This is the field I'm most experienced in as a print journalist, radio and television producer, researcher and broadcaster going back more than thirty years. I've written about a wide variety of musical genres, interviewing literally thousands of musicians from multi-millionaire rockstars and songwriters to local indie bands on the dole.
I started in rock journalism in the late 1970's for Sounds, Pop Star Weekly, BBC Radio Newcastle, Radio 1 and Out Now. Some of these articles and reviews can be found in the Ian Ravendale Rock Journalist Archive section. For a selection of my recent gig critiques visit Contemporary Live Music Reviews.
Using my 'Ian Ravendale' alias to avoid confusion with another journalist called Ian Penman I've written for national (and international) music magazines and sites including Abba-A Celebration, American Songwriter, The Beat, The Beatles-The Early Years, Blues Matters, Kate Bush Special Edition, Classic Pop, Classic Rock (magazine and web-site), Classic Rock presents AOR, The Crack, Fireworks, Iron Fist, Elton John Special Edition, Long Live Vinyl, Paul McCartney Special Edition, NARC, Pet Shop Boys Special Edition, R&R Life, Record Collector, Stevie Wonder Special Edition, George Michael-A Celebration, Sunderland Post, Vintage Rock, Vinyl Guru, Vive Le Rock, Whitesnake Fan Pack and The Word. I have an extensive archive of rock music audio interviews that I conducted in the 1970's and 80's, most of which are broadcast standard. Some have more recently been used on television and radio programmes or posted on the excellent Rock's Backpages site here-http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Writer/ian-ravendale
In addition to contributing to music magazines and websites I also write album sleeve notes and artist promotional biogs, most recently for the Tygers Of Pan Tang and Black Cat White Cat.
In chronological order off we go with what I've had published in the music magazine and related fields over the last few years.
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V ive Le Rock! 74; 'Like Ships In The Night' (Sept 2020) 3,600 words. I've been an admirer of Bill Nelson since the Be Bop Deluxe days of the 1970's. Over the years I've written several articles about Bill and have conducted quite a few radio interviews, many of which have appeared on 'Rock's Back Pages'. Being aware that there is a potentially new audience out there I suggested an article about Be Bop to VLR and this appears in the latest issue. For anyone who's not sure-including EMI, the band's 1970's record label-the outfit were called Be Bop Deluxe. No hyphen between 'Be' and 'Bop'. (Yes, I did check with Bill! EMI got it right for 'Modern Music' (see below!) And wrong for Axe Victim, Futurama, Sunburst Finish and Drastic Plastic!)
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'Cherish-David Cassidy A Legacy'. While working on the 'Bliss' Channel 4 programme at Border TV in the mid 1980's I booked David Cassidy onto the show and spent some time with him. David regrettably died in November 2017 and a year or so ago I was contacted by Louise Poynton from his fan club. She was compiling a 250 page collection of stories, memories and reminiscences about David and asked if would I like to write about his brief stay in Carlisle, which I was happy to do. 'Cherish' is available from Unicorn Publishing.
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V ive Le Rock! 71; 'All Sweetness And Light' (April 2020) 3,300 words. In most people's estimation Rachel Sweet was the star of the 1978 and 79 'Be Stiff' tours. I explore what she's
up to these days, which isn't singing but is most definitely still in entertainment.
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V ive Le Rock! 71; Review of 'Cruel To Be Kind; The Life And Music of Nick Lowe' by Will Birch 406 words (Constable)
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I've written a fair amount about The Beatles over the years and here's a couple of articles for Anthem Publishing to kick off: The Beatles Years Volume 3; (December 2019) 2,500 words. Apart from Apple Records, which got off to an unbeatable start with the fabs own 'Hey Jude' single, Apple was an optimistic but ultimately misguided attempt by The Beatles to use their wealth and influence creatively. Want a car that changes colour the faster it goes? Wallpaper that acts as loudspeakers? Read all about them and lots more here!
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The Beatles Years Volume 1-'The Essential Early Classics' (Sept 2019) 2,000 words. As most music fans will have noticed 2019 was the 50th' anniversary of the break-up of The Beatles, the world's greatest ever pop band. Here, in the first of four magazines from Anthem Publishing, I write about the blossoming of Lennon and McCartney's songwriting partnership and the prolific creation of the classic early songs which I assess track by track.
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V ive Le Rock! 65; 'Dream Sequence' (Sept 2019) 3,300 words. Vive Le Rock goes from strength and this is the second issue in a row I've had a major article in. This is me chatting to Pauline Murray and Robert Blamire, who I've probably interviewed more than any other act over the years. Most of these chats have been about Penetration so this is something different; the return of The Invisible Girls for a few gigs including Blackpool's Rebellion, the UK's biggest annual punk festival. The IG's only existed for a couple of years after the demise of Penetration and the material that Pauline and co played during this period was very different to the pop-punk of the Ferryhill five.
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Classic Pop 55 (August 2019); Live review of The Spice Girls. An actual home gig for me this; the Girls were playing at Sunderland's Stadium Of Light and came very close to selling it out. Not bad for 44,000 capacity!
Vive Le Rock! 64; 'Where The Rose Was Sewn' (July 2019) 3,200 words
Stuart Adamson left The Skids in 1981 and with his Dunfermline pal Bruce Watson put together Big Country, a twin-guitar driven tour-de-force. Tony Butler and Mark Brzezicki soon joined up as the rhythm section and before long the outfit was having hits and selling out concert halls. The band eventually drifted apart and Adamson re-located to the US, ultimately committing suicide in December 2001. The remaining Big Country members got back together in the '10's with Bruce's son Jamie joining the band as joint lead guitarist. I tell BC's story in the latest Vive Le Rock!
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A bit further down is my entry about A Hidden Landscape Once A Week, the 400 page collection compiled by long-standing journalist and editor Mark Sinker that centres around the golden age of music journalism. I contributed a chapter about my time at Sounds and Mark and I recorded a 45 minute Skype chat discussing the paper, along with NME, Melody Maker, Record Mirror and many other music mags of the period. It's just been posted here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/25922361
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Classic Pop Presents: Synthpop; 40th Anniversary Edition. Hard to believe that electronic
music came close to wiping out traditional instruments in the recording process and has now been a major force for four decades. I have several articles, interviews and features in Classic Pop's birthday celebrations; Beyond The Blue Horizon (Synth pop in the 00's), Going Live, Godfathers of Pop-Martyn Ware and also contribute my Top Ten in the Top 40 Synth-pop singles, sneaking in Swallowing The Silence by The Delays, one of my favourite millennium bands.
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I've followed the music press since I was 13. Initially as a reader, then a journalist for the weeklies leading up to today's glossy monthlies. Given my on-going involvement with the music press I was delighted to be asked to contribute to A Hidden Landscape Once A Week. Put together by Mark Sinker, former editor of The Wire, this is a major collection of essays and discussions about the UK music press from 1960's to the late 1980's, why the mags were of major importance and what has subsequently happened to change things. My article centres around my time at Sounds and the different approach that the paper took to rivals like the NME, Melody Maker and Record Mirror.
At close on 400 pages Hidden Landscapes is a great read. It's available from Amazon and also the publishers at; http://strangeattractor.co.uk/shoppe/a-hidden-landscape-once-a-week/?fbclid=IwAR1QwUNWapNknBvdXHbxOVUsI_hRqDBUvAqPzCjPeX8QooZW
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I interviewed Bill Nelson on quite a few occasions for BBC Radio Newcastle's 'Bedrock' programme. These chats were initially about Be Bop Deluxe and then Red Noise and generally around the 15 or 20 minute mark. After the demise of Be-Bop I proposed to Bill that we do an extended retrospective and he graciously agreed. Rock's Backpages have just posted the full 53 minute interview. RBP is jammed full of all sorts of good stuff and well worth any music fan's attention. https://www.rocksbackpages.com/
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Vive Le Rock! 59; 'Sydney Rococo'. Steve Kilbey album review; (January 2019). My take on the latest solo album by The Church's productive leading light.
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Classic Pop Presents: George Michael; A Celebration
George Michael and I shared the same birthday, albeit mine a few years before his. I've written two of the major feature articles in Anthem Publishing's latest bookazine; a candid interview with one-time Wham! manager Simon Napier-Bell and an investigation into George's many collaborations across his stellar career going from Andrew Ridgeley to Nile Rodgers who he was working with the day prior to his death.
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In addition to their printed magazine NARC have a very lively website crammed full of lots of fab facts and info. My review of the Jesse Terry/Laura Oakes/Michael Logen 'songwriters circle' Cluny 2 gig is here; http://narcmagazine.com/live-review-jesse-terry-michael-logen-laura-oakes-the-cluny-2-newcastle-16-10-18/
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Also at the NARC site is my review of Simon Todd and Central Station's album launch show. http://narcmagazine.com/live-review-simon-todd-central-station-the-greenhouse-bar-tynemouth-28-09-18/ Thanks to Pete Morrison for the pics. Simon (top) Rachel Bailey (bottom)
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Terry Reid audio interview-Rock's Backpages https://www.rocksbackpages.com/
2018 is the 50th anniversary of the formation of Led Zeppelin and Rock's Backpages have put together a Zep special. Further down this section I go into details about my 2012 Classic Rock article about the band's first ever UK gig on 4 October 1968 at Newcastle Mayfair as 'The New Yardbirds'. Coming with something new to say about a band who have been discussed non-stop since their break-up in 1980 is tricky but the UK debut gig on Tyneside hadn't been written about at all and I was able to extensively add to Zep's history. Classic Rock have re-printed my article a couple of times; once on their website and also cover-featured as part of the recent Classic Rock Special Edition-Led Zeppelin mag.
On the advance tickets for the Mayfair show, alongside Newcastle bands Downtown Faction and The Junco Partners, Terry Reid is listed as the main support and I spent a fair amount of time trying to get hold of him for my article. We eventually made contact and our chat started like this; Me; " Terry, how did you get the gig supporting The New Yardbirds at Newcastle Mayfair?" Terry; "Newcastle Mayfair? I don't think we did that one....." As it turned out Terry and his band were in the US supporting Cream on their farewell tour and the actual main Mayfair support was New York Public Library (who I subsequently tracked down and spoke to). Terry did have some interesting things to say about about the formation of Zep, including how Jimmy Page asked him to join The New Yardbirds as vocalist. Because of the Cream tour Reid was unable to do it but recommended Robert Plant (and John Bonham) who he'd seen play when their combo The Band Of Joy supported him at a gig in the Midlands. And the rest, as they say....
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Classic Pop Presents: Duran Duran 40th Anniversary Edition 'A Life Less Ordinary-The 1990's'
The latest of Anthem Publications 'bookazines' has me picking apart the wild boys most problematic decade. (3,300 words)
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NARC 142 (August 2018) Feature about The Whitley Bay Film Festival, including an interview with guest film and live concert video director Dick Carruthers, who directed Celebration Day (Led Zeppelin) and The End Of The End (Black Sabbath) both of which got a screening at the festival. An extended version of my interview with Dick is here; http://narcmagazine.com/interview-dick-carruthers/
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Vive Le Rock! 55; 'The Blurred Weekend Of The Church'- (August 2018) 2,200 words .
The Church, one of my all-time favourite bands, were recently back in the UK to appear at the Meldown festival as special guests of Robert Smith and also to host their first ever 'Church Convention' over a weekend at London's Bush Hall. Steve Kilbey and Peter Koppes spill the beans!
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Classic Pop 42 (July 18); Live review of Blossoms. Without a shadow of doubt Blossoms are my band of the year. The hows and whys revealed here!
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NARC 140 (June 2018) My interview with Darlington comedienne and actress Jade Byrne is centred around '70,000 Pricks' her one-woman show about living with Type 1 Diabetes. In the same issue my article promoting Lauren Pattison and Zach Zucker's Alphabetti Theatre preview of their Edinburgh Fringe shows.
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Vintage Rock Presents: The Beatles; The Later Years; 'Unpeeling The Apple'; (2,700 words)
The follow up to Anthem Publishing's 'Early Years' volume 'The Later Years' goes into detail about The Beatles experimental period, leading on to the break-up. I look at the trials and tribulations of the band's Apple Corp company which in addition to being involved in records and music publishing also had interests in film, retail and electronics with inventions that included musical wallpaper, electrical paint that could be plugged in and cars that changed colour the faster they went. Ta very much to former Apple CEO Tony Bramwell for a fab interview.
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Classic Pop Presents: Pet Shop Boys Special Edition
I have three major feature articles in this 134 page look at the life, times and recording output of da Boys; 'Classic Album; Yes', 'We Are The Pet Shop Boys' about the duo's 1990's output and 'Their Own Devices' spilling the beans about the duo's videos. A major thanks for a very informative chat to Andy Morahan who directed Neil and Chris's first three vids.
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The Crack 359 (June 18); Live review of Jesse Terry at Gateshead's Sage 2.
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Classic Pop 40 (May 18); Live review of Lloyd Cole. Now Commotions-less the solo Cole can still hold an audience, as I discovered.
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Vive Le Rock! 51; 'Burning Cities'- The Skids album review; (February/March 2018) 550 words .
I've been anticipating the first album from The Skids in 37 years since I talked to the band about it for VLR! last year. Read all about it here!
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The Beat 190 (February 2018) 450 words 'Obituary-Dolores O'Riordan.'
I interviewed Cranberries singer Dolores O'Riordan in 2016 for Classic Pop. She was friendly, straight-forward and frank about the some of her recent psychiatric problems and also her current projects. In addition to working with The Cranberries she was also involved with DARK, a trio that also included DJ Ole Koretsky and ex-Smiths bassplayer Andy Rouke. Dolores was easy to talk to and enthusiastic about the future and I was sorry to hear of her passing. The current issue of The Beat has my obituary of her.
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In the same issue of The Beat my review of The Early Years, John Birch's excellent first volume of his projected three part biography of Paddy McAlloon and Prefab Sprout. The book is available via mail order only from www.Prefab-SproutBooks.
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Rock's Backpages have posted my November 2014 phone interview with The Skid's Richard Jobson. This formed part of my first major article about the band in Vive Le Rock! 27. We talk about forming the band in Dunfermline; support from John Peel; issues over Nazi imagery; the complexities of Stuart Adamson; The Absolute Game and evolving faster than their audience; recording Joy following Stuart's departure, Richard's life after the Skids and Adamson's death.
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Classic Pop Presents: Kate Bush 40th Anniversary Edition-'This Woman's Work'
I'm responsible for the magazine's lead-off quartet of articles-'Rolling The Ball To Me-The Early Years' (3,200 words) 'Classic Album-'The Kick Inside' (1,200 words) ' The Tour Of Life-A Matter Of Life And Death' (1500 words) 'From The Archive-'You Can't Destroy That Magic' (1,100 words). Plus Pop Up Facts and short pieces about The KT Bush Band (her pub group) early videos, set lists, tour dates and much more.
I've been a fan of Kate Bush's since 1978's Wuthering Heights. In my capacity as a local BBC radio journalist I was in regular contact with EMI at the time and they were very optimistic about the single and accompanying album. Rightly so-the single hit number 1 in February 1978 and she seemed to be almost everywhere virtually instantaneously.
I got to meet and interview Kate in March 1979 and my archive chat with her appears here in print for the first time. My contemporary interviews with guitarist Brian Bath and bass player David Paton (both of whom worked extensively with Bush during this period) filled in lots of details about Kate's recording and live gig activities and I thank them both. Brian played on 'The Tour of Life', Kate's one and only tour until 2014's Hammersmith Apollo run of 22 performances. I was at the Sunderland Empire concert that took place on 12 April 1979 and I'd never seen anything like it. And still haven't. She was yet to hit 21 and here she was master-minding a two-and-a-half hour show that included mime, dance, stage magic, two dozen costume changes, pyrotechnics and back projection-an innovation at the time. And the first live appearance of a head-set mike. Made out of a coat hanger.
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Lee Brilleaux Rock 'N' Roll Gentleman (Polygon) One of the sources that Zoe Howe's highly rated biogaphy draws on is my 1981 interview with the late Dr Feelgood frontman. The book is now on its' second edition and available from Waterstons or direct from the publishers www.polygonbooks.co.uk. See the Interviews section of this site for the other archive rock and pop music chats I have available.
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The Beat 189 (January 2018) 450 words 'Pink Balloons In A Cherry Picker.' My personal reminisces of working on a Channel 4 pop programme in the 1980's with the late David Cassidy.
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Classic Rock 245; 'The Curious Case Of Klaatu.' (January 2018) 3,400 words-cover promoted. I have one of the main feature articles in this month's CR which details how in 1977 a million Beatle-crazed Americans were so convinced that an anonymous Canadian trio were actually the Fab Four re-united that they went and bought their début album. The Carpenters covered Klaatu's Calling Occupants Of Interplantetary Space and went on to have an international smash with it. Klaatu's own version has recently been featured on the TV series Mindhunters, set in the 1970's.
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Vive Le Rock! 50; 'Burning Ambitions'; (January 2018) 2,350 words . I was pleased to be asked to contribute to VLR!'s 50th anniversary which also happened to be the mags's 'Best Of 2017' issue. The Skids cop the 'Comeback Of The Year' and I've written the accompanying article. This is the third story I've done with Dunfermline's finest and I also supply the lead photo. Another photo from the same session below.
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And....Vive Le Rock! 50; 'Scared To Dance' Expanded' (400 words) My review of the re-issue of The Skids' first album with lots of nice extras.
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Classic Pop 35 (December 2017). Live review of The Fizz who are three-quarters of the original Bucks Fizz, plus fellow Eurovision veteran Bobby McVay looking uncannily like the absent Bobby G. Ridiculously prevented from using the Bucks Fizz name this is them delivering their hits alongside choice selections from the new Mike Stock-produced album.
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Classic Pop Presents: Stevie Wonder (November 2017) 'World On A String' (4.400 words)
As I work my bookazine way through the superstars of pop I stop at Stevie Wonder and sign, seal and deliver an extensive guide through what he was up to from the 1990's to date.
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Led Zeppelin-Classic Rock Special Edition '4 October 1968- Led Zeppelin's 'Secret' UK Debut'. (3,100 words) As a quick look in WH Smiths demonstrates, many of the major publishers are currently producing one-off specials based around one particular artiste. Anthem, producers of Classic Pop are one of these and I've contributed articles to specials about The Beatles, Elton John and more. Classic Rock have entered the arena with a Led Zeppelin 'Special Edition.' Unlike the Anthem mags, this consists of non-original material, drawn from CR's huge back catalogue. I was pleased to find that my 2012 story about Zepp's first ever UK gig (at Newcastle Mayfair as 'The New Yardbirds') was included and cover promoted (bottom left) as 'I Was There-The Oral History'. In my article I speak to audience members, the promoter, the then-manager of the Mayfair and musicians from support bands Downtown Faction, The Junco Partners and New York Public Library. And ask Terry Reid why he appeared on the advance tickets but not at the actual gig.
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Vive Le Rock! 48 ( Oct 2017) Penetration live review. Back in the Sounds days, my snapper chum Rik Walton and I did lots of articles and reviews about Penetration, including breaking the story of their split in 1979, where by virtue of the paper's Wednesday publication, we trounced that Thursday's NME who'd sent Paul Morley up to Newcastle especially. None of us could have possibly guessed that decades later me, Rik and Penetration would be back together in print. But, here we are! Regrettably we may not be doing it again, as Rik and his wife Kath have just relocated to Canada. But.....if Pauline and co ever get to gig in Ontario I'm up for it!
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Most of my Rock's Backpages interviews date back to the 1970's and 1980's. The site's latest posting of one of my conversations with music's finest is much more recent. In my 2015 chat with The Church's Steve Kilbey we talk about the formation of the band; the success of The Unguarded Moment; being forced to tour with Duran Duran; endless struggles with record companies; being a confrontational individual; the albums Starfish and Priest=Aura; and lots more. RBP is a subscription site but well worth joining as there's lots of great stuff up there!
