Max Bell
"I can't do that self-promotion malarkey. Mine sounds phony to me. But here are some clues. I did write for Nick Logan's NME, and for the Evening Standard, GQ, Arena, Uncut, Vox and the Independent On Sunday etc., but that's so old hat. I have written some stuff for Classic Rock, which is a fine magazine. I did a Doors piece last year which was well received, a kind of detective story on the last days of Jim Morrison. There are others. But my trumpet isn't working.
"There aren't any answers. Rock journalism is – short version – hanging out with cool people and catching a contact high. Then you write about it and the pay is laughable. I went for a limo ride with Dennis Wilson to the Lincoln Festival. But I wasn't a music journalist then so that doesn't count. I've swum in a pool with Jerry Garcia. And I can't swim. I sat on the Sphinx with Captain Trips and David Freiberg dosed me with Owsley's finest via teat pipette and eye dropper. I was sitting next to Ken Kesey. I got my own back when I hung out with Julia, the Quicksilver Girl, and the Byrds Girl. Nice girl. I also hung out with Sable Starr and the Turtles and Helen Wheels. I took a lot of drugs with Arthur Lee and John Phillips in the Hollywood Hills. I loved Arthur a great deal. See what I did there.
"Elton John burned one of my articles on stage. That was a highpoint. At university I had a few interesting visitors, like Mike Wilhelm and Cyril Jordan and Sandy Pearlman. All I'd done was compare him to Mrs. Mills. Sparks wanted me to be their rhythm guitarist. Who am I?"
395 articles
List of articles in the library
Review by Max Bell, Let It Rock, December 1972
DESPITE BLACK SABBATH'S protestations that they have spent both a great deal of time and money on their latest album (earthshatteringly entitled Volume 4) the ...
Dr. Feelgood: Dingwalls, London
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 28 September 1974
FORGET THE Yardbirds, forget J. Geils. Last Thursday, Dingwalls had the real demolition men in. Name of Dr. Feelgood; they're what rhythm and blues is ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 28 September 1974
IN 1965 Jac Holzman, then head of Elektra and master of good taste, pulled a young man and his group out of an L.A. club, ...
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 9 November 1974
THINGS COULDN'T really have got off to a worse start for Sparks. First their coach broke down in Barnsley – of all places – which ...
Tangerine Dream: Is This The End Of Rock As We Know It?
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 16 November 1974
EVER HEARD of a group who would rather not be visible to their audience and let the music work on its own? Seems peculiar even ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 23 November 1974
DARYL HALL and John Oates are acquiring something of a cult following in this country. ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 7 December 1974
A LOT OF people are going to be highly disappointed with this album, Lee's first with the new but not improved Love. Not that he ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 7 December 1974
COINCIDING with their decision to reform comes this compilation of Moby Grape, not a greatest of hits but a personal faves number allotted to Bill ...
Bryan Ferry: Tired of that same old anorak?
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 21 December 1974
Achieve the Country Life look in a Komfi-twede blazer. By Ferrari of South Kensington. ...
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 21 December 1974
CONTRARY to popular belief, Santa Claus – alias Saint Nicholas – is alive and well and living in Amsterdam. ...
Bryan Ferry: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 28 December 1974
THE ALBERT HALL is teeming, brim-full with the beautiful awaiting the first solo airing of his master's voice in the Capital. ...
Fumble, Rock Bottom: King's Road Theatre, London
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 28 December 1974
ON SUNDAY, at the ratty end of Chelsea, the King's Road Theatre opened its doors for a double bill of rock'n'roll; pretty disastrous it was ...
Gary Glitter: Ballroom Dancing With The Big G
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 28 December 1974
GARY GLITTER is sensibly ensconced in a very old fashioned smart hotel where the only thing liable to disturb his peace-of mind is a nutty ...
Santana: Latin Limbo Dancing Over Hot Coals
Retrospective by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 28 December 1974
OF ALL the really big American bands perhaps Santana remain the most enigmatic, the least publicised – yet, ironically, enduring the test of time and ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 4 January 1975
IF YOU LIKED the instant, stylised commercialism of 'Pinball', with its dilettante finger poppin'; then the album of that name might be just up your ...
Bryn Haworth: Let The Days Go By
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 4 January 1975
SO UNASSUMING IS Bryn Haworth's Let The Days Go By that I was initially tempted to dismiss it as just another singer/songwriter effort, but having ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 4 January 1975
WAS THIS ALBUM WEIRD? You bet yer snakeskin mitts it was. ...
Mike Oldfield and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra: Tubular Bells
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 11 January 1975
AS IT ALREADY appears that every other person in Great Britain possesses a copy of this much-venerated work, I doubt if it's necessary to explain ...
Ozark Mountain Daredevils: It'll Shine When It Shines
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 11 January 1975
THINGS ARE STIRRING in Jefferson City, Missouri. It'll Shine When It Shines is The Ozark Mountain Daredevils' second album and mighty fine it is too. ...
John Cale: Cale and Eno Horror Story…
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 8 February 1975
CO-STARRING ST. PAUL'S SCHOOL CHOIR ...
Blue Öyster Cult: That's Right, Another Bunch Of Neo-Fascist Heavies
Profile and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 15 February 1975
"We're pain, we're steel, we're a plot of knives...we're obsessed with the technology of matter...our symbol is a swastika substitute..." ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 15 February 1975
AHA! ESSRA Mohawk, formerly plain ol' Sandy Hurvitz. You may remember her as the original Uncle Meat in F. Zappa's late sixties circus until she ...
Montrose, Rapping with the Ring of Confidence
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 15 February 1975
RONNIE MONTROSE hates doing interviews. When I arrive at Warner's hideout I'm apologetically informed that Ronnie is too shattered to talk after driving down from ...
The Kursaal Flyers: Today Central Poly – Tomorrow The World?
Report by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 22 February 1975
"I'VE ONLY GOT the five shirts, so I just take 'em off and leave them to dry. It's no good washing them too much, they ...
Raspberries: The Raspberries - Starting Over
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 22 February 1975
I DON'T KNOW why but it always seems odd when American groups try to sound English, although the reverse is quite acceptable. ...
Tom Rush - Ladies Love Outlaws
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 22 February 1975
IN THE PAST Tom Rush has been hailed as a great interpreter, someone who can lift a number by nuance and feeling. His latest album ...
Tim Buckley: Greeetings From L.A.
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 1 March 1975
WAY BACK in the dim and distant, old Tim had to sing for his supper, along with the likes of Steve Noonan and Jackson Browne, ...
Tim Buckley: Greetings From LA
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 1 March 1975
WAY BACK IN the dim and distant, old Tim had to sing for his supper, along with the likes of Steve Noonan and Jackson Browne, ...
Milk 'n' Cookies: Mlk'n'Cookies: Sweetness & Light With Milk & Cookies
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 8 March 1975
IF I TOLD you that the latest band to ride the grapevine from New York to London, Milk'n'Cookies, are three guys from the affluent suburban ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 15 March 1975
READING THE CREDITS and titles to Franco Battiato's Clic you'd be forgiven for thinking that here was just the latest example of technoflash absurdia masquerading ...
Genesis: Gabriel's Cosmic Juice
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 15 March 1975
"I believe in getting art out of the galleries and onto the streets. Status Quo are so cultural, so Wagner..." ...
Blue Oyster Cult: On Your Feet Or On Your Knees
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 22 March 1975
FIRST OF ALL let me tell you about the art work that John Berg has concocted for the Blue Oyster Cult's most extreme venture to ...
Johnny Mathis - The Heart of a Woman
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 5 April 1975
JOHNNY BRISTOL'S RISING reputation as an ace producer hasn't, as far as I can see, resulted in any really solid product to back up the ...
Lou Reed at the Hammersmith Odeon
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 5 April 1975
THERE'S AN ILLUMINATED sign outside the Hammersmith Odeon that says: "It's all too much. Lou Reed in Concert." Wry humour or someone taking a subtle ...
Iron Butterfly - Scorching Beauty
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 12 April 1975
SEEMS LIKE 1968 all over again, doesn't it? ...
The Dictators - The Dictators Go Girl Crazy
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 12 April 1975
PSSST. WANNA BUY a dirty record? ...
Loudon Wainwright III - Unrequited
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 19 April 1975
THE WORST THING that ever happened to Loudon Wainwright III was being branded The New Dylan, kiss of death to any self-respecting artist who hopes ...
Phil Manzanera: Head hunting in darkest Acton
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 19 April 1975
YOU'VE GOT TO be quick to catch a Manzanera. No sooner has it left America than it's off to sunny Hawaii to sojourn, returning home ...
Steve Harley at the Hammersmith Odeon
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 19 April 1975
INSIDE THE HALL you could tell it would be one of those nights. Row upon row of bowler-hatted disciples clutched onto their Harley scarves in ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 26 April 1975
KANSAS ARE THE latest group to hoist the Dixie flag, though thankfully they don't seem anxious to broadcast the fact that "the South is gonna ...
Sweet: The Sweet: No Longer Unfashionable
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 26 April 1975
ROCK SNOBBERY. THAT'S what it is. A prevailing attitude that anything commercially successful in terms of the charts must therefore be top-twenty hype, not suitable ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 3 May 1975
THE GRAPEVINE WHISPERS Billy Joel is going to be a superstar. ...
Mickey Jupp: The Lost Legends of Southend Rock
Profile and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 3 May 1975
Down where the fag-end of London slopes into the sea, there lies the forgotten land of Southend, home of the whelk stall and source of ...
The Amboy Dukes - Journeys and Migrations
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 3 May 1975
THIS MOST RECENT collection of The American Amboy Dukes, taken from the first three albums, is strictly one for masochistic archivists. Amusement value only. If ...
