Mick Houghton
Mick Houghton wrote for a variety of music publications during the '70s, including Circus, Zigzag, Let It Rock, Sounds and Time Out before stumbling into a job in the Warner Bros. press office in 1978. He never saw this as a permanent career move but within two years he had set up the independent Brassneck Publicity, where he's looked after an extraordinary array of people ever since.
Over the years he’s been closely associated with Echo & the Bunnymen, Julian Cope, the Teardrop Explodes, the Undertones, the Jesus & Mary Chain, Sonic Youth, the KLF, Spiritualized, XTC, Bert Jansch and Richard Thompson and plenty more besides.
He began writing again in 2001, first for MOJO and later for Uncut. As one of the Grammy-nominated compilers/producers (he has the chunky gold medallion to prove it!) of the boxed set Forever Changing: The Golden Age of Elektra, 1963 to 1973, he went on to write Becoming Elektra: The True Story of Jac Holzman’s Visionary Record Label, published in 2010, now reformatted and substantially expanded in 2016.
In 2015, Mick's biography of Sandy Denny, I've Always Kept a Unicorn was published by Faber & Faber. His latest book, the memoir Fried and Justified, was published by Faber in 2019.
Mick Houghton on the RBP podcast
59 articles
List of articles in the library
RockFile: Where The Writing Ends, The Memory Game Begins
Review by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, February 1973
ROCK FILE is one of the current crop of books on music which has moved away from the more historical analysis, and deals with the ...
Retrospective by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, February 1973
TIM BUCKLEY had moved from the East Coast to Southern California and became involved, playing and touring, with various country bands like Princess Ramona and ...
Flying Burrito Brothers: The Flying Burrito Brothers: Live In Amsterdam
Review by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, June 1973
THE FIRST double album in rock that I remember was Blonde On Blonde, and to this day it is one of the few which really ...
Report by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, September 1973
THIS AUTUMN, England is due for an invasion by some of America's top contemporary country groups. The new wave will be well represented by Commander ...
Review and Interview by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, September 1973
AFTER A YEAR of voluntary exile from England, Terry Reid was back over here this June for a short tour to promote his first album ...
Report and Interview by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, September 1973
AFTER A YEAR of voluntary exile from England, Terry Reid was back over here this June for a short tour to promote his first album ...
Ian Matthews: Countryside Comfort
Profile and Interview by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, October 1973
IT SEEMED almost inevitable that Ian Matthews would find himself living and recording on the West coast of America, and he admitted that before he ...
Overview by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, March 1975
Sailin' Shoes (Warner Bros K46156)Dixie Chicken (Warner Bros K46200)Feats Don't Fail Me Now (Warner Bros K56030) ...
Flying Burrito Brothers: Sneaky Pete Kleinow
Interview by Mick Houghton, ZigZag, March 1975
ZZ: HOW DID you come to be part of the whole related family of Los Angeles musicians? You actually come from Michigan? ...
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen: Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
Review by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, May 1975
When you step up to a Juke box and you slip a nickel in,You can bet your bottom dollar when the record starts to spin,You'll ...
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band: Tomorrow Belongs To Me (Vertigo)
Review by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, June 1975
IT'S IMPOSSIBLE to listen to Alex Harvey without feeling distinctly unsettled. On stage he's an obsessive – a malevolent dictator figure – in full control ...
Emmylou Harris: Pieces Of The Sky
Review by Mick Houghton, ZigZag, August 1975
BUD SCOPPA once described Gram Parsons as the most convincing singer of sad songs he'd heard. Nothing he recorded was more heartrending than 'Love Hurts' ...
The Eagles: One Of These NIghts
Review by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, September 1975
I CAN'T THINK of anything good to say about One Of These Nights. What's so distressing is that it's not a bad album by any ...
Black Sabbath: Sabbath's Sabotage: An interview with Tony Iommi
Interview by Mick Houghton, Circus Raves, October 1975
THREE TIERS OF GOLD, silver and platinum discs span one wall of the snooker room. They provide irrefutable evidence of the worldwide success of Black ...
Willie Nelson: Red Headed Stranger
Review by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, October 1975
WILLIE NELSON has never written easy songs or recorded easy albums. He has penned his share of country standards over the past fifteen years, all ...
Tim Buckley: A Fleeting House: The Music of Tim Buckley
Retrospective by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, 1 October 1975
...
Emmylou Harris: The Prairie and the Sky
Interview by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, November 1975
EMMYLOU HARRIS is a country singer. Not simply because she has a single high in the country charts – it's her voice and the feeling ...
Overview by Mick Houghton, Let It Rock, December 1975
THE TERM PUNK is bandied about an awful lot these days. It seems to describe almost any rock performer who camps it up to any ...
