Articles by Johnny Sharp

Johnny is a regular contributor to Prog and Classic Rock magazines, both online and in print. Johnny is a highly experienced and versatile music writer whose tastes range from prog and hard rock to R’n’B, funk, folk and blues. He has written about music professionally for 30 years, surviving the Britpop wars at the NME in the 90s (under the hard-to-shake teenage nickname Johnny Cigarettes) before branching out to newspapers such as The Guardian and The Independent and magazines such as Uncut, Record Collector and, of course, Prog and Classic Rock.

Articles by: Johnny Sharp

The ego has landed: Inglorious singer Nathan James strikes back

By Johnny Sharp published 6 April 21

Loved by some, loathed by others, Inglorious frontman/main man Nathan James is no stranger to being the brunt of verbal abuse. But is it deserved, or is he just another innocent victim?

Paid In Crisps: A short and salty history of Kitten Pyramid

By Johnny Sharp last updated 29 March 21

Meet the Derbyshire pop-prog oddballs with bees in their bonnet – and their Jacuzzi

Saxon add fun to "these dark times" with lively covers collection Inspirations

By Johnny Sharp published 19 March 21

NWOBHM veterans Saxon play us some favourite tunes on Inspirations

We Will Ride by Inglorious: breathing fresh life into an irresistible 70s rock template

By Johnny Sharp published 12 February 21

Inglorious's difficult album number four We Will Ride is worth the trouble

Downes Braide Association: Halcyon Hymns

Downes Braide Association's Halcyon Hymns is a welcome escape from a turbulent real world

By Johnny Sharp published 7 February 21

MOR prog project Downes Braide Association gets dewy-eyed for old England on Halcyon Hymns

Curved Air's full mix of sonic identities celebrated on The Albums 1970-1973

By Johnny Sharp published 29 January 21

The madly eclectic studio output of prog pioneers Curved Air, all boxed up

Lunatic Soul - Through Shaded Woods album review

By Johnny Sharp published 14 December 20

Not yet rated

Mariusz Duda heads deep into the forest on seventh Lunatic Soul album

Cats In Space joyfully tramp through the trad-rock tropes on Atlantis

By Johnny Sharp published 27 November 20

Atlantis is the supremely crafted fourth studio album from rock classicists Cats In Space

The Human Condition finds Black Stone Cherry returning to rock's heartland

By Johnny Sharp last updated 4 November 20

Black Stone Cherry say Goodbye to Kentucky and hello to radio-friendly rock on The Human Condition

Sevendust's Blood & Stone is a sturdy slice of 21st Century rock

By Johnny Sharp published 23 October 20

Unlucky Atlantans’ Sevendust remain defiant on thirteenth album Blood & Stone

Black Sabbath: Paranoid (50th Anniversary Edition)

The 50th anniversary of Black Sabbath's Paranoid delivers visceral joy and rat's innards

By Johnny Sharp published 9 October 20

Fiftieth-anniversary five-LP/four-CD edition of Black Sabbath's Paranoid metal landmark, expanded with live recordings

Roger Waters - Us + Them review

By Johnny Sharp published 2 October 20

Not yet rated

Tour spectacular boiled down to its musical essence

Nickelback - All The Right Reasons (15th Anniversary Expanded Edition)

Nickelback's All The Right Reasons: expanded, with a faint whiff of Nashville

By Johnny Sharp published 2 October 20

Marmite's very own Nickelback revisit their mega-selling fifth album All The Right Reasons

Fleetwood Mac's 1969 To 1974: a rousing last hurrah for the road not taken

By Johnny Sharp published 4 September 20

Peter Green’s Mac swansong stands proud as Fleetwood Mac's entire pre-Buckingham-Nicks era gets boxed on 1969 To 1974

Alcatrazz's Born Innocent: featuring fret-frazzlers to the fore

By Johnny Sharp published 31 July 20

Graham Bonnet’s post-Rainbow project Alcatrazz resurfaces on Born Innocent after a long rebirth

The Jayhawks' XOXO - a triumph for democracy

By Johnny Sharp published 10 July 20

Americana veterans The Jayhawks triumph on committee-generated eleventh album XOXO

Larkin Poe's Self Made Man: winningly gnarly and authoritive

By Johnny Sharp published 12 June 20

Georgia sister act Larkin Poe come back stronger on fifth album Self Made Man

Rush - Permanent Waves 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition Review

By Johnny Sharp published 29 May 20

Not yet rated

It was the album that marked the end of one chapter and turned the prog icons into unlikely pop stars along the way. And now it gets the deluxe treatment it deserves.