By Steve Newton Back in 2001 I did my first (and hopefully not last) interview with Jeff Beck, who I’ve long championed as the world’s greatest living rock guitarist. At […]
By Steve Newton When I interviewed Jeck Beck back in January of 2001, just before the release of his You Had It Coming album, I asked the world’s greatest living […]
By Steve Newton The first time I ever saw Jeff Beck in concert, Jan Hammer was all over the place. It was at the Seattle Kingdome on Aerosmith‘s Rocks tour in […]
By Steve Newton In my 35 years of writing about rock musicians I’ve never been as psyched as I was back in January 2001 when I got the chance to interview […]
By Steve Newton Tal Wilkenfeld has accomplished an awful lot since emigrating to the U.S. from Australia in 2002 as a teen. She’s performed with jazz greats Chick Corea, Herbie […]
By Steve Newton On January 26, 1986, I did my first interview with guitar legend Roy Buchanan. He was coming to Vancouver for a show at the Town Pump, so […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE CHILLIWACK PROGRESS, APRIL 8, 1981 By Steve Newton (In the third of a series of stories on local bands, The Progress presents a profile of The […]
By Steve Newton Yesterday I interviewed Uli Jon Roth for the first time ever, and made sure I asked him one of the more burning questions guitar-freaks might have for […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, SEPT. 13, 1985 By Steve Newton Long John Baldry is a giant among British blues-rockers–and that’s not only because he stands 6 feet 7-1/2 […]
By Steve Newton Roger Waters fans—and Jeff Beck freaks—have reason to rejoice today, as Legacy Recordings has announced the reissue, in various remastered forms, of Waters’ solo album Amused to Death. That was […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JUNE 13, 2002 By Steve Newton Any guitar freaks lucky enough to have seen Jeff Beck at the Commodore last year will rave about […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, APRIL 26, 2001 One of the best perks of being a Media Slut From Hell—I mean, music journalist—is getting backstage to pose for photos […]
photo by kevin statham ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, FEB. 22, 2001 Jeff Beck is my favourite rock guitarist of all time, so I didn’t think twice about doing […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, FEB. 15, 2001 By Steve Newton Like most teenage guitar-rock freaks in the ’70s, I was big on Aerosmith. I made every effort to […]
By Steve Newton Hey guitar freaks: get ready for the best news you’ve heard all week. Eagle Rock Entertainment announced today that it will release a new Jeff Beck live […]
By Steve Newton ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, SEPT. 23, 1999 Apart from an arena show with Rod Stewart in the ’80s, it had been nearly 25 years since […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, MARCH 21, 1996 Everyone’s heard the stories of starry-eyed youths who journey to Tinseltown with visions of glory and not much else, but they […]
For some reason a lotta old-school rock-guitar heroes don’t play in Vancouver. They head on up for gigs in Washington State, but then turn around and cruise back down to […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, OCT. 28, 2011 British guitar legend Jeff Beck blew away the sold-out crowd at the Centre in Vancouver last night, performing his Stratified renditions of everything […]
By Steve Newton Steely Dan cofounder, cosongwriter, guitarist, and bassist Walter Becker passed away today at the age of 67. I freakin’ love Steely Dan. Here’s 10 of my fave tunes […]
By Steve Newton Legendary drummer Mick Fleetwood called me up a couple days ago to plug his upcoming gig at the Hard Rock Casino Vancouver, and I made sure to […]
me ‘n Roy backstage at the Pump, February 10, 1986 ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, FEB. 7, 1986 By Steve Newton Not many guitarists can say they were invited […]
By Steve Newton I called Louisiana slide guitar-ace Sonny Landreth up at his home in Lafayette yesterday and we chatted for a while, mainly about his latest album, Bound By the […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, SEPT. 25, 1997 A concert by Bay Area guitar wizard Joe Satriani is usually all it takes to transport his followers to instrumental-rock heaven, […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JUNE 5, 1987 By Steve Newton Everybody has their favourite rock guitarists. “Hendrix,” scream some, “Jimi Hendrix rules!” “Page is king,” others argue. “Clapton […]