Arthur Lee, Love: Arthur Lee: 'I've been black all the time,' admits controversial star
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 17 May 1975
He also admits to a severe case of baldness. Otherwise it's still ARTHUR LEE, back in Britain with a new Love ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 17 May 1975
THE FIRST TRACK on John Cale's Slow Dazzle is so excellent that I played it eight times before I could bring myself to continue. ...
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 24 May 1975
COVENT GARDEN HAD its second major rock venue re-opened last Thursday for a series of regular concerts by bands not big enough to warrant an ...
Frank Sinatra: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 7 June 1975
Forever doobeedoobee beedoobeedoo ...
John Cipollina, Man, Quicksilver Messenger Service: John Cipollina
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 7 June 1975
JOHN CIPOLLINA, he's the real thing. Smallish, wiry, hair tied back, nicotine stains up to his elbow and the confident loquaciousness of a man who ...
Sailor - No sex please we're Russo-Nordic
Profile by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 7 June 1975
TWO HAIRDRESSERS, a parachutist and a tortured poet; a band called Sailor, dressed in nautical gear, including a Ruskie prince and a member of the ...
The Beach Boys: Wild Honey and Friends
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 7 June 1975
IN THE GRAND old tradition of milking every last drop from The Beach Boys' catalogue comes this double coupling of the '67-'68 albums Wild Honey ...
Loudon Wainwright III - at Victoria Palace, London
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 14 June 1975
YOU MIGHT HAVE noticed that Loudon Wainwright III has been in Great Britain recently, completing the second lap of his tour; you might have noticed ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 14 June 1975
UNLESS PAVLOV'S DOG prove to be a figment of Sandy Pearlman's crazed imagination, then their debut album must make them great white hopes for the ...
The Beach Boys, The Eagles: The Beach Boys and The Eagles at Wembley Stadium
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 28 June 1975
"HI, WE'RE THE Eagles from Los Angeles." Well that was a fact as predictable as the set those five gentleman dished up, a kind of ...
Larry Coryell: Dingwalls, London
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 12 July 1975
YOU COULD tell it was Jazz night at Dingwalls. ...
Todd Rundgren: Man, Myth Or Rabbit?
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 19 July 1975
THE BOY FROM Upper Darby is pressed into the corner of a Blake's Hotel settee. He looks so much like a very glum rabbit that ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 26 July 1975
TOYS IN THE Attic, is Aerosmith's third record. No one here knows that much about Aerosmith, except that they're a straight-ahead Eastern seaboard band with ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 26 July 1975
NAT HENTOFF really should know better. Having, in the past, written liner-notes for the very best (Davis, Trane) he now finds himself eulogising the "scope ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 2 August 1975
THE NAME GIVES it away, really. ...
The Flamin' Groovies: Acid Hurt My Brain
Profile and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 2 August 1975
WHEN, TOWARDS the tail-end of 1969, the Flamin' Groovies' first Epic single 'Rockin' Pneumonia' crashed the American Hot 100 at No. 27 (with a bullet), ...
Howard Werth And The Moonbeams: King Brilliant
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 13 September 1975
AUDIENCE WERE ALWAYS a band which threatened massive stardom. That they never made the final breakthrough wasn't for want of trying. They made four excellent ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 20 September 1975
THE LATEST IN a long line of good albums from the largely ignored Bob Seger sees him returning to Muscle Shoals, scene of the Back ...
Santana: Carlos Santana: I Can Almost Materialize... If I Think Real Hard…
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 20 September 1975
...be still for I bring peace, love, and a new Santana line-up. ...
Earth Wind and Fire, Santana: Santana and Earth Wind and Fire at Hammersmith Odeon
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 20 September 1975
ONE OF THE ironic features of Columbia's prestigious double billing, Earth Wind And Fire/Santana is that in America right now the kudos for star spot ...
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 27 September 1975
"THE THING ABOUT concept albums is that they're never done successfully except mine of course," So speaks modest avant garde composer David Bedford, Virgin luminary ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 27 September 1975
BACK IN 1965 there was this group called the Young Rascals who, along with Vanilla Fudge and the Lovin' Spoonful, formed the big "New York ...
Howard Werth And The Moonbeams: Howard Werth
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 27 September 1975
"SEE, THE 'THE' is actually a joke, an abbreviation of the first word. It's not really 'King Brilliant' it's '...King Brilliant' that we ever got ...
The Doors Consumers' Guide, Part 1
Discography by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 4 October 1975
"There are things that are known and things that are unknown; in between are the doors." ...
The Doors Consumers' Guide, Part 2
Guide by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 11 October 1975
"This is the strangest life I've ever known" ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 1 November 1975
CLIVE DAVIS COULD sell Chesty Morgan a subscription to Mark Eden. Consider previous adventures of his with Copperhead and the Rowan Brothers, two acts who ...
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 13 December 1975
WANT TO HEAR a shaggy dog story? O.K. Once upon a time there was a completely unknown band who were so exciting that ABC Records ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 20 December 1975
OVER ONE HUNDRED Santana fans coughed up the full twenty pounds for this triple live album when it first appeared on import. ...
The Faces, Rod Stewart: The Faces Dossier: An Everday Saga Of Mick&Rod&Keef&Ron&Mac
Report by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 27 December 1975
MARCH, 1973. ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 10 January 1976
POOR OLD TODD'S taken a lot of stick of late, not least in this paper, for adhering to his mystical mind games in the face ...
Quicksilver Messenger Service: Solid Silver
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 14 February 1976
YOU MAY REMEMBER Quicksilver Messenger Service as one of the most enigmatic West Coast bands from the acid-soaked sixties, and not just because they never ...
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 3 April 1976
AT FIRST SIGHT, Bonnie Raitt isn't the world's most startling human being. In fact, she seems pretty damn ordinary. Quiet; medium height; plain; unkempt red ...
Eddie & The Hot Rods: Tasty, Urban Tension Classics…
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 3 April 1976
MAX BELL says, "Kids, you gonna drive me to drinkin'. If you can't get next to HOT ROD thinkin'" ...
Pavlov's Dog: At The Sound Of The Bell
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 17 April 1976
Condition your reflexes the Pavlov way! ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 24 April 1976
IF EVER A GROUP have made it huge in America by carefully manipulated saturation in terms of records, concerts and promotion then Kiss are that ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 8 May 1976
DEFINITION: SCAM – THE scenario for a confidence trick. The lowdown on same. The stage preparatory to the heist or sting. ...
David Bowie: The Man Who Fell Into Sinatra's Suit
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 15 May 1976
IT'S HALF PAST five on Sunday afternoon and I still don't know how to start this thing. Only David Bowie could return like the Prodigal, ...
Jesse Winchester: Learn To Love It
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 15 May 1976
THIS IS BOTH Jesse Winchester's third album and his third good album. ...
Kiss: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 22 May 1976
THE LADY on the door was most persuasive. "Would you take a Kiss mask? Please...go on have a couple, we're trying to get rid of ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 19 June 1976
THIS BOY certainly eats up producers. ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 19 June 1976
ONCE UPON A TIME the idea of liking Ted Nugent and The Amboy Dukes was considered remarkably unhip. Poor old Ted and his boys were ...
The Flamin' Groovies: Flamin' Groovies: Shake Some Action (Sire)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 26 June 1976
MAX BELL provides sleeve-notes for the new album ...
Little Feat, The Outlaws: Little Feat/The Outlaws: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 26 June 1976
THE OUTLAWS ARE really pretty much your standard ranch stash. Three lead guitars primed to shit-kicking yee-ha, mighty purty 'n' all but lame beneath the ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 3 July 1976
AEROSMITH HAVE GOT the whole situation psyched. ...
Spirit: America: The Titanic Might Be Sinking, But There Are Plenty Of Lifeboats Left
Essay by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 3 July 1976
BACK IN this very spot, Mick Farren pulled out his critical cudgels and delivered a sorely needed attack on the current state of rock'n'roll. ...
J. Geils Band: J Geils Band: Blow Your Face Out (Atlantic)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 3 July 1976
FOR A BAND who've been as ludicrously misrepresented by their critics as the incomparable J. Geils Brew, Blow Your Face Out must be the best ...
The Beach Boys: 15 Big Ones (Reprise)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 3 July 1976
WHAT THE little deuce coupe is goin' on round here? ...
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 10 July 1976
MAYBE IT WAS no accident that the hottest, steamiest, dirtiest night of the year was reserved for July 4. It's not every day that we ...
The Crusaders: Crusaders: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 17 July 1976
THE HELL WITH it, let's be dogmatic and lay down a truth that was already manifest before their historic visit. When it comes to pumping ...
The Flamin' Groovies: Flamin’ Groovies: It Ain't Much Fun Bein' In The Import Bins' Blues
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 17 July 1976
SOMETIMES DEJA VU gets to choke you up. After ten years of trying to prove themselves the Flamin' Groovies must be wondering just what the ...
The Ramones: 'Waitin' for World War III' Blues
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 17 July 1976
JOEY RAMONE is wandering around the empty Roundhouse, looking vacant and clutching a brand new camera under his arm like a teddy bear substitute. A ...
Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead: Steal Your Face
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 24 July 1976
SURPRISE, SURPRISE. THE new Dead album is coming in for the most monumental panning. Seems that for the past four years (at least) they've been ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 31 July 1976
How Kapt. Kopter kept coming back California, a bona fide genius guitar hero. Who says so? Max Bell says so. ...
Boz Scaggs: Central Park, New York
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 14 August 1976
STROLLING THROUGH New York's Central Park on a hot and sultry Friday afternoon was pretty much like reliving a David Peel song. The paths and ...
