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Graham recalls the stories behind some of the many hundreds of music interviews he has done with artists like Henry Rollins, Rod Stewart, Quincy Jones and Mick Jagger.
And many lesser talents.
Not always pleasant.
Duran Duran: Spoiled, rude and stupid
Maybe it’s because he’s wearing what look to be his pyjamas – great big cottony, flowy things covered in only-safe-at-night checks – that John Taylor of Duran Duran looks extremely tired and bored. Good-looking in a cheekbones and quiffed hair way, you understand. But bored witless nonetheless. It's early 1993 and he’s standing behind the cafeteria bar in... more >>
Added: 8 Mar 10
Krist Novoselic: Fast track to nowhere
Some people just aren't that smart. At least that's what I thought about Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic when he tossed his bass high in the air at an MTV awards show and failed to catch it on its way back down. It hit him on the nose (see clip below) and he was felled in a pool of blood. Rock'n'roll, huh? I met some people who were in the green room backstage at those awards and they... more >>
Added: 28 Feb 10
Howard Devoto of Magazine: The floorboards creak . . .
Back at the dawn of time -- for two periods in 1980 and 1981 to be precise -- I had a programme on Radio Pacific on Saturday evening, sandwiched between the Rugger Buggers sports show and, of all people, Hollywood gossip David Hartnell. It was all free-format music (not a term used in radio these days, it means you could play what you liked) and so I had great fun. The second period was... more >>
Added: 26 Feb 10
The Knack: And How To Lose It
Okay, this is how I remember The Knack and its lead singer Doug Feiger, but it was a long time ago so the memory may be dodgy. It was August 13, 1979 to be exact and the ads boasted "biggest band in the world in NZ at their peak". They were playing at Mainstreet in Auckland. That claim was true, oddly enough: at the very time The Knack from California were playing in Auckland... more >>
Added: 20 Feb 10 
1 Comment
The Gin Blossoms: Memphis in the meantime
Sometimes just getting to a gig can be a mission -- and I don't mean waiting for a cab to get you across town. My cab arrived exactly on time, it was the rest of it which was haywire. Just as the taxi pulled into the driveaway to take me to the airport so did the courier with my airline tickets and rock'n'roll itinerary for a sprint around the US doing interviews and seeing shows. The first... more >>
Added: 14 Feb 10
Tom Petty: Chair man of the bored
They say you should never meet your heroes and so it has been for me and Tom Petty. In more recent years I did a numbingly boring phone interview with a man I took to be a numbskull and prior to that I had endured a dreadful concert when he and Dylan went out on the road, were clearly out of it and were rehearsing in public. Whadda shit. But that doesn't count as "meeting" your... more >>
Added: 8 Feb 10 1 Comment
Bon Jovi: Having a bar of it
My knowledge of Bon Jovi has always been limited, and even more so back in the early Nineties when all I could conjure up for a pub quiz would have been "New Jersey, the cover of their Slippery When Wet album, big hair and " . . . Actually that would be about it. Except for their song I'll Sleep When I'm Dead which -- for a rather too long period of prolonged... more >>
Added: 1 Feb 10
Christy Moore: The story teller and me
Car dealers certainly. Lawyers and politicians of course, when it best suits them. But musicians? I know they gild the truth or embellish it for some self-aggradisement, but I never really expect them to fib directly, and in this case so convincingly. The great Irish Republican singer-songwriter Christy Moore was in wet Wellington ("Moist, it makes me feel at home") for an arts... more >>
Added: 25 Jan 10
The Quireboys: White trash rhythm'n'booze
The press didn't rate them at the time, they had a solid and loyal following of largely uncool fans, and they themselves seemed to take it all as a joke. It was only rock'n'roll, but they liked it. My friends either didn't know of them and didn't care to, or did and hated them. I liked 'em. They were the Quireboys and we met in a London rehearsal studio in the early Nineties. ... more >>
Added: 18 Jan 10
Billy Joel: A New York state of mind
Billy and I were introduced while he was having his lunch. He gestured for me to join him and help myself to the generous pile of sandwiches on the table, multi-level affairs held together by long plastic toothpicks with odd little flags on top. As we spoke Billy never even glanced at the spectacular vista of Sydney Harbour and the Opera House outside the window. He had a house on New... more >>