roger fritz photo ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, APRIL 8, 1988 By Steve Newton Blues guitar giant Roy Buchanan makes his yearly visit to Vancouver this week, and fans of […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, MAY 8, 1987 By Steve Newton “What are your favourite bands?” I get asked that a lot, and it’s a tough question. For someone who […]
By Steve Newton The last time yours truly interviewed American blues-rocker Tinsley Ellis was 10 years ago, when he called the Georgia Straight in advance of a gig at the Yale Hotel, […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JAN. 29, 1988 By Steve Newton Prior to Aerosmith’s local appearance last week, I’d seen the Boston band in concert three times, including a show […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, MAY 8, 2003 By Steve Newton You might think, since the current version of the Yardbirds includes only two founding members of the pioneering […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JUNE 5, 1997 By Steve Newton The folks behind previous Jeff Beck, Ace Frehley, and Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute CDs deliver a fourth laudatory […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JUNE 17, 1993 By Steve Newton Having heard very little of Big Country since the mid-’80s, I’d pretty well written the band off […]
By Steve Newton In celebration of the Georgia Straight turning 50 this year, I figured I’d offer a roundup of the 50 top Vancouver concerts I’ve reviewed while writing for the paper […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, DEC .12, 1991 By Steve Newton This scribbler’s teenage memories are filled with happy thoughts of Aerosmith, the best thing from Boston since Bobby […]
By Steve Newton Anyone who’s aware of the monstrous talent of Tal Wilkenfeld only knows her for her skills on the bass guitar, which she’s used to showcase her abilities with […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, MARCH 25, 1993 By Steve Newton Ever since Wayne’s World came out, I’ve been considering legal action against writer/star Mike Myers. You know that […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, FEB. 11, 1983 By Steve Newton Triumph’s Rik Emmett is a man of many moods on guitar. Though best known for supplying the driving […]
By Steve Newton Google “100 greatest guitarists” these days and what shows up at the top is a total joke. It’s the high ‘n’ mighty Rolling Stone‘s list of the […]
By Steve Newton I’ve been getting quite a few hits lately for a blog I posted last year about Danny Gatton, which included an audio excerpt from the interview I […]
By Steve Newton Please, God, don’t let any more of my rock heroes die this year. Jeff Beck Loud Hailer The world’s greatest living rock guitarist isn’t resting on his […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN EXPERIENCE HENDRIX MAGAZINE, WINTER 2000 By Steve Newton If you polled all the music fans in the world and asked them to name their fave party tune […]
By Steve Newton When I interviewed Animals As Leaders guitarist Tosin Abasi last month I told him that I’d seen him six months earlier on the Generation Axe tour, when […]
By Steve Newton Sometimes when I listen to a musician perform I wonder to myself, “How did they get so goddamn good?” And sometimes–if I meet said musician in my […]
By Steve Newton Ritchie Blackmore is one of my favourite guitarists of all time. As a 15-year-old when Machine Head was released in 1972, I could barely comprehend how great his […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JULY 11, 1986 By Steve Newton In the world of music, jolly old England is famous for a number of things. The Beatles for […]
By Steve Newton Masterful rock guitarist Uli Jon Roth made his Vancouver debut last night (March 19), and for local fret freaks, it was well worth the wait. Scrape Records […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, DEC. 18, 1997 By Steve Newton There were a lot of things that sucked the biggie in the world of music this year. From […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, DEC. 1996 By Steve Newton Neither of my two favourite recording artists released any music in ’96, but even though I had to suffer […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, DEC. 1995 By Steve Newton I must have gotten tired of listening to rock vocalists in 1995, because the majority of my top picks […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, DEC. 23, 1993 By Steve Newton Popular music hit an all-time low this year with the outbreak of something called gangsta rap, an ugly, […]
