Music
Record Collector
33 1/3 minutes with... Allan Clarke
Allan Clarke co-founded The Hollies with school friend Graham Nash. Between 1963, the year they started, and 1968 when Nash left to form Crosby, Stills & Nash, they notched up nine Top 5 singles including Just One Look, Here I Go Again and I’m Alive, their first of two No 1s.
6 min |
June 2023
Record Collector
NO LESS THAN HERO
To mark the release of Seven Psalms, an astonishing meditation on spirituality and mortality and his first album of new material in seven years, Paul Simon a giant of postwar American popular song matched only by Dylan - takes to Zoom for an RC exclusive to talk about (his) music with fan, friend and fellow master songwriter, Elvis Costello. Listening in: Terry Staunton.
10+ min |
July 2023
Record Collector
Oh, Sit Down!
We will if you stop playing those infectious big-venue anthems to alienation and belonging. But James can't help themselves, and they never could, whether in their early indie phase, during Madchester, with Eno, or any time since. Still on their singular path and in pursuit of the new, they're releasing an orchestral retrospective album, Be Opened By The Wonderful. Tim Booth, Saul Davies and Jim Glennie tell Kevin Harley about their choppy journey as perennial outsiders and the value of an open mind.
10+ min |
July 2023
Record Collector
BREAKING THE WAVES
A going concern since 1976, first in The Hague and since 2006 in Rotterdam, the annual North Sea Jazz Festival returns this summer with a stellar lineup including Janelle Monáe, Seal, Stormzy, Little Simz, Lizzo, Duckwrth, Snarky Puppy, Tom Jones, Van Morrison, Buddy Guy, Mavis Staples, Jill Scott and more. It showcases the best contemporary jazz-influenced acts while attracting the biggest names. Photographer Paul Bergen has been capturing images from the festival for nearly four decades. He talks us through some of his favourite shots from previous years...
4 min |
July 2023
Record Collector
KINGS OF THE WORLD
Fifty years ago, imams of immaculacy and avatars of the acerbic, Steely Dan, were jazz pop's cool rulers. They had under their belts a debut album, Can't Buy A Thrill, that wasn't so much hesitantly promising as fully-realised, supremely accomplished. Clearly, on a roll, the follow-up, issued in July 1973, was, if anything, even better: their second - and, some would say, finest - album of cutting perfection (ism), Countdown To Ecstasy. Max Bell evaluates its razor buoyancy.
10+ min |
July 2023
Record Collector
WIND OF CHANGE
It is 1974 and the Bee Gees haven't had a hit for a while. Nor are they enjoying the critical respect of the heavenly-harmony \"B\" boys: Beatles, Beach Boys, Byrds. Into this commercial and critical lull enters producer Arif Mardin. In this extract from his book on the brothers Gibb, Bee Gees: Children Of The World, author, RC writer and pop musician Bob Stanley finds them midway through Phase 2 of their transition from late 60s orch-popsters to late 70s disco behemoths.
10+ min |
July 2023
Record Collector
POP ART
Numerous rock'n'pop artistes have proven dab hands with other artforms over the decades. RC artist Paul Bowler paints a picture of some of those who work on other canvases
6 min |
July 2023
Record Collector
The days of his life
Freddie Mercury's unseen personal collection set to be exhibited and auctioned, darlings!
2 min |
July 2023
Record Collector
Label of Love
Q & A | AV8 RECORDS – Eastbourne/London
5 min |
June 2023
Record Collector
Lost and Found
In the 80s, the UK had The Smiths – America had The Smithereens: an emblematic fourpiece 60s-referencing college radio/alt-indie band combining elements of girl group pop and beat-era rock; melodic with hints of mayhem. And, as Bill Kopp reports, New Jersey’s forgotten heroes are still out there, doing it…
10+ min |
May 2023
Record Collector
Present Tense
Songs for old-timers: veteran singer-songwriter mixes anguish and tenderness.
5 min |
June 2023
Record Collector
Higher Power
Folk icon continues to bridge the past and the present.
4 min |
June 2023
Record Collector
Homeward Bound
Belief and beauty explored with rare grace.
4 min |
June 2023
Record Collector
Above And Beyond!
Big brother triumphs by reminding everyone he knows how to write giant tunes.
6 min |
June 2023
Record Collector
Wish List
A half-speed master holds off time as it waits in the wings.
2 min |
June 2023
Record Collector
Kick Out The Jams
Brilliant compilation celebrating Liverpool’s cultural heritage.
2 min |
June 2023
Record Collector
Movers And Shakers
A new box set chronicles the “saxophone Colossus”’s late 50s California sojourn.
3 min |
June 2023
Record Collector
Weeping Beauty
Anniversary edition of an angst classic, in an atmospheric new mix.
5 min |
June 2023
Record Collector
DREAD ALERT
The dub poet and activist Linton Kwesi Johnson is publishing his first book of prose, a fine addition to his impressive CV that includes music journalist, label owner and punk and post-punk reggae avatar. Man free-lance: Rich Davenport
9 min |
June 2023
Record Collector
SHAKIN ALL OVER AGAIN
Even a heart attack in 2010 couldn’t deter Welsh rock’n’roll institution Shakin’ Stevens from returning to fight the good fight. Now, at 75, he has made another highly personal record that might confound those expecting him to fall back on the vintage covers and 50s stylings that made him such a ubiquitous presence on the 80s pop scene. “A lot of people are going to be shocked,” he warns Jack Watkins.