The 40th anniversary of the death of Marc Bolan has brought numerous articles and features about him. Included is Rock's Backpages' extensive dig into the archives, reprinting articles and also featuring several radio interviews with Marc. One of these was with me, conducted at the very last North East gig he would play. https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/marc-bolan-1977
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Vive Le Rock! 47 ( Sept 2017) 'Kimono Their House-Larks With Sparks' (2,600 words)
I enjoy reviewing gigs and like writing articles, especially those where I can dig deep and bring something new to the table. But the journalistic activity I relish most is interviewing and have conducted many hundreds of interviews for print, radio and television stretching back four decades. Sparks were one of my favourite bands of the 1970's and they are still active today with a new album on release. I was delighted to be able to speak to Ron and Russell Mael for VLR and found them just as sharp and witty as I hoped they'd be.
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Plus ....Vive Le Rock! 47( Sept 2017) 'Hippopotamus' (150 words) Sparks album review. 9/10 I give it!
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Classic Pop Presents: Elton John (Aug 2017) 'John Doe-The Early Days' (2,500 words) and
'Free Reign' (2,600 words). I write two of the feature articles in Anthem's latest
'bookazine,' this one devoted to (as the cover describes him) 'The Rocket Man.' I look at both the beginning of Elton's career and where he is to-date. There's lots of reading in these magazines and no matter how much you know about Elton John there'll be facts and info new to you. I did, however, refrain from mentioning that Nigel Olsson, Elton's long-time drummer, was the singer with Wearside beat combo The Fireflies, the first ever pop band I saw perform live-at Christ Church Youth Club in Sunderland for anyone taking notes.
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Long Live Vinyl 5 (Aug/Sept) Talking Shop-'Geordie Store' (2,000 words) is a five page feature on Newcastle's Vinyl Guru, the one-stop shop for all things vinyl, from sleeves to period jukeboxes.
In common with the other features I've written for The Beat, this piece draws on my extensive archive of music interviews and features, this time from Out Now 2 and the Bedrock radio programme. It covers Michael Nesmith's mid-70's solo tour of the UK and one of the few occasions where he played backed by a full band. Amongst many topics Michael and I discuss is the philosophy behind his preferred style of stage lighting. ('On!')
(Nesmith made his live UK solo debut at the legendary 5th Anniversary gig for Zig Zag magazine the previous year. The event was recorded and is available from the Road Goes On Forever label here; http://www.rgfrecords.co.uk/releases/zigzag.htm)
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Classic Pop Presents: Paul McCartney (June 2017) 'And In The End' (2,500 words)
This issue of Classic Pop Presents takes an extended look at a post-Beatles Paul McCartney through the decades, spanning from the 1970s to the 2010s. My contribution is a lengthy article about how Paul coped with the aftermath of The Beatles break up. My favourite quote is from accountant James Spooner who had been appointed by the High Court to look after The Beatles financial affairs until a full hearing to dissolve their partnership could be heard. Spooner described Allen Klein (at this point acting for John, George and Ringo) as 'this crook' and, while acknowledging his talent, reckoned Lennon was 'terribly tiresome.'
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Rock's Backpages latest rummage through Ian's Rock Interview Archive is my February 1980 chat with Wishbone Ash's Andy Powell, Martin Turner and Laurie Wisefield. We discuss playing older Ash material onstage, the band moving to America, and then coming back, the U.S. influence on their music, management problems, and the impact of New Wave.https://rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/wishbone-ash-1980
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Vive Le Rock! 44 ( May 2017) 'World On Fire-The Return Of The Skids' (5,400 words).
The follow-up to my retrospective article about The Skids in VLR 27. At that point the band were happy to get together once every couple of years to do the occasional festival or event. Things move on and change and with Big Country's Bruce and Jamie Watson replacing the late Stuart Adamson The Skids are back with Burning Cities the first new album since 1981 and a major 40 date tour. I travelled up to Dunfermline to talk to the band members individually and as a group and watch them run through the set they're going to be playing on tour including album opener World On Fire, a powerful new song that marries vocalist Richard Jobson's lyrical view of a world collapsing in on itself with a classic upbeat Skids melody.
This is a major article with side-bars, 'Rare Facts', the band members each talking about their favourite Skids numbers to play and listen to and lots more. Including a section all about 'That Fucking Song!' What might that be? VLR 44 has the answer!
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Vintage Rock 29 ( May/June 17) 'History In The Making'
As a television researcher in the 80's and 90's I worked on documentaries, music and kids shows and lots of arts and entertainment programmes. This often involved trips to the theatre, both mainstream and the smaller independents, which I don't get to do much currently. So I was pleased to be asked by Vintage Rock magazine to go along to Newcastle Theatre Royal to review the touring version of Million Dollar Quartet, the musical based around the legendary jam session between Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins that took place at Sun Studios in Memphis on 4 December 1956.
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My latest contribution to the wonderful Rock's Backpages is my 2012 audio interview with Diane Warren, the world's most successful contemporary songwriter. This is one of my journalism tapes, rather than a radio interview and is 35 minutes long. RBP is a subscription site but there's lots of very good free material up there as well. https://rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/diane-warren-2012
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Classic Pop 28 (Apr/May 17). Live review of Mike & The Mechanics.
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Vintage Rock presents The Beatles Collectors Edition-The Early Years '40 Greatest Beatles Early Classics'. (5,000 words) I've started contributing to the 'bookazines' devoted to one specific pop act that you can
find in WH Smiffs, supermarkets and other outlets. Following on from Abba I revisit the world's greatest pop band and get the opportunity to explore really early Beatles tracks including 'In Spite Of All The Danger,' 'Cry For A Shadow' and 'Ain't She Sweet' that they recorded before signing to EMI and becoming hit-meisters supreme. I then scrutinise The Beatles 1962-65 output that changed pop forever.
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Vintage Rock 28 ( March/April 17) 'Jewel Of The North' my double page spread reviewing Wearside's own rockbilly rebels Ruby & The Mystery Cats. Unlike back in the Sounds days I normally don't get the opportunity to write about bands with a mainly local (rather than national) profile. Consequently I jumped at the opportunity to review one of the hardest working bands on the North East rockin' circuit. Catch 'em now!
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The Beat 178 (February 17) 'From The Archive-Paul McCartney' (500 words)
During my lengthy broadcasting career for local and national BBC radio, Wear FM and other stations I taped hundreds of interviews, all but one of which, I'm happy to say, came out. The interview that didn't was non-recorded in a Newcastle back lane in the 1970's with (sod's law) the most famous person I've ever spoken to; Paul McCartney. Read all about it!
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Until now, all of my interviews that have appeared on Rock's Backpages come from the 1970's and 1980's where they were originally broadcast on the 'Bedrock' radio programme. Jumping ahead 30 years, the latest interview posted is my 2011 phone chat with Nils Lofgren which formed the basis of an article I wrote for Fireworks magazine. At 57 minutes the interview is much longer than the radio pieces and in it Nils looks back on his lengthy, fascinating career: the struggles of Grin; playing on Neil Young's After The Gold Rush, Tonight's The Night, and further Young-led adventures; going solo, and his long association with Bruce Springsteen.
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/nils-lofgren-2011
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The Beat 177 (January 17) 'From The Archive-Debbie Harry (550 words)
I interviewed Blondie's Debbie Harry twice. Once in 1978 in person backstage at Newcastle City Hall for the 'Bedrock' BBC Radio Newcastle programme and a second time on the phone ten years later when I was working on the ITV Saturday and Sunday morning kids show Get Fresh. This article for The Beat tells the story of my 1978 five minutes with Debbie. Just the two of us alone together in a very small room!
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The Beat 176 (December 16) 'From The Archive-Andy Bown' (500 words)
The Beat is a long-established magazine that specialises in music from the 50's, 60's and 70's. I interviewed keyboard player Andy Bown in 1980 for the 'Bedrock' radio programme and the article is an updated version of our chat. In addition to talking about his work with Status Quo (who Andy still plays with) we also discuss writing music for TV programmes and his time with The Herd. In the late 1960's the Peter Frampton-fronted outfit attracted One Direction-type hysteria whenever they played. 'It was nice getting your clothes ripped off, your hair torn out and being scratched to pieces!' is how Bown remembers it.
The Beat can be ordered from www.beatmagazine.co.uk
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The newly published Classic Pop presents Abba-A Celebration mag gives me the chance to write about one of my favourite bands. The timeless appeal of Abba's songs, the intimacies of their vocal arrangement and the inventiveness of the productions have influenced a generation of musicians, singers, songwriters and producers. Contemporary music would be very different is Abba hadn't existed. The outfit were undoubtedly the 1970's/early 1980's best pop act and I have fun exploring their (cover promoted) '40 Best Tracks' chronologically from 'Ring Ring' to 'Under Attack.' At 5,000 words this is one of the longest articles I've written recently but I still didn't have space for great numbers like 'Rubber Ball Man', 'Just Like That' and 'Dream World' that the quartet recorded but never officially released completed versions of.
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Allowing me to time travel back to the 1970's the fab Rock's Backpages have just posted the first music interview I ever did. Michael Nesmith was playing his first ever UK solo gig (at Zig Zag magazine's Fifth Birthday bash at London's Roundhouse, organised by the paper's Pete Frame and John Tobler.) I was going and asked Dick Godfrey, the producer of 'Bedrock' the BBC Radio Newcastle show I'd just started contributing to, whether he'd be interested in an interview with Michael, if I could get one. Dick said yes and a day or so before the Zig Zag show I heard an item on Radio 1 saying that Nesmith had signed to Jonathan King's UK Record label. As 'Ian Penman from BBC Radio Newcastle' I rang UK who, very obligingly, gave me the phone number of the hotel Michael was staying at. Heart thumping, I rang the number and reception put me through! Nesmith quickly dismissed the UK Records story but agreed to the interview anyway. So I toodled along to the hotel, cassette recorder in hand and spent half-an-hour chatting to him as I did my first-ever music interview. Not that I told Michael it was that.
I kept in touch with Michael and did several other interviews with him for 'Bedrock', one of which also became a feature published in Out Now magazine that can be found in this site's Archive section. So, thanks to Michael and Dick, I began my journey through the wild and wonderful world of media.
The Nesmith interview (which I haven't quite summoned up the courage to re-listen to yet) is here. http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/mike-nesmith RBP has lots of great content and is well worth investigating.
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Classic Pop 25 (Oct/Nov16). Live reviews of Tony Hadley and UB 40. South Tyneside Council have been staging free gigs over July at Bents Park in South Shields for quite a few years now. It's a really good event which gets a huge turnout as you can see. It's UB 40 they're watching.
And here's Tony Hadley from the previous week.
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My latest contribution to Rock's Backpages is the 1980 interview I conducted with Justin Hayward where the Moody Blues guitarist/singer talks about the current state of the band; Mike Pinder's departure; his solo work; his association with Jeff Wayne and The War of the Worlds album; the Moodys' live show, and working with 10cc and Lonnie Donegan.
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Vintage Rock 25 ( Sept/Oct 16) Cover promoted Imelda May 'new live show' and 'new look' (1,000 words)
Unlike all the other music mags Vintage Rock specialises in the early days of rock n'roll and pop music. Imelda May has built up a major following particularly with rockabilly fans and was debuting her new set at the Gateshead Sage venue's annual Americana Festival. May was also introducing her new look (which I describe in the review as 'edgy Sandie Shaw'!) that took many of the 50's dressed gig-goers by surprise. As well as reviewing Imelda's set I also take a look at support band Jess And The Bandits and the festival itself. In addition to the ticketed acts like May and Mary Chapin Carpenter there were two free music stages and lots of stands and stalls thrown in to make for an excellent atmosphere. Photos alongside my review are by Newcastle photographer Chris Bishop.
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Back in the day I was partial to a bit of singer-songwriter, general preferring the US variety to the ones closer to home. One such was the late Harry Chapin, who regrettably died in a car accident in 1981. He played Newcastle City Hall a couple of times in the late 1970's and I took the opportunity to interview him. One of our chats has just been posted on Rock's Backpages.
Chapin was a big personality and very loquacious, although I was able to catch him off guard by asking about unreleased tracks recorded with Michael Nesmith who I'd interviewed quite a few times. Harry asked me how I knew about them and I was able to answer: 'Because Michael told me!' We also talked about Chapin's story songs like 'W•O•L•D'. After I said I reckoned many people actually thought he was a former radio presenter writing about his time as 'the morning DJ on WOLD' he agreed with me, adding something I quote whenever the conversation turns to writing novels or screenplays: 'Everybody has one story in them, which is the story of themselves! The trick is to be able to become somebody else and write about that!'
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Four years ago I wrote a story for Classic Rock magazine's ' Fly On The Wall' feature. Called '4 October 1968- Led Zeppelin's 'Secret' UK Debut' it was about the band's first ever UK gig, which was at Newcastle's Mayfair ballroom as 'The New Yardbirds' with support from local bands Downtown Faction and The Junco Partners plus New York Public Library, originally from Leeds but based in London by this time.
. For the feature I interviewed musicians from the support acts, audience members, the promoter and the-then manager of the Mayfair. Despite Zep being one of the world's most written-about bands this was a story that hadn't been told. Until then. And now...Classic Rock have posted the story on their site.
http://teamrock.com/feature/2016-08-12/led-zeppelin-s-secret-uk-debut
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Classic Pop 24 ( Aug/Sept16) 'Dancing With The D.A.R.K' (2,000 words). D.A.R.K. are the band formed by Cranberries vocalist Dolores O' Riordan with former Smith's bassist Andy Rourke and New York songwriter, DJ and produce Ole Koretsy. Dolores in particular was very frank and forthcoming, which I appreciated when I spoke to her and Ole shortly after they'd flown in from New York.
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The Subway Sect radio interview I mention in The Clash piece a few paragraphs down is now on Rock's Backpages. 'The blankest of the blank generation' attempt to answer questions including what is punk, why punk had to happen, the importance of lyrics and the anger at the heart of it all.
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I've met Ozzy Osbourne a few times and found him to be an approachable, amenable sort of guy. This has included interviewing him twice and also (accidentally) wandering into the backstage area at Newcastle Mayfair. Ozzy was appearing there about six months after Sounds had published my live review of his 'Blizzard Of Oz' gig at Newcastle City Hall which started with me enquiring: 'Why is Ozzy Osbourne so cabaret?' Fortunately for me at the Mayfair he'd never seen a photo of Ian Ravendale....
The other was when I was working in the Arts & Entertainments department at Tyne Tees Television. Ozzy was appearing on The Tube (whose offices were next to ours) and he got himself lost and wandered into A & E. Unlike most of my colleagues I instantaneously recognised him, of course, went over and pointed him in the right direction. He thanked me and said 'We've met before, haven't we?' What he was referring to was the couple of radio interviews we did, the first of which has just been uploaded to the Rock's Backpages site. In it, amongst other things, Ozzy rails against bouncer-on-fan violence (totally not an issue at Newcastle City Hall where the interview took place) describes his feelings toward Black Sabbath (who he was still a member of at this point) and voices his frustrations with the recording process.
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/black-sabbaths-ozzy-osbourne
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My late 1970's interview with Blue Oyster Cult is now live on Rock's Backpages. In it BOC (mostly the late Allen Lanier) debunk myths about the band's formation, discuss songwriting formulae for success and dispute the latent satire in their music. We also talk about the role of producers and, specifically, Sandy Pearlman's relationship to the band. http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/blue-yster-cult-1978
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My radio interviews, music paper reviews and articles are quoted in biographies on a fairly regular basis. The latest is my 1980 Sounds review of a Newcastle Mayfair gig by The Ruts where certain sections of the audience got a little over-enthusiastic. The book is Love In Vain-The Story Of The Ruts And Ruts DC. by Roland Link and is available from various sources including; https://www.amazon.co.uk/Love-Vain-Story-Ruts-D-C/dp/0957171730
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Writing for Sounds I became one of the paper's busiest freelancers and regional gig reviewers. In a history-repeating-itself scenario, I've written five out of nine live reviews in this month's Classic Pop (no 23 June-July 16) with my Eddi Reader critique Reviews section-featured. I also review The Real Thing, The Stranglers, Rudimental and The Wonder Stuff-the last three with photos by me. There's also a short piece about my Favourite New Artist-Tyne and Wear's Shields.
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I interviewed the great songwriter Diane Warren in 2011. The resulting article first appeared in Classic Rock presents AOR 4 and has now just been posted on the Classic Rock website. The site has loads of really good stuff on it, joining is free and gives you access to re-postings from the CR archive, along with the latest reviews and music news. http://teamrock.com/feature/2011-02-09/diane-warren-she-writes-the-songs-that-really-do-make-the-whole-world-sing
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CBS's regional rep, an amiable Scottish guy called Gordon, asked if we fancied interviewing
But things didn't quite go according to plan.
Prior to the show I do the Subway Sect, which was a bit like trying to interview
Gig over, Gordon takes me, Phil Sutcliffe and Paul Nunn, the pop columnist from the
Newcastle Sunday Sun, downstairs to the dressing room that seems to be some
sort of sports changing facility next to a delivery bay.There are droves of regional pressman hanging around, not quite knowing how to approach things. Phil, Paul and I make our way through the throng and into the dressing room. Then it went a bit pear-shaped....
The interview was, without doubt one of the edgiest I ever did with a band and
is an invaluable snapshot of The Clash circa 1977. Topics included taking over London,
spit as a language, being manipulated by the record company, suddenly having access to media, the effect The Clash have on their fans, starting a band by nicking equipment, playing reggae and how the band as a collective work out what's valid or not, including Baa-Baa Blacksheep!
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-clashs-mick-jones
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Iron Fist 17 (Mar/April 16) 'Waited Too Long' (2,500 words)
Writing for Sounds in the late 70's and early 80's I got to see (and often interview) many of the 'New Wave Of British Heavy Metal' bands. One band I didn't interview was Diamond Head and IF gave me the chance to rectify that. Diamond Head didn't achieve the success of the likes of Iron Maiden or Def Leppard but are often sited by Metallica and Megadeth as being a major influence, particularly in their early days. I speak to new vocalist Ras Bom Andersen and (mainly) guitarist Brian Tatler, who's been with the band right from the start.
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Pretty much all of my audio interviews that Rock's Backpages are posting come from the late 70's-mid 1980's period and were originally broadcast on the BBC Radio Newcastle programme Bedrock that I worked on and latterly produced. RBP have just posted the one exception to this, my 1994 interview with Aimee Mann. From 1990 to 1994 I presented a weekly live two hour music programme called River Rock for Wear FM, Sunderland's community radio station. This was like a one-man version of Bedrock, where I played current tracks that caught my fancy, obscure oldies and local rock and pop music. Each edition featured a live interview with a local band. I was a major fan of singer-songwriter Aimee Mann, going from her days fronting 'Til Tuesday up to her solo albums. She was playing at Newcastle's Riverside venue and breaking my self-imposed 'local bands only' rule I went along to her hotel in the afternoon and recorded an interview.
Before the interview could be broadcast Wear FM had a re-shuffle and River Rock was cancelled. As a replacement I was offered a programme with a playlist (which I declined) or the Indie Music show (which maybe I should have taken but didn't). Consequently my chat with Aimee has never been heard. Until now. (Wear FM bit the dust shortly after the reshuffle to be replaced by Sun FM, an atypical 'Smashy and Nicey' commercial radio station.) My Aimee interview is here; http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/aimee-mann-19
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Vive Le Rock! 34 (April/May16) 'Starting Up The Upstarts' (3,200 words).
