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RODRIGO Y GABRIELA: Acoustic guitars turned up to 11
For a man who makes an astonishingly big noise on stage Rodrigo -- the male half of the Mexican guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela -- speaks very quietly. Unlike Gabriela who manages a profanity rate on the DVD that accompanies their new album that would impress Ozzy. Rodrigo is also scrupulously well spoken. He also apologises for having been so hard to locate. And he has been: the woman... more >>
Added: 10 Jul 08
DAVID BOWIE; THE EARLY YEARS: He was an interesting bunch of people
For a while, quite a while in fact, David Bowie could do no wrong – and when something seemed like a career move (“I never did anything out of the blue”) it worked to his advantage. Even when he was The Man Who Fell To Earth after Lou Reed decked him in a London restaurant, it was the day before his new single was released – Boys Keep Swinging. You just... more >>
Added: 1 Jul 08
NIRVANA'S NEVERMIND RECONSIDERED: Classic is as classic does (2008)
Let us go back to a time when people wore strange clothes and listened to very different music. A place where Bryan Adams was writing himself into the Guinness Book of Records with the longest-running single -- 16 weeks -- on the UK charts with (Everything I Do) I Do It For You. In this yesteryear Guns N' Roses are partying hard and bringing their brand of dissolute LA glam metal to the... more >>
Added: 1 Jul 08
PAUL McCARTNEY AND WINGS: The solo career that faltered, flew then faltered
"Wings, only the band the Beatles could have been," said Alan Partridge -- who, we should quickly add, is an alter ego of British comedian Steve Coogan.Rock writers were understandably unforgiving toward McCartney's post-Beatle band but the public just wouldn't listen to those damn critics. People liked Wings. They, or more correctly McCartney, made the cover of Time in May... more >>
Added: 30 Jun 08
THE BAND; ACROSS THE GREAT DIVIDE BOX SET (1994): Genius all boxed up . . . or maybe not all.
For the record, I turned off the Band around the period they hit the cover of Time magazine in January 1970 - which is to say I never really got into them. This is no brag that when they went commercial I bailed out, more like that guy who yelled “Judas” at Bob Dylan when he plugged in. Just a case of woeful stupidity. That the Band are central to any understanding of... more >>
Added: 28 Jun 08
BONNIE RAITT INTERVIEWED 1992: Born to make things better
At one of those flashbulb and tape-recorder after-match functions following this year’s Grammy awards, three-time recipient Bonnie Raitt was the centre of attention. In a year which gave awards to Natalie Cole and her dead dad singing something written 30 years ago, Bonnie Raitt – just as she was two years back when she picked up four awards - looked like one of the few worthy... more >>
Added: 24 Jun 08
EDDIE VEDDER OF PEARL JAM INTERVIEWED IN SEATTLE (2002): Reading their Riot Act
For a Kiwi transplanted to Pearl Jam's rehearsal room in Seattle's warehouse district, it's easy to feel at home on this warm morning. The toilet designated for women has a handmade sign which reads, "Wahine". In the rehearsal room a dozen international journalists have been assembled and the mood is one of nervousness, in part because Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder has a... more >>
Added: 20 Jun 08
PETER HAEDER PROFILED: Portrait of the artist as musical itinerant
In a recent conversation this German-born Auckland-based guitarist mentioned an album of his I had forgotten about: it was Kling-Klang (on Ode) and at a guess came from some time in the early-to-mid 90s. His mention of it prompted me to get it out again because I had been very taken with it at the time. It was Haeder in a variety of settings from solo, to duets with Steve Garden on... more >>
Added: 18 Jun 08
BOB DYLAN CONCERT REVIEWS 2003, 2007: The wayward prince
Bob Dylan, North Shore Events Centre, Auckland, New Zealand. February 2003 It's hard to know what to expect of Bob Dylan concerts these days: 40-something albums which range from the indispensable to the indifferent, wildly erratic shows which can include ancient folk-blues or covers of contemporary artists (he has recently included Warren Zevon songs), and that mighty catalogue of... more >>
Added: 14 Jun 08
ROGER WATERS INTERVIEWED: The trip back to the dark side (Jan 2007)
The death last year of 60-year old Syd Barrett—founder member of Pink Floyd and the world’s most famous acid casualty—saw a great outpouring of essays and obituaries, all hailing his genius. Yet Barrett—who had lived in his mother’s house for almost 40 years as a bald, overweight recluse—had little to do with the Pink Floyd most people know; the band... more >>
Added: 26 May 08
ROCK'N'ROLL NEVER FORGETS: A journey back through time
As an example of cosmic symmetry it could hardly be improved on: my 13th birthday, the Beatles playing in Auckland, and my Dad offered two free tickets. It was only many years later my older sister told me about the free tickets – and that Dad had declined them. I guess that was why, long after the Beatlemania screaming had faded, he bought me a ticket to my first ever pop... more >>
Added: 29 Apr 08
RAY DAVIES INTERVIEWED: Still a well respected man (2008)
Ray Davies, the former Kink and for the past decade a solo artist, say that these days he “stays -- notice I don’t use the word ‘live’ -- at Highgate Hill which is literally half a mile from where I grew up in Muswell Hill. It’s the highest spot in London and you can look over the city, one of the more romantic places in London.” This seems... more >>
Added: 25 Apr 08
BILL WYMAN, STONE ALONE REVIEWED (1990): Insider looking out
It’s probably a bit cruel to destroy people’s faith in myths -- like telling a six-year old the truth about Santa Claus -- but the reason there are so few decent autobiographies and biographies in rock music is simple: the central characters aren’t that interesting. Being a musician at that fascinating interface of low art and high commerce doesn’t necessarily bring... more >>
Added: 30 Mar 08
BOB DYLAN, THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOLUME 1-3 (1991): A man out of time?
