CATEGORIES

Richard Marx

Hazard He only recorded it to prove people wrong and he considered it his worst ever song. So just how did the AOR singer’s global smash hit come about?

IAN HUNTER

He's older than rock'n'roll itself, and back with an all-star cast on his new album on Sun Records. Here he talks to CR about working with Jeff Beck and Taylor Hawkins, punk rock, Alex Harvey, David Bowie, and sex and drugs in the 7Os. This is what he’s here for.

How I Wrote..."Wooden Ships"

David Crosby reveals how he, Stephen Stills and Paul Kantner wrote a visionary classic.

"I hit an E chord and felt all this power"

For blues-rock star Jared James Nichols, it’s all about expression – and a Les Paul is “the best tool for the job”

"It's Obscenely Heavy and Growls Like Nothing Else!"

Al Di Meola discusses his famous Les Paul – and his friendship with the man himself

Τοm Verlaine 1949-2023

The cult hero who reconfigured guitar music and inspired generations of alternative rock bands

"if It's the Right Les Paul, It Feels Right in Every Way"

Aerosmith legend Joe Perry plays vintage classics and his own signature models. As he puts it: “Les Paul and Gibson just hit the nail on the head”

"YOU GET UNDER MY SKIN...”

The Only Ones were the new wave-era band with one foot in the pre-punk, rock classicist past. They recorded three albums of erratic flaming beauty, but it was a single of theirs, three minutes of ragged insinuating perfection, that really helped them make a mark. Here, adapted from Simon Wright's new book on the band's debut LP, is the story of Another Girl, Another Planet.

Full Moon

As much of their classic as you buy, beg, borrow or steal.

The Collector

Sonic Youth RC reader Al Harwood

LET'S SHOP

There's nothing more that Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys and The Arcs likes more than a good few hours spent digging through the crates at his favourite UK record store. Which is why we join him by the racks at London's Stranger Than Paradise. Chris Catchpole witnesses the vinyl love.

NUMB ANGEL

Lewis Taylor was a contender, hailed by the critics and name-dropped by everyone from Paul Weller to Elton John. Following attempts to sell him as a soul boy when he was more a UK Tame Impala - less Acid Jazz than acid and jazz he made a few dazzling records, then disappeared. Rumours circulated that he'd absented himself from social media and the music industry in general and was living as a recluse. But, after nearly two decades away, he's released a new album, NUMB, which shows him in as rude vocal and compositional health as ever, and finally ready to explain where he's been. It's madness: Matt Phillips

Not Forgotten

He demanded 48 vocal takes from Cilla, before choosing the second

A Fitting Farewell

When two songwriting greats combined.

Revival Stories

Startling modern soul from sexagenarian comeback kid.

THE ENGINE ROOM

The unsung heroes who helped forge modern music

33 1/2 minutes with...Paul Jones

Since his rise to mid-60s stardom with Manfred Mann, Paul Jones has been one of Britain's premier blues/R&B singers.

JAVID QUANTICK LIKES

To write a column for Record Collector. Yay Best Known Album Syndrome

MUSIC TO VISIT

Bob Stanley carries pop's baggage everywhere Shhh... library music

Daisy Cutter

Double-LP reissue becomes an unintended tribute to a hip-hop great.

Seminal Works

The records that helped the art-pop trailblazers crack the big time - and broke their original line-up.

Diggin' For GOLD

Our regular look at the more arcane corners of record collecting. Includes Vintage Venue

PAN PEOPLE

Delphina James, whose homage to Kraftwerk is a new entry in the RRPG, tells lan Shirley about arranging electronic music for steel bands and her new project, playing the music of modern composer Ludovico Einaudi

Method In The Sadness

The 21st-century Karen Carpenter fashions a marathon of meta-melancholy, with a few new tricks.

UNDER THE RADAR

Artists, bands, and labels meriting more attention

DEMIGODDESS

Scottish rocker delivers glimmering display in symphonic setting

Single File

Make room on the crowded Beatle shelf for this magnificent tome.

Dark Magic

Three-decade high from Basildon's finest on blackest celebration yet.

CHAIRMAN OF THE KEYBOARD

With a new illustrated account of his life, Keith Emerson, out now, the partner of ELP's keyboard virtuoso, Mari Kawaguchi, and his son, Aaron Emerson, tell us his story via 12 key images from the book, all the way from 1966 right up to his death in 2016.

The HUMAN TOUCH

As we celebrate Rachmaninov's 150th anniversary this month, Andrew Green talks with leading musicians who explain why there's so much more to a composer often derided as nostalgic and melancholic