers

Guide by Mark Paytress, Record Collector, February 1989

Mark Paytress Unravels the Career of the Cult American Band ...

Melanie

Retrospective and Interview by Mark Paytress, Record Collector, August 1989

MANY OF THE ACTS at Woodstock were already well established names, but if anyone can claim to have been broken by the festival, it must ...

Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett: Syd Barrett

Retrospective by Mark Paytress, Record Collector, 1993

IN COMMON with Brian Wilson, Captain Beefheart and Phil Spector, Syd Barrett is a musician whose work is often overshadowed by the myths that surround ...

Kirsty MacColl

Profile and Interview by Mark Paytress, Record Collector, March 1994

KIRSTY MACCOLL first came to prominence as a solo artist during the early 80s, scoring Top 20 hits with 'There's a Guy Works Down The ...

David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust: The Album That Killed The Sixties

Retrospective by Mark Paytress, Record Collector, June 1998

Bowie's Ziggy Stardust redefined the meaning of rock artistry. ...

The Creatures, Siouxsie & The Banshees: The Creatures

Interview by Mark Paytress, Record Collector, August 1999

SIOUXSIE AND THE Banshees have carried the can for all manner of goth-related crimes, from walking-corpse fashions to minor chord musical misanthropy. It's a wonder ...

David Bowie: Having The Time Of His Life: David Bowie: 'hours…' (Virgin)

Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, November 1999

His new album coincides with the umpteenth reissue of 17 studio albums from Space Oddity to Tin Machine, this time without extra tracks. (And no ...

The Sex Pistols: Sex Pistols: The Filth, The Fury, The Fun!

Report and Interview by Mark Paytress, Record Collector, May 2000

Director Julien Temple discusses the new Pistols film with Mark Paytress. ...

Sonic Youth: NYC Ghosts & Flowers (Geffen)/Screaming Fields Of Sonic Love (Blast First)

Review by Mark Paytress, Record Collector, August 2000

HAVEN'T WE heard enough Sonic Youth records? On the evidence of the band's latest, NYC Ghosts & Flowers, I'd fly in the face of other ...

Elvis Presley: Live In Las Vegas

Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, August 2001

ELVIS PRESLEY wasn't always the Clown Prince of Las Vegas. Back in 1956, he secured a two-week booking at the Venus Room in the city's ...

David Gilmour: An Interview

Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, November 2001

He has a spectacularly nice country pad, owns his own airstrip, keeps horses and doesn't like doing interviews. Mark Paytress declines some aerobatic action with ...

Jefferson Airplane: Ignition

Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, November 2001

THERE ARE winners and losers in the shifting sands of rock fashion and, much as it hurts to write it, Jefferson Airplane seem like losers. ...

Acid Mothers Temple: The Spitz, London

Live Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, December 2001

Japan's self-styled "freak-out group for the 21 st century" prompt synaptic meltdown in east London. ...

Marc Bolan, T. Rex, Tyrannosaurus Rex: "Catch A Bright Star And Place It On Your Forehead": The Rise of Marc Bolan

Book Excerpt by Mark Paytress, Omnibus Books, 2002

An extract from Bolan: The Rise And Fall Of A 20th Century Superstar by Mark Paytress, first published by Omnibus Press in 2002. (378pp, currently ...

Elvis Presley: Today Tomorrow & Forever

Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, July 2002

LET'S BE honest: this, once again, is Elvis Presley '56-'77 squeezed into five exhilarating, and at times exasperating hours. There are two major differences this ...

John's Children, Marc Bolan: John's Children

Retrospective and Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, September 2002

IT'S BEEN SAID THAT IN 1967 MANAGER SIMON Napier-Bell served Marc Bolan with an ultimatum: join The Yardbirds or John's Children. The very idea of ...

Jeff Buckley: Keeper of the Flame: Jeff Buckley's Mum

Report and Interview by Mark Paytress, The Guardian, 30 October 2002

IT IS FIVE YEARS since Jeff Buckley took his final, mid-evening stroll into the Wolf River, a sleepy tourist spot on the outskirts of Memphis, ...

Jefferson Airplane: High Priestess: Grace Slick and ‘White Rabbit’

Retrospective and Interview by Mark Paytress, The Guardian, 15 November 2002

White Rabbit has just come out top in a poll to find the finest drug song ever. Mark Paytress discovers that its writer/singer Grace Slick ...

Television: Marquee Moon/Adventure

Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, November 2003

FEW BANDS can claim to be lithe, literate and musically gifted, but for a brief moment Television blended all three to perfection. ...

Scott Walker: It Don't Come Easy: Scott Walker’s Five Easy Pieces (Universal)

Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, 2004

Idiosyncratic. Inspired. Perplexing. Well, how else would you want your multi-disc "Godlike Genius" retrospective served? ...

The Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious: Sid Vicious: Threw a Glass Darkly

Book Excerpt by Mark Paytress, 'Vicious: The Art of Dying Young', Sanctuary Books, 2004

SID did it. Didn’t he? ...

Gang of Four, The Pop Group, Public Image Ltd, The Slits, Throbbing Gristle: Post Punk's Not Dead!: ATTACK!

Retrospective by Mark Paytress, MOJO, January 2004

The avant-garde post-'77 post-punk sound was a revolutionary amalgam of funk, punk, disco and reggae. Mark Paytress explains the battle plan. ...