One of the magazines I write for on a regular basis is Vive Le Rock, which features an eclectic mix of music that includes punk, rockabilly, new wave, indie, rock, hard core and more besides. I was around writing for Sounds and interviewing bands for Radio Newcastle's Bedrock programme and (occasionally) Radio 1 in the late 70's and early 80's and Vive has given me the opportunity to revisit some of these outfits 35 years later. In addition to The Rezillos, The Skids and The Pirates I've recently written articles about the North East new wave bands that went on to be known nationally-The Toy Dolls, Penetration and now, South Shields' Angelic Upstarts who were (and still are) the most 'punky' of the trio. We talk about pigs heads, kangaroo courts, shotgun solutions, police oppression, how to get sacked from a major label and walk away with £25,000 and songwriting the Upstarts way. We also discuss this photo by Rik Walton which appeared alongside the first ever national music press story about the Upstarts, written by Phil Sutcliffe and published in a 1978 edition of Sounds.
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Classic Pop 22 (April/May16). Live reviews of Leona Lewis and Howard Jones, my 'Music Moment of 2015' (the release of Resolution, the first new Penetration album in 36 years) and 'Electronic Heart', a six page feature interview with Chvrches. About a year ago, when penning a short biog of myself for Vive Le Rock, to illustrate the point that my taste in music is quite wide, I wrote that it ranged 'From The Church to Chvrches'. I enjoy the music of both but had neither met nor interviewed either band at this point. Here we now are and I've subsequently chatted to and written about both. Spooky. Wonder if I can get the phrase 'small, blonde and Australian' printed somewhere.....
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Working on a weekly rock and local music programme, as I did on BBC Radio Newcastle's Bedrock in the late 1970's until the mid-1980's, I got the opportunity to interview many of the music stars of the time. Some at gigs (see below). Others when they had new albums out and their record companies took them round the provincial radio stations circuit. Rock's Backpages have just posted the 1980 chat I had with Carl Palmer when he was on one such jaunt to promote his post-ELP band PM. http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/elps-carl-palmer-1980
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Newcastle City Hall figures a lot in my journalism and broadcasting career. I reviewed hundreds of gigs there for Sounds and Pop Star Weekly in the late 70's and early 80's and Classic Pop and Record Collector over the last couple of years. I also conducted many radio interviews at NCH 30+ years ago and some of these (like Roger Taylor below) are being posted on the Rock's Backpages site and the latest is my June 1978 chat with Thin Lizzy's Phil Lynott, in the backstage hospitality area. http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/thin-lizzys-phil-lynott-1978
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Queen were appearing at Newcastle City Hall in May 1979 and I arranged with the local EMI promotions guy to go along and interview one of them. I was told the lucky participant would be Brian May so I prepared various questions about sixpence pieces, making guitars out of old fireplaces and the like. When I got there this turned out to be a bum steer and I was actually going to be talking to drummer Roger Taylor. "What sort of sticks do you use, Roger?" didn't quite have the same appeal so I winged it. All four band members were knocking around prior to doing their soundcheck and what was interesting was that Roger, Brian and John Deacon were generally accessible and hanging doing the usual pre-gig mooch. Freddie Mercury, though, was a lot less approachable down to a burly minder who followed his boss two steps behind him wherever he went. My Rocks' Backpages interview with Roger Taylor is here; http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/queens-roger-taylor-1979
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Sleeve notes for the Spring 2016 re-issue of Noises From The Cathouse by the Tygers Of Pan Tang (Angel Air Records) for what the BabySue site reckons is 'a cool booklet with interesting liner notes written by Ian Ravendale.' My relationship with the Tygers goes back 35 years. I wrote lots about Whitley Bay's heaviest for Sounds and the local press, interviewed them on the radio and even went on tour with the band a couple of times. Cathouse first came out in 2003, received little promotion and was soon impossible to find. The Angel Air reissue has been remastered and includes three bonus tracks recorded in 2004. Angel Air has a huge catalogue of audio and DVD titles. The label's site is here; www.angelair.co.uk
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Rock's Backpages have posted my late 1970's interview with Trevor Bolder; http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-spiders-from-mars-trevor-bolder-1979
And, of course, his former boss was one of the topics of conversation.
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Busy month for me at Classic Pop 21 (Feb/Mar 16) Live reviews of Chvrches and Marina & The Diamonds, my 'Top Track Of 2015' ('Silver And Gold' by Little Big Town) and my mug shot and mini biog (Number seven, I think! All different!) in the 'Our Contributors' section of the magazine.
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I interviewed The Clash a couple of times in the late 1970's. The first was in 1977 at Newcastle University during the White Riot tour where the band were supported by The Slits and Subway Sect. All the local paper journalists had turned out to gaupe at the punks and the atmosphere was edgy, to say the least. Joe Strummer got into a bit of a debate with my Bedrock pal Phil Sutcliffe, which ended in him having Phil ejected from the room and the Sunday Sun's Paul Nunn and I having to sit through all of the bands banging as hard as they could on the metal lockers that filled the changing room we were in until it started to shake. Clash manager Bernie Rhodes rescued us and arranged for Phil and I to later interview Mick Jones.
I got to interview Joe Strummer backstage at Newcastle Polytechnic eighteen months later and he was fine. The 'punks as freaks' thing had died down and we had an interesting chat. Rocks' Backpages has just posted my interview here; http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-clashs-joe-strummer-1978-2
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Classic Pop 20 (Dec15/Jan16) Live reviews of Years & Years ('Reviews' title page featured) and China Crisis (review and photo).
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Back in the Sounds days I wrote quite a few articles about Ferryhill's Penetration. Some of those articles (including the one where I broke the story of their split) are in this site's Archive section. The band reformed with an adjusted lineup in 2002 and have just released Resolution the first new Penetration album in 36 years. My piece about the album where I talk to all five members of the band about how it came about has just been posted over at the Vinyl Guru site. http://www.vinylguru.co.uk/blogs/news/77842884-the-resolution-of-penetration
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My latest audio piece over at Rock's Backpages is my 1978 interview with John Cooper Clarke. I chatted with him a few times in the late 70's/early 80's and he was an amusing and affable interviewee. I managed to come up with a fairly decent take off of JCC doing his Kung Fu International poem although I never quite got round to letting him hear it. He's touring again now so maybe.....
.http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/john-cooper-clarke-1978
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Vive Le Rock! 30 (November 15) 'Shiver Me Timbers' (4, 300 words)
The theme for this edition of VLR is 'Legends' and my contribution is a lengthy article about The Pirates. I saw the band several times in the late 1970's/early 80's and they were great. A classic power trio who could blow pretty much all of the younger new wavers off stage without trying. My interview is with bass player/vocalist Johnny Spence alongside historic interview material featuring the late Mick Green. Thanks to Johnny for the chat and to Ray 'The Big Bloke' Gomm for some great archive photographs, including this gig poster:
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Classic Pop 19 (Oct/Nov 15) Live review of Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott.
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The latest of my archive radio interviews to go up on the Rocks Backpages site is my 8 February 1981 chat with Dr Feelgood's Lee Brilleaux. The band had played a gig at Newcastle University and I went along to the Swallow Hotel in Newgate Street where they were staying to conduct the interview.
I toodled along to the hotel at various times in the late 70's and early 80's as it's situated right in the centre of Newcastle and touring bands would often stay there. I've had cause to recently revisit the hotel. Although writing about music is the main stream of my journalistic activities, as this blog illustrates, it's not the only one. I also write about travel, nostalgia, media and true crime, amongst other topics. My more recent trip to the Swallow, now renamed the Newgate Hotel, was in connection with a lengthy article I wrote for True Crime magazine about the still unsolved murder in the hotel's room 101 on 26 November 1980. Further information can be found in the Crime section of this site. Not sure whether any of the Feelgoods stayed in the room with the infamous number during their visit two months later.
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/…/dr-feelgoods-lee-brilleaux-…
Extracts from my interview also appear in Zoe Howe's newly released biog Lee Brilleaux Rock'n'Roll Gentleman.
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North East Music History blog 'Dave Black-Reflections'. Dave Black, one of the North East's most popular and accomplished musicians who'd played in bands including the post-David Bowie Spiders From Mars, late 1970's chart stars Goldie and more recently had become one of the circuit's busiest soloists passed away in tragic circumstances in July. I'd interviewed Dave in December 2013 for Classic Rock 194's '300 Days That Changed Rock. The Birth Of Heavy' feature along with other well known local music industry figures. Only a couple of paragraphs of my chat with him made the published article and I suggested to blog founder Hazel Plater that maybe we could run the full interview to commemorate Dave's life and work. She agreed and the feature is here; http://northeastmusichistory.blogspot.co.uk/
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Vive Le Rock! 28 (June/July 15) 'Worship and Tribute' (2, 300 words) For this issue VLR devoted a big section to rock bands from Australia. I'd previously suggested to the mag that I write a piece on The Church, one of my favourite bands from the 1980's. The Aussie special provided me with the perfect opportunity to do just that and I spent a fascinating 45 minutes talking on the phone to The Church's Steve Kilbey in Sydney.
Shortly after I'd sent the piece off to VLR I met former Bay City Rollers' guitarist Eric Faulkner at a garden party held by legendary music journalist John Tobler and his wife Lynda.
Eric and I chatted about what he was currently up to, the situation with the Rollers and the like. Lynda had told Eric I was a music journalist and he then asked me what I was currently working on. I told him I'd just finished the Church article, not necessarily expecting Eric to have heard of them. Turns out I was wrong; some years ago he'd produced a cover version with a female vocalist of The Unguarded Moment, one of The Church's most iconic songs. I mentioned that guitarist Marty Willson-Piper, one of the mainstays of the band, had recently gone AWOL. The outfit had wanted to record a new album and Steve Kilbey was having problems in getting hold of Marty and ended up replacing him. I told Eric this and he says; "That's because Marty was working with me!" He flips his phone open and says; "Do you want his number?" The article had already gone off so I declined but was gobsmacked by the coincidence to say the least!
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One of the first radio interviews I ever did was with Dewey Bunnell of the band America. In the mid-70's the trio toured the UK as half of a great double bill with Poco and called in at Newcastle's Odeon cinema. Both outfits were big favourites of mine and prior to the gig I scooted along to their hotel, tape machine in hand. My chat with Poco's Rusty Young seems to have got lost in the mists of time but Rock's Backpages have posted my interview with Dewey here; http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/americas-dewey-bunnell-1975
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Blues Matters 84 (June/July 2015 Live review of the Oriental Blues Festival (Sheffield City Hall). A little off my normal beaten track for this one but my oppo the decidedly unoriental Trevor Sewell was playing support and asked me if I fancied a trip down. Picking up our pals legendary North East drummer Trevor Brewis and Wall To Wall Blues internet radio presenter Les Young on the way the four of us had a great day hanging out with China's premier blues rock outfit the Big John Blues Band.
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Over the years I've interviewed many rock stars on radio and television or for magazines and newspapers. The passage of time inevitably means that some of the musicians I've spoken to years are no longer with us. When I interviewed The Ramones prior to their gig at The Canteen in Newcastle on 28 September 1978 there was four of us in the room; Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee and me. I'm still here, but da brudders (including Tommy, who'd been replaced by Marky by this point) are now all deceased. The interview has just been posted on Rock's Backpages.
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-ramones-1978
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Vive Le Rock 27 (June/July 15) 'The Saints Are Coming' (5,400 words). The Skids were one of my favourite new wave bands of the late 70's/early 80's and I was delighted when VLR said yes to my article proposal. I spoke to most of the surviving members of the band, along with
Bill Nelson who produced The Skid's iconic Days In Europa album. When embarking on a major article like this one, I usually have a reasonable idea as to the information I'll need and the general direction that the story will go in. This feature took me along a road that I hadn't totally anticipated and is probably one of the most thought provoking pieces I've written. Thanks very much to journalist Richard Balls for the following posted on his Twitter feed;
7 Jul 2015 - Big shout out to Ian Ravendale for such an in-depth and revealing piece on The Skids in @ViveLeRock1 .
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My latest entry on Rock's Backpages is the 1981 audio interview with the classic Lemmy/Eddie Clarke/Phil Taylor line-up of Motorhead, where they talk to me about getting hammered in the press (and the studio!), staying close to their fans, their friendship with The Damned, and lots of other things. They were great to interview as the three of them all had differing opinions about everything and argued with each other a lot of the time!
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/motrhead-1981
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Classic Pop 17 (June/July 15) Live review of Simple Minds. ('Best Live Show' and 'Reviews' title-page featured).
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Another memorable interview I conducted that has recently been posted on Rock's Backpages is my March 1977 conversation with Marc Bolan. He'd re-invented himself as 'The Godfather Of Punk' and drafted in The Damned as the support act on what turned out to be his last national tour and the first to feature a punk band playing major venues countrywide. We presenters of the BBC Radio Newcastle Bedrock programme had a little meander along to the Newcastle City Hall gig. Phil Sutcliffe conducted a riotous 90 second interview with The Damned which terminated with someone yelling "Oi! Who put da lights out!" while I renewed my acquaintanceship with the boppin' elf. I'd interviewed Bolan 18 months previously when he played to a half-empty Sunderland Empire and was decidedly defensive. This time round he was more upbeat, happy to lend his support to the new raft of young bands, and, poignantly, keen to talk about the future plans that would never be realised.
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/marc-bolan-1977
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Iron Fist 14 (June/July 15) 'Earn Your Stripes' (2000 words ) Without a shadow of a doubt the band I've written most about are The Tygers Of Pan Tang with lots of articles and reviews for Sounds, The Northern Echo and Sunderland & Washington Times in the late 70's and early 80's and I brought the story up to date with a major article in Classic Rock presents AOR 2 three years ago.
In addition to speaking to all the members of the Mk 2 version of
the band (bar John Sykes who wouldn't talk) I interviewed my ol' pal
(and co-presenter of the Bedrock radio programme)Tom Noble, the band's manager during the early 80's. During our chat Tom pointed out to me that I'd written the first major national article about the band and was now writing what would probably be the last. Liking the synchronicity of the idea I agreed. It turns out we were wrong. The new edition of Iron Fist magazine features my chat with Tygers' guitarists Robb Weir (who reformed the band in 2000) and Mickey Crystal ('the new John Sykes' says Robb) plus vocalist Jacopo Meille. Oodles of facts n' info about the Tygers past and present!
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Rock's Backpages have just posted my June 1982 interview with King Crimson's Robert Fripp. This first appeared on the Bedrock radio programme and topics that Robert and I talk about include Frippertronics and the artist/audience dynamic; his work with other artists (Gabriel, Bowie, Daryl Hall); production, his Exposure album, disco and how to make breakfast for 90 people. Really. http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/robert-fripp-1982
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I've worked a lot in radio for local and national BBC (including Radio 1 where my review of Rush live included the phrase 'quasi-mystical rhubarb') ILR, Lanzarote's UKAway FM , community radio and now internet broadcasting. I've done several interviews recently with my pal bluesman and songwriter Trevor Sewell and the latest, a feature as part of the Stephen Foster radio programme, has just been syndicated over three major US networks. The interview starts the show here;
http://www.globalradiopromo.com/global/FosterRadioShow5.128.mp3
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The Debbie Harry story (above) comes from a short interview I did with her in September 1978. Rock's Backpages have just posted the audio of this where I talk to her about Blondie's success in the UK relative to the US; whether they are more pop than "new wave", the changes introduced by Mike Chapman on Parallel Lines, Debbie's public persona, how people react to her and as much else as I can cram in to the allocated seven minutes.
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/blondies-debbie-harry-1978
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I've always been partial to a good song and that's what Newcastle band Shields have by the bucketload. My article about them can be found over at the Vinyl Guru site here; http://www.vinylguru.co.uk/blogs/news/17806792-how-can-shields-fix-this
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The Blues is more popular now than it's been since the late 1960's with several major festivals and every town and city having a blues club. And, of interest to me, there's a bunch of regular blues magazines. It was only a matter of time before I wrote for one and consequently Blues Matters 83 (April/May 15) has 'Calling His Name' (1,500 words) my cover-featured article about my long-term pal and acclaimed bluesman Trevor Sewell where he talks about recording at the legendary Capitol Studios, being on the London gig circuit at the same time as The Sex Pistols and not quite knowing what to say when presented with awards.
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The latest Rock's Backpages has my 27 January 1978 audio interview with Talking Heads where Frantz, Harrison and (mostly) Byrne talk about the early days in NYC, the CBGBs scene, Harrison joining from the Modern Lovers, their first album and its (and their) reception. Recorded, as I remember, in Byrne and Harrison's Newcastle hotel room after a gig at the Polytechnic as part of Heads' first ever UK tour.
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Over at Rock's Back Pages my 1978 audio interview with Siouxsie & The Banshees has just been posted for anyone who's a member of the site. This is the Morris/McKay lineup and one of the most memorable interviews I did for the Bedrock programme. Hear Steve Severin call everybody in the world 'morons'!
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/siouxsie--the-banshees-1978
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Classic Pop 15 ( Feb-Mar 15) My 'Musical Event of 2014'.
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Freshly posted across at the Vinyl Guru site is 'From The Bridge Hotel To Madison Square Garden' ( 4,500 words) my epic interview with Bob Smeaton. Bob is amongst the UK's most successful directors of music documentaries; Beatles! Spice Girls! Lou Reed! Dave Grohl! Elton John! Ian Ravendale! These are just some of the people Bob and I talk about. Loads about Beatles Anthology which Bob worked on as series director and writer. And also White Heat, Bob's Newcastle band that I reviewed or interviewed quite a few times back in the Sounds and Bedrock days.
vinylguru.co.uk/blogs/news/16613956-from-the-bridge-hotel-to-madison-square-garden-in-conversation-with-award-winning-music-documentary-director-bob-smeaton
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Just up on Rock's Backpages (see below) my 1979 audio interview with Nona Hendryx who had recently left Labelle at the time of our chat and was beginning to make waves as a soloist.
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/labelles-nona-hendryx-1979
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The excellent 'Rock's Backpages site has started posting some of the audio interviews I did for the Bedrock radio programme between 1975-84. I interviewed a lot of major names for the show, including The Clash, Banshees, Thin Lizzy, the classic Motorhead lineup, Ramones and many more. These interviews will be appearing on RBP with the first being my conversation from October 1979 with Penetration's Pauline Murray and Robert Blamire about the band's split which they announce for the first time live on air.
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/penetration-1979
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Sunderland Post 3 (December 14 ) Resisting the temptation to start their own sunglasses, ties-on-elastic or squeaky-voice-remedy companies, The Toy Dolls have instead teamed up with a brewery to launch their own line of beer. Read all about that (and various other Doll stuff) in my latest column. The Sunderland Post is free and can be picked up from supermarkets, clubs, pubs and the like on Wearside.
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Classic Pop 14 (Dec 14/ Jan 15) Live reviews of Lisa Stansfield and Level 42.
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The 1980's was my busiest time ever and during it I worked for radio stations, network and local television and local and national papers (including, of course, Sounds). And did PR. And managed a couple of bands. And slept every now and again. Be 80's is a new site all about the bands and music of that action-packed decade and my live review of The Boomtown Rats at the 02 Academy Newcastle has gone up. My review is here; http://be80s.co.uk/live-shows-boomtown-rats/4587288583
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There's a new local North East newspaper in town, a Wearside based monthly called The Sunderland Post. I wrote music columns for The Northern Echo and Sunderland & Washington Times back in the 1980's and am delighted to have been given the opportunity to do so for The Post. I will write the occasional piece about a national band but my plan is to concentrate primarily on local acts, first of which is a story in the newly published second issue about Trevor Sewell who is scooping up music awards in the US at a great rate of knots. The Post is free and can be found in shops and bars in Sunderland centre, along with local supermarkets like Asda and Sainsbury's.
