Chuck Berry: Streatham Locarno, London
Live Review by Bill Millar, Soul Music Monthly, April 1967
I WOULD HAVE LIKED to have reviewed Chuck at the Savile Theatre, where initial audience reaction was such that his short-lived performance reached an all-time high. ...

Elvis Presley to Make Personal Appearances
Report by Mike Jahn, New York Times, December 1968
ELVIS PRESLEY, with one eye to the increasing interest in old-style rock and the other to his decreasing income from movie roles, is making plans for ...

Carl Perkins
Interview by Michael Lydon, Rolling Stone, December 1968
"IF IT WEREN'T FOR the rocks in its bed, the stream would have no song," said Carl Perkins with a comic dolefulness. He had just put ...

Buddy Holly and Buddy Knox: Texas Buddies
Discography by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, 1969
LIKE THE rest of society, pop music isn't fair. The most successful singers earn more than they know what to do with, and the majority eat ...

Born to Sing The Blues
Comment by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, June 1969
COLLECTORS of rhythm and blues music are doomed to perpetual frustration, as they witness one white singer after another plundering the culture they love. Occasionally, they ...

Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, Charlie Rich and Ronnie Hawkins: Arkansas Rock Pile
Overview by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, June 1969
ROCK AND roll was the victory of regional locality over the world, of precise beliefs over general theory, of particular feelings over universal philosophies. ...

Jerry Lee Lewis: Live At The International, Las Vegas; Charlie Rich: Boss Man
Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, February 1970
BOTH PIANO-PLAYING singers who started out singing rock and roll with Sam Phillips in Memphis and who have since moved into country and western, Jerry Lee ...

Elvis Presley: Wagging His Tail In Las Vegas
Live Review by David Dalton, Rolling Stone, February 1970
ELVIS WAS SUPERNATURAL, his own resurrection, at the Showroom Internationale in Las Vegas last August. ...

Gene Vincent’s Greatest (Capitol); I’m Back And I’m Proud (Dandelion) and more
Review by Simon Frith, Rolling Stone, March 1970
GENE VINCENT was the most tortured of the Fifties rock stars. I only saw him in concert once and that was weird. He was in pain ...

Little Richard, Child Of God
Interview by David Dalton, Rolling Stone, May 1970
I DIDN'T GET to see Little Richard at the Atlantic City Pop Festival where he followed Janis Joplin and revived his own legend, but when he ...

AUDIO: Bo Diddley (1970)
Interview by Michael Lydon, Rock's Backpages Audio, September 1970
When Bo's not being a boxer, truck driver, gunslinger, lumberjack etc. he's being A Man - a husband and father, dealing with life in the USA. ...

Little Richard: The Rill Thing
Review by Joel Selvin, Rolling Stone, September 1970
AS INCREDIBLE AS IT may seem, Little Richard is as great as he says he is. His new album, the first in three years, is packed ...

Hank Williams and Honky Tonk
Overview by Martin Hawkins, Record Mirror, May 1971
MUCH HAS been written recently about the influence of Sam Phillips' Memphis Sun label on rock 'n' roll, especially since its British releases of recent months. ...

What Have They Done To My Roots, Ma? Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley
Comment by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, October 1971
WHEN JOHN LENNON ended a recent epistle to Mailbag with a line saying "LP Winner: I’d like Chuck Berry, please," he wasn’t joking. Modern rock music ...

The Everly Brothers: Growing Apart
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, Sunday Times, 1972
PHIL IS THE fastidious one. Don was happy to stay at another motel with a northern draught sweeping its gallery and cows grazing round the back. ...

British Rock 'n' Soul
Overview by Bill Millar, Record Mirror, January 1972
THERE'S A HOT SEAT in my house. Right by the record player. Victims are required to sit in it and hazard a guess at the identity/race/influences ...

The Everly Brothers: Back In Favour
Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc and Music Echo, May 1972
JUST WHEN we were getting used to thinking of the Everly Brothers as a monument to a distant era they come up with Stories We Could ...

Jerry Lee Lewis: The Killer Rocks On
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, July 1972
YOU CAN TELL this one is special from the beginning. The strings come in, but all of a sudden, there's an insistent, pounding drum driving the ...

Little Richard: The Georgia Peach
Report and Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc and Music Echo, August 1972
OOOWEE, Lawd knows it was a bad night's work. According to the divine plan, the Wembley crowd should have been blowing kisses at the Georgia Peach ...