The Move: Hello Goodbye: Ace Kefford and the Move

Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, February 2004

Hello: October 1965 ...

Throbbing Gristle: TG+

Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, February 2004

Played last year's 24-hour marathon box set to death? Worry not. Here's another 10 hours' worth of in-concert industrial uproar. Tense? Nervous? Headache? Read on... ...

The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: Brian Wilson: Smile

Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, October 2004

It was expected to surpass Sgt. Pepper as the greatest album of all time. But was the reconstruction of the fable worth the 37-year wait? ...

Marianne Faithfull: Before The Poison (Naïve)

Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, October 2004

IT TAKES two seconds to realise this is gonna be a bit special. Three songs in and thoughts turn to album of the year. Just ...

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: Trout Mask Replica (Straight, 1969)

Retrospective and Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, March 2005

A disciplinarian visionary and his inspired acolytes create genuine Outsider Art. ...

Cream: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, July 2005

Cleaned-up rock aristos reward jewellery-rattling crowd with first show in 37 years. ...

Alice Cooper: American Excess

Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, December 2005

Leading a band of blood-thirsty long-haired crazies, Alice Cooper ruled '70s rock'n'roll, surviving hangings and electrocution, before booze, madness and global fame destroyed the beast. ...

The Fall: Mark E. Smith: An Interview

Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, February 2006

Heading: Hates "school prefect" Blair and punk. But after 30 years of booze, wives and 28 studio albums, has the Fall frontman finally found redemption? ...

Paul Kantner/Jefferson Starship: Blows Against The Empire

Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, February 2006

ACID BLEW HIS mind, but that was never enough for Paul Kantner, Jefferson Airplane's chief songwriter and a sci-fi buff since he'd been in short ...

The Kinks: Tales of Ordinary Madness

Retrospective and Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, March 2006

It ain't easy being Ray Davies — the eternal malcontent, "control freak" and genius behind The Kinks. On the eve of a barnstorming solo comeback, ...

Scott Walker: The Drift

Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, June 2006

The most extraordinary changeling in pop's 11-year-itch is more twisted, tormented and thrilling than ever. ...

Patti Smith: The Lady's For Returning

Interview by Mark Paytress, The Guardian, 9 September 2006

PATTI SMITH knows a thing or two about rock'n'roll heroes. Emerging in a blaze of controversy with her epochal 1975 debut album, Horses, she wrapped ...

Psychic TV: Body Politics

Interview by Mark Paytress, The Guardian, 7 October 2006

WHEN PSYCHIC TV's Genesis P-Orridge walks out on stage at the Astoria this evening, on a rare visit to London, those who've followed the career ...

Patti Smith: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Live Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, December 2006

A night of remembrance — and a night to remember, gasps Mark Paytress. ...

The Electric Prunes: California Dreamin': The Electric Prunes: Too Much To Dream (Rhino) ***

Review and Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, April 2007

They trod an awkward career path, says Mark Paytress, but The Electric Prunes had moments of proto-psych wizardry. ...

Marc Bolan, David Bowie: Child of the Revolution: Tony Visconti: The Autobiography: Bowie, Bolan And The Brooklyn Boy (Harper Collins) ****

Book Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, April 2007

A life in music, rich in chemical romances, bickering stars and some wonderful work, is recounted with great dignity, says Mark Paytress ...

Radiohead's In Rainbows: Jonny Greenwood speaks

Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, January 2008

Radiohead have made the album of the year. No one is more surprised than them. Guitarist Jonny Greenwood talks to Mark Paytress. ...

Radiohead: Chasing Rainbows

Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, February 2008

Four years in the making, In Rainbows is both tortured and triumphant… Here, for the first time, is the unexpurgated inside story of the album ...

Lou Reed: Back On The Road At 68

Interview by Mark Paytress, The Times, 10 April 2010

In a rare interview, the rock icon is as challenging as the album he is re-releasing. ...

Smiley Culture: Mark Paytress Meets Smiley Culture On The Cusp Of Fame, 1984

Interview by Mark Paytress, Rock's Backpages, March 2011

AS BRITAIN'S first successful MC, whose fast, fluid style had more in common with rap than reggae, Smiley Culture's place in history is assured. He ...

The Faces, Ian McLagan, The Small Faces: The Mojo Interview: Ian McLagan

Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, August 2011

How do you survive "unbelievable" acid trips in the Small Faces, being Don Arden's meal ticket or acting like "drunken bastards" in the Faces? It's ...

The Damned: Fun! Fun! Fun?

Retrospective and Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, February 2013

Armed with "a license to cause mayhem", they created an "'orrible" speedball of a debut album. Before losing control…. Thirty five years on, all four founder ...

David Bowie: The Next Day

Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, April 2013

Here he is, not quite dying. The new Bowie is alive and well and mildly exasperated, says Mark Paytress. ...

The Rolling Stones: Norman Jopling: Shake It Up Baby! Notes From A Pop Music Reporter 1961-1972

Book Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, May 2015

ON MAY 8,1963, an issue of New Record Mirror hit the London streets with a lead story that had enormous unforeseen consequences. ...

Joanna Newsom: Divers

Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, November 2015

Freak-folk Cinderella follows acclaimed 2010 triple with an album of erudite pop and deepening moods. Mark Paytress takes the plunge. ...

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