The year 2012 has been added to my RocksourceArchive of chronologically-ordered day-by-day music facts. To see it, go here – http://www.rocksourcearchive.com/rs_user1.php?db_user=rs_2012 The link takes you today’s 2012 facts but you can search for any day using date search box at … Continue reading
My iWitnessRock Music Oral History App is now live on the iTunes store. Here’s the link … https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/iwitness-reports/id569178772?mt=8 Here’s a demonstration video… https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByYNj8YEUjnZeWNKeWxNa3ljZTg If you’d like to know more, Neil Cossar at Absolute PR – (07768 652899 neil@thisdayinmusic.com) is doing … Continue reading
STAY SHARP – FOLLOW OUR DAILY MUSIC QUIZ ON TWITTER To get your very own daily music trivia quiz (with links to the answers) simply go to https://twitter.com/#!/rocksourcetweet . Questions are based on the world’s biggest chronological music facts database, … Continue reading
This pic, sent to me by my good friend Jonathan Morrish [third from right in pic], was taken in the mid-70s when I worked as a press officer at Epic Records in Soho Square, London. … Continue reading
Despite my deeply felt reservations about Twitter – some of you may recall a rant I published here some months ago about Twitter – I am now twittering. Feel free to snigger. You can see what I’m doing by going … Continue reading
There are two (so far) linguistic idiosyncracies of social media that I don’t like. 1. I don’t like the ‘like’ button. I was reading something on Facebook about the death of a Canadian musician in grim circumstance and the grief … Continue reading
What I’m finding hard to grasp is the media’s apparent surprise that these riots have happened. We live in a country where underprivileged kids are bombarded from birth with messages telling them to consume, told to identify themselves by the … Continue reading
Been a while since I added a Johnny’s Diary entry to the RBP blog so here’s a little something I scribbled on April 30, 1978. What interests me most about it is the lack of anti-racist content in the entry. … Continue reading
This kind of ties in with my rant ‘How Much Do you Like This Suicide’ of a few days ago, but it’s more hopeful. I just had occasion to send an email to the leader of a band which has … Continue reading
Was a time when the scent of romance hovered about the decision to go out to the theatre. In those far off days theatres had names like The Adelphi, The Odeon and The Palace. Even the humble Roxys and Essoldos … Continue reading
Just reading the tragic reports on Music-news.com of the suicide of The Models singer James Freud, who killed himself in his melbourne home after many years fighting alcoholism. It’s a harrowing enough story on its own merits but I was … Continue reading
My gast was unutterably flabbered earlier this week when record producer Bangladesh ‘revealed’ that Beyonce does not write her own songs. Actually, no, it wasn’t. I’m lying, just as the record business has lied to us about this matter of … Continue reading
Just a quickie. I’m finding myself increasingly irritated by the ineptness of todays music biz press officers. Does nobody check anything before they send it out any more? I just got this jewel today … “Previously compared to great divas … Continue reading
I haven’t posted much here in recent weeks but I can’t stop myself passing this along. http://www.backroadsofamericanmusic.com/archive/2009/05/04/charley-nelson-piney-woods-piano-man.aspx It’s an obit of someone who sounds like he must have been one of the last musicians to exist untainted by the music … Continue reading
Willy De Ville’s death (and Pete Makowski’s RBP blog entry thereon) sent me scuttling back to my diary to see if i could find my tickets and/or diary entry about seeing Mink De Ville gig at The Venue. I couldn’t. … Continue reading
Sorry for not having posted for some time but I can’t resist illuminating your worlds with a little item that had my wife, Carol, and myself in stitches this morning when I tried to read it without cracking up over … Continue reading
Michael Jackson is dead. Before we start ungraciously quibbling about whether or not he invented the Moonwalk, let’s not forget that this was a man who never stood a chance. Stuck on the stage at five years old, with not … Continue reading
Back in 1983 I was given the opportunity to interview a long-time hero of mine, the parched-dry Scottish humourist, poet and songwriter Ivor Cutler, so I jumped at it. If you’ve suffered the severe deprivation of not knowing who Ivor … Continue reading
I spent most of Saturday in a field in Bath, seriously outnumbered by women. They were there to take part in the Race For Life, a nationwide event which raises money for cancer research. I was there to support my … Continue reading
Apart from collecting rockstar autographs and doodles, one of the joys of my diary has been that I use it as a store for ephemera of all sorts – tickets, passes, snapshots, credit cards, membership cards etc etc. In 1977 … Continue reading
I’m up to here (for those who still don’t have Blogivision I’m raising my right hand high over the top of my cranium and swivelling it like a demented ostritch) with anniversaries. Watching Breakfast TV the other day I was … Continue reading
Can rock or pop ever ever be a democratic process? That thought popped into my mind recently while interviewing Ian Broudie of Lightning Seeds for a piece in Mojo. It’s not a new thought, but it’s one that’s certainly worth … Continue reading
One of the more memorable assignments that came my way while I was writing for Blitz magazine was the opportunity to helm a three-way interview with Ian Dury, Peter Blake and Humphrey Ocean on June 6, 1983, partly in Mike … Continue reading
In 1983, one of the publications I wrote for was the UK edition of Penthouse, then under the editorship of Jonathan Bouquet. Despite having some reservations about the magazine, I have to confess it gave me the opportunity to interview … Continue reading
We hear a lot of famous last words, but rarely are the first words of the great and good recorded. Most of us ordinary mortals, presumably, start off with mama or dada but I’ve heard of a few who didn’t. … Continue reading