Buddy Holly: A Rock & Roll Collection
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, September 1972
I DON'T LIKE to be made a fool of. Last January the folks at Decca told me of their plans for an elaborate Buddy Holly reissue, ...

Rock and Roll Revival: Richard Nader's Lament
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, November 1972
UNLESS YOU'VE actually heard it, you just can't appreciate how strange phonetically and otherwise, it sounds to hear a nasal 'Mr. Didduly. Telephone for Mr. Didduly. ...

Chuck Berry: Green's Playhouse, Glasgow
Live Review by Tony Stewart, NME, January 1973
TONY STEWART REPORTS FROM GLASGOW OH THE FIRST BERRY CONCERT ...

Fumble and Flash Cadillac & The Continental Kids
Review by Greg Shaw, Music World, February 1973
THE ROCK & roll revival is sure getting to be a pain in the ass. That's a tough admission for me to make, as I sit ...

Chuck Berry: Go Chuck Baby Go
Report and Interview by Charlie Gillett, NME, February 1973
CHUCK BERRY. To a fan, the name sparks off a warm smile. After that depending on how old he or she is, the first song to ...

Chuck Berry part 2: How Many Comebacks?
Interview by Charlie Gillett, NME, February 1973
AS WE TALKED, Berry looked over a copy of Golden Decade Vol. 2 and ran his eye down the sleeve discography, commenting on some of the ...

Charlie Feathers: The Minit-Stop
Report by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, July 1973
SO THERE WE were in Memphis, at the rock writers' convention. First morning there I was awakened by a phone call, "Hey, Charlie Feathers is playin' ...

Bo Diddley: The London Sessions (Chess)
Review by Bob Fisher, Cream, September 1973
AFTER THE release of Golden Decade and Got Another Bag Of Tricks, which really put Bo in perspective, Chess undo all their sterling work by allowing ...

Dale Hawkins: Oh Suzie: The Best Of Dale Hawkins
Review by Bob Fisher, Cream, September 1973
YET ANOTHER priceless bargain from Phonogram. The way in which the rock and roll collectors are being catered for this year is excellent, Polydor have some ...

Brenda Lee: Mmmmm…Sweet Nuthin's
Interview by Andrew Tyler, NME, October 1973
WESTCLIFF-ON-SEA, Monday: "To make the most of the things you were born with...Think Big." ...

Bo Diddley
Book Excerpt by Michael Lydon, Boogie Lightning (Da Capo), 1974
Everything I know I taught myself.
– Bo Diddley ...

Jerry Lee Lewis: The Killer Staggers On
Report by John Morthland, Creem, March 1974
THE MAN from Mercury is nervous, very nervous. You can see it easily enough as he paces around Steve Cropper's TMI Studios in Memphis. Up and ...

Texas Rock & Roll Spectacular!
Overview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, March 1974
WHILE THE AUSTIN scene is the current focus of national attention on Texas, we mustn't forget how truly vast that state is, both in size and ...

Elvis Presley: Revolt Into Style
Essay by Michael Gray, Melody Maker, March 1974
ELVIS PRESLEY. The giant among giants, and yet also that strange kind of comic-book hero, Mr Reverso Man. ...

Charlie Feathers
Retrospective by Martin Hawkins, Country Music People, October 1974
Martin Hawkins looks at the career of a little known but much in demand artiste by record collectors ...

Buddy Holly: Legend
Review by Mick Farren, NME, October 1974
IF YOU WANTED to be crass you could say that the main features that made Buddy Holly a legend were that, first, he was the first ...

Never Mind The Lubbocks, Here’s Buddy Holly & The Crickets : 20 Greatest Hits
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, 1975
THE ROCK and roll of the ‘50s produced three incomparable all-rounders equally adept and influential as signers, composers and ...

Carl Perkins
Retrospective by Martin Hawkins, Let It Rock, February 1975
And when I hear that double-eagle guitar
Makes me think of Carl Perkins when he was a star,
Makes me think I spent some of my nights ...

Elvis Presley: The Promised Land
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, February 1975
IT HAS ALWAYS been accepted as an article of faith by ladies and gentlemen in the critical profession that Elvis Presley is not ...