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 21 August 1976
Nectar of strychnine! Seminal psychedelic trip-wire rock'n'roll! Geometric chaos! Neo-nuclear Pearl Harbour precision! Flash-pod explosion! Blood-on-snow controlled fury! Boot-heeling dangerous! ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 11 September 1976
AFTER MY initial listening to this album I was going to take the easy way out, fob off with a few jokes about the Raga ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 25 September 1976
THERE ARE only a few things you need to know about J.J. Cale. ...
Rick Derringer: This Man Is Aiming To Kill
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 25 September 1976
Excuse the pun – it's Rick Derringer, of course, knockin' 'em down with hardnose rock'n'roll. ...
The Dictators: The Handsomest Man In Rock And Roll
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 16 October 1976
You may have been ready for Patti 'n' the Pistols 'n' the Ramones, but are you as ready as MAX BELL for The DICTATORS and... ...
Spirit: If You Value Your Life, On No Account Read This Headline...
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 30 October 1976
...because if you do you'll have to read the feature which is about RANDY CALIFORNIA of SPIRIT. He's a very far-out person. He says so. ...
Boz Scaggs: Bar-Room Brawls Are Out Man — I've Gotten Sophisticated
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 13 November 1976
Yes, this is one for the, err, cognoscenti. It's BOZ SCAGGS man – but coming on strong like Bryan Ferry's wardrobe. Admirer MAX BELL talks ...
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (Shelter, import)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 1 January 1977
DONT KNOW much about these guys except that they breeze out of Los Angeles, have a great image and play very good '70's rock'n'roll which ...
Tower Of Power: Ain't Nothin' Stoppin' Us Now
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 1 January 1977
THIS IS essentially transitional meat from Oakland, Soul City's finest. ...
Elvin Bishop: Hometown Boy Makes Good
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 15 January 1977
YES INDEED I do believe we've got ourselves a good one here. Elvin Bishop has resisted the slightly formulaic limpness of Struttin' My Stuff ...
Kiss: Rock And Roll Over (Casablanca Import)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 15 January 1977
The Red Carpet, but no Heat Treatment ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 15 January 1977
PREDICTABLE BOYS from the Rock Steady stable with Jack Douglas production. ...
Spirit: Future Games — A Magical Kahauna Dream (Mercury Import)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 19 March 1977
THE RETURN of Tab, Hunk and Dr. Sardonicus — more outrageously smooth than ever before. A new Spirit album is not only becoming a frequent ...
Review by Max Bell, Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 2 April 1977
Igs past and present collide in sonic fury as NICK KENT & MAX BELL once more grasp for the identity of the enIGma, quest for ...
Asleep At the Wheel: The Wheel (Capitol)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 14 May 1977
I'D BEEN beginning to think there wasn't that much happening on the live front until I saw Asleep At The Wheel at Hammersmith last week. ...
Little Feat: Time Loves A Hero (Warners)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 21 May 1977
MIGHT AS WELL jump in at the deep end and ask you to indulge in some consumer advice research. ...
Grateful Dead: Terrapin Station (Arista)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 30 July 1977
Dead Still Riding The Rods of the Celestial Train ...
Big Star: Big Star Burns Real Slow
Overview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 6 August 1977
For almost ten years now, Alex Chilton has resolutely resisted successive attempts by the rock press to deify him. ...
The Beach Boys: CBS Convention: Beach Boys Party
Report by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 6 August 1977
BEACH BOYS PARTY FOR CHOSEN 1,600 ...
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 6 August 1977
A long-running family saga continues: California fnurgs dump on U.K. public... ...
Retrospective by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 13 August 1977
While the poor people sleep-in with the shade on the light While the poor people sleepin' all the stars come out at night – 'Show ...
MC5, Wayne Kramer: Wayne Kramer: Broke, Busted, Disgusted, Agents Can't Be Trusted
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 20 August 1977
Former MC5 guitarist WAYNE KRAMER live from Lexington Penitentiary, talks to MAX BELL about times past and time passing ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 27 August 1977
GOG AND MAGOG?! No, Dog And Maindog. A Pure Pop Person Pleads Sanity. MAX BELL Was At The Hearings. ...
The Only Ones: I Have Seen The Future Of…etc. pt 52
Profile and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 27 August 1977
"FLARED TROUSERS...FLARED TROUSERS...", the audience at the Marquee taunt brightly. On stage, the Only Ones are sticking together the kind of set that makes most ...
Lowell George, Little Feat: Fear and Loathing in Little Feat?
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 3 September 1977
LOWELL GEORGE IS NOT HAPPY. BILL PAYNE IS BEING DIPLOMATIC. THRILLS IS ALL EARS. ...
Boz Scaggs: Portrait of The Image as a Reality
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 14 January 1978
The elusive BOZ SCAGGS picks up the phone in deepest America and suavely refutes all allegations of artifice. 'My image is no pose man – ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 21 January 1978
TRY AS I might I never could nestle up to Clover's last album (their English debut). There were several ingredients missing, elements that jarred on ...
Ozark Mountain Daredevils: Don't Look Down
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 21 January 1978
Second Cut is the Lowest ...
Blue Oyster Cult: The Cult Occult And The Disco Nightmare
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 4 March 1978
ALLEN LANIER sits down for a pleasant chat about bikers, Burt Bacharach and band ideology. ...
Spirit: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 18 March 1978
DO YOU BELIEVE in magic? Me, I'm still dreaming, lost in the welter of sensory impressions that seeped into the Rainbow the minute Spirit dripped ...
Joe Sample: Rainbow Seeker (ABC Import)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 1 April 1978
SEARCH AND DEPLOY ...
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 8 April 1978
Meet Tricky Ricky and the Denim Deliverers. Ricky Neilson and CHEAP TRICK, to be more precise, who're currently wowing the Heavy Metal Hordes and MAX ...
Allen Toussaint, Lee Dorsey: The Meat And The Motion
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 15 April 1978
Allen Toussaint: Motion (Warner Brothers Import)Lee Dorsey: Night People (ABC) ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 22 April 1978
THERE IS nothing especially new about this power pop hullaballoo, y'know. As a sub-genre it has existed in a succession of shapes and guises for ...
Todd Rundgren: Hermit of Mink Hollow (Bearsville)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 22 April 1978
AND JUST when we all thought that Todd Rundgren had finally disappeared into the darkest recesses of his cosmological inner sanctum he comes back at ...
Jerry Garcia Band: Cats Under The Stars
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 6 May 1978
UNCLE JEROME'S fourth foray into the solo light gets some of that old Dead sound back to base. Just in time I guess. ...
Big Star: The Big Star Story, Take 4
Retrospective by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 15 July 1978
THE BIG STAR story seems to have taken up a considerable part of my writing life. This is the fourth time in three years that ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 15 July 1978
I'M NOT at all sure about this band. Their roots place them in the Boston, Massachusetts region which, not being New York or LA, guarantees ...
Asleep at the Wheel: Collision Course (Capital)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 12 August 1978
STRANGE TO relate but not everything that emerges in the new release racks this week will bear the mark of androids in overalls. And disco ...
The Only Ones: The Bristol Community Free Festival, Ashton Court, Bristol
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 12 August 1978
ANOTHER BOY, ANOTHER BLOODY GUITAR HERO ...
The Only Ones: Peter Perrett Picked A Peck Of Pickled Peppers
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 19 August 1978
LAST MONTH, Peter Perrett won himself a Concorde ticket to Brazil. The loot for the trip came not from playing rhythm guitar but poker. ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 23 September 1978
LARRY CARLTON, super side-man should need no introduction. The weeping, fluid style that Carlton rings from his 335 has become a definitive sound on albums ...
Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead's First Annual Pyramid Prank
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 30 September 1978
"There were no sets. Sometimes we'd get up and play for ten minutes and all freak out and split. We'd just do it however it ...
Blue Oyster Cult: Some Enchanted Evening
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 7 October 1978
NOW THAT Blue Oyster Cult have a patented studio style of their own, neatly quashing any lingering doubts that they had softened up in the ...
Mickey Jupp: Micky Jupp: Juppanese
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 7 October 1978
MICKEY JUPP has always been nearly famous, and even then it's been by default. ...
B.B. King: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 21 October 1978
IF ONLY B.B.King had let his fingers, and not his likeable but oversized ego, do the talking then I would have enjoyed his return to ...
R. D. Laing: Vinyl Head Shrinker Tells Of Life Before Death…
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 21 October 1978
R. D. LAING – psychologist, psychiatrist, author, lecturer, institutional therapist and now rock star? ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 21 October 1978
WEATHER REPORT are suffering an identity crisis which has completely mitigated the potential of Mr. Gone. Their unwillingness to pursue the avenues of progression opened ...
Report by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 28 October 1978
W. C. FIELDS would have hated the "Be Stiff" tour. A sixteen year child star who toured with Mickey Rooney? A performing punk dwarf called ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 11 November 1978
HOLY KRISHNA! His beneficence returns to the fold of lesser mortals for the annual Santana lesson, that quest whose purpose is boundless, ineffable. Wondrous Santana, ...
Robert A. Johnson: Got Mah Ego Workin'
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 25 November 1978
When the Buffalo of Immodesty stomps the tender talent-plant 'neath its cloven heel, the result, as Confucius noted, is "rampant megabullshit, and I don't mean ...
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 2 December 1978
THE CARS took the stage to a backing tape of revving engines, the principal mode of presentation for this Boston-based five piece. The house was ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 9 December 1978
THE INEVITABLE live double from Aerosmith rolls inexorably into the American "Christmas like a fat Thanksgiving turkey". ...
