JERSEY ROYAL

Five or six times a year, Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen take a drive together into the New Jersey countryside. Their phones are left at home, they don't even listen to the radio, they just talk: about favourite music new and old, of being famous then and now, sport, family... In each other's company, New Jersey's most successful living entertainers really can be regular guys for a couple of hours.
At least, Bruce Springsteen can.
"I think Bruce thinks of me as his brother now," considers Bon Jovi. "From my perspective, it's always hero worship."
That isn't false modesty. The frontman whose 130-million-selling band is named after him is eternally grateful that his local teenage heroes - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band and Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes-felt so accessible growing up in the otherwise anonymous suburb of Sayreville.
"Queen, Zeppelin and Elton were on my wall and they were bigger than life," reflects Bon Jovi. "Not only were The E Street Band and the Jukes local, between those two bands there were 17 of them. How could I not run into one of them at the local clubs? They made it seem possible. Southside Johnny didn't need to sell 130 million records to be my hero. I'm still stealing his moves today."
As a teenager, bumping into Clarence Clemons, Billy Rush and other E Street and Asbury Jukes in local clubs made success feel realistic. But those heroes will always sseem like a rung above to Bon Jovi, despite being a global star since Slippery When Wet in 1986.
"If I walk into a room and see The E Street Band, I go: 'It's my fucking Beatles!"" he insists. "I might have sold as many records as them by now, but that's who they are to me."
この記事は Record Collector の July 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Record Collector の July 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン

WINDOWS ON THE WORLD
At the peak of their powers in the early 70s, by 1975 there were signs that Led Zeppelin were burning out, and their legendary appetite for excess, not to mention stadium-straddling, mythically charged, epically inclined hard rock, might be waning.

HI-FIDELITY?
Running a record shop is a dream for many music aficionados. Steve Burniston investigates how to run a successful one

THE ENGINE ROOM
The unsung heroes who helped forge modern music

UNDER THE RADAR
Artists, bands, and labels meriting more attention

45 SHEFFIELD 45s
Continuing our celebrations of RC's 45th birthday and following on from our look at the best 45s to come out of Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol and Glasgow, we focus on the urbanisation formerly known as Steel City: Sheffield. Close to the (Nether) Edge: Jeremy Allen

Finished Symphonies
In the late 80s, Shelleyan Orphan made rarefied, ravishing, precious (both meanings) baroque pop, all chamber quartet accompaniment and literary reference points, like an 18th century Cocteau Twins.

"BLACK BRITISH PEOPLE HAD SOMETHING TO SHOUT ABOUT"
Breaking new ground for black music in Britain from his teenage years in Matumbi in the early 70s, Dennis Bovell went on to become one of reggae's most highly regarded producers, helping popularise lovers rock. He also played a pivotal role in post-punk's experimental incorporation of dub influences on records like The Slits' Cut and The Pop Group's Y. As new compilation, Sufferer Sounds, reaches back to his early days to compile some of his best early dub plates, Lois Wilson gets the full backstory from one of British music's most enduring forces.

FRENZY REUNITED
Swindon's finest musical export, XTC were also one of the most quietly influential British bands, setting a template for Britpop while pioneering a brand of left-field guitar pop – from herky-jerky invention to consummate craftsmanship – that has spawned many imitators.

Paperback Blighters - The books every record collector should read.
The books every record collector should read. Vinyl, you may have heard, has made a big comeback. In 2022, sales of vinyl albums surpassed compact discs (CDs) for the first time in more than three decades in terms of global revenue, racking up more than $1.2bn.

"Beware the Savage Lure/of 1984..." - David Bowie is one of the most venerated musicians ever. But even he had his bad periods.
David Bowie is one of the most venerated musicians ever. But even he had his bad periods. For many, 1984 remains the nadir of his Phil Collins” phase; an artistic/sartonial/tonsorial disaster area. But was it really that awful? Forty years on, Matt Phillips explores Bowie's so-called annus horribilis.