Philip Norman
Philip Norman has an international reputation as a chronicler of popular music and culture. During the 1970s, he was rock music critic of The Times and wrote profiles for the renowned Sunday Times Magazine on iconic figures as diverse as James Brown, Little Richard, B.B.King, the Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac, Rod Stewart and the Everly Brothers.
In 1981, he published his critically-acclaimed biography Shout! The Beatles in their Generation, which has since sold more than a million copies worldwide and remained continuously in print. He has also written definitive biographies of the Rolling Stones, Buddy Holly and Elton John. Autumn 2008 saw the publication of his most ambitious biography, John Lennon: the Life, which became an international bestseller. He has followed with major biographies of Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and George Harrison.
Also an award-winning writer of fiction, Norman was named one of the Top 20 ‘Best of Young British Novelists’ for his autobiographical novel The Skaters’ Waltz. He wrote the book of the musical This Is Elvis: Viva Las Vegas, produced in 2006, and has written a second show, Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, based on the life of Neil Sedaka, due to open in 2009.
68 articles
List of articles in the library
Eric Clapton, Delaney & Bonnie, George Harrison: Eric Clapton: God is a Guitarist
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1970
GEORGE HARRISON sat with a painfully thin fellow in a motorway restaurant, a graveyard of the digestion outside London. ...
Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, The Supremes: Motown: The Gold In Their Bodies
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1970
CONSIDERED TOGETHER at a party in New York, Nina Simone, the highly political folk singer, and Diana Ross, principal exhibit of the Motown Record Corporation, ...
Champion Jack Dupree: Travelling North
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1971
AROUND 1920, Champion Jack Dupree left the Coloured Waifs Home for Boys, New Orleans, and started walking. He had nobody. His father and mother were ...
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1971
JAMES BROWN will die on the stage one night, on the moving staircase of his own feet in front of a thirty-piece band; and then ...
Johnny Cash: Jailhouse, Jesus and H.G. Wells
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1971
THE HEAVY carved front door into House of Cash, Johnny Cash's state mansion, in Madison, Tennessee, swung inward to reveal blinding sunshine and the awe-struck ...
Radio KBIM: Radio Fun in Roswell
Report by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1972
CLOSE TO Albuquerque, New Mexico, as we hung motionless on the streaming white trans-America road, the voice on the radio-dial faded and returned in yet ...
Hammie Nixon, Sleepy John Estes: Sleepy John Estes: Sleepy, Getting Sleepier
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1972
THE ROAD stops at Sleepy John's house, at the top of a ploughed field, outside Brownsville, Tennessee, where the earth is thick and unyielding as ...
B.B. King, Gladys Knight, Roberta Flack, Stevie Wonder: Soul on Fire
Report by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times Magazine, 1972
STEVIE WONDER crosses the hotel lobby, resting on the elbows of two other people. That he is blind, has been blind from birth, is nonetheless ...
Chet Atkins, Ernest Tubb: The Cold, Cold Heart of Country Music
Report by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1972
FOR ALL that Country and Western hopes nothing will change, its heroes die horribly fast. ...
The Everly Brothers: Growing Apart
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1972
PHIL IS THE fastidious one. Don was happy to stay at another motel with a northern draught sweeping its gallery and cows grazing round the ...
Frank Zappa, Hawkwind: The Foulk Brothers: Pop Promoting Blues
Report by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1972
"RONNIE..." RONALD Foulk's secretary broke into the conference. "Will you accept a transfer call from America?" ...
Cat Stevens: Top Cat: Cat Stevens
Profile and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times Magazine, 5 March 1972
TO DISCUSS brilliance in pop music is difficult; for there you are a genius by proclaiming yourself one, and the greatest of them all, Elton ...
Frank Sinatra: Palladium, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1974
THE EMERGENCE of Frank Sinatra from retirement has become as regular a ceremony as when Lloyd George or Churchill used to be wheeled out on ...
The Faces, Rod Stewart: Rod Stewart: The Familiar Face
Report by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1974
THROUGH THE colonnades they come, along freezing passage-ways. Girls look like ventriloquist-dolls, in black plush and rouge, puffing as dolls do on big cigarettes; boys ...
Suzi Quatro: The Girl in the Gang
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1974
A SEPARATE dressing-room had been provided upstairs, but Suzi Quatro preferred to use the same one as her band. It was large, clean, grey and ...
Ann Peebles: The Biba Rainbow Room, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Times, 5 October 1974
APPLAUSE IN this sybaritic cafeteria is always a little suspect, being related to how far the performer can corroborate the Biba audience's good opinion of ...
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Times, 21 October 1974
THE IKE AND Tina Turner revue is the most constant reminder of what a debt we owe to Phil Spector. Had Specter not produced Tina ...
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Times, 27 October 1974
JOHNNY WINTER inspires one of Rock music's more curious secret societies. ...
Horslips: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Times, 12 November 1974
IT IS PLEASANT to report the existence of a band deserving more, rather than less, recognition. Horslips are an Irish quintet whose fondness for the ...
