Absolute Elsewhere
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DROPKICK MURPHYS INTERVIEWED (2011): Putting the bagpipes into punk
13 Apr 2011 | 5 min read
From the first enjoyably rowdy bars of the new Dropkick Murphys album Going Out in Style you can sense that here is a band whose time has come. With the rollicking outlaw roar of Hang 'Em High then the title track – an old Irishman considering a boozy wake and who he should invite – the sound of the band's Celtic-punk is roof-rattling and energetic. For the band –... > Read more
Dropkick Murphys: Hang 'Em High
LEON RUSSELL INTERVIEWED (2011): Ever the journeyman
13 Apr 2011 | 7 min read | 1
When Leon Russell left his home in Tulsa for Los Angeles after having played in teenage rock bands, a career in music wasn't what he was expecting. But in a couple of months he will receive two major awards: he will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriter's Hall of Fame. Russell – now 68 -- spent time as an anonymous session musician in the Sixties with... > Read more
Leon Russell and Elton John: I Should Have Sent Roses (from The Union)
ERIC CLAPTON, LAYLA 40 YEARS ON (2011): I don't want to fade away
28 Mar 2011 | 4 min read | 1
By the time Eric Clapton flew to Miami in 1970 to record what would become the Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs double album, he had spent six years in an emotional wringer: he was the acclaimed guitarist in the Yardbirds before he abruptly quit over dissatisfaction with their pop direction; took time out; joined John Mayall in his Blues Breakers for one album and was hailed in... > Read more
Derek and the Dominos: Have You Ever Loved a Woman?
GUY GARVEY OF ELBOW INTERVIEWED (2011): A homecoming to the top
26 Mar 2011 | 13 min read
The very personable Guy Garvey – songwriter and singer for the award-grabbing British band Elbow – laughs when he describes himself as “a rock star”, in part because at 37 he's getting a bit old for that game, but mostly because he knows he looks more like the plump Ricky Gervais than the buffed Ricky Martin. Garvey – self-effacing, good humored,... > Read more
Elbow: Neat Little Rows
13th FLOOR ELEVATORS (1966-69): Shall we take a trip, or a Roky ride?
23 Mar 2011 | 3 min read | 1
The description “psychedelic music” – much like “freedom” – can mean whatever you want. The first albums with “psychedelic” in the title were by 13th Floor Elevators out of Texas (The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators) and New York's Blues Magoos (Psychedelic Lollipop), both released in 1966. Psychedelic Lollipop –... > Read more
13th Floor Elevators: Postures (from Easter Everywhere)
BOB BROZMAN INTERVIEWED (2011) All the world's a stage, and he plays on it
16 Mar 2011 | 11 min read
American guitarist Bob Brozman must have an impressive passport. For the past two decades he has been almost itinerant as he has played across the planet from Hawaii to Mali, Okinawa to Papua New Guinea. And along the way he has collaborated with some exceptional musicians, among them Indian slide guitarist Debashish Battacharya for the album Mahima, Okinawa guitarist Takashi Hirayasu (on... > Read more
Bob Brozman: Beer Belly Dancing (from Six Days in Down)
PHIL MANZANERA OF ROXY MUSIC INTERVIEWED (2010): When work is play
6 Mar 2011 | 8 min read
Guitarist Phil Manzanera remembers very clearly how and when he first met the band that would give him his career, Roxy Music. “Yes, I failed the audition,” he says about that day in '71when he went to a house in Battersea and plugged in his Gibson ES-325 (“unfashionable for Roxy Music”) to play alongside singer Bryan Ferry, knob and tape twiddler Brian Eno,... > Read more
N-Shift (from the album K-Scope, 1978)
PAPA MALI INTERVIEWED (2011): The Nawlins spirit walking
2 Mar 2011 | 6 min read
Malcolm Welbourne of the Austin-based band 7 Walkers delivers a cool line in New Orleans funk'n'blues, has Willie Nelson as a guest on the band's self-titled debut album, co-writes with Robert Hunter (lyricist for the Grateful Dead) and the band counts in its ranks George Porter of the Meters on bass. Yet Welbourne – known as Papa Mali, a name given him by friends in reggae... > Read more
7 Walkers: Evangeline
LUCINDA WILLIAMS INTERVIEWED (2011): Darkness from light
28 Feb 2011 | 12 min read
These are more good days for Lucinda Williams: happily married and comfortable, a Grammy nomination for Kiss Like Your Kiss (best song in a film or television series, it appeared in True Blood) and acclaim from her peers, critics and an increasing fan base. And she has a new album out, Blessed which was produced by Don Was, her husband Tom Overby and Eric Leljestrand (the latter... > Read more
Lucinda Williams (with Elvis Costello): Seeing Black
DENNIS LECORRIERE INTERVIEWED (2003): Is there a Doctor in the house?