Chuck Berry: Chuck Has Been Leaving The Stage For 20 Years
Report by Bob Woffinden, NME, March 1975
They weren't complaining – they were awestruck ...

Eddie Cochran: The Very Best of Eddie Cochran (15th Anniversary Album)
Review by Mick Farren, NME, June 1975
I SUPPOSE WITH Showaddywaddy up in the singles chart with 'Three Steps to Heaven', and the 17-year-old version of 'C'mon Everybody' once again bubbling under the ...

Little Richard: Lewisham Odeon, London
Live Review by Mick Farren, NME, July 1975
THE DEBUT DATE of Little Richard's UK tour at the half empty Lewisham Odeon was little short of a disaster. Possibly the person least to blame ...

Buddy Holly: The Legend Lives On
Retrospective by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, September 1975
"DEAR BUDDY, I have several records of yours and my favourite is 'Oh Boy'. Please send me a picture with your autograph." With the constant re-packaging ...

Frank Sinatra - The Reprise Years
Review by Fred Dellar, NME, September 1975
YEARS IS JUST one enormous sampler really – a fifty-track, four album, boxed set containing cuts from nearly every album Sinatra's made for Reprise since he ...

The Crickets: Back In Style
Review by Mick Farren, NME, October 1975
BUDDY HOLLY SO overshadowed The Crickets that one tends to forget that they went on to produce some very creditable work on their own after his ...

Elvis Presley: Pictures Of Elvis
Review by Mick Farren, NME, December 1975
THERE CAN BE little doubt that the Elvis Presley Sun collection was a compilation of some of his finest ...

Chuck Berry: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, Sunday Times, 1976
IT IS MORE than 20 years since the world first laid startled eyes on a young man with a crouching gait and a skinny guitar who ...

Bill Haley: A Piece of Gold in my Pocket
Profile by Philip Norman, Sunday Times, 1976
CLOSE TO his 50th birthday, Bill Haley seems to be in excellent repair. ...

The Everly Brothers: Songs Our Daddy Taught Us
Review by Mick Farren, NME, March 1976
IN A QUIET sort of way, 1975 saw an Everly Brothers revival of sorts. Warner Brothers released their magnificent Walk Right Back With The Everlys, which ...

Fats Domino: New Victoria Theatre, London
Live Review by Mick Farren, NME, April 1976
WHAT CAN I do? What can I say? How exactly can I prostrate myself? I guess there's no excuse for a rock critic who goes to ...

Elvis Presley: Long Beach Arena, Los Angeles
Live Review by Harvey Kubernik, Melody Maker, May 1976
DESPITE MEDICAL PROBLEMS Elvis Presley's show at the Long Beach Arena proved that he still has the voice and romantic quality that established him as a ...

Elvis: Well, Bless-uh Muh Soul, What's-uh Wrong With Me?
Essay by Mick Farren, NME, May 1976
WHEN AN artist hasn't produced anything of note for something like 14 years, the world begins to judge him on just about anything but his talent. ...

Sha Na Na: Madison Square Garden Rock & Roll Spectacular, New York City
Live Review by Steve Turner, NME, November 1976
THERE ARE some memories we have which are straightforward memories, but then there are other memories which are more like memories of memories and we're left ...

Dale Hawkins
Retrospective by Bill Millar, New Kommotion, 1977
HE DIDN'T LOOK like one of rock 'n' roll's crucial stars. Small, wiry, nervous even. The spotty face on the cover of his first album had ...

Jerry Lee Lewis/The Darts: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Cliff White, NME, March 1977
"WANKER" "RUBBISH", "R o c k 'n' ROLLL!!!!!" screamed the frustrated bopper just behind my right eardrum. He wasn't the only one. A distinct rumble of ...

Chuck Berry: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Paul Rambali, NME, May 1977
THERE'S NO BETTER indication of the pervasive and thorough influence of Chuck Berry than the fact that he could go almost anywhere and the chances are ...

Elvis Presley: The King is Dead
Obituary by Philip Norman, The Times, August 1977
ELVIS PRESLEY will be remembered as the first and the greatest exponent of Rock and Roll music, whose recordings of 'Blue Suede Shoes', 'Hound Dog' and ...

Robert Gordon & Link Wray: Robert Gordon with Link Wray; Various Artists: Don't You Step On My Blue Suede Shoes
Review by John Tobler, ZigZag, October 1977
THERE'S MORE similarity between these two albums than the fact that they've both got 'Red Hot' on 'em. They're the opposite ends of the rockabilly spectrum, ...