Tom Waits: A Seventies Storyteller With Fifties Beat Style
Profile and Interview by Mick Houghton, Time Out, 1976
"I WAS BORN at a very young age in the back seat of a yellow cab in Murphy Hospital parking lot. I had to pay ...
John Denver: What's The Poor Guy Ever Done?
Comment by Mick Houghton, Sounds, 3 April 1976
IT SEEMS as if you can't be complimentary about John Denver without adding some kickback remark to cover yourself. Take Grace Slick's reported comment a ...
Led Zeppelin: Interview with Jimmy Page
Interview by Mick Houghton, Sounds, 10 July 1976
IT'S OFTEN strange to recall the outstanding moments at all day music events. At Cardiff, it was a tribute to Duke Ellington being shown on ...
Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin, The Yardbirds: Zeus Of Zeppelin: An Interview with Jimmy Page
Interview by Mick Houghton, Circus, 12 October 1976
You're your own record company bosses now with Swan Song, which is a far cry from the days when you were doing sessions for Decca ...
The Cate Brothers: Cate Brothers: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Mick Houghton, Sounds, 6 November 1976
EVERY SO OFTEN a group's live performance is so good that their albums from that moment on lose something of the impact they once had. ...
Dr. Feelgood: Dr Feelgood: The Grandfathers of Punk
Interview by Mick Houghton, Sounds, 1 January 1977
WILKO JOHNSON likes to talk about the truth – in his music, in his writing, and in his, or rather, the Dr. Feelgood attitude towards ...
Interview by Mick Houghton, Sounds, 22 January 1977
QUEEN ARE a much maligned group. There can't be any criticism that hasn't been hurled at them during their lifespan. Certainly it's to be expected ...
Queen: The Queen Tapes Part 1: Brian May
Interview by Mick Houghton, Circus, 28 February 1977
Stargazing Guitarist Brian May Turns the Telescope on Himself and Talks About What He Sees ...
Michael Nesmith: Ex-Beat Group Crazy In Weirdo Film Project
Interview by Mick Houghton, Sounds, 16 April 1977
MIKE NESMITH's career has taken a surprising number of twists and turns over the years, from writing songs for Linda Rondstadt in the early Sixties, ...
The Monochrome Set: Strange Boutique (Dindisc)
Review by Mick Houghton, The Face, July 1980
I STILL recall being hauled in front of the class at school where, doing my world famous impersonation of a jug-eared tomato, Mr Godber, MA ...
Johnny Cash: The Man in Blackpool
Report by Mick Houghton, Q, April 1993
JOHN R. CASH is somewhat bemused by questions about Butlin's – or Bognor come to that. He's between sets at Southcoast World (Butlin's, Bognor to ...
The Factory, Lowell George: Lowell George & The Factory: Lightning Rod Man
Review by Mick Houghton, MOJO, November 1993
I WAS FORTUNATE enough to meet Lowell George close on 20 years ago. He was a charming great bear-like man rumpled and a little worse ...
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Live Seeds
Review by Mick Houghton, MOJO, November 1993
THE LIVE ALBUM is a tricky beast to handle. More often than not it's a contract filler, a pause for thought when the ideas have ...
Review by Mick Houghton, MOJO, December 1993
HAS TIME STOOD STILL? Fifteen years on and Jackson Browne's running on empty again. He's out of love yet surviving, holding himself together but now ...
Billy Fury: Halfway to Paradise
Book Excerpt by Mick Houghton, 'Love is the Drug' (Penguin Books), 1994
BILLY FURY, Britain's only authentic rock'n'roll singer, wrote most of his own material but had his most outstanding commercial success with big ballads like 'Halfway ...
Review by Mick Houghton, MOJO, September 1994
OVER THE LAST FEW MONTHS Jeff Buckley has become a contender. A minor critical furore greeted his first live mini-LP, while a handful of mesmeric ...
Review by Mick Houghton, MOJO, June 2001
IT STRETCHES from his first solo recordings to 'No More Lonely Nights', off the ill-advised Give My Regards To Broad Street. An odd place to ...
Denim, Felt: Felt/Denim: There Can Be Only One Lawrence — Meticulous Genius, Confounded.
Profile and Interview by Mick Houghton, MOJO, February 2003
IN 1986, WHEN Felt signed to Creation Records, stories quickly circulated about the oddness of the band's leader. ...
Tom Russell: Indians Cowboys Horses Dogs
Review and Interview by Mick Houghton, Uncut, May 2004
Nineteenth album from a great American storyteller ...
Retrospective by Mick Houghton, Uncut, April 2005
UNTIL RECENTLY, Judee Sill and her two Asylum albums were all but forgotten. Her story is so tragic as to be nearly unbelievable, the antithesis ...
John Phillips: John Phillips (John, The Wolfking of L.A.)
