Latest articles by Rob Hughes
"In all those children's stories, you take some kind of chemical and have a great adventure. Alice In Wonderland is blatant": Grace Slick on the inspiration behind Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit
Riffing on Lewis Carroll's Alice, inspired by Miles Davis, Grace Slick's two-and-a-half minute hallucinogenic classic would provide her with an income for life
"No matter what his issues may be personality-wise, he's a brilliant singer": The Black Crowes' Rich Robinson chooses the soundtrack of his life
The Black Crowes' Rich Robinson picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance, and names the album that brings him joy every time he listens to it
“The council turned the power off in the middle of Out Demons Out. We carried on, and David Bowie is happily shouting his head off with me… We both received letters from the council, banning us for life”: Edgar Broughton has mellowed, but not entirely
He’s defended students in court, ordered cops to stop assaulting fans, and played free shows when he was warned against it – and while identifying with the prog genre, he believes he was proto-punk too
"One minute they were a band you'd never heard of, then the next you couldn't get into the gigs": In 1972 the then-unknown Focus appeared on UK TV. Within a year, their guitarist was voted best player on the planet
Powered by Jan Akkerman's guitar and Thijs van Leer's Hammond organ, Sylvia helped pave the way for the rapid rise to fame of Dutch proggers Focus
“Genesis was the key to everything really, and also Yes." How Tin Spirits made second album Scorch
The story of the criminally short-lived Swindon prog quartet Tin Spirits' second album, 2014's Scorch
How Dolly Parton corralled a Who's Who of rock royalty to record her landmark Rockstar album: "There's more aggression in rock'n'roll – you've got to treat it with respect"
Dolly Parton, the undisputed Queen Of Country, talks about the road to her rock album, transcending country music, and what Stairway To Heaven and Free Bird mean to her
“I didn’t expect some of the backlash. But then you get the Neil fans, who were rabidly protective”: the story of America, the 70s soft rockers behind the greatest Neil Young song Neil Young never wrote
America evoked the wild romance of the West with timeless melodies and harmonies – and served up a 70s soft rock classic in the process
The 50 best rock albums of 2023
The past 12 months may go down in history as a period of tumult and turmoil, but on the positive side, rock'n'roll is very much alive and well – as the best 50 albums of 2023 reflect
The albums on Stiff Records you should definitely own
Pioneering indie label Stiff Records was home to some of the great music of the 70s and 80s, from Ian Dury to The Pogues, The Damned and beyond. And these are the labe's best albums
“Christine had been killed. The studio was somewhere I could go where I’d feel something other than lost”: how David Crosby turned grief into hazy magic on his solo masterpiece If I Could Only Remember My Name
"He used to stand at the side of the stage and watch our every move": How Johnny Kidd & The Pirates made one of the great British rock'n'roll records and inspired Jimmy Page
Knocked up in a hurry, intended as a B-side and with a title the band were all originally “ashamed of”, Shakin' All Over was an instant hit and a huge influence over those who followed
“If I ended up in jail, I knew I wouldn’t be able to play guitar”: the secret history of Jimi Hendrix’s pre-fame years
Although I don’t eat every day, everything’s going all right for me. It could be worse than this
“On a few occasions I didn’t bother turning up at the early Hawkwind gigs - I earned more money busking at cinema queues”: Dave Brock’s life and times
From a dreamer using subway tunnels as echo units to leader of the anti-establishment icons, his encounters include Lemmy, LSD and celebrity druids
“You hear bombs, a baby being born, an eagle flying, you hear things that people don’t normally hear”: how Jimi Hendrix pulled back from the brink of disaster at Woodstock and sealed his legend
The story of Jimi Hendrix’s iconic appearance at 1969’s Woodstock festival
"I jammed with Hendrix and Clapton in a loft in New York": Roger McGuinn's stories of John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison and more
The Byrds' Roger McGuinn played with Jim Morrison, was part of Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder revue, gave John Lennon granny glasses and Brian Wilson speed, and he's got some tales to tell
“So many of my peers are like cover bands of their own selves these days… I didn’t want to be a museum. So this is a kind of reinvention”: The return of Edgar Broughton
Break The Dark, his first album in more than a decade, combines electronic music, programming and messing around
"Roger punched me once, and I’m sure I asked for it": How The Who overcame internal strife and a drummer behaving like 'a Saudi prince' to make their most poignant album
By 1973 The Who were bored and angry – and Pete Townshend knew he had one last chance to hold the band together and unify them in the eyes of their fans
“Colin Moulding was deemed the good-looking one who wrote the singalong stuff, so he mostly got the A-sides. And because I was the weird specky one, I used to get the B-sides”: XTC’s Andy Partridge looks back and forward
Prog-pop mastermind on the power of failure, writing for the Monkees and more
"I went to my neighbour's house, told them my name was Lola Vasquez, an orphan from the 1930s, and could I please come inside and have a Pop-Tart." Six things you need to know about Grace Potter
One of the roots world’s most interesting, commanding storytellers, Grace Potter returns with her most powerful set of songs yet
"I kind of wished Kiss would sound like AC/DC": The Hives' Pelle Almqvist on the soundtrack of his life
The Hives frontman Pelle Almqvist picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance, and celebrates the beauty of 'six beers music'
The John Lennon albums you should definitely own
Iconic Beatle John Lennon's solo albums are full of timeless pop, but be prepared for avant-jazz, birdsong, politics and primal screaming too
"They were very avant-garde and I thought I was too, and it was all going to be very beautiful, man": how Pink Floyd learned to fly
In 1965 the musicians who'd become Pink Floyd were searching for a sound: then they ditched their R&B repertoire for much freakier fare
The Beach Boys albums you should definitely own
Bolstered by the genius songwriting and production of Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys' best albums contain some of the greatest music you’ll ever hear
