JOURNALISM>>

MOJO - November 2007

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Jimmy Page interview.
I first encountered Jimmy Page in Sofia in 1998. A Q magazine photographer and I had just been driven to the arena where Page and Robert Plant were playing. Our Bulgarian cab driver had stopped en route to collect some prostitutes, who were then whisked into the backstage area to enjoy the company of the venue's security staff. Robert Plant, wearing a very bad pair of leather trousers, thought the girls were fans that had come to see him. Jimmy Page looked quietly amused by this mistake...

After speaking to Page at various times for Q, we conducted this interview before Led Zeppelin's reunion concert in December '07. This was about a week before he broke his finger, leading to the postponement of the gig. My overriding impression after every encounter is that Page is utterly obsessed by Led Zeppelin; about every miniscule detail of their music. Most rock musicians either pretend not to care about anything or else care too much about music that frankly doesn't deserve it. Page seems to be the world's biggest Led Zeppelin fan. The reunion gig was, incidentally, fantastic. No prostitutes this time, though. Or bad leather trousers.

MOJO - October 2007

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Pink Floyd Article.
This Mojo piece plotted Syd Barrett’s demise throughout 1967, drawing on many quotes from those interviewed for Pigs Might Fly. The odd thing is that for every tale of Barrett refusing to play his guitar or walking out of a radio interview, there was someone else who remembered him behaving quite sanely – or sanely by Syd’s standards, which, according to one, involved him spending every cent he’d earned on their 1967 US tour on a large pink sports car, which he then had to pay to have shipped back to England.

Q - November 2006

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David Gilmour interview, Q 20^th anniversary edition.
Rarely have I seen anyone less comfortable having his picture taken than David Gilmour. Until, that is, he put on his Fender Stratocaster (Serial number: 001), and everything about his body language and posture seemed to soften. I get the impression Gilmour hates doing interviews, and I’m sure this undemanding Q&A session for Q magazine was no exception. Once the tape went off, though, he told a good story about mixing the sound for Jimi Hendrix’s performance at the Isle Of Wight festival in 1970. Apparently, one of Pink Floyd’s roadies had been given the job, but had been too stoned to do it properly, so Gilmour stepped in…

Q - March 2006

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David Gilmour, Live Concert Review.
A Thursday night in Paris, spent watching one of the early shows on David Gilmour's 2006 tour, and then writing about it for Q magazine. The Olympia Theatre is a beautiful, slightly tatty old building on the Boulevard des Capacines. The only problem is the backstage bar is in the basement.

A longer-than-anticipated spell in the bar during the interval resulted in a frantic dash to the one available lift to take us all back, once the show began. The winching mechanism on the elevator creaked and wheezed as it hoisted its cargo of half-cut journalists and general hangers-on up to ground level. Overhead, we could hear Gilmour peeling out the opening notes of Pink Floyd's Shine On You Crazy Diamond. On sensing the general impatience in the lift, I recall one of his people drolly remarked, "There's no hurry, folks... this song goes on for fucking ever."

Q - January 2006

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Rolling Stones, Live Concert Review.
In October 2005, my son was two months old and incapable of sleep. I thought I'd grab the opportunity to get some rest by taking up Q magazine's offer to go to Miami to see The Rolling Stones: a long flight, a quiet hotel, plenty of time to rest. What could possibly go wrong?... My wife knew what I was up to, and was unconvinced by my explanation that "it's just work". I returned to England barely 48 hours later, cripplingly jetlagged and unable to sleep properly for days. It was Karmic payback, obviously.

I have interviewed Keith Richards twice. The first time he was jet-lagged himself and necking tumblers of Nuclear Waste (one part Sunkist orange to four parts Stolichnaya vodka). The second time was on the phone from the Turks And Caicos Islands where he has a house. That took a while to happen. The phone rang at the agreed time, but it was Richards' wife Patti on the other end of the line, sounding apologetic: "Look, I'm really sorry but Keith has fallen asleep and we can't wake him up." Lucky bastard.