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'The Road Goes On Forever' (4,200 words ) my extensive interview with legendary music journalist and biographer John Tobler has just been posted at the Vinyl Guru site. John was a major force behind Zig Zag, the UK's first rock music magazine that he became involved with in 1969 at the invitation of founder Pete Frame. He also wrote for most of the music weeklies, conducted interviews and music features for Radio 1 and authored dozens of music books, including several about Abba (see below). With his wife, Lynda Hugen-Tobler, John now runs the Road Goes On Forever record label. They live locally and I had a very pleasant afternoon a couple of weeks ago chatting to them both. The interview is here:http://www.vinylguru.co.uk/blogs/news/15613000-the-road-goes-on-forever-talking-with-john-tobler
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Iron Fist 12 (October-November 2014) 'Punk Killed Us!' (4,150 words) Midlands rock band Quartz kicked off in the mid 70's and were neither part of the initial avalanche of heavy that included Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple or the 'New Wave' of Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Tygers Of Pan Tang and so on ten years later. This lack of identity probably worked
against them and they never made that elusive breakthrough. Quartz split up in 1983 but are now back together gigging and recording. I spoke to all the members about the past, present and future of the band.
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The recent concert by Mary Chapin Carpenter and the Royal Northern Sinfonia at the Sage, Gateshead was one of the most memorable shows I've been to in recent years. You can read my review in here; http://www.randrlife.co.uk/mary-chapin-carpenter-royal-northern-sinfonia4837/
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The same R &R Life for October also has my review of the gig of the year (so far!)-The Pierces at Gateshead Sage-here http://www.randrlife.co.uk/pierces-gateshead-sage-2-review3626/
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Vive Le Rock 21 (October 2014) 'Attack!-The story of The Rezillos' (4,000 words) There's lots of articles online about Edinburgh's Rezillos and their 1980's incarnation as The Revillos. But what virtually all of them do is interview vocalists Eugene Reynolds and Fay Fife and no-one else. So I decided to approach things differently and talk to some of the other members of both bands as well as the front line. Included was Lennie Love, whose indie label Sensible Records put out the first couple of Rezillos singles and started the whole ball rolling, Jo Callis (who went on to join the Human League and co-wrote Don't You Want Me) Ali Patterson, Max Atom, Vince Santini, backing singer Babs and Rev's drummer Rocky Rhythm aka Nicky Forbes who provided me with lots of contacts for which I say Ta! Nicky has an excellent book on release about his time with the band called The Rhythm Method. Details on how to get hold of it can be found on the Revillos website at www.revillos.co.uk/rhythm.
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Classic Pop 12 (August-Sept 2014) Live reviews of New Kids On The Block and Billy Ocean.
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Classic Rock 200 (August 2014) 'The NWOBHM Pioneers' (1,200 words) CR is the UK's biggest selling (by a very long way) specialist rock magazine and it was great to be asked to contribute to the 200th issue. The article is me chairing a discussion between a trio of North East musicians I first wrote about back in the 'Sounds' days-Harry 'Hiroshima' Hill from Fist, Robb Weir (Tygers Of Pan Tang) and Jeff 'Mantas' Dunn, formerly of Venom. We had a pleasant hour in Newcastle's Centurion pub talking about da old daze and what everyone's been up to since. Some nice photos too by Chris Bishop. (http://www.picturesbybish.com/ ) Here's one that didn't make the magazine.
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Vive Le Rock 19 (July-August 2014) 'Coming Up For Air' (3,400 words) sees me dusting off my contacts book to tell the story of Penetration, the North East's premier New Wave band of the late 1970's. I wrote lots of stories about them back then and broke the news of Penetration's October 1979 split on Radio 1 and also in Sounds, trouncing the NME who'd
sent Paul Morley up to Newcastle City Hall especially to get the exclusive story but hadn't reckoned on 'Scoop' Ravendale. (And Sounds' day-earlier publication.) It was good to catch up with everybody and I got some great stories from Ferryhill's finest.
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I've just started co-coordinating editorial features on the Vinyl Guru website. Included will be choice historical music interviews from my days in radio going back to the 1970's and also Vinylist. where the idea is to get
anyone with an interest in music to talk about items from their record collections that have stories attached to them. We've got lots of interesting confessions coming up and to kick off I've done my own Vinylist. Learn how a track by an ex-Monkee changed my life, what my late stepfather had against Ambrose And His Band and the circumstances that lead to me (possibly) being in receipt of purloined product. It's all 'ere; http://www.vinylguru.co.uk/blogs/news/13194225-ian-ravendale
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Classic Pop 11 (June-July 2014) Live review of Eddi Reader.
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Iron Fist Magazine 10 (May-June 2014) 'All Is Well In Hell' ( 2,500 words). My interview with Ann Boleyn of US metal band Hellion. I spent a fascinating hour on the phone with Ann talking about her journey through the music business (and life!) over the last 35 years. She has lots of stories to tell and is still out there fighting both as a musician and vocalist but also a civil liberties lawyer, frequently against the bully-boy tactics of multinational conglomerates.
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Classic Pop 10 (May-June 2014) Live review of Suzanne Vega and 'Catching Up With' interview. Interesting lady. With a nifty line in lyrics and top hats.
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Iron Fist Magazine 9 (March-April 2014) 'Unleashed In The North East,' my definitive history of South Shields' rockers Fist. I first wrote about the band in Sounds back in the early 1980's as part of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. They reunited to play Brofest, one of the UK's premier metal festivals which brings together a lot of the original 80's bands and the new crop of metallers who they influenced. I interview all the major players from South Tynesides' finest and there's a couple of great pics of the 1981 Fist lineup courtesy of Rik Walton. (www.rikwalton.com) Here's another from the same session. Ta Rik!
And, a pic that didn't make the mag, my snap of the current lineup in rehearsal.
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Record Collector 424 (February 2014) Live reviews of Ray Jackson's Lindisfarne Christmas show (complete with photo by Rik Walton-the old Sounds team together again!) and Thea Gilmore.
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Classic Rock 193 (February 2014) '300 Days That Changed Rock-The Birth Of Heavy' providing research material for this major article about the rise of UK heavy metal in 1969 following in the wake of Led Zeppelin. I supplied the North East interviews, along with a short article about the Leicester-based Black Widow who infamously released an album with a black magic theme and regularly 'sacrificed' a naked girl on stage. The band were advised by Alex and Maxine Sanders the 'King And Queen Of The Witches'. Alex died many years ago but Maxine (who'd occasionally been the on-stage sacrifice) is still with us so I dropped her an email to inquire whether she'd be up for a phone chat. As I often do before sending off emails I put it through the spellchecker. And then realised what I'd done.... Maxine never did get back to me.
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Vive Le Rock 16 (January-February 2014) Live review of The Toy Dolls.
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Classic Pop 8 (January-February 2014) Live review of Huey Lewis & The News. ***
Record Collector 422 ('Christmas' 2013) Live reviews of Crosby, Stills & Nash and Travis. ***
Classic Rock presents AOR 10 (December 2013) Live review and photo of Laura Wilde. Here's a couple of my pics that weren't used;
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Record Collector Newsletter (29 November 2013) Live review of 60's Gold package (The Searchers, Gerry & The Pacemakers, The Fortunes, PJ Proby, Brian Poole & Chip Hawkes.)
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Record Collector Newsletter (14 November 2013) Live review of Barbara Dickson. ***
Using my 'Ian Ravendale' alias to avoid confusion with another journalist called Ian Penman I've written for national (and international) music magazines and sites including Abba-A Celebration, American Songwriter, The Beat, The Beatles-The Early Years, Blues Matters, Kate Bush Special Edition, Classic Pop, Classic Rock (magazine and web-site), Classic Rock presents AOR, The Crack, Fireworks, Iron Fist, Elton John Special Edition, Long Live Vinyl, Paul McCartney Special Edition, NARC, Pet Shop Boys Special Edition, R&R Life, Record Collector, Stevie Wonder Special Edition, George Michael-A Celebration, Sunderland Post, Vintage Rock, Vinyl Guru, Vive Le Rock, Whitesnake Fan Pack and The Word. I have an extensive archive of rock music audio interviews that I conducted in the 1970's and 80's, most of which are broadcast standard. Some have more recently been used on television and radio programmes or posted on the excellent Rock's Backpages site here-http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Writer/ian-ravendale
In addition to contributing to music magazines and websites I also write album sleeve notes and artist promotional biogs, most recently for the Tygers Of Pan Tang and Black Cat White Cat.
In chronological order off we go with what I've had published in the music magazine and related fields over the last few years.
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V ive Le Rock! 74; 'Like Ships In The Night' (Sept 2020) 3,600 words. I've been an admirer of Bill Nelson since the Be Bop Deluxe days of the 1970's. Over the years I've written several articles about Bill and have conducted quite a few radio interviews, many of which have appeared on 'Rock's Back Pages'. Being aware that there is a potentially new audience out there I suggested an article about Be Bop to VLR and this appears in the latest issue. For anyone who's not sure-including EMI, the band's 1970's record label-the outfit were called Be Bop Deluxe. No hyphen between 'Be' and 'Bop'. (Yes, I did check with Bill! EMI got it right for 'Modern Music' (see below!) And wrong for Axe Victim, Futurama, Sunburst Finish and Drastic Plastic!)
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'Cherish-David Cassidy A Legacy'. While working on the 'Bliss' Channel 4 programme at Border TV in the mid 1980's I booked David Cassidy onto the show and spent some time with him. David regrettably died in November 2017 and a year or so ago I was contacted by Louise Poynton from his fan club. She was compiling a 250 page collection of stories, memories and reminiscences about David and asked if would I like to write about his brief stay in Carlisle, which I was happy to do. 'Cherish' is available from Unicorn Publishing.
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V ive Le Rock! 71; 'All Sweetness And Light' (April 2020) 3,300 words. In most people's estimation Rachel Sweet was the star of the 1978 and 79 'Be Stiff' tours. I explore what she's
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V ive Le Rock! 71; Review of 'Cruel To Be Kind; The Life And Music of Nick Lowe' by Will Birch 406 words (Constable)
I've written a fair amount about The Beatles over the years and here's a couple of articles for Anthem Publishing to kick off: The Beatles Years Volume 3; (December 2019) 2,500 words. Apart from Apple Records, which got off to an unbeatable start with the fabs own 'Hey Jude' single, Apple was an optimistic but ultimately misguided attempt by The Beatles to use their wealth and influence creatively. Want a car that changes colour the faster it goes? Wallpaper that acts as loudspeakers? Read all about them and lots more here!
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The Beatles Years Volume 1-'The Essential Early Classics' (Sept 2019) 2,000 words. As most music fans will have noticed 2019 was the 50th' anniversary of the break-up of The Beatles, the world's greatest ever pop band. Here, in the first of four magazines from Anthem Publishing, I write about the blossoming of Lennon and McCartney's songwriting partnership and the prolific creation of the classic early songs which I assess track by track.
V ive Le Rock! 65; 'Dream Sequence' (Sept 2019) 3,300 words. Vive Le Rock goes from strength and this is the second issue in a row I've had a major article in. This is me chatting to Pauline Murray and Robert Blamire, who I've probably interviewed more than any other act over the years. Most of these chats have been about Penetration so this is something different; the return of The Invisible Girls for a few gigs including Blackpool's Rebellion, the UK's biggest annual punk festival. The IG's only existed for a couple of years after the demise of Penetration and the material that Pauline and co played during this period was very different to the pop-punk of the Ferryhill five.
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| Pauline Murray fronting The Invisible Girls at Newcastle City Hall in 1980. Thanks very much to Colin Davison for the fab pic. |
Classic Pop 55 (August 2019); Live review of The Spice Girls. An actual home gig for me this; the Girls were playing at Sunderland's Stadium Of Light and came very close to selling it out. Not bad for 44,000 capacity!
Vive Le Rock! 64; 'Where The Rose Was Sewn' (July 2019) 3,200 words
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| Jamie and Bruce in the Country |
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A bit further down is my entry about A Hidden Landscape Once A Week, the 400 page collection compiled by long-standing journalist and editor Mark Sinker that centres around the golden age of music journalism. I contributed a chapter about my time at Sounds and Mark and I recorded a 45 minute Skype chat discussing the paper, along with NME, Melody Maker, Record Mirror and many other music mags of the period. It's just been posted here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/25922361
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Classic Pop Presents: Synthpop; 40th Anniversary Edition. Hard to believe that electronic
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I've followed the music press since I was 13. Initially as a reader, then a journalist for the weeklies leading up to today's glossy monthlies. Given my on-going involvement with the music press I was delighted to be asked to contribute to A Hidden Landscape Once A Week. Put together by Mark Sinker, former editor of The Wire, this is a major collection of essays and discussions about the UK music press from 1960's to the late 1980's, why the mags were of major importance and what has subsequently happened to change things. My article centres around my time at Sounds and the different approach that the paper took to rivals like the NME, Melody Maker and Record Mirror.
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Cover design by Savage Pencil. I'm sure that's me in the bottom left-hand corner |
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I interviewed Bill Nelson on quite a few occasions for BBC Radio Newcastle's 'Bedrock' programme. These chats were initially about Be Bop Deluxe and then Red Noise and generally around the 15 or 20 minute mark. After the demise of Be-Bop I proposed to Bill that we do an extended retrospective and he graciously agreed. Rock's Backpages have just posted the full 53 minute interview. RBP is jammed full of all sorts of good stuff and well worth any music fan's attention. https://www.rocksbackpages.com/
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| The classic Be Bop Deluxe lineup with their most adventurous album I want. Bill's watch! |
Vive Le Rock! 59; 'Sydney Rococo'. Steve Kilbey album review; (January 2019). My take on the latest solo album by The Church's productive leading light.
Classic Pop Presents: George Michael; A Celebration
George Michael and I shared the same birthday, albeit mine a few years before his. I've written two of the major feature articles in Anthem Publishing's latest bookazine; a candid interview with one-time Wham! manager Simon Napier-Bell and an investigation into George's many collaborations across his stellar career going from Andrew Ridgeley to Nile Rodgers who he was working with the day prior to his death.
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In addition to their printed magazine NARC have a very lively website crammed full of lots of fab facts and info. My review of the Jesse Terry/Laura Oakes/Michael Logen 'songwriters circle' Cluny 2 gig is here; http://narcmagazine.com/live-review-jesse-terry-michael-logen-laura-oakes-the-cluny-2-newcastle-16-10-18/
Also at the NARC site is my review of Simon Todd and Central Station's album launch show. http://narcmagazine.com/live-review-simon-todd-central-station-the-greenhouse-bar-tynemouth-28-09-18/ Thanks to Pete Morrison for the pics. Simon (top) Rachel Bailey (bottom)
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Terry Reid audio interview-Rock's Backpages https://www.rocksbackpages.com/
2018 is the 50th anniversary of the formation of Led Zeppelin and Rock's Backpages have put together a Zep special. Further down this section I go into details about my 2012 Classic Rock article about the band's first ever UK gig on 4 October 1968 at Newcastle Mayfair as 'The New Yardbirds'. Coming with something new to say about a band who have been discussed non-stop since their break-up in 1980 is tricky but the UK debut gig on Tyneside hadn't been written about at all and I was able to extensively add to Zep's history. Classic Rock have re-printed my article a couple of times; once on their website and also cover-featured as part of the recent Classic Rock Special Edition-Led Zeppelin mag.
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Classic Pop Presents: Duran Duran 40th Anniversary Edition 'A Life Less Ordinary-The 1990's'
The latest of Anthem Publications 'bookazines' has me picking apart the wild boys most problematic decade. (3,300 words)
NARC 142 (August 2018) Feature about The Whitley Bay Film Festival, including an interview with guest film and live concert video director Dick Carruthers, who directed Celebration Day (Led Zeppelin) and The End Of The End (Black Sabbath) both of which got a screening at the festival. An extended version of my interview with Dick is here; http://narcmagazine.com/interview-dick-carruthers/
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| Dick Carruthers behind one of his gargantuan concert video walls |
Vive Le Rock! 55; 'The Blurred Weekend Of The Church'- (August 2018) 2,200 words .
The Church, one of my all-time favourite bands, were recently back in the UK to appear at the Meldown festival as special guests of Robert Smith and also to host their first ever 'Church Convention' over a weekend at London's Bush Hall. Steve Kilbey and Peter Koppes spill the beans!
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Classic Pop 42 (July 18); Live review of Blossoms. Without a shadow of doubt Blossoms are my band of the year. The hows and whys revealed here!
NARC 140 (June 2018) My interview with Darlington comedienne and actress Jade Byrne is centred around '70,000 Pricks' her one-woman show about living with Type 1 Diabetes. In the same issue my article promoting Lauren Pattison and Zach Zucker's Alphabetti Theatre preview of their Edinburgh Fringe shows.
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'Is That Machine On?'; (Archive On 4 Radio 4 documentary 26 May 2018) used part of my 1978 Joe Strummer interview. For a full list of the rock and pop music interviews I have available please look in the 'Interviews' section of this blog.
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Vintage Rock Presents: The Beatles; The Later Years; 'Unpeeling The Apple'; (2,700 words)
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Classic Pop Presents: Pet Shop Boys Special Edition
I have three major feature articles in this 134 page look at the life, times and recording output of da Boys; 'Classic Album; Yes', 'We Are The Pet Shop Boys' about the duo's 1990's output and 'Their Own Devices' spilling the beans about the duo's videos. A major thanks for a very informative chat to Andy Morahan who directed Neil and Chris's first three vids.
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The Crack 359 (June 18); Live review of Jesse Terry at Gateshead's Sage 2.
Classic Pop 40 (May 18); Live review of Lloyd Cole. Now Commotions-less the solo Cole can still hold an audience, as I discovered.
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Vive Le Rock! 51; 'Burning Cities'- The Skids album review; (February/March 2018) 550 words .
I've been anticipating the first album from The Skids in 37 years since I talked to the band about it for VLR! last year. Read all about it here!
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| Five Skids and four drainpipes. Pic courtesy of Callum Kay. Callum's excellent Skids site is http://www.the-skids.com/ |
The Beat 190 (February 2018) 450 words 'Obituary-Dolores O'Riordan.'
I interviewed Cranberries singer Dolores O'Riordan in 2016 for Classic Pop. She was friendly, straight-forward and frank about the some of her recent psychiatric problems and also her current projects. In addition to working with The Cranberries she was also involved with DARK, a trio that also included DJ Ole Koretsky and ex-Smiths bassplayer Andy Rouke. Dolores was easy to talk to and enthusiastic about the future and I was sorry to hear of her passing. The current issue of The Beat has my obituary of her.
In the same issue of The Beat my review of The Early Years, John Birch's excellent first volume of his projected three part biography of Paddy McAlloon and Prefab Sprout. The book is available via mail order only from www.Prefab-SproutBooks.
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Rock's Backpages have posted my November 2014 phone interview with The Skid's Richard Jobson. This formed part of my first major article about the band in Vive Le Rock! 27. We talk about forming the band in Dunfermline; support from John Peel; issues over Nazi imagery; the complexities of Stuart Adamson; The Absolute Game and evolving faster than their audience; recording Joy following Stuart's departure, Richard's life after the Skids and Adamson's death.
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| Photo by Ian Ravendale, taken during a break from rehearsals for The Skids first national tour in 35 years |
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Classic Pop Presents: Kate Bush 40th Anniversary Edition-'This Woman's Work'
I'm responsible for the magazine's lead-off quartet of articles-'Rolling The Ball To Me-The Early Years' (3,200 words) 'Classic Album-'The Kick Inside' (1,200 words) ' The Tour Of Life-A Matter Of Life And Death' (1500 words) 'From The Archive-'You Can't Destroy That Magic' (1,100 words). Plus Pop Up Facts and short pieces about The KT Bush Band (her pub group) early videos, set lists, tour dates and much more.