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Times, 21 November 1974
THAT REAL music should issue from a band named Queen – featuring a singer named Freddy Mercury – is sufficiently intriguing. ...
Freddie King: Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Times, 2 December 1974
AN IMPRESSIVE crowd awaited Freddie King at the Roundhouse last night, wound about its cylindrical structure or massed on its inhospitable boards for several hours ...
Bryan Ferry: Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Times, 20 December 1974
MUCH TROUBLE had been taken in order that Bryan Ferry's Albert Hall concert should be numbered among historic recitals. A handsome orchestra was engaged and ...
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Times, 10 March 1975
LIFE HAS changed for Mickie Most since he appeared as one half of The Most Brothers, "England's answer to the Everly Brothers". Forsaking the duet ...
John Martyn, Procol Harum: Procol Harum, John Martyn: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Times, 18 March 1975
Joyless: Last Concert at the Rainbow ...
Lou Reed: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Times, 26 March 1975
IN THE case of Lou Reed I must confess – why shouldn't I – a prejudice. ...
Barry White: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Times, 13 May 1975
RESIGNED AS we are to the gradual dilution and destruction of American soul music, there remains something unearthly in the success enjoyed by Barry White. ...
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Times, 7 June 1975
LINK WRAY was – I should say, is – an American guitarist who, somewhere around 1960, recorded an instrumental tune called 'Rumble'. ...
Bob Marley & The Wailers: Lyceum Ballroom, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Times, 18 July 1975
BOB MARLEY and the Wailers reached the Lyceum two nights ago, in some style. By early evening, long before they were due to appear, the ...
Maria Muldaur: Ronnie Scott's, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Times, 23 July 1975
MARIA MULDAUR makes her first appearance in London with a week at Ronnie Scott's club — an unusual, even modest debut, one might think, for ...
Manhattan Transfer: Biba Rainbow Room, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Times, 21 August 1975
EVEN AS the bright entrails of Biba are being picked over by sale crowds, its Rainbow Restaurant offers Manhattan Transfer, the newest fashionable rock group, ...
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Times, 15 November 1975
THE EMERGENCE of Frank Sinatra from retirement has become as regular a ceremony as when Lloyd George or Churchill used to be wheeled out on ...
Weather Report: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Times, 28 November 1975
MENTION "JAZZ rock" to me in the normal way, and I yawn. The two elements, apparently so close, seem mutually inimical: the fire tends to ...
Bill Haley: A Piece of Gold in my Pocket
Profile by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1976
CLOSE TO his 50th birthday, Bill Haley seems to be in excellent repair. ...
Chuck Berry: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1976
IT IS MORE than 20 years since the world first laid startled eyes on a young man with a crouching gait and a skinny guitar ...
Fats Domino: Rockin' in Your Seat
Profile and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1976
FATS DOMINO is relaxing among his half-unpacked luggage, his glass-heeled shoes, his address-book, his diamonds and his Gideon Bible. ...
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1976
RINGO STARR was to be viewed ceremonially last week, in Paris. He and his courtiers were accommodated at the George V hotel, where Salade Belle ...
Dolly Parton: Dolly, Tammy and Carl: In The Wembley Wild West
Report by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, April 1976
THE GUNFIGHTER walks alone, staying close to the side of the street. His clothes are black and faintly luminous. His hat is tied insolently under ...
Barry White: I'm in a Beautiful Mood
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1977
BARRY WHITE is the singer who turned black Soul music into a product closer akin to soggy white blancmange. ...
The Beach Boys: Not All Fun, Fun, Fun
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1977
WHEREVER BRIAN Wilson goes, his cousin Steve is never far away. ...
Bryan Ferry: Mask Behind A Mask
Profile by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, January 1977
BRYAN FERRY'S jeans are as outmoded in style as high fashion can contrive. He wears a blue shirt and black official tie, framed by a ...
Elvis Presley: The King is Dead
Obituary by Philip Norman, The Times, August 1977
ELVIS PRESLEY will be remembered as the first and the greatest exponent of Rock and Roll music, whose recordings of 'Blue Suede Shoes', 'Hound Dog' ...
Fleetwood Mac: Carrying the Albatross
Profile and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1978
FLEETWOOD MAC have returned to Britain, a decade after their song 'Albatross' set a new mood and mellow tone for the rock guitar. But that ...
Blondie: Debbie Harry: Rhapsody in Blonde
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1980
IN A TALL, draughty brownstone house, off New York's Second Avenue, preparations are afoot to videotape a sequence for Blondie's new single record, 'Rapture'. The ...
The Beatles, John Lennon: John Lennon: I Was Never Lovable – I Was Just Lennon
Obituary by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, December 1980
ONE OF THE more persistent myths surrounding John Lennon claims that he was brought up in poverty by working-class Liverpool parents. ...
The Police: Sting and The Police: The Rhetoric of Stardom
Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1981
IT IS NOT Sting but his alter ego Gordon Sumner who opens the door of the smart Hampstead house, one hand restraining a large, black, ...
