ON RBP this week we’re marking the release of Duran Duran’s first new album in six years with three great pieces by the gal who discovered the “Beau Brummies” in late 1980: New Romantic champion Beverly “Betty Page” Glick recalls her first enounter with Simon, Nick, John et al., plus we’re running her 1982 Sounds piece on the jet-setting video pin-ups.
Also free for a week are pieces about Radiohead’s radical self-reinvention at the dawn of this century: two great interviews with Thom, Jonny et al., plus reviews of Kid A andAmnesiac – expanded versions of which are released as Kid A Mnesia on November 5th. And you can read three pieces that reference departed legends Alan Hawkshaw,Ronnie Tutt&Dee Pop…
The week’s new audio interview finds Don McLeantalking to John Tobler in 1989 about his folkie years, the Weavers, recording in Nashville, and the American Pie album, which is 50 years old this week. Subscribers can also dive deep into the 50+ articles we’ve added to the RBP library this week, including…
Robert Shelton reviewing Johnny Cash at Carnegie Hall n 1962;
Lillian Roxon introducing her fellow Ozzies to T. Rex in 1971;
Ed Jones interviewing Elton John’s managerJohn Reidin 1977;
Angus Batey revisiting DJ Kool Herc’s first-ever block party;
and Bud Scoppa paying homage to Neil Young’s legendary manager Elliot Roberts in 2019.
Don’t miss the latest episode of the RBP podcast, with special guest Paul Morley talking about Joy Division, Factory’s Tony Wilson and krautrockers Faust.
Straddle the line in discord and rhyme I’m on the hunt down, I’m after you…
It’s a Manchester special this week – with a bit of Krautrock and Celtic tradition added for good measure. To celebrate the imminent publication of his epic Tony Wilson biography From Manchester With Love, we’ve made Paul Morleywriter of the week and made three of his classic NME pieces free on the home page. All touch on the triumph and tragedy ofJoy Division…and the endurance ofNew Order, whose Bernard Sumner & Stephen Morris are (from 1986) the week’s featured audio interviewees.
The act featured in the Free On RBP section is the radical German kollectiv that was early ‘70s Faust. Interviews by Ian MacDonald (1973) and Andy Gill (1997) tell the wild and crazy story of Uwe Nettelbeck and friends, while Krautrock chronicler David Stubbs describes his teenage Faustian pact.
We’re saying goodbye to chief Chieftain and beloved Irish rover Paddy Moloney via interviews from 1998 and 2010, plus we’ve also lost three of RBP’s veteran specialists on rhythm 'n’ blues and soul: Bob Fisher,Pete Grendysa&Roger St. Pierre, pieces by all of whom we’re spotlighting on the home page.
Manchester special, Pt 1: Paul Morley(pictured in 1977) reports on the rise of Manchester’s music sceneforNME in early 1979. Plus Paul sees Joy Division live at the city’s Band On The Wall in 1978, witnesses New Order’s 1981 “haunting” of London’s Heaven after Ian Curtis’ suicide, and pens the Guardian obituary for Factory Records founder Tony Wilson, the subject of his remarkable new biography From Manchester with Love…