By Steve Newton You may have heard that British musician Danny Kirwan passed away on Friday, at the age of 68. Don’t feel too bad if his name doesn’t sound […]
By Steve Newton In case you haven’t heard, my first book came out last month. It’s called Gord Downie, and it’s about a poetic Canadian guy who rocked his ass […]
jet sutherland photo By Steve Newton After 35-plus years of writing about other people rockin’ out on guitar, I finally got off my butt, hopped on stage, and did some […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE CHILLIWACK PROGRESS, MAY 6, 1981 By Steve Newton (In the seventh of a series of stories on local bands, The Progress presents a profile on Midnight […]
By Steve Newton Back in January I blogged about the “major concert news” that my old buddy’s cover band, Cold Chain, was gonna play the 40-year reunion for my Chilliwack […]
By Steve Newton It probably won’t garner as much attention as the announcement of the upcoming AC/DC world tour, but I just found out that my old buddy’s cover band […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JAN. 6, 2000 By Steve Newton It’s a bit weird coming from a small town that has the same name as a popular ’70s […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, FEB. 6, 1992 What makes a rock writer desperate to score the reviewer’s assignment for a Red Hot Chili Peppers show? Could it be […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JUNE 25, 2012 By Steve Newton Over the years I’ve heard quite a few folks fondly reminisce about seeing Heart play their high-school gym out in […]
By Steve Newton Tommy Emmanuel is one helluva guitarist; maybe the most amazing acoustic player I’ve ever seen live. I interviewed the Aussie picker back in May of 1994 when […]
By Steve Newton I did my last Tragically Hip interview in June of 1997, a month after the band had released its concert album Live Between Us. Lead guitarist Rob […]
By Steve Newton When I interviewed Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci back in June of 2010 his group was opening for Iron Maiden on it’s Final Frontier World Tour. So […]
By Steve Newton I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t know much about Frank Zappa’s music. One day I need to sit down and absorb some of that guy’s massive […]
By Steve Newton I’m a huge Stevie Ray fan. Got a ton of his albums, seen him in concert a buncha times, interviewed him twice, got his autograph, shook his […]
By Steve Newton I haven’t interviewed that many drummers over the years–mainly because I like talking to guitarists more–but when Van Hagar was heading to Vancouver for a show in […]
By Steve Newton As a hardcore fan of electric guitar music, I’ve managed to interview some of the top practitioners of the trade, Eric Johnson being one of them. When […]
By Steve Newton If you were reading the top guitar magazines back in the early ’80s you may have heard the buzz about this phenomenal British player named Allan Holdsworth. […]
By Steve Newton Some concerts experiences are just seared into memory–if you’re lucky–and one of the most unforgettable for me was seeing Kiss at Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom in January of […]
By Steve Newton I did my first interview with Steve Vai when he was touring with Whitesnake in May of 1990, but I was more interested in talking about his […]
By Steve Newton I was crazy about Kiss when their first album dropped back in the Year of Our Lord, 1974. I was 16 at the time, which is all […]
By Steve Newton I freakin’ love guitar solos, where some talented artist carefully chooses the perfect notes and uses vibrato and tremolo and all that other technical shit to come […]
By Steve Newton I did my first interview with David Lee Roth in June of 1994, when he was promoting his Nile Rodgers-produced album Your Filthy Little Mouth. He called me from […]
By Steve Newton Since I got “temporarily” laid off from work yesterday–after 35 years with the Georgia Straight newspaper in Vancouver–I’ve been wondering which of my hundreds of old interviews […]
By Steve Newton When I interviewed Stevie Ray Vaughan in July of 1990, six weeks before his death, I asked him what he’d been listening to in his spare time–if […]
By Steve Newton The first time I interviewed blues legend John Mayall was in December of 1988, shortly after he’d released his Chicago Line album, which featured smokin’ guitarists Walter […]
By Steve Newton I did my first interview with Steve Vai in May of 1990, when he was just 29. He had just released his solo album Passion and Warfare, […]
By Steve Newton Just finished watching that ZZ Top documentary on Netflix, That Little Ol’ Band from Texas, and it was pretty cool. I especially liked the way it focused […]
