60 posts
Interviews
From The Nolans to PJ & Duncan via the mega-successful Bros, producer and songwriter Nicky Graham certainly knows how to score a chart-topping earworm – Yet there’s much more to…
Run-DMC Interview – “The greatest period in hip-hop was the time before recorded rap”
Run-DMC took hip-hop to the mainstream VIA crossover classics Walk This Way and It’s Tricky, but split after the death of Jam Master Jay in 2002. In 2021, rapper DMC…
Bernard Sumner: “There’s only one place to go once you hit Everest, and that’s down”
Perhaps one of pop’s most reluctant stars, Bernard Sumner of New Order has been behind some of the finest songs of the past 40-plus years. A couple of years back,…
Clare Grogan interview: “I constantly felt I had to prove myself”
Surely the hardest working singer in 1981 was Clare Grogan. Just as Altered Images were releasing their debut album, she became a film star too. Aged just 19, how did…
Bomb The Bass Interview: ‘All of a sudden I was in the job that I’d always dreamed about doing’
Tim Simenon, AKA Bomb The Bass, created one of the most important dance singles of the late 80s. Before he knew it, the young London DJ had become an accidental…
Dexys interview: “The pop thing was fun”
Usually a band averse to nostalgia, the announcement that Dexys are touring their most successful album Too-Rye-Ay for its 40th anniversary was a shock –until it became obvious there’s a…
Classic Pop Q&A: Hazell Dean
The Hi-NRG icon Hazell Dean talks Stock Aitken Waterman, A Song For Europe and being a disco diva… By Douglas McPherson Nicknamed ‘The Queen Of Hi-NRG’ and ‘The Duchess Of…
Gabrielle: “I was strong enough not to chase fame”
Over 25 years after Dreams made Gabrielle a phenomenon, she remains one of the finest pop singers Britain has produced. We spoke to her in 2020… “Oh my God, I LOVE…
Ben Watt Interview: ‘I just went into a bad space for a while’
Grief and anger left Ben Watt stuck in a dark place – but now he’s emerged into the light with a reflective, deeply personal new album. Here, he talks life,…
The Police Interview: ‘Being in The Police was like wearing a Prada suit made out of barbed wire’
Making Liam and Noel Gallagher look like The Chuckle Brothers, The Police were pop’s most famous brawlers, somehow making five iconic albums despite the hatred. They still loathed each other…