Q - December 2005

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Kate Bush, Aerial, album review.
Worried about Internet piracy, EMI refused to allow any advance copies of Aerial to be sent to magazines for review. This meant that every hack had to listen to the album at the company's HQ. You were ushered into a conference room and given a pair of headphones, which plugged into a device that looked like a parking meter, but was, apparently, a CD player.

On the day I was there, a security guard, who may have just been someone that worked for EMI, sat across the room from me, reading a car magazine while I listened. He was there presumably to stop me somehow bootlegging the album or trying to steal the 'parking meter'. It was a surreal 90 minutes; hearing this astonishing music bouncing around inside my head, while the 'muscle' snuck glances at me from across the room in between reading about the braking capacity of the new Lamborghini Gallardo.

I played Aerial again recently. I'd forgotten how much birdsong there was on what, in the old days, would have been called Side Two, but I especially enjoyed How To Be Invisible and The Coral Room. But then I listened to Suspended In Gaffa and All The Love from her 1982 album, The Dreaming. I hadn't played any of that stuff properly in years, and it was like falling through a hole in the floor and ending up in Outer Space. "Hello Earth!", etc...

Q - August 2004

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Nick Mason interview, Q Pink Floyd Special Edition.
I first interviewed the Floyd drummer around the time of 1994's The Division Bell, at the headquarters of Ten Tenths, his motor vehicle hire company; a fabulous place full of all the vintage cars you've ever seen on TV or in the movies. This time, though, in 2004, I spoke to him on the phone for a special edition of Q magazine, devoted to Pink Floyd. Nick's own book about Pink Floyd was just about to come out at the time, and he was on the campaign trail.

Nick was a very agreeable interviewee, with a welcome sense of humour; a rare trait in this industry. During the course of the chat he also revealed that he could imagine Pink Floyd getting back together for "another Live Aid". These were the words Bob Geldof used against him a year later to get Pink Floyd to re-form for Live 8. Nick also lives in Camilla Parker-Bowles' old house, which I would imagine is a lot grander than yours or mine. Unless you happen to be another member of Pink Floyd, and you're reading this... Lovely chap.

Q - November 2002

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Foo Fighters interview.
Everyone that interviews Dave Grohl comes away from it banging on about what a nice guy he is. I'm waiting for Grohl to turn: develop a crack habit, act the prima donna, have an Amy Winehouse-style meltdown... Nobody's that nice, surely? Unfortunately, he sort of is. Or at least appears to be. This interview took place before the Foo Fighters were selling out stadiums and before Grohl became quite such a ubiquitous household name. At the time, the group were getting over their drummer Taylor Hawkins falling into a drug-induced coma. Hawkins had recovered, but fortunately his bandmates refused to pussyfoot around him, and were quite happy to mercilessly mock the drummer for his "little nap". Thankfully, Grohl also refused to take that whole "legend of Kurt Cobain nonsense" too seriously. Unlike other moaning rock stars, Grohl seems to enjoy his music, his band and his money. Photographer Scarlet Page took that picture in a hot tub on the roof of the hotel, and it's still one of my favourites. Though I recall the Foos' bass player, Nate Mendel, really whining about having to get his kit off.

Q - June 2002

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Sharon Osbourne interview.
While watching Sharon Osbourne presenting the Brit Awards on TV the other week, I resisted the temptation to kick in the set; partly because it's a brand new Philips, but also because I recall interviewing Sharon and some of her clan at a time before the Brit Awards, The X-Factor and those terrible Asda ads.

I spent a day with the Osbournes in Los Angeles, around the time their reality TV show was taking off in the US. It was fascinating to watch. Ozzy was having a star unveiled on Hollywood's Walk Of Fame, but his wife and kids were already becoming public figures off the back of the show. In contrast, Robbie Williams turned up that day to hang out with the family, as nobody in LA had a clue who he was. Sharon, to her credit, was a compelling and spectacularly indiscreet interviewee. My abiding memory is of Ozzy standing in their kitchen, pleading with his missus not to shit in a gift box and send it to one of their rivals. Of course, the best thing associated with any member of the Osbournes is Black Sabbath's Volume 4 album. But that's another story...