Music
Record Collector
DON'T STREAM IT'S OVER
While many bands of a certain age struggle to balance the desire to keep moving with their audience's demand to hear the hits, Neil Finn and Crowded House remain as passionate about their back catalogue as they are their latest recorded work. Besides, streaming exposes their songs to new generations and they're happy to go with the flow. As Finn tells Pete Paphides: \"You can't be angry with an algorithm.\"
10+ min |
July 2024
Record Collector
JERSEY ROYAL
Overcoming critical derision to sell 130 million albums, Bon Jovi have celebrated their 40th anniversary with a career-spanning documentary series and a return to their trademark feelgood rock after a decade of troubles. Jon Bon Jovi, David Bryan and Tico Torres tell John Earls why they refuse to play live again until they're fully fit, why they're the people's choice, their hopes to be reunited with Richie Sambora... and of secret road trips with Bruce Springsteen.
10+ min |
July 2024
Record Collector
33½ minutes with...Dana Gillespie
Dana Gillespie was the 60s It Girl who hung out with a pre-Bowie David Jones at Soho cafe La Gioconda and sang at the Marquee alongside Julie Driscoll. Jimmy Page produced her 1965 single, D Thank You Boy, and played on her 1968 debut album, Foolish Seasons. Its follow-up, 1969's Box Of Surprises, paired her with producer Mike Vernon and Savoy Brown while 1973's Weren't Born A Man saw her working with Bowie and Mick Ronson. First Love, her covers album out now, is produced by Marc Almond and Tris Penna. \"Marc said to me, 'I'm fed up with you being the biggest undiscovered secret on the planet,\"\" she says on the motivation behind what will be her 74th album. \"He said we've got to change that. I've never even been asked to perform on Jools Holland's Later. I'm too old to be pissed off but I have been overlooked.\"
4 min |
July 2024
Record Collector
anchoress away
Catherine Anne Davies on the ethics of vinyl production
4 min |
July 2024
Record Collector
"Things can go very badly wrong"
But not too often. The Iron Maiden singer, aviator, business mogul and awardwinning everyman, Bruce Dickinson, returns with a new solo album, The Mandrake Project – Top 10 across the planet at the time of writing – and a ton of anecdotes about his extraordinarily successful career. Just don’t try and put him in a box. “I’m not a number, I’m a free man!” he warns Joel McIver.
10+ min |
May 2024
Record Collector
Out Of The Darkness
Long-anticipated solo debut from Portishead singer is worth the wait
3 min |
May 2024
Record Collector
Clearing The Way
The end of an era for Bolan's glam-rock trailblazers.
3 min |
May 2024
Record Collector
SOCK IT TO ME DISC-ITS! WHEN TWO TRIBES VINYL AND CD (AND CASSETTE) WENT TO WAR
Dream, if you can, a courtyard. An ocean of violets in bloom. Alternatively, a 1984 record shop and all its pristine treasures. Close your eyes, let’s go there together. What do you see? From chest-level down – vinyl.
10+ min |
May 2024
Record Collector
Steve Harley 1951-2024
As frontman for Cockney Rebel, the singer-songwriter crafted one of the glam rock era's greatest singles in Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me).
7 min |
May 2024
Record Collector
The Collector
Swiss-based Icelander Sunna Margrét is a rising force in experimental pop. Having begun her career as a teenager touring with electro-pop ensemble Bloodgroup, she is about to release her debut full-length solo LP, Finger on Tongue.
5 min |
May 2024
Record Collector
She'd only Just gun
With their rapturous harmonies, the Carpenters dominated the 70s’ airwaves, selling over 100 million records with hits like Close To You and Yesterday Once More. But by 1979, lead singer Karen was seeking a new direction… Biographer Lucy O’Brien recounts her attempts to move out of the restrictive environment of the family band that had made her a star
9 min |
May 2024
Record Collector
PNEUMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE
Forming in West Berlin in 1980 and achieving their greatest notoriety circa 1984, industrial noise-punks Einstürzende Neubauten have far e xceeded t he i r p ro jec ted l i fe expectancy. Founding frontman Blixa Bargeld traces the evolution of the metalbashing pioneers. Jeremy Allen is all (suitably protected) ears
10+ min |
May 2024
Record Collector
FRUITS OF THEIR LABOUTES
Bananarama had their first Top 3 hit in 1984, Robert De Niro's Waiting. Rob Hughes meets lifelong friends and bandmates Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward as they look back on their career, album by album
10+ min |
May 2024
Record Collector
Being Soaring.
In April 1984, the original, faster Bobby Oproduced version of West End Girls was released.
10+ min |
May 2024
Record Collector
"Debbie Harry Asked Me to Join Blondie!"
Calling themselves 'Punk Music' in 1970, Suicide channelled the danger, artistic revolutions and Vietnam rage of beleaguered New York City into coruscating electronic onslaughts that were later hailed future blueprints. For keyboard magus Martin Rev it was part of the creative journey that started in the 50s with doowop then jazz and continued in the wake of Alan Vega's 2016 passing with the idiosyncratic solo albums he began unleashing 44 years ago. "I'm still searching, and I'm still being surprised," he tells long-term UK press champion Kris Needs.