The Shirts: Shirts Appeal – Loosen Your Choler
Profile and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 9 December 1978
THE SHIRTS from Brooklyn reckon they've been mistreated. Right from the moment their name went on CBGB's lavatory wall. They are angry. But not beaten ...
Todd Rundgren: Back To The Bars
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 9 December 1978
THE ONE obstacle between Todd Rundgren and a successful live album comes at the stage when he has to rely on other musicians. ...
The Doors: The Morrison Legacy
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 23 December 1978
JIM MORRISON'S body may lie a-moulderin' in his grave but his soul goes marching on. ...
The Pointer Sisters: Pointers To The Future
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 27 January 1979
NOSTALGIA, so the old song hath it, ain't what it used ta be. ...
The Inmates: City Rhythms and Jailhouse Blues
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 3 March 1979
BILL HURLEY, lead singer with The Inmates, was definitely built for the job. Bill Hurley clocks in six foot solid from the ground, a hard ...
Roxy Music: Manifesto (Polydor)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 10 March 1979
EXACTLY SEVEN years ago — March 1972 — something stirred in the basement at Command Studios. ...
The Only Ones: Something Slithery This Way Comes
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 17 March 1979
THE DRESSING room at Hurrah's is buzzing with electricity – reason being that inside this converted New York discotheque it's damn near as cold as ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 17 March 1979
WILL THESE people never learn? In the time-honoured Hollywood tradition of foisting ambitious super-sessioners upon that large portion of the American public bereft of a ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 5 May 1979
POPOL VUH'S extended title for this soundtrack to Werner Herzog's remake of Nosferatu is 'On The Way To A Little Way'. That says a lot ...
J. Geils Band: Return Of The Hard-Drivin' Man
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 19 May 1979
"I'm a creature of the night. I don't wake up till it gets dark. D'ja wanna drink?" PETER WOLF of the J. GEILS BAND is ...
Nina Hagen: The Euro Woman Cometh
Profile and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 9 June 1979
THE LOBBY OF Blake's Hotel in Kensington is a hive of useless activity. As I walk through the open glass doors with the just-so scrolling ...
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 16 June 1979
Look Out! The bogey men are coming… ...
Ted Nugent: State Of Shock (Epic)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 23 June 1979
Ted On Arrival ...
The Pop Group: Idealists in Distress
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 30 June 1979
They are young. They are talented. They are committed. They are now without a record company. "So what seems to be the problem, boys?" asks ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 7 July 1979
DEMOCRACY IS A wonderful thing in theory, even if the practice is not always assured of success. And that self-same philosophical trait is a rare ...
Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures (Factory)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 14 July 1979
JUST WHEN the year's vitality was threatening to be expunged by a non-stop parade of rehashed fashions, 'ordinary geezers' with French Riviera yachts and the ...
Talking Heads: Les Talking Heads a la Carte
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 28 July 1979
THE SCENE: Paris, France, July 10. Bastille Day looms, Talking Heads and their 'guests' The B52s have just completed a mini-European jaunt minus Great Britain. ...
Taj Mahal: Recycling the Blues
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 11 August 1979
"I'm goin to the river goin to sit down on the ground/I'm goin to the river goin to sit down on the ground/And let the ...
Tom Verlaine: Tom Verlaine (Elektra)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 1 September 1979
Mr Verlaine Unwraps ...
Pere Ubu: New Picnic Time (Chrysalis)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 15 September 1979
PERE UBU is the type of band that enjoys banging its head against a concrete art-form – it makes an interesting sound and a crazy ...
Judas Priest: Unleashed In The East (CBS)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 22 September 1979
WHAT IS this thing called Judas Priest? A heavy metal band? Who says? If this is really Judas Priest live they'd be hard pushed to ...
The Crusaders: It's A Street Life In The Crusaders
Profile and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 22 September 1979
IT'S THE MID-1950s in Houston, Texas, east of Galveston Bay and west of the River Colorado, and some of the local folks are having themselves ...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Damn The Torpedoes (Backstreet)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 3 November 1979
IT'S BEEN a good two years since Tom's last sortie into the vinyl jungle, but even then You're Gonna Get It! was released to widespread critical apathy. ...
Neil Young: Live Rust (Reprise)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 24 November 1979
"My, my, hey hey, rock and roll is here to stay/Hey hey, my my, rock and roll can never die." ...
Randy Newman: Dominion Theatre, London
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 8 December 1979
RANDY NEWMAN was wandering around backstage at the Dominion gazing disconsolately down. "Why doesn't anyone like my ELO song?" he kept asking no one in ...
Tim Buckley: The Fantastic Voyage of a Starsailor
Retrospective by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 22 December 1979
"I'm as puzzled as the newborn child I'm as riddled as the tide Should I stand amid the breakers Or should I die with death my bride? Come hear ...
George Jones: My Very Special Guests (Epic)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 5 January 1980
A VETERAN OF over 50 albums, second cousin to the Nashville addiction, cheap booze, paid dues and bad blues, George Jones continues his flirtations with ...
The Ramones: End Of The Century (Sire)
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 5 January 1980
1-9-9-9 Phil 'N' Da Brudders Do Just Fine ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 12 January 1980
West Coast comeback shock ...
The Durutti Column: the Emaciated Line Between Art and Ambience
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 2 February 1980
Max Bell spends a day at the Factory with The Durutti Column ...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Call Tom Petty The New Springsteen And He'll Cut You!
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 15 March 1980
THE PICCADILLY Hotel in Manchester is an anonymous modern structure slipped neatly inside a multi-storey car park — an injection of glass and concrete at ...
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 19 July 1980
Bassist with Arnie Prole's Blues Band! Founding member of John Cooper Clarke's Curious Yellows! Close friend of Eric the Ferret! Producer of Spiral Scratch, Jilted ...
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 26 July 1980
JIVE OF THE JADED ...
Report by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 6 September 1980
AS LUCK would have it, my plane ticket to New York City's JFK Airport is open and coincides with the two major jawing topics obsessing ...
Blue Oyster Cult: Night Of The Locusts
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 13 September 1980
THE GOLDEN AGE of hotrod and dragster racing is over but the USA is still littered with its mythology. One such relic is Lebanon Valley ...
Dr. Feelgood: Dr Feelgood: A Case Of The Shakes
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 27 September 1980
YOU HAVE to admit that Dr Feelgood know their own measure – no kowtowing to trend from this lot. Would you believe this record was ...
Talking Heads: Remain In Light
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 25 October 1980
THE DESIRE to (re)discover the African continent has been burning deep in the bowels of curious imagination ever since the New York Herald packed Mr ...
Bow Wow Wow: > C•30 > C•60 > C•Shanty Go!
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 6 December 1980
Max Bell charts an old sea dog's a blinga a blanga a bippity bop ...
The Belle Stars: Rock Garden, London
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 31 January 1981
THE BELLE Stars are five-sevenths of the former Bodysnatchers: Stella, Penny, Judy, Sarah-Jane and Miranda. The new girls in the key places taken by founding ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 23 May 1981
Tolerance, Peace, Life ...
Echo & The Bunnymen: Long Day's Journey Into Oslo — Tales From A Norwegian Wood
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 27 June 1981
MAX BELL TRAVELS TO NORWAY WITH THE BUNNYMEN ...
Arthur Lee, Love: Arthur Lee: The Daily Planet Revisited
Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 8 August 1981
ARTHUR LEE, THE PSYCHO OF '60s PSYCHEDELIA AND FORMER LEADER OF LOVE, BREAKS HIS SILENCE TO KEEP A RARE APPOINTMENT ON PLANET EARTH ...
David Byrne, Talking Heads: David Byrne: First Degree Byrne
Interview by Max Bell, The Face, June 1983
FOR SOMEONE WITH such an aversion to limelight, fame and wild applause, David Byrne certainly puts himself about a bit. Ever since he formed Talking ...
Gil Scott-Heron: Shooting from the Hip: Gil Scott-Heron
Interview by Max Bell, The Face, June 1983
With verse and music slung from his belt, GILSCOTT-HERON is making his stand against the Cowboy. Some people accuse him of being right on. But ...
Echo & the Bunnymen: The Gathering Hall, Portree, Isle of Skye
Live Review by Max Bell, The Times, 7 July 1983
THE GATHERING Hall, Portree, has resounded to many a meeting of the clans in the last 100 years but it can seldom have witnessed such ...
Eurythmics, Annie Lennox: AUDIO: Eurythmics' Annie Lennox (1983)
Audio transcript of interview by Max Bell, Rock's Backpages Audio, August 1983
This is a transcript of Max's audio interview with Annie. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Eurythmics, Annie Lennox: Eurythmics' Annie Lennox (1983)
Interview by Max Bell, Rock's Backpages Audio, August 1983
The Eurythmics' front woman covers subjects from veganism to feminism, via marriage, class, the nature of success, and anything else she can think of.
File format: mp3; file size: 24.9mb, interview length: 27' 12" sound quality: ****
Dr. John: Dr John: Dingwalls, London
Live Review by Max Bell, The Times, 5 August 1983
DESPITE AN unfortunate illness, rumours of Dr John's early retirement have been greatly exaggerated. As if to emphasize his recent recovery New Orleans's favourite white ...
Barry Manilow: Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire
Live Review by Max Bell, The Times, 29 August 1983
IN ONE OF the season's most outrageous pieces of theatre Barry Manilow, the boy from Brooklyn, played his weekend concert before forty thousand people at ...
Live Review by Max Bell, The Times, 27 September 1983
SUCCESS STORIES abound in the fickle pop world, but the rise of Culture Club is genuinely deserved. The band and their androgynous singer Boy George ...