Elvis Presley
Obituary by Martin Hawkins, Country Music Review, October 1977
WHILE NOT wishing to add to the enormous number of narratives, eulogies and gutter press 'exposes' which have appeared in print in recent weeks, it would ...

Robert Gordon and Link Wray: Robert Gordon with Link Wray
Review by Jon Young, Trouser Press, October 1977
ROBERT GORDON with Link Wray recaptures the one elusive quality so often missing from music of the '70s: feeling. This is trickier than it seems at ...

A History of Mac Curtis
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Millar, New Kommotion, 1978
ONE THING YOU should know straight away. It might look like it, but Mac Curtis, one of the better-known and best remembered rockabilly singers, hasn't ...

Robert Gordon with Link Wray: A Modern Elvis And The Missing Link
Report and Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, February 1978
LINK WRAY finishes off his instrumental street opera, 'Rumble', with an amphetamine-psychosis, note-tumbling-after-note run worthy of any guitar army hero, clambers up from his bent-knee, praying ...

Lonnie Donegan: Will The Circle Really Be Unbroken?
Interview by Mick Farren, NME, February 1978
LONNIE DONEGAN'S life seemed to have completed such a perfect full circle that it could almost prove even the dumbest hippy's half-assed theories of a rotating ...

Matchbox
Profile and Interview by John Tobler, ZigZag, September 1978
AS MENTIONED in fab Zigzag 85, this is a feature of their very own concerning Matchbox, who I dubbed the best British rock 'n' roll band ...

Mack Allen Smith: The Last Of The Great Unknowns
Profile by Martin Hawkins, Melody Maker, January 1979
MARTIN HAWKINS searched the Mississippi delta and found Mack Allen Smith ...

Conway Twitty: Rockabilly Brought On Conway's Country Success
Retrospective by Martin Hawkins, Country Music People, April 1979
ONCE, on a visit to America, I ate a cheeseburger in a Twitty Burger fast-food restaurant. The owner of this restaurant chain was Conway Twitty, the ...

Bill Haley: The Guardian Of Rock 'N' Roll
Profile and Interview by Martin Hawkins, Melody Maker, April 1979
MARCH 1979, and rock king Bill Haley's in town, almost a quarter of a century since he recorded 'Rock Around The Clock', and 22 years after ...

Sleepy LaBeef: Rockabilly's Tower Of Power
Profile and Interview by Martin Hawkins, Melody Maker, May 1979
IF WALT DISNEY had decided to make an animated cartoon of the rock 'n' roll story he would have needed a rockabilly character, and I can ...

Robert Gordon: Changing Style
Live Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, May 1979
Robert Gordon: The Roxy, Los Angeles ...

The Cramps: Tales Of American Gothick
Profile and Interview by Nick Kent, NME, June 1979
THE TITLE OF the film escapes me, but the scene itself has remained indelibly stained on my brainplate for all of nine years. A strange '50s ...

Billy Lee Riley: Red Hot Riley
Profile and Interview by Martin Hawkins, Melody Maker, July 1979
The volcanic music of Billy Lee Riley never quite erupted; Martin Hawkins tells how the talent remains hot. ...

Shakin' Stevens: Legend (EMI)
Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, September 1979
ROGER SCOTT, Britain's only disc-jockey (no, that's not a misprint – it's a fact) put this into what they call "heavy rotation" last week. It sounded ...

Jerry Lee Lewis: The Gospel According to Jerry Lee
Interview by Nick Tosches, Country Music, October 1979
DRESSED LIKE A side-street gambler from the days when chrome was chrome, Jerry Lee Lewis sits in the dressing-room of the Palomino Club, holding loosely in ...

Buddy Holly: The Complete Buddy Holly
Review by Bill Millar, Melody Maker, December 1979
NO PROBLEM here. Charly’s compendium of Ronnie Hawkins Toronto out-takes isn’t released until next month (I checked) and, however might the music, their oft-reissued Jerry Lee ...

Amazing Gracie
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Millar, New Kommotion, 1980
BY THE TIME I got into rock'n'roll, Charlie Gracie was already a folk memory dimly recalled from a performance on Stars From Blackpool and a 78 ...

