Music
Record Collector
Ex-Monkees Business
Even Monkees fans might not know of a mid-70s reunion involving Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones. With hit songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, they formed pop supergroup, Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart. Two tours brought their music to enthusiastic audiences, but a studio album (and a live record) failed to sell, and the 14-month adventure was soon lost to time. Bill Kopp spoke to Hart, band leader Keith Allison (who died last autumn) and tour manager Christian de Walden.
1 min |
October 2022
Record Collector
Auteur To Author
Luke Haines writes the shuk out of rock’n’roll Cold War games
4 min |
October 2022
Record Collector
Fire Starter
A prominent figure on the 60s London scene, Brian Auger is one of the great missing links. A highly skilled musician, band leader and songwriter, he is, perhaps, best known for his hit version of Dylan's This Wheel's On Fire. But he was also an early pioneer of jazz-rock fusion, later hailed the 'godfather of Acid Jazz'. Now 82, he is entertainingly forthright, with tales of Hendrix, Rod Stewart and the tower of pianos that threatened to put "a huge hole in rock'n'roll". Life of Brian: Garth Cartwright
10+ min |
October 2022
Record Collector
Billy Idol – "I was a proper 80s rock star"
With pin-up good looks and a refusal to toe the Year Zero party line, Billy Idol was dismissed by the music press as a major-label plastic punk. Yet 45 years on from his recording debut with Generation X, his music has survived to tell a very different story, one of masterful songwriting and unashamed showmanship. Here, the ace face of the late 70s charts his transition to leather-clad staple of 80s MTV on the back of hits such as White Wedding, Eyes Without A Face and Rebel Yell, and confirms his aversion to stasis. "You can't always stay in your comfort zone, it's boring," he tells Lois Wilson.
10+ min |
September 2022
Record Collector
THE ENGINE ROOM
The unsung heroes who helped forge modern music
4 min |
September 2022
Record Collector
UNDER THE RADAR
Artists, labels, and magazines meriting more attention
4 min |
September 2022
Record Collector
STONES IMMACULATE
The first Rolling Stones shows in the capital sans Charlie provide the epitaph he deserves. Good tonight: Kris Needs
6 min |
September 2022
Record Collector
NO LAUGHING STOCK
One of the great living Liverpudlians, Michael Head has plenty to smile about. But his has been a bumpy journey, as widely admired albums he’s made first with The Pale Fountains then Shack, under the aegis of The Strands and now The Red Elastic Band, have come either side of addiction-related potholes. Reanimating the latter project in some style at 60, fresh from another withdrawal induced by Covid lockdowns, he tells Pete Paphides how “I got my shit together, got focused” for his latest release, the Top 10 LP, Dear Scott.
10+ min |
September 2022
Record Collector
Sparks and Re-Creation
It may be the best part of five decades since the brothers of reinvention first made a generation of UK pop-pickers choke on their Angel Delight with their startling first appearances on TV, but Sparks have been enjoying a revival in their fortunes – celebrated on celluloid, endorsed by Hollywood, collaborating with the cream of UK indie-pop and back in the Top 10. As Ron and Russell Mael’s 21st-century studio albums are reissued, they look back on those LPs and three other creative diversions since 2000 and vow to continue confounding expectations. “That muse won’t accept a divorce,” they tell Jeremy Allen.
10+ min |
September 2022
Record Collector
GIMME DANGER
Andy Ellison's commitment to extreme performance has been lifelong, as has his enthusiasm for music of various stripes, from mod R&B and proto-freakbeat with The Silence and John's Children, to glam with Jet and onto punk with Radio Stars. He could have been a contender, though he was perhaps stymied by a penchant for perilous stunts. "I could've been killed any night," he tells some-time Radio Star, Rich Davenport.
6 min |
September 2022
Record Collector
Two-fisted tales from the vault
A Sid Griffin archive revamp is in the offing, and RC asked him and Cherry Red archivist Steve Hammonds to tell us what’s in store
4 min |
September 2022
Record Collector
The Collector
This month: music programmer and DJ Miche
6 min |
September 2022
Record Collector
ROCK'N'ROLL RIDE No 4
We've visited three rock'n'roll London locales before. This time, Tim Jones got on his bike for an eco-friendly lap around Richmond & Twickenham
6 min |
September 2022
Record Collector
MoFi - do you dig?
US record manufacturer Mobile Fidelity in vinyl mastering controversy
4 min |
October 2022
Record Collector
Voices Of The People
Quality kitchen sink vignettes from the Marvin & Tammi of miserablism.
4 min |
October 2022
Record Collector
In The Affirmative
New York trio get their mojo back on album five.
4 min |
October 2022
Record Collector
Electric Dreams
Brit-rock veterans galvanise their comeback momentum with amped-up anthems.
5 min |
October 2022
Record Collector
davidquanticklikes
...to write a column for Record Collector. Yay What’s in a name? Everything and nothing
4 min |
October 2022
Record Collector
maconblack
Ian McCann wonders if we are willing to waive the flaws of our heroes
4 min |
October 2022
Record Collector
musictovisit
Bob Stanley carries pop’s baggage everywhere When Frankie went to Hollywood
4 min |
October 2022
Record Collector
Perfect Circle
Across nine studio albums, Orbital have remained at the forefront of dance music trends. On their new compilation, 30 Something, the Hartnoll brothers trace a three-decade path as electronica trailblazers in typically inventive - and re-inventive - style. Younger sibling Paul takes Lois Wilson on a trip through their long-playing history.
10+ min |
October 2022
Record Collector
33 1/3 minutes with... Scott Gorham
Thin Lizzy, and their charismatic frontman Phil Lynott, are today held in higher regard than during the original band’s latter days.
5 min |
October 2022
Record Collector
Lamont Dozier 1941-2022
I’d always written,” Lamont Dozier told this writer in 2018. “It started with poems at 11, then by the time I was 15 it was songs for The Romeos.
4 min |
October 2022
Record Collector
“WE WERE DOING A LOT OF DRUGS AND A LOT OF DEEP READING”
In the 32 years since leaving The Stranglers, the group he founded in 1974, Hugh Cornwell has built an eclectic solo career, full of the melody and pin-sharp observations he displayed in his years as co-frontman of The Meninblack. Cornwell’s 10th solo studio album, Moments Of Madness, offers a raw, guitar-led sound, written and conceived during the pandemic, showcasing Cornwell’s perfect balance of optimism, vitriol, despair and passion. On the eve of its release, and forthcoming tour, Daryl Easlea finds him in sparkling form, invigorated by life, music, and film.
10+ min |
October 2022
Record Collector
Two-fisted tales from the vault
A Sid Griffin archive revamp is in the offing, and RC asked him and Cherry Red archivist Steve Hammonds to tell us what's in store
4 min |
September 2022
Record Collector
UNDER THE RADAR
Artists, labels, and magazines meriting more attention
4 min |