The Human League
Features
Schoolgirls out dancing are not advised to respond to advances from strange men sporting lopsided haircuts and full makeup. However, when Philip Oakey recruited 17-year-olds Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall in Sheffield's Crazy Daisy nightclub in 1980, the resulting Human League lineup produced one of the most influential albums ever, 1981's Dare. "One day, all music will be made like this," the music press said of the League's synthesiser-only sound; here, Oakey explains they wanted to do something "that wasn't based in rock". With that sound still reverberating through acts from Ladytron to Calvin Harris, the band are replicating their masterpiece.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: December 05, 2007
Jeff Beck
Features
It is dinner time in Soho, but Ronnie's seems set for a fusion version of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. Stage right, lips pursed over his keyboards, is the Dormouse-like Jason Rebello.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: December 05, 2007
How a boy who loves his mum became the coolest man in rock
Features
'I don't feel that different. I've no swagger in my walk." Frank Carter is on the phone from Holland. "I think it's Holland," he adds, worriedly. On Tuesday he was at Battersea power station recording a television show. The day before he was in Japan. Yesterday he was crowned the coolest man in rock'n'roll in the NME's annual Cool List (previous incumbents: Beth Ditto, Pete Doherty and Alex Turner). Every-thing is a bit of a blur. Carter sighs. "The coolest man in rock is not that cool when he's not had any sleep."
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: November 09, 2007
Question time: Singer-songwriter Remi Nicole
Features
Tell me about your single, Rock'n'roll.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: October 25, 2007
Practise what you screech
Features
'We are not politicians, we are a band," says Tom Clarke, the singer-guitarist with the Enemy, denying any position as a spokesman for disaffected teens. "I don't want to be a part of pointless politics. So many of the problems in England could be easily resolved. All these blokes in suits with their degrees and God knows what, but they can't see simple solutions.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: September 21, 2007
'I'm kinda different'
Features
'You'll have to take your shoes off," says Suzi Quatro at the doorway to her Elizabethan manor house near Chelmsford in Essex. "Beige carpets." When she smiles - and I mean this nicely - Quatro uncannily resembles the Jane Fonda of moisturiser ads: pretty eyes, perfect teeth, marvellously imperious and impeccably put together. At 5ft nothing, she's head and shoulders beneath me, but there's no chance I'm getting past her except in my stocking feet.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: August 02, 2007
Close down the internet? Think again, Sir Elton
News
Sir Elton John has seen the internet, and he wants to turn it off.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: August 02, 2007
