Category: Off the Beaten Tracks

THE Velvet Underground received a cursory mention in my profile of Nico published almost a year ago. Obviously, such a historically significant band deserve a column of their own, so here … Continue readingTipping the Velvets

OUR subject this week was rejected in 1980s Nashville as being ‘too rock for country’ and in Los Angeles as being ‘too country for rock’. I don’t give a hoot … Continue readingLucinda Williams: Sausage seller makes good

LAST week we left Richard and Linda Thompson preparing to make their third album together, to fulfil a contract with Island Records. The self-styled ‘sheik’ who led their Sufi Muslim … Continue readingThompson v Thompson

WHEN founder member Richard Thompson left Fairport Convention shortly after the release of the Full House album in July 1970, he announced that he would be concentrating on a solo career. Yet … Continue readingWhen Richard met Linda

WE left Fairport Convention last week at Farley House, a rented Hampshire country mansion where, battered and bruised, they began their recovery following the motorway crash in May 1969 that killed drummer … Continue readingFairport’s golden years, Part 2

ALTHOUGH Fairport Convention got mentions in previous pieces on Sandy Denny, Ian Matthews and Steeleye Span, I didn’t come near to doing them justice. So here’s a tribute to an act … Continue readingFairport’s Golden Years (Part One)

APART from the long, greasy hair, bumfluff sideburns, RAF-surplus greatcoat and purulent complexion, there was one essential item of appearance for the teenager-about-town in early-Seventies Lancashire. At least one LP, … Continue readingNice Beaver

AS regular readers of our efforts will have realised by now, the musical tastes of my wife and myself rarely converge. One exception is Steve Marriott, voice of the Small … Continue readingSmall Face, Big Attitude

BY the end of 1972, Neil Young was a global superstar. He had found huge success in collaboration with Crosby, Stills and Nash. His third solo album, After The Gold Rush, … Continue readingNeil Young down in the ditch

LAST week we examined the career of Blondie, who sold forty million albums worldwide. Today we have another female-fronted band, but this lot would have been chuffed to sell forty thousand. … Continue readingHappy Slappy