Public figures in a nation at war can scarcely be expected to behave rationally, but the sight of star after megastar pumped up on religion and patriotism at this year’s Grammys made you wonder if rock and the entertainment industry harboured any notion of dissent, heresy or rebelliousness any more. Oddly enough the sole dissenting voice -- and best live performance -- came from an... more >>
Added: 25 Mar 08
BACKBEAT, ASTRID KIRCHHERR AND THE YOUNG BEATLES ON FILM (1994): The Birth of the Beat
His letters back home don’t tell the whole story. But such letters seldom do. He says there are plenty of girls “but none of us can be bothered” and that he is “not the happiest man alive. It’s now my seventh week here. I came here for a reason I do not know. I have no money, no resources, no hope . . .” The reality was, of course, something quite... more >>
Added: 19 Mar 08
ASTRID KIRCHHERR, BEATLES PHOTOGRAPHER, INTERVIEWED (1994): Young, free and wild.
At 55, Astrid Kirchherr still loves rock music and listens to it every day: The Beatles, the Doors, Bowie . . . “and Prince, he’s such a genius -- if he just wouldn’t wear those stupid clothes! I always wanted him to look serious, young and sexy. But he dressed like an old prostitute in drag.” Kirchherr laughs briefly -- the only time in this serious... more >>
Added: 13 Mar 08
PAUL McCARTNEY LIVE IN SYDNEY (1993): Younger Than Yesterday
Among the tickets touts barking at the crowd outside the Sydney Entertainment Centre before the Paul McCartney concert, the scalper with the XXOS beer gut wrapped in a small-men’s T-shirt stood out. While others on this raw edge of the market economy were offering $130-a-ticket, the swollen T-shirt was nasally hawking “tickets in the front row”.... more >>
Added: 8 Mar 08
YOKO ONO INTERVIEWED 1992: The yin and yang of Yoko
Few people could claim to have been as publicly reviled, ridiculed, misunderstood and misrepresented as Yoko Ono. As her husband of 12 years John Lennon once remarked, she was “the most famous unknown artist in the world. Everyone knows who she is, but nobody knows what she does.“ And the little that people did know during her heyday in the Sixties they... more >>
Added: 7 Mar 08
PAUL MCARTNEY'S OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY REVIEWED (1997): Still can't buy the love?
Paul McCartney is the Beatle old fans love to hate: his sins are manifest in Silly Love Songs, a Linda and not a Yoko, the permanent Mr Thumbs Aloft attitude, the knighthood which his old colleague John Lennon would doubtless have declined …. But there is worse. This past decade, by quiet incremental steps, we have witnessed the rehabilitation of Paul McCartney; mostly at his own... more >>
Added: 4 Mar 08
YOKO ONO INTERVIEWED, THE LENNON ANTHOLOGY BOX SET (2003): And Lennon's on sale again. . .
For reasons which withstand no scrutiny at all, there’s an expectation Yoko Ono will be miserable in interviews. After all, here is the Famous Rock Widow whose husband was gunned down before her eyes leaving her with a much beloved five-year old son, the legacy of the Lennon name and fortune, and the still prevalent perception of her as The Dragon Lady. But the child Sean is now 23... more >>
Added: 4 Mar 08
