Music
Record Collector
Down To The Roots
Newly discovered outtake reels give wonderfully intriguing insight into the making of singer-songwriter's classic debut.
3 min |
July 2025
Record Collector
Heard Ya Missed M WELL I'M BACK!
This month: I Monster
4 min |
July 2025
Record Collector
THE FOREST HILLS ARE ALIVE..
When the Ramones came to the UK in 1976, they were a major inspirational force for the burgeoning British punk movement. But back home in New York, the artists soon to be known as Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy had been moulding their oft-mocked brand of back-to-basics rock'n'roll to barely credulous but slowly growing crowds since 1974-5. Kris Needs, who was there at that UK debut, speaks to Joey Ramone's brother Mickey Leigh, Craig Leon, Lenny Kaye, Chris Frantz, Jayne County and others, also drawing on his own historical encounters with the band, to trace the backstory of four like-minded suburban outcasts and the ‘chemical imbalance’ that helped catalyse a revolution.
10+ min |
July 2025
Record Collector
Shot In The Dark
xPropaganda singer unveils a late-career gem. By Charles Waring
2 min |
July 2025
Record Collector
33½ minutes with...Ezra Furman
Born in Chicago in 1986, Ezra Furman studied English at Tufts University in Somerville, MA. She also helmed Ezra Furman & The Harpoons, with whom she recorded four albums between 2006 and 2011.
4 min |
July 2025
Record Collector
HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER
Slim Whitman's peak success - when he set a UK chart record that stood for 36 years - came just before the 50s rock'n'roll explosion, which may be why this American country star isn't as acclaimed as he might be. Jack Watkins yodels his praises...
10 min |
July 2025
Record Collector
THE ROAD TO ELLIOTT
A quarter-century on from Figure 8, Elliott Smith's final studio record before his untimely passing, we shine a spotlight on one of America’s most enigmatic artists. The songwriter was taken too soon but left behind a compelling body of work. Felix Rowe joins two of his closest collaborators, Rob Schnapf and Larry Crane, to explore his output.
10 min |
July 2025
Record Collector
UNDER THE RADAR
Artists, bands, and labels meriting more attention
4 min |
July 2025
Record Collector
BLOODY HAIRY!!
The Midlands in the late 60s could claim to be the birthplace of heavy rock. But while Zep and Sabbath went on to global success, what became of their heftty, and hirsute, peers? With the release of a new compilation – a Nuggets for proto-stoner rock and doom fans – Stevie Chick mans the excavator.
10+ min |
July 2025
Record Collector
FEEL THE FORCE
Joe Henderson never enjoyed the super heavyweight status of John Coltrane or Sonny Rollins but Forces Of Nature: Live At Slugs', a previously unheard live recording with pianist McCoy Tyner from 1966, reveals he was a serious contender. Speaking to some of Henderson's closest collaborators and most avid cheerleaders, Charles Waring shines a light on the often-overlooked jazz genius dubbed “The Phantom”.
10 min |
July 2025
Record Collector
The Collector
This month: Graham Sharpe
7 min |
July 2025
Record Collector
LABEL OF LOVE ALBERT'S FAVOURITES
Where are you based, what do you do, and why?
3 min |
July 2025
Record Collector
NASHVILLE HEMLINE
Matthew Quinlan explores Nudie Cohn's Nashville legacy
3 min |
July 2025
Record Collector
anchoressaway
Catherine Anne Davies, who records as The Anchoress, wonders whether it's good to look back
4 min |
July 2025
Record Collector
Revolutionary folk
Dick Gaughan gets an eight-disc box set with unissued cuts
1 min |
June 2025
Record Collector
THE RASTA'S HISTORY
The militant Malcolm X to Bob Marley's Martin Luther King Jr, Peter Tosh would take to the stage brandishing an M16-shaped guitar, clad in a karate uniform indicative of his black-belt skills. Nicknamed The Stepping Razor, the six-foot-four-inch former Wailer cut an imposing dash. But was that the whole story? Rich Davenport gets tough
10 min |
June 2025
Record Collector
More of the Worlds
Jeff Wayne's 1978 magnum opus gets an 18-disc box set
1 min |
June 2025
Record Collector
The Common Touch
Nearly 24 years on, Jarvis & co. return in life-affirming fashion.
7 min |
June 2025
Record Collector
A KIND OF MAGIC
Remastering engineers specialise in revamping vintage recordings. Jim Allen wonders how they work their magic
9 min |
June 2025
Record Collector
Starr turn
Collector of The Beatles seeks Ringo Starr correspondents
1 min |
June 2025
Record Collector
Live and let Live
Survey of gig-goers calls for government and industry action
2 min |
June 2025
Record Collector
Stiff little memories
Author seeks RC readers help for a people's punk history
1 min |
June 2025
Record Collector
THE MOTOR-CYCLE GIRL
Despite advance hype (\"the greatest pop artist since Aretha Franklin,\" according to her label, Atlantic), 19-yearold New Yorker Lotti Golden's opus, Motor-Cycle, stalled in 1969. She tells Charles Donovan how a determined reissue label and some enthusiastic bloggers helped her rev it up in 2025
10+ min |
June 2025
Record Collector
Remixed Fortunes
Rock veterans' live set gets a makeover – and now even their frontman has come 'round to it.
5 min |
June 2025
Record Collector
Bob Stanley Why Pipes Of Peace most certainly does not blow
Poor Paul McCartney. He delivered two terrific, twinned albums with Tug Of War (1982) and Pipes Of Peace (1983) and critics were unrelentingly mean, for no reason other than he wasn't John Lennon.
4 min |
June 2025
Record Collector
"IF I WAS STILL USING I WOULDN'T BE DOING THIS INTERVIEW"
Depending on what papers you read, back in the 00s Peter Doherty was either co-frontman of the most influential British guitar band of their generation or a crack-piping jailbird forever in the crosshairs of Fleet Street. A miracle, then, that in 2025 the Libertines and Babyshambles singer is not only drug-free but back with his strongest solo album to date. “Everything has shifted,” he tells Simon Goddard. Wastered youth: Roger Sargent
10+ min |
June 2025
Record Collector
Sweet Soul Music
Revisiting an organic funk classic which regenerated the groove.
2 min |
June 2025
Record Collector
33 ⅓ minutes with... Kerry Minnear
Kerry Minnear joined Gentle Giant in 1970. Whereas the core of the band - brothers Phil, Derek and Ray Shulman - progressed from popsike hitmakers Simon Dupree & The Big Sound, Minnear came more or less straight from The Royal Academy of Music where he graduated with qualifications in musical composition, piano and classical percussion.
4 min |
June 2025
Record Collector
Crazy For You
Artpop’s fraternal Odd Couple deliver further proof of genius. By Simon Price
5 min |
June 2025
Record Collector
Essex Serpents
Southend siblings' dark, daring and brilliant fifth.
4 min |