Annie Lennox, Eurythmics: Annie Lennox: MaSQUERaDE!
Interview by Max Bell, The Face, October 1983
THE EURYTHMICS used to rehearse in a room above a picture framers in Camden Town. Now, with money in the bank and record sales approaching ...
Boy George, Culture Club: Culture Club's Boy George (1983)
Interview by Max Bell, Rock's Backpages Audio, October 1983
The Culture Club icon on his travels through Europe: druggies in Amsterdam, efficient Germans, and European art and fashion.
File format: mp3; file size: 21.4mb, interview length: 23' 24" sound quality: ***
Wham!: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Max Bell, The Times, 31 October 1983
WATCHING WHAM! perform live confirms the suspicion that 1983 has marked the return of the teenybopper. Wham! fans, the majority young girls, possess all the ...
Culture Club: A Boy For Europe
Interview by Max Bell, The Face, November 1983
THE BEST thing about the Culture Club is that anybody can join. Membership isn't exclusive. Jon, Roy, George and Mikey have managed to come up ...
Review by Max Bell, The Times, 5 November 1983
Culture Club: Colour By Numbers (Virgin V2285); Bob Dylan: Infidels (CBS 25538); John Hiatt: Riding With The King (Geffen GHS4017 Import); The Doors: Alive, She ...
Aztec Camera: Growing Up In Public
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 19 November 1983
"HOW MUCH LONGER CAN THE PUBLIC REMAIN OBLIVIOUS TO AZTEC CAMERA?"ASKS MAX BELL. "GOOD QUESTION"SAYS RODDY FRAME. ...
Duran Duran: Apollo, Manchester
Live Review by Max Bell, The Times, 8 December 1983
Trapped in idolatry ...
Einstürzende Neubauten, Prefab Sprout: ICA, London
Live Review by Max Bell, The Times, 9 January 1984
THIS YEAR the I.C.A.'s excellent and well-established Rock Week event went under the banner "Big Brother Is Watching You". He certainly got value for his ...
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, February 1984
IT'S FIVE years and 18 hit singles since Madness first ran riot on Top of the Pops and straight into the nation's hearts. ...
Live Review by Max Bell, The Times, 14 February 1984
DESPITE THEIR PROSAIC NAME, the Smiths are very much the band of the moment. Six months ago this Mancunian four-piece were breaking out of the ...
Live Review by Max Bell, The Times, 28 February 1984
WHEN GENESIS first came to prominence, some 12 years ago, they were regarded as leaders in the rock-as-theatre movement. The combination of their former vocalist ...
Prefab Sprout: Faith, Hope & Glory?
Profile and Interview by Max Bell, The Face, March 1984
"IF ALL THIS HADN'T worked out, I was resigned to being a librarian. That's what I wanted to do." Thus speaks Paddy McAloon, brains in ...
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 19 May 1984
SANDIE SHAW WAS ONE OF BRITAIN'S TOP SINGERS IN THE '60s. NOW SHE'S BACK IN THE CHARTS WITH THE '80s SOUND OF THE SMITHS' 'HAND ...
Gregory Isaacs: Lyceum, London
Live Review by Max Bell, The Times, 31 May 1984
SUCH IS the flexibility of Gregory Isaacs's vocal prowess that he does not deserve to be typecast to a particular style. Isaacs is first and ...
The Special AKA: Still Special (After All These Years)
Interview by Max Bell, The Face, June 1984
Jerry Dammers appeared on the cover of the first ever issue of THE FACE. The General, as he was nick-named then, led his group The ...
Live Review by Max Bell, The Times, 23 June 1984
WHILE THE big names are sweating it out at the annual round of festivals, beginning with Glastonbury this weekend, the main event of midsummer night ...
Tom Verlaine: Tom Foolery: Tom Verlaine
Interview by Max Bell, The Face, July 1984
CAN IT REALLY be ten years now since we first heard about Television and the infamous New York scene of 1974? Those days, laughingly referred ...
Interview by Max Bell, The Face, August 1984
PARTHENON DRIVE, Norris Green, is one of Liverpool's quieter backwaters. The road, with its leafy gardens and council houses, is not scarred by graffiti or ...
Sade: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Max Bell, The Times, 2 August 1984
SADE IS CURRENTLY the hottest new voice in town. Her Diamond Life album has been highly praised and her jazz diva's image, allied to a ...
Frankie Goes To Hollywood: Chain Reaction
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 4 August 1984
Frankie Goes To Hollywood are what's been happening while we've been away. They've been at Ho. 1 with 'Two Tribes' and at No.2 with 'Relax'. ...
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 11 August 1984
MAX BELL INTERVIEWS BILLY MACKENZIE, GREAT BRITISH VOCALIST, AS THE ASSOCIATES RETURN WITH 'LOVE BOAT' ...
Heaven 17: The Heaven 17 Manifesto
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 1 September 1984
Once upon a time, Heaven 17 presented themselves as the dynamic young businessmen of pop. But now they've crossed sides to support the miners, the Labour ...
Culture Club Say War — Watch Yourself!
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 29 September 1984
CULTURE CLUB ARE BACK WITH A VENGEANCE — 'THE WAR SONG' TO BE EXACT. BUT HOW HIGH IS THE PRICE OF THEIR FAME? AND WILL ...
Frankie Goes To Hollywood: Welcome To The Pleasuredome (ZTT IQ1)
Review by Max Bell, The Times, 3 November 1984
Frankie say pleasure can pay ...
Live Review by Max Bell, The Times, 5 November 1984
JUDGING BY the packed house for Floy Joy's debut London date, the word is already out on this charming new jazz funk outfit. Though they ...
Frankie Goes to Hollywood: The American Dream: Frankie Goes To America, The Diary
Report by Max Bell, No. 1, 1 December 1984
Max Bell joins Frankie Goes to Hollywood for a week of high excitement on the road in the U.S.A. ...
Frankie Goes to Hollywood: The Holly Johnson Interview: "You've Got Fifteen Minutes, Christians."
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 1 December 1984
HOLLY JOHNSON keeps himself to himself for much of the tour. ...
Billy Mackenzie: Ronnie Scott's, London
Live Review by Max Bell, The Times, 12 December 1984
The odd twist ...
Culture Club: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Max Bell, The Times, 20 December 1984
OF ALL THE SUPERGROUPS currently vying for public attention Culture Club and their lead singer Boy George seem the most vulnerable. The title of their ...
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 12 January 1985
STAR WEARS: Those sharp-dressed men ZZ Top explain the art of mix'n'matching Fila tracksuits, tuxedos and 14-inch beards. ...
Depeche Mode: Boys Keep Swinging
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 19 January 1985
Pop groups come and go, but Depeche Mode keep on getting bigger and better. Max Bell joined them on tour in German — and if ...
Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Relax, It's Only A Rock Group: Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Profile and Interview by Max Bell, The Times, 14 February 1985
CARL GUSTAV JUNG, in one of his lighter moments, once wrote: "Liverpool is the pool of life". A year after Jung's death his words were ...
The Jesus & Mary Chain: Some People Never Understand
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 9 March 1985
"The most revolting and disgusting group I've ever heard" — that's one description of The Jesus And Mary Chain. Some jealous rival maybe? Nope — ...
Depeche Mode: Private Lives: The Depeche Mode Story, Pt. 2 – Martin Gore, The Decadent Boy
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 11 May 1985
In the second part of our exclusive Depeche Mode series Martin Gore talks about his steady progression from milkmaid to bank clerk to popstar in ...
The Jesus & Mary Chain: The Jesus and Mary Chain: Jesus Wept
Profile and Interview by Max Bell, The Face, June 1985
ACCORDING TO MR Geoff Travis, chief of staff at the born again, doubly hip Rough Trade records (purveyors of high class pop to the gentry), ...
Prince: Around The World In A Day
Review by Max Bell, The Times, 1 June 1985
PRINCE, THE CURRENT court jester of American hippy soul, once wrote a song called 'Ronnie, Talk To Russia', a good message number that indicated this ...
Scritti Politti: The Sweetest Boy
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 6 July 1985
BLACK MUSIC, ARTY IDEAS AND WORDS, WORDS, WORDS. THOSE ARE THE THINGS THAT INFLUENCE THAT WELL-KNOWN CLEVER CHAP GREEN. OH, AND CHOCOLATE, OF COURSE. MAX BELL ...
George Clinton, Thomas Dolby: Dog-Gone Dolby
Report and Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 3 August 1985
Max Bell yaps with Thomas Dolby and George Clinton. ...
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 2 November 1985
It's just over six years since those young nutty boys hit the Top 20 with 'The Prince'. Now Madness have just notched up their 21st ...
Kate Bush: What Kate Bush Did Next
Interview by Max Bell, Sunday Express, Fall 1985
INQUIRIES ABOUT why Kate Bush has been off the recording scene for three years–an age, in pop–met with a chilly and defensive response from her ...
Madness: Suggs on Women, Romance, Sexism and Growing Up
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 1986
CAN MEN be feminists? ...
Review by Max Bell, The Times, 1 February 1986
Irish quirkiness and venom ...
Review by Max Bell, The Times, 1 March 1986
Leaving the old wagon wheels behind ...
Depeche Mode — A Black Celebration
Live Review by Max Bell, No. 1, April 1986
MAX BELL TAKES A LOOK AT DEPECHE MODE before, during and after their Black Celebration! ...
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 12 July 1986
Max Bell meets Suzanne Vega. Pretty cosmic. ...
The Blow Monkeys: What's Up Doc?
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 19 July 1986
Max Bell questions Dr Robert on, er... just about everything! ...