Rockabilly: Was this the purest style in rock?
Retrospective by Bill Millar, The History of Rock, 1981
A DEFT, HARD-DRIVING BLEND of country, gospel and blues, rockabilly was performed mainly by white artists who traded legitimate country backgrounds for a short-lived but frenzied ...

Carl Perkins: 'Blue Suede Shoes'
Profile by Colin Escott, The History of Rock, 1981
One song rocketed Carl Perkins to stardom ...

How The Devil's Music Possessed Jerry Lee Lewis
Retrospective by Nick Tosches, The History of Rock, 1981
THERE HAVE been only two figures of mythic dimension in the history of rock'n'roll. First and foremost was Elvis Presley, the guileless star-god who rendered rock'n'roll ...

The Sweetheart Years: The Dilemmas Of Sex And Romance In Fifties Rock
Essay by Cynthia Rose, The History of Rock, 1981
The screen door slams/Mary's dress waves/Like a vision she dances across the porch/As the radio plays/Roy Orbison singin' for the lonely/That's me and I love you ...

In The Farms And On The Forecourts: The Short-Lived Heyday Of Rockabilly
Retrospective by Bill Millar, The History of Rock, 1981
THE FIRST RECORDED example of rockabilly proper can be traced to the moment in July 1954 when Elvis Presley cut an old blues by Arthur Crudup ...

The Million Dollar Quartet
Essay by Dave Marsh, Musician, June 1981
WE USUALLY think of Elvis Presley simply stepping into Sun Studios in Memphis, in answer to Sam Phillips' call, and walking out a few days later, ...

Robert Gordon Likes Pop
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, September 1981
ABUSIVE IS THE only word to describe the audience the last time Robert Gordon was in Detroit as part of a some-thought-smart/some-thought-not-so-smart double bill with Roxy ...

The Stray Cats: Gonna Ball (Arista)
Review by Richard Cook, NME, November 1981
FOR A trio so preoccupied with a style summed up in a quiff. The Stray Cats can make a pretty mean music. With tough-baby roller coaster ...

Buddy Knox
Retrospective by Bill Millar, The History of Rock, 1982
TEX-MEX, A PHRASE commonly used to describe the rock’n’roll of such artists as Buddy Holly and Buddy Knox, has nothing whatever to do with Mexican music. ...

Big Bopper: The Singing Texas DJ Who Rocked Over The Airwaves
Retrospective by Martin Hawkins, The History of Rock, February 1982
J.P. RICHARDSON, the self-styled 'Big Bopper', was one of the true characters of Southern rock'n'roll. ...

Jerry Lee Lewis: Hellfire
Special Feature by Nick Tosches, Penthouse, March 1982
IT WAS 3 O'CLOCK in the morning and the master bedroom of Graceland was still. Elvis Presley lay in his blue cotton pajamas dreaming. ...

Stray Cats: Cooneybilly
Live Review by Van Gosse, Village Voice, August 1982
Stray Cats: Roseland Ballroom, NYC ...

Roy Orbison: The One With The Glasses
Profile and Interview by Martin Hawkins, Country Music Extra, Spring 1982
ROY ORBISON has a classic Country-music pedigree. He was born in Texas, lives near Nashville and formed his first Country band while still in his teens. ...

The Meteors: Wreckin’ Crew (I-D); The Morells: Shake And Push (Borrowed)
Review by Cynthia Rose, NME, 1983
LIKE THE bourbon and Benzedrine which fuelled it, rockabilly never really fades from popularity despite its repressive formula, but it often seems to suffer the fate ...

Scotty Moore
Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, 'The Guitar Greats' (BBC Books), 1983
THERE CAN BE few more graphic illustrations of the fact that rock'n'roll music is no longer some here-today-gone-tomorrow speck of lint in the wind than the ...

The Blasters: Non-Fiction (Slash)
Review by Cynthia Rose, NME, July 1983
OVER THE past three years, white American music’s been getting a real recharge from several California couples: John Doe and Exene Cervenka of X, Chip and ...

The Stray Cats: Rant 'n Rave (Arista)
Review by Gavin Martin, NME, September 1983
THAT BRIAN Setzer and his Stray Cats set out to become the perfectly sculpted and exquisitely meaningless rockstar icons of their dreams could never be in ...