I've been a fan of Kate Bush's since 1978's Wuthering Heights. In my capacity as a local BBC radio journalist I was in regular contact with EMI at the time and they were very optimistic about the single and accompanying album. Rightly so-the single hit number 1 in February 1978 and she seemed to be almost everywhere virtually instantaneously.
I got to meet and interview Kate in March 1979 and my archive chat with her appears here in print for the first time. My contemporary interviews with guitarist Brian Bath and bass player David Paton (both of whom worked extensively with Bush during this period) filled in lots of details about Kate's recording and live gig activities and I thank them both. Brian played on 'The Tour of Life', Kate's one and only tour until 2014's Hammersmith Apollo run of 22 performances. I was at the Sunderland Empire concert that took place on 12 April 1979 and I'd never seen anything like it. And still haven't. She was yet to hit 21 and here she was master-minding a two-and-a-half hour show that included mime, dance, stage magic, two dozen costume changes, pyrotechnics and back projection-an innovation at the time. And the first live appearance of a head-set mike. Made out of a coat hanger.
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Lee Brilleaux Rock 'N' Roll Gentleman (Polygon) One of the sources that Zoe Howe's highly rated biogaphy draws on is my 1981 interview with the late Dr Feelgood frontman. The book is now on its' second edition and available from Waterstons or direct from the publishers www.polygonbooks.co.uk. See the Interviews section of this site for the other archive rock and pop music chats I have available.
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The Beat 189 (January 2018) 450 words 'Pink Balloons In A Cherry Picker.' My personal reminisces of working on a Channel 4 pop programme in the 1980's with the late David Cassidy.
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Classic Rock 245; 'The Curious Case Of Klaatu.' (January 2018) 3,400 words-cover promoted. I have one of the main feature articles in this month's CR which details how in 1977 a million Beatle-crazed Americans were so convinced that an anonymous Canadian trio were actually the Fab Four re-united that they went and bought their début album. The Carpenters covered Klaatu's Calling Occupants Of Interplantetary Space and went on to have an international smash with it. Klaatu's own version has recently been featured on the TV series Mindhunters, set in the 1970's.
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Vive Le Rock! 50; 'Burning Ambitions'; (January 2018) 2,350 words . I was pleased to be asked to contribute to VLR!'s 50th anniversary which also happened to be the mags's 'Best Of 2017' issue. The Skids cop the 'Comeback Of The Year' and I've written the accompanying article. This is the third story I've done with Dunfermline's finest and I also supply the lead photo. Another photo from the same session below.
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| Photo by Ian Ravendale |
And....Vive Le Rock! 50; 'Scared To Dance' Expanded' (400 words) My review of the re-issue of The Skids' first album with lots of nice extras.
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Classic Pop 35 (December 2017). Live review of The Fizz who are three-quarters of the original Bucks Fizz, plus fellow Eurovision veteran Bobby McVay looking uncannily like the absent Bobby G. Ridiculously prevented from using the Bucks Fizz name this is them delivering their hits alongside choice selections from the new Mike Stock-produced album.
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Classic Pop Presents: Stevie Wonder (November 2017) 'World On A String' (4.400 words)
As I work my bookazine way through the superstars of pop I stop at Stevie Wonder and sign, seal and deliver an extensive guide through what he was up to from the 1990's to date.
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Led Zeppelin-Classic Rock Special Edition '4 October 1968- Led Zeppelin's 'Secret' UK Debut'. (3,100 words) As a quick look in WH Smiths demonstrates, many of the major publishers are currently producing one-off specials based around one particular artiste. Anthem, producers of Classic Pop are one of these and I've contributed articles to specials about The Beatles, Elton John and more. Classic Rock have entered the arena with a Led Zeppelin 'Special Edition.' Unlike the Anthem mags, this consists of non-original material, drawn from CR's huge back catalogue. I was pleased to find that my 2012 story about Zepp's first ever UK gig (at Newcastle Mayfair as 'The New Yardbirds') was included and cover promoted (bottom left) as 'I Was There-The Oral History'. In my article I speak to audience members, the promoter, the then-manager of the Mayfair and musicians from support bands Downtown Faction, The Junco Partners and New York Public Library. And ask Terry Reid why he appeared on the advance tickets but not at the actual gig.
Vive Le Rock! 48 ( Oct 2017) Penetration live review. Back in the Sounds days, my snapper chum Rik Walton and I did lots of articles and reviews about Penetration, including breaking the story of their split in 1979, where by virtue of the paper's Wednesday publication, we trounced that Thursday's NME who'd sent Paul Morley up to Newcastle especially. None of us could have possibly guessed that decades later me, Rik and Penetration would be back together in print. But, here we are! Regrettably we may not be doing it again, as Rik and his wife Kath have just relocated to Canada. But.....if Pauline and co ever get to gig in Ontario I'm up for it!
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| Penetration September 2017. Pic by Rik Walton |
Most of my Rock's Backpages interviews date back to the 1970's and 1980's. The site's latest posting of one of my conversations with music's finest is much more recent. In my 2015 chat with The Church's Steve Kilbey we talk about the formation of the band; the success of The Unguarded Moment; being forced to tour with Duran Duran; endless struggles with record companies; being a confrontational individual; the albums Starfish and Priest=Aura; and lots more. RBP is a subscription site but well worth joining as there's lots of great stuff up there!
https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-churchs-steve-kilbey-2015
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The 40th anniversary of the death of Marc Bolan has brought numerous articles and features about him. Included is Rock's Backpages' extensive dig into the archives, reprinting articles and also featuring several radio interviews with Marc. One of these was with me, conducted at the very last North East gig he would play. https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/marc-bolan-1977
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Vive Le Rock! 47 ( Sept 2017) 'Kimono Their House-Larks With Sparks' (2,600 words)
I enjoy reviewing gigs and like writing articles, especially those where I can dig deep and bring something new to the table. But the journalistic activity I relish most is interviewing and have conducted many hundreds of interviews for print, radio and television stretching back four decades. Sparks were one of my favourite bands of the 1970's and they are still active today with a new album on release. I was delighted to be able to speak to Ron and Russell Mael for VLR and found them just as sharp and witty as I hoped they'd be.
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Plus ....Vive Le Rock! 47( Sept 2017) 'Hippopotamus' (150 words) Sparks album review. 9/10 I give it!
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Classic Pop Presents: Elton John (Aug 2017) 'John Doe-The Early Days' (2,500 words) and
'Free Reign' (2,600 words). I write two of the feature articles in Anthem's latest
'bookazine,' this one devoted to (as the cover describes him) 'The Rocket Man.' I look at both the beginning of Elton's career and where he is to-date. There's lots of reading in these magazines and no matter how much you know about Elton John there'll be facts and info new to you. I did, however, refrain from mentioning that Nigel Olsson, Elton's long-time drummer, was the singer with Wearside beat combo The Fireflies, the first ever pop band I saw perform live-at Christ Church Youth Club in Sunderland for anyone taking notes.
Long Live Vinyl 5 (Aug/Sept) Talking Shop-'Geordie Store' (2,000 words) is a five page feature on Newcastle's Vinyl Guru, the one-stop shop for all things vinyl, from sleeves to period jukeboxes.
Ta to Charlotte Bredael Photography for the photos, including this one.
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The Beat 181(June 17) 'From The Archive-Michael Nesmith, Rolling With The Flow Of Monkee Business' ( (900 words-Cover Featured)
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The Beat 181(June 17) 'From The Archive-Michael Nesmith, Rolling With The Flow Of Monkee Business' ( (900 words-Cover Featured)
In common with the other features I've written for The Beat, this piece draws on my extensive archive of music interviews and features, this time from Out Now 2 and the Bedrock radio programme. It covers Michael Nesmith's mid-70's solo tour of the UK and one of the few occasions where he played backed by a full band. Amongst many topics Michael and I discuss is the philosophy behind his preferred style of stage lighting. ('On!')
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Classic Pop Presents: Paul McCartney (June 2017) 'And In The End' (2,500 words)
This issue of Classic Pop Presents takes an extended look at a post-Beatles Paul McCartney through the decades, spanning from the 1970s to the 2010s. My contribution is a lengthy article about how Paul coped with the aftermath of The Beatles break up. My favourite quote is from accountant James Spooner who had been appointed by the High Court to look after The Beatles financial affairs until a full hearing to dissolve their partnership could be heard. Spooner described Allen Klein (at this point acting for John, George and Ringo) as 'this crook' and, while acknowledging his talent, reckoned Lennon was 'terribly tiresome.'
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Rock's Backpages latest rummage through Ian's Rock Interview Archive is my February 1980 chat with Wishbone Ash's Andy Powell, Martin Turner and Laurie Wisefield. We discuss playing older Ash material onstage, the band moving to America, and then coming back, the U.S. influence on their music, management problems, and the impact of New Wave.https://rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/wishbone-ash-1980
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Vive Le Rock! 44 ( May 2017) 'World On Fire-The Return Of The Skids' (5,400 words).
The follow-up to my retrospective article about The Skids in VLR 27. At that point the band were happy to get together once every couple of years to do the occasional festival or event. Things move on and change and with Big Country's Bruce and Jamie Watson replacing the late Stuart Adamson The Skids are back with Burning Cities the first new album since 1981 and a major 40 date tour. I travelled up to Dunfermline to talk to the band members individually and as a group and watch them run through the set they're going to be playing on tour including album opener World On Fire, a powerful new song that marries vocalist Richard Jobson's lyrical view of a world collapsing in on itself with a classic upbeat Skids melody.
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| The Skids in rehearsal February 2017. L-R Jamie Watson, Bruce Watson, Richard Jobson, Mike Baillie, Bill Simpson. Photo by Ian Ravendale |
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Vintage Rock 29 ( May/June 17) 'History In The Making'
As a television researcher in the 80's and 90's I worked on documentaries, music and kids shows and lots of arts and entertainment programmes. This often involved trips to the theatre, both mainstream and the smaller independents, which I don't get to do much currently. So I was pleased to be asked by Vintage Rock magazine to go along to Newcastle Theatre Royal to review the touring version of Million Dollar Quartet, the musical based around the legendary jam session between Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins that took place at Sun Studios in Memphis on 4 December 1956.
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| The 'Million Dollar Quartet' cast recreate the classic Sun Studios photograph from 1956. Pic by Darren Bell |
My latest contribution to the wonderful Rock's Backpages is my 2012 audio interview with Diane Warren, the world's most successful contemporary songwriter. This is one of my journalism tapes, rather than a radio interview and is 35 minutes long. RBP is a subscription site but there's lots of very good free material up there as well. https://rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/diane-warren-2012
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Classic Pop 28 (Apr/May 17). Live review of Mike & The Mechanics.
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| 'And over there is the other guitarist. The one who isn't in Genesis'. |
Vintage Rock presents The Beatles Collectors Edition-The Early Years '40 Greatest Beatles Early Classics'. (5,000 words) I've started contributing to the 'bookazines' devoted to one specific pop act that you can
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Vintage Rock 28 ( March/April 17) 'Jewel Of The North' my double page spread reviewing Wearside's own rockbilly rebels Ruby & The Mystery Cats. Unlike back in the Sounds days I normally don't get the opportunity to write about bands with a mainly local (rather than national) profile. Consequently I jumped at the opportunity to review one of the hardest working bands on the North East rockin' circuit. Catch 'em now!
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The Beat 178 (February 17) 'From The Archive-Paul McCartney' (500 words)
During my lengthy broadcasting career for local and national BBC radio, Wear FM and other stations I taped hundreds of interviews, all but one of which, I'm happy to say, came out. The interview that didn't was non-recorded in a Newcastle back lane in the 1970's with (sod's law) the most famous person I've ever spoken to; Paul McCartney. Read all about it!
Until now, all of my interviews that have appeared on Rock's Backpages come from the 1970's and 1980's where they were originally broadcast on the 'Bedrock' radio programme. Jumping ahead 30 years, the latest interview posted is my 2011 phone chat with Nils Lofgren which formed the basis of an article I wrote for Fireworks magazine. At 57 minutes the interview is much longer than the radio pieces and in it Nils looks back on his lengthy, fascinating career: the struggles of Grin; playing on Neil Young's After The Gold Rush, Tonight's The Night, and further Young-led adventures; going solo, and his long association with Bruce Springsteen.
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/nils-lofgren-2011
The Beat 177 (January 17) 'From The Archive-Debbie Harry (550 words)
I interviewed Blondie's Debbie Harry twice. Once in 1978 in person backstage at Newcastle City Hall for the 'Bedrock' BBC Radio Newcastle programme and a second time on the phone ten years later when I was working on the ITV Saturday and Sunday morning kids show Get Fresh. This article for The Beat tells the story of my 1978 five minutes with Debbie. Just the two of us alone together in a very small room!
The Beat 176 (December 16) 'From The Archive-Andy Bown' (500 words)
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| The Herd in 1968. Andy Bown on the left sporting a totally nifty jacket. |
The Beat is a long-established magazine that specialises in music from the 50's, 60's and 70's. I interviewed keyboard player Andy Bown in 1980 for the 'Bedrock' radio programme and the article is an updated version of our chat. In addition to talking about his work with Status Quo (who Andy still plays with) we also discuss writing music for TV programmes and his time with The Herd. In the late 1960's the Peter Frampton-fronted outfit attracted One Direction-type hysteria whenever they played. 'It was nice getting your clothes ripped off, your hair torn out and being scratched to pieces!' is how Bown remembers it.
The Beat can be ordered from www.beatmagazine.co.uk
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The newly published Classic Pop presents Abba-A Celebration mag gives me the chance to write about one of my favourite bands. The timeless appeal of Abba's songs, the intimacies of their vocal arrangement and the inventiveness of the productions have influenced a generation of musicians, singers, songwriters and producers. Contemporary music would be very different is Abba hadn't existed. The outfit were undoubtedly the 1970's/early 1980's best pop act and I have fun exploring their (cover promoted) '40 Best Tracks' chronologically from 'Ring Ring' to 'Under Attack.' At 5,000 words this is one of the longest articles I've written recently but I still didn't have space for great numbers like 'Rubber Ball Man', 'Just Like That' and 'Dream World' that the quartet recorded but never officially released completed versions of.
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Allowing me to time travel back to the 1970's the fab Rock's Backpages have just posted the first music interview I ever did. Michael Nesmith was playing his first ever UK solo gig (at Zig Zag magazine's Fifth Birthday bash at London's Roundhouse, organised by the paper's Pete Frame and John Tobler.) I was going and asked Dick Godfrey, the producer of 'Bedrock' the BBC Radio Newcastle show I'd just started contributing to, whether he'd be interested in an interview with Michael, if I could get one. Dick said yes and a day or so before the Zig Zag show I heard an item on Radio 1 saying that Nesmith had signed to Jonathan King's UK Record label. As 'Ian Penman from BBC Radio Newcastle' I rang UK who, very obligingly, gave me the phone number of the hotel Michael was staying at. Heart thumping, I rang the number and reception put me through! Nesmith quickly dismissed the UK Records story but agreed to the interview anyway. So I toodled along to the hotel, cassette recorder in hand and spent half-an-hour chatting to him as I did my first-ever music interview. Not that I told Michael it was that.
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| Michael Nesmith with John Lennon in the 1960's. One of the things Michael and I talk about in the interview is his (uncredited) co-write of 'Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite.' |
The Nesmith interview (which I haven't quite summoned up the courage to re-listen to yet) is here. http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/mike-nesmith RBP has lots of great content and is well worth investigating.
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Classic Pop 25 (Oct/Nov16). Live reviews of Tony Hadley and UB 40. South Tyneside Council have been staging free gigs over July at Bents Park in South Shields for quite a few years now. It's a really good event which gets a huge turnout as you can see. It's UB 40 they're watching.
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My latest contribution to Rock's Backpages is the 1980 interview I conducted with Justin Hayward where the Moody Blues guitarist/singer talks about the current state of the band; Mike Pinder's departure; his solo work; his association with Jeff Wayne and The War of the Worlds album; the Moodys' live show, and working with 10cc and Lonnie Donegan.
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| http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-moody-blues-justin-hayward-1980 |
Vintage Rock 25 ( Sept/Oct 16) Cover promoted Imelda May 'new live show' and 'new look' (1,000 words)
Unlike all the other music mags Vintage Rock specialises in the early days of rock n'roll and pop music. Imelda May has built up a major following particularly with rockabilly fans and was debuting her new set at the Gateshead Sage venue's annual Americana Festival. May was also introducing her new look (which I describe in the review as 'edgy Sandie Shaw'!) that took many of the 50's dressed gig-goers by surprise. As well as reviewing Imelda's set I also take a look at support band Jess And The Bandits and the festival itself. In addition to the ticketed acts like May and Mary Chapin Carpenter there were two free music stages and lots of stands and stalls thrown in to make for an excellent atmosphere. Photos alongside my review are by Newcastle photographer Chris Bishop.
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Chapin was a big personality and very loquacious, although I was able to catch him off guard by asking about unreleased tracks recorded with Michael Nesmith who I'd interviewed quite a few times. Harry asked me how I knew about them and I was able to answer: 'Because Michael told me!' We also talked about Chapin's story songs like 'W•O•L•D'. After I said I reckoned many people actually thought he was a former radio presenter writing about his time as 'the morning DJ on WOLD' he agreed with me, adding something I quote whenever the conversation turns to writing novels or screenplays: 'Everybody has one story in them, which is the story of themselves! The trick is to be able to become somebody else and write about that!'
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| http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/harrychapin-1977 |
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| Prior to the Newcastle gig 'The New Yardbirds' had played a week of clubs in Scandinavia, one of which was the Gladsaxe Teen Club in the Gladsaxe School Hall on the outskirts of Copenhagen, Denmark. At the show was a 17 year old photographer called Jorgen Angel who took 26 photos, one of which is above. Have a look at his site for the others and lithograph offers. This will be exactly how Zep looked when they played Newcastle Mayfair. |
http://teamrock.com/feature/2016-08-12/led-zeppelin-s-secret-uk-debut
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Classic Pop 24 ( Aug/Sept16) 'Dancing With The D.A.R.K' (2,000 words). D.A.R.K. are the band formed by Cranberries vocalist Dolores O' Riordan with former Smith's bassist Andy Rourke and New York songwriter, DJ and produce Ole Koretsy. Dolores in particular was very frank and forthcoming, which I appreciated when I spoke to her and Ole shortly after they'd flown in from New York.
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| I've always been a sucker for arty B & W pics. D.A.R.K. left to right. Dolores O'Riordan, Andy Rourke, Ole Koretsky |
The Subway Sect radio interview I mention in The Clash piece a few paragraphs down is now on Rock's Backpages. 'The blankest of the blank generation' attempt to answer questions including what is punk, why punk had to happen, the importance of lyrics and the anger at the heart of it all.
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| http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/subway-sect-1977 |
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I've met Ozzy Osbourne a few times and found him to be an approachable, amenable sort of guy. This has included interviewing him twice and also (accidentally) wandering into the backstage area at Newcastle Mayfair. Ozzy was appearing there about six months after Sounds had published my live review of his 'Blizzard Of Oz' gig at Newcastle City Hall which started with me enquiring: 'Why is Ozzy Osbourne so cabaret?' Fortunately for me at the Mayfair he'd never seen a photo of Ian Ravendale....
The other was when I was working in the Arts & Entertainments department at Tyne Tees Television. Ozzy was appearing on The Tube (whose offices were next to ours) and he got himself lost and wandered into A & E. Unlike most of my colleagues I instantaneously recognised him, of course, went over and pointed him in the right direction. He thanked me and said 'We've met before, haven't we?' What he was referring to was the couple of radio interviews we did, the first of which has just been uploaded to the Rock's Backpages site. In it, amongst other things, Ozzy rails against bouncer-on-fan violence (totally not an issue at Newcastle City Hall where the interview took place) describes his feelings toward Black Sabbath (who he was still a member of at this point) and voices his frustrations with the recording process.
