From Rock's Backpages
Rock's Backpages is the world's leading collection of vintage music journalism. Each week on
guardian.co.uk/music, we reprint a hand-picked article from their archive
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On the 57th anniversary of the his tragic death we revisit this profile of the clean-cut icon, first published in NME in September 1975 and taken from Rock’s Backpages
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We celebrate the former Sex Pistol turning 60 with this piece showing him on drunkenly eviscerating form, first published in Q in July 1989 and taken from Rock’s Backpages, the online home of music writing
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This week is Wendy James’ 50th birthday. Rock’s Backpages brings you an interview with Transvision Vamp from Melody Maker dated 2 April 1988 which reports on their latest manoeuvres to double-cross the the charts with slivers of pop art
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The late Pink Floyd leader’s 70th birthday is celebrated with Nick Kent’s piece, first published in Creem in October 1973, and taken from Rock’s Backpages, the online home of music writing
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From acoustically enhanced pizza to his adoration of hotels and disdain for celibacy, here’s the late metal star’s life in quotes, courtesy of Rock’s Backpages
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Billy F Gibbons turns 65 this week. Here’s a classic ZZ Top interview taken from Blast in August 1976 and resurrected by Rock’s Backpages
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As J Mascis, guitarist, singer and grunge icon turns 50, Rock’s Backpages brings you an interview with Dinosaur Jr from Vox magazine in 1991
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To mark the Prodigy’s 2015 UK tour, Rock’s Backpages brings you this 1994 Melody Maker interview with the band’s frontman
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‘The Human Timekeeper’ and Stax staple would have turned 80 this week. Rock’s Backpages spotlights an investigation into his death – and the subsequent dissolution of Stax – that was originally published in Grand Royal in 1997
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Jason Pierce turns 50 this week. To celebrate, Rocks Backpages digs up an interview with ‘the man who makes Marcel Marceau seem positively gobby’, from Melody Maker, 17 August 1991
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They may be smooth operators now, but Coldplay weren’t always so comfortable with global fame, as demonstrated by this 2001 interview from Select magazine – courtesy of Rock’s Backpages
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Rock’s Backpages marks the return of the sensible, self-loathing star. Here’s an 1990 interview from NME by Steven Wells
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Rock’s Backpages revisits Cathi Unsworth’s 1989 piece in Sounds magazine about the genesis of goth
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At the end of this month, Rhino will issue Soul Manifesto 1964-1970, a new box set featuring studio, live and posthumous albums from the period. Rock’s Backpages revisits this interview with the soul giant from Melody Maker on 17 September 1966
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As Pantera prepare to release History of Hostility, a nine-track LP of their greatest tracks, we look back in the Rock’s Backpages archive to 1994, when frontman Philip Anselmo spoke to Kerrang!’s Steffan Chirazi
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Ahead of the release of his memoir – Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink – Rock’s Backpages brings you a short, sharp interview with pop’s ‘antihero’ by the Evening News, originally published on 3 September 1977
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With David Cavanagh’s social history of John Peel’s radio shows winning rave reviews, we hear from the great man himself, in this 1971 Melody Maker interview, taken from Rock’s Backpages
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As tributes pour in following the death of Eagles founding member Glenn Frey, we look back in the Rock’s Backpages archives to 1974, as Eagles prepared to release their third LP, and spoke to David Rensin of Crawdaddy! magazine
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It’s 40 years this month since Kiss released Alive!, the album that made them stars. A few weeks earlier, Creem’s Jaan Uhelszki had joined them – to be a member of Kiss for one night only. Read her account, in this piece from Rock’s Backpages
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With new Mercury Rev album The Light in You due next week, this Mojo piece from 1999 – republished courtesy of Rock’s Backpages – finds the band apparently unbothered by the departure of vocalist David Baker
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In the run-up to the group’s 10th album, Music Complete, a 1983 interview from the Face, revived by Rock’s Backpages, finds Sumner and co steering clear of major labels and finessing the New Order sound
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Ahead of the release of new album The Book of Souls – and the news that Bruce Dickinson will fly the band around the world on a jumbo jet – Rock’s Backpages travels back to a piece titled Iron Maiden: Unleashed With the Beast, published in Sounds on 28 August 1982
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The great drummer has turned 76, and to mark the occasion, here’s a classic Disc and Music Echo interview from 1970 with the Cream founder, taken from Rock’s Backpages, the home of online music writing
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As Newsom announces details of her first album in five years, Rock’s Backpages this week revisits an early live review from the ICA in London, originally published on Yahoo! Music, in November 2004
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As they prepare to release a 23-disc box set this month, we dust off a 1976 Phonograph Record interview with one of the 70s soul circuit’s wildest acts - courtesy of Rock’s Backpages
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As the shy star and snake enthusiast returns with new single No Sleeep, Rock’s Backpages this week digs out Tom Hibbert’s interview with Janet Jackson from Smash Hits, originally published on 27 August 1986
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Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction was released 28 years ago amid controversy over the LP’s offensive cover, the band’s reputation for hardcore drug abuse and the arrest of two band members on rape charges. This week’s Rock’s Backpages revisits a May 1988 interview for Spin by Bill Holdship – where he discovers that they’re actually very nice young men
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In this week’s Rock’s Backpages, to mark 50 years since the Byrds released Mr Tambourine Man, here’s a feature by the late, great Derek Taylor, originally published in Melody Maker on 17 July 1965
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This week in 1995, the R&B trio started a seven-week stint at No 1 on the US singles chart with Waterfalls. Rock’s Backpages digs out a profile on the group for Rolling Stone, originally published on 24 August 1995, where T-Boz, Chilli and Left Eye talk about fires and financial fallouts
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With her latest album, The Other Side of Desire, released this week, Rock’s Backpages revisits a piece originally published in the NME in 1979.
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Here’s a classic interview from Rock’s Packpages, in honour of the 20th anniversary of the Chemical Brothers’ debut album
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It’s 25 years since Sonic Youth released Goo. Rock’s Backpages resurrects this interview, originally published in Sounds on 1 September 1990, where the band dismantle Madchester hype, brand Lou Reed ‘lame’ and slate the British press
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This week, Rock’s Backpages celebrates Nancy Sinatra’s 75th birthday with a piece originally published in the New Musical Express in February 1966
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A post-split 1975 Rolling Stone interview with the duo, taken from Rock’s Backpages
Jarvis Cocker: 'I have a terrible temper on me'