kevin statham photo ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, OCT. 7, 1988 By Steve Newton Two nights after Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler sailed through town, on September 30, a […]
By Steve Newton Tonight the much-maligned Rock and Roll Hall of Fame officially inducts Deep Purple, Cheap Trick, Steve Miller, Chicago, and, unbelievably, legendary rock ‘n’ rollers N.W.A. Now, this is […]
By Steve Newton The drummer from one of my fave bands of the ’70s has passed away. Dale “Buffin” Griffin, a founding member of Mott the Hoople, died peacefully in […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, DEC. 24, 1998 By Steve Newton This long-awaited, three-disc Mott the Hoople box–All the Young Dudes: The Anthology— is only available as a British […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, AUG. 17, 1995 Sweet Water singer Adam Czeisler and guitarist Rich Credo go way back—and I don’t mean just to high school or anything. […]
By Steve Newton As you may have already heard, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its Class of 2019 a couple of days ago. It includes: Stevie […]
By Steve Newton The nominations for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s class of 2019 were announced recently and, as expected, Jann Wenner and the other dimwits in charge […]
kevin statham photo ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, SEPT. 23, 1988 By Steve Newton Whatever happened to Ian Hunter, the former leader of one of Britain’s most influential pre-punk […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, SEPT. 23, 1988 By Steve Newton Bad Company put some mighty fine albums in the mid-’70s, particularly Straight Shooter and Run With the Pack. […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, DEC. 26, 1986 By Steve Newton Mott the Hoople and Free were two of the best rock bands Britain ever produced, so it was […]
By Steve Newton Robin Trower is one of my fave guitarists of all time. His string of wicked albums in the seventies–in particular Twice Removed from Yesterday, Bridge of Sighs, […]
By Steve Newton In yesterday’s blog denouncing the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s continued refusal to induct Link Wray, I mentioned that today I planned to induct six acts […]
By Steve Newton If you’re a fan of real rock ‘n’ roll you’ve probably already heard the bad news: Link Wray has been snubbed yet again by the Rock and […]
charles campbell photo By Steve Newton It’s been 10 days since the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its nominees for induction in 2018, choosing a whopping 19 bands and […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JUNE 6, 1991 By Steve Newton Ian Hunter must be feeling pretty comfy these days. First off, Great White made him a pile […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, AUG. 16, 1990 By Steve Newton Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson cut his teeth on ’70s bands like Bad Company and Mott the Hoople, […]
By Steve Newton So the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame did it again. Today the poorly-named musical dumping ground in Cleveland inducted six acts into its fold, including folkie […]
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 The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame apparently believes that Depeche Mode outrocks Johnny Winter, that Chic blows Rory Gallagher away, and that Joan Baez is more rock […]
By Steve Newton “Rock and roll’s a loser’s game,” Ian Hunter once sang, and today I get what he was talkin’ about in that line from “The Ballad of Mott […]
By Steve Newton Well, those bozos down at the highly slaggable Rock and Roll Hall of Fame finally came to their senses. Twenty-two years after it first became eligible for induction, […]
By Steve Newton The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominated 15 artists for induction today, but neither Rory Gallagher, Johnny Winter, nor Link Wray were among them. Instead, Jan […]
By Steve Newton Sad news for music fans today. Chris Squire, bassist for British prog-rock legends Yes, passed away in Phoenix, Arizona, last night. He had been suffering from a […]
By Steve Newton Okay, it has finally come to this. After years of slagging the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for its inconceivable ignorance of the best rock music […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JULY 18, 1983 By Steve Newton While it is true that Def Leppard’s lyrical messages most often deal with the time-worn teenage pastimes of […]
By Steve Newton If you were type of rock fan in the ’70s who thought it was the end of the world when guitarist Mick Ralphs left Mott the Hoople–only […]
By Steve Newton You had to be there. Abraxas: Santana (“Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen”, “Oye Coma Va”, “Samba Pa Ti”) 1970 A Day at the Races: Queen (“Tie Your Mother Down”, “Somebody […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JAN. 23, 2003 By Steve Newton Last year, Los Angeles–bred guitar-rockers Concrete Blonde released Group Therapy, a CD that reunited the original lineup of […]
By Steve Newton Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx declared on his Facebook page yesterday that he’d “probably” turn down induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Fvckin-AAA! That […]
By Steve Newton On December 19, 1989, Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson played the 86 Street Music Hall in Vancouver. For me, it didn’t get any better than that. I’d […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JUNE 7, 2001 By Steve Newton Nineteen seventy-three was a wicked year for rock—or maybe it just seemed that way ’cause I was 16. […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, SEPT. 21, 2000 By Steve Newton Anyone who’s ever raised a frosty Molson Pilsner to the bluesy riff-rock of Free or Bad Company would […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, AUG. 28, 1997 By Steve Newton Back in the late ’60s, British blues-rock crooner Paul Rodgers wrapped his gravel ’n’ honey vocals around a […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JUNE 5, 1997 BY STEVE NEWTON It ain’t easy being an old-fashioned guitar-rock fan in the twilight of the 20th century. Techno and dance […]
By Steve Newton I f***in’ love early Queen. That crazy guitar tone Brian May had on the band’s self-titled 1973 debut album was unlike anything I’d ever heard before. It kinda freaked […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JUNE 22, 1984 By Steve Newton “Well that’s artistic licence,” remarked guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour. Over the phone from Toronto, Gilmour expanded on the motive […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, NOV. 14, 1991 By Steve Newton Certain albums hold sacred places in people’s hearts. They know every chorus, verse, and bridge of one particular […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, MARCH 21, 1991 By Steve Newton Oh man—talk about going back in time! There was Ted Nugent riffing out “Cat Scratch Fever” and screeching […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, NOV. 19, 1990 By Steve Newton There are some bands out there that are just made to play in bars—they have that certain something […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JUNE 15, 2010 By Steve Newton Several years ago I was combing the CD stacks at Zulu Records—back when they were located on the other side […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, FEB. 5, 2010 By Steve Newton The first time I saw David Bowie in concert was at the Pacific Coliseum in early ’76 on the Station […]
“Sound and Vision” was a pretty cool tune from a David Bowie album that made my Top 30 Rock Albums of 1977. It’s also a pretty cool name for this […]
Thirty years ago this Tuesday–on February 18, 1984–the Payola$ played the PNE Gardens with opening act Darkroom. At the time the band–which also included guitarist Bob Rock, bassist Alex Boynton, […]
1972 was a year when I got introduced to a number of bands that would become all-time faves, including Blue Oyster Cult, Mott the Hoople, and Steely Dan. And as […]
Last year I put together a list of my 30 fave albums from 1973, which was a particularly awesome year since it included the release of what I’ve always felt was […]
I’ve been reminiscing a lot lately about rock stuff that happened 30 years ago. I recently posted interviews originally published back in ’83 with such still-active artists as British guitar […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, DEC. 12, 2012 By Steve Newton If you’re a Rush freak who’s been holding a grudge against the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for not […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, OCT. 20, 2012 By Steve Newton If you’re a Rush fan, you’ve no doubt heard that the Canuck power trio has finally been nominated for the […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, SEPT. 27, 2011 By Steve Newton Those dickwads down at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have done it again. The list of nominees for […]
OCT. 2018: Idiots at the Rock Hall think Janet Jackson is more deserving of induction than JOHNNY WINTER, LINK WRAY, and RORY GALLAGHER DEC. 2017: Newt’s Rock Hall inducts MOTORHEAD, […]