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/black-sabbaths-ozzy-osbourne
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My late 1970's interview with Blue Oyster Cult is now live on Rock's Backpages. In it BOC (mostly the late Allen Lanier) debunk myths about the band's formation, discuss songwriting formulae for success and dispute the latent satire in their music. We also talk about the role of producers and, specifically, Sandy Pearlman's relationship to the band. http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/blue-yster-cult-1978
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| BOC 1978: 'That Ian Ravendale's questions are a total riot!' |
My radio interviews, music paper reviews and articles are quoted in biographies on a fairly regular basis. The latest is my 1980 Sounds review of a Newcastle Mayfair gig by The Ruts where certain sections of the audience got a little over-enthusiastic. The book is Love In Vain-The Story Of The Ruts And Ruts DC. by Roland Link and is available from various sources including; https://www.amazon.co.uk/Love-Vain-Story-Ruts-D-C/dp/0957171730
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Writing for Sounds I became one of the paper's busiest freelancers and regional gig reviewers. In a history-repeating-itself scenario, I've written five out of nine live reviews in this month's Classic Pop (no 23 June-July 16) with my Eddi Reader critique Reviews section-featured. I also review The Real Thing, The Stranglers, Rudimental and The Wonder Stuff-the last three with photos by me. There's also a short piece about my Favourite New Artist-Tyne and Wear's Shields.
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| Rudimental, 02 Academy Newcastle 29 February 2016. This is just some of them. Photo by Ian Ravendale. |
I interviewed the great songwriter Diane Warren in 2011. The resulting article first appeared in Classic Rock presents AOR 4 and has now just been posted on the Classic Rock website. The site has loads of really good stuff on it, joining is free and gives you access to re-postings from the CR archive, along with the latest reviews and music news. http://teamrock.com/feature/2011-02-09/diane-warren-she-writes-the-songs-that-really-do-make-the-whole-world-sing
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| Diane Warren with Lady GaGa. So, Diane is either very small and Gaga is very tall or, more likely, there's some skyscraper heels action going on here. Photo courtesy of Cosmopolitan. |
My newest audio contribution to Rock's Backpages is the 1977 interview that
Phil Sutcliffe and I conducted with The Clash's Mick Jones after the band's May
gig at Newcastle University. BBC Radio Newcastle's Bedrock was a showcase for local and national bands of all genres. We reviewed gigs and albums and had good relationships with most of the promo-hungry record companies who knew that we'd be up for interviewing their acts.
CBS's regional rep, an amiable Scottish guy called Gordon, asked if we fancied interviewing
The Clash. The label had recently signed the band-allegedly for big bucks-and wanted to
promote their freshly released debut album. The White Riot tour was calling in at Newcastle
University and we agreed to go down and interview The Clash at the gig as
we'd done with dozens of other bands previously. As this is the first punk tour to
hit Newcastle, I come up with the idea of also interviewing support bands Subway Sect
University and we agreed to go down and interview The Clash at the gig as
we'd done with dozens of other bands previously. As this is the first punk tour to
hit Newcastle, I come up with the idea of also interviewing support bands Subway Sect
and The Slits and doing a 'punk special.'
But things didn't quite go according to plan.
Prior to the show I do the Subway Sect, which was a bit like trying to interview
a week-old blancmange. Ari Upp tells me that the Slits don't do interviews but, on learning
that I'm 'from the BBC' asks how Janie Jones is. Even though Ms Jones was originally from
that I'm 'from the BBC' asks how Janie Jones is. Even though Ms Jones was originally from
Seaham, we moved in very different circles and our paths never crossed, I tell her. Instead
I swap repartee with Mick Jones ("The Clash ain't here"he says) while Joe Strummer
sits sullenly in the corner. Clash manager Bernie Rhodes tells me to come back after
the show and we can do the interview then.
I swap repartee with Mick Jones ("The Clash ain't here"he says) while Joe Strummer
sits sullenly in the corner. Clash manager Bernie Rhodes tells me to come back after
the show and we can do the interview then.
Gig over, Gordon takes me, Phil Sutcliffe and Paul Nunn, the pop columnist from the
Newcastle Sunday Sun, downstairs to the dressing room that seems to be some
sort of sports changing facility next to a delivery bay.There are droves of regional pressman hanging around, not quite knowing how to approach things. Phil, Paul and I make our way through the throng and into the dressing room. Then it went a bit pear-shaped....
An interview is subsequently conducted with Mick Jones by me and Phil sitting on beer kegs next to a loading bay while the assembled pack of local journos sit around and
take notes not saying a word and looking at Jones like he'd just beamed in from Mars.
take notes not saying a word and looking at Jones like he'd just beamed in from Mars.
The interview was, without doubt one of the edgiest I ever did with a band and
is an invaluable snapshot of The Clash circa 1977. Topics included taking over London,
spit as a language, being manipulated by the record company, suddenly having access to media, the effect The Clash have on their fans, starting a band by nicking equipment, playing reggae and how the band as a collective work out what's valid or not, including Baa-Baa Blacksheep!
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-clashs-mick-jones
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Writing for Sounds in the late 70's and early 80's I got to see (and often interview) many of the 'New Wave Of British Heavy Metal' bands. One band I didn't interview was Diamond Head and IF gave me the chance to rectify that. Diamond Head didn't achieve the success of the likes of Iron Maiden or Def Leppard but are often sited by Metallica and Megadeth as being a major influence, particularly in their early days. I speak to new vocalist Ras Bom Andersen and (mainly) guitarist Brian Tatler, who's been with the band right from the start.
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| Getting A (Diamond) Head. |
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Pretty much all of my audio interviews that Rock's Backpages are posting come from the late 70's-mid 1980's period and were originally broadcast on the BBC Radio Newcastle programme Bedrock that I worked on and latterly produced. RBP have just posted the one exception to this, my 1994 interview with Aimee Mann. From 1990 to 1994 I presented a weekly live two hour music programme called River Rock for Wear FM, Sunderland's community radio station. This was like a one-man version of Bedrock, where I played current tracks that caught my fancy, obscure oldies and local rock and pop music. Each edition featured a live interview with a local band. I was a major fan of singer-songwriter Aimee Mann, going from her days fronting 'Til Tuesday up to her solo albums. She was playing at Newcastle's Riverside venue and breaking my self-imposed 'local bands only' rule I went along to her hotel in the afternoon and recorded an interview.
Before the interview could be broadcast Wear FM had a re-shuffle and River Rock was cancelled. As a replacement I was offered a programme with a playlist (which I declined) or the Indie Music show (which maybe I should have taken but didn't). Consequently my chat with Aimee has never been heard. Until now. (Wear FM bit the dust shortly after the reshuffle to be replaced by Sun FM, an atypical 'Smashy and Nicey' commercial radio station.) My Aimee interview is here; http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/aimee-mann-19
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Vive Le Rock! 34 (April/May16) 'Starting Up The Upstarts' (3,200 words).
One of the magazines I write for on a regular basis is Vive Le Rock, which features an eclectic mix of music that includes punk, rockabilly, new wave, indie, rock, hard core and more besides. I was around writing for Sounds and interviewing bands for Radio Newcastle's Bedrock programme and (occasionally) Radio 1 in the late 70's and early 80's and Vive has given me the opportunity to revisit some of these outfits 35 years later. In addition to The Rezillos, The Skids and The Pirates I've recently written articles about the North East new wave bands that went on to be known nationally-The Toy Dolls, Penetration and now, South Shields' Angelic Upstarts who were (and still are) the most 'punky' of the trio. We talk about pigs heads, kangaroo courts, shotgun solutions, police oppression, how to get sacked from a major label and walk away with £25,000 and songwriting the Upstarts way. We also discuss this photo by Rik Walton which appeared alongside the first ever national music press story about the Upstarts, written by Phil Sutcliffe and published in a 1978 edition of Sounds.
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| Angelic Upstarts 1978, with Sounds journalist Phil Sutcliffe (far left). Photo by Rik Walton (www.rikwalton.com) |
Classic Pop 22 (April/May16). Live reviews of Leona Lewis and Howard Jones, my 'Music Moment of 2015' (the release of Resolution, the first new Penetration album in 36 years) and 'Electronic Heart', a six page feature interview with Chvrches. About a year ago, when penning a short biog of myself for Vive Le Rock, to illustrate the point that my taste in music is quite wide, I wrote that it ranged 'From The Church to Chvrches'. I enjoy the music of both but had neither met nor interviewed either band at this point. Here we now are and I've subsequently chatted to and written about both. Spooky. Wonder if I can get the phrase 'small, blonde and Australian' printed somewhere.....
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| Take me to Chvrches. |
Working on a weekly rock and local music programme, as I did on BBC Radio Newcastle's Bedrock in the late 1970's until the mid-1980's, I got the opportunity to interview many of the music stars of the time. Some at gigs (see below). Others when they had new albums out and their record companies took them round the provincial radio stations circuit. Rock's Backpages have just posted the 1980 chat I had with Carl Palmer when he was on one such jaunt to promote his post-ELP band PM. http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/elps-carl-palmer-1980
*** Newcastle City Hall figures a lot in my journalism and broadcasting career. I reviewed hundreds of gigs there for Sounds and Pop Star Weekly in the late 70's and early 80's and Classic Pop and Record Collector over the last couple of years. I also conducted many radio interviews at NCH 30+ years ago and some of these (like Roger Taylor below) are being posted on the Rock's Backpages site and the latest is my June 1978 chat with Thin Lizzy's Phil Lynott, in the backstage hospitality area. http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/thin-lizzys-phil-lynott-1978
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Queen were appearing at Newcastle City Hall in May 1979 and I arranged with the local EMI promotions guy to go along and interview one of them. I was told the lucky participant would be Brian May so I prepared various questions about sixpence pieces, making guitars out of old fireplaces and the like. When I got there this turned out to be a bum steer and I was actually going to be talking to drummer Roger Taylor. "What sort of sticks do you use, Roger?" didn't quite have the same appeal so I winged it. All four band members were knocking around prior to doing their soundcheck and what was interesting was that Roger, Brian and John Deacon were generally accessible and hanging doing the usual pre-gig mooch. Freddie Mercury, though, was a lot less approachable down to a burly minder who followed his boss two steps behind him wherever he went. My Rocks' Backpages interview with Roger Taylor is here; http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/queens-roger-taylor-1979
Sleeve notes for the Spring 2016 re-issue of Noises From The Cathouse by the Tygers Of Pan Tang (Angel Air Records) for what the BabySue site reckons is 'a cool booklet with interesting liner notes written by Ian Ravendale.' My relationship with the Tygers goes back 35 years. I wrote lots about Whitley Bay's heaviest for Sounds and the local press, interviewed them on the radio and even went on tour with the band a couple of times. Cathouse first came out in 2003, received little promotion and was soon impossible to find. The Angel Air reissue has been remastered and includes three bonus tracks recorded in 2004. Angel Air has a huge catalogue of audio and DVD titles. The label's site is here; www.angelair.co.uk
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Rock's Backpages have posted my late 1970's interview with Trevor Bolder; http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-spiders-from-mars-trevor-bolder-1979
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Busy month for me at Classic Pop 21 (Feb/Mar 16) Live reviews of Chvrches and Marina & The Diamonds, my 'Top Track Of 2015' ('Silver And Gold' by Little Big Town) and my mug shot and mini biog (Number seven, I think! All different!) in the 'Our Contributors' section of the magazine.
I interviewed The Clash a couple of times in the late 1970's. The first was in 1977 at Newcastle University during the White Riot tour where the band were supported by The Slits and Subway Sect. All the local paper journalists had turned out to gaupe at the punks and the atmosphere was edgy, to say the least. Joe Strummer got into a bit of a debate with my Bedrock pal Phil Sutcliffe, which ended in him having Phil ejected from the room and the Sunday Sun's Paul Nunn and I having to sit through all of the bands banging as hard as they could on the metal lockers that filled the changing room we were in until it started to shake. Clash manager Bernie Rhodes rescued us and arranged for Phil and I to later interview Mick Jones.
I got to interview Joe Strummer backstage at Newcastle Polytechnic eighteen months later and he was fine. The 'punks as freaks' thing had died down and we had an interesting chat. Rocks' Backpages has just posted my interview here; http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-clashs-joe-strummer-1978-2
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Classic Pop 20 (Dec15/Jan16) Live reviews of Years & Years ('Reviews' title page featured) and China Crisis (review and photo).
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Back in the Sounds days I wrote quite a few articles about Ferryhill's Penetration. Some of those articles (including the one where I broke the story of their split) are in this site's Archive section. The band reformed with an adjusted lineup in 2002 and have just released Resolution the first new Penetration album in 36 years. My piece about the album where I talk to all five members of the band about how it came about has just been posted over at the Vinyl Guru site. http://www.vinylguru.co.uk/blogs/news/77842884-the-resolution-of-penetration
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| Penetration 2015. Photo by Ian West |
My latest audio piece over at Rock's Backpages is my 1978 interview with John Cooper Clarke. I chatted with him a few times in the late 70's/early 80's and he was an amusing and affable interviewee. I managed to come up with a fairly decent take off of JCC doing his Kung Fu International poem although I never quite got round to letting him hear it. He's touring again now so maybe.....
.http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/john-cooper-clarke-1978
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Vive Le Rock! 30 (November 15) 'Shiver Me Timbers' (4, 300 words)
The theme for this edition of VLR is 'Legends' and my contribution is a lengthy article about The Pirates. I saw the band several times in the late 1970's/early 80's and they were great. A classic power trio who could blow pretty much all of the younger new wavers off stage without trying. My interview is with bass player/vocalist Johnny Spence alongside historic interview material featuring the late Mick Green. Thanks to Johnny for the chat and to Ray 'The Big Bloke' Gomm for some great archive photographs, including this gig poster:
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Classic Pop 19 (Oct/Nov 15) Live review of Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott.
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The latest of my archive radio interviews to go up on the Rocks Backpages site is my 8 February 1981 chat with Dr Feelgood's Lee Brilleaux. The band had played a gig at Newcastle University and I went along to the Swallow Hotel in Newgate Street where they were staying to conduct the interview.
I toodled along to the hotel at various times in the late 70's and early 80's as it's situated right in the centre of Newcastle and touring bands would often stay there. I've had cause to recently revisit the hotel. Although writing about music is the main stream of my journalistic activities, as this blog illustrates, it's not the only one. I also write about travel, nostalgia, media and true crime, amongst other topics. My more recent trip to the Swallow, now renamed the Newgate Hotel, was in connection with a lengthy article I wrote for True Crime magazine about the still unsolved murder in the hotel's room 101 on 26 November 1980. Further information can be found in the Crime section of this site. Not sure whether any of the Feelgoods stayed in the room with the infamous number during their visit two months later.
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/…/dr-feelgoods-lee-brilleaux-…
Extracts from my interview also appear in Zoe Howe's newly released biog Lee Brilleaux Rock'n'Roll Gentleman.
***
North East Music History blog 'Dave Black-Reflections'. Dave Black, one of the North East's most popular and accomplished musicians who'd played in bands including the post-David Bowie Spiders From Mars, late 1970's chart stars Goldie and more recently had become one of the circuit's busiest soloists passed away in tragic circumstances in July. I'd interviewed Dave in December 2013 for Classic Rock 194's '300 Days That Changed Rock. The Birth Of Heavy' feature along with other well known local music industry figures. Only a couple of paragraphs of my chat with him made the published article and I suggested to blog founder Hazel Plater that maybe we could run the full interview to commemorate Dave's life and work. She agreed and the feature is here; http://northeastmusichistory.blogspot.co.uk/
***
Vive Le Rock! 28 (June/July 15) 'Worship and Tribute' (2, 300 words) For this issue VLR devoted a big section to rock bands from Australia. I'd previously suggested to the mag that I write a piece on The Church, one of my favourite bands from the 1980's. The Aussie special provided me with the perfect opportunity to do just that and I spent a fascinating 45 minutes talking on the phone to The Church's Steve Kilbey in Sydney.
Shortly after I'd sent the piece off to VLR I met former Bay City Rollers' guitarist Eric Faulkner at a garden party held by legendary music journalist John Tobler and his wife Lynda.
Eric and I chatted about what he was currently up to, the situation with the Rollers and the like. Lynda had told Eric I was a music journalist and he then asked me what I was currently working on. I told him I'd just finished the Church article, not necessarily expecting Eric to have heard of them. Turns out I was wrong; some years ago he'd produced a cover version with a female vocalist of The Unguarded Moment, one of The Church's most iconic songs. I mentioned that guitarist Marty Willson-Piper, one of the mainstays of the band, had recently gone AWOL. The outfit had wanted to record a new album and Steve Kilbey was having problems in getting hold of Marty and ended up replacing him. I told Eric this and he says; "That's because Marty was working with me!" He flips his phone open and says; "Do you want his number?" The article had already gone off so I declined but was gobsmacked by the coincidence to say the least!
***One of the first radio interviews I ever did was with Dewey Bunnell of the band America. In the mid-70's the trio toured the UK as half of a great double bill with Poco and called in at Newcastle's Odeon cinema. Both outfits were big favourites of mine and prior to the gig I scooted along to their hotel, tape machine in hand. My chat with Poco's Rusty Young seems to have got lost in the mists of time but Rock's Backpages have posted my interview with Dewey here; http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/americas-dewey-bunnell-1975
***
Blues Matters 84 (June/July 2015 Live review of the Oriental Blues Festival (Sheffield City Hall). A little off my normal beaten track for this one but my oppo the decidedly unoriental Trevor Sewell was playing support and asked me if I fancied a trip down. Picking up our pals legendary North East drummer Trevor Brewis and Wall To Wall Blues internet radio presenter Les Young on the way the four of us had a great day hanging out with China's premier blues rock outfit the Big John Blues Band.
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| Trevor Sewell guesting with Big John (aka Zhang Ling). Thanks to Les Young for the photo. |
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| I just had to include this: Big John's setlist for the night. |
***
Over the years I've interviewed many rock stars on radio and television or for magazines and newspapers. The passage of time inevitably means that some of the musicians I've spoken to years are no longer with us. When I interviewed The Ramones prior to their gig at The Canteen in Newcastle on 28 September 1978 there was four of us in the room; Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee and me. I'm still here, but da brudders (including Tommy, who'd been replaced by Marky by this point) are now all deceased. The interview has just been posted on Rock's Backpages.
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-ramones-1978
*** Vive Le Rock 27 (June/July 15) 'The Saints Are Coming' (5,400 words). The Skids were one of my favourite new wave bands of the late 70's/early 80's and I was delighted when VLR said yes to my article proposal. I spoke to most of the surviving members of the band, along with
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| The Skids relaxing at Rockfield studios during the recording of 'Days In Europa'. Left to right; Richard Jobson, producer Bill Nelson, Bill Simpson, Stuart Adamson. Thanks to Callum Kay of the-skids co.uk fan site for help with band contacts and pics, including this one. |
Bill Nelson who produced The Skid's iconic Days In Europa album. When embarking on a major article like this one, I usually have a reasonable idea as to the information I'll need and the general direction that the story will go in. This feature took me along a road that I hadn't totally anticipated and is probably one of the most thought provoking pieces I've written. Thanks very much to journalist Richard Balls for the following posted on his Twitter feed;
Richard Balls on Twitter: "Big shout out to Ian Ravendale for ...
https://twitter.com/richardballs/status/618460052207370240
***
My latest entry on Rock's Backpages is the 1981 audio interview with the classic Lemmy/Eddie Clarke/Phil Taylor line-up of Motorhead, where they talk to me about getting hammered in the press (and the studio!), staying close to their fans, their friendship with The Damned, and lots of other things. They were great to interview as the three of them all had differing opinions about everything and argued with each other a lot of the time!