Added: 4 Jan 10
Joan Osborne: Taking qawwali to the kids
Burlington in Vermont was just starting to take on the complexion of winter when I dropped out of the sky into its verdant beauty. Little wafts of snow were blown around the trunks of the trees and I pulled my collar in close as I left the small airport and looked for a cab. I liked the place immediately and the cab driver was a friendly guy who took me to my modest motel at a leisurely... more >>
Added: 23 Nov 09
Tom Petty: Village scribe, meet the village idiot
For more years than I can recall when people have asked me what I did I have variously answered “I‘m a writer“ or, when Customs officials look difficult I would say “I’m a journalist” -- and oddly enough that would work better than the more amorphous description “writer“. Often, for my amusement. I’ve described myself to people as being... more >>
Added: 15 Nov 09
Ocean Colour Scene: Here in my Heart
It was one of the saddest days I can recall, and yet it had started out so well in Birmingham, a place where I had been drawn to interview the Britpop band Ocean Colour Scene in their hometown. It was 1998 I think. OCS never really made an impact in New Zealand, which was a pity because the night I saw them they were spectacularly good, playing a hard rocking and passionate show to a... more >>
Added: 18 Oct 09
McCartney, Michael Jackson and me: Oh, get a room!
Mostly when I travel I don’t much care about the room I stay in other than hoping for a decent bed and a functioning shower. If you are doing your travel right, you never spend any time in the room anyway. But in Liverpool I set some kind of world record for transience. I’d barely been in the room a minute when the phone rang and I got the message I had to leave. So... more >>
Added: 22 Aug 09
Gladys Knight: Talent with talons
Press conferences are a waste of time and no sensible journalist entertains them. Ask your best question and everyone else gets the great answer. And if you are a print journalist those lazy slime from television go to air that night with it and you can wait a day to see it in the paper. And then your mates think you copied it from Holmes. I long ago gave up going to press... more >>
Added: 15 Dec 08
Mick Jagger and me: Passing ships
It's a little known fact, but Mick Jagger and I are real tight. And that's not just me saying that. The last time I saw Jagger -- whom I call Mick, of course -- he shook my hand and said, "Graham, we're real tight." Of course there's a back-story here. Let me put this in the greater context. It was November 88 and Mick was in town with his own band. He and Keith had fallen out or... more >>
Added: 5 Nov 08 1 Comment
Neil Young: Out to lunch
Nothing showy here, but I've spoken to Neil Young three times. And the man was boring and awkward every time. But that's just my opinion. I've never understood why musicians -- especially those with as many track miles as Neil Young -- bother with interviews if they don't want to talk. Why do they subject themselves, let alone anyone else like a working journalist, to the indignity of such... more >>
Added: 5 Nov 08 3 Comments
Kurt Cobain: Gun, head and Smithereens.
As with most people of a " certain age" I can remember where I was when I heard John F Kennedy had been shot ( I was in bed), and when I was told another Kennedy had gone the way of the gun (in bed again, there's a pattern emerging). Of course I also remember John Lennon's murder (came in with the kids from soccer and it was on television) and, oddly enough given he didn't mean that... more >>
Added: 31 Oct 08
Stevie Wonder: The Wonder of You
The curious thing about going to meet famous people is sometimes you don't recognise them and end up sitting in the bar or cafe counting the ceiling fans until you realise your prey is that little bald guy over there. No such problem with Stevie Wonder, and not just because his braids are like a flag which announces his presence. Nope, I knew Stevie was in the room even before I saw him.... more >>
Added: 5 Sep 08
The Cranberries: Even the faithful departed
At the time, flying from London to Tokyo to interview the Cranberries seemed like a good idea. It was May '96 and they would be coming to New Zealand for a show shortly afterwards. My job -- at least in the mind of the record company and promoter who were footing the bill -- would be for me to interview the band, see the show, get excited, and have the article out so ticket sales would get a... more >>
Added: 29 May 07