Roy Hall: Tracks of 'The Hound'
Profile by Martin Hawkins, Goldmine, March 1984
IF YOU think Commander Cody invented the country-boogie piano solo as a filler for his albums, then you never heard Roy Hall. This man was pounding ...

AUDIO: Little Richard speaks, part 1 (1985)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, March 1985
Little Richard on the demonic nature of Rock'n'Roll of which, nonetheless, he is King; on how he came out of the American South; on Otis Redding ...

AUDIO: Little Richard speaks, part 2 (1985)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, March 1985
Mr Penniman on God, Gospel, Sex, Drugs & Rock'n'Roll. Phew! ...

The Cramps: Pet Cemetery
Interview by Mat Snow, NME, January 1986
HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD, Los Angeles, may well be the freakiest street in the Western World. ...

The Cramps: A Date With Elvis
Review by Gavin Martin, NME, February 1986
THE CRAMPS' rampant gurning and soft-focus sleaze has been shaped into an institution of sorts. Transcending and fusing tribal instincts – goth's dumb brooding and cheap ...

Little Richard: "I Am The Rill Thang!"
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, December 1986
GOOD GOSH A-MIGHTY...it's Little Richard. A little fuller in the face, a little thicker in the waist, but there he is in a Mayfair Hotel suite ...

Cliff Richard
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, November 1987
CLIFF IS PERPLEXED. He is attempting to curl his upper lip into a smouldering sneer but the flesh is not willing. "I can't do it." With ...

AUDIO: Little Richard, The Quasar of Rock (1987)
Interview by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages Audio, November 1987
Little Richard, on the 'phone, talks about race, religion, Good Works, the original giants of rock'n'roll, and Prince and Michael Jackson ...

Gene Vincent: Born To Be A Rolling Stone (Topline Records)
Review by Tom Graves, Rock and Roll Disc, December 1987
TO SEE JUST how far a former great rock and roller can sink, check out the 12 pieces of aural excrement that comprise Gene Vincent's Born ...

Chuck Berry
Report and Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, May 1988
CHUCK BERRY is a difficult man. ...

Carl Perkins: Born To Rock
Review by Tom Graves, Rock and Roll Disc, July 1989
BORN TO ROCK, the first album from rockabilly legend Carl Perkins in quite some time, is a respectable if not an especially remarkable work. ...

Jerry Lee Lewis: Live At the Star Club (Bear Family)
Review by Tom Graves, Rock and Roll Disc, November 1989
WHAT IS IT about Jerry Lee Lewis that so fascinates us and makes us love a character so inherently unlovable? He only had a handful of ...

Jerry Lee Lewis: Unfazed
Review by Mat Snow, Q, December 1989
Ten fingers, 88 keys, 569 days – the rise and fall of Jerry Lee Lewis. ...

Who The Hell Does Jerry Lee Lewis Think He Is?
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, February 1990
THE ODDEST COUPLE are sitting side by side on the sofa. Bar the obvious – common conquered "drinking problems" – the two would seem to have ...

Little Richard: The Specialty Sessions
Review by Andy Gill, Q, February 1990
THOUGH HE RECORDED for several other labels in his career, the few years that Little Richard spent with Art Rupe's Specialty Records were to provide him ...

Jerry Lee Lewis: Killer: The Mercury Years
Review by Nick Tosches, Spin, March 1990
I'M SITTING there in Dennis Quaid's house, this white thing on La Sombra, last spring, a few months before that stiff Great Balls of Fire came ...

Wanda Jackson: Rockin' in the Country (Rhino)
Review by Tom Graves, Rock and Roll Disc, August 1990
THE PROBLEM WITH Wanda Jackson is her conviction, or more precisely her lack of it. She was a died-in-the-wool country weeper until she met up ...

The Best of Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks (Rhino)
Review by Tom Graves, Rock and Roll Disc, September 1990
I’M CONVINCED that Ronnie Hawkins’ name has been kept alive in rock literature for over 30 years, not because of anything he actually did musically, ...

Bumps Blackwell and Little Richard: 'Tutti Frutti'
Interview by John Pidgeon, Record Hunter, May 1991
Written by: Dorothy La Bostrie and Richard Penniman
Produced by: Bumps Blackwell
Recorded in: New Orleans in September 1955 ...

AUDIO: Ronnie Hawkins (1991)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, July 1991
The Hawk recalls rockin' out of Canada with his teenage Hawks - road stories, show business sharks and wild times, taking in Roulette's Morris Levy, Bob ...