Bob Dylan: Earl's Court, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, June 1981
HE WOULD not be Bob Dylan if he did not make us constantly fear the worst. ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: Yoko Ono: Life Without John
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, June 1981
IT IS FIVE months since the shots were fired. The Dakota Building shares in that relief which Spring fleetingly gives to New York. Beside the ...
The Rolling Stones: What Makes the Stones Keep Rolling
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, Fall 1981
THE JOHN F. Kennedy Stadium, Philadelphia, is a bleak circle of red-tinted stone, with colonnades and sub-Gothic arch-ways recalling some nineteenth century British colonial fort. ...
Marianne Faithfull: My Credit is Good
Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1983
WHEN MARIANNE Faithfull goes out nowadays, it is usually to the Chelsea Arts Club. The whitewashed house in Old Church Street, a cross between country ...
Elton John: The Rebirth of Elton John
Interview by Philip Norman, Rolling Stone, 19 March 1992
Drugs, fame and alcohol turned him into a monster. Now, after rehab, he's clean, happy and in love. ...
Buddy Holly: Maria Elena Holly
Interview by Philip Norman, Daily Express, 1996
MARIA ELENA Holly was robbed of her shy, brilliant young husband by an Iowa snowstorm almost 42 years ago. But she believes he has never ...
The Beatles: Derek Taylor 1932-1997
Obituary by Philip Norman, Rolling Stone, 30 October 1997
THE SIMPLE term "music publicist" does not begin to describe Derek Taylor, who died from cancer of the esophagus at his home, in Suffolk, England, ...
Profile by Philip Norman, Daily Mail, 1998
ROCK MUSIC in its 50-year history has inspired many degrees of love, adulation and awe. Yet among the ranks of legends and superstars, only two ...
Spice Girls: Gone But Not Forgotten
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 21 June 1998
POOR GAZZA. Or should that be typical Gazza? Looking for a holiday destination as far from the World Cup as possible, he chooses the Ritz-Carlton ...
Mick Jagger, The Rolling Stones: Mick Jagger: The Old Man and The Sex
Profile by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 1999
For years he's been renowned as a serial-philandering, penny-wise dinosaur of rock – still implicated in paternity suits for divorce settlements in his mid-50s. But ...
Retrospective by Philip Norman, Daily Mail, 1999
ON DECEMBER 1, 1976, Londoners tuned in to Thames TV's Today show, expecting the usual bland mix of metropolitan news and views appropriate for a ...
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 2000
DECEMBER 1973. It's the time of the Middle East oil crisis; the miners' strike that they got away with; the national three-day working week; constant ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: Bob Marley and Dennis Morris: Marley's Ghost
Profile and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 2001
ONE DAY in the troubled winter of 1973, a 16-year-old wannabe photographer named Dennis Morris played truant from school in Hackney, east London, and took ...
The Sex Pistols: Sex Pistols: History Is Punk
Retrospective and Interview by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 2001
More than 20 years after they committed high treason during the Queen's silver jubilee, the Sex Pistols are still the kings of rock rebellion. As ...
Retrospective by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 2001
THE TWO pre-eminent British bands of the gaudy 1960s marked the grey dawn of the 1970s in very different ways. ...
Blur, Oasis, Pulp: Britpop: And The Beat Goes Off
Retrospective by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 17 February 2003
Britpop recalled the halcyon days of the Beatles and the Stones – but the party didn't last ...
Elvis Presley: Rediscovering the joy in the sad story of Elvis
Retrospective by Philip Norman, Daily Telegraph, 13 May 2006
NO POP ICON ever came to a sadder or less regal end than the once gorgeous, gaudy "King" of rock 'n' roll, Elvis Presley. When ...
The Beatles: Neil Aspinall: The Man Who Really Made The Beatles
Profile by Philip Norman, Daily Mail, 12 April 2007
LOYALTY IS not a virtue associated with the pop music industry. Treachery, exploitation and kiss-and-tell are its far more familiar signature-tunes. ...
Obituary by Philip Norman, Daily Mail, 26 March 2008
NEIL ASPINALL, the deservedly-named 'Fifth Beatle' who has died in New York aged 66, was not an easy man for a journalist to befriend. ...
Neil Sedaka: New York's Rock'n'Roll Rhapsody
Overview by Philip Norman, Mail On Sunday, 7 July 2008
NEW YORK HAS inspired so much of the greatest popular music ever written. London may have its chirpy Cockney ditties like 'Underneath the Arches', and ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: John Lennon: Give New York A Chance
Guide by Philip Norman, Daily Mail, 3 December 2008
FEW EXILES have been so cherished by a city as John Lennon was by New York. Certainly, none has ever left such a legacy of ...
Buddy Holly: Why Buddy Holly will never fade away
Retrospective by Philip Norman, Daily Telegraph, 30 January 2009
ON A BASIS OF simply counting heads, rock music surpasses even film as the 20th century's most influential art form. By that reckoning, there is ...
Jimi Hendrix: So who killed Jimi Hendrix?
Book Excerpt by Philip Norman, 'Wild Thing' (Weidenfeld & Nicholson), 5 August 2020
50 years after musician's death, Philip Norman tracks down the key players to tell the definitive story of one of rock's most tantalising mysteries - ...
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