On the cover this month are Dr Feelgood, the Canvey carousers, prime movers of the early 70s pub rock scene. But was it a scene, a movement, coalescing around myriad groups with a coherent, specific sound, look and agenda? Or was it just a bunch of varied, prodigiously hairy, busy, gigging bands who happened to play the same venues around the same …
On the cover this month is Bob Dylan, photographed in 1965, the year he released – unleashed – Like A Rolling Stone and appeared at the Newport Folk Festival, where he wielded electric instruments and in so doing changed, or at the very least effected some changes to, the world of music, and indeed the world. Over 12 pages (with the addition of…
On the cover this month is the artist formerly known as Johnny Rotten aka ex-Pistol and sacred PiL pariah, John Lydon. The reason? Because, ahead of his PiL and solo talking tours, he has invited RC into his home in Malibu to peruse the contents of his record collection, to see his favourite vinyl — and CDs, and cassettes. It’s the punk and his …
This month, there are two cover stars, and they’re quite unconnected, unless you count the fact that they’re both brilliant: Led Zeppelin and XTC. The Zep feature catches the rock behemoths as they work on their colossal double-LP, Physical Graffiti. Zep author Dave Lewis examines the making of the album and remembers the day he bought it in Fe…
This month, the cover stars are The Yardbirds, the band that launched the careers of three – count ‘em – guitar legends (Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page) and charted a course from blues revivalism to hard rock via flirtations with British invasion pop and the beat boom. Through new interviews with founding members Paul Samwell-Smith an…
This month, the cover star is Paul McCartney. Looking wacky and fun. Holding a pair of green eyes, removed from their sockets. Photographed sometime in the 60s when he was in a band you may have heard of called The Beatles. It captures him in a mischievous mood, even an experimental one, which suits the gist of the article: namely, that Paul was th…
This month the cover stars are Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr of U2. Inside, over 14 pages, there is a veritable U2-fest, with specific reference to the band’s 11th studio album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb: Bono writes RC a letter about that 2004 LP and offers his “unreliable recollections” of the se…
This month the Record Collector cover star is Bryan Ferry. The focus is not on his Roxy Music output but on his solo career, from 1973’s These Foolish Things to his brand-new 81-track box set, Retrospective: Selective Recordings 1973-2023. Here,the original lounge lizard invites RC’s Chris Roberts to his London recording studio (“The thrill o…
This month the cover stars are Genesis – the prog legends as they were circa summer 1974, captured at Headley Grange, the rundown manor house in Hampshire where they convened to write much of their sixth album, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, their final LP with Peter Gabriel. We speak to band members and associates about this crucial period in t…
It’s a privilege and an honour to be here, telling you about our latest issue. Because this month I am presiding over the edition that sees Record Collector turn 45. RC launched in September 1979, the first issue hitting the shops that month. This means that, of all the many monthly music magazines on the shelves, RC is now, officially, the one t…