Terence Trent D'Arby: Intimate Details
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 21 March 1987
Name: Terence Trent D'Arby. It's completely Anglophile. Terence is English, Trent is Scottish and Darby is Irish. I added the apostrophe. ...
Madonna: Whisper: Madonna Exclusive
Report by Max Bell, No. 1, June 1987
MADONNA LOUISE Ciccone finally relented last Tuesday, June 9, when she appeared on a chat show for the first time. Madonna, nobody's fool, chose The ...
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 6 February 1988
NAME: JUST call me Tiffany. I don't use a surname for professional reasons. I'll get into real trouble if I tell you now! It'll come ...
The Bangles: It's Those Hazy Crazy Bangles!!
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 5 March 1988
Yep, Debbi, Vicki, Michael and Susanna are back with 'Hazy Shade Off Winter'. Max Bell spoke to them. ...
Michael Jackson: Moonwalk (William Heinemann)
Book Review by Max Bell, No. 1, 7 May 1988
Michael Jackson... the Howard Hughes of pop... the only person to believe that a man's best friend is his chimp... the most secretive star in ...
Interview by Max Bell, The Face, December 1988
For many he's a rock messiah, a man with a message and all the answers. Perhaps that's why BONO did no interviews to promote what has become Britain's fastest-selling album ...
Roachford: Who's a Cuddly Boy then? Andrew Sylvester Roachford, that's who!
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 1 February 1989
He used to live in a house with 23 cats! His uncle learns to play the sax in one of those v. trendy lager ads! ...
Guru Josh: The Guru Ain't Joshin'!
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 16 June 1990
And he ain't mincing his words either! Max Bell lends a conspiratorial ear as the Guru lets rip at Adamski, slags off Technotronic, supports the ...
Grateful Dead: Bring Out Your Dead
Report and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, November 1990
Hey, man. Whatever happened to the summer of love? It’s taking dedication a bit far when in a year, three fans die at Grateful Dead ...
The House Of Love: Burning Down The House
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, November 1990
The House Of Love became a house of ill repute as they binged, boozed and vindalooed their way through the tour that never ended, burning ...
The Replacements: All Shook Down (Sire)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, November 1990
THE REPLACEMENTS were always Paul Westerberg's outfit and on All Shook Down one can't help but deduce that this is a solo album with the ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, November 1990
VAN MORRISON HAS TWO SONGS THESE DAYS. There is the casually crafted one which often climaxes with Van reciting the litany of great soul artistes ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, November 1990
THE TEXAS TWISTERS RETURN with a vengeance for Recycler, pursuing their scorched earth policy on a record that's so hot it'll burn your eyeballs out. ...
Donald Fagen, Steely Dan, Walter Becker: Steely Dan: Desperate For Dan
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, January 1991
No, there won't be a Steely Dan reunion. But the good news for those still checked in at the Hotel California is that songwriting partners ...
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, February 1991
After the unexpected and phenomenal success of her debut LP, Edie Brickell reinvented herself for Rolling Stone magazine but ultimately had to tell the truth. ...
Ocean Colour Scene: New Midland Talent: Ocean Colour Scene
Profile and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, February 1991
THE SAGA SO FAR: Manchester is out, Liverpool is in (again), Bristolians are as sore as ever and good London bands don't exist. Where this ...
Havana 3am — Our Man In Havana
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, March 1991
Ex-Clash man Paul Simonon doffs his skid-lid and steers his Harley onto the hard-rock shoulder for a bit of a chin about his new band, ...
Tanita Tikaram: Everybody's Angel
Review by Max Bell, Vox, March 1991
WHETHER IT'S by design or by some happy accident, Tanita Tikaram's third album finds the oddball girl-in-woman's-clothing locating her real voice at last. ...
Tanita Tikaram: All Grown Up with Nowhere to Go?
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, March 1991
TANITA TIKARAM DOESN'T think she is famous and can't bear to call herself a celebrity. ...
Chickasaw Mudd Puppies: 8 Track Stomp (Wing)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1991
WE'VE GOT a weird one here. The Chickasaw Mudd Puppies, for those who don't know, take their name from a river running through Alabama, though ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1991
THEY MUST have scratched their heads at Burbank when R.E.M. delivered Out Of Time. Far from capitalising on the success of Green, where America's most ...
Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991 (Columbia)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, May 1991
Sign Of The Times ...
Chickasaw Mudd Puppies: The Chickasaw Mudd Puppies: Puppy Love
Profile and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, May 1991
Pull the straw out of your teeth and take your pardners for a new kind of dance. The Chickasaw Mudd Puppies are here and they're ...
American Music Club, Mark Eitzel: Mark Eitzel: Tortured Soul
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, June 1991
MARK EITZEL, founding member of the American Music Club, stands before us accused of being "a melancholy angel of doom", a manic depressive with a ...
Nils Lofgren, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young: Nils Lofgren: Nils' Desperados
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, June 1991
A lovely guy, Nils Lofgren. Ask Bruce, Neil, Bob, Lou or Keef. Rock's shortest top sidekick tells Max Bell about life with the E Street ...
Sonic Youth: Dirty Boots (DGC)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, June 1991
WALKING ON MUDDY WATERS: Sonic Youth attempt to produce an easy listening album and fail gloriously. ...
Big Audio Dynamite II: The Globe
Review by Max Bell, Vox, July 1991
WORD IS THAT BAD II and Sony Music Entertainment are about to part company so I approached The Globe expecting to hear a contract-filling finale ...
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, July 1991
RAIN ARE A CLASSIC POP GROUP in the tradition of Liverpool's finest — four boys who play rock'n'roll and aren't afraid to think big. And ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, August 1991
LIVERPOOL'S LIKELIEST LADS, Rain have been allowed to develop away from the parochial glare of current city-based hype, and their debut album is well hard ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, August 1991
TAJ MAHAL HASN'T BEEN HEARD in such a pristine setting since his Columbia heyday, and after too many years of his slogging for well-meaning but ...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty: Into The Great Wide Open
Review by Max Bell, Vox, August 1991
NOW TOM PETTY has developed the taste, his second solo album finds him in experimental mood. The post-Byrds vein of downbeat romantic country pop is ...
Cath Carroll: Ronnie Scott's, London
Live Review by Max Bell, The Evening Standard, 2 August 1991
Idol threats and promises ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, September 1991
TEN YEARS AGO Squeeze released East Side Story, an album of obvious class and as English as the 'Go To Work On An Egg' slogan. ...
The Black Crowes: Nod's As Good As A Wink To A Black Crowe
Report and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, September 1991
Currently America's hottest new Faces, The Black Crowes have made a huge name for themselves with just one ass-kickin' LP, mucho slagging off of "the ...
Tom Waits: The Early Years Volume I (Edsel)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, September 1991
LONG BEFORE he became the rather self-conscious Harry Dean Stanton type he is today, Tom Waits used to intone straight-to-the-heart-of-the matter barroom blues, most of ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, October 1991
FIRST THINGS first. Tin Machine now sound like an expensive hobby, though that may be what they are, since Bowie took his chums to Sydney ...
Dire Straits: On Every Street (Vertigo)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, November 1991
AND ON EVERY CD player...they wish. ...
Primal Scream: Politics of Ecstasy
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, November 1991
Bobby Gillespie met DJ Andy Weatherall on the road to Damascus (or was it Brighton?), and in a flash of blue light discovered a dance ...
Daniel Lanois, U2: Daniel Lanois and U2: Five Men and Achtung Baby
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, December 1991
The new U2 album — released on November 18 — is "rougher and harder-hitting than anything we've done before" …Producer Daniel Lanois talks to Max ...
Genesis: We Can't Dance (Virgin)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, December 1991
GENESIS'S 17TH album arrives some five years after Invisible Touch. As befits these sedate Home Counties chaps, We Can't Dance is the product of modest ...
Taj Mahal: Playing The Cosmic Blues
Retrospective and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, December 1991
BACK IN THE '60S when he was fronting the Rising Sons with Ry Cooder, they used to call Taj Mahal a cosmic intellectual blues player. ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, December 1991
BONO VOX once mentioned in passing that if and when he ever published a volume of his poetry, the title of said tome would be ...
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, January 1992
Blending cosmopolitan pretension, uptempo dance rock and smart media moves, Michael Hutchence has managed the impossible — to make INXS a world famous, high grossing ...
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, February 1992
At the age of 48, Lou Reed is better disposed to write sedate six-string symphonies about mortality than feedback musings on the subject of scoring ...
Report and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, February 1992
THE recent reissue of MC5's incendiary live album Kick Out The Jams, with the contentious "motherfuckers" rap reinstated in place of the toned down "brothers ...
Moe Tucker, Velvet Underground: Velvet Underground: No Moe Reunions
Report and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, February 1992
MAUREEN TUCKER, drummer and mother of five, has scotched rumours concerning any further Velvet Underground reunions. ...
Cowboy Junkies: Black-Eyed Man
Review by Max Bell, Vox, March 1992
TORONTO'S CELEBRATED Cowboy Junkies have never seemed to pay fashionable music much attention. Back in '86 they recorded an extraordinary set of bluesy covers called ...
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, March 1992
If you should bump into David Byrne on his forthcoming world tour, for God's sake don't mention the word "renaissance". Talking Heads are no more, ...
The High Llamas: Apricots (Plastic Records)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, March 1992
SEAN O'HAGAN, formerly of the admirable Microdisney but now pursuing a solo path with the latter's rhythm section in tow, is a man with much ...
k.d. lang: Ingénue (WEA 26840)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1992
POPULAR OPINION has had it that, on her latest album Ingénue, k.d. lang has skirted the Country style as if it were an unpleasant cesspit ...
