Articles by Philip Wilding

Philip Wilding is a novelist, journalist, scriptwriter, biographer and radio producer. As a young journalist he criss-crossed most of the United States with bands like Motley Crue, Kiss and Poison (think the Almost Famous movie but with more hairspray). More latterly, he’s sat down to chat with bands like the slightly more erudite Manic Street Preachers, Afghan Whigs, Rush and Marillion. He ghosted Carl Barat’s acclaimed autobiography, Threepenny Memoir, and helped launch the BBC 6 Music network as producer and co-presenter on the Phill Jupitus Breakfast Show. Five years later he and Jupitus fronted the hugely popular Perfect 10 podcast and live shows. His debut novel, Cross Country Murder Song, was described, variously, as ‘sophisticated and compelling’ and ‘like a worm inside my brain’. His latest novel The Death And Life Of Red Henley is out now.

Articles by: Philip Wilding

“She was looking at her pill bottles. I knew she was going to die so I was like, ‘Put it down. Live right now’”: Mastodon’s Bill Kelliher wrote songs for Emperor Of Sand at his mum’s deathbed

By Philip Wilding published 31 March 25

A cancer tragedy and other real-life dramas inspired Mastodon’s seventh album Emperor Of Sand, which they believe was 17 years in the making

"What happens next, you give everyone a hard-on and then go around the room with a bat like Al Capone?!” Ginger Wildheart's wild tales of Lemmy, AC/DC, Guns N' Roses, Cheap Trick and more

By Philip Wilding published 26 March 25

Meet Ginger Wildheart, the multi-tasking musical superhero who's shared stages with Cheap Trick and Motörhead and drinks with Axl Rose, Tony Iommi and Liza Minnelli

“We wanted to feel that we weren’t in a rush – even though we were. That’s how you end up singing in a sleeping bag”: From a mountain monastery to a cold bus in a snowstorm, the Von Hertzen Brothers’ Nine Lives was tough work

By Philip Wilding published 18 March 25

The Finnish brothers created a different working method for their fifth album, but to their surprise the results weren’t much different from the previous four. Which was no bad thing

Guitarist Alex Lifeson, bassist Geddy Lee and (behind) drummer Neil Peart from Canadian progressive rock band Rush perform live on stage at the Odeon in Birmingham, England during their 'Farewell To Kings' tour on 12th February 1978

"I felt sad to see such joy in Neil’s face when we were down to the last few bars of our last song we played together": A Farewell to Kings - Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson look back on 50 years of Rush

By Philip Wilding published 4 March 25

We sat down with Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson at the end of 2024 to speak about their 50-year journey from there to here - and what might happen next

The Darkness posing for a photograph in 2004

“It was carnage. We partied on the road, then I’d get home and start the party all over again. I thought, ‘If this carries on, I might die’”: The explosive story of The Darkness’ OTT hard rock masterpiece Permission To Land

By Philip Wilding published 22 February 25

How an unfashionable band from the UK defied the critics to become the biggest British hard rock stars of the mid-2000s

“I thought I’d have to sell my house. The manager suggested we got part-time jobs”: Marillion were facing oblivion. Then they made This Strange Engine and found a way forward

By Philip Wilding published 11 February 25

They still don’t agree over the contents of their make-or-break 1997 album – except on one thing they did wrong

“It was a really angry time; there was lots of litigation between me and the guys. So It was a much-needed release”: Once Fish escaped his Marillion train wreck, he scored a Top 5 album

By Philip Wilding published 3 February 25

On the cusp of retirement, the singer looks back on how the 1988 split came about, how it could have been avoided, and how his debut solo record Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors rose from the ashes

Thin Lizzy - The Acoustic Sessions cover art

The diminishing returns of a great legend: Acoustic Sessions might make you miss Phil Lynott, but a 'new' Thin Lizzy album? We should be so lucky

By Philip Wilding published 24 January 25

Acoustic Sessions features original vocal parts from Lynott paired with brand-new pieces from founding guitarist Eric Bell

"We had turned into grotesque prog creatures": How Rush reinvented themselves

By Philip Wilding published 13 January 25

After the "soul-crushing" slog of Hemispheres, Permanent Waves returned Rush to the peak of their powers and put them in a different league

"These eighteen months have been the hardest thing I've ever been through in my life": Jesse Malin on the spinal stroke that left him paralysed from the waist down and the long road to recovery

By Philip Wilding published 12 January 25

One spring day in 2023, Jesse Malin suddenly fell to the floor, and his life effectively fell apart