23 Feb 2011 | 5 min read
Dennis Locorriere spends most of the hour laughing and is more amused than irritated that many people mistake him for someone else. Locorriere - with slight streaks of silver at his temples and celebrating his 54th birthday on this day - is the voice of Dr Hook. But he wasn't the face of that Seventies hit-making machine which cluttered up radio with songs like Sylvia's Mother, Cover... > Read more
RUMER INTERVIEWED (2011): Thankful, and slowing it right down
23 Feb 2011 | 12 min read
With her debut album Seasons of My Soul; the British singer Rumer has delivered an album destined for many 2011 Best of the Year lists come December. For Rumer – born Sarah Joyce in Pakistan 30 years ago – it has been the culmination of a long and quite remarkable journey. After she and her mother returned to England, she grew up in London, tried her hand in bands and... > Read more
Rumer: Love and Affection
BILLY JOE SHAVER PROFILED (2011): The rough diamond from Texas coal
21 Feb 2011 | 7 min read
The truth about Billy Joe Shaver is much more interesting than anything anyone might make up about the guy. Shaver has lived on the hard edge of life. Born in Corsicana in Texas in late 1941 or '39 depending on where you read it (“just a cotton-gin town, the same one Lefty Frizzell came from") and raised in Waco, he lost two fingers in a sawmill accident when he was 26... > Read more
Billy Joe Shaver: When the Fallen Angels Fly (1993)
FRANK ZAPPA. AGAIN (2011): Just one more time . . .
21 Feb 2011 | 7 min read
The irritation, pleasure and difficulty with Frank Zappa was that he was always part of rock culture - but not exactly a rock musician. Well, not when it suits him. “Being a rock star is nothing to aspire to," he once said. “Rock stars have to be cute and I`m a realistic guy. I shave this face every day. I know the deficit I’ve got." But as the... > Read more
Frank Zappa: Ship Ahoy (from Shut Up 'N Play Your Guitar)
JACK BRUCE INTERVIEWED (1994): Cream rises to the top
14 Feb 2011 | 7 min read | 1
Talk to Jack Bruce and the of name of That Band just cannot be avoided. Yet this Band That Dare Not Speak Its Name occupied a mere three years in the life of this 51-year-old musical polymath - and that ending as far back as ’69. Then he took his phenomenal bass playing skills and distinctive, strong tenor voice into a series of jazz-fusion projects (most notably into Lifetime with... > Read more
Jack Bruce: Waiting on a Word (from Somethin Els, 1992)
SHARON O'NEILL INTERVIEWED (2009): This heart, these songs
11 Feb 2011 | 5 min read
Sharon O’Neill laughs loud and often about her current profile in Australia, and admits that as a live performer it is low. ”I’d be lucky if I could half-fill the Rooty Hills RSL!” she hoots. “It’d be more like the Brass Monkey down the road -- but that’s what everybody does. Dragon do it, and that’ll be the first cab off the rank when I... > Read more
Sharon O'Neill: Love Can Be Cruel (from Sharon O'Neill, 1980)
WANDA JACKSON INTERVIEWED (2011): Still ready to have a party
7 Feb 2011 | 9 min read
Wanda Jackson – at 73 – has had a number of careers: in the Fifties she was a rockabilly star and touring with (and dating) Elvis Presley while delivering belters like Fujiyama Mama and the classic throat-tearer Let's Have a Party; in the Sixties she went back to her country roots as rock'n'roll faded; by the Seventies she had embraced the church and was adding gospel and... > Read more
Wanda Jackson: Teach Me Tonight
THE RUTLES. RON NASTY and NEIL INNES INTERVIEWED: I have always thought in the back of my mind . . .
7 Feb 2011 | 8 min read | 1
In the Sixties they changed the world -- in 1970 they changed their mind and broke up. They were the Rutles, lovable legends from Liverpool who launched their career with innocent hits such as Hold My Hand. Within two years the cynical Ron Nasty and cheery Dirk McQuickly had penned dozens of enduring classics. As they matured through films A Hard Days Rut and Ouch!, their music became... > Read more
The Rutles: Eine Kleine Middle Klass Musik (from Archeology)
DAVID GATES INTERVIEWED (2003): Not in it for the Bread
6 Feb 2011 | 7 min read
Here's something not many fans of soft-rock singer David Gates -- formerly the songwriter and voice behind Bread -- will know. When he was a much younger man he wrote and produced some material with one of rock's greatest and most musically challenging eccentrics, Frank Zappa protege Captain Beefheart. The gentle-voiced Gates - now 63 - also played in the studio with the legendary Phil... > Read more
David Gates: Goodbye Girl
NOEL GALLAGER OF OASIS INTERVIEWED (1995): The view from the top
4 Feb 2011 | 10 min read
It's the week after Oasis’ Earl’s Court triumphs where they’ve pulled 20,000 for each of their two night stands and now Noel Gallagher is slouched backstage in the unpromisingly named Gramby Halls, Leicester. In two hours the band will play a blinder of a gig to 3000 in this basketball stadium. Their set tonight is the same as at Earl’s Court; a sharp 80 minutes... > Read more
Oasis: Some Might Say
ODETTA INTERVIEWED (1989): The human touch
30 Jan 2011 | 4 min read
Folk singer Odetta has kept her sense of humour about the 15 year lull in her recording career. “I’ve just been practicing," she says, but is delighted by at last having another record out there in the marketplace. Despite her acclaim by audiences as far spread as Russia and Nigeria and accolades by Yale University, the album came about through a small personal... > Read more