Little Village: Little Village
Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1992
INITIAL REACTION to Little Village — a sort of super-ish group-type thing — leads one to ponder the question: why? Was this summit meeting of ...
David Byrne: More Songs About Psychos: David Byrne: Uh-Oh (Luaka Bop/Sire)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1992
DAVID BYRNE has always enjoyed looking at the globe from the most unusual perspectives. He used to draw ephemeral pictures of the States on an ...
Annie Lennox: Beaten By The Curve Ball: Annie Lennox: Diva (RCA)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, May 1992
SOMETIMES you come home and they've moved the furniture. ...
Del Amitri: Hangin' With The Del Boys
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, May 1992
Fashion? Del Amitri – the most polite boot-wearing, outsize sideboard-toting popsters in the Northern Hemisphere – couldn't give a Flying Scotsman ...
Review and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, August 1992
The Eagles are up there with rock's all-time greats. Over the years they've sold some 80 million records, thanks largely to that polished Western fantasy ...
Julian Cope: A Rune With A View
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, September 1992
Powerful things, ley lines. They can make Julian Cope commune with rocks, and cause his old boss Bill Drummond to break the silence he's kept ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, October 1992
HAPPY MONDAYS' fourth album arrives in a cloud. The nest of vipers stirred by Shaun Ryder's interview with the NME last year is one factor ...
PJ Harvey: Harvey's Frisco Dream
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, November 1992
PJ Harvey hit the states for a lightening tour and took it by storm. "It's like a film," says Polly. "I think they're a bit ...
Lucinda Williams: Sweet Old World
Review by Max Bell, Vox, December 1992
LUCINDA WILLIAMS may have suffered from the songwriter's identity crisis in recent years. Her early work for Folkways hinted at a desire to investigate Country ...
Madonna: Erotica (Maverick/Sire)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, December 1992
NOW WE'VE ALL been in bed with Madonna, and studied her Sex, this Erotica business seems determined to encourage a few mind-games with the intent ...
Public Enemy, U2: Public Enemy and U2: The Chuck and Bono Show
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, December 1992
When U2's tour brought Public Enemy to the Deep South, where segregation is still an issue, Chuck D did his best to pour napalm on ...
Leonard Cohen: The Future (Columbia)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, January 1993
A PRESIDENTIAL term of office in the making, Leonard Cohen's The Future is designed to see all those buggers out. It will captivate those who ...
Neil Young: Young's Winter Warmer
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, January 1993
Twenty years after Harvest, Neil Young has released Harvest Moon. But don't look for parallels — there aren't any, he says. ...
Mick Jagger: Wandering Spirit (Atlantic)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, March 1993
REMEMBER THAT SCENE in Performance, where James Fox's Chas tells Mick Jagger's Turner: "You'll look funny when you're 40"? Well, the rock'n'roller's fear of that ...
Mica Paris: Jazz Cafe, Camden, London
Live Review by Max Bell, The Evening Standard, 12 March 1993
A passion for south London ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1993
PIOTR FIJALKOWSKI'S gloomy, doomed romantics are rock revisionists from the old school. Obviously inspired by the likes of Echo And The Bunnymen and The House ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1993
VERNON REID'S POSITION at the forefront of the Black Rock Coalition gave Living Colour's first two albums, Vivid and Time's Up, a biting, satirical edge, ...
Van Halen: Right Here, Right Now
Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1993
THERE'S A CHINESE PROVERB which says that you cannot eat a steamed bun in one mouthful. In other words, don't bite off more than you ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, May 1993
THE 'SMITH'S CONTINUED RENAISSANCE is so perfectly realised on Get A Grip you start to wonder what preservatives they put in their drugs. Giving up ...
Suede: Who Loves A Lad In Suede?
Report and Interview by Max Bell, Vox, May 1993
Suede were touted 'the best new band in Britain' before they even left the blocks, now, as they release their debut album, VOX delves behind ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, June 1993
DODGY HAVE BEEN TAGGED prime contenders in '93, and even if that prophecy proves a kiss of death, their debut album certainly makes lots of ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, June 1993
FATE OF NATIONS is Robert Plant's seventh solo album. Must be some mystic significance there for you Zen and Manic Nirvana freaks. Robert too, judging ...
Donald Fagen: Kamakiriad (WEA 9362452302)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, July 1993
BEYOND THE STEELY DOME ...
Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground: "We Will Confront The Myth…"
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, July 1993
It was only rock'n'roll before The Velvet Underground brought potent drugs and pervy sex to the party. 25 years after their last live high, they've ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, August 1993
WHAT WOULD YOU GIVE in exchange for your soul? U2 bartered their time for a new album, made quickly. What started out as an impromptu ...
4 Non Blondes: Non Blonde Ambition
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, October 1993
Less than a year ago no-one had heard of San Francisco's 4 Non Blondes; now, sales of their debut LP are going crazy. Is there ...
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, October 1993
Three years after their split from spiritual home 4AD Records, the Cocteau Twins return with a new album, Four Calendar Cafe, looking to eclipse the ...
Review by Max Bell, Vox, November 1993
FACT: ROCK BANDS must find things to write about. Charting the righteous struggle between decency and depravity, the topic which seems to fuel Pearl Jam, ...
Charlatans, The (UK): The Charlatans: Return to Madchester
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, March 1994
After a few indiscretions, Manchester's adopted sons The Charlatans are keeping their motor running with the help of Ambient hippy Steve Hillage... ...
The Jesus & Mary Chain, Oasis, Primal Scream: Creation Records: Creative Accounting
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, April 1994
Primal Scream, Jesus And Mary Chain, Boo Radleys... Creation has nurtured a family of provocative rock rebels. Alan McGee looks back on the first ten ...
Primal Scream: Give Out But Don't Give Up (Creation CRE 146)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1994
Dancing with Mr G ...
Bernard Butler, Suede: Bernard Butler: Gentleman And Player
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, July 1994
When his father died last year, Bernard Butler used his guitar to assuage his grief. Now Britain's most important guitar hero since Johnny Marr has ...
The Lemonheads: I Get The Feeling I'm Being Bullshitted
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, August 1994
IT'S A SHAME about Evan. Maybe we have a case of wrong time, wrong place, but dark moods are written all over his scowling, handsome, ...
Take That: Bare cheek, but check out the talent — Take That: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Max Bell, The Evening Standard, 16 September 1994
Deafened by screams, but impressed by the cabaret, MAX BELL reviews Take That at Wembley Arena ...
Chrissie Hynde: "Guys in bands are pussies"
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, October 1994
Should Kurt Cobain have unplugged his fax or Evan Dando blabbed about crack? Should Brian Jones have smoked in public? Chrissie Hynde has the answers ...
Blur: Who needs a used Merc, anyway?
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, November 1994
Mr Cholmondley-Warner may not have rated Blur good enough for the Mercury Music Prize, but Damon Albarn isn't losing sleep over it — hit singles, ...
Eternal: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by Max Bell, The Evening Standard, 8 December 1994
Babes at work on the swingbeat ...
Sheryl Crow: Natural Born Thriller
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, January 1995
Sheryl Crow's songs provided the soundtrack for a killer road trip in Kalifornia, but she's got mixed feelings about Hollywood's continuing shoot-to-be-hip violence. Happiness isn't ...
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, April 1995
When record companies went window-shopping last year, they all wanted to buy Menswear. Without even releasing a single, the band's reputation stands more upon the ...
PJ Harvey: To Bring You My Love (Island)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1995
POLLY JEAN HARVEY has never been afraid to let the masculine side of her personality underscore her feminine traits. The shock of the new most ...
Weezer: The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, April 1995
Weezer may have written a million-selling debut album full of sparkling punk-pop songs, but it means nothing to super-nerdy frontman Rivers Cuomo. He's 23; time ...
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, May 1995
Jarvis Cocker, the only kid in his Sheffield classroom who wore lederhosen, didn't have a girlfriend till he was 19. Now he's a pin-up and ...
Buffalo Tom: Sleepy Eyed (Beggars Banquet BB0177)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, August 1995
"SHE'S A tangerine, made in California. She's a sunny day." Bill Janovitz surely knows how to set a scene and now that Buffalo Tom mirrors ...
Pearl Jam, Neil Young: Neil Young: Mirror Ball (Reprise 9362 45934-2/4/1)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, August 1995
FIRST THINGS first. It's age before beauty. Young before youth. Finally, the worst kept secret in rock — that Neil Young was recording an album ...
Obituary by Max Bell, MOJO, March 1997
RANDY CALIFORNIA, THE GUITARIST AND songwriter of West Coast group Spirit, drowned after swimming off the Hawaiian island of Molokai on January 2. ...
Terry Callier, Beth Orton: Beth Orton: The next Dusty springs from the trailer park to centre stage
Interview by Max Bell, The Evening Standard, 19 March 1997
Beth Orton is an unlikely creature: a beautiful, long-limbed folk singer who's got the grapevine buzzing. Her pop comes from the American trailer park and... ...
Phish: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Max Bell, MOJO, April 1997
BECAUSE OF THEIR FOLLOWING, THE FACT that they laugh in the face of set-lists and encourage bootlegging, these Burlington blues boys are often compared to ...
Supergrass: In It For The Money (Parlophone)
Review and Interview by Max Bell, MOJO, May 1997
IT SEEMS UNLIKELY THAT SUPERGRASS will ever scale the wails of hype built around those British bands whose media inflated self-importance exceeds their artistic merit. ...
Interview by Max Bell, GQ, August 1997
SHARLEEN SPITERI was free-climbing in the Cuillin Hills on the Isle of Skye a year ago, when she made two uncharacteristic blunders. Firstly, she fell ...