Charlie Feathers: He Forgot To Remember To Forget
Interview by Robert Gordon, Q, November 1991
THE REBEL INN is on Highway 78, once a major thoroughfare linking Mississippi cottonland to the delta's big city of Memphis. The old motel's neon sign ...

Elvis Presley: The King Of Rock'n'Roll: The Complete '50s Masters
Review by Mat Snow, Q, August 1992
FROM US postage stamps to academic treatises like Greil Marcus's Dead Elvis which ponders how a rock singer ends up as apple-pie as Abe Lincoln, Elvis ...

Elvis Presley: Elvis - The 50s
Review by Mark Sinker, The Wire, September 1992
PERHAPS THE most unexpected thing about RCA/BMG's Presley-project is how unexpected so much of it ...

The Everly Brothers: Walk Right Back: The Everly Brothers On Warner Bros.
Sleevenotes by Colin Escott, Warner Bros., September 1993
SUPPOSEDLY, it was the richest deal in the history of the record business when it was announced in November 1959. ...

Billy Fury: Halfway to Paradise
Book Excerpt by Mick Houghton, 'Love is the Drug' (Penguin Books), 1994
BILLY FURY, Britain's only authentic rock'n'roll singer, wrote most of his own material but had his most outstanding commercial success with big ballads like 'Halfway to ...

Billy Fury: Breaking Down The Walls Of Heartache
Retrospective by Bob Stanley, Mojo, February 1995
"There's only ever been two English rock 'n' roll singers – Johnny Rotten and Billy Fury."
– Ian Dury, 1978 ...

Move it! The Butch Rock 'n' Roll Explosion
Retrospective by Jon Savage, Mojo, February 1995
FOR MOST PEOPLE OF 40 AND UNDER, British pop begins with The Beatles: this is the view that has been encouraged by rock writers ever since ...

Greetings From Graciasland: El Vez
Report and Interview by Paul Gorman, Mojo, May 1995
TAKE A LIBERAL DOSE of Chicano consciousness and apply it to fully-realised musical pastiche, and what do you have? El Vez, the Mexican Elvis, no ...

Sweet Movements Of A Hillbilly Hellion
Essay by Robert Gordon, Cleveland Ballet Company (official program), 1996
THERE ARE CINDER block joints you can still go to in Memphis, wooden shacks in Mississippi, places that are out of the way and not on ...

Maria Elena Holly
Interview by Philip Norman, Daily Express, 1996
MARIA ELENA Holly was robbed of her shy, brilliant young husband by an Iowa snowstorm almost 42 years ago. But she believes he has never really ...

Carl Perkins with David McGee: Go, Cat, Go! – The Life and Times of Carl Perkins, The King of Rockabilly
Book Review by Tom Graves, The Washington Post, June 1996
RECORD PRODUCER Sam Phillips, who owned the tiny Sun record label in Memphis, has been hounded for years by journalists and biographers about his decision to ...

Bo Diddley: His Best: The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection
Sleevenotes by Don Snowden, Chess/MCA Records, 1997
TO PARAPHRASE the titles of two of the 20 Bo Diddley nuggets contained on His Best: The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection , you can't judge a ...

AUDIO: Link Wray
Interview by Steve Roeser, Rock's Backpages Audio, November 1997
The lost prophet of heavy metal remembers his early days, his legendary hit 'Rumble', being ripped-off by his own brother and keepin' on ...

Eddie Cochran: Somethin' Else - The Fine Lookin' Hits of Eddie Cochran
Sleevenotes by Colin Escott, Razor & Tie Records, 1998
EDDIE COCHRAN was truly Somethin' Else. He had the look. He had the talent. He had the attitude. He played guitar - really played guitar. He ...

A Record Collector's Guide To Gene Vincent
Retrospective by Dave Thompson, Goldmine, 1999
IT WAS IAN DURY, himself the creator of some of the greatest records of his era, who hit the nail on the head, in one of ...

Hey Conductor You Must: Rock'n'Roll Iconoclasm In America
Essay by Richard Riegel, Loose Palace, Spring 2000
2006 Author's note: I wrote the following piece in the summer of 1993 on assignment for Rob O'Connor's Throat Culture magazine, after I had suggested the ...