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/motrhead-1981
***
Classic Pop 17 (June/July 15) Live review of Simple Minds. ('Best Live Show' and 'Reviews' title-page featured).
***
Another memorable interview I conducted that has recently been posted on Rock's Backpages is my March 1977 conversation with Marc Bolan. He'd re-invented himself as 'The Godfather Of Punk' and drafted in The Damned as the support act on what turned out to be his last national tour and the first to feature a punk band playing major venues countrywide. We presenters of the BBC Radio Newcastle Bedrock programme had a little meander along to the Newcastle City Hall gig. Phil Sutcliffe conducted a riotous 90 second interview with The Damned which terminated with someone yelling "Oi! Who put da lights out!" while I renewed my acquaintanceship with the boppin' elf. I'd interviewed Bolan 18 months previously when he played to a half-empty Sunderland Empire and was decidedly defensive. This time round he was more upbeat, happy to lend his support to the new raft of young bands, and, poignantly, keen to talk about the future plans that would never be realised.
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/marc-bolan-1977
***
Iron Fist 14 (June/July 15) 'Earn Your Stripes' (2000 words ) Without a shadow of a doubt the band I've written most about are The Tygers Of Pan Tang with lots of articles and reviews for Sounds, The Northern Echo and Sunderland & Washington Times in the late 70's and early 80's and I brought the story up to date with a major article in Classic Rock presents AOR 2 three years ago.
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| Tygers 2015-Gav Gray (bass) Mickey Crystal (guitar) Jacopo Meille (vocals) Craig Ellis (drums) Robb Weir (guitar) |
***
I've worked a lot in radio for local and national BBC (including Radio 1 where my review of Rush live included the phrase 'quasi-mystical rhubarb') ILR, Lanzarote's UKAway FM , community radio and now internet broadcasting. I've done several interviews recently with my pal bluesman and songwriter Trevor Sewell and the latest, a feature as part of the Stephen Foster radio programme, has just been syndicated over three major US networks. The interview starts the show here;
http://www.globalradiopromo.com/global/FosterRadioShow5.128.mp3
***
The Debbie Harry story (above) comes from a short interview I did with her in September 1978. Rock's Backpages have just posted the audio of this where I talk to her about Blondie's success in the UK relative to the US; whether they are more pop than "new wave", the changes introduced by Mike Chapman on Parallel Lines, Debbie's public persona, how people react to her and as much else as I can cram in to the allocated seven minutes.
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/blondies-debbie-harry-1978
***
I've always been partial to a good song and that's what Newcastle band Shields have by the bucketload. My article about them can be found over at the Vinyl Guru site here; http://www.vinylguru.co.uk/blogs/news/17806792-how-can-shields-fix-this
***
The Blues is more popular now than it's been since the late 1960's with several major festivals and every town and city having a blues club. And, of interest to me, there's a bunch of regular blues magazines. It was only a matter of time before I wrote for one and consequently Blues Matters 83 (April/May 15) has 'Calling His Name' (1,500 words) my cover-featured article about my long-term pal and acclaimed bluesman Trevor Sewell where he talks about recording at the legendary Capitol Studios, being on the London gig circuit at the same time as The Sex Pistols and not quite knowing what to say when presented with awards.
***
The latest Rock's Backpages has my 27 January 1978 audio interview with Talking Heads where Frantz, Harrison and (mostly) Byrne talk about the early days in NYC, the CBGBs scene, Harrison joining from the Modern Lovers, their first album and its (and their) reception. Recorded, as I remember, in Byrne and Harrison's Newcastle hotel room after a gig at the Polytechnic as part of Heads' first ever UK tour.
***
Over at Rock's Back Pages my 1978 audio interview with Siouxsie & The Banshees has just been posted for anyone who's a member of the site. This is the Morris/McKay lineup and one of the most memorable interviews I did for the Bedrock programme. Hear Steve Severin call everybody in the world 'morons'!
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/siouxsie--the-banshees-1978
***
Classic Pop 15 ( Feb-Mar 15) My 'Musical Event of 2014'.
***
Freshly posted across at the Vinyl Guru site is 'From The Bridge Hotel To Madison Square Garden' ( 4,500 words) my epic interview with Bob Smeaton. Bob is amongst the UK's most successful directors of music documentaries; Beatles! Spice Girls! Lou Reed! Dave Grohl! Elton John! Ian Ravendale! These are just some of the people Bob and I talk about. Loads about Beatles Anthology which Bob worked on as series director and writer. And also White Heat, Bob's Newcastle band that I reviewed or interviewed quite a few times back in the Sounds and Bedrock days.
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| One of the documentaries that Bob has directed was the Classic Albums edition devoted to Nirvana's Nevermind. With Dave Grohl and Bob in the middle are programme producer Martin Smith (left) and, sporting a fine Green Lantern teeshirt, sound recordist Steve Onopa (right0. |
vinylguru.co.uk/blogs/news/16613956-from-the-bridge-hotel-to-madison-square-garden-in-conversation-with-award-winning-music-documentary-director-bob-smeaton
***
Just up on Rock's Backpages (see below) my 1979 audio interview with Nona Hendryx who had recently left Labelle at the time of our chat and was beginning to make waves as a soloist.
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/labelles-nona-hendryx-1979
***
The excellent 'Rock's Backpages site has started posting some of the audio interviews I did for the Bedrock radio programme between 1975-84. I interviewed a lot of major names for the show, including The Clash, Banshees, Thin Lizzy, the classic Motorhead lineup, Ramones and many more. These interviews will be appearing on RBP with the first being my conversation from October 1979 with Penetration's Pauline Murray and Robert Blamire about the band's split which they announce for the first time live on air.
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/penetration-1979
.JPG) |
| And talking of Pauline and Robert...here's a great action shot of them with Penetration taken at Newcastle Poly in 1977 by picmaster supreme Rik Walton. Lots more of Rik's great piks here; www.rikwalton.com |
***
Sunderland Post 3 (December 14 ) Resisting the temptation to start their own sunglasses, ties-on-elastic or squeaky-voice-remedy companies, The Toy Dolls have instead teamed up with a brewery to launch their own line of beer. Read all about that (and various other Doll stuff) in my latest column. The Sunderland Post is free and can be picked up from supermarkets, clubs, pubs and the like on Wearside.
***
Classic Pop 14 (Dec 14/ Jan 15) Live reviews of Lisa Stansfield and Level 42.
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| Lisa Stansfield. She may not be a lady (etc.). Although, surprisingly, she didn't actually do All Woman. |
***
The 1980's was my busiest time ever and during it I worked for radio stations, network and local television and local and national papers (including, of course, Sounds). And did PR. And managed a couple of bands. And slept every now and again. Be 80's is a new site all about the bands and music of that action-packed decade and my live review of The Boomtown Rats at the 02 Academy Newcastle has gone up. My review is here; http://be80s.co.uk/live-shows-boomtown-rats/4587288583
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| Rattery! Photo by Ian Ravendale |
There's a new local North East newspaper in town, a Wearside based monthly called The Sunderland Post. I wrote music columns for The Northern Echo and Sunderland & Washington Times back in the 1980's and am delighted to have been given the opportunity to do so for The Post. I will write the occasional piece about a national band but my plan is to concentrate primarily on local acts, first of which is a story in the newly published second issue about Trevor Sewell who is scooping up music awards in the US at a great rate of knots. The Post is free and can be found in shops and bars in Sunderland centre, along with local supermarkets like Asda and Sainsbury's.
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| Trevor Sewell, looking a little uncomfortable in front of the paparazzi prior to receiving an award at the Artists In Music ceremony in Hollywood last year. |
Magazines often ask writers featured in that month's issue to pen a short biog. I've done this four times (For AOR, Vive Le Rock, Iron Fist and The Sunderland Post) and have written something different (but true!) every time. And now... biog number five has just gone up on the 'Rock's Back Pages' site, here; http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Writer/ian-ravendale
Anyone unfamiliar with RBP would be well advised to spend some time there. It's almost certainly the world's greatest music journalism resource. They've got a bunch of my archive radio interviews, along with stuff from Sounds, Kerrang! and Pop Star Weekly (as Ian Ravendale and also Rick O' Shea) which will be posted periodically. Have a look!
Anyone unfamiliar with RBP would be well advised to spend some time there. It's almost certainly the world's greatest music journalism resource. They've got a bunch of my archive radio interviews, along with stuff from Sounds, Kerrang! and Pop Star Weekly (as Ian Ravendale and also Rick O' Shea) which will be posted periodically. Have a look!
'The Road Goes On Forever' (4,200 words ) my extensive interview with legendary music journalist and biographer John Tobler has just been posted at the Vinyl Guru site. John was a major force behind Zig Zag, the UK's first rock music magazine that he became involved with in 1969 at the invitation of founder Pete Frame. He also wrote for most of the music weeklies, conducted interviews and music features for Radio 1 and authored dozens of music books, including several about Abba (see below). With his wife, Lynda Hugen-Tobler, John now runs the Road Goes On Forever record label. They live locally and I had a very pleasant afternoon a couple of weeks ago chatting to them both. The interview is here:http://www.vinylguru.co.uk/blogs/news/15613000-the-road-goes-on-forever-talking-with-john-tobler
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| I don't need to caption this photo apart from to say that amongst the thirty-plus books John (here between Agnetha and Freda) has written are three about Sweden's second-biggest export after Volvo. |
Iron Fist 12 (October-November 2014) 'Punk Killed Us!' (4,150 words) Midlands rock band Quartz kicked off in the mid 70's and were neither part of the initial avalanche of heavy that included Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple or the 'New Wave' of Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Tygers Of Pan Tang and so on ten years later. This lack of identity probably worked
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| Quartz, late 70's/early 80's |
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| Quartz 2014. Two of the guys seem to be wearing the same shirts they had on in the pic from 35 years ago! |
***
The recent concert by Mary Chapin Carpenter and the Royal Northern Sinfonia at the Sage, Gateshead was one of the most memorable shows I've been to in recent years. You can read my review in here; http://www.randrlife.co.uk/mary-chapin-carpenter-royal-northern-sinfonia4837/
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| This is actually the Royal Albert Hall rather than The Sage but the set-up is the same. |
The same R &R Life for October also has my review of the gig of the year (so far!)-The Pierces at Gateshead Sage-here http://www.randrlife.co.uk/pierces-gateshead-sage-2-review3626/
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| The Pierces, Catherine (left) Allison (right) |
Vive Le Rock 21 (October 2014) 'Attack!-The story of The Rezillos' (4,000 words) There's lots of articles online about Edinburgh's Rezillos and their 1980's incarnation as The Revillos. But what virtually all of them do is interview vocalists Eugene Reynolds and Fay Fife and no-one else. So I decided to approach things differently and talk to some of the other members of both bands as well as the front line. Included was Lennie Love, whose indie label Sensible Records put out the first couple of Rezillos singles and started the whole ball rolling, Jo Callis (who went on to join the Human League and co-wrote Don't You Want Me) Ali Patterson, Max Atom, Vince Santini, backing singer Babs and Rev's drummer Rocky Rhythm aka Nicky Forbes who provided me with lots of contacts for which I say Ta! Nicky has an excellent book on release about his time with the band called The Rhythm Method. Details on how to get hold of it can be found on the Revillos website at www.revillos.co.uk/rhythm.
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| Elbows ahoy! The current Rezillos line-up |
***
Classic Pop 12 (August-Sept 2014) Live reviews of New Kids On The Block and Billy Ocean.
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| Kidology |
Classic Rock 200 (August 2014) 'The NWOBHM Pioneers' (1,200 words) CR is the UK's biggest selling (by a very long way) specialist rock magazine and it was great to be asked to contribute to the 200th issue. The article is me chairing a discussion between a trio of North East musicians I first wrote about back in the 'Sounds' days-Harry 'Hiroshima' Hill from Fist, Robb Weir (Tygers Of Pan Tang) and Jeff 'Mantas' Dunn, formerly of Venom. We had a pleasant hour in Newcastle's Centurion pub talking about da old daze and what everyone's been up to since. Some nice photos too by Chris Bishop. (http://www.picturesbybish.com/ ) Here's one that didn't make the magazine.
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| 'Now, the way that I see it....' (me, Robb Weir, Harry Hill, Jeff Dunn) |
***
Vive Le Rock 19 (July-August 2014) 'Coming Up For Air' (3,400 words) sees me dusting off my contacts book to tell the story of Penetration, the North East's premier New Wave band of the late 1970's. I wrote lots of stories about them back then and broke the news of Penetration's October 1979 split on Radio 1 and also in Sounds, trouncing the NME who'd
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| The original Penetration line-up, 1977. Pauline Murray, Robert Blamire, Gary Chaplin, Gary Smallman. Photo by Rik Walton |
sent Paul Morley up to Newcastle City Hall especially to get the exclusive story but hadn't reckoned on 'Scoop' Ravendale. (And Sounds' day-earlier publication.) It was good to catch up with everybody and I got some great stories from Ferryhill's finest.
***
I've just started co-coordinating editorial features on the Vinyl Guru website. Included will be choice historical music interviews from my days in radio going back to the 1970's and also Vinylist. where the idea is to get
anyone with an interest in music to talk about items from their record collections that have stories attached to them. We've got lots of interesting confessions coming up and to kick off I've done my own Vinylist. Learn how a track by an ex-Monkee changed my life, what my late stepfather had against Ambrose And His Band and the circumstances that lead to me (possibly) being in receipt of purloined product. It's all 'ere; http://www.vinylguru.co.uk/blogs/news/13194225-ian-ravendale
***
Classic Pop 11 (June-July 2014) Live review of Eddi Reader.
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| "It has to be....." |
***
Iron Fist Magazine 10 (May-June 2014) 'All Is Well In Hell' ( 2,500 words). My interview with Ann Boleyn of US metal band Hellion. I spent a fascinating hour on the phone with Ann talking about her journey through the music business (and life!) over the last 35 years. She has lots of stories to tell and is still out there fighting both as a musician and vocalist but also a civil liberties lawyer, frequently against the bully-boy tactics of multinational conglomerates.
***
Classic Pop 10 (May-June 2014) Live review of Suzanne Vega and 'Catching Up With' interview. Interesting lady. With a nifty line in lyrics and top hats.
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| "A tip of the hat to Ian Ravendale for a great interview!" Or I hope that's what Suzanne thought..... |
***
Iron Fist Magazine 9 (March-April 2014) 'Unleashed In The North East,' my definitive history of South Shields' rockers Fist. I first wrote about the band in Sounds back in the early 1980's as part of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. They reunited to play Brofest, one of the UK's premier metal festivals which brings together a lot of the original 80's bands and the new crop of metallers who they influenced. I interview all the major players from South Tynesides' finest and there's a couple of great pics of the 1981 Fist lineup courtesy of Rik Walton. (www.rikwalton.com) Here's another from the same session. Ta Rik!
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| Fist 1981. Photo by Rik Walton |
And, a pic that didn't make the mag, my snap of the current lineup in rehearsal.
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| Fist 2014 punching it out at Polestar rehearsal studios Photo by Ian Ravendale | Photo by Ian Ravendale |
***
Record Collector 424 (February 2014) Live reviews of Ray Jackson's Lindisfarne Christmas show (complete with photo by Rik Walton-the old Sounds team together again!) and Thea Gilmore.
***
Classic Rock 193 (February 2014) '300 Days That Changed Rock-The Birth Of Heavy' providing research material for this major article about the rise of UK heavy metal in 1969 following in the wake of Led Zeppelin. I supplied the North East interviews, along with a short article about the Leicester-based Black Widow who infamously released an album with a black magic theme and regularly 'sacrificed' a naked girl on stage. The band were advised by Alex and Maxine Sanders the 'King And Queen Of The Witches'. Alex died many years ago but Maxine (who'd occasionally been the on-stage sacrifice) is still with us so I dropped her an email to inquire whether she'd be up for a phone chat. As I often do before sending off emails I put it through the spellchecker. And then realised what I'd done.... Maxine never did get back to me.
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| Black Widow 1970. Not a naked sacrifice in sight. Unless she's behind the tree. |
***
Vive Le Rock 16 (January-February 2014) Live review of The Toy Dolls.
***
Classic Pop 8 (January-February 2014) Live review of Huey Lewis & The News. ***
Record Collector 422 ('Christmas' 2013) Live reviews of Crosby, Stills & Nash and Travis. ***
Classic Rock presents AOR 10 (December 2013) Live review and photo of Laura Wilde. Here's a couple of my pics that weren't used;
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| Photo by Ian Ravendale |
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| Photo by Ian Ravendale |
***
Record Collector Newsletter (29 November 2013) Live review of 60's Gold package (The Searchers, Gerry & The Pacemakers, The Fortunes, PJ Proby, Brian Poole & Chip Hawkes.)
***
Record Collector Newsletter (14 November 2013) Live review of Barbara Dickson. ***
The concluding part of my 'Definitive Guide To The Beatles On Wearside' is in the November
2013 edition of R and R Life here; http://www.randrlife.co.uk/beatles-in-sunderland-part-ii3185/
Quite a few music sites have picked up on one or both of my Beatles articles and reprinted them. Included are Big Music News, Winston Lennon.com, All The California.com, Streamica, Beatlesrspump.com, Loop Orbit and a bunch of others. The cheque, I presume, is in the virtual post.
***
Fireworks 60 (November-December 2013) Retrospective-Terry Reid's Led Zeppelin Memories (1,300 words).
One of the requisites of being a freelance journalist is the ability to constantly generate new proposals for articles that magazines will want to publish. As the companion piece to my 'New Yardbirds/Led Zeppelin' Classic Rock story (see a bit further down) the idea for this one more-or-less presented itself.
I'd spent a few weeks trying to get hold of Terry Reid for the article. According to the pre-show ticket Terry (rated at the time as one of Britain's most powerful rock/soul singers) and his band Fantasia were the main support for the gig and I wanted to interview him about it. One Friday night I'd just got out of the bath and was drying myself before going out. The phone goes; "Ian? This is Terry Reid.."
Fortunately I've got my micro recorder to hand so
off we go. I tell Terry what the article is about and kick off the
interview with, "So Terry, how did you get the gig at Newcastle
Mayfair supporting The New Yardbirds?"
"Newcastle Mayfair? No, I don't think we did that one. Fantasia and I were in America supporting Cream on their Farewell tour."
Rightttt. A further bit of discussion between us and it was obvious that Reid was right and the ticket was wrong. The ticket will have been printed a few months before the show to pick up advance sales-although Newcastle Mayfair on a Friday night in the late 60's was very much a 'walk-in, pay-on-the-door' type gig. Terry's non appearance would also explain why the local paper ads (which would have been booked just days before the gig) have New York Public Library as the main national support.
So.....as I've got him on the phone and as Terry is personable and happy to chat, I ask him about whether the story that Jimmy Page had offered him the vocalist job but he'd turned it down was true. The answer was both yes and no. Terry and I chatted for about half-an-hour and he gave me lots of great information about that and other details about how rock's most iconic band came about.
The stories were a little outside of the scope (and available space!) of the Newcastle Mayfair story, so here they are in Fireworks as a separate article. Thanks to Terry for the interview, the only one I've ever done semi-naked and soaking wet. Fortunately it was on the telephone....
***
Record Collector 420 (November 2013) Live reviews of Caro Emerald and Albert Lee with Hogan's Heroes.
Quite a few music sites have picked up on one or both of my Beatles articles and reprinted them. Included are Big Music News, Winston Lennon.com, All The California.com, Streamica, Beatlesrspump.com, Loop Orbit and a bunch of others. The cheque, I presume, is in the virtual post.
