CATEGORIES

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.

7" Heaven & Hell the Story of the 45 - The 45 turns 75 this year. Matthew Quinlan charts its history, recalling the RPM wars and two belligerent titans who went into battle over the speed of spinning sound

Someone needs to come and empty the bins behind the Lloyds Bank branch in Kingston-upon-Thames. It’s been raining and flattened cardboard slumps next to a flytipped air conditioning unit and a rusting clothes rack. There are two signs at head height on the red brick wall. One warns that you’ll be clamped if you park here; the other, a stainless-steel plaque, marks Nipper’s 100th birthday. Nipper, the dog at the heart of the HMV and RCA Victor logos, was a white terrier with chocolate brown ears, maybe a Jack Russell, Smooth Fox, or Bull Terrier, more likely a mix. This is his final resting place. He was buried under a mulberry tree but, you know, urban sprawl, progress, etc. The plaque was unveiled by the Chairman of HMV Stores on 15 August 1984, while Captain Sensible, Janice Long, and a Nipper doppelganger looked on. Round the corner, at HMV and Our Price, George Michael’s Careless Whisper was flying off the shelves, and every copy turned at 45 RPM.

STARS ON 45s

A BUNCH OF MUSICIANS - 45, COUNT 'EM! RHAPSODISE ABOUT THEIR FAVOURITE SINGLE

THE TORTURED SHOPPER'S DEPARTMENT

John Coleman celebrates the great art of vinyl collecting on the 45th Anniversary of Record Collector and finds out, in an exhausting series of anxietyinducing sprees, how much vinyl you can buy today, ina variety of outlets, with 45.

Young American

A serendipitous collaboration with David Bowie in 1974 kick-started Luther Vandross' recording career. But he still faced an uphill struggle to succeed as a solo artist. Charles Waring talks to some of the singer's most trusted collaborators about his early years and how he battled to be heard....

MOD ALMIGHTY

Steve Ellis began his career as a mod in flower-power clobber as frontman of chart-toppers Love Affair. Quitting in 1970, he worked with The Who's Roger Daltrey then gave up music to become a docker before a near-death experience. Interest in his work was rekindled after hooking up with long-time fan Paul Weller. Lois Wilson hears how his romance with music endures.

ANARCHISTS IN THE UK

EXACTLY 45 YEARS AGO, CRASS, THE ANARCHIST ACTIVIST COLLECTIVE, WERE FINISHING PIVOTAL SECOND ALBUM, STATIONS OF THE CRASS.

The boy with the thorn in his side

David Cassidy was arguably the biggest solo star of the immediate post-Beatles era, yet his fame as well as his boyish good looks and extracurricular excessesovershadow the excellence of his breathily intimate, musically accomplished records. Simon Goddard, RC contributor and author of an acclaimed series of books on David Bowie, hails the work of the tortured pop idol

"I COULD JUST THROW MUD AT THE WALL"

There's little sign of slowing down from the 19-year-old Pete Townshend. Currently on the go: multi-media project The Age Of Anxiety; a dance production of Quadrophenia; and Pete Townshend Live In Concert 1985-2001, a 14-disc boxset of his solo in-concert recordings. Not, he admits, that his every whim and fancy are worth deeper exploration. \"Some of them are good ideas, some of them are pretty dumb,\"

I was seen as an outsider– Marc Almond's new album I'm Not Anyone is out on 12 July on BMG

It's 43 years since Soft Cell's cover of Gloria Jones' Tainted Love turned singer Marc Almond and his synth-playing partner Dave Ball into overnight stars, and 42 years since Almond kicked off a solo career that continues to this day. The nervous kid that we first saw on Top Of The Pops on 13 August 1981 is now one of the longest-performing artists of his generation, with his 27th solo album, I'm Not Anyone, about to land. Addiction and a near-fatal road accident couldn't stop him, he tells Joel McIver, although a nice fruit garden just might...

CAUGHT BY THE BUZZ!

Every generation gets the music epoch it deserves whether that's psychedelia, glam, punk, new pop, Madchester... In the 90s it was the turn of Britpop. For a period, there was a range of activity under that banner, most notably from the colossally popular likes of Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Supergrass and Elastica, but also from the lesser-known likes of Marion, Menswe@r and My Life Story... Over the next 12 pages we reacquaint ourselves with some of Britpop's stars, Joel Mclver looks at Britrock and Joe Muggs at Brit-dance to affirm the era's rampant eclecticism, Wesley Doyle recalls life in a band on the scene and meets the next generation of Britpoppers, we reassess the era's best albums and the \"runners-up\", consider the notable singles, remember the Blur-Oasis rivalry, David Stubbs offers an Alternate View Of Britpop, and John Coleman compiles a hefty Oasis discography.

OVERCOME BY SADNESS

\"Look at me! I've lived!\" declares Joe Pernice. Few contemporary American songwriters can do weathered ennui like him, albeit with a nod and a wink. The Pernice Brother talks Rob Hughes through nearly three decades of studio output, album by gorgeously sorrowful album.

HOOD VIBRATIONS

There's a shimmering, otherwordly quality to The O'Jays' music, a gossamer lightness to their gospel fervour. It's there on their hits -Love Train, Put Your Hands Together and especially on their 1972-3 albums, Back Stabbers and Ship Ahoy, which, argues Philly soul expert Tony Cummings, merit contention alongside What's Going On and There's A Riot Goin' On in the annals of conscious R&B

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.\"

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.

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.\"

anchoress away

Catherine Anne Davies on the ethics of vinyl production

"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.

Out Of The Darkness

Long-anticipated solo debut from Portishead singer is worth the wait

Clearing The Way

The end of an era for Bolan's glam-rock trailblazers.

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.