10+ min |
June 2023
Record Collector
RELATABLE CONTENT
Evolving from blues-rock through prog and several different points in-between, East Midlanders Family perhaps don’t get the recognition they deserve these days, possibly because of such wilful refusal to stay in one musical lane. With a clutch of reissues ready to prompt a revision of that reputation, Roger Chapman tells his side of a tortuous tale to Michael Heatley.
10 min |
June 2023
Record Collector
EUROPEAN UNION
One is the daughter of a psychedelic rock hero, the other played bass in The Clash. As Galen Ayers and Paul Simonon unite for a duets album, Can We Do Tomorrow Another Day?, Kevin Harley hears about how they wore their pasts lightly while drawing inspiration from continental adventures and great male-female duos of the past…
10+ min |
June 2023
Record Collector
maconblack
Ian McCann Stadium gigs? Forget it. And as for live albums...
4 min |
June 2023
Record Collector
Musician Paul Mayer
Paul Mayer, a creative director and musician, has been collecting “Exotica” music on vinyl since he was just 12 years old. In the 70s, his parents took him to Hawaii where, at a young age, he saw the great Martin Denny perform at the Surf Room in the Royal Hawaiian Hotel at Waikiki.
7 min |
June 2023
Record Collector
Battling the bootleggers
West Country millionaire’s counterfeit records racket shut down
3 min |
June 2023
Record Collector
"YOU HAVE TO BE RUTHLESS"
Simply Red’s soulful pop was one of the most familiar sounds of the 90s and made Mick Hucknall a household name. Despite their commercial domination, they were critical pariahs, dismissed for their smoothness and Hucknall’s reputation as a lothario. Truth is, they were steeped in dub, gritty R&B and post-punk, proud working-class peers of ‘soulcialists’ Style Council and Redskins. Three decades on, they continue to sell more albums than there are ginger hairs on his famous head: the work ethic is strong with this one. “We played to a million people last year,” he points out, and with a new album and tour to promote, he’s only going to be stepping up the professional pace. “You can’t take anything for granted,” he tells Lois Wilson.
10+ min |
June 2023
Record Collector
MAEL PATENT BOLDNESS
Ron and Russell Mael – combined age: 151 – should be in the autumn of their career, a heritage act recycling the hits. Instead, more than a half-century since their debut LP, Sparks are enjoying an Indian summer of acclaim and popularity. As they prepare to release their 26th idiosyncratic pop album (including FFS), back with their original label Island after a 45-year break, they take a reverse journey through their body of work while considering their imminent landmark concerts at the Hollywood Bowl and Royal Albert Hall. What kind of shows can we expect? “Sexy and cerebral,” they promise Jeremy Allen.
10+ min |
June 2023
Record Collector
Talking Heads – 'We thought "down with Arena Rock"'
With the Remain in Love Tour about to happen and a reissue of stop making sense imminent, people are talking about talking heads again. Not that they ever really stopped. With their adventures in psychedelicised funk and dub-spacious art disco, they essayed a new form of anti-'rockist' music, all polyrhythmic colourmotion helmed by Brian Eno, effecting a clean break with tradition. A once in a lifetime proposition, in terms of songwriting and Studio Sonics, they made leaps between - especially albums the first four - matched only by The Beatles. Come into the blue again as David interviews the stubbs greatest rhythm section of the post-punk period, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, about the band, their out-of-this-world music and their eventual, inevitable split, while Terry Staunton tracks their lightspeed evolution on LP and Daryl Easlea gets discographical. Take a look!
10+ min |
May 2023
Record Collector
Hey Jude
Courteeners seemed to rise without trace – stadium fillers, particularly in the north, yet barely visible press-wise. They have just scored their first-ever UK No 1 album with their 2008 debut, the recently reissued St Jude, breaking Official Chart records for the LP with the longest time between release and charting at pole position, a feat matched only by The Beatles and the Stones with their recent reissues. And yet mainman Liam Fray remains modest to a fault, despite his “gobshite” reputation. Mapping the rendezvous: John Earls.
10 min |
May 2023
Record Collector
"I didn't know how to deal with being a frontman"
In 1981, Haircut 100 came bursting out of Beckenham, all Argyle sweaters and sou’westers, purveying a new kind of jangly, poppy Britfunk, equal parts Monkees and Earth, Wind & Fire. Face and NME darlings, they soon matched critical respect with the screams of teenage fans, but already by summer ’82 the wheels had come off, singer and songwriter Nick Heyward was suffering a nervous breakdown and he left the band in acrimonious circumstances. In the 90s he enjoyed a period of solo success, with hits in the States and a period of late affirmation when he signed to the Creation label. Now, though, all hatchets have been buried and the Haircuts have reunited, with live dates and talk of a new album. “Till death us do part,” Heyward tells Adrian Thrills
10+ min |