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. […]
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 […]
DEC. 2017: Newt’s Rock Hall inducts MOTORHEAD, T. REX, FREE, THE MC5, HUMBLE PIE, and THE J. GEILS BAND DEC. 2017: LINK WRAY loses to Bon Jovi as the Rock […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, AUG. 18, 2013 By Steve Newton Black Sabbath (without Bill Ward) isn’t giving any interviews in advance of its show at Rogers Arena this Thursday (Aug. 22), […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JAN. 29, 2004 Boy, talk about goin’ through ch-ch-ch-ch-changes. Although he’s always been one of the most charismatic rock stars of all time, David Bowie hasn’t […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, AUG. 25, 2005 By Steve Newton Looking back, 1973 was a wicked fuckin’ year for American guitar-rock albums. It saw the release of Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar […]
By Steve Newton Iron Maiden is playing Vancouver on its Book of Souls tour tonight–in fact, Bruce Dickinson may be belting out “Two Minutes to Midnight” as I post this. […]
