ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON OCT. 4, 1990 By Steve Newton Following Ted Nugent is not an enviable prospect for anybody, but Terrible Ted opened for yours truly—in the journalistic sense, anyway—just last week. As guest host for Detroit rock station WRIF’s morning show, the Nuge—who had once jammed on a Zeppelin tune with Rick Emmett and … Continue reading Rik Emmett embarks on solo career after unhappy breakup of Triumph
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON OCT. 4, 1990 By Steve Newton ZZ Top has always been one of the coolest bands in the land. Those wacky beards, those nifty suits, those fuzzy guitars—not to mention those barnstormin’ boogie tunes that make you wanna rock ’n’ roll all night and party every day. But after last Tuesday’s (October … Continue reading ZZ Top’s Vancouver fans wimp out while that little ol’ band from Texas delivers
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JAN. 17, 1991 By Steve Newton So what’s a devoted rock critic to do when one of the genre’s most potent acts hits town for two back-to-back, sold-out shows? Does he pick one night and hope to hell it’s the best one? Not likely. He checks ’em both out, of course. Talk … Continue reading In the hard-rock realm, it doesn’t get any better than AC/DC live
Anybody out there remember the old Davy Crockett TV show, starring Fess Parker as the coonskin-capped Tennessee woodsman?
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MAY 30, 1991 By Steve Newton Marty Friedman is one happy camper. The Megadeth guitarist is soaking up the sunshine in El Paso, Texas, just hours away from the fifth show in the four-band Clash of the Titans tour of the Lone Star state, and he reports that things have been going … Continue reading Marty Friedman says Megadeth is kicking the most butt on the Clash of the Titans tour
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON APRIL 1, 1993 By Steve Newton A lot of bands know how to play to a crowd, but not many bands know how to be played by a crowd. Vermont’s Phish is one of the latter. Band members came up with the idea of throwing beach balls out into the audience—each one … Continue reading Mike Gordon says Phish is happy with the current situation
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON APRIL 1, 1993 By Steve Newton Recalling the televised carnage of last year’s L.A. riots, it’s hard to believe that a happy-go-lucky Canadian band was simultaneously recording its breezy, good-time pop music within shooting distance of the scary stuff. A grungy thrash or hardcore rap band laying down a soundtrack for anarchy, … Continue reading The Pursuit of Happiness leaves Todd Rundgren for The Downward Road
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON APRIL 15, 1993 By Steve Newton When major-label recording artists do interviews to promote a new release, they usually go on about how it’s the best one they’ve ever made, how making it sapped all the artistic energy their souls could muster—that sort of thing. Then there’s Colin Linden, who plays the … Continue reading Canadian blues-roots great Colin Linden is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON APRIL 29, 1993 By Steve Newton One day about a year ago, I bumped into a guitar-playing acquaintance who was visiting the office to put a free musician’s ad in the paper. He started raving about this “wicked” guitarist he’d seen the night before at Jake O’Grady’s, a guy from Saskatchewan named Jack … Continue reading Jack Semple’s Guitar Warz win delivered confidence and a hook
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON DEC. 28, 2000 By Steve Newton Matthew Good is a loud rocker. That’s easily discernible from a quick spin of his band’s latest CD, Beautiful Midnight. Matthew Good is also a loud talker, as I discover for myself when he calls from his West End apartment prior to his five sold-out shows … Continue reading Matthew Good and the great Radiohead controversy of 2000
I scored a copy of the new Stephen King novel Doctor Sleep for Christmas, which was great as it continues the story of The Shining, one of my fave works–next to Carrie, The Dead Zone, and The Stand–from King’s ’70s heyday. But before I even got into the further supernatural torments befalling the telepathic Danny Torrance … Continue reading Stephen King dedicates Doctor Sleep to underrated rock genius Warren Zevon
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON AUG. 13, 1992 By Steve Newton Some hard-rock bands like to boast about not using keyboards; they take pride in sticking with the trusty old guitar-bass-drums ideal. Guns N’ Roses might have been such a band in its early days, but when it came time to record its ground-breaking Use Your Illusion … Continue reading Now that he’s in Guns N’ Roses Dizzy Reed can buy drinks for all his freennz
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MARCH 10, 1989 By Steve Newton It used to seem that nearly all the best rock ‘n’ roll bands came from either Britain or the U.S. Then came the Aussie invasion. Now, it’s Canada’s turn. WIth killer acts like Jeff Healey, Blue Rodeo, Colin James, Art Bergmann, the Pursuit of Happiness, the … Continue reading Tom Cochrane and Red Rider dangle a plastic shark over the Northern Pikes in Vancouver
