Brian Eno was waiting for the tube at Maida Vale. A train stopped, leaving Brian equidistant between two carriages. He didn’t know it, but his destiny awaited. Enter one carriage, and he would become a pop star, an innovator of… Read More ›
Rock Music
Why Neil Young Once Tried to Drive To Belgium, and How He Nearly Killed Dylan…
The final article (of three) on Neil Young’s Ditch Trilogy… Tonight’s The Night was due to be released in January 1974, but Neil Young continued to work on mixing the rough recordings, and by May 1974 he was playing a… Read More ›
Neil Young and The Ditch Trilogy: Time Fades Away and Tonight’s the Night
This is the Second of three parts of a trilogy of articles about the Ditch Trilogy that I originally wrote for the liner notes to my Neil Young DIY Box Set… Worst follow up albums? There are quite a few… Read More ›
Neil Young and his Original Special One: Danny Whitten
(In anticipation of Neil Young’s show at The O2 Arena on Saturday, I thought I would share a slightly altered version of the liner notes I wrote for the Neil Young DIY Box Set earlier in the year, which has… Read More ›
Wilko Johnson Cheerfully Discusses Death, Depression, Cancer….and Canvey Island
Wilko Johnson was at Rough Trade East last night in conversation with author Zoë Howe to discuss his new book “Don’t You Leave Me Here”. The former Dr Feelgood guitarist has written about his extraordinary life: chart topping success, the… Read More ›
The Neil Young Deluxe Vinyl Box Set Project Part 5: More Records
The Project: Is it possible to make a “Deluxe” Vinyl Box Set of Neil Young albums from the original vinyl rather than spending lots of money on re-issues? I am trying to find out… The Story So Far: I… Read More ›
The Neil Young Deluxe Vinyl Box Set Project: Part 4
IV: The “Deluxe” Extras The Project: Is it possible to make a “Deluxe” Vinyl Box Set of Neil Young albums from the original vinyl rather than spending lots of money on re-issues? The Story So Far: We have the… Read More ›
The Neil Young Deluxe Vinyl Box Set Project: Putting The “Box” Into “Box Set”
The Project: To bring luxury to the masses. The plan is to make a Luxury Neil Young Box Set: DIY Edition from second hand albums and bits of string and sell it to the public. The Story So Far:… Read More ›
The Neil Young Deluxe Vinyl Box Set Project: Part 2: the records
The Project: Is it possible to make your own Deluxe Vinyl Box Set of Neil Young Records? The first part of this short series is here… The most important part of any box set, aside from the fake gimmicky… Read More ›
The Neil Young Deluxe Vinyl Box Set Project
Part 1: The Idea Robin Williams famously said cocaine was God’s way of telling you you’re making too much money. He might just as easily been referring to vinyl box sets, which are unashamedly a luxury item. The… Read More ›
The Struggle and Rise of Jimi Hendrix
Perhaps the most traumatic moment in Hendrix’s life was the day he first met his father. Little Johnny Hendrix was born in Seattle in 1942 to a flighty teenage mum, Lucille, who was unprepared for motherhood. His father Al had… Read More ›
Lee Brilleaux: Rock n Roll Gentleman
January 1976. Dr Feelgood are tearing up venues across the UK. “Malpractice”, their second album has reached the top twenty. Eighteen months earlier they were still playing two shows a night because they needed the money. But lead singer Lee… Read More ›
The Story of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody: 40 Years Ago
It’s worth considering the near-disastrous position Queen were in forty years ago, on 24th August 1975, as they checked in to a former farm called Rockfield Studios in the Wye Valley, near Monmouth to record their fourth album, the… Read More ›
Incredible Archive of Lost Photos Unearthed of Led Zep, Bowie, Rolling Stones…
In 2015 it’s only ironic hipsters who don’t have a camera on their phone, and every concert audience you attend is littered with people taking low quality photos, selfies and video footage on their smartphones. This has become an issue… Read More ›
Pink Floyd and the Departure and Return of Syd Barrett
12 January 1968. Pink Floyd took to the stage as a five piece band for the first time, at Birmingham’s Aston University. Pink Floyd may have had a top ten charting single but not all was going well. Their… Read More ›