The Beach Boys: Beach Boys: The Pet Sounds Sessions
Review by Max Bell, Uncut, November 1997
The Beach Boys: tampering with the impact of time ...
Interview by Max Bell, GQ, February 1998
And so's my brother... but not for long. After four years of tours, scraps, hits and hedonism, Liam and Noel Gallagher are settling down, buying ...
Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, The Who: Monterey International Pop Festival
Review by Max Bell, Uncut, March 1998
Four-CD box set of the 1967 Summer Of Love festival ...
Sagittarius, The Millennium: Sagittarius: Present Tense; The Millennium: Begin
Review by Max Bell, Uncut, March 1998
TO GET THE full scope of these groundbreaking recordings, released within weeks of each other in the summer of '68, it's vital to know that ...
Spice Girls: Wembley Arena, London ★★
Live Review by Max Bell, The Evening Standard, 15 April 1998
Yes, yes, oh yes, the Five are Fab ...
Jonathan Richman: There's Something about Jonathan
Retrospective and Interview by Max Bell, The Independent, 25 September 1998
Jonathan Richman introduced us to the abominable snowman in the supermarket. Now, like wow, he's a film star. ...
Lauryn Hill: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Max Bell, The Evening Standard, 8 February 1999
Sunsplashed homage to Bob ...
Lynden David Hall: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Max Bell, The Evening Standard, 19 March 1999
Sexy Lynden plays it cool and serious ...
All Saints: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Max Bell, The Evening Standard, 4 May 1999
Shaznay and company pass the live-show test ...
Karen Dalton: Who Loves You The Best Now?
Retrospective by Max Bell, Sunday Telegraph, 8 May 1999
Karen Dalton was a chronic recluse who died in obscurity. But now she's being hailed as one of the most original folk singers of the ...
Brian Wilson, Wondermints: Wondermints: Bali
Review by Max Bell, Uncut, October 2000
UK RELEASE at last for second LP from Brian Wilson's "backing band." ...
Bob Dylan: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Max Bell, The Evening Standard, 5 October 2000
AS HE approaches his 60th year there are many people prepared to vouch for the fact that Bob Dylan hasn't been in such great shape ...
Finley Quaye: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Max Bell, The Evening Standard, 7 December 2000
Not as other men ...
Anastacia: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Max Bell, The Evening Standard, 11 June 2001
Short, sharp shock of soul ...
The Strokes, The White Stripes: Big riffs from across the pond
Profile by Max Bell, Stevie Chick, The Evening Standard, 5 July 2001
US garage rock is back, and Detroit and New York are where it's at. Stevie Chick and Max Bell look at the new breed chasing ...
Carina Round: Elbow Room, London
Live Review by Max Bell, The Evening Standard, 6 August 2001
Sweetness rules in the pool hall ...
Groove Armada: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Max Bell, The Evening Standard, 18 March 2002
Getting back in the groove ...
The Vines: Grape Expectations: The Vines: Highly Evolved (Heavenly Recordings) ***½
Review by Max Bell, Uncut, August 2002
Much-heralded thrashy Australians ...
Flying Burrito Brothers: Sincity — The Very Best Of The Flying Burrito Brothers (Universal)****
Review by Max Bell, Uncut, September 2002
ALTHOUGH THEY fit neatly into the silver-stitched seams on the patchwork quilt that became the country-rock heritage centre, The Flying Burrito Brothers were neither as ...
Willie Nelson: Stars & Guitars
Review and Interview by Max Bell, Uncut, January 2003
Shotgun Willie recorded live in the country capital with a clutch of great names including Sheryl Crow, Ryan Adams and Emmylou Harris. ...
Review by Max Bell, Uncut, February 2003
Reed shows off "heavy bear" side on two-CD tribute to 19th-century poet ...
The Nazz: Open Our Eyes – The Anthology
Retrospective and Interview by Max Bell, Uncut, February 2003
Comprehensive collection of Philly pop-soul boys, fronted by Todd Rundgren, who looked to Swinging London for inspiration and then blew up. ...
Review and Interview by Max Bell, Uncut, April 2003
The mighty Lemonhead gets seven-year-itch and returns a much-changed man. ...
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks: Pig Lib
Review by Max Bell, Uncut, April 2003
Ex-Pavement kingpin condenses decades of rock'n'roll lunacy into one uneasy capsule ...
Kings of Leon: Crown Pretenders: Kings Of Leon: Youth And Young Manhood (HandMeDown Records) *****
Review by Max Bell, Uncut, August 2003
Fabulously fresh take on deep Southern white trash rock'n'roll ...
Lloyd Cole: Music In A Foreign Language
Review and Interview by Max Bell, Uncut, August 2003
Cynical, articulate UK singer-songwriter sends home thoughts from abroad. ...
Kings of Leon: Almost Famous: Kings of Leon
Profile by Max Bell, Uncut, September 2003
Lauded Confederate rockers with an R&B, punk-junk difference ...
Pernice Brothers: The Pernice Brothers: Yours, Mine And Ours
Review and Interview by Max Bell, Uncut, September 2003
EVER SINCE THE Scud Mountain Boys shot their way into our consciousness like the eponymous missile via their Sub Pop discs (still available as Massachusetts ...
Damien Rice: O (East West) ***
Review by Max Bell, Uncut, October 2003
Poll-winning singer-songwriter in his native Ireland, Rice is about to crack America ...
Review by Max Bell, Uncut, November 2003
Ageless rock'n'roll motherlode reconvenes Stooges, toys with Green Day and hooks up with art-rapper Peaches. ...
Jerry Garcia: All Good Things – Jerry Garcia Studio Sessions
Review by Max Bell, Uncut, June 2004
Superbly packaged box set of all five Garcia solo discs, plus oodles of outtakes. ...
Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Frankie Says Come Again
Retrospective by Max Bell, Uncut, July 2004
The T-shirts. The gay sex imagery. That BBC ban for 'Relax'. Nine weeks at No. 1 with 'Two Tribes'. For one amazing year — 1984 ...
Elvis Presley: What if Elvis had never been born?
Retrospective by Max Bell, The Independent, 4 July 2004
Rock'n'roll exploded into new life 50 years ago tomorrow, says Max Bell, when some hick recorded 'That's All Right' in Memphis, thereby detonating the Big ...
Brinsley Schwarz: Andrew Lauder: Paradise Recalled
Retrospective and Interview by Max Bell, The Independent, 19 September 2004
Once, rock inhabited Eden. Man, Can and Beefheart were its fruit. Then the snakes in suits took over and music biz creatives like Andrew Lauder ...
Noel Harrison: Keep on Grooving
Retrospective and Interview by Max Bell, The Independent, 20 February 2005
By 1968, Noel Harrison – son of Rex – had done it all: landed the glitzy film roles, lived in Hollywood pads and cut 'Windmills ...
Interview by Max Bell, Uncut, May 2006
When Phil Spector didn't have her under lock and key, she was being seduced by Lennon and getting wild with Bowie, Ronnie Spector, the ultimate ...
The Eagles: Eagles: Long Road Out Of Eden (Universal)
Review by Max Bell, Classic Rock, December 2007
WHEN STEELY DAN sang the immortal line "Turn up the Eagles, the neighbours are listening" on their mid-'70s sex-swinging party anthem 'Everything You Did', the ...
The Doors, Jim Morrison: L.A. Woman and the Last Days of Jim Morrison
Retrospective and Interview by Max Bell, Classic Rock, August 2010
Forget what you think you know. How Jim Morrison REALLY died, by the people who found the body, moved the body and buried him… ...
Interview by Max Bell, Classic Rock, January 2011
JEFF BECK confirmed to Classic Rock that the two old buddies would renew a partnership that first saw light in the late 1960s when the two rock ...
Retrospective and Interview by Max Bell, Classic Rock, April 2011
SUMMER 1971. The five members of Can are huddled around a bottle of wine and a stereo suitcase Revox A77 tape recorder, listening to the ...
Arthur Brown: The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown
Retrospective and Interview by Max Bell, Classic Rock, October 2012
THIS IS HOW it's supposed to happen. "Arthur will send his car for you driven by one of his young handmaidens. She will blindfold you ...
Derek & The Dominos, Bobby Whitlock: The strange tale of Derek, Gordon, George …and Bobby Whitlock
Retrospective and Interview by Max Bell, unpublished, Summer 2013
AUGUST 14. Summer of 1969. Oakland Coliseum. Eric Clapton, Rick Grech, Ginger Baker and Steve Winwood are on stage during the US tour to promote ...
Randy California, Spirit: California Dreaming: The Wild and Tragic Story of Spirit
Retrospective by Max Bell, Classic Rock, 18 June 2014
Led by mercurial guitarist Randy California, Spirit were buddies of Jimi Hendrix and praised by Led Zeppelin. But their promise would collapse in blur of ...
Canned Heat: The badass blues band that death couldn't kill
Retrospective and Interview by Max Bell, Classic Rock, January 2015
PICTURE THE SCENE: April 4, 1981, outside the World Famous Palomino Club in North Hollywood. The members of Canned Heat and their friends are smoking ...
The Soft White Underbelly: The acid-dazed days of the band that became Blue Öyster Cult
Retrospective and Interview by Max Bell, Classic Rock, 25 July 2015
The story of Soft White Underbelly ...
Ronnie Lane's Escape To The Country
Retrospective by Max Bell, Classic Rock, 31 December 2015
When Ronnie Lane quit the Faces, he swapped starry lead singers and showbiz bullshit for a new life down on the farm, and a new ...
Interview by Max Bell, Record Collector, April 2021
THE VOICE ON the other end of the line is hesitant. The hearing is none too good. Talking on the phone is a challenge. "Can ...
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