"Neil would do a full hour of unrelenting drumming before he went on stage to play for another three": A personal tribute to Neil Peart

By Philip Wilding published 7 January 25

A personal look back at the music, life and times of Neil Peart, the Rush drummer/lyricist and cornerstone who died on January 7, 2020

John Wetton - Concentus: The John Wetton Live Collection, Volume One

“Whether as a solo performer or part of a band, his remarkable playing and strident yet emotive voice remains a remarkable legacy”: John Wetton’s Concentus live box set, volume one

By Philip Wilding published 7 December 24

Expansive 10-disc collection is the first of three charting decades of his onstage work

“Lovely, ambitious stuff… the sound of a band completely rejuvenated”: Beardfish stage a surprise return with Songs For Beating Hearts, giving the impression they’d never been away

By Philip Wilding published 1 November 24

First new music in almost nine years picks up where the acclaimed +4626-Comfortzone left off in 2015

"The album is very rejoicing, it's forward-thinking, it's very positive and celebratory": Ginger Wildheart on friendship, fans and the return of The Wildhearts

By Philip Wilding published 30 October 24

Two years on from their less than amicable split, The Wildhearts are back, re-energised, with a reconfigured line-up and live shows on the way

"Assuredly switching through the gears as if they're all second nature to her": Beth Hart proves she's far more than a blues siren on You Still Got Me

By Philip Wilding published 27 October 24

Beth Hart delivers soul, swagger and Slash on album number eleven

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Long After Dark (Deluxe Edition) cover art

"An exercise in restrained elegance": Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' Long After Dark, perhaps as it was always meant to be

By Philip Wilding published 18 October 24

A remastered Tom Petty classic, with previously unreleased and extra tracks

Def Leppard: One Night Only Live at The Leadmill cover art

"This blistering set of old and new material deserves to be heard": Def Leppard's homecoming captured on the slick One Night Only Live at The Leadmill

By Philip Wilding published 11 October 24

Def Leppard’s spectacular homecoming show, now available on CD and DVD

"I've mastered what I was aiming for thirty years ago": Neil Peart - The Clockwork Angels interview

By Philip Wilding published 10 October 24

In 2012 Rush's drummer Neil Peart told us about modern alchemy, thinking big, how Nirvana influenced Rush, and why he'd never watch Beyond The Lighted Stage

The Pursuit Of Happiness studio portrait

"The songs remain lustrous and polished, buoyed up by rattling storylines": Why you should definitely hear Love Junk by The Pursuit Of Happiness

By Philip Wilding published 4 October 24

Power-pop bristling with poignancy and pathos, Love Junk is packed full of enduring, impassioned classics

"A joyous piece of vinyl": Rick Wakeman looks back over his career with the glittering, limited edition Yessonata

By Philip Wilding published 4 October 24

This Rick Wakeman medley reworks and reimagines some of his greatest moments

The Hot Damn! - Dancing On The Milky Way cover aert

"An unexpected and very welcome surprise": The Hot Damn! bring the party on the dazzling Dancing On The Milky Way

By Philip Wilding published 27 September 24

The soundtrack to the summer: glorious Technicolor power-pop-rock from The Hot Damn!

“He said, ‘You’ll be with me for a short time because I won’t be able to keep you.’ And he was right… We were always quietly confident”: What went right for 10cc, what went wrong, and how they could have avoided it

By Philip Wilding published 19 September 24

Graham Gouldman explains why the art-rock icons believed in themselves so much, the album that best represents them, and why he’d never release new music using the band name

“It works because of the unlikely mix of people involved – and he takes a similarly maverick approach to its songs”: Jordan Rudess’ Permission To Fly

By Philip Wilding published 18 September 24

Dream Theater keyboardist hired former Enid singer Joe Payne and a cosmetic dentist to perform material around lyrics by his daughter

“I realised on the very first tour that this was no kind of life… Should I be excited about leaving my family? No”: Neil Peart’s love, pain and thoughts on playing live before Rush bowed out

By Philip Wilding published 10 September 24

Drummer reflected on his favourite support act, the album he’d love to re-record, his approach to writing books and accepting he’d grown up as much as he ever would

“There’s a few stations that’ll play my music; very few, and usually after midnight”: Frank Zappa’s final print interview, and the 12 words he signed off with

By Philip Wilding published 10 September 24

In 1993 a future Prog writer landed a magazine interview with his hero – neither of them knowing it would his last

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Philip Wilding

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