The Crickets: In Style with the Crickets
Sleevenotes by Colin Escott, Bear Family Records, 2001
IT WASN'T AN ORIGINAL name; there was another group called the Crickets that had dented the Rhythm 'n' Blues charts a few years earlier, but to ...

Last Night A Record Changed My Life: Jeff Beck on Gene Vincent And The Blue Caps (Capitol, 1957)
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Mojo, March 2001
"I FIRST HEARD IT sitting in an armchair in our living room. 1957. I was 12. My sister Annetta, who's four years older, had bought it ...

The Blasters: Testament: The Complete Slash Recordings
Sleevenotes by Don Snowden, Rhino Records, 2002
CRUNCH THE NUMBERS, run the marketing templates and when you get down to it, it just doesn't compute that the six-year life span of the original ...

Jerry Lee Lewis
Guide by Fred Dellar, Mojo, May 2002
A PERFORMER who personifies rock'n'roll, Louisiana's Jerry Lee is 'The Killer' – the wildman of the piano and the provider of a zillion headlines. ...

Elvis Presley: Today Tomorrow & Forever
Review by Mark Paytress, Mojo, July 2002
LET'S BE honest: this, once again, is Elvis Presley '56-'77 squeezed into five exhilarating, and at times exasperating hours. There are two major differences this time ...

He Made Old Men's Blues Sound Young: Remembering Elvis
Comment by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, August 2002
WE REMEMBER his ignominious end, and the cavalcade of white Cadillacs driving through Memphis for his funeral 25 years ago this month, but mostly the 1970s ...

Elvis Presley: Elvis 30 # 1 Hits (RCA)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Blender, Fall 2002
The King is gone, but he's not forgotten: Thirty classics from the best singer who ever lived. ...

Dewey Terry 1937-2003
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, May 2003
ROCK’N’ROLL PIONEER Dewey Terry (65) died of a brain tumor on May 11 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. He had been suffering ...

Elvis: The First Sun Sessions
Retrospective and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, January 2004
IT WAS A QUIET WEEK in Memphis. Monday, January 4, 1954. Everyone easing into the new year. Nobody paid any attention when, around lunchtime, a truck ...

Jim Dawson: Rock Around the Clock - The Record that Started the Rock Revolution
Book Review by Steven R Rosen, Denver Post, June 2005
DID HOLLYWOOD create rock 'n' roll? That sounds like a strange, ridiculous and even offensive question to anyone who likes rock and all its musical derivations. ...

Learning The Game: How John Lennon Learned to Stop Worrying and Love His Inner Geek
Essay by Tim Riley, Rock's Backpages, November 2006
LONG BEFORE "POST-MODERN" became pure jargon, Buddy Holly put quotes around his "normalcy" to disarm rock machismo. ...

Wanda Jackson: Hard-Headed Woman
Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Record Collector, February 2007
WANDA JACKSON was the original Riot Grrrl. In the late '50s, she shook, rattled and roared next to Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and boyfriend Elvis. ...

Jerry Lee Lewis: Last Wild Man Of Rock 'N Roll Standing
Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, Sunday Times, February 2007
The six wives, the shootings, the arrests, the addictions – Jerry Lee Lewis was the original wild man of rock'n'roll. And at 71, he still hasn't ...

Bill Haley and His Comets: 'Rock Around The Clock'
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, backonthetracks.com, July 2007
12 April 1954: At Decca Records' Pythian Temple Studio, New York City, Bill Haley and His Comets record 'Rock Around The Clock' and 'Thirteen Women'. Neither ...

Elvis At 72
Comment by Jonh Ingham, mog.com, August 2007
EVERY YEAR a bunch of new noisy kids will tell you rock and roll is a young man's game. At 72 and still The King, Elvis ...

Hail, Hail, Chuck Berry!
Essay by Jonh Ingham, Jonh Ingham's Blog, October 2007
"If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry."
- John Lennon ...

Down the Line: Buddy Holly
Retrospective by Mark Kemp, Texas Music, January 2009
WHEN THE FIRST gentle notes ring from Buddy Holly's acoustic guitar on his cover of Mickey & Sylvia's 'Dearest', you could swear it was recorded yesterday ...

Alvin Stardust
Interview by Johnny Black, Musicweek, April 2010
NECESSITY, THEY say, is the mother of invention, and no-one knows that better than Alvin Stardust. ...