10+ min |
March 2024
Record Collector
UNDER THE RADAR
Artists, bands, and labels meriting more attention
4 min |
March 2024
Record Collector
THE ENGINE ROOM
The unsung heroes who helped forge modern music
4 min |
March 2024
Record Collector
10 OF THE BEST This month: Ed Banger Records
DJ Mehdi Lucky Boy (Ed Banger 6143676, LP, France, 2006) £20
4 min |
March 2024
Record Collector
IT WON'T BE LONG THE BEATLES IN 1964: THE FIRST 60 DAYS
As 1964 dawned, The Beatles were still virtually unknown in the United States, although I Want To Hold Your Hand was picking up massive radio airplay less than a week after its American release.
10+ min |
March 2024
Record Collector
IT'S A LAD, LAD, LAD, LAD WORLD
Dismissed as purveyors of blokeish mediocrity, Shed Seven were one of the most critically derided bands of the Britpop era. Yet the York fourpiece have outlasted their peers: rousing new album A Matter Of Time marked their 30th anniversary with a No 1 chart placing, the first of their career. Singer Rick Witter tells John Earls why he's able to laugh off \"meat and potatoes\" insults.
7 min |
March 2024
Record Collector
THE ONE AND Jony
FILM ACTOR, THEATRE STAR, SINGER, SONGWRITER, AND LOVER OF BARBRA STREISAND AMONG MANY OTHER NOTABLE PARAMOURS, ANTHONY NEWLEY WAS A CHARMING MAN AND A PROUDLY UNCONVENTIONAL ARTIST. BUT WHY IS THIS EXTRAORDINARY TALENT SO FORGOTTEN? SPENCER LEIGH DELVES INTO HIS WEIRD AND WONDERFUL WORLD
10+ min |
March 2024
Record Collector
THE JOY OF APEX
Even at the height of punk, when being different was paramount, X-Ray Spex stood out. Like The Mothers Of Invention a decade earlier, they railed against homogeneity and artificiality via a uniquely insurrectionary sax attack. Lois Wilson speaks to Lora Logic, Paul Dean and the late Poly Styrene's daughter Celeste about their incendiary individualism. Identity parade: Ian Dickson
10+ min |
March 2024
Record Collector
THE Dwight STUFF
Tulsa, Oklahoma native Dwight Twilley, who died in October 2023, was one of the prime movers of power pop, up there with Badfinger, The Raspberries, Stories, Todd Rundgren, Shoes and Big Star. Combining Sun Studio sonics with Beatles melodics, Jim Morrison-ish good looks and a kinship with Tom Petty, he had everything going for him. He only had two big hits 1975's I'm On Fire and 1984's Girls - and yet this prolific and gifted singer, songwriter and instrumentalist, operating under his own name and the Dwight Twilley Band, released many superb albums. Here, his widow, Jan Rose Twilley, speaks with Bill Kopp about his life and music.
10 min |
March 2024
Record Collector
This month: The Vinyl Hunters
Jake and his grandad Dave Kapusta are affectionately known online as The Vinyl Hunters. Dave was a black cabbie who has been collecting records since the 60s, ranging from prog through to heavy metal.
6 min |
March 2024
Record Collector
1,200 Pages? What Was I Thinking?
Frontman of the much-missed Rush, child of Holocaust survivors, veteran of 40-plus years in progressive rock, self-confessed germophobe and details obsessive and arguably the Greatest Living Canadian there's a lot for Geddy Lee, 70, to talk about. Fortunately, he's been able to squeeze it all into his new autobiography, My Effin' Life, in which he explores the perils of fame, the pleasures of retirement, and an unexpected dalliance with Peruvian marching powder. Asked to name Rush's best album by Joel McIver, he warns, "Millions of fans are going to disagree with me on this..."
10+ min |
February 2024
Record Collector
THE ENGINE ROOM
The unsung heroes who helped forge modern music
4 min |
February 2024
Record Collector
UNDER THE RADAR
Artists, bands, and labels meriting more attention
4 min |
February 2024
Record Collector
WHO CAN I BE NOW?
NINETEEN-SEVENTY-FOUR FOUND IN TRANSITION: FROM GLAM LEPER MESSIAH TO PLASTIC SOUL MAN. HERE, AND BOWIE'S SCHOOLFRIEND AND 70S COMPANION LRHUM TELL THE STORY OF BOWIE'S 74 AS HE MAKES THE CH-CH-CH-CHCHANGE FROM THE QUEASY FUTURE-SCHLOCK CONCEPT ROCK OF DIAMOND DOGS TO THE PHILLY-FIED NEO-DISCO OF YOUNG AMERICANS. EYES WRITE: NICK HASTED
10+ min |
February 2024
Record Collector
A MESSAGE TO YOU
Give or take Hot Chocolate, well ahead of Hi-Tension et al, Cymande were the first black British band of note. With influences ranging from soul, funk, and reggae to blues-rock, jazz and calypso, they were big in the States but failed to capitalise on early success. A staple for sampladelic hip-hoppers, they are finally getting their due with a brand new documentary. Cymande says: Lois Wilson
9 min |
February 2024
Record Collector
MYSTERY MEN
Around the turn of the 70s, as many of their compatriots who are now household names were still building a mainstream profile, The Guess Who were Canada's biggest rock band. They never made many ripples over here, but hits such as American Woman remain instantly recognisable half a century on. They even bequeathed another major outfit in Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Meanwhile, two competing versions of The Guess Who are still touring. Rob Hughes hears their versions of events...
10 min |