***
Fireworks 60 (November-December 2013) Retrospective-Terry Reid's Led Zeppelin Memories (1,300 words).
One of the requisites of being a freelance journalist is the ability to constantly generate new proposals for articles that magazines will want to publish. As the companion piece to my 'New Yardbirds/Led Zeppelin' Classic Rock story (see a bit further down) the idea for this one more-or-less presented itself.
I'd spent a few weeks trying to get hold of Terry Reid for the article. According to the pre-show ticket Terry (rated at the time as one of Britain's most powerful rock/soul singers) and his band Fantasia were the main support for the gig and I wanted to interview him about it. One Friday night I'd just got out of the bath and was drying myself before going out. The phone goes; "Ian? This is Terry Reid.."
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| Terry Reid's classic 1969 album Superlungs |
"Newcastle Mayfair? No, I don't think we did that one. Fantasia and I were in America supporting Cream on their Farewell tour."
Rightttt. A further bit of discussion between us and it was obvious that Reid was right and the ticket was wrong. The ticket will have been printed a few months before the show to pick up advance sales-although Newcastle Mayfair on a Friday night in the late 60's was very much a 'walk-in, pay-on-the-door' type gig. Terry's non appearance would also explain why the local paper ads (which would have been booked just days before the gig) have New York Public Library as the main national support.
So.....as I've got him on the phone and as Terry is personable and happy to chat, I ask him about whether the story that Jimmy Page had offered him the vocalist job but he'd turned it down was true. The answer was both yes and no. Terry and I chatted for about half-an-hour and he gave me lots of great information about that and other details about how rock's most iconic band came about.
The stories were a little outside of the scope (and available space!) of the Newcastle Mayfair story, so here they are in Fireworks as a separate article. Thanks to Terry for the interview, the only one I've ever done semi-naked and soaking wet. Fortunately it was on the telephone....
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| Terry Reid is still gigging. This show poster is from 2010 |
Record Collector 420 (November 2013) Live reviews of Caro Emerald and Albert Lee with Hogan's Heroes.
***
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| The Beatles on stage at Sunderland Empire 9 February 1963 as support to Helen Shapiro |
This first installment covers the Fabs 9 February 1963 appearance at Sunderland Empire as support on the Helen Shapiro tour. Part two examining the band's appearance at The Rink Ballroom on 14 May and their final Wearside show, headlining the Empire on 30 November will follow shortly. Read Part one here;
http://www.randrlife.co.uk/the-beatles-in-sunderland-a-definintive-history4636/
***
Vive Le Rock! 14 (September 2013) 'Dig That Groove Baby!'-The Toy Dolls (1500 words article. Four page spread)
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| The Toy Dolls live. Olga left, bassist Tommy Goober right |
***
Record Collector 418 (September 2013) Live review of Patty Griffin.
***
Fireworks 58 (Jul-Aug 2013) Retrospective-Nils Lofgren (3,500 words article).
After 44 years on the road, Nils Lofgren is undoubtedly one of rock's great survivors. Long time associate of Neil Young, key member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and well-established solo artist in own right Nils has been a personal favourite of mine since the 1970's and it was a pleasure to talk to him and listen to his many and varied stories about a lifetime in music. Learn why Nils sang to his dogs and cat for two weeks!
***
Record Collector 416 (July2013) Live reviews of The Searchers, Steve Earle & The Dukes, Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell and Loudon Wainwright 111. Busy month!
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Record Collector Newsletter (19 July 2013) Live review of Elvis Costello & The Imposters.
***
R & R Life (June 2013) Album review of "A" by Agnetha Faltskog
I've long been a fan of Abba, who must surely be the second greatest pop band of all time. R&R Life asked me to review the new album by the lowest-profile member of the quartet.
Read my critique here; http://www.randrlife.co.uk/album-review-a-by-agnetha-faltskog3579/
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Classic Pop 4 (May-June 2013) Inspiral Carpets live review and photo.
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| Photo by Ian Ravendale |
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| Photo by Ian Ravendale |
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Classic Rock presents AOR 8 (April 2013) Lawson and The Union live
reviews.
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Record Collector 413 (April 2013) Train and Gretchen Peters live reviews. Gretchen has included my review on her site, here; http://www.gretchenpeters.com/2013/03/live-review-the-sage-gateshead-uk/
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Record Collector 412 (March 2013) Paloma Faith live review.
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Classic Pop 3 (February 2013) Madness live review. Peter Hook and The Light live review and photo. Here's a couple more from the same gig.
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| Peter Hook & The Light. Newcastle O2 Academy. Photos by Ian Ravendale |
Record Collector 410 (January 2013) Live review of the Sensational 60's Experience show with The Tremeloes, Herman's Hermits, Union Gap UK and The Ivy League.
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Record Collector Newsletter (November 2012) Greg Lake live review.
(This, and expanded versions of most of my Record Collector reviews, can be be found in the Contemporary Live Reviews Section.)
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American Songwriter website (October 2012) Don Felder 'Road To Forever' album review.
http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/10/don-felder-road-to-forever/
I can write in many different styles and the Felder review is in the style of AS, which is in-depth, informative and thoughtful. It's 550 words long but I'm more than capable of writing shorter reviews that are just as effective as I do with my Record Collector live critiques which are generally around the 200 word mark.
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I've been involved in the North East music scene since the 1970's as a journalist, broadcaster, interviewer, television producer/researcher, promoter, publicist and band manager. I've consequently got a huge list of contacts and knowledge about the region's pop and rock music from the late 1950's onward, both local bands and national acts who played the area. If I don't know it, I can find out about it!
I did this for the Paul Kossoff and David Coverdale stories (see below) and even more so with;Fly On The Wall-4 October 1968- Led Zeppelin's 'Secret' UK Debut (Classic Rock 176 October 2012-2000 words)
The legendary Led Zeppelin played their first handful of UK gigs under the
name The New Yardbirds, a roll-over from leader Jimmy Page's former band
whose final gig obligations they were honouring. The first of these shows was at
Newcastle Mayfair ballroom in early October 1968 with support slots from local bands Downtown Faction and The Junco Partners plus New York Public Library, originally from Leeds but based in London by this time.
I'd found out about the show while researching another possible
locally based Led Zeppelin story. The fact that Zep made their UK debut on
Tyneside and under a different name jumped out to me as a potentially fascinating subject for an article and Classic Rock agreed.
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| Note mis-spelling of Jimmy Page's name. Terry Reid was touring America and New York Public Library (from Leeds!) stood in. |
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| Still being advertised as The Yardbirds, On the night they were billed as The New Yardbirds. |
support bands, audience members, promoter and Mayfair staff and then getting
some good stories and anecdotes out of them. The gig was, after all, 44 years
ago! But, pulling in favours and chatting to my contacts new and old I was able
to do it. Some people had great recall of the event, remarkable because no-one
knew, of course, that they were witnessing the first UK gig of the outfit who
would become in the 1970's the world's biggest rock band. Others
remembered less but I still unearthed lots of great information that has never
seen print before.
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| Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, 1968 |
Zeppelin have been discussed, debated and written about non-stop since their
split in 1980 following the death of John Bonham but very little exists about their first UK gig. Until now.
I love doing this sort of investigative digging-around sort of article. And think
I'm very good at it, probably due to my many years as a TV researcher.
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I've written hundreds of music-based articles, reviews and columns over the
years. Generally a journalist only gets reactions from readers if information is
factually wrong (something I'm very meticulous about avoiding!) or if they
disagree with your critical opinion of their favourite band or album. A quick
look at the letter pages and message boards of any of the music mags will show
what I mean here.
years. Generally a journalist only gets reactions from readers if information is
factually wrong (something I'm very meticulous about avoiding!) or if they
disagree with your critical opinion of their favourite band or album. A quick
look at the letter pages and message boards of any of the music mags will show
what I mean here.
So, I was a little unprepared for the reaction my 'The Kidnapping of Kossoff' (The Word 113 July 2012-3000 words) generated. A strand on The Word's online message boards brought lots of positive feedback from readers and a discussion on the North East Music History Facebook site also created a huge amount of interest. Most of what I wrote about in the article took place in Sunderland and quite a few of that site's members had seen Free or Back Street Crawler in concert in the region in the 1970's and had stories to tell.
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| Paul Kossoff backstage at Sunderland Locarno 1970 |
local promoter Geoff Docherty and locked in his 12th storey town centre flat to
get him away from the dealers, pushers and hard drugs that had taken over his
life. Free had broken through early on in the region and the band were held in
high esteem. The great affection that Kossoff generated was reflected in the
delighted reaction of 1970's Wearside's club goers and musicians when they unexpectedly found one of the UK's top guitarists in their midst. In the article I speak to Geoff Docherty and some of Kossoff's friends and colleagues, including Free drummer Simon Kirke.
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| Vocalist Terry Wilson Slesser and Paul Kossoff with Back Street Crawler on stage at Newcastle City Hall 1975. When I posted this on the North East Music History site Marshall Hall commented; "I was at that gig and the photographer was lucky to get a photo of Koss upright." |
The article was also discussed at length on Radio 6's Radcliffe and Maconie show.The Word editor Mark Ellen had a regular monthly spot on the programme
where he'd chat to Mark and Stewart about a couple of articles of interest from
the latest issue of the magazine. For the July issue, out of the 15 or so articles in the mag he choose to talk about a piece on pop and rock stars Tweeting .......and my Kossoff story, which was totally unexpected and very flattering.
The programme hosts had obviously read my article very carefully as they
discussed it in great detail with Mark who told me later that Mark Radcliffe in
particular really liked my story. Unfortunately it'll be the last piece I write forThe Word as the magazine folded with the August issue. A shame, as I
liked the mag and very much enjoyed contributing to it. Since the demise of The Word 'The Kidnapping Of Kossoff' has appeared online in a couple of places. A quick Google should find it for you.
I'd recommend anyone with an interest in 1960's and 1970's rock pick up Geoff Docherty's two books that relate to the hundreds of gigs he promoted in Sunderland and Newcastle. The first, A Promoter's Tale, mainly covers the national bands Geoff worked with including The Who, Zepplin, Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, Ten Years After and, of course, Free. The follow-up, Three Minutes Of Magic, is about less well-known local bands and essential reading if you're interested in the North East music scene or how the music business really works from ground level up. Both books are available for £7.95 each from Waterstone's.
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Classic Rock presents AOR 6 (February 2012) Live review of Uriah Heep. Article about Timothy B Schmit of The Eagles (3,400 words).
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| Timothy B Schmit I've been a fan of since he was in the band Poco. It took a while to arrange the interview, as The Eagles are notoriously media-shy. I spoke to him on his mobile phone from New York as he just going out to get some provisions. In addition to having a very interesting talk with Timothy, I also got a taste of life on the busy Big Apple streets! |
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Classic Rock presents AOR 5 (December 2011) Live reviews of Wishbone Ash and The Union.
Classic Rock present AOR 4 (October 2011). Live review of The BellRays. Article about songwriter Diane Warren (3,500 words).
I've always been interested in the less hi-profile members of the music industry - producers,
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managers, songwriters and the like. Diane Warren is (probably) currently the world's most successful songwriter, and has been been for many years. It would be a rare week when one of her songs wasn't in the charts. Just about everybody has recorded her material and it was fascinating talking to her about how she writes and then places her songs.
Diane has co-written with quite a few major songwriters over the years, including Michael Bolton and Albert Hammond. These days she prefers to write on her own, but I did manage to get her to nominate one legendary songwriter that she would have liked to have written with.
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Diane has co-written with quite a few major songwriters over the years, including Michael Bolton and Albert Hammond. These days she prefers to write on her own, but I did manage to get her to nominate one legendary songwriter that she would have liked to have written with.
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journalist Ian Ravendale respected music journalist Ian Ravendale versatile music journalist Ian Ravendale
journalist Ian Ravendale respected music journalist Ian Ravendale versatile music journalist Ian Ravendale
The Word 102 (August 2011) Gloving The Alien (3,000 word article). This is a story I wrote for the First Person feature about my time working on TV pop shows in the 1980's. More about this and the full article that this is an extract from over in the Nostalgia section. Learn why I persuaded Shakin' Stevens to talk to an empty cardboard box on network television.
Classic Rock 158 (June 2011) Life After NWOBHM (1400 word article). A nice piece co-written by three of the journos from those (1980-82!) days who are still around- me, Dave Ling and
Malcom Dome. I wrote the page that covers Bitches Sin, Fist, Pete Gill and Witchfynde.
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| Fist. They eventually did get better at posing for photos. |
This article (and lots of other great stuff) is now in the Classic Rock Archive, here; http://archive.classicrockmagazine.com/view/june-2011/64/classic-rock-has-he-is-thunderstick-former-samson-
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Classic Rock Presents AOR 2 (May 2011) Live reviews of Mrs Loud/Bonnie
Tyler and Kings X. Plus When The Tygers Went AOR (3,500 word article)
This was quite a personal piece for me. I'd written the first article about Whitley
Bay's Tygers of Pan Tang back in 1979 for Sounds, had gone on tour with them a
few times and was good friends with Tom Noble, the band's manager. Sounds
had come up with the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal tag as a way of writing
about the new young (and sometimes not-so-young) rock bands that were doing
their best to battle through the onslaught of punk and new wave outfits and the Tygers were included.
I did various other radio, local paper and Sounds articles about the Tygers
before moving on to work in television. As the band had quickly left behind the
rough and raw sound of Wildcats, their first album, for a more sophisticated
approach I suggested an article about them for the AOR mag.
I rang his mam.
Not even that could get John to talk to me. Pity. I'd done the first-ever radio and press interviews with him and the last time we'd spoken (in the mid 80's shortly after he'd joined Whitesnake) he was genuinely pleased that the journalist doing the story was me. All the other Tygers involved in the AOR phase of the band's career were chatty and happy to take part.
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| The Tygers of Pan Tang |
I'd not spoken to some members of the band for many years and it was great to make contact with them again. My attempts to get hold of guitarist John Sykes (who went onto much greater success with Whitesnake and Thin Lizzy) fell on stonier ground. I even resorted to the ultimate piece of journalistic connivance.
I rang his mam.
Not even that could get John to talk to me. Pity. I'd done the first-ever radio and press interviews with him and the last time we'd spoken (in the mid 80's shortly after he'd joined Whitesnake) he was genuinely pleased that the journalist doing the story was me. All the other Tygers involved in the AOR phase of the band's career were chatty and happy to take part.
As Tom Noble pointed out to me, my AOR piece will probably be the last major article about the Tygers. I liked the synchronicity of having written the first and last articles thirty two years apart.
After the mag came out, I got this very nice email from Richard 'Rocky' Laws,
the band's bass player. The 'shitlist' photo that he refers to was reprinted in my article from an old Sounds' story (not written by me)!
Hi Ian,
Great article. Thanks very much but oh God that f**king "shitlist" again! Of course it was not our "shitlist" (not even sure I was familiar with the "shitlist" concept) but just happened to be on the wall of a dressing room in which we were photographed and it then followed us about in the press to the point where I began to think of it as an old friend! Nice to see it again.
Best wishes,
Richard
Whitesnake Fan Pack (April 2011) Stories From The North (3.000 word article).
Classic Rock has produced a series of Fan Packs which include advance copies
of a brand new album (usually with extra tracks) posters, badges, and a glossy
132 page magazine completely devoted to the artist and their work past and
present.
I was given the opportunity to contribute to the Whitesnake magazine. I knew that some of CR's heavyweight rock writers would be much better equipped to critique Whitesnake's past albums than I was so I began looking for a different angle.
As lead Snake David Coverdale is from Saltburn, around 40 miles away from me in Tyne and Wear, a historical piece on his pre-Deep Purple career occurred to me. A Google search revealed there was actually very little information generally available about this and what there was was often either wrong or the same stuff continually recycled.
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| Teesside's The Government 1970. David Coverdale middle back. |
back then. The resulting article contains some great stories and anecdotes about
David's time on the northern Working Mans Club, pubs and cabaret scene which
haven't been seen anywhere else. Good going bearing in mind he's been in the
public eye for 38 years.
Classic Rock presents AOR 1 (November 2010) Nils Lofgren live review.
Music In Dreamland (Helter Skelter Publishing 2009) I provided extensive archive interview material for Paul Sutton Reeve's excellent biography about Bill Nelson and Be-Bop Deluxe.
I'd interviewed Nelson quite a few times in the 70s and 80's for BBC Radio Newcastle and once went to his mansion in Yorkshire. I'd kept the interviews and was happy to provide Paul S R with copies.
Issued first in hardback in 2009 (when it sold out, with copies subsequently changing hands for hundreds of pounds) and then in paperback in 2011 Music In Dreamland is a must for any Nelson fan. My interviews form the bulk of the book's non-contemporary source material.
Music In Dreamland (and lots of other music related books) can be ordered from;
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Most of the mags I write for can be bought at WH Smith and other newsagents. For back issues;
The Classic Rock magazines are available from http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/
I'm not sure whether The Word are still doing back issues. The place to try would be http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/ Or, more likely Ebay.
American Songwriter is distributed in the UK by Comag and if you hunt around you should find it. Or from http://www.americansongwriter.com/
American Songwriter is distributed in the UK by Comag and if you hunt around you should find it. Or from http://www.americansongwriter.com/
Record Collector from www.recordcollectormag.com
Fireworks from www.fireworks.mag@ntlworld.com
Vive Le Rock! and Iron Fist from info@vivelerock.net
Ian Ravendale North East music journalist ian ravendale Newcastle music journalist Ian Ravendale Sunderland music journalist Ian Ravendale Tyne and Wear music journalist northern music journalist Ian Ravendale long established music journalist Ian Ravendale Well known music journalist Ian Ravendale veteran music journalist Ian Ravendale Quick witted music journalist Ian Ravendale Knowledgeable music journalist Ian Ravendale freelance music journalist Ian Ravendale long-established music journalist Ian Ravendale respected music journalist Ian Ravendale rock journalist Ian Ravendale recognised music journalist Ian Ravendale respected music journalist Ian Ravendale versatile music journalist Ian Ravendale
Ian Ravendale North East music journalist ian ravendale Newcastle music journalist Ian Ravendale Sunderland music journalist Ian Ravendale Tyne and Wear music journalist northern music journalist Ian Ravendale long established music journalist Ian Ravendale Well known music journalist Ian Ravendale veteran music journalist Ian Ravendale Quick witted music journalist Ian Ravendale Knowledgeable music journalist Ian Ravendale freelance music journalist Ian Ravendale long-established music journalist Ian Ravendale respected music journalist Ian Ravendale busy music journalist Ian Ravendale recognised music an Ravendale North East music journalist ian ravendale Newcastle music journalist Ian Ravendale Sunderland music journalist Ian Ravendale Tyne and Wear music journalist northern music journalist Ian Ravendale long established music journalist Ian Ravendale Well known music journalist Ian Ravendale veteran music journalist Ian Ravendale Quick witted music journalist Ian Ravendale Knowledgeable music journalist Ian Ravendale freelance music journalist Ian Ravendale long-established music journalist Ian Ravendale respected music journalist Ian Ravendale rock journalist Ian Ravendale recognised music journalist Ian Ravendale respected music journalist Ian Ravendale versatile music journalist Ian Ravendale
Ian Ravendale North East music journalist ian ravendale Newcastle music journalist Ian Ravendale Sunderland music journalist Ian Ravendale Tyne and Wear music journalist northern music journalist Ian Ravendale long established music journalist Ian Ravendale Well known music journalist Ian Ravendale veteran music journalist Ian Ravendale Quick witted music journalist Ian Ravendale Knowledgeable music journalist Ian Ravendale freelance music journalist Ian Ravendale long-established music journalist Ian Ravendale respected music journalist Ian Ravendale busy music journalist Ian Ravendale recognised music