Review and Interview by Mick Houghton, Uncut, November 2006
HIPPY DREAMS DEFILED, HOLLYWOOD AFFAIRS, HERCULEAN DRUG USE: THE LONG-LOST SOLO ALBUM FROM MAMAS & PAPAS LYNCHPIN. ...
Retrospective by Mick Houghton, MOJO, April 2007
The sound of the wildly original country cat who penned Elvis' 'Burning Love'. ...
Retrospective by Mick Houghton, Uncut, May 2007
How a sample reunited west London's wyrd electric-folk troubadours... ...
Retrospective by Mick Houghton, Uncut, September 2007
The 'Elusive Butterfly' collector, immortalised by Jarvis Cocker. ...
Love: The Blue Thumb Recordings
Review by Mick Houghton, Uncut, September 2007
Love's Post-Elektra Albums Plus Intriguing Rediscovered Live Recordings. ...
Interview by Mick Houghton, Uncut, October 2007
"We were delving into the realms of the psychedelic... We created a new American music that was universal." So says keyboard player Ray Manzarek, deftly ...
Retrospective and Interview by Mick Houghton, Uncut, August 2008
The L.A. pop maestros whose subversive career involved Frank Zappa, T.Rex — and the Care Bears! ...
The Undertones: Teenage Dreams, So Hard To Beat
Retrospective and Interview by Mick Houghton, Uncut, November 2008
For the Undertones, living the rock'n'roll dream meant visits to church and McDonald's, and adopting pigeons when they could've been partying with the Clash. But ...
13th Floor Elevators: Sign Of The 3 Eyed Men
Review and Interview by Mick Houghton, Uncut, March 2009
EVEN IF THEIR music had not been great, the bizarre history of the 13th Floor Elevators would have earned the band a place in rock ...
Bob Gibson: Unsung Heroes: Bob Gibson
Retrospective by Mick Houghton, Uncut, March 2010
From the dawn of the folk revival – a clean-cut junkie troubadour... ...
Grateful Dead, Robert Hunter: Unsung Heroes: Robert Hunter
Retrospective and Interview by Mick Houghton, Uncut, October 2010
The man who put the words into Bob Dylan and Jerry Garcia's mouths... ...
Mickey Newbury: Unsung Heroes: Mickey Newbury
Retrospective by Mick Houghton, Uncut, November 2010
Glory Glory Hallelujah! It's the original Nashville rebel... ...
Terry Reid: What Is And What Should Never Be
Retrospective and Interview by Mick Houghton, Uncut, January 2011
He could have been the frontman of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and the Spencer Davis Group. Instead, Terry Reid embarked on a remarkable musical adventure ...
The Fugs: Tenderness Junction and It Crawled Into My Hand, Honest
Retrospective and Interview by Mick Houghton, Uncut, February 2011
Underground, overground: two subversive major label salvos from New York's folk-punk-poets. Of their time, sure, but still worth yours. For an underground band, in their ...
Review by Mick Houghton, Uncut, December 2012
Solid return from American singer-songwriter who penned 'Elusive Butterfly'". Bob Lind's last studio album, Since There Were Circles, was released back in 1971. It flopped and ...
Review by Mick Houghton, Record Collector, April 2013
CAN SOMEBODY be just too talented? If so, Stephen Stills is a perfect case study, and this new four-disc set offers up a myriad examples ...
Review by Mick Houghton, Uncut, February 2014
TAKING THEIR NAME from a grocery store, Barefoot Jerry evolved out of Area Code 615, a group of top-notch young sessioneers who saw the light ...
Harry Belafonte, Lord Kitchener: Various Artists: Calypso Craze – 1956-57 and Beyond (Bear Family)
Review by Mick Houghton, Uncut, November 2014
173 cuts from calypso's thrilling, if brief, mainstream heyday. ...
Sandy Denny, Jackson C. Frank: Learning the Game: Sandy Denny and Jackson C. Frank
Book Excerpt by Mick Houghton, 'I've Always Kept a Unicorn' (Faber), March 2015
"I think my first songwriting influences came from somebody called Jackson Frank. He's an American bloke who made one album over here just called Jackson ...
Blue Oyster Cult: From Soft White Underbelly to the Stalk-Forrest Group
Book Excerpt by Mick Houghton, 'Becoming Elektra' (Jawbone), November 2016
NOTE: In an excerpt from the new edition of Becoming Elektra: The Incredible True Story of the pioneering Elektra Records label and its Far-sighted Founder, ...
The Teardrop Explodes: Wilder Times: How the Teardrops Exploded
Book Excerpt by Mick Houghton, 'Fried and Justified' (Faber & Faber), Summer 2019
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The back story here is the release of the Teardrop Explodes' second album Wilder on 20 November 1981. Rather than do the usual ...
back to LIBRARY
